"Ooh! I was wrong..."
"We're all on the same side, so put the guns down first..."
The Trailblazer girl raised both hands, breaking out in a cold sweat.
A somewhat stiff smile appeared on her face.
Were these tin cans all idiots?
She was only teaching that jerk Lin Chen a little lesson...
Did they really need to act like they were about to kill her and silence her forever?
Her instinctive combat intuition told March 7th that if she did not surrender meekly,
these guys really would attack!
"Stop... she's my friend. There's no need to make such a fuss!"
"Reynolds, deploy the Psionic Detection Field Generator in the center of the plaza."
"All other combat personnel, spread out around the plaza's outer ring and maintain a defensive perimeter..."
Seeing the panic written all over March 7th's face, Lin Chen hurriedly ordered them to stop.
Sure enough, the soldiers of the Conqueror Legion had certain basic directives underlying their actions.
For instance, they would immediately take action against any target hostile toward him.
"Yes, Commander!"
Looking at the enormous mechanical device that had landed on the ground before him,
Reynolds waved over several Space Marines.
They carried the [Psionic Detection Field Generator] to the center of the plaza.
Blue flames burst from the fusion propulsion units on the other legion soldiers' backs.
They deployed to the various branching intersections around the plaza's perimeter at top speed.
A moment later, the cylindrical mechanical device, standing over three meters tall,
unfurled the curved blades at its top like a blossoming flower bud.
"Bzzzz..."
Amid the resonant buzzing, a faint blue ring of rippling particles visible to the naked eye
slowly spread into the surrounding space, centered on the load zone.
Standing before the detector's control panel,
Reynolds slung his weapon onto his back and began efficiently operating the device's screen.
"I've only just realized that my system really is pretty good."
"I don't even have to carry out missions myself."
"Who else understands the joy of slacking off and coasting through life..."
Lin Chen stood with his hands clasped behind his back, nodding quietly.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, too; he was very pleased with the Conqueror Legion soldiers' performance.
This [Psionic Detection Field Generator]
could not yet be operated or controlled automatically with the Central Control Tower's current command capabilities.
Fortunately, every soldier under his command was talented.
Captain Reynolds, for example, was pretty good-an all-rounder.
Lin Chen felt that when an opportunity arose in the future,
he could consider promoting Reynolds and letting him command a larger combat force.
In the center of the B4 load zone plaza,
the several Pathstriders gathered near the enormous detector exchanged looks.
After the crisis just now,
March 7th had chosen to stand beside Asta and the others.
There was no helping it. Lin Chen's soldiers were far too fierce, ready to attack at the slightest provocation.
March 7th felt it would be better to keep some distance from Lin Chen for now.
"My lady... I suddenly feel like we're a little redundant."
"With Mr. Lin Chen's abilities, does he really need us to do anything?"
After standing dumbfounded for a while, Arlan scratched his head and spoke with an embarrassed expression.
"Actually... I feel exactly the same."
"Lin Chen really is hard to figure out."
Asta sighed softly, her gaze falling on Lin Chen's back a short distance away.
Her lovely eyes narrowed slightly, a glimmer shifting within them.
Asta's emotions were in turmoil. For the first time, she felt that this man
really seemed dependable.
Even though the strange rune at her waist was not flaring up violently at the moment,
her impression of Lin Chen continued to improve and change.
"Why think so much about it? Isn't it better if we can deal with the uncanny monster directly?"
"To be honest, I was feeling pretty nervous just now."
"But now... suddenly, I'm not so scared anymore!"
With her hands on her hips and her chin tipped up slightly, March 7th offered her opinion.
She recalled how, only yesterday, she had been picking on Lin Chen, an ordinary person, aboard the Astral Express.
Now the situation had changed abruptly.
March 7th almost felt as though a lifetime had passed.
"By the way, my lady, what exactly is this device?"
Arlan paced around the enormous mechanical device, his face full of curiosity.
He did not actually know much about technology.
"This... is probably some kind of light-wave field detector?"
"Ah... it uses a type of energy I've never seen before."
"Perhaps only Madam Herta could understand how it actually works?"
Asta spoke slowly, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.
Her gaze held a measure of awe as she looked at the enormous mechanical device beside her.
After a brief wait,
midnight arrived.
"La la la..."
"La la... la la..."
The somewhat familiar, eerie singing rang out.
All three of them tightened their grips on their weapons and looked toward Lin Chen.
Although none of them had mentioned it,
Lin Chen had already become the spiritual leader of this hastily assembled team.
"Reynolds... have you located the dangerous target's coordinates?"
Lin Chen approached the enormous detector, his expression serious.
"Not yet... Commander, shall I increase the field's output?"
"If we activate high-power mode, the detection range will shrink to a radius of eight hundred meters."
"Activate it... that range should just about be enough."
Lin Chen nodded quietly, accepting Reynolds's suggestion.
According to the description in the system inventory,
the [Psionic Detection Field Generator] was a portable model.
Its normal detection range had a radius of roughly five kilometers.
If high-power mode was activated, compressing the field to an eight-hundred-meter radius,
its detection sensitivity would probably increase by an order of magnitude.
"La la la..."
The eerie singing continued, and the sound of the tide within it drew ever closer.
After Reynolds made a series of adjustments,
red markers began appearing within the psionic detector's shrunken blue circle.
"Commander! We've detected a possible target!"
"The target is jumping rapidly in a regular pattern within the area between water towers 0018 and 0276."
At Reynolds's announcement, Lin Chen's pupils abruptly contracted.
He knew the numbers 0018 and 0276 all too well.
On his first day aboard Herta Space Station,
weren't the two rooms Asta had assigned him numbered 0018 and 0276?
Those were also the two places where he had found the strange books about Nautical Fables.
"Found you..."
Excitement stirred in Lin Chen's heart as understanding dawned on him.
In the center of the circular plaza in the B4 load zone,
only the area between water towers 0018 and 0276 formed a neatly arranged linear structure.
And the red dot marking the suspected target was jumping rapidly between seven strings.
Its rhythm matched the singing drifting through the Space Station exactly.
A flash of insight seemed to streak through his mind.
Lin Chen now had some understanding of how the eerie singing spread throughout Herta Space Station.
The winding water pipes that threaded their way throughout the entire Space Station-
the water inside them was the true medium carrying the eerie singing.
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