In a certain part of the Black Hole Edge Starfield, a small fleet is heading towards the starfield's border, near the direction of the Shattered World.
In the command center of the lead ship, numerous operators were busy at their posts, occasionally reporting parameters.
"Captain, we have left the borders of the Hait Civilization and entered the low-security zone ravaged by space pirates. The alert level has been adjusted to Level 7. In approximately 54 general hours, the fleet will reach the United Neutral Zone and enter the radiation range of the interstellar portal."
"Yes, expand the patrol range of the unmanned Reconnaissance fleet. The security situation along this stretch of road is not good, so be careful."
Gavin sat in the captain's seat, issuing orders.
He was tall and slender, with fair skin and handsome features. He wore a black wide-brimmed hat with a tuft of white feathers on top. He was dressed in an elegant and appropriate casual outfit, with his chest open to reveal his smooth, fair skin. A slender, sheathed sword hung at his waist, engraved with magical runes, clearly a magical weapon.
"White Wave" Gavin, one of the registered Beyond Grade A Seed, does not belong to any faction and generally travels freely throughout the universe.
Such neutral, Beyond Grade A Seed have always been important targets for advanced civilizations to court, Gavin was no exception. The Three Universal Civilizations, the supercluster civilization, and the various civilizations at the Black Hole Edge have all extended olive branches to him.
Gavin has remained silent, suggesting he may not particularly enjoy working for others, or he may be leaving room for negotiation and negotiation.
The offers from the Three Universal Civilizations had initially tempted him, and he was hesitant about joining, but the recent Sanctuary Revival event made Gavin change his mind.
Even though the Three Universal Civilizations significantly increased their offers to win him over after the incident, things were different now. Gavin remained Gavin and suddenly lost interest in the resource support promised by the Three Universal Civilizations. He didn't even bother to continue negotiating and decided to turn around and join the Beyond Grade A power, leading his fleet straight to the Shattered World.
He had even chosen his target: Black Star held the Sanctuary Revival, so if he was going to join, he should join the Black Star Army. If he were to reach the Beyond Grade A in the future, he would have a significant advantage.
Gavin casually swiped his communicator, browsing the latest news on local online channels. He quickly came across a headline. "Three Universal Civilizations Claim to Have Known About the Sanctuary Revival Phenomenon Long Ago, Have Been Secretly Researching It, and Have Recently Achieved Preliminary Results." He couldn't help but curl his lip, his expression dismissive.
"Tsk, Three Universal Civilizations all starting to spread fake news to appease people now...?"
Recently, similar news has been circulating from time to time. Due to the impact of the Sanctuary Revival on the outside world, many social strata have experienced a chain reaction, and even some direct descendants of advanced civilizations have been shaken. In Gavin's view, the Three Universal Civilizations are deliberately releasing ambiguous information to appease people and make outsiders believe that the Three Universal Civilizations will also be able to master this Sanctuary Revival in the future.
Although such rumors are baseless and unfounded, they cannot be said to be completely ineffective. Many citizens in interstellar society have a simple and crude logic: long-standing ingrained thinking leads them to believe that the Three Universal Civilizations are the most advanced in every field. Even if the Sanctuary Revival is an unheard-of new technology, they believe that the Three Universal Civilizations have known about it for a long time, but have simply kept it a secret.
However, most of those who believe such rumors are lower-ranking interstellar citizens, Gavin naturally doesn't believe them.
"The Three Universal Civilizations are feeling the pressure. That's not bad. Competition between major factions means we'll get more attention. To win us over, they have to offer better benefits... If the Three Universal Civilizations hadn't felt the pressure of competition, they wouldn't have suddenly increased their bargaining chips to win me over."
Gavin scratched his chin, muttering to himself.
After reading the news for a while, Gavin noticed something amiss in the comments section. It was filled with a lot of sarcastic and abusive remarks directed at superhumans. Some people were making sarcastic remarks about the privileges of superhumans, while others were sharing cases of superhumans oppressing ordinary people. Surprisingly, these comments received a lot of likes from bystanders.
Gavin glanced through it carefully, then shook his head helplessly.
Most ordinary people feel a mixture of envy, awe, jealousy, and hatred towards the power, status, and privileges of superhumans. Superhumans are one of the most active social classes in the universe, but they only make up a tiny fraction of the total population. Ordinary people are the majority, and the conflict between the two has been brewing for a long time.
Most people are born without the potential to become superhumans, destined for a mediocre life. The more they envy superhumans, the more they resent not having such a fate, and the more they resent the unfairness of destiny. Thus, their hatred extends to superhumans. Reason cannot tame the human heart, and the idea that "it's not scarcity but inequality" always has a place, forming a persistent social contradiction between the two classes.
On a cosmic scale, superhumans and ordinary people are not just a matter of class, but even different "beings". Superhumans represent the direction of life evolution, while ordinary people represent backward and lower life forms. Even if interstellar society does not advocate this ideology, many people believe that this is the truth.
The fact that ordinary people, who make up the majority of the population, are unwilling to accept their inherent status as "evolutionary losers" inevitably leads to conflict.
In everyday life, most interstellar citizens wouldn't dare to act recklessly in front of superhumans, but on the quantum network, they have no such scruples, unleashing their fury and venting their emotions. The Sanctuary Revival seems to have become the catalyst for reigniting pent-up resentment among social classes, with many ordinary people growing increasingly bitter and vehemently denouncing the injustice.
In venting-oriented group ideologies, emotions often outweigh rationality. Even if many people know that the strength of superhumans is the result of hard training, it's meaningless. Either all the superhumans in the universe should die out, or they should be made into superhumans themselves. Otherwise, they should still be criticized.
Gavin was not surprised by this, but he felt that this outbreak of class conflict seemed rather intense, and he found it hard to believe that there was no behind-the-scenes manipulator.
"Dark clouds keep piling up, Rainstorm will inevitably arrive. I have a feeling that if things continue like this, the future of interstellar society is bleak..."
Gavin couldn't help but shake his head.
Thump!
Just then, the spaceship suddenly shuddered, and the radar began to hum.
"Warning! Warning! Space jamming device detected nearby. We have exited warp drive mode. Unknown spacecraft detected rapidly approaching!"
Gavin was slightly startled and quickly zoomed in. He and the book soon spotted a small fleet surrounding them. It was a pirate group active in this area, and the leader seemed to be a Calamity Grade.
The next moment, the pirate crew's message rang out on the wide-area channel.
"Stop the ship immediately, open the access road, and allow our personnel to board, or we will open fire!"
"So it was a highway robbery..."
Gavin breathed a sigh of relief, his face turning cold.
"Captain, what do we do?" the pilot asked, not at all nervous because he trusted Gavin's abilities.
"Hmph, let them board the ship. They want to die? Let them come. I'll take care of them."
Gavin's eyes flickered.
Soon, the fleet stopped where he instructed, and the pirate crew quickly approached to rendezvous with the ship.
The hatch swung open with a whoosh, and a group of planetary pirates strode confidently aboard Gavin's ship, guns in hand. The rest of the crew waited in the passageway.
"Where is the captain? Come out and see me!" The pirate captain looked around at the crowd.
Just then, a loud shout rang out from the crowd.
You've messed with the wrong person!
Gavin, who had been concealing his presence in the crowd, suddenly launched an attack, drawing his slender sword and slashing out with a streak of light, a sharp, cold glint flashing out.
The pirate captain was shocked and hurriedly raised his arm, his martial arts aura swirling around it and transforming into solid armor, attempting to block the sudden attack.
Brush!
The next second, a flash of blood appeared, and the pirate captain cried out in pain as the blade sliced through his protective aura and embedded itself deeply in his parrying arm.
Gavin gripped the knife with both hands, spun around, and a wave-like white light suddenly flashed, disappearing in an instant, leaving a stunning afterimage on everyone's retinas.
With a whoosh, the pirate captain's arm was severed and fell to the ground. The cut was smooth, and the blood seemed to freeze for a full second before gushing out, staining the spaceship corridor red.
Both were at the Calamity Grade, but Gavin's skill was far superior, crippling his opponent with a single blow. As a martial artist of the combat branch, Gavin possessed immense destructive power and had long since reached the level of a grandmaster in swordsmanship.
But at that moment, something unexpected happened!
Suddenly, seven or eight people in the pirate crew unleashed a Calamity Grade aura, launching a simultaneous sneak attack on Gavin, like hunters who had been hiding for a long time, their killing intent suddenly overflowing!
"What!" Gavin's pupils contracted, his eyes widening in horror.
This group of people are definitely not members of a space pirate crew. If this space pirate crew had so many experts, they would have been famous long ago. He couldn't have been completely unprepared.
Being so close, yet failing to detect the presence of these people, these attackers must be extraordinary!
Gavin had no time to think about where these people came from. He hurriedly dodged and blocked, but the sneak attack was too sudden. He didn't block many of the attacks and took most of the Heavy Strike. Blood gushed out immediately. Martial artists of the Battle Soldier branch are not known for their defense. He was seriously injured in one fell swoop.
"These aren't ordinary Calamity Grade; they're all masters!"
Gavin was horrified. As he coughed up blood, he used the recoil to shoot out, unleashing a wide, crescent-shaped slash that shattered the ship's hull and sent him escaping into space, heading straight for another ship.
At this moment, seven or eight Calamity Grade immediately gave chase, surrounding and intercepting Gavin with perfect coordination. They engaged Gavin while destroying all the ships, leaving no vehicle for the enemy to escape.
Seeing his escape routes cut off one by one, Gavin's eyes widened in fury. He had no choice but to fight back desperately, his blade flashing as he battled the group. Soon, he found Danger at Every Turn.
Even as Beyond Grade A Seed, he couldn't withstand the onslaught of seven or eight Calamity Grade attackers; not everyone possesses the terrifying resilience that Black Star once had.
"If you're not space pirates, then who are you?!"
Gavin shouted into the wide-area channel. Through the aura lock, he could vaguely sense the resolute killing intent of these Calamity Grade towards him, as if they had been targeting him from the very beginning.
Could it be that this space pirate gang and these people deliberately hid here to ambush me?
But his question was destined to remain unanswered. These Calamity Grade beings remained silent, only unleashing increasingly brutal attacks, recklessly releasing their chilling killing intent.
Seeing this, Gavin gritted his teeth, unwilling to sit and wait for death. He called for help in the wide-area channel while trying his best to break through. Even though he knew that his chances of survival were extremely slim, he could not give up.
Several figures were locked in a fierce battle, with bursts of energy emanating in all directions, and the battlefield constantly shifting amidst the intense fighting.
Gavin's wounds multiplied, turning him into a blood-soaked mess. After fighting for an unknown amount of time, he gradually became exhausted and his consciousness began to fade.
"I've finally achieved my current strength, and I have a chance to step into the Beyond Grade A realm. The future looks promising. Am I really going to die here today without knowing why...?"
Gavin forced himself to stay calm, his mind churning with intense resentment.
But just then, the group's attack suddenly paused. They looked up at the distant universe and saw a shuttle-shaped spaceship appear in their line of sight, approaching the area. It seemed to have detected the unusual energy reaction and was coming to investigate.
What if there are witnesses?
"Ignore him, kill the target first, finish this quickly."
The group exchanged a quick word, and the next moment, the intensity of their attack surged again, abandoning all defense and switching entirely to a strategy of trading blows for damage.
This became the final straw that broke the camel's back. Gavin's severely injured body could not withstand the surge in attacks. He was brutally struck by the onslaught, his body shattering into pieces, and his life force rapidly left his body.
Just as a Calamity Grade was about to deliver the final, fatal blow, an unexpected turn of events occurred!
Buzz!
Suddenly, a beam of holy golden light shot out from the rapidly approaching shuttle-shaped spaceship, illuminating Gavin's battered body.
The next moment, as if a miracle had occurred, Gavin's body was restored to a completely unharmed state in the blink of an eye, all his injuries had disappeared without a trace, and he opened his eyes, seemingly still in shock.
"This is..."
Several Calamity Grade beings suddenly narrowed their eyes and turned to look at the spaceship from which the light was coming.
At the same time, inside the shuttle-shaped spaceship, Aurora her hand, her eyes sparkling with excitement and curiosity.
"Going out with you is really fun; we always run into some weird and wonderful things."
Upon hearing this, Fording shook his head helplessly.
If he hadn't been drafted, he wouldn't have wanted to travel around with Aurora. He called himself her "bodyguard," but really he just wanted to ride on her luck and use her as a trigger to make the journey more eventful and fun.