Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 243 - 163: The Youngster’s First Interstellar Journey

Chapter 243: Chapter 163: The Youngster’s First Interstellar Journey

In the past few days, Tang Qianqian felt as if she had returned to the time when she and Duan Mingyuan were colleagues.

An ancient and mysterious saying circulated around the company—"Even my grandma, if teamed up with Duan Mingyuan, could achieve great performance."

Later, this saying spawned many different versions, and the legend of Duan Mingyuan became increasingly incredible. Some even believed that if there was a need at work, Duan Mingyuan could even help you repair a spacecraft.

Originally, Tang Qianqian thought this was an exaggerated joke, but it turned out that Mr. Mingyuan really could fix a spaceship.

During these days on standby in the Imperial Court, she watched the crew’s attitude transform.

From the initial doubts like "Could he, who has never even fixed an alarm clock, actually repair a spaceship?" to now, at the slightest hint of a problem, they’d clamor, "Hurry and ask Mr. Mingyuan in the palace!"

Latterly, the experts who were brought in by the Third Prince at great expense completely gave up on thinking. They only needed to raise their demands and then roughly present a set of theories, even if they were concocted on the fly, and Duan Mingyuan would realize them.

If there was a shortage of building materials, Duan Mingyuan created them.

If there was no energy, Duan Mingyuan produced it.

The key facilities that were completely damaged in the fall, Duan Mingyuan repaired them.

In less than two days, Duan Mingyuan had shown everyone in the Imperial Court what "version-limited assistance" was worth, and Tang Qianqian felt that if there were a character strength leaderboard in real life just like in games, Senior Mingyuan would definitely be a perennial T0-level presence.

And this is what’s often referred to as severe "Duan Mingyuan dependency syndrome" in the workplace.

Tang Qianqian realized that this might not be entirely her problem. After working with Duan Mingyuan for a while, anyone’s initiative would drastically diminish.

So much so, that after the repaired flagship completed its first short-distance voyage, although there were gleeful smiles on the faces of the experts in the central control room, their hearts were filled with deep confusion.

In fact, they didn’t know why the flagship could fly,

nor did they have any idea why they were even there.

Theoretically, they were the Blue Star’s finest talents in this domain, and repairing the flagship for its journey into space was their greatest contribution to the planet. However, the success of the flagship’s test flight did not utilize their extensive knowledge. Rather, out of nowhere, someone proclaiming to be an assistant told the pile of metal, "You can take off," and then the metal truly gained the ability to fly.

But the confusion did not prevent the smiles of joy on their faces.

Because each of their names had appeared on the list—as one of the most important scientific personnel in the history of Blue Star, remembered in historical documents.

People saw that it was their persistent efforts that allowed the Blue Star People to head into space truly on their own strength for the first time.

As for the details...

It’s like the programmers of today; when a program runs on its own, you don’t really need to know why it can run.

Even these real-life experts didn’t understand the underlying principle, so the onlookers knew even less.

After the successful test flight, the Third Prince named the flagship.

Galaxy Ranger.

The implied hope was that they could be like rangers in the future, not being swayed by companies or other forces, and become a free and independent civilization.

The name "Merry," proposed by Duan Mingyuan, was rejected due to its inauspicious implications and copyright issues.

Tang Qianqian had been living aboard the Ranger these days, with each person having a room designed by themselves. Her room had a soft, big bed, wallpapers full of girlish wind tones, a cabinet filled with various handheld consoles, playing cards, and board games, and opposite the big bed, there was even an LCD TV and home theater player.

With the relentless efforts of the experts, the Ranger had completed the tests for power and connectivity.

Life Energy is a versatile source of energy that can be converted into any known form of energy.

This conclusion was drawn by the experts as they gradually came to understand Duan Mingyuan’s character later on.

In utilizing the "assistant," they became more confident and skilled, and many felt for the first time that being a scientific researcher could be so exhilarating.

Working with Duan Mingyuan, there was no need for complex and confusing derivations and validations. The correct process was to arrive at an important conclusion first and then use their brains to come up with a seemingly reasonable theory. After that, they just needed to explain the underlying principle to Duan Mingyuan, who would then help them realize the hypothesis.

They felt that this had nothing to do with science anymore—their experience these days felt more like a "creator" trial card.

Tang Qianqian took out her notebook to record what she had seen and heard these days.

She felt her life could be described as changing day by day. When she resigned a month ago, she never imagined that just a few months later, she would have the qualifications to board Blue Star’s first spaceship and become one of the first pilots to leave the planet. Maybe soon, her parents would see her name in the news.

And she would be attending the fate-deciding Sixteen Star Summit as a member of the Ranger crew.

In selecting people, the Third Prince followed only one principle.

Choose only those who were familiar and trustworthy.

This principle may have seemed broad, but for Duan Mingyuan, who had an extremely narrow social circle, the choice of people was really limited.

Tang Qianqian thought that maybe one day, her observations on the Ranger might become a best-selling book on Blue Star and be seen by many people.

But right now, as a logistics staff member on the Ranger, she had more important work to do.

Taking out the notebook wasn’t just for recording but also for comparing.

Turning the pages, Tang Qianqian’s expression grave, her right hand holding the flashlight was trembling slightly.

This page contained the content she recorded yesterday.

She began writing a diary after the first test flight because she always felt that besides them, there seemed to be other people or... creatures on the ship.

They immediately conducted a search on the ship but found no traces of anyone else’s presence.

Jiuyue thought it was space travel syndrome.

—After the last time she spoke out of turn and was reprimanded by Duan Mingyuan, Jiuyue had been ordered to stay in her room these past few days, diligently reading the Cosmic Travel Guide, so she could put thoughts of becoming a Cosmic Pirate or joining the Cosmic Government out of her mind.

Space travel syndrome is a relatively common disease in cosmic voyages, and scholars studying the syndrome point out that the discomfort brought on by confined and enclosed spaces is considerable. After living in such spaces for a long time, crew members may develop psychological symptoms to varying degrees.

The crew became irritable and easily angered, and some fell into depression.

In particularly severe cases, hallucinations would occur.

In the most recent incident caused by Sailing Syndrome, the captain had seen the people on the flagship as monstrous mutants; by the time the company’s rescue team received the distress signal and arrived, the captain had already killed everyone on board.

This was also why Tang Qianqian had no choice but to stay behind these past few days.

If she contracted the Sailing Syndrome, she would have to miss out on this trip, and she definitely didn’t want to endanger everyone on the ship because of hallucinations.

Stepping out of her room, it was pitch black outside.

"Li Hua, you go turn on the lights first."

"Why do I have to go?"

Li Hua hid behind Tang Qianqian, her hands resting on Tang Qianqian’s shoulders, peeking out with half of her head to look towards the distant darkness, her eyes filled with fear.

"I went yesterday."

Cowardice is contagious.

When one person becomes timid, it inevitably makes another person become anxious and afraid.

"Then you should still go today, you have more experience."

"We agreed yesterday that we’d take turns!"

Tang Qianqian protested, always feeling that since Li Hua took on human form, her courage had been shrinking, "Since when are monsters afraid of ghosts?"

"You’re a hunter, you definitely shouldn’t be afraid of ghosts!"

Neither of them had taken a step out the door before they started to tussle with each other.

Li Hua’s tail was standing on end, indicating her extreme nervousness, and the reason for their tension was only one - the strange noise that came again.

"Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud—"

It was like someone was walking around the cabin, which was also why Tang Qianqian decided to take her notebook and go find out what was happening.

Yesterday, after they argued for half an hour and finally mustered the courage to turn on the lights and patrol the cabin, the sound had long since disappeared, and Tang Qianqian could only record all the details where the noise had been made.

Especially the refrigerator.

Two caramel puddings were missing.

However, Tang Qianqian was not sure if she had eaten the egg puddings during a hallucination, or if someone else aboard the ship had stolen the caramel puddings, so she recorded the remaining quantities of the caramel puddings and other food just in case.

The peculiar noise started after dark, and everything was calm during the day.

Tang Qianqian’s heart was filled with conflict at this moment.

If the caramel puddings did not decrease in number, and no one else had been on this spaceship, then she had undoubtedly succumbed to the Sailing Syndrome; on the other hand, if all this wasn’t her hallucination, and some terrifying creature had really snuck onto the ship...

Tang Qianqian’s face turned pale, and in an instant, scenes from cosmic horror films flashed through her mind.

No, she did not want to become an incubator for aliens.

"Let’s both step back," Tang Qianqian braced herself and suggested, "We’ll go together."

"Fine, but you must not betray me!"

"Then we count down together, three, two, one, and we rush out together."

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

The next moment, both human and cat simultaneously shrank back into the room, and with a tacit understanding, they grasped the handle of the door and swiftly locked it from the inside.

"What happened to not betraying each other!"

Tang Qianqian turned her fear into anger, grabbing Li Hua’s face with both hands; luckily, she had been cautious and stepped back, or else Li Hua, the ungrateful cat, would have locked her out. Tang Qianqian interrogated Li Hua, her voice trembling with the soul-searching question, "Think carefully, who took you in, who provided you with a warm and comfortable apartment?"

This Li Hua cat really knew how to learn the bad from others!

"Then be a good person to the end!"

Li Hua struggled, "I was indeed better suited for keeping watch."

"You have to go today whether you want to or not!"

"Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud—"

The noise outside the door brought their scuffle to an abrupt halt; the sound grew nearer and stopped right in front of their door.

Then, it turned into a gentle knocking.

"Is this... still a hallucination?"

Tang Qianqian asked, her voice trembling.

This time, Li Hua did not answer her.

All that could be seen was Li Hua lying on the ground with a "plop," sticking out her tongue and appearing to be dead.

This cat had even learned to play dead!