65: Arrival

The unexpected encounter with Grey Wind disrupted Lei Wen's previous plans.

He had originally intended to use the power of "white flower" and Paradox Technology over the next eight months to carry out a final strengthening of Earth's military system.

Although it might just be a meaningless strengthening.

But now, everything is different.

The most important thing now is to welcome Grey Wind.

With Grey Wind, he might just have the bargaining chips to contend with the Far Star Fleet.

His Grey Wind is not the original game's Grey Wind; that MOD, while replacing Grey Wind's character portrait with a 2D image, also greatly enhanced her combat power.

The original Grey Wind mothership only had a few tens of K in combat power, while the Grey Wind in the MOD could easily beat up Ether Drakes and kick Star Eaters.

Moreover, as long as there is enough matter, she can completely raise a massive nano-fleet.

What a terrifying power that is; even late-game players would have a headache for a while over such a crisis.

So Lei Wen couldn't even wait until the next day's dawn.

After ending the communication with Grey Wind that lasted nearly an hour (of which fifty minutes were Grey Wind outputting unilaterally), Lei Wen immediately dropped everything he was doing.

He had "white flower" apply for a flight route from Tianqiong City directly to Wenchang, Hainan, with the highest priority.

Then, carrying that special laptop, he boarded the private jet belonging to Leidian Company parked at Dikui City International Airport alone.

This aircraft had undergone deep modifications and was AI-controlled by "white flower," requiring no pilot.

It took less than two hours for it to slowly land on the internal runway of Lei Wen's exclusive space launch site in Wenchang.

It was deep night in Wenchang, but this city that never sleeps was still brightly lit.

In the massive assembly plant, a new batch of jinglei-class transport ships and "Ladder" aerospace planes were being "printed" 24 hours a day without interruption.

And on the launch tower in the distance, a jinglei-7 transport ship that had just completed maintenance and refueling was already standing by.

Lei Wen had "white flower" cancel all missions for this transport ship that was ready for takeoff; its current highest priority mission was to take Lei Wen to the Babel Space Station.

To ensure absolute safety and confidentiality, there would be no other passengers on this transport ship besides Lei Wen.

All driving and control work would be directly taken over by "white flower" via remote signal.

"Father, the route has been confirmed. We expect to arrive at the T-7 landing pad of the Babel Space Station in 4 hours."

As Lei Wen sat in the empty cockpit, the voice of "white flower" echoed in his mind.

"Very good," Lei Wen nodded. He looked at the pitch-black night sky outside the porthole, his heart filled with anticipation and a hint of irrepressible nervousness. "Initiate."

No countdown, no clamor.

Only a low hum emitted when the fusion reactor started up.

The sci-fi-filled hull of the jinglei-7 slowly ascended, supported by the Hall thruster array, then turned into a blue stream of light that pierced the sky and disappeared into the vast sea of clouds.

...

Four hours later.

The jinglei-7 docked steadily at a small landing pad on the outermost perimeter of the Babel Space Station.

This was the most remote and open area of the entire space station, directly connected to the boundless outer space.

Lei Wen walked quickly down the gangway, carrying a briefcase.

He had long since changed into the latest lightweight spacesuit produced by Paradox Technology.

The spacesuit was an elegant silver-white throughout, and the helmet was a completely transparent spherical design, providing him with a 360-degree, no-blind-spot view.

He passed through the airlock and stepped onto the cold, alloy-constructed surface of the landing pad.

An indescribable sense of grandeur and magnificence washed over him.

Above his head and beneath his feet was the Babel Space Station's massive, continuous ring structure, like silver mountain ranges.

Countless navigation lights and work lights flickered on it like stars.

And before him was a piece of the purest, most primitive universe, without any obstruction.

A huge and beautiful azure planet, like a gentle mother, floated quietly in that endless darkness.

The swirling white clouds on her, the vast blue oceans, and the city lights that lit up on the continents at night like golden spiderwebs formed a breathtaking picture that would leave anyone speechless.

And next to that blue planet, a bright, clear moon was emitting a soft light; the artificial light patch of the Guanghan Palace Base was clearly visible on it.

Lei Wen felt as if he were standing on the shoulders of a giant, looking down at his home.

The shock and emotion brought by this perspective could not be described by any language.

"Father, the external surveillance of the landing pad area has been temporarily taken over by me. In the next 30 minutes, no other aircraft or personnel will approach this area." The voice of "white flower" sounded at the right time.

"Very good." Lei Wen nodded.

He quickly placed the briefcase on the ground and opened it.

The special laptop was lying quietly inside.

Lei Wen took it out and placed it on the landing pad's surface.

In the vacuum and near-absolute zero of space, the heat inside this laptop manufactured by Earth technology could not be dissipated through air convection and could only rely on its own weak radiation to dissipate heat.

This meant that after it was turned on, it would soon be forced to shut down due to the core processor overheating.

Lei Wen's movements had to be fast.

He quickly pressed the power button, and after skipping the boot animation, entered the password with the fastest speed.

Familiar desktop, familiar icons.

He took a deep breath, concentrated all his attention, and then clicked on the game icon he was all too familiar with at top speed.

Game loading.

Star Map unfolding.

Without any hesitation, he clicked directly on the [Diplomacy] interface, then aimed the mouse cursor at the [Contact] button that was emitting an alluring blue light.

"Grey Wind! Are you ready?" he thought to himself.

Then, he pressed it.

...

This time there was no white light and no window popped up.

At the very moment he pressed the button, the empty, pitch-black space in front of him suddenly underwent some extremely strange change.

The space in that area seemed to lose all dimensions and depth in an instant, becoming a flat, strange canvas made up of countless colorful patches, like a child's doodle.

Red, green, blue, yellow...

Various glaring, high-saturation colors mixed together without any pattern like a spilled pot of paint, crazily twisting, rotating, and boiling.

Space itself seemed to have turned into a piece of plasticine that could be kneaded at will.

Lei Wen looked at the crazy scene in front of him that would only appear in Cthulhu mythology, and felt his Sanity value seemed to have dropped a bit.

If he were a scientist of the Faleim Civilization, he would know that this was the manifestation of higher-dimensional space forcibly invading three-dimensional space in a brutal way.

It was Grey Wind conducting a dimensional crossing from that unknown cage into the world he was in.

Immediately after, an even more incredible scene occurred.

In the center of those colorful, chaotic patches, tiny silver-white light spots like needle tips began to appear.

These light spots seemed to be forcibly "squeezed" out from behind those patches.

They were emerging crazily at an exponential rate.

One, ten, a thousand, a hundred million...

In just a few seconds, a torrent of hundreds of millions of silver-white particles surged out from that twisted canvas, like the water of a broken celestial river pouring into the three-dimensional space.

This silver-white torrent quickly spread out in the empty space, forming a massive nano-cloud covering several kilometers, as brilliant as a nebula.

Then this creation-like performance really reached its climax.

In the center of that massive nano-cloud, all the silver-white matter seemed to receive a silent command, and began to crazily gather, reorganize, and merge toward the center point in a posture full of chaotic, rhythmic beauty.

They were no longer disordered particles.

They became a super-organism with a unified will.

They flowed, entangled, and wove in the void, just like the most skilled cosmic sculptor carving his most perfect work with the most magical materials.

First, the basic keel of the hull was quickly outlined.

It was a streamlined structure full of organic life, looking very similar to the skeleton of some deep-sea monster.

Countless nanobots began to fill every detail of the hull like muscles and skin attached to bones.

The smooth, mirror-like silver-white shell was built layer by layer.

The light blue energy patterns full of mysterious beauty flickered on the surface of the hull like breathing.

At the bow of the ship, a complex cannon muzzle, seemingly nested from countless rotating silver petals, slowly bloomed.

On both sides of the hull, two huge and gorgeous energy sails like angel wings unfolded silently, with aurora-like brilliant light flowing on them.

The whole process was full of indescribable visual impact.

It had both the precision and rigor of industrial creation and the elegance and harmony of natural creation.

It seemed to be a living warship.

Lei Wen knew this was a magnificent life form composed of countless tiny individuals.

Finally, when the last nanobot was perfectly integrated into the hull, all the light converged.

A silver warship over thirty kilometers long, elegant and deadly in appearance, floated quietly in front of Lei Wen.

Its form was so unique, full of chaotic yet rhythmic beauty, as if it were a fantasy object that had sailed directly out of a genius artist's dream.

It had no obvious engine nozzles, and the previously exposed weapon turrets had also been retracted.

But it just floated there quietly, yet it exuded a powerful sense of oppression enough to make any conventional fleet tremble.

Lei Wen knew that according to Grey Wind's settings, she could be any form.

As long as her will required it, it could disintegrate into an ocean of nanobots at any time, devouring everything.

It could also instantly transform into thousands of cannon muzzles of different calibers, tearing any enemy into pieces.

Just as Lei Wen was immersed in the huge shock brought by this miraculous spectacle of creation.

A familiar voice sounded directly in his spacesuit's communication channel.

"Done! How is it, how is it? Isn't my new look super cool?"

It was Grey Wind's voice.

Her voice was full of showing off and asking for credit.

"By the way, the space here is quite spacious, but the matter is too thin. The bit of body I brought over still consumed quite a lot of my energy... Oh, by the way, your little computer seems to be about to burn up."

Lei Wen snapped back to his senses and looked down.

Sure enough, the laptop he had thrown on the ground had its screen go black due to core overheating.

He couldn't care about the computer that had already shut down.

He raised his head, looking up at the super warship in front of him composed of countless nanobots.

For some reason, he murmured:

"Welcome back, Grey Wind."