When the light of the star leaped over the horizon, a new day officially began on Triangle Star.
As the holographic wall transitioned into transparent glass, Feng Zhixi watched the golden-red rays spill into the room. He took the invitation he had been idling with and slotted it into the light-brain he’d purchased on the black market. A string of code and a corresponding address flickered into existence before him.
It was the entry code for the Rose Heart auction.
Unlike the Star Net auctions prevalent elsewhere in the Interstellar Federation, the Rose Heart followed an ancient tradition of face-to-face, offline bidding. Despite the heights of technological advancement—where humanity seemed to have conquered the stars and achieved omnipotence—those who walked the gray zones still found that technology progressed while human nature did not. They placed their ultimate trust in the traditional, face-to-face way of doing things.
Leaving his room, Feng Zhixi navigated the maze-like hotel corridors with practiced ease. After rounding an uncountable number of corners, a pair of heavy, deep-black double doors blocked his path.
Sensing his presence, the doors slid open silently. Feng Zhixi stepped inside and pressed his rose-patterned card into a perfectly fitted indentation on the inner side of the door.
Recognizing the data on the card, the black doors sealed shut without a sound. Only then was the massive rose pattern on the interior visible—a bloom as crimson as blood, mesmerizing and brilliant in its decadence.
At the end of the hotel hallway, the black doors remained shut. The person who had entered had vanished.
When the doors finally opened again, a figure draped in a voluminous black cloak stepped out, treading into the clamor of the night.
Wrapped in a bio-mimetic stealth cloak generated by a micro-mecha, Feng Zhixi looked up at his surroundings. The hotel corridor was gone, replaced by a bustling street shrouded in night, neon-drenched and utterly extravagant.
This was another world. To be precise, this was the true face of Triangle Star. This was why he had chosen to stay at the Rose Hotel; it possessed a direct passage to the heart of the Chaotic Zone.
Unlike the surface of Triangle Star, which teetered on the edge of Federal law for the sake of pleasure, the world hidden beneath the ocean’s surface was the planet’s raw reality. Here, everything existed—except for the truth.
In this place, everyone moved about concealed behind various masks. Feng Zhixi pulled his cloak tighter, weaving through the alleys with practiced familiarity toward his destination.
Despite its fame as a premier underground auction house in the Chaotic Zone, the entrance to Rose Heart was unremarkable. It was tucked away in a secluded corner: a small glass door with no guards, marked only by a lit kerosene lamp. Upon closer inspection, the lamp’s wick was shaped like a rose.
That inconspicuous spot was the entrance to the legendary Rose Heart.
In the quiet corner, the kerosene lamp swayed with the wind, casting mottled, flickering shadows on the ground.
The figure in the black cloak arrived and walked purposefully to the glass door, pushing it open.
The plain glass door was merely a facade. An embedded encrypted reading system scanned the code from the card the visitor produced. The true entrance to Rose Heart appeared before him, and a staff member, who had been waiting, led the guest to a private booth.
Everything proceeded with silent, unspoken coordination.
Shortly after the cloaked figure disappeared, another guest arrived. The attendant waiting there bowed respectfully and led this newcomer, who wore an ornate mask, in a different direction.
Feng Zhixi, already settled in his booth, had no idea that shortly after his door closed, a masked individual entered the adjacent booth. This latecomer shared his exact goal: the star maps.
Currently, the Rose Heart auction was difficult to enter, but its fame was largely confined to the gray corners of Triangle Star. However, in the near future, Rose Heart would become famous throughout the entire galaxy because of a single event.
The catalyst for that event was today’s auction—specifically, two fragmented star maps about to be put under the hammer.
Star maps were essential for interstellar explorers, and since Triangle Star was the headquarters of the Interstellar Explorers Guild, it wasn't unusual for fragmented maps to surface here. Even though modern humanity had conquered the stars, the boundaries of the universe remained an unsolved mystery.
Thanks to Federal laws encouraging deep-space exploration, every unknown planet and every unvisited star system belonged to the pioneer who reached it first, granting them the right to claim its resources.
Unlike complete star maps, the exploratory maps that ended up in auction houses were often fragmented or even inaccurate. Yet, every map represented a chance—a high-risk opportunity that, if successful, could change a life forever.
It was a grand gamble where the risks were as vast as the rewards.
The two star maps being auctioned today represented just such an opportunity.
In the original timeline, these two maps were won by two different people. When one of them resurfaced, he brought back wealth that stunned the entire Federation.
Of an entire interstellar expedition team, he was the sole survivor, returning with a ship full of Xi Ore.
Xi Ore was a priceless resource, valued at ten million Federal credits per kilogram. It was the legendary wealth left behind by the Xi people—a civilization that had supposedly transcended this dimension after reaching Level 10 status. It was the ultimate core energy source coveted for every interstellar battleship and combat mecha.
The wealth brought back by that survivor drove the entire Federation into a frenzy.
It wasn't just because of the obvious value of the Xi Ore, but because such a concentration of it likely pointed to the cradle of the Xi civilization itself. There, technologies far surpassing the Federation’s might still be preserved. Whoever mastered that place first could build their own interstellar empire.
Immense wealth might drive some to madness, but the temptation of absolute power would drive everyone insane.
At that moment, every major power in the Federation was galvanized. The explorer who brought back the ore and the map became the first target for assassination.
After the original owner was eliminated, a frantic slaughter among the great factions followed. A bloody storm of conflict erupted over the ownership of the star map.
The map passed between various powers, but for eight long years, not a single person who held it could find the location. Every expedition team that set sail following its guidance never returned.
They all vanished silently into the void of space.
For eight years, no one succeeded. Gradually, people began to wonder if the first explorer had told a colossal lie from the very beginning.
Perhaps none of it had anything to do with this fragmented map. Maybe the man had used the map as a ruse, or perhaps the real map had been destroyed by him.
During those eight years, some wondered if the reason they couldn't find the destination was linked to the *other* star map.
However, the second map auctioned at Rose Heart that day had never appeared again from the moment it was sold.
No one knew who had bought it. The buyer’s appearance and disappearance left no trace, as if the person had never existed.
In the future, Feng Zhixi would only obtain that blood-stained map nearly ten years later.
By then, Hill, a master at the pinnacle of Federal technology, had developed a power source even more potent than Xi Ore. As this discovery shocked the Federation, the value of the star map seemed to evaporate.
Meng Jia, who had acquired the map by chance at the time, thought the same and gifted it to Feng Zhixi.
Only after obtaining the map did Feng Zhixi realize why no one had ever succeeded. The map, intentionally drawn in cipher, was merely the riddle; the answer lay on the other map. Without the key, it was a path of certain death.
As for why the first man had returned alive, perhaps it was what one might call a cosmic miracle.
So, where was the "answer" that the entire Federation had failed to find?
No one would have guessed it was hidden in a place from which no one ever returned: the Federal Star Sector High-Security Prison.
The person who bought the second map was a desperate criminal with a long list of blood debts. He had bought it only to hide in a place the Federation couldn't reach. But before he could set out, he was captured and thrown into that inescapable prison.
No one knew that the object the entire Federation was hunting for was in the hands of a death-row inmate. Even the prisoner himself didn't realize he held a bargaining chip that could have bought his freedom.
Thus, when Ji Yeran—utterly annoyed by an Omega who "manufactured toxic gas without authorization"—arrived at the High-Security Prison, a future coincidence allowed the future Interstellar Warden to see that star map among a dead prisoner's effects.
That was nearly ten years in the future. Only then did he realize that the second map the world was searching for had been right under his nose. If the first map provided the route, the one in his hand was the passkey.
However, before he could react to this, an accident occurred.
In a shattered asteroid belt in a fringe star system, near his own secret base, God knows when a stealth battleship had snuck in. Even more damnably, a nebula-class anti-curvature hyper-nuclear bomb was chasing that ship.
The future Ji Yeran, who had trained himself to be a paragon of a gentleman, hadn't cursed in a long time. But facing the black hole formed by the bomb outside his base and that persistent ship trying to initiate an interstellar jump, the final result was that the entire asteroid belt—including his base and himself—was forced to meet the black hole.
A second before their forced mutual destruction, Ji Yeran looked at the world being warped by high-dimensional light speed and spat out a crude, unrefined curse. He remembered the last time he had been this pathetic: it was back when he was forced to go to school and got screwed over by a certain little brat in his dorm.
What was that fussy little troublemaker’s name again, the one who was best at stabbing people in the back?
Before Ji Yeran could recall the name, he lost consciousness.
When he woke up again, he found that time had been wound back ten years by the black hole. A certain annoying "toxic gas manufacturer" had not yet appeared in his life.
Ji Yeran, who was essentially a severe germaphobe, decisively chose to leave the Capital Star.
He figured this was also what someone else most wanted to see: his cousin, the future Federal Marshal, Ji Wei.
He wanted to clarify for the hundred-and-eightieth time: he had no interest in his cousin’s partner. None at all. Absolutely zero. Could that couple please just stay away from him?!
Covering his nose, Ji Yeran reflected that the smell of rotten eggs and "ammonia" were truly a perfect match!
***
At the Rose Heart auction, after a series of "appetizers" were sold, the auctioneer brought out the first exploratory star map.
As the headquarters of the Explorers Guild, seeing a star map on Triangle Star wasn't exactly shocking. They were high-value and could be hard to get, but they weren't so rare that they never appeared. At the very least, they cropped up occasionally in Triangle Star's auction houses.
Regardless, a new, unknown star map represented an opportunity—one with high risk but high reward.
When the first map, noted as "unknown," appeared as the first interesting item of the early session, it piqued the interest of the crowd.
"Unknown" meant untrodden.
Soon, the map became the focus of a bidding war. For the interstellar explorers present, the back-and-forth was lively and intense.
Sitting in his private booth, Feng Zhixi remained hidden beneath his black cloak. The micro-bio-mecha mimicry did an excellent job of blocking any prying probes that might be lurking in the shadows.
From the moment he entered the room, he had watched everything in silence. Even now, as the first star map appeared and the bidding grew increasingly fierce, Feng Zhixi did not make a move.
Time ticked by. While a star map could bring immense wealth, a fragmented one carried a high probability of leaving the buyer with nothing but a loss.
Eventually, as the price approached the upper limit of what most considered reasonable, the number of bidders dwindled until it became a duel between two or three people.
Second by second passed. Just as the price was about to be finalized, a beautiful Omega in an evening gown smiled sweetly. After waiting a few minutes with no further bids, she prepared to announce the successful transaction.
At that moment, a guest who hadn't participated in the bidding at all suddenly called out a number—exactly 1.5 times the current price. A total reversal.
Seeing his prize about to slip away, the future "unlucky guy"—the luckiest man in the Federation—gritted his teeth and indignantly called out a price just a fraction higher. This was his absolute limit.
However, the opponent immediately doubled the price without hesitation, a decisive blow that crushed his plans.
Recognizing the opponent's deep pockets and knowing he couldn't compete, the future famous "unlucky guy" shrugged and gave up. He figured the other person was just some rich kid burning money for fun on a fragmented, possibly fake map.
He wondered which wealthy family's young master had wandered in; they were nothing like those who lived their lives braving the wind and rain.
With all previous bidders having dropped out, the Omega at the front tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She smiled, ready to announce the result, but her words were interrupted by yet another surprise.
Another booth that hadn't participated, another wealthy person with money to burn, called out an astronomical price—doubling it again.
The Omega, maintaining her perfect smile, thought: *Rich people are all insane!*
The price of this star map was now double the highest price paid for any map in the last two years, and it looked like the record was still climbing.
As the second party joined the fray, a silent, close-quarters battle erupted within the Rose Heart auction over this single map.
The two sides went back and forth: one would name a price, and the other would immediately double it, repeating the cycle.
This unexpected turn of events even baffled the organizers. they couldn't fathom what was so charming about this map. Or rather, rich people had very strange ways of finding entertainment.
As the stakes piled up layer by layer, Feng Zhixi frowned slightly. He realized the other party was just as determined as he was. More importantly, if this continued, he might not have enough funds to bid on the second map.
He knew that if he took the first map, the second would surely fall to his opponent.
The question now was: which map was the first one? Was it the riddle? Or the answer?
As Feng Zhixi pondered, he kept a close eye on the other's movements. That rhythm of slow, deliberate raises—precisely stepping on his psychological limit—gave him a strange sense of familiarity. Or rather, a familiar feeling of being "screwed over."
Who was this person who had appeared out of nowhere with the clear intent to snatch the map from him?
Without knowing the map's future value, who else would be this determined?
Fragmented thoughts flashed through Feng Zhixi's mind. Before he could sort them out, his rival suddenly broke the pattern and called out a new set of numbers.
It was no longer a fierce doubling, but a precise figure calculated down to the decimal point. This seemed to signal that the opponent no longer wanted to play this game—or perhaps, they no longer had the strength to continue.
Seeing the numbers, Feng Zhixi froze. A fleeting thought crossed his mind, too fast to catch. He instinctively called out another set of numbers, equally precise, like a return gift.
In the other booth, the man behind the mask smiled. When he had first entered those numbers, it had been pure instinct. Now, seeing the response, he sensed something. He chose to withdraw.
The bidding war came to a temporary halt, but it was far from over.
Soon, after a few minor items, the second star map went up for auction. This was the second and final map of the night.
The beautiful Omega explicitly stated that both maps were obtained from the same location. Although they currently seemed to have no connection, who could say for sure?
This time, there was no need for outsiders to get involved. The two wealthy players, who hadn't had enough, resumed their little game.
The constantly doubling amounts seemed to turn into mere numbers. Just a game for the rich.
The future "unlucky guy" watched with wide eyes, unable to comprehend this clash of titans. Was it really just a case of having too much money and nowhere to spend it?
A certain future death-row inmate was enjoying the show, secretly plotting how to find these two "fat sheep" and fleece them for a fortune before he skipped town.
He had no idea that a team specifically sent to capture him was already lying in wait on Triangle Star.
In truth, this was all thanks to the good deeds of the current Interstellar Warden, who had taken office ahead of schedule in this life.
Back in the present, the money game continued. Feng Zhixi looked at the figure that had already exceeded his current capital. He raised an eyebrow; it seemed he couldn't take both maps at once.
Since that was the case, he reciprocated by calling out a precise and tricky set of numbers. The opponent replied with an amount that was neither more nor less—just enough to be a slap in the face.
Seeing this, the other onlookers knew the star map game was ending.
Sure enough, it ended exactly as they expected: one map for each. The audience was satisfied with the drama, and the biggest winner was Rose Heart, which had made a massive profit from two messy star maps.
After receiving his map, Feng Zhixi found that his luck was as rotten as ever.
This map was exactly the one he had owned in the future. This meant he would have to attend a date—a date that had just been made.
No one knew that right under everyone's noses, he and the other person had conducted a private chat using ciphered numbers known only to them.
It was a very obscure and rare cipher, something he never would have bothered to learn if he hadn't needed to cooperate with a certain someone back then. He had zero interest in telegraphic codes from before the Old Earth era that had long since vanished into history.
Of course, they hadn't exchanged much—just an address and a time to meet.
Though he didn't yet know who the other person was, that familiar feeling of being "screwed over" gave him a premonition.
And very soon, his premonition came true.
It was the following afternoon. At a famous Starry Sky Restaurant on the sunlit side of Triangle Star, Feng Zhixi had traded his black cloak for a different look. He saw a gentleman sitting elegantly in a magnificent Old Earth-style suit, looking like a man waiting for his lover. However, this gentleman had a set of plain features that one would forget in an instant.
This was the Starry Sky Restaurant. Transparent platforms extended outward, making it feel as though one were floating in the air. Each was separated by just the right distance to ensure guests weren't disturbed, allowing them to enjoy their private space.
Each independent space was surrounded by a holographic barrier, which guests could customize to their preferred environment. It was one of the most famous dating spots on Triangle Star.
As Feng Zhixi approached, he saw a small badge pinned to the other man's chest—a pattern resembling a flower entwined with a sword. He wore an identical badge on his own chest. This made them look very much like two strangers on a first date following Old Earth social etiquette.
In the restaurant, one stood while the other sat. They turned to look at each other as light and shadow fell around them, looking for all the world like the start of a romantic, sweet drama.
But the participants didn't see it that way.
Feng Zhixi: "..."
Ji Yeran: "..."
Neither had expected to actually see their old roommate. Even if they both had vague premonitions, there wasn't a second person in the entire Federation who used such familiar, "screwing-over" tactics.
Recognizing each other almost instantly, both fell into silence. It wasn't just the four years that had passed; including the ten years of the future, they hadn't seen each other in fourteen years. Despite the bionic masks, they recognized the person hidden beneath the disguise at a single glance.
Feng Zhixi: *Where did that green-haired, chuunibyou tyrant of the dorm go?*
Ji Yeran: *Where did that fussy, pampered little brat go?*
***
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Starry Rebirth: The Warden and the Outlaw’s Interstellar Revenge | Chapter 5 | A Familiar Rival | Novela.app | Novela.app
