Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 82 | The Cruel Arena | Novela.app

Two days later, a short figure arrived before a door less than one and a half meters tall. Dressed in a neat Hataen uniform and wearing a black metal mask, it presented a projected permit to the guards on either side and the camera above the door. Once cleared, it entered a vast space. The hangar. The "happy home" of soldiers in the interstellar era. The starships here were not small, though their internal living space was not as large as those of the Human Union; after all, the Hataen did not require much room to move. The space saved was instead used for additional armor, weapon structures, and larger power cells for shield generators. The short figure scanned its surroundings... ...Well, it had no vision. The face beneath that metal mask, and indeed its entire body, was actually a single block of active metal, perfectly mimicking the posture and movements of a Hataen soldier. Such nimble and exquisite control even perfectly simulated the natural sway of every hair—though, theoretically, that was entirely unnecessary. The short figure walked directly behind a pile of cargo, slipped into a logistics tunnel in a narrow corner, and after a long, winding trek, crawled into a ventilation duct. It then leaped down from an automatically opening metal grate, found an information port, pulled a data card from its breast, and plugged it in without a word. *Click.* *Bang!!* A small side door was blown askew by the sparks of a circuit explosion. However, no alarm sounded, for Lei Ting himself was sitting right next to the control room for this sector. Subsequently, the small metal avatar, designed for easy movement, stepped through the door and retrieved Lei Ting’s external optical computer storage card. A short while later, a mass of metal enveloping the data card emerged from the ground and returned to Lei Ting’s hand. The metal automatically reverted into a cube, and he reached out to catch the data card as it fell, inserting it into his external optical computer. Fragmented data starlight flashed across his eyepiece. Lei Ting quickly browsed the new information he had just acquired, feeling glad he had mastered some psionic disguise techniques. In enemy territory, he could not rashly open his communication system from its fully locked state. Even with encryption, information was a highly insecure thing. Even if he found a secluded spot to send and receive, the "waves" of information were as diffusive as light waves, making them extremely easy to detect and capture through technical means. At that point, regardless of whether the message could be cracked, the enemy would know that a target with a different system was hiding at the source of the signal. But it didn't matter; Lei Ting had already obtained the information he needed. Just as he had expected, these Hataens had more than one military command system on this planet; there were also two current Hataen Princes stationed here. The reason he hadn't moved against any high-ranking Hataen officers over the past two days was that he was looking for information regarding these two Princes. Since any action would inevitably be discovered, he might as well go for a high-value target. Although the exact location of the targets was still uncertain, Lei Ting had intercepted fragmented snippets from the Hataen internal information flow. He judged that the targets should be located near the central power reactor of the planetary weapon. Cross-referencing this with the information he had gathered from the idle chatter of Hataens over the last few days, he decided to head toward the reactor. That was the core of the planetary power system and also the direction where Cen Yan’s squad was currently executing their mission. And... to be honest, he had to thank Hataen racial culture. Because of their extremely short lifespans, their attitude toward speech was to say whatever needed to be said as quickly as possible, and their attitude toward action was to do whatever needed to be done immediately. After all, they had so little time to live; no one knew if they would ever have another chance to speak if they didn't do it now. Thus, the skill of filtering useful information from dialogue played an unexpectedly significant role. Lei Ting moved through the metal walls. For a moment, he wondered if he could completely merge himself into metal to travel, much like how elemental-type psionics turned their bodies into elements to evade specific damage or move via natural elements. But the conclusion was—no, or rather, it was very difficult. To date, no material-type carbon-based psionic had been able to achieve this. Rather than considering that, Lei Ting felt it better to think about how to make himself stronger and try to imbue non-metallic substances with metallic properties. In previous tests, he had confirmed that as long as an object met either the "broad definition of metal" or "possessed metallic properties," he could manipulate it. However, when testing certain non-metallic substances that were transformed to temporarily possess metallic properties, he encountered issues where the imbued properties were too weak, resulting in reduced control effectiveness. Truth be told, the nature of his ability was very interesting... it simultaneously possessed characteristics of the material, energy, and mental categories, and could achieve results of both protection and healing. Such effects stemmed from his self-influence at the moment his ability awakened—and they originated entirely from his "self," because the existence of "Stillness" did not begin at his formal awakening; it was just that the power he harbored before then never made any obvious reaction to external stimuli. And Lei Ting had actually pondered several questions— Why could this power, which he named "Sun Star," control metal? In what form was this "control" over metal achieved? And what rules did it follow when judging the concept of "metal"? Lei Ting flew through countless spaces and partitions, "sinking" toward the planet's interior at an incredible speed. His application of this powerful and not-yet-"ultimate" strength was as natural as moving his own limbs. From maintaining long-term manipulation of multiple metal targets to deliberate training, Lei Ting felt that a power that did not obey was better off not existing at all. Take the "protagonist" Shane, for example, who seemed to be gambling with the void every time he fought. His ability currently appeared to be somewhere between "disobedient" and "unstable." While the fight wouldn't directly harm the user, the annihilation energy had a mind of its own... This kind of insufficiently stable and obedient ability was like an insufficiently stable and obedient subordinate; Lei Ting wouldn't want it even if it were given to him for free. As he descended, Lei Ting’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter. He sensed something very strange... At the location of the planetary reactor, there was a living individual with an extremely high concentration of metal molecules in its body. It seemed taller than the other Hataens around it, standing just over 1.4 meters, and was currently sitting leisurely in a magnificent chair, watching something with great interest. Strangely, its life form seemed entirely different from that of an ordinary Hataen, and... in the room where it sat, besides itself and four other Hataens, there were also hanging... ...Corpses. Many... human-shaped corpses. Corpses suspected to be Orion humans. Liquid containing metallic components gushed from the severed veins of those corpses; some had already run dry, while others had not. But not a single one of them was alive. And on the floor of that room, which was like a sea of blood, in the place where that abnormal Hataen individual was watching, two Orion human figures without any protective gear were confronting each other. A short blade lay at the feet of each, and not far behind them, an unconscious person lay on the ground. Lei Ting’s expression turned cold and stern. He came to a sudden halt outside the room, listening to the voices within. "It’s alright, you can stall all you like... anyway, once time is up, the things they swallowed will automatically execute them." The abnormal individual’s voice was soft and gentle, and it was actually speaking the Orion language: "No one is coming to save you! What’s the problem with killing a stranger for the sake of your own comrade?" "..." The two people standing opposite each other remained silent, one grinding his teeth in rage, the other’s hands trembling slightly. They were both soldiers of the Orion Union. During their mission, they and their teammates had inexplicably fallen into a strange and chaotic dream, and by the time they woke up, they were already on this planet. Subsequently, most of their teammates were executed on the orders of that strange Hataen with grayish-black skin and crimson eyes. Only the weakest and the strongest from each team were spared. Next, the strong were forced to enter the fray naked, wearing only psionic limiters around their necks. The winner could live on with their sole remaining teammate; the loser could only die with them. But if the time taken to win exceeded the limit set by the tiny machines in the hostage teammate's stomach, everyone would go to the underworld together. Therefore, although the vast majority of captives would not start fighting immediately, if time dragged on, they would be forced to turn their hands against their compatriots for the sake of their teammates' lives, praying with hysterical roars that they or the other person might survive. Outside the wall, Lei Ting clenched his fist. He had always known that war was not the refined thing some people claimed it to be. The filthiest parts of it could be linked to every word that life itself finds repulsive: meanness, shamelessness, bloodiness, brutality, cunning, coldness, malice, profanity, destruction... and so on. But he had never thought he would see his own compatriots forced to slaughter each other in an enemy's colosseum with his own eyes. And such scenes had actually occurred frequently hundreds or thousands of years ago, during the Starry Sky Frontier era before the Orion Union was established. Lei Ting first sensed the metallic reaction in the stomach area of the hostages and found it to be a type of small timed bomb. Some of the non-metallic structures could not be directly removed in a short time while the hostages were unconscious and unable to cooperate, which made him sigh silently. Then, he slowly raised his hand and reached behind his shoulder. Following his movement, the heavy metal constituting the "Black Box" began to disassemble. Countless metal cubes of various types floated within, a few of which he had isolated from internal and external reactions and encased in a solid block of lead. As for the rest... ...They quietly merged into the metal walls, traveling soundlessly through the structure. Finally, a large number of them gathered around that abnormal individual, arranged in an orderly fashion. The tall young man gripped the hilt of "New Sun." ***