Wasteland's Only King - Chapter 153 - 133: Carol Captures the Interstellar Mother Ship! New Players Land on the Star System Wasteland! (1/3)
Chapter 153: Chapter 133: Carol Captures the Interstellar Mother Ship! New Players Land on the Star System Wasteland! (1/3)
Drake-3 Wasteland Star System.
Inside the Celsa Mother Ship code-named X-187, an ear-splitting alarm was echoing.
Carol strode quickly across the bridge bathed in flashing red lights, her combat boots hammering a frantic rhythm on the custom alloy floor.
This mother ship had just endured a one-sided slaughter.
“Commander.”
A humanoid mecha knelt before her on one knee, mechanical eyes glowing with an eerie blue light.
“Enemy fleet, all 187 units annihilated. Our losses: 21 mechas.”
“The X-187 Interstellar Mother Ship is now fully under control…”
Carol gave a nod of her chin, never pausing her pace.
Soon.
She arrived at the vast command cabin of the Interstellar Mother Ship.
The chamber was littered with signs of battle everywhere.
In the corner lay several broken unmanned mechas, sizzling with arcs of electric current.
Carol just glanced over before looking away.
In every war, there are sacrifices.
Besides…
This time, it was a classic case of the underdog turning the tables, from being hunted to hunting back in this interstellar war.
A few days ago.
To prevent the uninhabited planet from being discovered, Carol had intentionally exposed her location, which led this Selsa Fleet to chase her deep into the starry sky.
In an absolute dead end.
It was the Lord who, with boundless might, saved her again!
From the initial ’airdrop’ of a ’Small Unmanned Interstellar Fleet,’ to those two squads of soldiers forced to teleport away as they charged the S-680 Interstellar Spaceship.
And then…
Wave after wave after that, a total of 11 brand-new Unmanned Interstellar Fleets, plus two Gravitational Wave Relay Units!
Each Small Unmanned Interstellar Fleet consisted of 20 Tier Eleven Unmanned Mechas, along with one Small Interstellar Battleship and a set of matched weapon systems.
With Carol’s command skills, even a single mecha fleet like that would give her a thirty percent chance to counterattack the Celsa Interstellar Mother Ship behind her.
But the Lord gave her a full twelve fleets like that!
That’s a total of 240 Tier Eleven unmanned combat mechas!
You know, Carol herself—once a commander—was only Tier Twelve at best.
Meanwhile, this Interstellar Mother Ship’s commander, although a higher Tier Thirteen Evolver, didn’t specialize in combat—their attributes just weren’t suited—so they got ground down to death by a dozen of Carol’s mechas self-destructing en masse.
The 187:21 casualty ratio was mostly because of that.
Otherwise, with Carol’s familiarity with this Interstellar Mother Ship under her feet, she could have made the ratio even better.
Also.
The two Gravitational Wave Relay Units sent by the Lord played a crucial role.
With the Relay Units activated, they could disrupt the warships’ jump engine stability—at full power, they could even force an interstellar warship out of warp.
In fact…
Not long after Carol began her counterattack with the unmanned fleet, the X-187 Interstellar Mother Ship’s commander tried to jump out and escape…
“My Lord——”
“Long live!”
Carol placed a hand over her heart and, gazing at the endless starry sky outside the porthole, called out softly.
In the Selsa Civilization, there are no words more loyal than “Long live.”
“Long live!”
Behind Carol—
Tier Eleven Unmanned Mechas also placed one hand to their chests in unison, emitting a chilling, mechanical chorus.
Loyalty to Lord Yu Jin was coded as line one in their very programming.
“Even though it’s just the smallest class of Interstellar Mother Ship…”
“It will still play an important role for the Lord in future star system expansion.”
Carol gazed into the starry sky, murmuring in a low voice.
She could sense that the Lord hadn’t yet descended here.
But that didn’t affect her loyalty, nor her determination to fight for the Lord and conquer the stars.
“Recover the S-680 Interstellar Spaceship!”
“Recover the Small Interstellar Battleships from the Unmanned Mecha Fleet!”
“Shut down the coordinate transmission device, wipe all mother ship coordinate data…”
“Activate counter-detection stealth mode…”
“Lock in new coordinates…”
“Destination: Uninhabited Planet 01…”
“Prepare to jump!”
For now, Carol pushed aside the swarm of thoughts in her mind, and with the cold, sharp demeanor of a commander, began issuing orders.
Soon.
Vmm——
Vmm vmm——
A massive Space fluctuation, centered on the X-187 Interstellar Mother Ship, radiated out in all directions.
Swoosh——!
In that instant—
The colossal, silver-white Interstellar Mother Ship vanished without a trace.
The deep reaches of the starry sky fell silent once more.
All that remained were floating shards of warship wreckage, mecha debris, and the lifeless bodies of the Selsa Fleet, forever left behind.
…
…
Uninhabited Planet.
Clang—!
Tang Yunxuan kept his head down, working up a sweat in a mountain of crystal ore.
It’s been six full days since the closed beta crossing into the Wasteland Star System.
That Tier Twelve boss, ever since she left in her spaceship, has yet to return.
Tang Yunxuan even figures she may never come back.
Right now, his frenzied mining is all for the sake of achieving ’crystal freedom’ as soon as possible.
During the last six days—
At first, Tang Yunxuan would mine a chunk, then pop a chunk.
But now?
He’s started getting picky about the crystals he uses.
“Tier Five?”
“Mediocre purity…”
Tang Yunxuan picked up a freshly mined crystal, studied it carefully for a moment, then chose not to swallow it, just set it aside.
Right now, he’s radiating the aura of a Tier Five Evolver.
Compared to his Tier Three self from six days ago, he’s become several times stronger.
Not far off—
Two familiar figures were also hard at work mining.
The young girl Peng Siyi, Tier Four Evolver, Attribute “Giant Strength.”
The middle-aged man Yin Zhenzhong, Tier Four Evolver, Attribute “Gold.”
Besides those two, over the past six days, a ton of ’closed beta players’ were added.
Among them—
Six players landed one after another over the first five days.
The rest of the players all appeared just a day ago along with the ’Countdown.’
This batch of new players was huge—almost ten thousand of them!
And wouldn’t you know it—
Their starting spawn points were all close to Tang Yunxuan’s group, right by this crystal mine.
The nearly ten thousand new players, under the guidance of Tang Yunxuan and the other ’veterans,’ all awakened in the past day by consuming Tier Two Energy Crystals, then set out on the mine-digging, crystal-popping road.
“Eh——”
“If only things could always be this chill.”
“Just mining and popping crystals…”
“Back on Blue Star, I could rid the campuses of Mutant Beasts and flex in front of the younger girls…”
“But alas…”
Tang Yunxuan let out a deep sigh, staring at the semi-transparent panel in front of him.
The panel was straight out of the Wasteland game.
At first login, there were only three options: [Coordinate], [Restart], and [Exit].
But now?
Tang Yunxuan stared at the glaring word in the center of the panel: [Crossover].
Below that, a digital countdown—
23:21:36:58
23:21:36:57
…
days, 21 hours, and 36 minutes.
A day ago, the [Crossover] option, the countdown, and a flood of new players all appeared at once.
At first, it only showed a day and a half.
Then…
Tang Yunxuan suddenly heard a mechanical prompt in his mind:
“Level I Civilization Authority unlocked!”
“Closed beta time has been extended from 7 to 30 days!”
After the prompt, Tang Yunxuan watched the timer jump by a full 23 days.
He’d already discussed this at length with the other two.
The conclusion was—
That this is the countdown to the forced crossing, identical to when the first batch of helmets appeared on Blue Star.
Worth noting—
No matter when you put on the helmet, everyone’s panel countdown matched perfectly.
Which means…
Whether it was Tang Yunxuan, Peng Siyi, and the crew, or the nearly ten thousand new arrivals who landed just a day ago, everyone will be forcibly transported here, exactly 23 days and 21 hours from now, on the dot.
“Eh——”
Tang Yunxuan let out yet another long sigh.
If he got to choose, he’d have preferred to cross to Old Yu’s Wasteland area.
Not this damned Starry Sky Wasteland.
This place is way too dangerous…
Out in the wilds, there are Tier Seven and Tier Eight Mutant Beasts everywhere.
During the past six days, even as careful as Tang Yunxuan was, he’d still get insta-killed by Mutant Beasts popping up from thin air, forcing him to respawn multiple times.
“Thinking about it, it’s actually great having that Tier Twelve boss watching over us.”
“At least you don’t have to worry about getting whacked by Mutant Beasts.”
“Especially when the closed beta ends and we’re officially crossing over—when there’s no revive, no respawn—just a single life and that’s it…”
Tang Yunxuan muttered to himself, suddenly losing steam for mining or crystal-popping.
He sat down, looked up at the sky.
Unlike Blue Star, you could look up from this planet and see the endless stars stretching above.
Countless stars, brimming with mystery and the unknown, but hiding who knows how much danger and disaster.
“Senior Tang!”
A call rang out from not far away.
Tang Yunxuan turned his head.
“Could you teach me how to tell a crystal’s tier and purity…?”
The young guy’s face was pure college kid—equal parts clear-eyed and clueless.
“Liu Ze, huh…”
Tang Yunxuan murmured the name.
He was another new player who’d only gotten his helmet a day before, joining the closed beta.
Coincidentally, he also came from Jiangcheng University—one year below Tang Yunxuan, just a sophomore now.
Hence the “Senior Tang” title.
“Actually, it’s not that complicated, listen up…”
“You judge a crystal’s tier by the aura it gives off, but how? I’ll line up a few different ones and let you feel the difference…”
“…”
Tang Yunxuan patiently explained to his junior.
The longer he taught, the more ’newbies’ crowded around to listen.
Before he realized it, Tang Yunxuan found himself surrounded on all sides…
“Ahem—”
“Well, that’s all I know.”
“I’ve shared everything I can teach you.”
“Hope you all achieve crystal freedom soon!”
He finished talking—
Rustle——
Neat applause erupted.
Tang Yunxuan scratched his head awkwardly.
He’d just wanted to show off in front of his juniors…
“Senior Tang.”
Liu Ze suddenly asked the question that was on every newbie’s mind:
“Sister Peng Siyi said that when you all first landed, you actually saw a spaceship?”
“That spaceship even landed here on this planet, and…”
“You even saw an alien?”
“A Tier Twelve alien?”
“For real?”
“Could you tell us about it?”
Humanity’s instinct is to eat melon and watch drama.
Even transported to some star system wasteland uninhabited planet, that doesn’t change.
Right now—
More than a thousand newbies pressed in around Tang Yunxuan, all wide-eyed with curiosity and anticipation.
“Uh…”
Tang Yunxuan was instantly awkward.
How’s he supposed to explain?
Say he almost peed himself because of that Tier Twelve boss?
Or that he and Peng Siyi and the group were basically hauled here to be mining slaves?
That’d be super embarrassing…
Tang Yunxuan lowered his head, deliberating how he could spin the story a little.
Next second.
BOOM—
BOOM RUMBLE—!
A roar erupted from above their heads.
“WTF!”
The first closed beta player to look up screamed.
“Holy shit!”
“No fucking way!”
“…”
Tang Yunxuan looked up, too.
“I—”
The rest of his words wouldn’t come out.
Because the fear had robbed him of speech.
Right now—
Above the planet, right over everyone’s heads—
An enormous, world-shading, sci-fi Interstellar Mother Ship was descending gently from the sky.
The deafening sounds were coming from that mother ship!
While everyone stared in shock—
The mother ship’s side hatch opened.
Swoosh—
Swoosh swoosh—!
Beams of light shot down to land all around the crystal mine.
“Mechas?”
“Combat mechas?”
Tang Yunxuan was utterly stunned.
He and the nearly ten thousand closed beta players were surrounded by over two hundred unmanned mechas.
These mechas were giving off a presence even more terrifying than any Tier Seven or Eight Mutant Beast!
THUD—!
Soon after—
The Interstellar Mother Ship landed, hatch opening wide.
A tall figure strode forcefully out.
She stood there, scanning the crowd.
Finally, her gaze locked on Tang Yunxuan.
Swoosh—
Carol, as if by instant teleportation, appeared before Tang Yunxuan and towered over him:
“You. Tell me, what happened here.”
“Where did all these new miners come from?”
