Eat Great Spikes? Wander the cosmos from now on, scraping by in an enemy hold and surviving by poaching Great Spikes for food?
Facing Wen Jifei's suggestion, even the pink Pegmont—a truly singular human genius who had spawned both a joke book and a chronicle of death-defying stunts—couldn't help feeling dazed and hesitant for a moment.
"Don't be afraid. Great Spikes really are edible."
After a brief silence on the comms channel, an authoritative figure joined the discussion, speaking with absolute certainty.
In truth, He Tangtang's mood hadn't been very high earlier, simply because he found his actual impact in this battle hadn't been nearly as great as he had anticipated. Fortunately, the topic had finally drifted into his area of expertise. When it came to eating Great Spikes, He Tangtang was humanity's foremost—indeed, sole—authority.
Back in those grueling, powerless days before his special trait awakened, in an effort to shed his status as the weakest link, He Tangtang had genuinely tried eating Great Spikes.
From black armor to blue-sheened to red-shouldered, he had sampled the entire line.
"Though once dead they're just foul, mushy meat and pretty disgusting, don't worry—it really is meat. It's edible. Throw up a few times and you'll get used to it. The meat of a blue-sheened Great Spike is the best—not too tough, not too soft, and once you squeeze out the bloody water, it's not even that fishy... Oh, right, you're strong. Why not try capturing one alive and slicing it raw? Say, did you bring fire?"
He Tangtang spoke in a rush, continuing to share his experience and advice. On this matter, all the top brass and supreme experts across the entire frequency could only listen, unable to offer any opinion.
"Uh, but are you sure a lighter can ignite in outer space? Haha, it's fine. I still have bread and ketchup, salad dressing too."
Pegmont replied from his end, seemingly trying to crack a lighthearted joke. Yet faced with an unprecedented sense of bewilderment about his life, his voice sounded uncharacteristically weak and lacking in confidence.
As the conversation went on, the entire channel's signal began growing static-filled and steadily fainter.
That Great Spike mothership was drifting farther and farther from the azure planet.
Pegmont was moving beyond the satellite signal range of the Rejectors.
"Remember, Peg, in that fleeing fleet, there's no Great Spike that can kill you. Not even Daie was your match. But because the outside world is too unfamiliar to us and the environment is uncertain, don't strike out unnecessarily. Just hide inside the ship you're on right now."
"Survive."
"Protect yourself, keep your communicator safe. The Rejectors will immediately begin expanding our transmission network to search deeper and farther for you. Azure promises we will never abandon you. All of humanity will never abandon you."
"Hang in there, Peg!"
Amid the chaotic, urgent reminders, with a crackle and a pop, the signal finally cut out completely. Even the lingering static gradually faded away.
Once the noise died down, the entire supreme communications channel, every operational communicator and the person behind it, fell into dead silence for over ten seconds.
One of the greatest contributors to the Antarctic battlefield, one of humanity's two great hopes for the future, one of the fewer than five Vault-tier combat forces humanity possessed, the young super genius, the pinnacle combatant with his very own joke book across the globe—the pink Pegmont had just departed the human world.
He hadn't fallen yet; he was still in one piece.
It was just that he was heading toward the depths of the universe, all alone, aboard an escaping Great Spike vessel.
Where exactly he would end up was currently unknown... and might remain unknown in the future.
In everyone's mind, a sequence of realities, logic, and questions unconsciously sorted themselves out at rapid speed.
"He'll survive."
"Of course. The question now is where he'll go... No, where those Great Spike ships will go."
"We at the Rejectors will search for him as fast as possible, no matter the cost."
"They probably won't be able to return to the Great Spikes' main fleet."
"Yeah, the remaining energy most likely isn't enough for them to make it back. So could those ships wander blindly through the cosmos for an extended period?"
"So... is it a one-man Project Fireseed?"
"What?"
"I said Project Fireseed. Peg seems to have set out all on his own."
"..." Everyone held it in, feeling that laughing under these circumstances would be terrible, even if Pegmont was someone with a joke book dedicated to him.
"Well, maybe he really will find a new habitat."
With that remark, the atmosphere finally turned, and stifled laughter broke out.
Pegmont was still that person around whom it was hard to stay pessimistic. Even though his current predicament, if contemplated seriously, felt lonely, helpless, bleak, and pitiful—enough to wrench one's heart—it was still hard to resist... Why did this kind of thing happen to him?
No, rather, why did such bizarre things always happen to him of all people?
"Actually, Peg is the first human to truly break through the vault, isn't he? Azure shouted that slogan for so long—to fight above the vault. He's the first one to truly achieve it."
"That's right. In a hundred years, this is the first time our human forces have taken the initiative to venture beyond the zenith into the galactic cosmos to hunt Great Spikes."
"Maybe in the future he'll even be the first to encounter the Great Spikes' main fleet."
"Oh, that's very possible. If Pegmont accidentally stabs Miwang to death and drags him back to eat..."
"Pffft-hahaha!"
"Hahahahaha..."
"Ahem!" Speaker Kemore couldn't help interrupting this conversation that was growing increasingly absurd yet somehow sounded strangely plausible. Forcing a stern tone, he joined in: "I think you had all better provide me with some objective, practical analysis first."
"The Moon, Mars, or other places in the solar system where they could make a stop," that aged voice from the Rejectors joined the discussion and said. "That is the most likely scenario."
"Previously, because the Great Spikes disregarded us, they universally chose direct invasion. But this time is different. This time, they are fleeing. In such a situation, seeking a new, safe stronghold is biological instinct," the old man continued. "Furthermore, since the massive screening stations at Xilang Peak and Antarctica have now completely failed against them, the screening station on the Moon will certainly no longer have any effect."
"Then what about us right now..." Speaker Kemore asked in return, his tone seemingly a bit overly cautious and polite.
"This is the duty of us Rejectors," the old man said. "To that end, we may need to requisition several source energy airships to serve as new space stations."
"No problem," Speaker Kemore said without hesitation. "We are counting on you."
...
From start to finish, Chen Buer did not speak during this discussion.
Over two thousand kilometers from the Antarctic Continent, on the open sea, a certain old man known as invincible in the mortal realm was currently floating on the water's surface, dragging an injured, unconscious pilot behind him with his left hand.
Earlier, when the pole had fallen into despair, they had risked flying into the airspace blockaded by Great Spike craft... and then their airship was struck and destroyed.
No one died; they fell into the sea.
Legion Commander Chen promptly and decisively chose to swim across...
And then, the tractor field was abruptly smashed to pieces.
As the dignified invincible of the mortal realm, he couldn't very well speak up on the supreme frequency comms while everyone was discussing Pegmont's fate and suddenly say: *Could someone come pick me up? I'm floating in the ocean, and right now I don't even know my exact location.*
Chapter 848