Chapter 347

Near a dark planet at the edge of a star system, at the outermost arm of the Milky Way's Centaurus Spiral, a fleet of three escort ships drifted slowly; aboard the flagship's command center, a blue-skinned captain chatted with his first officer.

"This is really strange—how could there be car thieves out here? I heard the only civilization nearby is the humans from Earth. Could they have stolen our ship?"

"Impossible." The captain shook his head firmly. "You don't understand human civilization. They're still a primitive species confined to their planet's surface. They just got lucky—born on a rich world that let them survive in the cosmos. They don't even have the ability to travel through space. How could they possibly steal our ship?"

The first officer nodded. "That's true. Then who could it be?"

"There are plenty of thieves in the cosmos. Didn't you forget that group of space pirates we encountered last time near the edge of the Shattered Dimension? Maybe it was them."

The captain's tone carried anger and disdain. "They're definitely just doing this to annoy us. Their target probably wasn't just a small escort ship."

"Anyone who can precisely locate us in deep space, assess our ship's condition, linger here to observe our patrol route, and then strike—must belong to an interstellar civilization capable of deep-space travel."

"If they didn't have their own ships, how would they have gotten here? If they already have their own ships, why steal our escort vessel? It's clearly just because they see our fleet is weak and want to provoke us."

The first officer nodded, deeply convinced. The captain's logic made sense. This was an extremely remote star system—no native civilization, no exploitable resources, essentially a desert of space.

To the Kree, the only reason any other force would appear here was if they were chasing the Kree fleet. And any force capable of tracking the Kree across deep space—even if inferior to the Kree Empire—would be nearly as advanced, and certainly possess their own ships.

The Kree's most advanced technology was their planetary warships. Most of their civilization's resources were poured into these colossal vessels, leaving the technology used in escort ships far from cutting-edge.

In past years, many escort ships had been lost, and their parts were sold on the black market. But those who bought such items were mostly low-tier civilizations struggling even with intra-system travel. High-tier civilizations had no use for these basic ship components.

But he didn't know that the magical technologies developed by humanity's occult side were unique in the cosmos.

Though humans themselves lacked the innate ability to wield magic—drawing their power instead from cosmic deities—they pursued technological advancement and productivity with boundless zeal, whether through mysticism or science.