Chapter 46

Heaven Gate City West District, No. 3 Heaven Gate Airport, Affiliated No. 2 Spaceport.

20:12, clear.

Although it is already night, Heaven Gate City's nightlife may be even more vibrant than daytime, let alone the spaceport, which still requires round‑the‑clock shift work.

The lighting will not be lacking.

Many stargate cargo vessels and escort ships are docked here, most belonging to large interstellar logistics companies, and the logo of the giant interstellar enterprise 'Frontier Lighthouse' occupies thirty percent of the hulls of those large ships.

Then, at this moment, they collectively emitted a piercing, sharp alarm.

This is only the beginning.

Because, within ten or so seconds after that alarm rang through the spaceport, the alarms of the other hulls quickly joined in, and for a moment the entire spaceport was filled with the alarm sound; that piercing effect even began to spread outward from the spaceport, as if some intangible thing were rapidly eroding and offending all the equipment.

That was a virus.

A heavily convicted cyber hacker skilled in digital electronic intrusion, having accepted an invitation from a certain 'Hermit', sought to add another spark to the bustle of Heaven Gate City.

They were attempting to infiltrate the control systems of all vessels while simultaneously expanding the battlefield.

Expanding toward the No. 1, No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 spaceports, and even attempting to leap to the military spaceport——

——This is of course hard to achieve, and even digging into the corners is especially difficult.

Meanwhile,

In Heaven Gate City's various districts, criminals who likewise seized this opportunity began to act, and this development inevitably brings to mind yesterday's stargate riot:

When the mechanical Godzilla was running amok, it was also when many criminals taking advantage of the chaos kept Heaven's Gate City's police forces on constant alert, and even the next day people were still complaining that overtime hadn't finished.

And today, June 12th is destined to be an even longer day.

Not only did two monsters appear, but over a thousand cases sprang up from various places, to the point that even some prisons saw breakout actions—.

——With Heaven's Gate City's usual capability, this could still be suppressed for now, but it is destined that these law enforcers' app maps will be filled with lots of question marks like a Ubisoft game map, making one's head just look at them.

Among them, skull icons are also mixed in.

At this pace, when they receive a full-page year-end report at year's end, it will likely read: 'June thirteenth is probably a very special day; on that day you cursed how many Heaven's Gate City profanities, arrested how many X‑class criminals, earned how many X‑class merits, and even at midnight you were still swearing Heaven's Gate City profanities—things like that.'

But that is something for year‑end.

Right now, they are just starting to swear.

In the spaceport, each armed vessel had taken off illegally, while the cargo vessels remained completely unmoving—only their bindings had all been unlocked, presenting a posture of 'take what you will'.

Yet this entire spaceport, resembling a small city, had no people at all, not even any sign of life.

When the automated transport robots had all short‑circuited and scrapped amid sparks, and the transport vessels' alarm sounds had gradually faded, this place could almost be said to be utterly silent.

Then came the clear sound of high heels striking the ground.

Immediately after, a dull footstep sound accompanied by a skeptical male voice:

"Are you sure everything's unlocked? The frontier lighthouse's electronic lock has always been rather weird—I heard they outright hired a batch of data‑based lifeforms to guard it."

"Digital monsters are indeed a peculiar kind of data‑based lifeform, but they are still just data, and besides, the frontier lighthouse couldn't produce many named characters," said the woman in a disdainful voice, her swift, clear steps still exuding arrogance.

"Besides, there's the twisted Heaven's Gate secret key as a last resort—you still have it, right? That key."

"Of course I do!"

She turned out to be the eccentric woman Aomo had seen before, with the mercenary named Marta at her side.

The two hurried through the dimly lit spaceport, past vessel after vessel unrelated to their goal, heading straight for the docking area of the Frontier Lighthouse Company.

But the mercenary was still dissatisfied with this speed.

"Why didn't you prepare a small vehicle? We need to get the stuff faster—those Two Worlds Safety Bureau guys could show up any moment!" he urged bluntly.

Having paralyzed the spaceport system and taken off with a large number of warships, this certainly removed any obstruction.

But on the other hand, not to mention the Two Worlds Safety Bureau, such a grand display would even rouse the ordinary safety bureau to come and pay attention.

After all, there are vast extraterrestrial corporate assets here, and this top‑tier matter involving planetary disputes is enough to make Heaven's Gate City's Safety Bureau scramble.

If luck is bad, it means a joint team of the two safety bureaus will parachute down to make arrests.

At this point, one cannot expect the chaos caused by a hastily rallied mob to divide forces or buy time; the truly mobilized military strength of Heaven's Gate City would be star ships taking off, armored division corps deploying, and all high‑level source‑energy ascenders acting—at that point one could not rely on those half‑finished monsters and mixed dragon‑snake wanted criminals.

Marta even heard that the mayor of Heaven's Gate City himself is an A‑rank ascendant.

That is power enough to destroy a planet, but lacking any visual records, it is merely regarded as a rumor.

He just wants to finish the job quickly and run; even if he obtained power capable of opposing Heaven's Gate City, he has no intention of staying here to fight it out.

Naturally, the quicker he gets it done, the better—he has no interest in keeping any decorum with this woman.

"Mercenaries are just mercenaries—utterly lacking any bearing, completely the look of being frightened out of their wits by those lackeys."

Seeing the man teleport over a hundred meters in an instant and then keep accelerating, the woman disdainfully shook her head—yet she likewise vanished from the spot in a single step.

Then, moving at a speed far greater than Marta's, she reached the entrance of that massive cargo vessel.

Actually, no matter what, she would still arrive faster than Marta, since Marta must first use that twisted secret key to activate Heaven's Gate, unlocking the deepest door of the cargo vessel and accepting Heaven's Gate scan certification.

She instead stepped onto the metal ramp just lowered by the cargo vessel's AI, passed the sensor‑lit doors, ignored the crates of cargo spotlighted by the lights, and went straight to the innermost part.

What met the eye was a small playground-like experimental field.

"Not nearly as spacious as the test field Starhenge Industry prepared for the mechanical Godzilla," the mercenary who had just arrived, drenched in sweat, nevertheless did not forget to comment.

Starhenge Industry's test field was even more spacious than a long-distance racetrack.

Since it was originally designed as a combat field for simulating confrontations between large armor and giant beasts, by comparison this place instead resembles a single-person quarters prepared for large armor and giant beasts.

It's big enough, but there's no room to move.

But for two people of normal human size, it is still spacious enough that they need to constantly teleport to reach it quickly.

Fortunately, both of them seem to have a short cooldown on their teleportation, so they can reach the center of the field without being out of breath.

The rather empty experimental field, aside from rows of strange objects placed at the edges, had a huge metal box mounted on heavy machinery in the center.

A long metal box over two meters in length, beside which a peculiar device connected by two beams of light hovered in midair.

Constructed overall of silver metal and dark red crystal, its complete form resembles a weapon that combines a dagger and a knuckleduster, known as a tiger-claw dagger, though the dagger portion is actually a slender, conical spike like a dark red crystal tube.

Make it like a weapon,

And like some splendid artwork.