Chapter 401: Hand‑Built Starship, Unexpectedly Born

Huh~ Why do these things look so disgusting?

At this moment, Zhang Jie and the human female pried open a 'Treasure Chest' together, but what's inside made both of them frown.

All that was stored here were mechanical remnants resembling human limbs; they looked useful but were actually disgusting.

"These.... seem to be remnants of humanoid mechanical creations?"

"Never mind, they look useful, let's haul them back home, haul them back home!"

Zhang Jie eagerly rummaged through them; the parts on these guys were extremely precise, and wherever you are, they're rare good finds!

However, the human female merely gazed at these remnants, not knowing what she was thinking.

"I never expected... that the people of this civilization would actually be actively researching Ship Life body."

The marks on these remnants showed no intention of hiding; the human female merely glanced at them a few times and already confirmed their original purpose.

It's obvious she doesn't truly belong to this civilization; perhaps for some unspeakable reason, or because she wanted to avoid something, this led the human female to hide here.

However, this scene before her eyes let her faintly sense something out of the ordinary.

"But what does this have to do with me...."

"I'm just a pitiful worm who likes to escape...."

The human female turned her head to look at Zhang Jie, who was enthusiastically sorting garbage; a hint of gloom flashed in her eyes.

"Little Jie is a genius...."

"He shouldn't be trapped here for life because of me... because of my own problems...."

"He should be like a little sun... shining in the Star Sea... that's how it should be."

Those people wouldn't think she was hiding here, nor would they think she had a child, although it's not her biological child....

"What are you looking at, old mom? Let's go!"

After her thoughts drifted a moment, Zhang Jie's urging voice came from nearby; not far away, Zhang Jie was already driving his hand‑cobbled junk electric cart, waiting for her.

"Yeah, coming!"

"This discovery is absolutely a huge haul; at least you think so—these precise parts are enough for you to research a new bomb, just thinking about it gets you excited, but the human female remains silent, which strikes you as odd."

"She must have something on her mind; otherwise she wouldn't be like this. You guess it might be the stuff in this trash affecting her, and when you wanted to ask her, she instead asked again a question from several years ago."

"Little Jie, do you want to go see the world beyond?"

"This problem once troubled you for a long time; although you pretended not to care back then, afterwards you constantly yearned for the sky."

"You believe the human female also noticed this; and today, for unknown reasons—perhaps because you found that pile of remnants—the issue once again looms clearly before you."

"Do you yearn for the beyond? Do you yearn for that unknown starry sky?"

"This time the answer is affirmative and absolute; you yearn for that unknown starry sky, just like a wingless bird—even if you're smashed to pieces, you still want to experience the feeling of flight."

"This time you unhesitatingly admitted your inner thought; you yearn for the beyond, deeply so—even if you're smashed to pieces, you still want to take a look at that outside world."

"And after the human female learned your answer, for some reason you always feel she seems to have let out a sigh of relief, as if she'd set something down."

"Mm, having you say that is enough."

"However, after you go beyond the starry sky, you must take good care of Mom, okay."

"The human female said that to you in a tone used to coax a child, and you solemnly accepted it; the human female then looked as happy as before."

"You thought she'd come up with some special method, but you never expected her next action to be pulling you to hand‑build a starship...."

"Next! We must vigorously gather scrap to prepare for hand‑building our starship!"

The human female's knowledge is profound; she has perfectly planned out how to build a ship from scratch, the process is arduous but still hopeful.

"Many of those profound bits of knowledge you simply can't grasp; although you're a genius, the gap is too wide for you to fully understand."

"But there's still the human female around; what you need to do is, besides going out daily to find materials for building the starship, also to force knowledge into your own brain."

"You first felt the sensation of knowledge being forced into your brain...."

"Age ten: theory stays theory, practice stays practice; wanting to hand‑build a starship, the required material strength is absolutely a major problem, and there's still much you need to solve."

"But after a year, with constant bombardment of various knowledge, you've grown quickly; yet the more you understand, the more you realize how bold the human female's idea is."

"Materials science, fuel science, mechanics, physics—this is the product of wisdom crystallized from many different disciplines; even with existing tech theory, wanting to hand‑build it is absolutely a very difficult undertaking."

"This makes you increasingly feel the terror of the human female; the knowledge packed in her little brain is downright terrifying—perhaps she is actually a genius, a genius countless times stronger than you!"

"The various materials for the starship are accumulating at a foreseeable pace, making you unable to help but fantasize about the future."

"By then, you mother‑child will roam the Star Sea beyond! Pile up a mountain of star‑ships! Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

"However, things aren't as smooth as you imagined; this is surely a task that will take a long time to complete, and your biggest problem now is how to obtain enough materials, which can only rely on daily accumulation."

"Aside from that, days are still as usual; although occasionally some unlucky things happen, nothing too outrageous occurs."

"But as expected, an accident was due; just when everything was proceeding as envisioned, a message from beyond suddenly arrived on this inconspicuous garbage star."

"To be precise, it should have been transmitted to your home, into the human female's hands."

"That is a communications device; the human female had fiddled with it before, but Zhang Jie had never seen it receive a message."

"But now it suddenly rang out; you thought it was just a trivial little interlude, yet seeing the human female's solemn expression made you instantly feel something was wrong."

"Something must be about to happen...."