Collapse Iron: Cosplaying the Near-Death Star, but with a full destiny.

"It's you?"

Hoshi looked back at Hoshi's puffed-up face and couldn't help but reach out and ruffle her hair.

"You still have a long way to go, little girl."

"The essence of forging your own destiny lies in 'walking the path no one has ever walked before.' Your star core is still in its growth stage; you can't rush it."

Her hand slid from Xing's head to her shoulder and patted her gently twice.

"But don't worry. With your talent and the potential of that star core, it's only a matter of time."

"At that time, even Akivili will have to rise from his grave to applaud you."

Xing's expression changed from indignation to disbelief, and her lips twitched.

"real?"

"I'm lying to you; I'm a fake man created by Abundance."

"And what about me?!"

March 7th darted over from the side, her short, light blue gradient hair floating in the water like a blooming sea anemone.

"Sunday became the God of Order! Xi Lian became the God of Memory! Xing will eventually become the God of Pioneer! And what about me? What will I become?"

Her eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Hoshi looked at her.

There was a two-second silence.

"you?"

"Mmm-hmm!"

"Just be a mascot."

March 7th's expression froze.

The light of expectation in those large, pink-blue gradient eyes extinguished at a visible speed, replaced by a chill that could lower the temperature of the deep sea by three degrees.

"...What did you say?"

"It's a mascot, after all."

Mohoshi's tone was incredibly sincere, and he even gave a thumbs up.

"Look at you, with your pink and blue hair, and your cute appearance. While you might not be the best fighter, you're great at creating atmosphere. Every time you appear, everyone's in a good mood. A character like that would be a true icon in any expedition team."

"Noriboshi".

The voice of March 7th became very calm.

It was eerily calm.

"Um?"

"Starting now."

March 7th turned around, his back to Hoshino, his chin held high.

"I have nothing to do with you."

"Don't talk to me."

Don't look at me.

"Don't touch me."

"goodbye."

After saying that, she plunged into the sea, splashing water like a butterfly, and swam straight towards the Starship, more than three times faster than usual.

"...Look at yourself."

Xing sighed and helplessly spread her hands.

"I always manage to piss people off."

"hey-hey."

Without showing any remorse, Mohoshi chased after him with a smile.

In fact, she knew very well that with the special "Six-Phase Ice" physique on March 7, subtle changes would also occur in the field of the final destiny. It's just that those changes were too subtle and too profound, and even March 7 herself could not perceive them.

She didn't say it.

Some seeds thrive best when their owner is unaware of their growth.

As the distance closed, the wrecked Starship finally revealed its terrifying full form.

Looking up from underwater, the broken bow resembles an inverted steel tower plunged into the seabed. The massive keel is exposed, and the twisted armor plates are rolled outwards, like the chest cavity of a behemoth torn open from the inside by some brute force.

Around the fractured surface at the bow, more red and white fleshy creatures gathered.

A dozen or so regiments, more than twenty, almost completely surrounded the cross-section.

They were smaller than the one we had encountered before, but their sheer numbers completely made up for the size difference. From a distance, those red and white clumps of flesh crowded together looked like a pot of some kind of thick, indescribable soup that was boiling.

"How are we going to get through this?"

Xing frowned, the flame on the tip of the gun struggling and burning in the water.

"Force it?"

"No need."

Take a step forward on Sunday.

He raised his right hand.

That brand-new golden light, belonging to the destiny of "order," suddenly bloomed at his fingertips.

Unlike the gentle, spring-like power of the previous "Harmony" period, what surged from his palm now was an absolute law so cold it was almost cruel.

That kind of power has no warmth, no emotion.

Pure, irreversible...laws.

"Order is the first law."

Sunday's voice fell silent, losing its usual elegant banter and becoming like an inscription carved into an iron plate.

"Everything should return to its proper place."

Buzz...

A transparent shockwave spread outwards from him.

Where the shockwave passed, the seawater seemed to have its molecular structure rearranged by an invisible hand. The originally chaotic undercurrents returned to calm, the churning silt fell back to the seabed, and even the floating debris was neatly arranged in a row, like soldiers being inspected.

And those red and white fleshy creatures...

They first stopped moving collectively.

then.

It was as if I had received some kind of irresistible command.

They began to retreat.

Slowly and clumsily, they parted to the sides in clumps, like the Red Sea splitting apart before Moses.

A wide, unobstructed passage appeared directly in front of the Starship's bow section.

"Goodness."

Hoshi whistled.

"The power of order is indeed much more effective than harmony. Harmony can only lead to 'consensus,' but order can directly... issue commands."

"Practice makes perfect."

On Sunday, he withdrew his hand, the golden light faded, and a calm smile returned to his lips.

But Hoshi noticed that his fingers were trembling slightly.

Using this level of power for the first time, even on a Sunday, will definitely consume a significant amount of energy.

"Let's go."

On Sunday, they were the first to swim into that passage.

"While they're still relatively obedient."

The five people filed in.

As he passed through the mass of flesh suppressed by "order," Hoshino could clearly feel the "gaze" from all around him.

Those eyeless chunks of flesh were watching the intruders through their numerous sensory openings.

They are not hostile.

Only... curiosity.

And a very faint, almost instinctive... fear.

Entering the Starship through the fractured bow, the first thing that comes into view is a hellish scene amidst ruins.

The seawater beneath their feet quickly became shallower after passing through the cross-section, and after walking a few dozen steps, the water level had receded to below their knees.

Here, the forward main structure of the Starship, due to the bow being deeply inserted into the sea, formed a sealed space similar to an inverted bowl, and surprisingly, it retained a huge air chamber inside.

In other words, they came out of the water.

But the air doesn't smell good.

A strong, burnt smell, almost like it was burning through my internal organs, hit me.

Firelight.

Firelight was everywhere.

The peculiar flames ignited by the leak of the military high-energy reactor were an eerie blue-white, like will-o'-the-wisps, licking and leaping in the crevices of the wreckage. They required neither oxygen nor self-extinguishing; they burned continuously until all combustibles, including metals, were reduced to ashes.

These flames have branded everything around them with the mark of destruction.

The once smooth alloy walls have turned into charred scrap iron, like skin repeatedly burned by a branding iron. Molten and then solidified metal droplets hang from the ceiling, forming grotesque "stalactites".

Twisted and deformed equipment remains were scattered all over the ground: control panels burned to a skeleton, navigation devices half-melted, and rows of terminal seats that were no longer recognizable.

Some seats still had seat belts attached.

The object beneath the seatbelt was no longer recognizable as it originally was.

"This should be... the bridge."

On Sunday, he scanned the charred remains around him and recognized some standard corporate interface layouts.

"The command center of the P45-class strategic ship. If the Starship has the core data we need, it's probably stored in the mainframe computer here."

"Is the computer still usable?"

On March 7th, she tiptoed around a pool of steaming molten metal, trying to keep the soles of her shoes away from the seemingly still-burning remains.

She's no longer angry with Hoshino.

Or rather, after seeing this hellish scene, that little bit of emotion was long swallowed up by a deeper sense of tension.

"Look over there."

Xi Lian raised her hand and pointed to the deepest part of the bridge.

At the far end of the ruins illuminated by blue and white will-o'-the-wisps, a heavy blast door was half-open, and a faint, regularly flickering green light shone through the crack.

Green light.

In this desolate space filled with blue, white, and charred black, that splash of green stood out starkly.

Hoshi clenched her fists, her long gray hair falling over her shoulders, reflecting the leaping blue and white flames around her, making her look like a statue emerging from the ashes.

She strode forward, stepping over the shards and ashes scattered on the ground, toward the door.

The metal wreckage beneath their feet creaked and groaned with every step, echoing through the empty ruins of the bridge.

A broken steel beam hangs suspended in mid-air, with blue-white flames slowly crawling along its surface, like a snake that is never satisfied.

The green light behind the explosion-proof door came from the indicator light of a backup power supply that was still barely functioning.

As soon as the star took two steps, the metal floor beneath its feet emitted a dull groan—and then, the lights in the entire cabin flickered suddenly.

The flickering lasted only a fraction of a second.

But in that brief gap between light and darkness, Hoshi saw it.

Everyone saw it.

At the end of the corridor.

They were about fifty meters away.

There is something standing there.

It stands upright.

It has two legs, a torso, and a spherical protrusion that can barely be called a "head".

If you only look at the outline, it might even give you the illusion of being "human-shaped".

But it was just an illusion.

Because its arms, from the elbows down, become a completely different structure.

The bone broke through the skin, extending outwards as two curved, bone blades, each about a meter long.

The blade was shaped like a mantis's forelegs or a sickle, covered with a dark red keratinous layer, and its edges gleamed coldly.

Its skin is tightly attached to the bones, without any cushioning from fat or muscle.

Every rib and every vertebra is clearly visible, like a human specimen that has been skinned and then covered with a layer of plastic wrap.

Its head has no facial features.

There was only a huge gap running from the left ear to the right ear, inside which were densely packed three layers of inward-curving sharp teeth.

The moment the lights came back on, the gap suddenly opened wide.

"Squeak squeak squeak squeak—"

A piercing, metallic screech erupted from that gaping maw.

With that roar, the hatches on both sides of the corridor exploded one after another.

One.

two.

Five.

ten.

More of their kind poured out of those dark rooms, as if the gates of some hell had been opened.

Their sickle-like arms clanged against each other in the narrow corridor, making a metallic sound, while their claws dug white scratches into the floor.

The quantity far exceeded expectations.

The ice bow of March 7th was instantly drawn to its full extent, and hexagonal ice crystal arrows condensed on the string, radiating a bone-chilling cold.

"How many are ahead of us? I can't count them all!"

"Seventeen."

Xi Lian's voice remained gentle.

"Four more are waking up in the left-hand compartment, and on the right..."

She paused.

"There were at least thirty people crowded behind that door on the right. They were waiting."

"What are you waiting for?"

"Wait until we run back."

Hoshino's lips twitched.

ambush.

These mutants, having lost their minds, still retain the most basic hunting instincts: flanking and surrounding.

"Get out of the way."

Take a step forward on Sunday.

He raised his right hand.

The power of "Order" had already begun to awaken when dealing with those red and white fleshy chunks on the outer perimeter of the ship last time.

But that time it was more like a tentative push, like the first step taken by a baby who has just learned to walk.

This time is different.

The oppressive feeling of being surrounded by more than a dozen scythe-armed mutants was like a piece of sandpaper, roughly grinding down the seed that had just sprouted within him.

Fear is a catalyst.

The danger is fertilizer.

The legacy of "Order" Taiyi is best known for blooming amidst chaos.

Golden light emanated from his palm.

This time the colors are darker, colder, and more oppressive.

If the previous decree was like a gentle administrative order, then what flowed from his fingertips this time was a blood-and-iron military decree.

"The Third Law of Order".

"Everything outside of order is illusion."

boom--

A golden shockwave erupted from his palm.

Wherever the shockwave passed, the dust in the air stopped moving, the flames stopped leaping, and even the air shockwaves generated when the mutants swung their scythe arms were instantly "smoothed out".

The three mutants at the front were the first to be attacked.

Their bodies seemed to be paused the moment they were enveloped in golden light.

The scythe arm, which had been swinging at high speed, froze in mid-air. The gaping mouth was frozen in its roaring posture, and even the saliva dripping from between its teeth turned into amber-colored light spots floating in the air.

then.

They began to "return to their places".

Those twisted bones, mutated limbs, and alienated organs, under the forced intervention of the power of order, began to be reorganized according to some "correct" blueprint.

....................................