Bengtie: My death fueled their madness.

"..."

Qi Zhimu's expression turned ugly. Without thinking, he switched to slow autopilot, unbuckled his seatbelt, and staggered toward the stern of the cabin.

As the designer of the time-space spaceship, Black Tower's heart sank to the bottom after just one glance at the devastated state of the energy compartment.

It's possible to mend the fence after the sheep are lost, but the amount of energy leaked in such a short time is considerable.

Those who took on the task had received relevant technical training to deal with various crises, including handling energy leaks.

Qi Zhimu plugged the hole gnawed out by the stinging insects in the shortest amount of time, but still lost more than half of his energy reserves.

In addition to this, there is another deadly crisis: insect eggs.

The reproductive capacity of breeding gnats is extremely terrifying; some species spend the vast majority of their lives laying eggs.

Unfortunately, the stinging insects left behind a number of eggs when they damaged the spaceship.

If they cannot be completely eliminated before they hatch, given the current state of the spaceship, the people inside will almost certainly die.

Qi Zhimu is in such poor condition that he simply doesn't have the energy to search every nook and cranny.

Fortunately, the spacecraft has a powerful cleaning and self-cleaning system.

That was an insurance plan designed to deal with poison gas, and it's not uncommon to find memory worlds shrouded in poison gas.

Once the system starts, anyone who is not seated properly and has not fastened their seatbelt will be ejected instantly.

The spaceship functions used by the Black Tower to deal with the three deserters included a self-cleaning system.

At this moment, she had already arrived at the control panel and kept pressing the start button, but to no avail.

She doesn't belong to this timeline and can't do anything.

Fortunately, Qi Zhimu was aware of the cleaning and self-cleaning system and immediately returned to the driver's seat, taking safety precautions before activating it.

The cabin pressure fluctuated violently, and a powerful self-cleaning airflow swept through the corners, throwing out all the troublemakers that had not yet hatched.

Having resolved the crisis of insect egg hatching, Qi Zhimu immediately looked at the remaining energy reserves, his expression gradually darkening.

32%.

Black Tower's expression was one of near suffocation.

Our current spatial coordinates are still far from Azure Star, and our 32% energy reserves are likely insufficient.

Qi Zhimu suppressed the turmoil in his heart and dealt with the other alarm issues.

Misfortune never comes singly.

One after another, troublesome situations arose, such as damage to the external body and damage to the power conversion device.

Internal damage may be repairable, but external damage cannot.

This means that the spacecraft will incur huge additional losses during its journey, and its already scarce energy will be depleted even faster.

Black Tower instinctively looked at the coordinate transmitter; it was his last straw.

One glance, and it felt like falling into an ice cellar.

…The icon is corrupted and unavailable.

Their only lifeline, now devoid of energy, is the looming impending doom.

Unless a miracle occurs, returning to Azure Star is nothing but a pipe dream.

What should I do?

It seems that the only thing left is the coordinate signal connector that each person carries.

However, this thing has a very small effective range; it can only be used when you are outside the gravitational field of the blue planet.

The remaining energy is insufficient to reach that location, and the spacecraft is currently still in autopilot mode at a slow speed.

Qi Zhimu stared intently at the instrument panel with his bloodshot eye, his gaze darting back and forth between the core data and the warning pop-ups.

Finally, his gaze fell upon the unconscious girl in the passenger seat.

After a moment of silence, the hand resting on the power lever gradually exerted force, pushing it to the highest gear.

Forward Seven.

The spaceship, like a shooting star flying backwards, accelerated wildly through the fog of memory matter.

Qi Zhimu's bloodless, dry lips slowly turned upwards.

"You'll be alright, little Ta..."

"And what about you?!"

Hearing his hoarse, tired, and weak voice, Black Tower couldn't help but ask loudly in return.

Unfortunately, the Qi Zhimu of the past could not hear this.

She couldn't understand what Qi Zhimu was planning to do, so she could only guess.

The ship's external structure is damaged and it is absolutely unable to withstand the pressure from the maximum speed.

I fear that before the remaining 32% of energy is depleted, the spaceship will fall into irreversible disintegration.

The longer you fly at top speed, the faster you will disintegrate.

As time went on, different alarms sounded one after another, and the right side of the outer casing showed obvious signs of warping and peeling off.

As Black Tower watched the red light flashing frequently on the dial, his eyes twitched violently, and his heart tightened.

Aren't you going to slow down...?

Another chilling metallic tearing sound came from outside the spaceship.

Through the monitoring screen, Black Tower could clearly see signs of the ship breaking apart.

Just then, Qi Zhimu suddenly pushed the power lever back to its original position, cutting off the engine's power supply.

Type a series of commands on the console to preset the automatic hovering procedure when the spaceship is about to stop.

With its power rapidly reduced to zero, the spaceship continued to glide through the fog of memory, relying on the accumulated kinetic energy.

Before long, the spacecraft's speed decreased to a safe range where the human body is not affected by inertia.

Qi Zhimu immediately unbuckled his seatbelt.

Weakness made him stagger as he got up, and he stumbled out of the driver's seat and quickly walked toward the tool room in the rear cabin.

Release the safety latches and pull out all the spare parts that are usable.

Then they pulled out a spare set of protective clothing and began modifying it on the spot.

The Black Tower watched all of this intently.

She didn't yet understand Qi Zhimu's specific intention in modifying the protective suit.

However, I completely understood that seemingly reckless and extreme maneuver just now.

Qi Zhimu accelerated to peak power within a certain period of time by overdrawing the lifespan of the spacecraft structure.

If the spacecraft can withstand this powerful thrust for a sufficient period of time, it can generate an extremely high peak inertial force.

Then, power is cut off, and the vehicle uses inertia to glide a long distance, thereby saving energy.

As the designer of the time-space spaceship, she naturally understood this driving method.

The problem is that this must be based on the premise that the overall structure of the spacecraft is intact.

The spacecraft has now been damaged by breeding stingers, resulting in damage to the external hull and a significant reduction in structural strength.

Forcibly pushing the speed to its peak could cause it to suddenly disintegrate under immense pressure at any moment.

Qi Zhimu's precise deceleration just before the limit—was it due to an extremely thorough understanding of the spaceship's current condition, or was it purely a gamble?

Black Tower's eyes flickered, leaning more towards Qi Zhimu being the gambler.

The other person, who was a magician, once said that he had always been very lucky.

Black Tower stared at Qi Zhimu, the original human covered in blood and head down modifying his protective suit, his gaze becoming increasingly complex.

Regarding the truth about the magician Qi Zhimu, she actually had several uncertain guesses in her heart.

Due to some subconscious avoidance, coupled with a lack of crucial substantive evidence, they have been unwilling to investigate further.

However, regardless of the possibility, it must be highly related to the original human Qi Zhimu.

The most likely possibility is—

An unparalleled magician who can always handle dire situations with ease and protect her completely... perhaps only exists in her dreams and fantasies.

He was never truly born in the real world.