The system handed me over to the state.

The Mermaid Queen smiled mischievously and suddenly remembered something, saying, "Oh! Speaking of which, you should also be careful of those civilizations that use dependence as an excuse to steal technology. Some civilizations are shameless robbers who send fleets and star sectors to pretend to be weak civilizations that have been invaded."

"Then, when they pretend to invade, they ask for help to obtain the technology of the civilization that kindly helped them, and then they fight back. This kind of civilization is the most despicable!"

The mermaid queen's face was full of hatred, it seemed that her own civilization had also experienced something similar.

"It seems you have a complicated past... It's okay, everything will be alright."

The discussion on this topic was temporarily suspended, and Su Xi continued to discuss the repair work on the mermaids' warships. Meanwhile, Bronya was in the dormitory, staring at Hei Xi. Hei Xi turned her head, her face slightly flushed, and said, "Please don't stare at me like that, okay?"

Are you really alright?

"You've personally confirmed it, I've let you touch my entire body, aren't you satisfied yet?"

She had just woken up when Bronya had touched her all over, making sure she was alright before leaving, but now... Bronya was still staring at her, seemingly looking at something.

"It's just to make sure you're really okay..."

Bronya gradually shifted her gaze away. "Continue to rest for a while. After some time, we will resume warp to the second target location. Considering that the mermaids' warships are not as fast as ours, we will slow down our progress a little. You can take this time to rest well."

"Speaking of which, how did you feel after you were attacked?"

Hei hope shook her head. "My head was throbbing... I felt like my head was going to split in two, and then... I don't know anything anymore. I woke up on the spaceship."

"That weapon's suppressive power against you is really strong, but... that guy said you're a quantum demon. If we're judging by your abilities, Seele also possesses quantum spatial abilities, and is even more proficient than you. Why wasn't she affected?"

"I have no idea...."

Hei hope herself was not sure. Over the years, this body had become completely her own. Even if she returned it to Xi'er now, Xi'er would not be able to use it. Apart from the difference in strength between her body and Xi'er's, there was not much difference in other aspects.

"Could it be... a soul?"

Seele had a guess: since it had nothing to do with the body, could it be the soul? Because of the soul, Black Seele was hurt, but she wasn't.

"The more we speculate about the soul, the more mysterious it becomes... Instead of this, we might as well just ask them directly."

Instead of guessing based on tone, why not just go to the prison area and ask the foxes?

"That's right!"

Seele then remembered that there were so many foxes below the prison area she could ask, so why was she making wild guesses here?

"Shall we go take a look now?"

Bronya shook her head. "No rush. We'll go after we enter warp mode. I'll stay with you for the next few days until you're fully recovered."

Hei hope raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Really, don't worry. Or do you not want me to stay with you?"

Bronya smiled and looked at Blackie with interest. Blackie raised an eyebrow and said, "Then you'd better keep your word, or you'll regret it later."

"Don't worry, I won't go back on my word."

Bronya smiled. How could she possibly go back on her word? She wasn't the kind of person who broke her promises.

........

"We are ready. Thank you, friends. Your nanoengineers have perfectly replicated the materials of our ship and helped us solve the spacecraft's maintenance problems. We are ready to set off."

"Our next target is the planetary rift. We don't know what it's like there, but hopefully we can get through it smoothly."

"Let's hope so, wish us luck, let's go! Activate the warp drive!"

As the ship entered warp state, the spaceship instantly entered warp state as well.

Feeling the spaceship's slight tremors, Bronya knew it had entered warp mode. She looked at Seele, who was drinking milk tea beside her, and said, "Shall we go take a look? Seele is already waiting for us over there."

Hei hope nodded. "Go ahead. We've got nothing better to do anyway, so let's see how those guys are doing."

"It's definitely good. They might even gain a few pounds. After all, treating prisoners of war well is one of our fine traditions. Maybe some of them want to continue living like this and don't want to go back."

"Moreover, you can't see the food they eat on the ship. Ordinary crew members eat compressed biscuits or nutritional supplements, and occasionally they get a meal of fresh vegetables and meat."

"And all those good things are in the stomachs of the captains, squad leaders, and those in charge. It's pure capitalist exploitation. I suspect they've already experienced the superiority of our Chinese system."

"Huh? How could they possibly appreciate the superiority of our country's system while they're in prison?"

Hei hope was confused. The other party didn't know anything about their country or their system, so how could they understand the word "superiority"?

"Of course there are books, e-books and physical books. These are available in the prison area. We need to give them something to pass the time. We can also use these things to try to recruit some people and bring us more intelligence, right?"

"Perhaps... It's quite something that you came up with this method of intelligence gathering..."

The two arrived at the teleportation area. The prison area was separate from the ship. Apart from one teleportation channel, there were no other channels to get there. In other words, if a riot or an accident occurred, they could immediately detach the prison area and throw it down, leaving it unattended.

Most people in the prison area are well aware of this, and they know what kind of situation they face at any time.

Want to riot? I'll just throw you into space and let you fend for yourself. Will you still riot then?

"Teleport to the prison area."

"Understood, Doctor. Do you need guards?"

"No need, these people are enough."

Bronya shook her head to indicate that it wasn't necessary, and then teleported directly into the prison area with Seele, who was already waiting for them at the door.

Seeing the two approach, Seele smiled and stepped forward, saying, "You're finally here. Seele thought you weren't coming, Bronya."

"They'll definitely come. Let's go check out the management team first. Su Xi knew I was coming and asked me to report back to her after I've seen everything. Just consider it fulfilling my duty."

The prison area is divided into two areas: one is the area where prisoners are held and their activity area, and the other is the area for the crew members under the prison's jurisdiction. As for meals, the ingredients are delivered directly from the ship and then cooked on-site.

Furthermore, the canteen was clearly open and transparent, and the prisoners could see the entire cooking process clearly.

"Welcome, Bronya, Doctor."

"Hello!"

After shaking hands with the male crew member in charge of the area, Bronya was led to the restaurant. It was basically as Bronya had expected. The regulations for each area and related areas were largely the same. Apart from not having freedom, these prisoners lived much like normal crew members.

Moreover, the time they arrived today happened to be lunchtime, so the three of them had lunch with the person in charge and observed the condition of the prisoners.

As soon as the bell rang and the gate opened, the captured foxes rushed out of their rooms, scrambling towards them to line up for food. Soldiers with weapons maintained order. Seeing this, Hei Xi was somewhat surprised, "So... they've been conquered by the food of China?"

"Half and half, not entirely."

The person in charge explained that, firstly, in order to ensure the health of the crew, the Shenzhou ship has an ecological compartment for growing fresh vegetables, as well as a special pocket space for keeping meat fresh. Due to the special nature of the pocket space, anything placed inside will enter a state of time freeze.

What you put in is what you take out; it won't change no matter how much time passes.

Therefore, they could eat fresh vegetables, meat, and fruit at any time on their ships.

What did these fox captives eat on the ship? Nutrient supplements, compressed biscuits of different flavors, and some synthetic foods. The most classic examples were canned luncheon meat and canned sausages, which were stored on their ships and were very similar to those of humans, except that the meat was different, but they were still edible.

On the first day, the prisoners were very unwilling, but after tasting it, they said nothing. They rushed out to grab the front row every time they ate, and were extremely excited when there were good snacks to eat every day.

Sometimes they even fight over who gets to eat first, which is outrageous and shows a complete lack of military discipline.

Chapter 442: I'll give you an extra chicken leg

"This is outrageous! Is this what they usually eat?"

Looking at the canned food, nutritional supplements, and compressed biscuits captured from the enemy ship, Hei hope felt a deep sense of disgust just from opening them and smelling them. The smell was too pungent and too unpleasant! Could anyone really eat this stuff?

"Is this something that a human could actually eat?"

Seeing Hei Xi's strong aversion, the person in charge took advantage of her reaction and said, "Yes, if even you, Miss Hei Xi, can't stand it, do you think these crew members can tolerate it when they see our delicious big pot of food?"

"Furthermore, we recently had some cafeteria staff try to extract some useful information by offering them more delicious snacks or extra meat when serving their meals."

"You should have seen this intelligence recently."

Bronya nodded. Indeed, they had seen this information recently. It was about this civilization. The civilization to which the foxes belonged was called Ignos. It was a very typical civilization that had no basic technology, only cutting-edge technology.

This is also why their crew's food is so poor. Because their basic technology is too poor, they don't have anything like Shenzhou that can keep food fresh all the time, so they can only make canned food for long-term storage.

The canned food tasted the same all the time and wasn't delicious. They couldn't get fresh vegetables themselves, and the only ones they could get were leftovers from the higher-ups.

The cutting-edge technologies of the Ignos civilization were shield technology and high-performance laser cannon technology. Unfortunately, these two advanced technologies were almost useless against Shenzhou's automatic interception target drones and Iron Curtain devices.

The high-performance laser cannons were intercepted by target drones, the Iron Curtain device ignored their laser rain and impacted the ship itself, and the shield technology was able to penetrate the high-charge Yamato cannon with a single shot.

So when Bronya first saw this intelligence, she subconsciously thought that they were the advanced civilization and the other side was the low-level civilization. But then she thought that if China didn't have its current cutting-edge technology, it might not have even left its own star system yet.

So, once Bronya thought about it, she felt relieved. There was nothing strange about it anymore; she would get used to it.

"We've already seen that intelligence. Is there anything else?"

The person in charge shook his head. "This is a slow task. We assured the captain that we would complete the intelligence gathering mission upon reaching the second target location, the planetary rift."

"Okay! Keep it up, and let us know if you need anything."

The four looked outside and saw the expressions on the faces of the Ignos people who were getting their food. The expressions of fervor, ecstasy, excitement, and anticipation made it seem as if they were waiting for some kind of treasure, not food.

"Let's eat first, and then we'll go see Ari and Wendy."

The food here is quite delicious. I guess only Shenzhou can make such delicious and beautiful dishes from large pots. After all, every chef in the Shenzhou army is at least a senior chef, and there is no upper limit to senior technician.

Each one of them is a talent that the owners of big hotels outside would dream of.

And most importantly, they're young! Coming from the military, they're disciplined and obedient! They also have their own ideas and aren't rigid. If you were to switch to someone from a culinary academy, they'd either be a tough nut to crack and cause you trouble, or their skills wouldn't be up to par. A few of the more settled ones wouldn't be able to endure the hardships of working in a hotel, and many would run away after a few days or even just one.

Moreover, today's extra dish was fresh steamed fish, and everyone was given a large piece of fish belly meat, served with piping hot soy sauce and scallions, which thrilled the Ignos people.

The other dishes were regular home-style dishes, but there were a lot of different kinds, a total of twelve. However, according to the person in charge, there was no fruit after the meal because there were extra dishes.

After all, although there were many resources on the ship, enough for more than a year, and even more after capturing enemy supplies, they were not yet at the point where they could be wasted.

Furthermore, these are all prisoners of war. If they are fed better than their own crew members, what kind of situation would that be?

"It's pretty good, at least I like the taste."

Bronya praised the food in front of her, thinking it tasted very good. Seele felt the same way. Black Seele, who was the pickiest eater among the three, didn't say anything about not liking it and just ate silently.

Bronya also noticed that almost every Ignos person needed to have an extra meal. "Do these people have such a large appetite?"

She also remembered that the cafeteria seemed to be serving much more food than usual this time; they must have a huge appetite!

“The amount of food in one meal is quite large. You don’t know, but the Ignos people only eat one meal a day, which is lunch, and that’s enough to supply all the energy they need for the whole day.”

Hei hope was stunned. Xi'er blinked. "One meal... is one meal the amount of two meals?"

The person in charge nodded. "Yes, that's the amount for one or two meals. That's the usual eating habit of the Ignos people."