The overlord of the gods is interrogating the alien female spy.

　"Seeing you eat so deliciously, I think I should install a food system too, so I can also taste the food."

　"Hmm... then let's go shopping when we get back this time."

　The warmth of the food comforted her as Priscilla lay in bed, the gentle sound of the waves echoing in the ship. She stared at the small robot charging opposite her.

　"If I don't sleep now, it will be difficult to get a good rest during the day."

　Chen Lingxu moved his golden 'eyes' closer to her and looked into her eyes, while urging her to go to sleep on time.

　"It's okay... I want to look at you a little longer... I'll go to sleep after a while."

　"Then watch for one more minute."

　"No... ten minutes... um... no... I need to see her fall asleep."

　"Okay, okay... but I don't care if my eyes are sore."

　"Um……"

　"..."

　After Precys had been asleep for a while, Chen Lingxu finally looked away from that adorable face.

　Perhaps because she had always been alone, the sudden presence of someone to accompany her, keep her company, and take care of her made her become unusually dependent on herself. This change might not have been particularly noticeable in the past, but today's underwater swimming revealed it.

　Or perhaps... it was because his appearance brought her hope during her previous desperate situation?

　But in any case, this dependence is a good thing for now... temporarily.

　Chen Lingxu tried to connect to the star network, but the star system was too far away, and the nearby star systems did not have communication stabilizers installed, so he could only connect several times and the network signal was poor.

　"Forget it, I'll just review the basic knowledge I downloaded earlier."

　Besides satisfying his interest in space adventure, this trip also provided invaluable treasures of knowledge from pre-civilization eras. He had already downloaded many files when he connected to the internet, just to pass the time during these boring moments.

　"Um……"

　Precys wanted to sleep a little longer.

　When the alarm rings, I'll turn it off and sleep for another ten minutes, then I'll let Xu come.

　Just call her.

　Thinking about it... but a sudden violent shaking threw her off the bed.

　"Goo! What's wrong?"

　If it were just normal waves, the hull of the small bubble wouldn't rock so violently.

　"Ruins!"

　Good morning, Precyth. It's 7:13 AM Civilization Time. I'm currently avoiding the enthusiastic greetings of my pirate friends.

　While maneuvering the spaceship to dodge bullets from behind, Chen Lingxu greeted her.

　"pirate?"

　"They probably came here to poach. But they were lucky enough to spot our ship and tried to extort money from us, but I firmly refused their despicable attempt to get something for nothing. Now our pirate friends are furious and are hot on our heels."

　"……Oh."

　Precys was taken aback for a moment, then immediately went back and put on his spacesuit.

　"What's the situation now?!"

　She hurriedly sat down in the passenger seat on the right, pulled up the camera feed, and immediately saw three dark red single-person shuttle boats painted with the classic skull and crossbones trailing behind them.

　On the communication bar, she also saw a bunch of messages flashing by.

　"This is……"

　"My enthusiastic conversation with my pirate friends. My advice is that you shouldn't listen."

　Clicking on any of the links brought forth the pirates' furious curses, and seeing the little robot effortlessly toying with them, Precys gave up on asking where he had learned his cursing skills.

　"Okay. Are you confident you can shake them off?"

　"Of course, absolutely! Buckle up, my captain. We're about to accelerate!"

　Chapter Eleven: The Pirates Are Dead

　Two waves suddenly surged on the calm sea surface as a silver-white coated spaceship sped past, followed by a burst of bullets that plunged into the sea.

　Three pirate ships gave chase, but perhaps their automatic target-locking system wasn't advanced enough, and the two revolvers mounted on the ships were a complete waste of ammunition. The few bullets that did manage to hit were all blocked by the deflector shields.

　"Ruins. How do we shake them off?"

　He had been chased for several minutes and narrowly escaped the opponent's attacks several times, but looking at his little robot, Precys felt that he had his own ideas.

　"Do you remember our adventure last night, Captain Precys?"

　Last night's adventure?

　Precys's eyes fell on the radar, and in the sea area about a kilometer ahead, he scanned the traces of many large creatures.

　"Have you been leading them towards those... giant whale pods?"

　"Of course. Our giant whale friends and pirate friends are naturally combative, and I am best at resolving conflicts."

　Chen Lingxu switched to the communication channel of the small bubble and began to make a very inconsiderate noise.

　"I was lucky enough to capture some audio of those giant whales fighting yesterday. Although I don't know the specific meaning, I think what could make them fight like that must have been extremely vulgar insults, so..."

　Before Chen Lingxu could finish speaking, the spaceship suddenly ascended rapidly. In the captured images, Precys could clearly see the air bombs spewing from the seabed blasting the pirate ships behind them into pieces, a firework exploding in the sky above the ocean, and a large amount of debris falling into the seawater; the pirates were now reduced to dust.

　"Oh, and here comes the second anti-aircraft gun firing."

　In the blink of an eye, only one of the three pirate ships remained intact. The pirates had also become much smarter and immediately climbed up, trying to get away from the sea while posing a threat to the ship in front of them.

　What about the remaining one?

　They were already far enough away from the surface that even if the whales could spout water, they couldn't reach the pirates behind them. And since the little bubble didn't have any weapon modules, if they didn't hurry and get away, they'd be in big trouble if they were caught.

　"It's very simple."

　Her robotic first mate adjusted the seat position and, as Precys took over the steering, got up and walked to the stern.

　"My captain, leave it to me."

　"..."

　The pirate had just finished communicating with his leader and reporting the casualties of his two colleagues when he looked up and saw the spaceship ahead of him flying into the thick clouds.

　"I understand this."

　He was planning to use the clouds to block his view and then attack him from behind.

　He didn't watch all those air combat movies for nothing.

　But times have changed. If you want to launch a surprise attack, have you even checked his radar?

　The pirate confidently gave chase; as long as the distance was close enough, he could…

　Shoot down the enemy!

　The radar showed a marker rapidly approaching.

　The pirates grinned smugly, then immediately turned and charged at their target, opening fire at the same time.

　Why don't we take it this time?

　“Bang bang bang bang—!”

　As expected, he hit the target. But...

　Why did the bullet ricochet? Why couldn't it penetrate the enemy's armor?

　and!

　"Hehe~! Hello~!"

　The cockpit's protective window shattered instantly. Before the pirate could even finish speaking, a heat sword sliced ​​him open from the head along with the seat behind him. The scorching wound instantly charred the blood inside, leaving him no chance to spit it out.

　"Now your boat is mine."

　The headless corpse was dragged out and thrown into the ocean to feed the fish, while Chen Lingxu nimbly seized the enemy's shuttle.

　"Xu, what's the next step?"

　Precys's voice came through their communication channel.

　Chen Lingxu inspected the pirate shuttle and then made a new decision.

　"Pirates must have bounties, right?"

　"There are some. But the combined bounty of those three pirates is less than the value of one of my audio recordings. There's no need to worry about it. Besides, a lot of the pirates' stuff is contraband, and it would be subject to customs inspection when it gets close to the stargate."

　"Hmm... alright. I'll land now, pick me up and we'll get out of here. There's another Class B frigate poaching over there, and its cannons look pretty dangerous."

　"Anything else? Then we need to hide. These poaching pirates might even have destroyer-class warships in space."

　Expel? Pirates?

　Chen Lingxu left a question mark.

　"Isn't customs doing anything about it?"

　"We're in the pioneering phase right now. The federal government's focus is on exploring and building new star systems. As long as these pirates don't go on a rampage and damage federal property at stargates or space stations, we won't interfere until the star map of the territory within the 500 light-years of the new star sector is fully explored. It'll probably take... several decades to a hundred years."

　"What if there are too many pirates?"

　"If piracy becomes too rampant, the federal government will issue a bounty or hire security companies to handle it."

　"I see."

　During the conversation, the two reunited.

　"Then where should we hide?"

　"Just stay away from them. Since they're here to poach, they won't bother with us if they don't get anything out of us."

　The fact that they managed to take down three shuttles already proves their strength. These pirates, whose eyes are only on profit and money, wouldn't be chasing after tough opponents unless they had nothing better to do. They'd be better off changing their clothes and going to the space station to spend some money.

　"Okay. Hmm... I've got it."

　Having just abandoned the pirate ship and returned to the bubble, Chen Lingxu had another idea.

　"How about letting our pirate friends experience the new audio effects in advance?"

　"Oh? I understand."

　It seems to be the breeding season for creatures on this planet, with feathered serpents stirring up storms to mate. And thanks to Master Precys's own creation, an audio track imitating the female feathered serpent's courtship plays continuously across this sea, a heart-wrenching melody lamenting, "Where in the world can I find a kindred spirit?"

　Soon, some male serpents that had failed to attract female feathered serpents came running.

　One feathered serpent can summon a typhoon of level 14-16; if ten feathered serpents gather together... those pirates will be in for a good time.

　"Phew. The sun is shining brightly, and the sea breeze is gentle. It's the perfect time for a vacation. Our pirate friends should be dealing with the enthusiastic local animals soon."

　The little bubble hid on a calm stretch of sea. Precys ate fruit and watched his little robot chatter away. He had done well today, but the unarmed little bubble was still holding his opponent back.

　"Let's leave at dusk, Ruins. After we get back and upload the audio, we'll procure enough supplies, install another weapon module, and then we'll explore more distant star systems."

　"Huh? Aren't we going to continue exploring here? I still want to see what's inside the deepest trench."

　Chen Lingxu responded to Precys with considerable regret.

　"No, we're not going to continue... Besides, what are we doing diving so deep into the sea? It's dangerous. If you insist on going, I won't stop you."

　Looking at Precyth's serious little face, which was actually a pretense to scare him because he was afraid of the hollows in the seabed, Chen Lingxu couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

　"Alright, my captain. I'll do whatever you say."

　"Hmm, First Mate Xu. How about I reward you with a charged rifle when we get back to the space?"

　Seeing how obedient the little robot was, Precys nodded in satisfaction and then promised it an outstanding employee reward.

　"Yay! Long live Captain Precys!"

　Chapter Twelve: I'm ready, Captain!

　"Wow."

　A brand new charged rifle. Although he didn't know the manufacturer, it was the first weapon Chen Lingxu had ever acquired. He was so fond of it that he couldn't wait to find someone to fire a shot at it and see how it felt.

　"Including ten boxes containing two hundred packs of energy magazines, that's a total of 270,000 credits. Not bad."

　It wasn't cheap, but looking at the little robot's constantly laughing and cheerful expression, Prissis felt it was well worth the money.