Chapter 400, an ordinary journey

Chapter 400, an ordinary journey

Shang Yanwen finally embarked on the road back to Koluojia alone.

Of course he wouldn't let Lu Shaoyu follow.

As he said before leaving, they are not from the same world.

He has decided to dedicate his life to a great cause. Lu Shaoyu doesn't have to be like this, her life will be more exciting and more leisurely, and she shouldn't go to that dark and backward place with him.

He knows Lu Shaoyu's thoughts, but love may be just a momentary impulse, where can it go in the long run?

It is his responsibility to change his hometown. He knows that the road ahead is long and full of difficulties. He does not even know how many years he will spend for this. He should not drag a beautiful girl with him.

His difficult journey was even directly reflected in his journey back home.

It took him two days to take public transportation to the ground part of the star port on Wing Star; then he queued up to the star port and waited for the ship, which took another three days.

The alliance has now established its own interstellar transportation system within its own alliance system, the main ones of which are the two ships "Traveler II" and "Flying Dolphin". The former can carry 2,000 people at a time, and the latter can carry about 80,000 people.

Nuo Xiaoxing Shipyard and Feiyingxing Shipyard have both received a large number of orders from the Alliance Ministry of Public Transport to produce these two types of spacecraft for the construction of public flights within the star region.

In the past, normal people—even many wealthy people, wealthy people, and high-ranking officials—didn't have the opportunity to travel between star regions.

Inter-governmental affairs depend on the ships of the star district government; business transactions depend on whether each family can find a way to contact a force capable of interstellar navigation like Gu's Trading Company, or they happen to be passing by. Take a boat ride on the destination ship.

A year and a half ago, the alliance's interstellar flights in the star-ring region were officially launched. Although the ticket price is still very expensive and not affordable for ordinary people, whether this method is available or not, it is already a big step forward. If there really is something that requires a trip to another planet, at least there is a way to do so now.

Not to mention, if it is official or business travel, the government or company will come up with the budget.

Shang Yanwen certainly didn't have the money to travel by boat to and from Koluojia and Feiyingxing. In fact, he had never gone back during his studies in the past three or four years.

This time when he went back, he also received a free ticket with the government's approval.

There have been a lot of people returning to Koroga recently, and he waited in line for three days before boarding flight B-1733, a flying dolphin transport ship.

The conditions on the ship are not very good. There are two rows of four-story bunks in a compartment of about six square meters, with a corridor in the middle. Each bunk can sleep one person.

There are countless such compartments, stacked on top of each other inside the cabin.

Shang Yanwen was quite adaptable to this. Although his accommodation during college was not bad, the days he spent most of his life in Koroga were no better than this.

Putting his luggage in one of the four separate public compartments at the bottom of the bed, he lay down on the second level from the top.

It's very crowded here, and Shang Yanwen can barely fit in. If he were any higher, he would hit his head.

He took out the book he had brought with him and began to read.

He prepared several books for the long journey from the Winged Star to Koroga.

The total trip, at Feidu's speed, would take six days, and he planned to pass the time by reading.

It's just a pity that there are strict restrictions on carrying various items on an interstellar spacecraft. Books are on the restricted list, and more than one is not allowed. Moreover, before making the astral tunnel jump, all books must be put in designated places. Location, special preservation is very troublesome.

But Shang Yanwen still brought the most books within the prescribed scope so as not to waste any time.

The ship left the starport and drifted in the void for two days.

Shang Yanwen estimated in his mind that he should be approaching the star tunnel node by now.

Although it is a 'point', it is indeed a point on the scale of the entire universe, but in fact, the transition point is a very large area. As the starship gradually approaches this area, the signal received by the transition identification system will gradually strengthen until the signal strength exceeds the critical point, which means that the current position of the starship has reached the transition standard. As long as the jump engine is started, the entire starship will jump into the star tunnel. From the outside, it will appear that the spacecraft disappears from the real universe in an instant.

These are all the knowledge Shang Yanwen learned from the book, including the fact that the ship has almost reached the transition point, which he judged based on his own knowledge. He stayed in this box-like compartment every day, unable to see or hear anything, and could only guess blindly.

However, the starship's jump engine never started.

He was quite confused. Could it be that he had guessed wrong?

But he soon learned that it wasn't.

In the cabin, an alarm sounded:

"I'm sorry to inform all passengers that our journey may be delayed. Recently, there have been traces of pirates near the route. The Alliance Navy tracked a group of pirates two hours ago, and there is a battle taking place near the jump point of the Koroga system. We may have to wait here for two hours for this, and I'm sorry to delay all passengers' itineraries..."

Oh, it turned out to be a pirate.

Shang Yanwen had mentioned this matter in some news reports before.

In an editorial, Shang Yanwen also saw a point of view that he quite recognized. The arrival of pirates was inevitable.

In the past, there were no pirates in the Pegasus Sector. On the one hand, the powerful Pegasus fleet is stationed in the star area. Any blind pirate group that dares to come here and commit crimes against the wind will really die.

On the other hand, even the Tianma Star District does not have a particularly large amount of oil and water. The Imperial Tax Fleet does not dare to rob. The Imperial Caravan does have Gu's Trading Company, but it is difficult to capture the route, and the flights are not frequent. The Tianma Sector itself is not a particularly important transportation hub area. The income from piracy activities in the Tianma Star Region is not high.

However, in the last year or two, things have changed.

The main force of the Pegasus fleet is gone. Although the remaining ships can still form a crushing military advantage over ordinary pirates, space is so vast that pirates find an asteroid belt to hide, or even leave the Pegasus star area to hide in other places. No one can be found unless you show up.

Moreover, due to the nine-star connection within the alliance, a large number of fixed flights began to travel very frequently, and most of them were single ships running directly in the sea of ​​​​stars, and they would be finished if they were targeted by pirate ships.

The pirates had considerable expected profits from this.

Of course, the pirates still had no way to fight against the remaining forces of the Pegasus fleet. Even those shabby pirate ships couldn't withstand a frigate. However, the high profits have made those pirates dare to take risks. In the past year, there have been many pirate robberies. Three alliance ships were robbed, resulting in very heavy losses.

The alliance has undoubtedly taken severe countermeasures in this regard.

Du Shiliang, the current acting commander of the Tianma Fleet, has issued a public apology to the public and assured that the Tianma Fleet will work hard to combat piracy and ensure the safety and smoothness of interstellar flights.

At the same time, the Alliance's Ministry of Public Transport also urgently established a special team to announce the establishment of the Alliance Navy.

Of course, the word 'Navy' was not used in the public official announcement. This is what the citizens of the alliance thought. Publicly speaking, it is an alliance escort fleet.

The shipyards of Wing Star and Angry Owl Star have also received orders from the Alliance for warship construction. It is said that some armed escort ships modified by travelers and even several 'Blackfish-class' fast patrol ships have been put into use.

Three months ago, the Alliance completed a heavy blow to a pirate group called 'Red Eyes'. Several Alliance quick-reaction patrol ships bit the pirates' butts and fought for several days. They chased them without letting go without being reckless and rushed forward desperately. Finally, they dragged a destroyer of the Pegasus fleet and several frigates to the rescue. The fleet arrived, destroyed some enemies, and captured three patrol ship-level pirate ships through gang-hopping tactics.

It was a great victory. I didn't hear any news about pirates in the next three months. I didn't expect that there are still pirates now.

Shang Yanwen felt a little nervous, but overall he was pretty calm.

He believed in the capabilities of the alliance government. Since regular flights were not suspended and escorts were not arranged for every flight, the problem should not be too serious.

This is indeed the case. Two hours later, a new announcement was issued, saying that the piracy problem had been solved and the ship was about to enter the astral tunnel. All passengers were asked not to move around in the cabin. Astral Fulfillment time inside the tunnel will last thirteen hours.

These thirteen hours did not feel very special to Shang Yanwen. He just felt that the hull of the ship was shaking for about a few minutes. They should have entered the astral tunnel.

It is said that if you look out from the ship at this time, you should be able to see a large, colorful, bizarre and brilliant scene. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything from the cabin he was in.

At the same time, it was also said that even if the astral force field was turned on, some unknown dangers might still occur in the ship when traveling through the astral tunnel, but at least he did not encounter it this time.

To him, these thirteen hours were not much different from the other thirteen hours. Until the ship shook for another ten minutes, and with the announcement in his ears, he knew that they had left the star realm. Escaping from the tunnel and returning to the real universe.

Then, after a little more than three days of sailing, the starship stopped moving.

The announcement said that they had arrived at the Koroga Star Port.

Everyone packed up their things and left the hatch. In the outer passage, they lined up in an orderly manner according to the staff's instructions and headed to the nearest exit, preparing to leave the ship.

Flight B-1733 was a flying dolphin that carried nearly passengers on this voyage. With so many people, leaving the ship with their belongings is a hassle.

However, when designing the ship, including the design of the star port, there are special responses to this. Shang Yanwen lined up and left the ship after an hour and a half.

While walking on the corridor bridge, he could see through the glass that on the side of B-1733 close to the star port, there were twenty large and small exits, scattered up and down, left and right, and connected to the star port through the corridor bridge. People and cargo are communicating through these movable corridor bridges in space.

Only here, through the glass window of the covered bridge, could one glimpse part of the ship they were riding on, as well as the even larger body of the star port.

The Flying Dolphin is only a small transport ship. However, it can carry 90,000 people in its belly and carry a large amount of cargo and daily necessities. It should be a behemoth.

It's like a small town standing in space.

But despite this, it is too small compared to the star port.

The scale of Koroga's star port is not as large as that of Wing Star, but it can still rank second in the entire Pegasus star region.

After entering the star port, we took the rail car in the star port and went to a space elevator connection, waited in line, and got off the star port.

After leaving the star port and arriving on the ground, this is the capital and nest of Koroga, named Yancheng.

Then I transferred to another train and arrived at the northern station of Mingyan City. After waiting for another half day, I got a train bound for Promise City.

Promise City is not too far from Mingyan City - compared to the hive city on the other side of the planet.

But even so, the train running through the wilderness at a speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour still took him seven hours to reach Promise City.

After getting off at the Promise City station, he transferred to another vehicle. After wandering around the hive for six hours, he finally arrived at the destination of his trip: the Green Bee neighborhood in the Lower Hive District of Promise City.

This journey, even with Shang Yanwen's always calm mentality, was really exhausting both physically and mentally.

Interstellar navigation is really troublesome. The distance is too far, even with the blessing of various technologies that humans have, it is too troublesome for an ordinary person.

He couldn't even remember how many times he changed trains and buses, and how much time he spent.

But anyway, he's back.

After getting out of the car, he looked around and saw some familiar scenes, but most of them were things he had never seen before.

The street scene has changed a lot. All the dirty and blocked alleys have been cleared away. The strange smell of metal smelting, various exhaust gases, and various domestic garbage on the street is still a little bit there, but it is better than what he remembered. It's too slight to hit.

Some of the surrounding buildings are still the same, but most of them are no longer what they used to be.

There are many people walking around on the street and many vehicles driving. Unlike in the past, no one would come out and walk around if nothing happened.

Although the clothes everyone wore were not gorgeous, they were at least neat; the expressions on their faces were smiling and public...

Is this still my hometown?

(End of this chapter)