The [Black Scale] attached itself to the spaceships without any immediate visible effects. Due to its color and size, most pirates remained unaware of its presence.
The pirate ships rotated their automatic cannons, raining bullets like a storm.
Yet before Black Tortoise's Repulsion Field, every shot was deflected harmlessly. Instead, the ricocheting rounds accidentally struck nearby vessels, destroying several turrets in the process.
For a moment, the artillery fire ceased. The pirate ships dared not shoot, and with the distance too close, missiles couldn't be deployed either.
Black Tortoise weaved through the fleet unimpeded, scattering [Black Scale] while using its Repulsion Field to ram into ships as if strolling through an empty battlefield.
...
Inside a pirate ship—
"Damn it!" the pirate captain roared. "What the hell is this ship? Some kind of tortoise shell? Contact the others and spread out the formation, or I won't hesitate to fire on our own!"
One crew member shuddered. "At least that ship has no weapons, or we'd all be..."
"Idiot!" The captain slammed his fist on the armrest. "If we lose like this, we'll look even more pathetic!"
After some coordination, the pirates quickly regrouped.
The pirate ships scattered, forming a spherical encirclement around Black Tortoise.
Now slowed by the dispersal of [Black Scale], Black Tortoise was caught in the trap.
From the outermost pirate ships, hatches opened, and squadrons of Mistral Mobile Armors launched into the fray.
They maneuvered through the gaps between pirate ships, firing relentlessly at Black Tortoise.
Trapped like a bird in a cage, Black Tortoise had nowhere to flee. Without "claws or fangs," it could only endure the assault.
The pirates laughed triumphantly.
"I refuse to believe your weird shield is impenetrable! Fire! Keep firing!"
...
Inside Black Tortoise, Zhou Tianming showed no trace of panic. Instead, he calmly monitored the dispersal progress of [Black Scale] on the display before him.
"Master, approximately 60% of the ships have been marked with [Black Scale]."
"That should suffice. Any survivors can consider themselves lucky."
With a tap of his keyboard—
Click!
The lights inside Black Tortoise flickered out, plunging the interior into darkness.
Outside, arcs of electricity surged from the [Yin-Yang] emblem on its back. A massive bolt of lightning shot skyward before arcing down like a guided strike onto the surrounding ships.
In an instant, the pirate ships were hit.
Some pirates panicked, but after a brief moment... nothing happened.
A few Mistral pilots noticed something strange—where the lightning had struck their ships, the hull now shimmered with a crystalline "scaled" layer.
Unseen microwaves penetrated the ships, silently taking effect.
The pirate mocking the Black Tortoise suddenly felt his entire body heat up, his blood seeming to boil. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the person beside him swell up like a balloon and explode. The crimson blood vaporized the moment it hit the air.
The next second, his eyes burst open. Before he could even scream, his body exploded!
Every crew member on the ship died instantly. Moments later, the missiles in the storage detonated violently, flames surging through the exhaust vents and corridors, spreading everywhere.
In Cosmic Space, a spaceship exploded without warning, scattering debris in all directions.
The nearby MA pilots didn't even have time to react before they were struck down by the fragments.
A chain of explosions erupted throughout the pirate fleet.
The pirates had no time to comprehend what kind of attack they were facing—over 30 of their 50 ships had already exploded.
The debris from the explosions rained down on the remaining ships like a storm, riddling them with holes in the blink of an eye.
Some were pierced through the hull, causing air leaks. Others had their weapons systems destroyed, triggering further explosions. Some had their thrusters disabled, left drifting helplessly in Cosmic Space.
In an instant, the tide had turned.
The Black Tortoise, shielded by its Repulsion Field, ruthlessly pursued the fleeing pirates, its thrusters blazing as it accelerated toward them.
The damaged ships couldn't withstand the Black Tortoise's ramming and were torn apart.
The Black Tortoise raced through the pirate fleet, its hull wrapped in debris as it crashed headlong into another ship.
Then, the Repulsion Field expanded. Amid the pirates' terrified screams, the ship's hull let out a horrifying groan before being torn in two, as if by an invisible giant's hands.
Some pirate ships, realizing the dire situation, tried to flee—but none could outrun the Black Tortoise, which crushed them flat before they could escape.
In less than half an hour, the Black Tortoise had annihilated the entire pirate fleet.
Inside the Black Tortoise—
Zhou Tianming looked at the floating wreckage outside and theatrically wiped imaginary sweat from his brow. "Whew—that should teach them not to mess with me again."
Suddenly, his brow twitched.
Zhou Tianming focused his Mindpower, activating SEED and projecting his Mental Power outward with [Sense], scanning the Junk Guild.
An image formed in his mind—a modified, sand-colored Nelson-class Battleship hiding within, its twin-linked beam cannons glowing ominously.
"White Rabbit!"
Shouting the command, Zhou Tianming simultaneously worked the controls.
The Black Tortoise's front-facing black External Armor split apart, while arcs of electricity crackled across the [Yin-Yang] system on its back. The armor was magnetically drawn to the ship's sides.
The next second, four thick green beams shot out from the Junk Guild.
They struck the black External Armor in an instant.
Electricity crackled as the beams scattered. The armor's temperature skyrocketed.
1 second—the surface began to melt.
2 seconds—the beams weakened.
3 seconds—the armor was breached, and the beams struck the Black Tortoise's hull.
But by then, their destructive power had diminished. The beams vanished after melting a section of the hull's armor.
The Nelson-class Battleship fired continuously, but the Black Tortoise had already moved from its original position.
Cannon fire, missiles, and beams all struck empty space as the Black Tortoise nimbly dodged under Zhou Tianming's control.
The Nelson-class Battleship refused to leave the Junk Guild, continuing to fire relentlessly.
With its [Black Scale] defenses depleted and its resistance to beam attacks weakened, the Black Tortoise didn't dare charge in under the enemy's main gun.
The two sides seemed locked in a stalemate.
The Black Tortoise, which had been dodging left and right to evade the warship's beam attacks, suddenly rotated its hull. As the ship turned, its bow faced the Nelson, and the entire vessel drifted sideways.
This maneuver drastically reduced its speed, allowing missiles and artillery fire to catch up and explode alongside it. The next volley of beam attacks from the main gun was about to be unleashed.
Then, the white bow of the Black Tortoise, now stripped of its black external armor, began to transform. Mechanical structures flipped, interlocked, and assembled in an orderly fashion, forming a slender cannon barrel.
The black-and-white twin fish on its back rose and hovered at the end of the barrel, while arcs of electricity flickered to life inside.
At the same time, a row of jagged external armor plates on the Black Tortoise's back unfolded, revealing a long, slender steel spike within. Mechanisms whirred as the spike was pushed through the gap between the twin fish and into the cannon barrel.
Just then, the Nelson fired its long-charged main gun, sending a green beam hurtling forward.
In a split second, the Black Tortoise's attitude thrusters fired in reverse, bringing the ship to an abrupt halt.
The beam grazed its side, leaving a molten groove along the hull and vaporizing half of one wing before dissipating.
Meanwhile, the Black Tortoise's main gun was now fully prepared.
The black-and-white twin fish merged and spun rapidly, filling the barrel with crackling electricity.
The next instant, propelled by immense electromagnetic force, the steel spike shot forth, wrapped in a sheath of lightning.
The bolt of energy sliced through the dark cosmic space, leaving a slender scar in its wake.
In the blink of an eye, the spike pierced through the Nelson's bow, shredding everything in its path. It whipped up a hurricane of destruction inside the warship before finally bursting out from the rear thrusters.
It landed heavily on the surface of the Junk Guild's planet.
BOOM!
A deafening roar and violent tremors shook the underground.
The entire surface of the Junk Guild's planet undulated like ocean waves. The metallic ground split apart and buckled, burying those underground in the violent quakes, while those near the surface were sucked into cosmic space and vanished into the darkness.
As for the Nelson, flames erupted from its gaping wound as explosions tore through its hull, reducing the warship to fragments in a chain reaction of blasts.
Countless metal debris was pulled down by the Junk Guild's gravity system, raining onto the ravaged surface before collapsing into the depths below.
Inside the Black Tortoise—
Zhou Tianming stared wide-eyed at the scene. Even his usual composure shattered as he exclaimed:
"Holy shit! We're in deep trouble now!"