Chapter 502: Hope to Live III (1/2)

Chapter 502: Hope to Live III

Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation

He wanted to close his eyes. He coveted that warm, fluffy bed in his room. But reality hit him, reminding him that there were far more important things to do. He tried to relax by sitting at the corner, with a mug of warm water in his hands and a dry bread in his mouth. He had to restore his stamina as soon as possible. With that in mind, the hollow eyes were reflecting the glow of the flares occurring sometimes out there.

”Man this place is just hell.” He heard Stringy the repairman, the mechanic, ranting out loud opposite him. His curly hair reminded people of the rounded strings at the workplace, so they called him Stringy.

Yang Ming was smiling, showing agreement on what Stringy had said. He took a few sips. He would love to give a word or two but his throat was cracking from drought.

Suddenly, the ship shook violently, that the water escaped Yang Ming's grip and shattered on the ground.

Both Yang Ming and Stringy looked at each other, their eyes were illustrating the same thoughts - the ship was collided by something huge again, during which their eyes reflected another blooming flare in the dark void.

Yang Ming was a little bewildered upon seeing that one last sight illuminated by the explosion.

It was chaos. A mayhem. Rocks of different sizes were flying everywhere, hitting on anything that stood in their way, be it a spaceship, or another piece of rock. The fleet was having a hard time maintaining the ever-deforming formation.

Those days felt heavenly now when they only had to fight red-tailed beasts.

Before the flare faded, one could see that young face of Yang Ming, at loss of joy belonged to someone of his age, complicated with horror, worries, nostalgia...

Was the exploded spaceship a prophecy of what they would become in the near future?

And somehow Yang Ming could hear the answer, uttered firmly and indifferently by Master Jay, flashing by in his mind.

”Area B-3 has been struck! Area B-3 has been struck! All technicians please proceed promptly! I repeat, all technicians please proceed promptly!” The alarm broke Yang Ming's schemata.

”Kek... my bottom hasn't even relaxed on the ground and they got new task for us,” said Stringy with a smile, revealing the pair of yellowish buckteeth of his. He got up and headed B-3 fast.

...(Meanwhile)...

Ye Chong did not look pleased. It was the first time the crew members had seen such expression on their Master Jay. One could already imagine the crisis they were going to face.

”Ye, the destabilization! It's climbing!” alerted Shang.

Honestly, Ye Chong had already perceived the worsening situation even without Shang's reminder. He had already lost 25 spaceships at this point. Way before the fleet sank into the rocky sea of Calamitous Asteroid Belt, Ye Chong had already reallocated most members of the 200 ships at the outermost spaceships to the 300 spaceships at the protected center, which included Haskel that got fairly crowded at the moment. There remained about 20 crew members on every ship at the outermost layer of formation.

The formation consisted of 3 protection layers occupied by those 200 ships, the sole duty for them would be to protect whatever inside.

20 members on each ship at the layers, totaling up to 4000 members guarding the 3 levels of shell for the people.

And all 4000 of them volunteered themselves.

Ye Chong was having headache when he plotted this. He knew what the people on those ships would eventually become.

But Shang gave him a suggestion way back - instead of ordering a random few, let the members volunteer themselves.

He felt it could be an effective way... however as expected from Shang's intelligence.

It was effective, too effective.

Only on the third day after the announcement, he had already received 30,000 applicants for the positions. Under Shang's assistance, Ye Chong picked out 4000 out of those at last.

And they had already lost 25 spaceships, which meant at least 500 men had lost their lives.

The destabilization rate was increasing.

Nonetheless, mortality rate was not the only outcome of the explosion. The explosion had created waves which had negatively affected the stability of the asteroid belt. It was obvious that the destabilization shared a directly proportional relationship with the chance of a whirlpool phenomena formation.

It was a major loss. Not only they lost a portion of their forces on every explosion, but also they faced a higher risk of being destroyed by an asteroid whirlpool.

If they could not figure out a counter for this, they would lose everything in the end, even their lives.