"Warning! Warning! The first shockwave from Earth's explosion will strike the Azure in 97 seconds. Survival probability: 0.001%. Captain, please prepare for impact!"
A one-in-a-million chance? What's the point of preparing for impact? Under the force of Earth's detonation, the Azure would be like a snowflake in a wildfire—gone in an instant.
No, there had to be a way!
Ye Feng's eyes darted to the moon ahead, a flicker of hope sparking within him.
"Xiaozhi, how long to reach the moon?"
"At normal speed, 37 seconds. But with the gravitational field in chaos, it'll take 107 seconds."
Too slow. Time was running out.
Gritting his teeth, Ye Feng leapt into the hibernation pod.
"Xiaozhi, full throttle! Get us to the moon's dark side before that shockwave hits!"
"Calculations indicate we'd need 10G acceleration. Survival odds for the Azure rise to 20%."
"Do it!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Ye Feng slammed the pod's lid shut. A brutal force slammed into him, pinning him against the pod's interior as if it meant to crush him flat. Yet a soft, steady counterforce pulsed from behind, easing the strain just enough to keep him conscious under the 10G overload.
Through the pod's display, he watched the Azure hurtle toward the moon, skimming a mere ten meters above its surface. The monitor revealed a stark lunar landscape—craggy ring mountains and gaping craters. One nearby pit stretched over 400 kilometers wide.
The largest known crater, Bailey, was only 295 kilometers across. Now, here was one dwarfing it effortlessly.
"If we make it through this, I'm coming back to the moon's dark side," Ye Feng muttered. "I need to see what's hiding back there."
For years, the moon had faced Earth with the same side, its far side a mystery to nearly everyone. Even now, shrouded in darkness, he couldn't make out a thing.
The Azure didn't stop as it reached the moon's shadow. It kept accelerating, barreling forward. Meanwhile, Earth's explosion had turned the moon into a bullet fired from a cannon, flung into space at breakneck speed.
Numbers flashed wildly on the pod's screen:
Moon velocity: 22 km/s. Azure velocity: 20 km/s. Acceleration: 100 m/s². Collision with moon in 13 seconds. Relative acceleration: 70 m/s².
"Damn it! With that speed plus a 70 m/s² boost, it's trying to kill me! Push harder—11G, no, 12G overload!"
"Bzzz!"
Flames roared from the thrusters as the Azure lunged forward in a desperate sprint. But the moon closed in faster.
In those fleeting seconds, it slammed into the ship. The moon didn't slow—it kept charging ahead. The Azure, built from the toughest alloys, pierced the lunar surface like a steel needle. Of its 200-meter length, only the front 20-odd meters jutted out; the rest was buried deep within the moon.
Thanks to the moon's bulk, though, the Azure was shielded—for now.
"Pfft!"
Ye Feng shoved open the pod and spat out a mouthful of blood. That collision had nearly cost him half his life. Staggering to his sister's pod, he froze. Shanshan lay still, her vital signs flat. The impact had been too much for her.
"Xiaozhi, flash-freeze Shanshan."
The ship's conditions weren't right for cloning or reviving her yet.
He stumbled to the control room and stared at the data on the screen, a bitter smile tugging at his lips. He'd braced for losses, but not this.
The ship's hull was 77% damaged, with three gashes teetering on the edge of rupture. Only their embedment in the moon kept the pressure difference from tearing the Azure apart. The rear thrusters were toast from the collision. The storage bay's insulation was shredded, and the electronic doors were fried—any mining bots would need manual release.
The frozen plant seeds were likely fine. They might even mutate, skipping the need for space breeding—ready to plant as is.
The real gut punch? Of the 100 kilograms of metallic hydrogen he'd started with, only 9.33 remained. Even if he funneled it all into Xiaozhi and the Earth Simulator, it'd last just 93 Earth days.
But this was the moon. Its soil brimmed with helium-3—clean, controllable fusion fuel. Earth had less than 100 kilograms of the stuff, but the moon? Estimates pegged it at a million tons, locked in the surface. Heat it right, and over 90% would release. Add in metal hydrogen, liquid oxygen, titanium—plenty of materials to work with.
With those resources, Ye Feng could upgrade the Azure. If he could repair it first.
He wrestled open the storage bay door to deploy the repair bots when an alarm blared:
"Warning! Warning! Unauthorized access detected in the Earth Simulator. Someone's using the captain's glasses to activate the virtual reality engine and link to the Azure's core brain. Captain, please address this immediately."
What?
No time for the bots. Ye Feng bolted to the medical bay, jabbing the diagnostic treatment button.
"Xiaozhi, upload my consciousness to the Earth Simulator."
---
Earth. His sprawling villa bedroom.
Ye Feng sprang off the bed with a carp-like flip. Pushing open the door, he headed downstairs, eyes drifting to the living room.
There sat Shanshan, his little sister, perched on the couch. She wore the VR glasses, her face frozen in shock.
The sight of those glasses sent a jolt through him. *Oh no.*
He'd used his captain's privileges to craft a special pair of VR glasses for the simulator—ones that could tap into the Azure's external monitors, letting him keep tabs on the real world while inside the game.
And now, those glitchy, overpowered glasses were on his sister's face.
Should he tell her the truth?
Clearing his throat, Ye Feng strolled over and tapped her head lightly.
Shanshan yelped, jolting upright. She yanked off the glasses, blinking at him with a mix of resentment and relief. Her lips pursed, and she threw her arms around his waist.
"Big brother! Where've you been these past few days? I looked everywhere for you!"
He patted her head gently. "Don't cry, don't cry. If our little princess Shanshan keeps sobbing, she'll turn into a tabby cat—and then she won't be pretty anymore!"
"Hmph! You're the tabby cat—your whole family's a bunch of tabby cats!" She shot him a mock glare, then held up the VR glasses, her expression turning serious.
"Bro, are you hiding something from me? Time to spill it, don't you think?"