Chapter 337: The Mysterious Dark Corruption Swamp

Thanks to the fact that there were very few technological creations on Shell Star.

Chatosi, whose spaceship had crashed, had no way to repair it and was still hiding on Shell Star without leaving. The Security Bureau of this star system had searched for him for over two months, and now they had made some breakthroughs.

One email reporting to their superiors mentioned that the pursuit team had narrowed down Chatosi’s possible hiding locations to a dozen or so.

And the most likely place he was hiding was called—

Dark Swamp.

Lin Zhen committed all these place names to memory, then opened a map of Shell Star and searched for their exact locations one by one.

This map came from the Empire’s official library and had been updated only about a dozen years ago.

In theory, it should be the newest and most detailed version.

However, he discovered that…

Aside from the most likely candidate, “Dark Swamp,” all the locations mentioned in the email could be found on the map.

Even places associated with the name “Dark Swamp” were nowhere to be found.

It was as if this location had been fabricated out of thin air by the Security Bureau.

“Something’s not right.” Lin Zhen frowned. “If Dark Swamp really doesn’t exist, why did the pursuit team specifically emphasize that Chatosi might have entered it and that more manpower was needed?”

“Maybe it’s a unique name within their race?” Zi Jiu offered her guess. “Or this place suddenly appeared in the last dozen years, and it’s a bit weird, so the Carapace Race didn’t update it on the map.”

“I think A Jiu might be right,” Anvil agreed.

“Mm, possibly.” Lin Zhen’s expression remained unchanged. “But I’m leaning toward it being a large area. Any place that could hide Chatosi for a month or two must be a vast region. The Carapace Race couldn’t cover that up.”

Aili clenched and released her right hand, a small blood ring forming in her palm and bursting apart.

She had been using this method during the days of the spaceship’s journey to train her control over her supernatural power.

“Mm!” Lin Zhen nodded, agreeing with what Aili said.

Indeed, a place that could allow Chatosi to hide for two months while being pursued by the Galaxy Security Bureau could not be small.

Even if the Carapace Race wanted to cover it up, with careful investigation, some clues would definitely be found.

The top priority was to land on Shell Star as soon as possible and start searching for Chatosi’s specific whereabouts.

After all, if his earlier guess was correct—that Saint’s Hand Society had sent Yun Ruoxi to rescue Chatosi—

Then their time would be very tight.

The window period left for them to capture Chatosi might only be a few days, or possibly even shorter.

‘Maybe I could cooperate with the Security Bureau?’

This thought popped into Lin Zhen’s mind, but he soon forcibly suppressed it.

His identity as a student of the Academy was quite useful in front of ordinary people, but it was completely insufficient when facing the Security Bureau.

Moreover, Chatosi had also kidnapped the child of a Carapace Race noble.

The enraged Carapace Race Security Bureau would never agree to let him handle Chatosi.

So for this mission, their enemies included not only the Saint’s Hand Society but also the Security Bureau.

“What a hassle, phew!”

Lin Zhen patted his head in frustration, then turned and ordered, “Elder Chacha, prepare for landing on Shell Star. Before that, deploy the nano detectors.”

“Understood. Releasing nano detectors now!”

As Elder Chacha’s voice sounded, a silver shimmering ribbon flew out from each side of the Flying Harrier.

The ribbons didn’t travel far from the ship before they suddenly exploded, scattering into countless tiny silver dots that shot toward Shell Star, trailing faint white light.

In an instant, they vanished from sight.

“The nano detectors are expected to complete the detection deployment on Shell Star in one Empire Day,” Elder Chacha said.

“Good!”

Lin Zhen let out a slight breath.

Each of these nano detectors was an independent unit, yet they were constantly interconnected.

They could not only achieve optical invisibility but were also loaded with various detection instruments, making them nearly undetectable by conventional detection devices.

They were utterly insidious.

The ones just released were enough to cover an entire orbit around Shell Star.

With them in place, as long as a Saint’s Hand Society warship approached Shell Star, Lin Zhen would be promptly notified.

He could then decide whether to continue the mission or retreat immediately based on the situation.

Of course, such a powerful technological creation was not something Lin Zhen could develop at his current level. It was military tech that Elder Chacha had unearthed during the memory overwrite unlocking process.

Even with the help of the Academy’s resources and his supernatural power, Lin Zhen had spent a long time barely scraping together these detectors.

And because of a shortage of critical military materials, he still hadn’t overcome the signal interference issue.

They could only rely on the Flying Harrier’s central control as a relay.

They couldn’t be used for ground combat.

Once they entered the atmosphere, they would directly crash, so it was a pity.

Otherwise, searching for Chatosi would be more than a hundred times easier.

“A Zhen’s black tech is like an old lady wearing a bra—layer after layer.”

“Riddles like that really depend on netizens.”

“I have a question: When Carapace Race meat is steamed, does it taste like crab or mammalian meat?”

Shell Star strictly prohibited any unauthorized private landing by spaceships.

Over two months ago, Chatosi had privately piloted a spaceship to land on Shell Star. When he tried to leave, a patrol ship mistook him for a stowaway and shot him down, only to discover that there were kidnapped noble children in his cabin.

He was still being pursued by the Interstellar Security Bureau.

Lin Zhen naturally didn’t want to end up like Chatosi, so he honestly flew his ship to Shell Star’s Outer Space Port, preparing to take an official ship to the surface.

Half an hour later.

The Flying Harrier arrived smoothly at the Outer Space Port.

Perhaps because Shell Star restricted technological items from entry and the star network domain here was very boring, few tourists or adventurers came to Shell Star.

Both the outer space port’s lanes and internal parking areas were quite empty.

The few ships parked inside or preparing to enter or leave the port were mostly large cargo vessels.

The Flying Harrier parked in the docking area. Lin Zhen and the others grabbed their luggage and disembarked one by one.

Lin Zhen was the last. As he was about to step off the ship, he suddenly stopped and said quietly,

“Elder Chacha… I’m counting on you.”

“Mm!”

Elder Chacha’s voice came from inside the ship. Then the hatch closed completely, and the interior fell into total darkness.

But by the time Lin Zhen and the others had successfully verified their identities and boarded the ship heading to Shell Star’s surface, inside the Flying Harrier, red light suddenly flared.

Then, the entire ship started automatically, unmanned, and quietly slipped out of the outer space port along the departure lane.

Shhhh!

A layer of multicolored black iron plates emerged on the ship’s surface.

A flash of electric light rippled across them, and the entire ship began to slowly vanish into space, starting from the bow.

No one knew where it had gone.