Chapter 523: The Ninth Day of Transmigrating into an Interstellar World

Chapter 523: The Ninth Day in the Interstellar World

An Yi said, pulling a small knife from his tool bag and slicing along the seal. The crate's lid swung open.

Inside was a stack of standard maintenance parts, neatly arranged and separated by shockproof material. Nothing looked out of place.

George leaned in for a look and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Looks fine," he said. "But let's check anyway."

An Yi didn't say anything. He reached in and pulled the parts out one by one, setting them aside.

George followed suit, examining each part carefully, turning them over to make sure they were just ordinary maintenance parts.

Once An Yi had removed all the parts, the bottom of the crate was exposed—revealing a hidden compartment.

It was very thin, flush against the crate's floor, the same color as the base. If you weren't looking closely, you'd never even notice it.

An Yi tapped the compartment lightly with his finger, and it gave a hollow sound.

George set down the part in his hand, his eyes going wide. "This is..."

An Yi didn't hesitate. He grabbed the knife and pried the compartment open.

Inside was a tiny chip.

Silver-white, barely bigger than a fingernail, with a tiny string of code on its surface that caught the light with a faint gleam.

George sucked in a sharp breath. "Wh-what is this?"

An Yi picked up the chip and looked at it.

"No idea," he said coolly. "But it's definitely not something we shipped."

George's expression shifted. He stood up and bolted for the door. "I'll get the captain!"

An Yi didn't stop him. He just looked at the chip in his hand, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Soon, the sound of footsteps echoed from the distance.

Urgent, with the echo of running.

Xing Ruize was the first to burst into the warehouse, with Jiang Biao and Ma Zhiye right behind him.

Chen Hong arrived last, leaning against the warehouse entrance without stepping inside, but his gaze was fixed on the scene.

Xing Ruize's expression was cold. His eyes swept across the warehouse, over the crates, and finally landed on An Yi.

An Yi stood there, chip in hand, and gave him a nod.

Xing Ruize walked over quickly. "What happened?"

An Yi handed him the chip. "This crate was opened," he said. "Found this in the hidden compartment."

Xing Ruize took the chip and examined it.

His brow furrowed slightly. Jiang Biao leaned in. "What is it?"

Xing Ruize didn't answer. He just flipped the chip over, glanced at the marking on the back, and his face changed.

"A Federation military encryption chip," he said.

Jiang Biao went still.

"The Federation?" His eyes went wide. "How the hell did that end up with us?"

Xing Ruize closed his fist around the chip and looked up, his gaze landing on An Yi. "Which crate?"

An Yi pointed at the crate next to him. "This one."

He raised his wrist and tapped the screen—it showed the footage he'd recorded of the unboxing, from spotting the damaged seal to opening the crate to removing the parts to finding the compartment.

George's profile was visible in the frame too.

Xing Ruize watched the whole thing carefully, his frown getting deeper.

After a moment of silence, he pocketed the chip and turned to leave without looking back. "Notify the military. Request support. We can't leave right now—the chip hasn't been activated yet. Put it in a signal-isolation container first."

Ma Zhiye followed after him.

"Just can't confirm whether those people know where it is," he said. "After all, we don't know who put it here."

For the next few hours, the outpost was on high alert.

The rest of the crates were all opened and thoroughly inspected.

Luckily, there was only that one chip.

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In the time that followed, the tension at the outpost stayed thick.

Auto-turrets slid out of the walls, their dark muzzles trained on every possible entry point. The weapon systems went on standby, and the hum of charging energy echoed through the corridors. Even the air carried a faint metallic smell—the residue left behind after energy weapons are charged.

An Yi sat in the corner of the break room, holding a cup of warm water.

After all, he was just a "delicate" temporary technician.

On the table in front of him was a technical manual he'd grabbed from the warehouse—*Third Star Sector Outpost Basic Equipment Maintenance Guide (Revised Edition)*.

The cover was worn, the page corners curled up, looking like it had been sitting there for ages. A physical copy—even in a world where both electronic and paper versions existed, he still preferred paper.

In the interstellar world, paper books were still going strong.

But he wasn't really reading. He was listening to what was going on outside.

Footsteps came and went. Short exchanges crackled over the comms every now and then.

Jiang Biao's voice was the loudest—you could hear him through two doors. Ma Zhiye answered every now and then. George ran back and forth, his footsteps getting closer then fading. Chen Hong had disappeared somewhere; he hadn't heard a peep from him.

There were others too—the outpost's original stationed personnel, their footsteps covering every corridor in the place.

Xing Ruize was in the command room, constantly in contact with the military.

An Yi raised his cup and took a sip. Warm.

He set the cup down and went back to flipping through the manual.

Comments section:

"Damn, that atmosphere—I can feel the tension through the screen. (Dog face) (Dog face)"

"The male lead is about to get promoted again, gonna score some merits, huh?!"

"An Yi is actually reading??? His mindset is way too solid!"

"Isn't this the legendary 'staying calm when Mount Tai crumbles before your eyes'? Love it, love it!"

"Forget Mount Tai crumbling—he's a pretty boy reading a book in front of you. (jk)"

"Didn't the guy say it himself? Handle whatever comes your way, and getting nervous won't solve anything. That's what they mean by 'knowing and doing as one'!"

"A philosopher, huh? My apologies, my apologies!"

"Well, he IS the female lead, after all!"

"An Yi actually prefers paper books—in the interstellar age, that makes him a vintage beauty!"

"......"

An Yi: "......"

Sigh.

An Yi flipped a page of the manual, his eyes skimming over the technical specs.

How fascinating.

The technology in this world was truly something else.

The XQ series reactor—he'd come across that name in the original novel. Later, the Star Empire's capital ships used the improved XQ-12, nearly tripling the output power.

In other words, the current technology was still in the early stages of development, with many things just getting started.

An Yi's fingertip tapped lightly on the page—his storage space was already raring to go.

No joke. Having transmigrated through so many worlds, he'd developed a habit: whenever he saw something interesting, he wanted to collect it.

Knowledge—collect it.

Technology—collect it.

Skills—learn them.

Interesting historical materials—collect them.

Anything beautiful, fun, or useful—as long as he found it interesting, he'd collect it all.