Su Duan pushed Avid, who had fallen to the ground, and asked uneasily, "He won't wake up soon, will he?"

The system said, "Rest assured, host, with Avid's physique, it will take at least five hours for him to wake up on his own."

Because in recent years he had focused on experimental research, Avid's physique had fallen behind his elder brother's.

Su Duan nodded and said, "There's enough time."

While the system took control of his body, it infiltrated the control system of the entire base through the communication device he was wearing on his hand, silently taking over the permissions in various aspects.

Su Duan clutched the snatched spatial button and walked out of the infirmary, but on the personal terminals of Audrose, Avid, and Mosi, the little red dot representing his location remained in the infirmary, and there was no shadow on the surveillance footage.

Under the system's control, his body moved nimbly along the blind spots of the patrol team, taking only ten minutes to get from the infirmary to the mecha release compartment.

The system controlled the base system to open the release compartment door, and Su Duan boarded the mecha, leaving here without any hesitation.

It wasn't until ten minutes later, when the system's control over the base system was interrupted due to the long distance, that the alarm sounded in the base: "Warning! Warning! A mecha has left the base without declaration! ..."

But Su Duan could no longer hear these, the system controlled his body, piloting the mecha through space, and because his physique was not strong enough, the pressure inside the mecha pressed on his body, making it very painful and even difficult to breathe.

He used a bottle of painkiller, and the pain instantly eased a lot, but breathing was still a bit difficult.

His gaze swept across the dark universe outside the window, wandering around in a daze, staring at the slowly flowing galactic belt in the distance.

Suddenly, in the distance, he saw a lonely planet.

As if remembering something, Su Duan had the system zoom in the view a bit.

It was a light green planet, with no planetary belts around it, standing there quietly, waiting for its long-distance companion to return once every thirty years.

It was "Reunion", relying on his good memory, Su Duan blinked and recalled its name.

He suddenly really wanted to go there and play with Audrose now, even during the flower season he hated the most.

As long as the two of them were together--

......

In the cosmic rift filled with raging energy.

Audrose controlled the mecha to sever the neck of another beast, panting heavily in the cockpit, cold sweat dripping down from his temples, blurring his vision.

This attack was just a trap set by the beasts, with the real purpose of luring him into the cosmic rift to trap him to death here.

The real danger was not the endless beasts in the rift, but the pressure of the unstable rift space on the body and spiritual domain. If one stayed here for too long, they were likely to be torn to pieces by the raging forces in the rift.

His spiritual body had already returned to the higher-dimensional space because it could not withstand such enormous pressure.

Just as he and the Emperor had speculated before, some of these beasts had indeed developed intelligence, and it was far beyond that of ordinary people. He had underestimated the intelligence of these beasts, which was why he had really been lured here.

It was his mistake.

The conditions for opening the rift were harsh, and the opening time was very short. Under the entanglement of the beasts, he had already missed the best opportunity to leave here.

Unless someone reopened the rift from the outside, the possibility of him getting out on his own was already minuscule.

So he was waiting, waiting for the arrival of reinforcements--

Even under the layers of obstruction from the beasts, the possibility of waiting was close to zero, but he would not stop until his body was torn apart.

Because there was still someone waiting for him outside.

His little slave was so delicate, without him, he would definitely be bullied--

Maybe he would even cry and hiccup.

Thinking of the cute appearance of the little slave crying with little milk hiccups, aggrieved and adorable when they first met, Audrose laughed softly.

Suddenly remembering something, Audrose opened his personal terminal in the short respite as the beasts receded.

Last night before going to bed, he had edited a message for the Emperor, but had been hesitating and hadn't sent it.

There was no need to hesitate anymore now. Audrose casually clicked send on the saved draft, looking at the icon on it that kept showing it was being transmitted, revealing a bit of a helpless expression.

The signal in the rift was extremely unstable, whether this email could be sent out before the personal terminal stopped working was up to luck.

... The beast horde surged up again.

Who knew how long it had been, until Audrose's mecha had completely lost an arm under the double pressure of the beasts and the forces inside the rift, completely exhausting the last bit of energy, when the space suddenly surged with a violent tremor.

The closed rift was torn open again, revealing a small opening to the dark universe outside.

A gray mecha fell in.

This was a standard military mecha, and both its performance and toughness were far inferior to the one he was using now, indicating that it was not an officer who had come.

Such a mecha... would be difficult to withstand the pressure in the cosmic rift.

Staying in the mecha that could no longer start on its own, Audrose frowned.

Sure enough, from the moment it entered the rift, the gray mecha began to disintegrate continuously, from the weapon ports, forearms, entire arms... As it got closer and closer to Audrose, more and more parts fell off.

By the time it finally arrived in front of Audrose, it could hardly be called a mech anymore—

Except for the cockpit, energy compartment, and the most rigid frames, the mech was covered in exposed structures and metal wires, looking battered and broken as if it had walked from a distant time, ready to collapse at any moment.

When its arm, now reduced to a mere skeleton, touched Audrose's mech, the cockpit finally disintegrated, revealing the pilot inside.

Upon seeing the black hair, a terrifying thought suddenly struck Audrose, and when that delicate face was fully exposed, his blood nearly froze.

"Duan Duan!" In extreme shock and panic, Audrose forgot he was still in the cockpit. His dark pupils contracted to the size of pinpoints as he roared almost maniacally, "Why are you here?!"

Even his spiritual body, which had already returned to the higher-dimensional space under immense pressure, instantly reappeared in the rift. It lowered its head, dragging its tail spine that was already exposing white bones, trying to pick up the person and throw them out of the rift.

But as soon as it bent down, the movement abruptly stopped—

Without the protection of a sturdy mech shell, for the unevolved human population, the universe filled with radiation and vacuum pressure was no different from a sacrificial burial ground.

Separated by a cockpit, Su Duan seemed to have heard his question and smiled gently. His obsidian eyes, as if washed by water, lit up with starlight. Even though he was being crushed by the omnipresent rift pressure to the point of nearly shattering his bones, he still struggled to part his lips.

Audrose read his lip movements.

He said, I also want to protect you, Audro.