Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 611: Gray Dwarf Star

The stealth shuttle, in concealed mode, gracefully glided through a curve after passing the Lagrange Point, further hiding itself within the massive gravitational pull and chaotic electromagnetic background of the star. Then it changed direction, deployed the thermal shield at its rear, and remotely aimed the antenna array at a certain point in the dark cosmos.

There lay a faster-than-light communication array, located in deep space between Luo's hiding place and the Gray Dwarf Star. Anchored in that darkness was a set of high-powered transmission antennas, powered by an old reactor and a supporting gas collection station, running for hundreds of years now.

The array was originally built by a group of audacious interstellar merchants (in the Dark Meteor Domain, this term is practically a linguistic representation of "pirates"), but after an unpleasant transaction, the Black Dot Group revoked the merchant fleet's business license in the Dark Meteor Domain—revocation methods primarily involving 1250mm convergence cannons and "Purgatory" fortress torpedoes.

Afterwards, the entire communication array became the property of the Black Dot Group.

In the Dark Meteor Domain, these "homemade" communication arrays assembled by various forces are as important as the Dao Marks on navigation routes. Though often accompanied by dangerous viral broadcasts and countless scam signals, sometimes running very unstably, at least they support the most basic communication "business" in the lawless regions, preventing those hiding in dim nebulae from devolving into blind and deaf primitive tribes after several generations—after all, neither the Universal Union, Terra, nor Boundary Land are going to set up any infrastructure here. Locals have to resort to their own means to meet practical needs.

Chaotic and busy communication signals, noisy illegal broadcasts, all kinds of encrypted codes mixed in dark network communications, and those scam SMS—Luo's mechanical joints pierced the shuttle's control panel, the ship's antenna seemingly an extension of her mechanical limbs. The information echoed in her mind like an odd, endless, roaring whirlwind.

"Ah… such familiar noise, it's the sound of home sweet home…" Luo stretched lazily in the cockpit, letting the resonant noise whistle between the shuttle's antenna systems and her brain implant. She skillfully disguised herself as an insignificant fringe traveler, monitoring the sounds of this lawless star region, searching for anything useful, while cautiously activating the 'ghost identities' she'd planted in the local network years ago.

The majority of the communication signals originate from the "Gray Dwarf Star"—considered a "frontier town" and commercial hub of this barren region, with the minority coming from local broadcasts, sent from the barren rocky planet's surface and orbit.

Luo heard discussions in interstellar communication about the "missing" Black Spot Pioneer Laboratory, others talking about recent spatial disturbances, and anonymous forums even speculating on whether to take advantage of the opportunity to try their luck in those temporarily offline Black Spot facilities. Meanwhile, local signals had people inquiring about the "boss's" movements and whether to continue executing the boss's production plans.

All related discussions were cut off last week, after a takeover notification from the group's company, at least officially ending the chaos.

Streams of light flashed across Luo's eyes as her fingers slid over the control panel, and the cockpit's holographic projection displayed the Black Dot Group's announcements issued locally.

"Regional manager deceased in accident, full authority transfer…" she muttered, a strange smile appearing on her face, "It's quite nice, they've already presumed I'm dead, lucky I snuck over here…" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Boss, should we contact the airport manager over there?" The Guard Captain asked cautiously, "Lex should still be loyal, he…"

"No rush, let's find a place to settle first," Luo replied casually, looking at the hidden compartment beside the seat, "Perhaps we don't need to be that discreet after all…"

The shuttle's engines quietly lit up, accelerating towards deep space along the radar perimeter, with the jump destination set for the Gray Dwarf Star. Luo activated the communication device and began making calls within Black Dot Group's internal network.

After brief noise, a mechanical voice transmitted directly into Luo's mind: "Who?"

"Old Qiao," Luo leaned back in the cockpit, her expression cold, the tone in her mind seemingly affable though fake, "It's been ages since we talked—can you still recognize my voice?"

The voice from the other side fell silent for a few seconds. After a moment of hesitation, the mechanical voice finally spoke again: "Ah, looks like you're still alive, I knew you wouldn't go down so easy, it's really… delightful."

"Delightful? Delighted that someone came back to snatch the territory you finally acquired?"

"…The regional takeover decision was made by the corporate higher-ups, if I don't take over, another Special Commissioner will," the voice referred to as "Old Qiao" sounded a bit awkward, although the sincerity of the awkwardness was unclear, "At least I won't mess up others' production arrangements—where are you now? Shall we meet to discuss, then report upstairs to explain the situation?"

Luo glanced at the holographic projection beside her.

"I know you're tracking my signal, but unfortunately your technique is a bit clumsy," she said offhandedly before shifting the topic, "But no worries, we can avoid the hassle—Gray Dwarf Star, I have a suitable meeting place there, I'll send you the coordinates shortly, let's meet up."

After saying this, she decisively cut off the signal and then activated the shuttle's warp drive without hesitation.

Even with her assistance from the auxiliary brain for calculations, the electronic countermeasures capability of this small craft had already reached its limit.

The shuttle transformed into a swiftly elongated light streak in the darkness and then in an instant plunged into the bubble formed by warped space.

And just half a minute after its silhouette vanished, three iron-gray stealth interceptors jumped to this location one after another—broadcasting public rescue call codes on the public channel, with the teleportation interference device and target-seeking radar at full power.

After a moment of scanning, the interceptors, having found nothing, reported their empty pursuit and returned to base.

The engine flashes illuminated the dark and cold deep space—happy home rules for survival as always.

...

Gray Dwarf Star, this is a rocky planet located on the edge of the Dark Meteor Domain, commonly regarded as a "buffer bridge" between this lawless area and the "civilized world". The last military action the Algredians took against the Black Dot Group stopped at the high orbit of this planet, and at the end of each Terra year, the Boundary Land enforcement fleet would routinely target the mother planet barrier of the Gray Dwarf Star with fire control radar—here retains the last dignity of the civilized world, but also teems with the "wild folk" unique to the Lawless Star Region, though overall it is a bustling and lively place.

Even by the local standards, this place can hardly be considered "livable".

The gray-black smog resulting from early overdevelopment fills its atmosphere, tenaciously surviving mutant vegetation covers the abandoned mines and chasms outside the big cities, and the planet's surface is covered with shocking huge ravines, some of which even pierce through the crust, deep into the cooling mantle.

From space, the Gray Dwarf Star looks like a wrinkled, terrifying skull, its face covered with deeply visible wounds, while the crisscrossing steel structures barely stitch this seemingly disintegrating planet together—the overcrowded cities are constructed on top of those steel structures, looking precarious, just like numerous everted tumors on the surface of this terrifying skull.

The small shuttle passed through the oppressive clouds, swiftly moved through the crowded, stacked cities, along the way passing countless towering yet dilapidated high-rise buildings, these structures resembling distorted giant pillars that have lost their original appearance through countless augmentations and renovations over the years, their bases might have originated from factories, bridges, or even churches centuries ago, their upper structures coated uniformly with centuries of time, like…some kind of artificial, decayed tree rings.

The main framework of many buildings is already on the verge of collapse, sometimes Luo even feels that just a strong wind would topple these cities like a domino chain—their debris falling into the planet's chasms and ravines, the iron and rock extracted from the crust returning to it, once again filling this planet in some form, turning it from a pockmarked zombie skull into a smooth skeleton.

Luo felt she was practically a poet.

If only she had studied humanities back then.

The shuttle docked in the depths of the megacity, on the upper levels of a towering skyscraper—this tower was more magnificent and splendid than the surrounding buildings, its orderly upper structure untouched by haphazard augmentations, it even had several semicircular docking platforms protruding outside the tower, with guiding lights scanning the midair, and uniformed service personnel standing at every gate entrance.

High-end community—a high-end community in the gutter.

Luo, accompanied by several fully armed guard soldiers, entered the tower, with the onlookers along the way bowing respectfully to her, even though they didn't even know Luo's real name or origin.

Luo owned some property here—in fact, one-third of the structure of the entire tower was hers, the remaining two-thirds were occupied by an old ancient AI that stubbornly insisted that this was still a church providing refuge to travelers, it was troublesome to communicate with, and despite several attempts to buy the remaining floors from it, Luo was unsuccessful and simply gave up.

After a brief check of the building's security system to confirm no signs of intrusion, Luo sent coordinates to "Old Qiao".

While waiting, she opened a small portable case and took out a petite crystal bottle.

The liquid inside the bottle glistened with an enchanting hue under the light.