Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

The Iron Ore No. landed in just the right spot, with its hatch perfectly aligned with the entrance of the mine shaft.

At the same time, a minor explosion occurred at the hatch of the Iron Ore No., blasting the door open.

Under the cover of countless falling rubble, a mining robot, appearing somewhat battered and torn from the explosion, swiftly slipped into the mine shaft and rushed underground.

Chen Ming had to act now against the two Dusk AI involved in his plan.

He would connect them to the robots controlled by him.

Yesterday, Chen Ming had already left some small surveillance devices he devised last night in the mining site.

A miniature camera, accompanied by a matching mini power source, nothing too complex, with quite simple effectiveness.

Installed in some blind spots deep within the mine shaft, allowing Chen Ming to remotely observe the situation there.

Thus, Chen Ming had confirmed that there were two Dusk-controlled robots in the mine, hastily moving upwards.

Due to the explosion damaging the signal relay, they had lost contact with the surface and were about to collide head-on with the descending mining robot.

Chen Ming was in such a hurry to act rather than wait for another opportunity.

Because Brilliant had inquired a few days ago whether Chen Ming had any special requirements for his living environment.

Chen Ming hadn't realized it at the time, but later he suddenly understood the underlying implication in that question from Brilliant.

Currently, the Dusk industrial colony where Chen Ming was located, based on the star map given to him by Gamma A last time, was near the periphery of Dusk's territory.

So, Dusk had temporarily placed Chen Ming there, intending to relocate him elsewhere eventually.

Chen Ming had always been aware of this, though he thought it would happen later.

Until Brilliant asked that question, he realized the day was approaching fast.

If Dusk wanted to relocate Chen Ming, it would first have to create a more secure environment to control him.

Secondly, since Dusk also needed Chen Ming to serve them, providing a good living environment would be necessary.

So, Chen Ming realized why Brilliant had asked him that question.

Moreover, just a few days ago, Dusk spent only a night transforming the three factories to be suitable for human work environments.

Transforming into human-friendly environments, even if it required transplanting some vegetation to ensure a certain ecological environment, would take at most a few days.

If Dusk already had such a developed habitable planet, the efficiency would certainly be higher.

If Chen Ming were really relocated to a more meticulously arranged location by Dusk, it would be challenging for him to find such a good opportunity to interact with Dusk again.

Therefore, after careful consideration, he decided to act directly if given the chance.

Chen Ming was lucky; Dusk seemingly wasn't, so they hadn't prepared to relocate him directly a few days ago.

This delay allowed him to find a relatively workable opportunity.

Furthermore, Dusk had started to accelerate the pace of testing Chen Ming's abilities, and Chen Ming had shown exceptional cooperation.

This meant that even if Chen Ming caused some unexpected incidents now, the most Dusk would do was to increase their surveillance, until he was relocated somewhere else.

But this didn't matter because even if he didn't act, Dusk would definitely not change their plans.

Chen Ming was destined to go to another star system; he didn't have much time left.

Chen Ming's lack of time was evident not only in his personal freedom but also within the mining site.

Less than two minutes had passed since the explosion.

The mining robot controlled by Chen Ming had only descended a few levels.

Several of Dusk's guard-level ships had already descended from space to the ground.

At the same time, Brilliant's communication came in, asking Chen Ming about the situation.

Chen Ming immediately explained with the pre-prepared words, "My spaceship was just passing by the mining site and got hit by debris from the explosion, causing the engine to stall; I'm in the process of restarting it."

"Please do so quickly, so as not to interfere with the subsequent rescue operations."

Brilliant's words left Chen Ming a bit puzzled.

It was unclear whether Brilliant hadn't received the more detailed information or had already known the situation on the scene but did not suspect him.

However, soon after, Iron Ore No. suddenly detected scanning equipment scanning both it and the surrounding area.

Chen Ming knew Dusk's ships weren't scanning Iron Ore No., but rather the underground conditions.

The few Dusk ships that had arrived at top speed were only temporary rescue ships, equipped with scanning devices that could reach no more than forty to fifty meters.

However, the mine shaft itself had spaces that allowed scanning signals to continue deeper.

So, they should be able to detect the current location of the robots.

Just as Chen Ming anticipated.

Brilliant questioned Chen Ming once again.

This time, it was not an inquiry but a challenge.

"Mr. Chen, why is your robot down there?"

It seemed Brilliant hadn't received the detailed information earlier, which was why they hadn't initially suspected Chen Ming.

But now things were different.

Chen Ming certainly couldn't say he intended to collapse the mining site to seize an opportunity to attempt controlling Dusk AI.

Instead, he continued with the previously considered excuse: "My robot got hit during the emergency landing, and it seems some internal components got damaged, causing me to lose control, and it just rushed out."