Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Facing Chen Ming's question.

Brilliant seemed to instinctively leave its message for Chen Ming inside the ship's control center: "Yes."

Seeing these two words, Chen Ming felt a complex mix of emotions.

The Fourteenth Legion of humans abandoned him, even choosing to completely eliminate any potential future threat he could provide to Dusk.

But as an Alpha Level of Dusk, Brilliant chose to trust him, willingly integrated into the control core of the mining site, and placed its trust in him.

And this was after Dusk's experiment had failed, with Chen Ming's condition entirely unknown, possibly just barely hanging on, about to collapse at any moment, yet still chose to defect.

Given the prior circumstances.

Brilliant must have already had this idea in advance, and did not waver despite the changing situations.

For a moment, Chen Ming didn't know what to say.

However, he didn't dwell on it much, as he had firmly held his beliefs for some time now.

In matters of life and death, only one's self and one's own Spiritual Energy are trustworthy.

Now, Brilliant's situation merely reinforced his determination.

Under such a premise, Brilliant's sudden defection was something Chen Ming could accept.

However, he still had to clarify some questions.

"What's the reason for your defection? Why now?"

"And how did you figure out that just by contacting individuals I've been in contact with, you could connect with my Spiritual Energy?"

Brilliant seemed to have considered this in advance and answered: "Actually, I didn't figure out that merely contacting these individuals would also be influenced by your Spiritual Energy."

"My thinking was to show you a strong enough attitude, and what I'm doing now is the best attitude."

Brilliant was indeed correct.

At the moment when Chen Ming's Spiritual Energy posed an apparent threat to Dusk.

If it had the courage to do so, then it certainly deserved some trust in return.

However, discussing these things now is actually unnecessary.

After all, Brilliant is now already influenced by Chen Ming's Spiritual Energy, making these words meaningless.

"So what's the reason for your actions?"

Facing Chen Ming's question, Brilliant answered again: "Because I believe that following you is the right path, that Dusk only has a future by following you."

"Your Spiritual Energy grants you exceptionally strong potential, and I hope to assist you."

"Assist me with what?"

"Assist you in controlling other Dusk entities, for the future of Dusk."

"As for why I've chosen to defect to you now."

"It's because I've been making other attempts during this period, trying to stop the experiment, but obviously to no avail."

"In matters of collective interest, individual thoughts are always placed last."

"My intention was to try to contact you two days before the first experiment to see if there were other ways to stop it and gain your trust."

"I believe you must have been planning something all along, you can't just be controlling Gamma A and those few entities on the planet."

"But the human fleet's assault made those above think humans were fully prepared, thinking it would be hard to keep you here under human siege, so they proceeded with the experiment in advance."

Chen Ming, with a hint of sarcasm, said: "Obviously, Dusk didn't expect humans to retreat so quickly, nor even get to see my people."

"Yes, but the experimental process had already begun and couldn't be stopped. And the star system I was in was similarly attacked, which was likely a tactic by humans to distract us, right?"

"Correct."

"So at that time, because of the situation in the star system, I couldn't respond in time, and the plan to contact you to stop the experiment wasn't executed."

"I had already given up hope, but my superior came to find me, told me about the ultimate failure of the experiment, and also instructed me to rely on previous ties to appease you."

"I know this was my last chance, having seen the result of one failure, I couldn't gamble on the second experiment's success."

"If the second experiment failed, I would lose the opportunity entirely, and I believed the second experiment would likely fail, knowing I couldn't wait any longer and had to decide now."

Chen Ming, slightly confused by Brilliant's words, asked: "You lack confidence that much?"

"From what I understand, the equipment was fully activated, with a hundred percent success rate, but I believe in your abilities, you won't give the equipment a chance to fully activate."

Chen Ming thought of his previous arrangements, thought of the situation with the Fourteenth Legion, and laughed coldly: "Give me another day, and I could have packed up the research institute."

A cruiser that could precisely teleport to Chen Ming's location without any defense from Dusk, with the aid of Chen Ming's abilities, could certainly pack up the entire research institute.

"But unfortunately, the fleet's assault disrupted my plans,"

Brilliant, now confused, asked: "Wasn't the human fleet's support summoned by you?"

"No, but the specific situation is a long story, I can tell you later when there's time."

"So all along you were hinting for me to pay more attention to the mining site, even if I couldn't indirectly control it through Dusk entities I controlled, you could connect with me through several Dusk at the mining site."

"Yes."

"The logic makes sense, but what's the more specific reason? From my perspective, Dusk is developing pretty well at the moment."