Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

In the Industrial Colony Star System of Dusk.

Like before, after completing their tasks, the Dusk Fleet led by Brilliant and Radiant dispersed upon arrival.

Brilliant, in charge of the preliminary review of Chen Ming, moved away from the star system and entered superspace.

Meanwhile, Radiant, carrying Refraction with Iron Ore No. safely inside, arrived at the ring orbit of the Industrial Colony Planet that Chen Ming had visited previously.

Then Brilliant did not land on the colony but directly sent Refraction to bring Chen Ming to the gigantic industrial zone covering one-fifth of the planet's surface.

In a corner expanding outward from the whole industrial area, there was a small isolated industrial sector composed of only three factories.

This was the final destination for Refraction.

Though this area was relatively remote compared to the core Power Supply Tower of the industrial sector, Chen Ming thought it was quite good.

At least the usual environment here is certainly better than the inside, full of industrial equipment.

As Refraction gradually approached the destination, Chen Ming could see that these three factories were bustling with a variety of mechanical devices and robots of different shapes.

However, these machines seemed not to be working inside the factories but transforming the factories themselves.

After landing, Refraction expelled the Iron Ore No., leaving it in the open space in the center of the three factories.

Iron Ore No. remained on the empty ground beside the construction.

Refraction entered the factory from another side, depositing a pile of materials, including all the escape pods that Chen Ming had sealed completely, in the factory warehouse before leaving for space.

Perhaps Dusk had some other task needing its attention.

Chen Ming confirmed the status of those escape pods during Refraction's landing, ensuring that all escape pods had activated their freeze hibernation functions.

The automatic activation time of two days for the escape pods hadn't arrived yet, so they must have been activated manually.

Temporarily, Chen Ming did not detour to the factory warehouse to touch those escape pods but chose to familiarize himself with the place where he might be staying for a while, planning to deal with them later.

However, as Chen Ming disembarked wearing a protective suit, ready to enter the factory.

He suddenly got blocked by a robot busy within the factory.

Soon, Brilliant who brought him here contacted him once again.

"The factory still needs some transformation time, please temporarily wait on the spaceship for a while."

"Formal task allocation and work will start from eight o'clock tomorrow according to Earth Standard Time."

"If you need anything, you can contact Gamma A; he will help you get in touch with me, and I can procure what you need."

"Understood."

Chen Ming responded, suddenly feeling like he was in an internship period.

However, unlike an internship, currently, no one—or rather, no AI is managing him.

Chen Ming turned back onto the spaceship, glancing at the sky filled with stars without an atmosphere, and the machinery working outside.

Suddenly, he felt nostalgic for the time he had to work at the Pirate Space Station.

He shook his head, dismissing the memories, and casually closed the porthole protective panel to isolate the external environment.

No need to dwell on past events, he must move forward now.

Chen Ming returned to the workspace on Iron Ore No., taking out the terminal and placing it before him.

However, he merely opened the terminal, not rushing to use it.

Instead, he took a moment to check on the situation of Gamma A.

After leaving Dusk Colony Planet, Gamma A reached the distribution point of the star system, which was the Space Station accompanying this Industrial Colony.

The Radiance Level was also halted near this Space Station at the time.

Although Chen Ming couldn't directly access the core thoughts and data of Gamma A, he could see the communication device of Refraction constantly sending and receiving data externally.

It was speculated that Gamma A was fulfilling what it had said before: retrieving data on their exchange platform through the Space Station's network coverage for learning later.

Simultaneously, it was probably communicating with Radiant.

Radiant and Gamma A share a friendship, so it was quite normal for Radiant to reconfirm Gamma A's status after it picked up Chen Ming.

Chen Ming wouldn't risk interrupting at this moment; he simply confirmed Gamma A's situation, then directly shifted his perspective to Gamma B.

Gamma B was not in the star system where Chen Ming currently was, but at another location closer to the core of Dusk star system, attending to its own matters.

Although on Dusk's list Gamma B had been in a missing status for long, as soon as it returned, it was investigated by individuals in charge of such matters within Dusk.

However, the investigation on Gamma B was conducted before Chen Ming had Gamma A relay his status to Radiant.

Hence, the investigation's strictness on Gamma B was much more lenient compared to Gamma A.

Gamma B needed only a brief explanation concerning its missing period.

The explanation was, during the battles of previous missions, it was captured and assigned some work.

Yet a human spaceship maintenance master faced unfair treatment within the force that held Gamma B, unable to exert his ability fully, hence sought to join Dusk through contact.

Ultimately, this maintenance master died while attempting to escape aboard the Warrior, leaving only Gamma B to return.