Chapter 350: Delivered to the Doorstep
[I heard a lot of females went to support the front lines because of Jiang Qin. Does that mean she got them killed?]
Wen Jiaqi couldn’t stand seeing words like that right now.
She immediately shot back: [So you’re saying it’s wrong for females to support the front lines?
That females shouldn’t go to the front lines to help the warriors protect the likes of you, who only dare to spout nonsense on the Star Network? Is that it?]
That shut up anyone who was about to chime in and agree.
This was especially true for the females who were too scared to go themselves and were constantly being compared to those who did.
They had been about to come out gloating, to prove that their decision not to go to the front lines was the right one.
But before they could even say anything, they had a rude awakening.
Yes, it’s only human to fear death; no one would spit on them for that.
But if they chose to kick them while they were down, they would likely become public enemy number one!
Anyone with a brain shamefully closed the trending topic.
As for the brainless ones, they went ahead and posted some truly brainless comments online.
For example, a netizen with the username "A-level Female - Yaya" directly created a post titled: "On My Pretentious Sister."
People who clicked on it expected to see some melodramatic sisterly feud.
And while it was certainly melodramatic, this Yaya’s sister turned out to be a B-level female who had gone to support the front lines.
Her entire post was dedicated to mocking her sister for "pretending to be kind" and "pretending to be righteous," claiming that was the only reason she chose to go to the front lines.
In the end, her act backfired, and she died on the front lines.
She gloated that those who once compared her to her sister must now understand that she had been right all along.
Netizen 1: [So... she’s gloating that her sister is dead?]
Netizen 2: [Yes, she’s gloating, and she’s trying to whitewash herself by trashing her sister.]
[Heh, let’s not even get into whether she’s smart or just a coward. I just want to emphasize one more time: the ship is just MISSING, it didn’t CRASH!!
We can’t conclude whether they’re dead or not, so you useless leeches who are being protected better stop maliciously cursing them!]
[LOL? Protected? If we were really protected, why was the front line still breached by the Alien Beasts?
Entire planets have now been turned into slaughterhouses for the Alien Beasts. Are the people living on those planets supposed to just die?]
[Didn’t the warriors try? Didn’t the females try? What have you done? What right do you have to complain about them?]
[I may not have done anything, but at least I didn’t take on a job I couldn’t handle and get so many people killed, did I?
I heard ages ago that Mo Chen’s Riot Value was sky-high, but he refused to step down because he’s power-hungry. In the end, he couldn’t even hold a single line of defense!]
Shockingly, comments like these were the majority on the Star Network.
Those who had lost friends and family were looking for an outlet for their grief and needed someone to blame.
With people fanning the flames, Mo Chen became the perfect scapegoat.
They made malicious speculations, venting their anger on all the high-ranking officials of the Federation.
This was especially true for the few commanding generals whose fronts were the first to be breached.
The people who still had their wits about them were about to explode with anger as they watched.
[You lunatics! I feel so bad for the Admirals!! They don’t deserve this!!]
[This is why I never want to join the military. I might be strong, but I’m petty.
The thought of protecting people like this makes me want to kill someone!]
[I feel you, bro. But the people I want to protect are good people. These guys are just the impurities mixed in.]
This sentence calmed the enraged people for a moment.
But they were still furious. Precisely because those people were freeloaders, they had even less right to complain about the warriors.
Fortunately, the authorities quickly stepped in, arresting individuals whose comments were overly radical and meant to mislead public opinion.
Those who were just following the crowd only received a warning.
But the rumors and gossip still couldn’t be stopped.
The heavy weight of the survival crisis was suffocating people, making them desperate to vent somehow.
Worried that her own people might be thrown into the Law Enforcement Department for their aggressive comments, Wen Jiaqi had to constantly calm everyone down, reminding them to be mindful of their words when arguing with others.
But Jiang Qin still lost a massive number of fans.
Not that anyone cared about that right now. Everyone was anxiously focused on one thing: searching for the spaceship carrying over five thousand people and finding out where it had gone down.
***
Yuan Ling was also searching.
Although he didn’t want to admit the grim possibilities, he still tried every way he could to search for the ship’s wreckage in space.
They flew back to the Empire.
Only in the Empire could he find the materials he needed.
Long Hao used his connections and wealth to grant him basically every request.
After three sleepless days and nights, Yuan Ling finally finished building a batch of search drones made from special materials.
The two of them returned to the flight path once more.
Yuan Ling deployed all the machines into space.
They were small machines, each about the size of a sparrow, equipped with cameras. Every single one carried the ultra-miniature signal transmitters and connectors that he had developed himself.
In short, despite their small size, every inch of them screamed "expensive and rare."
If it weren’t for Long Hao, he never would have been able to get his hands on this stuff.
After all, materials that could fly freely in space without being affected by the environment were not easy to come by.
After the thirty small machines flew out, thirty windows appeared on the giant screen in front of Yuan Ling.
The images on them were live feeds from the small machines’ cameras.
Besides these, he had also made a batch of expendable models.
These expendable models were responsible for scouting black holes. After all, he couldn’t just jump into every black hole he saw.
He needed to assess the situation first.
While Yuan Ling was hard at work searching for Jiang Qin’s group, they were also working hard to save themselves.
But after exploring the planet, they received some bad news.
Namely, there were signs of human habitation on this planet.
This meant the lack of signal was likely due to an intentional block. The purpose behind hiding this planet was clearly questionable.
Even the squad leader found it unbelievable. They had just randomly picked a planet—how could they be so unlucky?
Jiang Qin pursed her lips and asked, "Star Thieves? Or an illegal research facility?"
"Most likely an illegal research facility. And we’ve probably already been exposed."
These illegal research facilities are extremely cautious. They occupy entire planets and would likely have installed all sorts of detectors across the surface.
We might have been detected the very moment we landed here.
"However, we haven’t found any research facility on the surface, so it’s probably underground."
Just as the squad leader suspected.
At that moment, in the underground research facility, Dr. A was staring intently at Jiang Qin on the screen, his eyes gleaming with a near-maniacal light.
’Who could possibly understand this feeling?’
’A lion draws up a hunting plan, goes out to hunt time and time again, and always comes back empty-pawed.’
’Then one hungry morning, it steps out of its den only to find that its prey has delivered itself right to its doorstep!!’
He wasn’t in a hurry anymore. He needed to come up with a foolproof plan to ensure there were absolutely no accidents this time.