BATTLE FOR STARS

Belina ignored the attendant completely and walked straight to the control console.

With a press of a button, an operating panel rose from the side.

Their floating suite suddenly accelerated toward the Special Class suite where the incident had occurred.

In less than half a minute, it stopped roughly thirty meters away.

Belina still didn’t stop moving.

She pressed several more controls, and a small axe-like tool extended out from the side of the platform.

Without hesitation, she grabbed it and headed toward the edge of the suite.

Ding Yufei still hadn’t fully processed what she was doing when he saw her carrying the little axe toward the railing.

“Belina… what are you doing?”

For a split second, he actually thought she was about to jump across and start hacking people apart.

That immediately felt wrong—Belina had never been the impulsive type.

Besides, the distance between the suites was far too great to leap across.

Fortunately, Belina’s next action immediately answered his question.

She stopped near the edge of the suite, examined the floor briefly, then swung the axe downward.

Everyone expected the floor to stop the tiny axe.

Instead—

Clang!

The flooring shattered into countless tiny particles.

Hidden beneath it was something shaped like a backpack.

“What’s that?” Ding Yufei hurried over.

“A manual rescue device. Every airborne vehicle has one,” Belina explained. “Help me throw it down.”

She tugged at it, but the thing was surprisingly heavy.

“Alright.”

Ding Yufei immediately stepped forward to help.

Lina also rushed over.

“I’ll help too.”

“You don’t need to help us,” Belina said quickly. “Break open the floor panel over there—the one with the star marking. There’s another rescue device inside.”

Lina grabbed the axe and hurried to the indicated location.

After a quick search, she smashed open another floor panel and pulled out the second rescue unit.

Ding Yufei helped Belina throw the first one into the lake, then quickly ran over to help Lina launch the second.

The two rescue devices splashed into the water one after another.

The moment they touched the lake, their autonomous rescue systems activated automatically.

Since they operated independently, no manual control was required.

Within seconds, they detected the two struggling female intimate partners and floated rapidly toward them.

Mechanical arms extended outward, pulling the nearly drowning girls onto their expanded chassis before carrying them toward shore.

Only after watching the rescue devices fly off across the lake with the two girls safely aboard did Ding Yufei finally let out a long breath of relief.

At least the two attendants had survived.

But when he turned around again, he immediately saw the people inside the Special Class suite staring silently at everything he had just done.

The distance between the two suites had already narrowed to barely ten meters and was still closing.

The man Ding Yufei had nicknamed “pretty boy” was glaring at him with a dark, ugly expression.

Ding Yufei knew perfectly well that he had offended the other side.

Still, in public, they probably wouldn’t dare go too far.

Out of the corner of his eye, he quickly glanced back at his own side.

The attendants serving them stood with lowered heads, visibly frightened.

Mor and Little Chubby remained frozen in their seats.

Because Ding Yufei and Lina had been throwing the rescue devices, they were standing closest to the front.

A short distance behind them, Belina was crouched on the floor, apparently organizing something inside her bag.

“Excellent. Truly excellent.”

The pretty boy finally spoke in a mocking tone.

“You actually dare oppose me—a General—on Planet Boman. You've got guts.”

“General?”

The name Frederick instantly flashed through Ding Yufei’s mind.

Wasn’t Belina trying to negotiate with Lieutenant General Frederick regarding the Starship?

Could this man actually be him?

If so, then rescuing those two attendants might have completely ruined Belina’s plans.

But at the same time…

How could he possibly have ignored it?

“You’re Lieutenant General Frederick?” Ding Yufei asked uncertainly.

“So you know Frederick,” the pretty boy sneered viciously. “Too bad for you—I’m even harder to deal with than he is.”

His tone clearly carried contempt even toward a Lieutenant General.

As he spoke, he motioned toward the two pig-faced guards behind him.

By now, the two floating suites had nearly touched.

The pretty boy stepped directly into Ding Yufei’s suite alongside the two guards.

“Beat everyone here half to death,” he ordered coldly. “Then throw them all into the lake.”

Although he hadn’t explicitly ordered them shot, the result would hardly be different.

Even if someone could swim, very few people here could possibly make it back to shore alive from this distance.

Ding Yufei looked quickly around his side again.

The attendants were already trembling.

Lina might be a mech fighter, but without a mech, her physical strength was limited despite her reflexes.

Against elite special forces soldiers barehanded, she stood little chance.

Ding Yufei himself doubted he could beat the guards either.

As for Belina, combat clearly wasn’t her specialty.

The only one who might possibly resist them was Mor.

But Mor had completely curled up in his chair, barely daring to breathe.

Not only was he a slave who didn’t dare oppose free citizens or nobles—

He also recognized those guards.

These pig-faced soldiers were among the elite troops of the Resk Empire military.

According to rumor, anyone who fought them ended up dead.

The two guards advanced steadily toward Ding Yufei and Lina.

With no better option, Ding Yufei quickly pulled Lina backward.

They simply weren’t opponents for these people.

Just as he was running out of ideas, a gentle voice suddenly sounded behind him.

“General Balk… after all these years, you still love causing trouble.”

Belina stepped between Ding Yufei and Lina and calmly walked forward.

Her gaze passed directly over the approaching guards and landed on the pretty boy behind them.

But the two pig-faced soldiers didn’t stop.

Without an order from their master, they wouldn’t halt.

They continued toward Belina.

Just as their large hands were about to touch her—

“Stop. Fall back.”

The pretty boy finally spoke again.

The man Belina had called General Balk now wore a smiling expression as he looked at her.

“So it’s Princess Belina,” he said pleasantly. “It really has been several years. I heard you went away for some kind of internship. Who would've thought we'd meet here?”

“My internship ended,” Belina replied casually. “So I came here to relax for a while.”

Balk walked up to her and bent slightly forward.

Belina extended her hand, raising her ring finger slightly.

Balk gently took it and kissed it lightly.

Apparently, it was a formal greeting etiquette—somewhat similar to aristocratic customs in Europe back on Earth.

It was the first time Ding Yufei had ever witnessed the etiquette exchanged between alien nobles and powerful elites.