Chapter 391 - 392: Selection Game 21

The moment she got the spaceship’s structural diagram, Perry Yates tossed it to Dylan Adler.

She’d known since childhood that she had a terrible sense of direction. When it came to maps, she knew the basics—up is north, down is south, left is west, and right is east—but that was it.

It would be one thing if there were landmarks, but there weren’t any here.

If she was this bad with maps, a structural diagram was completely out of the question.

As for Dylan Adler, he didn’t complain after receiving the diagram. He simply led Perry Yates to a safe spot and began to study it.

He had a very clear understanding of his role: he was Perry Yates’s assistant, there to handle anything she didn’t want to do or found too troublesome.

However, the spaceship was simply massive. Even for Dylan Adler—a man skilled at drafting, who knew the map of Cerulea like the back of his hand and could draw it perfectly freehand—facing such a complex structural diagram meant he had to study it for a very long time.

Then, after a good deal of speculation and factoring in their entry point, he finally determined their current position.

The good news was that he’d found the ship’s main control room. The bad news was that, from their current location, it was in the complete opposite direction.

"Let’s go."

When Dylan Adler looked up from the diagram, he saw Perry Yates happily munching on something green.

"What are you eating?" he asked.

"Oh, this? I grabbed it from the galley earlier. It was one of the few things in there that looked like actual food. The texture is kind of like celery, but it tastes a bit like an apple. I snagged some before poisoning the rest. Want one?"

With that, Perry Yates took out another one of the green vegetables and offered it to Dylan Adler.

Dylan Adler took it and bit off a large chunk.

"It really does taste like an apple. But won’t the noise from us eating attract anyone?"

"A little late to be worrying about that, don’t you think?" She then added, "Relax, I put up a barrier. We’re fine."

The two continued toward the main control room, eating as they went. Along the way, based on feedback from 001, they occasionally caused a bit of trouble, carrying out some minor sabotage.

While not critical, these small acts of sabotage would cause significant problems for the ship if not repaired promptly.

The sudden rash of malfunctions on the previously stable ship sent all the Executors scrambling. For a time, the ship was a hive of chaotic activity.

Just as they were approaching the main control room, deafening alarms suddenly blared throughout the entire ship.

"001 must have been exposed," Perry Yates said. "We need to move faster."

"I’ll draw the Executors away, then. Can you lock onto the main control room with your spiritual power?" Dylan Adler asked.

After a moment of concentration, Perry Yates replied, "Yes, I can. It’s time to move."

A confident smile spread across Dylan Adler’s face. "I’ll be waiting for your good news, then."

Once Dylan Adler had left, Perry Yates began to implement her plan.

First, she used her Space Gate to teleport all the Executors inside the main control room out.

Without anyone at the controls, the entire ship began to shake violently. Even its stealth mode was forced to disengage, causing the vessel to appear in the sky above the game field.

With those nuisances gone, Perry Yates finally entered the main control room.

The moment she stepped inside, the room’s alarms immediately went off.

[WARNING! WARNING! UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL DETECTED! UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL DETECTED! PLEASE VACATE IMMEDIATELY! PLEASE VACATE IMMEDIATELY!]

The sudden voice startled Perry Yates. ’But I came in wearing the Silver Cross,’ she thought.

’Then again,’ she mused, ’the Silver Cross just lowers my presence. It’s not actual Invisibility.’

’The Heavenly Eye hadn’t spotted them because it was far away and constantly moving, not fixed in one spot.’

’As the very core of the ship, the main control room was bound to have the highest level of security.’

Seeing that Perry Yates remained motionless, countless weapons suddenly materialized in the blink of an eye, all aimed at her and ready to fire.

Just as she prepared to redirect all the incoming attacks with her Space Gate, 001 made its move.

The red alarms abruptly ceased, and even the weapons powered down.

[UNABLE TO IDENTIFY! UNABLE TO IDENTIFY! SYSTEM ERROR! SYSTEM ERROR!]

[INITIATING SANITIZATION PROTOCOL!]

The audible alarm was gone, but the red warning messages on the control room’s screens were still just as glaring.

Perry Yates removed 001 from her person, where it reverted to its card form.

Since this was only a quarter of the whole, its golden light was considerably dimmer than before.

She placed the card on the control console. In the next instant, it dissolved into a streak of golden light and shot into the room’s system.

As 001’s essence entered the system, the red screens flickered a few times before turning a stable, normal blue.

At that moment, the screens in the main control room were in two states: half were a glaring red, paralyzed from an attack of unknown origin, while the other half, now controlled by 001, glowed a calm blue and were operating normally.

Based on the ratio of red to blue, the red side clearly had the upper hand. However, a closer look revealed that the blue was slowly but surely eating into the red’s territory.

After taking over part of the ship’s systems, 001 immediately locked down all entrances to the main control room. It also set up a command to attack anyone who approached, preventing anyone from rushing in and ruining its plan.

’After all, it knew its master had taken a fancy to this spaceship.’

’And for some reason, even though it was just a card, it felt as free as a fish in the sea after entering the ship.’

Perry Yates watched 001’s relentless advance, pulled a chair over from the side, and settled in to watch the show.

"By the way, 001, what’s the situation outside?"

While still in the process of seizing control of the ship, 001 didn’t fail to answer Perry Yates’s question. This time, however, the reply came not as a voice, but as text.

A line of text quickly appeared on one of the blue screens.

[The Executors know the ship has been breached and are heading this way, but Dylan Adler, Amber Sheridan, and Ethan Fuller are holding them up.]

"Where are the three of them now?" Perry Yates asked.

The blue screen flickered twice, and soon, images of the three of them appeared on it.