Chapter 70: Teammates

Standing by the dusty, wind-swept road, Yuxing watched in surprise as the person stepped out of the car. He hadn't expected that the one Captain Poshui sent to pick him up would be—

"Senior Ayu!"

Yuxing hurried over to the driver's side, where Senior Ayu, now dressed in a new uniform, looked even more dashing and imposing. Resting his elbow casually on the open window frame, Ayu greeted him.

"Hey, I didn't expect the captain would send me to pick you up, Yuxing."

"Senior Ayu, how come you're here...?" Yuxing was caught off guard, but then he remembered—today was Senior Ayu's examination day. Most likely, just like himself, he had passed both the written and oral exams on the spot.

Realizing this, Yuxing first offered his congratulations, then circled around to the passenger seat, got in, and fastened his seatbelt.

After another ten minutes on the road, Yuxing returned to the office building he had visited just two days before. Today seemed to be a rest day for the construction crew; the surroundings were quiet, with only the wind whispering.

Yuxing and Ayu ascended the stairs together and, in the usual spot, found Captain Poshui, who was standing with his back to them, wiping the whiteboard. Hearing their footsteps, the captain hastened to erase the last traces of writing and turned to invite them to sit.

As Yuxing glanced around the office, comparing it to the scene from two days ago, the most noticeable change was the pile of documents on the captain's desk—significantly thicker, stacked high in the corner.

Sure enough, once they were seated, the captain distributed the files from the desk corner, one set for each.

Yuxing swiftly leafed through the documents, then raised his eyes to the captain with a look of deep admiration.

Captain, be honest—did you get even a wink of sleep last night?

A wave of regret followed. He shouldn't have sent his action plan to the captain so late at night, making the captain stay up with him.

The documents in Yuxing's hands included confirmed passenger information for recent short-haul flights, the gate locations at Starport, and preliminary investigative reports on recent disappearances within the known universe.

Yuxing glanced at the captain, who looked refreshed and unfazed, showing no sign of an all-nighter. Just then, the captain cleared his throat, prompting the two to look up from their files.

"I've reviewed both of your submitted plans, Yuxing. In fact, they're quite similar."

But Yuxing found his attention drifting. Senior Ayu, sitting beside him, looked utterly bewildered—he clearly had no idea why he was here, nor why he had his own set of documents. When the captain mentioned Yuxing's plans, Ayu seemed even more lost. He knew nothing about any of this!

"Yuxing, your main concern is the unexplained disappearances of interstellar travelers, isn't it?"

Yuxing nodded.

His mission was to escort the cargo back safely; it would be a disaster if both he and the goods vanished.

Captain Poshui activated the projector, displaying a hand-drawn star map on the screen. A red circle marked a certain region—the very map Yuxing had drawn in the Black Star Café. When he’d sent his action plan in the early hours, he’d included this map, emphasizing the potential dangers within that area.

"However, based on the intelligence we've gathered so far, the flight paths where the disappearances have occurred are highly random."

"There's almost no repetition."

As he spoke, the captain pulled up rows of data on the screen.

"The locations are distributed without any discernible pattern."

"If we try to predict the next possible site of an incident using the current data..."

With a flick of his hand, the screen changed to display a series of equations.

"The R-value is extremely low, meaning the confidence interval is terrible. There’s almost nothing useful to go on."

Turning to face them, the captain summed up:

"So that leads us to one conclusion: even if you choose a route where nothing has happened before... the next incident could very well occur on that route."

Yuxing could only nod in agreement.

He thought back to yesterday, to the stranger inquiring about Balai Lu and Garlum. A suspicion arose in his mind—

The disappearances were orchestrated by someone, not caused by any natural phenomenon. If it were natural, like a black hole, the signs would be obvious, the patterns predictable.

But the lack of pattern in the locations suggested someone was manipulating events behind the scenes. After all, if a pattern became obvious and everyone avoided the kidnappers’ usual hunting grounds, they’d have no one left to snatch.

Yet, investigating the culprit was not Yuxing’s task for now.

At the moment, he was the head escort. He knew there were bandits on the road, but his job was to deliver the goods to their destination, not to clear out every single bandit before setting off.

"Why don't you two introduce yourselves—oh, never mind, you already know each other."

Yuxing and Ayu exchanged a glance. Then Captain Poshui continued, "Yuxing, for this mission, Ayu will be going with you."

What?

Yuxing felt his breath catch, his heart seemingly missing a beat.

He wanted to protest that he could handle the assignment alone, but when he turned to look at Senior Ayu, he found Ayu watching him with eager anticipation.

Words of refusal crowded his mind, but not a single syllable would come out.

That stifling feeling followed him all the way back to the city with Ayu, only easing slightly once they returned.