Upon hearing the good news brought by Momo, Yu Sheng hurriedly headed to Black Stone Station with his crew members—Hu Li was originally sleeping groggily, but upon hearing Yu Sheng getting up, she immediately followed, although she still hadn't quite figured out what was going on even when she saw Luo, being still half-asleep...

Black Stone Station control ring, Luo's private lab.

A rather spacious room was filled with all sorts of dazzling equipment, a jumble of orderly cables and material transmission tracks crisscrossing overhead. Luo was sitting by the arc-shaped platform in the center of the room, surrounded by rapidly refreshing holographic projections and variously sized conventional displays. Just as Yu Sheng opened the door and came in, she was still busy clicking away, with several mechanical limbs behind her connected to nearby equipment like tentacles.

The scene appeared from the front like a beautiful scientist in a quest mission surrounded by screens yammering about background settings to players; from the back, like a mad villainous doctor planning to destroy the world in an underground base (of course, considering this lady's academic qualifications, she could be a crazy postdoctoral fellow), while from the side, it was blocked by screens.

As soon as Yu Sheng appeared, Luo stood up happily: "Boss, you're here!"

"Actually, I've always wanted to ask," Yu Sheng waved to her, looking up at the pile of screens beside Luo, "Every time in movies, TV, and games, it's the same—you scientists always have so many flashy displays around you, can you keep track of them all?"

Luo hadn't expected Yu Sheng's first words to be about this, and was momentarily stunned. But having spent some time at the travel agency, she quickly reacted, waving a hand: "In short, it's all about stereotypes—that whole setup of surrounding yourself with screens and flashing data graphs to look profound, how else would the director let you instantly recognize the person in the center as a scientist..."

Yu Sheng was taken aback: "But you..."

"I really don't need to look at them," the mechanical tentacles behind Luo rotated with a click, "I am directly connected to these devices, the data goes straight to my brain—if not for some key systems requiring physical controllers for security reasons, I wouldn't even need a keyboard."

Yu Sheng: "Then why have all these... around you?"

Luo: "To reinforce the stereotype."

Yu Sheng: "…?"

"So that clients see it and think you're very professional," Luo stated calmly. "My mentor told me back then that outsiders can't perceive the real difficulty and workload in tech fields. Adding a couple more screens around can make you seem busy, and even if fixing something takes only a couple of screws, you should try to drag it out a couple of hours, so the client feels better when paying."

Pausing for a moment, she added: "I don't really need this setup anymore, but old habits die hard. You can think of it as my lab's decoration style."

Thinking over this, Yu Sheng said: "Fine, when I see all the screens flashing around you, I'll know you're not busy."

"Wait, that's not what I meant..."

Yu Sheng waved his hand, returning to the main topic: "Let's discuss the Star Gate—Momo said you found it?"

Luo opened her mouth, sighed after a few seconds, resignedly sat back down, and the holographic projection closest to Yu Sheng flickered twice, stopping the pre-set broadcast content, and began showing a complex structure with numerous markings on a star map.

Several coordinates and course lines on the star map were brightly illuminated.

"If my calculations are correct, the Hidden Monastery has at least one illegal Star Gate at this location, which means this should be their border," she raised her hand to point at the holographic projection and, considering her boss's educational level, added an explanation, "Star Gates serve dual functions of long-distance transport and beacon lighthouse, they can 'eject' ships instantly to another Star Gate and emit a guiding signal strong enough to cross deep space, guiding ships within a star system to warp back—ships in warp are affected by distorted space, making it impossible to observe the true star field accurately. Without navigation beacons, they'd be lost in the vast space between celestial bodies..."

Yu Sheng stroked his chin as he listened and nodded slightly—he could understand some of it, after Baili Qing gave him such a thick stack of the Interstellar Captain's Manual (driving test material), even a cursory reading would accumulate some basic conceptual knowledge, although the stuff on the holographic projection was another matter—Luo continuing to play broadcast didn't really matter...

Hu Li suddenly twitched her ears and looked up at the changing star map and coordinate chart on the holographic projection.

The big fox was finally wide awake.

"...Looks surprisingly close to the Morona Fault?" she said with some surprise.

"Yes, unexpectedly close, but that's for large ships with Hyperlight Cores, and only because we've now found its coordinates. Without these coordinates, this border would remain forever hidden in the vast darkness of the Dark Meteor Domain—the territory around the Hidden Monastery is surrounded by impressive gravitational faults; these scattered non-continuous spaces completely block starlight emitted from their nest, and even extend into part of the Great Triangle Nebula, no wonder no one has discovered their lair for so many years."

"Alright, since we found it, let's set sail and take a look," Yu Sheng clapped his hands, deciding instantly, "You and Momo stay at Black Stone Station, send the coordinates to the Otherworld Inn, and we'll go now."

"Just leave right away?" Luo stood up in surprise, "That's the Hidden Monastery's territory, even if we found the Star Gate coordinates, we can't be sure if there's anything else near it. If you venture deep alone and get discovered..."

"Found out when I opened the door and came back," Yu Sheng said casually, "Wherever I go is basically like the travel agency's doorway, can't beat them but at least I can escape, right?"

Luo: "…Damn, I totally forgot about that."

Yu Sheng didn't say much, just waved happily, then lifted a hand and opened a door leading to the Otherworld Inn, stepping through and remembering something, turned back saying: "Oh right, I directly 'sent' the ship to the Morona Fault, it's closer from there, you just help us plan the jump route starting from that Fault."

"Understood."

The lights in the Control Hall of the Otherworld Inn were already lit.

The immense power output from the reactor core had been injected into the ship's system, a sort of deep, melodious humming resonated within the depths of the interstellar vessel, Yu Sheng sat in the Captain's seat in the Control Hall, feeling the ship gradually awaken as if it were his own body.

The communicator received an external signal, Yu Sheng glanced at the signal source, his expression subtly complex as he connected.

From the communicator on the console came the noisy chatter of a Big Golden Hair girl: "Bro! Bro, are you guys going on a trip? I heard the automatic broadcast from the Star Port over here in the Black Forest, saying the ship is preparing for liftoff or something… Are you going to find someone to fight? Can you take me?"

"Don't go yelling to join in every time something happens—quickly use your winter break to catch up on the classes you missed," Yu Sheng pressed his hand on the communicator, "We're carrying out a secret infiltration mission this time, no fighting involved."

"Hey bro! Why are you taking such a big ship for infiltration…"

The communicator was shut, silence returned.

The image from the external monitor showed the mountains beyond the valley slowly descending—moments later, the Otherworld Inn reached the sky and was swallowed by a rolling Space Rift, disappearing in a flash of starlight.

Once the light and shadow outside the viewing window stabilized, it was already twisted starlight near the Morona Fault pouring into the Control Hall.

Yu Sheng's thoughts stirred, and the Concealing Force Field of the Otherworld Inn activated, a nearly transparent "light membrane" quickly expanded at both ends of the tower-shaped ship, enveloping it in the blink of an eye.

As a special starship built by the Hidden Monastery for penetrating the Civilized World, the ship isn't really outstanding in armor or firepower, yet all other auxiliary and special combat systems are extremely excellent, especially its concealing capabilities, it once hid under the Special Service Bureau's nose for ten years without being exposed—even after being revealed in the Mist City, it remained hidden—and now it's been modified by the Special Service Bureau, erasing all system backdoors and identification marks left by the Hidden Monastery, the Concealing Force Field can be activated, making it travel like a ghost anywhere.

That's also the reason Yu Sheng dares to take this ship to the Hidden Monastery border to find a way—the Special Service Bureau's stealth reconnaissance ship might not even be as good as this one.

After a brief patrol, the Otherworld Inn received navigation data from Black Stone Station.

A deep rumbling came from deep within the starship.

The onboard AI broadcasted flatly from the hall: "Coordinate calibration underway… course clear, jump engine initiating."

Outside the viewing window, the starlight started moving slowly backward, and then speed increased, all the star points suddenly contracted into a blue whirlpool light stream in front of the ship, while the endless space transformed into a dark red "tail stream" behind the ship, followed by the curved space closing up, the starry sky of the real universe transforming into infinitely elongated projections on the outer wall of the space bubble.

Yu Sheng was no longer as excited and tense as the first time he entered the jump state—despite his consciousness still directly connected with the Otherworld Inn, despite him still able to "look up" and see those imprinted mega-constructs left by the creator called "Captain" and countless strange messages in star space, now he could calmly enjoy the process and even communicate with people beside him.

Erin was seated in the chair next to him, the little puppet self-proclaimed as the Vice-Captain of the Otherworld Inn, her tiny body almost completely blocked by the chair's armrest when seated—there was also a small control screen in front of Erin that matched her height for her to pretend to be busy pressing around.

The control screen wasn't hooked to anything, it was just a flight simulation interactive interface, specifically for her to play with—it serves a purpose similar to the steering wheel in the parent-child bumper cars at amusement parks, primarily providing an immersive playscape.

The little puppet actually knew this thing was useless but she didn't care, still played joyfully.

Hu Li sat on Yu Sheng's other side, seriously looking at the data returned from the jump engine and the navigation parameters sent by Luo.

She actually didn't understand this system at first—but later she asked Baili Qing for a bunch of flight manuals, and consulted Luo about the starship control knowledge from this world, self-studied for half a month.

Now she understood.