Qu Jianlei’s attitude was overbearing, but strangely, the two customs enforcement ships did not act immediately.

The other side just repeated, "Repeating, emergency situation, emergency situation."

"Your ship must stop for inspection, your ship must stop for inspection, or face the consequences, or face the consequences."

In the Hope Star Realm, encountering such a situation, customs enforcement ships would directly resort to warning shots if verbal warnings didn’t work.

The Celestial Hook Star Realm might be more rule-abiding, but could there really be such order in a Transfer Star of the Chaotic Zone?

Qu Jianlei snorted coldly, "If you want to inspect my ship, identify yourselves first!"

Instead, the two customs enforcement ships did not show their identities at all and continued with their verbal warnings.

"This is the last warning, if you don’t stop, your ship will be attacked!"

Qu Jianlei decisively signaled to Little Lake, "Deploy interference flares, retreat to the Asteroid Belt!"

Little Lake fired several flares, and the battered 8384 drew a sizable arc in space and turned away.

"Pursue!" The two customs enforcement ships gave chase without hesitation, accelerating rapidly.

But despite its battered appearance, the 8384 was not slow in picking up speed, racing towards the Asteroid Belt frantically.

The faint bluish glow on the hull indicated that this merchant ship’s shields were fully activated.

This scene was faithfully recorded by the surveillance on the Blue Elf Star, which would later serve as undeniable evidence of 8384 attacking the customs enforcement ships.

The two customs enforcement ships pursued with all their might, but the other party was too fast, and the distance closed very slowly.

"Fire!" The customs enforcement ship finally initiated warning shots at the merchant ship.

However, with a distance of over 200,000 kilometers and the speed involved, the power of the shells was limited.

On the other hand, the merchant ship occasionally counterattacked, causing some trouble for the two customs enforcement ships.

Annoyed, a member of the customs enforcement crew said, "Should we launch the attack ship to strike?"

"It’s too far," someone responded, "Not only would it consume energy blocks, but long-distance attacks could easily damage the attack ship."

At the same time, Qu Jianlei was asking Little Lake, "Still can’t penetrate their shields?"

Little Lake’s voice was unusually grave, "Their artificial intelligence is very active, I don’t want to draw its attention."

"Then be careful," Qu Jianlei casually instructed, "Fire various shells to cover up our tactical intention."

It turns out his continuous attacks on the customs enforcement ships weren’t intentional provocations, nor were they due to an excess of warheads itching for use.

Yet, despite this, a warning sounded on one of the customs enforcement ships behind them.

"Attention, there’s a weak electromagnetic interference in the opponent’s shells! Attention, there’s a weak electromagnetic interference in the opponent’s shells!"

The customs enforcement crew on both ships heard this, and their expressions turned serious, "This is a bit tricky."

The use of electromagnetic interference was nearing military combat standards; not many armed merchant ships had such ammunition.

Strictly speaking, even if there is similar ammunition, it should not be used against the Customs Enforcement Division, lest it confirm "illegal electromagnetic interference."

During the interstellar exploration era, armed civilian ships using attack ships could still be said to be for escort purposes, but electromagnetic interference? What nonsense is that?

It would pose a considerable threat to passenger and cargo starships, and the government strictly... at least diligently managed it.

"Is this surprising?" someone sighed, "Is the Norton family’s money so easy to earn?"

Half a day later, the three ships entered the Asteroid Belt, one in front, two in back.

The two customs enforcement ships saw the other frantically zig-zagging in a panic, and couldn’t help but feel a premonition of trouble.

"Having pursued this far, can’t we go back and report doing our job? Don’t push them into a corner."

"Let’s pursue for another three hours, initiate an attack when within 150,000 to 200,000 kilometers, then we can head back."

"Indeed, since we’ve earned their money, we should at least make a gesture, and go back with the recording as proof."

Two hours later, Little Lake finally broke through the defensive barrier and quietly infiltrated the customs enforcement ship’s central control system.

"What the hell, I thought they were official members of the Customs Enforcement Division!"

It turns out these two customs enforcement ships weren’t even regular warships of the Customs Enforcement Division, but retired ones!

Retired warships get sold to various forces to perform short-distance transport.

However, the Empire has a strict regulation regarding such warships.

That is, the starship must not bear the emblem of the Customs Enforcement Division, and must clearly display civilian ship markings.

However, regulations are regulations, and the Customs Enforcement Division at the Transfer Star here has a peculiar operation.

They use the excuse of a mix of elements and heavy anti-smuggling work to request and employ some civilian forces to assist in customs enforcement.

Such situations are rare in the government, but you can’t say they don’t exist; however, in the Customs Enforcement Division, it’s really uncommon.

Little Lake discovered these two customs enforcement ships were both retired warships, and couldn’t help but feel enraged.

"Just temporary workers," Qu Jianlei muttered, "Well, let’s refer to them as labor deployment personnel."

The Big Head Butterfly’s body turned a little faster, clearly reflecting Rain’s emotions, "Labor deployment gets to open fire?"

"No need to get into details about this," Qu Jianlei casually stated, "Get ready to counterattack, deploy the attack ships."

The only drawback of 8384 is that even though it has attack ships in its cargo hold, it lacks ejection equipment and can only use a mechanical arm to deploy them.

But this is a unanimous decision between him and Little Lake; after installing the ejection equipment, the cargo bay got smaller!

For the 8384, which often carries a full load of Energy Blocks in the cargo hold, every bit of space is precious.

These two are truly pragmatic; it’s merely a matter of being slower and more awkward when exiting the bay, which is no big deal.

As soon as Qu Jianlei’s words fell, Little Lake spoke up, "The opponent launched attack ships... one, two, three, four, four ships!"

"It seems they don’t want to endure anymore," Qu Jianlei wasn’t surprised; the firepower range of both sides wasn’t much different.

What he cared about was, "Two against six, do you have confidence?"

"Boss, don’t worry," Little Lake replied confidently, "Even though we have to avoid the artificial intelligence, being able to predict is enough."

After entering the Asteroid Belt, ordinary Starships find it difficult to contact Blue Elf Star, but the Customs Enforcement Starships are different.

They have highly penetrating long-range communication systems that can communicate with headquarters in real-time.

So even though Little Lake can suppress the opponent, he still doesn’t dare to appear explicitly, lest he gets detected by the AI at Customs Enforcement headquarters.

When it received the Vortex, it had the confidence to provoke that foolish AI, and now it’s more confident to crush it.

However, why bother? Just predicting the opponent’s prediction is more than enough for two ships to take on six.

The next moment, the battle officially started, filling the sky with beams of light and explosive blasts.

Two heavy cargo Starships were passing by, planning to stop at Transfer Star, and were immediately drawn to the battle here.

"Boss, there’s a fight, wanna check it out?"

"Forget it, did you forget the interstellar avoidance principle? I can’t even bear to go to Elf House, now you want me to watch Star Wars?"

"Boss, we’re almost at Blue Elf, let’s have a distant look, at worst we can speed up and slip away!"

The speed of heavy cargo Starships is truly poor, but they’re tough and have some counterattack ability, not afraid of conflict.

The key is that they’re not far from Transfer Star; a burst of acceleration can get them there.

With their "harmless passage" lights on, the two cargo Starships approached from afar, and the next moment they were utterly shocked.

"Damn, such a shabby Starship, where did it get its courage... Oh wait, is it facing Customs Enforcement’s Warship?"

"It’s not the Customs Enforcement," the boss finally showed his expertise, "They’re those guys’ pawns; all retired Warships."

"Should we lend a hand? At such close range, daring to challenge Customs Enforcement, isn’t that suicidal? A ready-made favor!"

"I think you’re the one courting death; the opponent dares to fight two against five, and is vaguely gaining the upper hand... Do you even understand space combat?"

"Boss, it’s not two against five, it seems like it’s three against five, plus some wreckage..."

"You pig-headed fool, Customs Enforcement Starship standard equipment is two attack ships, full capacity is three, don’t you know?"

"No way, boss, two against six, they’ve already taken down one? I’m timid, don’t scare me."

"I’m not scaring you, I’m encouraging you to assist Customs Enforcement, just right to earn favor... I’m off to Transfer Star to sleep at your friend’s place."

"Are you selling favors or are you selling lives!"

At this time, a group of temporary... labor dispatch personnel were also getting more and more shocked as they fought, amazed by the coordination of these two small, ramshackle ships.

If they hadn’t already blown up one of their Attack Ships, they might have already planned to retreat.

These people are said to be hired social idle individuals, but keep in mind, Customs Enforcement tacitly allows them to have law enforcement powers!

With law enforcement powers, of course, they can manipulate at will, how could ordinary idle people qualify for hiring?

These are all relatives and acquaintances of the Customs Enforcement team, some relation accounts, and even some are retired Customs Enforcement team members!

To put it simply, these people are the white gloves of Customs Enforcement, handling things that are inconvenient for them.

The relationships among them are also complex, but in this business, who hasn’t passed the loyalty test?

So no matter how complicated the relationships, here they are all "good brothers, one life together."

If there were no fatalities, everyone could retreat, but with casualties, having blown up one Attack Ship, they had to gamble once more.

Yet, in the next moment, a beam was fired from the Attack Ship controlled by Little Lake, hitting precisely at a secondary cannon mouth of a Customs Enforcement Ship.

The secondary cannon defense of a Customs Enforcement Ship is quite rigorous, and its firing is very consistent, with only the moment of reloading being exploitable.

Everyone understands the principle, but capturing the moment of reloading, how challenging it is?

Not to mention, how small is the cannon mouth? Who can precisely aim at it?

Remember, this isn’t land-based army warfare with snipers patiently waiting for opportunities.

This is space battle! Both sides are in high-speed motion!

Being able to hit a Warship is impressive already, hitting a cannon mouth is comparable to the Divine Land’s national soccer team winning 0.1 World Cup championships.

With the dual difficulties stacked, the chance of success is clear to imagine.

Moreover, Attack Ships are only short-legged and fragile; when it comes to Attack Power, they’re almost equal to the secondary cannons of the main ship.

This shot directly collapsed the secondary cannon, showing its precise level.

The destruction of the secondary cannon caused a glitch in the energy transfer of the entire Warship.

(Update until summoning for monthly tickets, subscriptions, and recommendation votes.)