"As you all know, in this age star-gate technology is the linchpin of interstellar travel. But a star gate can only be built in a system that possesses two suns — so to this day, fully a third of all star systems still cannot host one…"
Zhao Chen cracked his eyes open in a daze, his head swimming.
If he remembered right, he'd stayed up all night gaming, and had started nodding off the moment class began.
The strange thing was that today the ever-strict Extermination Abbess[1] hadn't shaken him awake.
Then, all at once, Zhao Chen's expression went blank.
Because he'd noticed there was something very wrong with the whole classroom.
The desks were no longer wooden but made of some pure-white composite; before each student floated a holographic light-screen; and the uniform on his own back had turned into the sort of thing you'd see in one of those sci-fi space-war films.
Zhao Chen reached out to touch the seemingly transparent display hovering in front of him — and for an instant he actually felt the pressure of something solid; then, when he pressed harder, his whole hand passed clean through it.
"The hell…" Zhao Chen's eyes went wide, and he looked around him.
Where one wall of the classroom should have been, there was now a huge floor-to-ceiling window, and beyond it the image of a brilliant galaxy — the kind of thing he'd only ever seen on an educational broadcast.
On the walls of this strange classroom hung several electronic scroll-displays: some of fighters, some of warships… not naval warships, but starships, the kind out of a game!
And the teacher standing at the podium — Zhao Chen very nearly toppled over backward.
It was a humanoid creature. It wore clothes, but its head bore no hair; instead its scalp carried a vine-like patterning, and to either side of its head were ears shaped like butterfly wings.
That was absolutely not a human face!
Just as Zhao Chen was wondering whether he'd fallen into a dream, a torrent of memories began pouring into his mind.
The interstellar age… the Starlight Empire… Galactic Star Calendar, year 3030… the Northstar Starship Military Academy…
Zhao Chen… the Captain's Track… third year… cadet…
Zhao Chen winced in pain and clutched at his head.
"Old Zhao, what's the matter? Feeling ill?" A concerned voice came from beside him.
Zhao Chen looked over. It was a male student.
The boy's details surfaced in Zhao Chen's mind at once. Li Wei — his good friend and classmate.
"I'm fine. Probably just stayed up too late last night." Zhao Chen waved a hand to show he was all right.
He put on a show of composure and let the lesson go on, while inwardly he set about sorting through his present situation.
He'd transmigrated!
Transmigrated into an interstellar age.
This was a starship military academy of the Starlight Empire; he was a student here, majoring in the captaincy, with the hope of one day becoming the captain and commander of an interstellar warship.
Zhao Chen felt at his own pocket. There was a small medicine bottle there.
If his new memories were right, the body's original owner had swallowed poison over a failed romance — never dreaming it would let Zhao Chen transmigrate in and become the new master of this same-named, same-faced body.
Ding —
Super Interstellar Fleet System now binding… binding complete. Host: Zhao Chen.
A mechanical female voice suddenly welled up in his mind.
New-player pack unlocked.
Congratulations — acquired: System points ×100.
Congratulations — acquired: the "Master Starship Engineer" profession.
Congratulations — acquired: one "T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser" blueprint.
Congratulations — acquired: one random special-attribute draw.
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Zhao Chen realized this was the golden finger[2] every transmigrator was owed!
At a flick of thought, a virtual page rose up before his eyes.
Host: Zhao Chen
Profession: Master Starship Engineer
Special Attribute: none
Points: 100
Starships: 0
Mission: Quarterly Mission (unclaimed)
Warehouse: T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser blueprint
Zhao Chen swept his eyes over it — there were the two rewards he'd just been granted.
Master Starship Engineer?
Zhao Chen raised a hand and used the holo-computer set into the desktop to look up some material on starship construction. He found that the instant he laid eyes on the knowledge, he understood it in a flash — could even reason outward from one point to 10.
So I can build my own starships? Zhao Chen thought, a thrill of delight running through him.
He read on.
Points?
Points: System points are supplied daily in proportion to the number of starships the host owns (they must be built from system blueprints), and may also be earned by completing system missions. Points may be exchanged for "goods" in the system store.
Zhao Chen took a glance at this so-called system store. Inside were starship blueprints and a whole array of other odds and ends — but all of them at the T1 tech tier.
In this world, technological products were graded T1, T2, T3, and so on up the ladder; starships likewise. The higher the tier, the greater the combat power and the more advanced the technology.
So the "T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser" Zhao Chen had come by was, it was fair to say, a downright precious piece of starship technology!
For a single T3-tier starship blueprint was, within the Starlight Empire, a thing worth billions — even hundreds of billions — of star coins. As things stood, the number of T3 starship classes the Starlight Empire had openly in service came to fewer than 10!
Enough to show just how precious a T3 starship was.
If word ever got out that Zhao Chen held such a T3 blueprint in his hands, the whole empire would likely boil over.
But Zhao Chen understood the old saying well enough — a commoner is innocent; it is the jade in his keeping that condemns him.[3] Until he had strength enough of his own, this thing could not be let slip.
The pity of it was that, for now, Zhao Chen hadn't the means to build a T3 starship at all.
By the knowledge in his memory, he knew that building a single T3 starship called for at least 10 million star coins' worth of raw materials and the attendant construction costs.
To lay his hands on such a ship, Zhao Chen still had a very long road ahead.
As for that Quarterly Mission showing on the system interface —
It was a mission that formed automatically once every three months, with a reward for completing it.
And this first Quarterly Mission of his —
Zhao Chen claimed it.
Quarterly Mission: Own one starship (system-produced).
No small difficulty, that.
Beyond it, there was one more special thing.
That was the "special attribute."
Zhao Chen tapped the "Attribute" option, and a box unfolded before him.
Host will randomly draw one of the attributes below, along with its binding condition:
Option I — Your fleet may recruit only male soldiers. Gain: a fleet combat-power bonus; Voice of Inspiration.
Option II — Your fleet may recruit only female soldiers. Gain: a fleet Luck-value bonus; Eye of Insight.
Option III — Your fleet may recruit only non-humanoid soldiers. Gain: a fleet loyalty bonus; Universal Tongue.
Zhao Chen's face darkened. This System — was it messing with him?