Wei Jun took a deep breath, wiping away tears as he gazed at the falling warship and murmured, "Li Chi, rest in peace."
Turning to Zhou Tianming, he bowed deeply. "Thank you."
Zhou Tianming didn't move, standing still as he watched the warship. "I only sent him up there. The final attack was his own choice. Don't blame me for not stopping him."
Straightening up, Wei Jun shook his head. "How could I? I knew Li Chi wouldn't last long in that state. A proud man like him could never accept being crippled."
"He... he..." His voice choked up. "He only clung to life this long for my sake."
"You let him take revenge with his own hands and bring down that warship..." Wei Jun sniffled, his tone filled with pride. "For a soldier, what greater honor could there be?"
Wei Jun grinned. "That guy's probably bragging to his old comrades down there right now."
Imagining the scene, Zhou Tianming chuckled. "Yeah, Uncle Li would definitely be showing off."
The two gazed into the distance, as if seeing their departed friends waving goodbye.
Without thinking, they both raised their hands, then paused and laughed.
Together, they saluted the horizon.
An hour later, Zhou Tianming used the water inside the Black Tortoise to clean himself and change clothes.
Wei Jun burst out laughing at the sight of him in ill-fitting attire.
Sitting by the campfire, Zhou Tianming extended a hand to Wei Jun. "Is your phone working? I need to call my mom."
Wei Jun pulled out his phone and handed it over.
Zhou Tianming sighed as he took it. "I feel like my phones never last long. They always break soon after I get them."
Grumbling, he dialed, only to hear a busy signal.
Frowning, he returned the phone, his voice thick with frustration. "Has the Junk Guild still not fixed the signal issues? Seriously..."
He trailed off, swallowing the last two words with a sigh.
"The Junk Guild is just a loose coalition—people banding together for survival. I don't know why you expected so much from them."
"I was influenced by rumors."
Wei Jun gave him a strange look. "You actually heard good rumors about the Junk Guild? Where?"
This was his own fault—he'd been too naive, too swayed by the original story.
The spin-off protagonist Lowe and others had exaggerated the overall competence of the Junk Dealers.
Too tired to argue, Zhou Tianming sighed.
As he tried to change the subject, the Black Tortoise came to mind, and his expression turned serious. "Tell me about the Black Tortoise's situation."
Wei Jun also grew serious upon hearing this: "You think it's not over yet?"
Shaking his head: "Not sure. First, tell me more about the Black Tortoise."
"Honestly, I haven't found much more information here either. The only thing, as you know, is that the Black Tortoise's engine was dismantled."
Wei Jun looked puzzled: "I can't figure out why they'd remove the Black Tortoise's engine. That engine was practically obsolete—it wasn't even nuclear-powered."
The word "nuclear" seemed to unlock something in Zhou Tianming's mind, and his expression gradually darkened: "Are all spaceships nuclear-powered?"
"Of course," Wei Jun replied with absolute certainty, as if stating the obvious. "What else would they use? Only our Black Tortoise, as a prototype, had some kind of thermoelectric conversion engine—inefficient and wasteful. No idea what the point was."
No, no, no!
Spaceships shouldn't be nuclear-powered!
A storm of realization raged in Zhou Tianming's heart.
In CE 70, in retaliation for the Earth Alliance's nuclear attack on Junius 7, PLANT developed the Neutron Jammer, a device capable of suppressing nuclear reactions.
This plunged Earth into a full-blown energy crisis, claiming hundreds of millions of lives and further deepening the hatred between the two sides.
Leaving aside the ground battles, the focus was the space war.
ZAFT, as the developer of the Neutron Jammer, naturally had countermeasures prepared in advance.
But within months of the energy crisis, the Earth Alliance's spaceships had already resolved their power issues and could engage ZAFT in normal combat.
What energy source were these ships using?
If the Neutron Jammer's effects could be bypassed so easily, why would Earth have suffered such a devastating energy crisis?
Sending spies to PLANT to steal the technology?
Mass-producing and deploying it within months?
If they had that capability, why bother stealing energy tech in the first place?
But if that wasn't the case, it meant someone had provided the Earth Alliance with a new energy source—one that could bypass the Neutron Jammer's suppression while matching nuclear efficiency.
Was this technology given freely?
No way.
With war imminent, technological monopoly was key.
No matter the cost, the Earth Alliance would have to swallow it—otherwise, they'd be pinned down by ZAFT on Earth.
This technology became a turning point, instantly granting the Earth Alliance the means to resist ZAFT and prolonging the war into a grueling stalemate.
This kind of maneuver...
A name flashed in Zhou Tianming's mind—LOGOS.
The arms dealers who profited from war, the shadowy puppeteers of the SEED world, manipulating both sides of the conflict.
This was a 15-year investment with infinite returns.
Could these clowns from the original story pull it off?
Zhou Tianming believed they could.
The very existence of LOGOS proved their capabilities were top-tier. Their easy demise in the original story was the real joke.
An organization with such deep roots couldn't be toppled just by eliminating a few leaders—their influence remained buried deep within the world.
The more he thought, the darker Zhou Tianming's expression became.
"You look awful—what's on your mind?" Wei Jun asked with concern. "Something serious?"
Zhou Tianming opened his mouth to explain but quickly shut it again.
This speculation was based on reverse-engineering future events—there was no concrete evidence to support it.
Even if he said it out loud, he'd just sound like a paranoid kid worrying over nothing.
Should we let LOGOS have their way?
Zhou Tianming gritted his teeth but could only remain silent, powerless to act.
To oppose an organization like LOGOS—one that had been scheming for over 15 years—ordinary forces stood no chance.
Only the Three Council Nations could manage it. The Atlantic was LOGOS's stronghold, Eurasia was out of the question, leaving only East Asia as the sole contender.
But how could he even reach East Asia's top brass? And how could he explain such a far-fetched idea?
Another question surfaced in his mind.
Was the Neutron Jammer really developed by PLANT alone?
Research on devices to suppress nuclear weapons had begun the moment they were invented.
What a coincidence—just months after the nuclear explosions, the Neutron Jammer was perfected.
Without nuclear weapons as the ultimate deterrent, people lost the ability to deliver a decisive blow, dragging the war into a quagmire. At the same time, without nuclear deterrence, everyone became reckless.
Wasn't this exactly what LOGOS wanted?
The more Zhou Tianming thought about it, the more chilling it became.
He made up his mind—East Asia's leadership had to know about this.
His thoughts were a tangled mess. The more he knew, the more he pondered, and the more he worried.
Turning to Wei Jun, he wondered—since East Asia had practically given him the Black Tortoise at a bargain, there must be some connection, right?
"Uncle Wei, do you have any contacts who can reach East Asia's top brass?"
Wei Jun froze, looking puzzled. "Top brass? You—"
Just then, a deafening roar of helicopter blades filled the air, and a gust of wind kicked up dust from the ground.
Both men sprang to their feet and dashed inside the Black Tortoise.
Moments later, a helicopter approached, circling overhead.
Inside the Black Tortoise, Wei Jun pulled out a sniper rifle, aiming at the helicopter through a narrow gap.
"Give me one too."
"Can your scrawny frame even handle the recoil?"
Zhou Tianming stared—
Wei Jun, unnerved by the gaze, jerked his chin toward the back. "Go dig through the back room yourself. Find a small one for self-defense—you can't handle the big ones."
As Zhou Tianming turned to leave, a young man's voice suddenly blared from the helicopter's loudspeaker.
"Zhou Tianming! Is Zhou Tianming there? Your grandfather, Zhou Junguo, has an urgent message for you! Please respond immediately!"
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