As soon as the voice faded, several people appeared on the video feed, watching the Mecha warily.

Before Zoe Pierce had a chance to hear them speak, the video feed flickered and, in the blink of an eye, the signal was completely cut off.

"Mr. Jacobs." Zoe Pierce’s gaze immediately snapped to Ryan Jacobs.

She saw that Ryan Jacobs was also frowning, but unlike Zoe Pierce’s worry, he clearly had faith in Director Quinn and the others.

Noticing Zoe Pierce’s worried expression, he immediately tried to comfort her. "Director Quinn is there. Don’t worry."

Situations like this, where they couldn’t make contact, sometimes happened during missions. This was man-made interference, which was much better than a signal disruption caused by a natural magnetic field.

"Zoe." Zoe Pierce felt Ian Sullivan’s hand take hers. His eyes were also filled with tension, as if he was trying to comfort her while also needing her own reassurance to be at ease.

Zoe Pierce forced a smile. "It’s okay. We have to trust them."

The smile didn’t reach her eyes. But right now, there was nothing to do but wait.

Time ticked by, second by second. In space, there was no concept of day or night, only the eternal, brilliant Star River.

Ian Sullivan and the other few children couldn’t stay awake any longer and had fallen asleep.

Zoe Pierce stood with her arms crossed for a long time, watching the time on her Intelligent Brain. It had been nearly five hours since they lost contact with the team.

And it had been almost a full day since they left the Starship.

’No matter what, someone should have reported back by now, not this complete silence.’

Unable to wait any longer, Zoe Pierce went to find Ryan Jacobs.

"I think we need to find out what’s going on, Mr. Jacobs." The moment Zoe Pierce arrived, even before she spoke, Ryan Jacobs knew what she was going to say. Sure enough, her first words were exactly what he’d expected.

Ryan Jacobs was also somewhat puzzled. Based on the normal procedures and their communication with that guy, Morgan, the matter should have been resolved quickly.

"Let’s wait a little longer. If there’s still no signal link in two hours, we’ll go down," Ryan Jacobs said in a low voice. Even if they didn’t know what had happened on that street, they needed to find out just who this Leon Grove was.

Zoe Pierce felt a tightness in her chest and grunted in agreement.

She returned to the sofa and sat down, her gaze distant and unfocused.

’I think I’m still affected by what happened to Damien Pierce. His father was also an Interstellar Pirate, and he still ended up dead.’

’It’s different, I know it is. In terms of combat power and everything else, Miles Sherman and the others are incredibly strong. They can fight S-Class Xenobeasts to a standstill, even annihilate them.’

But the worry didn’t lessen one bit.

’Chase Shaw’s spirit sea is so easily affected. What if he loses control?’

’And Erin Xavier, her emotions are so volatile. What if she acts impulsively?’

’Miles Sherman and Nathan Lockwood don’t seem to have any obvious weaknesses in my eyes, but that doesn’t make me feel any less anxious.’

’Maybe it’s because I’m not there fighting alongside them. It creates this illusion of being left behind.’

She was afraid.

Unable to stay calm.

Another two hours passed. The Starship remained quiet. By now, Mr. Troy also felt it was time to go and check things out.

Losing contact with people on a small trash planet like Gorbog was just too strange.

Hearing the decision from Ryan Jacobs and Mr. Troy, Zoe Pierce’s tightly clenched fists finally relaxed slightly. She didn’t notice it herself, but if anyone had looked, they would have seen deep fingernail marks dug into her palms.

When Morgan got the news that another huge Starship had arrived, he had the distinct feeling that after picking on the little guys, the big boss had come for him.

He knew that group had gone in and hadn’t come out yet. He’d said from the start that place was bad news.

But he never expected more people would actually show up.

Especially after seeing the scale of this Starship, a bad feeling started to grow in his gut.

’This isn’t something that can be explained away by ’rich people’ anymore. This fucking Starship is equipped with a thermal-emission Star Destroyer Cannon. If you ran into this in space, one shot could blow a whole starship away, and who knows what else it’s carrying.’

’Crazy.’

’Who the hell did Leon Grove and his crew kidnap to cause this kind of commotion?’

But at this point, no matter what he thought, he could only swallow his pride and approach them as he did before.

This time, Ryan Jacobs didn’t pilot a Mecha but went out directly with Zoe Pierce.

In the dim light, Morgan’s first glance at Zoe Pierce’s face was simply that the Omega before him was strikingly beautiful. But then he felt that her face looked a bit familiar.

As if he’d seen her somewhere before, but he couldn’t recall where.

’Logically, I shouldn’t be able to forget a face that beautiful.’

"Give us all the detailed information on Leon Grove." Ryan Jacobs didn’t waste any words with Morgan. If they didn’t need to learn about Leon Grove, they would have landed directly on that street.

Morgan knew he was just caught in the crossfire.

He spilled about eighty percent of what he knew. This time, he didn’t hold anything back; in fact, he told them pretty much everything he could, and even some things he shouldn’t have.

Only then did Zoe Pierce learn that even the locals refused to go near the place where Leon Grove and his people stayed.

"They have an internal network, but as soon as an outsider goes in, there’s no signal. They control it all." Morgan knew that Leon Grove had a few young guys who specialized in this sort of thing. He had no idea what kind of spell Leon Grove had cast on them to make them so blindly loyal.

They could have left this trash planet long ago, but they chose to stay.

Hearing this, Ryan Jacobs lunged and grabbed Morgan.

Morgan instinctively tried to dodge, but after a few moves, he was caught. Neither of them used spiritual power; it was a purely technical grapple. Morgan was no match for the well-trained Ryan Jacobs.

"You’re coming with us." Ryan Jacobs dragged him directly onto the Starship.

A journey that took twenty minutes by Mecha was only a few minutes by Starship, and only that long because the distance was too short to initiate a jump.

Morgan was still dazed when they disembarked from the Starship.

’Damn it. This is why I hate these upper-class people.’ 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Mr. Troy, using a signal detector, shook his head at Ryan Jacobs. "The signal is completely blocked. The fluctuations show a steady drop-off, which means it was deliberately set up."

"There are no dead zones at all."

Clearly, this wasn’t something set up in a day or two.

"We didn’t bring any specialized decryption equipment." None of them were communications experts, so naturally, they hadn’t prepared for this.

Morgan shrugged. ’These people just wouldn’t listen to warnings.’

But then he saw that Omega he’d found vaguely familiar now approaching the street. ’Whoa, whoa, whoa, isn’t that a bit reckless?’ he thought, unable to stop himself from speaking up. "What’s an Omega like you getting involved for? Stay on the Starship."

The moment he spoke, Ryan Jacobs and Mr. Troy’s attention was immediately drawn to her.

They looked at Zoe Pierce disapprovingly and shook their heads. "Come back."

Morgan gave a smug, careless laugh. "Exactly. What good do you think you can do by going?"

Zoe Pierce stopped in her tracks. Her slender, upright figure turned, and she slowly walked up to Morgan.

Seeing her face up close, he snickered.

The next second, before he could say another word, his world spun. His body instinctively tried to resist, but while he was fast, Zoe Pierce was faster.

His face was suddenly slammed into the ground, scraping painfully. His hands were pinned behind his back, held down by a knee. He heard the Omega’s cold voice. "The Omega you look down on is the one pinning you to the ground. Shut up."