Having worn the Contract Collar, Landon demanded the answer but I told him to wait two days in the port area. Although he grunted, he accepted to wait since he needed to take care of a few things before then; so, we parted ways for now. Finding that I got nothing to do, I decided to go to the marketplace to buy provisions as well as souvenirs for Lillie.

Just like that, two days passed swiftly. I killed time by gathering information as well as overseeing the remodeling of my spaceship. The spaceship might have been layered with the carcasses of the invisible beetle, but it had been made undetectable by a normal scanner. I had asked the engineers to disassemble the layered alloy and trimmed them down so there were enough to be used to cover the remodeled spaceship — allowing for the absolute invisible mode.

In the case of ATA, however, I had her acted like normal A.I. It proved effective though, so I didn’t worry too much about it. Well, I've thought about this possibility beforehand.

As I scratched my hair and observed the newly remodeled spaceship on the hangar, I couldn’t help but smile. It was now a Frigate-Class spaceship. The initial 50 meters length evolved into 120 meters. It even had two floors at the front section of the ship, a big garage for the Mobile Robot Suit and even a Ship-Virtual Chamber at the back. What made me more excited was that there was a compressed storage. Now, it had 10 times the size of the storage inside.

When I turned my field of view to the side, I saw the recently purchased Mobile Robot Suit. The Ever-Changeable MRS or so it was called, had a height of 20 meters, a width of about 5 meters, and a weight of at least 10 tons. If my spaceship hadn’t been upgraded, it wouldn’t be able to fit unless it was disassembled first. Of course, I didn't dare to test the thing out since I still hadn't trained in the simulation pod yet.

“Hey! Why are you just standing there like an idiot?” Suddenly, a voice emerged from behind and I could feel someone’s hand on my shoulder.

“Hmm?” Finding that it was Landon, I transmitted a voice, “Heh… Isn’t it Professor Landon? I thought you’d be backing out on the contract.”

“There’s no way to back out from that after what you’ve given me two days ago. Now tell me, where did you get this thing?” He took out the carcass that I gave him.

“Fine. But whether you believe me or not, it’s up to you.” With that said, I gazed around the place and realized that there was a group of 15 people in disguise not too far away, watching. Hmm… must be Professor Landon's follower. If I still have some remaining qi on my body, I would have detected them earlier.

“It’s… from another universe.” I’m not scared that he’ll reveal this secret to anyone, the Contract Collar he was wearing would prevent any leakage.

Landon's facial expression darkened and he said, "Kid… Did you eat a wrong medicine or having played too many fantasy simulation games?"

“I already said that it’s up to you to believe me or not. You must have realized that the thing that I told you to wear yesterday didn’t contain any electronics, and you can’t take it off.”

Landon flinched and questioned, “Hmph! Don’t try to sugarcoat it, I know that it’s a collar. What’s this collar, anyway? Without advanced cutting device, I don’t think I could cut this.”

“It’s a ‘Magic Tool,’ named ‘Contract Collar.’” Well, the reason I used Magic Collar instead of nanobot was that they were scientists. They must have a way to neutralize nanobots inside the body.

“Now what? Magic?” Landon stared at me as if looking at a fool.

Hmph. Speaking to a scientist like him that demands every concrete proof is a hassle.

“Anyway, in it contained two written contracts. First, the contractor won’t betray the contractee in any form, as long as it didn’t disbenefit the contractor and for as long as the contract work. Second, the contract may end if the objective of the contract was achieved or the time limit was exceeded.” Well, I didn't want to input ‘it will end if the contractor died’ since it might get myself killed.

“Then, what’s the objective?”

“You will be my accomplice. Help me in my goals and do my task faithfully. In return, the contractee will pay back the contractor in something that contractor wants — for now though, it’s still empty. As for the contract term, right now it was set into three months. Whether you want to continue it or not, it’s up to you but if you refuse by then, I might need to… you know…”

“Hmm… sounds a bit unfair. What if I broke the contract? Am I going to die like being cursed with magic? Hahaha!"

“Hmm? Do you want to try? The collar might explode and take your hand in the best-case scenario. At worst, I don't know, it might take your life instantly. If I were you, I wouldn’t take the chance.” It’s true though, I don’t really know its full function except being able to explode.

"I still don't trust all of your words. But anyway, I need to get out of this place. It wasn't a matter of seeing the so-called 'other universe.' Also, those 15 scientists will be accompanying me on this entourage." He pointed to the 15 people that had been watching in the distance.

Finding that it was a code, all of them approached us. “Director. Are you sure that we could have confidence in this lad?”

“Hmph. I give you the freedom to choose whether to follow me or not. If you go back to the Supernatural Department, I believe they would still accept you.”

Although all the scientists — still in disguise — began to hesitate, they all decided to follow him. Landon seems to have high prestige in his follower's hearts. He might surprisingly not a bad guy.

“Then… I don’t really care if you use those toys to them or not. It’s up to you.”

After some consideration, I decided to give them the Contract Collar. It was better to be safe than having someone stabbed my back later. They were a bit hesitant initially but decided to take it since Landon had used one. As for the content of the collar, I made it to be the same as what Landon used.

Subsequently, we all got into the ship and ready to go. ATA prepared the ship’s engine to take off the moment I sat in the new captain’s chair. Now, there was a passenger room near the control room, so all the scientists waited there. Although for some reason, Landon had already sat on the additional chair below.

“Hurry and get out of this station!” Landon said as sweat trickled down his cheeks.

Hmm...? Why is he seems restless?

Not bothered to reply to him, I controlled my spaceship after receiving permission to depart. The view of the black space entered my vision when the ship got out of the port and went through the force field.

“Hmm… I’ve been wondering, but why the station was constructed in a pulsar system? Aren’t placing the station in a more habitable system would prove to be safer?”

"Well, pulsar has always been a wonder for scientists. The 'weird matter' inside the pulsar never ceased to amaze me. Anyway, just hurry up! The longer we wait, the more danger it will be!" Landon’s eyes quivered with hidden panic.

Huh? Why I’ve got a bad feeling about this?

Suddenly, 50 or so Frigate-class spaceships led with one Destroyer approached and blocked my ship’s path. I noticed that on each of the spaceships’ side, there was a pattern of a black dot and two words written “Black Star.” Wait, shit!

[Host. A transmission request has been detected. There are also messages being transmitted into the ship. What should we act?]

“Victor! Ignore those transmission! We need to get out of here!” Landon shouted, frantically.

“Open the message but don’t accept the transmission!”

[Yes.]

Just then, an image of a middle-aged man with a tough face that dressed like a fleet commander appeared on ship’s holo-screen. He opened his mouth and stated, “Victor Petard Asterisk. I am the fleet commander of the Black Star’s 1st Private Fleet, Commander Smith. I know that you’re keeping Professor Landon with you. As long as you give—”

“All right that’s enough. Since the arrow has been let loose, I can’t give you back anyway. Now let’s see the power of the new ship.” Then, I transmitted my voice to ATA, “Use all available distraction missiles and activate the absolute invisible mode! Use that chance to escape with full thruster!”

[As you command.]

Next, the missiles were launched from the ship and blasted on the enemy’s spaceships with a blinding light. It was no normal missiles but one specially made for distraction. We managed to escape with the absolute invisible mode and distance ourselves more than 1 AU in less than ten minutes.

Heh… Isn’t this too easy? The recent upgrade on the fusion thruster into impulse thruster made the maximum sub-light speed to be ten… no… twenty times faster than before.

“Don’t be happy too fast, bub. Did you think that they aren’t prepared?”

“Huh? What do you mean? In any case, we need to go into hyperspace. ATA, activate hyperspace travel.”

[Yes…. Host. Warning. Error. An interference on Hyperspace has been detected from the surroundings. The ship couldn’t go into hyperspace unless the interrupter was destroyed or we got out from the range.]

“WHAT!?!”