Silence hung heavy aboard Tidal Peace.

Gano's face showed a rare expression of surprise. "What is dissociative identity disorder?"

"It's a type of mental disorder that has existed on Blue Planet since ancient times. We tend to believe we are many different people. For example, I sometimes think I'm Xun Ming, Yongye, Canghai, or even Tchaikovsky, Asimov, Jane Austen, and so on."

He paused, then added, "After all, Brother Xun* once said that a proper author should have many pen names."

Gano tried to process the flood of names and ended up looking completely lost.

After careful deliberation, Xi Yujin decided to reveal some of his alternate identities. He genuinely regarded Gano as a rare and true friend, after all. However, he would never reveal his real secret. The truth that he was a star with a soul would definitely get him killed. Staying alive was his top priority in this universe.

Then he asked, puzzled, "Why did you say imprisoned?"

"B-because," Gano hesitated several times, his brain slowly catching up to the true meaning of what had just been said. A shocking truth shattered through his rational mind as he finally realized that he had made a terrible misunderstanding.

A tingling sensation crept up his spine.

"Close... close friends..."

"Friends?" Xi Yujin asked. "I suppose you could call them my friends, since they split off from me. But if we're really ranking friends, I'd put you first. Like the asteroid closest to me."

He felt a little embarrassed. Across two lifetimes, this was the first time he had ever so solemnly declared someone as his friend. It had nothing to do with benefits or status; it was simply because being with this person made him feel relaxed and happy.

And they could even flee for their lives together!

On Earth, that would be called a life and death bond!

"Friends... friends..."

Gano's brain began to overheat in a very literal, physical sense. Too much information was crashing into him like meteors, one after another.

Yujinno had said that Xun Ming and the others didn't exist, that it was a Blue Planet illness. So when Yujinno sat alone in that empty room, was he having an episode? All those countless works were written by a single person? For some smaller galaxies, that would be terrifying news from a power standpoint.

But Gano didn't really care about matters of power.

What mattered was that those "best friends" he had been so bothered about didn't actually exist.

Just moments ago, he had said to Yujinno's face that "Yongye seems to enjoy toying with people's emotions." But how could that be manipulation? It was clearly Yujinno’s deliberate design.

And this whole time, he had been competing against thin air...

It was a bit embarrassing to realize his own presumption, but in that moment, his first thought was relief: thank goodness Yujinno hadn't been mistreated. Beyond that came a deep sense of satisfaction, as if every obstacle between himself and Yujinno had suddenly vanished.

How strange. There was too much information he couldn't process.

Gano forced himself to calm down.

If he remembered correctly, the Blue Planet "close friend" system was equivalent to a life partner. That made perfect sense because Blue Planet's close friends originated from the mind. Who could replace a friend within, if not a romantic partner?

And Yujinno said more than once that Gano was his friend.

Could it be?!

Gano's heart pounded violently, and his ears flushed red. He had an overwhelming urge to flee, to fly three hundred laps through space before coming back to speak to Yujinno normally.

Or perhaps today was a good day to write in his diary: "Gano and Yujinno became best friends by Blue Planet standards."

He felt genuinely happy.

"Yes. Friends."

The four small asteroids continued their quiet orbits around Xi Yujin.

Suddenly, he thought of something and added casually, "Readers seem to have some misconceptions about Blue Planet culture. But 'best friends' really does just mean friends. Xun Ming doesn't write harem novels."

The Tidal Peace fell utterly silent.

Thud!

Gano fell straight backward into the copilot's seat. The overload of information was simply too much.

He could face armies of millions, yet he couldn't make sense of his own feelings. His brain had malfunctioned from overheating.

So even the best friend thing was his misunderstanding! Yujinno hadn't meant that at all!

And yet... he thought that situation didn’t sound so bad…

Slumped in the seat, he muttered, "Warning... processor overloaded... requesting reboot..."

"Gano! Gano, what's wrong?!" Xi Yujin's anxious voice echoed through the ship.

Today had truly been an emotional roller coaster for Gano!

—

After the chaos settled, the two returned to normal. Gano's ears were still red, and his appearance looked far more human compared to the mechanical demeanor of when they first met.

He tried to keep his voice steady. "I want to keep traveling with Yujinno. That's... the happiest thing for me."

A smile flickered in Xi Yujin's eyes. Looking at Xi Yujin's profile, Gano felt himself on the verge of overloading again.

Xi Yujin turned his attention back to accelerating Tidal Peace. A million ships behind them needed no commander's orders; they would swallow Tidal Peace whole in an instant. "I've found a way to speed up," he said.

His method was his own mental power.

He had accumulated a great deal of it but had never figured out how to use it. It wasn't until he saw the massive port star and the small asteroids around him that inspiration struck.

His mental power seemed to be connected to stars.

By linking his mental power to the star and creating an anchor point, it became far easier to pull the relatively light Tidal Peace toward it. The Navigator Colossus was in the orbit closest to the port star.

Tidal Peace had been racing forward at top speed, but the gap between it and the million-ship pursuing fleet kept shrinking.

In this critical moment, Xi Yujin felt perfectly calm. He drew out his mental power and flung it toward the star. It crossed three astronomical units in an instant and struck the burning heart of the star directly. His vision seemed to follow it inside, and endless flames enveloped him, yet it didn't burn and only felt warm.

In a blink, he found himself still sitting in the cockpit, with the asteroids around him continuing their steady orbits.

With a push of his will, Tidal Peace shot toward the star like a spinning top flung loose. It was like an out-of-control roulette wheel, like a furious little tornado, unstoppable and relentless. The two aboard were nearly thrown out of the cabin.

The million-ship army behind them was stunned.

The younger Flash Clan members who had been spectating dropped their mineral cups and shouted, "That ship-racing technique is insane!"

Big Purple immediately smacked them.

But when Big Purple looked up, even it spoke with concern, "At that speed, we probably can't catch up. And they're about to dock on the Navigator Colossus."

The million-ship fleet, assembled by the entire Pangshi Galaxy, watched helplessly as the spiraling Tidal Peace crashed into the embrace of the Navigator Colossus. Hearts shattered everywhere.

The pursuers were instantly deflated: they had failed. Some flew off to nearby planets to drown their sorrows in food. Others hung their heads and started racing ships aimlessly. While others stood frozen in place, witnessing the final outcome.

Mr. Zhong, can't you come back to life?

Xun Ming, are you really never going to fill your pits?

Canghai, you must be the most normal of the three, right?!

May Yujin's writing ban last forever! Don't let him write anymore!

The creatures expressed mixed feelings, both love and hate, for the Blue Planet literary world.

Moral standards varied wildly across this universe, but there was one area where everyone shared remarkably high ethical awareness: never disturb those who were setting sail.

The start of a journey usually meant farewell, so farewell was a time meant to be cherished and spent well. Only beings of the lowest moral character would interrupt someone's goodbye.

And so, the million-ship fleet stopped with surprising unity in the gaps of the port star system, silently watching Tidal Peace depart with complicated emotions. The strange-looking ships formed a small galaxy of their own.

First-time visitors stared in amazement, thinking that the Pangshi Galaxy was at war. But seeing that the fleet hadn't gone so far as to disturb the Navigator Colossus, they relaxed. At least these beings still had some morals.

The port star's thirty-six planets received billions of visitors with each rotation. One person's departure was but a drop in the ocean. Yet today's spectacle, along with the writings left behind by the Blue Planet literary scene, would stand as proof that four novelists had once waged a wild literary battle here and stirred up a cataclysmic change.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A remote control bounced around the cockpit, leaving several large dents in the walls. It was only after the Tidal Peace came to a sudden stop that it slowly floated in the air.

A hand grabbed the remote and strapped it down with a seatbelt. Xi Yujin slumped weakly in the pilot's seat, his head lolling to one side. Gano wasn't doing much better, as his face had gone pale.

In the rare moment of quiet, they exchanged a look. Xi Yujin suddenly burst out laughing, while something seemed to stir in Gano.

"Running for our lives is really exhausting." Xi Yujin undid layer after layer of safety restraints and sat up straight. He pulled up an information window, waved at the beings outside, and shouted, "We already bought tickets! Here's the verification code!"

The fully armed being outside glanced at it, stamped Tidal Peace, and affixed gravity buttons to multiple points on the ship's hull.

After resting for a while, Xi Yujin confirmed that the million-ship army truly hadn't followed. His understanding of this universe deepened by one more layer.

Only now did he finally have a chance to admire the Navigator Colossus before him.

An ochre half-planet filled the entire viewport. Steel pipelines were visible to the naked eye, hinting at just how massive the structures upon them must be.

He adjusted the viewport to survey the surroundings. Tidal Peace was relatively small among the ships here. Moreover, nearby vessels came in every imaginable shape: battleaxe types, Ferris wheel types, and even minimalist soda can types. Their paint jobs were equally varied, with some ships cycling through different designs like video game characters showing off skins.

At first, he'd thought having a ship was good enough. But now, he wanted a cooler one... Xi Yujin reflected on the insatiable nature of human desire.

At least he had the prizes from the three writing competitions. He could only hope that they contained something interesting.

The thought of opening those blind boxes filled him with anticipation.

"Access granted. Loading ship-wide channels. Dear passengers, hello. This is the Navigator Colossus, which departed from the Supu Galaxy. We are honored to travel with you. Acceleration is complete, and departure is imminent. This journey will be long; please prepare yourselves. Repeating..."

"The Navigator Colossus is now activating gravity buttons. Once activated, no being is permitted to exit their vessel. Violators will forfeit all safety guarantees. Please fasten your seatbelts. The magnitude of turbulence during a Great Leap is significant. Please do not overestimate your physical resilience or your ship's durability."

Broadcasts in various languages echoed through the colossus's exclusive channel.

Xi Yujin watched curiously from inside. Once the gravity buttons were activated, the ships didn't cling tightly together; instead, they distributed themselves evenly across different planes, like knots on a fishing net. His view rose and fell, as if he were genuinely floating on ocean waves.

"Hello! I'm your astronaut. Please allow me to play the symphony for this voyage!"

A cheerful voice rang out over the broadcast.

Xi Yujin zoomed in and finally spotted the being aboard the Navigator Colossus. It wore a thick spacesuit remarkably similar to Earth's astronaut suits, complete with a bulb-shaped helmet. The astronaut hovered in midair using a small rocket pack.

The astronaut continued, "Our next destination has a 70% chance of being the Quadrant Galaxy, with a 30% chance of being... unknown."

"Why would it be unknown?" Xi Yujin asked. "Isn't this a fixed route?"

Gano, aware of Xi Yujin's limited common knowledge, explained, "Navigator Colossuses can be produced by different galaxies. The planets used to build them typically come from star systems whose stars have gone dark. Technologically advanced species will modify these wandering planets. Because of their large mass, they can be equipped with technological star maps after modification, allowing them to follow fixed routes through interstellar travel. However, space is full of accidents, and the probability of deviation is high. After each deviation, the Navigator Colossus, along with all its passengers, must recalculate its route."

Xi Yujin frowned. "Once there's a deviation, you can never go back? Even if someone only boarded the Navigator Colossus to visit a neighboring galaxy for work?"

"No," Gano said. "Every being should embark with the awareness of never returning."

Only then did Xi Yujin truly understand why his melodramatic novels had been so shocking to readers.

Gano continued, "The announcement mentioned it departed from the Supu Galaxy, which is extremely far from the edge of the universe. The colossus gradually drifted from its original route to end up here... The astronaut isn't from Supu either. There have probably been many different ones over time."

It was only through these repeated broadcasts that anyone could still remember where this planetary ship had originally come from.

Xi Yujin looked back at the Pangshi Galaxy one last time. The mercenary ducks, the Flash Tribe with their underground palaces, the Materialist Reading Society that treated their philosophy as a faith... This was his last glimpse of all of it.

He sank back into the comfortable pilot's seat and stared at Tidal Peace's ceiling in a daze.

Suddenly, he sat up and posted an announcement under his Xun Ming alias: "Don't you dare say I won't fill the pits! I'm writing! I'm writing right now!"

Then, using his Canghai alias, he sent his next manuscript to the Flash Empire: "Had a wonderful time in the Flash Empire! I'm heading to the next stop with my companions. I'll send my manuscripts by mail from now on."

As for Yongye... better not log in for now.

"I'm really looking forward to what comes next." Lingering over goodbyes wasn't Xi Yujin's style. He flattened his seat and opened the cockpit's ceiling viewport. The entire Navigator Colossus and the thousands of ships around it spread out before his eyes. He lay there leisurely, as if relaxing on a beach.

"I'm also... looking forward to it," Gano replied.

After the tension of the chase, his earlier misunderstanding suddenly resurfaced. The overwhelming rush of emotions made his entire body go rigid.

Fortunately, Yujinno didn't notice. He had always loved watching the scenery.

Suddenly, Tidal Peace was nudged gently from behind. Under the effect of the gravity buttons, it bumped toward the vessel ahead. At the instant they nearly touched, something like a transparent bubble seemed to spring out between the gravity buttons, shoving the ship ahead with even greater force.

It was like a cue stick striking the black ball on a billiard table, which then scattered the others. One gentle push triggered a terrifying chain reaction. The ships ahead accelerated faster and faster, nearly reaching the point of being catapulted away.

The final ship struck an apparatus on the colossus's surface like a bell being rung.

"Initiating... the Leap!"

The astronaut shouted with enthusiasm.

Inside countless ships, beings were slammed hard into their seats.

The ochre planet shot out of the Pangshi Galaxy, like a glass marble being flicked.

 

 

Author's Note:

A new journey is about to begin! The next stop will feature some lighthearted stories, and many, many more alternate identities. XunMing, Yongye and Canghai will appear again later, and the same alternate identity may be used to write different themes. The stories between the alternate identities are quite chaotic, haha, but there will absolutely be no romantic relationships, nor will there be any clones/incarnations. The author is a staunch believer in alternate identity writing.

It's great to see all sorts of jokes! When discussing in the comments section, please remember 【Yujin x Gano no reversal, no splitting】! I'm dying to split or reverse it! Maintaining a good atmosphere in the comments section is everyone's responsibility. This author will 【delete all comments】 on related topics later. The relationship between Yujin and Gano is the main theme running through the entire book, and I will try my best to write them well.