Super Gene

Han Sen looked behind them, and he saw the Black Hole Spider spreading its jaws. Its open mouth was like a giant black hole. It formed a vortex in space that sucked the white whale toward its gaping maw.

“We are going to die! Who is going to save me? I don’t want to die... I’m a virgin... I still haven’t gotten married...” Ning Yue sat on the floor, holding Bao’er and sobbing.

All the pirates were in shock. They had heard about the Black Hole Spider before. Even in the wild systems of chaos, the Black Hole Spider was the top of the food chain.

Han Sen pushed the white whale to the max, but the white whale was only being pulled back faster. The hull ground against the fabric of space as it was pulled backward, spawning a flurry of sparks.

Pang!

An unexpected asteroid suddenly slammed into the side of the white whale. The white whale began to spin.

Before Han Sen had time to think, the white whale fell completely into the grip of that black hole. It spun faster and faster inside the black hole, and other small objects slammed into the white whale. Each strike made a horrible sound. The pirates rolled across the floor like a bunch of gourds.

“I don’t want to die!” Ning Yue was screaming with every breath.

Han Sen moved fast. He shifted his feet as the white whale rolled around. He kept himself balanced, using the Peacock King’s soul robe. He was going to release a power of his own to get them out of that space vortex.

Bao’er was jumping nimbly around the command deck, still holding onto her big purple ginseng. That kind of shaking was unable to affect her balance.

Little red bird stood on her shoulder. It kept looking around.

Pang!

Seconds later, the white whale fell out of the space vortex. It landed on a black sea, and the big sea was in massive turmoil.

“What is this place? Why is there a sea?” Han Sen wondered. He kept looking around. That black sea was so big that it looked endless. Mist rose in all directions, so he couldn’t see very far.

Batong! Batong!

Other things kept raining into that same sea. There were asteroids, plants, the wreckage of ships, and even some xenogeneics.

While Han Sen looked around in frozen silence, a planet even came down. It fell into the black sea, and the waves that rolled out from the impact sent the white whale flying. It kept rocked violently across the big waves, and it was some time before the ship stopped flipping.

Then, Han Sen saw something even scarier. As all of these objects fell into the black water, they started to melt.

“Are we... inside the Black Hole Spider’s stomach?” Han Sen was looking at the mountain-like asteroids that appeared to be melting as he pondered the idea.

“Oh no! We are done for... We are being digested to become poopoo. I don’t want to become poopoo.” Ning Yue sat on the floor, crying.

“Don’t worry. Our ship isn’t being corroded.” Han Sen observed the white whale’s hull. The ship was like a deified creature itself, and so it wasn’t dissolving under the corrosive power of the black water.

But Han Sen didn’t know how long the white whale would last, so he also knew he had to get out of there as fast as he could.

But that Black Hole Spider was too big. It had captured the white whale merely by inhaling. Compared to the Black Hole Spider’s size, the white whale was a tiny shred of meat.

Han Sen then realized that the Black Hole Spider hadn’t actually been attacking them; they had simply picked a terrible time to try to travel through the system. They had encountered the Black Hole Spider just as it decided to eat lunch.

Based on what they could see through the mist, they knew that the spider had ingested countless asteroids and more than a few entire planets.

Han Sen regained control of the white whale and guided it up and out of the big black sea. That dark water was probably the stomach juices of the Black Hole Spider.

Han Sen drove the white whale, all the while dodging the falling asteroids. He wanted to get as high as possible. If this was the Black Hole Spider’s stomach, he should have been able to get out via its esophagus.

After traveling through the mist for God knew how long, he was unable to see any more asteroids falling. But he still couldn’t find the esophagus.

“Is this really the Black Hole Spider’s stomach? It’s too big. Are we in another dimension, perhaps?” Han Sen looked weirded-out as he spoke to himself.

“We are dead!” Ning Yue cried.

Fang Qing Yu had a wry smile, and he said, “If I have guessed things right, we are in the Black Hole Spider’s body. And this is its stomach, or at least an organ that is similar to a stomach. The Black Hole Spider has space powers. It is deified, and its space powers extend through its body, as well. If we want to get out of here, we have to figure out the space powers locking this place down. If we don’t, we aren’t going to find a way out.”

“How do we break the space powers here?” Han Sen asked as he glanced at Fang Qing Yu.

Fang Qing Yu smiled wryly again, and he said, “The only information I have on the Black Hole Spider is what I’ve seen in the Thousand Treasures Alliance’s database. I can try to guess what we are going up against, but I won’t be able to break whatever it is. I hope the white whale can last a while. Otherwise, we will all be digested very soon.”

Han Sen didn’t say anything. He peered into the mist with his Purple-Eye Butterfly, and he noticed that the mist was made of substance chains formed of a space substance. The power of those substance chains was twisting space into a closed loop with the creature’s stomach. He would be unable to fly out through ordinary means.

But he had to try, even if it didn’t work. None of them knew if the white whale could withstand the corrosive juices and mist for long. If they couldn’t get out, they were dead.

Han Sen didn’t turn on the white whale’s weapon systems because using those weapon systems would pull valuable power away from the energy reactor. The white whale didn’t have an infinite amount of energy available for use at all times. If he used all the available energy, he would be unable to fly.

“Little Red,” Han Sen said to the little red bird.

The little red bird seemed to know what Han Sen wanted. It screamed and flew off of Bao’er’s shoulder. It became a fire phoenix and flew out of the white whale. It spat fire at the mist.

The red flames turned the space substances and substance chains into dust. But when the space substance chains broke, faults opened in space. It made reality very unstable around them. The little red bird almost fell into the cracks, so he came back.

“So this is a space element deified xenogeneic.” Han Sen looked gloomy. Space deified xenogeneics were scarier than he had believed.