After maneuvering the ship outside, he directly activated the engine.

Then Refraction disappeared.

Dusk had already been watching Chen Ming when Refraction started, and immediately noticed this anomaly.

Brilliant's communication quickly rang at Chen Ming's side.

After Chen Ming connected the call, before Brilliant could ask, he directly said, "I installed the Superspace Navigation Teleportation Engine from the documents you gave me on Refraction."

"I spent about two days researching and came up with a result."

"But as you can see, the result is very unstable."

"It entered superspace after activation and was torn apart by a gravity well."

Brilliant at this moment realized that there was nothing wrong with the first few things Chen Ming said.

All the files given to Chen Ming had been personally reviewed by him, and he was well aware of what was in them.

He naturally knew what kind of problems existed with the half-abandoned Superspace Navigation Teleportation Engine.

However, he obviously hadn't expected that Chen Ming would finish researching this thing, which couldn't move past the testing phase, in just two days, and even successfully modified it and completed a test.

As for the result of the experiment Chen Ming mentioned, Brilliant did not believe it at the moment.

But he still said, "I understand."

And quickly reported the information upwards.

Soon after, Brilliant received a reply and said to Chen Ming, "Further experiments related to the engine are prohibited, and all dangerous experiments must be reported to me in advance."

"No problem."

Chen Ming readily agreed and added, "Even if you want me to conduct such experiments, I still need a spaceship, right?"

Brilliant didn't say more and quickly left again.

Meanwhile, Chen Ming's eyes were fixed on Refraction.

Of course, Refraction couldn't have been torn apart by a gravity well.

After activating the unstable teleportation device, it had long been flung somewhere unknown.

However, based on Chen Ming's previous research on the engine's design, it was still possible to ensure that even if flung away, the spaceship could still appear near the gravity well.

At this moment, through Refraction's sensors, Chen Ming could see the thick purple clouds and electrified environment outside the spaceship.

The nearby superspace clouds were obviously thicker than those near the Pirate Space Station, but there were barely a few channels leading elsewhere.

Chen Ming didn't enter these channels but used the gravity well to leave this region of superspace directly.

According to the surrounding celestial data scanned by the sensors and the star maps he had on hand,

He soon confirmed Refraction's current position.

It hadn't strayed far from the Human Empire.

And coincidentally appeared at the junction between Dusk and the Mechanical Race Star Realm.

This narrow area where the two sides meet extends from the direction of the Human Empire, and Refraction was now at the end of this extension.

This area usually acts as a buffer zone between Dusk and the Mechanical Race, where battles don't often occur, especially at the corner where Refraction now was.

If he wanted to return, he would have to pass through a long stretch of the buffer zone at the intersection, but with some caution, it shouldn't be too dangerous.

However, Chen Ming suddenly thought of something.

The star realm controlled by Dusk had its limits, because Dusk had encircled the entire Empire from the direction they once departed from before coming here.

Similarly, the star realm now controlled by the Mechanical Race was also limited, because these were not the original Mechanical Race.

According to historical records, some factions of the Mechanical Race pursued humans who had explored unknown star realms and chased them here, eventually settling after being blocked by the Empire.

Thus, beyond the star realms controlled by Dusk and the Mechanical Race, there remained unknown territories.

Now, from Refraction's position, it was actually possible to venture out for some exploration.

Even though Refraction was not an exploration vessel, it could still perform basic scans of planets.

Scan the planet's surface conditions, take some photos for recording, determine whether there were habitable planets or any veins exposed on or near the surface.

Scan to produce some rough data which could be used as a reference later, saving time for future direct investigations.

Chen Ming hadn't forgotten his boss's previous mention of finding a suitable star system outside the Empire's territory to establish a colony.

Although the premise was that Chen Ming and Dusk would maintain a good relationship,

But as the boss previously said, finding valuable star systems and planets inherently held value, not necessarily just for building a colony.

Moreover, during past expansions, humans always protected their colonies themselves without ever needing Dusk's protection.

Why shouldn't they build on their own?

Of course, Chen Ming was only idly considering such an idea and wasn't taking it too seriously.

Colonial matters should still be left to experts; for now, he needed to calculate how long the fuel would support his journey, reserving some for the return trip.

In the nearest star system from Refraction's current position, he positioned the star systems most likely to harbor habitable planets, targeting those with yellow dwarfs, orange dwarfs, and red dwarfs as stars.

Habitable planets were the easiest high-value finds for Chen Ming to confirm the value of with only Refraction at his disposal.

Chen Ming quickly plotted the route.

Allowing Refraction to autopilot near the gravity well and then personally maneuvering was not troublesome.

Chen Ming estimated that within about a week, he could survey the area extending about fifty light-years beyond the buffer zone.

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