Time flew by.
The observation conducted at the forward base was once again accurate.
The window of opportunity arrived on time.
Without the need for orders, the moment the window of opportunity appeared, both Wang Dong's Mine Overlord Type II and Lao Shi's Near-Space Dominator Generation I engaged their engines.
They skillfully maneuvered their spacecraft, resolutely crossing the turbulent layer and entering the mining zone.
Inside the cockpit of the Mine Overlord Type II, magnetic restraint straps held Wang Dong firmly in his seat before the control panel.
Before entering the mining zone, Wang Dong had shut down the artificial gravity generation system on the spacecraft, allocating the saved energy to the eight lateral directional adjustment engines on the sides of the Mine Overlord Type II.
He gripped the eight-way rudder in front of him and pushed the engine power to one-third.
Wang Dong felt genuine joy.
The feeling of personally piloting was always so fulfilling.
The only regret was that he wasn't sitting in a warship from his previous life, but merely a Mine Overlord Type II near-space mining vessel.
A near-space mining vessel was only slightly better than a space shuttle.
Compared to deep-space mining vessels, which had official-level armor and could even contend with ordinary armed spacecraft, near-space mining vessels were simply the bottom of the barrel.
Compared to the War Axe-class destroyer that Wang Dong had piloted in his previous life, the Mine Overlord Type II was quite unimpressive in terms of propulsion, acceleration, and maneuverability, including its ability to control flight attitude.
But it did have advantages.
The Mine Overlord Type II, which didn't need to consider the defense and combat factors of warships, had eight directional adjustment engines spread across its hull, twice the number of the usual four on warships.
Even among near-space mining vessels that prioritized flight attitude adjustment, the Mine Overlord Type II's advantage was quite prominent.
Lao Shi's Near-Space Dominator Generation I, for example, only had six directional adjustment engines.
Moreover, as Wang Dong's driving time with the Mine Overlord Type II increased, he quickly retrieved memories from his past life about this type of mining vessel.
With ease, the Mine Overlord Type II, at a speed visible to the naked eye, overtook Lao Shi's Near-Space Dominator Generation I, gaining a lead in the competition.
Wang Dong fully exploited the advantage brought by the eight directional adjustment engines.
In the complex airspace of the asteroid belt, Wang Dong's Mine Overlord Type II, with its eight directional adjustment engines, flexibly adjusted its flight attitude, making subtle turns within the narrow space.
Without reducing the thrust of the main engine, maintaining a higher speed, it cruised through the asteroid belt mining zone.
Lao Shi gritted his teeth and closely followed behind Wang Dong.
Speaking of driving skills, Lao Shi, with nearly twenty years of experience, was considered quite good among the miners.
In the past, while he mostly lost in competitions against Wang Dong, the difference was always marginal.
There was no qualitative difference.
But this time was different.
The Mine Overlord Type II in front of him, piloted by Wang Dong, seemed more agile than before.
Some subtle control details, which seemed insignificant at first glance, were just a bit smoother.
But these subtle details, when multiplied tenfold or even a hundredfold, created a gap.
Normally, in this marginal area of the mining zone, with Lao Shi's skill, he could have kept pace with Wang Dong.
However, in reality, after entering the mining zone, in less than ten minutes, Wang Dong's Mine Overlord Type II took the lead, leaving Lao Shi struggling to catch up.
This was still far from Wang Dong's limit.
He still had time to organize the memories in his mind.
"How did I handle it last time? I think I got so annoyed that I just went all out and pulled the rug from under him."
Wang Dong furrowed his brows, thinking for a moment, recalling his specific maneuvers before his rebirth.
Lao Shi's Near-Space Dominator Generation I, the one he chose today, had a poorly maintained directional adjustment engine on the lower side of the hull, the third one.
The scanning function of the auxiliary system, which was constantly within Wang Dong's field of vision, had already detected this.
This component was displayed in yellow on the scanning interface, not the green indicating full performance.
It represented a poor condition.
Then, entering the mining zone, Wang Dong took the lead and firmly controlled the pace, making multiple sudden directional changes in flight route.
Throughout the process, he intentionally induced the hidden defect in the directional adjustment engine of Lao Shi's Near-Space Dominator Generation I.
After only half an hour, the overloaded operation caused the already poorly maintained directional adjustment engine to overload and its performance collapsed.
Under normal circumstances, an overload and failure of a single directional adjustment engine wouldn't lead to overly serious consequences.
The remaining five directional adjustment engines could compensate for it.
At worst, it would just make the flight attitude adjustment slower.
But where were they?
The asteroid belt mining zone!
Moreover, under Wang Dong's lead, they had already ventured quite a distance!
In the extremely complex and variable airspace, even with perfect performance, one had to be cautious and fully focused. How could they afford such a sudden failure?
Lao Shi's Near-Space Dominator Generation I, the moment the directional adjustment engine overloaded and caused a loss of flight attitude, collided with an asteroid it was supposed to pass by!
The collision wasn't serious, just a side-swipe that damaged a few armor plates.
But the subsequent chain reaction wasn't so easy.
The first collision was just a trigger, it directly caused the Near-Space Dominator Generation I to completely lose its stable flight attitude.
In normal space, one could slowly readjust the flight attitude.
But in the asteroid belt mining zone, this was a fatal error.
After losing its flight attitude, Lao Shi's Near-Space Dominator Generation I was immediately caught in a turbulence.
Under the complex gravitational environment, it constantly collided with surrounding small celestial bodies, eventually crashing directly into an asteroid with a diameter of over a thousand meters.
The experienced Lao Shi himself, after the collision, immediately activated the lifeboat's separation procedure, luckily avoiding the fate of the Near-Space Dominator Generation I.
Wang Dong had the opportunity to offer assistance.
He did act.
Although he was annoyed by Lao Shi, it wasn't to the point of letting him die.
One accident was enough for Lao Shi to have a good drink, and it also allowed Wang Dong to vent his anger.
Unfortunately, Lao Shi's lifeboat didn't have good fortune on its side until the end.
Not just one, but a space meteor, in the chaos caused by the Near-Space Dominator Generation I, was flung out of the turbulence at high speed and directly collided with Lao Shi's lifeboat.
The lifeboat was destroyed and Lao Shi died on the spot.
Wang Dong could only let the wreckage of Lao Shi's lifeboat disappear into the asteroid belt.
It was the funeral of a space miner.
The ingenious setup to solve a problem was quite perfect.
It wasn't Wang Dong who caused Lao Shi's death.
Both Wang Dong's and Lao Shi's ship's black boxes could prove this.