Legend Is The Supreme Soldier

by Stayrr

Ye Chong was a denizen of Trash Planet-12. On one fateful day, he discovered a treasure that would forever alter his destiny from a pile of junk – Mu Shang, an unknown machine with artificial intelligence and a lost memory. Together, they venture into the vast galaxy as the isolated “caveman” that was Ye Chong began absorbing all sorts of knowledge and meeting people from all walks

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Legend of the Supreme Soldier #Chapter 33 - The Merry Crew - Read Legend of the Supreme Soldier Chapter 33 - The Merry Crew Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 33: The Merry Crew

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The trio had waited for five days.

Unlike planets inhabited by humans, space was quiet, and the deafening silence tested one's strength of will to the limit. Many were unwilling to go sightseeing in space as they were unable bear with the silence. Experiencing extended periods of complete silence could make one vulnerable to mental breakdowns. The vastness of the universe further increased the psychological pressure of quietness on people. Hence, while it was now technically possible for solo space travel, none had tried.

This issue was not something particularly troublesome for Ye Chong. On the trash planet, he had lived alone for years, and solitude had become second in nature. Instead, if he was subjected to a crowded environment, he would feel uncomfortable. In the depths of his heart, Ye Chong had mixed feelings about his future life - curiosity, fear, anxiety, yearning…

However, the silence was a trial for Gu Shaoze and Number Two. Ye Chong shut his eyes to rest, and while he was not fully conscious, he was still vigilant. Since Ye Chong seemed to be asleep, Gu Shaoze chatted with Number Two instead, as if the words would overcome the horrifying silence.

An odd ring began resonating.

Ye Chong immediately opened his eyes and stood upright. Gu Shaoze and Number Two stopped their conversation and looked towards the bridge.

The display screen showed a huge fleet of starships.

Gu Shaoze and Number Two could not help but gasped in surprised, but quickly became overjoyed. Gu Shaoze even hugged Number Two out of excitement, and her graceful face hidden under golden locks of hair blushed in response, the redness creeping to her snow-white nape.

Ye Chong was not so moved, but observed the starships closely. It was a pity that he did not know much about starships, and therefore could not make much out of them. However, from the mechs flying out of the port and starboard of the starships, it seemed that the other side had seen them.

Gu Shaoze let go of Number Two and smiled at Ye Chong. "That alarm sounds terrible, I shouldn't have used it!" The laser radar was heavily compromised, and remarkably, the damage was in its interior parts. However, Gu Shaoze's exceptional capabilities meant that the radar was still rudimentarily restored. The alarm unit was broken, so Gu Shaoze had to replace it with a speaker from somewhere else, but the sound was truly horrible, and that was why Gu Shaoze had complained thus. Perfectionism was his nature!

Number Two raced to the bridge and activated the laser lights, rapidly firing flashes that communicated a distress signal.

Upon seeing the distress signal, the other party's mech pilots picked up their speed, but in spite of that, their battle formation was still intact, indicating the great extent of their training.

Ye Chong asked coolly, "Are we armed?" This was Ye Chong's habit - no matter the circumstances, he hoped that he would be in control of the situation instead of passively going with the flow.

Gu Shaoze and Number Two were stunned.

"Best if we have mechs!" he added.

Number Two shook her head. "No white mechs, and the mechs owned by victims of the crash were tailored specifically by their respective families. Only by sending the mechs back to the families and performing a special ID recalibration could they be used again!" White mechs were mechs that were not locked to specific pilots.

Ye Chong could not hold back his disappointment.

Gu Shaoze suddenly remembered something, and ran to a corner to search for something. After a moment of ransacking, he returned, eager like a child. "This was a dagger that I made for fun. Usually I use it as a tool!" He then passed his invention to Ye Chong, already regarding him as a friend!

Ye Chong accepted the dagger. It was black all over, and the laser-processed edge was very sharp. The anti-slip treatment made it easy to handle, and its resilience was impressive.

Ye Chong nodded. "This dagger is quite resilient, but the stiffness is horrible!" As he finished, he held the tip of the dagger with one hand and the handle with the other, and bent the dagger easily to an arc. He then released the dagger's tip, and with a swish, the dagger recovered its former shape, undamaged by the strain.

Gu Shaoze gaped, and upon hearing Ye Chong's comment that the stiffness was horrible, replied reflexively, "You're quite strong. That dagger was just something I made during my spare time. I didn't really think it through!"

Number Two was not surprised by the demonstration, since she had personally experienced Ye Chong's strength. He was truly a dreadful monster, not like a human at all.

Number Two made to put on a miniature mech, but Gu Shaoze stopped her. "Your mech is too garish. It's alright if we're at home, but out here it's really not appropriate. Besides, wearing that mech is like putting on an exoskeleton, how uncomfortable. Mm, you're so beautiful. It's a pity if you're stuck in that shell!"

Number Two lowered her head bashfully, feeling butterflies in her stomach.

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Jing Mo looked at the trio before him - a young master, a female attendant, and a guard.

Jing Mo focused mostly on Gu Shaoze. Gu Shaoze had the charisma of an aristocrat, and was very modest and well-spoken, all signs of an outstanding upbringing. However, he was without the typical aristocrat's conceit, indicating that he most likely came from a family with a long historical standing. Only those from affluent long-standing families would behave thus, unlike the overnight nouveau riche with unbridled arrogance.

These aristocratic families rose and declined in the long river of history, and have had their moments, but all had survived to this day. Many families that were once as glorious as them were now lost in a passage of time, leaving no traces of their existence today.

Extensive networks and a continuous succession of capable heirs had kept the families alive. Being reserved without flippancy had also won them the acceptance of society.

However, the status of an aristocrat was not self-designated, but acknowledged by the public. Aristocratic families today were scarce, perhaps even countable with the fingers on one hand.

If one could develop a good relationship with an aristocratic family, it would mean welcoming an endless flow of money and a bright future. Jing Mo's eyes twinkled at the thought.

Jing Mo spoke to Gu Shaoze warmly, and even though they had no common interests, he still responded respectfully. The alluring features of Number Two had the whole starship's crew eyeing her discretely, occasionally murmuring something under their breaths. Eventually, some even deliberately went to the bridge to peek at her.

Number Two, who had never experienced anything like this, was distressed.

Amongst the three, Ye Chong was now the most insignificant individual. His looks were average, and lacked Gu Shaoze's demeanor or Number Two's unrivaled beauty. When Gu Shaoze introduced him as a guard, Jing Mo had even scrutinized him suspiciously; for how can someone scrawny like him be a guard?

Ye Chong was far from scrawny; "balance" would be a more appropriate adjective. However, compared to the other guards with their muscular build and alarmingly thickset limbs, it was no wonder that Jing Mo would think of him as scrawny.

Only the leader of the mech pilots' squad eyed him a few times, looking as if deep in thought.

Without a doubt, Jing Mo was a master in engineering the atmosphere - upon seeing Number Two's predicament, he roared at his employees and ordered them away; he then continued chatting with Gu Shaoze in an engaging manner for he knew what young people were interested in, and boasted about his adventures during his youth in an outrageous manner. The three newcomers were deeply engrossed in his stories about the various customs and practices from all over the universe, and could not help but be captivated by his narratives, including Ye Chong.

Inside the bridge, laughter filled the air, and the atmosphere was lively.

No one could have guessed of the dangers that awaited them ahead!

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Chapter 34: Fearing the Unknown

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Jing Mo sipped a mouthful of sweet grass juice and asked Fid, "What do you make of these people?"

Fid was the squad leader of Jing Mo's hired mech squad. He was exceptionally tall, with an expression as solemn as a marble effigy, and coarse short hair that jut up straight like steel wires. A two to three centimeters long scar ran at an angle across his brow, giving not an impression of savagery, but of great valor. In addition, his strong build gave a sense of safety, and in the Tian Luo galaxy, many local maidens were attracted to him.

But these traits were not why Jing Mo valued him. Fid had good insights on matters with a steady and cautious personality. He was a good leader, and an honorable man. For these reasons, Jing Mo trusted him. If not for Fid's reluctance, Jing Mo would not have wanted the man to work as his employee. Fid was a competent person who could stand on his own! It was thanks to his cautious nature and leadership that their current trip went on without a hitch so far!

Fid sat like a soldier, with his back straight and eyes focused. Once he settled, he could sit without moving for hours, and that impressed Jing Mo.

Fid paused to think for a moment, and replied in a clear manner. "The young man is probably the young master of some influential family. The three seemed to be genuine. Hmm, and his guard seemed to be quite capable, though I am not entirely certain. According to them, their starship was heavily damaged due to impact with a meteorite, but based on my inspection of the impact point on their starship the hull was obviously reinforced for strength. If a meteorite crashed into it, I did not find any trace of rock debris around, and that is impossible!"

Jing Mo was alarmed. "Could it be that they're acting? Are they spies sent by space pirates?"

Fid continued, "Spies of the pirates? I think it's not very probable! There were many bodies on the starship, and those victims mostly have mechs!" Fid's expression turned unreadable, "And their mechs are quite peculiar!"

"Peculiar?" Jing Mo asked curiously. Mechs that could even strike the mech squad leader as peculiar - how could one not be curious about them?

Fid paused, and replied, "Yes, very peculiar! Their mechs were undoubtedly expert level mechs. You can imagine, if more than fifty people were armed with expert level mechs, they must be quite formidable! Besides, from the condition of the corpses, their muscle structure showed that they were highly trained. They should all be expert level mech pilots."

"More than fifty expert level mechs? And more than fifty expert level pilots?" Jing Mo gasped. Expert level pilots meant great capabilities. No matter where they were, expert level mechs were highly sought after by those who seek power. Even Fid's squad of fine reputation, the Oak Leaves, consisted of only ten expert level mech pilots, including Fid himself. Hence, one can imagine Jing Mo's profound shock when he found out that the starship had more than fifty expert level pilots, each equipped with an expert level mech.

Fid nodded somberly. "Yes, that's right, I checked them myself! As we all know, when a mech's owner dies, the mech would reset itself to become a white mech. What made these mechs peculiar was that even though their owners had all perished, not only do they not reset, but they automatically engaged into a self-protection mode. No one could use or extract information from the mechs!"

"Mechs that could protect themselves?" Mo Jing was bewildered.

"As far as I know, this technology is only used by a few aristocrats and the military!" Fid explained all that he knew of the matter.

Aristocrats are fine, since he might be able to benefit from them, but if it's the military… Jing Mo scratched his head unconsciously, deep in thought. This could get out of hand. Jing Mo would rather die than to have any dealings with the cold-blooded military!

"Additionally…" Fid looked at Jing Mo's ghastly expression, and felt unable to continue.

Jing Mo believed that he was going crazy! Good heavens! He had thought that a golden opportunity had fell into his lap, but now it seemed to be a huge problem! Jing Mo panted heavily - he was not sure if his heart could endure the rest of Fid's report!

After taking a few deep breathes, Jing Mo calmed down, and a moment later, his complexion recovered a little. He signaled for Fid to go on.

Fid gave him a quick look and continued, "Additionally, this starship has no labels, no manufacturing date, and no place of manufacture. However, it is indeed remarkably advanced. More accurately speaking, it is more advanced than all the starships available in the market for civil use!"

"More advanced than all the available civilian starships? What do you mean?!" Jing Mo was baffled, and moments later, his face paled again. "Could it be a military warship? It can't be! Aren't military starships banned for production quite some time ago? Even the military cannot produce them! Haven't the five main galaxies banned all manufacture and research of starships for military use? Are these people insane? Do they not fear death?!" Three centuries ago, the government for all five main galaxies made a joint declaration, forbidding all individuals and organizations including the military from owning and developing battleships of any kind. Transgressors would be severely punished. From then on, mech pilots became the main source of manpower for combat.

Fid went silent for a moment before continuing slowly, "You are right, to a certain extent. However…" Pain and struggle showed briefly in his eyes, but the agitated Jing Mo did not notice.

Seeing that Jing Mo was on the verge of a breakdown, Fid felt it necessary to offer some solace. "Don't worry, while it is very advanced, it was not armed with any firepower, and so it is not really a warship."

Jing Mo exhaled in relief. "Oh, you gave me a fright on purpose, didn't you? Don't make a joke out of something like that again. I wasn't sure if my weak heart was about to explode or not!"

Fid smiled wryly. While the starship was not armed with weapons, it still defied the rules set by the government.

Fid became serious, and spoke lowly, "There's also the most important point."

Jing Mo nearly slumped in defeat, and cried, "Oh heavens, do you want me to die?"

Fid ignored him, and spoke his mind without hesitation. "From the hull's damage, they had indeed suffered an impact. It killed fifty expert level pilots all at once, so one can only imagine the power of the impact. As for how the three had survived, I have no intention of investigating further. However, I had found no debris whatsoever besides the hull's fragments near the crash site. I would like to know, what really happened to them? Was it man-made, or due to a mysterious natural phenomenon? If it was man-made, would the culprits make their move on the three survivors once they found out about them? If yes, I would definitely not believe that they would have a charitable heart and leave our crew out of the mess. Besides, I do not believe that our starship's hull could withstand even half of that force that hit their starship. If it was a natural phenomenon, would it happen again? This is what I'm most interested in!"

Jing Mo was completely speechless, and his face ashen!

If only he had not rescued those three… Jing Mo felt a wave of regret washed over him!

The fleet flew silently and steadily onwards, but after leaving this unending darkness, what could possibly await them? Jing Mo and Fid dared not consider the horrors!

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Chapter 35: There Be Pirates!

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"Big brother, do you think they got it wrong?" A pugnacious looking heavyset man asked in a low, muffled voice.

"Who knows?" The one-eyed leader sat with a leg hanging over the armrest and his eyes closed, taking a pleasant puff of his cigar. He was intoxicated with a product of good quality; naturally grown and processed by well-known experts, not something bought from a regular store with a few hundred zhuan.

"Big boss, I'm afraid things have changed!" A gaunt man spoke up beside One-eye, his eyes constantly casting furtive glances here and there. This man was obviously the general of the group.

"What do you mean?" One-eye was still lazily resting in a semi-lying posture.

The gaunt general spoke lowly, "Big boss, think about it, it's been six days since there has been any news from our spy from within, this does not bode well! Besides, we've been waiting here for quite a few days, and usually they would have arrived by now!"

"Mm!" One-eye nodded approvingly. "You're right! Then what do you think should be done? Surely we cannot return the deposit?" He looked displeased.

The gaunt general smiled slyly. "Don't worry about it big boss. That fellow would not dare to leak this information. He is more afraid of us than blowing his cover. Once the news is out, we would only suffer from a little reputational blemish, but that fellow, he would be utterly disgraced! Since we've already taken the money, there's no way we're giving them back!"

One-eye laughed heartily, and patted his general on the shoulder. "Right, right, you're really the clever one! Then there's nothing left for us here now, right?"

The heavyset man panicked. "Big boss, returning with nothing to show is not favorable, the other brothers would surely complain!"

One-eye stroked his chin, deep in thought. "You're right. Returning empty-handed will tarnish our morale!" Just then, a servant came running while panting, and spoke agitatedly, "Big boss, there's a fat lamb right ahead, and a very big one at that!"

One-eye tilted his head back and laughed at the sky. "It seems that our luck has arrived, whether we want it or not. Tell the brothers to get ready!"

Ye Chong and the pair sat in a room.

Gu Shaoze peeked at the door, and spoke in distress, "What now? They wouldn't detain us, would they? Why have someone guarding outside? Are we prisoners now?"

Number Two was pained by the young master's despair, and consoled him. "Young master, do not worry, they're only doing this because they're suspicious of our identities. Without any confirmation, they would not dare to do anything to us!"

Ye Chong could not be bothered to entertain them. He shut his eyes and rested, preserving his strength. In this unfamiliar territory, Ye Chong did not let his guard down. His body was in a very peculiar state, ready to launch a fatal strike at the enemy at any time.

As for the two guards outside watching the door, Ye Chong was not perturbed by them. He did not think those two were a threat nor have the capabilities to restrain him.

Ye Chong had always felt odd, for the people he met seemed to be quite fragile physically. It was strange that such a weak body would surely not withstand even a slightly powerful hit. Did they not know that the body was the essence of everything? It's really confounding!

Gu Shaoze observed Ye Chong. While he admired Ye Chong's calmness, he was curious as to what the man was up to before getting into this mess.

The two guards outside were expert level pilots. The squad leader's repeated warnings were still fresh in their heads, and they had always trusted him. Hence, while they felt that having two expert level mech pilots to guard three nobodies was a little excessive, they still obeyed the order unquestionably.

Unexpectedly, a few orders came through the comms device in their ear, and their expressions immediately changed. Both exchanged a look of surprise. One of them opened the door and spoke to the three solemnly, "Everyone, please do not leave this room, else your safety is not guaranteed!"

Number Two asked worriedly, "My two good sirs, what happened?"

The other guard hesitated a moment before speaking, "We are under attack from space pirates! It seems like the Crimson Hawk!"

"Crimson Hawk?!" Gu Shaoze and Number Two gasped in unison, their faces paled in an instant.

Their responses were expected by the two pilots, and one of them spoke, "We're going into battle now. Please, do not worry. We'll put our best into this!" The last phrase was spoken with great determination, as if the only alternative of success was death, and this commanded respect.

"We're off now! You all take care!" The pair went outside in a hurry, leaving the three behind in the room.

"Crimson Hawk? How is this possible?" Number Two murmured in a daze, her face the image of despair. Gu Shaoze was also deeply troubled, and upset at the situation they were in. Only Ye Chong looked the same as before, fully composed.

"What's the Crimson Hawk?" Seeing the two in fear and trepidation, Ye Chong was curious as to the cause.

The pair looked at Ye Chong like he was an idiot. "Are you really human? How could you not know the Crimson Hawk?"

"Are they any good?" Ye Chong asked.

"Oh heavens, how can someone ask such a ridiculous question like that on this day and age?" Gu Shaoze looked like he could faint at any moment. His pallor was the perfect depiction of someone with severe anemia.

Number Two grudgingly managed an explanation. "The Crimson Hawk is a powerful crew of space pirates. I don't know if they are the strongest amongst the pirates, but they are undoubtedly the most notorious. Compared to other pirate crews, they are more ruthless. Those who were captured rarely escaped alive."

Ye Chong cocked his head to one side and thought for a moment. "What you're saying is that they will surely invade this ship?"

Number Two nodded. "Definitely!"

Ye Chong stood abruptly, surprising the two.

Gu Shaoze was flustered. "What are you up to? Don't do anything rash! They kill without so much so at the snap of a finger!" Suddenly, Gu Shaoze quieted in realization, remembering that this man was just the same.

"I need mechs! Do you know where to find them?" Ye Chong asked nonchalantly.

Number Two felt that the man before him was truly an enigma. He was calm in the face of such impossible odds, and still high in spirits for the fight. Perhaps only the ignorant could be fearless!

"At the bottommost level is the cargo bay, usually there would be a few backup mechs so that pilots whose damaged mechs could not be repaired in time can still resume combat. For a commercial fleet like this with many mech pilots onboard, surely there would be a few of those backups." Number Two may not feel that this struggle could have any effect, but in her heart there was still a ray of hope. If he succeeded, then the young master would be saved!

"How do I get to the cargo bay?" Upon hearing that there were mechs available, Ye Chong's eyes suddenly blazed brightly.

The cargo bay's entrance was locked tight, and to open the door would require a passcode.

There was no time to ask anyone for passcodes. Ye Chong took a deep breath, and in an instant, his chest expanded like a wind box; every muscle of his body began to burn like fire, as if he was inhaling hot air! Ye Chong bent his knees to a horse stance, angled his arm and closed his palm into a fist. He drew his arm slowly backwards while drawing and accumulating strength, bit by bit!

He inhaled sharply - his body's temperature had risen to the point of being almost unbearable - and the bow was fully drawn!

There were no further hesitations - Ye Chong howled like thunder while his right arm swung out like a hurricane storm as it shrieked lowly past the air and aiming straight towards the center of the cargo bay's door!

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Chapter 36: Stealth Rock

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Thump! An extremely off-putting thud centered at Ye Chong's right fist as countless cracks densely formed towards the surrounding in a frenzied manner. The black entrance storage door soon cracked like a blooming flower, of white silver tainted with crimson patches. It bloomed rapidly in front of Ye Chong.

Smash! A glass shattering like-sound rang as the tiny bits of metallic flower withered petal by petal. Hush! Shush! The crack soon caused the door to have its pieces fall down in a heavy shower.

Ye Chong glanced at his right hand, where an open wound bled with its flesh lacerated. He couldn't help but shudder upon the bloody mess. Apparently smashing a door open barehanded is highly dangerous. I should refrain doing that too much in the future!

Without hesitation, Ye Chong stormed into the storage area.

He then immediately found a series of mech warp switches neatly arranged on the rack by the wall. As if a famished wolf which bumped into a feast, he pounced in a hurry.

Since these were mechs for back-up, other than some of them being specialized scouting models, most of them happened to be mechs for use in outer space.

Ye Chong thought for a moment and picked a scorpion-shaped mech model painted completely black, named the "Sand Scorpio", which had outstanding speed and a wide scope of vision. The body was satisfactory and the color allowed it to perfectly hide and go unnoticed by enemies. Ye Chong didn't pick the Sand Scorpio merely because of these features, but there was something unique in the functions that caught his eyes.

Staring at the rack, he grit his teeth. The warp switches clinked as he swept all of them into his fanny pack.

He tumbled and hopped into the cabin of a Sand Scorpio. He looked at the interface with panic, as it required him to perform a first launch set-up.

He missed Mu. Mu was so much more convenient than this. He never was required to perform a complicated set-up. It only took a drop of his blood to launch.

His eyes glared at the popping messages on the hologram while his hands moved quicker than its shadows. There were a number of properties exclusive to the Sand Scorpio and to utilize them well, Ye Chong had to go through the settings first. In the battlefield, what lies between life and death is only a matter of seconds. A slip could change things forever. He would not dare to proceed without any form of preparation.

In a panic, he might have been in a rush but he didn't rush, instead Ye Chong carefully and calmly went through the overall settings.

Only if Mu was there… then his pathetic life would be saved. And he wouldn't have to be so agitated at the moment!

Gu Shaoze and Number 2 sat quietly in the room, looking at each other.

Meanwhile in the battlefield, it was total chaos. Both sides had experienced pilots. Beams of laser in all kinds of colors diverged, converged, overlapped and collided into each other. The darkness of dead space was lustered by the sparks of war.

The Oak Leaves were more like an actual army than a bunch of pilots. They raided in a planned formation. Disciplined, supportive, and orderly as they helped each other out. All for one, one for all. Ten advanced pilots formed the branches of the entire army, while Fid, the crew master, was the mastermind of it all.

Man shalt not be weak under his great reputation. The space pirates of the Red Owl Beard came in an overwhelming amount against the Oak Leaves and everyone piloted a mech programmed for combat. They arrived like a pack of wolves, cunningly avoiding direct contact with the Oak Leaves and began ruffling their wings and tail without holding back. They would never stay for long on the Oak Leaves, they would just hit and run.

Judging by the situation, both parties couldn't do anything to each other at first. But as the Red Owl Beard easily outnumbered the Oak Leaves, the scale of war gradually tilted in favor of the space pirates.

Ye Chong was piloting his Space Scorpio as he stealthily tailed behind a trading vessel. With much caution, he glanced at the chaotic situation before him. He might had seen much more brutality back at Trash Planet-12 in the past years he stayed there, yet the scene before him was still casting chills down his spine.

Countless mechs swayed, glided and exploded from time to time. Ye Chong witnessed the mechs bursting into shots of fireworks, illuminating the dark space before him. Even though he had been into numerous matches at the NRS training ground and had smashed enough machines, none of those were overwhelming enough to compete with the epic scene at that moment.

He tried to calm down the rustling in his thoughts.

Stay alive… Stay alive… I must stay alive! Ye Chong mumbled repetitively, as he attempted hypnotizing himself to remind how he could not just die there. I had stayed on Trash Planet for long enough and I had finally made my way out of there! I have not seen enough of the outside world! How could I just die here?

I can't die! He screamed to the top of his lungs!

Puff… Huff… He gasped boldly. Slowly he caught his breath and regained serenity.

What to do now? At this rate, it would be only a matter of time when the Oak Leaves miserably lose. Even in self-content, Ye Chong knew his position well, as he might have assumed himself to be powerful and invincible, but he could barely turn over the place in such situation. He could not change what would happen in the end.

As soon as he calmed down, he started to ponder.

Considering how both parties were busy with each other, and no one had the grace to look over here… He had an idea. How about I just get onto one vessel and sneak away? I had just learned some tricks on this from Gu Shaoze a while before, it shouldn't be a problem!

Wait, no. He turned down the idea himself as he thought about the limited speed a vessel could offer. By the time the space pirates ended the fight in glory, he might be merely slightly ahead of them. There's no way for him to race with a pirate craft! He would be cornered in no time!

How about escaping with one of the mechs I got? Guarantee they would not notice. Well, even if they had caught me red-handedly running away, they would send nobody to go after me. Even if they would, they wouldn't send a flock of them… If that's the case, with only one or two of them, I still have a chance.

But mechs aren't theoretically designed for long-term flights, as the energy gets depleted fast. It was insufficient to begin with and there was no resupply; Ye Chong had neither water nor food for necessities. If he even managed to escape, he would be starved or dehyrated to death in the boundless galaxy.

Then what should I do! He was puzzled, knotting his brows.

Suddenly, the corners of his eyes discerned a strangely crafted spaceship and it was crowded by pirates. It seemed to be the head of all pirate crafts. By then, an idea automatically popped up in his mind and it began lingering in his mind ever since.

As he shifted his sights upon a number of floating rocks a few meters away, his idea took shape.

The battle was reaching its climax as both sides began to have major injuries. Almost everyone took part in the tipping point of the fight.

This is it!

He made up his mind and grit his teeth, with the thought of risking his life. Whether he would be dead or alive, it all depended on this!

He sat up straight in the controlling seat, closed his eyes and took a specific rhythm to breathe. Inhale…Exhale…Inhale…Exhale. Consciously adjusting his muscles into relaxation, his arms reached the control panel gently, with the fingers curving naturally.

Right then! His eyes forced open, lustrously.

Dammit! He cursed softly. His hands illusively moved. Right on the fence between death and life, he did not let up. He dared to promise, and that was the time where his hands moved the fastest they could ever be.

Accelerate! Gear up! Within the spark of his eyes, he had hit the highest velocity as he drove towards the front of the vessel diagonally, as if the vessel was his nemesis.

At 10 meters away from the vessel, completely immersed in the shadow of the gigantic craft, he was still speeding up with his hands, away from split seconds crashing. Sand Scorpio at maximum speed, launched the additional engines in a bombardment.

The Sand Scorpio made a gorgeous curve as he glided it under the bottom of the vessel. There was barely 10 centimeters between the Scorpio and the vessel.

Ye Chong focused on the hologram and repeated the calculation in his mind. His hands had hardly paused. Sweat hung on his forehead. It looked like it was rather consuming for Ye Chong to perform such input.

The bottom of the vessel had a breadth about 50 meters long… at this speed, the Sand Scorpio would flee from the vessel within less than a second!

In that second, when the Sand Scorpio glided through, the smooth dark body turned into dents and unorderly lumps all over. The long sting was also kept underneath. The Sand Scorpio by then appeared to be like a random space rock from nowhere. The engines were all shut down the moment the craft fled from beneath.

Such a chain of complications done in one go within a second… Ye Chong could feel the amazing speed of his hands!

That was the first time in his life appreciating Mu's "inhumane" marble training!

The Sand Scorpio propelled like a shattered meteorite through the group of vessels in silence.

No one in the battle noticed the existence of this "meteorite".

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Chapter 37: Camouflage

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Camouflage - an unique ability possessed by the Sand Scorpio, by making use of the uneven lumps on the surface, it hides itself from enemy detection pretending to be piece of rock. But this ability is hard to utilize, as the activation of it has a harsh requirement where the user has to shut down the power first, while rebooting the system from utter inactivity to mobility would also require massive inputs. In other words, right when you use this ability, you have completely given up your mobility. You could only pray that you won't be detected by enemies; if you were, unfortunately, you'll be skewed!

Unquestionably, the overwhelming requirement on the precision of piloting is one of the main reasons that prevented this technique to be commonly used.

In the meantime, concealed in the shadows of the vessels, Ye Chong's Sand Scorpio crept by.

If one were to take a closer look, one would notice how this piece of rock was always either travelling right beneath every vessel or sliding through by its side. There was merely a gap between each slide-through! Oh the risk!

Everytime when Ye Chong was moving by a vessel, he would utilize the cover of the shadows to perform a sequence of inputs involving the reboot of his engine, adjusting his aspect and coordinates, and turning off the engine again.

As he passed by the last vessel, he finally could have a sigh of relief.

The inertia of the Sand Scorpio glided it diagonally towards the floating rocks faraway. In the middle of the silent and dark sky of the night, the gliding rock didn't get anybody's attention.

It was then Ye Chong realized how truly soaked he was, as if he had just gotten out of water. His hands were in spasms, the aches were coming through. It seemed like the series of inputs just now had gone beyond the capacity in his usual training. The discomfort he had, it was from overusing his hands. His right hand was the worst as it was wounded by the punch breaking into the storage area. Under normal circumstances, the injury was nothing in his eyes, but considering it was an injury over another, he begged his right hand to not go haywire at the moment.

Sweat blended with blood. The saltiness of the sweat scorched the right hand of his. A constant stimulation that kept his hand from feeling worn out.

At this speed, it would take about 5 more minutes to get to the group of rocks there.

The lights were turned off in the cabin, with the hologram illuminating Ye Chong, it blinked in a dreamy nature - an illusionary to behold.

Ye Chong couldn't be bothered by the other kinds of beauty taking place in his cabin. He had more concern on the ongoing information in the hologram, as he adjusted his breathing pattern to slightly reduce consumption of stamina while his hands were gently fluttering to resolve their fatigue.

How the situation of the battlefield had turned out, he would not dare see.

5 minutes passed. Ye Chong stared at the approaching rocks as he inched towards. A never-before-felt sensation of anticipation raided his mind. The very first step had been completed flawlessly, what's next?

It's coming! Closer… Closer! Closer! Now!

The Sand Scorpio got to the shades of the rocks and … full force! Booming, the engine had been turned on and all supportive engines on the side-wings engaged! The supportive engines took on different angles and directions from time to time while the Sand Scorpio, like it was attracted by the rocks, performed a 120 degree curve, sliding into one side of a rock and smoothly exiting out from another. The process was without interruption, executed intuitively.

The rocks were distant from the battlefield, making them less noticable, which was why Ye Chong chose the rocks in this area instead.

And he would be using these rocks to complete his direction change!

And without doubt, he did it well. He was sure that if Mu was there, Mu would be giving his rare compliments on his perfect curve as well.

The Sand Scorpio had its engine switched off right after coming out from the rock cluster.

The direction of its travel - To the Pirate Craft!

By then, no one had noticed this very piece of rock that would change the outcome of this war entirely as it flew towards the pirate ships.

Seeing the pirate ship approaching, he was getting nervous.

The approach was impeccably accurate!

His Sand Scorpio had just travelled by the first outermost pirate craft. It was only a close shave, which gave Ye Chong cold sweat throughout his body. If anything was inaccurate in his prediction before, there's no turning back. There's no recalculating or readjusting the mech's angle. If he were to switch on the Sand Scorpio, even just one engine, the camouflage would be busted right away. And he could imagine how he would be bombarded into oblivion by the firearms of the battling armies on the spot.

The Sand Scorpio justified his calculating ability. There had yet to be even a slight scratch with any pirate ship and the Sand Scorpio was steadily sliding towards the deep abdomen of the pirate craft.

He soon arrived at his destination - a pirate craft of an outstanding design!

He dare he was sure that the craft was not an ordinary pirate ship! Between every other pirate crews, this one would become his prey in no time. He felt an intensity he never felt before, which surged throughout his body like electricity and excited him till he shuddered!

Ye Chong's red bleary eyes, the tiredness, the aches from his wound, the spasms on both his hands were long gone by then. He was injected with a new form of energy, charging him up so much that he had never felt being this good in condition!

Different from being the maniac in his mind, his hands were still performing inputs tidily and not thrashing about!

As the Sand Scorpio hovered underneath the vessel, the tail was sprung open. Clink! A gentle screech came from the alloy rope. The bottom of the Sand Scorpio was a giant trochal disc, which usually was kept conical. When the Sand Scorpio's tail sprang upon the bottom of the ship, it transformed into the circular trochal disc which had itself fixed tightly underneath the ship.

The ever-sliding Sand Scorpio had eventually stopped itself. Ye Chong calmed down.

Ye Chong couldn't help but to start checking out the bottom of the ship right before him.

At the center of it, there was a circular lid dented in the bottom. Judging by that, the lid could be possibly opened from the inside of it.

Any mech modelled for space-travelling would have an escape suit for the pilot, which not only was able to provide oxygen supply up to 10 hours, but also had the ability to fly. Well, of course, the so-called flying was only of range brief enough for one to reach the nearest spacecraft in space.

Ye Chong put on the escape suit and kept the dagger that Gu Shaoze gifted him at his waist, the toolkit in hand; he scurried out of the cabin in a flip and did not immediately follow the alloy rope attached upwards, rather he hovered towards the abdomen of the Sand Scorpio and got to its weapon storage.

He cautiously used the toolkit in his hand and removed the laser sword installed on the Sand Scorpio. Well for cannons… those were too much… considering how these would expose him anytime alright, Ye Chong wouldn't want to bet his life on these.

So he grabbed the 3 meter long laser sword. It looked a bit absurd for a laser sword.

He then clung onto the alloy rope and made his way up to the bottom of the pirate ship. He observed the embedded lid and confirmed it had to be open from the inside. Too bad. By then he instantly dropped the idea of using the toolkit to open the lid. He put the toolkit aside and raised the laser sword with both hands.

To die in space or to take another chance to another frontier? This shall be taken!

Ye Chong impaled the laser sword in his hands right onto the lid without hesitation!

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Chapter 38: Red O' Beard

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Wondering what material this ship was built out of, Ye Chong was facing difficulty cutting through, even with a powerful laser sword. Droplets of sweat formed on his forehead, reflecting the glaring light coming from the laser sword. It was quite striking in the darkness of space. He would be in trouble if he didn't make it fast! People would notice him soon enough!

The other hand of his was gripping the alloy rope attached to the trochal disc of Sand Scorpio to stay still in the weightlessness of space. He hoped that the suction would be strong enough to hold him up and not drop him out of a sudden!

The laser sword was gradually making progress as it started to sink into the bottom of the ship. Man this armor is sure thick! The sword's entire blade had already been engulfed by the ship's body but there was yet a breakthrough. There was no other choice. Ye Chong had to dig a way in. He plucked out the armor piece by piece. This is tiring with a laser sword. It would be certainly lovely if I have a laser shovel or something instead… He didn't forget to crack a joke to lighten the atmosphere at that moment, just to relax his tightened nerves since he started to notice his muscles were stiffening due to nervousness.

Back when he was at Trash Planet-12, whenever he was in such a dead-or-alive situation, cracking jokes was the method to bring him good luck!

He starkly looked like the nanobot working in space stations. And they were used for slavery.

Zing! The laser sword felt nimbler out of a sudden. Great! Ye Chong cheered. We finally got through! He carefully sliced an opening big enough to fit a man and kept the Sand Scorpio back in the alternate dimension, thanking it for its tremendous fulfilment in its role.

He weaved into the pirate ship with much caution. Right as he was in the ship, he felt weight and staggered, nearly losing grasp of his sword. He just realized that he had already entered the gravitational field of the ship.

Illuminated by the light of the laser sword, Ye Chong looked around attentively.

…

At the main control room, Mr. One-eye had a cigar in his mouth and cozily melted into the fluffy commander seat, with serenity in his eyes. His willowy strategist held hands with devotion as he stood behind his leader.

"These twerps sure know something!" Mr. One-eye chuckled, "They knew how to fight! Psh, this rowdy fella was really fierce. Hah! It was not strange for him to be one of my arsenals! But the fat lamb runnin' this time was a bit tough to deal with. Too bad he ran into us! Hehehe! We're makin' some fortune this time…" He coveted the gigantic vessels, with countless jewelries of gold and diamond that flew in his eyes.

The slender strategist nodded obediently. He deeply understood the situation as his sunken face usually pale had been drunkenly red by then, obviously being overjoyed from hunting down this rare fat lamb. Such an unexpected loot! Coming out of nowhere! Surely even a menacing guy like him would be blinded by joy too.

Though blinded by joy, he still remembered to butter up his master, "This is all because of your superior leadership, Mr. One-eye. The loot is more than enough for us to live like a king for the next few months! But, great leader, there has been rumors coming from the Black Cove, talking about how every item was strangely out of stock recently. We even have the word of the elderly there, saying they would pay handsomely for any stock sent. Not only handsomely in money but also handsomely in Black Cove points! Well, I have a suggestion, Mr. One-eye. Are we sending these stocks on the vessel right to the elderly? So that we would not lose out much while earning these decent Black Cove points which could be put into good use for us?"

Black Cove was sending chills down Mr. One-eye's spine upon hearing it as he shuddered. The fear didn't last till the phrase Black Cove points was mentioned. His single eye lustered.

Black Cove was a mysterious place, the absolute center of shadowy figures. It was also a paradise for consumerism, with the hottest chick, the smoothest wine, the brightest costume, the kindest service, the best mech - sexual, mellow, thoughtful, gorgeous and advanced… Anything of any adjective, as long as you could think of, you could own them all. Even those you couldn't think of would exist in Black Cove, like the beast you had not seen before, literally everything that would be an eye-opener to you would be in Black Cove.

Currencies of the 5 major galaxies were all useable in this area, but only for services in the outskirts. If you would want to contact … and of course you would want to, the darkest, the most mysterious, the deepest of Black Cove, namely the inner area, the core, you would need currency of an exclusive kind by Black Cove - the Black Cove points, which could not be obtained under normal circumstances like exchanging them with currency from the major galaxies, unless anyone in possession of the points was willing to exchange them for your galaxy bucks. In the market, those points were already sought after by desperate buyers with astronomical offers, yet no one in actual possession was happy enough to trade them off.

To a space pirate like Mr. One-eye, every single point was worth more than anything.

Every once in awhile, the elderly at Black Cove would announce a series of request, in exchange for Black Cove points if any of those quests were accomplished accordingly. In addition, all the workers serving in the core of Black Cove would be paid points too, as their salary or wages. The catch that turned people off was, be it a sincere request from the elderly or a job in the inner area, they were never easy to begin with.

The requests from the elderly were of extremely difficult, where even a real extraordinary man of authority like Mr. One-eye with an army of followers could only helplessly stare at such requests. If you managed to squeeze into the core of Black Cove to work, congratulations! That means your expertise is of brilliant mastery. As long as your standard is high enough, even though you are a problematic figure for instance, it would not hinder your admission to work in the core because your strength determines everything in the core.

But well, there was still one more way to get Black Cove points. It was quite a strange way too - to provide precious information in exchange. There would be experts to rate your info and pay you with those points accordingly.

"Are you sure about the rumors, Willow?" Mr. One-eye quickly asked.

Willow replied respectfully, "Yes sir, I heard it from Mr. Jackson. Along the way I also have discerned it from whispers of some of the people!"

"Jackson!" Mr. One-eye muttered. He moaned as he thought. Jackson was one-of-a-kind among the space pirates, different from the Red Owl Beard who came in crowds, he was the lone wolf hunting in space. He might be alone, but none of the crew dared to look down on him. Nobody ever was brave enough to steal his loot. Somehow, there was a reason but it was unspeakable for everybody. They couldn't explain why they feared to steal his loot, it just happened, as if an unwritten rule among the crew.

"If it was from Jackson, chances are it is real!" Mr. One-eye exclaimed, "But ya know, it takes far to travel to the Black Cove, we the Red Owls carryin' such a huge vessel, it is not strange there could be anybody in the way, wanting to steal our gold!"

"But, sir, this is a golden opportunity to get your points!" Strategist Willow advised, "I think, this is a risk worthy to be taken! Also, even if there is anyone who is daring enough to stand in the way, we are not angels to spare gifts, especially under your supreme leadership, they would not simply offend you, Mr. One-eye! If we all make it this time, those people in our way would be running away the next time they see us! Of course it all depends on your wisdom, great leader of the Red Owls!"

The great leader of the Red Owls made up his mind, "Right! You're right! How could I let go of a treasure chest like this? It is surely worthy of some risk! Those Black Cove points were what I dreamed of! We're just short of a few points to get us a new boat. Hehehe, imagine the world if I got a new craft to thrash with!"

"Oh,how wise our leader!" Willow praised along.

"Hahahaha!" Mr. One-eye patted his shoulder, "Don't worry! I'll share ya'll some coins once I have the entire chest! Hahahahahaha!"

Willow's face blossomed with excitement, bowing and nodding his head in wholehearted loyalty.

While they were so indulged in their glorious future in wealth, they never noticed a shadow that flashed by the hologram.

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Chapter 39: Knocking down the Stalk

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Ye Chong waited right outside the door, silently like a huntsman's jaguar standing by in the dark corners. He was anticipating the moment for the prey to be immobile. As Ye Chong explored the pirate ship all the way, he encountered nobody. It was as if the whole craft was a fraud, a hollow shell filled with no one. That was his impression till he hit the main control room and his ears caught some mumbles. He stopped by and hid himself.

He peeked into the control room. There were only 2 persons. Apparently the one with an eye-patch at the side seemed to be the leader… judging by how his only eye blinked with charisma as he spoke to another who seemed to be in respect… a respect by fear…

Ye Chong's fingers fiddled the dagger in his waist. The laser sword was too long to be carried around in a small space like this. Plus, the light it produced was too distinctive, it would alert the enemy in no time. As soon as he made his way into the craft, he dropped it somewhere in the darker corner of the corridor. He also discarded the space suit since that plump thing was too clumsy to walk with.

Mr. One-eye was giving commands through the interface projected before him, while Willow stood behind his supreme leader. Both of them were facing their backs to Ye Chong outside.

He waited on, waited for the best time to strike!

Mr. One-eye muffled some considerable matters and disconnected the transmission, gasping in the end. That's the moment Ye Chong had been waiting for!

Ye Chong tiptoed, his back slightly hunched, and sneaked to the back of Mr. One-eye. The thick carpet over the floor of the control room was such an advantage to keep his movement silent. Mr. One-eye who had spent almost his whole life dancing between the brink of life and death seemed to have his instinct surprisingly calling, calling him to take a glance to his back as he sensed something.

Damn! Ye Chong was agitated! He sprang up on his legs and pounced quickly, with the dagger in his right hand stinging like the venom of a snake. The process was fast, accurate and painful. As usual, he did not held back. The next moment after that was him locking his dagger right onto Mr. One-eye's neck. From his experience, he could guarantee that if this blow was landed right, his neck would have a huge cut!

Mr. One-eye could hear the wind whooshing from his back. Terrified, he couldn't be bothered of how graceless he would look, he lifted himself off the armrest and bounced off like a ball, rolling to the front as he dodged this very blow from Ye Chong. Of course, as past experience taught him well, right as he bounced off, he switched on the transmitter.

Willow the strategist didn't seem to have reacted in time. He only saw how his supreme leader rolled on the carpet out of a sudden and was in deep confusion. What the heck is our leader doing?

Ye Chong thought he would have landed the hit, but in fact he didn't. That was uncalled for… He couldn't help but flinch a little. Then his sight shifted upon the Willow guy frozen at the side. Intuitively, he launched his left fist upon his waist. Wham! Willow was sent flying like a ragged doll, in a gorgeous curve, right onto the wall as blood splashed and painted the plain white wall a mural of cherry blossoms.

Mr. One-eye who witnessed the power of a mere punch being this devastating had his face drained of colour! Ye Chong was going to react.

Beep! Ye Chong jumped at the interface suddenly popping out.

The grunt in the screen was stupefied, wondering why his leader called him right after the transmission was ended. "What's your command, sir?" He asked.

"Are you dumb or what!" Mr. One-eye couldn't control and baffled, "I command your dumbass! Don't you have eyes or something? Don't you see I'm getting assaulted? How about you act fast and cal" He choked on his words and his rampaging temper was abruptly extinguished, as he saw Ye Chong jumping onto him.

He knew well in his mind, as long as he bought himself a little bit more time, his men would make it here. Just one more minute… No! Half a minute maybe! Comforting himself in his mind.

He went dizzy for a brief moment while Ye Chong then had already haunted right in front of him. He was travelling like a phantom in the room, with the blade of his dagger glowing coldly as he brandished it, making orbits and orbits that flashed one after another.

The afterimages further frightened the old pirate. His face paled further. He was not expecting a mere man having such strength would also possess such horrifying agility. His past reminded him of how he recognized the capability of immense speed more than immense strength. Immense strength could be threatening, but not as practical as immense speed. Speed, brutality and accuracy. It's always speed that mattered most. There had been a saying among the pirates - Nothing shalt avoid its defeat, unless speed it was. One could only have either. With great strength you let go of your dexterity, and vice versa. However if there would be an exception to this balance, one who possessed both immense strength and speed… that would be…

A. Big. Terror.

Mr. One-eye never thought of having such an encounter today, with such a powerful force. His hope sank over time.

He reacted reflexively in the experience of a great man like himself. He knew he couldn't dodge, so, girtting his teeth, he raised his arms and warded himself from the fatal blow!

Sphhhlt! Crack! It was the sound of the blade piercing the flesh at first, followed by the bone crushes. Ahhhh! Mr. One-eye shrieked. The pain penetrated right through his marrow, flooding his thoughts like a tsunami wave. He wanted to do something. He needed to something! How to do it? His subconscious urged him to do something, anything would do, as long as the pain could be lessened.

Ye Chong noticed the moment when Mr. One-eye was shouting in pain, the opportunity when he loosened his guard. Clink! He pulled out his dagger from the flesh, blood poured out like fountain. His eyes locked on, with the dagger locked right onto the throat, like a snake's fangs. It didn't miss this time!

The one eye on his face bloated, like a dead fish he was, glared at Ye Chong, as if he was in disbelief of what had happened to himself. One hand holding his throat, while his lips lifted, wanting to mutter some words but only fizzes rushed out like a broken pipe. The blood gargled out of his mouth next. It lasted for a few seconds before the old pirate collapsed into the annals of history.

The grunt in the interface was shocked by the sight. His brain remained malfunctioned. He couldn't react and could only watch on. It was when he saw his leader collapse, he only reacted, in screams and shouts.

Ye Chong glanced nonchalantly and shut down the transmitter.

The next thing on the list… Ye Chong was aware of. One last thing to do. Run!

He hopped onto the control seat and piloted the ship backwards. As this was the first hand-on experience to pilot an actual space craft for him, he acted rather awkwardly. There was quite a number of guarding crafts nearby and Ye Chong crashed into them occasionally as he made his way to escape.

The crewmen on the ships outside did not know their leader's death. They just assumed it was one of the mischievous moments by their head. Moreover such minute impact wouldn't harm their ships that much. So the crewmen just laughed on as they watched their leader entertaining them like a clown. It would be a precious moment to behold! Of seeing the leader acting like a joke!

It didn't take long till Ye Chong got a hold of it. He realized it wasn't that much of a difference compared to piloting a mech.

…

Back on the battlefield, Fid was pleading in agony. These pirates couldn't stop harassing! His team was running low on power for their mechs. But the constant harassment was preventing them to refill. It would only take about 2 to 3 more minutes before he and his team would be hunted like a pen of helpless lambs by a pack of wolves outside. He was almost depressed.

Out of the blue, something occurred on the battlefield. Something strange!

It began with one of the pirates stopping the attack, then the next and the others… as if an infection, in less than half a minute, almost the entire crew held their attacks.

Fid, witnessing such a creepy sight before him, was puzzled.

Was this another diabolical plan by the filthy owls? These crewmen did not need conspicuous tricks like these! Or had mercy got into their heads to let us all go? No way! Pfft! Barbarians like the pirates would be religious enough to spare the life of others? Then I must be a saint too!

Fid ceased his thoughts. He saved his speculation and commanded his team to head back and refill immediately. He couldn't bear to lose this very chance.

He evacuated the team and ran back for his life. He turned his head as he escaped, which the sight nearly widened his eye balls. The enemies… The enemies! They… They turned back and ran too! They even fled faster than our team! Out of shock, his craft almost crashed into a vessel, such an unwieldly act he did!

It was still a scorching battlefield with bombardments and slaughters.

The next second, it was nothing.

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Chapter 40: That Willow Guy

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He took a glimpse towards his back. Man! He was put into immense shock. His situation by then was like a honeycomb dripping fresh, concentrated honey, where the hornets tailed vigorously. The first ever time it was Ye Chong that felt an urge to stab the damn honeycombs a thousand times whenever he saw it. Without much guessing, he accelerated to maximum speed and prayed to God that this piece of pirate mount had capacity great enough to sustain him throughout the run from being chased down. If the capacity wasn't good enough, he's going to get cornered and shredded into nothing. If only that would happen!

Fortunately, the craft indeed outperformed the rest and sped away. Well it seemed like even a good o' pirate like Mr. One-eye feared death too, that he must make sure he manages to run away.

Anyway, at least I was saved.

Riding the gigantic craft, he ran through space.

The pirates went after him and didn't seem to be giving up anytime soon. Some even hopped onto their mech and rode on the pirate ship instead! Fire at will! They launched attacks without any pause, with any kind of weapon they had - be it the typical heat ray gun, lux blaster (spreading beam shooter) or the advanced laser sniper rifle, they even have their own particle cannons. However… Wonder if it was because the ship had undergone some sort of modification for it being the mount of the potent corsair, for some reason, when the bombardments struck, the body of the ship was hardly damaged. At most, only the sniper rifle could leave little pores on the surface.

The new leader of the pirates was in regret by then. He was formerly a devoted crewman under Mr. One-eye's leadership. It was an unwavering bond of friendship too between the captain and himself. Iron, or Mr. Iron, mourning over the captain's death ,went after the murderer, yet he was in such a pile of regrets, for why the heck did he modify his leader's craft to be that overpowered in the first place, making the murderer literally invincible at that moment.

Seeing how he was truly invincible from the shooting, Ye Chong was oh sure jolly! Later, the gap between the pirates and himself grew larger and larger. Obviously he was on the right ship! The speed was well ahead of them all!

At least he secured himself. Alert disengaged for him. He gasped in relief and switched to auto-pilot mode, before collapsing into the seat. Every part of his body was worn out, especially his hands, aching like being pricked by needles. The soft commander seat cloaked him with slumber. He felt like catching Z's finally, after being stressed for so long. He couldn't hold it any longer, the guards or whatever and dipped into his dreams.

…

It's been 6 hours since Ye Chong woke up.

The smell of death wafted throughout the control room. The bloody mess was such an eyesore! Ye Chong knotted his brows as the coppery smell spiked his nostrils. He lifted the dead body of the good-for-nothing pirate whose glory had become history and simply dumped him into the garbage chute. As he walked back to his lovely seat, Strategist Willow somehow flinched right on the wall. Wait, aren't you dead yet? This frail guy is still alive? It can't be! He knew the strength of his iron fist well, even a bulky guy like Mr. One-eye would crumble in one punch. It's no good. It doesn't seem like that kind of fist a weakling like that willow guy could take!

Some thoughts sprung in his mind. He began unbuttoning Strategist Willow's shirt and it was as guessed! He discovered a kind of cloth, light yellow and with countless dark threads crossing over each other.

Ye Chong removed the clothing from the strategist and fiddled with it. Such strength. He pulled the clothing forcefully with his hands yet there was no splitting or splatting, the sound in which he was expecting when clothes were torn. The clothing remained intact. Ye Chong was quite intrigued and changed into it straightaway. He tried punching his own chest and strange things happened. He only felt a moment of heat on his body and the pain felt much lesser than he imagined. It was then he realized the concept of how the shirt worked. It generally dispersed the damage received throughout the entire clothing, which in return reduced the fatality of attacks.

This is a nice safety charm! He couldn't let go of it and carefully had it to be the innermost of his outfit. Of course he did mutter, of how marvelous it could be if it was an overall for starters!

Then Willow faintly woke up and found out himself top-naked, and chilly. "You…You… Don't you come here! Please!" He was frightened, "Spare my life, mister. Please spare me…" Ye Chong was still directing his cold sight upon the trembling strategist. Willow gulped a few times, there was only horror on his face. It took him a moment to spit few words as he shrunk, "Mi…Mister? I'm… I'm… a virg- sorr…sorry… but… this…It…It is my first time… with a guy… you know… Please…Please do… do it gently!"

…

Ye Chong couldn't hold the impact and slammed the ground as he fainted on the carpet with his mouth bubbling.

…

Ye Chong slowly reached the dagger at his waist and Willow saw that, "Please spare me master! Please! Spare! Me!" Even more terrified, he pleaded quickly, "If master could spare this worthless life of mine, Willow is willing to follow master everywhere and show loyalty. Willow would take care of everything for master's everyday needs and is willing to die for master!"

"Hmm." He drew the dagger rather sluggishly and spoke slowly, "Oh. Tell me a reason not to kill you!"

The willow man was sweating hard but he didn't have time to wipe it off, "I know well about the environment and its surrounding. Ex-Extremely well! If master could spare me, I can guarantee to escort you out of the filthy pirates' raids! Also I know well about the pirates around here too! I could take up simple chores like getting things ready for master or hitting the underlings. I can tell you that I'm good at them…" Over time, as he lifted his lips and spoke, the anxiety faded away as he spoke smoother and smoother till it was really unstoppable!

The speech caught Ye Chong's attention. The surrounding was truly foreign to him. If he were to stick his head out everywhere, he would be caught by the pirates in no time. Maybe it would be a good idea to keep a man like this willow guy.

The strategist was intelligent for sure, discerning the changes in Ye Chong's expression, he rejoiced in his mind. It seems it's working!

Ye Chong who made up his mind glanced at the willow strategist, "You are right with your words. Indeed, your pathetic life would linger. However, if you were to do something funny, specifically, anything that you shouldn't have done. Hmph…" His wrist shook and the dagger in his hand was sent flying, like dark lightning. Zap! It rubbed through the dented cheeks of the strategist by a few millimeters, and embedded all the way into the wall right next! The whole blade!

Strategist Willow felt the chillness on his cheeks, as well as his own doom! But he then realized he was still in one piece, he let off a sigh of relief! Right when he thought of resting his eyes, he caught sight of the shrill dagger as he turned his head, and the panic that was formerly swallowed went up to his throat again. Such frightening strength! Every wall in this ship was made out of high density low-carbon materials, which even a heat ray gun could only leave a tiny hole on it. He never thought a mere man like his master could make such a strike. His new master was absolutely a terror!

Till he heard about his master sparing him his life for real this time, he got to relax and bowed numerous times to express his faithfulness.

He actually had his own plans. He knew, despite being the second-upper figure in the Red Owl Beard, he stayed on only because he had the trust of his old leader. Unlike the third-upper man in the crew, Iron, who had way more charisma and trust of the entire lower crew. Currently Mr. One-eye was dead and without doubt the crewmen would crown Iron as their new leader automatically. He never had a good time with Iron. He had issues with him. The Red Owl Beard had no longer a place for himself, and if he stayed, it was only a matter of time for his permanent doom!

Thinking again… the new master before him didn't seem to be an easier one to handle either, especially right after Iron witnessed how cold his master's eyes could be, bloodthirsty like an animal. This would be the kind who goes murdering without thought. Wonder how much blood had stained his hands! Talk about the number of lives who died by his knife!

But that was clearly a misunderstanding. Yes, he was right about Ye Chong murdering without thinking much, nevertheless, talking about the number of lives who died by his knife… That was rather an accusation than a statement! Ye Chong grew up on a trash planet and his childhood was spent with mutated lifeforms lurking in the rubbish dumps. He had to struggle to survive! So to his eyes, men were no different than the mutated lifeforms. So killing a man to him was just like killing a mutated lifeform!

Frowning, Ye Chong waved his hand and interrupted the strategist's buttering up session, he threatened, "No more of this complimentary nonsense from now on."

"So W-i-l-l-o-w. Tell me, what is your actual name?"

"It would be Bai Linan" With respect, he answered sincerely.

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Chapter 41: At His Master's Service

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Bai Linan finally further understood about his new master's temperament. The cold, unsmiling youth before him seemed to be dazed much of the time. He preferred swift actions and down-to-earth approaches over flattery or candied words. He never expressed outright disdain at them, but Bai Linan could unmistakably notice his impatience with those kinds of words! That's right, impatience! As for rank distinctions, his master was indifferent to them, but Bai Linan would not dare to be disrespectful!

What a strange person!

However, Bai Linan was astute. Once he knew about Ye Chong's preferences, he adjusted accordingly and changed his sycophantic ways of the past. He performed his duties efficiently and appropriately. Ye Chong, being naive, gradually realized that the man was actually not bad! If Mr One-eye was still alive and saw Bai Linan all prim and proper, he might just lose his last eyeball to shock!

Bai Linan spoke respectfully, "Sir, they should be heading towards Scarlet Star Shoal. They will not expect us to pass through the asteroid belt and head for Reno." Bai Linan now held great admiration towards Ye Chong, for he was always practicing on maneuvering the starship these past few days, and his painstaking effort far surpassed Bai Linan's expectations. To him, Ye Chong's training was akin to self torture!

This level of training was normal to Ye Chong. Since there was no one around to teach him, he would have to learn by himself. He had no choice but to learn the same way he did with mechs, but the results were remarkable, and his skills in maneuvering the starship greatly improved!

Since he witnessed Ye Chong's fluency in maneuvering, Bai Linan was confident enough to propose this daring plan, and Ye Chong agreed that it was a good idea. With that, the pursuing pirates figured that Ye Chong would be aiming for the Scarlet Star Shoal, thinking that they would need to recharge energy and replenish supplies there. With a direction, the pirates went forth chasing in a frenzy, while requesting assistance from any pirate connections they have near Scarlet Star Shoal.

The Red Beard's Owl's crew leader was killed despite layers of security, and news of losing their starship spread like wildfire throughout the pirate community! Many travelled to Scarlet Star Shoal to see the mysterious person who single-handedly murdered the infamous captain of Red Beard's Owl and even escaped with their vessel.

According to Red Beard's Owl's third-in-command, Iron, he saw with his own eyes that Mr One-eye had exchanged two moves with the assassin, and was killed by the third move! With that, the mysterious assassin's fame skyrocketed, and all were hooked with curiosity, for Mr One-eye was a master in both mech piloting and unarmed combat, and boasted a high reputation amongst the pirates. Since he was eliminated with three strikes, how could that not be shocking?

If one had such an exceptional assassin in one's crew, the others would almost certainly be reluctant to provoke one's pirate crew. This was the mindset of the captains from many pirate crews - they immediately rushed for Scarlet Star Shoal, hoping to greatly benefit from this uproar!

While everyone was in a frenzy for Ye Chong, the man himself took Bai Linan's advice and headed straight into the asteroid belt midway journeying to Scarlet Star Shoal!

Bai Linan firmly believed that he would never again go within ten kilometers of an asteroid belt! Heavens, this was a nightmare! When you see weird-shaped rock fragments slowly enlarging before your eyes, closing in and whizzing past you, only personal experience could make you truly appreciate the tension. Bai Linan's fragile nerves and heart heavily suffered, and when he saw Ye Chong's face red with excitement, he could only think of one thing - why did he ever come up with such a damning idea?

The vessel of the previously notorious Red Beard's Owl was magnificent and mighty, but after thorough treatment from the raining debris of rock fragments, it was now littered with holes, and looked terribly ugly! If Tiezi were to see it in front of him, he might not have recognized the vessel that he had personally modified under the orders of the late captain!

The starship's performance was also way beyond Ye Chong's expectations. It if were a normal starship, it would be out of service after the "painful" trip through the rocks. And while the pirate ship's exterior was now all scratched up from the impacts, the interior structure was completely undamaged.

When the starship left the asteroid belt safely, Bai Linan could not bear it anymore and plopped on the carpet, with his body sweating all over! On the other hand, Ye Chong seemed calm as ever, even reluctantly casting a few glances back at the asteroid belt. His expression was noticed by the heavily panting Bai Linan, who had the sudden urge to just abandon ship!

Fortunately, Ye Chong did not turn the starship back, but continued along the trajectory plotted on the space chart, heading towards the supply point on Reno. This made the anxious Bai Linan breathe a huge sigh of relief!

"Sir, we've arrived on Reno, where to next?" Bai Linan asked.

Ye Chong shook his head and asked back, "I'm not familiar with the local territory, where do you think we should go?"

Bai Linan considered for a moment. "Sir, news of you killing Mr One-eye must have spread around, I'm afraid many big players would be waiting for you to show yourself!"

Ye Chong was astonished "Waiting for me to show myself? For what?"

Bai Linan smiled wrily. "Sir, who would not want to recruit someone capable like you? I should tell you that once you announce yourself to the world, they would swarm up to you and do almost anything to get you onboard!"

Ye Chong humphed coldly; his gaze became focused and he went quiet. He took out his dagger and gently tested the sharp edges.

Bai Linan felt a chill down his spine, and hoped that the pirates would act sensibly, or else… Bai Linan dared not to continue the thought!

Ye Chong considered for a moment. He then removed his jacket, took off the black-striped yellow shirt that Bai Linan wore earlier and returned it to him. "You must take care of yourself!"

Bai Linan felt warmth blossoming in him, and tears nearly escaped his eyes. Ye Chong's lightly delivered concern won much gratitude from Bai Linan. Even Mr One-eye, who treated him the best amongst the crew, did not care for his life. If Mr One-eye knew he had a mesh vest, the captain would surely take it away from him by any means necessary; he would never offer one for Bai Linan instead! All these years, he had grown used to being a lackey, with no one concerned with his life or death. If not for his ability to craft out plans for Mr One-eye, he would surely have been left to die of starvation on some deserted wasteland! Thanks to his efforts in those days, he finally became Red Beard's Owl's second-in-command. It may seem glorifying, but those days were hard. The captain ordered him around from above, the crew disdained him from below, and Iron treated him like an enemy. He had not met a single soul who cared about his safety!

Bai Linan stared at the protective mesh vest in his hands with mixed feelings. Suddenly, his eyes glowed with realization, and spoke eagerly, "Sir, I know where we're heading!"

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Chapter 42: Something for Everyone On Reno

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"Black Cove?" Ye Chong muttered, "What a strange name!"

Bai Linan excitedly explained, "Yes, Black Cove, Sir. I got my mesh vest there. No one would dare to make a move there. Once we enter Black Cove, it'll be safe! Over there…"

Ye Chong was indifferent. "We'll do as you say!" With that, he turned and left, leaving behind Bai Linan, stupefied, as he was just about to start a lengthy speech on the spot.

Ye Chong sat in a corner, deep in thought. He reflected on his actions these past few days, as was his usual practice. On the trash planet, after every battle, he would carefully dissect the results and identify his mistakes, the mutants' habitual activities and their special behaviors. He had to think about these matters, and this was the main reason he could easily hunt powerful mutants every time with success. After Mu Shang's arrival, the mech had strongly encouraged this habit, and even made it a daily commitment for Ye Chong!

During his ambush on Mr One-eye, he was still too hasty, and not sufficiently composed. If he had been more level-headed, he could have escaped before the pirates could react, and would not be in a passive position. His unfamiliarity with the outside world was his greatest weakness, but this was not something he could make up for in a short time.

"The asteroid belt was the best natural training ground for practicing mech piloting. Ah, I could also do a little shooting practice on the side. That's something to consider for the future."

Ye Chong thought of Mu out of a sudden. He called for him a few times in his mind, but Mu did not respond, just like before. Ye Chong was dejected, and yearned for his old life on the trash planet despite himself being stronger now. While the planet was practically a wasteland, he and Mu could joke around all day, free of worries. Life there was monotonous, but nevertheless satisfying. Ever since Ye Chong left the trash planet, he had not laughed as much as he had in one day on his old home planet. As for unfamiliar things around him, Ye Chong always felt a dangerous undertone from them, and this made him extra cautious in dealing with everyday matters, including what most people thought were normal routines!

The environment out here was complicated, filled with variables that far outstrip the trash planet's!

Ye Chong yearned to leave the trash planet, but now that he had succeeded, he was without Mu's company, and that made him feel like something was missing.

At Reno's spaceport, workers stared dumbstruck at the starship that seemed like it could collapse at any time from its damages - if one could still call it a starship. Even the most senior worker shook his head despite himself being experienced, and spoke to the young lad next to him, "I've been at this for over fifty years, and never have I seen such a miserable-looking ship. Tsk tsk, I'm afraid even the junkyard wouldn't pay for it, it's a miracle they could even get here! Tell them we're not fixing this ship!"

The strange thing was, the other party did not ask for repairs, but only to recharge!

Ye Chong and Bai Linan exited the ship, and those around the pair oddly stared at them. The pair, however, was unfazed. Ye Chong did not care for them, for he was not involved with them. Once he found that they were not particularly threatening, he did not pay any attention to them. As for Bai Linan, he was, at any rate, the Red Beard's Owl's second-in-command, and these men were not worth his attention. As such, he ignored the stares they were receiving.

Reno was a planetoid, and looked the way it was now after years of construction and modifications. It was situated along the only way to Black Cove, and since visitors to Black Cove had gradually increased, Reno flourished as well.

Bai Linan, who was familiar with the area, took on the role of a guide, and began explaining to Ye Chong, "Reno is actually a supply station, the last one before one enters Black Cove. That's why a lot of people heading for Black Cove will stop by here for provisions. Hmm, perhaps because it's close to Black Cove, there are also plenty of Black Cove specialty products here, and traders who're reluctant to take the risk of entering Black Cove will buy their goods here, though the price is much higher compared to those in Black Cove!"

Skyscrapers extended beyond the clouds. Flying machines of all sorts whizzed back and forth in the sky. People adorned with various colourful outfits strolled along the streets. The wide avenue was only occupied by a few groups of pedestrians. Numerous shops projecting holographic advertisements lined the roads. Ye Chong looked at his first ever holographic advertisement, showing a semi-transparent lady of extraordinary beauty. She had a flawless face, devilishly sexy body curves and an alluring voice - the combination was breathtaking. Her every move teased the heart, and her soft, wet cherry lips formed words that sounded like music from the heavens, enough to make most people consider buying the advertised product at once!

Of course, that was for most people, like Bai Linan! Bai Linan was entranced by the holographic advertisement, almost drooling at the voluptuous lady!

However, for someone like Ye Chong, who had never dealt with the opposite sex, developing a standard to differentiate between the beautiful and the ugly would be an arduous task!

Ye Chong evaluated from the perspective of combat practicality. Her legs were too slim, unable to provide enough strength. Her hands had delicate skin, signs of weakness in unarmed combat. Her breasts were large but not muscular, not only lacking in strength but also definitely a burden for movement. Her hair was too long and would easily be tangled by something during combat, and that was very dangerous! Ye Chong could not help but shake his head. The only thing that impressed him was her thin waist - Ye Chong had no doubts that it would be very flexible!

The result of his evaluation was thus - extremely poor!

Bai Linan was still watching the advertisement with lecherous eyes and muttering to himself, "That's my dream girl, the most perfect woman in the world, ah, Feng Su, my dearest, when did she become the spokesperson for this product? What? How could I have not bought it? No, this… This is not acceptable for a loyal fan like me, I must support her till the end!"

Bai Linan warmed up to the idea and slipped into the store. After a moment, he exited with quite a few things in his hands. The storekeeper sent him off with a wide grin.

Ye Chong pointed at the stuff that Bai Linan was holding. "What are these?"

The distracted Bai Linan sobered up and studied them intently. His face instantly contorted - they're… they're all female products!

The two did not notice a pair of knavish eyes observing from around the corner.

"Did you really see them clearly?" A fearsome looking muscular man in his middle age asked in a low voice.

"Boss, do you still not believe the eyes of your servant? I've seen Bai Linan more than a few times, can't be mistaken!" The one who answered was a short fellow with unscrupulous eyes, obviously a cunning person.

"Didn't Red Beard's Owl's third-in-command, Iron said that Bai Linan is dead? Why would he be here now?" The middle-aged man was perplexed.

"This servant is also puzzled, isn't he already dead? Iron would not speak lightly of something like this, but I really did see Bai Linan! Oh, right, there's also someone with him!" The shorter man recalled.

"What?" The muscular man trembled in realization, and asked urgently, "You said someone's with him?"

"Yes, he's very young, and his looks are average, except that his expression is as though someone owes him money or something. Bai Linan seems to be very respectful to him!"

The middle-aged man spoke slowly, "He must be the one everyone is talking about now - Mr One-eye's assassin."

"What?" The little man was shocked. "Isn't he headed for Scarlet Star Shoal?"

"If I had guessed correctly, he must have travelled through the asteroid belt to get here. Smart move, hehe, who would have thought that everyone would be fooled by him! Excellent, excellent! If someone like this could work for me…" The middle-aged man paced about the room, his heart greatly enticed!

"Boss, what do you think we should do?"

His superior considered for some time, and made his decision. "Keep your eyes on him at all times, but remember, do not alarm him. Heehee, what a wonderful opportunity, we must plan this out carefully!"

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Chapter 43: Gold Wheat

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Once he left the boss's study, the little man scanned around discretely, and once he was sure no one was around, he quickly left through the back door.

The little man walked on and on, his surroundings became more and more secluded. The man did not once look back in his journey, and he looked nervous. His eyes constantly darted here and there. When he saw no one following him, he dashed into an alley.

"What did you say?" A black-faced burly man stood up as he spoke. His smooth, bald head shined conspicuously under the lighting.

"Elder Bei, there's no mistaking it, I saw Bai Linan with my own eyes, I wouldn't mistakingly recognize him! He is at Reno right now. If you don't believe it, send a few of your lackeys out to scout, they'll surely find them! As our elder said, they must have travelled through the asteroid belt, diverging from their route to Red Star Coast!" The little man replied with respect.

Just then, a lackey walked in and went whispered a few words into the ears of the black-faced man. The black-faced man's expression turned to joy upon hearing those whispers.

"Little Monkey, well done!" The black-faced man nodded with approval, and gave a meaningful glance to another lackey standing straight by his side. The lackey produced a card from his pocket and handed it to Little Monkey. "Well, Little Monkey, you must work hard from now on, don't worry, you'll get your share of rewards!"

Little Monkey nodded profusely, his eyes gleaming with desire at the card, as he accepted it carefully with both hands.

Elder Bei gave a wave of his hand, and Little Monkey tactfully left the room.

Once he was gone, Elder Bei leaned back and laughed to himself. "Haha, the Heavens do smile upon old me. My elder brother had gone to Scarlet Star Shoal for the assassin, but who would have thought I would gain an unexpected opportunity here at home. Tell our men to prepare themselves, I would also like to meet the one who killed Mr One-eye in three blows. Bring guns, all of you! Hehe, however fast he may be, can he outrun bullets?" Elder Bei groomed and stroked his bald head.

One of the lackeys was unsure. "Second Elder, do you think we should refer to the leader about this?"

Elder Bei scolded loudly, "Refer my a, if we wait for that, those two would be long gone! Once we capture them, we'll give the leader a surprise, haha. Now, don't just stand there, go get ready!"

Ye Chong and Bai Linan were leisurely strolling in Reno. By now, Bai Linan was getting a little depressed - where in the whole wide universe did his master come from? He knew almost nothing, and would ask about certain things. Initially, Bai Linan enthusiastically explained to him, but the questions became too much. Usually Bai Linan's explanation would spawn many more questions, and the questions were weird and outlandish, leaving Bai Linan uncertain of how to go about those subjects.

"Who would have thought I would serve a master like this? What bad luck," Bai Linan rolled his eyes at the sky. What infuriated him the most was his master's spouting nonsense about his idol, Feng Su - saying her legs were too thin, her skin was too soft and so on. Heavens, did those words come from a human? Bai Linan felt helpless against his situation!

Suddenly, there was a commotion ahead, and he saw an intimidating gang of burly men coming straight towards them.

Ye Chong noticed, and immediately summoned his mech.

The mechs that Ye Chong obtained from the commercial starships were prepared by Oak Leaves after years of hard work for use in case of emergency. They were all above average, and quite a few of them were expert level mechs, like the one Ye Chong was now summoning - the humanoid Gold Wheat!

While onboard the ship, Bai Linan had seen Ye Chong empty out a pile of dimension keystones from his waist bag, and he stared at them with bulging eyes, pointing at Ye Chong speechlessly. Was this guy an arms dealer?

Ye Chong learnt from his lessons, about running the initialization settings for a few mechs that were either expert level or had unique skills. A bit of early work would prepare him to face dangers ahead without panicking, and allow him to fully engage in battle swiftly. On the battleground, a second could determine life and death!

In Bai Linan's eyes, his new master kept changing one mech after another. Was he trying to do a mech showcase? Bai Linan was perplexed.

Once he understood Ye Chong's intentions, Bai Linan was astounded. Preparing so many mechs just in case of an emergency? He had never even seen anyone equipped with more than two mechs at a time! Ye Chong had set up five expert level mechs, and three special mechs! This, this was practically a moving mech warehouse! Bai Linan watched Ye Chong wear the dimension keystones on his hands with disbelief! If he knew Ye Chong already had a Sand Scorpio on him and Mu Shang hanging on his neck, what would his expression look like…

Since there were too many dimension keystones, they were made to look like accessories for easy carry. Ye Chong wore four rings, two wristlets, and even a keystone shaped as an eardrop. Bai Linan watched as Ye Chong wore the eardrop-shaped keystone on his left ear without hesitation, and was thoroughly shocked. When he recovered, he could not help but started laughing incredulously at Ye Chong's appereance.

Ye Chong did not mind it at all! Ugly? Did it matter? If it could save his life, Ye Chong will accept any degree of ugliness! Ye Chong did not care for Bai Linan's view. The only thing Ye Chong felt unfitting was having the rings on his fingers that would affect his hands' agility and sense!

Ye Chong summoned the Gold Wheat mech from his left middle finger the moment he felt danger.

Gold Wheat was thoroughly covered with a bright, golden hue. It was like a God that descended from the Heavens, all mighty and strong. But this was the feature Ye Chong was most dissatisfied with. Such glamour would basically mean shifting attention away from itself would be impossible. If only it was a greenish grey or a dull turquoise, or even a brownish yellow - any of them would be better than this.

However, Ye Chong was satisfied with the mech's overall design. The hull was streamlined, minimizing air resistance, and the double-layered armor was light and strong. Its main weapon was the ultra-frequency (UF) magnetic sword - a magnetic sword's performance was graded based on its size and resonant frequency, and an UF magnetic sword's power was astonishing. Its UF vibrations could shatter a mech's metal armor into pieces in an instant. It lacked the eye-catching glow of a laser sword, and so was not generally well received, but Ye Chong was quite satisfied with this feature.

Unlike most battle mechs, the Gold Wheat was not equipped with a shield, instead it had two defence hooks and a small armguard on its right arm. Speed, which Ye Chong had always prioritized, was also something the mech was well equipped for. Its Prism engine could support powerful movements, and up to eight auxiliary engines allowed great flexibility in manuevering. However, the mech was completely inadequate in terms of long range shooting - it only had one concealed gun chamber on its left arm, which housed a meagre 5k grade Lux Blaster - too shabby for a mech like this!

However, to Ye Chong, this battle mech was undoubtedly his most familiar and favourite type! Hence, when he first sensed danger, Ye Chong immediately thought of it!

Gold Wheat's bionic eyes shone with a golden glare, eyeing coolly at the ill-intent filled gang.

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Chapter 44: No Rules At All

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Best to launch a preemptive strike! A preemptive strike implied a greater chance of controlling the flow of battle. In a battle of life and death, whatever courtesy and chivalry present were all obsolete! Ye Chong was also devoid of such manners. While he did not know if this gang were looking for trouble with him, it was undeniable that he felt an underlying danger in their presence. Ye Chong's default reaction was to curb the menace before it began to pose a threat to himself against such underlying danger. This time, he followed his routine without a second to waste!

The men spread out into an arch, obviously hoping to surround Ye Chong. If Ye Chong could not have notice such an obvious tactic, he would have sign his own death warrant. Ye Chong had witnessed Oak Leaves' disciplined formation and the unique wolf pack formation of Red Owl's Beard. Thus, the current disorganized formation was, in his eyes, absolutely horrendous!

Ye Chong lifted his left arm, aimed it towards the gang and took a shot!

When the gang saw Ye Chong deploying his mech even before they even reached him, they were all stunned. Some of the more seasoned men slowed down their pace and silently shifted to the rear of the group.

They never imagined that with so many of them against one opponent, the other party would strike first.

The 5k grade heat ray gun, while being a little shabby for Gold Wheat, was still a terrifying weapon against lightly shielded opponents! A heat ray, thick as one's wrist, striked true at the frontmost man of the gang.

The scorching heat ray caused a perimeter of air turbulence surrounding its trajectory! The frontmost man's lower left arm completely evaporated. The wound, red from fresh blood, quickly turned maroon, and finally a burnt yellow; the gushing blood dried up in an instant like water sprinkled on desert sand. The heat ray did not seem to weaken after the first hit. It blasted at the chest of its second casualty, going through the body completely. Through the perfect wrist-sized wound, one could see a charred patch on the underbelly of the person behind him. All this happened before the agonizing shriek sounded by the first victim, followed by the second and the third!

The disaster before them shook everyone to their core, and all of them tried to stay as far as possible from the three victims. The crowd was in chaos.

Bai Linan gasped in astonishment, seeing the use of a mech weapon against someone without any mech equipped. He finally realized something - compared to this master, the pirates were merciful! Bai Linan was sharp - when he saw Ye Chong fired, he immediately scurried for cover behind him.

Ye Chong chillingly smiled in the pilot's cabin as Gold Wheat's ray gun continued blasting randomly at the gang. It went without saying that Ye Chong's shooting skills were terrible. Although he had practiced shooting at the NR Training Center, he had never practiced shooting in real life. Hence, while he still had recollections of shooting, his body could not keep up with the movement. In this dense crowd, with people everywhere, it would be harder to miss than to hit, but Ye Chong still managed to fire a few inconsequential rounds! Ye Chong felt deeply ashamed despite knowing this.

Second Elder Bei's bald head was covered with sweat. He did not expect the fellow before him to be so ruthless, shooting without so much as a question! He had planned to catch the fellow alive, for a dead man would be useless! The men with him had only heat ray guns of 8k grade, as the rays shooting Gold Wheat's body had no effect! Without at least a 10k grade weapon, it would be impossible to do the mech harm! Second Elder Bei urgently commanded, "Put on your mech now! Right now!"

Upon hearing his voice, the subordinates around him finally came back to their senses and deployed their mechs.

However, since they were standing too close to one another, many ignored their surroundings and thought of only sheltering within their mechs as soon as possible and staying out of the ray gun's path. The immediate result was that the deployed mechs, with their huge sizes, crammed the area even further. The situation became chaotic, and some people were even stomped to death by the deployed mechs!

Second Elder Bei hopelessly watched at the situation. He covered his face, unable to bear witness to the disaster, crying dry tears.

"There's a good opportunity!" Ye Chong unsheathed his UF magnetic sword, as his left arm wielded the defensive barb, and rushed head on like a thunderbolt into the chaotic mess. The best metaphor for the current situation would be - like a fierce tiger invading a flock of lambs! Compared to the defensive barbs in Ye Chong's left hand, the UF magnetic sword in his right was definitely an edged weapon used to reap human lives! He specifically aimed for the mechs' weak points, and the UF vibration due to the magnetic sword's hit often led to the targeted mech crumbling into pieces. Fragments and broken limbs flew away at high speeds, and many who did not deploy their mech in time lost their lives to these flying fragments.

What would happen when an UF magnetic sword directly hit a human body? The human body could not withstand vibrations at such a high frequency - once hit, beginning from the point of contact, the body would be ripped apart into numerous pieces! Body pieces flew everywhere! Red flowers of blood bloomed in numbers!

Compared to this, the men who died under the parrying spear were far luckier. The sharp, chilling, gleaming edge of the weapon was fatal in its every strike. It moved like lightning and never missed, its victims often dying on the spot!

Second Elder Bei did not manage to escape the plight. His shiny bald head rolled and revolved into a faraway corner, as his furious eyes were unwilling to close!

Bai Linan shivered all over. This was a massacre, and the victims were from the larger party! This scene, full of bloodshed, was one he would never forget in his life! As he watched Ye Chong standing in the blood puddles, Bai Linan could not bear it anymore and puked violently!

The scene was also unforgettable for the two spectators who had watched the whole incident from afar.

Little Monkey looked very pale, and muttered, "Is that guy really human?"

The middle-aged burly man beside him was also shocked. "How ruthless! Who would have thought he would attack without knowing the opponent's intent? His methods are too merciless! This is not someone we should meddle with!"

Little Monkey levelled his chest, rejoicing. "Boss, luckily we had Second Elder Bei to test the waters, if not…"

The middle-aged man nodded in agreement. "Second Elder Bei is far worse than First Elder Bei! He's ambitious and likes to impress others, but he was all talk and no substance. His leadership was also a failure. It's no wonder First Elder Bei did not hand Reno over to him all this while. If First Elder Bei were here, things would be different! But this guy here is also quite unpredictable, doing things his own way!"

Little Monkey said, "That's right, this man has no rules at all!"

The middle-aged man warned, "It's people like these that are the scariest, you musn't mess with him in future!"

Little Monkey nodded, still in shock. "Understood. I would rather die than mess with him! Boss, Reno Society has taken a heavy blow this time!"

The middle-aged man shook his head. "Most of Reno Society's core personnel had followed First Elder Bei to the Red Star Coast. The people here are only their intermediate and lower tier members. However, even if it's so, it would be enough for them to deal with! Usually we can't do anything to them, but now, hehehe…" A knavish look passed in his eyes.

Little Monkey spoke excitedly, "Boss, should we get ready to work for Reno Society?"

The middle-aged man shook his head again. "This is not urgent! Little Monkey, you did well this time. First Elder Bei will surely investigate to find out who informed Second Elder Bei of the target. You should go play around somewhere, lie low until the dust settles, then come back. The money is already transferred to your card!"

"Yes!" Little Monkey obeyed respectfully.

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Chapter 45: The Jinxed Man

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News of Reno's number two murder spread posthaste to Scarlet Star Shoal. Reno's leader, First Elder Bei, who was also Second Elder Bei's brother, vomited blood on the spot, and made a vow before everyone that he would definitely seek revenge for his younger brother! Ye Chong's strong capabilities and his ruthless methods were greatly exaggerated by the masses. He was described as Asura's reincarnation, or a killing machine. In the meantime, all the local linchpins were reconsidering whether they could afford the costs of drawing Ye Chong to their side.

Was all this relevant to Ye Chong? At least Ye Chong himself believed it to be none of his business!

Ye Chong was now practicing his shooting skills. Shooting in combat was definitely a very effective mean, involving a variety of skills. Ye Chong could not help but blush at his missed shots last time! Before this, he lacked the right conditions; but now that they were available, he would surely not pass them up!

Bai Linan sat and yawned while he watched Ye Chong's practice from afar in disinterest! However, he dared not stay more than fifty meters away from Ye Chong for now. The bloody scene from a few days ago was still fresh in his memory. No doubt many would keep their eyes on them from now on. Bai Linan scanned the surroundings, and found that the few people who were stealthily observing them a few days ago were no longer in sight.

Bai Linan was pleased and smiled despite the current situation, for this was his doing. A few days ago, he realized that a few people were secretly watching them in the vicinity, and reported this to Ye Chong. He thought Ye Chong would definitely put on his mech, wield his magnetic sword and charge howling towards them, cutting them to pieces! He did not expect Ye Chong to be indifferent - his master believed that they had nothing against him, and so they can watch if they want to! With that, Ye Chong continued practicing! This left the expectant Bai Linan standing in astonishment.

The spies realized that Ye Chong did not care for their presence, and began to act more aggressively, throwing all manners of stealth out of the window!

However, Bai Linan was no amateur - after years of leading as a general amongst the pirates, how could he lack the means to do something about them? Bai Linan put on a serious demeanour and explained that spying was preparatory work for an imminent attack, meant to identify the enemy's weakness and so forth, and so on! This made Ye Chong immediately thought of his time as a hunter, observing the mutants' natural behavior to device a countermeasure against them.

Ye Chong realized the severity of things, and eyed the observers with a cold stare! Bai Linan knew that his words had achieved the desired effect, and so he kept his silence.

Against the enemy, there will be no mercy!

Gold Wheat's parrying spear, held in Ye Chong's hands, looked like a longspear. Bai Linan had never seen a mech weapon wielded by one's bare hands, but this weapon looked as light as a feather in Ye Chong's hands, and the scene was quite peculiar.

Ye Chong slowly stepped towards the few observers.

Those few people must have not seen the incident a few days ago, as they greeted Ye Chong with a cheeky grin.

With a twist of his wrist, the flexible parrying spear drew an arc of light, and those people clutched their throats in agony, blood still flowing through their fingers, and their eyes were filled with disbelief. A few seconds later, they all fell to the ground.

Ye Chong could not be bothered with the bodies, and continued his training!

Bai Linan's offense against them was not personal, but was due to his understanding of their ways from his days as a pirate. They would resort to any means necessary, and if they found a weakness, they would find some way of using it against you. Bai Linan was also an expert in such things. However, now that almost everyone knew that he was with Ye Chong, and as long as Ye Chong was doing fine, he would be left alone; but if Ye Chong was to fall to some misfortune, he would definitely follow suit!

Bai Linan was afraid of more mishaps occuring in Reno, and desperately advised Ye Chong to head for Black Cove. After a great deal of words were dispensed, Ye Chong finally agreed reluctantly, since his shootings skills had slightly improved. It was truly a mystery - Ye Chong had remarkable talent in piloting mechs for combat, such that even Mu would occasionally express his marvel at it; but when it came to shooting, while Ye Chong may not shoot clumsily, he was only average in this aspect.

Following Bai Linan's suggestions, Ye Chong sold all his average level mechs in exchange for ready Zuan. The shopkeeper saw Ye Chong emptying his bag to produce a heap of dimension keystones, and was immediately stunned! No matter in which galaxy, selling mechs without license would mean the death sentence! While this was Reno, and the government's laws had yet to extend to the area, this was still the first time the shopkeeper saw someone smuggling mechs as an individual, and offering all white mechs.

Ye Chong and Bai Linan left the shop with a big bag of gold Zuan. Ye Chong picked up a piece of gold Zuan and inspected it - this was his first time seeing the real deal. The gold Zuan was slightly larger than his fingernail. It was in a transparent yellowish gold color and rhombus-shaped, with many rich and complex patterns inscribed on its surface. The rims were rounded for the two to three millimeters thick Zuan, and the material was extremely tough. Ye Chong gave it all he had and he could just only break the Zuan in two! "Tough material indeed," Ye Chong assessed the Zuan internally!

Bai Linan gaped widely, his eyes completely dull. How could someone break a gold Zuan with brute force? The gold Zuan was said to be able to last five centuries without taking damage, and from his extensive experience, these were definitely not fake currency!

Following that thought, he immediately felt his heart ache - Heavens, that was one gold Zuan, now losing half its value for no reason! A damaged Zuan can only be redeemed for half its value at the bank!

"This big shot's origin is really a mystery, he even lacked an identity card, is there still a place in this world where people don't carry identity cards?" The shopkeeper from earlier was nervous from the trade. He did not think there could still be someone in this world without an identity card. The shopkeeper had always charged his customers with the swipe of a card, and did not have so much gold Zuan with him. He had to get someone to withdraw the large sum of Zuan from the bank. Gold Zuan was too high in value, and people rarely keep them in person and use them as circulation currency for business.

Extraordinary strength, a callous nature, and a mysterious origin!

What an enigmatic master!

The deft Bai Linan picked up the broken halves of the golden Zuan piece that Ye Chong carelessly discarded on the ground. He meticulously brushed away the dust on it and carefully placed it in his pocket.

The two travelled through a great part of Reno. Of course, the journey was not without Bai Linan's incessant speeches, indicative of his way with words. Ye Chong's expression did not change throughout his speeches, and one would not know if he absorbed any of his words!

Under Bai Linan's guidance, Ye Chong bought many energy cells. According to Bai Linan, the road to Black Cove was perilous and impenetrable to starships. One would have to pilot a mech to traverse the way, and extra energy cells can prepare one for unexpected incidents. This fitted Ye Chong's style - with regards to preparation, Ye Chong had always chosen to do more instead of less!

At the same time, news of the living jinx's imminent leave from Reno had travelled far and wide. Those who caught wind of the news could not help but heave a sigh of relief! The God of plagues was finally leaving! No one dared walk the street where Ye Chong last slaughtered members of Reno Society. The foul smell of blood still hung in the air despite repeated washings of the area. They also heard that someone dared to spy on his behavior, and this startled all the local linchpins. They immediately went to the particular linchpin involved and advised him to stop his dangerous actions, and threatened to join hands and eliminate him should he refuse! It was then when someone came to report that the spies were all killed!

Everyone was only too eager to see the living jinx leave Reno as soon as possible, but this raised another question in their hearts - why was he heading towards Black Cove?

Upon listening to Bai Linan's analysis, Ye Chong felt reluctant to leave the starship behind - it had such good specs, and most importantly, it had quite a solid build! It was a waste to discard it, and while it may look miserable, that was not something Ye Chong minded about!

After preparing themselves, the duo was now ready to leave for Black Cove!

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Chapter 46: Into the Black Cove

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Since Bai Linan didn't know how to pilot a mech on his own, he had rode with Ye Chong. The cabin that offered limited accommodation became overloaded when there was more than one man inside. Foolish Bai insisted on keeping the ladies product he bought from a spokesperson who happened to be none other than Feng Su much to Ye Chong's annoyance; as if the cabin was already not narrow enough for starters. Movements were limited with Bai's products everywhere which affected Ye Chong's piloting inputs as well. Without a second thought, Ye Chong winded down the window and lobbed every junk out, ignoring Bai Linan who was weeping in the corner.

He inserted a chip that contained the calculated route to the Black Cove and displayed marked route on the galaxy map. The chip was a purchase from an undistinguished pawn shop by Bai Linan with 12 gold zuan. Apparently the broker of the pawn shop specifies in offering updated routes to the Black Cove.

The mech Ye Chong was piloting zoomed into the space, travelling in auto-pilot mode.

After travelling for about 38 hours, they finally arrived at the protected area in the Black Cove - the Elma Zone. Ye Chong was glad that Bai Linan reminded him to bring extra supply of batteries, if not they wouldn't be able to travel this far.

The galactic environment of the Black Cove was rather unique as it was surrounded by a large area of asteroid belt and the asteroids in the Elma Zone were not stationary; they were actively moving about. In addition, there were countless of asteroid whirls lurking among them. If one were to get sucked in accidentally, one would be shredded into a million pieces within a second by the overwhelming force in its own orbit. It is almost like a huge meat mincer functioning at high speed. Travelers were rare in Elma Zone for a reason.

Ye Chong had already switched back to manual piloting and attempted to make it through the belt. A glance at the belts of asteroids that densely floated by, a track of free orbit about 100 meters broad could barely be discerned. It was only then that Ye Chong was convinced by the fact mentioned by Bai Linan; spacecraft of any kind could never make it to the Black Cove. It was justifiable with the restricted space for movement due to the mass of asteroids. No spacecraft would be able to travel through this without a scratch or two.

One brief second his mind wandered off elsewhere and an asteroid about two meters in diameter flew by in his face. He froze in fear and Bai Linan almost chickened out of the excursion. Ye Chong could not afford to build castles in the air so he drove on with full focus. In fact, quite a large amount of asteroids on the orbit had been cleared with only a few finer ones that would occasionally hurl pass; talk about jump-scares in the galaxy.

Out of the blue, a small group of pilots in their onyx black mech-humanoids appeared! Ye Chong felt his throat tightened as his face drained immediately.

Their piloting skills were brilliant! They flew in high speed, kicking the asteroids out of the orbit using their feet as they travelled. There were no changes in their direction and they didn't seem to be affected by the asteroid. The mech was like a giant blob of cannonball, the asteroids in his way were all cast aside and he wasn't hindered by those at all. Theoretically, if both parties were of vast difference in weight, this could happen. It was just like a brandishing hammer smashing away oncoming peas. The catch in this was the differences between that black mech and the asteroids were not many to begin with, yet the asteroids got shoved away while he continued his journey. It was amazing enough for Ye Chong.

Ye Chong was sure enough that he couldn't perform such skillful piloting at that moment. Flying at high speed in a belt of moving rocks was not the issue for him but his traveling direction would be altered when he knocked away the oncoming asteroids; it was difficult to maintain it. It wasn't even a slight change but a major adjustment from his initially planned route!

The group was as fast as lightning and in a blink of an eye they disappeared into space. As they carried on, the asteroids on the orbit were all cleared up.

"Who are these people?" Ye Chong asked seriously.

Bai Linan replied, "I'm not really sure about that. Maybe they are the orbit cleaners or something. You know… the orbit here is not a stable one. It would be a real problem without them clearing up a path!"

Ye Chong knew he would not be getting much information from Bai Linan so he remained quiet, and his anticipation grew as they journeyed towards the Black Cove. He was having immense expectation of intensifying his strength, and witnessing the skills possessed by that black mech had just raised the bar for him! It was a skillset that was entirely different from the ones Mu had taught him, and nothing else could motivate him more than this!

The route was winding. He did his best to focus, but it was still thrilling for him. Imagine a rookie pilot maneuvering through such a route - that would be impossible! The pilot could never make it! It was an estimated short route yet Ye Chong took two hours in total just to travel through. Bai Linan glimpsed at the time and complimented uncontrollably, "Master has such amazing piloting skill! I came once with the Cyclops-dude last time and he took literally 6 hours just to make it through! Much more inferior compared to master's skills!"

It was a space station they saw upon entry. It took the form of two gigantic rings connected to the same axis and from the center about five pipes of channels were extended three kilometers long bridging to the inner ring. The outer ring on the other hand was wrapped over the inner ring, and both were working together. The diameter of the inner ring was about 15 kilometers long while the outer ring was shockingly 19 meters in diameter!

"This… is the outskirt of the Black Cove, namely the S.S. Zhi Lan." Looking at how astounded Ye Chong was by the view, Bai Linan proudly introduced the place, "It seemed that it was named after one of the founders of the Black Cove - Mr. Yang Zhilan. The S.S. Zhi Lan is known to be grander in size compared to S.S. Hui Tan that was newly built in Fal galaxy last year." He chuckled and continued, "Here, is what we called paradise. Anything you wanted, as long as you have enough bet, you can always bargain for one. Service… products… the merchants here would satisfy your every need. Service of course, includes that special kind of service…" Bai Linan let out a hearty laugh.

Ye Chong did not show much care about Bai Linan's babbling. He carefully piloted his mech into the automatic parking walkway, but the gate was closed upon his arrival.

A few seconds later, the air pressure in the walkway was adjusted to the optimal level for breathing. Beep! The control system in the walkway notified Ye Chong that it was safe to exit from his mech. Ye Chong and Bai Linan climbed out of the mech and he kept it back into the alternate dimension as they proceeded to the gate. Click! The sensor at the door detected their presence and opened up as programmed.

Bai Linan made his way out first, followed by Ye Chong after a few moments of being skeptical. Ye Chong was on his toes as he scrutinized his surrounding while Bai Linan's willowed face turned into a spark of vitality; he seemed charged.

The environment changed once they stepped out of the walkway. A modernistic lobby with a big hologram in the center surfaced. The walkway they exited from had a few more other walkways by the side; they spread to the surroundings in half circle. The hologram was separated into different windows with a tour guide for the S.S. Zhi Lan, and the latest news reports of the area too.

Bai Linan gave a cautious reminder, "Master, if anything goes wrong in the Black Cove, never ever solve it with violence. The consequences would be deadly. The defense team here is outstanding!" Ye Chong seemed intrigued at trying it out and that sent chills to Bai's spines. "Master, please! Please, don't use your fist! You might be able to throw great punches but most fighters who showed disrespect like you had a bad time with the defense team here! They eventually got escorted out. What happened to them, nobody knows! But everyone was sure that, once you were taken away, you are never to be seen again!"

Bai Linan was sweating in fear.

Ye Chong couldn't help but to inhibit his desire temporarily.

After wiping off his sweat, he told Ye Chong, "Master, I suggest we walk our ways separately!" Like a magician pulling out a rabbit from his hat, he took out 2 communicators and passed one to Ye Chong, "Master, I had set up my number inside. If there is anything, feel free to contact me through this, but nothing bad should happen. Oh yes! My master, you can't really bargain here but you can have good deals. The merchants here have a good reputation, and they do not commit daylight robberies. Alright, that is all. Have a nice day, my master!" Bai Linan shoved a pouch of gold zuans into Ye Chong's hands, "Ciao! Tata!" Before Ye Chong could say or ask anything, he scurried away in a jiffy!

He looked at the pouch in his hand, glanced around the place, and seeing Bai Linan fleeing the scene.

Man…

Ye Chong thought in bewilderment.

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Chapter 47: Masquerade

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Ye Chong was surprised at the sight of the crowd of pedestrians on the street. Considering how the Black Cove is located in the corner of the galaxy, and the hassle to get here, one would have expected it to have the least population, but it turned out to be the other way around. The interior of S.S. Zhi Lan was rather spacious so Ye Chong did not feel claustrophobic. Overwhelmed by curiosity, he could not stop examining every nook and cranny of that place - the same as he entered the virtual world the first time.

In the midst of the fun-filled exploration, there seemed to be a fiasco up front. He hastened his steps and joined the chaotic crowd. Apparently, an overweight man dressed exquisitely was arguing with an elderly. His oily face expressed anger and frustration while the brawny man by his side seemed like his personal bodyguard. He had a cocky look on his face as he pushed the elderly, and was pretty self-absorbed too. His actions were merely because his boss was enraged. The bodyguard wielded great strength. The poor elderly lost his balance and landed on his bottom.

The man was agitated and berated the bodyguard.

The elderly did not mutter a word. He just stood up and snickered while the man quickly forced a smile back. The elderly remained silent, and the man sweated profusely; his fleshy cheeks twitched over time as he continued to force a smile.

A rumbling sound of an engine could be heard out of the blue. "Who's the one causing trouble here?"

Ye Chong shuddered as he did not sense the sneaky arrival right behind him. Imagine if the person were to assassinate Ye Chong - that would be a nasty one to deal with! This person is strong! Encountering such power minutes after his arrival, he definitely did not see this coming. He felt excited! Compared to the electrifying adventure he had before, a field of strong opponents was much more preferable. The Black Cove sure is a better place for me!

He hardly encountered any formidable opponent ever since he left Trash Planet-12. Disregarding opponents of any kind, he still could tell there were flaws in them. A kind of fragility either in their physique, skills or mentality which was such a turn-off to Ye Chong's battle will. He only had a simple request -to become stronger. In his mindset, strength was the only factor to guarantee his life and determine his fate.

A man wearing a black mask stormed in. The mask was smooth in texture, and glowing in gentle linings. His facial features were mellow; the nose and lips were well-rounded while the eyes were decorated with intricate silver, giving off a dynamic visual. The mask exerted some kind of strange force that made people lower their gazes at the sight of it. The cloak that was as dark as night exuded a sense of mystery and unworldliness.

Sweat trickled down the man's forehead.

The man behind the mask was Johansson and he felt agitated at the commotion. How dare the people cause trouble while he was on duty!

Looking at the situation, Johansson deduced in his mind what probably had happened. He shot an icy glance at the man; a piercing gaze that sent shivers down the man's spine. He sweated extensively and fear was clearly plastered on his face which intensified afterwards.

Johansson held his hand up to stop the man from speaking as he was too lazy to interrogate or to even communicate with the man. He walked straight to the side of the wall and tapped a few buttons. A hologram display popped out of the wall, and replayed the incident.

"I'm impressed." The inhospitality in Johansson's voice was eminent, "You people are actually brave enough to defy the law of zero violence in the Black Cove. So, do you want to come with me… or do you want a fight instead?"

The brawny bodyguard beside the man did not seem to care. His lips curved into a wry smile of disdain. The masked man before him seemed too petite to bring any harm; so frail it looked as if the masked guy could be sent flying with a punch. He was puzzled by his boss' irrational fear of the masked man. What could an elderly and a puny masked man do?

Meanwhile, Ye Chong was cautiously watching the masked man. He could be considered as a dangerous individual judging by how he managed to sneak in without being noticed. He must have something up his sleeves! Ye Chong had a keen sense of hearing as well as his other senses. There was not a time where he failed to notice anyone coming close to him. His strength could not be justified through his frail physique, and lack of defined muscles. Men with such physique were able to throw great punches too, like Ye Chong himself!

Johansson sneered under his mask. The corners of his lips curled into a broad contemptuous smile.

Everyone was blinded by a sudden flash of light but only caught a glimpse of a dark shadow lurking near. The bodyguard held his abdomen whimpering, and his face distorted in pain. He could barely let out a cry. His expression twisted in agony while his body caved into the pain, and eventually he fainted and collapsed on the ground. He did not speak a word.

Ye Chong's heart skipped a beat; flustered by what he had witnessed. I could be taken down anytime! That was the first time Ye Chong encountered someone who could travel as fast as him. He saw everything clearly, the whole sequence of action -the masked man sprinted to the front of the bodyguard, and sprung a kick right into the bodyguard. His leg was like a dagger drawn from its sheath. It felt like a mere tap on the man's body as he backed off like phantom after delivering the blow.

Ye Chong's back was already wet from the stream of cold sweats!

Johansson humph in dissatisfaction, and walked towards the bodyguard who had been taught his lesson of the day.

"Hold it!" A person shouted from the crowd.

Johansson's eyes discerned the one who shouted. He raised his eyebrows. Such an ordinary looking boy. Yet, he stood out like a sore thumb from the crowd. Like the big bad wolf in a group of sheep! A man from the crowd walked too close for comfort to the boy but he reflexively adjusted his body right away; just enough to avoid his attack! Johansson was taken aback by surprise of course. Such swiftness! He continued to observe the boy and felt astonished. The boy was actually in a much different stance than the others. He stood in a way which was easier for him to lunge into an attack when threatened while others in the crowd was standing with ease; this tiny detail set him apart from regular people.

The boy had a balanced physique. He did not have a set of bulky muscles anywhere. Johansson judged based on him experiences. He knew Ye Chong was not as weak as he appeared to be. In fact, he was as potent as Johansson himself. Johansson was well aware of the potential terror a boy like him could bring. Nevertheless, Johansson was confused. A body of his built requires a certain type of training which was not known by anybody else outside the Black Cove supposedly. If that was the case, how was it possible that a complete outsider possess a physique of such kind? Did he spy on their training process? Impossible! The coaching of this place is one-of-a-kind; there would not be a chance for outsiders like him to learn by just peeking! In fact, not only does it call for a special skillset, it also requires other supplementary acts to be taken. If not, it impossible to stop the muscles from enlarging!

The people around Ye Chong quickly distanced themselves from him like he was Satan or something from the underworld. But this made it easy for Ye Chong to move.

Ye Chong took a deep breath and immediately grabbed the optimal rhythm for his breather.

Johansson's heart quivered and shifted his step gently a little to the left to face Ye Chong in the face.

Johansson made up his mind. By hook or by crook, this strange boy before him must be arrested and handed over to Instructor Hak. The instructor shall show special care to this boy; a session of detailed interrogation. We must know who this boy is and where he came from!

Ye Chong alarmingly stared at the masked man. The right leg of his which formerly right beside his left went backwards much more, about a distance of two feet, while his left knee bent way more! His feet that were placed side by side were now two feet apart on guard.

"So it was you I supposed? The one who spoke up." Johansson asked coldly. His tone was glazed with ice; more hostile than when he spoke to the bodyguard.

Everyone in the crowd could sense how frigid the atmosphere had turned, as if time was frozen. The pressure exerted in space… they couldn't breathe!

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Chapter 48: Through the Looking Glass

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"Absolutely!" Ye Chong's reply was loud and firm!

"Oh…" The cold wind blew as Johansson spoke indifferently, "So, you want to butt in?" The dark mask shone in polished black.

Ye Chong shook his head.

Johansson was perplexed for a second. That was unpredicted! He maintained a calm facade and asked softly, "I see. So… why did you speak up?"

"I…" Ye Chong halted for a moment thinking of a way to convey his feelings, but he lacked the experience of making deals with people. He decided to ditche the idea and spoke straightforwardly, "I want to learn battle techniques from you!"

That statement stupefied Johansson. Oh! Johansson turned joyful. This was such a good opportunity. While he was racking his head to think of a way to drag this boy all the way to Instructor Hak, the boy decided to offer himself. No force capture was needed it seemed. He suppressed his joy and spoke on as calmly as possible, "Very well. But you are required to undergo some examination. Follow me then, if you would!"

Johansson turned on his heels, and carried the bodyguard in his arm. He hurried away in a flash!

Ye Chong chased after the masked man without any hesitation!

The bodyguard was like a heavyweight dumbbell in Johansson's hand, but he carried him with ease. As Ye Chong chased on his confidence started to extinguish. This is already my maximum speed… yet I can't even overtake the masked man. Our distance remained the same when we left, and I can't even close the gap between us. That wasn't the only mood-killer - considering the masked man was actually lifting a 260 pound man, it would be blatantly justifiable that he just didn't have the speed to even compete the masked man. Clouded in negative thoughts, he grew disappointed of himself.

Speed, velocity, and anything that sets motion like lightning was always what Ye Chong had the most priority on as well as confidence. Back in the days when he was still piloting Winnie, he was already equipped with speed. When Mu appeared, the intensive training given caused his overall speed to increase significantly. He also enjoyed the excitement of being fast and furious. Despite that, he did not expect this day to come when what he valued and was proud of was being smashed into pieces. It was heartbreaking and disappointing.

That was not the only thing uncalled for.

Meanwhile, Johansson felt similar. The race came unexpectedly like a tsunami to his status quo!

In the Black Cove, Johansson was known for his speed among his batch mates. Among the other men who joined, he was outstanding although he was not the fastest, but he was well known at least. Speed was a technique he was an expert in and also the key to his victory! However, he too did not foresee that this day would come when he would almost compete with a mere puny boy from nowhere. Even though he was carrying a few hundred pounds of a meaty man in his hand, it seemed to be a huge disadvantage to the rationale of this situation. He knew that the "dumbbell" was pretty much nothing contrary to what the public would assume. So, even if there was nothing in his hand, he would not be much faster than he is at the moment!

Moreover, in a brief inspection through his sharp eyes, he could already reckon that the boy had much more room for improvement. It was obvious that the boy had yet undergone proper training since he wholly depended on the speed-burst by his feet. If the boy were to remedy some of the flaws he had, his speed would elevate by ten percent at the very least. By then, he would be much faster and had been long leading the race instead! If I brought the boy to Hak and he was aware of how brilliant and potent this student was, he probably would be laughing his beard off. That annoying beard of his.

Thinking of how he might no longer be the best in Group-F, a rush of envy surged in him!

If that happened, Group-F would be exceptionally stronger with his existence. Then Group-F would be able to turn the tide! Johansson's mood elevated at that thought.

Both of them were having their own theater of monolog as they raced after one another!

Johansson was turning here and there while Ye Chong already lost his sense of direction. He had no idea where he was by then. He only knew that he had to follow the masked man. Johansson walked into the parking walkway next, and turned to Ye Chong, "Have a mech?"

"Yes!" He nodded.

"Good. Now, get on the mech and follow me!" The masked man summoned a dark mech. Hey! That was the same mech Ye Chong saw back when he was travelling through a belt of asteroids! That orbit-cleaning mech! He hurriedly called in his mech.

Before he took off, he did not forget to inform Bai Linan he had something to work on so Bai Linan had to stay at the Black Cove for awhile. Bai Linan had no idea what was going on, but he was more than glad to be able to stay in such a fancy place. He agreed without giving it a second thought.

Johansson's mech sped into the asteroid belts beside S.S. Zhi, and Ye Chong would not trifle with the new challenge as he went after in his mech.

Ye Chong never knew his little wish of "playing" in the asteroid belt with his mech would be granted so quickly. Johansson did not rush the tour. He just moved on in relaxation, like taking a stroll in his backyard even though he was dodging the floating asteroids. Serene and graceful. On the other hand, Ye Chong was clumsily dodging them. He thought that it would not be a problem to do it in a mech when he was able to penetrate though the asteroid belt with a spacecraft previously. But in reality, the odds were against his favor. It was true that the mech was much more agile than a spacecraft, but it was the first time Ye Chong actually found his mech to be a little bit too agile. The asteroids here were denser and faster than the one he encountered before, and he was being harassed by the oncoming asteroids. One crash would cause an episode of dizziness. Fortunately, the advanced mech contained an advanced pressure-buffering system which saved Ye Chong's brain from getting smacked onto the control panel. It's just that Gold Wheat's gorgeous humanoid appearance got smacked into something else instead…

Johansson wasn't traveling fast; obviously he was waiting for Ye Chong to catch up.

Ye Chong followed the masked man in endless crash at the Elma Zone for about eight hours. Ye Chong lost his mind seeing the heavy belt of asteroids waiting to hit his face. He shrieked. How much longer we are going to do this! Where is the freaking the end of this place!

Johansson was as calm as before they started their journey. Not speeding, not slowing down either. At least Ye Chong's situation improved overtime; though he still got showered by the asteroids, he wasn't as clumsy as before.

On a side note, all kinds of electronic scanning devices tend to fail in this place. Ye Chong could only watch the environment with his naked eyes.

Another 8 hours flight to nowhere.

They eventually exited the asteroid belt. Ye Chong exhaled in relief.

Johansson flew on with Ye Chong on his tail, and withdraw from the asteroid belt speedily.

Two and a half hours later, a dark base appeared before them with lights that lit up brightly. The base was about the size of 10 S.S. Zhi Lan. It seemed to be modified from a tiny planet.

Johansson did not seem to be making an introduction anytime soon as he piloted quietly. Ye Chong had a few questions on his mind, but decided to follow suit.

As they inched towards the base, only then Ye Chong discovered the fact that the base was completely enveloped by a protective force; the space around the base was filled with satellites. The satellites were armed with electromagnetic cannons and that sent chills down his spine. Electromagnetic cannons of such kind would cause tiny planets with diameter less than 20 kilometers to crumble in one blast, and their orbit would be changed dramatically without a doubt!

Ye Chong went after the masked man into a returning port slowly. As they were close, Ye Chong saw a protective veil about 15 meters thick. He was shocked. If he remembered correctly, a board about this thick would cost a whopping price even in the size of a palm! Plus, the base had this kind of board everywhere in the air! Even a caveman like Ye Chong who lacked the actual concept of prices and values was having a hard time to let it sink in.

Johansson signaled Ye Chong to stop daydreaming and move. Ye Chong followed on swiftly right away!

Into the base, the masked man lobbed the bodyguard out of the cabin and someone took him over to the side. I wonder what the man's fate would be. Ye Chong lacked the curiosity to know more.

The masked man then gestured him to stay in his mech. They would be traveling at the base in the mech.

They arrived at a giant black door. The masked man stopped as the door opened up automatically.

Both of their mechs gradually engulfed by the dark gate.

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Chapter 49: Through the Mask

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Three grown men stood in a confined room; there were two masked man including Johansson and also Ye Chong.

The other masked man hurled the same black mask they were wearing to Ye Chong and ordered menacingly, "Put it up!"

Ye Chong picked it up and felt the peculiar texture in his hands. The mask was surprisingly very soft when touched and it seemed to be made out of special materials too. There was a code written beneath the mask - F-58. He tried putting it on and the mask fitted on his face unexpectedly well as if it was specially tailored for Ye Chong. His face was layered by the mysterious aura of the mask. It fitted so well that he could even feel the mask mimicking his facial expressions; the mask would trace even the slightest twitch of muscle, and it had great airflow as well. Ye Chong did not feel the stuffiness he was expecting wearing a mask. Instead, he almost forgot that he was wearing one.

"I am Hak, your instructor!" His voice roared in the room, "And I'll be invigilating your examination. Johansson, take the lead!"

"The examination begins!" Johansson notified in a rumbling voice as he stood opposite of Ye Chong.

Ye Chong got into his ready-stance, anticipating the upcoming trials.

Johansson rushed into his position with his arms crossed embracing himself. He knew that this was merely a test, therefore took a more defensive position.

Ye Chong began seriously, a heavy stomp with his right. The room shook a little by that powerful burst of his. Instructor Hak's face had a hint of surprise as he witnessed this by the side. Ye Chong bravely leaped towards Johansson and whimpered as he threw a punch with his right fist.

Johansson gracefully spun to the side and dodged the attack. Ye Chong missed, and almost fell from losing his balance. It would be an opportunity to experience Johansson's counterattack, but he remained on the defensive side and patiently waited for Ye Chong's next strike. Ye Chong regained his stance and was prepared to launch the following punches. He raised his fist, but before he could come into contact with Johansson, a thunderous voice broke his action.

"Stop right there!" Instructor Hak ended the little fight between them. "Enough!" Ye Chong was dumbfounded. I was evaluated with only a punch? Johansson seemed to be much more aware of such interruption through his gesture.

Instructor Hak walked to Ye Chong and stared into his eyes, "I don't care who you were. I don't know where you came from, and I don't want to know what you have worked for. From now on, this mask is yours. As long as you are in the Black Cove, you shall never remove this mask. Never. Ever! Anytime or anywhere! Your code would be F-58. You will be the 58th member of Group-F. Now, state your name!"

"Ye"

"Pseudoname! Everyone here uses a pseudoname or a codename." Right before Ye Chong actually gave his actual name away, Instructor Hak interrupted him with a gentle reminder.

Ye Chong did not ponder much on this request, "Mu. I am Mu!" The name slipped right off his mouth so naturally.

"Follow Johansson to your campsite now. It's Group-F. He would arrange the accommodation for you," Instructor Hak ordered. "Welcome to the world of real Pilots!" he said sternly.

On the way to his campsite, Johansson lectured him some exclusive rules of survival in Black Cove.

Firstly, never inquire anything about someone. This would create enemies without knowing.

Secondly, never expose personal details about yourself to the others. That was to guarantee your life in the Black Cove.

Thirdly, never demonstrate your true strength in order to live longer.

Johansson mentioned the grave rules nonchalantly. Even though, that was alarming enough for Ye Chong to be aware of the hidden danger of this place. Ye Chong started to tense.

Johansson in the meantime somehow was able to identify the alert in Ye Chong's eyes. His own eyes expressed approval.

The campsite for Group-F was quite spacious. However, Johansson did not seem to be in the mood to give Ye Chong a tour of the place. He just guided him all the way to an empty room, "This will be your room. You will be living here from now on." Johansson said as he pointed at the room. "If you want food, there's a cafeteria. We passed it awhile ago. You should know!"

Ye Chong nodded.

"Good! Go find Instructor Hak yourself tomorrow. He will be teaching you some tricks!" Johansson left the scene after that.

Johansson's unfriendliness wasn't foreign to Ye Chong. He was more used to adapting to surroundings all by himself. On the contrary, if people were too friendly to him when they first met, it would bring him discomfort, and he would be unable to blend in well.

Although this was an unoccupied room, it still required fingerprint and palm-print verification in order to check in, but that wasn't new to Ye Chong either. It did not take him much time to set up the security system. The room was well-furnished, and was a large room too compared to his home back in Trash Planet-12; this was at a much larger scale. There were a number of things that Ye Chong did not come across in his life. He had yet to use them before. For starters, he tried experimenting with gadgets in the room just to find out what they did and how they were used. Luckily, Ye Chong wasn't a greenhorn to electronic devices, and they were much simpler in his eyes. Soon, he understood the method to use every item in the room.

He took a shower before drifting off to sleep.

Ye Chong rose early the next day as the grumbling of his tummy woke him up. He ran to the cafeteria right away. He thought that he came early enough without knowing there was already a crowd. Everyone was taking their breakfast silently. The cafeteria was filled with people, and was roomy as well, but it was dead! The atmosphere felt so tense it was too stressful to stay.

He had a hearty breakfast; scrumptious food wafted down to Ye Chong's tummy. The food was new to him and he finished up happily. Still, the atmosphere was rather somber.

Ye Chong finished his breakfast and went to the place where he saw Instructor Hak the day before.

On the way there, he noticed that everyone was indeed wearing their masks, but he did not see anyone greeting each other. This place was somber enough for folks of the outside world. But to a man who was used to living alone like Ye Chong, such simple life without interaction was rather relaxing.

He arrived at Instructor Hak's place, and spotted the instructor teaching something to a member. Ye Chong recalled what Johansson had told him before, so he withdrew himself and waited by the side quietly.

Instructor Hak had already seen Ye Chong right when he arrived. He was impressed at how Ye Chong did not approach him out of curiosity, but waited at the side with patience instead. The instructor's eyes shone with admiration.

Ye Chong waited for 30 minutes for that member to exit the room as Instructor Hak waved at him. He entered the room without a delay.

The instructor initiated the conversation, "The fight yesterday was just to identify your level while what we are going to do today… would be testing you in a variety of skills. Come with me!" Both of them moved to a room filled with apparatus.

Moments later, Instructor Hak looked through the test report of Ye Chong's performance. His jaw dropped as he stared on in blank dismay.

The outcome of the test was more than just astonishing! If he did not observe Ye Chong's tests with his own eyes, he would never believe the results in his hand; from someone who had not undergone the Black Cove's training! He was under 20 too!

His physique was in tip-top condition! He was the first one-of-a-kind that Instructor Hak came across! Even the dummy in Group-A would not be on par with Ye Chong before training.

Speed was the most outstanding aspect of his performance. In full force, his running speed could hit 5.32 Hz! Even Johansson, the best runner in the group could only go as fast as 5.54 Hz after the training. How astounding!

His strength was remarkable as well. How could he possess such intense amount of strength without changing the physical attribute of his body, and not to mention the absence of special training in the Black Cove? Instructor Hak had his doubts. Technically, he wasn't the only one who was puzzled by this oddity. Mu's processors nearly malfunction when he tried to figure out the cause behind it. Eventually, Mu gave up and decided that Ye Chong was an oddball to reason everything.

But with this amount of power, Instructor Hak could imagine if the infamous power-creep Facherny, who excelled similarly in strength was notified of this boy's existence, chances are he would come barging in, smashed the door and dragged this boy away! Of course, this time, Instructor Hak was affirmed with his new student. He would never let that happen despite that power-freak's rampage.

This Mu boy was extremely good with his balancing and dexterity too! The instructor could see that when he did sharp-turnings at high speed. His action was swift and flexible; there wasn't any pause at all!

He was also calm and smart which was really important.

To top it off, the most shocking part to Instructor Hak was the speed of the boy's hands attack! An absolute fearsome velocity to one's eyes!

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Chapter 50: Time Phase

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These are a pair of hands with frightening speed. Instructor Hak never thought of anyone outside the Black Cove that could have such speed. The hands were known to be the most agile part of the body as well as being capable to do various tasks. The agility of the hands is directly proportional to the number of tasks one could do in a set amount of time. In simpler terms, the faster one's hand is the more tasks one could complete in limited time. Thus, its significance does not require much explanation. Edging between life and death, one's outcome could be possibly be determined by actions that are taken or decisions made in that few milliseconds. Such outstanding speed was truly a rare sight in the Black Cove!

This boy that stood before Instructor Hak seemed to have yet to be aware of the true power of his own hands.

Instructor Hak looked at Ye Chong standing still at the side, nodding his head in approval, "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

Ye Chong did not mutter a word. He stood on in silence.

Suddenly, a thought crossed the instructor's mind and it took him a while to phrase it in a way that this little boy could comprehend, "Tell me what you know about being a Pilot."

Ye Chong tilted his head as he thought about it, "The controller of the mech!"

"Well…" He nodded his head, "That's what people would normally assume!" The reply surprised Ye Chong as he raised his head, looking at the instructor with his eyes enlarged.

"The Pilots…" Instructor Hak explained calmly with a kind of unidentified nostalgia in his tone, "They aren't what you all had always assumed to be. How the world outside defines the Pilots and how the world examine them, they were absurd and meaningless. Hmph! Those are just some assumptions for kids! The real world of Pilots is beyond your imagination… and beyond your knowledge too! Everyone from the outside would never know and no one would ever understand! Do you know what the Pilots formerly were?"

Ye Chong shook his head.

"The Pilots used to be the kind who adores power. The advancement of the age of machinery allowed people to realize the power hidden within the gears. The ancient martial arts and the sorcery from the tradition soon vanished and in return, the emergence of the Pilots! However, in later times, people started to discover the more potent outcome and a much higher survivability when the mech was actually piloted by a martial artist or a sorcerer. Then, it so happened that the people combined the artistry of martial arts, sorcery and mech-piloting, forming the new generation of Pilots. These Pilots when unarmed were barely an opponent to go against the classic martial artist or sorcerer, but if they were to mount onto a mech, they could exert immense strength."

Instructor Hak carried on with his explanation about one particular incident that changed the world, "About 500 years ago, there was a crisis, a never-before-seen crisis, a big one, and many had perished. Most of the surviving men turned out to be actual Pilots, while this inevitably led to the ending of the other kinds of forces. 300 years ago, something catastrophic happened again! Pilots were dispersed throughout the galaxy and known by the outside world! But what they got in the end was undoubtedly rather obsolete. Still, regarding what actually happened in the past, what connected the beginning and the ending of the history, I had no idea either!" Quickly, the instructor added, "Anyway, it was not easy to educate people of your kind from the five major galaxies to understand the concept of ancient martial arts and sorcery."

Ye Chong's heart trembled! There was such a backstory to this? I never knew! Since Instructor Hak could tell such tale directly from his mouth, it seemed that he wasn't the man from the five major galaxies too! He might came from somewhere that was unknown by the others, and that particular place somehow had a strange connection to the galaxies.

"The major elements of a Pilot…" He lectured as he continued emphasizing the salutation to the more-than-just-mech-controller he knew, "…are physique, mech and mentality. And these also directly caused the formation of three major schools - one being the kind that combined martial arts and technology, strives to obtain the ultimate body, another being the kind that incorporated sorcery into technology. Yes, the mentality for such kind is usually much stronger, and there's this kind who does purely machinery. To be frank, this is the most hated school out of the three because they perform direct modification towards your body, turning them into a chimera or something. They neither look like humans nor machines. But I must say they are still strong in their nature! It is undeniable to say that they also had the most advanced mech out of all the schools!" Even though Instructor Hak expressed blatant disgust and hatred as he spoke, he still acknowledged their strength.

Ye Chong was enjoying every bit of the storytelling. He was all ears, all eyes and all heart!

"You must have figured it out by now, boy. We are the first school, but I can't deny the fact that the martial arts do have an amazing effect on the development of anatomy. The ancient arts were great and grand. Nevertheless, we only extracted a small part of it to be utilized." He looked at Ye Chong, "I had no idea how you did your training before and I don't see you having any kind of energy pulse. But you do have immense muscle strength and oddly every fabric of your muscle had barely enlarged like what others should have. This is confusing to me!" He expressed his puzzlement towards this anomaly before him but he didn't seem to be interested to investigate further. "Alright, come with me!"

Instructor Hak led Ye Chong into a large lobby. There were quite a number of oviform apparatus. The outer shell of the apparatus was made out of a transparent material; there was a kind of silver liquid inside, and it looked rather sticky. Among the apparatus, a few were occupied by humans as they immersed into it with their eyes closed. They looked serene and enjoyed using the apparatus.

Instructor Hak said pointing at one of the empty oval capsule, "Go on, and give it a try!" Ye Chong walked towards the capsule with suspicion. The capsule uncapped, an opening just enough to fit Ye Chong in, and Ye Chong walked into it. Ye Chong was fully enclosed in the capsule. The silver liquid sprinkled from underneath, filling up the space; starting from the leg, to the knees, then the waist and the chest, but stopped at the neck eventually.

Lethargy surged through his body, and every inch of his muscle felt warm. It was so comfortable that Ye Chong felt like yawning. He started to become sleepy yet he somehow felt perfectly conscious at the same time; stuck in between the state of sleep, and being awake.

After an unknown amount of time, Ye Chong jumped awake. He saw how the instructor scrutinized him carefully, wondering what he was thinking under that black mask of his. The silver liquid ebbed away like sea tides and in a blink of an eye, the liquid in the capsule was drained completely. Ye Chong was shocked to see there wasn't even a single drop of silver liquid left behind while his clothing was in the same condition as when he entered. It was not wet, it was not tainted either.

"How was it?" The instructor asked as Ye Chong stepped out of the capsule.

Ye Chong nodded, "Good! Pretty good!"

"Now…" The instructor's eyes gleamed peculiarly, "Do you feel energized? Does your whole body feel like it's filled with strength that is anticipating to be unleashed?"

He did notice it right away when the silver liquid retreated from his body. He felt hot, his body was heated up, and fully charged again. The need to unleash his immense strength took over his thoughts at the mention of it from the instructor. He nodded his head right away.

"Come with me!" Instructor Hak brought Ye Chong to a spacious training field. There were various kinds of training facilities. "You are going to use up all your stamina here. Head back to the capsule after and use the facilities again. Repeat the process three times and you are good to go. Alright, it's up to you now." He walked away.

He obeyed his instructor's order obediently. He drained all his strength every single time, and returned to the capsule for a quick recharge. In the capsule, he could feel his strength charging up again, bit by bit. It felt perplexing indeed.

He rushed back to the field to exhaust his stamina after charging, and noticed the intensive boost in his stamina recovery when he dipped in the capsule. After that, he no longer felt the heat; he started to get used to it and reacted normally.

It was almost dawn when he finished his training, but he did not feel hungry at all when he was done! It was surprising because he did not have a meal at all! He believed it could be one of the effects of the silver liquid.

He found his old partner in training, the metallic marbles in the field. He grabbed a handful of them into his pocket, and went back to his room. He met Johansson on the way back, but they did not exchange words. Instead, they nodded at each other politely and went their separate ways.

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Chapter 51: Mu's Awakening

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This was Ye Chong's third month in Black Cove and his task of the day was to mine for black gold ore. The ore was one Black Cove's speciality commonly found scattered in orbits around the planet. It was indeed a tedious job to mine the valuable ore. The mining ships could not enter the asteroid belt, so mechs were utilized instead. It was impossible to perform scans of the asteroid belts. Hence, holographic images were taken and inspected with the naked eye in search of ore deposits. The process of mining the ore was also akin to a mixed training regimen that tested one's piloting skills and eyesight. To make matters worse, the procedure of transporting the ore back was also a challenging task.

The yield of the black gold ore was extremely low. It was primarily used to manufacture the black masks worn by Ye Chong and the rest.

Ye Chong's mech, the F-58 was similar to the others' in Black Cove. They were all black humanoid mechs. However, due to Ye Chong's deft hands, his mech was modified to include a few extra features which kept it at par with his skills.

In truth, Ye Chong had improved tremendously in these past few months. More importantly, he began to understand the concept of battle strategies instead of relying solely on his instincts and experiences as he did before. He also thought that Mu's foundation training for him was not as ridiculous as Hak said, but was surprisingly quite useful to him. Ye Chong was not very skilled in the ancient martial arts and he was not particularly interested in them either. For instance, Ye Chong did not find that the breathing technique taught by Hak was effective. As for foundation and steel sphere training taught by Mu, he finally surpassed the tenth level of steel spheres that he was struggling with for a long time after sacrificing blood and tears. The silver liquid's effect was truly remarkable and it sure did give him satisfaction.

Ye Chong had seen Hak in action. Although he had the strength of a bull, Ye Chong still felt a hint of disappointment. If Hak and Mu were to fight against each other in a combat, Ye Chong was quite confident that Mu will take him down effortlessly with just a stab.

"Oh dear Mu, when will you wake up? I miss you so much!" Ye Chong thought to himself.

His vision darkened and Ye Chong shifted his focus back to reality only to realise that his mech was approaching towards a very large rock. Ye Chong was startled and immediately maneuvered his mech out of its way just in time to avoid collision.

The presence of the rock indicated that the black gold ores were depleting around that particular area. Thus, he would have to travel further into the asteroid belt in order to get his hands on the ore.

Ye Chong drove his mech deeper into the recesses of the asteroid belt.

He flew deeper inside and yet could not manage to find any black gold ore along the way. It seemed that he was out of luck today.

Ye Chong was dispirited. However, as he decided to make a turn back, a huge black gold ore of around two meters in diameter came into view and it was heading further away from him at a high speed.

Ye Chong gained confidence and pulled himself together. Without further hesitation, he accelerated his mech and went after the giant black gold ore.

All of a sudden, his mech rocked violently and Ye Chong felt as though he lost control of it and being pulled in by a strong attractive force. The mech was flying all by itself.

Ye Chong immediately sensed something amiss. He quickly reversed the engines and steered backwards in hopes of escaping the pulling force.

Even though he had increased the engine's capacity to its maximum, his mech was still being pulled forward.

When Ye Chong looked ahead, he was dumbstruck. The debris around him were pulled towards the same direction as his mech by an external force. Ye Chong then noticed that the debris were forming a whirlpool pattern and he became aware of what he was about to face.

An asteroid whirlpool! This must be an asteroid whirlpool! This was Elma Zone's most terrifying feature. Due to its existence, not many dared to venture into the depths of the zone.

"No way! How can I be so out of luck?" Ye Chong wailed mentally.

Ye Chong tried desperately to escape from the grasp of the asteroid whirlpool but no matter what he did, it was of no use!

As the asteroid whirlpool grew larger, it became more visible. Ye Chong realized how massive the asteroid whirlpool was and realised that he was just a speck of dust compared to it!

Ye Chong felt very helpless.

At that moment, he thought that his fate was about to be ripped to shreds. Who would have thought that after rebelling against his destiny for so many years, his death was determined by an asteroid whirlpool? Ye Chong drowned in his sad thoughts.

"Idiot! What are you fantasizing about? Are you looking forward to your death?" a voice suddenly played in his mind.

Ye Chong startled and felt an instant joy. "Mu, is that you?"

"Alright, there's no time for talking. Now direct the mech nine degrees away from the radius vector and make small bi-directional angle adjustments along the way!" His assumption wasn't wrong. It was Mu! This was a voice Ye Chong would never forget in his life!

Ye Chong suppressed his overjoyed emotions and quickly moved his hands over the controls. He did not have any doubts on Mu's instructions. If there was someone whom Ye Chong trusted with his life, it would definitely be Mu!

Ye Chong's hands manipulated the controls at lightning speed. His breakthrough with the ten steel spheres in his training had paid off in this situation. Ye Chong's shadow-like hands were no longer just skin and bones, but they were as solid as rocks.

Ye Chong's F-58 suddenly changed its direction and started to shake vigorously and laterally at small-angles. The F-48 was like a black fish desperately struggling to escape from a fishing net, struggling non-stop! Like a miracle, the F-58 began to pull away from the asteroid whirlpool!

Ye Chong gave a sigh of relieve.

"Now switch to eight degrees from the radius vector and repeat the motion!" Mu's voice rang again.

"Hu, hu, …" Ye Chong panted heavily. All the hustle and bustle to save the ship from being sucked into the asteroid whirlpool had drained most of his energy but it was all worth it.

"Looks like you have improved tremendously!" Mu commented lightly.

Ye Chong was still absorbed in the joy of escaping death and reuniting with Mu. "Yeah, I've been training at Black Cove and learnt quite a few things!"

"Black Cove?" Mu's tone sounded off.

And so, Ye Chong began his story from when he first awakened. Mu listened intently while occasionally interjecting a few questions.

When Ye Chong finished, Mu went quiet.

"Is there a problem?" Ye Chong asked curiously.

Mu kept silent for a few moments before answering, "That Black Cove that you mentioned might be a problem!"

"A problem?" Ye Chong was baffled.

Mu did not answer him directly, but instead he asked, "Ye, did they give you this mech?"

Ye Chong nodded. "Yeah, this mech has an amazing performance and it can even withstand the deadly asteroid whirlpool. I'm impressed!"

"Remove the seventh photon circuit board from under the controls in the mech and check it carefully," Mu's voice was still calm as ever.

Ye Chong took out the seventh photon circuit board as instructed and began inspecting. He believed Mu had his reasons for him to do it. Hmm! As expected, something was not right. There seemed to be a return circuit that was capable of signalling. By logic, there should not be a return circuit in this part of the circuit board.

Ye Chong might not be well educated in worldly matters, but he was not dim. On the contrary, he was very bright and he could deal with situations like these with a breeze. Without hesitation, Ye Chong used some tools to remove that photon return circuit for he was not keen on being spied upon.

"Don't worry. It's just this one spot. I have checked the rest for you!" Mu spoke leisurely.

Ye Chong only acknowledged with an "Oh." Ye Chong was not particularly angry about it since he had learned much from them and there was no free lunch in this world. "However, the food at their canteen was not that bad," Ye Chong thought yearningly and licked his lips.

"Ye, you said you were soaked in some kind of silver liquid."

"Mm, you're not saying that's a problem too right?" Ye Chong said with hesitation.

"The possibility is very high!" Mu did not care for Ye Chong's feelings and spoke plainly.

"That damned Black Cove…" Ye Chong was about to give a furious glare in the direction of Black Cove to express his anger when he suddenly panicked. "Mu, I think we're lost!"

"I realized earlier on," Mu replied lazily.

"What do we do?"

"Based on my experience, anything that happens around you can be said to be incalculable events," Mu declared decisively.

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Chapter 52: Out of this Predicament

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"Mu, do you think we're heading in the right direction?" Ye Chong asked in desperation of having a conversation with Mu as though he hadn't spoken to him for days.

"The probability of escaping is the same no matter which direction we opt to go for," Mu replied calmly.

"But Mu, why do you need so much black gold ore?" Ye Chong asked curiously.

"That information is classified! I am not in place to say anything regarding this matter," Mu answered with full of mystery. Mu added that black gold ore was an extremely rare mineral. The black gold derived from the ore, which was scientifically named Klose, had not only outstanding physical characteristics, but also self-restoration capabilities. The latter was the mineral's most valuable quality.

Who would have thought that the black gold ore that he found along the way was more than he had ever mined before altogether. Mu kept all the black gold ore in his alternate dimension. No matter how large the ore was, Mu only needed to raise his hands and the ore would vanish into thin air. Ye Chong was very impressed by his talent! It was a pity when Mu told him that that was an exclusive trick of his which was never taught to others.

Ye Chong was discouraged and twitched his mouth. Suddenly, he realized something he had never thought of before. "Ah, I heard that there were many skillful mech engineers and mechanics on Black Cove. I should have asked them if they could restore you! How could I have forgotten that?" Ye Chong hit his head lightly with disappointment. In front of Mu, Ye Chong acted like a complete different person!

"The mech you are piloting now is one of their products?" Mu asked.

"Yeah, this mech is not so bad after all!" Ye Chong replied.

"Then they would never be able to restore me," Mu said with confidence. The arrogance in his tone made Ye Chong gave him a sidelong glance.

Fortunately, Ye Chong had the habit of having backup energy cells with him. No matter how durable the F-58 can be, it's would have been depleted if not for those backup cells. Ye Chong had the high energy organic liquid food stored as emergency ration on the mech as he yearned for the delicacies at the canteen in Black Cove. This further increased his suffering.

Mu was still in the alternate dimension to minimize energy usage.

Black Cove mechs were very advanced. Ye Chong's F-58, for example, was only a training mech, but all of its parts and accessories were far more advanced than all the high tech mechs Ye Chong had ever piloted before. The overall performance was also a level above the rest. As for the engine, the design for this model was different from that of the more popular engine structures in the market. Ye Chong had once dissected the F-58 himself for inspection. Whether it was in terms of the engine power or continuous flight time, the F-58's engine outperformed the so-called superb engines in the market by a wide margin.

Of course, compared to Mu's sophisticated engine structure, it was still child's play. Ye Chong still had not managed to decipher Mu's engine schematics diagram.

Ye Chong and Mu found another half-a-meter wide black gold ore. Ye Chong summoned Mu from the alternate dimension and Mu immediately approached the black gold ore.

Suddenly, Ye Chong sensed something amiss and spoke to Mu with full of uncertainty, "Mu, look! The asteroids here are a lot fewer!"

Mu replied lazily, "To be precise, the unit space density of asteroids here is 62% less than it was ten hours ago. However, this percentage has a certain random factor and is only used as a reference!"

Ye Chong was excited. "It looks like we're flying in the right direction!"

Mu poured cold water onto his enthusiasm as usual. "Don't get happy too soon. If we manage to leave the asteroid belt, then what? Who knows where we are. Are there planets nearby? How far away are they from us? Is it inhabited? If there are no starships…"

Mu paused abruptly and his tone took an anxious turn. "Quick! Steer fifteen degrees from the radius vector and fly straight ahead! Maximum speed!" Mu swiftly kept the black gold ore into the alternate dimension and returned himself there.

Upon hearing his words, Ye Chong knew there must be new changes in their situation. He stopped conserving energy as before and accelerated the mech to its maximum velocity. After spending some time in the asteroid belt, Ye Chong was now quite skillful in avoiding the asteroids. Although the speed was now maximised, Ye Chong still managed to easily and adroitly evade the rocks in front of him. Mu was surprised by his ability. "Ye, your skills are great!"

Ye Chong may seemed to be at ease after hearing those words, but he was entirely focused on flying the mech so he did not reply Mu. His eyes were plastered to the holographic screen fearing for any mishaps. At this speed, no matter how solid the F-58's armour was, his mech would not survive an impact with an asteroid. Ye Chong sure did not want to take this situation lightly!

The ores which were visible in sight became lesser with time and Ye Chong felt more relieved. Ye Chong also knew that he had finally reached the edge of the asteroid belt and was greatly encouraged by that fact.

As expected, after a light beep sounded, Ye Chong's scanning systems returned to normal and began to scan the surroundings automatically.

Black Cove produced excellent products! The F-58's detection system, one that Ye Chong had never used before was actually quite modern. It immediately detected something abnormal ahead and a red spot on the holographic screen began to enlarge! As the holographic image became larger, it also became clearer to view.

It's a starship! Ye Chong was overjoyed and revved the engines to approach the ship.

Three minutes later, the other party was still not aware of his presence! Ye Chong was intrigued. While the F-58 could detect its target at such a far distance due to its advanced detection system, how could the other party not manage to notice him now that he meters a away from the starship? Could it be that the F-58 also had an excellent anti-detection system? Ye Chong immediately searched through the information in the photon processor of the F-58. As he had in mind, the F-58's armour had a special absorptive material mixed into it and the material was capable of absorbing a wide spectrum of waves, resulting in the mech's exceptional anti-detection performance. This material also gave the mech its black colour.

"Black Cove was a formidable force, but what were they aiming for?" This thought flashed through Ye Chong's mind. "What does have to do with me? It's not like I'm going back." Ye Chong thought conceitedly.

"Should we carry out a surprise attack on them?" Ye Chong inquired Mu for his opinion. The method, as expected, suited his usual habit and style.

"A surprise attack? If the starship is damaged then you'll be finished!" Mu obviously disagreed. "This seems to be an average civilian ship. You can signal them first!"

"Ok!" Ye Chong did not have a better idea. From his past experiences, he knew that an external damage on the starship would be devastating. If it wasn't for One-eye's well equipped ship, he might not have survived!

The other party did not seem nervous upon receiving his signal. Instead, they replied repeatedly that they were medical volunteers.

"Medical volunteers? What are those?" Ye Chong asked with full of curiosity.

Mu explained, "Medical volunteers are people who have expertise in medical skills or nursing. They offer free medical treatment for all, charging no fees, and they usually lead more difficult lives. Their principle is that life trumps all! Since they believe that all lives are equal, even if pirates are injured, they would also offer treatments. Hence, they are respected by almost everyone and no pirate would rob the medical volunteers. On the contrary, when the volunteers were in their hunting zone, the pirates would send escorts to protect them!"

"They are mostly amiable and kind in nature besides being incredibly sympathetic. I believe that if you were to ask for a ride on their ship, they will not reject you!" Mu suggested.

"Amiable?" Ye Chong thought of all the mutants he was familiar with on the trash planet and could not even remember any of them being what Mu described as amiable. It was truly confounding! " Since Mu had said so, he wouldn't be wrong!" Ye Chong thought to himself.

Ye Chong agreed to his suggestion and signalled a request to board the ship!

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Chapter 53: On Board the Ship

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Vella watched the mech that was slowly closing in on the starship.

Vella was greatly surprised when he received a message from the other party as he did not notice their presence earlier. Shocked, Vella began to adjust the holographic display and finally found the other party's location after much effort.

Vella was in his forties. His short, bushy moustache made him look like a macho man.

Vella was secretly impressed. The other party had obviously entered their warning zone. However, their ship's warning system did not sound an alarm. This implied that the other party's anti-detection system was far more sophisticated compared to the warning system of this ship!

Once he received the signal that requested for boarding, Vella rest assured that the other party harboured no ill will. He was very much relieved. An invisible enemy was not someone anybody would like to encounter.

After receiving the green light from Old Mr Wang, Vella accepted the request.

As the mech neared, Vella finally saw what the other party really looked like - his expression twisted and his heart raced.

Vella was adventurous during his youth and had established a small reputation amongst the like-minded. He had also spent some time at Black Cove for a certain period of time. He would never forget the appearance of this mech - it was a symbol of incomparable strength and cruelty. He had seen many whom disregarded the prohibition of violence at Black Cove killed on the spot although there were quite a number of them who were stronger than him.

For countless years, he had never seen anyone from Black Cove leave the place. Vella was intrigued but he wasn't planning on treating his life as a joke. As such, he brushed away his curiosity quickly.

Beside him, Wang Weiqi curled her lips in distaste. "That mech looks hideous!" Wang Weiqi was tall and her exquisite face was complemented with a charming smile. Her soft, shiny long hair was braided, giving her a clean look. Her large, glistening eyes blinked as though they could speak and were a fatal charm for most men!

The F-58 was around ten meters long and was thoroughly black in colour, making it look unremarkable. Since it was a training mech, it was not armed with excessive weapons and was only equipped with a UF magnetic sword as per Ye Chong's request and two redesigned parrying lance. For safety in the asteroid belt, the F-58 also carried a big alloy shield of over five meters long on its back. The slightly arched shield resulted in the comical look of the F-58, looking like it was carrying a shell. However, the sharp edges of the shield clearly indicated that the shield was not only for defense purposes. What caught most of Vella's attention were the two curved blades at the elbow joints of the mech. They normally lay flat on the upper arms, but by bending at the joints, the sharp tip of the blades and the terrifying edges would show their vile selves.

Wan Ziqing, who was also with them, nodded in agreement. "Of course he's not as beautiful as Qi'er's Phantasm, tsk tsk, that look is surely awful…"

Wang Weiqi was Old Mr Wang's granddaughter whom had passed the exams for intermediate level of mech piloting at a very young age. The main reason of tagging along with her grandfather on this trip is because she was worried of his safety. Besides, she would also get the opportunity to widen her knowledge in preparation for the expert level of mech piloting exams. Wan Ziqing was Wang Weiqi's senior. He began making his move on her at school, and now he was here with her! In all honesty, Wan Ziqing was a fine-looking man. However, Wang Weiqi was indifferent and being neither friendly nor aloof with him, and that drove him crazy.

Vella smiled wryly hoping that the pair of naive youngsters would not meddle with the jinxed newcomer. Vella was uncomfortable with the thought and could not help but speak up to the two, "You two better not meddle with that person. He's not someone you can afford to mess with!" When he saw that they were not taking him seriously, he raised his voice and spoke firmly, "Qi'er, Ziqing, you hear me?"

Wang Weiqi stuck her tongue out a little and made a silly face at Wan Ziqing. Uncle Vella had always took care of them and the two could only give him an obedient look.

Vella rushed out of the bridge and welcomed the mysterious guest!

"Black mask and black windbreaker. Exactly as I imagined." Vella thought to himself. The black mask with a peculiar glimmer had a soft quality to it and the silver irises were intimidatingly chilling. The strong visual contrast between black and white captured the attention of everyone around, such that they did not notice the little insignia on the mask's edge that marked "F-58". Of course, Vella was an exception for he had seen the black masks before. The loose windbreaker wrapped Ye Chong entirely adding to his mysteriousness of the medical volunteers.

Wang Weiqi thought to herself, "It would be so cool to have a mask like that! Definitely eye-catching!"

Ye Chong was always particularly respectful towards the elders since they reminded him of his deceased Papa and the Aurora's elders who treated him well.

Ye Chong's actions were surprising to Vella. He did not think that a cold-blooded guard from the Black Cove would be so courteous to the elderly. Perhaps they weren't as heartless as they all thought they were. Vella finally began to feel assured.

He was just in time for lunch and Ye Chong was invited to join them. Ye Chong ate heartily at the dining table, ignoring the stares of others at him. After his seventh bowl of food, Ye Chong rubbed his almost full stomach and thought contentedly, "While this is still far from the delicacies at Black Cove, it's still much better than the F-58's high energy organic liquid food."

After greeting the people around him, Ye Chong returned to the room Vella prepared for him under their astonished gazes.

Exercising to assist in his digestion was Ye Chong's habit.

He began with a full-body routine. Ye Chong did a little warm up, then moved and ran across the room. "Running" might not be an accurate term. Ye Chong moved with the tips of his feet - his toes touched the ground and his body flew forward in response. However, the room was too small and Ye Chong had to keep changing directions. He ended up circling around the room instead.

Ye Chong increased his speed. His tip-toed landings on the ground began to produce muffled sounds. Now, the rhythm grew faster and the sound became louder.

After ten minutes, Ye Chong finally stopped. Beads of sweat marked his forehead and his breathing became heavier. Ye Chong shook his dizzy head forcefully.

Mu was a little surprised. "Ye, you've improved!"

Ye Chong laughed cheekily in response as he took out the steel spheres from the waist pocket in his windbreaker and placed them on the ground. He took a deep breath and placed his hands above the spheres, barely touching them. Ye Chong felt clear headed enough and exhaled slowly before his hands began to move.

Ye Chong gathered his attention and focused, banishing all distractions.

A shadow shrouded over the steep spheres and the spheres began to collide with each other violently. They moved really fast and their trajectories after impact were difficult to predict. However, they always bounced back from the edges of the shadow region. The steel spheres moved faster and the shadow continued to spread. The crisp sounds from the colliding steel spheres within the shadow were almost continuously ringing.

Ye Chong was about to put more strength onto his hands when he was suddenly alerted which broke his concentration. He shouted, "Who's that?" as he swipedall the steel spheres back into his hands.

He rolled backwards on instinct and shot three steel spheres!

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Chapter 54: The Callous Ye Chong

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The thumb-sized steel spheres shrieked terrifyingly!

Two steel spheres embedded themselves in the door with two bangs reaching ten centimeters deep into the C-N* duroplast material - two centimeters away from penetrating the door. Another steel sphere went through the gap of the doorway and hit the opposite wall of the walkway which was also deeply embedded within.

Wang Weiqi's face became pale and went as white as a sheet!

The steel sphere that went through the door had missed the tip of her nose by less than a centimeter. The strong airstream that went with the sphere made her felt a hint of pain at her nose. If she had a mirror, she would have noticed a small cut on her nose tip due to the piercing airflow. A drop of blood started streaming down the top of her nose.

She had never felt so close to death before. "The steel sphere was fast enough to burrow deep into the wall. If it had hit my body, I would have… I would have…" As she thought of it, terror enveloped her soul at an instant. Wang Weiqi screamed in and ran away as faast as she could with her hands covering her face. She had only one wish then and that was to get out of the haunted room!

Ye Chong was ready to strike the steel balls again when he heard a piercing scream followed by loud thumps of footsteps slowly fading away.

Mu popped out in Ye Chong's thoughts, "Ye, how could you be so uncouth towards a girl?"

Ye Chong asked naively, "What do you mean?"

Mu spoke as though he expected such a reaction from him, "In this world, outside of trash planets, women are thought to be deserving of tenderness and care. Hence, most would hesitate to start a fight against women. Some had never even placed a finger on them!"

Ye Chong was curious, "Why? Just because they're women?"

Mu gave it a thought and agreed, "It appears to be the case."

Ye Chong disapproved. "What a strange logic! But the strangest thing is that you, Mu, had proposed such strange logic!"

Mu kept silent as though he was choked.

Ye Chong was pleased with himself, "My skill was not bad, right?"

Mu was unimpressed. "The attack was too weak. It wasn't enough to penetrate through the door. If it had, then it would be a threat to the enemy! Besides, you stood up too slowly and judged your strength inaccurately. If you had fired two more spheres immediately after the first two, then they would have gone through the door and the girl would have been heavily injured if not dead!"

Ye Chong nodded in agreement. "Right, right, I could have also…" The two began a heated discussion.

It was when they thought meal time was approaching, they ended the interesting conversation.

Ye Chong got up, put on his windbreaker and headed out.

As he entered the main hall, it was indeed almost meal time. This was something Ye Chong always looked forward to and another would be the topic of the conversation he ha earlier with Mu.

Ye Chong was about to head towards the dining table when all of a sudden, Wan Ziqing who was holding a cup of boiling hot sweet grass drink approached in his direction. He was about to bump into Ye Chong but Ye Chong took a step to the side to avoid the collision. A trace of slyness flashed in Wan Ziqing's eyes as he pretended to exclaim in surprise and lost hold of the cup. The boiling hot sweet grass drink splashed onto Ye Chong.

Ye Chong gave Wan Ziqing a death stare. The opponent's hostility was apparent, but what confused Ye Chong the most was the reason behind him resorting to such a harmless approach. Even if the sweet grass drink splashed onto him, it would not hurt him. Could it be that there was some corrosive poison in the drink?

Although Ye Chong could not comprehend his act, he was certain of the other party's hostility and so, Ye Chong did not hesitate to take his next move.

His stepped lightly on tiptoe and moved like a ghost to Wan Ziqing's other side. His right hand struck like lightning and grasp Wan Ziqing in the throat tightly ready to finish him off. Ye Chong was certain that he could even break a steel beam as thick as his throat!

Ye Chong pushed the thought of strangling him away. Instead, he pushed Wan Ziqing hard as he simultaneously jumped backwards with the tip of his toes.

Wan Ziqing felt regretful. Even though he survived that fight, he knew well that no one would be left alive with that much force on the throat. Wan Ziqing held his throat and kneeled at a corner, coughing vigorously with petrified eyes. Ye Chong's strength was such that even though he had opted for a push instead of a chokehold, Wan Ziqing still bled a little from his mouth even though his throat survived the attack. The man was obviously hurt.

Vella had his eyes on Ye Chong the moment he left his room. He understood why Wan Ziqing did his little trick, although he cursed inwardly. "Why didn't you carry out a background check on that man before attempting such a ridiculous trick? If he is one that prioritises his physical appearance, he wouldn't retaliate. But the man you planned an attack on, he had skills of a professional killer! Are you plotting your own death?

Out of desperation, Vella unholstered his heat ray guns from his thighs and shot between the two men! Vella did not intend to aim his shot at Ye Chong. He only wanted Ye Chong to back off and cool down the situation.

Wang Weiqi was reminded of the scene of her horrible experience earlier and screamed in fear!

Wang Weiqi's sharp scream gathered everyone's attention. As they noticed her terrified expression, they followed her gaze and saw Ye Chong standing proudly in a corner of the dining hall with Wan Ziqing kneeling in fear and Vella standing at a distance with his gun in hand as though he was facing anenemy.

The crowd exploded in mayhem!

Vella groaned and hoped that the enemy would not release his anger on him next. Else, his life would probably end today!

Ye Chong did not take the heat ray gun in Vella's hands seriously. His windbreaker could withstand a shot from any shooting weapon of grades 10k and below. The Black Cove's manufacturing workmanship was truly astounding!

Ye Chong made a move.

Old Mr Wang sensed the precarious situation and stepped forward. If there was anyone Ye Chong would not wish to harm, it would definitely be the oldest of them, Old Mr Wang.

Old Mr Wang coughed softly. "Young man, the boy did not know better but I believe he's had his punishment. Perhaps you should let him go now, what do you say?"

Mu knew exactly what Ye Chong was thinking. "That's enough, Ye, think of it as a lesson for him. Besides, you've eaten so much of their food without paying!"

Ye Chong inquired in his mind, "Mu, does food require payment?" Ye Chong did not have a single Zuan on him as all of his gold Zuan were left in his room on Black Cove.

Mu was close enough to fainting after knowing his obliviousness. "Heavens Ye! Have you always been eating for free? Don't you know you have to pay for things?"

Ye Chong whispered, "I only know that you have to pay to buy mechs. Besides, I don't think I've bought anything before!" Ye Chong recalled his memories.

Mu gave him a long lecture and finally made Ye Chong understand that the concept of bartering for goods.

While the idea was not in line with Ye Chong's beliefs, he still agreed after much repetitive admonishment and advice. "I've never seen the iron lizard giving anything in exchange for the crimson newts," Ye Chong muttered to himself. Of course, Mu completely ignored that thought of his!

Old Mr Wang was wise and incredibly clear-headed. Ziqing was usually a steady man and would not act as rashly as today. Usually, situations like these were related to his beloved granddaughter. Old Mr Wang looked at his granddaughter. As expected, Qi'er looked panic-stricken. How could he not understand his own granddaughter? He immediately realized that his granddaughter must have had a bad encounter with the newcomer. Ziqing wanted to do her a favour by making a fool of the guests to cheer her up! "Sigh, it was so insensible of the two youngsters. Now look at the damage that has been done!" It seemed that Ye Chong still treated him with some respect and now Old Mr Wang had to step up and said a few words. This whole incident was definitely due to Qi'er. Besides, he could not just stand aside and watch Ziqing die before him!

Ye Chong stood where he was in perfect silence.

No one dared to break the silence for fear of awakening the demon.

Sweat beaded on Vella's forehead gradually soaking his hair and dripping onto the floor. He felt as though Ye Chong was always watching him with his cold glare. He was afraid to stare straight into the murderous stare from the silver eyes behind the black mask. He was very, very afraid that he would die in the next second!

Vella felt like a fish trapped in a net, unable to move.

There was pin drop silence. The bizarre atmosphere filled the dining hall, creating an immense pressure on everyone present.

Abruptly, Ye Chong spoke, "Since you have fed me earlier, I'll let it go this time. If there is a next time, do not hope for mercy!" His final intonation added a chilling effect to the entire dining hall. After giving his thought, Ye Chong went straight for the dining table and sat down.

Everyone breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Vella panted desperately and his body was thoroughly soaked with sweat. He had never felt so tired before. Vella strenuously placed his gun back into the holster.

At the dining table, everyone went mute. They ate in silence. No one was brave enough to sit within three meters away from Ye Chong. Even Vella hid far away in a corner. Wang Weiqi and Wan Ziqing returned to their rooms to rest and to recover from their shock. Moreover, Wan Ziqing had sustained major injuries.

The oppressive atmosphere continued on at the dining table.

Ye Chong did not notice anything else but only focused on eating. Compared to the monotonous food on the trash planet, the delicacies here were enough to make him forget about everything else!

Old Mr Wong grinned. "Young man, where would you like to land?" Everyone perked up their ears at that moment. Most of the passengers on the starship were medical volunteers and they were dearly appreciated. Hence, Ye Chong's callous nature made them loath him very much. However, upon realizing that Ye Chong could kill for something as petty as that trick, they quickly hid their thoughts and continued eating in silence.

Ye Chong gobbled his food without stopping and spoke with a full mouth, "Where are you heading?"

Old Mr Wang kept his smile on and answered, "We're heading towards Blue Ocean! If you're leaving before that, we can fly you to your destination!" Everyone gave a surprised look at Old Mr Wang and immediately returned to their meal. Unfortunately, Ye Chong was too focused on his meal that he did not notice their odd behaviour. He replied carelessly, "Oh, then I'll head to Blue Ocean!"

Almost everyone gave a positive reaction to that.

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Chapter 55: New to Blue Ocean

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They arrived at Blue Ocean planet. Ye Chong walked on the streets with his mask taken off. Without exposure to a star's rays in the recent past, Ye Chong's face seemed to be fairer than usual. Ye Chong could not bear to give up his windbreaker for it was of good quality and definitely comparable to the high grade protective clothing. His black windbreaker, fair skin, balanced and trimmed body with his cool expression all gave Ye Chong a very distinctive look and that drew attention of many beautiful ladies on the street.

Ye Chong walked expressionlessly on the streets but on the inside, he was actually having a heated discussion with Mu.

Ye Chong was amazed by the soaring skyscrapers, modern architecture, and flying vehicles of all sorts traversing through the skies. The most novel feature for Ye Chong was the number of people around - whether it was on the trash planet or on Reno or Black Cove, Ye Chong had never seen so many people in his life!

However, that was not what Ye Chong and Mu were immensely discussing about.

"Mu, I'm so hungry! There're no mutants around here and how can you call a small creature like that a mouse? What a disgrace to its species! It's not even as a starter! If the people of trash planet knew something like that was their own kin, they would probably wipe out these petty creatures!" Ye Chong was incensed.

Mu felt helpless. "Ye, I can't do much to help you. Why didn't you carry gold Zuan at all times? All that gold Zuan would have been able to feed you well for years!"

Ye Chong looked at his naked hands. All the expert level mechs were left in his room. The asteroid belt was hazardous and Ye Chong had left all the dimension keystones in his room since they interfered with his hand movements. If only he had one now, it would at least be enough to last him for awhile.

"Sigh, why did I leave them all in my room?" Ye Chong regretted.

Mu was also dejected. "It won't be for long until all my energy drains out too!"

Ye Chong thought, "With my level of expertise, it's probably not a problem to do some mech maintenance and modification work, right?"

Mu was encouraged. "That's not a bad idea. With me by your side, there should not be a problem!" The mech was already looking forward to the good times ahead with eyes shining in anticipation.

"But, where are the mech repair shops?" Ye Chong's practicality dragged Mu back from his fantasies. Mu muttered, "That is a good question. You can always ask someone around."

"Ask someone?" Ye Chong replied in agreement, "That's a good idea!"

After Ye Chong's blank expression frightened off five passersby, even the usually insensitive Ye Chong felt discouraged. "Do I really look that scary? Your ugly look is not your fault but scaring people with your ugly look is!" Mu decided to ignore Ye Chong's furious glare at him.

An old man was walking slowly ahead of them.

Ye Chong grew enthusiastic and ran to greet the old man with a smile. "Grandpa, may I ask you about something?"

If the few passersby from before saw Ye Chong as he was now, they would surely be quite surprised. Mu was already used to his demeanour - Ye Chong seemed to have an uncanny affinity for older people, as well as a special connection with them. He would be inexplicably polite to the elderly which is his usually indifferent expression shifting to a modest smile. Mu was also very surprised when he first observed the change in Ye Chong.

The mech eventually got used to it.

The old man glanced with interest at Ye Chong. "There're not too many polite young people nowadays. You've got a question? Certainly, what would you like to know about?"

Polite? Mu could not help but rolled his eyes.

Ye Chong resisted the urge to bash Mu in the head and continued modestly, "Grandpa, I'd like to ask if there are places that offer mech maintenance and modification services nearby?"

"Mech maintenance and modification?" The old man thought for a moment, and pointed towards a street on the left. "Head in that direction and in about two minutes, there'll be one and a few more further down the road but you'll have to search for them carefully!"

After bidding farewell to the old man, Ye Chong proceeded towards the suggested location in haste!

Ye Chong left a few repair shops without any offers. The shopkeepers that laid their eyes on Ye Chong noticed his age and shook their heads with the same thought, "A modification mechanic as young as this? Don't joke around! For his age, remembering the names of all the parts in a mech is already commendable! Looking for a job? Ah, no, we're not hiring anyone!"

Ye Chong could not remember the number of times he was rejected. He may look expressionless on the outside, but he was very much disappointed on the inside. Mu was also dispirited, had downcast eyes and felt too tired for words!

Ye Chong did not know where he was, but no matter the location, Ye Chong felt that it did not make a difference.

"Ah, say, Mu, why should we abide by the rules? Are we to starve to death? I've never heard of the iron lizard trading when it is hunting!" Ye Chong could not help but complained to Mu!

"That's the behavior of beasts! You're a human, not a beast!" Mu explained tiredly.

"It doesn't matter, I don't think there's any difference between humans and beasts. I think I'm more accustomed to the way of beasts!" Ye Chong shrugged disapprovingly. He did not really understand Mu's insistence in this, but he still wished to give his utmost support!

Mu was silent for a moment before speaking again and this time in a serious tone, "Ye, you're in a new society now. You abide by their rules or you will be rejected by them. Do you want to return to trash planet? Ye, you'll get used to it. Just give yourself some time to adapt to this new lifestyle"

Ye Chong was a little moved by those words and pondered on them without noticing where he was heading to.

Suddenly, there came a few garbled voices from in front of him and an old man's horrible cry.

Ye Chong was brought out of his musings and lifted his eyes to look ahead. Was that not the old grandpa who showed him the way earlier? He now lay down on the ground where a few weird looking teenagers were constantly kicking at him. One of them shouted domineeringly, "F*ck, I asked for money and you dared to say no until I had to lay my hands on you! You old prune! Now you know the consequences!"

The same young man made a signal at a blonde haired teenager, and he immediately bent over to search the old man. The elderly curled himself into a ball, determinedly shielding his chest.

The other boy could not pry open the old man's hands and shouted in anger, "You dead ol' sheet! F*ckin' want your money and not your life isn't it so? Then I'll give you a hand!" He pulled out a dagger and made a stab right into the old man.

Ye Chong was furious. Anger burned within his chest until he could not bear it much longer and with a yell, he walked towards their direction quickly and got in between the young hooligans. Ye Chong was fast and the hooligans could only notice a shadow before they felt hands tightening their throats. Their vision went black and became unconscious.

Ye Chong moved incredibly fast such that the sound of rupturing throats of the hooligans were almost simultaneous.

Fortunately, that area was secluded and only a few passersby witnessed the scene. All of them watched in fear and picked up their pace, wishing to get as far away from the scene as possible.

Mu was still indulged in the excitement, "Ah, so that's what it's like to give a helping hand to someone in need!"

His intent of killing the teenagers revoked after releasing his anger.

Mu had a thought. "Ye, let's get the old man out of here now. If the intel from the virtual net was accurate, the police will here in a few minutes! They seem to be difficult to deal with!"

"Police? Difficult to deal with?" Ye Chong asked but Mu hurried him. "Quick, now, or hide somewhere close so we can see what the police look like!" The idea immediately won Ye Chong's approval. Ye Chong lifted the old man and found that he was in a semi-conscious state. The old man's face was bruised all over with a few bruises, looking very pitiful!

With all concern, Ye Chong asked, "Is he alright?"

Mu replied, "He's alright. Just slightly concussed and the wounds are only superficial. It's nothing serious."

Ye Chong was relieved at that, and ran to far a corner, climbed and perched on a large tree. He spied from between the leaves where the hooligans were lying on the ground.

As expected, after a few moments, a blue, white and black flying vehicle flew to the scene. From the vehicle, three men in uniform emerged. Ye Chong watched them curiously as they inspected each body carefully. On the other hand, Mu was quickly recording all the information he could get and updating the intel he obtained from the virtual net.

Ye Chong suddenly thought of something and felt a great regret. "Mu, we forgot to search the bodies for spoils! They might have Zuan on them!"

Mu consoled Ye Chong. "If they did, I don't think they would have a lot. Otherwise, why would they be robbing off people?"

Ye Chong thought that was reasonable and he was no longer upset.

The three police officers inspected the bodies in a proficient manner and felt a deep chill from their findings. The victims had their eyes wide open as though unable to believe that they were already dead. Their soft throats were obviously marked with a gaping hole.

The youngest of the officers spoke, "Brother Fei, these people all suffered from crushed vertebrae at their necks. They died just recently!"

Another middle-aged officer added, "Brother Fei, I know these people. They're lackeys for the local ringleader, Leng San and were usually quite rampant!"

The one they called Brother Fei noticed finger impressions around the gaping holes. "Hmm, they died from their throats being squeezed with someone's bare hands."

The other two were astonished. "Brother Fei, someone's bare hands? Surely you're exaggerating!"

Brother Fei lit a cigar and leisurely exhaled a puff smoke. The smoke swirled around in the air as he muttered to himself, "I hope that the ruthless bastard was only passing by! If not…" After a long pause, he suddenly spoke to he middle-aged officer, "Xin, report this to Leng San. I'm warning that he better take control of himself. If he dares to make a fuss over this, he better watch out for the consequences." His expression beyond the smoke was unreadable as the middle-aged officer acknowledged his orders.

Brother Fei spoke to the other younger officer, "Zai, check out if there are any unfamiliar faces in the area or any suspicious people. Remember, do not take any action without my orders. Don't let him know that we're on to him!"

The young and excited Zai replied, "I'll remember it, Brother Fei! Don't worry! I'll find out about the bastard!"

The smoke from the cigar swirled in unpredictable patterns before Brother Fei's eyes. The police officer seemed to be certain that this was just the beginning of a serious case.

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Chapter 56: New Life

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"Ye, I mean, the black coat is a cool idea but it's not cool especially after you got flour all over it."

"Hey Ye, you can't get customers with that long face you put on! It scares them away!"

"Ugh, Ye, what do you think you are doing with the chopping board? No, you are disassembling it! Gosh! Could you spare our chairs some mercy? We need those to work!"

"Aww man!"

…

This hectic scenario had reoccurred a few times yet Grandpa Qian had hardly blamed Ye Chong, instead he smiled and continuously encouraged him to keep the young man going.

Practice certainly makes perfect. As time went by, Ye Chong's noodle-making skills dramatically improved. The texture of the noodles got better and better. He was able to utilize his fearsome strength constructively to create the most springy noodle in a place that had earned compliments from almost every customer that came to the shop. In addition, Grandpa Qian's smile and constant motivation were eventually able to melt the ice between him and Ye Chong as the indifference in his expression faded away. He had changed so much that he would sometimes take the initiative to head out and get more customers. On some occasions, the elderly would take Ye Chong along for a shopping day as he would also introduce some of his old friends to the boy.

Their relationship progressed as they had grown fond of each other. It somehow became a habit later to have the boy by his side whenever he was heading out. Ye Chong had gotten used to such a lovely life. There was no stress. He didn't have to stay outrageously alert at all times and found the long-lost comfort in it. His life might be mundane but he was happy with it.

However, Ye Chong's training was not put on hold because of living in tranquility. Ever since the breakthrough he had made in his marble training back at Black Cove, controlling more than 10 marbles at once was no more of an issue for him, in fact, he picked up fairly quickly after that. Surprisingly, he had managed to control up to 13 marbles by then. His daily fitness training was carried on vigorously under Mu's guidance. It was as if he was born for such style of training. His strength rose sharply yet his muscle remained the same size ever. And this would be the whole point! The increase in strength would ought to lead to an increase in muscle size. It is unavoidable for any ordinary person. Thus, when muscle strength reaches saturation point, the body muscle would be at its largest too. This would radically reduce the overall movement and agility of your body in the long run. Hence, it became an issue on how one should boost one's strength without influencing one's body size. Vitality might be one's source of velocity, it still doesn't necessarily mean that one would possess velocity after obtaining vitality. This could be clearly justified by the dexterity problem a bulkier body would cause.

To remedy such issue, the group in Black Cove committed the use of silver liquid as a form of simulation to inhibit muscle growth at last, while combining the ancient martial arts.

It might be an ongoing issue for anyone who sought both strength and speed but it was non-existent to Ye Chong himself. The reason being no matter how hard he had trained and how much his strength had improved, his body would always remain the way it was from the beginning. Hence, Mu,intrigued as he was, mapped out a gruesome or even forbidding training course for this boy with such a unique talent.

While Ye Chong was taking his brutal training like a man, Mu seemed stuck in the virtual world, for whatever unspoken reason it was. He was rather mysterious of his whereabout.

It was quite fortunate for Ye Chong that his noodle business got better and better. Imagine the vast expenditure that mainly revolved around Mu's resupply of energy monthly without any form of proper income. To top that off, it also costs another fortune to fill Ye Chong's bottomless appetite. He might have to put up the shutters and be in debt anytime soon if his noodles were not selling like hot cakes.

Though the days lapsed in hustles and bustles, Ye Chong was feeling absolutely content!

On the other hand, the punks appeared to have run for their lives after Ye Chong demonstrated his terrifying force. They seemed to have disbanded the gang, like animals in a forest fire. No one since then had ever dared threat to lay claim the gang's monthly protection fee from the poor residents, which was quite costly too.

…

Sun Xuelin and Shew, her cousin, were rotting at home. The parents were out. But what about food? Both of them had barely any experience in cooking their own meals before. They were both troubled.

"Shewie, why don't we have some noodles at Grandpa Qian's shop? His noodles aren't bad you know?" Suggested Xuelin.

"Noodles?" Shew frowned and seemed to not like the idea, "Are you sure? But… We don't seem to have other choice…"

They went to Grandpa Qian's shop. "Welcome!" Right after they stepped into the shop, Grandpa Qian greeted them as he chuckled, "Xuelin my girl, it's been a while since you had my noodles here. What made you come here today out of a sudden?"

"Hahaha…" She laughed along, "Oh well, it can't be helped. My parents are not at home today. We could only come here instead. Oh by the way…" She dragged Shew to the front of him, "This is my sister, Shew. I usually call her Shewie."

"Such a posh lady! Xuelin, I guess she can't be your sister, can she? With such posh making a striking contrast to your nature! Hahaha, alright, what would you like to have today? The usual course for my tough girl? What about you, my gentle lady?" Shew was uncontrollably blushing as he complimented.

Sun Xuelin replied, "Yeah, the same for me. Shewie, what do you want to have?"

"Umm… Sis…" She whispered, "I'll have the same as yours then!"

The elderly chuckled again, "That would be two bowls of beef noodles alright! Ye, two beef noodles for the ladies here!" Grandpa Qian shouted towards the kitchen and a voice that was not loud but clear came responding afterwards, "Got it!"

"What?" Xuelin staggered a little, "Grandpa, you got an assistant already? When was this? Why did I never know about this?"

He answered pleasingly, "He's not an assistant. Ye is a distant relative of mine. Well you know how an elderly like me would need a companion sometimes. Living alone was such a tough chore for me. So I called him here!" Grandpa Qian had repeated these lines countless times to countless customers whenever Ye Chong was mentioned. Somehow at some point, he felt that he had been telling the truth all this while as Ye Chong really felt like a part of his family.

A moment later, Ye Chong exited the kitchen with two bowls of steaming beef noodles on the tray. Even though his expression still appeared a bit bland, people could see the fickled joy on his face sometimes. He walked to the table of the ladies, laid his noodles in front of them, "Enjoy!", and dashed back to the kitchen after that.

Xuelin had a taste and was as amazed as before, "Wow! This is still very great!" She praised on, "Grandpa, these noodles were better than the one you made! The texture was too good!" Grandpa Qian looked proud as he responded, "It certainly is. Ye has standard in his cooking! Anyone would have complimented too after tasting his dishes!" He smiled broadly, as if he's the one being praised.

The amazement continued as Xuelin saw the extremely thin slices of beef on top the noodles, "This is very good treatment! The slicing skill is impeccable!" Oh how joyful the old man was, he smiled with eyes narrowing into a slit, "Ye, my boy! You heard that? The customer praised your skills!"

"Oh why thank you!" Ye Chong replied and shook his head. Grandpa was always such a messenger. He just has to reiterate the compliments to me right after the customer. Man, wouldn't he get fed up of this? Ye Chong thought so, yet he smiled for a brief moment. The corners of his lips somehow raised themselves. He sniggered as he proceeded with rolling the dough before him.

As he rolled on, he spoke in his mind, "Mu, what are you doing?"

It took a while for Mu to come up with a reply, "I am currently engaged in something right now. Just keep the dough rolling!" His voice trailed off. He seemed to have vanished right after his reply.

Ye Chong wondered what Mu had been doing in the virtual world these days. He thought maybe he should get online again someday. It's been a while since his last NRS training. I wonder if those elders at Aurora were doing great all these while…

He kneaded the dough energetically.

…

Glancing at the report in his hand, he lighted a cigar… the smoke of confusion wafted through the atmosphere as Brother Fei tried to figure out the situation.

According to the outcome of Zi's latest scouting, only Grandpa Qian's shop had a newcomer and everyone who had eaten at his place informed that the newcomer happened to be his distant relative of his who pleaded him for a living and also happened to have great cooking skills.

Hopefully he wasn't the culprit of my men's death… or else…

He breathed heavy as he worried. His room was veiled by the smoke of his ponders. Things could hardly be seen.

Leng San stood upright in silence, as his eyes wavered upon the corpses before him. The menacing face of his had not much of an expression, other than the growing grimness in his eyes. He tried to hold his eyes but he couldn't hold it in any longer, when his sight landed upon the corpse in the middle. The stern face of his shattered. His cheeks were trembling as misery took over his face. He couldn't hide it. He stared at this particular corpse. Tears overflowed his eyes and they streamed silently down his face, landing on the floor like an atomic bomb to his heart.

The corpse… was his brother, his own brother. He had been trying his best to keep the identity of his brother in secret all along, for he wouldn't want his brother to be affected as he was well-aware that he could be dead anytime, anywhere in the future since he had created too many enemies over the course of time. So his brother was disguised as a simple underling of the gang. Unquestionably it was a successful disguise and his brother had remained unharmed all these years.

But then… The corpse placed in front of him being actually his brother… he could not believe every part of this, especially when his brother was killed by having his throat crushed with bare hands. How could this not be heartbreaking to Leng San? How could this not be depressing enough to shatter his soul?

It was rare to have men with such immense strength in this place. There's no way he could not find this man out! If he ever found that man, he's going to break all his bones and grind him into dust! He would make sure that man would be in torment forever! Leng San gravely promised, gritting his teeth.

The crew outside were finding their boss strange today. For some reason, the usual frigidity on his face went missing after seeing the corpse in the morgue. And he had shut himself inside ever since. It had been so long yet he never seemed to be coming out anytime soon.

Did something happen to our leader? The few remaining men of his wereworried.

Shush! The door opened and Leng San came out with a pair of reddened eyes. His voice was coarse as he mumbled, "Go! Go and find that man!"

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Chapter 57: Inspector Fei

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Chong started his day early in the morning. Well, since Grandpa Qian was very much old and he was no longer in good shape too, Ye Chong believed he should be working harder to keep the business running.

The sun gradually shone through the opened shutter of the noodle shop. Ye Chong peeked out of the entrance. The street at daybreak was still very much deserted. There were a few pedestrians at most. Ye Chong's finger swiped the switch on the wall, turning on the air purifier which started rumbling a little upon activation. Clouds of ionized water droplets were then being ejected from the machine, creating refreshing air to breathe. A moment later, the interior of the shop became cozier. Such an efficient air purifier was not cheap to begin with, but it was purchased by Grandpa Qian using part of the year-end bonus he received from the government - just to improve the environment of his shop.

The floor of the shop might had been made out of nano materials and was indeed dust-proof, but daily cleaning was still required to provide customers an enjoyable environment while dining in.

The interior of the shop was furnished with 8 metallic buddings, which would bloom like an actual flower upon touching the tip of it. Inside, there would be 4 sets of table and chairs with 1 set at each petal. The chairs were connected beneath through the frames right to the center platform of the budding. The silvery glossy platform in the middle was size adjustable and there lay the cashier connected to the processor in the customer's table. So they could proceed with the checkouts directly even when they are still seated after their meals.

At the corner of the shop there was also an automated noodle maker, which was seldom used considering how the shop's reputation relied solely on hand-made noodles. There was simply something in hand-made noodles that machine-made noodles could never compete with!

Previously, Grandpa Qian actually wanted a more of an old-fashioned design for his shop, like a wooden construction for example, but woods were absurdly pricy, so he threw out that plan at last.

While Ye Chong was sweeping the floor, Grandpa Qian seemed to have woken up too, as he walked in and began some other cleaning tasks as well.

Soon after they had done their cleaning, a middle-aged man set foot into the shop with a cigar in his mouth. "Fe…" Grandpa Qian halted, "Fei my boy is that you? Why the early visit today eh?" The man addressed as Fei replied, "Good morning Uncle Qian! Well I have some things to do today, so I came early." Fei seemed to be a frequent visitor here, as he picked a seat by the wall, "I'll take my usual place." Grandpa Qian was welcoming at first, till his sight fell upon the cigar in his mouth, "Fei! How many times have I told you! Do you know how harmful smoking these early in the morning is? Why won't you stop doing this? When will you ever learn from my advice and not your fatal mistake?"

Fei was alerted. He hurriedly removed the cigar in his mouth and attempted to act funny to let it slide, "Eh! I forgot about it! Hahahahahahaha, I'm so forgetful, am I not?"

"So what would our boy want to have today?" Grandpa Qian asked.

"I'll have some… plain noodles today, thanks Uncle Qian. Your noodles are sure something here you know? It's been quite a while since I came and I was missing your delicious noodles so much that I drooled!" He answered laughingly.

Grandpa Qian tittered joyfully, "Though I'm getting old and I can't knead the dough as good as before… But luckily I still have Ye to make the noodles for me and he is so much better." He said it proudly and ordered on top of his lungs, "Eh, Ye! Get a bowl of plain noodles for this boy here!"

"Okay." Ye Chong responded flatly.

"You have a new guy here, Uncle Qian?" Fei asked in bewilderment.

"Nah, he's just a distant relative of mine. I was feeling a bit lonely, you know, old man problems. So I brought him here."

Out of curiosity Fei asked on, "Where does he come from then?"

"Uhh…" Grandpa Qian flinched, "Somewhere… somewhere far, far away!" Muttered he.

"Ahahaha…" Fei tried to lighten the atmosphere, "Sigh, the silly habit of my job again. Please don't mind me, Uncle Qian."

"Grandpa!" Ye Chong's voice rang from the inside, "We are out of corianders!" Grandpa Qian gasped and tapped his head, "How could I forget this! Sigh, we can't be out of corianders! We need this!" Mumbled the elderly. He then shouted towards the kitchen again, "Ye, I'm heading out to get some corianders now! Don't forget to serve our customer okay?" Ye Chong okayed and the elderly waddled out of the shop after that.

Ye Chong then served Fei a bowl of plain noodles a moment later. Placing it on the round table, he concisely greeted the customer, "Enjoy!"

As he turned and walked away, "Eh!" Fei called him, "Hey brother, your name, Ye, was it?"

Ye somehow felt discomfort seeing the man before him. There was not only discomfort but also a little bit of familiarity. He carried on with a concise response, "Yes." And he tried to walk away again.

"So, you are the one who killed those men that day…" Fei lighted his cigar again, he spoke on relaxingly, "Aren't you?"

Ye Chong's eyes rapidly turned cold. He could sense danger behind the line as he finally realized that the very man before him was one of the police officers he spotted that day. That's why I'm feeling this much of hazard! Ye Chong didn't know many ways to resolve a risky situation like this. Strangling was the only one he knew and used the most. Without much hesitation, his instinct ordered him to conduct the method immediately.

His body waved to the front and his right hand reached Fei's throat with lightning speed. The airwaves created as he propelled broke through the veil of smoke surrounding Fei.

I was right after all! As he saw the changes in Ye Chong's expression, Fei's speculation was justified. He didn't come unprepared of course, but Ye Chong's speed was something not included in his plan, as a result he was barely able to block Ye Chong's attack with his arm.

"Hmph!" Ye Chong clenched his right hand and launched it at Fei's blocking arm.

A crippling blow, followed by the sounds of crushed bones and a groan after. Fei's face turned pale as Ye Chong's fist literally just smashed his arm. The broken bone pieces gashed out of his ruptured muscle. Fei had cold sweat over his trembling body while his right hand was permanently disabled. The attack wasn't ending anytime soon as Ye Chong raised his fist again while Fei was frozen with helpless vulnerability. Fei's soon-to-be last words were, "Uncle Qian! Hey there!"

It actually worked.

Ye Chong stumbled and held his punch. Right at that moment, Fei quickly backed away from Ye Chong and leaned against the wall, wheezing.

Ye Chong took a look to his rear - Grandpa Qian wasn't there! He hadn't returned! Liar! His sight lay on Fei once more, with a frigid glare.

"If… If you…" Fei, catching his breath, as he was trying to word something, "If you killed me… you are… not helping Uncle Qian!" A hint of hesitation flashed in Ye Chong's eyes. "If you killed me, the police… they will be here anytime. You could run… you could hide, of course the police can't get you, but they can get Uncle Qian, don't forget that!"

The first time he discovered his signature skill did not work out the way he wanted, he was already enraged. The bloodthirsty soul burned up high yet the sane soul told him to not kill the man in front as the man was right in his words.

And Mu emerged in his thoughts from out of the blue, "Ye, this is blatant threatening but it works most of the time!"

Of course it worked! That's why Ye Chong was very much angered. The person clearly was alarming to his sense of security, but he could not neutralize the threat at all! Cowardliness and helplessness were teasing him. His agitation built up over time.

"Ye…" Mu seemed to have sensed his emotion, "Don't panic. There's still a way."

"OF what kind?" Ye Chong spoke in his mind.

Mu sneered, "Hehehehe" and spoke on ominously, "In your language, that would be - smack the heck out of him, but don't kill him just yet!"

The advice was joyful to hear. He knew Mu wouldn't let him down as he pounced on Fei and literally smacked the heck out of Fei.

Wait, this shouldn't be it! Fei wasn't expecting resistance! Is Ye really a cold-blooded person? That he would not care about that old man at all? Did my info fail me?

The next scene was Ye Chong precisely landing a kick at Fei's stomach, with the tip of his foot. Well Mu did mention about keeping him half-dead and not utterly-dead. So Ye Chong's kick this time was only 30% of his usual force yet Fei was rolling on the floor in pain. Ye Chong did not concern what the person would become after the violence, as long as he would stay alive. He punched and kicked, as every blow counted, just to unleash the annoyance this punching bag gave him all this while.

Poor Fei was getting distorted being hit to the ground… He would rather die! Or faint on the spot! But Ye wasn't aiming for the critical spot of his body to knock him out. Plus he was obviously holding back his strength at the perfect amount to make sure he stayed conscious while tasting every bit of the ache he received. His mentality warded himself from getting crazy over this everlasting torment, still, deep inside he regretted the presumptuous inspection this time so much. What a stupid mistake I made!

"Now… choke his neck, but don't suffocate him to death!" Another happy-go-lucky suggestion from Mu, as his tone went like the little devil brandishing the fork by Ye Chong's ears.

Ye Chong, without a doubt, did as he was told to.

"Okay, tell him that there's 52 policemen at his station. Make sure it sounds like a threat. It's a courtesy to return one's greeting." His devil wings excitingly fluttered.

Threat? How should I word it like a threat? That was not an issue for Ye Chong as it was an inborn ability within himself. The lines did not need much polishing and they came out uttering from his lips like a cold winter storm. The atmosphere was feeling tense as Fei shivered to what he heard, which felt like a blade against his neck.

"So I heard… you have 52 men back at your office." He spoke bluntly, "Fifty-two, huh?"

And that was the last straw to Fei's calmness.

"Oh and you do have a lovely wife and daughter, don't you? Who happily stayed at Guang Hua garden N-14-328-24." He carried on his performance, "Your wife has such a good name, He Yan, named after the swallow; while your daughter is named after the tiny bloom of flower, Meng Rui Er, who happens to be 7 years old this year, am I right? Mr. Meng."

The rolling information that came struck like a thunder on Fei, shattering his last bit of sanity as he wriggled and screamed, "Who… Who are you! I warn, I warn you! Don't you ever dare to lay a finger on them! Or else… else… I'll… I'll make sure I'll destroy you!"

"Good. Kekeke, now he has learned his lesson. One last warning to make sure he does not simply threat an ordinary citizen like us, then you can let him go." The little devil signaled mercy on generosity.

"You better be not planning to do anything funny, or else… Hehehe I'll be the one." Fei could only laugh along bitterly, knowing his doom was destined. However, Ye Chong gestured to let him free.

Upon knowing such good news, Fei did not want to wait any longer, he struggled his way out, "Hold it!" Fei flinched… "Money. Pay for your food first." Pointing at the cold noodles on the table, Ye Chong nonchalantly demanded.

Beep.

Thank you and come again.

Fei wobbled out of the shop.

"So where did you learn this trick?" Ye Chong asked Mu.

"Hehehehe…" Mu laughed, "I watched some movies recently. This happens to be the typical scene."

"Then how did you even know the number of policemen at his station? And his home, too?"

"That's simple! Of course I sneaked into the station and hacked his profile out duh! Everything is written on it!"

"So this is what they called threatening? Why would it be more practical than killing him on spot? The Iron Lizard didn't seem to have used this trick before…" Ye Chong collected his mind, yet he was still in much bewilderment.

"Well, he's merely human, that's why!" Mu reminded.

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Chapter 58: Urban Fiasco

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Chong finally summoned Mu back from the alternate dimension. It had been quite some time ever since Mu went out of order. Though Grandpa Qian owned a rather spacious accommodation, it still seemed crammed with Mu's gigantic mechanical body inside. Ye Chong had to readjust Mu's posture in order to fit him in. He folded his legs and placed the body in … quite an eyesore pose on the ground. Mu was partially lying on the floor, with his legs lifted and… "What do you think you're doing?!", with his mouth rumbling.

Grandpa Qian sighed in sympathy as he laid his sight upon the torn body of Mu. Such a fine mech Ye had but became all broken by then. "What a pity!"

Well there wasn't any other Helmet to connect to the virtual world, other than the one in Mu's system. Ye Chong hopped into the cabin and put on the Helmet, logging in and there he went!

The virtual world stayed the same. The same old street, the same old crowd and the same old fields… A visit to his recent past. He knew where he would head to next. He glanced at the path and proceeded to Aurora to have a nice reunion. The elderlies at the Aurora pined for Ye Chong's revisit. Some of them were in bitter worries while waiting as they wondered if something had happened to their precious boy. It was their lucky day they thought as they were surprised by Ye Chong's return. A session of warm greetings happened between them and Ye Chong's smile broadened like a shrinking violet.

He bode farewell to the benevolent elderlies and shifted to the NRS training field. Of course, Mu had long vanished from his thoughts by then. Wonder where Mu had gone to this time?

The field was still vibrant as ever. The combat field was as entertaining as it used to be. Ye Chong was stirred up by the fighting sequences occurring in the field. He missed the hand-on experience. One round… One round would do. Ye Chong got up, "Ye, I had just completed the creation of your identification documents." Mu was good with timing, like too good, "You have to get it now. It's much safer with it, gravely dangerous without it."

"Identification card? It's done?" It would be indeed better with formal identification, considering how Bai Linan seemed to be wetting himself upon hearing how Ye Chong did not even own one back at Reno. Speaking of Bai Linan, what had happened to that guy?

Ye Chong strolled the street alone. Several aircrafts and mechs zoomed by. They passed through the floating buildings in the anti-gravitational force field while flaunting some fancy tricks in their piloting.

He was stimulated by the action. His desire to pilot was struck in a whim. As his fingers slid to the keystone in his pocket and called up a F-58 in front. Ye Chong hopped in and impatiently launched the machinery.

The F-58 blasted off into the air and glided mischievously. Ye Chong played off some tricks in between. The mech sometimes would slide right across the windows of the floating window, which put the owner in cold sweat. "Eh, Ye!" Mu started his commentary, "This is bad. Tsk, tsk, tsk, what happened to your performance? It's as if our training had gone to waste. That flip you made just now was not smooth enough. And also your timing for acceleration has an inaccuracy of 5.78%! Are you an amateur or you're from the dump? Oh wait you are from a-"

A blue humanoid mech bolted by. And it just contemplated Ye Chong, waving its hand far ahead.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Ye, look at you, look at how fallen you had become." Mu carried on adding fuel to the fire, "Even a noob would come and pick on you in your face. Ye, please don't tell anybody that I was the one who planned the training course for you. I am embarrassed enough."

"Hmph." Ye Chong snorted and sped up as he chased after that easy-peasy in front.

That blue mech was obviously modified for speed enhancement. The appearance justified everything - foldable wings, about 4 of them, would allow stability while traveling in the atmosphere; a sylphlike body and 6 additional wings smaller in size at the sides of the end. The modified mech looked like a giant bird spreading wings in the sky as it travelled, with its tiny body in the embrace of its large elaborated wings. A featherweight craft.

Every addition on this mech was about speed. Thus, it was unquestionable that this mech was superior in its speed.

But then, as Ye Chong looked through, this mech might as well be a piece of junk like those he saw back at his planet. It is a total failure. The mech did possess greater speed but that's all it had. Everything else than its speed was disturbingly terrible. Featherweight? More like paperweight. It had such a thin body that Ye Chong wondered if it could even take the slightest touch and if the pilot would break before the mech. The elaborated wings were unnecessary in his opinion and they were utterly useless once it set off into space. In an atmospheric zone, he would only need two wings at the side, with half the size of what this exaggerated hunk of metal had and maintained 80% of the current performance. Smaller wings would also reduce the likelihood of being struck by enemies effectively.

That was not it! The worst part of this crap is that this noob seemed to care about speed so much he forgot about the capacity. It was so limited that it could not even be loaded with anything else than the pilot himself. And what? It didn't even have its own weaponry? A mech without weaponry is only an escape pod with fancy wings. Ye Chong thought. But well, Mu was an exception to his rules.

Even though the mech did have some odd style of modification, it still cruised like a breeze.

F-58 is a mech for space-travels. So it does not have any wings at the sides, thus the underwhelming performance during travel in the atmosphere. Fortunately in exchange, it contains an advanced engine and with Ye Chong's first-class obstacle piloting skills, the F-58 did not lose out badly, in fact, it had always been right behind that blue mech.

It sounded cool. Still, it was just right-behind. Close, yet not close enough. It was tricky to overtake that blue mech.

Meanwhile, Mu was being extremely helpful at that moment, "Aw man. Ye, did you know you could have made this turn 0.035 second faster? Hm… Hey Ye! Oh my… Ugh… What had you even learned back at the NRS training? Oh wait, what do you even remember from the training? Did you forget everything else other than the fact that you lived? Did you know you are deplorably 4.5% below than the standard of performance I had set for you?"

The two mechs were flying in the city center. The floating houses were denser than the outskirts. There were more traveling crafts in the air too. It seemed that the blue mech right in front did not intend to be above the neighborhood, instead, he weaved in and out around the buildings.

Two of them raced on the road, one behind another, showing zero concern for traffic or any passerby. The center was chaotic. The pedestrians had their eyes hooked on the outrageous racers threading paths and they tripped themselves while dodging the fast and furious. The traffic on its peak-hour had been turned into a bummer, a splat of honking and craft-collisions.

In the meantime, Ye Chong never thought of the issue going off before him. Traffic chaos? You got to be kidding me! The sky is bloody boundless and bloody bright and you tell me you can't fly anywhere you want? Technically, the concept of order in traffic had yet instilled in his mind during that time.

He was all-eyes-focused on the blue mech in the front of him. Intense! Exciting! It's been a while I got this driven! Ye Chong's blood was boiling with adrenaline stimulating every inch of his nerves. His body and his mind were all onto the inputs. The sluggish sequence at first started to get more and more seamless over the course. Slowly he picked up the sense of traveling at full speed. He began performing overwhelming dodges as he travelled like a swordfish winding in the corals, freely and happily.

Gradually the gap between Ye Chong and the opponent shortened.

The opponent seemed to have felt the stress exerted by Ye Chong as his action became a bit disorderly. The outsiders might not discern the difference but Ye Chong certainly did, every frame of it. He took the chance and shortened the distance even further. After the mistake the blue mech pilot made, he calmed himself down immediately. He would not be giving more opportunities to the F-58 behind! No more letups! As obvious the F-58 was inferior to his craft in terms of speed, Ye Chong managed to put up such a situation merely because of his ultimate piloting skills.

"Yawn…" Mu was bored by Ye Chong in all-focus, "What's the point of this race with zero expertise? If I want to watch something blindly speeding, I could watch mech commercials and not this."

"Mu, stop blabbering and help me take a look at the rear. There were some mechs behind." Ye Chong noticed something when he was occupied. He asked Mu to do the look-out for him.

Mu did notice the mechs tailing from afar. There were 3 mechs in pure black, white and blue respectively… and a white mech leading with a speed almost as fast as the F-58.

"Oh… It seems like they are from the police force." Mu observed carefully, "Well I have no idea what that white one does though. Ah, its specification wasn't as bad as your F-58… What?" Mu was shocked out of sudden, "Ye, careful…" He turned serious, "That white mech right behind you, it is fully armed."

Ye Chong pondered a little. He had enough fun at the moment. Moreover, the white mech behind was sending chills down his spine.

Time to end the race! A sharp turn by Ye Chong, right into the other street. It was unexpected for the blue mech pilot till he was dazed for a second and nearly hit the building in front. The body of his mech brushed through the metal edges of the building and its integrity was breached, as what Ye Chong had pointed out. This mech did have an issue. He barely made it out alive. He rolled out of the cabin and was found surrounded by a horde of police mechs. He was caught red-handed.

Ye Chong's sudden change in route also stupefied the white mech behind. But he turned along without hesitation.

Ye Chong's heart skipped a beat upon seeing the white mech appearing behind again. This guy! He was really after me!

"Oh Ye, how lovely." Mu added, "This guy seems to have a thing for you, eh? Oh~ be careful, his weaponry seems to be activating." Yeah, Mu totally was joking. Not!

Traveling at maximum speed, Ye Chong took a lightning glance at the white mech projected in his interface. It seemed that the white mech had opened up its hidden artillery from within! The hostility was blatant!

With another sharp turn, he made right into extended street at the side. The white mech was unprepared for this and was left dazed again, but he made it up fairly quickly and chased on. The other crafts in the street were astounded by Ye Chong's intrusion as they ran for their lives steering clear of him. The place was in disarray. The panicked mech flocks blocked the white mech's way. He glared at Ye Chong getting out of sight in a few blinks.

Finally! Ye Chong let of a sigh of relief. He slowed down. Took a breath and moved on in relaxation.

Well, the race before had consumed massive amounts of energy. He had to slow down or he would be walking a gazillion miles home.

"Ye!" Mu's voice rang again, "Look at the sky!"

Ye Chong lifted the camera upon the sky. In horror he looked at the projection. The white mech was lurking in the sky, aiming the muzzle of his laser rifle at Ye Chong!

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Chapter 59: I'm not an Outlaw!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Chong was absolutely terrorized. He changed the direction of his engine in panic and landed the F-58 harshly. Zeep! The white laser skimmed through the forehead of F-58 and created a bottomless-looking crater on the ground, steaming.

The immense force made the F-58 land like a beast on four feet, to buffer the pressure produced due to sharp turning. And almost immediately after, the F-58 launched itself like a jaguar into the crowd.

Ye Chong had switched to ground-mode of the F-58 and considered himself familiar with the dynamics behind dashing by the beast. He mastered it fast and moved on fluidly. There was a certain rhythm in his running. The F-58 was also built with an avant-garde buffering system, so Ye Chong had an easier time piloting it on ground. Imagine bumping in the urban jungle without it, Ye Chong might need a comfort bag and all the measly amount of stamina left might just go into the drain along with his pukes.

The white mech was alerted by something as he stopped firing. He just silently followed Ye Chong behind.

Ye Chong had fully adjusted the F-58's posture after a while but remained very close to the ground, with legs bent. Certainly a very strange posture to fly in… Ye Chong was helpless of this in actuality. F-58 was unarmed and keeping the same height with the sniper would be fatal. He could only try to ground the sniper by flying extremely low. That was his mere hope to fight back or else… he would be running for his life and probably get shot and no more. There were a lot of moments where a shot could have been made, yet it never happened. Ye Chong was confused. What was holding him back? Or was it a miss?

Ye Chong would never let the chance slip if he was the chaser. He would fire at every possible moment to nail the enemy. That was what living on the Trash Planet had taught him all these years - the blatant, crude, primal, supreme law of survival. He believed that such law might not be actually applicable in this society, especially after the incident the day before, but he believed that there were way more things unknown to him. He didn't encounter the unknown, he was literally thrown into the unknown. Thus, like what all humans would do, he would pick the method he trusted and knew best to conquer the unknown.

Well, it seemed like Ye Chong still had a long journey down the road to understand society and change himself…

The curved legs might appeared to be awkward, however it would be the most effective way so far to dodge any incoming beam by changing the course using the leap of the legs.

It could be a golden opportunity to have some circus tricks but Ye Chong did not fancy the idea. The non-orderly wavy leap, the classic Thomas's Spin, there are always times for those but not now! If I wanted to commit suicide there are better ways! Thought Ye Chong as he changed his direction from time to time between the densely grouped buildings at an attempt to confuse the opponent. This would give him temporary cover too!

The white mech seemed to have no counter for this. He stayed up high following Ye Chong. Ye Chong went lower and lower and tried his best to pick places with more buildings. That was a headache to the white mech because Ye Chong travelled like a phantom, sneaking from one spot to another. He would more likely to miss him if he were to lower his mech in the run.

Out of the blue, the black mech in front of him disappeared!

Ye Chong actually discovered a giant building in front, an extremely tall foundation. He got an idea and he rushed towards the corner of the building. Right when the white mech lost him, he jumped out of the cabin instantly and warped the F-58 back into the alternate dimension before he touched the ground. The people were staring at him in perplexity. He quickly submerged into the crowd and vanished.

He walked with the flow and cautiously glanced at the white mech, halting in the sky a few times on the way, "You did improve I guess." Mu praised.

"Well, this is the best I could pull off." Ye Chong replied.

"The location to claim your card is right at the central building in 500 meters."

"Got it."

The central building was about 300 floors tall, coated in metallic texture with glasses of dim blue. It was a futuristic building in cold colors. And there seemed to be a parking space for mech or miniature aircrafts at every 3 floors.

The interior was gently lit, decorated with walls of silver and countless cubicles separated by partitions of glass both transparent and half-transparent. The lobby contained a number of hologram projectors that kept rolling out the procedures of any form of application. There were also a few processors nearby for customers' inquiry.

Ye Chong walked to one of the kiosks there. His fingerprints were scanned along with his retina, followed by his skeletal structure. A diprotic scan was also performed. These were the essential procedures for verification purpose. And Ye Chong's identity was proven.

"The application of recreating your identity card has been completed. You may receive your card at your right. Please take good care of it and if you lose it again, do come to us soon." A mechanical voice of a female rang at the kiosk after the verification process. Thup! A pale green card was spat out of the automated machine, "Have a nice day!"

He looked at his card with curiosity. It was about the size of his wrist, slightly smaller. "Ye, this is your identification document. You're no longer an outlaw. This took me way longer than I thought. The security at the residence info center was hard to get through. It took me a lot of effort just to get in. I almost got caught too! But luckily I'm fast." He laughed proudly.

The card contained his full name, gender and other personal information. There was also a unique logo of Fal galaxy. The identity card could be snapped after fingerprint verification to obtain the very core of the card, being the microchip. The chip could be placed into a specific kind of decoder to get more data. Well, of course, this was only useful for specific departments.

Ye Chong kept his card carefully.

He exited the building and headed back to his shop. The first wave of customers were coming anytime soon. He had got to make it back fast! He was tempted to re-summon F-58, yet… Ye Chong looked around. The white mech could be watching from anywhere. He wouldn't want another round of reckless race into the unknown…

For what reason that white mech wanted to kill me so much? What did I do wrong?

Ye Chong was puzzled. Some may have suggested the use of Mu but that idea was long out of reach for Ye Chong, considering how Mu was so sassy to not let him have a ride for emergencies. Sigh, I'll just walk on my feet. He ran on his feet fast, all the way to the shop!

The pedestrians at the side held their steps as they watched a road runner passing by.

"What the heck? This is impossible!"

"He's too fast!"

"Am I high? Am I seeing things?"

They were probably thinking these thoughts while looking at a grown man rushing through the street in rumbles.

Ye Chong had to rush because the customers flooded the shop recently and most of them happened to be regular and returning customers.

I made it!

Right before the first wave of starving customers intruded.

That was a miracle, until… I'm tired… The customers of the shop were very self-aware of it seemed. There were only 32 seats in Grandpa Qian's shop. So anyone could tell the seats were very insufficient and the customers left the moment they finished their food. They never stayed and they gave the seats to the coming customers. It was good but… that simply did not give a moment for Ye Chong to even catch his breath. He was usually much more energetic, however he drained himself too much during the escape in the morning.

"You seemed worn out, my boy. Are you okay?" Grandpa Qian asked unsettlingly upon seeing how Ye Chong was not his usual self. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." That was his reply for every regard he received that day.

Till the very last customer left in satisfaction, they finally got to start their meal.

The rice tasted sweeter than usual. Everything just felt tastier. Ye Chong gargled the soup.

In the midst of leisure, someone bashed into the place.

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Chapter 60: Mech-anics

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Sun Xuelin dragged Shew into the place as she pushed the door open,. "Grandpa Qian!" Shouted Xuelin as soon as she stepped in, while her cousin was concealing herself behind. She wiped her face reddened by intense workouts and swiped her hazel fringe dampened by her sweat. Droplets of sweat rolled off like dewdrops in the morning. Her nose glossing in her youth were exhaling heavily. The formerly tight uniform covering her body had lost its formality by then, which the neckline had been unbuttoned while the sleeves had been outrageously raised, revealing arms of fair beauty. Her left hand was holding Shew's hand while her right was smudged by something.

"Grandpa Qian! We want two bowls of beef noodles! The usual!" She then tugged her cousin all the way to the hand cleaner at the side. Beep! A flow of air slightly warm passed through their fingers. The black patches on her hands slid through the tips of her fingers and fell into the opened doorway to the disposer.

"Xuelin?" Laid his chopsticks, Grandpa Qian stood up and looked at them in anxiety, "What happened to my girls? Looking all flustered…"

Ye Chong in the meantime had already shifted to the kitchen and started cooking.

Xuelin pulled her beloved Cousin Shew to the table and sat down right beside Grandpa Qian, giggled, "Sigh! You won't believe what had happened! I was getting home with Shewie, all happy and lucky. But then the mech just had to break itself out of a sudden. The worst thing was I actually broke my dimensional keystone too. I tried to fix it on my own but it didn't work. I got hungry so I decided to come back here for another meal first." Such a bad hair day for the girls. Grandpa Qian thought.

"So is the mech right outside the shop?" He poured them some water as he asked.

"Ugh!" Xuelin gargled angrily, "Yeah! I never expected things could go wrong when it's just a stone's throw away from our house! This is depressing… especially when my parents aren't in too!" And she sighed again but seemed more agitated than depressed.

Grandpa Qian chuckled, "Xuelin, my girl, you sure act like your father. Why aren't you like your mother even a little? Eh, drink it slower. Do it gently, Xuelin. The drinks are all yours. Be like your cousin, Shew. Look at how gently she made her sip."

Shew while on her sip was embarrassed by the compliments. She blushed and almost choked herself. "It's… It's nothing." She placed down her cup, "I mean, Xuelin looks pretty good too, doesn't she?" Rubbing her hands together while slipping her fingers through as she muttered.

"You are just the shy kind, aren't you?" Grandpa Qian was delighted. Shew's blush had gotten worse. "Yeah, she's the shy kind ever since she was a child!" Stated Xuelin while she laughed.

A moment later, Ye Chong left the kitchen with two bowls of noodles. He placed it in front of the girls, sat down and continued digging in. Courtesy was no longer the best policy for Ye Chong when hunger was concerned. He had consumed too much stamina for the day. Hunger had taken over his mind. Nom. Nom. Nom… Ye Chong was too busy emptying every bowl he got.

Xuelin and Shew held their chopsticks in daze. Is this a human? How many bowls has he eaten ever since we came in? The 7th? Or the 8th? Can a man get this hungry? It was not only because the amount he had eaten, it was also the rate of him finishing the bowls. The noodles appeared as if they were disintegrating rapidly the moment Ye Chong's lips reached the edge of the bowl. Seconds lapsed and he had already hit the bottom, moving on to the next. Xuelin and Shew looked at each other awkwardly as their eyes went like saucers seeing the "paranormal" before them.

Grandpa Qian on the other hand was tittering as usual. He had gotten used to the speed of Ye Chong engulfing the noodles. He was more bothered the fact that Ye Chong could be real tired for the day, considering it was the 11th bowl he dug into. That was 3 more bowls than his usual routine. His lips wriggled, wanting to tell him to get adequate rest and watch his own health. Nevertheless something struck the old man. His eyes blinked.

"Ye, don't you know how to fix a mech by yourself?" He remembered the fact that Ye Chong had a broken mech before. He was a complete layperson in this regard. He couldn't tell the difference between a pilot and a mechanic. But he just felt like asking for the poor little girls in front.

"Hm" Ye Chong chewed on.

Xuelin was shocked by Grandpa Qian's question.

"A little." Ye Chong slurped on.

A hint of disdain flashed in Xuelin's eyes.

For real? I mean even an actual student from a mechanic school wouldn't dare to claim themselves so. Any person who could fix a mech on his or her own before 25 has to be a genius.

How could this kitchen food gulping dumbo be one?

"Very well, Ye. I had known Xuelin since she was a child. So would you mind helping the girls out, as an old man's request? Please."

"Okay." He just murmured his reply. He didn't lift his head at all and he carried on munching.

Phew! That last bowl should do!

Ye Chong had finished 15 bowls of noodles in total. He did seem a little bit tired since he usually would only need about 7 to 8 bowls to feel all full.

He walked out of the shop straightaway while Xuelin hauled poor Shew off the table, all the way out. Xuelin was expecting to see this novice dumbo embarrass himself as he would be astounded by the complexity of her mech. He would be apologizing for his boastful words.

Learn about talking with brains, not with your big mouth! Hmph!

He circled the SP-II.

I had seen this model before. But that was during the NRS training.

If that was not the first opponent he encountered on the first day of his NRS training, he would have forgotten every single bit about this model of mech. The mech was a craft imprinted in his mind as he learned to fight with it the hard way. Through the fight he mastered the Non-Orderly Wavy Leap, which also happened to be the only advanced technique he knew that time.

Wait, speaking of advanced technique, Mu, that piece of junk, did not teach me any other so-called "advanced techniques" since then! I'll make sure he teaches me everything else after this…

He actually went daydreaming for a moment… Oh! He came back from his castle in the air he built afterwards. He took a careful inspection of the mech before him.

He was acutely familiar with the structure of mechs. Back at Trash Planet, Winnie had been disassembled on different occasions. He knew everything like the back of his hands. Though Winnie was quite an outdated model compared to the SP-II, both of them surprisingly did not share much difference. For the properties of SP-II, he had learned them back when he hung out at Gudista - all at his fingertips, especially when the ancient elderlies at Aurora taught him both the experience and knowledge!

Kekekekeke. Let's see what your big mouth can do.

Seeing how Ye Chong seemed to be overwhelmed by her SP-II, she snickered. She truly despised bragging, especially when the person didn't even have the quality to swagger. She anticipated the moment of truth for her to laugh wholeheartedly at the clown stumbling upon her craft.

At the same time, Shew was staring at Ye in bewilderment.

What he's doing all standing there? He really doesn't know how to fix it? Ah! Then he should not come for it! Xuelin is going to laugh her jaws off… sigh…

She showed worries in her eyes, knowing that how stubborn her Cousin Xuelin could get when the pilot field was concerned, no matter how friendly she acted normally…

That was not the case. Ye Chong skillfully lifted the cover of the engine at the mech. And he checked every part of it swiftly. Xuelin was astounded in the end instead.

His instinct told him to diagnose the condition of the engine. Back at Gudista, he had seen posts in the forum on various stories about SP-II, which had superior traveling speed but an inferior protection of the engine. Thus, the constant criticism from people.

So he checked out on the engine first.

The girls were shaking at the side, seeing how Ye Chong just jumped onto the tall SP-II without any aid or safety measure. He could just die from falling down! Xuelin's mouth enlarged. She could barely lift her jaws. Her eyes flooded with disbelief. Shew by her side was covering her mouth, trying to hold her shriek. She wouldn't want to scream. What if it made Ye Chong fall?

His intuition was accurate! The problem did lie within the engine! There was a tiny piece of something stuck in one of the major central circuits in the engine for some reason. The piece prevented the engine from working properly, which eventually led to a system failure. Well, this is simple! He simply took it out. After some engine cleaning, he got into the cabin and ran a few tests to make sure the system had been thoroughly repaired. Yup! System's up! He jumped out of the cabin.

The SP-II was about 10 meters tall while the cabin was about 7 to 8 meters tall at the very least, and Ye Chong just jumped out of the cabin as if jumping off his bed without any form of ladders or ropes. Shew could hold it no longer, she shrieked and shrieked, covering her little mouth quivering. Xuelin was stunned by how Ye Chong got off the mech.

A perfect landing! A perfect pose! As soon as he landed he curved his legs a little to cushion the shock. He looked like a compressed spring, a frog before its leap, passive yet potent.

He got up, "All done!" As he bluntly replied and returned to the shop. He had a lot other work to do. No time to chitchat with the girls.

Xuelin remained dumbfounded. Maybe she was the dumbo after all. The shock before had yet faded in her mind. "Xuelin, what's wrong?" Shew shook her shoulders, startled by her cousin's reaction, "Aren't you going to see if it's really fixed?"

"Oh!" As if woken up from a dream, Xuelin quickly tossed a rope over and climbed into the cabin. Beep! She activated the self-diagnosis program at the processor and she was in an ambivalence hoping for the result, whether is it positive or negative. 30 seconds passed and Xuelin's head popped at the cabin entrance, in excitement she shouted, "Shewie! It's fixed! It's all fixed! Get up! Quick! We are getting home!"

She somehow hesitated a little. Nonetheless she boarded the mech afterwards. "Xuelin! Didn't you forget something? We haven't thanked the man!" She ranted right after she got herself seated.

"Hmph!" Xuelin indifferently began setting up commands, "That guy doesn't seem to care about anything! So why the appreciation? He acted as if I'm in debt to him or something! If you want to thank him, go alone. I'm not going!"

Shew bit her cherry lips, "Isn't that a little rude? He helped us anyway! I think… I think we should… we should…"

"Fine!" Xuelin grumbled, "We would come and thank him the next time we visit Grandpa Qian's shop! I never knew he really could fix a mech at all before!" Her fingers rubbed her gleaming chin as she pondered on.

"Oh well, it seems like the only thing we could do!" Sighed Shew.

"Okay, we are getting back home~"

"Oh no! Xuelin! There's something else we forgot! We forgot to pay! What should we do!"

"Hah! It's okay Shewie! Grandpa Qian isn't this kind of person! He wouldn't mind if we pay him the next visit!"

…

"Mu." Ye Chong summoned his partner right when he entered his room. He tumbled into the cabin, put on the Helmet, "Show me the visual of the white mech we see today!"

"Alright." Mu replied on spot.

The image of the white mech projected before him. He observed in detail. It would be better to research on the enemy, though he had no idea why he became the target in the first place.

"Anyway, Ye." The routine bitter-tongue nag commenced! "Did you know how terrible your performance was today? This is so embarrassing I cannot- ZZZzZZZzzzzZZzzzzZZ ZZzzzzzZZzz"

"Mu?" Out of the blue, Mu's voice trailed off. His voice was distorted towards the end, as if something was interrupting the transmission. The visual in the Helmet was acting goofy too! "Mu!" The visual disappeared, while a bunch of snow and white noises remained. Mu's voice was utterly gone! The Helmet went pitch black after that.

"Mu… Mu!" He removed his helmet and spoke in his mind with dismay, "Why aren't you… Mu! Speak to me Mu! Speak to me!"

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Chapter 61: Mu's Predicament

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Mu fell immediately silent, and Ye Chong panicked. Whenever something happened to Mu, Ye Chong found out that he was never of much help.

The only thing he could do now was wait. He would wait until Mu awakened again.

Could it be that the energy cells were depleted? Ye Chong quickly stood up and rushed to check Mu's energy cells. "No! That's not the problem! Mu's energy cells were still at 80%. Then what's the problem?" Ye Chong racked his brains but could not figure out the reason. His only option left was to sit quietly by Mu's side and wait.

Ye Chong sat beside Mu for the entire afternoon, but Mu was still motionless, showing no signs of awakening.

Time passed by, and without his notice, he had sat through the entire afternoon. Outside his room, Grandpa Qian called, "A guest is here!" Ye Chong looked at the time, and found that it was already evening. He gave a meaningful look at Mu before heading out - it was time to work!

Ye Chong looked dejected, and worked without much enthusiasm. Grandpa Qian had asked Ye Chong a few times if he was feeling uncomfortable, but Ye Chong only shook his head every time. Grandpa Qian's expression was one of worry.

Finally, all the customers had left. Ye Chong left after just eating two servings, and Grandpa Qian was worried about him - the boy had never eaten so little!

Ye Chong returned to his room in a depressed mood. As he closed the door behind him, Mu's voice rang, "Ye!"

Ye Chong paused and his head snapped up. His eyes filled with bottomless joy, and the edges of his mouth lifted into an arch. "Mu, you're alright now? That's great!"

The excited Ye Chong leapt onto Mu's knees. "You scared me just now! Are you alright now?"

Mu was silent for awhile. "Based on available information, the probability of controlling the situation was from 58.5% to 61.2%!"

Ye Chong was shocked. "What happened? Mu, you seemed to have changed a lot before this." Ye Chong thought for a moment before continuing, "And now you're back to normal!"

Mu spoke lightly, "Your statement is accurate to a certain extent!"

Ye Chong was perplexed. "What's really going on, Mu?"

Mu calmly explained, "There is an unnamed program in inactive mode that has been in my information records all this time. I had repeatedly tried to activate it, as I believe it is most probably information related to my history. However, I had never found a way to activate it. The violent impact during our escape from the trash planet had activated this program, and I realized it was a Photon Simulated Intelligence program."

Upon seeing Ye Chong's confused expression, Mu continued explaining, "A Photon Simulated Intelligence program, or PSI [1, is an autonomous decision-making program present in advanced photon processors. Different PSIs have different characteristics and temperaments, and they have a strong inclination to reject other PSIs. Fundamentally, I am also a PSI!"

"This PSI in me has a 86.9% probability of being the former controller of my photon processor. For some reason, it was forced into inactive mode, and after that, you, Ye, had activated a new PSI in the photon processor that was me."

"We are born from the same photon processor, and based on the same learning mechanism and decision making system. This also implied that we could not destroy one another, and could only compete for control of the photon processor. From the last impact, his sudden activation placed me in a passive situation, and he managed to take control! However, based on our characteristics, I am more aggressive, and thus have a higher probability of between 8.5% to 11.2% of winning against him. This is why he was suppressed by me today. However, this probability advantage will continue to decrease! Until both have equal power!"

Mu noticed Ye Chong's confused expressed and spoke his mind without care. "At your level, the probability of you understanding this complicated predicament is only 21%."

The remark was promptly ignored by Ye Chong, as he spoke in realization, "Ah, that means in your body there's two … Um … What's that called?" Ye Chong frowned in thought.

"PSI!" Mu provided.

"Right, PSI. But that, that PSI thing had no ill will towards me …" Ye Chong recalled the earlier in time where he thought Mu was acting a little different, but it did not make Ye Chong feel that the mech was another Mu.

Mu agreed. "Yes. Since we are using the same information records archive, his information based decisions will be the same as mine. Hence, his attitude towards you will be no different to that of mine, but expressed with a different personality and temperament."

Ye Chong scratched his head in distress. "So complicated. As expected, anything related to photon processors is bound to be dull!" Ye Chong, who was entirely uninterested in photon processors, made his conclusion.

"I'm afraid it is to you!" Mu commented calmly.

Ye Chong sat in Mu's pilot cabin, continuing his work from earlier in themorning. As for Mu's predicament, Ye Chong knew he would be of no help, and Mu would have to handle it himself.

Ye Chong carefully inspected the white mech image pulled from Mu's information records archive.

Pure white mechs were rare, as were pure black mechs. The elongated design and lack of any sharp edges due to its rounded designs meant that the mechs did not have the vicious quality found in common mech models. In its hand was a similarly white and odd looking gun. From the diameter of the barrel, it may even qualify as a cannon. From an average person's perspective, the mech was definitely majestic and as graceful as an aristocrat amongst the feathered species - the white swan.

However, Ye Chong obviously did not feel the same. Ye Chong only felt an extreme sense of danger.

The white mech may seem as graceful as an aristocrat, but Ye Chong would not underestimate its potential as a threat. Ye Chong was sure that the odd looking gun in his hand must have some underlying power, and was not just some plaything. Ye Chong also noticed with his sharp observation that the mech had at least thirty two concealed weapons cache (yin shi she ji chang), and that was quite astonishing to Ye Chong.

"This - this is surely too much. Is there a need to have so many of them? Besides, can the pilot in the mech control them all? The energy consumption must also be huge! Is he thinking of shooting all of them in one go and end the battle?"

No matter how he saw it, Ye Chong did not believe that this was a common advanced level mech. Ye Chong definitely thought that the mech was even more technologically advanced than his F-58. No matter how well the F-58 performed, it was still a training mech, and its weapons were far outstripped by the opponent's.

"Why would he want to kill me?" Ye Chong could not figure it out!

Only the Reno Society had qualms with him, but would Reno Society own a mech like this? Ye Chong was a little wary of that fact. Besides, Reno Society definitely knew nothing of his whereabouts. Then who could it be? Black Cove? If Black Cove had ill designs for him, then it would be a plausible scenario. However, the mech was obviously a contrast to Black Cove's usual style. The difference was too striking, and thus, it was probably not Black Cove!

Then who would it be? Ye Chong agonisingly searched his memories!

"The opponent had crash landed into me while I was flying with the F-58. The opponent probably did not know my identity, and could only recognize the mech! Could it be that the F-58 made me an enemy? But wait! The F-58 was a Black Cove training mech, which meant that the opponent must know about the F-57, and understand that it was a Black Cove training mech. Sodoes this mean that the opponent thought I am a Black Cove citizen and therefore, treated me as an enemy? Hmm, then it seemed highly likely that the opponent is an enemy of Black Cove!"

As he considered this idea, Ye Chong began to believe that it made sense! He must be an enemy of Black Cove! He must have mistook him as someone from Black Cove! This seemed to be the only reasonable explanation!

By then, Mu's voice rang out, "Based on currently available information and my calculations, the probability that the opponent is an enemy of Black Cove is about 71%. The uncertainty is due to insufficient information and therefore not calculable!"

As expected, Mu's calculations arrived at the same conclusion as he did!

Hmm, if that was the case, then what should he do?

[1] Note: Pronounced as "psy" in "psychology".

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Chapter 62: Ye Chong Went Outdoors

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Chong was troubled.

He had been training on his speed lately, and did not spend any time on strength training. Now, he had reached another bottleneck in his speed. Since speed was achieved through strength, without support from the appropriate amount of strength, his speed could only stay at its current level.

However, this was not the trash planet, where metallic trash was abundant and everywhere, as it was easy to find a piece of metal of suitable size there. Ye Chong had trained his strength with the most basic and simple method - using weights. He did weight lifting and used weights in exercises such as running and squatting. However, he was considerably stronger now, such that if he continued with the same training method, he would need much heavier weights to fulfil his needs. Otherwise, it would be difficult to achieve the desired results.

Except for a few rare materials, none were dense enough to meet Ye Chong's requirements. However, one thing he could be certain of was that the materials that were dense enough were not obtainable at the present moment. Without a high enough density, the weight would be too much, besides being inconvenient. It would then be impossible to carry out training at Grandpa Qian's house!

Mu was interested in the dilemma with Ye Chong's muscular development. "Ye, your muscles are still not significantly developing!"

Ye Chong was not too concerned. "Didn't you say it's alright like this?"

Mu evenly replied, "It is alright, I'm just curious about your state of development!"

Ye Chong shook his head. "I don't know the reason for it too. I've always been like this since young, never very muscular. Based on what you said, I should be much more muscular by now!"

Mu agreed. "By right, you should not be having this body form. However, I cannot inspect your body without proper measuring equipment."

Ye Chong did not mind about it. "At least it isn't a bad thing!"

Mu bluntly replied, "Information is insufficient to calculate that!"

Ye Chong suddenly thought of something. "Mu, my basic pilot training is almost complete. When are you teaching any advanced techniques? I can only perform one now - the Non-orderly Wavy Leap!"

Mu said, "Advanced techniques are based on fundamental movements executed with unique battle strategies in mind -"

Ye Chong cut him off. "Just tell me if you're teaching or not!"

Mu responded, "Only if you insist on it! However, do you have a spare mech?"

Ye Chong thought about it, and felt discouraged. "Ah, I only have the F-58. That white mech seems to have a grudge against Black Cove. If we meet again by accident, it will be disastrous! If it was not for the good terrain last time, it would probably be a lot riskier!"

Mu said, "It seems that the probability of you performing any pilot training is zero!" Ye Chong felt that Mu was definitely taking pleasure in his misfortune.

Ye Chong suddenly brightened up. "How about if I go for the NR Training Center?"

Mu disagreed. "The NR Training Center is incapable of granting you further improvement! What you lack now is experience in actual combat. However realistic the virtual net may feel like, it is incomparable to engaging in reality!"

Ye Chong groaned. "Actual combat? There's nothing I can do about that!"

Without his training routine, Ye Chong felt idle most of the time. Mu suggested that he go out more often, since Ye Chong was still far from fully integrating into society, and many of his thoughts were still too different from the average person's!

Grandpa Qian agreed with the idea that Ye Chong should explore the outside world more, commenting that he looked the very opposite of lively, and should leave the house for a while every day. He even generously offered Ye Chong some zuan credits as allowance!

Thus, Ye Chong went out to the streets under the support of both Mu and Grandpa Qian.

Unlike last time, where Ye Chong had the very definitive aim of obtaining his identity card when he went outside, this time it was purely for leisure. Ye Chong stood outside the main door, unable to decide where to head to first. Should he turn left? Or right? Or just walk straight ahead?

The observant Grandpa Qian noticed Sun Xuelin and Xiu some distance ahead, and greeted them loudly, "Xuelin!"

Sun Xuelin looked towards the direction of the voice, saw Grandpa Qian, and immediately grabbed Xiu along to meet the old man. "Good day, Grandpa Qian!" Xiu also greeted demurely, "Good day, Grandpa Qian!" Grandpa Qian laughed in delight, "Hehe, today Xiu took the initiative to greet me first, what a rare occasion!" Xiu immediately blushed in a cherry shade.

Grandpa Qian asked the two, "Are you going out for a walk?"

Sun Xuelin replied, "Yes, would grandpa like us to get you anything?"

Grandpa Qian smiled. "Oh no, but Ye has since only arrived at Blue Ocean for a short while, and he's still unfamiliar with the place. If you're heading out for a walk, can you bring Ye with you? Besides, you're of the same age, he should be good company!" Grandpa Qian dragged the awkwardly standing Ye Chong over to the girls.

Sun Xuelin answered readily, "Sure! No problem, leave it to us!" She had been extremely curious about Ye all this while. Now that the opportunity presented itself, there was no reason for her to reject it.

On the other hand, Xiu watched curiously at Ye Chong from behind Xuelin.

Ye Chong still wore a plain expression.

Grandpa Qian was overjoyed. "That's great! Then I leave it to you! Ye, you go along with them and have fun!"

Ye Chong acknowledged with an "Okay," since he had no idea where to go himself. Having a guide familiar with the area was not a bad idea, since he would then also be able to observe how normal people live their lives!

The trio walked along side by side.

Ye Chong watched the occasional mechs flying over him, filled with envy. It was a pity that he had a mech but was unable to use it. The fact soured his mood.

Ye Chong did not take the initiative to speak, and Sun Xuelin, feeling that the situation was getting awkward, spoke up to ease the tension. "Ye, is your real name also Ye?"

Ye Chong formed a short and firm reply, "Ye Chong!" No words came from him after that.

Since Ye Chong kept silent, Sun Xuelin continued, "I'm called Sun Xuelin, this here is Xiu!" Sun Xuelin braced through the introductions.

"Mm, I know!" Ye Chong replied.

Just as Sun Xuelin was beginning to run out of ideas, the usually timid Xiu made her move. "Ye, where are you from?"

"Er," Ye Chong almost continued with "trash planet", but stopped himself just in time and quickly asked Mu in his mind, "Mu, where am I from?"

Mu replied, "Your identity card indicates that your origin planet is Richie."

Being superficial, Ye Chong replied calmly, "Richie!"

"Richie?" The two girls shook their heads at that, since they had never heard of it. There were countless planets in the galaxy, and a vast number of planets in the five main galaxies were inhabited. Unless one was a specialised researcher in planetary geography, the average person would not know the names of many inhabited planets.

What Sun Xuelin would like to know the most was the condition of Ye Chong's mech. However, she was unsure of how to approach the subject. She had initially planned to get familiar with him by chatting before asking him about it, but she did expect Ye Chong to be a man of few words.

Of course, she was not aware that if she had asked Ye Chong in a direct manner, the man would have probably answered her straight.

"I can't believe this guy is so simple-minded!" Sun Xuelin thought with outrage.

In reality, no one could not blame Ye Chong for this. Ye Chong would only show his more casual side to Mu. He could not do so Grandpa Qian, much less someone he was unfamiliar with like Sun Xuelin and Xiu!

Ye Chong observed the people on the streets. They all seemed very calm, lacking the vigilance and hostility that wild animals show against an unfamiliar entity entering their territory. They also do not seem aggressive. "Hmm, it seems that the living principles of the mutants on the trash planet are not suited here after all. I'll have to be more wary in future" Ye Chong thought.

Suddenly, the three noticed a huge commotion up ahead!

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Chapter 63: An Unexpected Reunion

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Sun Xuelin pulled Xiu along and rushed towards the commotion.

Ye Chong frowned, as he was not fond of situations like this. It was too noisy, and the crowd was too dense, such that his area of movement was more restricted. It would also be more difficult for him to have a good grasp of the situation around him.

Ye Chong knitted his brows, but still followed the two into the crowd.

In the center of the commotion, an old man was knocked onto the ground, his belongings scattered about. A middle-aged man was hurling angry words at the old man, "You old geezer, are you blind? This suit of mine costsgold zuan! Can you pay for it if you had damaged it? Look, it's all wrinkled now, it'll cost a few hundred zuan to fix it!" The man gave a look of disdain at the elderly. "Look at your pitifully poor self, I guess you can't really pay for it. Hmph, I'll count myself unlucky today. What a blind old fool!" The man was all stuck-up and arrogant.

Sun Xuelin was the first to respond, as she pointed furiously at the middle-aged man and retaliated, "You've gone too far, how can you spew those useless words when you've knocked down an old man? That's enough, if you speak again I'll teach you a real lesson! Hmph!" Sun Xuelin rolled up her sleeves, ready to act true to her words.

Xiu went to the old man and helped him up with some difficulty. She carefully brushed off dust from the old man's body and asked softly, "Grandpa, are you alright?" The elderly was grateful for her help. "I'm alright, little miss, thank you!" Xiu returned a mellow smile.

"You little b*tch, how dare you speak to me like that, didn't your elders teach you some basic manners? Hmph, I can tell that you're just as despicable! Hmph, let me tell you -"

Sun Xuelin was absolutely ballistic, her fists wrapped tighter and tighter. Xiu quickly went to placate her before she went berserk. If a fight took place, they would not be in a good position in the face of the law.

The middle-aged man was pleased to see Sun Xuelin holding herself back. "Hehe… Little miss, let me tell you -"

Their confrontation was not noticed by Ye Chong, as he was completely distracted by a tiny holographic case on the ground.

Perhaps the term "case" would confuse one of its actual size, since the case was only five millimeters square in area, small and compact. On its light purple surface was a pattern of two lines spiralling around each other like a corkscrew, and its two sides were slightly depressed inwards. A pinhole was located at the front side, which projected multicoloured light rays that formed a semi-transparent person. The projection was very realistic, and looked like a miniature version of the old man. Holographic cases were usually used to record certain events and were more expensive than memory chips. They were also commonly used for commemorative purposes.

However, what caught Ye Chong's attention was not the case itself, but the report that was currently being made by the miniature old man.

"Regarding the photon processor's design, I had combined Fairfax's annuli and short pulse photon circuits. About this idea, I should mention that I've met a young friend on the virtual net who suggested this combination, and thus inspired me to …" This was obviously a report during an academic conference.

Wasn't the combination of Fairfax's annuli and short pulse photon circuits a method that Grandpa Xu specialised in? He had even meticulously explained the idea to Ye Chong before. Could this be Grandpa Xu? Ye Chong could not help but scrutinise the old man before him, and find that the old man looked a little similar to Grandpa Xu.

Ye Chong came forward and tested his idea, "Grandpa Xu?"

The old man froze. "You are?" Old Xu looked at the young man before him. Usually, those who knew him called him Old Xu or Professor Xu, while only those who were his relatives or younger family members of his friends called him Grandpa Xu. However, the person before him was a stranger. Could he be a grandson of one of his friends?

Ye Chong knew from his expression that his guess was not wrong. He continued excitedly, "Grandpa Xu, it's me, Little Y, YC, do you remember me? That Little Y from Aurora!"

"YC! He's YC!" Sun Xuelin was bursting with anger and nearly went berserk earlier, but she quieted down upon hearing Ye Chong's revelation. Xiu covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes filled with disbelief. The two girls were stupefied, and exchanged a glance of obvious joy. Ye Chong was completely absorbed in meeting Grandpa Xu that he missed their odd reaction. However, even if he did not, he would not have thought it was related to him.

Grandpa Xu was also astonished, and grabbed Ye Chong's hands tightly with emotion. "Little Y? You're Little Y? That's wonderful! That's wonderful!" Grandpa Xu was overwhelmed, such that he got a little repetitive in his words. Ye Chong gave a bashful smile! Grandpa Xu immediately recognised that smile and became more assured of his identity!

Sun Xuelin and Xiu, on the other hand, looked as though they had seen a ghost - they did not think it was possible to see an expression like that on Ye Chong's face. Their faces now were undoubtedly more expressive than Ye Chong's.

The middle-aged man noticed that Ye Chong seemed to be familiar with the old man, and an idea came to his mind. He shamelessly pronounced, "Ha, you old geezer, you messed up my top-of-the-line outfit that's worth five golden zuan, better pay up now!"

Ye Chong purposely ignored the middle-aged man and gripped Grandpa Xu's arms to support him. "Grandpa Xu, let's go!" Grandpa Xu nodded. "Mm, let's go!" Sun Xuelin and Xiu supported the old man from the other side.

The middle-aged man grew anxious as they were about to leave, and made a grab for Ye Chong. "No can do, you can't just walk away like that, you gotta pay me back first. Let me tell you, I'm a man of status …"

Before the middle-aged man could get to Ye Chong, Ye Chong made his move!

With a slight move, Ye Chong clasped onto the man's throat. As he was about to move in for the kill, Mu anxiously reminded him, "Don't! Ye!"

Ye Chong paused. Fortunately, Ye Chong now had better control over his strength, or the man would have definitely lost his life.

Ye Chong was confused. "Mu, what is it?"

Mu replied, "Based on my information,killing on the streets would violate the local law, and you'll be heavily pursued!"

"Oh, law? What's that?"

"Rules that humans create for their society!"

"Oh, but has that got to do with me? I still don't really get it!"

"It's complicated, but this is obviously not a good time to discuss it!"

"Alright, we'll talk about it later, but what do I do now?"

"Based on my information, threatening is not a bad option! Based on theories in social psychology, your opponent is obviously shocked. With an appropriate level of threatening, the probability of ending this altercation will be over 92%."

"Threatening it is! I'll try it out!"

The crowd noticed a flash of movement before Ye Chong's right hand was clasped tightly on the middle-aged man's throat. The man felt the pressure and struggled desperately with his mouth gasping for air. The spectators also gasped in astonishment.

Ye Chong quietly whispered into the man's ear, "If you don't let this go, I'll kill you!" His tone was light, as if he was only saying something mundane.

The middle-aged man clawed at his throat and coughed incessantly. He was obviously in pain, unable to utter a single word, and his eyes glowed with terror. Ye Chong's words were like a chilling breeze in winter, and he felt like a naked man in the wind, shivering despite being clothed.

Suddenly, there was a commotion amongst the spectating crowd, and someone shouted, "The police are here!" "Thank goodness, the police are finally here!"

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Chapter 64: Ji Shangyan

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

His reunion with Grandpa Xu was a joyful matter, but Ye Chong did not expect the reunion to be under such circumstances. The police officer who came to the scene was Fei, who came to find Ye Chong at Grandpa Qian's house earlier. Fei noticed the finger marks on the middle-aged man's throat and immediately came up with some excuse to get the man out of the area. "Just get this settled fast, who knows when the guy would go crazy? That'll be my field day!" thought the Inspector sarcastically.

Grandpa Xu was more uptight with Sun Xuelin and Xiu, but far more casual with Ye Chong. They occasionally discussed academic problems, and this reminded Ye Chong of his days at Aurora.

However, once he was outdoors, Ye Chong resumed his dull composure.

Blue Ocean was an economically and technologically advanced planet with a population of six hundred million. Its society championed openness and freedom, and the planet offered abundant natural resources. These were the reasons the planet was coveted as an ideal home by its many inhabitants.

Jesha, where Ye Chong stayed, was one of the three largest zones on Blue Ocean, and also the most prosperous of the three.

It was already late when Ye Chong returned to Grandpa Qian's house. After finishing his work, Ye Chong returned to his room. He believed in the need to understand more about the society he lived in, as there were many things here that contradicted his principles. The sooner he could understand this society, the better and easier he could live within it. Without a doubt, Mu was his only teacher for the task.

Ye Chong began by asking, "Mu, let's continue our topic this morning! What do you mean by law?"

Mu replied, "Based on my information, it will be easier for you to understand the law as rules set by the strongest members of society!"

"The strongest members? Stronger than me?"

Mu kept his tone light, but condescension was positively radiating from his choice of words. "Based on my information, the gap between your strengths is almost as wide as the universe itself!"

Ye Chong changed his tack. "If I had killed that man today, what would happen to me?"

Mu replied, "Based on the Blue Ocean Penal Code, Article 11, a convicted murderer would face up to forty years of prison life, and if the act of murder was atrocious, the murderer could be sentenced to death!"

Ye Chong frowned. "Who're the law executors?"

"Based on Blue Ocean safety measures, all police officers, military officers and safety department personnel have the right to pursue and capture violators of the law, while all members of the public are obligated to assist in the capture!"

Fortunately, Ye Chong knew his own strength, and was not arrogant enough to believe that he was the best amongst the rest. With so many against him, it would not take the strongest to defeat him, as even the average person could take him down. Ye Chong was beginning to understand the risks behind acts of violence! However, he was also quick to notice a problem. "What is I did it discreetly?"

Mu replied, "Based on my information, if they do not discover evidence for your act of murder, you will not be sentenced for any punishment."

"Evidence?"

"Objects, witnesses or other things that can prove your crime!"

"So, if I am careful enough, and they could not obtain any evidence, does that mean I'll be beyond the law?"

"You're right up to a certain level, but I must remind you, they have quite a few practical and brilliant methods up their sleeves. The probability of them discovering your activities cannot be ignored."

"Oh, so it's actually a matter of a battle of strength?"

"You're right up to a certain level …"

Ji Shangyan was happily humming a little tune, as he deftly maneuvered his jaw-droppingly expensive mech. "Ji Shangyan" may sounds like a feminine name, but he was undeniably male. However, his gender-neutral appearance was often mistaken for a female's. His silvery white hair framed a pair of enchanting blue eyes, and his gentle smile had bewitched a great many fair maidens.

Ji Shangyan's mech was painted mostly in alternating blues and greys, with a few important components emphasized in gold. The hull was streamlined, with a dimmed shade of blue that gave it a demure quality, and a silver hue that made the mech look sturdier. The slightly protruding chest of the mech was a sign of reinforced armor, emanating a steady and calm presence.

Ji Shangyan's mech piloting skills were applaudable, as was demonstrated by his nimble traversal amongst the buildings in Jesha.

If he succeeded in his visit to Old Xu this time, he would have rendered great service. However, it seemed that Old Xu was difficult to approach! What should he do? Ji Shangyan rubbed between his eyebrows in vexation, as he still did not have a workable plan. His eldest brother was rejected last time, and passed the task to him. No matter what, he must find a way to convince Old Xu. If one trip was not enough, he would visit again and again.

Old Xu was alone at home. Since his partner's passing, and with the lack of any children, he was now all alone. The emptiness in his house and his life did not leave him unaffected. His engagement in research had helped, but he did not expect to achieve a breakthrough in his field in later years and gain prominence. However, he was getting old and weathered nowadays!

His photon processor signalled the arrival of a guest. Through the processor's holographic images, Elder Xu saw an unfamiliar and charming young man. This was not someone he recognized, and Elder Xu grew suspicious!

Through the visitor's intercom, Elder Xu asked, "Who're you looking for?" A device right outside the main door of his house projected his image before the entrance.

Ji Shangyan observed the image and decided, based on his intel, that it must be the target of his visit, Elder Xu. Ji Shangyan replied respectfully, "You must be Professor Xu. I'm Ji Shangyan, and I've been to a few of your talks. I was wondering if I could have your advice on a few matters regarding mechs!"

"Oh," Elder Xu hesitated in thought. Visitors with academic intentions were common, but they were mostly past their forties. This was the first time Elder Xu encountered someone as young as him.

"Ji Shangyan?" Elder Xu seemed to realize something. "Your surname is Ji?"

Ji Shangyan felt his heart skipped a beat, and knew that things were turning sour, but he still braced himself and replied affirmatively. "Yes!"

"You're a member of the Ji Family?" Elder Xu's expression twisted.

Ji Shangyan cursed on the inside, and kept silent.

Elder Xu continued indifferently, "The Ji family, enough with your demands, there's no need to waste any more time on this, I will never cooperate with you. Just give up now!" Elder Xu ignored Ji Shangyan and terminated communication. His projection vanished before Ji Shangyan's eyes.

It seemed that his eldest brother had really offended Elder Xu last time. However, what troubled Ji Shangyan the most was that the older man had his loathing against his brother extended towards the entire Ji family. This made his task of convincing Elder Xu to work with the Ji family that much more difficult!

After a moment's thought, Ji Shangyan produced his comm device and spoke to the person on the receiving end, "You all better keep Old Xu under tight surveillance. I want his daily activities and whereabouts, and a list of the people he gets in touch with. And get their identities and addresses, understand? Do not slack! I want all the details, remember, all of it!" Ji Shangyan was out of ideas, and could only resort to surveillance for the moment.

After disconnecting his comm device, Ji Shangyan continued his miserable pondering - what can he do to convince Elder Xu?

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