"Captain! Look over there!" One of the crew members on S.S. Luminosity pointed at one portion of the interface as he boomed.
At one moment everyone’s sight conglomerated at that particular spot on the screen.
A cluster of flare bloomed like an enchanted lotus on fire, in the midst of darkness soundlessly.
"It’s an explosion… by a ship!"
"Yes sir!"
"Sigh, the members of that cruise are such a pity."
The crew members rumbled in the Captain’s Room.
The captain was obviously not expecting an explosion by a spaceship on a course that had been secure the whole time. He flinched at first, but he snapped out of his astonishment quickly as he shouted, "What are all of you waiting for? Go and save the ship!" The crew members’ confusion was dispelled as they hurried outside, "Look out for those pieces!" the captain added briefly.
All spaceships like Luminosity were readied with escape pods, which their outside was layered with a special kind of reinforced metal that could repel almost all sorts of rays in the space while the inside contained 30-day supply of oxygen, energy refill and water. The escape pod also had an in-built signal transmitter, which would spread SOS signals to the surrounding at all times. The escape pods were to provide an emergency exit for crew members under severe conditions. The actual function turned out to be not as great as its psychological function though, other than the sense of security exerted by this extra pathway to the outside safely, every experienced crew member is very much aware of the vastness of the space, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime miracle if one could ever be found and rescued in the escape pod within 30 days.
Despite all that, the escape pod was still the essential facility on the space ship back then. And every spaceship crew who received the SOS signal nearby would initiate the rescue process proactively.
Within twinkling of eyes, few tens of mechs zoomed out of the cabin of Luminosity. None of those few tens mechs were combat models however.
Ye Chong had already noticed these mechs much earlier before. He avoided these mechs flawlessly. Well, Han Jia was certainly not the kind of mech that could be detected by these low-end detection system by some sailor mechs.
He came to one gate at the bottom of the ship. While standing by, Shang had already hacked into the control panel of Luminosity, since it was simply hacking elementary for Shang to get into a commercial computer system in a service ship. He did not perform anything dramatic in particular, he only unlocked the gate right before Ye Chong.
And that was how Ye Chong sneaked into Luminosity, without making a sound. Under Shang's guidance, Ye Chong successfully dodged all the crew members on the ship and directly gained access to one of the resting rooms fro passengers with suave. Shang generated a new entry for Ye Chong on the passenger list in the processor of Luminosity. In a few seconds, Ye Chong had officially become the passenger on this intergalactic service craft. And Shang took a peek at their course, apparently Luminosity was not heading anywhere near Windstar. Hence, Ye Chong had to get off at a planet called Liche and took an alternate transit to Windstar.
Ye Chong found his room.
He slipped into the room instantly. Shut the door tight, he let off a sigh of relief and started taking a look around. The room was well-facilitated from both the aspects of entertainment and living. It was quite spacious too. There were even clothing for changing readily in the wardrobe. And Ye Chong picked and changed into one of them without hesitation. The fashion style in the Orbits was utterly bizarre by nature and he did not intend to be discriminated for appearing like a weirdo from some space jail or something.
The crew members returned to their mothership after they discovered no escape pod from the debris. Doubts lingered in the captain as he wondered why a spaceship would explode on its own without any forewarning. He could not find any sound reason to rationale it either. But well if there was not a single escape pod, he let go of that thought and decisively commanded to carry on their course.
It was dinner time a moment later. Although there was no concept that would define day and night in space of ever-darkness, the habit remained rooted among most of the people, where they would head out for meals during these periods.
Frankly speaking, the taste of the food on Glinton was something to be shunned away from. Since Glinton was mostly boarded with disciplined combat members in their trainings, they would only care about the calorie of the food, never the taste.
On the contrary, Luminosity, being a service flight, did cookery so much better than Glinton. Not only they served a variety of cuisines, the food generally tasted fine too, which was such a mouth-watering experience to Ye Chong who had been taking inhumane edibles in the past as he could not hold but to chomp the scrumptious food before him. Most of the passengers on-board would prefer having their meals at the restaurant, since an intergalactic travel was known to be distant and seemingly endless and helplessly people would feel alone at times, they would adore interactions with people, which justified the populated restaurant and bars. Those were the hit places for passengers.
Ye Chong occupied the entire table alone. Towards the people around, he was not as tensed as before. He at the moment had understood a lot of stuffs, for example the concept of the so-called "law" mentioned by people in the 5 major galaxies was apparently very effectively restrictive towards most of the folks. Unlike the Orbits, residents in the 5 major galaxies were more peace-loving. So it would be a rare sight to see something like a sudden raid or an offensive dispute between people.
Ye Chong had dipped himself in the delicious meals, showing no concern towards the people around.
His action caught the attention of the people in the surrounding. They had been having similar meals for past few weeks, even the best table of gourmet experience would feel like a stew in a canteen. And that was when they saw someone eating them in immense enjoyment. "So weird…," whispered the people. But then, soon the people shifted their focus back onto their own table, as they carried chatting with the others right next to them.
An aroma wafted through the breeze. Ye Chong lifted his face from the bowl of rice. To his surprise, a lady sat right opposite him.
Ye Chong was slightly alarmed, though he did not express it on his face.
And he heard a whistle from his head, "Wow, such a lass. Ye, how much donkey luck do you have? Why are you always bumping into beauties?" howled Shang.
Shang was not exaggerating. The lady before Ye Chong was in fact a beauty. Her face was round yet her features were distinctive; the pair of eyes were large and looked watery; her dark hair glossed like a veil of aurora on a winter’s night; the curves, no doubt were eye-catching and certainly a magnet to people in sight. The critical blow she delivered was none other than the unbuttoned shirt of hers. The bustiness could be felt squeezing through the gap of that two undone buttons anytime soon. You could somehow see it, but somehow you could not, which by then you would forget the fact that you had been staring at them the whole time.
As usual, Ye Chong did not feel anything particular about this lass. Shang had always been howling at almost every lady came into his sight. His "standards" were dubious but judging by the constant stares from the people around, he decided to take in that quality assured judgment of Shang.
He stared on, with one or two rice lumps stuck on his face. It was a little amusing.
Psh!
"Hahahahahahaha!" The lass could act in grace no longer as she burst out laughing seeing that face of Ye Chong. Ye Chong’s sensitive hearing had already perceived the consecutive gasps coming from his surrounding, including Shang’s, only that his expressive gasp rang in his head.
"What’s the matter?" asked Ye Chong calmly. He had tried his best toning down the coldness of his tone, yet that innate coldness of his dawdled. Ye Chong did not want to attract attention and he had experienced enough to understand that his indifference had always been the culprit. To remain low-profiled, he succumbed to act normal like the other folks he had seen before.
"Ye, your muscles, the muscles of your face, too stiff. Tsk, tsk, tsk." Shang could not resist firing his sarcasm.
The veins on Ye Chong’s forehead puffed up and were forced back under his skin. Act normal, he got to act normal. Damn you Shang! Cursed Ye Chong countless times.
The lady stayed silent however. Oh well, Ye Chong was not in a mood of staging himself either so he completely neglected her as he carried on gashing his bowl.
"Was it that good?" The beauty initiated. Her voice rang like the chirp of the nightingale… And it had just caused another round of barrel gasping from the surrounding. Ye Chong lifted his face again and the beauty looked at him gleefully. Her eyes expressed curiosity and humor.
"Oh. Yes. Not bad. You could try." His face did look stiff, which caused the way he talked appeared to be awkward.
"Ye, please. Your face is cramping soon. I can see it!" Shang fearlessly continued his live commentary in Ye Chong’s head.
"Why you Shang!" Roared Ye Chong in his head, which only led to a madder laugh from the artificial indulgence. Somehow he did feel his face twitching, especially after Shang had mentioned it, wondering if it was just his overthinking.
"Hahaha~"the lady giggled while covering her mouth. Her charm was such a natural captivation and Ye Chong could already speculate the next wave of gasps incoming. And as he expected, the gasps resounded tidily. Their breather intensified, with some sound of people crashing onto the floor this time.
"You are so interesting." The lady smiled joyfully and she reached out her slender arms, with a glow of a refined jade. She grabbed one stem of turnip and put into her mouth, "Hmm…" muffled, "Let me try."
D-Did she literally try it? Ye Chong went speechless as he watched the so-called beauty before her.
"Shang, did you not mention that lines like those were just out of courtesy and not reality? Why the heck did she really taste it?" inquired Ye Chong.
"She is a true beauty, even the way she eats was cute as hell, alluring as heaven! Sigh, Ye, save your words, it’s just a turnip. When there’s a beauty who went ahead and took the food you had bitten before, that is the moment you should be glad." The artificial indulgence was enjoying the scene.
"Glad?" snickered Ye Chong and he went quiet, eating on.
Looked at how frantically Ye Chong dined, the lady was further intrigued as she licked her fingers and giggled sweetly, "It looks really good… for some reason…" And she reached out her hands again. "Oh?" Right at that moment Ye Chong lifted his face the third time and the lady realized the entire bowl had been cleaned up. It was spotless, as if fresh from the washing machine. She flinched and exploded, "Hahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!" Bowed, she held her stomach.
The other passengers who saw the sight went dumbfounded as well. Then an outbreak of laughter occurred, "Bumpkin! What a donkey!" And Ye Chong heard it from the crowd.
Ye Chong was insensible towards these reactions. What have these to do with myself? My food are mine and it should not be invaded. It was the common characteristic among all species on Trash Planet. Don’t tell me people at this place are doing it differently? Bewildered, he inquired, "Shang did I do something wrong again?"
"Haha… Oh… Hahaha… Ahahahaha… Ye… That… That was … That was a killer move… You know, you are a real assassin… Ahahahahaha…" The mechanical voice box seemed to be broken soon from the laughter.
Killer move it would be. I had already done it. Ye Chong reacted with honesty. I don’t know her anyway, why am I sharing my own food with her?
"Kiddo! Get lost!" And that was when a fierce voice rushed in.
He turned his face over and found a few beefy guys standing at the side, staring him with a bloodthirsty look. The body was inflated with muscles and they looked threatening. There was even a guy with a large cut on the face, which made him more menacing than ever. Their eyes were filled with blatant hostility, while the so-called beauty was… acting… very… uhh… Ye Chong ran out of words suddenly. Technically, the guys came for the beauty.
The other passengers scurried out of the restaurant as they noticed the stern change of atmosphere. Only some daring ones remained to watch the show.
"Are you talking to me?" Indifferently Ye Chong said, as inside he was impressed of how calm the beauty remained despite the existence of the few hulks before her.
"Of course we are talking to you! Do you f*cking want to die so hard? Playing the dumb out of me? F*cking hell!" The leader of the hulks was enraged. Ye Chong’s words failed clearly as he went on grabbing Ye Chong’s collars.
The beauty who witnessed all these shrieked!
Ye Chong lowered his head and tilted his body slightly. The grab was missed. The remaining people did not notice that chilliness hidden under the lids of his eyes.
"So you are somebody who knew something eh?" The leader of the hulk was surprised while his grunts reacted alarmingly as they circled around Ye Chong.
"That would be your last meal, Mr."
"You think you're tough eh?"
Right when they were going to launch a full whirlwind combo at Ye Chong, "Nobody moves!" A chain of stampeding came behind them with a bold voice boomed.
The beauty was much relaxed upon seeing this. The security had finally arrived. The chaos ended here!