Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
After Sarah left, Allen stood up and walked around the yard. The observers had changed positions long ago and were now hiding at the intersection with bottles in hands, chatting while drowning themselves in alcohol. Clearly, they were not paying attention at all.
Allen went back inside his house and carefully locked the door. He sat down at the table again and whispered, “Xia Fei, what do you think of Sarah?”
Xia Fei was shocked as this came out of nowhere; Allen was clearly hinting at something else.
“Oh, Sarah’s not bad; why are you asking?” Xia Fei gave a vague reply.
Allen downed a glass of alcohol with a bitter look on his face.
“Sarah’s about to marry,” said Allen helplessly as he set down the glass.
“Congratulations.”
“Congratulations?” Allen was dumbfounded before smiling bitterly. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew whom she’s marrying.”
“As long as Sarah’s happy. What’s wrong with that? You don’t wanna see her leave?” asked Xia Fei half-jokingly.
Allen became really silent, his eyes on the golden liquid in his glass. A few minutes later, he finally blurted out, “Do you think Sarah can be happy to marry Ning Baichen?”
Xia Fei was at a loss for words. He pulled out a half box of Hongtashan and lit a stick. He was unsure exactly how old Ning Baichen was, but by the looks of it, he could not be younger than seventy. Sarah, on the other hand, was only seventeen this year, the peak of a young maiden’s life.
Everybody only got one chance at being young. Other kids her age would still be leading a carefree life, singing songs, falling in love, and so on. Sarah, on the other hand, had to start working at a young age to make a living, and now, she had to marry someone old enough to be her grandfather.
“Does Sarah know?” Xia Fei asked.
“With her personality, she’ll surely cause a scene if she learns of this, but how can we go against the will of the Ning clan? We can’t afford to disobey them. If they haven’t been in so much unrest these days, I’m afraid that wedding gifts will have arrived already.”
“Now that Ning Baichen has resolved to get rid of Scar, once the Owl pirates are destroyed…” Allen choked up halfway through his sentence. He lowered his head, sipping his alcohol with red eyes.
Xia Fei knitted his eyebrows and felt his chest tightened. Sarah and Allen only relied on their crappy, industrial ship, delivering goods for others to get by. Their lives were already difficult as it was, and somehow, they got even more problems on their plate now.
“Since you’ve decided to talk to me about it, I guess you’ve already made up your mind. What’s your plan?” asked Xia Fei.
Allen started at Xia Fei and answered in a deep voice, “You should be leaving soon. If you’re willing to take us with you, I’ll tell you everything we know.”
Xia Fei did not want to stay in the Wild Star Region longer than necessary. That insectoid ship was no doubt caught, but Xia Fei was unsure if Xiaoyu was on the ship, so he hoped to return to the Alliance soon.
“You’ve been hiding at home all day doing this?” Xia Fei asked, smiling.
Allen did not say anything as he brought out an old AI computer from his room. “I’ll send you everything I’ve gathered; perhaps it’ll be of use to you.”
It was currently night; Xia Fei was lying on the sofa, struggling to sleep. He turned on his microcomputer and looked through the information provided by Allen again and again.
Allen had done a lot of work regarding Sarah’s escape plan. There was a lot of the required information collected, making it way easier for Xia Fei to formulate his combat strategy.
Xia Fei looked through the star map again and again and compared it to Allen’s information. He now had a better understanding of this dog-eat-dog operation.
There were six different bases in a two hundred thousand lightyear radius: Red Rock, White Rock, Green Rock, Blue Rock, Black Rock, and Yellow Rock. There were also four pirate sanctuaries: Owl, Night Flower, Green Fox, and Broken Blade.
Ning Baichen’s plan to get rid of Owl involved the heads of the five nearby bases, as well as the pirates Night Flower and Green Fox, excluding the strongest Broken Blade pirates. According to the information Allen provided, the Ning clan had always had a good relationship with Broken Blade up until last year, where they fought over a batch of crystal ores.
Ning Baichen had always put emphasis on maintaining good relationships, but getting into arguments with the two strongest pirate groups in the area did not fit his personality.
“It’s quite a complex situation,” Xia Fei muttered.
Phantom laughed. “Don’t think much of it. Perhaps you’re overcomplicating the situation, and the actual battlefield will be completely different from what you’re led to believe?”
“Possibly,” he replied bluntly, “but we still have to prepare for the variety of possibilities. I hope that the battlefield will be as messy as possible. It’ll be better for us when it’s messy.”
After lighting a cigarette, Xia Fei continued to analyze the intel from Allen, committing every important person to memory.
Early the next day, Xia Fei went to the hangar with Sarah. Parking the Anathemclass frigate and Lunar Eclipse side by side. He was going to modify both ships.
The observers were still behind Xia Fei, keeping an eye on him, but he did not care. He was a useful pawn in this dog-eat-dog plan, and Ning Baichen would not do anything to him now.
“Don’t you have work?” Xia Fei asked as he dumped all the parts from the spatial ring onto the ground.
“The base has been placed on lockdown. Nobody can come in and go out,” replied Sarah, touching Xia Fei’s new frigate. “This ship seems quite sturdy; where did you get this from?”
Sarah did not know much about spacecraft; in her eyes, a strong and sturdy ship marked a good one.
Xia Fei had already expected the base to be put on lockdown, so all he could do now was wait and prepare for the next big commotion.
“Oh, right; I’ve lost Andy’s ship. Could you ask him how much I must pay to compensate for it later? I’ll pay however much he asks for. Also, could you help me borrow a few tools? Pay anything he asks for, too.”
After saying that, Xia Fei tossed a bag filled with money to Sarah, so she could complete the things he asked her in his place. He decided to stay behind, preparing himself to start the work ahead. There were quite a few things that needed to be done on the ship. Since the dog-eat-dog operation was happening the day after tomorrow, Xia Fei had to complete all the work at hand before then.
Sarah took a look inside the bag. “I don’t need this much; I won’t let him go easy if he asks too many questions about that crappy ship.”
Xia Fei smiled. “Andy’s here to help us, so don’t take out the money he deserves. I’ve seen his quoted price; they’re all reasonable.”
“That won’t do,” said Sarah. “I know you have the money, but you should try and save some. Making money is harder than spending it, after all.”
Growing up in an environment like this, Sarah had naturally developed a frugal lifestyle. It did not feel right when Xia Fei looked at his pair of leather boots in awful condition.
Two hours later, Sarah returned to the hangar in a hover truck filled with parts and tools Xia Fei asked for.
Xia Fei passed Sarah a bottle of cola. “You must be tired. Have a drink and grab some rest; I’ll deal with the rest of the maintenance.”
Sarah grabbed the drink with a big smile on her face. Carefully opening the bottle, she took tiny sips all the while looking like a happy, little girl. She might look wild on the outside, but she was not much different from an average girl on the inside. It was not her fault that she had a personality like this; it was a result of the environment she grew up in.
“This is tasty. It’d be great if I could drink this every day,” muttered Sarah under her voice.
“You sure have simple wishes,” said Xia Fei while laughing. “Tomorrow will be better than today.”
Opening the carriage, Xia Fei lifted a high-density welding machine, which weighed several hundred kilograms, off the truck without much effort.
“You may not look like it, but you sure are strong. It took four people to load that machine into the truck,” Sarah said with glistening eyes.
Xia Fei was a speed ability user. Although speed and strength were two different abilities, both were closely connected, requiring the user to push the limits of their body.
It was just like a professional sprinter; although they would not be as strong as a professional lifter, they would not be weak by any means.
Xia Fei was close to Star Domain rank; it was natural for his strength to grow at the same rate. Several hundred kilograms were not heavy to him.
Though Lunar Eclipse and Anathema were both frigates of the highest tier, and Xia Fei liked both, he had to make a choice.
In the worst-case scenario, he might have to get rid of one of these two ships. Xia Fei needed to pick one main ship and another as a reserve.
Obviously, the Anathemclass frigate, which was fitted with an energy-draining device, was more practical than Lunar Eclipse. Moreover, the former was a brand-new ship, meaning that it was better than the latter in many aspects. Lunar Eclipse had sustained quite the damage in its armor and machinery, as well as in its electronic components, so it was impossible to return the warship to one hundred percent in three days.
Xia Fei took out Lunar Eclipse’s Black Mamba 130 engine and installed it on the other, then he put the Anathemclass frigate’s normal engine onto Lunar Eclipse. He took out the second-hand warship’s warp disruptor as well as its traction control module and installed them into the Anathemclass frigate.
Xia Fei stayed in the hangar for three consecutive days straight, doing work like this. Even his meals were delivered by Sarah.
At dawn of the third day, an Anathemclass special ops frigate, armed to the teeth, was in front of Xia Fei.
Because of time constraints, Xia Fei had made many temporary fixtures. Its insides were extremely messy with barely a spot to lay his feet.
The crew cabins were occupied by the warp stabilizer and the ship’s mess was taken up by the cl5 energy shield generator. The people on the ship must navigate through a maze of wires and parts just to get from one place to another.
“What do you plan to name your ship?” Phantom asked Xia Fei as he admired the frigate, which had undergone so many modifications that it no longer resembled its former self.
“Vampire,” replied Xia Fei, smiling as he wiped his sweat.
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