by <unknown>
“How much do you want to pay?”
“1,500.”
Why don’t you go rob a store instead‽ Han Xiao smelled something… It smelled like someone who was one of his own. His eyes immediately focused, and he said slowly, “3,000.”
“1800.”
“At least 2,900.”
“2,000.”
The two went back and forth for quite a while. Lerden barely budged when it came to money, and he was not willing to let go of even the tiniest profit. Although he looked like a cold person, he was now arguing until his face was red for the sake of a few hundred Enas.
After arguing the good half of the day way, the two finally agreed on a price. Lerden will be paying 2,501 Enas in exchange for Serpent Braid. Han Xiao considered it his victory for the single extra Enas.
After making the deal, Han Xiao felt like he had gotten somewhat closer to Lerden. His eyes flashed and asked, “Do you know the reason behind this raid?”
Lerden shook his head and said in return, “But it seems like you do.”
Han Xiao smiled faintly while staring at Lerden’s face as he explained, “This group of scavengers were paid to act on the behalf of DarkStar. They were ordered to capture that Godoran over there. How unlucky, right?”
When Lerden heard ‘DarkStar’, his pupils immediately contracted, and his eyes gave of a glint of pain and hatred, as if he suddenly remembered a painful memory from the past.
“Oh. I see.” Lerden finally took a deep breath and calmed down. He then bade farewell and left with an emotionless expression.
Han Xiao chuckled and pointed at Lerden’s armor. “I’m a mechanic. If you don’t mind, I can do some repairs for you.”
Lerden stopped in his tracks and asked, “For free?”
“Hehe, we’re not that close yet, but I only need a little fee for it. I will fix your gear for 5 Enas.”
“Then it’s fine… Glad to meet you. Bye.”
He turned and left without another word.
Han Xiao felt helpless and clicked his tongue. “Won’t even spend 5 Enas? How stingy.”
Kerlodd strolled over to his side and let out a sigh while shaking his head. “Sigh. He’s one of the Sunils, right? His ‘greed’ is understandable.”
“I know.” Han Xiao nodded and made some calculations in his mind.
He had initiated a conversation with Lerden on purpose. Aside from turning over Serpent Braid, he had also wanted to introduce himself to Lerden. He was able to come up with a new plan from their conversation.
The Sunil tribe was a tribe that lived in the Garton Galaxy. They had a pretty awesome storyline. Although it should only have been available in a later version, Han Xiao was able to confirm that the storyline was already in effect from his previous conversation with Lerden.
He remembered that the Sunil Storyline would offer the opportunity to earn a very rare subclass. Han Xiao was currently stuck because of the Class change requirement and was in need of a new subclass.
Moreover, this storyline had a pretty important main character. Han Xiao was very interested in important main characters, and this particular main character was quite crucial to the next steps of his plans.
The reason to venture off into the stars was basically to get stronger. That, coupled with the important main character, made Han Xiao believe that the storyline would be very beneficial to his growth. Moreover, the Sunils had quite the backstory to them.
They were a small civilization in the Garton Galaxy. Although they started out as a rather peaceful people who lived fulfilling lives, one day, DarkStar commenced an invasion on a massive scale that decimated their home planets. The survivors of the Sunil civilization migrated until they eventually received the Godoran’s protection. They were given a piece of land on some random backwater planet and were allowed to live.
But, just barely.
Their civilization had suffered enormously from the war and the migration, and it was on the brink of collapse. This was why Lerden was furious at the mere mention of DarkStar.
The hate that Sunils had toward DarkStar was one that arose from the near-extinction of their entire race
Chapter 329. The Juberly Hub! |
After the scavenger attack, Short Horn Star headed straight for the Juberly Hub without making any stops.
After several days, a massive fortress that floated in space appeared outside the windows of their ship. The Juberly Hub looked like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, with its futuristic steel structures standing out in the backdrop of countless distant stars. It looked both intimidating and mysterious at the same time.
Spaceships came and went through its docks in an unceasing manner, and their massive engines left behind lines of multi-colored light in space. Thousands of these lines surrounded the space station, and even though there was no sound in space, it was as if a magnificent firework show was being held.
Such was the beauty of civilization.
After turning on their communications channel, they started receiving signals from countless sources. Each space ship was in the process of gaining entry to the hub, and voices of all languages and accents mixed with the robotic voices formed a unique cacophony of sounds.
The bustling hub was in sharp contrast to the stillness of space.
Short Horn Star started to slow down its speed as it approached the Juberly Hub.
The space station grew larger and larger in their ship's windows before it soon took up the entirety of their view. It was then that the people on-board finally realized the scale of this gigantic space fortress. Short Horn Star, which was only comparable to a small city in size, was like a tiny pea next to a watermelon when put next to the Juberly Hub.
The players, who had never seen this before, had looks of awe on their faces. They were shocked to the core. One would truly feel insignificant when in front of a space station such as that.
"So… so big!"
"It's basically a small planet."
"So, this is Galaxy."
The players could not hold their excitement back, and soon, they even fell in love with the sight in front of them.
The shimmering stars in space would remain to be a wonder for all who looked up at their skies. The players were no different. Bun-hit-dog made sure to record everything, and he hated that he could not use more cameras to capture this moment.
Han Xiao, on the other hand, remained calm as he stroked his chin. The glint in his eyes suggested that he was in deep thought.
Entering the Juberly Hub was the first step in their journey in space. The Juberly Hub was a middle point—a massive hub where countless forces interacted with each other on a daily basis. Information from all over the Colton Star Cluster passed through the hub. It could basically be treated as a 'main city', as it offered many features such as rooms for rent.
To Han Xiao, the Juberly Hub would be an important place for the first part of his plan. Most of his future activities would start out from the hub. If he was to map out his future movements in the Colton Star Cluster, it would look like a spider web with the Juberly Hub at the center.
Han Xiao believed that the most important objective right now was to make a breakthrough in his strength. LV 70 meant nothing in space. He already had an astronomical amount of experience, 27 million. So, all he had to do was find a way to turn all that experience into actual combat strength. In other words, he needed to complete his class change requirements, find a subclass, and look for advanced knowledge.
Juberly Hub was a great place for trading advanced knowledge. The Enas that he had earned earlier would be put to great use soon. Han Xiao currently already possess two pieces of advanced knowledge, and he needed a total of five to class change. Based on his memory, however, the Enas that he had was not enough. Advanced knowledge was always expensive to acquire.
Yet, compared to Planet Aquamarine, the process of acquiring advanced knowledge was ten times easier. As long as he had enough money, he would not even have to worry about
getting into a good relationship with the buyers.
Earning money was an important objective.
Just then, the captain's voice sounded over the ship's broadcast system.
"We're about to enter and dock in port 273. All passengers, please head to the waiting area near the ship's bridge to wait for landing. Allow me to once again express my gratitude for choosing our travel company as well as my deepest apologies for the earlier incident. Thank you for your cooperation on-board."
Short Horn Star entered a large docking area, and the bottom of the ship locked on to the docking rails. After the ship was secured, the port's metallic gates opened, and the ship was led in on the rails before the gates closed again.
The passengers on spaceship then headed toward the bridge to wait to disembark while carrying their luggage. The players were all carrying Han Xiao's material boxes. The large packs of materials and equipment looked rather suspicious and easily grabbed the attention of the surrounding onlookers. However, the passengers all knew that Han Xiao was the one who had protected the ship from the scavengers, and they looked at Han Xiao's group with kindness in their eyes… Not that Han Xiao and the players understood what a kind expression would look like when it was on the face on another species. To the players, these warm looks were as good as threatening glares, and they were in a constant state of worry for their own lives.
"I'm finally free!" Kerlodd was emotional as he stretched out his arms, as if trying to embrace the sky.
"Calm down. It's not like I treated you badly. I didn't torture you." Han Xiao gave him a sidelong glance before saying, "You even earned 1,500 Enas because of me. I feel like you should be thanking me instead."
"I would… if you would just return my equipment to me."
"Wow, why is it so noisy here? Sorry, what did you say?"
Kerlodd felt helpless about this. He knew Han Xiao well enough that probably only if God Gal himself showed up would Han Xiao be willing to give back what he had taken. He shook his head and got serious.
"I need to go back to work, and I need to submit a report. I won't go back on our promise, and I will make sure to not trouble you with my report. Even if you don't trust my words, you should be aware that due to the dangerous nature of the Observers' job, what you did wasn't nearly enough to warrant a bounty on your head. You can rest assured that no one will trouble you due to this."
"Sounds good." Han Xiao chuckled as he silently put away his gun.
"I will count it as my bad luck for meeting you," Kerlodd said dejectedly.
"I'm pretty happy though," Han Xiao replied happily.
The spaceship shook once before it finally came to a stop. The exit slowly opened up, revealing a white platform in front of them. The dock was as massive as a city square, and there were bright lights all over the place. The ceilings must have been at least a few hundred meters high to be able to fit the entire Short Horn Star inside. At the end of the platform was the entrance into the space station.
When Han Xiao brought the players off the ship, he was able to catch a glimpse of Lerden, who hurriedly dragged along his bounty and was walking at the front of the group.
After the attack, Han Xiao did not get another opportunity to converse with Lerden, and their relationship did not progress any further, but that was fine for Han Xiao.
We should be able to meet again as long as I interact with the Sunil Storyline.
After walking through a long, winding passageway, they finally arrived inside the Juberly Hub, and the space around them suddenly opened up. They were currently at the Hub Center of the space station. However, although it was called a center, the place was more like a city and measured several dozens of kilometers in length.
At the edge of the Hub Center was a gigantic, arched French window through which they could see the vastness of space that was just outside. The group had walked into through an entrance near the French window.
The Hub Center's ceiling was also extremely tall, and the top was over a thousand meters away from where they stood. At the very middle was a white tower that was built right through the ceiling. Countless buildings surrounded this tower, forming rings upon rings of structures. The buildings were all built with drastically different designs, and each building took up a large amount of space. Each floor was a huge platform on its own, built with all kinds of facilities and areas. There were also bridges that connected these tall buildings with one another. The dizzying number of bridges and walkways between the buildings formed a maze-like megastructure, while many public air transport vehicles darted through the open spaces.
The ground was also dotted with a variety of massive infrastructures such as gyms, theaters, and public parks. This was a place where countless different species interacted with each other. Transport could be seen flying around the air at all times. The players almost felt like this was all too much for their eyes to take in. It was like they had entered an unimaginable world, and everything that had only been a figment of their imagination in the past had become reality.
Basically, they were speechless and really excited.
The Hub Center offers many features.
Han Xiao's memories all started to come back to him.
It can be divided into approximately ten or so areas, and there are all kinds of restaurants, equipment shops, and entertainment centers such as bars and race tracks of all kinds of species.
There are also training grounds designed for Supers, which offer gravity training rooms, combat simulators, meditation rooms, mechanical workshops, as well as offices that offer jobs and employment for Supers.
There are powerful entities such as the Mercenary Alliance and the Mage's Organization; there are also financial groups and other forces that are interested in hiring Supers. There's also the trading center, which allows one to trade with people from all over the cluster, and there are also shipyards that specialized in building and repairing spaceships…
Essentially, this place would be able to meet all his needs for a while.
Juberly Hub would be a long-term base for his plans in the future.
Chapter 330. Happiness of the Poor |
"Can I go now?" Kerlodd asked.
Naturally, there was no need for Han Xiao to break the promised of allowing Kerlodd to leave after reaching Juberly Hub. Han Xiao suddenly had an idea. Kerlodd was an investigator that had landed on Planet Aquamarine, and maybe Han Xiao could hint about the Mutation Disaster since he was a citizen from Planet Aquamarine.
"There's something I need to tell you; I hope you can put it down in the report."
"Before you say anything, I respect my work as an investigator, so don't bother telling me to write fake news," Kerlodd said with a confused expression.
If you respect your work, then pigs can also fly!
After Han Xiao went speechless for a second, he continued speaking with a serious tone. "Planet Aquamarine is now covered in a mist of shadow. I believe that there will be a disaster that could wipe out the entire planet. I hope that you can emphasize this point on your report, and if the department has plans to investigate Planet Aquamarine again, I suggest that they look for clues about the disaster."
Kerlodd did not really pay much attention, but he said, "I'll put it in the report."
Han Xiao was not sure whether the Mutation Disaster had begun. It would not be a disaster that could shake the entire version if the cause was easy to find. The probability that the Godoran Investigation Department would listen to his suggestion was ridiculously slim, but Han Xiao's purpose was not actually to get Godora to find some clues. This action was to prevent problems in the future.
If Mutation Disaster did happen on Planet Aquamarine, then Godora would remember this report, and he could build up a proper relationship with Godora. Kerlodd would be a middleman facilitating the communication.
"Okay, that's it. You can go now. Hope we'll meet again." Han Xiao then suddenly said, "Remember to take your first step with your left foot."
"Hu
h?"
Kerlodd was extremely confused. He waved as he said goodbye. After some thought, he stepped out with his right leg and disappeared into the distance.
"Hehe, he's so obedient," Han Xiao muttered with a smile.
After the farewell against Kerlodd, Han Xiao needed to deal with proper business.
Juberly Hub had a lot of opportunities, and Han Xiao still remembered the majority of them. However, the most urgent matter was to rent a resting space and store the supply boxes. He would have to stay in Juberly Hub for a considerable amount of time, so he had to get a room so that the players would know where to meet up. Moreover, the resting room could be set as a save point for players to go on and offline.
The registration office for the resting room was in the central white tower. Han Xiao and the others hopped on a small public flying device and reached the destination.
The flying device was used to replace walking. It was easy to use, and the design was similar to a small UFO. There were four holes on the bottom that were an anti-gravitational device, which was releasing a dark-blue light. Han Xiao was used to this, but this was a new and exciting experience for the players, as if they were babies exploring the outside world.
The third level of the tall tower was the registration office. A lot of people were lining up, and Han Xiao was one of them. He slowly inched forward with the line.
After half an hour, Han Xiao saw a group of people cut through the line and stand in the VIP channel. The staff of the hub appeared and respectfully welcomed the group.
The group was wearing pure-white battle mechanical suits that looked like normal plated armor. On each of their chests was an upside-down triangle with different colors. Three thin pipes were extended from the three angles of the triangle. Two of them went across each shoulder, and the other pipe covered the crouch. The three lines then intersect at the back of the suit, the position of intersection point was directly behind the triangle.
"Why don't they have to line up?" Maple Moon asked curiously.