Chapter 113: Am I Some Kind of Jinx?
Outside the porthole behind Mu Mu was a boundless expanse of ink-blue darkness, so deep it was nearly black. Countless celestial bodies, large and small, gathered there, forming a dazzling, resplendent river of stars.
No, calling it a river wasn’t quite right; the sheer volume of stars made it more like a sea.
A silver sea of stars flowed slowly—brilliant, majestic, and breathtakingly beautiful. It drew countless souls to explore its depths.
Yet, behind this awe-inspiring ocean of stars lay hidden dangers, both natural and man-made. There were spatial rifts leading to unknown destinations, black holes that swallowed everything, and fierce, cruel space pirates.
And now, added to that list was a group of Zerg soldiers, armed with firepower even greater than that of the pirates.
So Yan Gui Xing couldn’t answer Mu Mu’s question, because he didn’t know which of these dangers the spaceship had encountered.
Just then, the gentle voice of the chief purser rang out over the ship’s intercom.
“Dear passengers, hello. This is your chief purser speaking. The spaceship is currently encountering a small cluster of rogue asteroids, which may cause some slight turbulence. Please do not panic. Remain in your seats, fasten your seatbelts, and wait for the spaceship to stabilize before moving about. Thank you for your cooperation.”
A gentle, soothing voice was probably the first requirement for becoming a chief purser.
Sure enough, Mu Mu, who had been panicked just moments before, quieted down and obediently fastened his seatbelt as instructed.
“Oh, so we hit some rogue asteroids,” he said.
Yan Gui Xing gave a noncommittal “Mmh” in response. But the worry in his expression didn’t fade in the slightest. Instead, his brow furrowed even tighter at the purser’s announcement.
Really? A small cluster of rogue asteroids?
If it really was just rogue asteroids, as the broadcast claimed, that would be the best-case scenario.
For safety during travel, every civilian spaceship was equipped with shields and a small number of laser weapons.
Simple rogue asteroids wouldn’t be able to shatter the shields at all unless they encountered one the size of a star or a massive swarm of them.
So, would a spaceship shake this violently from hitting a small cluster of asteroids? Yan Gui Xing lowered his eyes, his piercing green gaze fixed on the water cup rolling on the floor. In his heart, he shouted a single word: Impossible!
The purser was lying! The spaceship hadn’t encountered rogue asteroids at all!
Yan Gui Xing took a deep breath and stood up abruptly. He strode to the back, grabbed his and Mu Mu’s coats, and returned to the seats.
He shoved Mu Mu’s coat into his arms and urged, “Mu Mu, put this on quickly. Once you’re dressed, come with me.”
“Go with you?” Mu Mu held the coat, looking bewildered at Yan Gui Xing, who was putting on his own coat. “Where are we going? But the purser said there would be more turbulence and we need to fasten our seatbelts to be safe.”
Having put on his coat, Yan Gui Xing knew that if he didn’t explain things clearly, Mu Mu wouldn’t understand what was happening.
He didn’t know exactly what situation they were in, but he couldn’t let Mu Mu face danger in ignorance.
A few minutes wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Yan Gui Xing sat on the edge of the seat, facing Mu Mu. As concisely as possible, he explained the message Achi had sent, the news from military headquarters, and the situation they were likely facing.
Meanwhile, inside the captain’s quarters, the chief purser turned off the broadcast and looked at the captain with concern. “Captain, is it really okay for me to say that? The passengers have a right to know.”
The captain was a middle-aged man with graying hair and fine lines at the corners of his eyes, suggesting he was usually a smiling, good-tempered man.
But now his face was pale as a sheet, covered in a fine layer of cold sweat. His eyes were wide and round, staring helplessly ahead.
Hearing the purser’s words, he turned his head slowly like an old, rusty machine to look at her. He swallowed hard with a loud gulp before speaking. “What else should we say? Tell them the truth? Tell them the shaking just now was because we’re under attack by an unidentified force and the shields are already down by 10%?”
He paused, pointed at the door, and lowered his voice. “Do you believe me? If you say that, everyone on this ship will storm the captain’s quarters demanding an explanation. They might even attack us. Who’s going to control the situation then? You? Or me?”
The captain’s voice was dry and hoarse from fear, cracking on the last sentence. The purser’s already pale face turned even whiter at his words, her blush no longer able to hide her fear.
She clasped her hands tightly together, staring at the “90%” displayed under the shield status area on the large screen, her heart in her throat.
“So what do we do now? Who is attacking us? Space pirates?”
Hearing the word “space pirates,” the captain seemed dazed for a moment. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and muttered, “I don’t know. Didn’t you hear what the leaders said in the meeting? There’s a small group of Zerg fleeing between star sectors, and we need to be careful.”
“Zerg?!” The purser’s voice shot up, losing its gentleness and becoming sharp and piercing. “Captain, are you saying we’ve encountered the Zerg? That’s even worse than space pirates!”
“What kind of nonsense is that?!” the captain scolded sharply. “Have you been living in peace for too long? How are space pirates any better than the Zerg?!”
As a civilian spaceship captain traversing various star sectors, encountering space pirates was inevitable.
If you were lucky, you’d just witness them robbing other merchant ships or private vessels. If you were unlucky, you’d be the one getting robbed.
Space pirates knew that most passengers on civilian spaceships were ordinary people, and robbing them wouldn’t even cover the cost of the weapons used. Large pirate groups wouldn’t even bother with them.
Small pirate groups might rob civilian ships, but they weren’t as brutal as the larger ones. They only robbed and injured; they didn’t kill.
In the minds of captains, the more frequently encountered space pirates were far more terrifying than the Zerg.
The purser was still young and had been lucky enough in her ten years of service never to encounter space pirates, only hearing rumors about them.
Seeing the captain’s face change drastically, she realized she had misspoken. She quickly apologized and asked again, “So what do we do now?”
The captain, already panicked by the two laser blasts from nowhere, scanned the large screen frantically, his eyes finally landing on the star map.
Just as he was about to speak, the doorbell rang in the captain’s quarters. The two already panicked people jumped like cats whose tails had been stepped on, screaming in fright.
“What was that?” The purser clutched her hands to her chest, her eyes wide with terror as she looked around, her teeth chattering lightly.
The captain, slightly calmer than the purser, scanned the area near the door and whispered, “Someone rang the doorbell. Go check it out.”
Only then did the purser realize the sound was the doorbell. The door to the captain’s quarters was made of a special material about ten centimeters thick; knocking couldn’t be heard from the inside, only the doorbell worked.
Only the captain, vice-captain, and chief purser were allowed in the captain’s quarters.
Usually, a civilian spaceship would have around ten crew members, but due to the busy post-war transport schedule and increased flights, the crew complement had been streamlined.
The purser walked to the door, took a deep breath to compose herself, and then opened it and stepped out.
Seeing Yan Gui Xing and Mu Mu outside, she assumed they needed something. She closed the door behind her and smiled. “Is there something you need?”
Yan Gui Xing saw through the cracks in the purser’s smiling mask instantly. His heart skipped a beat, confirming that the “rogue asteroid cluster” story was indeed a lie! The shaking had definitely been an attack.
He cursed himself inwardly for being a jinx; whatever bad thing he thought of seemed to happen.
“I am Yan Gui Xing,” Yan Gui Xing announced himself directly, his voice cold and hard. “This is my partner, Mu Mu. I demand to enter the captain’s quarters to see the captain.”
Hearing the sinister man in front of her claim to be Yan Gui Xing, the purser’s first reaction was that he was crazy. How dare he impersonate the Imperial Hero, Admiral Yan?!
Taking Yan Gui Xing and Mu Mu for con artists, her opinion of them plummeted. Her expression and voice turned cold.
“I’m sorry, passengers are not allowed in the captain’s quarters. Please return to your seats. Furthermore, impersonating an Imperial Admiral and his partner is a crime. Please do not make such jokes.”
Mu Mu, who now fully understood the situation, saw that the purser didn’t believe them and panicked. “We’re not impersonating anyone! We really are Yan Gui Xing and Mu Mu! We have an urgent matter to discuss with the captain. Please let us in, Miss Purser.”
Seeing Mu Mu’s persistence, the purser frowned and said sternly, “Sir, if you continue this behavior, I will have to call the police.”
“We’re really not lying!” Mu Mu protested.
Yan Gui Xing sighed. He patted his anxious little lover, hooked the thin silver chain around Mu Mu’s neck with his finger, and pulled out his pocket-watch-style terminal and dog tag.
He pulled up his identity information on the terminal, held it up by the edges for the purser to see, but addressed Mu Mu.
“You little fool, my terminal is hanging right around your neck. Why waste so many words when you could have just shown her my information?”
Mu Mu let out a dazed “Ah.” He had never had to prove his identity like this before, and in his panic, he had forgotten that he and Yan Gui Xing had swapped terminals.
The purser stared at the information on the screen, comparing the handsome man in the admiral’s uniform with the emaciated, sinister man before her.
Finally, she confirmed that the man in front of her was indeed the missing Admiral Yan from the news! No wonder he looked familiar; she had been seeing him on the news every day for a while now!
“Admiral Yan, so you’re not dead!” the purser blurted out.
As soon as the words left her mouth, she wanted to slap herself. What kind of thing was that to say? The man was standing right there, alive; of course he wasn’t dead.
And Yan Gui Xing, with his sharp tongue, wasn’t about to let it slide. His pale lips, less red than usual due to blood loss, curled into a cruel sneer as he spat venom.
“What? Are you disappointed that I’m not dead?”
The purser’s face flushed red and then white. She quickly forced a smile. “Of course not. We all hoped Admiral Yan would return safely.”
Yan Gui Xing looked past her at the closed door. “If you don’t open that door and let me see the captain right now, I might very well be dead—completely dead—just as you wish in the very near future.”
The purser wasn’t stupid. Yan Gui Xing hadn’t revealed his identity when boarding but chose to do so after the ship was attacked by an unidentified object. This meant the situation was grim.
She didn’t dare delay any longer and hurriedly opened the door, inviting Yan Gui Xing and Mu Mu inside.
Once inside, she quickly introduced the two to the puzzled captain.
When the captain realized the tall, thin, sinister man was the long-missing Yan Gui Xing, he looked at him as if he were a savior, his eyes reddening with emotion.
Yan Gui Xing had no time for sentimental scenes. He settled Mu Mu in the vice-captain’s chair, told him to sit still, and then walked to the large screen. Looking at the damaged shield, he raised an eyebrow.
“Two attacks took out 10% of the shield. That rules out a spaceship. It must be a starship or a mecha.”
Hearing that they were under attack by a starship or mecha, the captain nearly cried.
His ship was just a broken-down civilian vessel; how could it fight against a starship or mecha? “Admiral Yan, have we encountered space pirates?”
Yan Gui Xing pulled up images of the ship’s surroundings. Different angles filled half the screen, while the other half showed the star map and their flight path.
While contacting Achi on the Fourth Legion’s main ship via the spaceship’s channel, he answered the captain’s question.
“It’s possible there are space pirates hiding in this sector. They might be casting a wide net—if they can break a ship’s shield, they rob it; if not, they move on to another target.”
“What do we do then?” the captain asked urgently.
Yan Gui Xing stared sharply at the images on the screen, trying to find the starship hiding in the sea of stars. “These kinds of pirates usually operate only within a specific sector. Full speed ahead to the jump point. Once we reach the next sector, we’ll be safe.”
The captain patted his chest, relieved. “Admiral, should we accelerate now?”
“Accelerate steadily,” Admiral Yan said. “Don’t let them realize we know what’s happening.”
The captain hurriedly agreed, tapping rapidly on the control panel. But Yan Gui Xing’s next words made his heart, which had just settled, jump back into his throat.
“Of course, that was the best-case scenario.” Yan Gui Xing’s green eyes fixed on an image slightly to the right of the center of the screen. He brought up that feed, zooming in again and again until the celestial bodies became blurry white blobs.
He stared at a blurry patch of dark red within the image, biting down hard on the soft flesh inside his lip until he tasted blood. He tilted his head and let out a cold laugh.
“Looks like my luck really is terrible. We’ve encountered the worst-case scenario.”
[Author’s Note]: Yan So-and-so, Luck Rank E.
