Chapter 368: Scrimmage
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
A bronze bullet was thrown in the air casually, and a fixed star bolted pass the floating island at this moment. A flash of light passed across the buildings on the street and shone on the spinning metal bullet, reflecting the light onto Han Xiao’s handsome face just centimeters away like an arc mirror. The bullet spun a few rounds and reached the peak point, then fell slowly. At this moment, a droplet of bright red blood splashed this way, like a shot from a precise sniper; it hit the dropping bullet.
Pa!
With fingers closed, the bullet was caught. Han Xiao opened his hand, and the bullet was lying there quietly in the middle of the black mechanical suit glove, painting a warm tint of red onto the cold metal.
Not far away, an arms fight was underway between two groups of brutes that looked like galactic pirates. The sound of growls, ferocious laughs, and firing mixed together into a deafening noise. The brutes who fell onto the ground and died found their peace, and blood splashed across the entire street like leaves rolled up by the wind. At the side of the street, a group of Floating Dragon Island residents were watching the show stealthily. Han Xiao and a few players sat on the scaffolding of a drilling machine by the side of the road and watched this fight from afar.
“Tsk tsk, another fight. How many times has this happened in the past two days?” Han Xiao shook his head. He was covered in the mechanical suit at this time, but his helmet was folded, exposing his head. The players beside him were wrapped completely in Sunil Enlistee Class armor.
“This is the seventh time,” Bun-Hit-Dog replied instantly. Reporters sure had a good memory.
They were waiting. The Black Star Mercenary Group was guarding the third layer. They had split up and were standing by around various intersections. It had been two days, and in those two days, just the street that Han Xiao was in charge of had already witnessed seven group fights between brutes. The temper of the criminals was like a fuse, easily lighting up with just a tiny spark. It had made the player realize clearly how dangerous this place was. Three of those seven times had been different brute groups provoking Han Xiao. The Great Mechanic Han was very civilized and kind, so he helped them to cremate their corpses for free.
After wiping out three batches of brutes and showing their fangs, they had a much more peaceful time.
At this time, the brutes in the midst of the intense fight fired a cannon in the wrong direction, collapsing a small half of a house. It made quite a loud noise and killed many residents who were watching the show. In a split second, all the brutes stopped fighting, and terror appeared on their faces. They ran in all directions without caring about anything else.
Not long after, the sound of a flying device shooting across the sky could be heard. Three small, low-altitude flying devices, which were about eight meters long, had appeared. They were covered in full dark-golden color, designed like a dragon spreading its wings. A tiny dragon symbol was carved on the ship body. They were the Dragon Guards’ transportation. The three flying devices caught up to the brutes, and rows of cannons extended from below their bases, which shot out golden lasers, penetrating these brutes with ease. After chasing for a while and killing more than half of the escaping brutes, only then did the Dragon Guards turn around and leave.
Only the Dragon Guards were allowed to operate combat flying devices in Floating Dragon Island. If civilians were killed, the Dragon Guards would be out to enforce the law immediately. Han Xiao had seen scenes like that a few times over the past two days, and he felt that this rescue plan was really dangerous. If they could not save the captives quickly and accurately, the risk would increase largely if they got stalled.
At this time, Goa sent him a message. “Blades’ people locked onto the suspected target, action!”
Han Xiao received the location information. All the mercenaries had joined the same channel and shared the location of the suspect. The suspect had just landed at the dock, and they were guarding many large metal boxes. It was indeed a slave trader team. One mercenary in the Blades’ team could shapeshift into a half-wolf half-dog beast, so his smell was extremely sensitive. He could smell that these slave traders had the scent of Silvers on them, so they locked onto the target.
Cerleni of the Purple Gold Army commanded, “Do not alarm them, continue following. Porter, Black Star, you guys bring your people and gather here secretly and set up an ambush on their route. We outnumber them, so we must defeat them with one fast and heavy wave of attacks; don’t get stalled. Goa, bring the people of Sky Ring and guard the exterior. If we fail, you’re our insurance.”
Since the target was already locked onto, there was no need to continue waiting. The plan sounded quite reliable. Of course, Han Xiao did not have any objections, so he summoned all Black Star members, split up, and headed toward the ambush location given by Cerleni. It happened to be the junction between the dock and the city area, a very chaotic place.
...
Peggy walked down from the spaceship. All the slaves were in large, electrified boxes, controlled by cuffs and self-destructive collars, waiting to be brought to the buyer.
Thinking that they were going to make a huge fortune, these scavengers were filled with excitement. Peggy was not that excited, however. He brought the team and headed toward Horlaide’s slave market.
Entering the dock streets, this slave trader team was very conspicuous, attracting the attention of many brutes on the street. Many people were tempted to make a move, and there were also people who recognized Peggy. They greeted each other from far away and did not have any further communication. Peggy was a renowned slave trader in the Shattered Star Ring, so he had done business with quite many pirates and scavengers. He had some prestige, which meant that would not be attacked on Floating Dragon Island.
After walking for a while, Peggy suddenly stopped. His pupils constricted almost into a vertical line, and his head gradually turned flat like it was going to turn into a snake head. The snake scales on his body became clearer and harder, and he opened his mouth and flicked his forked tongue in the air. Peggy was a shapeshifting Esper. Some kind of snake blood in his body had gone through atavistic changes, so he had extremely sharp senses. He noticed that he was being followed and a hint of murderous intent in the atmosphere. His strong intuition told him he was going to meet something if he kept walking ahead.
“The smell of enemies, they came for me. Who could it be?” Peggy’s eyes were cold. He flicked his forked tongue in the air and stopped walking. Then, he waved his hands to command his subordinates. “Return along the same route, back to the spaceship.”
Then he turned on the communicator. “My dear Horlaide, I’ve arrived at Floating Dragon Island. Come to retrieve the goods yourself this time.”
“What happened to you? You normally bring the goods yourself. Why do I need to go there this time, and why are you shapeshifting for nothing? You look just like a snake, so ugly.”
“I noticed murderous intent—someone is onto me,” Peggy said impatiently. “It might be related to the captives. I feel someone wants to cut off our goods. I’ll wait for you in the spaceship.”
“It’s too troublesome for me to retrieve the goods,” Horlaide said unhappily. “I don’t want to go to the dock filled with pirates and scavengers.”
“Then you can invite the Dragon Guards to protect you. You’re the ruler’s subordinate, after all, so you certainly have the ability to order them.”
“You’re making this hard for me.” Horlaide’s expression collapsed. He did not have the authority to order the Dragon Guards. Although they belonged to the same organization, he definitely had to pay if he wanted to ask people for help, and he was unwilling to do any actions that increased the cost.
However, Peggy insisted—he trusted his sense for danger. Horlaide could only compromise, irritated, before they hung up the communication.
In the dark, the tail from Blades Army was confused as he reported the information to the leader Porter. “Why are they walking back?”
Furthermore, Han Xiao, Cerleni, and Porter had already set up their ambush along the streets ahead. When they received the message, they all frowned.
“Caution, the target did not continue ahead. According to the route, he seems to be going back to the spaceship. Did the deal go south with the buyer?” Porter doubted.
As Peggy had finally shown his face, Cerleni searched him up in the database of his army, and he found Peggy’s intel. He was shocked and said, “This isn’t good. That scavenger is called Peggy, and his Esper power is shapeshifting into a snake. He has extremely strong senses, almost like short-term foresight, so he might have noticed danger!”
Originally, their plan had been to not raise any alarms, but this snake was too sensitive; the opponent had already been alarmed.
At this moment, Goa, who was guarding the exterior, sent a message. She said with a heavy tone, “There’s an issue. Horlaide has left the slave market, and he seems to be heading toward the dock. It’s highly likely that their terms changed into the buying retrieving the goods himself.”
The people’s expression changed. Han Xiao pondered and said, “Then there’s no other way; we attack straight away and make the rescue. We can’t have the two parties meet. We have limited time, so it’s best to act immediately.”
The original plan had not been bad, but reality was full of unexpected changes. Cerleni felt that Han Xiao was right—the only way now was to attack urgently. He commanded the people and approached the target rapidly. At the same time, he gave another order to a few people and told them to start the spaceship in advance, so when they snatched the hostages, they could enter the spaceship and leave as fast as possible.
Peggy went back to the dock filled with brutes, and when he was still hundreds of meters away from the spaceship, the mercenaries finally closed in on him.
“Go!” Cerleni did not have the time to care about anything else. With a yell, more than two hundred mercenaries tore their disguises apart. Their combat suits shapeshifted, and all kinds of powers exploded and dashed toward Peggy’s team!
The helmet quickly extended from the mechanical suit with one thought of Han Xiao, protecting his head. He turned and said, “Let’s go, too.”
He took out an electromagnetic firearm and fired from far away while charging forward. Behind him, more than fifty players wearing the same style armor were holding high caliber machine guns and firing, like a wave of iron, swarming forward!
“There really are enemies!” Peggy narrowed his eyes. Fortunately, he had been cautious. He ordered his subordinates to quickly pull out their guns and fire, and as the cunning man that he was, he secretly shot other brutes to pull other groups in.
The dock was a large squire, and there were no residents. This was the most dangerous place. The mercenaries exchanged fire with Peggy and his men, and quite a number of stray bullets hit the brutes nearby, bringing waves of growls.
“Who’s hitting me‽”
“My eyes!”
“Damn mercenaries, you want to kill us‽”
The dock was most chaotic. Groups of brutes were affected and joined into the battle.
An intense scrimmage soon broke out!