Chapter 166: A Slip of the Hand

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Shang, have we arrived yet?" asked Ye Chong in his Captain’s seat.

According to what Lu Caite had stated, his teacher Mr. w.a.n.g Weixing could very likely be at a medical inst.i.tute on Windstar. Based on the galactic layout stored inside Mu Shang’s databank, Windstar should be located in the galaxy of Csebesini and it was a planet well-known for its tourism. The globe mainly consisted of attractive and poetic sceneries, frequented with intergalactic tourists who adored and appreciated the unique view of its flora and fauna.

Hence, the final destination both Ye Chong and Shang had agreed on turned out to be outer s.p.a.ce which was three days away from the Windstar. Ye Chong would leave and trigger the self-destruct system on the ship, just to make sure that no trace would remain to guide those fearsome ones from the Sanctuary there. The location of Windstar might be extremely distant from the Orbits, but Ye Chong did not intend to let his guard down yet, as he was very much aware of the strength of the Sanctuary, their armed forces, their psychic abilities. He might not be that vulnerable to their strike, still he felt that such kind of mistake was never necessary to begin with.

"Uh… Bad news, Ye. I’m sorry to inform you that…" Shang’s tone was blatantly awkward.

"What bad news? Are you going to say that the Sanctuary actually had made it here and they are just behind? No way! They can’t be finding me out this quickly! Don’t tell me my luck is so terrible that we b.u.mped into one of their men in our course!" Ye Chong’s expression was spelling astonishment.

"Not… Not that bad, Ye." Shang sounded like a shrinking violet, "It’s just that we met a tiny… issue." Somehow the words kept clogging at his audio system.

"Tiny problem you mean?" Ye Chong raised his brows and asked in bewilderment. "What kind of problem was it?"

"Umm… Ye. So, my calculation was a little, a little off from the actuality. Just a little." Shang sounded like a boy who tried covering up for his mistake in front of his mother after he accidentally spilled ice cream on his younger sister.

"Off? Mistake?" Ye Chong looked at Shang in disbelief, "Shang, you actually make mistakes? Stop pulling my leg!" Shang, an advanced Photon-Stimulated Intelligence, the lecturer of life, the computerized interrogator of torment, told me that he made a mistake? This is too much. Shang’s calculation might not be as powerful as Mu, but it was still quite groundbreaking for Ye Chong to hear from this robotic genius admitting, declaring his mistake.

"Ahem… Ye, stop looking at me like that… I’m feeling shy you know…" The bleeping mechanical eyes of Shang blinking in blue hues with that somehow eerie tone of his, was gooseb.u.mps-inducing to Ye Chong.

"So now what are we gonna do?" The outcome was always Ye Chong’s priority.

"We are currently at a course named the ‘Solrivia’," stated Shang.

"How far is that from the Windstar?" This was more of his concern than the name of the orbit they were traveling on.

"Ummm…" Shang halted, "Not too far… But we can’t do a direct flight there, somehow."

Ugh.

The veins bloated on Ye Chong’s forehead, tried his best inhibiting his fury, he asked, "Then how long are we going to take to the Windstar on this s.p.a.ce-jump?"

"Uhh, Ye, the issue was not the duration, rather… well, the remaining energy on this ship was insufficient to perform the following s.p.a.ce-jump." Shang turned back to his usual self again, not the slightest shame was felt in his words, "The distance of the s.p.a.ce-warp this time is a bit too far. Great amount of energy would be needed for consumption!"

The bloated veins on Ye Chong’s forehead pumped harshly a few times, "Shang…" Biting his teeth, "Have you ever considered confessing your so-called ‘mistake’ to me? Like sincerely apologetically?"

"Aw c’mon Ye, don’t be so grim. You can’t say no to Angela’s latest photo collection. Ye, let me clarify something for you… Angela’s body has got to be the best among all stars I had seen before. The curve was superb, mhmm, magnefique! Seniorita, you are the G.o.d’s gift I could ever have," exclaimed Shang, like a poet by the beach, acted very much indulged in his joy, "I was calculating her figures, you know, the golden proportion of her ‘curves’ that makes her so flawless, so adorable, so alluring? Ye, do you know what I had gotten in the end?"

"Oh…" Ye Chong replied uninterestedly, "What you got?"

"Holy Matrimony, her body was the exact tangent and proportion of what the public considered as perfection, both theoretically and practically. It was too dramatic the moment I discovered this very truth of my life. It was shocking, as much as how the humanity reacted the moment they discovered s.p.a.ce-travels." Shang was worked up.

"More importantly, you mean you missed on the calculation of our s.p.a.ce-jump course just because of how astounded you were over her figures?" inquired Ye Chong calmly.

"That aside! That aside! It’s just a tiny, little, minuscule problem. A very small issue," Shang’s expression was l.u.s.trous to Ye Chong’s eyes somehow.

"If there’s a black hole here now, I would not hesitate to lob you there," Ye Chong’s wrath erupted as he sprung from his seat and made a few violent kicks at Shang.

"Ouch… Aw… Ow… the pain. The agony." Shang pulled off his cheap acting skills and whimpered along. But then he realized that would make him less a.s.sertive, "Ye, frankly speaking…" reminded Shang, "You lack an effective method of striking…"

"I … Ugh! Don’t! Ugh! Care! Ugh!" He exerted heavier force on his kick.

The weirdest moment in galactic history of a man messing with a mech ended eventually. Panting, he sat down, yes, technically, Ye Chong was the only panting one in the "fight", Shang on the other hand had his face pretty much adorned by a new set of footprints and looked like a beggar at the street.

Despite all that, Ye Chong somehow felt as if he had turned the time back when he was still on Trash Planet-12, spending his days messing with Mu, having fun.

"Shang…" Catching his breath, Ye Chong further inquired, "What’s the nearest planet… now…"

"An isolated planet," replied Shang, "It is uninhabited as what I see. There’s nothing on it, not even resources. So people were not even interested to develop the place."

"So are you saying that we got to wait here for another s.p.a.ceship pa.s.serby?" Ye Chong sounded dejected.

"Mhm, technically. But don’t worry, Ye. This course is very much populated. It has the greatest chance of encountering another s.p.a.ceship. Moreover, this s.p.a.ceship has a rich supply of food. So you don’t have to worry about being starved to death." Ye Chong could feel his pupils rolling in the quantum singularity within his skull.

And he finally experienced what Shang meant by "very much populated" this time, by waiting… for 7 days… That was really populated, Shang. A ship was detected on the scanner, heading towards them.

Of course Ye Chong did not spend the past 7 days having a talk with Shang, the Master of Primal Philosophy. He was performing a thorough inspection on Overwing.

Ye Chong was not aware of the fact that Mu Fei was the ace of the Sanctuary and apparently he did not seem to recognize the actual standard of this mech called Overwing he was piloting on. Other than the wings that were giving him weird vibes, the mech was full of surprises.

Ye Chong had also been spending the week getting familiar with the execution. The Overwing was certainly an excellent mech from various aspects. Ye Chong was confident to state that this could be the best mech he had ever spotted thus far, other than Mu Shang and the Guardian. Not even the extraordinary craft of skeletons like Han Jia could compete with Overwing. It even started to make Ye Chong wonder if this was the greatest invention hidden inside the Sanctuary.

The design of Overwing appeared to be rather plain from different angles. However the design seemed to be as fit as a fiddle after a bit of deduction on the figures. Ye Chong with his sharp eyes could tell the amount of efforts, the bleeding sweat of the designer imbue within this craft.

Well, Ye Chong did not perform an ultimate a.n.a.lysis over every inch of the mech. He just took a glance at the hologram. Time was still the obstacle to kill his leisure of doing it. Overwing was also the kind of mech forbidden from being seen by the public. That would alert the Sanctuary for sure if they were ever noticed by the people around. Ye Chong shuddered as he imagined the swarm of psychic-armed pilots chasing after him if they knew what in the world had he done. As a result, in spite of the supreme quality of Overwing, Ye Chong could barely lay a finger on the steed. No doubt, it was torturing to a mech maniac like him. It would be a far better choice to do something else more meaningful than piloting Overwing on a big scale at the moment.

After the runaway, there remained 4 wounded Dawn mechs on the ship. Well, the saving grace was Glinton was well-supplied with tools to do pretty much anything on a mech. So Ye Chong began running his little workshop once more, repairing the 4 mechs since 7 days ago. The Dawn mechs could have been some cheapskate model after seeing Overwing the Empowered, but then a backup mech could still work very well as a backup mech. No waste, Ye Chong felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

The 4 Dawn mechs were glossing in the pink of health after Ye Chong’s skillful repair.

Ye Chong’s list of loots from his run did not end here. He had also acquired quite a number of precious-looking items from Mu Fei, like this strange plate for example - it was a name plate crafted with an unknown plant, filled with peculiar twirls and waves and was pierced with a silver thread. The plant must have undergone some kind of unusual finishing, as Ye Chong actually felt it warm and tender on touch! If it was not Shang who informed him that it was made out of a plant, Ye Chong would never believe that a plant could act in such odd texture, though Shang did not have any idea what kind of plant it was.

The next thing which caught his attention was a few tubes about breadth of his index finger. These tubes had one end sealed and the other opened. Some of them were packed with spherical pills, about 10 of them, while some were powder and … sticky liquids. These were like treasure to someone who had spent his or her days on Trash Planet like Ye Chong, as he knew their value and significance, especially when this was the master medication for the Sanctuary insiders.

He kept the 5 tubes carefully within him. The tubes could be the holy light to his survival! The name plates and the other pointless-looking things were stuffed into his waist bag instead.

The entire database of Glinton had been absorbed by Shang. The best part was the database actually contained a map of the Orbits. Although it defined a tiny scope of the Orbits, Shang treasured it as much as Ye Chong treasured the tubes, as he copied it happily into his system.

The detection system of Glinton was considered to be very developed, as the detection system specialized for the s.p.a.ceship did not limit its capabilities on the size of the traveling items in the scope. Hence, it was way more powerful than the detection system on most mechs.

As stated by the outcome of the detection, a long-term intergalactic travel s.p.a.ceship was heading towards them sluggishly. There was still a bit of a distance so far and the s.p.a.ceship did not seem to have noticed Glinton in the dark.

"What a waste of Glinton, Ye. You know, this la.s.sie could easily sell for a gorgeous price in whichever market," Shang was remorseful as he muttered.

Ye Chong did not have the intention to comment on this money enslaved machinery though as he tapped the few switches by his side. The cabin was opened promptly. Towards the boundless s.p.a.ce, Ye Chong, in his Han Jia, flew out. The self-destruct system had already been activated on Glinton. In 3 minutes, this s.p.a.ceship would become debris scattered over the galaxy after a flare blinding the s.p.a.ce. The Sanctuary shall never be able to find the remnants of their craft and they would never discover anything happened on it before.

The debris would be the wanderers, spreading witness of their demise!

Han Jia’s speed was high by nature, so the 3 minutes were a graceful ride of Ye Chong leaving the cabin, flying far away enough to avoid the explosion. As he travelled rapidly away from the spot, his eyes discerned the glaring light behind and he knew that Glinton had gone down. A stage increased on his velocity, Han Jia sped up once more. He would not want to be hit by the specks from the explosion.