Interstellar Hunting Nation

Chapter 9: Preaching and Dispelling Doubts

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

“Do you feel better?” The dirty old man, Lion, carried two bottles of wine and walked to the observation deck in the ration center. He sat with his nominal disciple, Wu Chang, in the semi-circular transparent vault.

Wu Chang had been sitting in this transparent vault for more than four hours. Apart from a plate of jerky, there was also a large wine bottle, two-thirds of whose content was already gone.

“I really don’t know what you’re thinking. You’ve made a small fortune for no reason. Why don’t you get some good wine to drink? Here, drink this.” After saying that, Lion handed over the wine in his hand.

Wu Chang didn’t stand on ceremony with him. He grabbed the bottle and took a big gulp. Then, he heaved a sigh of relief. “Aren’t these the two most expensive bottles of wine in the bar? How do you have the money to buy them?”

“Hehe, I’m using the money you deposited.”

“Huh?” The dirty old man’s shamelessness made Wu Chang speechless. “Don’t spend it recklessly. 20% of it belongs to Parker. After all, he brought me down the mine.”

“Forget it. Parker already said that he didn’t want it. You almost lost your life this time. It’s Parker’s fault for leading you the wrong way. If the two of you had walked for an extra hour and taken a detour from another mine, perhaps there would not have been so much trouble.”

“You can’t blame Parker. He’s already been punched a few times during this conflict. I can’t let him get beaten up for nothing. I can’t give him any less than 16 rainbow coins.”

Lion thought for a while, and changed the topic. “Parker’s matter is a small matter. You can deal with it anytime. I came to look for you mainly to talk to you about identity tattoos. It’s best if you make the decision…”

Wu Chang couldn’t understand Lion’s hesitant look. “Isn’t it just 500 gold coins? Won’t five rainbow coins be enough?”

“Hehe, that’s the theory. You have to know that 500 gold coins is barely enough to fool the administrative system of Huang’e. If you go to other civilized planets in the future, especially the Prime Star Ring1, this money won’t be enough.”

After Lion’s introduction, Wu Chang realized that the identity tattoo contained too much information. The planet, place, and time of birth had to be encoded, and the same went for the life experiences of his parents, relatives, and even school.

If Wu Chang only wanted to establish a legal identity in the abandoned mining area, 500 gold coins would indeed be enough. This was because no one was interested in competing with a dirty rat. Everyone on this planet knew that there was no real information in the miners’ group at all. Most people had unspeakable secrets.

To put it bluntly, the people in the guard were not interested in verifying everyone’s true information on the network.

However, the martial strength that Wu Chang had displayed today, his calm mentality, and the famous sayings that popped up from time to time surprised Lion and Boss Pann. When everyone led the team back to the Allocation Center, the two of them had a long secret meeting in a corner. No one knew what they were talking about.

“After discussing for a long time, we feel that we should get you a real identity. We have a feeling that you won’t be able to survive on Huang’e for a long time. You have an aura that only big shots have. I believe that you will go far in the future, but if you want to go further, you need an identity that can withstand investigation.

“If it’s possible in the future, you can go to other civilized planets, even the capital planet. In those places, the beginner black market tattooers will be able to tell at a glance if it’s real or fake. At that time, you’ll suffer.”

Wu Chang didn’t expect there to be so many tricks to an identity tattoo. After thinking about it, he asked, “How much does a real identity tattoo cost?”

“Aiya, a real tattoo requires a lot of manpower. You have to go to the planet where you were born to fabricate real paper documents and send back all kinds of information to your hometown. In short, they have to turn a person who doesn’t exist into a real person in the legal sense. All of this costs money…”

“Stop wasting time. Hurry up and tell me how much it is.”

“Yes, Boss Pann and I will help you find some connections. It will probably cost at least 55 rainbow coins…”

“Ah!” The calm Wu Chang was stunned. 5,500 gold coins? It was actually so expensive. The rainbow coins that he had just obtained were instantly depleted. After subtracting the 16 rainbow coins that he had given Parker, Wu Chang was only left with nine.

“In that case, I only have 900 gold coins left in the end? Looks like this meal is only worth this bit of money.”

Lion was also a little embarrassed. “There’s nothing we can do. This is all we have. They asked for 60 rainbow coins, and we only got five deducted after begging for a long time. If this had been in the past, I wouldn’t have needed to spend so much money to do this…”

Wu Chang shook his head and stopped the old man from blaming himself. “Don’t say that. You’ve helped me a lot. Money comes and goes quickly. As long as the matter is done, the money will be spent. I can still earn more anyway.”

Lion took a sip of wine and let out a long breath. “Parker also knows about this, so he took the initiative to say that he doesn’t want the money…”

“No, I have to give it to him. It’s already not easy for a timid guy like Parker to guard me until the end. I won’t let my friend suffer.”

Lion didn’t know what Wu Chang was thinking. In fact, Wu Chang’s thoughts were very simple. If he could collect such precious crystals on his first trip to the well, he would definitely be able to collect more crystals in the future. Perhaps it wouldn’t take long for Wu Chang to save up a large sum of money and leave this planet to take a look at this world elsewhere.

“Oh, right. Tell me the story of the crystals, will you? Why did Huang’e introduce such a strange law? Even if the crystals are precious, it shouldn’t be to this extent, right?

“What do you know?” The old man took a sip of wine, grabbed a piece of jerky, and threw it into his mouth. “This happened 15 years ago. At that time, I had only been on this planet for a few years…”

From the old man’s mouth, Wu Chang gradually learned the truth. It turned out that that year, a lucky miner had mined the longest crystal in history. It was 43 centimeters long, four centimeters longer than Planet Huang’e’s historical record of 39 centimeters.

How precious a crystal that was 43 cm long was was hard to measure with money. Just know that in this universe, the legendary divine-level warships only used crystals that were more than 50 centimeters long, while there were only three divine-level warships in the entire universe.

The 43-centimeter crystal could already be used to produce quasi-divine-level battleships, and there were only more than 500 quasi-divine-level battleships in the entire universe. Looking at the history of the Horsehead Star Ring, there was only one quasi-divine-level battleship, which was the emperor’s ship, Pentium. As for divine-level battleships, a small faction like the Horsehead Star Ring was not worthy of owning them at all.

“It’s obvious. With the introduction of this crystal, the Horsehead Star Ring will be able to add a quasi-divine-level battleship. Then, there’s no need to talk nonsense about how precious this crystal is.”

The latter part of the story was very stereotypical. The 21 mine owners and 16 big shots fought over the crystal for three days and three nights. The entire abandoned mining area became a battlefield. The attacks of the Bee Swarm’s dense array spread to Huang’e City. The flames that soared into the sky even covered the light of the volcanic eruption.

At the end of the battle, when the reinforcements gathered by the governor assumed control over the situation, an unimaginable scene happened. The miner that had found the crystal, and who had lost all his family and friends, actually smashed the crystal into pieces in front of thousands of people. Then, he jumped down from the tower and fell to his death.

“That matter was really blown out of proportion. The detailed information was actually leaked directly to the emperor. At that time, there was the most intense battle between the Hunter Star Ring and the Horsehead Star Ring. Two mortal planets1 in our Horsehead Star Ring had already been captured.

“When His Majesty heard that a quasi-diving-level battleship was lost because of these greedy mine owners and hooligans, he was so angry that he spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot.

“With a mouthful of blood from the emperor, Huang’e turned into a sea of blood. More than 10,000 imperial guards rushed into the abandoned mine area, and a massacre began. The 21 mine owners and 16 big shots in the underworld, including their relatives and subordinates, were all killed overnight.

“Not only did they kill all of them, their corpses were also airdropped into the southern man-eating clan’s territory. Hehe, those mutated man-eating clans have started eating meat. 30,000 corpses were enough for them to eat for half a year.”

The dirty old man Lion’s introduction was very brief, but Wu Chang could picture the bloody storm back then. It was indeed a little unimaginable that 30,000 lives would be killed for a crystal. However, when he looked back at the tragic encounters of the two fallen mortal planets, people would no longer pity these 30,000 lives.

“You should understand now, right? It wasn’t me who saved your life today, but the crystal you mined. 19 centimeters is enough to exonerate you. I’m sure that if the crystal you had mined today had exceeded 30 centimeters, Ye Tian wouldn’t have minded helping you kill Aardwolf Saywen.

“That’s why it’s said that an ordinary man is innocent, but treasuring a jade ring becomes a crime. There are many treasures in this world that can save people.”

The dirty old man, Lion, felt that Wu Chang wasn’t an ordinary person, but Wu Chang also felt that the old man wasn’t ordinary. Especially the last part of his conversation with Ye Tian didn’t seem like something an old miner could say. Ordinary people didn’t have a general view of the big picture.

Wu Chang was good at physiognomy1. The first impression that the old man, Lion, gave him was that he was noble. He had a scholarly nobility that was dyed by knowledge. Although Wu Chang could not figure out the old man’s background, he knew that his cheap master was definitely a treasure.

While Wu Chang and Lion were chatting, in the ration center of the A332 mining area, Saywen, whose face was purple, was sighing with Blood Rose, who was wrapped in gauze around her neck.

“Ye Tian is too much. If you don’t want it, then don’t. Why did he hit you so hard?” Blood Rose, who had helped Saywen apply the medicine, said angrily.

Saywen was no longer as arrogant as he had been during the day. He looked at the gauze around the Blood Rose’s neck and sighed. “It’s my fault for today. I miscalculated. Ye Tian can barely be considered a branch of the royal family. This kind of person doesn’t have much ability, but he still cares about his reputation. We gave him money in front of hundreds of people. How could he accept it? He couldn’t wait to beat me up in front of the crowd in exchange for improving his reputation.”

“Then what should we do? We’ll be fined for nothing? We’ll lose face too?”

“How is that possible? You’re underestimating your man too much. Today’s matter is just the beginning. We’ll see what happens later. Prepare another 40 rainbow coins for me. Tonight, I’ll pay a visit to Mine Supervisor Rodah. I don’t believe that Ye Tian won’t have any openings.”

Blood Rose had lost too much money today, so her heart ached, but she didn’t dare to disobey the man’s orders. She could only open the safe pitifully and take out 40 rainbow coins before giving them to Saywen.

When the sky turned completely dark, Saywen’s carriage disappeared into the black snow and headed north.