Chapter 275: Bunch of Weirdos [Part 2]
Guan Feng led Cillin and White Night to a low but wide building. Unlike the lonely port, they could hear a lot of people talking and walking around this building. Those who saw Guan Feng coming their way greeted,
“Chief Feng!”
“Hello there, Chief Feng.”
“…”
Most of them didn’t possess a strong body; it was probably because they worked in a field that required more brains than brawns. However, something felt very off about them. Cillin couldn’t pinpoint exactly what gave him that impression, but long story short something wasn’t right.
White Night hadn’t said anything since their arrival, but there was a bit of understanding and emotion behind his eyes as he stared at the people around him.
Although there were a little more people in this building than the previous one, most of them were robots who wore a human skin to blend in with the people better. They didn’t look very threatening.
Guan Feng brought Cillin and White Night straight into a warehouse. It was an armory.
“Gab anything you want, but you won’t find any food here. You’ll have to take care of that yourself when the test begins. The test is something like a wild survival test, and this is all I can supply you with,” Guan Feng said.
The two disciples had already learned a little about the planet’s geography from Gu Changan, so it became easier to choose the tools and weapons they needed.
There was even Guan Feng “Purgatory Thunder Snake” series, although Cillin couldn’t spot the PTS S anywhere.
“Oh right, Teacher Guan, I found this in your kitchen,” Cillin passed over the tube and the weapon back to Guan Feng.
“Eh? I wasn’t expecting you to find them. Well you can keep it, but don’t use it just yet. This weapon isn’t complete yet, and it’s quite easy to kill yourself with it.”
Guan Feng had left behind the PTS S at the kitchen on purpose. In fact, he had even tampered with the gun itself, purposely assembling a couple of parts the wrong way and misadjusting its angle. On the surface it would look appear that everything was fine, but anyone who fired the weapon would only miss their target and even kill themselves by accident if they weren’t careful.
Cillin didn’t pick up those multifunctional weapons that looked like it would be very fun and very cool to fire. Instead, he mostly chose tools to make up his equipment.
Guan Feng looked very satisfied with their choice of equipment when all was said and done.
“The time limit is thirty days. Your mission is considered complete if you can survive that place for thirty days in total, and someone will automatically head over to receive you once the time is up. Do well and don’t embarrass me, I have a bet on the line you know.”
Guan Feng caught Cillin’s expression and sighed, “What’s with the reluctant look? Just treat this like an AF1 semester exam that’ll perfect grade score on every subject if you succeed.”
Cillin didn’t mind the semester exam, he was certain to pass it no matter what. But a perfect grade score… that was an attractive proposition. It was because a handsome sum of scholarship money was attached to it.
“Alright. You are my teacher.”
Goryeo once told him that a smooth graduation was unlikely if he refused to obey his teacher’s orders.
After the duo were done with their selection, Guan Feng led them to the roof of the building. Two airplanes were waiting for them up there.
Guan Feng pointed Cillin towards one of the airplanes, “Do well and don’t embarrass me. If you succeed, forget the semester exam or the PTS S, I’ll support you all the way even if your goal is to take every woman in the school as your wife!”
Cillin shot Guan Feng a sideway glance from his seat, “You seem pretty talkative today, senior.”
Guan Feng let out a chuckle before patting Cillin’s head once, “Go. Remember to have fun with the people inside, yeah?”
Cillin had no idea who Guan Feng was referring to, but he was certain that it was nothing good.
After Cillin had departed, Guan Feng looked at White Night and asked, “Do you know why I’ve led you here?”
“A little, yes.”
“I told you a long time ago that you are not an outsider, nor are you isolated,” Guan Feng shot a look at the people walking back and forth busying themselves with their own work below the roof before continuing, “You didn’t join the army, you didn’t join any nobles, you didn’t join the Royal Guards, and you even turned down ‘Wings’’ invitation. You turned them all down because you were searching for the right place for you, weren’t you? Now there’s one, and the only things that stands between you and that place is your strength.”
“I know,” White Night’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was clear that he was determined to win.
After White Night had departed as well, an old man in work clothes walked up and said, “These are the two you mentioned earlier? The one with white hair aside, the one with black hair is clearly reluctant. You’re driving a duck onto a perch, you know.”
“What can I do? They are the only two trump cards I have. The rest of my students are completely unsuited for this position.”
The old man curled his lips, “And that isn’t enough? You had two quota all for yourself when poor Gu Changan couldn’t even produce one…” Suddenly, the old man realized something and turned towards Guan Feng, “Are you planning to make that boy with white hair take over Gu Changan’s seat?”
Guan Feng smiled and said nothing.
The old man was very surprised this time, “That boy is… that type of person too? He doesn’t speak much, but he doesn’t look like the type at all. I guess you did spend a lot of effort to raise him.”
Guan Feng glanced at the direction where the airplanes had vanished to, “I had only placed my hopes on one at the beginning, but I was lucky enough to run into another one by accident. He is quite satisfactory in every aspect.”
“Is that black-haired boy really that impressive? He sure doesn’t look like it. I know you want him to take over you, but you should also understand that those who aren’t the type must compensate with a lot of ‘this’,” The little old man emphasized the “this” word while pointing at his own head, “Your seat is the choose out of all of us to succeed, but then again… no one is trying to compete with your boy this time, hehe. If he survives for thirty days, he will take over you whether he likes it or not. Even if he doesn’t want it, ‘they’ will find a way to trick him into accepting it.”
“I hope so.”
…
The airplane was on autopilot, it would drop him at his destination once they were there. Wheeze had been closing its eyes and staying completely quiet throughout the whole trip, but Cillin knew that it was gathering information as best it could.
If Guan Feng had been the only reason, Cillin wouldn’t have given in so easily and participated in this nonsense test. What did Black Viper’s change of office have anything to do with him? And why would he care when he wouldn’t be interested in a competition for the throne? The real reason he had come all the way here, was to figure out the true connection between Sigma’s maser and Black Viper.
When Gu Changan had showed them the images, there were a couple of robots that resembled Sigma in them. That was the real reason Cillin had determined himself. Sigma’s master was in of a transgalactic technology, and Cillin wished to use it to return to GAL if possible.
An electronic voice rang inside the cockpit while Cillin was absorbed in thought:
“Arrival at destination coordinates, please standby. Counting down in 3——2——1!”
The floor beneath Cillin’s feet vanished, and he fell out of the airplane and straight towards the ground. Cillin had prepared for this, however. He took out and activated a cushioning device, slowing his descent until he was almost at the ground. Then, he flipped down onto the ground, dashed into a nearby bush and did a couple of dodges.
The reason he performed the series of complicated movements was because a wild avian had had its eyes on Cillin while perched on a nearby branch. If Cillin had been a heartbeat slower during his jump, he would’ve been caught by the swooping beast.
After Cillin had dashed into the nearest bush and utilized the densely packed, low hanging branches of the forest to his advantage, the wild avian finally decided to give up and leave. It didn’t mean that he was finally safe, however. Cillin withdrew his presence, held his breath and watched his surroundings quietly from a concealed bush.
Wheeze was lying down on a tree next to Cillin with its ears slanting backwards and its pupils opened wide. The “bird” picking its claws in front of it looked pretty tasty, but Wheeze held itself back from assaulting it because it didn’t want to spoil Cillin’s plans.
A series of even, heavy footsteps came from the distance.
It was a bio-soldier!
Cillin watched the bio-soldier quietly, but didn’t take any immediate action just yet. A bio-soldier’s audiovisual receptors were extremely sensitive, but their pain receptors were the exact opposite. They wouldn’t display any painful reaction even if someone were to chop off their limbs, and camouflage didn’t work very well against them because their retina was different from a normal person’s. They had the ability to remove protective coloring from their vision and accurately capture their targets. However, that only really worked if the target was already exposed. Cillin’s hiding spot was well enough that the bio-soldier still hadn’t found him despite the earlier commotion.
The flying avian didn’t attack the bio-soldier probably because it knew that it was a formidable opponent. The wild animals here were clearly intelligent, and sometimes they would even set traps to lure in their preys. That was why Cillin couldn’t afford to underestimate them.
Cillin could keep his noise down, lie low and waste time more efficiently if he so wished. But food was still a problem he needed to solve, and he didn’t want to use the compressed rations he had in his ring right now.
The bio-soldier walked further and further away, and Cillin never let his eyes off his target. He was observing its footsteps, muscle changes and pulse in order to find its weakness.
No, it’s not working. There’s too little information to work with.
Cillin stayed where he was and pondered on his next course of action. After the flying avian had left the area, Cillin went and found a suitable spot, made some quick arrangements and hid himself in another a well concealed spot, waiting.
Wheeze continued to lie on its tree branch while swaying its tail. Ah, it’s so boring!
Suddenly, its ears twitched once before it looked up to the sky. Through the tree branches, Wheeze could spot another wild avian flying towards its direction before stopping on top of a nearby tree branch. It was holding some unknown meat with its claws, and it was tearing and feeding on it on the tree.
Wheeze licked its lips and shot Cillin a glance. Cillin took notice and decided that its plan meshed pretty well with an idea he had thought up just now.
On the tree, the wild avian about two meters or higher above the ground was busy tearing into the meat, but it wasn’t so distracted that it had forgotten to watch its surroundings and prevent another member of its kind from snatching its food.
However, the avian had no idea that a cat was keeping low and moving straight towards it in complete silence.
Just as the avian was about to swallow a piece of meat it just tore, a gray figure flashed through the air and bit it perfectly in the throat, preventing it from letting out any noise. It kept flapping its wings loudly, and its claws had even broken a couple of tree branches in the process. However, it just wasn’t able to escape Wheeze’s fangs no matter what.
Two bio-soldiers at the distance started making their way towards them after the noises had attracted their attention. Seeing that its plan had worked, Wheeze jumped down the tree before deciding that the “bird” in its mouth was too active and slammed it against a tree slump a couple times. Finally, it had grown less noisy and wasn’t flapping as hard as they were before.
Meanwhile, the two bio-soldiers were running straight towards them. They were moving quite quickly despite their heavy footsteps.
Having successfully baited the bio-soldiers, Wheeze ran towards where Cillin had set up his traps. It also made sure to run just fast enough to keep ahead of the bio-soldiers, but not so fast that they would lose its trail completely. Just as the gray cat was nearing the edge of the trap, it suddenly jumped into the air and soared past the trap with ease.
A thick vine suddenly rose from the ground and tripped the bio-soldiers to the ground. They tried to climb up to their feet, but —
Swoosh swoosh swoosh ——
A couple of sharpened wooden arrows struck the two bio-soldiers from both their left and right sides.
The wooden arrows failed to do any significant damage to the bio-soldiers. In fact, they failed to even puncture their skin. The bio-soldiers’ brown-colored skin was pretty thick, making them extremely tough.
While the two bio-soldiers were busy dealing with the traps, Wheeze had swallowed the large “bird” in one gulp. After that, it lay on top of a nearby branch and watched Cillin’s plan unfold in leisure. It didn’t know how this was supposed to reveal the bio-soldiers’ weak points, but this method apparently worked for Cillin, so that’s that. If it was Cillin, it would’ve tore the bio-soldiers apart directly or swallow them all. Mm, bio-soldiers aren’t tasty though. I guess I’ll just tear them apart the next time I see them.
The two bio-soldiers faced a barrage of rocks next after the wooden arrows had run around. However, they easily crushed most of the rocks into smithereens with their bare fists, and the few that actually struck them had failed to penetrate their skin just the same.
Both the bio-soldiers and the wild avians from earlier seemed to be extremely sensitive towards heat and electromagnetic waves. That was why Cillin preferred primitive tools in this scenario.
Cillin wanted to identify a quick way to figure out the bio-soldiers’ weak points before he took action. There was a saying called “sharpening one’s blade doesn’t delay you from cutting wood”, and right now Cillin was in the blade-sharpening process. If he wished to spend less energy when taking out his prey, he would have to know them in detail.
The bio-soldiers’ movements had grown more complex than before because they had to deal with a lot more things. The way their muscles moved, the highlighted veins on their skin, their breathing rhythm, the changes of their pupils… Cillin was seeing everything and using them as reference data to perform his analysis.
Finally, Cillin decided to act and produced a pocket-sized crossbow. It might look small, but its power was definitely greater than a normal gun’s.
Swoosh——
An arrow accurately punctured the spot seven centimeters below a bio-soldiers’ rib.
The shot entity moved slower and slower until it came to a complete standstill.
Cillin notched on another arrow before firing it into the remaining bio-soldier’s stomach. Just like before, the bio-soldier moved slower and slower until they eventually came to a complete stop.
From where the arrowhead had sunk into the bio-soldier’s flesh, brown blood was flowing down the arrow’s body.
Noticing that more bio-soldiers were coming from the distance, Cillin waved a hand at Wheeze and got ready to leave. Just before they left, Cillin touched the bio-soldier’s blood with a tree branch before wrapping a leaf around the affected area swiftly. This was to prevent the scent of the blood from leaking and attracting other wild animals.
Seven bio-soldiers passed by the area after Cillin and Wheeze had left. However, they did nothing more but glance curiously at their dead kin before leaving.
When all the bio-soldiers had left the area, a figure dashed out from the nearby trees. It was a young girl with a cute appearance but an emotionless expression on her face. She was staring at the two stiff bio-soldiers with a hint of curiosity that cracked her emotionless facade.
The girl walked towards the two dead bio-soldiers who were still bleeding brown blood. She made almost no noise while she was moving.
The young girl stood in front of the two dead bio-soldiers and took a glance. After she had circled around them once, she stood still and produced a thin, long scalpel from her pocket.
Two minutes later, the two bio-soldiers Cillin killed looked exactly the same if someone were to look at them from the back: standing and completely immobile. However, the sight from the front might cause someone with less self-control to puke on the spot.
It was because the young girl had dissected the two bio-soldiers completely. It was to the point where even the nerves had been peeled off correctly.
The young girl herself had left the scene some time ago. It was only a matter of time before bunch of scavenger-type beasts show up and take care of the mess.
Everything returned to tranquility in the end. The only thing that was left was a bunch of wooden arrows that were stomped beyond recognition, and a pool of brown blood.
