The biting cold wind swept across the ice cap as several polar bears curiously raised their heads to look at the sky.
The pitch-black clouds were suddenly shattered by some enormous object. The number of electrons in the air surged, making every long white hair on the polar bears stand on end as tiny sparks flickered wildly over their bodies. The ice below abruptly trembled, and a huge fissure spread across the ice cap. The polar bears scattered in terror, while a straight, pitch-black tunnel entrance was exposed in the ground.
A strangely shaped spacecraft slowly descended. Its entire body gleamed like cast gold, roughly resembling a slightly flattened cigar. It was over fifty meters long, six meters high, and eight meters wide, its hull covered in intricate, exquisite patterns. Dark-blue plasma flames erupted from the nozzles at its rear and underside, rapidly melting and vaporizing the ice below as vast clouds of steam surged into the sky.
The breathtakingly exquisite spacecraft, like a work of art, slowly slid into the tunnel entrance in the ice cap. After it entered, two thick metal doors gradually closed behind it. Wind swept in snow and ice, burying everything beneath a blanket of white once more.
Fresh from a bath and dressed in new clothes, Gu Xiechen stood by the base's largest airfield with his hands behind his back. As the golden spacecraft slowly landed, he spat forcefully onto the ground. Only the Roam people would ostentatiously carve so many useless patterns onto a ship's hull. A golden spacecraft? In space, that was the perfect target.
Prajna, who had also changed into a coarse robe, frowned. "Damn it, Roam people? They're the clients I hate most!"
The Bearded Commander turned his head viciously and cursed in a low voice, "Shut your damn mouth! Fuck, whoever has money is the boss, whoever has money is our ancestor. We're mercenaries! Not high-class prostitutes sitting in fancy villas, playing the piano and singing little songs while freely picking our clients!"
After cursing Prajna a few times, the Bearded Commander spat out a wad of phlegm as well and muttered to himself, "Still, I hate these Roam people too!"
Only Gu Xiechen and the others remained in the enormous airfield. Everyone else had been driven out.
The spacecraft landed on the airfield. Accompanied by a faint hissing sound, an elegantly designed gangway slowly lowered from the hatch in the middle of the vessel.
Twenty warriors clad in full Energy Armor marched down the gangway in perfect formation. These Roam people were all over 2.7 meters tall, their dazzling golden hair floating lightly behind them without any wind, like brilliant flames. Their skin was as white as snow, and each of them was as handsome as a statue. A faint dark-blue glow flickered in their golden eyes. With their Energy Armor shields activated and rings of blue radiance circling their bodies, the twenty Roam warriors looked as imposing and extraordinary as Heavenly Gods descending to the mortal world.
The Bearded Commander turned to Gu Xiechen and said quietly, "The Roam people's ridiculous pomp. Ignore them!"
Gu Xiechen merely smiled. This was not his first time dealing with the Roam people. As the young master of the Gu Group, he had met them several times and knew exactly what they were like.
The Roam warriors lined up beside the gangway. A mass of dark-blue light suddenly lit up at the spacecraft hatch, and a handsome young man in a purple-black robe floated out, his entire body enveloped in fierce blue flames. He was more than ten centimeters taller than the Roam warriors, tall and handsome, with two-meter-long golden hair undulating behind his head like a living creature. After flying out of the ship, he hovered silently about a meter above the ground, looking down on Gu Xiechen's group from above.
The Bearded Commander took a deep breath and slowly walked toward the young man hovering in the air.
"Honored sir, I am Big Beard, commander of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group." The Bearded Commander introduced himself.
"Porphyris. You only need to know that my name is Porphyris." The handsome young man nodded coldly.
"Mr. Porphyris, this way, please!" The Bearded Commander wanted to invite Porphyris to the conference room to discuss the commission in detail.
Porphyris frowned in disgust. The Hell Angels Mercenary Group's airfield was covered in traces of motor oil, and the air carried a strange smell. The blue flames around Porphyris grew brighter as he took out a white handkerchief and covered his nose.
"I don't think that's necessary. We can make things clear right here." Porphyris's golden eyes swept coldly over Gu Xiechen, dismissing him entirely. When he saw Prajna, Porphyris immediately drifted more than ten steps backward in disgust. "All right. Let's be more efficient. I'll explain the details of this commission now."
Prajna took several steps back with a dark expression. He understood what the Roam people thought of mixed-bloods. To some Roam people, mixed-bloods were the filthiest original sin in the world.
Gu Xiechen stepped forward a few paces, curious about why the Roam people had come to the Hell Angels Mercenary Group. Earthlings and the Roam people had always been at war, and commissions from the Roam people were rare.
"Three days from now, a smuggling ship will take off from somewhere in Africa. Your mission is to shoot down that spacecraft, kill everyone aboard, and destroy or seize all its cargo."
Porphyris took a storage chip from his wide sleeve and tossed it to the Bearded Commander from a distance.
"The other party in this transaction is the Sacred Unicorn, the number one mercenary group in the Earth Federation. We know you have a grudge against the Sacred Unicorn, and we know you are one of the few groups capable of threatening them. That is why we came here."
"The chip contains detailed intelligence regarding this transaction. There may be minor discrepancies, but the margin of error won't be large. A smuggling ship is still a smuggling ship. Neither side will send too many troops to protect it."
Porphyris pursed his lips and smiled at the Bearded Commander. "This is a very worthwhile commission. What do you think?"
The Bearded Commander played with the chip. After frowning in thought for a while, he nodded. "All right, we'll take it. What about the payment?"
"Hm!" Porphyris waved a hand. Dozens of thin strands suddenly shot out from the blue flames around his body. Before long, those seemingly weak strands coiled around a huge pile of gleaming crystals and pulled them out of the spacecraft. "Ten cubic meters of standard-grade Zakla Energy Crystals. I believe that is a fair payment. We trust the Hell Angels' reputation, so the entire payment will be made in advance."
A flash of blue light crossed Prajna's eyes—Porphyris's psychic power was astonishingly powerful! Zakra Crystals had twice the density of steel, yet Porphyris had effortlessly drawn out ten cubic meters of them with psychic force. This guy was terrifyingly strong!
Gu Xiechen sneered a few times, then suddenly asked loudly, "Which family owns that spacecraft? Honored Lord Porphyris, noble Roam people would never stoop to lying!"
Porphyris looked at Gu Xiechen in surprise and lowered the white handkerchief from his nose. After staring at Gu Xiechen for a while, he said indifferently, "The Holsom Family. That spacecraft belongs to the Holsom Family. More precisely, it belongs to the Roam people's second-ranked Elector Family."
Gu Xiechen lowered his head and said nothing more. The Bearded Commander would make the decision best suited to the mercenary group's interests.
The Bearded Commander slipped the chip into his pocket and nodded at Porphyris with a smile. "All right. Just as I said, I'll teach the Sacred Unicorn a lesson. Ten cubic meters of Zakra Crystals? Mr. Porphyris is truly generous. Uh, can we really take possession of the cargo aboard that ship?"
Porphyris turned and flew back toward the spacecraft. He said faintly, "Do as you please. As long as everyone aboard is killed and the cargo does not fall into the hands of the Holsom Family."
Standing at the spacecraft hatch, Porphyris turned back with a warning. "If the mission fails, we will not reclaim the payment. However, every Hell Angels Mercenary Group team operating outside this base will be subjected to targeted attacks." With a strange smile on his lips, Porphyris sighed leisurely. "That is the high risk that comes with high returns, isn't it, Mr. Big Beard?"
Porphyris's small spacecraft flew into the clouds and vanished. Watching the metal doors above slowly close, Gu Xiechen shouted, "May you be shot down by a Federation patrol!"
The Bearded Commander shouted as well, "All right, Evil Dragon, stop worrying about those bastards in the Federation patrol. Let's see what's in the chip. We need to carefully plan this mission."
Half an hour later, a burst of startled cries erupted from the Bearded Commander's office.
Gu Xiechen stared blankly at the information on the display screen and gave a bitter smile. "This mission really is high-risk!"
Having just joined the Hell Angels Mercenary Group, he was already about to undertake such a dangerous mission. Gu Xiechen felt that Liu Nian had truly been unfavorable to him lately.
"The Holsom Family truly deserves to be the Roam people's second Elector Family!"
Gu Xiechen silently sighed to himself.
All right... I still have to mutter some nonsense. Clicks and recommendations... bricks and comments... the more, the better... (To be continued)
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