I Want Your Lives

It gave off no aura at all, yet the pressure it brought made the dozens of figures nearby dare not raise their heads.

Only two figures beside it were unaffected. One of them was visibly indignant.

After a long while, the figure at the front spoke.

"Second Brother, I know your son's death has cost you face, but for now, the council's affairs must take priority. This concerns whether we can survive, and even whether we can leave Prison Star.

"You can always have another son. If I remember correctly, you have at least ten children, don't you?"

"That's right, Second Brother. Mobilizing most of the Hunters and directly giving up the Tier 2 equipment in more than ten Advanced Airdrop Crates to surround that opponent is already everything the gang could do. It's time to calm down. Once we finish setting everything up, if you want to personally take revenge, we won't say a word. For now, the gang's resources must be considered for our future."

The figure at the front and the figure on the left urged him to reconsider.

In the end, the Viper Clan member known as Second Brother said solemnly, "Of course I know what matters more."

"Good. Then let's discuss how to wipe out that Pan-Human gang."

At the same time.

After driving out of the sloping road, Jiang Xiao looked at the suddenly widening wasteland and desert ahead, and his mood lifted considerably.

He had finally gotten out.

At the same time, he grew increasingly vigilant and cautious. Normally, the starport did not allow extra prisoners to enter the Old Capital, but that did not mean they couldn't set up an interception outside the Old Capital. For the resources in the airdrop, the local prisoners might very well block him outside.

Perhaps the danger ahead would be even greater than before!

He steeled himself. The Origin Data was ready to be unleashed, prepared to overload the Armored Jeep and speed away at any moment.

Tier 2 was powerful, but it still couldn't completely disregard being surrounded or firearms.

Jiang Xiao remained highly alert as he continued forward.

Fifteen minutes later, surprise appeared on his face.

There had been no interception?

Why?

As he pondered this, Jiang Xiao unconsciously glanced at the wasteland to his left.

A small sandstorm was rolling up in the distance and rapidly approaching. Jiang Xiao frowned and controlled his goggles to magnify the image.

His expression froze on the spot.

"Not good!!"

The so-called sandstorm in the image was actually dust kicked up by a group of rapidly moving objects!

It was—

A swarm!!

I Want Your Lives

All right, now he knew why.

"So that's how you want to play it!"

Jiang Xiao cursed under his breath and abruptly shifted the Armored Jeep into its highest gear. Origin Data surged wildly into the power module. The engine let out a beastlike roar, and the vehicle's speed soared to two hundred kilometers per hour within seconds!

In the distance, a black-brown swarm surged in from the front right like a tidal wave.

Even worse, another swarm numbering more than ten thousand charged out from the front left. The two sandstorms rapidly closed in from both sides, intending to cut off the road ahead.

Looking at the two sandstorms that were about to merge, Jiang Xiao narrowed his eyes slightly as the Jeep continued accelerating!

The roar of the power module was deafening, yet the vehicle kept picking up speed.

The swarm drew closer and closer. He could even make out the hideous shells and sharp claws, glinting coldly beneath the setting sun.

Only a hundred meters or so remained between the two waves of insects!

He could make it through!

With the Origin Data's support, the speedometer's needle had long since reached its marked limit. Even so, the vehicle's speed continued to climb.

Vrrrrr!

The Jeep shot into the gap between the swarms like an arrow loosed from a bow, and time seemed to freeze at that moment.

The vehicle rocked violently over the uneven ground. The furious roar of the power module mingled with the swarm's tide-like rustling. On both sides, the black mass of insects surged and slammed toward him like boiling tar.

"Gaaah!!!"

The two swarms crashed into each other. Dozens of Raptor Bugs instantly shattered into pieces.

The Armored Jeep escaped at its absolute limit.

In the rearview mirror, the swarm gradually became a cluster of black dots before finally dispersing across the wasteland.

"Hahahahaha!"

Jiang Xiao gripped the steering wheel and began laughing for no apparent reason. He had never experienced such exhilarating freedom before!

After confirming that he had completely shaken off the swarm, Jiang Xiao immediately reduced his speed, maintaining it at 120 kilometers per hour. He then pulled out the Sin City Network Terminal and searched for nearby camps or settlements.

The straight-line distance between the Old Capital and Sin Capital was more than two thousand kilometers. He definitely couldn't reach it within two or three days.

He wasn't worried about replacement parts or energy for the Armored Jeep. He had dismantled quite a few replacements in the Old Capital over the past few days, and the Jeep had a full eleven batteries!

However, he urgently needed to replenish his water and food. His current supplies would last only one day.

A Tier 2 Source-Energy Martial Artist had extremely high energy requirements. Outside Prison Star, this would have been easy enough—a Tier 2 energy bar could satisfy his needs for a day. But here, he could only maintain his condition by eating large quantities of food.

"Found it. Rosaka Small Settlement. Multiple races live together."

After locking onto the target, Jiang Xiao turned and drove toward it.

He had to arrive before nightfall.

Many monsters emerged at night on Prison Star. They weren't swarms, but true Mutated Monsters. Although Jiang Xiao himself wasn't afraid of them, the Jeep might not be able to withstand them.

The Sin City Network said they were failed products of experiments by the Gene Pharmaceutical Companies. The interstellar corporations were unwilling to destroy them but couldn't violate interstellar law, so they simply dumped them on the Frontier Prison Star and monitored them at irregular intervals to supplement their research data.

Jiang Xiao's assessment was that this was normal.

The Doran's logs even recorded that some more unscrupulous Gene Pharmaceutical Companies had dumped failed products onto the planets of Surface Civilizations, causing biological crises in order to observe the evolution of viruses.

It wasn't until a Universal Conglomerate representing the industry was sanctioned by an Advanced Civilization that revered nature that this trend was suppressed.

The Armored Jeep sped along. The slight bumps and the dusk in the distance gradually calmed Jiang Xiao's mind and emptied it of distractions.

Beneath the setting sun, the Jeep swept past withered yellow shrubs.

Jiang Xiao's thoughts gradually drifted away. Too many things had happened over the past month, and only now did he have the leisure to recall them. Whether it was the sudden destruction of the Doran or the inexplicable life sentence, everything about it still felt somewhat unreal to Jiang Xiao.

It wasn't affectation. Things had simply happened too suddenly, leaving him without much sense of reality.

If he had to say whether he felt anything about the "home" he had lived in for a year suddenly being destroyed, the answer was no. Jiang Xiao always felt that the Doran was still there, and that the foulmouthed captain was still alive.

He had no evidence. It was simply an intuition.

"Forget it. I'll take things one step at a time. For now, the main goal is to get off Prison Star."

Jiang Xiao pulled his thoughts back and slightly increased his speed.

About an hour later, Jiang Xiao, bored as he browsed the Sin City Network, saw scattered lights ahead, and his spirits lifted.

He had finally arrived.

Jiang Xiao chose not to drive the Jeep inside. He found a patch of shrubbery and parked there, picked up a robe and covered his body and head, wrapped several rifles in rags, and tucked a large-caliber pistol around his waist before walking straight toward the settlement.

When he was still about a hundred meters from the crude wooden gate, a bullet suddenly struck the ground in front of Jiang Xiao.

Seeing this, Jiang Xiao raised the rifle wrapped in rags, exposing its stock to indicate that he wanted to exchange weapons for supplies.

This was common knowledge he had seen on the Sin City Network.

After waiting for about ten seconds, the battered gate slowly opened.

Jiang Xiao entered the settlement smoothly.

Calling it a settlement was a stretch. It was more like a camp. Inside, the first thing that caught his eye was a collection of dilapidated huts and shacks.

Black smoke billowed from several shacks, accompanied by the faint sound of machinery operating inside.

Beside the gate were three Jeep convoys with different paint schemes, more than ten vehicles in total. They appeared to belong to different factions.

The camp wasn't large, with a diameter of roughly five or six hundred meters. He could see the far end at a glance.

Many fierce-looking alien races moved back and forth among the shacks, or gathered in front of the smoke-belching huts, shouting loudly. Crude language and curses could be heard everywhere.

He glanced at the radar map. There were more than three hundred red markers in total, but only seventeen Source-Energy signatures. Apparently, there were no Tier 2 Martial Artists.

"Outsider, if you want to trade weapons for something, go to Old Gear's shop—that shack with the red roof. Don't wander around, or else, heh heh."

A shrill voice came from beside him.

Jiang Xiao looked over. It was an insect-like alien, very similar in appearance to the three he had killed in the Old Capital at the beginning.

Was it the Blade Armor Gang or the Armor Blade Gang?

Jiang Xiao couldn't be bothered with it and walked straight toward the red-roofed shack. There was nothing he could do; his understanding of Sin Capital was still too shallow. The things circulating on the Sin City Network were all basic knowledge.

He knew nothing about the major gangs' relationships, distribution, actual strength, or even how to enter Sin Capital.

There was no harm in being cautious. That was also why he hadn't attacked directly.

Entering Sin Capital as soon as possible and finding a way to leave Prison Star was what mattered.

When he reached Old Gear's shack, he looked it over. Rough firearms covered the walls inside, while the black iron cage beside the counter was particularly conspicuous.

"What do you want to trade for?"

The hoarse, shrill voice made Jiang Xiao frown. As he watched the green-shelled cockroach alien rise from beneath the counter, an instinctive trace of disgust welled up inside him.

"Some high-energy food and water, and..."

Suddenly, Old Gear's body stiffened. Ignoring Jiang Xiao, he hurried to the side and said, "Lord Kazi, you've finally arrived. The goods came a long time ago. I paid quite a price for this shipment. Take a look..."

"Cut the act. I'll pay extra. Let me see the goods."

Suppressing his impatience, Jiang Xiao glanced at the newcomer from the corner of his eye.