Milili

"Hey!" Kolev snapped. "You're staring like a fool, you brat! Her old man's right here!"

"Your daughter's name is Milili? How did I not notice earlier."

Yang Ming muttered, his eyes gleaming.

The old man lunged and grabbed Yang Ming by the neck. "Don't you dare have any filthy thoughts about her!"

Yang Ming let Kolev grip his neck. The old man wasn't using much force, or if he was, Yang Ming couldn't feel it at all.

A wise gentleman naturally wouldn't stare too aggressively at a lady.

Yang Ming calmly looked away. Kolev relented, shot him a smug raise of the eyebrows, and hopped down with a cheerful laugh.

Yang Ming went right back to unabashedly admiring the beauty.

Milili's wine-red hair looked like it had just been soaked in red wine. Her skin, so delicate it seemed ready to break at a touch, was like the finest gift the Creator had given humanity. Especially the small face atop her swan-like neck—the clever arrangement of her features would surely make her birth mother overjoyed.

—Her smooth forehead was flawless. The slight hollow of her eye sockets and the gentle rise of her nose bridge created a subtle three-dimensional effect. Those gem-like, light-colored eyes seemed to whisper to anyone who looked at them.

And her tall, slender figure was perfectly showcased by her outfit of suspenders, a blouse, and tall leather boots.

Kolev spread his arms.

Milili, five or six centimeters taller than him, laughed and ran to her father, throwing her arms around him and screaming with excitement.

Screaming suited a pirate better than crying.

Yang Ming kept his hands in the pockets of his maintenance suit, leaning against the front of the maintenance boat. He soaked in the warmth of the father-daughter reunion, taking the chance to steal a few more glances at Milili's eye-catching figure.

'What a beauty.'

What made it even rarer was that her youthful vitality radiated from her very bones, not something artificially plastered on her face.

But compared to Milili's beauty and energy, Yang Ming was clearly more interested in her other identity.

To be precise, it was her other identity thirty Milky Way years later, inside the Abyss.

She was one of the most infamous villain characters among players in the '60–70' personal level range.

Her beauty and fiery figure had earned her a spot in the top twenty NPCs players most wanted to date for two consecutive years.

Her Black Wind Pirate Group commanded dozens of warships of various sizes, boldly using a small nation as their base. It was a legendary pirate group, rare in history, that could openly provoke a major nation's regular fleet and escape unscathed.

And Milili herself had consistently ranked in the top ten on players' bounty lists, a prime target for all major armies in the '60–70' range. If anyone's mech or combat boat landed a single hit, they could become a millionaire overnight.

But Milili survived.

Not only did she escape danger multiple times under the frenzied siege of player armies, dealing heavy blows that drove several large guilds to the brink of bankruptcy, but she also managed to run for president in a medium-sized Milky Way nation and secure political asylum.

She was as proud as a queen, yet possessed the ruthlessness of a pirate.

She was like a beautiful venomous snake, or a rose with thorns, but she never once became demure for any man.

Yes, Yang Ming was now completely certain that the young, beautiful woman before him was the future Pirate Queen!

The Star Widow, Milili!

"Uh, hold on."

Yang Ming raised a hand and rubbed his brow.

He genuinely loved this girl's face and figure.

But that nickname... wasn't it a bit too harsh on her future partner?

And wait—the Pirate Queen whose sexy photos he'd collected back in the day was actually a fifty-something auntie?

Yang Ming's expression turned complicated.

Kolev only gave Milili a symbolic hug before shifting his gaze to the few elderly people nearby.

"Oh, you're all here! My old friends!"

These gray-haired but still sturdy elders stepped forward, two of them exchanging hugs with Kolev. A couple of the old ladies' eyes reddened, clearly emotional.

Kolev looked further back, spotted the middle-aged men and women, greeted them with a smile, then furrowed his brow.

"Where are the others?"

Kolev asked. "Gimo, Guka, Felina, Emilier... Oh, are they on other ships?"

"There are no other ships, Dad."

Milili bit her lip, looking a bit flustered, unable to meet Kolev's gaze.

"We were expelled... by Gimo... I'm sorry, Dad, I lost your Black Dragon Pirate Group..."

Kolev's face darkened like a storm cloud.

The outer cabin fell silent.

A few of the elderly tried to explain for Milili, but Kolev's fearsome reputation kept them from daring to speak.

No one knew what the old pirate thought during those thirty seconds of silence. He turned, walked up to Milili, and slapped his beautiful daughter across the face.

Smack!

Yang Ming raised an eyebrow from the side.

Milili's eyes brimmed with tears, her lips pressed tightly together, both hands clasped behind her back, not uttering a single word.

"As your captain," Kolev growled, "in just four years! You've lost the seven ships I left you! Over a thousand crew members! How useless do you have to be for everyone to abandon you?"

"Gimo pretended to court me, and I refused," Milili said, her voice trembling. "He kept spreading rumors about me, tampered with the accounts, and made me..."

"Enough! This is a failure of ability!"

Kolev roared, then closed his eyes and let out a soft breath. He opened his arms and embraced Milili, gently patting her back with his fist.

"As your father. You've been wronged, Milili. Dad will stand up for you, Dad will take down everyone who bullied you! Alright, my little darling! Let me introduce you to a new friend I've just made, a close companion despite our age gap—a strong and mature man. His name is Hanton."

Yang Ming made himself look like a proper elder, wearing an elegant smile.

He extended his right hand to Milili. She glanced at Kolev, then stepped forward and shook Yang Ming's hand gracefully.

"Hello, Uncle Hanton."

Yang Ming's smile stiffened slightly as he said with a laugh, "We should be about the same age."

Milili blinked her long lashes. A faint blush colored her cheeks from the slap just now, and a glimmer of curiosity surfaced in her eyes.

She knew well that her father's harsh mouth rarely spat out words of praise.

"Alright! Break it up!"

Kolev slapped Yang Ming's hand away, pulled Milili behind him with a wary look, and stared at Yang Ming. "Milili, you'd better know this upfront: this guy is strong, and he's a playboy. When we were coming over, a woman almost as pretty as you was pouring her heart out to him with longing eyes. Guess what he did?"

Milili's curiosity deepened. "What did he do?"

"He knocked her out!"

Kolev cursed, "Right after they were tangling tongues with each other, he knocked her out with his head!"

"Oh!" Milili's eyes were full of confusion.

Yang Ming shrugged. "Nothing's more important than freedom. She was trying to trap me with her looks, and I don't get enchanted by ordinary beauty."

Two old men and a middle-aged man appeared beside Kolev, completely separating Yang Ming from Milili.

They spoke in turn:

"Kid, what feats have you got? To join our New Black Dragon Pirate Group, you have to pass a strict assessment! For example, I once took down two Lieutenant-level Officers—New Federation officers!"

"I once scared off three escort ships from a merchant fleet with an empty vessel, three of them!"

"Oh, I haven't done anything that big yet, but I'm a seasoned scoundrel! Haha! I can use a Laser Gun, and I've even hit three Center Targets with one!"

Yang Ming thought: Doesn't a Laser Gun have no recoil? Don't most Laser Guns come with an Assisted Targeting system?

He naturally understood where these guys' hostility came from.

Right now, Milili was still an innocent girl, far from growing into the Pirate Queen of the stars. She still had a thirty-year road ahead, one destined to be filled with tragedies and challenges.

"My recent feats are a bit unremarkable," Yang Ming said earnestly. "I just stripped the pants off eight burly men and left them paralyzed on the ground, unable to move."

—Referring to the physical exam incident when he first entered the prison.

The two old men and the middle-aged man changed expressions, sizing up the faint muscle outlines visible under Yang Ming's maintenance suit, and wisely stepped back half a pace.

"You, you've passed our assessment, young man with astonishing stamina."

"Kolev, your old friends are really something," Yang Ming said with a squinting smile. "I'm not here to join you. I just teamed up with Kolev to break out of prison. I'm Kolev's comrade-in-arms. Now, Kolev, are you going to keep following me as my First Mate, or stay here to clean up this mess?"

Kolev mused for a few moments. "I was originally thinking of starting a new pirate group and making you my First Mate."

"Give it up," Yang Ming reminded him. "You already called me Captain earlier."

"I said temporary Captain!" Kolev corrected. "That Lina was your doing, nothing to do with me, so you need to take responsibility. And a captain's first duty is to bear that responsibility."

"Fine, whatever you say."

Yang Ming smiled at Milili and gave a slight wink.

Milili couldn't even meet his gaze.

Was this... was this really the domineering, aura-filled Milili?

Yang Ming noticed Kolev showing signs of going berserk and quickly looked away. "Think it over. I'm going to take a shower. Any empty cabin works, right? Kolev, we'll talk later."

Yang Ming glanced under the seat of the Maintenance Boat, then turned and walked past the group of middle-aged and elderly pirates toward the hatch.

What a shame—his Lightsaber and Light Shield were left on the Escape Pod and confiscated by the Humanity Association.

A failed zero-cost shopping spree.

As he stepped into the rust-stained corridor, he could still hear the conversation behind him.

"This young man has no manners."

"Hey," Kolev warned, "remember this: don't anyone provoke him. I mean anyone! He's an extremely dangerous person. If he wanted to kill everyone here, it would take him the blink of an eye."

"Boss, you're exaggerating."

"His latest feat isn't those eight guys. He dismantled over a dozen Mechanical Guards with his bare hands, subdued more than a hundred guards without them even noticing his trail, seized the prison's surveillance room and armory, and killed their Chief Guard along with a few troublesome inmates.

"How do you think I escaped? His individual combat ability could take on a hundred Gimos! The only thing he's missing is a ship of his own."

Yang Ming shook his head with a faint smile.

He'd pop a capsule later. Intense combat wasn't good for his stability—he still needed to get his hands on pure Gene Stabilizer as soon as possible.

This younger version of the Star Queen, Milili...

Yang Ming clicked his tongue.

He respected his comrade Kolev and wouldn't actively make a move on Milili. But if she came to him on her own, it'd be hard to refuse a young mistress who fit every single one of his aesthetic preferences.

Who could resist that?

Half an hour later, a soft knock came at the door of the cabin Yang Ming had chosen.

Standing under the water curtain, Yang Ming alertly gripped the dagger he'd just found.

"Who is it?"

"Uncle Hanton," Milili's sweet voice rang out. "Father asked me to remind you—we'll be performing a Continuous Jump in the next half hour."

"Thanks," Yang Ming said simply.

"Can I come in?" Milili asked. "I brought you a change of clothes."

Yang Ming: ...

'She's my niece now.'

He reminded himself silently.