Fu Qinghai let out a breath and came back to himself.
The other person had seen him reflected in that shard of glass.
That meant it was easy to pinpoint his position: diagonally behind Fu Qinghai, in the direction Peibo had crawled from.
Fu Qinghai turned to face that direction, took the stun baton off his back, gripped it, and slowly backed away.
Choosing his words carefully, he asked, "May I ask who you are?"
The eye he'd seen in the glass was unmistakably human.
A human being who could communicate was better than some strange Warp creature.
"Hmph." The rough voice gave a mocking snort. "You want to know? Come over and talk."
Fu Qinghai thought, Then why don't you come over and talk to me?
Fu Qinghai slowly backed away from the voice.
...Could it be that you can't come over?
Having confirmed his suspicion, Fu Qinghai continued backing away until he was behind the half-open hatch. Once he was sure none of the shards of glass could reflect his image, he raised his voice.
"Sir... er, Your Excellency, I mean no harm, and I have no intention of offending you. I'm a law-abiding citizen of the Imperium, a resident of Cheslatan, the planet numbered 17-974. My name is Cedric."
"I happened to pass by, and I was presumptuous enough to disturb you... Please don't take offense."
"Ku-ku-ku..." The voice let out a hoarse, unpleasant laugh. "You just happened to pass by, then figured you'd help yourself to something off me while you were at it?"
"I only want to understand the situation, Your Excellency, understand the situation." Fu Qinghai called back loudly as he edged toward the hatch.
"There's an automated defense cannon in the corridor. It's still operational. If you're not afraid, you're welcome to go a little farther that way," the voice drawled lazily.
Huh? Fu Qinghai couldn't see a thing in the dark corridor beyond the hatch, so he gently twisted the end of his stun baton, turning on its flashlight.
Deep in the dark corridor, a thin red beam suddenly lit up and instantly trained on the flashlight in Fu Qinghai's hand.
Shit!
Fu Qinghai scrambled and rolled out through the hatch, a complete mess.
The red beam went out, too.
"Ku-ku-ku-ku..." The hoarse, unpleasant laughter rang out again. "Poor little mouse, scurrying around and hiding."
Though his movements had been clumsy, Fu Qinghai hadn't lost his composure.
For a split second, the flashlight had illuminated more than a beam of red light from deep in the darkness. In the corner of the corridor lay fresh, shattered chunks of a corpse.
Maybe that's what a body looks like after being torn apart by a heavy-caliber cannon, Fu Qinghai guessed.
The man kept talking, but Fu Qinghai hadn't heard a single footstep. The voice also seemed to be coming from the same distance every time.
He saw me first, yet he can't come over.
He's trapped!
Having reached that conclusion, Fu Qinghai stopped panicking. He slowly sat down on the floor and caught his breath.
The voice fell silent, too.
Fu Qinghai casually picked up a piece of scrap metal and tossed it into the pile of glass around the corner. It clattered against the shards, putting a stop to the mysterious man's ability to watch him in their reflections.
By analyzing the angle of the reflections, Fu Qinghai had roughly figured out where the mysterious man was.
The entire warship was tilted. The floor had become a wall, and the walls had become the floor. On Fu Qinghai's left lay a ruin choked with debris: a collapsed bulkhead, a steel gangway, and a half-open hatch.
On his right was a tall, broad doorway. Judging from the charred fabric and broken colored glass, the space beyond looked like a small chapel or something similar. It was far more spacious than the area to Fu Qinghai's left. But since that was the direction Peibo's corpse had faced, Fu Qinghai had been afraid to go over there.
As Fu Qinghai sat on the floor thinking, a burst of sparks flared from the frayed end of a thick cable in the corner, bringing a pale, ghastly light to the gloomy space.
Fu Qinghai looked down at the stun gun in his hand.
Pop! A bubble burst in the sea of thought inside Iron Man's electronic soul.
Sparks meant some of the warship's power systems were still running... Fu Qinghai slowly unscrewed the flashlight from the end of the stun gun, then carefully took apart the casing around its shaft, exposing the battery and transformer components. The more he thought, the clearer his plan became.
After removing the battery, he modified the stun gun's wiring components by hand. Then he stood and walked toward the thick cable spitting sparks. Gripping its insulated outer casing with both hands, he pulled with all his might. With a clatter of shifting debris, he dragged a long, thick black cable out of the wreckage.
Fu Qinghai looked at the thick electrical cable, as broad as an adult's arm at one end, and the metal stun lance, no thicker than an ordinary steel pipe, at the other.
Fu Qinghai didn't even have a basic electrician's license, but an idea was taking shape in his mind: he just felt he could connect the two.
While Fu Qinghai tinkered with the cable, the rough, unpleasant voice remained silent, no longer harassing him.
Maybe the man was tired, or maybe he'd lost interest.
Fu Qinghai ignored him and carried on with his work.
Fifteen minutes later.
Straining to drag the cable, Fu Qinghai held the stun lance attached to its end and marched resolutely toward the large doorway Peibo's corpse had crawled out of.
Fragments of information churned in his mind: "Modified stun lance. External power supply. Based on the load capacity of the transformer and circuit board, weapon durability: one use."
His initial assessment was that it would burn out after one shot.
Fu Qinghai thrust the lance around the corner!
The warship remained silent. No hail of bullets came whistling toward him as he'd imagined.
Fu Qinghai stuck his head out, then immediately pulled it back.
Still silent. No blades came slicing through the air as he'd imagined.
Finally, Fu Qinghai gathered his courage and lunged forward.
There!
Not far ahead sat a gigantic, hulking man with an East Asian face and a broad, fleshy face, slumped against the gangway.
He looked at Fu Qinghai as if he thought he was an idiot.
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