Star Rank Hunter

Chapter 358: Why Are You So Precious [Part 2]

In all nine research bases, at the entrances of the warehouses where the spaceplanes, fighters and more ships were parked, a lot of panicked researchers were clashing against the guards in an attempt to escape the planet. They obviously wanted to escape the planet, but the persons-in-charge couldn’t allow that to happen and sealed the entrances shut. If the researchers were allowed to escape, they would never return to their projects and continue their projects, not without a massive amount of persuasion and coercion at least. There were also some things that best remained secret to the public even if the researchers had never been informed about the truly important secrets.

The researchers were injected with GPS chips as an insurance policy, but the object was hardly indestructible. After all, these people were chosen precisely because they were outstanding in their respective fields. Some of them had to possess the knowledge and skill to disable the chip’s functions, and the persons-in-charge couldn’t bear the risk of these people escaping. Long story short, the situation wasn’t irrecoverable as long as no one managed to make it to space.

On a related note, seven of the nine persons-in-charge had already been stricken by the virus. In that sense, they wanted to escape just as much as the researchers did. There was a reason why they weren’t doing so though. If they stayed, the company still might dispatch some reinforcements and save them. If they tried to escape, they knew that there was absolutely no chance they were going to live.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened. Not only did the warehouse entrances open without warning, a spaceplane flew out of one entrance immediately and knocked down the guards in the process. Encouraged, the researchers immediately swarmed into the warehouses. Those with slightly better physique had even opened the hatch to their chosen spaceplane already. It wasn’t long before fighters and spaceplanes began taking off from every base.

No one noticed a gray shadow dashing past them and disappearing from view.

“Stop them at all costs!” The persons-in-charge roared through their communicator to the patrol fleet and space station.

They meant to blast every ship and their passengers from the sky.

However, the persons-in-charge soon realized that they weren’t receiving a response from the patrol fleet and the space station.

In fact, the communication had cut off before they realized it.

Meanwhile, both the patrol fleet and the space station were contending with their own problems. For some reason , most of their equipment were receiving varying degrees of inteferences, and they were unable to control the satellite array to bombard the ships that were taking off from the planet. Worst of all, they had picked up the signal of an incoming fleet, and they knew that it didn’t belong to Miracle.

Shusag had arrived with the spaceplane at the same time Cillin exited the research base with Mo Heng. After the bottom hatch opened, Cillin ran a few steps before jumping onto it.

Czedow and Wheeze were already inside the spaceplane. Wheeze was currently sitting on a box near the hatch and staring at Mo Heng. Its tail were curled and swaying slowly from side to side.

Cillin took off the face mask and work uniform he wore after he entered the spaceplane. Mo Heng stared intensely at Cillin’s face for a second before turning to look at the familiar cat. Then, he turned back toward Cillin, grabbed his cheeks and pulled it twice. “You changed your appearance again, you brat? How did you recognize me?”

Mo Heng knew he hadn’t made a peep when he ran into Cillin. The boy had still recognized him anyway.

Cillin smiled, but it looked weird because his cheeks were still being pulled.

“I could feel it. Your body shape looked familiar too. Even if you were covered in armor, I could still recognize you from your movements, Master.”

Mo Heng nodded after he was done squeezing Cillin’s cheeks. However, his satisfaction and elation quickly gave way to worry when he noticed the brown spots on the young man’s face. He resolved to take Cillin to his friends who dabbled in virus research and medical science as soon as they escaped this place. Cillin was his only disciple, and he would feel horribly guilty if something bad were to befall the boy because of him.

Cillin noticed Mo Heng’s worry and assured him. “You don’t need to worry, Master. The virus is non-lethal.”

Mo Heng’s thoughts came to an abrupt stop. Then, a realization struck him and caused him to stare at Cillin for two seconds straight. “… you were the ones who created the virus?”

Cillin nodded.

“Who created it, exactly?”

“I did.”

Mo Heng thumped his legs, took two deep breaths, and glanced at Cillin. He repeated the motions a couple more times before he abruptly seized Cillin by the cheeks again.

“Why are you so precious, boy? It’s almost unfair how precious you are!”

Cillin: “…”

At least he looked happy.

“So, how did you get out of your prison room? I hadn’t expected to run into you outside,” Cillin asked.

Mo Heng released Cillin’s cheeks and returned to his seat. He replied slowly but proudly, “Give me a toolbox, and I can take apart the entire base myself. Do you believe me?”

“Of course I do.”

Cillin wasn’t lying. He had heard plenty of gossip regarding Mo Heng’s younger days, and—assuming they weren’t exaggerations—the man had dismantled doors, cars, spaceplanes and many, many more things in his life. This was especially true if someone took a piss on him. His mask was perfect when he was facing his offender, but the moment their backs were turned he would destroy them like never before. Not only that, he had modified all kinds of things ranging from household appliances to flying vehicles with or without the other person’s consent. There was a reason why everyone who really knew Mo Heng had called him an academic gangster.

In summary, the only way to keep Mo Heng imprisoned was to keep his toolbox away from him.

A short while later, Cillin took Mo Heng to his room so he might rest. He promised that he would wake his master if the situation called for it.

After learning that the seemingly deadly virus was really as harmless as a prank, Mo Heng put relaxed and went to bed obediently. In fact, the old engineer hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since the day he was captured, so he fell asleep almost immediately after he closed his eyes.

“How’s it going?” Cillin asked Czedow after entering the cockpit.

“They’re here,” Czedow answered while pointing at the display. He was referring to the unknown fleet, and they were already engaging the patrol fleet in combat. The latter was having an extremely hard time dealing with the fleet’s cannons because most of their equipment were still malfunctioning. If anything, they were lucky that something was working at all considering that Czedow and Wheeze had created the interferences together, not that it would matter once they were blasted to smithereens.

“Someone opened the warehouse entrances of the other four bases, or we wouldn’t have been able to complete our operation this quickly,” Czedow reported next while showing Cillin he and Shusag’s battle against Silver, Judy and Stola. “These people are probably the culprit.”

It could be the work of Yue Lou’s rescuers as well, but Cillin decided to leave the analyses until after they had safely evacuated this place. The GAL military loved direct approaches, and it definitely didn’t look like this was going to end in a peaceful manner. Of course, the chaos also made it easy for them to escape, so Cillin simply ordered Shusag to fly away at full speed.

Meanwhile, Yue Lou had left the research base he was imprisoned in on a fighter to infiltrate the other research bases. At first, this wasn’t his plan at all. He was going to destroy the research base, kill the sonuvabitches who experimented on his fellow comrades, the victims and himself in a blaze of glory. They were all infected by the unknown virus anyway, so what did it matter if they died sooner than later?

His resolve lasted until he received a transmission from the fighter’s communicator informing him about the truth of the virus. His feelings regarding the message was mixed to say the least. On one hand, it chased away all the grim resolve in his heart and made him feel like he could breathe again. On the other hand, there was a smiley face at the end of the message that for some reason annoyed him so much that he nearly punched the display into oblivion.

Anyway, this revelation caused Yue Lou to change his plans to infiltrating the other bases and collecting more evidences. It would give his faction a real reason to declare war on the other armies, and deal a huge blow to the Fifth Army’s reputation.

The virus didn’t paralyze Yue Lou completely, but he was well and truly tired when all was said and done. So, he flew his fighter to a hidden spot some distance away from a research base, got out of the cockpit, and rested his back on the hard, metallic surface.

It took a while, but the first ray of dawn eventually emerged from the horizon. When the sky grew brighter and brighter, and the brown spots on his body grew lighter and lighter, Yue Lou covered his face and smiled.

A fighter that didn’t belong to Miracle descended appeared from the horizon and descended next to Yue Lou’s spaceplane. Then, the pilot jumped out and yelled at Yue Lou, “You dead yet?!”

Yue Lou looked up and said in a somewhat raspy voice, “I was just reborn.”