Chapter 20 - Long Time No See, Darling

Alf thought it was extremely strange.

Although it was true that he told the youth to come to him and the youth did come, his expression still made Alf feel somewhat disturbed.

Alf's appearance belongs to that of a cold, strong man. At this time, he was doubtfully scanning Astra up and down. The scar across his eyebrow to his lower jaw increased his fiendish aura up a notch, while his muscles were so full of vigor they were about to burst out.

Astra's expression was calm, so Alf simply said, "I'll give you a chance to survive so tell me the whole process of how you captured that trash."

He added a sentence of warning at the end, "…Speak well, boy."

"Is it that hard?"

Astra propped himself on a crimson table, his dazzling starry sky-like eyes staring at Alf. "He's trash, we captured that trash, what else is there to say?"

Crazy, too crazy.

Percy smacked his tongue behind them, wondering where this kid found the courage to talk to Alf like this.

Alf gazed deeply at Astra. The teenager faced him in a natural manner, even his brows were raised. His handsome face was blooming with youthful energy belonging to his age group, and it was as if he was saying, 'What, am I wrong?'

Red Skull's boss shifted his line of sight. "Percy, tell me, how did you originally planned to deal with them."

"There are many methods." Percy smiled. "The little plants on our ship haven't had fresh nutrients in a long time. Their kind likes to suck the living's bone marrow. You can let it suck out the bones of these little kids before throwing them to the spaceship's bottom deck together with those pets with big appetites."

As known to everyone, these groups of space pirates always liked to raise some bizarre animals and plants, all of which possessed formidable lethality without exception.

Astra frowned. He retracted his hand and stood up straight. "What do you want?"

"Join my crew, boy." Alf smiled maliciously. "Bid goodbye to your stupid military school life and become my successor. I very much appreciate you."

Wen's lip corners upturned, full of mockery.

His reaction was already considered quite small, because his teammates around him could no longer hold back. Their rage was surging over reason. Even the cool-headed ones such as Jiyu and Linus, no longer intended to continue enduring.

"Your thoughts are really too beautiful," Wen didn't expect himself to be the first person who truly wouldn't be able to hold himself back. His expression was indifferent, but his tone brought a strong sense of oppression, "Pirate."

Percy couldn't help turning his head to look at him, the surprise in his eyes couldn't be hidden.

He was thinking moments ago that that kid was crazy, but it turns out there was a bolder one.

And hearing that tone, he almost instantly recalled what a certain master had said to Alf three years ago: "You're too daring, Alf."

This was all but a wonderful memory for Alf.

Percy contemplated silently. He was about to bring up that this youngster's corpse was to be collected.

But immediately after, he realized that this wasn't a matter of collecting corpses.2

"On what basis would he join pirates?" Linus sneered, revealing his poisonous tongue, "Base on your ability to escape?"

"Hahahaha," Simon laughed exaggeratedly for fear that others wouldn't hear it.

Jiyu stood in front of them and beckoned to Astra. "Astra, come here."

Just as the space pirates loathed the imperial army and military academy, the citizens of the empire could be said to be disgusted with the space pirates to the point of hatred.

That leader of a pirate crew said something like this to their brother last time they were in Vagor. This time, it was the same old thing again. Can't they change the way they insult people?

These dolts just keep on dreaming.

Alf sprang from his seat, causing the powerful explosive force to make the chair squeak loudly. But he hadn't taken his next action yet when a strange spiritual energy pressed against his throat like a blade, which made him regain some rationality. He curiously bowed to look at the silvery white light on his neck.

"Oh," he suddenly realized, "so you can actually manifest spiritual energy."

"It's a pretty good speed." Percy sighed before commenting with a smile, "Boss, your vision is much better than ours."

The anger boiling within him earlier vanished. Alf laughed as if he wasn't worried about Astra's spiritual energy causing him any harm. "Your courage is commendable, kid."

After the dust settled, Astra sighed inwardly, now bearing a calm expression on his face. "You say you appreciate me, then please give me 24 hours to think about it. Of course, I need to be with them."

His spiritual energy lying horizontally in front of Alf's neck remained motionless, which showcased how astonishing the teenager's control over his energy was and similarly, his psychological endurance. Alf was delighted, his stiff brows relaxed, and he agreed to his request with pleasure. "Deal. Percy, take them outside and confine them for 24 hours."

They were led outside, but before they were fully out, Wen inclined his face to the side.

Alf's scorching gaze was fixed on Astra's back, looking very satisfied with him.

Wen turned his head back and calmly caught up with the group.

In the dim corridor, Percy kept complimenting them, and from time to time other space pirates who were passing by would stop and greet him, "Master Percy."

Red Skull's spaceship was very big but Percy didn't led them along for too long before they arrived in the room where they were to be locked in. Before closing the door, he said meaningfully, "I hope you can stay for the full 24 hours."

The door was completely closed.

The room was equipped with basic facilities. Five people were sitting on the bedside full of fighting spirit. Although they were in a dangerous situation, they were unexpectedly stirred up with the desire to fight. "24 hours is enough!"

Regardless of whether the school staff could rush to rescue them or not, at least, they couldn't give up on helping themselves.

For fear of his teammates lacking the will, Simon brainwashed them. "Hey, brothers! Get your spirits together, we'll be famous after we finish this mission. Catching Roux is still scarier than this!"

"This can't make catching Roux scarier," Linus retaliated verbally first, and then asked Astra and Wen, "How are you two recovering?"

Wen: "Half."

Astra: "More than half."

It sounded like Astra was in the lead but in fact, he was far behind Wen. With Wen's speed of recovery, it was possible that he could return to his position as the strongest in the interstellar tonight.

But Linus and the others didn't know this so they couldn't relax. After their weapons were taken away, the importance of spiritual energy has become extremely apparent. But whether it was Astra or Wen, no matter how amazing their talent was, they were just freshmen who've just entered school and hadn't studied systematically yet.

"Not bad." Linus lowered his voice. "Help me avoid being eavesdropped, and try to be careful not to get caught."

Wen nodded, and a layer of spiritual energy that no one could see enveloped them. His skill could be rated as the number one, so even the most accurate detector, when it comes to his concealment, wouldn't be able to measure up. The others were still wondering why they didn't see any luminous glow of spiritual energy when he dropped the mine in a low-key manner, "I simply concealed it."

His teammates' mouths opened into a big "O" shape.

S-so powerful?!

They thought only Astra was not on the same level as them, but now they found out that Gu Wencheng have hidden himself too deeply and had already learned how to conceal his spiritual energy!

Moreover, looking at his proficiency, it was obvious that it took not just a day or two to learn this method!

My god.

"Stop being in a daze." Astra was amused, and his earlier bad mood was cured by his teammates. "Linus, what do you plan to do?"

After confirming that he wouldn't be noticed, Linus unbuttoned his coat. A silver button rolled a few times in Linus' hand before being held down with his thumb. After half a minute, an emotionless mechanical voice sounded: {"The distance of the last recorded coordinate has moved 318 coordinate points to the southwest."}

Linus stroked the button twice. With a click, the upper part of the fingernail-sized button opened and a palm-sized hologram appeared. He explained in a low voice, "A material from Rockhold planet. This one small piece consumed many years of my work."

The others silently gave him a like3.

Closing their mouths that were gaping due to surprise, Jiyu and Simon unconsciously looked at each other. Why do they feel that the two of them were the most useless here?

Linus quickly typed with both hands to convey data to the hologram. After a while, he relaxed his already rigid hands. "The time for their next patrol shifts are right above. The best time period is 5 hours later."

They leaned over to look and nodded. "Now let's rest and get enough energy. It'll depend on the strike tonight."

"I don't know why," Jiyu sincerely said, "but since knowing that Wen's spiritual energy can be hidden, I feel…"

His mouth was covered by Astra. Astra smiled charmingly. "Be good, let's talk about it after we get back to school?"

Jiyu nodded obediently. In fact, he just wanted to say that it increased the sense of security.

Currently, there were five hours away from the time period when the defense was the weakest. They prepared everything they could, relaxed their minds, and replenished their spirits in bed.

Astra heard a slight noise in his half-asleep state.

He abruptly opened his eyes and promptly scanned the room. Aside from his teammates who were still on the bed, there was no one.

Did he mishear?

Astra closed his eyes again, but the tip of his nose keenly smelled the fishy scent of blood.

He cursed in a low voice as he agilely got off the bed and approached the door.

A stronger smell of blood came from the seam on the door, but there were no sounds of crying for help outside.

His hand grasped the doorknob. The strange thing was that the door which had been previously locked by Percy was now easily opened by him.

Holding his breath, Astra looked out intently, ready to shout for his teammates to escape at any time.

However, a gust of wind hit and he was pulled out of the room by a pair of hands, the door behind him gently closed after. The sky spun and he was slammed onto the closed door. The man pressing him down placed his hands beside his ears. The dense reek of blood assaulted him.

"Long time no see," The bright flowers were stained with dripping blood which made a beautiful arc on the pure white mask. Roux said with a smile, "Darling."