Star Rank Hunter

Chapter 358: Why Are You So Precious

At a certain spot outside the base.

Silver, Judy and Stola weren’t the only Merciless operatives on this planet. They had agreed to meet on this spot, and everyone had shown up as agreed upon.

They were acting unusually quiet, however.

The brown rain video and the famous music “Rhapsody of a Rainy Night” were playing on Judy’s microcomputer right now. It was currently ascending toward the climax. Had she chosen to play the video of her own accord? Of course not. Her microcomputer had begun playing on its own without warning. It had been hacked by the alien signal, and she was utterly incapable of stopping it. This was the first time she had even seen a signal type like this. She had never been this stumped even when she was taught a lesson by her older brother, Juno. The only way to stop it was to shut down the microcomputer completely.

Her companions didn’t blame her. One look at her face was enough for them to realize that Judy was incapable of stopping this at all.

“Who on earth is doing this?” Someone asked in a low tone.

Silver and Stola didn’t say anything. They knew for certain that the mysterious duo they ran into was connected to this. For one, the video and music had begun playing not long after the duo had left. Two, they had disengaged from the fight very abruptly when both sides were still relatively even. They now knew why they had done what they did.

“It’s definitely not the military. It cannot be the work of the old foxes on the government either. Hell would turn cold before those old foxes in the government would involve themselves in the huge mess that is Miracle, especially not in these times. But... who else could it be if not them?” Another Merciless operative asked.

If it wasn’t the military, the politicians, the Grim Reapers, the Mist or the Merciless, who else was capable of such a feat? It couldn’t be those reckless hunters, could it?

One thing was certain, however. For those who survived today’s incident, especially those who were infected by the virus, they would never be able to listen to “Rhapsody of A Rainy Night” the same way again. In fact, they wouldn’t even be able to face a rainy day without thinking of today’s incident, which was probably the point. Whoever engineered this wanted their victims to panic at the mere sound of raindrops. They wanted the trauma to accompany them for a very, very long time to come. They would most likely get their wish.

“Enough. This isn’t our business. We can figure this out after we get out of this planet. If we dilly dally, we may as well lie down on the ground and let the virus consume us,” said a Merciless operative while patting a transfixed Judy on the shoulder.

Silver turned off the microcomputer and said, “Let’s go. GAL is a big place, and Juno certainly isn’t the only top-tier hacker in GAL. The only reason we haven’t heard of them is because they keep a lower profile than him.”

“That being said, maybe this wouldn’t have happened if Juno was the one who wrote the defense network,” Stola added.

A long time ago, Juno had given an outdated program into Miracle’s hands. They hadn’t cooperated with each other afterward. Miracle had reached out to Juno when the research base was in its foundation stage, but the latter had turned them down. Grim Reaper had never displayed a clear cut stance or ideology, so no one knew what they were really thinking.

Judy neither agreed nor disagreed with Silver and Stola’s comments. They didn’t have her depth of knowledge after all. Not only couldn’t she analyze the alien signal, she couldn’t even intercept or obtain a copy of the data. If all she could do was watch the signal, she wasn’t sure if her older brother, Juno could’ve done much better in her place.

While Judy and her allies were busy being shocked by the alien signal, Wheeze was sitting on top of a tall building and observing everything that was going on inside and outside of the base where Mo Heng was imprisoned. Together with Czedow, it had also disabled the defense network of all nine research bases. Right now, many patients were attempting to escape the base due to the rising chaos caused by “Rhapsody of a Rainy Night”.

Cillin had exploited the openings created by the musical banquet of his own making and slipped into Mo Heng’s research base. It barely took him any effort to avoid the guards with Wheeze and Czedow guiding him.

Cillin had stolen a set of work clothes and even manifested some brown spots on his skin to blend in better. Although most people in the base were wearing face masks and making it difficult to identify anyone by face, he did it anyway to minimize suspicion. Amidst this chaos, it was extremely unlikely that anyone would find him out of the place without careful observation.

The base guards currently had their hands full, and not only because the patients were attempting to escape the base. While there were no failed test subjects in this base for him to exploit, there were a lot of unfinished robots and large machineries. Long story short, it would be a long time before the guards could extricate themselves and come looking for him.

Cillin followed the road map he received from an encrypted message and quickly made his way to Mo Heng’s prison room. The prison room was located in a key research department of the base, and there were far less people here than almost anywhere else in the place. After all, most of the personnel had run off to god-knows-where, and those who chose to self-isolate had made sure to seal their doors and protect themselves with modified defense shields. It would be incredibly difficult to get in or out of the rooms without a specific tool.

Cillin wasn’t worried about being captured on screen. The cameras had already been blacked out.

Unfortunately, the lifts had stopped working for one reason or another, so Cillin had no choice but to climb the stairs. When he was at the third floor though, he slammed right into a person who was running down from above. The runner had missed a step when he saw Cillin, and he would’ve rolled all the way downstairs if Cillin hadn’t caught him.

The man didn’t raise his head. He was also wearing a face mask that masked most of his features. After he caught himself and steadied his breathing, he tried to continue on his way only to find himself being lifted onto Cillin’s shoulder and carried downstairs.

The man’s only response was to swing a plier he produced from god-knows-where and stab Cillin in the side. He never even made a sound throughout the attack. Cillin caught it firmly before it could do any harm, however.

“You look pretty lively, Master Mo,” Cillin said while running downstairs.

Mo Heng was fishing for another tool to stab his kidnapper with when Cillin’s comment caused him to stop whatever he was doing. He examined the young man closely and puzzledly. He couldn’t see Cillin’s face from this position, and he was pretty sure that the guy’s body shape was nothing like what he remembered, but that tone! Who else but that little bastard would speak to him like that?

Is he really Cillin? It has to be him, right? He’s the only one who would address me as Master Mo.

Mo Heng neither asked for confirmation nor tried to pull down his “kidnapper”’s face mask to reveal his face. This was hardly the right time or place to be compromising one’s identity after all. Plus, he didn’t sense any hostility from the young man whatsoever. In fact, he felt a kind of familiarity he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Oh well, we can do this after we get out of this place. At the very least, I’m one hundred percent certain that this guy isn’t Anbixin’s lackey.

Mo Heng obediently allowed himself to be carried away like a sack of potatoes after arriving at the resolution. He was happy to meet Cillin—assuming that the young man was Cillin—but he was also very worried. The base, hell, the entire planet was under siege by the virus right now. It would be an understatement to say that this place wasn’t the ideal reunion spot he envisioned.

On his way out, Cillin received a transmission from Czedow.

“What is it?” Cillin answered while running and observing his surroundings. Although the base personnel’s attention had been directed elsewhere, the corridor he was in was mostly empty, and the cameras were all blacked out, but he hadn’t made it this far by being careless.

“All the failed test subjects have been injected with the drugs, and most of the base researchers are trying to escape. However, there are a lot more guards than there are failed test subjects and researchers, and I don’t think the chaos will last for much longer. Should we bring forward the next step of the operation?” Czedow asked.

“Do it. I’ve found our man, and we can leave the moment we get out of here.”

“Alright, I’ll contact Wheeze and Shusag right away. Oh, there is one more thing I need to tell you. A small group of people is approaching this planet, but I don’t know which side they belong to.”

Cillin thought for a moment before asking, “You can’t get any ID confirmation from them?”

“No. I don’t think they wish to reveal themselves.”

“They can’t be Miracle then.”

“That is correct. Should I intercept them with the satellite arrays?”

“It’s fine. They probably belong to the First Army.” Cillin thought of Yue Lou and guessed that the group might be his saviors. It was just as well. It meant that he could unload all the troublesome stuff on the First Army.

“How long will it take for them to arrive?” Cillin asked again.

“Half an hour.”

“I’m almost out. Fetch us a spaceplane so we can leave this place.”

“Roger that.”

After the transmission was over, Cillin checked his surroundings one more time before quickening his footsteps.

Mo Heng frowned from Cillin’s shoulder. Again, the voice didn’t sound like Cillin, but that tone… by now, the old man was absolutely certain that Cillin was Cillin. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt, however. A virus outbreak was hardly a good time to mount a rescue.

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.”