Chapter 14: Fourteenth Day of Being a Salted Fish

Chen Feiyun stood frozen for a moment.

Geshu Ming had already taken two steps back, pushed open the door, and walked out of his office.

The student soldier was still standing at the door, his eyes bright as he looked over. “Are you finished talking?”

“We’re finished.” Geshu Ming gave a gentle smile. “I have things to attend to, so I should be going.”

“I’ll show you out!” The student soldier took the lead enthusiastically.

Geshu Ming smiled and shook her head, following behind him as they walked toward the base exit.

In truth, she didn’t need a guide. She was far more familiar with this place than anyone imagined.

In fact, what many didn’t know was that when Lu Yuan first became the Marshal of the First Legion, Geshu Ming had briefly served as the acting captain of the Mecha Mobile Squad because of a severe shortage of personnel at the time.

However, Geshu Ming was also well aware that no matter how familiar she was with the base, these people would never allow her to walk around freely. Ever since the Zerg were wiped out—or rather, ever since Lu Yuan passed away—the tension between the Empire’s military and political factions had become increasingly apparent.

And Geshu Ming stood at the highest level of the political faction.

Even if she was the one person in politics with the best relationship with the military, she couldn’t expect them to lower their guard.

Geshu Ming was quite understanding of this vigilance. As she followed the student soldier out, she even found the mood to look around, cataloging what had changed since her last visit.

This planet was named Planet Lu. It belonged to the First Legion and served as the site of the First Legion’s headquarters. All of the First Legion’s reserve forces were stationed here.

The Mecha Mobile Squad was here as well.

The Mecha Mobile Squad was the most mobile unit in the military and the one that received direct orders from the Marshal. When there were no wars or missions, it conducted unified training on Planet Lu while awaiting the Marshal’s instructions.

It was located near the largest port on Planet Lu, Lu-1 Port.

Long, long ago, during the era of the home planet, ports were called “launch bases.” People used rockets at launch bases to send spacecraft into the universe.

With current technological developments, it was now as easy for a starship to break free from a star’s gravity and enter the universe as it was for a fleet of ships to leave a harbor. Consequently, the places where starships launched were gradually referred to simply as “ports.”

Being located near the port ensured that the Mecha Mobile Squad could leave Planet Lu rapidly when necessary. As long as the Marshal gave the order, they could assemble, leave Planet Lu, and head wherever they were needed within half an hour.

Thus, after walking just a short distance, Geshu Ming arrived at Lu-1 Port.

Geshu Ming’s starship was also docked here.

However, she was not permitted to board her ship and leave immediately. A group of soldiers was carrying crates full of ammunition into the cargo hold of a starship. Nearby, dozens of identical starships had already packed their holds full and were closing their hatch doors.

“A batch of Garbage Ships is preparing to depart. Please wait a moment,” the guard at the port said.

“Garbage Ships?” Geshu Ming blinked, then glanced at the ammunition. “That’s garbage?”

“Ammunition that has been stored for over half a year. Its safety can’t be guaranteed,” the guard replied.

Geshu Ming frowned.

She had never heard of perfectly good high-lethality weapons becoming useless junk to be thrown away after only six months.

…Nor had she ever heard of an army stockpiling ammunition for more than half a year without using it.

Even if the war was over, this state of affairs was a bit ridiculous.

But at this moment, she naturally had no right to speak up and stop them. In fact, she knew very well that even Chen Feiyun didn’t have that kind of authority. The destination of ammunition had always been controlled by the Legion Marshal.

…

Finally seated in her starship, Geshu Ming looked back at the planet as they gradually pulled away from Planet Lu, letting out a soft sigh.

Although the planet still bore Lu Yuan’s name, the First Legion likely hadn’t belonged to the Lu family for a long time.

–

Lu Yuan knew nothing of the events outside the Desolate Planet.

After a brief disturbance, his daily routine had returned to tranquility. He spent every day lying around and slacking off, occasionally sitting up to play games, and even more occasionally watching the short dramas Goudan had filmed.

Until one month later.

The day the Garbage Ships arrived was the happiest time for the people on the Desolate Planet.

It meant that new food, clothing, various daily necessities, and even a small amount of entertainment products would appear.

They didn’t have to pay any price to get these things; they only needed to go to the disposal sites where the Garbage Ships dumped the waste to scavenge.

So, when the silhouette of a Garbage Ship appeared in the sky, almost everyone who saw it rushed toward the fixed disposal points to quickly gather the falling supplies.

…Everyone except Lu Yuan.

He was too lazy to move. As long as he could stay alive, he didn’t have any high demands for his standard of living. Plus, having crashed here with an entire Command Ship, the items inside were enough for him to live comfortably for a very long time. He truly hadn’t had any need to survive by scavenging before.

But this time seemed a bit different.

At the disposal point, among the crowd of people focused on the sky, watching the Garbage Ship slowly descend, Zhu Rong suddenly turned her head to look behind her and tugged at Lao Tong’s sleeve.

“Hmm?” Lao Tong looked at her in confusion.

Goudan and Siming reacted faster. Following Zhu Rong’s gaze, they discovered a figure had appeared silently behind them.

The newcomer’s clothes were neater than those of the average person on the Desolate Planet, though they were somewhat worn. A head of rare, well-groomed long silver hair hung down like silk, shimmering under the sunlight.

Yet, despite such a strikingly prominent person standing there, none of the surrounding people had noticed him. He was standing right behind Goudan, and Goudan had no idea when he had arrived.

Alerted by Zhu Rong, Goudan’s mouth fell open in shock. “Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!”

Lu Yuan raised a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. Goudan’s voice immediately dropped to a whisper. “What day is it today? How did we manage to get a great deity like you to step out of the house?”

“Has life become that difficult?” A dark glint flashed in Siming’s eyes as if he had thought of something, but he kept a teasing smile on his face as he joined in. “Even you have to come out to scavenge for trash?”

“Not exactly.” Lu Yuan shook his head. Like everyone else, he looked up at the Garbage Ship, his dark gray eyes narrowing slightly as he sighed. “Mainly, I suddenly remembered I’m missing a teaching aid, so I came to pick one up.”

“Huh?” Goudan was stunned. “A teaching aid?”

“Yeah. I’ve been teaching them how to build starships lately. I’m planning to pick up a starship to use as a model.”

“Say what?” Goudan was profoundly shocked.

Lu Yuan shook his head and gave a faint smile. “However, this piece of trash is a bit valuable, and I’m short on tools. The commotion from picking it up might be a bit loud, so don’t mind me.”

As he spoke, he reached out, and a compact gun appeared in his palm. With a flick of the barrel, a bullet flew toward the Garbage Ship, trailing a thin wire that hooked onto the ship’s hull.

Then, Goudan and the others felt a blur before their eyes, and Lu Yuan’s figure vanished from behind them. Siming’s eyesight was better; he seemed to catch a glimpse of Lu Yuan swinging through the air. In the next second, Lu Yuan had already landed on the starship.

Without any visible movement from him, the passenger hatch of the moving starship suddenly slid open.

The operators of the Garbage Ship finally seemed to realize something was wrong. The ship’s defense mechanisms began to activate slowly, but by then, Lu Yuan was already inside.

A few more short seconds passed.

The defense devices that had just extended halfway suddenly retracted. The starship began to descend, the cargo bay doors slowly opened, and Lu Yuan’s voice broadcasted from within the ship.

“Don’t rush. The entire starship is ours now. Goudan, organize everyone into a line to receive supplies in an orderly fashion. Remember to stay away from that row of crates on the far right. There are explosives inside; they’re a bit dangerous.”