Translator: AnubisTL
"Actually, even though the company's accounts are empty, I still have quite a bit of savings."
"If I pour all my savings into this, it would be enough to secure the bid."
"But..."
The old man's eyes flashed with barely suppressed anger as he rasped, "The enemy has deployed a massive ground force armed with heavy firepower around my fortress on the subhuman star, my main base!"
"My wife lives there!"
"My fortress is located in an Unregulated Zone on the subhuman star, beyond the protection of the Galactic Federation. We must defend ourselves."
"But the fortress's energy shield can only last for three hours."
"The enemy could launch an attack at any moment!"
"The Black Europe Company lacks the resources to maintain heavy firepower. We only have some smaller weapons, which are completely inadequate. If war breaks out, I'll have to hire the Field Army within three hours at exorbitant rates!"
"But that would mean I'd have no money left to invest in the bid."
"My wife told me to use the money to bid, saying the company was my life's work. She said she could die, but the Black Europe Company must not fall."
"But I can't do it!"
"My wife was a beggar too. We used to beg together, sleeping under bridges, eating scraps, and enduring insults. When things finally got better, I worked so hard to give her a good life. How could I just let her die like this?!"
"But even if we drive them out, we'll only repel Shark Company's ground forces. We won't even scratch their people. We can't get our revenge!"
Just then—
The old man's face suddenly froze, a flicker of unease in his eyes. His wrinkled, age-spotted hand trembled as he reached for the incoming communication request.
A new window popped up.
An old woman with snow-white hair, wearing a brand-new dress and meticulously applied makeup, twirled in place before lowering her head with a girlish shyness. "How do I look? Pretty?"
"So beautiful," the old man replied, his eyes instantly turning bloodshot. Hearing the distant roar of artillery fire from the other end of the line, he snarled hoarsely, his face twisting in fury, "They've already started the war?"
"Wait for me. I'm going to throw everything I have into hiring the best-equipped Field Army!"
"Damn it! I knew it all along! I was never cut out for business! Business my ass!"
"Wait for me! The energy shield will hold for another three hours. I'm going to hire the Field Army right now. I don't give a damn about the Black Europe Company anymore! If they want me dead, then they can all fucking die too!"
"Watch your language," the old woman on the screen said, her expression slightly displeased. "The child is right here. Is this the kind of example you want to set as a father?"
"I was asking if you liked my dress."
"I've never dared to wear a dress my whole life. Now that I finally put one on, you old fool won't even give me a proper look."
"There's no need to hire the Field Army. Use your savings to bid. I'm already near death anyway. Even if you're willing to throw your life away, shouldn't you at least consider our two sons?"
"We've endured so much hardship. We can't let them suffer the same fate, can we?"
"Besides..." The old woman tilted her head, gazing out the window at the dense artillery fire exploding against the protective shield. A flicker of fear flashed in her eyes, but it quickly hardened into resolve. "Once they see you're not making a move and breach the shield, they'll definitely capture me alive to threaten you into abandoning the bid."
"I've already activated the castle's self-destruct system."
"The moment the shield shatters, the entire castle will go up in flames. You won't have to worry about them using me as leverage."
"Once the self-destruct system is activated, it cannot be reversed."
"I told you not to waste money hiring the Field Army. Use it to bid! Did you understand me?"
"You're going to drive me mad! You've never listened to me once in your life!"
"I... I..."
The old man's eyes were bloodshot as he glared at the beautifully made-up old woman in the dress on the screen, his jaw clenched tight. Tears streamed down his face.
His wife had always loved cosmetics and dresses.
She had bought so many, but never wore them.
Because she said she was too old, and wearing such young girls' things would make her a laughingstock.
But when she was young, she could never afford them. Now that she finally could, she was too old. This was the first and last time he would ever see her made up and in a dress.
"Fuck it all!"
"Wife, you don't need to say another word. This time, I'm not listening to you!"
The old man took a deep breath and roared at Wu Zhending on the screen, "Contact your eldest brother! Tell him to grab his weapons! We're going to war with the fucking Shark Company!"
"Yes, sir!"
Wu Zhending's eyes were equally bloodshot as he frantically dialed his eldest brother, Wu Lengjing.
Soon...
Wu Lengjing's image materialized in the air.
The screen showed Wu Lengjing, a cigar clenched between his teeth, his bloodshot eyes blazing with fury, driving a heavy truck across a desolate wasteland at breakneck speed. "Don't bother explaining—I know everything!"
Wu Lengjing roared, his voice raw with rage, "Don't tell me to calm down again! I can't calm down! I've already arrived on the subhuman star ahead of schedule and loaded every single TNT item the Black Europe Company had stockpiled onto this truck!"
"Two thousand of them!"
"I'm going to charge in and blow those motherfuckers to kingdom come!"
He had expected his father to scold him, but to his surprise, his father praised him instead. "Good! You're worthy of being my son—brave and decisive. Go ahead; I'll follow shortly!"
The old man took a deep breath and turned to Wu Zhending. "Let's go. I'll contact the Field Army now. We're heading to the manned transport ship bound for the subhuman star. This time, the three of us won't be fighting side-by-side on the battlefield—we'll be the battlefield!"
"Wait—"
Just then, a voice cut through the tension.
Chen Jiang, who had been watching intently, saw the father and his two sons preparing to fight to the death and hurriedly interrupted.
He had been so engrossed in the scene, treating it like a movie, that he almost reached into his pocket for popcorn, ready to enjoy it thoroughly.
"Perhaps I could provide you with some firepower support," Chen Jiang offered after a moment's thought. "Remote Space Transmission can transport items, so it should be able to transmit firepower as well, right?"
The elderly man, who had already risen to leave, suddenly remembered that Jiang Cheng's company representatives were still watching. He paused, then said bitterly, "It's useless. Ordinary firepower won't make a difference on the battlefield."
"Hmm... what about extraordinary firepower?"
"Remote Space Transmission can't transport large-scale firepower equipment, and it only works with inanimate objects. Even if you could transmit heavy artillery, without trained personnel to operate it, even aiming would be impossible."
"Then we just need to extend a barrel through the portal. I'll operate it from here, and you just need to aim the other end of the Remote Space Transmission at the enemy."
"Thank you, but it won't be of much use."
The elderly man in the video smiled bitterly and shook his head. "The Remote Space Transmission can only open portals up to 15 meters wide, and the larger the portal, the more star coins it consumes. Besides, a few dozen cannons won't make a decisive difference."
"The enemy is a fully equipped professional Field Army of ten thousand soldiers!"
"Moreover, with cross-dimensional targeting, you can't input coordinates for automatic aiming. You might not even hit the enemy."
"Let's try anyway," Chen Jiang said calmly, looking at the elderly man. "I don't need aiming. Just give me a direction."
"Open a 12-meter-wide Remote Space Transmission for me."
"This..."
The elderly man hesitated, his eyes reddening slightly, his face twisted with indecision.
"Father!" Wu Zhending, standing beside him, urged urgently, his expression anxious and angry. "We don't have time to waste! A few dozen cannons won't make a decisive difference. Opening a 12-meter-wide Remote Space Transmission will consume vast amounts of star coins every second!"
"We don't have many star coins left. If we spend too much, we won't be able to hire a Field Army with higher combat capabilities!"
The old man didn't reply, his head bowed, obscuring his expression. After a few seconds, he finally looked up, his eyes fixed intently on Chen Jiang in the video call. "Good!"
"I believe you!"
"I believe that a force capable of possessing so many precious three-star items wouldn't exaggerate!"
"Even just a preliminary bombardment to scatter their formations would help. Then, before the energy shield collapses, my hired Field Army can arrive to engage them."
"Distracting their attention would also be beneficial. If they continue bombarding the energy shield, it might not hold out much longer."
"Regardless, I'm already deeply grateful for your assistance."
Chen Jiang shook his head slightly. "Let's try it first. Has your eldest son reached the subhuman star yet? Have him initiate a Remote Space Transmission."
---
"Good!"
"Then thank you all."
The chairman of Shark Company beamed uncontrollably as he addressed the men on the screen. "You've truly saved us this time."
"No need for thanks," one of the men replied.
A man in camouflage fatigues lay back in an armored vehicle, flicking a spent cigarette butt into the distance. "After all, just refusing Black Europe Company's contract and doing nothing else gets us a tidy sum of star coins. It's a pretty sweet deal."
"But isn't Shark Company being a bit too ruthless this time? You're driving these people into a corner."
"Since you're paying us, I feel obligated to warn you: don't push them too hard. Even a cornered rabbit will bite back."
The man paused, glancing at the Shark Company chairman on the screen with a half-amused, half-mocking expression. "And... if Black Europe Company offers us a better price, we'll still take their contract."
"Don't bother appealing to our emotions."
"We deal in reality, not sentiment. Whoever pays more gets our services."
"Rest assured," the Shark Company chairman replied with confident amusement. "Black Europe Company is already broke. They can't outbid me."
"Tsk."
The man hung up the call without another word, adjusted his chair to a more comfortable angle, and sighed. "These businessmen are even more ruthless when they kill than us mercenaries who risk our lives on the front lines."
"They call us dirty, but it's just our hands that are stained. Those businessmen? Their hearts are rotten to the core."
"Still, it's a good thing there are so many rotten hearts. Otherwise, we dirty-handed types wouldn't have any work."
Subhuman Star.
In the Unregulated Zone, the castle with its activated protective shield was being engulfed by a storm of artillery fire.
"Boss."
A young man with a heavy sniper rifle slung across his back leaned casually against an armored vehicle a few hundred meters away, a blade of grass dangling from his lips. He gazed at the distant castle, now shrouded in flames, and sighed softly.
"Who's the boss this time? Spending this much just to shell a castle?"
"Don't ask questions you don't need to know," the man in the armored vehicle's driver's seat replied casually. "If you knew everything, you'd be the boss, wouldn't you?"
The man's cheek bore a terrifying bullet wound, healed but leaving a gruesome scar.
He glanced at the bombarded castle, his brow furrowing. After a brief pause, he grabbed the armored vehicle's intercom and roared angrily, "Save the damn shells!"
"That was all bought with my blood and sweat! Are we supposed to starve now? There's only one castle to hit—a token strike would've sufficed. Who authorized this carpet bombing?"
"If we tally up the costs later, we might find we spent more than we earned on this job!"
After issuing the orders, the man reattached the walkie-talkie to the armored vehicle and grumbled, "Too many veterans died on that job three months ago. These green recruits—the moment they hit the battlefield, they're itching to squeeze the trigger until it breaks!"
"They act like they won't feel safe until they've emptied every last round."
"A bunch of wasteful bastards!"
A young man leaning against the armored vehicle, a sniper rifle slung across his back and a foxtail grass dangling from his lips, glanced at the castle engulfed in flames and clicked his tongue. "They say there's only an old woman in that castle?"
"Why's the boss being so ruthless this time? Sending this many men after just one old woman?"
"You call that ruthless?"
The boss, his cheek scarred by a bullet wound, scoffed disdainfully and spat a thick wad of phlegm onto the ground. "Give me enough money, and I'd kill my own father for you."
"In this day and age, only money is real!"
"Everything's fake except money."
Just then—
A head popped up from the back seat of the armored vehicle, handing a military tablet to the boss and pointing at a red dot on the screen. "There's a vehicle approaching our coordinates from nearly 20,000 meters away."
"It's moving at high speed."
"But it stopped about 16,000 meters away."
"Hmm?"
The boss frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and then spoke. "Eagle, take a squad to investigate."
"Yes, sir!"
"My eldest son, Wu Lengjing, has already stopped 16,000 meters from them."
The old man took a deep breath, gazing at the calm-faced man on the screen. His eyes reddened slightly as he rasped, "I've already contacted the Field Army. Brother, you just need to stall them a bit and create some chaos."
"That'll be enough!"
"Oh, right, brother, I forgot to ask."
"How many cannons do you have?"
"Cannons?"
Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow slightly and replied softly, "Just one."
(End of the Chapter)
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