194: The shadow of the cleaner

"Ah—!"

Screams tore through the air of the banquet hall. The speculators, who just a second ago were shouting "Long live Hanhai," were now like a pack of rats scalded by boiling water, frantically pushing and shoving as they surged toward the exits.

"Don't push! Get out of the way! That's my ship's boarding passage!"

"Let me go first! I'll pay double!"

Chen Feng threw down the wine glass in his hand, the red wine splashing onto the floor like a startling pool of blood. Without sparing a glance at the chaotic crowd, he leaped down from the two-meter-high platform and rushed toward Reno.

"Wake up!" Chen Feng grabbed Reno by the collar and delivered two harsh slaps to his flushed face. "Wake up right now!"

Reno was dazed by the slaps, his eyes still somewhat unfocused. "Bo... Boss? What's wrong? Who... who dares to crash the party?"

"If you don't want to die, get your ass to the command console!" Chen Feng shoved him to the ground and turned to rush toward Su Li. "Su Li, immediately blockade all civilian flight paths! Prioritize getting combat personnel back to their posts! Lao Mo! Divert all backup power to the shields! Fast!"

The group stumbled into the temporary command center located behind the banquet hall.

The atmosphere here was even more suffocating than outside. On the massive main screen, the green light dots that originally represented busy commercial shipping lanes were disappearing at a terrifying speed.

In their place was a dead, silent black.

"Speak! Eve! What on earth is it!" Reno shook his head, trying to shake off the alcohol as he lunged toward the console, his hands trembling as he reached for the communicator. "Where's the outer patrol? Vulture Squad? Answer me! This is Reno!"

Only a hair-raising static came from the communicator—the white noise characteristic of intense electromagnetic interference.

"It's no use..." Eve slumped in her chair, her face as pale as paper. She stared fixedly at the vital signs monitoring points on the screen that had extinguished in an instant. "They're gone... all gone. Vulture Squad, the outer outposts, and those two modified patrol ships... all offline within three seconds."

"Three seconds?" Reno's single eye widened. "That's over thirty ships! Even hitting an asteroid wouldn't finish them all in three seconds! Is your system malfunctioning?"

"I wish it were a system error..." Eve's voice trembled as her stiff fingers tapped a key. "See for yourselves."

The main screen flickered, switching to the perspective of a remaining satellite in low-Earth orbit.

In the image, the once-brilliant starry sky seemed to be blocked by a massive black curtain.

It was a fleet.

A pitch-black, silent fleet arranged as neatly as tombstones. They had no lights on and sent no signals, hovering like ghosts on the edge of Ashen Earth Star's gravity well.

At the very front of the fleet, a massive ship of suffocating proportions was slowly adjusting its position. Its hull was coated in a light-absorbing matte black, making it look like a giant black hole. The menacing, hundred-meter-long ram at the bow emitted a cold and cruel metallic luster under the faint reflection of the star.

The slaughterer.

"This is... the regular army..." Reno's drunken stupor turned into a bone-chilling cold sweat in an instant. He muttered to himself, "This is Giant Star Mining's Main Scavenger Fleet..."

"Warning! Signal forced entry! Firewall breached!"

The alarms in the command center intensified again. The image on the main screen suddenly distorted, and all the static instantly converged to form a human figure.

The man didn't wear those ridiculous aristocratic formal clothes, nor did he wear any decorative medals. He wore a set of heavy power armor covered in oil stains and scratches. He held his helmet in his hand, revealing a face as cold and hard as granite.

His background wasn't some luxurious command room, but a combat bridge filled with noisy alarms and the sounds of machinery.

Xing Zhan.

His cold, temperatureless eyes swept across everyone in the command room through the screen, as if looking at dead people, finally fixing on Chen Feng's face.

"Merchant."

Xing Zhan spoke, his voice low and raspy with a metallic quality. "This is your 'Empire'? A bunch of dead-drunk alcoholics and a leaky, broken warehouse?"

Chen Feng forced himself to calm down. He took a deep breath, stepped forward, and pressed the communication button.

"I am Chen Feng. Commander Xing Zhan, if this is about Hoffman, we can talk. For every cent Giant Star Mining lost, Hanhai Trade is willing to pay double—"

"Shut up."

Xing Zhan interrupted him without any emotional fluctuation, as if swatting away the buzzing of a fly.

"You think I'm here to do business with you?" The corners of Xing Zhan's mouth twitched into an extremely cruel sneer. "Look at this."

The screen image shifted.

It was a scene from space.

Countless fragments floated in the vacuum—the wreckage of the patrol ships Hanhai Trade was so proud of. And among that wreckage floated dozens of corpses. Due to decompression, their bodies were swollen and deformed, their eyeballs bulging, dying in a miserable state. One of the corpses was still wearing the brand-new uniform Reno had personally handed out half an hour ago.

"Do you see?" Xing Zhan's voice was like a demon's whisper. "This is reality. You thought that because you made a little money and bought some junk, you could stand on equal footing with me? That you could play this game of house?"

"You..." Su Li covered her mouth, her stomach churning.

"This is a liquidation." Xing Zhan reappeared on the screen. He put on his helmet, revealing only a pair of glowing red electronic eyes. "This is not a negotiation. There are no ransoms, no prisoners. I am giving you 24 hours."

"In 24 hours, I will initiate orbital bombardment." Xing Zhan's voice became completely flat, as if reading a death sentence. "I will plow the surface of this planet until not even a cockroach can be found."

"Wait!" Chen Feng suddenly gripped the edge of the console, his knuckles turning white from the force. He roared, "What do you want? Technology? The mining rights for undead crystals? As long as you name a price, I can—"

"I said, shut up."

Xing Zhan's voice was filled with contempt and disgust.

"Keep your money to buy a coffin, you parvenu."

"Zzt—"

The screen went completely black.

At the last moment, only a bright red countdown remained on the screen: 23 hours, 59 minutes, 58 seconds.

The command center fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone looked as if their spines had been removed. Reno slumped on the ground, staring at the countdown, his lips trembling. "It's over... all over... That's the slaughterer... it was built for planetary genocide..."

Su Li looked at Chen Feng with a pale face, her voice as faint as if she were sleepwalking. "Chen Feng... what should we do? Can we... can we still talk?"

Chen Feng did not answer.

He stared fixedly at the pitch-black screen. Reflected in his pupils was no longer a calm merchant, but a lone wolf driven into a corner, its fangs beginning to show.

"There's no more talking." Chen Feng's voice was as cold as ice. "He doesn't want money; he wants lives."