208: Hunter and Ghost

The piercing alarm sounded like a rusty saw, grating harshly against the tense air within the bridge of the 'vengeance'.

On the radar screen, the ripple representing an unknown signal was rapidly expanding, like a drop of ink falling into a clear pool, quickly staining the edges of the once-safe shipping lane black.

"Level One combat readiness."

Chen Feng's voice wasn't loud, but it acted like a calming pill, instantly suppressing the commotion that had just begun to stir in the command center.

Reno stood beside Chen Feng, his newly connected black mechanical arm vibrating slightly. A dull red energy halo flowed along the coarse metal armor plates, emitting a low hum like the breathing of a wild beast.

"Finally, they're here."

Reno grinned, revealing a row of stark white teeth. He raised his left hand, which was capable of crushing alloy steel plates, and made a grasping motion in the air, his knuckles popping like frying beans.

"Boss, let me go." A bloodthirsty desire burned in Reno's lone eye. "No matter which deity has come, I'll use this new arm to loosen their bones."

"Don't be in such a hurry."

Chen Feng raised a hand to stop him. His gaze was fixed intently on the signal characteristic analysis chart on the holographic screen.

It was too quiet.

If it were mercenaries from the Black Water Conglomerate or opportunistic interstellar pirates, they would have already sent an arrogant extortion message or directly commenced fire coverage by now.

But the opponent just sat there.

Like a ghost standing in the shadows, silently watching the movements on this side.

"Maintain silence, charge the main cannons, but do not lock on," Chen Feng ordered. "Shadow, can you parse the opponent's identification code?"

"Unidentifiable," Shadow's voice came through the communicator, carrying a rare hint of confusion. "The exterior of the opponent's ship is covered in an extremely high-intensity interference field. My scanning beams hit it like a clay ox entering the sea... Wait, there's an incoming communication request!"

A bright red dialog box suddenly popped up in the center of the screen.

No name, no avatar, only a constantly twisting, garbled symbol that looked as if it were infected by a virus.

The atmosphere in the command center froze instantly.

Reno snorted coldly, the hydraulic rods on his mechanical arm retracting sharply, prepared to give the order to fire at any moment.

"Patch it through," Chen Feng said calmly.

The light screen flickered.

Then, a hair-raising figure appeared before everyone.

It was a person wrapped entirely in thick, filthy gray bandages. He wore a tattered protective suit covered in various life-support tubes and unknown attachments.

Most bizarre of all, the edges of his body were constantly undergoing 'pixelated' aberrations.

Like a holographic image with a bad signal, his shoulders would occasionally vanish, turning into a blur of mosaics, only to re-aggregate the next second.

Those were symptoms of severe 'Law Contamination'.

The very existence of this person was being rejected by the physical laws of the universe.

"Cough... cough cough..."

A series of coughs, sounding like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together, came from the speakers, accompanied by ear-grating static noise.

"Chen Feng... or rather, the master of Hanhai Trade."

The bandaged man looked up. Through the gaps in the bandages, a pair of bloodshot eyes with dilated pupils were revealed. That gaze didn't belong to a living person; it was more like a malevolent ghost that had crawled back from hell.

"I am K. Those on the streets call me the 'Scavenger'."

Chen Feng's pupils constricted slightly.

Touch of the Veil.

That underground mutual aid society composed of Law Contamination victims was also the universe's most dangerous gathering place for madmen.

"I don't have time to chat with ghosts." Chen Feng's fingers tapped lightly on the armrest, his tone indifferent. "State your purpose, or become space debris."

"Hehe..." K let out a dry laugh, his body again suffering a violent convulsion and pixelation. "Don't be so hot-tempered. I'm not here to fight; I'm here to do business."

His trembling hand swiped through the air, sending over a blurry star map.

"I know your current situation. The Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance has blockaded all conventional routes; you're like rats trapped in a cage." K's voice was hoarse and seductive. "I have the key."

On the star map, a winding green line lit up.

It bypassed all the Alliance's patrol nodes, slithering like a greasy snake into the asteroid belt known as the 'Death Forbidden Zone', ultimately pointing deep into the star sector.

"A secret route known only to 'ghosts' like us," K said. "It can let you jump out of the encirclement without anyone being the wiser."

"The terms?" Chen Feng didn't look at the map but stared directly into K's eyes.

"I want those coordinates."

K's voice suddenly became hurried, his desire for something even outweighing his physical pain.

"The ones in Xing Zhan's head. The data for the Titan Project."

A deathly silence fell over the command center.

Reno stepped forward abruptly, his mechanical arm letting out a roar. "You want to double-cross us?"

"No, it's an equivalent exchange." K wasn't intimidated by Reno; his body flickered even more violently due to excitement. "I don't need that fortress; I only want the data inside. It's the top secret regarding 'Body Fusion'... perhaps it can cure my illness."

Chen Feng fell silent.

He quickly awakened the system in his mind.

[Querying target's credit rating...]

[Target: K (Member of Touch of the Veil).]

[credit rating: Chaotic Neutral (High Risk).]

[History: Has traded with high-dimensional research institutions multiple times, with a 70% fulfillment rate, but has a record of backstabbing employers in desperate situations.]

This was a double-edged sword.

If they didn't take this path, the Vast Sea Fleet would have to force its way through the Alliance's regular military defense lines, and casualties would be immeasurable. If they took this path, it was equivalent to exposing their backs to a monster that could go mad at any moment.

Tap, tap, tap.

Chen Feng's fingers tapped rhythmically on the table.

"One route is not enough."

Chen Feng suddenly spoke, his voice so calm that no emotional fluctuation could be heard.

K was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting Chen Feng to dare raise the price at a time like this.

"I have thousands of wounded in my base, and my medical supplies will only last three days." Chen Feng stared at K. "I want a batch of Medical Nanobots. Military-grade. Now."

"Are you crazy?" K's voice rose several pitches, accompanied by a burst of piercing static. "Do you know what price those things are being flipped for on the black market?"

"That's your problem." Chen Feng leaned forward, his gaze as sharp as a blade. "The Titan Project data is exclusive. Besides me, no one can dig the chip out of that pile of rotten meat. You can refuse, and then continue dragging this collapsing body of yours around the universe to try your luck."

K fell silent.

Those bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at Chen Feng, as if trying to see even a hint of wavering on his face.

But he failed.

Chen Feng was like a piece of cold rock.

"...Deal."

K gritted his teeth and squeezed those words out from between them.

A pitch-black small shuttle emerged from the ripples, slowly approaching the 'vengeance'.

Ten minutes later.

On the cargo deck.

Several large metal crates were pushed down. The lids opened to reveal silver injection guns neatly stacked inside—high-purity Medical Nanobots, enough to let Hanhai Trade survive its most difficult period.

In exchange, Eve transmitted an encrypted data package to K.

K looked at the 'Transmission Complete' message displayed on his wrist terminal, and a light that was almost pious actually flickered in his cloudy eyes.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Chen Feng stood on the high catwalk, looking down at K from above.

K put away his terminal, and his nauseatingly sickly appearance seemed to recede slightly. He looked up and gave Chen Feng a deep look.

"As a businessman who keeps his word, I'll give you a piece of information for free."

K's voice was very low, like a whisper in Chen Feng's ear.

"That old man Augustus has lost his patience. He has hired the 'Black Water Conglomerate's' ace assassin squad."

Chen Feng's eyebrow twitched slightly.

"Furthermore," K paused, a bizarre smile curling his lips, "they aren't as polite as I am. They're already inside."

"What do you mean?" Reno shouted sternly.

"It means, there are rats in your house."

After saying this, K's figure flickered violently again. That pitch-black shuttle emitted a silent plume of exhaust and instantly vanished into the vast sea of stars, as if it had never appeared.

Only that spine-chilling warning remained, echoing in the empty cargo bay.

"Rats..."

Chen Feng chewed on the word, the temperature in his eyes dropping to freezing point.

He turned around, his cloak whipping out a cold, hard arc behind him.

"Shadow."

"Present."

The air distorted, and Shadow's blurred figure appeared out of thin air behind Chen Feng.

"Initiate the 'Cleanup' protocol." There was no emotion in Chen Feng's voice, as if he were ordering the disposal of a pile of trash. "Identify all personnel who have joined within the last week, as well as all veterans who have had abnormal communication records."

"No matter who they are, if there's even a shred of suspicion, detain them immediately."

"And if they resist?" Shadow asked.

Chen Feng stopped, turned his head, his gaze as cold as if he were looking at a dead man.

"Then make them disappear."

"Understood."

Shadow's figure dissipated instantly.

Following Chen Feng's command, a silent purge quietly unfolded within the entire Hanhai Base.

But that wasn't enough.

Passive defense was never Chen Feng's style. Since Augustus wanted to play at assassination, he would show him who the real hunter was.

Chen Feng strode back to the bridge.

The massive star map unfurled once more. The green route provided by K was like a sharp sword, thrusting directly into the exclusion zone marked in red.

And at the end of the route, that blinking red dot—the Titan Fortress—was quietly waiting for its new master.

There was danger there, and monsters, but there was also what Chen Feng needed most right now—power.

Power enough to overturn the chessboard.

"All fleet units, hear my command."

Chen Feng stood on the command platform, his voice broadcasting through every warship and to every corner of the base.

"Target: Titan Fortress."

"Since they've locked the door, we'll go and smash it down. And while we're at it, we'll bring a return gift for Augustus."

"Set sail!"

The roar shook the heavens.

The engines sprayed brilliant blue exhaust plumes, and the 'vengeance's' massive hull slowly detached from the dock's locking arms. Like an awakening behemoth, it led dozens of modified warships and charged resolutely into the unknown darkness.

Amidst the clamor on the ground, no one noticed anything unusual in the corner.

On the periphery of the dock, on an inconspicuous maintenance lift.

A man wearing a ground crew uniform and a baseball cap kept his head down, pretending to adjust a wrench in his hand.

He pulled the brim of his cap low, concealing the cold glint that flashed in his eyes.

That was no ordinary wrench.

With the rapid assembly of his fingers, the 'wrench' quickly deformed and extended, turning into a strangely shaped kinetic sniper rifle. There was no reflective coating on the barrel; it was as black as the night.

He raised the muzzle and, through a specialized scope, locked onto the flagship slowly ascending in the distance.

The crosshairs drifted over the bridge's bulletproof glass, finally coming to rest on the back of a blurred figure.

It was Chen Feng.

"Found you, prey."

The assassin whispered softly, his finger slowly squeezing the trigger.