LWDC Chapter 200

Chapter 200: Within the Starry Sky

Chapter 200: Within the Starry Sky

Chapter 200: Within the Starry Sky

Duan Yunhong leaned back in his chair, gazing at the scattering stars of the deep universe through the wide skylight.

Almost the entire room was metallic silver, including the walls and most of the furniture. Even the main body of the egg chair Duan Yunhong sat in was made of metal. Only the cushion and backrest were upholstered in red velvet, the sole bright color in the room.

Tap, tap, tap.

Duan Yunhong’s fingers tapped lightly on the metal armrest, the faint sound further emphasizing the silence of the otherwise empty room. He didn’t mind it; the quiet allowed him to be alone and to reminisce. Whenever he recalled those touching moments, he felt that waiting was always worthwhile.

Beep—

Suddenly, the ringing of an incoming call interrupted Duan Yunhong’s thoughts, and a projected light screen appeared before him. Duan Yunhong glanced at the caller ID and instructed, “Connect via voice.”

The light screen disappeared, and a male voice immediately sounded: “Boss, that damn secretary wants to talk to you again.”

“No,” Duan Yunhong flatly refused. “I told you before, just lock him up and don’t listen to his nonsense. Let him starve if he wants, let him go crazy if he wants, don’t bother. Don’t you guys have any memory?”

The other side hesitated, “Uh, but he said this time he’ll offer you a condition you can’t refuse.”

“When hasn’t he said that?” Duan Yunhong replied coldly, “His so-called ‘good condition’ last time was 3 million star coins. What if it’s 5 million, 10 million this time? What difference does it make? Do you guys even care?”

“Hahaha, that’s true. 10 million isn’t even enough for the brothers to split. It’s better to rob a merchant ship!” The other side chuckled upon hearing this. “Speaking of which, how does a royal secretary and Minister of Internal Affairs have such a narrow vision? Even if it’s just to ransom their useless crown prince, shouldn’t the asking price be at least 100 million?”

“So, a crown prince paired with such a secretary is just trash paired with trash,” Duan Yunhong said leisurely. “By the way, how’s the useless crown prince doing?”

“Him? Eating well, sleeping well, spending his days wandering around our ship with his girl,” the other side replied. “We’ve told him 800 times not to go to the upper levels, but he still wants to go. Boss, do you think this kid might also want to betray us?”

“Unlikely. He doesn’t have the ability, he’s probably just curious about the upper levels. As long as we refuse him, he won’t force his way in, he’s a coward,” Duan Yunhong said. “In that case, don’t worry about any other requests from these people until we arrive.”

“Boss, are you really not going to listen to the secretary’s conditions?” The other side confirmed again. “Actually, he told me a word, saying that as long as I tell you, you’ll definitely go see him. Should I say it or not?”

“Say it.”

“He said—’Luck’.”

Duan Yunhong raised his eyebrows slightly.

*

Inside a room of less than ten square meters with a small porthole of only 30 centimeters square.

“I hear you want to use luck to negotiate with me?”

As soon as Duan Yunhong entered, he went straight to the only chair in the room, leaned back, and adopted an arrogant attitude. The temporary occupant of the room—a young man—was still standing next to the door, looking at Duan Yunhong in a daze. He had instinctively stood up to greet Duan Yunhong when he finally saw him come in person. He didn’t expect Duan Yunhong to brush past him upon entering, take the only seat, and then strike a pose as if waiting for him to report.

The man didn’t want to stand and talk, or it would really become a subordinate reporting to a superior. So, he looked around and chose to sit on the edge of the bed, though it was just a cramped little bed one meter wide.

“Yes, I’ll trade you with luck,” the man regained his composure, straightened his back, and tried to build up his momentum. “As long as you help me complete this task, I’ll give you… 500,000 luck!”

“…500,000?” Duan Yunhong repeated the number reported after a brief brewing period, in an uncertain tone, but with a playful tone, “And you want me to help you?”

“Yes,” the other party thought Duan Yunhong just wanted to negotiate terms and continued, “If you don’t want to help, I won’t force you. As long as you don’t come to disrupt, don’t care about the affairs of the Lopan Empire, especially the royal family, I’ll also give you luck. Give… 200,000! Is that enough?”

“Hahaha…!” Duan Yunhong finally couldn’t help but laugh as if he had heard a joke. His laughter was arrogant, wild, and full of contempt. After a while, he looked at the astonished man and said contemptuously, “Debt Collector Oren, is this your ‘sincerity,’ your ‘good condition that can’t be refused’? You want me to withdraw from the competition for 200,000 luck, and you want me to help you for 500,000?”

Duan Yunhong didn’t know if it was more absurd that the other party imagined hiring him, or that he valued himself so cheaply. If Ning Fei knew about this, he would probably first praise this colleague for “having guts, really daring to think.”

Duan Yunhong’s sharp comment was: “Tch, even if you double it, it’s not enough to send away a beggar.”

“Double it? More than 1 million?!” Oren’s composure, which he had barely maintained, collapsed instantly. He frowned and exclaimed, “You’re asking for too much, the income of this entire task couldn’t possibly reach 1 million!”

“Is that so?” Duan Yunhong sneered, “Why don’t you say that your level is too low?”

If Ning Fei were to execute it, he might be able to squeeze out 1 million from a task.

“You bandits… uh.” Oren at least realized he was “under someone else’s roof,” and barely stopped himself, skipping the derogatory term for Duan Yunhong. “You don’t understand our task mechanism at all. We only extract a certain percentage of luck after completing the debt collection task, we don’t rob all the luck of the traversers like you! I’ve never even heard of a task of that level that would have a reward of 1 million!”

“Heh, you’ve never heard of that level, but you can handle this one?” Duan Yunhong mocked without any politeness, “Can you push that useless man onto the throne and secure the Lopan Empire?”

“I was originally promoting this matter, you were the one who interfered!” Oren argued, “You kidnapped Lassell and me to your pirate ship, you were the one who took us away from the Lopan Empire! If it weren’t for you, everything would be progressing smoothly!”

“Oh, is that so?” Duan Yunhong sneered, “Why do you think Lassell and his little girlfriend can move freely on the spaceship now, but you can’t? He doesn’t want to fight for the throne at all, nor does he have the ability! Rather than saying I kidnapped him, it’s better to say he couldn’t wait to escape that cage, he was willing to come with me. As for you, you’re just a freebie, a hamster that can be completely restricted in a cage, understand?”

“He worked hard for a long time before, and I gave him more help. You made everything go to waste! You bandits are best at bewitching the traversers, letting them escape, letting them be lazy, wanting to abandon their promises and live the so-called ‘life they want to live’…”

Duan Yunhong stood up.

Ning Fei would also say these words, but Duan Yunhong had the patience to listen to him, but that didn’t mean he had the patience to listen to any debt collector recite the complete set of rhetoric. Duan Yunhong was too lazy to waste more words and turned to walk towards the door: “Wasting time.”

“Wait…!” Oren hurriedly stood up, “Then, then I’ll offer 1 million! Will you talk?!”

Duan Yunhong stopped: “I said…”

Since the words had already been spoken, Oren simply retreated to the end: “I don’t need you to fully assist me, I just need you to send us back now, and then never bother us again, I’ll pretend nothing happened!”

“Debt collector,” Duan Yunhong tilted his head to glance at him, “You said this task isn’t worth 1 million, why are you offering so much luck? Does this task have a special meaning to you?”

Oren frowned, not answering the question.

“No need to act mysterious. It’s nothing more than some assessment, some regulations, so you must pass this task… I’ve heard a little about the Management Bureau’s routine,” Duan Yunhong sneered, “You’ve actively exposed your bottom line, your motives. Your level is only limited to this.”

“…” Oren really couldn’t think of a rebuttal, but he was unwilling to be seen through like this, and gritted his teeth, “You… aren’t you afraid that I’ll report your existence to the Management Bureau right now?”

“Report it. Before the Management Bureau sends someone, kill the traverser, and then leave this world—this is the conventional wisdom of the Wanderers, you wouldn’t not know that, would you?” Duan Yunhong sneered, “If I can’t get it, no one else can get a single point.”

Oren might not be afraid of “dying together” usually, but this time it was different, this was a task he was willing to spend 1 million to protect.

Duan Yunhong saw him silent and left another sentence: “Better go to sleep quickly, you’ll have everything in your dreams,” and then walked out of the room.

Inside the room, Oren stared blankly at the tightly closed door again, and after a long time, he collapsed on the bed.

*

“Boss, we’re about to land on Planet Pulan soon.”

A report came from his subordinate in the voice channel: “After this resupply, we can fly out of the Lopan Empire’s star field in one breath. Boss, do you want to go down and have some fun?”

“No. No one is allowed to go down, leave after resupplying, don’t create unnecessary problems,” Duan Yunhong replied. “Check the ship’s fake license plates again, enter and exit quietly, don’t attract the attention of the starport inspection.”

“Understood, understood, we’ve already put them on, haven’t we been smooth sailing all the way? We’re taking the proper routes,” the subordinate responded. “Just in case, Lassell and his group’s fake identities have also been activated. Anyway, the ship’s manifest is full of law-abiding citizens. If the starport inspection checks even small and medium-sized ships like ours one by one, then they’re really sick, the starport would be blocked directly, wouldn’t it?”

“Don’t be careless. Even if Lopan hasn’t publicly announced the crown prince’s disappearance, the royal family must know, and they’re probably secretly tracking him through multiple routes,” Duan Yunhong warned. “Lassell’s elder brother isn’t a good person, if his people track us down, it might be a one-key destruction aimed at our ship. Anyway, he doesn’t need to keep his brother alive.”

“Got it, we’ll definitely be low-key!” The subordinates responded with a smile, “And aren’t the movements we’ve practiced with the patrol team windy enough? With the Royal Guard’s level, don’t even think about touching my ass, hahahaha…”

Duan Yunhong had said everything he needed to say, and didn’t want to listen to their jokes anymore, so he simply turned off the communication.

In his vision, a brilliant planet surrounded by multiple satellites and space cities was slowly approaching.