Star Rank Hunter

Chapter 359: Sea Paradise [Part 1]

Yue Lou looked physically and mentally worn down, and his body was covered in brown spots that looked like leftover mud. Feng Haichao sat down beside Yue Lou, passed him a cigarette and lit another one for himself.

"I told you solo operations suck ass," Feng Haichao joked.

"Eh." Yue Lou flicked his cigar butt. "I took out a couple of spies, confirmed where the POWs are headed to, and collected some intel. All in all, it should be enough for me to apply for a transfer."

Feng Haichao punched Yue Lou's shoulder playfully. "You're totally getting promoted after this."

Again, Yue Lou let out a noncommittal "eh" before asking, "So, you guys came out without permission again. You know you're getting beat up when you get back, right?"

"So? I lost count already. Also, you should worry about yourself first. Judging from your current appearance, you won't last more than two punches. There is good news though! That guy will be shouldering the majority of the beating for us." Feng Haichao pointed at the sky. A fighter was flying toward them. "He's the one who organized this whole rescue."

"Knight? The Third Army is here?"

"Not just. The Fourth and Seventh Army are here too." Feng Haichao looked real happy when he said this.

The First Army Yue Lou and Feng Haichao were serving under, the Third Army commanded by the Feigler Family (Knight's family), the Fourth Army commanded by the Ji Family and the Seventh Army commanded by the Ci Family were allies to a certain extent. Knight discovered that Yue Lou was missing and possibly kidnapped while recruiting members to create a special task force.

Not everyone was aware of Miracle's experimentations on the POWs, but Knight wasn't one of them. He had immediately gathered his buddies and flown over to Yue Lou's rescue immediately. Of course, his actions hadn't escaped the notice of his superiors. They simply pretended to look elsewhere and even sent a secret escort to protect him.

"By the way, why are you covered in brown spots?" Feng Haichao pointed Yue Lod's face and arm.

The spots had begun to fade, but they were still pretty obvious.

"Oh, this? This is a virus symptom," Yue Lou answered in a nonchalant voice.

"COUGH!" Feng Haichao was so startled that he choked on his smoke. It wasn't until a couple of coughs later did he regain himself and ask, "Virus? What virus? Did those Miracle motherfuckers experiment on you? You're not going to die on me, are you?"

"Nah. Didn't you notice? Miracle themselves are infected by the virus."

Feng Haichao didn't reply. He actually didn't know because most of the people he saw were wearing protective suits that covered their whole body. He hadn't paid attention to those who weren't either.

"Anyway, there's nothing to worry about. It's just a prank. It will fade in a few more hours."

"You're not shitting me, are you? What kind of crazy would create a virus as a prank anyway?"

"Seriously, it's just a prank. But I'm sure the creator of the virus can create a fatal one if they really wanted." Yue Lou proceeded to tell Feng Haichao some of his experiences.

"They're that strong? Who on earth do they belong to?" Feng Haichao frowned. If the creator of the prank really was capable of making a fatal virus that spread as quickly as this one, how many people would die if an outbreak occurred?

If even Miracle's experts couldn't do anything to save themselves, they were only going to fare much, much worse. As soldiers, their specialty was fighting tangible enemies on the battlefield, not invisible, untouchable viruses. Feng Haichao shivered when looked at the brown spots on Yue Lou's body again and imagined what might have happened when that modified "Rhapsody of a Rainy Night" started playing.

The fighter on the sky finally landed, and Knight—wearing an old military uniform with no discernible symbol on his person at all—leaped out and looked at Yue Lou. "What's wrong with your face?"

"It was a virus." Feng Haichao retold Yue Lou's explanation to Knight.

After learning that the virus was harmless, Knight relaxed and accepted a cigar from Feng Haichao. Then, he listened as Yue Loud retold his whole story.

Yue Lou sucked in a breath of smoke before exhaling, "I'm a damn good marksman, but there's nothing I can do against a virus."

Knight didn't say anything. He looked like he was thinking about something.

"You know, this reminds me of an incident from a couple of years ago." Feng Haichao extinguished his cigar butt before continuing, "Do you remember how the Skull King died in the reports?"

It took Yue Lou a while to recall the details, but he eventually answered, "I remember that the cause of death was parasites in the confidential files. I don't know enough to say anymore than that though."

"I do. Apparently—"

"Enough!" Knight suddenly cut off Feng Haichao. "Someone's investigating this already."

Meaning "don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong".

Feng Haichao and Yue Lou immediately understood that there was more to this than meets the eye. Knight clearly knew this case well, but he refused to elaborate for some reason. Was he trying to protect someone?

After Feng Haichao took off with Yue Lou, Knight turned on his communicator and asked, "Has Mo Heng been found?"

"No. The door wa opened from inside, so it was probably Elder Mo's handiwork. However, all the security cameras in the area were hacked, and we couldn't retrieve any security footage whatsoever. Elder Mo hadn't been spotted in the surrounding bases either."

"In that case, we continue as per planned."

"Yes sir!"

It was only then Knight flew away to somewhere.

After that, the fighters and the spaceplanes began bombing the research bases in earnest. Nothing would be left behind when all was said and done.

Meanwhile, Cillin and Co had escaped from the planet while the newcomer battled against the patrol flee and followed a flight route to Shi Huajing's men as per planned. They had to switch spaceplanes and starships on the way out, but in the end everything proceeded pretty smoothly. They returned to Sector A so that no one would suspect that something was amiss.

Speaking of Shi Huajing, he had proven himself to be a capable man and successfully persuaded Jiu Xun to stay with him. He even asked his disciple to move some his possessions from his old home so he could help him to the best of his abilities. Considering Jiu Xun's abilities, Shi Huajing's future suddenly looked even brighter than before. Cillin could tell Shi Huajing was happy when they met each other again.

"Looks like everything's gone well! Elder Mo seems pretty healthy and vigorous as well," Shi Huajing commented while the old man in question was harassing Wheeze. Mo Heng had gotten a blade of grass out of somewhere to play with the long hair on the gray cat's ear. Wheeze was taking a nap and couldn't be bothered to mount a serious counterattack, so it simply curled into a ball and flicked the grass away with its ear. It never even bothered to open its eyes.

Cillin glanced at the strange duo but kept his opinion to himself. Long story short, one just woke up, and the other just lay down to sleep. This was the natural result.

"Do you know these three?" Cillin showed Shi Huajing the video of the trio fighting against Czedow and Shusag.

"I think I've seen them from somewhere. Give me a moment to check," said Shi Huajing before contacting a couple of people. Five minutes later, Shi Huajing passed Cillin the information he collected and said, "I didn't think Merciless would set their eyes on that place. Did they find anything? As far as I'm aware, that base shouldn't have produced any particularly significant results."

"I'm not sure." Cillin stared at the file while pondering Merciless' purpose. His mind was especially set on Judy's introduction—the younger sister of Juno.

He had never heard that Grim Reaper and Merciless shared a good relationship with each other. In fact, he had heard rumors of the opposite.

"Those people are the type to act as they pleased. Judy and Juno may be related, but it doesn't mean that they're very close to each other. Of course, it can be also that the rumors are less true that they actually are," Shi Huajing said. He had learned many things after his return to the Shi Family, not least because Sector A was where the clash of power and politics occurred.

Cillin memorized all the information on the file before deleting them completely.

"I'll deal with this another time. I'll be leaving as soon as possible."

"I've already made the necessary arrangements. You can leave as soon as tomorrow."

"Got it. By the way, you should prepare since this incident with Miracle may take longer than expected to end."

"You mean the military will want to pursue this?"

"It's not just that. The military may pursue things, but they always keep it within their bubble, or at least shift the blame to Merciless."

"Then…"

"I'm talking about the media."

Shi Huajing narrowed his eyes. These days, all the media knew to do was to "stay neutral" and protect themselves at all cost. Who would dare to expose Miracle? It would offend quite a number of people to say the least.

"Okay. I got it memorized," Shi Huajing replied. He knew that Cillin wasn't the type to speak carelessly.