Chapter 15: Astonishment
Su Xiao walked to the rear of the spaceship. The airlock door was wide open, and faint sounds of laughter and conversation could be heard from inside.
Entering the spaceship, Su Xiao first passed through a metal corridor several meters long, then the space opened up, leading to the outer cabin at the rear of the ship.
The walls of the outer cabin were entirely metal, and the entire outer cabin spanned over a thousand square meters. It had facilities like a high-end cafeteria and an open bar, all usable by spending Paradise Points.
Several contractors, clearly miners, were sitting on metal benches eating. Across from them, a few others were chatting and laughing, occasionally clinking glasses.
At the open bar counter, two contractors were competing in drinking. Judging by their expressions, they might start a fight at any moment.
About a dozen or so contractors were in the outer cabin. When the world just began or was about to end, this place would be livelier.
As soon as he entered the outer cabin, Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha dispersed to observe the surrounding terrain.
“Hey there, young man, want to team up? You look like a melee fighter.”
A woman with wavy long hair, wearing a red dress, spoke up.
“Not interested for now.”
Su Xiao sat at the bar counter, pressing one hand onto a biometric device.
[Contractor can use Paradise Points: 875,280 points.]
Su Xiao had accumulated this many Paradise Points from his time in the Ranger Squad. The Ranger Squad’s main targets were the Undying, so they didn’t obtain high-tier items. Therefore, Su Xiao had converted all his battle contributions into Paradise Points, planning to try using them after stripping the imprint.
His guess was correct. With the imprint, he could use Paradise Points, but only within the spaceship.
In other words, with the imprint card, Su Xiao was temporarily disguised as a contractor of Apocalypse Paradise.
He spent Paradise Points to buy a drink. The bartender politely handed him a glass of strong liquor, worth 200 Paradise Points.
Su Xiao took a sip and frowned. It didn’t taste good, just a strong alcohol flavor.
“Pfft~, young man, this is Arisoka, 76 proof. I’m surprised you can drink it without changing your expression.”
The woman in the red dress sat on the high stool next to Su Xiao, holding a glass of wine.
“Hey~, young man, are you really not interested in joining my team?”
The red-dressed woman smiled.
“Not interested.”
Su Xiao wanted to get rid of this woman. He was here to carry out a mission, not to join her team, and she was clearly a solo leader with no members.
“Don’t be so sure. If you join, our team would have two people. You’re melee, I’m support, and if we find a tank, we can go do missions.”
The red-dressed woman didn’t give up. At this stage of the world, finding teammates was hard, especially with world channel speech rights exhausted.
“…”
Su Xiao downed the liquor in one gulp. After a few sips, it actually felt pretty good.
“At least give me a reason, so I can give up.”
The red-dressed woman kept her smile.
“You’re too weak.”
“Huh?”
The smile on the red-dressed woman’s face froze.
“Never mind. I agree to team up with you, but we need to go to the captain to accept a mission first. If the mission reward is high enough, I’ll join your team.”
“Wait, you just said I’m too weak, right? I didn’t mishear.”
“No, you misheard.”
“Do you think I’m deaf?”
The red-dressed woman’s lips twitched. She felt Su Xiao was messing with her.
“If you don’t agree, forget it.”
Su Xiao set down the glass. The bottom lightly tapped the glass bar counter with a clink, and droplets of water slid down the glass wall.
“Agree, why wouldn’t I agree? Follow me.”
The red-dressed woman was desperate. She had been abandoned by her previous teammates, and if she didn’t try to accept a mission, she would have zero gains in this world.
Under the red-dressed woman’s lead, Su Xiao walked toward the inner part of the spaceship. During their conversation, he learned her name was Monica.
Pfft~
The innermost airlock door of the outer cabin opened. Monica was clearly familiar with the contractor camp. She walked ahead through the metal corridor. After a short while, another airlock door appeared.
As a fifth-rank contractor, Monica had decent authority. She opened three layers of airlock doors and entered the inner cabin of the spaceship.
The inner cabin was empty, with a layout similar to the outer cabin, but the facilities were more complete. There were also single-room rest areas, which required Paradise Points to use.
Passing through the inner cabin, Monica opened another airlock door. This door was extremely thick, at least a meter thick.
Behind the airlock door was a five-meter-wide metal corridor. This corridor wasn’t straight but had a slight curve, forming a reverse C-shape, likely bypassing some important area.
Su Xiao tapped the metal wall of the corridor. It was very sturdy. Even with his full strength, he couldn’t cut through this unknown metal. After all, this was a spaceship used for space teleportation.
“Hey, what are you looking at? We’re at the captain’s quarters. You’d better be polite. No, don’t speak at all. I’ll handle the negotiation.”
Monica stopped in front of a metal door. After tidying her appearance, she lightly knocked on the door.
The imprint card appeared in Su Xiao’s hand. He tried releasing it, letting it fall freely before catching it again. Brief separation was fine.
Su Xiao stored the imprint card into his team storage space, which now had only 2 cubic meters left, and began to wait. After at most a minute, he took the imprint card out again and put it back into his pocket.
“Why are you so weird? Hurry up and come in.”
Monica walked into the captain’s quarters. Su Xiao approached the door and looked inside. There was only an old man with white hair sitting in front of the spaceship’s instrument panel.
“Greetings, Captain.”
Monica bowed respectfully. The old captain, holding a cup of coffee, glanced at Monica and then ignored her.
Monica cursed inwardly. This old man had a good attitude when dealing with strong contractors, but otherwise, he acted indifferent.
“It’s you again. There’s no suitable mission for you right now…”
Before the captain could finish, he noticed Su Xiao approaching.
“You…”
Clang.
The long blade slashed through without hesitation. The coffee cup in the captain’s hand fell, shattering with a crack. Broken white porcelain shards scattered, and coffee pooled into a puddle.
Warm blood splattered onto Monica’s face. For a moment, she couldn’t process what had happened, because the captain had a protection mechanism that prevented contractors from attacking.
Buzz, buzz…
Urgent alarms sounded. Su Xiao kicked the spaceship’s large instrument panel. Sparks flew, but the alarms didn’t stop.
“How do I turn off this noise?”
Su Xiao looked at Monica, his long blade still dripping blood.
“Y-you, you, you…”
Monica pointed a trembling finger at Su Xiao. Su Xiao placed his hand on her shoulder.
“How. Do. I. Turn. Off. This. Noise.”
“D-destroy that.”
Driven by survival instinct, Monica pointed to the outer side of the instrument panel. Su Xiao kicked it. The fragile high-tech equipment crackled and sparked, and the alarms abruptly stopped.
Su Xiao pushed Monica to the door of the captain’s quarters.
“Go out and shout: The captain has been attacked.”
“Wh-what?”
Monica looked at Su Xiao with terrified eyes, her mind in chaos.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Su Xiao walked to the center of the captain’s quarters and took out a metal tube from his storage space, placing it upright on the floor.
Click, click…
The base of the metal tube expanded, the whole tube extended a bit, and emitted a faint red light.
Taking this chance, Monica stumbled through the C-shaped corridor and slapped her hand onto the biometric device next to the airlock door.
Pfft~
White vapor rose, and the airlock door opened.
“Thank you, madam. We’ve been waiting for you. This damn door requires biometric recognition. We studied it for ages and couldn’t open it.”
Baha, crouching on Amu’s shoulder, spoke. A faint red light flickered in his eyes. Amu and Bubu Wang walked past Monica.
“What… have I done…”
Monica glanced at the backs of Amu and Bubu Wang, and then at Su Xiao standing at the corner of the metal corridor. The vibe of an all-villain crew emerged.
Swallowing her saliva, Monica turned and ran out.