Chapter 20: Run!
Inside the long corridor, Su Xiao had a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He had already waited for several minutes, but the enemy still hadn't charged in.
After waiting a few more minutes, Su Xiao took a tablet from his storage space. The surrounding metal walls would block his perception, so he could only observe the situation outside through mechanical bees.
Su Xiao had left 17 metal bees in various locations around the spaceship. He activated one outside the corridor first.
The image appeared on the screen, and Su Xiao found that the contractors outside the corridor had all withdrawn.
As Su Xiao manipulated the metal bees, he learned that all the contractors inside the spaceship had evacuated.
Realizing this, Su Xiao felt something was wrong. His first thought was that the spaceship might self-destruct.
Thump, thump.
Su Xiao knocked on the captain's cabin door. Amu came out from inside and took Su Xiao's place guarding the corridor.
Su Xiao moved forward along the corridor. When he passed a corner, he stopped to observe for a moment. Nothing unusual.
Arriving at the pressure door, Su Xiao pressed his hand on the identification device.
[Beep～, Contractor Camp has been locked.]
The pressure door didn't open. Su Xiao thrust his longsword forward, stabbing into the gap at the center of the pressure door.
Crack, crack, crack...
After a harsh sound of metal friction, Su Xiao forced the door open, leaving his arms somewhat sore.
Looking outside the pressure door, the contractors were nowhere to be seen. On the ground were blood-stained bandages and patches of blood.
Su Xiao crouched at the pressure door and began to think. After several minutes of mental sparring with the air, he guessed a very unfavorable possibility: Apocalypse Paradise had ordered all contractors in the spaceship to evacuate. This was not good.
To verify this guess, Su Xiao decided to risk leaving the corridor.
Forcing doors open all the way, Su Xiao first reached the inner cabin. Still no one. After violently opening three more steam doors, he finally saw a living person, but not a contractor—it was the chef girl from the outer cabin's restaurant.
"You, you you, d-don't, don't, c-come closer."
The chef girl was scared into a stutter, holding a long-handled soup spoon, looking like she was ready to hit Su Xiao with it.
"Where are the people?"
Su Xiao's gaze swept around. He hadn't forgotten that he had three forced retrieval permissions.
"L-left."
As soon as Su Xiao spoke, the chef girl immediately cowered. As for her combat ability, if too many contractors came to eat at once, she would be exhausted.
Part of Su Xiao's guess was confirmed. He went to the outer cabin's pressure door and continued forcing it open.
At this moment, outside the rear of the spaceship, over two hundred contractors were gathered. They hadn't left because they were waiting for the main mission to be reissued.
Crack~
A dull sound came, and all the contractors' gazes turned to the rear hatch of the spaceship.
"How did he... get out!"
Kulon was stunned for a moment, involuntarily shivering. In that instant, the rear hatch was opened a crack, and Su Xiao locked eyes with Kulon.
"Run!"
Some contractor shouted. After that yell, all the contractors turned and fled.
"Wait, don't run! He's out of the spaceship, not necessarily a match for us. We outnumber him!"
This shout made the contractors stop in their tracks.
"Seems... that's right."
"Then why were we running?"
"Cough, instinct."
The group of contractors returned. A strange scene appeared: Su Xiao and over two hundred contractors were at a standoff, neither side making a move.
Su Xiao didn't attack because he couldn't leave the spaceship. The temporary spatial coordinates were inside the spaceship. Leaving now would cause the mission to fail.
As for the Apocalypse Paradise contractors not charging into the spaceship, first, they didn't dare, and second, they would be forcibly executed.
"If, if you've got the guts, come out here."
Brother Scar shouted. The contractors near him all took a few steps back.
"..."
Su Xiao flicked his longsword, and the blade slowly returned to its sheath. The resource plundering mission was basically complete. As for the next mission, he had already guessed what it was. If he completed the next mission, Apocalypse Paradise would suffer a huge loss. That was also why Apocalypse Paradise had the contractors evacuate the spaceship.
After confirming his guess, Su Xiao turned and walked back inside the spaceship. A bullet suddenly flew toward his back.
The Banishment at Su Xiao's sleeve detached, forming a hiltless rapier. With a clang, it collided with the bullet.
Banishment transformed into a fragmented blade form and reattached to Su Xiao's sleeve. Su Xiao didn't even turn around, let alone stop.
"You, lead the way."
Su Xiao's gaze fell on the young chef girl. She looked left and right, and after confirming there was no one else, she could only resign herself.
"Wh-where do you want to go?"
"The treasure vault, or somewhere similar."
"Alright."
The young chef girl led the way. Five minutes later, she arrived at a thick metal door and pressed her hand against it.
"Identification successful. Welcome, Violator Nora."
An electronic voice came. Su Xiao looked at the young chef girl, Violator Nora, with some surprise.
Undoubtedly, this was the weakest and most cowardly violator Su Xiao had ever seen.
"Actually, I... used to kill without blinking."
Nora sighed, looking like she had a past too painful to recall. In reality, when she was at first rank, she was an adorable miner. While mining one day, she accidentally killed a teammate with a kinetic mining pick. That teammate died without knowing why Nora suddenly dug at him.
If it were just that, she wouldn't have become a violator. But this somewhat dazed girl killed another teammate, and was then judged as a violator—the lowest threat level. Eventually, she was forcibly stripped of her contractor status and conscripted to work in the contractor camp's kitchen.
Nora actually had her troubles. With over 1000 degrees of myopia, she just wanted to earn more Paradise points to cure her nearsightedness. But before her myopia was cured, she got an "epic-level" job change, becoming a chef + violator.
The heavy metal door opened, and a wave of cold air rushed out.
"..."
Su Xiao looked at the dazzling array of frozen meat in the cold storage. After a moment, he looked at Nora.
"These, are very valuable!"
Nora's answer was exceptionally certain. Su Xiao turned and left. Clearly, he had asked the wrong person. As for dealing with the violator, this was Apocalypse Paradise's violator, none of his business.
Su Xiao began searching the spaceship, mainly the inner cabin. Most of the doors here were hard to open, but there was nothing good inside.
Su Xiao had already tried all the doors he could open. Not a single piece of rare supplies, not even a piece of equipment.
[Tip: Temporary spatial coordinates are about to form.]
Receiving this prompt, Su Xiao quickly headed back to the captain's cabin. As soon as he returned, he saw a layer of blood-red light membrane forming near the temporary spatial coordinates. Bubu Wang and Baha were both observing nearby.
[Time until temporary spatial coordinates form: 5 seconds.]
[5, 4, 3...]
...
The countdown ended. A blood-red shockwave, starting from the temporary spatial coordinates, spread outward, soon enveloping the entire spaceship.
In front of the temporary spatial coordinates, Su Xiao looked up. A blood-red vortex was churning above.
With a bang, the metal wall on the right side of the captain's cabin burst open. A layer of blue light membrane sealed the gap, but it only held for a moment before shattering.
Ores of various colors flew out from the breach, forming a multicolored "dragon" that surged into the blood-red vortex.
Not just ores, Su Xiao also saw hundreds of soul crystals and a granular concretion.
Su Xiao now understood the use of the "Forced Item Retrieval Permission." Other parts of the spaceship didn't have items of high value. Now was the chance to choose rewards.
All kinds of items disappeared into the blood-red vortex. Most of them Su Xiao had never seen before. Whether he could pick good things depended on his judgment. He only had three chances.