Chapter 489: Let's Be Heroes Today Onwards!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Meanwhile, Arwa was also very puzzled of the same problem.
He did manage to break free from the siege of the monsters with his 200 pilots who were certainly the top 200 he could ever imagine commanding. They encountered a few unaccompanied red-tailed beasts on their way but none of these beasts imposed an issue as they would strike the beasts down before anything else. There were tiny flock of wandering spaceships that witnessed the scene and decided to join them without hesitation. As the knightly mighty army of Arwa struck down more beasts, there seemed to be more spaceships tailing them as well...
It should not go out of hand this fast under normal circumstance but it was that one slip of tongue of Arwa's man that reacted vigorously among the wandering spaceships from all corners. "My lord Arwa, he... uh.. opps..."
It was as if there was a light of hope when the spaceships realized the owner of the leading spaceship was no one other than the greatest strategist, Arwa himself. The fleet was growing rapidly, which could be a little issue for Arwa.
But can I just abandon these folks? No... If I do... my name would be...
If I took them? I don't think I could protect all of them, we are slowing down too...
Arwa was facing a dilemma.
The young mistress had not recovered from the last shock, her eyes were soulless and that was something to worry.
...(Meanwhile)...
"Are you sure?" said Ye Chong, bewildered as his eyes set upon the list of supplies in his hand. He could not perceive the motive of Shang's decision.
"I just got a really bad news," said Shang slowly, "The pathway to He Yue galaxy has already been engulfed by the red-tailed beasts. Although I still could not identify from where they came, I highly suspect these were the red-tailed beasts from He Yue galaxy itself."
"He Yue's own variation?" flinched Ye Chong.
"Mhm," Shang responded grimly, "I had simulated several calculations yet there is no plausible way that the red-tailed beasts could reach the pathway when they were far behind us. So where did these beasts come from? The first possibility is that they had infiltrated in small batches since the time before; The second... the pathway had received severe attacks from the galaxy itself. The second seems more probable by the way."
Ye Chong nodded, as he remembered the few red spots on Ye Luo's intergalactic layout. In an approving tone he replied, "There are several potential spawning locations of the red-tailed beasts in He Yue. So it is indeed likelier for the second assumption."
"Thus my current proposition would be to sail slowly. We would make use of the time to reform our force, so that we could at least attempt to force our way in even if no opening could be found when we arrived," said Shang proudly.
"Force?" Ye Chong gave a raise of brows as he waved the list in his hand, "By force, you meant them?" Haskel had been followed by over 300 spaceships. It was already a gigantic fleet. Even if they pretended each ship was carrying passengers of a mere number of 300, they would have achieved 100,000 easily with this fleet.
"Well, the likelihood of us returning to He Yue galaxy is pretty low, at least in short terms. So I believed it would be better if we have a paradigm shift. We could make use of the force we have. You might think it mostly consists of citizens who could hardly hurt a fly, but I must remind you to not look down upon them. There could be talents hidden among them. To craft diamonds one must always start from the filthy ores. We have ample time to train a batch of pilots. These citizens should have sufficient foundation to be trained. So our only problem would be time. As long as we did not come into a large flock of red-tails beasts, then we would be spared on time. And we would no longer have nothing in our hands. We can go anywhere we want once we got the strength. And so, we fight. We would fight."
Ye Chong was astounded of this strange sensation in his mind. He seemingly was no longer speaking to a handicapped artificial indulgence. It was as if he was speaking to a hero, one with ambition, a wild ambition and intrepid wishes.
Could this be Shang in the past? Is this how he once was?
"Jajaja~ Ye, good news. Mu has permitted my plan. So I'll be staying on manifestation till we got back to He Yue galaxy, unless something happened which is unlikely under my intelligence." Shang did not seem to notice Ye Chong's expression.
"Shang, how did you come to this plan?" asked Ye Chong.
"HAH!" The artificial indulgence was proud, "Told you to watch more movies! Yet every time you turned a deaf ear to my advice! It took me a long time to formulate this master plan with reference to 180 well-known film productions of the mafia genre as well as the heroes making histories. See? You were impressed by my idea too. Were you not? Hahahahahahaha!"
Ye Chong felt a strong nostalgia filling his heart upon hearing the uncontrolled laugh of this artificial indulgence.
He is still the Shang I knew.
"Well then, let's be heroes today onwards!" smiled Ye Chong.
Shang was immediately stupefied as the beeping chuckle stopped.
...(On the other side of the galaxy)...
Yang Ming marched to the captain's room, he wanted to respond to the message. Well, the captain was his uncle and technically every single man and woman inside the ship was his family. Including the other 5 spaceships nearby, they were all Yangs. The Yang family was a mere small tribe which consisted a population of barely over 2000.
They performed a migration upon a prompt decision of the chief since the hearing of the frontline collapse, and they were in this fleet at the moment considering how it might be safer hiding themselves in a massive crowd. Yang Ming thought it was a standard crowd without hierarchy at first, but he realized how there was one single ship leading them silently.
It was a gigantic model named Haskel.
And after the first encounter with the red-tailed beasts, he finally knew how Haskel managed to be ahead of all ships. Haskel was not only a leader, but also a guardian!
He was presented with the formidability of the ship's forces. The red-tailed beasts came in one wave and another and somehow Haskel was able to attract them like a powerful magnet while swallowing all of them in one go. No beast had left the ship ever since they got in.
It was a mystery in Yang Ming's eyes.
So where are they from? Which forces do they belong? What is the motive?
Questions mushroomed in the head of Yang Ming yet he had no way to answer them. Haskel was the silent one, like the angel who would escort the fleet to salvation. On the other hand, the followers were noisier as they would exchange information at least once a day. There was once they mentioned about Haskel and one of them claimed that Haskel belonged to a military group.
There were speculations but surely they could confirm that Haskel was strong!
And today was different.
All spaceships received a message from Haskel, the very first throughout the entire course. They were requested to complete a survey. It was compulsory for every member on the ship, both passengers and staff or Haskel would no longer provide any form of protection to any uncooperative unit.
To be frank, if the survey was passed at the beginning, the threat would slip their eyes without notice and probably most ships would just quit the party themselves upon the indirect disrespect. However, in the past few days the ships had witnessed the heroic acts of Haskel so the situation had changed as it had become an unconditional, unsaid agreement among them to have Haskel as the leader.
Yang Ming was there to complete the survey. He would be reporting to his uncle in regards of the questions given. Those were some basic questions, such as Your Strength, Your Favorite, Your Health Condition and Your Experience in Piloting. In no time Yang Ming had done the survey, though in total bewilderment. Of all times, why would people on Haskel want to know these trivialities now?
In the next 5 hours, 5 spaceships were expelled from the fleet. Yang Ming was told that these spaceships were the unconvinced rebellions of Haskel's request. The survey was ignored and no action was taken. They thought nothing would happen till Haskel sent a new request, demanding them to leave the fleet immediately. Well, of course, similar to the survey request before, they showed ignorance. Eventually 3 warships suddenly surrounded these 5 spaceships and they got held back. The people on those ships could do nothing else than bidding a silent farewell to the fleet.
Such event had gained greater obedience from the other spaceships. They realized it was not a time to crack jokes. It was a period where red-tailed beasts could be anywhere in the galaxy and these spaceships had left the fleet. Well, their fate was instantly imaginable and certainly the remaining spaceships would not want to join them.
The more horrifying part was, somehow Haskel was fully informed of everything on each spaceship in the fleet, including their vessel, the supplies they contained.
Very soon after, Haskel announced a sequence of measures to be conducted. Even though Yang Ming knew he would never be able to get anything from his uncle regarding the measures, he was given a mission to transfer to one of the medium-sized spaceships for training.
Speaking of training, Yang Ming was as average as you and I. His physique was average, his strength was average, his dexterity was average and his piloting skill was average too but there was one particular feature that probably caught the leader of Haskel - his talent in machines. That also happened to be the core module of his training on the ship too. He was transferred there, along with 3 other companions who shared the same talent as him. Apparently there were also other modules too which had taken a handful of other Yangs he knew. Well, no doubt he had the greatest envy towards the Yangs who got assigned to pilot-training.
Nobody suspected a thing, since it was a command from the great one. Haskel must have a well-trained army. It almost seemed natural for Haskel to have one, probably at least a few hundreds of them. They were the group who slew red-tailed beats effortlessly after all. It would be a golden opportunity for the folks to be trained by these experts.
However, Yang Ming did not feel anything in particular. He was more interested in the machines he would be touching. Clearly, Haskel wanted more forces for they commenced trainings for ordinary, almost good-for-nothing youngsters like them at such a critical period. So he had to work hard!
Inside the transporting unit, he clenched his fists as he looked at his family who remained on their own ship, waving exciting shouting an unheard goodbye to him.
Haskel, once hollow was now filled with a massive, lively crowd, like an opening day for a military camp. The youngsters could not help but to jump around, enthralled for they passed the first phase of inspection. The survey was a kind of interview while there was the second selection process right inside Haskel. The qualified would receive notification regarding them joining the official pilot training successfully. The unqualified, sadly, had to take the transport back to their own ships right away.
There were 1500 members who passed the selection process, and they were quite a talent too because of their physique and mech understanding. There were also 200 adult pilots who would receive a different training in order to accommodate them in the war field later.