Interstellar Era: Starting As a Cleaner

PS: Sorry, I had some things to deal with today, so there are only two updates. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow!

The two of them stared at each other for at least five seconds. Then, they instantly turned and fled. That’s right, both of them ran away!

The Pirate Leader ran because no matter how strong an individual’s abilities were, they couldn’t defeat a Mecha. Furthermore, this Mecha had appeared so suddenly and mysteriously! Did it have other accomplices?

Yang Bo ran because this Mecha was basically scrapped. Aside from being able to walk and move one arm, its Laser Cannon was broken. Even walking felt like a struggle.

After both sides fled, the Pirate Leader suddenly froze, instantly realizing what had happened. He thought, “Oh no! I’ve been tricked!”

The Pirate Leader carefully recalled the encounter. The opponent’s Mecha was covered in battle scars and had been in the middle of doing something, clearly having just gone through a massive battle. He had come here because a Mecha squad was destroying the cargo hold. By the looks of it now, that squad had likely met a grim end!

The Pirate Leader immediately turned around and gave chase. A Mecha Master inside a Mecha was an untouchable existence, but a Mecha Master without a Mecha was nothing but a sitting duck! They could be slaughtered at will.

It was somewhat like playing a video game: inside the game, they were gods, but outside the game, they were just ordinary shut-ins. Although the analogy was slightly inappropriate—since a Mecha Master still possessed some combat ability and was also a Genetic Evolver—their Genetic Evolution focused on operation and calculation. Their evolutionary path was completely different from that of a combat-oriented Genetic Evolver.

The Pirate Leader reacted quickly, but when he chased back, he only caught a glimpse of a Shadow.

Yang Bo had also reacted quickly. However, the Mecha was damaged, so its movements were sluggish, and its Energy transmission was compromised. When the Pirate Leader had fled just moments ago, Yang Bo had been taken aback before hurriedly escaping himself. He directly activated the Flying Backpack, though unfortunately, its operation was currently unstable. Piloting the Battle Armor, Yang Bo instantly ducked into a maintenance shaft.

The Pirate Leader turned back just in time to see Yang Bo piloting the Mecha into the maintenance shaft. Staring at the shaft’s sign, he thought, “Is this bastard really hiding in the maintenance shaft?”

This immediately led the Pirate Leader to believe that the person inside was one of the ship’s Mecha Operators. After all, anyone who wasn’t a crew member of the Baisha Transport Ship would have absolutely no way of entering the maintenance shaft. It could be said that only professional maintenance personnel could access this area. It required specific clearance.

With a wave of his Energy Weapon, the Pirate Leader tore a massive hole in the entrance of the maintenance shaft and squeezed inside.

The maintenance shafts on the Baisha Transport Ship were much larger than those on a Warship. These shafts were generally designed for robots, with very few being intended for manual use.

Yang Bo also realized that the Pirate Leader was catching up. After all, he had heard the sound of the Pirate Leader tearing open the shaft’s entrance.

He thought, “Run, I need to run fast!”

Yang Bo sprinted straight toward the Mecha storage area. As long as he reached that location and secured a Mecha, the Pirate Leader would be nothing to worry about. As for Yang Bo’s own Mecha, he wouldn’t bring it out unless it was an absolute last resort.

The Pirate Leader looked down the maintenance shaft, feeling a tingling sensation on his scalp. He wasn’t entirely sure if Yang Bo was acting alone. A second later, the Pirate Leader emerged from the maintenance shaft. He moved rapidly through the Baisha Transport Ship, passing through cabin after cabin in mere flashes.

Soon after, when he arrived at the area where the transport ship’s escort guards stored their Mechas, he noticed that several Mechas were missing!

“What’s going on here?” the Pirate Leader muttered. He knew there were supposed to be ten Mechas here, but now several were missing.

The Pirate Leader opened the cockpit of a Mecha, destroyed the Light Brain inside, and then closed the cockpit tightly. He repeated this operation for all the remaining Mechas before hiding to the side!

Faintly, the Pirate Leader felt a surge of excitement. Based on the current situation, someone here could definitely bypass Mecha authorizations. A Superpower User capable of freely obtaining the control rights to someone else’s Mecha—wasn’t that exactly what he needed? With a person like that, he could steal other people’s Mechas in the future instead of helplessly watching as he beat Advanced Mechas into scrap metal!

All Mechas were equipped with highly secure Control Systems. They couldn’t be hacked by just anyone. It wasn’t that no one had ever tried to crack a Mecha, but once discovered, they would face bounties and relentless pursuit from the military and Mecha companies, as Mechas were primarily for military use.

No matter the society, when capital reached a certain scale, any malicious act against it would be met with a severe backlash. In the entire interstellar society, Mecha companies were among the entities you absolutely could not afford to provoke. They were the equivalent of the military-industrial complex on Earth.

“How insidious and despicable, how cunning and shameless!” Yang Bo muttered. He had disposed of his Mecha and hurried over, only to arrive just in time to see the Pirate Leader destroying the Mechas’ Light Brains and hiding nearby. It looked like he was planning to lie in wait for his prey.

Yang Bo made up his mind. He thought, “I have to eliminate this guy. If I don’t, the fact that I can bypass Mecha authorizations will be exposed. Even if they can’t be sure it’s me, as long as this news leaks, everyone on this transport ship might end up sliced open for research!”

In truth, Yang Bo had harbored a dark suspicion for a long time. If Exotic Beasts could be used as raw materials for Genetic Potions, could human Genetic Evolvers be used as raw materials too? If it was possible, would the Genetic Potion companies actually do it?

Was this idea a bit crazy? Perhaps, but Yang Bo knew that reality was sometimes far more gruesome than one could ever imagine!

If his abilities were exposed, no matter what citizen class he belonged to, things would not end well for him. Unless he had a formidable faction backing him up, he would be reduced to a mere pawn, his fate manipulated by others. If he were just a pawn manipulated by others, it wouldn’t be completely unbearable. What terrified him was his darkest theory—that he might be used as raw material for Genetic Potions…

“I’ve got it!” Yang Bo quickly came up with a plan.

Using Invisibility to enter through another maintenance access point, Yang Bo utilized his Sound Wave Control to search the cargo hold. He soon located a few ordinary people shivering in a corner. Yang Bo plucked a strand of hair from one of them. The person whose hair was pulled thought a companion had bumped into them. They turned to look, but no one was there!

The reason Yang Bo didn’t fabricate a Disguise out of thin air was that he wasn’t sure if the Pirate Leader had a Biological Chip. If the pirate did possess a Biological Chip, he had likely memorized the personal data of everyone aboard the ship.

Wearing a maintenance worker’s uniform, Yang Bo intentionally approached a maintenance exit near the Mecha storage area. He stealthily opened the hatch, looking left and right with feigned caution.

“So it’s him?” Hiding in the shadows, the Pirate Leader was somewhat surprised as he watched Yang Bo peeking out. According to the registered data, this guy was just an ordinary person, not even a member of the ship’s crew. He had even put on a maintenance uniform to fake it. Tsk, tsk!

A faint smirk appeared on the Pirate Leader’s lips as he watched Yang Bo completely emerge from the maintenance exit. But in the very next second, he saw Yang Bo suddenly slam the hatch shut.

“Don’t run!” The Pirate Leader froze for a moment, realizing he had been spotted. With a furious roar, he charged forward. Using his Energy Weapon, he tore open the sealed maintenance entrance and plunged inside, his Energy Armor radiating a gleaming light.