A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 175: Chapter 143 Unexpected Harvest_1

Dealing with these pirates didn’t consume much of Duanmu Huai’s time.

After all, whether it is him or the Night Guards, their main enemies are the Chaos and the Devils. Compared to these tattered third-tier Star Thieves, they generally have the upper hand once they make a move. Even those pirates who broke into the merchant ship were mercilessly killed by the Night Guards.

Duanmu Huai interrogated the trembling, scared, almost urinating Star Thief Leader. To his disappointment, he found that these pirates were indeed not doing well. Like the neglected corridor he saw earlier, the pirates within the entire fleet are so poor, and perhaps this Holy Grail Level battleship is the most valuable thing they own.

Additionally, they imprisoned some indigenous slaves captured from various planets within the warship, most of whom are humans, with a few from alien races. According to the Star Thief Leader, the reason he attacked this merchant ship was to seize goods and food — their food is not even enough for the crew.

Hence, these pirates are truly pitiful.

Duanmu Huai sent two Night Guards and the Star Thief Leader to inspect the goods and prisoners below. He sat on a chair and sighed helplessly. These pirates were too broken down, there was no challenge for him in this. If there was a black soybean or something, it would be more fun…..

“Your honor,”

At that moment, Duanmu Huai saw a Night Guard come in and respectfully saluted him.

“The captain of the Risk Assessment wants to see you.”

“See me? Alright.”

Duanmu Huai thought nothing of it and just nodded. Soon, he saw a robust and tall man dressed in a coat similar to a mink coat. He wore a beaver cap and had a mustache. He looked like a clever and capable businessman. The man paused upon seeing Duanmu Huai sitting in the commander’s chair, then his face turned pale, he took off his hat and placed it on his chest in reverence, and lowered his head.

“It is an honor to meet you, Your Honor, the Judge. I am the captain of the Risk Assessment, Dadaniel Solas. Thank you and your men for saving us from this crisis. If it weren’t for you, I’m afraid I would have…”

“Alright, spare the formalities.”

Duanmu Huai waved his hand.

“So, I want to make a trade with you.”

“A trade…… Is it?”

“Yes.”

Duanmu Huai nodded.

“I can sell you this warship, and you only need to give me some goods as an exchange.”

Frankly speaking, after inspecting the interior of this Holy Grail Level ship, Duanmu Huai was thoroughly disheartened with it. Only one-tenth of its weaponry system is functioning, even the Void Shield generator is broken, and other life-supporting devices are basically outdated. This Holy Grail Level is genuinely flashy but of no substance. Duanmu Huai would rather develop his own Void Dockyard to build a spaceship if he has to spend time repairing it!

“You don’t intend to keep this warship?”

Hearing Duanmu Huai’s words, Dadaniel was clearly surprised. Although he also saw that the interior of the ship wasn’t very good, for the current era, any warship is almost an invaluable treasure. After all, after the destruction of the Human Empire, fewer and fewer places could produce large warships. Even a ship like this, if it is still able to fly despite having a complete shell, is the best commodity for any interstellar merchant!

“No plan to.”

Duanmu Huai, of course, did not need it because he could make his own. Why would he waste his time?

“Then… what kind of goods do you want?”

“Interesting, rare, mysterious, as long as it can satisfy me.”

As he spoke, Duanmu Huai squinted his eyes and stared at Dadaniel below. This was also the reason why he meeting Dadaniel and proposed a trade. These wandering merchants across the universe will always have some peculiar items, and Holy Artifacts are not rare among them. If Duanmu Huai could get a few Holy Artifacts from Dadaniel to convert into building points, that would be much more valuable than a Holy Grail Level.

Moreover, many Holy Artifacts are incredibly useful. An example is the Gravity Gloves that Duanmu Huai uses. For a player, a good Holy Artifact can cross several versions and will not be obsolete.

As for whether the captain is willing, Duanmu Huai thinks it’s not a problem. This is because most Holy Artifacts can only be used by the Judge, Star Warrior, or Psychic. Like Duanmu Huai’s Thunder Warhammer, even though he can sweep it with one hand, when it’s in the hands of ordinary people, they might not be able to lift it even with four hands.

Such things are either treasures in the hands of ordinary people or are simply exhibited as symbols of belief- well, provided that they do not worship Holy Artifacts of evil gods or rebel legions, otherwise Duanmu Huai will have to discuss the issue of loyalty with them.

By then, one wouldn’t know whether it’s the Star Thieves or Duanmu Huai who would pose a greater threat to these merchants.

“This………”

Upon Duanmu Huai’s request, Dadaniel visibly hesitated, but soon, he nodded.

“Alright, Your Honor, please wait a moment.”

After saying these words, Dadaniel respectfully bowed to Duanmu Huai, then turned around and left. At this time, the Star Thief Leader has come back again, defeated and escorted by two Night Guards. One of the Night Guards handed the list to Duanmu Huai.

“Is this all the prisoners?”

“Yes, Your Honor. ”

“Hmm……..”

Duanmu Huai glanced at the parchment written in lower Gothic, which showed that most of the prisoners are humans, and the rest are low-level aliens not much stronger than Oga. Hmm?

At this instant, Duanmu Huai found a special term on the list.

“A Psychic?”

He looked up in surprise and turned his gaze to the leader of the Star Thieves.

“Did you actually manage to capture a Psychic? Where is he?”

Frankly, Duanmu Huai was doubtful if this mob had the capability to do so. After all, in most worlds, psychics basically stood equivalent to people with superpowers or mages. Could such Star Thieves really manage to capture a Psychic? He wondered if they thought they were the Imperial Guards or the Silent Sisters. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“Have mercy, sir!”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s words, the leader of the Star Thieves was so frightened that he prostrated himself on the ground, not daring to get up.

“We don’t entirely know if it’s a Psychic. All we know is that everyone in that family is supposed to be a Psychic, so we captured him. Besides, the kid did seem to have some rather strange powers…”

“So where is he?”

“Um… right next to your chair, sir…”

“Hm?”

Duanmu Huai glanced at the space beside his chair and was surprised to find a thin and petite figure huddled in the chair’s shadow, apparently unconscious — possibly frightened into such a state by Duanmu Huai’s Fearful Aura.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake…”

Duanmu Huai reached out to haul up the tiny figure. He observed the child closely. The child looked dirty and unkempt, as if he had not cleaned himself in a long time. In fact, he was just wrapped in a dirty, ragged piece of cloth, and a metal chain was tied around his neck like a pet. His eyes were covered with a torn piece of white cloth. He seemed skeletal and pitiful.

However, what Duanmu Huai cared about was not this. Instead, when he concentrated his gaze on the boy, he saw the information that appeared above the child’s head.

[Starseer (LV20) Rare]

A Starseer!

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai was taken aback.

What a rarity!

The so-called Starseers were essentially human message senders for a warship. Simply put, in the Imperial Era, every warship had a Starseer. Their task was to follow the captain’s orders and use their thoughts to transmit messages from the subspace to the brain of the Starseer in another warship – yes, that’s correct; long-distance communication back in the era of the Human Empire was done in this somewhat Psychic-like way of mental induction.

However, such methods are largely obsolete today. After all, when a Starseer transmits information, they are easily polluted by the subspace, and they might end up receiving the whispers of some Evil God. Furthermore, the information conveyed undergoes distortion in the process, much like the famous “Chinese whispers game,” where even in a room, there will be miscommunication by the time the message reaches the last person.

Not to mention, the Starseer’s method of message transmission across galaxies can cause the conveyed message to lose substantial original meaning by the time it reaches its destination, and just how far it deviates is anyone’s guess.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean Starseers are useless in the player’s era.

Starseers can sense information from the subspace, and as we all know, the subspace doesn’t have a concept of time. Meaning, when a Starseer receives a piece of information, it could either be from hundreds or thousands of years ago in the past or hundreds to thousands of years later in the future.

Therefore, to put it bluntly, whatever signals the Starseers receive, either arrive late or early, and as for punctuality… well, might as well pray to the Emperor.

The prerequisite here is that he’s still alive.

But for players, these conditions are quite useful. Because when it comes to exploring spaceship wrecks or some dead worlds, the ability of Starseers is indeed extremely helpful. Besides, players are particularly interested in tomb raiding and ruin exploration.

As a Soul Walker, Duanmu Huai naturally needs the guidance of a Starseer, which would make finding ruins and Soul Cards much easier, right?

What a pleasant surprise indeed.

Truth be told, Duanmu Huai didn’t expect to find such a treasure within the ranks of these third-rate Star Thieves. This turned out to be quite a sizable catch for him. But what he didn’t anticipate was the equipment brought by Dadaniel Solas after that–it too caught him off-guard.

Dadaniel Solas delivered a total of three pieces of equipment, a Chainsaw Sword, a power fist that was bright red as though stained with fresh blood, and a Plasma Pistol.

And they were not ordinary pieces at that.

[Alien’s Death][Scarlet Fist][Justice’s Left Hand]

“Hiss…”

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai couldn’t stop himself from drawing a sharp breath. To understand, these three artifacts were widely circulated among the players.

The Chainsaw Sword, [Alien’s Death], excelled at alien extermination, becoming a phenomenal weapon for killing aliens and demons. The [Scarlet Fist] was a Terminator’s equipment, apart from its massive power, it was said that every time the [Scarlet Fist] slayed an enemy, its energy field would become even more vibrant red–as if stained by the enemy’s fresh blood.

Therefore players suspected that it may have some connection with the Brutal God…

As for the Plasma Pistol, [Justice’s Left Hand], its power was not particularly high, but it had a special ability–rumor has it that the Mechanical Priest who made the Plasma Pistol had meticulously prayed for its cooling and reliability, so the gun would hardly ever break.

This led to jokes among the players about the so-called “Everlasting Cool Justice’s Plasma.”

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai looked at Dadaniel Solas in confusion before him.

Could it be that your ancestors had some relation with the bloody, wretched Blood Ducks?