"Heh, heh, heh — back then, when I had the chance, I truly ought to have killed you, and those companions of yours right along with you!" Scarface said, savage with malice.
Chitong drew the weapon at her waist.
This was the first time Zhao Chen had laid eyes on this sword of Chitong's… no, by the look of it, it was more like a saber. Somewhat akin to that sort of Tang saber from the memories of Zhao Chen's past life. Ordinarily a weapon of this kind was, for the most part, used by those nobles as a collector's piece; in this era, very few any longer used this sort of physical, single-soldier cold-steel weapon.
"I too much regret letting you slip away by luck back then. But it's just as well — today, let you brothers die together in one place." Chitong's blade rose and fell.
Scarface's left arm was severed.
"Aaah, aaah…" Scarface let out a wretched scream, his blood splashing onto the face of Skinny Monkey beside him, and that severed arm landing, of all places, right before Skinny Monkey's eyes. This frightened Skinny Monkey witless. He didn't fear dying in a ship battle, for that was, for the most part, a matter of the blink of an eye, with no time at all to react. But this manner of dying before him now was plainly agonizing, and it shattered, in a single stroke, the psychological defenses within his heart!
"Don't… don't kill me… don't kill me!" Skinny Monkey's shrill cries even, at one point, drowned out Scarface's screams.
"Chitong, don't be hasty yet. Let me ask a question first," Zhao Chen said.
Chitong stood there in silence; with one flick of the blade in her hand, the fresh blood fell, to the last drop, upon the ground, and the body of the blade was clean as it had been at the first.
Zhao Chen squatted down before Skinny Monkey and looked at Skinny Monkey's terror-stricken face. "I know the ones behind you are the Prince Faction — the Second Prince and the Third Prince you spoke of just now. But there's one question I'm curious about: I hear that over this stretch of time you greatly increased the intensity of your slave trade, as though in some great hurry. And why is that?"
"If I tell you, can you spare my life! I'll roll far, far away — never appear in the Starlight Empire again my whole life!" Skinny Monkey said with the utmost fervor.
These words at once set the Big-Eye King beside him roaring in a fury. "Skinny Monkey, you wretch — you dare sell out any word of the princes' affairs, and even as a ghost I'll not let you off! Have you forgotten that everything we possess now was given us by the princes!"
"Chitong, deal with this one first. That great eye of his staring at me makes me most uncomfortable!" Zhao Chen pointed at the Big-Eye King beside them. One could see well enough that this Big-Eye King was loyal, heart and soul, to his two masters; there'd be no word to be gotten out of his mouth — better, then, to simply use him to kill the chicken and warn the monkey.
Chitong silently walked up before the Big-Eye King, gripped the saber-hilt in both hands, and thrust it forward. The blade pierced clean through the Big-Eye King's great eye, and out the back of his head. The Big-Eye King — this helmsman who'd controlled the vast bulk of the Starlight Empire's black-market slave trade — died just so, so easily.
Target figure the Big-Eye King successfully killed.
The System mission's alert tone sounded in Zhao Chen's ear.
"You have to die today; but if you cooperate obediently, I can let you die a touch more comfortably. If you don't cooperate, I'll make you die most wretchedly — at least dozens of times more wretchedly than he did." Zhao Chen looked at Skinny Monkey, pointing at Scarface beside them, still screaming over his severed arm.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!" Skinny Monkey knew he had no other choice, and at once laid out everything he knew.
As to why the two princes were so eager to expand the sale of slaves, that he didn't know either; but he guessed the two princes must be in urgent need of a great sum of funds. For in times past, the funds on their band of slavers' books could generally sit there two or three months before they needed to be remitted up once. But this time, after every large slave trade, 90% of the proceeds had to be remitted up in full at once. And this had cost them no small measure of their gravy.
Short of funds?
As two grand princes of the Starlight Empire, they were actually short of funds?
Given their standing — what would they need so vast a sum of funds for?
There at once surfaced in Zhao Chen's mind a stretch of plot of the sort that so often turned up in palace-intrigue dramas. It was the one thing that could explain it all.
In truth, as for who sat the throne of the Starlight Empire, Zhao Chen didn't much care — so long as it didn't disturb his own life. But it was plain enough that in the present state of things, his own Big Sis stood on the little princess's side, and the little princess's side would surely support her elder brother — that is, the present Crown Prince. And for that Crown Prince's two younger brothers to be mobilizing so vast a sum of funds at just this time — it surely couldn't be to prepare a "birthday present" for this elder brother of theirs, could it?
The answer seemed already to have revealed itself.
The Starlight Empire was, in all likelihood, about to undergo a great upheaval.
Zhao Chen rubbed at his chin; it seemed that, once he'd returned, he'd have to find a way to convey this piece of news to his own Big Sis.
"Chitong, those two I leave to you." Zhao Chen, having lost all interest in these two fellows now stripped of any value, turned and walked out of the hangar. He'd no wish for that blood to get onto his clothes — though the clothes had a self-cleaning function.
Mission target Skinny Monkey successfully killed.
Mission target Scarface successfully killed.
After Zhao Chen had walked out of the hangar, he heard the System's alert tones. It seemed Chitong, too, couldn't be bothered to torment these two fellows, and had chosen simply to kill them outright.
Branch mission: Chitong's Revenge
Mission targets: the boss, the Big-Eye King; the Number Two, Skinny Monkey; the Number Three, Scarface.
Challenge task: capture one of the target figures alive, then kill them — reward: 3,000 System points.
Branch mission complete — mission reward may be claimed.
Challenge task complete — reward may be claimed.
As the System's pleasant alert tone sounded in his mind, Zhao Chen knew that his T4-starship little darling had already begun beckoning to him. He could hardly wait to feast his eyes a while on the allure of this new love of his.
But there were still some matters to handle for now. Zhao Chen could only, for the time being, press down the restlessness within him, and, together with Chitong — whose expression, having settled her old grudge, was now somewhat unburdened — returned to the bridge.
"Commander, we've now counted the total number of slaves — 120,000 slaves in all. Of them, 50% are of the human race, 39% are beast-folk, and the rest are various star races, the great majority of them humanoid races," Lilith reported to Zhao Chen.
"How many interstellar transports did we gather? Can we take all these slaves away?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Relying on the interstellar warships we captured, taking all these slaves away is basically no problem at all," Lilith said.
Zhao Chen instructed, "Then transfer these slaves onto the warships as fast as possible. I'd say the two princes' reinforcements ought already to be on their way; we have to hurry to withdraw."
"Understood. In another hour's time, we can thoroughly bring the battle here to an end. And within the three hours after that, we'll take away all the slaves, and all the resources that can be carried off! Whatever can't be carried off, we'll opt to destroy on the spot," Lilith said.
"And don't forget to prepare a gift for the two princes as well." Zhao Chen gave a slight smile.