Master of the Stars

Hu Yuli turned around. “Assistant Yan?”

Yan Yongbo didn’t lift his head but calmly said, “To cut off Quantum Corporation from the program must have cost you quite a bit.”

“It’s alright, the money was taken from the headquarters. The media and the headquarters were always on good terms.” Hu Yuli smiled in response. He couldn’t care less whether the smile counted as a trigger.

Honestly speaking, Hu Yuli really admired Yan Yongbo. He had the guts to use military grade weapons like the particle cannon near the residential areas of Xia City.

If the matter had been completely resolved, the company and the lab would have praised him and called the situation ‘resolved’. However, in reality, Jack had died, the test subject was lost, the number of Deep Blue Walkers had decreased by two and the mission fell through completely. This so-called ‘resolve’ was now branded as ‘arrogance’.

Out of all the problems, the direct casualties caused by the operation was only the tip of the iceberg.

The government and the military already had their hands full from the ‘human-faced spider’ incident. As such, the shot fired on the dawn of October first caused the already chaotic situation to become even worse.

From politicians to military officers to businessmen—everyone wanted to take advantage of the situation.

On the third day after the incident, clips and images of the appearance of Deep Blue Walkers in Xia City had leaked onto the internet despite the corporation’s attempt to keep it under wraps. As the quantity of the news and the number of sightings increased, it exploded.

Although there was no particle cannons nor Darksider Species, the Deep Blue Walkers themselves were already a prominent symbol for danger. In addition, there had been frequent earthquakes in the past two weeks. Adding two and two together along with a sprinkle of imagination resulted in all sorts of strange rumors starting to circulate. Some of the rumors left even the most knowledgeable insiders speechless.

The impact of this news continued to brew within the week. The ‘Star Associated Press’, which was notorious for being quick to catch a scoop, even produced a specialized program just a week after the incident. Although this was not unprecedented, it was still very rare. Despite the meddling within from the Quantum Corporation’s competitors, one could not deny the huge impact the incident had on the community.

At present, the situation was already totally out of control. Earth’s greatest decision-making organization, the Planetary United Development Organization Committee (Star Alliance), expressed their disappointment towards the Xia City government and its military management.

Control of military grade combat weapons such as charged particle cannons was inadequate, monitoring of highly destructive teams like Deep Blue Walkers was inadequate, Management after the incident was inadequate...

The Xia City government and the military were metaphorically slapped several times. Under fury driven from embarrassment, they directly pulled out from all the deals regarding the Human-Faced Arachnid with the Quantum Corporation. All sorts of investigation teams rushed in towards Quantum Corporation.

The ‘Darksider Species’ incident was forgotten because the headquarters of the corporation failed to provide sufficient endorsement.

In the ten years that Hu Yuli had lived in Xia City, he had never encountered such chaotic situation. It seemed like armed forces could come in at any time to arrest them all...

Nonetheless, the headquarters maintained a calm composure. On one hand, they were totally silent regarding the pressure from the government and the military. On the other, they started to regain control of the public opinion, and even the statements of both the Xia City government and the military, thus avoiding the onslaught.

No matter how you looked at it, they were treated like an abandoned son...

Hu Yuli had prepared himself mentally over these past three days. He had made mistakes over and over. It was like dropping a jar over and over when he had already broke it; he wasn’t as concerned about the jar since it was broken anyway, so he grew all the more calm and composed. But what kind of feeling would Yan Yongbo have currently? This was really worth looking into.

At this moment, the sound of footsteps could be heard from the VIP passageway.

Hu Yuli called him again, “Assistant Yan?”

Yan Yongbo finally stood up, adjusted his collar and strode out the door. He walked in front by habit, effectively stealing Hu Yuli’s place.

Hu Yuli wasn’t mad.

Yan Yongbo had perfect timing. As soon as he was out of the door, he caught sight of a flight attendant escorting a tall woman through the passage.

The woman wore a brown trench coat and carried a dark brown backpack across one shoulder. She was dressed in a ghost-print graphic t-shirt. When this shirt was combined with her foxy figure, she looked very alluring. Below her shirt, she wore a pair of black trousers and high heels which accentuated her long legs, making her look extremely attractive.

Her wavy brown hair cascaded down her back and she donned sunglasses which covered half of her porcelain face. She smiled when she noticed the men as they exited the lounge; her lips quirking upwards to reveal her pearly whites. She effectively made the pretty female flight attendant look dull in comparison.

Yan Yongbo breathed in and looked up. “Supervisor Bai, thank you for coming.”

Hu Yuli followed up and expressed his concern, “I heard that it was a rough trip.”

It was unknown where ‘Supervisor Bai’ had turned her gaze behind those sunglasses but she responded to Hu Yuli, “Yeah, we got attacked by three eagles. It was a bit of a shock.”

As she spoke, she continued to walk forward and carried her own bag. Some attendants wanted to carry the bag for her but they didn’t dare to make a move. They all followed her and returned to the VIP resting lounge.

She threw her backpack onto the sofa and sat next to it. Swiftly, she took off her sunglasses, fully uncovering her face. Her eyes seemed to be flashing. However, upon closer inspection, one could actually see a layer of cold flames.

Faced with such eyes, Hu Yuli could not look into them directly. Instead, he picked up his teacup and kept his head low.

In contrast, Yan Yongbo lifted his head and faced this new ‘colleague’ – at least for now—with a calm and firm attitude.

In the end, it was Hu Yuli who broke the silence, “Supervisor Bai must be tired after her journey. We have already organized for you a place to stay, why don’t you get some rest first?”

“That’s not necessary. I haven’t returned to Xia City in a very long time so I have some friends to meet.”

Supervisor Bai let her gaze roll across the two men and she laughed. “Before doing personal things, let’s talk about business. The mission that the laboratory gave me is to investigate the connection between the Deep Blue World’s Soul Order with other secret orders in the world and to look for relevant clues. To date, the most valuable intel came from Assistant Yan. I heard Jack had personally admitted to knowing the contact of people in such cult.

Since Supervisor Bai had dived straight into the matter, Yan Yongbo silently let out a sigh of relief and responded, “Yes, including a high-ranking member.”

“So, what’s the specific situation?”

Yan Yongbo faltered, then replied, “Jack died, we are currently tracing relevant clues and have already obtained his data record which is being looked into as we speak.”

Supervisor Bai balanced her sunglasses on the tip of a single finger; letting it spin magically.

“Can you be more specific?”