Chapter 145: What You Expect May Not Be What You Truly Want

At Banmaide Port's dock, on a steel warship noticeably larger than the surrounding vessels, a group of sailors stood listlessly on deck, gathered around a low table, placing slips of paper bearing their names and numbers upon it.

The low table was now divided by lines into multiple compartments, labeled with 【Officer】, 【Executive】, 【Boss】, and 【Grunt】, with smaller subdivisions beside them marked 【30 minutes】, 【1 hour】, 【2 hours】, 【Failure】, and others.

The compartments under Executives and Officers were already filled with slips, while the Boss compartment held only a few scattered small slips; the Grunt compartment had none.

Undoubtedly, this was a betting table.

At this moment, all those intending to bet had made their choices; the petty boss in charge of guarding the ship pulled out a perfectly sealed transparent glass lid and pressed it down over all the slips on the table.

All crew members appeared relaxed, feeling no sense of difficulty with this mission—after all, they had wiped out the entire Luobo family; now there was only one surviving fugitive, and they had dispatched an Officer and an Executive; they worried only whether they could find him, never whether they could capture him.

Yet after the brief excitement of betting, the sailors aboard grew bored again.

Long voyages are extremely tedious, especially when there is a fixed destination.

Since setting sail, this fleet had not docked once in half a month, and the sailors' patience had long since reached its limit.

Had it not been for strict military discipline, they would have long since jumped ship and vented themselves in the gambling dens found in every port city of this era; now, they could only remain aboard, waiting silently for the Executive and Officer to return.

In utter boredom, some sailors pulled out playing cards and began playing a game they had already grown tired of; gambling aboard ship was a common custom—or rather, without some mental stimulation, crew members of this era could hardly endure the long, monotonous voyage.

But to avoid bloody incidents, everyone tacitly used paper slips as tokens, to be settled by the captain or other authoritative figures upon disembarking—a lesson passed down by countless predecessors.

As everyone yawned, the lookout suddenly shouted:

"Movement! They've started fighting!"

"Oh?!" This cry immediately drew the attention of the other crew members; the few petty bosses left aboard snapped to attention and raised their telescopes to scan the distance.

Alas, the battle was taking place in the trading zone, where surrounding buildings completely blocked the view; only clouds of dust from explosions and the occasional silhouette thrown up and falling again revealed how fierce the combat was.

For such distant observation, no one felt much interest; though they longed to charge over directly, rules were rules—ordered to remain aboard, they could not move.

The petty bosses, deeply aware that every regulation was forged from blood, would have given a speech anyway to steady morale—even without anyone prompting—but just then, a sailor suddenly shouted:

"Boss, two people are running this way—one's a woman, and clearly a wolf-type beast tamer! Even though she's black-skinned, could she be the target?"

Hearing this, not only the petty boss but everyone else immediately turned their gaze—and they didn't even need to hesitate about going ashore, because the two were already charging straight toward them!

"All combat personnel, prepare for battle! Non-combatants, enter the safe room immediately!" Without hesitation, the petty boss swung his arm; the warriors, long pent-up, erupted in excited shouts.

The military chaplain began chanting a spell; as red light spilled down, everyone's vision, hearing, and perception sharply increased.

The God of the Hunt was a minor deity in the Jade Archipelago, yet still granted these warriors significant enhancement; combined with mechanical exoskeletons from the previous civilization, each soldier's individual combat power could nearly reach the threshold of excellence.

But only nearly.

The white-haired, red-eyed, beast-eared girl and the man cloaked in golden light leapt onto the deck—and were met by a hail of bullets!

"Boxers! Boxers!"

Feng Xue spread his arms; bullets slowed by the pre-civilization bulletproof field passed through the Jin Shen Zhou without enough force to disrupt his Substitute Spell.

But this would not halt his killing spree; though Jin Shen Zhou, Wind-Running Spell, and Substitute Spell were not a perfect combination, the outstanding defense proved exceptionally effective in group combat—Feng Xue now needed no assistance from Xiao Lingdang; he burst forth from his brief teleportation invisibility and delivered a golden hook-arm strike that felled a whole group.

"So light on the lower body?" Feng Xue himself was only a novice, but over a month of dynamic stance training had at least gotten him through the door; facing opponents who relied entirely on gear, he felt an urge to give them pointers.

Yet he did not grow careless, for his purpose in boarding was not to vent his frustrations, but because he knew the Dayun could not outrun this warship.

On land, they still had a chance to fight—but once at sea, facing the warship's artillery, he had only one option: pray and flee.

So he must destroy this ship's pursuit capability before the enemy's high-tier forces caught up!

As for taking it over…

That would be even better…

"Master, no—this ship lacks full autonomous navigation; it requires at least ten people working together to operate!"

Xiao Lingdang's voice shattered Feng Xue's fantasy; seeing Feina still fighting fiercely amid the crowd, he immediately said:

"Is there a self-destruct sequence? Or an ammo depot?"

"No detection. If one exists, it would require an external key input—but Xiao Lingdang can format the ship's main control system and fire control system, though direct physical connection is necessary, since this ship's main system cannot be accessed via wireless signals."

Xiao Lingdang's reply disappointed Feng Xue, but upon reflection, it made sense—after all, this wasn't a native vessel; why wouldn't it be protected against high-level hackers?

But as the old saying goes: when the enemy is already inside the server room, no firewall matters.

Feng Xue smashed the helmet of the grunt before him with a punch, used a Substitute Spell to dodge the petty boss's crossbow bolt, and shouted to Feina:

"You handle the outside!"

"Leave it to me!"

Feina's face lit up with a smile that even her black skin couldn't hide; Feng Xue's expression darkened, but since Sara offered no objection, he wasted no more time—determined to finish quickly and leave sooner—he pulled out a jade tablet inscribed with the character "Fire," replacing the Golden Armor Spell.

The jade, green and crimson, was pressed fully down; instantly, crimson-gold flames erupted over Feng Xue's body; the Call Fire Spell granted him fire magic power and high-temperature resistance; his wind wings behind him suddenly exploded in length, their violent thrust dramatically increasing under full leap, hurling Feng Xue straight toward the bridge.

Though this wasn't the core server room, Feng Xue didn't need to reach it—he only needed Xiao Lingdang to connect!

So…

"I've always wanted to shout this! OPEN UP, AAAAAAHHHH!"

(End of Chapter)