C144 – Countdown to Detonation
by UntamedSThe scarred man tried his best to pull the life-saving door, but no matter how hard he tried, the door just wouldn’t budge.
How was this possible?
He had clearly pressed the button just now; why didn’t the door open automatically? Could it be that there was something wrong with it as well?
Just as the scarred man was feeling shocked and scared, a low laugh suddenly came from behind him: “Why are you standing still? Could it be that the door can’t be opened? If that’s the case, that would be a shame.”
“Shut the hell up!” Once again, a layer of fine, cold sweat appeared on the scarred man’s forehead; the muscles on his arms obviously bulged, so it was obvious how much strength he used, but the door in front of him still stood there motionless, with absolutely no intention of opening.
After watching the action for a while, He Yishu kindly reminded him: “Ah, now the time left for the bo-mb to explode is only six minutes; if you don’t leave, it’ll be too late, right?”
The scarred man was so angry that he fiercely kicked the door; however, the sturdy life-saving door still didn’t move, as if mocking the scarred man’s insouciance.
“Don’t resort to violence first, ah, don’t you want to know why the door won’t open no matter what?” He Yishu laughed sarcastically. “It’s like why your battleship suddenly won’t move? Why your particle cannons suddenly won’t fire?”
The scarred man finally snapped out of his panic after He Yishu’s “kind” reminder; he turned back and stared angrily at He Yishu on the screen: “Could it be that this matter has something to do with you?!”
He Yishu slightly narrowed his eyes and smiled: “Congratulations, the answer is correct; these things are indeed my doing. After hearing this answer, do you feel very surprised?”
“But you… how the hell did you do it?!” The scarred man was shocked and angry, and even more so, he felt it was very unbelievable; the other party’s ship wasn’t even close to his own battleship, so how on earth did the other party manage to do all these things?
Could it be that the military department had already tapped into a new type of combat weapon? This was too terrifying!
“Is your focus misplaced right now?” He Yishu shifted his sight from the scarred man’s body to the bo-mb, and he said with a smirk, “Now that there’s only more than four minutes left before the bo-mb explodes, it seems like you don’t have enough time to get out of here anymore, right?”
The scarred man was first panicked, his face showing horror, but after looking clearly at He Yishu and Adrian’s expressions, he suddenly calmed down: “Have you… guys already thought of a way to disarm the bo-mb? Otherwise, how could you not be alarmed at all?”
“Congratulations, you guessed right again.” He Yishu nodded, and seeing the scarred man’s expression snapping loose, he continued, “We do have a method to prevent ourselves from being harmed by the bo-mb, but you probably haven’t thought of a way to deal with it yet, have you? It’s too early to just relax now, isn’t it?”
The scarred man’s expression froze once more as he glared at He Yishu with wide eyes, “What do you mean by that?!”
“Isn’t my meaning obvious? We’ve had a hostile relationship from the very beginning; it seems like I don’t have any reason to help you out of this crisis, and more importantly,” speaking here, the corner of He Yishu’s mouth slowly floated up into a cold smile, “Wasn’t this a matter of your own making? If it wasn’t for your harmful intentions, even disregarding your own companions and taking out the bomb, what happened afterwards wouldn’t have happened.
So in the final analysis, it is you who have caused harm to yourself and your companions. Of course, the latter should not hold much weight in your mind; otherwise, you wouldn’t have done what you just did.”
Although these words made the Scarred Man very angry, his focus was on something else, as he saw that the time on the bo-mb had changed to three minutes: “I don’t believe you can protect yourself and so many others on the ship without disarming the bo-mb! It’s simply impossible!”
He Yishu let out a light laugh and asked rhetorically, “Then how do you think I made your battleship lose its ability to move and attack, and how did I make that life-saving door close tightly?”
The scarred man was speechless, because even at this point in time, he still couldn’t figure out exactly how He Yishu had managed to do all of this.
“This tells us one thing: before figuring out the enemy’s bottom line, it’s best not to do anything rash, or else it will only backfire on you.” He Yishu glanced towards the time again and reminded, “Two minutes, I have a good idea right now; if you’re willing to answer the question I’ve previously asked you twice before, I can consider helping you get rid of this time bo-mb; this offer is good for you, right?”
“Are you really willing to help me?” The scarred man didn’t quite believe that He Yishu would do so, because if it were him, he would have laughed and waited for the other party to be blown up and would definitely not help.
He Yishu shrugged indifferently, “Do you have any other choice now?”
“Okay, I’ll answer you,” the scarred man gritted his teeth; he really didn’t have any other choices. “The man in the photo isn’t in my battleship, but I’ve seen him once before, and I know the approximate area where his pirate ship is active, so if you want to look for him, I can help you.”
He Yishu raised his eyebrows: “Don’t you pirates roam around? Will there still be a fixed area of activity?”
“The universe has no boundaries, and there’s no telling how many dangers are hidden in it; even pirates don’t dare to go to unfamiliar areas easily,” the scarred man explained in a quick tone as the time left was running out. “I’ve already told you what I know, so hurry up and get rid of the bomb!”
He Yishu was a bit curious: “Speaking of which, didn’t you take out this bo-mb yourself? Don’t you know how to solve this problem?”
“Nonsense! If I knew how to solve it, would I be begging you?” The scarred man had begun to gnash his teeth.
Adrian, who was standing beside He Yishu, kindly explained, “Once this type of bomb is activated, there’s really no way to deactivate it; that’s why I was so surprised just now that he was able to take out this type of bo-mb.”
“Cut the crap; there’s no time left!” The scarred man’s eyes were glued to the time on the bo-mb; his eyes were almost popping out.
Twenty-nine seconds, in another twenty-nine seconds, the bo-mb was going to detonate.
“Then where is the area where Chris is?” He Yishu, however, still asked in a nonchalant manner.
“Take care of the bo-mb first, then I’ll tell you!” The scarred man, of course, couldn’t answer this question easily because he was worried that if he gave out the answer, the other party would really not care about his life or death.
“Tell me the answer first, or you’ll die.” He Yishu’s attitude was also very insistent.
At this time, the countdown has entered ten seconds, nine seconds, eight seconds… The scarred man’s entire body was taut; his heart almost jumped out of his chest, and at the most crucial moment, he had to say the answer: “The long beast region, he is there!”
At the same time, the time on the bo-mb finally reached zero.
Time seemed to stand still at this moment; the Scarred Man even forgot to breathe; he could clearly hear his heart beating again after again, and it was only after ten seconds or so that his breath became rapid again.
He finally realized that he was alive and that the bo-mb had not exploded.
It was as if Scarred Man had lost all his strength, and all of a sudden he collapsed to the ground in an instant.
He gasped heavily, suddenly feeling a chill all over his body, and only then did he realize with hindsight that his back was already wet with sweat.
That feeling of coming back from the dead—he never wanted to experience it a second time.
“Are you alright? Did you suddenly feel that being alive is a very wonderful thing?” He Yishu’s voice with obvious teasing and sarcasm suddenly rang out, breaking all of the Scarred Man’s feelings.
The scarred man barely managed to get up from the ground, not wanting to let himself lose all his dignity in front of these people: “How in the world did you… do it?”
All these unbelievable things happened right in front of his eyes; the scarred man had to believe it even if he didn’t want to, especially since he had just come back from the brink of death and it was this young man who did it.
“That’s a secret, and it has nothing to do with what we’re going to discuss next.” He let out a light laugh and shifted the topic to one that interested him. “The Long Beast Region? I think you just mentioned that name.”
The scarred man regretted blurting out the answer because he was too nervous; he lost the chance to negotiate.
The scarred man swallowed his saliva and tried his best to put this matter in a direction that was only favorable to himself: “That’s where it is, but this place cannot be found by the general public at all, and if it wasn’t for me, even if you guys knew the name of the area, there is absolutely no way that you would be able to find that person.”
After saying that, the scarred man was afraid that the two of them wouldn’t believe him and added a special sentence: “I know that the Star Empire has its own cosmic map, but the Star Empire’s cosmic map is completely different from what the pirates use, and the pirates are able to travel to a lot of areas that the Military doesn’t even know about.”
“I know you’re saying this because you’re greedy and afraid of death, but I’ve never said that I would definitely kill you either.” Although the scarred man tried to pretend that he was full of energy, He Yishu still poked his sore spot. “I think that the most important question right now is how do I know that you’re not lying to me? How will you prove that you have indeed met Chris and know which area he is in?”
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