Of course, before he made his way in, Shao Ci needed to cover his face up a bit… Otherwise, it would be a pain if he was recognized by someone.
Still, when he thought about it, there shouldn’t be anyone who recognized a lower class Zerg. But at that time he had left with Islair so openly… There were probably a number of people who noticed his face. It had already been a hundred years. Long lifespans were such a pain.
Even if other people would probably think they were just two people who looked alike, there was still the possibility of causing all kind of unnecessary annoyances.
Of course, Shao Ci came up with plenty of reasons to change his appearance. He explained that, for better or worse, he was a noble Zerg. If he was recognized, it wouldn’t be good.
Everyone was very approving of these reasons. Finally, they gave Shao Ci a wig and then put on a bit of makeup.
Although he didn’t look too different from his previous appearance, at a first glance, he only looked similar at most. It was impossible to tell who he was… Thank goodness for their great makeup skills. It was just that Zerg were never nearsighted, or he could even put on a pair of glasses to cover up.
Shao Ci finally let out a breath of relief, following after the others and blending into the mining planet.
Although this was a remote mining planet, there were a few decent tourist attractions. The scenery was decent, and the price was extremely cheap. A few common people would often come to travel. There were also a few brainless noble Zergs who would choose to come and experience nature.
Moreover, the onyx ores mines on this planet weren’t allowed to be sold directly to the common people, but this planet had a range of onyx ores of different quality. They couldn’t achieve the same effect on machines as onyx ores, and they couldn’t be used make weapons. They didn’t have any other use, so they were processed for a bit and tossed out to sell as souvenirs…
To be honest, these stones looked quite good, but because they would occasionally cause machines to malfunctions, they didn’t sell very well.
Yet the roles Shao Ci and his group were playing were young noble Zerg who came over to this planet to tour. Naturally, they received an enthusiastic welcome from the local managers of the mine. Even though these mining people had once received Islair, a genuine high-level noble Zerg from the capital, they actually didn’t notice there was something wrong with them.
The manager was actually the same as it was that year. Shao Ci’s heart skipped a beat, and he shrank in the back, acting low-profile. The manager just swept a glance at him and continued eagerly conversing with Pei Fan.
Shao Ci’s tenseness finally relaxed. It seemed that his disguise had succeeded.
Pei Fan replied to the manager carelessly, but his lofty attitude instead made the manager even more attentive. He unceasingly introduced all kinds of locations, saying he could have people bring them on a tour and such.
“No need,” Pei Fan declined the manager’s proposal coolly. He said that he had come with only one goal, which was to buy the relatively substandard onyx ores, process it into jewelry, and sell it.
Still, this goal seemed a little unreliable. Now, people lived every day surrounded by machines. Why would they buy this dangerous jewelry?
But many noble Zerg young masters were just like this. They had money and nowhere to spend it and came up with a mess of things. Anyway, even if they lost money, it didn’t hurt in the slightest.
Immediately, the manager was wild with joy. He didn’t ever think that Pei Fan might be swindling him. His attitude became ten times more enthusiastic. He was ready to kneel at Pei Fan’s feet.
After all, they couldn’t sell out of the mine’s substandard onyx ores (forget that they generally couldn’t sell them at all), and they accumulated a large number that took up most of their warehouse that they had no way to deal with by throwing it away to a garbage planet. The manager had been at a loss at what to do with these things. Now that there was a spendthrift knocking on his door, it would be a waste not to trap him.
Soon, Pei Fan absentmindedly brought up taking a look around the mine, saying he wanted to see how the onyx ores were extracted.
The manager suddenly hesitated. “But according to the regulations, other people can’t just go in for tours…”
The subordinates behind Pei Fan immediately pulled a long face. “It’s just a look at how it’s extracted, what could happen? Or are you saying you don’t even want to sell us the onyx ores?”
The manager immediately became anxious. He lowered his head, looking at Pei Fan’s indifference, as though he wasn’t concerned about this at all. If he let a cash cow slip away because of something like this, it would be no good.
After weighing his options, the manager wiped the sweat on his forehead. “If there’s a special circumstance, we can make an exception… But there’s a nobleman coming tonight, so the mines will be completely guarded. I hope you can finish looking around quickly.”
Shao Ci: “…” Fuck, this doesn’t sound so good. That nobleman couldn’t be Islair, could it… No, no way. It was already crazy for Islair to come to this lousy mining planet once. How could he come a second time?
Feeling perturbed, Shao Ci followed the others into the mine. He unexpectedly discovered the mine was completely different from it was years ago.
Perhaps because there were a lot of new things created in the last hundred years, the mine looked much more bougie than it did before, though the onyx ore extraction site was as primitive as it used to be. After all, onyx ores would cause machinery to malfunction.
Shao Ci also discovered that the area he had been mining seemed to have been completely mined already. The manager didn’t even walk over there. From a distance, the doors seemed tightly closed as well.
When everyone saw the dumb lower classs Zerg working, Pei Fan was okay and he could maintain his cold expression, but everyone else’s faces turned ugly.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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It would be better if he hadn’t said anything. After he spoke, several of their faces turned even uglier. If it wasn’t for the fact that they had an important duty to accomplish, they might have charged over to beat up the manager.
When they were about finished surveying, the manager took everyone to the lounge, preparing to go into thorough detail.
Shao Ci looked behind him uncertainly. He remembered there was another lounge on the other side, but it had been so many years. It would be normal to have abandoned it, right… And it wasn’t very sophisticated back then either.
After they entered the lounge, everyone got to work, tying the manager’s hands together and knocking him out. These people had indulged themselves on the mining planet for so many years that their combat ability had declined plenty. Saying they had the combat ability of a radish was an overestimate. They didn’t even struggle before they went down.
Although he didn’t want to make too much of a ruckus to avoid drawing Islair’s attention, but how could Pei Fan be an Xdian protagonist without some difficulty and accidents… In any case, Shao Ci renounced any thoughts of being lowkey.
Pei Fan and a few subordinates stayed to gather information. The remaining people changed into a few employees’ clothing, going out with ID cards and preparing to loot the onyx ore storage they had seen earlier.
Even if they wanted to take away the lower class Zerg, there was simply not enough room on their airship. They could only hold back those thoughts.
Shao Ci knew where the onyx ore warehouse was, but if he said it, there was no way to explain how he knew, so he had to stop himself.
As Shao Ci was walking towards the warehouse, he happened to pass by the area he was in before. He hesitated for a moment. Finally, his curiosity won out, and he quietly pushed open the door.
Normally, these doors all needed some kind of identification in order to open it, but Shao Ci only heard a beep and the door opened.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Shao Ci looked at the door in shock, looking down at his own hand again. Suddenly, he felt like he had made a big mistake… But this mining planet probably wouldn’t even exist after today. It shouldn’t matter, right?
The surprising thing was that everything inside was actually the same as it used to be. Even the marks of the onyx ores that hadn’t been mined yet was as though the workers inside had heard a sudden command and left one by one.
Normally, these kinds of places would appear in horror movies, such as a monster suddenly appearing and scaring everyone off.
“What in the world happened here…” Shao Ci imagined all kinds of crazy things in the pitch-black, completely empty room. A cold shiver ran through his body. “Forget it, I’d better leave quickly.”
He felt like if he kept walking, he would set off something terrifying.
Shao Ci hurried out of the room, heading towards the warehouse in his memories that held the onyx ores.
–
On the other side, Pei Fan pretty much knew that he would definitely displease Islair this time. He had people wake the manager up, getting ready to get intelligence from him to avoid getting offed in the future.
After the manager was splashed with water, he cursed them a bit first, saying they would meet a sorry fate as invaders. Then, when they put a knife against his neck, he immediately shrank back, looking as though he would answer anything they asked.
Without even an interrogation, the manager began to report his intelligence about Islair.
Originally, Islair would come to this mining planet every year to vacation for a few days. Everyone had to keep this confidential, so outsiders didn’t know… Otherwise, this planet would have long been overrun with Islair’s fanboys and fangirls.
When the manager got to this point, he still felt a little regretful, then he said that Islair was similarly scheduled to arrive that night.
And that Pei Fan and his group had come so coincidentally, the manager had even thought they were assassins who had especially come to kill Islair.
“Why?” Pei Fan looked at the manager coldly, questioning, “Islair clearly has power and influence. He can go wherever he wants, but he has to come to this mining planet to vacation? You’re really not lying?”
The manager was dripping with cold sweat. He hurriedly said, “…I-I’m not very clear about this either. How would I know about what such an honorable figure was thinking? But what I said is all true, there’s not even half a lie…”
The blade pressed a slightly deeper. Blood dripped from his neck. The manager could feel the coolness of the blade, and he immediately panicked. He finally said the intelligence that he most couldn’t spread. “I’ll say it, I’ll say it!! His Excellency Islair only came in order to meet the person he likes.”
Although that lower class Zerg had already been dead for a hundred years, Islair didn’t allow anyone to bring it up. It was even more forbidden to for them to say Shao Ci’s name.
So, every time they spoke, everyone acted as though that lower class Zerg was still alive. Even meals were prepared for two. Now, there was no way to change a habit in a moment. The manager didn’t even say that person was already dead, though in fact he was afraid he would be killed for anything he said.
As soon as the manager spoke, everyone’s faces turned cold.
Someone said plainly, “Everyone knows that Islair hasn’t married, and he doesn’t even have a single lover. Why would he come to this distant, lousy place to see some lover… If he really wants to see them, can’t he just take him away? A noble Zerg obviously has such a right.”
“I’m really not lying!” The manager had already been terrified until he couldn’t take it anymore. In a flurry, he said, “I have a picture I can show you to prove it.”
“Oh?” Pei Fan raised an eyebrow. He had a subordinate go to the place the manager said had the picture and bring it back. His heart shifted slightly. If this manager was saying the truth, then they might have accidentally discovered Islair’s weak point that was secret to the entire empire.
The subordinate found the picture fitted inside an envelope. He didn’t even take a glance, handing it directly to Pei Fan.
Pei Fan took the envelope, pulling the picture out, and lowered his head to look. When he saw the picture clearly, his expression was normal, but he nearly crumpled the picture.
One of the people in the picture was, shockingly enough, the legendary Islair. He was gazing warmly at someone. Pei Fan was very familiar with that face. It was the person he had been holding in high regards recently, someone he wanted to promote: Shao Ci.
Even if he wanted to comfort himself and say the person in the picture and Shao Ci only looked alike, their bearing and manner was about the same. Pei Fan wouldn’t make a mistake.
Looking at the silent Pei Fan, everyone was a little curious. They questioned, “Leader, what’s wrong? Who’s the person in the picture?”
“No one.” Pei Fan said calmly. “It’s not anyone important. Since someone with the status as Islair’s lover was left on here, even if we grab them, we might not even be able to make a threat. After all, it’s that Islair guy.”
Everyone nodded. They hadn’t been counting on using something like this to threaten Islair from the start. Now, it mattered even less. There were even fewer people who would say they want to look at the picture.
“But,” Pei Fan looked apathetically at the manager, “how do you have a picture of Islair? He trusts you so much?”
“No, no, no, how could His Excellency Islair trust me?” the manager hurriedly said. “It’s because every time His Excellency Islair comes, we have to decorate his room with pictures. The ones we have are all ones he gave.”
“Mm, so that’s how it is.” Pei Fan absentmindedly nodded, as though he didn’t care about this at all. Inside, however, he already understood.
“Huh? You can see every sight in the mines,” someone said in pleasant surprise, looking at a machine at the side, taking control.
Then everyone happened to see Shao Ci in the frame walking on the road. Suddenly, he pushed open a door. After going in for a moment, he hurried out, seeming as though he had seen something terrifying.
When the manager saw this, he said, his voice full of shock, “How could it be? That’s His Excellency Islair’s room. Other people can’t randomly go in.”
“Are you telling the truth? Did you look carefully or not?” someone asked.
“It’s absolutely true. That place has the highest restrictions. Even I can’t go in,” the manager hurriedly said. “I already said everything about the past, I don’t have any reason to lie.”
The people there all sank into an abnormal stillness. Nobody had anything to say. They only looked at the image, stunned. Even without seeing the picture from before, they wondered if there was something wrong with Shao Ci.
“There’s nothing to be surprised about.” Pei Fan’s heart turned cold, but his voice was calm. “It’s a task I entrusted to him in secret. Somewhere like that looks difficult to enter, but in fact using a special method, it’s easy to open. It looks like he’s found what I asked him to find.
“Oh, that scared me. I actually though there was something wrong with the newbie…”
“Right. Leader’s still the best. After a few days of training the newbie, he can do so well”
Everyone let out breaths of relief one by one, but there was no way to calm Pei Fan’s heart. He put the picture into his space button.
–
When Shao Ci arrived at the warehouse, he put a lot of onyx ores in his space button, nearly piling it up until it was full.
Shao Ci got a message to go back, and he remembered that a nobleman was coming that night. Shao Ci’s heart tensed, and he disregarded the fact that his space button wasn’t full yet, hurrying back to their rendezvous point. Almost everyone else was already there.
After Shao Ci handed over the space button, everyone hurriedly left the base, getting on the airship and leaving. As for the manager, he was only knocked unconscious, and the recording on the security cameras had also been destroyed… Originally, their identities had been thoroughly exposed, and it didn’t matter whether or not they destroyed the evidence, but Pei Fan thought of Shao Ci and still had people deal with it.
After the airship left the mining planet, everyone organized the onyx ores they collected and discovered the quantity was greater than before.
Their assignment had been completed without a hitch. Everyone was in high spirits and began to celebrate right on the airship. Many foods that they couldn’t usually eat were brought out. There were even people who started to sing.
And Shao Ci, since he was the one who got the most onyx ores, was given several praises. Even the people who were usually distant with him greeted him with a slight smile, solemnly accepting Shao Ci as one of their own.
Shao Ci returned to his room in a good mood. As he arrived, he spotted Pei Fan looking at a picture in his hand, looking as though he was in deep thought.
Shao Ci didn’t dare to bother him, wanting to silently sit at the side, but suddenly Pei Fan called him.
“Let’s have a talk.” Pei Fan said calmly. “Before, we all though you were an illegitimate child from a small noble family on the Jean Planet. After all, the airship had just left Jean. But your face looks really different from the noble Zerg on Jean.”
Shao Ci had already thought of an answer to this problem. He immediately replied, “Oh… After all, my mother is a lower class Zerg from another planet. The reason I was abandoned was also because my appearance looked more like my mother’s.”
“Then do you have any brothers who look like you?”
Shao Ci couldn’t tell if he was imaging wrong, but he felt that Pei Fan’s tone had a hint of expectation, as though he wanted him to admit this.
“No.” Shao Ci knew it would be more of a bother the more he lied, and said, “My mother only had me.”
“Mm.” Pei Fan nodded. “What do you think of that Islair guy from the materials I gave you last time?”
Shao Ci’s heart felt more and more uneasy. He had already gotten Pei Fan’s trust before. Did something happen on the mining planet that made him suspect Shao Ci again? He even specially brought up Islair. What was this?
“I don’t have many thoughts…” Shao Ci said. “Those kinds of high noble Zerg from in the empire are too different from the life I’m living. I probably won’t meet them in my entire life. What can I think about them?”
“Mm.” Pei Fan looked at Shao Ci, and he actually chuckled, putting the photo he was holding away. “It’s nothing. Rest well.”
“Okay.” Shao Ci still felt like there was something off, but if Pei Fan said there was nothing wrong, then there shouldn’t be anything wrong.
–
Elsewhere, on the mining planet, everyone was trembling, looking anxiously at Islair, who was sitting in the center of the room.
The manager had been trussed up and thrown to the ground. He begged nonstop, “Your Excellency Islair, I didn’t think those rebels would actually do something like this, so they plotted against me. I absolutely didn’t betray you.”
The others were just as terrified. They didn’t think that something like this would happen right before Islair arrived. If outsiders knew the rebels had actually used such a way to mix into a mining planet under Islair’s name and even seized most of their resources, where would Islair’s reputation go?
Islair took a slow sip of tea. He said calmly, “Mm, I believe you.”
As the manager was relaxing, his face full of celebration, Islair spoke slowly again. “It just so happens that the number of lower class Zerg dying on the battlefield have been a bit much. It seems to me that you’re still a bit of use. Pack your things today, you’ll leave tomorrow.”
“N-no!” The manager let out a wail like a dying pig. “Your Excellency Islair, I’m really most loyal and devoted to you! Give me another chance!”
He had been a tyrant here for so many years. His body had been hollowed out a long time ago. He might not even be as good as a lower class Zerg. He would die as soon as he got on the battlefield.
“I don’t need trash here.” Islair looked over, his eyes cold. “Take him away.” If it wasn’t for the fact that he didn’t want to ruin his good mood, he would have killed the trash here a long time ago.
As the manager was being dragged away, the remaining people were even more anxious, afraid they would have the same bad ending as the manager. As for the rebels that had come to the planet, they were already dead in their eyes. They had offended His Excellency Islair. Unless they were able to escape to humanity, there was no way for them to keep living.
But Islair ignored them. He only walked towards the mines. This was the place he and Shao Ci had met again, so he would come back once every year, sealing the region. He would always pull open the door of that cabinet, always thinking that Shao Ci would be hiding in there just like he had that year.
Sometimes, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking that if Shao Ci had never met him, then would he still be alive?
Islair put his hand on the door, but he discovered that the door was unlocked, and he pushed it open immediately.
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ahhhh how did he leave Shao Ci’s data to open the door?
Shao Ci just digging pits for all of us!
thanks for the chapter <3
^^agreed , thank you so much for the chapter!!
Shao Ci needs to make some suicide prep just in case Islair finds him again.
Gotta commend Pei Fan’s ability to spew bs without blinking, lol
thank goodness they narrowly dodged that bullet. donk’t worry abt dst, i forgot about it too x’D
thanks for the chapter!
Tsk Tsk. Everything is going downhill. Why couldn’t the manager say that zerg was already dead? Aish. Pei Fan Will begin his darkening path now.
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter! 😘
Shao Ci, Shao Ci, oh Shao Ci. Why are you so dumb lol
Hopefully, as worlds progress, your IQ increases too 😅
+1 Let’s Hope for that one
I’m kinda scared for Shao Ci
ahhh Shao Ci I don’t know what kind of thing will fall to you now😆
He’s so unlucky and… stupid
:3c Shao ci has been CAUGHTim so happy, i just need a corpse bride ending where someone lets him go, and shao ci dies happy and painlessly in this arc
+1 Give the boi some respect ML, cmon now
Oh wow. Totally didnt expect them not to physically run into him. Wild. Hehe he’s gonna sniff that scent aiyah
I THINK YIN HAN IS ISLAIR Y’ALL- AND NOW IM SCARED 😂
Thank you so much for translating yan.yan 🐈