Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Seeing that Gin remained silent, Chu Ming slowly loosened his fist. Realizing Gin was bewildered, Chu Ming quickly stepped forward, pushing Gin's back and gently leading him towards the door: "It's so late, brother, you should go back to sleep first. We can talk about things later. We have a mission tomorrow, it's not good to stay up too late. Or perhaps you'd like to share a bed with me in my room? I don't mind, but I'm afraid you'll end up doing sit-ups all night like last time and not getting enough sleep..."

The instant he saw Gin's body leave the room, he quickly withdrew his hand, preparing to close the door. Go away!

Gin followed Chu Ming's push and walked forward, but just as Chu Ming reached out to quickly close the door, he stretched out his leg to brace against the door and said slowly, "In that case, I'll test your skills again after the mission is over."

No, are you alright?

What's wrong with you? Even in this state, you're still thinking about beating people up?

Chu Ming rolled his eyes at Gin's retreating figure and slammed the door shut in anger.

Alright, he needs to plan this red-black battle carefully, make some big moves, and get more points back.

Now that his fighting skills have improved, leveling up requires tens of thousands of points, which is too costly.

But did Gin grow up eating spinach? How come he only gets a 50/50 chance even with his cheat codes?

*

The next day, Chu Ming summoned everyone to his room for a meeting. After everyone had arrived, Chu Ming tapped the table.

"Last night I went underwater to investigate that underwater palace. There is another small island to the east of Shenhai Island called Laiqin Island. There is a small shrine on the island, which enshrines two female pirates."

"Behind the two female pirate statues is a hole large enough for people to pass through, which was probably opened by the previous earthquake."

Chu Ming looked down and operated his phone, sending the photos he had taken to everyone: "After I went in, I passed through two passageways, and then I came to this stone door. The door is very heavy. I tried to push it open, but I couldn't. There are also mechanisms on the door. Pushing it rashly will only trigger the mechanisms. I studied it for a while, and the grooves left on the door should be the solution."

“I think that since there are already mechanisms in place, the rumors about pirate treasure must be true. Besides us, the treasure hunters who were attacked by sharks while we were diving yesterday afternoon are probably also here for this. So, I think it will be difficult for Lafitte to complete this mission on his own. Therefore, I have decided to temporarily recruit everyone to complete the mission together.”

Lafitte looked closely at the picture Chu Ming had sent on his phone: "The shape of this groove looks familiar."

“Cohen and I went to the island’s museum this afternoon. The weapons left by those two female pirates looked a bit like…” Chianti looked at the groove and suddenly remembered. She nudged Cohen, “Is it like this?”

Cohen nodded: "Yes."

“Well then, Vermouth is good at stealing, so this task will be yours.” Chu Ming’s eyes swept over Vermouth.

"How am I good at stealing?" Vermouth felt wronged. "I never do such things!"

"Yes~ you don't like stealing things, you just like secretly sending recordings~" Chu Ming raised his chin, speaking sarcastically.

Vermouth was speechless. She glanced at Gin, her eyes filled with disbelief. Gin had actually exposed her?

She specifically instructed us not to expose her when she released the recording!

I thought Gin was very tight-lipped!

Ugh! Men really are unreliable!

Knowing Chu Ming's vengeful nature, Vermouth remained silent. Fine, if he's going to steal, he'll steal. Can he really stop her?

Seeing that Vermouth had given up, Chu Ming snorted and continued, "After Vermouth steals the stuff, meet us at the beach. Gin, Lafitte, I'll go into the water with you. Chianti and Cohen, you stay at the hotel and keep an eye on all the movements."

Seeing that no one objected, Chu Ming made the final decision: "Okay, we'll take action at eight o'clock tonight."

Sigh, he really sacrificed too much for the boss. He was just planning to hand over the task to Lafitte and enjoy himself, but for a prescription, he wrote the script and spent money to buy props!

So it shouldn't be a big deal if he were to usurp the throne later, right?

Chapter 568 Fake Corpse

That evening, everyone stood on the beach, watching Vermouth return empty-handed. Chu Ming's lips twitched: "So you were too late? The stuff was already stolen?"

Vermouth brushed her disheveled hair aside, showing no remorse: "You set the time for the operation, and when I got there, the stuff was already gone."

The organization's members were all adept at shirking responsibility, and Vermouth's implication was that the mission's failure was entirely Chu Ming's fault, and had nothing to do with her.

Chu Ming completely refused to take the blame: "When you failed your mission, did you find out who took it first?"

Vermouth shrugged: "All I know is that the thief was shot and wounded and then ran away."

"..."

“Then we’ll just have to wait and see.” Chu Ming sighed. “Here’s the plan: Vermouth, take us to Laiqin Island and then patrol the sea. Notify us immediately if you have any news.”

Upon arriving at Laiqin Island, Chu Ming led the way towards the small ancestral hall, with Gin and Lafitte following closely behind.

In the dilapidated shrine, Chu Ming casually found a place to sit down and pointed to the cave behind the two statues: "This is the entrance, but don't worry, only we know about it for now. Most people will still enter from the seabed."

"When Lafitte and I were diving near the underwater palace before, there were sharks there. Now that the thief is injured, there will definitely be a smell of blood if he goes out to sea, so for his own safety, he won't go treasure hunting tonight."

“Then why don’t we come back tomorrow?” Lafitte frowned as he looked at the dirty little shrine.

"Because coming tomorrow would easily expose our whereabouts," Gin replied coldly, not caring about the dirt, and casually found a place to sit on the ground.

“Yes, Lafitte, it’s obvious that your experience is not as rich as Gin’s. That won’t do. In order to give you some experience, I’ve decided to give you the ten missions I’m going to take on next, so you can get some experience.”

Chu Ming, with an air of selflessness, saw Lafitte looking at him speechlessly and quickly waved his hand at him: "No need to thank me, it's what I should do."

"...So what do we do now?" Not arguing with Granbury was probably ingrained in the DNA of every member of the organization, so Lafitte decisively changed the subject.

After unilaterally sending out ten more missions, Chu Ming hummed a happy tune and took out a deck of cards from his pocket: "Let's play cards!"

"Can't you do something more classy?" Lafitte really didn't want to squat on the ground playing cards; it was simply beneath his handsome, custom-made face.

Chu Ming rolled his eyes and reached out to pull Lafitte down: "It's good enough that we have something to play with. How about I play cards with Gin while you stand alone at the entrance of the ancestral hall gazing at the moon? That's more classy."

Caught off guard, Lafitt was pulled down and landed on his backside, kicking up a cloud of dust. Clutching his aching tailbone, he angrily pulled out a scalpel: "Granbury!"

"I'm here, don't shout so loudly." Chu Ming brushed the dust off his clothes. "Come on, let's play cards. I'm going to beat you two to a pulp. Let's make it clear first, we'll play cards all night. The loser has to put on a slip of paper. The person with the most slips on their face has to stand guard at the stone gate during the day so the other two can catch up on sleep."

"Heh, just wait and see, you'll be guarding the gate!" Lafitte put away his scalpel, his eyes filled with fighting spirit and murderous intent.

……

As the first rays of dawn pierced through the gaps in the treetops, they shone into the small ancestral hall, illuminating the faces of the three people inside.

Chu Ming's face was covered with strips of paper, making it almost impossible to see his features, while Gin and Lafitte's faces were clean, without a single scrap of paper in sight.

"I'm not playing anymore! Did you two cheat? Did you team up to beat me up?" Chu Ming said angrily, pulling back the paper curtain covering his face.

One whole night!

He hasn't won a single game!

The Japanese tycoon is similar to the Chinese card game "Dou Dizhu" (a popular Chinese card game). Last night, Lafitte kept fanning the flames and encouraging him to become a tycoon, and then he and Gin played cards together to pressure him.

Unfortunately, his cards got worse and worse last night, and Chu Ming really suspected that Lafitte had taken advantage of the fact that his eyes were covered by the note and secretly changed all the cards.

Otherwise, how come he could only play one card at the beginning and then basically had no chance to play a card at all?

"Tsk tsk, Granburg, you're not going to be a sore loser, are you?" Lafitte feigned surprise. "If you can't handle it, I'm not saying I can't help you—"

"Yes, I can't afford to play this game. You help me out." Chu Ming was always thick-skinned. He admitted it, so what was the harm in it?

"...It's not like I can't help Gin carry you over there." Lafitte forcibly changed his tone, joking. He had finally managed to trick Granburch, how could he let him get away because of his careless talk?

"Tch—" Chu Ming rolled his eyes. "I'm going. I'll let you know if anyone comes."

Laffitte didn't seem to care about the dirt on the ground. He leaned against the wall and waved lazily at Chu Ming: "Go on, go on, Gin and I are going to take a nap."

"You'd better sleep with one eye open and one eye closed," Chu Ming said with a sinister smile. "Watch out, or I might come back for a surprise attack—"

Gin opened his eyes, which had been feigning sleep: "What are you doing back here?"

"I came back to see if you guys had kicked off your blankets while you were sleeping, hehe... I was just worried you'd catch a cold..." Chu Ming chuckled sheepishly and quickly went into the cave. He still owed Gin a sparring match, and he couldn't let Gin catch him now.

Looking at the skeleton leaning against the stone gate, Chu Ming walked over and sat down next to him: "Brother, it must be lonely here all by yourself. I'll keep you company for a while."

After saying that, Chu Ming reached up and pulled his collar up to hide his face, then leaned against the stone door and closed his eyes.

After an unknown amount of time, Chu Ming suddenly heard footsteps approaching. It sounded like there were three or four people. Chu Ming twitched his hand in his pocket a few times, sending a message to Gin and Lafitte. He remained motionless, pretending to be just like a real corpse.

"Ah—" Sonoko let out a short gasp, "There's a corpse!"

Xiao Lan shielded her behind her, saying, "Don't be afraid, it's alright."

Chu Ming quietly opened his eyes and looked at the people who came in through the gap in his collar.

Besides Ran and Sonoko, there were also two bounty hunters they had encountered earlier. They were staring intently at the stone gate, their eyes filled with greedy delight: "That's right, this is it! This is it!"

Chu Ming saw the newcomer take out a familiar knife and gun from his backpack, walk to the door, kick the skeleton next to him away, and then kick him again. Chu Ming suddenly sprang up and snatched the items from the newcomer's hand.

"Who are you!" The bounty hunter was shocked and furious. He never expected that he would be intercepted even when he was right in front of the treasure.

Chu Ming toyed with the gun and knife in his hands, his rough voice threatening, "You~ actually~ dare~ disturb~ my eternal slumber~"

"what--"

"what--"

Sonoko and Ran huddled together, shivering, their high-pitched soprano voices nearly blowing the cave ceiling off.

Wasn't Chapter 569 exciting?

The two bounty hunters also took a step back warily, exchanging glances. One of them was particularly grim: "Matsumoto! Why didn't you just open the door? Why did you kick that corpse? Now it's come back to life, what are we going to do about it?!"

The man called Matsumoto gripped his knife tightly, forcing a smile as he looked at Chu Ming: "Playing tricks! I'll see what you really are!"

After saying that, he mustered his courage, picked up a stone, and threw it at Chu Ming.

Chu Ming hopped away from the rocks, but feeling that his vision was impaired, he huddled in his collar for a couple of moments before suddenly poking his head out: "You're the one who's a thing!"

"Ah—" Matsumoto cried out in surprise, his eyes filled with fury at being fooled after seeing Ming's face clearly. "It's you!"

He had met Chu Ming and his group once at a diving supplies store.

"Surprise~" Chu Ming straightened his messy hair. "Wasn't that exciting?"