Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

However, there wasn't a single person in sight on the road to this station, making it even worse than Chongshan Station, where the entire population had fled.

Everyone made room for the upcoming battlefield.

"..."

It was like the calm before the storm.

Chapter 106 Pirates

As soon as Luo Tianming emerged from the airlock, he immediately sensed that something was wrong.

If people were just hiding, this place wouldn't be so deserted... By deserted, he meant that even the various pipelines responsible for transportation were empty, and even the heating pipelines had stopped supplying heat, indicating that something was wrong with the reactor, or that the water pumps had stopped working.

At least no one can explain these malfunctions.

But this isn't an 'abandoned site'; someone left here before.

He continued walking upwards... and saw several people in tattered uniforms, Jupiter separatists... who could only get their hands on undesirable tan fibers.

Turning around again, I saw several members of the Painted Skin Cult, blending into the darkness of the alley. They seemed to love dark and damp places like woodlice.

"..."

Luo Tianming felt increasingly uneasy about the place, so he started heading towards the office at the top of the station.

Along the way, he discovered many signs of battle.

Who fought here?

Jupiter separatists... no, if it were them, then the other side wouldn't have been so friendly just now. Jupiter separatists, except for those at Chongshan Station, can basically be regarded as terrorists.

Could it be the 'son of the Clown Mother'?

But their [prank] could not possibly have caused such great damage; shrapnel from the grenade was embedded in the wall, and there were charred marks on the ground resembling human fat after a fire.

"..."

Luo Tianming walked all the way to the station office, where he found the answer.

A sign at the entrance reads:

[Welcome to the transit station! Population: (cross out 500) 47! And it's still increasing!!]

The sign featured a black and white flag with a grinning skull and crossed bones.

"...!"

Luo Tianming gasped in shock; the site had been taken over by pirates.

He was about to step back when he noticed a group of people behind him looking at him with hostility.

Judging from their uniformly rotten teeth, these guys must be pirates.

He said calmly into the headset, "Lucy, could you come over here?"

"..."

The reason he chose Lucy was because he sensed that these people wanted to negotiate. They could have arrested Luo Tianming as soon as he got off the ship, but they didn't.

If it were a case involving Levi, the negotiations would likely break down in less than half a minute, turning into a firefight to break out.

A short while later, Lucy and Luo Tianming entered the stationmaster's office together;

Inside was an arrogant pirate stationmaster (?)

Wearing a stationmaster's uniform with a gun hole in it, he strode over with his bald head right under Luo Tianming's nose.

“Ah, an Eastern gentleman has graced us with his presence with his 'girl',” he said. “Should I have avoided using such a vulgar word as 'girl'?”

"Boss! You shouldn't have said that..."

call out--!

He suddenly pulled out a cane and lashed it hard at the henchman who had made the noise.

That thing with the copper head embedded in it was no joke if it hit you; Luo Tianming saw that the underling's arm was bent at an unbelievable angle.

"How many times have I told you! You have to call me stationmaster..."

The pirate, who seemed to be the stationmaster, suddenly looked at the medal hanging on Luo Tianming's chest with a fawning expression:

"My God, a general! Are you a major general?"

"The Alliance has finally sent people to help us!"

Luo Tianming: "..."

He coughed lightly and explained, "No, I'm here on my own behalf, and I'm not a major general, just a lieutenant in the Alliance... This isn't a general's star, it's a medal."

"Oh..." the pirate stationmaster drawled out like an owl.

"No matter what, the fact that you are an officer from the Alliance will not change."

"Welcome, Lieutenant."

As he spoke, he gave Luo Tianming a strange-looking military salute.

Luo Tianming had no choice but to return the gift, but he felt it was too strange, and what happened next was even more bizarre.

A man dressed clearly as a pirate talked at length to him about things like 'loyalty to the alliance' and 'humanity is supreme'.

At the same time, he would occasionally ask indirectly: When will the alliance send over the supplies that are owed for the past few months?

Luo Tianming: "..."

If this matter were reported truthfully to someone like the major or Colonel Ivan, they would advise Luo Tianming to reduce his use of opioid tranquilizers during the voyage.

He said it in a way that tried not to provoke the other person:

"In fact, this 'stationmaster'... we came here without any instructions from our superiors; we just happened to run into you."

"If you want the site to resume supplying the alliance with resources, then please connect to the network and send a request for supplies to your superiors."

"Net snail?" the pirate stationmaster asked in a low voice. "What's that... can't you just talk with a walkie-talkie?"

"..."

Luo Tianming glanced helplessly at Lucy.

Lucy looked at him with the same dumbfounded expression, as if to say: You want me to explain what the 'internet' is to this person who can't even do addition and subtraction within 100?

Then, with Lucy's emotionless explanation... the pirate captain's brain, no bigger than a walnut, 'understood' what the internet was and why they could never contact the Alliance.

"Haha," the pirate stationmaster said, rubbing his bald head, "Well, so that's why the Alliance always ignores our messages. Turns out the net snail wasn't connected!"

"Men, go and attach the mesh screws!"

"..."

However, everyone looked at each other... and no one knew how to connect the wires.

Lucy crossed her arms and said, "Don't even think about it. Your external network was unilaterally cut off by the Alliance. If you want to reactivate it, you can only go to the Alliance's superiors."

"..."

The pirate stationmaster rubbed his hands together ingratiatingly, like a fly rubbing its hands together:

"Of course, of course... Our lieutenant would be willing to make this trip for us, wouldn't he?"

Luo Tianming calmly replied, "Sure, but... I'd like to know how you acquired this site first, so I can have a clearer answer when I report to my superiors."

The pirate stationmaster said with an expression that seemed perfectly natural:

"About three months ago, we were arrested and imprisoned in this place, and then suddenly there was an explosion—that's when we knew that Jupiter separatists were causing trouble."

He chuckled, revealing a mouthful of rotten, yellow teeth.

"Then I cried and begged the local station chief, saying, 'Please have mercy, my benefactors... let us atone for your sins, release us and fight alongside you to drive away these thugs.'"

Luo Tianming: "And then he released you?"

Pirate Station Master: "That's right! These guys never expected that the moment we picked up our weapons, we would point them at their backs, hahaha—we would sometimes shoot at the Alliance's lords, and sometimes we would open fire together to suppress those Jupiter thugs. Before long, this station was taken over by us!"

Luo Tianming: "..."

He mourned for the station staff who had lost their minds in the chaos. One could imagine how panicked they must have been, even their ability to mount a strong counterattack was thwarted, and then the station was taken over by the pirates in the ensuing confusion.

“You know what?” he leaned closer to Luo Tianming, “I’ve always wanted to change my life. What future is there in being a damn pirate? My dream is to join the Europa Alliance and become a station chief. Only with supplies from the Alliance can we live a life of eating and waiting to die.”

"Unfortunately, my academic level is too poor... I may never be able to count to numbers beyond ten in my entire life. Just when I thought I had no hope, I suddenly realized—why not just peel that skin off the other person and put it on myself!"

He proudly showed off the stationmaster's uniform, which was riddled with bullet holes and stained with blood.

Luo Tianming: "Uh... how should I put it? Congratulations on achieving your goal?"

He looked at Luo Tianming with a strange expression through his only remaining eyeball (which, upon closer inspection, was not a cataract, but rather an irregularly shaped pearl inserted into the empty eye socket):

“Lieutenant, that’s far from enough… Do you know how difficult it is to feed a group of people? Giving them food and drink isn’t enough; they also need warm housing. I gave them a job, and they still dare to ask me for wages!”

Luo Tianming: "..."

He could imagine how this guy would handle the protesters and strikers, which was probably why the local population had plummeted from 500 to 47.

The pirate stationmaster told him that things had been going well lately, with a few more residents... but they were a group of residents shrouded in black robes and dressed in wasteland-style clothes.

"..."

Alright, pirates have appeared, religious sects have stumbled in, and separatism has arrived.

“However…” the pirate stationmaster said to Luo Tianming with a mournful tone, “We’ve run into a little trouble recently. Besides the lack of supplies, the Jupiter separatists who were causing trouble at the station before have returned. They’ve even threatened to hand over the station or we’ll all perish at the bottom of the sea.”

"Damn it, who told those Jupiter separatists that once they captured a site, it would belong to them?"

Luo Tianming: "..."

Pirate Stationmaster: "Lieutenant, you have to help me... We poor folks can't let those illegal intruders take over our station."

He really wanted to refuse, but considering that the missionaries hadn't arrived yet, refusing him might cause the guy to turn hostile...

Luo Tianming had no choice but to say, "Alright, but we are short-handed right now, so we'll have to find some more people to help."

"Levy, come to the top floor. Remember not to fire indiscriminately... These people are our 'helpers' now."

The pirate stationmaster's expression suddenly changed: "Who are you talking to?!"

"..."

Luo Tianming realized that these guys were cowardly and suspicious, so it was best not to use the communication device to say anything that might anger these pirates. He was still counting on these bastards to get the others to talk to.

He suddenly shouted:

"Levi, bring a box of pearls to treat our hosts who have taken us in!"

"..."

A moment later, Revy brought over a box of pearls that they didn't seem to be worth much.

The pirate stationmaster realized that he was actually shouting for another guard hiding in the shadows, and unconsciously felt even more respect for Luo Tianming.

He took the box of pearls, then removed the irregular pearl from his eye socket and replaced it with a new one.

The pirate stationmaster exclaimed in delight:

"Ha, great... This one is round enough, you know this spot always rubs against my eyelids and makes them hurt."

"Tonight, let our distinguished guests sit in the seats of honor. Sir, witness how we fight those thugs who want to seize the site!"

Levi, standing to the side, was thinking of using that shiny, reflective bald head as a target. If she had the chance... she would definitely accidentally shoot it.

Her finger constantly rubbing against the trigger was enough to convince Luo Tian of this.

At the same time, he turned to Lucy and whispered, "So, is there anything unusual at the site?"

Lucy replied calmly, "Sigh, it's like going back to Night City."

Luo Tianming: "?"

Chapter 107 The Pigeon Girl

Inside the USS Nautilus—

Wu Jianmiao: "It seems like a fight has broken out over there. I'm going out for a bit."

"Huh?" Nan Mengya looked at her in surprise. "Aren't doctors 'non-combatants'?"

Wu Jianmiao quickly stuffed the medicine bottle into her backpack and put on a gas mask, saying, "I'm just going to test the effects of the medicine."

"..."