Chapter 390: Aroshia, Grade A Chain Mission (1)
The DarkStar warriors looked at Ember with the questioning gazes.
Ember stared at Han Xiao. He was in a dilemma. The time that they had spent there was beyond their expectations. They had thought that they could capture Han Xiao in no time, but they had never expected him to have such tough abilities to deal with. Furthermore, they were not sure how strong Han Xiao’s regeneration ability was and how many more times he could recover.
Ember was confident that Han Xiao definitely had a limit. The problem was, how long would it take for him to reach that limit? Han Xiao’s toughness drastically exceeded the average of a Mechanic. They had heavily wounded him once, but their energy and endurance were limited. Their breathing was faster than usual, and their hearts were pumping fast. The nonstop attacks made the DarkStar warriors tired and unable to reach their maximum performance.
Retreat or continue? Ember hesitated. This time, he suddenly saw Han Xiao look up at the sky that was blocked by the cell he had created, with mockery on his face.
Before they could react, violent explosions blasted outside the cell. The walls trembled, and cracks appeared.
Boom!
The wall above their head suddenly burst into pieces as a searchlight pierced in. Numerous aircrafts hovered above in the sky, aiming their laser cannons at DarkStar’s people.
“Drop your weapons and surrender immediately!” Herlous yelled through the speaker.
The faces of the DarkStar warriors changed.
“Sh*t, the guards are here. The ambush only lasted a few minutes, and we just checked there were no patrols nearby. Did a team of guards just happen to pass by? Lucky him!”
Less than ten minutes had passed since the start of the ambush to the end of the battle. As the speed and reaction of Supers grew stronger, the number of actions that they could complete in a second became higher as well. During the battle, time would feel much slower in their senses, and every second would feel ten or even a hundred times slower. Opponents of the same level could make use of every small detail during the battle and exchange hits at a very high speed. However, in the eyes of ordinary people, they could only see shadows and phantoms.
“It isn’t luck. The people on the aircraft are all Black Star’s subordinates. He must’ve called for backup!”
“How did he get through the signal disruption‽” someone exclaimed with disbelief.
Ember stared at Han Xiao and said in a deep voice, “I admit I underestimated you this time. Black Star, I’ll remember your name. Retreat!”
Just as he finished his sentence, the cell collapsed in an instant and turned into black dust all over the place, obstructing signal detectors and vision.
This moment, Ember took out a metal rod. He held onto both ends and twisted, activating the device. A blue dot of light appeared in the middle, its light covering three meters. The DarkStar warriors quickly walked into the area covered in blue light. Then, Ember twisted the metal rod once again right after. The blue dot contracted and turned into a string of flashes. The people and the dust inside the area disappeared without a trace.
When the dust dispersed, Han Xiao wiped off the dust on his face and walked over to the place where Ember and the others disappeared from. He squatted down and swept away the dust on the floor, uncovering a circle mark on the ground.
“Directional Short Distance Teleporter, leaves almost no trace behind… We can’t chase them.” Han Xiao shook his head, a little helpless. Compared to the others, DarkStar’s technology was rather ahead of its time, at least very ahead of him at this moment.
The aircrafts circled around and did not find anything. They landed, and Han Xiao gave them the mission completion reward.
The backup forced Ember to retreat and made DarkStar’s plan to kidnap him fail. However, Han Xiao could not be glad about it. Ember’s failure would definitely make DarkStar pay more attention to him. He had showcased quite a number of his abilities, so he could not keep a low profile anymore.
With the first attack, there was most likely going to be a second one. Han Xiao did not have enough power currently to face such a large organization, and his career as a mercenary group would be affected as well.
Looking back, it was all because the job that they had been hired to do that caused them to coincidentally meet with DarkStar’s conspiracy. As long as they were going to save the Silvers, whether he had the Secret Message Bead or not, he would definitely attract DarkStar’s attention in the end. He had no idea DarkStar was involved in this in the start. Anyway, there was no way to make time go backward. At least he now knew DarkStar’s target and had the key item—the Secret Message Bead—in his hands. Not only did he successfully make Ember retreat, he also successfully hid the truth of him knowing about the Secret Message Bead. He was still not exposed.
It’s better not to give the Secret Message Bead to DarkStar; it’s too risky. DarkStar’s way of doing things is very merciless, so exposing too much would put me in danger,Han Xiao thought.
Herlous walked behind him and asked with concern, “Are you okay?”
“Not hurt much, you guys arrived right on time.” Han Xiao waved his hand.
It was the players who had taken the initiative to request reinforcements this time. Herlous had been doubtful at first, and now he had confirmed that Han Xiao and these subordinates of his had some sort of telepathy.
“Who were these enemies? Why did they ambush you?”
“They’re the brutes that attacked the slave market. I recognized the power of one of them, they probably want revenge,” Han Xiao said casually. He turned and walked to Aroshia, then helped her up.
Aroshia shook her head, signally that she was not hurt.
Han Xiao contemplated and said, “There’s a very high energy reaction inside your body, but you don’t know how to use it.”
He had seen Aroshia firing earlier and saw that Ember kept her under control in an instant—she was of no help at all. If Aroshia could fight when they were ambushed, he would not have ended up fighting alone.
Han Xiao was not an irresponsible person; it was impossible for him to abandon her once the mission was complete. Since he had taken Aroshia away, she had to join the mercenary group. He did not need someone who was a burden, and Aroshia had a lot of potential—she was worth cultivating. If she became a Super, at least she would not be a burden, and she might even be helpful.
“There’s energy in my body?” Aroshia looked down and pressed on her heart. “Really?”
“You definitely have the talent to become a Super. I can teach you to realize your potential and become a Super so that your talent will not be wasted,” Han Xiao said.
“You want me to learn the Super knowledges?”
Han Xiao shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know who you were before, but since you lost your memories, you need to learn again. Maybe you were a very strong Super before—you might improve at an unbelievable speed.”
“There’s one thing I never said,” Aroshia said slowly, “I apparently am some sort of Space Wonder. You can’t bring me away.”
Han Xiao was stunned in place.
“They said that I won’t really die. I will revive after I die and go back to the initial amnesia state, losing the memory of everything before I died. I remember I have been ‘alive’ for three years this time, and I was sold five times. Each time, after six days, I returned to that cell. No matter how far I am, it will only be an instant. No one can bring me away.”
Aroshia’s earliest memory was the moment she opened her eyes in the cell. Her origin and her existence were both a mystery. Everything before that moment was blank. However, this time, her ‘life’ had lasted three years, and she had the short memory of these three years. She had realized how special she was long ago, but her life form was very unique—she did not have any physical desire or spiritual need. She did not need to consume food and hardly had any curiosity; it was like nothing mattered to her.
Although her knowledge of the world was a piece of blank paper, she was unlike an innocent child. On the contrary, she had very strong thinking capabilities.
Horlaide had not been completely honest back then—Han Xiao did not know about Aroshia’s secret. Now he realized that Horlaide had been promoting her because he knew that she would be back in the end, and he was using that as a scam. Han Xiao was speechless.
“You can’t control this power?” Han Xiao said with surprise.
Aroshia shook her head. “No.”
Hearing this, Han Xiao was more interested. Aroshia had self-awareness but was trapped in the cell by a mysterious power, and this was not her choice. If this was a Space Wonder, then there was one question. Was Aroshia the Space Wonder?
Could it be possible that she was originally an independent life form and not part of the wonder, and it was a coincidence that she became the wonder? Which would mean that Aroshia’s amnesia, her unique life form, her mind of close to completely no desire… all of this could be given by the wonder. Then what was this wonder? Was it something without a physical form, some sort of formless energy?
Sadly, even if there was an answer to this, Aroshia did not know it. The truth might be in the memories that she had lost. What Han Xiao cared most about at this moment was that Aroshia could not be taken away.
“Is there no way to solve it?”
“I don’t know.” Aroshia shook her head and said, “Only three more hours to the sixth day.”
The mission requirement was to save her from the slave market and stay with her for six days. Only now did Han Xiao know the difficulty of it. However, since it was a mission, there must be a way to complete it.
There should be clues in that cell.
Han Xiao ordered the rest of the people to patrol around and look for the enemy. Although he did not have any hope of actually finding anything. He summoned the backup Amphiptere and wore it, then accompanied Aroshia to the slave market… ruins.
At the same time, the DarkStar people appeared on the other side of Floating Dragon, with frustration on their faces.
The ambush had been too rushed. They had engaged without knowing much about Black Star at all. They had thought that their power and technology would give them an unshakable advantage, which caused them to underestimate the opponent.
Their arrogance was the reason for their failure.
Ember was furious. This was the first time that he had failed when facing a target weaker than him. He was very concerned about this failure; it left a mark in his heart that he was very unhappy about it.
Ember opened the communicator to report the result. He held back his unhappiness and repeated the process of their failure. The Superiors of DarkStar were very surprised. Their surprise and disappointment stung Ember’s pride once again.
His record had always been perfect, and this had left a stain on it.
“Sarota has already intercepted all the criminals, and there were no clue of it at all. The mercenaries are the only ones left. There’s an eighty percent chance that the Secret Message Bead is in the hands of the mercenaries.”
“Shall I continue to find a chance to deal with Black Star?”
“You failed once, don’t take the risk, retreat.” The Superiors sighed.
Veins popped up on the back of Ember’s hands.
“Yes, Sir…”
