Chapter 283: Threat

“These guys will do anything for fame. Didn’t you see some of those parliamentarians dressed in bizarre outfits? Some even made themselves look like pets.”

“Forget it. We would never do something that disgusting. I don’t know how they manage to pull it off.”

“We’re normal people but some still criticize us. That’s because they don’t understand our circle. Some of the people in it are really messed up.”

“Let’s quietly save up some money first. Who knows what will happen this time.” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong, along with a bunch of family troublemakers, had a conflict with the next generation of another family, and that group was now leading a protest.

Although the other side violated traffic laws, Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong, who had been drinking, beat them up on the spot. Then, the other side used the incident to stir up attention.

In big families, everyone has a certain value. If this value is exceeded, the family will get rid of them.

No one sacrifices everything for every family member. There are always constant internal disputes.

Their two female teammates were annoyed when they heard this and tossed out a comment: “Let’s see what happens. You two were too impulsive back then.”

The two of them then logged off, and Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong sighed before logging off as well.

“It’d be great if I could clear two farms a day and earn like this.” Inside the underground bunker, Yang Bo carefully manipulated two light orbs that hovered along different trajectories.

Yang Bo used the light orbs to write Chinese characters. At first, the paths of the orbs were messy, and sometimes they even misspelled words.

But gradually, Yang Bo became more proficient. Initially, he had to think of what characters to write before training.

Eventually, the two light orbs could simultaneously write two sentences, as if having a conversation.

It took about two hours for Yang Bo to go from being unfamiliar to proficient.

Yang Bo knew he didn’t have much talent, so he hadn’t trained like others. He only started applying it after acquiring the skill.

If others developed their powers step by step, Yang Bo’s powers had come from allocating points.

Others were naturally familiar with their own cultivated powers, but Yang Bo acquired his first and became familiar with it later.

This is why Yang Bo wasn’t interested in secret techniques or ancient martial arts.

“If my Mind Control was strong enough, I could summon hundreds or even thousands of light orbs and form an impenetrable defense network or even an offensive stance.” Yang Bo imagined himself covered in light orbs that could defend against enemy attacks and counterattack simultaneously.

“I’ll just train with two orbs for now. We’ll see later.” Yang Bo wasn’t greedy. Being able to control two light orbs along different trajectories was already impressive.

After two hours of training, his Mind Control and energy were significantly drained.

Yang Bo charged himself up, freshened up, and went to rest.

“I still can’t recover Mind Control quickly.” Yang Bo then drifted into a deep sleep.

Wang Muxue had been feeling inexplicably irritable lately. When it came to Yang Bo, it was like a dog biting a turtle–she couldn’t find a good angle to strike.

On the one hand, she didn’t have solid proof to support her suspicions.

On the other hand, due to her status, she couldn’t investigate him openly. Even reaching out to that fat guy last time had been risky.

That initial thrill of helplessness was exciting for Wang Muxue.

But it didn’t take long before it became frustrating, like trying to solve unsolvable math problems.

“What can I do?”

“This guy stays in his room all day and hasn’t developed any hobbies.” Wang Muxue felt her relatives were acting abnormal recently, all because she couldn’t stop thinking about this.

And most importantly, Wang Muxue’s time on March Planet was limited. She was on vacation.

After her vacation, she would leave and take up a new post somewhere else.

“It looks like the breakthrough point lies with that Fatty.”

“I owe him a favor from last time. Once I start my new post, I’ll find a way to get Fatty involved in a mission and bring Yang Bo along.” Wang Muxue eventually settled on this plan.

Wherever she was posted, Wang Muxue would still hold enough power to assign Fatty some tasks.

And Fatty was currently on a passenger spaceship, flirting with a beautiful woman also traveling. He inexplicably felt a chill down his back, as if someone was plotting against him.

“It must be that woman Zhou Rui!” Fatty muttered to himself.

Because just moments ago, Yang Bo messaged him that Zhou Rui wanted him to check on the energy suit styles.

Fatty felt jealous and frustrated. He had spent a fortune on his junk armor, while Zhou Rui had custom-made suits. The gap between them was like heaven and earth.

He glanced at the seductive beauty in front of him, deciding to focus on the matter at hand first.

Meanwhile, Yang Bo woke up from a nice nap, feeling mentally refreshed. He went up to the roof to enjoy the sea breeze and soak in the sunlight.

“What secrets does this planet hold? Zhou Rui’s family definitely isn’t simple.”

“But if they’ve come to this remote planet, either the planet has secrets, or they’ve been exiled here.”

“If her family genuinely supports me, what should I do?”

“If they’re sincere, I’ll help them as much as I can, as long as my life’s not in danger.”

After enjoying the breeze for a while, Yang Bo hurried back inside to log into the game. Several teammates were ready for some quick grind sessions.

Today, Yang Bo spent five hours clearing two farms. But he made a loss today—clearing two rabbit farms yielded over 4,000 zombies, but no small boss.

Today’s loss amounted to over 200,000. However, Yang Bo wasn’t bothered since he had plenty of money.

Plus, the Listening skill was proving quite useful.

Communication with his four teammates wasn’t much anyway. Their relationship was purely cooperative.

After clearing two farms, Yang Bo logged off. Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong continued scouting the zoo.

At that moment, the game officials released an announcement regarding tomorrow morning’s update.

Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong quickly checked the announcement and were stunned.

The wealth rankings, monster kill rankings, and new systems for guild wars, equipment forging, potion crafting, mining, and other side professions were all coming.

“The captain must’ve known this beforehand.”

“No wonder the captain’s been burning through bullets killing monsters.”

The two whispered to each other. After that announcement, many players rushed to farm monsters.

With the guild system opening, many players were ecstatic. After all, in the game, forming cliques and alliances was the norm.

On the forums, many players praised the game officials, saying they’d finally awakened.

Playing games should be about excitement and competition. While Mecha Game allowed you to make money, if you could make money and have fun at the same time, wouldn’t that be even better? But Yang Bo had no idea about any of this, as he was already back in the basement training his superpowers.

This time, he was focusing on sonic attacks, particularly how they affected different distances and materials.

Yang Bo whistled, and instantly, a metal plate 200 meters away shattered.

“I didn’t expect the power of a whistle’s sonic attack to be several times stronger than a snap.” Yang Bo examined the shattered metal. It wasn’t just any metal—it was warship armor, albeit only the size of a fingertip.

He conducted a few more tests and gradually figured out that a whistle could channel all its energy into a straight line.

A snap also focused its power, but not like a whistle. The whistle concentrated the sound waves in the mouth before releasing them through the lips.

Yang Bo also discovered he could use his mouth to convey messages in a way similar to martial arts techniques that transmit secret messages.

By concentrating his voice in a straight line, he could direct it at a specific person without letting the sound waves spread.

However, the effective range was currently only 100 meters.

“Could I change my vocal cords to produce infrasound?” Yang Bo knew some animals, like elephants, could produce infrasound.

After two hours of training in the underground bunker, Yang Bo fed some of the sand rats and Invisible Mice.

He took a bath in the villa, relaxed, and before he knew it, another seven or eight hours had passed.

He checked his wristwatch—there were two emails from Fatty.

The first email advised him to maintain normal communication with Zhou Rui.

The second warned him to stay safe, as it seemed some people were coming to March Planet to stir up trouble.

Yang Bo was slightly surprised. Who were these people coming to cause trouble? He called Fatty, but there was no response.

“Could Fatty have gotten into trouble?” Yang Bo wondered.

But he didn’t worry much, as sometimes energy storms during interstellar travel could interfere with communication.

“It’s actually good if people are coming to make trouble. I’ve got a protection order, and satellites are watching me every day.”

“Wasn’t Zhou Rui supposed to teach me how to fish? Why hasn’t she contacted me yet?” Yang Bo saw this as an opportunity.

For someone to stir up trouble on this planet at this time, they had to be top-notch. If one of them dropped a rare skill, that would be a jackpot delivery straight to his door.

“It’s probably the Red Earl’s people.” Yang Bo had a good grasp of the information on these illegal organizations.

The only person capable of rattling these underground organizations now was Wang Muxue.

If Yang Bo were part of the Red Earl’s group, he would definitely send people to kill her. It was obvious the Red Earl would need to do something big to recover after suffering such significant losses.

And just as Yang Bo was thinking about Zhou Rui not contacting him, a message popped up.

It was an email from Zhou Rui, asking him to call her back when he had time.

“Sister Rui, you wanted me to call you. What’s up?” Yang Bo immediately dialed her.

“Yang Bo, don’t go out anytime soon. According to our information, a group of criminals plans to stir up trouble on March Planet. These are the same Red Earl people you encountered last time.”

“They’re experts in Camouflage. The Alliance still hasn’t figured out a way to track them.”

“And it’s not just March Planet. Their threat extends to the entire Alliance. You should check the news.” Zhou Rui’s tone was urgent.

Yang Bo opened the news homepage, and the top story was about a public threat issued by the Red Earl’s group. They vowed to take revenge on those involved in the Red Earl’s death.

The video footage appeared to be from a castle. The men inside were all in energy suits, but their speeches were full of strange brainwashing rhetoric.

In summary, they planned to take revenge on the Alliance army officers involved in putting down the rebellion, including parliamentarians and the Speaker. The group even called on others to stir up trouble across the Alliance.

Yang Bo skimmed it and understood the gist.

The second top story was about the head of the Anti-Radiation Association being beaten and hospitalized by a group of rich kids.

The third most-read news article was about the Alliance requesting heightened security on all capital stars.

Yang Bo clicked on the second article and couldn’t help but roll his eyes. The association claimed that the satellites of the Planetary Security System, which flew overhead daily for surveillance, were causing irreversible radiation damage to all living things on the planet.

This reminded Yang Bo of a neighborhood back on Earth, where residents believed a cell tower emitted radiation and demanded it be removed. Once it was gone, they complained about poor network coverage.

Yang Bo agreed that radiation existed, though any location in the universe had some amount of exposure. It was just a matter of intensity.

In a way, sunlight was also a form of radiation.

“A dog-eat-dog situation.” That was Yang Bo’s conclusion on the matter.

“Are the Red Earl’s people bluffing, or are they really targeting Wang Muxue?” Yang Bo knew the skills dropped by the Red Earl group were valuable.

“Yang Bo?” Zhou Rui’s voice came through his communicator.

“Sister Rui, I’ve seen the news. I’ll stay indoors as much as possible.” Yang Bo decided to partner with the Bounty Hunter Guild under a different identity to see if he could capture any Red Earl members.

“Good. Be careful. There’s a lot going on, and I need to return to the guild to handle some matters. I’ll take you to our base next time.” Zhou Rui was feeling the pressure from the escalating situation.

The Planetary Security System’s upgrade would significantly affect illegal organizations like the Bounty Hunter Guild.

It would make traveling in and out of planets more difficult, and some missions would become impossible. Even unlawful activities required caution. When the authorities were cracking down, it was best to lay low, or you might face their wrath.

Yang Bo agreed, stroking his chin as he glanced out the window.

“It’s time for Third Master to come online. Red Earl people… You’d better all show up here. Should I leak some information?” Yang Bo wondered, having half a mind to use Wang Muxue as bait.

Second update complete.