Fang Liang and Li Yuan sat on the edge of the cliff, watching the ore being transported into the spaceship, feeling particularly melancholic.

“Why is the boss’s illness so much more severe this month?” Li Yuan sighed, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. The more he looked, the more it pained him.

The boss used to have a few days each month where he couldn’t see blood, but this month was just ridiculously off the charts. He wouldn’t even let them raid the mine.

Fang Liang chewed on dried meat, his face expressionless. “Maybe he’s entered a burnout period.”

Li Yuan was puzzled, “Burnout period?”

Fang Liang: “Being a star pirate is too boring, wants to change careers?”

Li Yuan: “…”

Is that even possible?

As they were talking, footsteps came from behind.

Both of them looked over at the same time. It was the boss, Chi Yao.

Chi Yao casually twirled the ring on his middle finger. “Have everyone pack up and set off immediately.”

“Huh?” Li Yuan thought he was insisting on going back and said unwillingly, “Leave now?”

It was only 5:30 in the morning. Except for those on shift, everyone was still resting.

Hearing a noise, Chi Yao turned his head towards the new recruit group and happened to meet Jing Xi’s gaze as he walked out of his tent.

He let out a light laugh, “Mhm, bring all the equipment. We’re going to raid the mine.”

Li Yuan’s expression changed, thinking he had misheard.

The cooked duck flew back?

He strode back, a wave of ecstasy in his heart, suddenly feeling energized.

“Brothers, stop sleeping, get up and party!”

After Li Yuan left, Chi Yao had Fang Liang come closer and whispered a few words in his ear.

Fang Liang’s expression was serious, “Okay, I’ll go do it now.”

Under Jing Xi’s increasingly cold gaze, Chi Yao smiled and waved at him, then walked away with impunity.

From the moment he switched back, this team-building game was over.

---

In the new recruit group, the round-faced instructor became nervous and restless as soon as he saw Chi Yao appear.

Seeing that Jing Xi was awake, he immediately went over to greet him.

Jing Xi said in a low voice, “Wake everyone up. Stop Extreme Shadow’s actions.”

The round-faced instructor was stunned, “O-okay.”

Jing Xi looked at the mining area in the distance, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over the AI surveillance floating above them.

The breathing light was on, indicating that the footage from here was being transmitted to the military system in real-time.

The awakened star pirates were bewildered. Didn’t the boss say yesterday that they weren’t going to raid?

The awakened new recruits were also bewildered. Didn’t the officer say yesterday that they didn’t need to stop them?

Chi Yao turned back to his tent, preparing to wake up Tie Xiong and the dog.

Halfway there, he saw Chen Sheng with his butt in the air, folding a quilt. He kicked him.

“Hurry up.”

Chen Sheng fell into the quilt and scrambled up, “Ah, my perfectly folded quilt!”

Chi Yao: “…”

In less than five minutes, all the members of the star pirate crew were in formation, ready to go.

Chi Yao looked at their uniform buzz cuts, feeling particularly uncomfortable.

This made him look like the head of a labor reform camp. It lowered his status.

Chi Yao: “After we get back, everyone dye their hair back to its original color.”

Li Yuan asked, “Why?”

It took a lot of effort to dye it back.

Chi Yao: “A star pirate should look like a star pirate.”

The star pirates: “…”

They used to know what a star pirate should look like, but now they didn’t.

---

From here to the mining area, the fastest path was down the cliff, which would take about an hour.

Chi Yao estimated the height of the cliff, took out his launcher, and wrapped it around a tree trunk, preparing to go down first.

But the rope he shot out was redirected by a flying military knife and missed its mark.

“Am I dead to you?”

Chi Yao turned his head and saw Jing Xi walking over.

Chi Yao: “I’m conducting a legal and legitimate raid. Are you going to interfere with that too?”

There was no such thing as a legal raid in an open zone. It was just that the rules didn’t restrict it.

Only he could say something so righteous about robbery without batting an eye.

Jing Xi: “Then is killing legal?”

Chi Yao: “I’m a first-class law-abiding citizen. How could I kill someone?”

Jing Xi’s voice was cold, “A guy without even a household registration dares to call himself a law-abiding citizen.”

Chi Yao chuckled lightly, “Then why don’t you, Major General, grant me a household registration?”

The atmosphere was getting more and more tense.

The round-faced and dark-skinned instructors thought to themselves, “Finally.”

This is the correct way things should be!

The new recruits, seeing their officer make a move, immediately surrounded the star pirate crew.

“Don’t move any further!”

“Hands on your head and squat down!”

Both sides were used to their previous mode of interaction and didn’t take the current situation seriously.

Li Yuan had a bad temper and was the first to start cursing, “You’ve got some nerve, daring to block your old man’s path?!”

Tie Xiong stood at his feet, imitating his posture with his hands on his hips, “Your damn dad is fat! Get out of the way!”

The others followed suit.

“If it weren’t for our boss, you would have been eaten by the mutated centipede yesterday. Do you still have the right to be shouting here?!”

“If you know what’s good for you, scram immediately. My bullets don’t have eyes!”

“Do you believe I can kill three of you with one punch?”

The new recruits, seeing their foul mouths, also got angry.

To be able to stand out from so many military academy graduates and successfully enter the military headquarters, who wasn’t a prodigy? When had they ever been cursed at like this to their faces?

“If it weren’t for our officer, that little doll by your feet would have become mutated centipede poop by now!”

“Your quilts aren’t folded as well as ours, and you can’t even stand at attention properly. What right do you have to challenge us?”

The new recruits spoke loudly and quickly. Tie Xiong didn’t understand a word, only that someone was pointing at him and saying “poop,” which made him furious.

“I smell good! You’re the poop, your whole damn family is poop!”

The others, hearing the other side say they were no good at this and that, got even angrier.

Chen Sheng: “It’s just a perfectly folded quilt. It’s not that we can’t do it, we just don’t deign to!”

Li Yuan: “What’s so great about being able to stand at attention? Can you roast a chicken?!”

The two sides, unable to agree, started a singing battle again. Whoever’s voice was softer would lose.

Chi Yao and Jing Xi hadn’t finished their argument when they suddenly heard loud singing.

Both of them: “…”

Who the hell started it?!

Over two hundred people shouting at the top of their lungs was quite powerful.

Jing Xi’s head hurt from the noise. He raised his hand to have his two subordinates stop them.

Suddenly, a blur flashed, and he was pulled forward by the waist.

Chi Yao’s enlarged face appeared before him.

For a moment, Jing Xi seemed to feel Chi Yao’s breath.

His eyes narrowed, and he struck out like lightning.

But it was still a step too late. He didn’t hit him.

Chi Yao quickly let go of him, stepped back quickly to the edge of the cliff, a smug smile on his face. “Since the Major General doesn’t like me, then I’ll just leave.”

Seeing the launcher in his hand already wrapped around a tree trunk, Jing Xi frowned.

As expected, a method only a profligate person would use.

Chi Yao leaned back, pressed the button on the launcher, and jumped down.

The star pirates, seeing that their boss had already left, immediately lost interest in the singing battle.

Li Yuan grabbed a new recruit by the back of their collar with each hand, threw them to the side, pulled out his launcher, and followed.

The new recruits were still immersed in defeating their opponents with military songs. In the blink of an eye, their opponents had all run away.

“Come back—!”

Just as they were about to give chase, a big dog stood in front of them.

The big dog looked down at them with its watery black eyes and suddenly extended a front paw.

The new recruits were startled.

According to legend, the big dog that followed the leader of Extreme Shadow was a fifth-level mutated species, capable of killing a group of fourth-level mutated centipedes in seconds!

Just as they were on guard, they saw the baby pounce on the dog’s leg and skillfully climb onto its back.

“We’re going after the boss.”

The big dog looked calmly ahead and walked away gracefully.

The new recruits: “…”

“Ah!”

Suddenly, a scream was heard.

The new recruit who had just called Tie Xiong “poop” was swept to the ground by the dog’s tail.

The new recruits: “………”

The round-faced instructor was sweating profusely, watching helplessly as the star pirates went down the cliff one by one like dumplings.

“Sir, what do we do now?”

The new recruits might have good individual strength, but they were severely lacking in combat experience and were no match for Extreme Shadow.

If they had drawn their weapons first just now, it probably would have angered Extreme Shadow even more.

But they couldn’t stop them with their bare hands.

Singing didn’t work either!

Jing Xi was not surprised at all by this result.

“You guys—”

“Sir, we’re sorry, it’s our fault!”

“We request to go into battle. We will definitely capture Extreme Shadow!”

Before Jing Xi could speak, the new recruits all expressed their desire to chase after Extreme Shadow.

He had originally wanted to have these people stay here and wait for military rescue, while he himself would follow to check the situation.

The surveillance was still on. The military wouldn’t ignore this situation.

But he couldn’t ignore the new recruits’ request.

If the opponent was Extreme Shadow, it was indeed a good training opportunity for these new recruits.

After thinking for a moment, he drew his launcher from his backpack.

“Do you all know how to use this?”

---

At the military headquarters, Zhao Hongyi, Pei Zhenyue, and others were in the monitoring room, routinely checking the situation at each training ground.

All the training grounds’ surveillance was recorded by AI and also had dedicated information officers on 24-hour shifts.

“Reporting, sir! There’s a situation at X30!”

An information officer suddenly shouted towards Pei Zhenyue.

Pei Zhenyue quickly brought up the surveillance footage of X30 from his console.

When he saw Jing Xi leading the entire new recruit group down the cliff, his expression changed slightly.

Weren’t they planning on going back last night?

“Old Pei, it’s come to this, and you still don’t plan to send reinforcements?” Zhao Hongyi asked.

His tone was somewhat sarcastic.

---

Chi Yao was the first to reach the bottom of the cliff. Below was another primeval forest.

He could clearly feel the humidity increasing, the air hot and muggy.

He put away his launcher and moved his faintly aching left shoulder, his mood gradually becoming irritable.

“Boss!”

Li Yuan jumped down and ran to his side, lowering his voice, “We didn’t bring much equipment this time.”

Chi Yao walked forward quickly, “Let’s check the situation first.”

The closer they got to the mining area, the fewer mutated beasts there were. They didn’t even see any wild pheasants along the way, so they made good time.

After entering the mining area, the vicinity was full of stacked, disordered rocks, the tallest of which were thirty to forty meters high, perfect for hiding.

Jing Xi led the new recruit group, following them at a distance.

The dark-skinned instructor: “Sir, it looks like they’re really going to raid.”

“Mhm.”

Seeing Chi Yao and the others hide behind the rocks, Jing Xi gestured for the people behind him to stop. “We’ll find a place to hide around here.”

The dark-skinned instructor: “?”

Aren’t we supposed to stop them? Are we going to wait for them to make a move before we stop them?

The round-faced instructor was thoughtful.

He always felt that Major General Jing was more tolerant of Extreme Shadow, or rather, Chi Yao, than he had imagined.

Was it his imagination? Or was Major General Jing secretly planning something?

---

Chen Sheng held a heavy sniper rifle, checking the situation in the mining area through the scope, and reported everything to Chi Yao.

“It really is a third-rate mercenary group. I’ve never seen the logo on their spaceship. There’s a guard every 50 meters on average, and two 10-man patrol teams are currently on patrol…”

The place they were at was only one kilometer from the mining area. A strong group would set up a dense monitoring network within three kilometers to prevent the mined ore from being snatched by other groups.

When the camera aimed at the transport vehicle, Chen Sheng let out a low curse.

“Fourth-level ore! We’ve really hit the jackpot. What a windfall!”

Chi Yao opened his terminal and looked at the time, sneering, “Digging it up is just the beginning. Being able to hold onto it is the real skill.”

Li Yuan paid attention to the new recruit group’s movements and leaned in to report to Chi Yao.

“They’re hiding so far away. It looks like they want to intercept us after we make a move.”

Chi Yao glanced at them coolly, “Even the Flying Dragon can’t intercept us, let alone a group of new recruits.”

Li Yuan: “What do we do when the fight starts?”

Chi Yao: “Don’t bother with him.”

Li Yuan: “Huh?”

Chi Yao let out a light huff from his nose and said mockingly, “A person who doesn’t even have a mansion, you expect him to know how to shoot someone in the back?”

His tone was quite dissatisfied.

Li Yuan: “?”

What does that mean?

Is there any necessary connection between the two?

---

After squatting in ambush for half an hour, a noise suddenly came from above the mine entrance.

Chi Yao’s and Jing Xi’s expressions changed slightly, and they looked over at the same time.

Soon, a group of black-clothed people wearing masks appeared at the edge of the mine entrance.

These people were fully armed, wearing black smiley-face masks with white lines on their faces, identical to the card taken from the trophy in Li Bo’s house—

__

Author’s Note:
Jing Xi: Are you very disappointed that I don’t have a mansion?
Chi Yao: I was praising you for being too honest.
Jing Xi: …
#On the speaking art (crossed out) survival instinct of a star pirate leader#
The part about raiding the mine was deleted from the previous text and adjusted to here. It will be quite different from the original.