Chapter 774: Chapter 774 Charge Towards the Blue Sky Like a Suicide Squad mber!
“How do you like the surprise I prepared for you?”
Lolling casually at soone else’s table and leaning in without a hint of self-awareness, Sister Bing planted her arm and a significant portion of her chest on my shoulder as she forcefully slapped my other shoulder like a buddy. She grinned as if this was so noteworthy accomplishnt. anwhile, Uncle Zaku’s expression had turned to stone, and Milia was cautiously poking at his waist, wondering if he would disintegrate into dust right then and there without reacting at all.
I was utterly stunned by an augnted platoon barging in just like a bandit raid, out of the blue.
“The surprise was enough, but the pleasure was none.”
I promptly sidestepped half a ter away, leaving Sister Bing miraculously maintaining her utterly unbalanced pose at the edge of the table. Although it was hard to part with her soft body and impressive chest, considering that half the people around might twist any happening into dozens of versions, including in various dialects, and spread them all around Shadow City, I had to be cautious of public opinion.
Desperately looking around, I realized that the most troubleso folks from Shadow City and the Macro World had been summoned. This included the Fantasy Country tourist group with Chiruno, Ling ng, Yukari Yakumo, Moriya, and others; another group led by Magni Bronzebeard, drinking with Ibuki Suika, featured Azeroth’s leaders like Jaina and Sal; there was also Tex and Jim Raynor, who were rummaging through nearby trash. Even more audacious was the Divine Clan’s five-mber squad with the radiant Yelsen, who had just crushed soone’s door, and Lin and others… Among them, there might have been a few reliable individuals, but in such a slippery situation, even Zeratul had no choice but to join Kaelthas in silent ditation on a bench.
Silently, I handed a bottle of fast-acting redy to Milia, instructing her to give it to Uncle Zaku if things went south, and I turned to Sister Bing with a heavy look.
“Sister Bing, tell the truth, have you completely smashed my Shadow City?”
“Why would you think that?”
Sister Bing tilted her head, trying to look cute, but dammit, this female hooligan couldn’t charm her way out of this with such tactics!
“If Shadow City hadn’t been crushed by you, how could you continue causing trouble here?!”
I exclaid, furious.
“Oh, so that’s how you see ,” Sister Bing said, looking quite hurt before shrugging off my disbelief, “Alright, alright, I just ca to help out. Really, don’t you consider a friend anymore? Not even calling when there’s a fight. Aren’t we good buddies?”
I knew this hooligan had nothing better to say, so I just pointed at the group squeezing into the living room (and the crowd outside): “So what’s up with them?”
“Sister Bing stood high in Shadow City and called out,” Sister Bing proudly stood on the table, “Who wants to join in a smashing good ti?” And then she gathered this bunch.”
“You really ca here to smash things?!” Uncle Zaku almost lost his breath, and Milia began fumbling with the redy.
I had to quickly explain; Sister Bing really could cause a scene. Putting aside this troupe of mischief-makers, I needed to explain ourselves to the host. It was clear that seeing an augnted platoon led by a female hooligan marching towards his house had prompted Uncle Zaku to classify us as outright villains: The good impression Milia had struggled to establish disappeared completely.
I repeatedly clarified that we were just Milia’s friends with no ill intentions, and the crowd surrounding the house was just a bunch of intruding bad companions. We promised not to cause any loss to the host, but watching Sister Bing stepping on his table, a golden-haired girl casually crushing his door, and other outrageous destruction made Uncle Zaku skeptical of my assurances. In the end, we could only fabricate stories with Qianqian’s assistive leaps of logic, and this batch of troublemakers was classified as mbers of our Adventure Team.
“Just like that, actually, we’re an Adventure Team!” Qianqian emphasized, tapping her head as she spoke to Uncle Zaku who looked as if he’d lost his last relative, “Don’t ask about the na, I haven’t thought of one yet, but Ah Jun will figure out a solution for their housing problem, so you don’t need to worry, Uncle.”
Uncle Zaku, looking sowhat limp, glanced at Sal who was smoking at the door, “Your Adventure Team also has a performance artist, huh?”
“He’s been eating too much green these past few days,” Lilina explained with a radiant face.
Uncle Zaku nodded, “Okay, I believe you.”
At that mont, I was the one surprised, “Really? You believe such a far-fetched story? How can you trust us so easily?”
Crouching grudgingly on his chair, Uncle said, “Because there are many of you…”
“Uncle, Uncle, want a popsicle?” Chiruno seized the opportunity to wedge into the group from below , holding up a box of popsicles.
The word ‘eat’ made Uncle Zaku shiver instantly as he blankly took a golden apple popsicle from the ice fairy’s hands, staring pitifully at nearly a hundred people inside and outside the house, “I have one more question—You guys aren’t planning to eat here, are you?”
“Uncle!!”
Milia let out a loud shout, her face expressing utter embarrassnt. But girl, you have to understand, not everyone has the courage to host another group of freeloaders possibly related to Sandora after witnessing her eating behavior.
I couldn’t possibly keep these hundred-plus people at Milia’s house; my conscience wouldn’t allow it. So, I sent most of them to invisibly standby aboard the Imperial Admiral in high orbit, leaving only a few shaless leeches who ended up staying here. Fortunately, Milia’s house was quite large, a mansion really, before it was filled with all that junk. And Uncle Zaku, indeed a cold-outside-warm-inside type, despite his headache-inducing expression, eventually welcod more uninvited guests: I believe the number of these troublemakers was decisive in this process.
With hundreds gathered at Milia’s doorstep, such a commotion naturally drew the townfolks’ attention. Neighbors ca by to inquire, mainly wondering who the usually hermit-like Zaku had recently offended. Sandora then had to employ Spiritual Interference in waves to clear out the NPCs, while I faced off with Bingdisi.
“Can’t you just be a well-mannered, cultivated Goddess?” I asked.
“No,” Bingdisi shook her head.
The face-off ended.
Suddenly, a roar of an engine from outside interrupted my standoff with Bingdisi — it turned out Biluna, who had gone to the market early, had hurried back. This great woman, who sustained a man who couldn’t be relied on and a girl who only freeloaded (Zaku’s description of Milia), was visibly shocked to see several unfamiliar faces in the living room but quickly brushed it aside and briskly approached Uncle Zaku, who was sighing over the table. She slapped a stack of papers on the table.
“What’s going on?” Uncle Zaku lifted his head, looking utterly exhausted.
“Ti to work,” was Biluna’s blunt reply.
Uncle Zaku lifted his eyelids and glanced at the docunts on the table. “Oh, another accident site? Or another uncleaned ancient battlefield?”
A deanor completely lacking ambition and enthusiasm.
“This ti, it’s a relic.” Biluna looked seriously at her colleague, who was on the verge of decadence, and emphatically nodded her head. “Eighty percent credible.”
Instantly, Zaku’s expression turned somber, and then he reached for the docunts on the table. As soon as he picked them up, he felt how heavy they were: the docunts included two tal plates, each half an inch thick.
“It’s ancient tal, altered ancient tal.” The uncle set the docunts aside, his expression complex as he looked at the two corroded and deford tal plates, seemingly recalling sothing. Biluna nodded, “It is indeed ancient tal, but in this little place, probably only the two of us recognize it. A newbie sold it as special alloy from an ancient battlefield, and I traced its origins. You should rember where you’ve seen these…”
“Of course, I rember,” Zaku tossed the two tal plates backward, just as Chiruno happened to pass by and let out a startled yelp, “But you haven’t forgotten, have you? We don’t deal in this line of business. I’m not going to the relic.”
He seed very averse to relics.
“Sa excuse again,” Milia’s face lit up montarily when she heard the word “relic,” but then her expression turned very discontent due to Zaku’s refusal. “Co on, relics are surely better than scavenging old engines and dragon bones from accident sites all day, right? For a small team like ours, getting information about a relic isn’t easy!”
“What nonsense,” Zaku gave Milia a sidelong glance. “You also know that relics are out of reach for a small team like ours, right? Relics are dangerous, there might be ancient sentries still operating. Do you think we can just barge into a relic with that old clunker of ours without getting killed?”
“It’s just guards,” Milia muttered unhappily, “I’m quite capable of fighting, and Biluna is even stronger than , a re guard couldn’t…”
Uncle Zaku impatiently interrupted Milia, “Don’t be too full of yourself. Exploring a relic isn’t about sheer bravery! Even the toughest people can die inside a relic!”
Clearly, Uncle Zaku had made up his mind to not take on the business, even though refusing would an wasting the effort Biluna had put in all morning, and it seed like a rare opportunity for such a struggling adventure team.
“Isn’t the main problem just a lack of manpower?” Lilina suddenly spoke up, “Including us, would that be enough?”
Zaku looked surprised, while Biluna began to size up the little dwarf, only 1.09 ters tall, whom she had always thought was just a kid tagging along with the adults for fun in the team.
“We are very interested in that relic,” Lilina said, (her face didn’t even redden as she spoke), “Aren’t we all part of an adventure team? How about a collaboration? Consider it your information and our manpower and equipnt. You’ve seen for yourself, we have many people, and all are quite capable!”
Zaku glanced at the big-bearded dwarf and horned loli competing in drinking at the door, then at a little blue-haired girl next door, scribbling on the ground with chalk, unable to figure out the incorrect pricing of one popsicle for 2.50 and two popsicles for 2. He finally thought only the word “many people” seed credible.
But since we had already expressed our intention, Uncle Zaku had to respond. It was evident that he still greatly resisted exploring the relic, but the increasingly serious gaze of Biluna beside him and Milia’s almost unbearable nattering forced him to reluctantly nod: “Alright… you have many people… co with , there’s an airship in the underground warehouse; it should be able to take us there.”
I don’t know what kind of trauma exploring relics had left on Zaku, but I knew everyone, including Qianqian, were quite interested in this, especially when they discovered a very faint vestige of ghost energy on those two tal plates, even Sandora got excited. Learning that such a junkyard-like place actually had an underground warehouse and that there was an airship inside, everyone was quite surprised, and this surprise turned into astonishnt when they saw the airship.
Uncle Zaku pointed at a barely symtric, completely paint-stripped elliptical flying device with full pride on his large face, “This is my Radiant Glory! Don’t judge it by its looks now, I guarantee if its Vortex Accelerator were still here, this thing could still spin!”
Milia covered her face, barely able to witness our expressions or Uncle Zaku’s oblivious big face, crouched on the ground muttering grudgingly that this piece of junk was even worse than what she had seen when she was four years old.
Everyone was genuinely concerned about the safety of using this thing to explore ancient relics. Currently, the greatest threat to us (if there was any), was not the Relic Guardians but this miraculous vehicle. If its design philosophy wasn’t the sa as my seven hundred billion, then one could only say Uncle Zaku was overly optimistic about life. Indeed, just as Uncle had promised, if the Vortex Accelerator were still here, the rudder could probably still spin, but you couldn’t deny that it was missing more than just the Vortex Accelerator. Over the next nearly two hours, we watched Uncle and Biluna bustling below in the Underground Warehouse gathering parts and tools, and even had Milia repeatedly fetch seemingly compatible components to mount on the airship. The whole repair process was difficult to watch, with several connections made using glue, wire, and even shoelaces. I felt even the Kappas should be called in to help rather than trusting Milia’s family.
But it had to be admitted that Uncle Zaku, being a seasoned adventurer, was very experienced and creative: When he found that the acceleration thrusters of the airship were irreparable, he painted the acceleration valve red, believing that it could at least triple the speed of the airship.
I felt the urge to whip out the Imperial Shuttle despite the risk of drawing a crowd.
However, there is sothing truly called a miracle, and after almost three hours of clangs and clatter from maintenance, Uncle Zaku finally wiped the black oil from his face and announced to us that the airship was now operable.
“I think we can just walk,” Lilina said gravely.
“Or maybe Lin could carry everyone over?” Bingdisi muttered quietly through the Spiritual Connection.
I thought Sister Bing’s suggestion was no better than walking.
Uncle Zaku, seeing everyone’s expressions a bit odd, displayed a disgruntled look and while he hamred away at the airship’s drain panel with the wrench in his hand, he assured us that this thing would not fall apart before any passengers fell off—later, he spent another ten minutes reattaching the drain panel.
“It’s just an accident!” Uncle Zaku reassured us once more, but this ti, he dared not strike anything with the wrench in his hand, “Radiant Glory was once a majestic warship in its youth! It still is: as long as it doesn’t crash, it can almost safely fly to the destination. Now, let’s power it up, Billuna, co help.”
“Are those two married? Or a couple?” Watching Uncle and Biluna clumsily charge the airship, Qianqian whispered to Milia.
You’d be surprised, though one is lazily nonchalant and the other serious and diligent, when they’re together, they actually seed rather coordinated.
“No,” Milia scratched her hair, “Though they’re always together, it seems they don’t have much interaction besides work. I just heard that Biluna and Uncle have known each other for a long ti, but I’m not very clear on their past.”
During the conversation, the airship was finally powered up, and Uncle enthusiastically invited us aboard. Considering we might survive even if we fell from the edge of the atmosphere, everyone readily agreed. What was sowhat satisfying was that, although the grey and dusty oval-shaped airship wasn’t much to look at, the interior space was quite spacious. Almost twenty of us, along with a few demons and extras eager to join, and Magni, swayed by Ibuki Suika’s wine, managed to fit inside.
As the suspicious-sounding engine roared, the airship glided into the tunnel at one end of the Underground Warehouse, allegedly connecting to the outside of the town and thus avoiding the dilemma of taking off in a residential area. The airship, after undergoing severe repairs, perford well in terms of maneuverability; aside from knocking down seventy percent of the Warehouse’s rchandise shelves, it virtually caused no greater damage. Uncle Zaku, who had been quite critical of this venture, seed to have finally been inspired with the adventurous spirit and determination expected of an adventurer. Facing the loss in the Warehouse, he didn’t stop the airship, but instead accelerated towards the journey into the blue sky—because the brakes had broken.
“Don’t worry, if we bring back enough treasures from the relics, we could completely rebuild the warehouse,” Uncle Zaku, while rushing towards the gradually enlarging tunnel exit, boosted his own morale, “I can feel that Radiant Glory is gradually regaining its old state, this is a good on, its engine is passionately burning!”
It turned out Uncle’s judgnt was correct; ten minutes after takeoff, the airship overloaded, its engine burning passionately. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welco to co to Qidian (qidian) to vote and donate monthly, your support is my greatest motivation.)
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