Chapter 315: Do You Dare Accept My Apology? [Part 2]
Still keeping his head lowered, Moon clenched his hands when he heard Cillin’s “order”. It looked so perturbed that Shi Tang felt sorry for it. Sha Rou also liked the weirdly cute robot a lot, but unlike her brother she was well aware that no ordinary robot could’ve robbed those aliens.
Moon slowly shifted toward the encirclement. It said timidly under everyone’s watchful gazes, “Alright, I sincerely apologize.”
A white arc beam hit the ground in that moment.
Just two steps away from the circle of malicious aliens, a smoking, arc-shaped hole had appeared on the ground. The soil and the metal buried beneath it had been burned into a crisp.
Moon said timidly and innocently again, “So, do you accept my apology?”
Do we accept your apology? You’re asking that after you showed off that level of weaponry?! That thing could vaporize us all the way down to the atoms if we got hit!
The offenders’ features had contorted into unspeakable expressions almost immediately. If Cillin’s earlier display of force had made their eye twitch, then Moon’s display of firepower made them feel like their kidneys were twisting unto itself.
Meanwhile, Shi Tang felt like his jaw could hit the floor any second. He should’ve realized that someone like Cillin wouldn’t carry himself around with a common pet or robot!
The place was so quiet you could hear a pin drop for a time. Already, some of the aliens were thinking about withdrawing because they were really here to join in on the fun, not throw their lives away! It was clear as day that the enemy’s equipment was way better theirs, and to attack them was to commit suicide. Only an idiot do something this stupid.
“So, is there anyone who wants me to give them a proper explanation? I don’t mind giving it to you if that’s your wish.” Moon continued to roleplay an innocent boy, and no one answered him as a matter of course. What if this so-called “explanation” came in the form of an all-disintegrating laser beam?
Moon finally looked up, his gaze sweeping across everyone. Some of them felt their legs shiver and backed away unconsciously when the blue strip on the robot’s faceplate turned toward their direction.
“Stand your ground!” Someone shouted from the encirclement suddenly.
It was the alien who accused Moon earlier. His eyes shifted when everyone turned to look at him, but he forced himself to say, “My boss is showing up real soon, so don’t worry! You’ll all get something out of this if you stay!”
Moon stared at him before asking, “Who is your boss?”
“My boss is—”
Puchi!
Blood splattered across the ground. The alien was cut in half before he could finished speaking.
“Trash.”
A man with watery patterns tattooed onto his body appeared behind his victim. Blood was dripping down his weapon without leaving a stain on the blade.
Everyone standing next to the killer moved away from him as if repelled by a physical force. Some tried to break into a run, but they barely ran a few steps before they were put down by several silent gunshots.
Several people appeared out of nowhere. They were wearing camouflage equipment that kept them invisible until now. The runners never saw their killers until the bullets passed through their bodies and claimed their lives.
“They’re from Myriad Sea City!” Sha Rou recognized one of them. He was an extremely capable killer from Myriad Sea City.
Before the killers showed up, Sha Rou and even Shi Tang could’ve dealt with the aliens somewhat. They were all neighbors, so they knew each other’s strength to a certain degree. However, there was zero chance they were going to beat this killers. It was why Sha Rou’s face had turned deathly white when she realized who they were.
The aliens who encircled them just wanted to rob them, but these killers were as cold as the weapons they wielded. The way they stared at her like she was dead already sapped all the courage in her body, and she felt as if her legs were completely frozen in place.
“Sorry,” Sha Rou said quietly to Shi Tang and Sha Rou. She was certain that these killers were here because of the three men she killed earlier. She didn’t expect Myriad Sea City to send this many killers to kill her though. Had Parker misjudged that trio’s importance?
It was at this moment Cillin spoke up. “They’re not here for you. They’re here for me.”
“You?” Sha Rou shot him a confused look.
“These people belong to your invisible stalker.”
Sha Rou and Shi Tang immediately felt a chill shooting into their heads. Were they the people who had been spying on them all this time?
Clap clap clap clap!
The sounds of clapping entered everyone’s ears, and the hologram of a man appeared from a device. He must be watching this location from somewhere.
The man looked a bit frail but cultured. If it wasn’t for the distorted smile on his face, they might even describe him as scholarly.
“As expected of one of the top five most influential people in the academic world right now. I’m very glad to see you, Cillin,” the man said.
Cillin shot him a sideway glance but didn’t say anything.
The man didn’t get angry even though Cillin ignored him. He continued, “What a lucky day today is. If I didn’t so happen to be checking to this tiny place, I never would’ve thought that an honorary scholar of the RAS would show up here.”
“Are you the one who’s been spying on us?” Shi Tang asked. The question had been sitting in his heart like a rock, and his first impression of the man in the hologram was absolute disgust!
“Spying on you? Who do you think you are? You came under my notice only because my subordinates found you. They lent you a hand because they think you might just have a speck of talent, but too bad it doesn’t look like you’ll last until the final results are out.”
The way he spoke as if his subordinate was just throwing a gnawed bone to a stray dog they pitied every once in a while angered Shi Tang so much that he was shaking.
Tang couldn’t deny that the man’s “charity” had helped his research to an extent. It wasn’t much, but he did live longer because of him, and he was saved the time to collect several essential materials. But neither him nor his sister was a slave, and they were no livestock either. The way the man looked down on them and spoke to them like he was addressing a lower animal was so infuriating that Shi Tang wanted to beat the crap out of him.
Still maintaining his sitting posture, Cillin said slowly, “It sounds like you’re a member of a the academic circle as well, so that must mean you ‘helped’ Shi Tang only because his research interested you. It’s not complete yet, but I’m sure you’ve stolen some of his research findings already, haven’t you? Therefore, he doesn’t owe you anything anymore.”
Shi Tang abruptly stared at the man in the hologram in disbelief. His research findings were stolen? All his efforts and suffering was to the benefit for others!? He was thinking to sell his findings to a research department and give his sister a better life after his death, but now he realized that it was just a fantasy because these monsters would never allow him to do so. Not only would they claim his findings as their own, they would even eliminate Sha Rou right after he died to keep her mouth shut forever!
How could they do this!? If they really didn’t care about “lowly beings”, then why must they strip them of even their last bit of hope?!
“How could you, how could you…!” Shi Tang was really starting to lose control of his emotions. His sister was the most precious thing to him in the world, and his research second. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he treated them like his own children. That was why he didn’t mind giving up his health and his lifespan for them, and he couldn’t bear to hear that these monsters would be so cruel as to strip them of even the tiniest bit of hope and wealth!
The world was an unfair place. As a lowly citizen who was born in this violent and bloodthirsty commoner area, Shi Tang and Sha Rou knew this better than most people. But that didn’t mean he could accept it!
At the same time Shi Tang recalled the leaks he saw on Return. They were some of the most controversial statements had Cillin made during the presentation:
“In terms of the concept of giving, our world is strange in the sense that it tends to reward those who have already made a name for themselves…”
“Awards based on a person’s background is unfair, and this unfairness has led to many unnamed researchers not being acknowledged for their contributions and achievements despite all the time and effort they’ve invested in them. As a result, some of these excellent talents left the academic world and never returned…”
“... right now, the academic world is plagued by a phenomenon where the rich must become richer no matter the cost, even if the excess will simply rot in their hands. To that end, they will rob the unfortunate of even their last straw of hope...”
It was true. It was true all along.
The memories kept replaying inside Shi Tang’s mind, and every sentence he recalled seemed to block a blood vessel in his heart. He got so emotional that he started nosebleeding and coughing again.
Worried about her brother, Sha Rou quickly ran into the house to grab Shi Tang’s medicine even despite the grave situation they were in. After taking a look at Shi Tang, Cillin produced a needle and gave him an injection. The man was too emotional right now, and the meds wasn’t going to work their magic overnight, much less in just a couple of minutes. The only way to improve Shi Tang’s condition immediately was to give him an injection.
Shi Tang’s symptoms lessened after the injection, and Cillin asked Sha Rou to watch over her brother. He then turned toward the arrogant and disdainful man in the hologram.
“You’re planning to kill me too, aren’t you? You wouldn’t send this many killers otherwise.”
The man raised his chin and replied, “That’s right. Who do you think you are? That level of attention is not yours to take! You just got lucky you got a good mentor, and you managed to fool the commoners. Do you really think you’re someone just because you were praised by some fools? In my eyes, you’re just a blind ant with an oversized ego!”
“Is that so?”
Cillin snapped his fingers, and several things happened at once. First, there was a series of quiet noises. Then, a couple of people suddenly manifested into existence. They were the Myriad City killers who had stayed hidden to ambush their prey if necessary. Right now though, their stealth equipment was damaged, and they themselves were very, very dead.
The eyes of the man in the hologram widened in surprise as his subordinates—invisible or not—started collapsing one by one. Throughout this process, they never discovered the killers who hid even deeper than they did.