Bai Jinqiu’s injuries healed at a remarkably fast pace with adequate rest and care. A week later, all of his wounds except those on his chest and abdomen had completely closed, and he was already able to stand up and walk around with the help of crutches.
At the same time, his vision was also slowly recovering. At first, his eyes could only vaguely perceive light, but by now he could make out the outlines of indoor objects.
Rong Zhiting felt a wave of internal emotion. Ah, this was what an S-rank Omega warrior was like! Recovering to this extent in just a single week. If someone of his F-rank suffered injuries like these, it would take at least a hundred days of resting bones and tendons just to reach this stage.
Rong Zhiting felt a mixed bag of emotions about this, half happy for him and half inexplicably melancholic.
Bai Jinqiu’s gradual recovery meant he would not stay forever in this tiny, abandoned house on the Fringe Star.
Even though he could not move about freely yet, he would definitely have his own plans and inevitably do things behind his back, and as long as his Brother Bai did not want him to find out, he would not be able to notice a thing.
One morning, right before heading out, Rong Zhiting could not help saying:
“Brother Bai, if you need anything from me, remember to tell me anytime. I can help you with whatever you need to do. I know the Fringe Star much better than you do, so I can definitely help.”
Bai Jinqiu looked at him in confusion, seemingly not understanding what he meant.
Looking into his eyes, Rong Zhiting said earnestly: “You have difficulty moving right now, and your vision is still unclear. It is too dangerous for you to be alone on the Fringe Star. This is the surface, and the outside is full of poison gas and radiation. There is no way to go outside without a protective suit. You do not know the way to the underground city, and it is not easy to get in without a pass. Besides, the Fringe Star has a lot of scumbags, and they might give you trouble if they see you are an Omega. In short, do not go out alone. Remember to bring me along if you go out.”
On the second day after Bai Jinqiu woke up, Rong Zhiting had already told him the basic situation of Fringe Star EQ952B3, including the reason why they currently lived on the surface instead of going to the underground city.
This building had been reinforced by Rong Zhiting with radiation-insulating materials and given several layers of sealing coating, while the air purifier inside ran twenty-four hours a day to ensure the house remained habitable.
He was afraid that if he did not explain, Bai Jinqiu might leave the room and get into trouble without understanding the situation.
Bai Jinqiu did not say anything, only smiling at him as usual, saying he understood and telling him not to worry.
Rong Zhiting went out with a heavy heart.
Ever since Bai Jinqiu woke up, he had been going out even more frequently than before.
Resources were scarce on the Fringe Star, and many common medicines could not be bought. Those high-grade healing potions and treatment devices he used for his Brother Bai were purchased at a steep price with expedited shipping from the black market, eating up the majority of his savings. To keep buying the potions needed to improve physical fitness, he had to hurry up and save more stellar coins.
However, he temporarily gave up on scavenging in the battlefield ruins because, although the yields were high, the harvests were unstable.
Whenever he took a mecha out in the past, he would return only after completely filling his spatial node. With good luck, he could reap a bountiful harvest in a dozen hours, but with bad luck, it would take three or four days to gather enough materials to satisfy him. This was already the result of the energy detector he added to 6991, which had greatly improved his efficiency.
Now, to make sure he could come home every day, he mostly took on jobs at the mecha shop, modifying several mechas in a row and making the mecha shop owner ecstatic.
Most of the mechas on the Fringe Star were older models long since eliminated by the Federation military, operated entirely manually. Although the mechanical structures inside were complex, they were not complex to the exaggerated degree of new-model mechas.
The newest mechas nowadays all featured dual driving systems, where the new driving systems directly interfaced with neurons, allowing pilots to control mechas via mental power. This saved the pilot’s reaction time for manual operation, raised the mecha’s sensitivity by several tiers, and made the structure dozens of times more complicated than the original old models, requiring maintenance technicians to possess extremely rich knowledge reserves and repair experience just to service and modify them.
Having served as the exclusive maintenance technician for the Federation’s top super-S-rank mecha for many years and grown accustomed to the extremely precise internal systems of Mihuang, Rong Zhiting naturally handled the repairs and modifications of traditional old-school mechas with ease, working with terrifying efficiency.
Yet spending extended periods at the mecha shop inevitably brought him trouble.
The reason the Fringe Star’s mecha shop was located in the black market was because its primary clientele consisted of unsavory characters. Therefore, when a tall, muscular Alpha with a fierce expression walked in with several companions and explicitly named him, Rong Zhiting only narrowed his eyes slightly, sighed inwardly with resignation, and did not panic too much.
After Rong Zhiting left, Bai Jinqiu twirled the spatial node containing Mihuang, lost in thought.
This spatial node was given to him proactively by Rong Zhiting.
According to Rong Zhiting’s explanation, he frequently needed to go out, and carrying around such an unusable high-grade mecha was useless. If he accidentally lost the spatial node, it would spell disaster, so it was better to leave it in the hands of its owner.
Such a gesture undoubtedly showed an intent to prove he harbored no ulterior motives.
Based on Bai Jinqiu’s observations over this period, he found no sign that Rong Zhiting had any designs on him. Saving him seemed purely driven by goodwill. Furthermore, he could tell that Rong Zhiting held a strong fondness for him. He had to admit that he did not find this annoying; on the contrary, he thought this kid was rather endearing.
Rong Zhiting showed zero defense against him, answering whatever was asked during their chats without prying into his background, showing immense consideration.
Bai Jinqiu was permitted to use anything in the room. Once he was able to get out of bed and walk around, he thoroughly inspected the house.
This abandoned apartment building seemed to have been an apartment complex in the past, with individual single rooms inside. Rong Zhiting had knocked down the wall between two relatively well-preserved rooms to use as his residence.
One of the rooms was his current bedroom, which showed clear traces of long-term habitation. In the corner sat numerous nutrient solutions and drinking water bought from the underground city, directly serving as food. The other room was a workshop packed with various mechanical parts, along with some assembly equipment used to train physical fitness. And there was also the short dagger used for self-defense and an old-fashioned gunpowder firearm with plenty of history that Rong Zhiting had shown him.
To be honest, that kind of firearm had exited the stage of history centuries ago, and even someone as familiar with various firearms and weapons as him rarely saw them. Still, this Fringe Star contained many old items discarded by the outside world centuries ago, so the appearance of such an antique was not strange.
Neither room harbored any secrets, further lowering Bai Jinqiu’s already sparse guard towards Rong Zhiting.
The surface urban ruins where this place was located could not even be described as sparsely populated; normal people simply never came here. Even if his enemies wanted to hunt him down, it was impossible to thoroughly search the urban ruins of the entire planet on a massive scale.
He was safe staying here, so until his injuries recovered to the point where they no longer hindered movement, he temporarily had no plans to leave or make any risky moves. As Rong Zhiting had said, the risk was too high and the gains did not outweigh the losses.
His primary problem right now was his inability to communicate with the outside world.
He had lost his memories of the previous mission, his personal communicator had been destroyed, and the place where he currently stayed lacked any means of contacting the outside world.
Just how backward was Fringe Star EQ952B3?
In this era of personal optical computers, this planet did not even lay down a private star-net accessible for individuals, relying only on a local area network restricted to the interior of the planet. The only three places across the entire planet capable of connecting to the star-net and communicating with the outside world were the spaceport, the stellar government agency, and the garrison base. Oh, and perhaps the black market.
Yet those places were clearly beyond his reach given his current physical condition.
Therefore, the only thing he could do now was focus on healing his injuries so he could make plans for the next step.
Black market, inside the mecha shop warehouse.
“He is that mecha repair technician?” asked the ill-intentioned, tall Alpha to the mecha shop owner.
The mecha shop owner wore an unsightly expression, looking at Rong Zhiting with deep pity, but clearly not daring to offend the Alpha, so he nodded reluctantly.
The Alpha then raised his chin toward Rong Zhiting. The people he brought with him moved closer to Rong Zhiting in a surrounding formation, and one of them locked the exit door shut.
“Come with us for a trip,” the Alpha said. “Our boss is inviting you to make friends.”
Rong Zhiting quickly assessed the situation, sweeping his peripheral vision across the layout of the warehouse, and said:
“My friend, this is not much of a sincerity when inviting people.” The inorganic mechanical voice echoed through the warehouse, cold and hoarse.
“You really think we are here to invite you?” The Alpha laughed, seemingly finding his phrasing quite amusing, and said sarcastically, “Friend, if you know what is good for you, honestly come with us, and we will not treat you poorly. If you refuse to cooperate, my brothers will only have to resort to some violent methods. Do not blame us if you get hurt.”
“Kidnapping people in broad daylight on Brother Liu’s turf, breaking the rules. Do you fellows not want to do business in the black market anymore?” Rong Zhiting said while slowly moving closer toward a fully modified mecha in the back.
“Ha, you are not a person of the black market, so grabbing you does not break the rules,” the Alpha sneered. “Besides, how can you call this grabbing? We are here to invite you to cooperate, right boss?” He turned to look at the mecha shop owner.
What could the mecha shop owner say? He could only stiffly echo with a word of advice:
“You had better not go against them. Just go with them, and you will suffer fewer hardships.”
Before his voice fell, Rong Zhiting had already leaped onto the mecha without even using a ladder, stepping on several footholds ordinary people would never think of, and quickly entered the mecha’s cockpit.
“Damn it, everyone gets on the mechas! Do not let him escape!” The Alpha clearly did not expect a repair technician’s movements to be so agile, roaring at the people he brought before releasing his own mecha from his spatial node.
Rong Zhiting’s mecha started up a step ahead, charging toward the location of the warehouse’s back door and mecha passage.
Inside the cockpit, his expression was extremely tense.
Judging from the mecha shop owner’s reaction and the behavior style of these people, these individuals were very likely space pirates.
He only had a tiny window of time advantage. The opponent’s mecha was certainly loaded with weapons, while this mecha of his did not even possess a shield. Once he was surrounded or hit, it would be over.
The black mecha forcefully smashed open the warehouse back door and rushed into the mecha passage.
The several heavily armed mechas behind followed closely.
Next came the ultimate test of piloting skills.