Star Rank Hunter

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

Translator's Notes: Someone needs to draw Cillin sitting on a cross at dawn.

Chapter 129: Lieutenant Commander?

Emmus and Wa Qing walked towards him.

He was still the same brown-haired, honest-looking young man wearing the same smile as before, but Wa Qing’s feelings towards Cillin now were definitively different.

Both Emmus and Wa Qing felt a chill in their hearts at the same time when they faced the current Cillin.

In just twenty or so hours, one hundred thousand people were completely annihilated, but the person who caused all this was still wearing his usual expression and reading his poem leisurely in this very unusual morning. It was as if the ruins and corpses beneath his feet were just part of the background.

Wa Qing swallowed once and asked carefully, “Cillin, about Poison Fang…”

“They’re dead, I suppose.”

They’re dead… they’re all dead?

Wa Qing opened his mouth, but wasn’t sure what to say. Should he be thankful that the Sixth B Squadron had discovered such a talent?

“LC Akayi and the others had gotten on a ship and left earlier, but how they’re doing right now, I can’t say. The commander would send a starship over soon, although I don’t know when he would arrive. It shouldn’t take too long though.” Cillin said.

“Is that Carranio?” Emmus pointed at the skeleton on top of the emblem pile.

“Yes.” Cillin nodded.

Emmus and Wa Qing both examined the skeleton in surprise. Emmus clicked his tongue in wonderment, “So Carranio had never revealed his true face until now.”

Although Carranio’s skeleton was the only thing that was left, he was able to distinguish just how different Carranio was from the shape alone.

“Hey, can I collect some data from this?” Emmus asked Cillin. Right now, Emmus was obviously more afraid of Cillin than anything else, and Carranio could be considered to be Cillin’s prey. It was only right to ask the hunter’s permission before researching his prey, right?

“Why not. Give me your price.”

G… give him a price?

It took Emmus a long while before he came to realisation and smiled, “Naturally, the price is yours to offer. The prey is yours after all.”

The inert materials Cillin used to build the flying knives to set up Carranio were very expensive, and the corrosive liquid, neurotoxin and other substances all cost some amount of manufacturing expenses as well. Therefore, Cillin had created a list before he even made these items in the first place. After all, he couldn’t do this at a loss, could he? Mm, he should add labor cost to the list as well.

Cillin stretched out a finger firmly, “Ten million.”

Ten million?!

The words nearly escaped Wa Qing’s mouth. Carranio’s head might be priceless, but all Emmus wanted to do was just to collect some data from this skeleton. And he was going to ask for ten million?

Emmus stared at Cillin’s eyes for a while and understood that the kid wasn’t joking.

“Alright, but I don’t have so much money with me right now.”

“No problem.” Cillin took out Vanguard’s dedicated bill and began writing on it religiously. Then he handed the bill to Emmus and said, “Have a look and see if everything is proper. If there are no problems, then please sign your name here.”

The corner of Emmus’ eyes twitched as he stared at the bill on his hand. He sighed in his heart. God knows where Vanguard’s Sixth B Squadron managed to find such a monster.

After Emmus had signed the bill, he knelt on the ground and began inspecting the data gathered on the skeleton. After the inspection, Emmus felt a lot better on the inside. It would seem that the data he got was worth ten million credits after all. While it would've been nice if he could have collected data on the skin and flesh as well, unfortunately all that’s left of Carranio was a skeleton alone. It was truly unimaginable that that arrogant and tyrannical would fall to such a sorry state.

However, when Emmus was collecting his data, he sensed that someone was watching him all the time. At first he thought that it was Cillin or Wa Qing, but he changed his mind soon after. When Emmus turned his head, he immediately saw the gray cat crouching on Cillin’s shoulders and staring at him with its round eyes. The gaze it wore was one that was usually reserved for a thief.

Thief?

Emmus was bewildered. You’re a cat. What the meow are you staring at me for?!

Although Carranio never told Emmus that the gray cat could find energy ores, Emmus had his own network to tap to know such things. Therefore, he knew that this was probably the cat that could find energy ores and speak like a human being. He was surprised that Cillin would bring it to this dangerous place though. Wasn’t he afraid that this cat would go on a one-way journey to death?

The one man and one cat met each other’s gazes. The gray cat was now employing a tactic of inactivity versus whatever the enemy was doing or not doing. Since it learned that Emmus belonged to the military, the gray cat had become a lot more careful and did not treat him as casually as the other Hunters.

Seeing that the gray cat was reactionless, Emmus did not say anything and turned his head back to collect his data. However…

“Cillin, he’s cheating!” The gray cat suddenly cried out. Its round eyes stared straight at Emmus with full anger.

Emmus spread out his arms helplessly and said, “And how exactly am I cheating?” Although he knew that the gray cat could speak, he was still caught by surprise by its sudden exclamation.

The duo in conversation, Cillin and Wa Qing had also turned around to look at Emmus. If their expressions were to be converted into words, it would say: Hey kid, how dare you try to trick us right beneath our noses? Do you want to join Carranio that much?

Emmus was going to say something more when the gray cat pointed its paw at him.

“He’s scraping the… mm…” The gray cat wasn’t sure how to describe it.

“You mean sampling.” Cillin understood its meaning implicitly and followed up.

“That’s right, sampling! He must pay more if he wants to collect samples!”

Emmus’s face froze. How on earth was he going to collect more accurate data if he didn’t collect samples?!

Cillin glanced at Emmus once before pulling out yet another bill calmly, “Give me your price.”

Wa Qing, Emmus: “...”

Emmus felt like saying: I quit!

But he had already signed ten million for this shit. If he gave up now then wouldn’t it all be wasted?

And so, Emmus signed yet another one million bill.

“Don’t give me that bitter look. I know that you can report these expenses to your higher-ups. It’s not like I’m taking the money out of your personal bank account.” Cillin said while staring at Emmus’ abused expression. Then he passed over another two bills.

When he saw the number on these bills, Emmus’ eyes went black for a second before he pointed a trembling finger at Cillin, “This… this is too far! Carranio’s bones aren’t worth this much at all!”

Both bills were written with a ten million credits charge each.

“Since when did I tell you that these two bills are related to Carranio?” Cillin stared at Emmus, “You’ve collected the worms too, haven’t you?”

Emmus froze. He didn’t think that Cillin would find out about this. It was true that he had secretly collected specimens of those two worms without being caught by Wa Qing. Still, based on his own personal evaluation, getting the two worms for ten million each was cheap.

And so, Wa Qing watched Emmus signed yet another twenty million dollar bill to Cillin. Wa Qing roared inside his heart: A genius has appeared in Vanguard Sixth B Squadron!

Five hours later, a Sixth B Squadron starship led by Shawton personally arrived outside the planet. They had come searching by tracking the delayed signal left behind by the gray cat for them. Although a delayed signal was of course, delayed, its advantage lay on its invisibility. It could elude Poison Fang’s signal tracking.

Along the way, they ran into the spaceplane carrying Akayi and the others. Only three of the passengers were put in ICU, and the rest were being rested in normal sick wards. This outcome allowed Shawton to breathe a sigh of relief.

At first, they did not hold much hope for Cillin’s operation. Cary, Xiao Shang and everyone had even gotten themselves ready for a hard battle. But no one had expected that things would turn out like this.

When they arrived outside the planet, they saw bits and fragments floating in space.

While people were dying by the droves at the cross field, the Poison Fang members stationed on the starships outside the planet had attempted to escape. Therefore, Carranio pressed a button on his controller that controlled the bombs installed onto the starships. From that point onwards his underlings only had two choices to choose from: They either fight to the death, or they let themselves be killed by the bombs.

Cary and everyone stared blankly at the scraps floating outside the planet. At the same time, the signal receiver received a transmission and converted it into a message displayed on the large screen.

Cillin told them to stay clear of the planet and to send over a manless spaceplane only. He forbad anyone in the Sixth B Squadron to come near.

Although Shawton did not quite understand Cillin’s instructions, he did as he said.

When the spaceplane had returned, Cary gave Cillin a hard punch after seeing that he was fine. He had been holding this grudge ever since Cillin had gone on the operation on his own.

“You’re not allowed to do this next time! Even if you have to, you must bring us with you!”

“Yeah, take me and Ba Dao as well.” Xiao Shang patted Cillin’s shoulders and said.

“Hey, who’s that guy?” Cary pointed at the meeting room’s door with his chin.

They had seen the stranger who came aboard the ship together with Cillin and Wa Qing earlier. Cary was going to go forward and check the stranger out himself, but Shawton had pulled that man into the meeting room for a secret discussion before he had the chance do so.

“Oh, that guy. He’s the enemy of our enemy.” Cillin did not utter Emmus’ name, because ‘Emmus’ was most definitely a fake name. As for Emmus’ real name in the army, he would probably not inform them.

The Sixth B Squadron did not know exactly how Cillin had caused the utter annihilation of Poison Fang, but one thing was certain: they were all beginning to feel fear towards Cillin. Be it a normal person or the lieutenant commanders themselves, they all spoke carefully when they were in Cillin’s presence.

Cillin had scored a great merit this time. He saved the hostages, recovered the energy ores and even destroyed Poison Fang. Even if Vanguard’s A Squadron had been here, they might not have performed as efficiently as Cillin.

Meanwhile, Cillin also told Akayi, Wa Qing and everyone that without the gray cat, he would only have been able to destroy Poison Fang but not save the hostages. Therefore, it was all thanks to the gray cat that Akayi, Wa Qing and the others were still alive. As a result, the gray cat’s status in the team had skyrocketed, and every time Wa Qing and Akayi ran into it they would smile about as kindly as you could imagine. This also caused the gray cat to be doted on to the point where its status in Sixth B Squadron had even exceeded the LCs.

Shawton did not ask too many questions about Cillin’s actions on the planet. Cillin said that the planet should be listed as a forbidden area for the next hundred years, and Shawton agreed with him definitively. He ordered that no one in the Sixth B Squadron should set foot on that planet for the next one hundred years, and at the same time he also notified Barthus and Songba Leruo about the order as well.

Wa Qing and Emmus did not object to the decision to blacklist that planet either. They knew that the reason the worms hadn’t attacked them must have been due to Cillin. If Cillin hadn’t left behind some kind of medication or insurance on them, they might have turned into a pile of white bones a long time ago.

After the crowd had returned to the main ship of the Sixth B Squadron, Cillin was called over by Dias before he managed to rest.

“Lieutenant?!” Cillin stared at the smiling Dias on the sick bed. This fellow was looking a lot better right now.

“Nuh uh.” Cillin shook his head and tried to walk out of the room. He had been overusing his brain all this time and was feeling sleepy as fuck.

However, the door had been shut tight, and pressing the lock mechanism yielded no results.

Cillin turned around to look at the one-armed Dias and said, “I’m sorry, uncle, but are you trying to force yourself on me in that condition?”