Star Rank Hunter

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

Translator's Notes: The previous chapter is shorter because I find that breaking it off there is better for coherence. Overall, the chapter length is more or less the same as the current double length chapters, so this Part 2 will be long. Also, since it's 4th of July meme gets hijacked for a day.

P.S. support Patreon -> support high tier -> read early chapters! (mandatory sellout since we literally just talked about it yesterday :P)

Chapter 161: Sector S, Joint Mission With Lung [Part 2]

Vanguard’s base was on a planet called Planet K-J100. One only needed to look at its code to know its importance, and as Vanguard’s base the planet was also called Planet Vanguard.

In reality, the entire J-District of Sector K was the Vanguard’s domain, and Planet Vanguard K-J100 was set as the heart of the district.

After the starship arrived at the space station outside Planet K-J100, the people would take different spaceplanes to head to different locations on the planet.

The majority of the area on Planet K-J100 belonged to the A Squad. The people of B Squadron were not allowed to enter this area unless they had been given permission or notified. The areas beyond this area belonged to the B Squadron, and every B Squadron was allowed to operate freely within their own areas.

Cillin was going to to take the spaceplane to the Sixth B Squadron together with Tang Qiuqiu and the others. However, they were stopped the second they stepped off the starship. There were people sent by the A Squad to receive Cillin and the gray cat. Perhaps the higher-ups had briefed them beforehand, but their attitude towards Cillin could be considered okay. At the very least, they did not look at him with contempt or attempt to provoke him. Instead, they were looking at him curiously.

Left without a choice, Cillin could only request Tang Qiuqiu to lead Udoze and Rikulab to the Sixth B Squadron. After all, Tang Qiuqiu was the only out of the trio who had a badge. Sometimes a badge was also a very effective passage permit or the two ‘permitless’ people, Rikulab and Udoze, would have been thrown into prison before they could explain anything and would be served with cruel punishments at this Vanguard base.

Cillin followed the people, rode a spaceplane and descended at the mouth of a roadway belonging to the A Squad. The second he got off the spaceplane, he immediately saw Shawton waiting for him. There wasn’t much joy on his face, and his eyes were even filled with worry when he looked at Cillin.

“Commander.” Cillin raised a hand and greeted.

Shawton smiled and said, “I heard you found two very good recruits for the squad. Good work. You work pretty efficiently.

The people who escorted Cillin here bid him goodbye before another group of people replaced them. They led Cillin and Shawton up towards a modified flying car, and then headed towards a particular building. Shawton said that it was a slightly special building used for discussing matters. Even those in the A Squad could not enter without a certain level of qualification.

Cillin’s mouth twitched on the inside. I guess I have to thank them for treating me this highly.

When they were walking into the building, Shawton sighed and said in a soft tone, “Don’t accept this mission if you do not want to.”

“I know.” Cillin motioned for Shawton not to worry.

When they arrived in front of a meeting room, Shawton was blocked from entry. Cillin and the gray cat were the only ones who could enter. Shawton told him that he would be waiting at the lounge around the corner.

Cillin nodded. The door automatically opened when he walked up to it. Cillin lifted his foot and walked in.

Shawton experienced mixed feelings when he saw the shut meeting room door. It took much hardships before the Sixth B Squadron had finally found such a great talent and an opportunity to develop itself. He really did not wish to see any mishaps befell upon their talents, and Cillin especially so. Dias once said that Cillin would lead the Sixth B Squadron to a new, glorious height. That was why Shawton had figured that it might be a mission related to that place even if he did not have full understanding of the matter.

The problem was, that was no place for a LC of a small B Squad to be at at all!

Their eyelids twitched the second Cillin and the gray cat walked into the meeting room.

Why is this fool here?!

Standing on top of Cillin’s shoulder, the gray cat stared at the tidily dressed fellow drinking tea with a serious face while putting on the airs of a gentleman that was not without unyielding sharpness with an open mouth. It severely doubted that the gangster-like dude it met earlier was this person’s twin brother.

Upon seeing Cillin’s entry, young master Lung nodded with a smile that was just perfect with a straight face. Both Cillin and the gray cat could feel their hair standing on its end.

He’s gone crazy, he's totally gone crazy…

There were a few other people they did not recognise sitting beside the table of the meeting room. However, judging from their badges he knew that these people had a lot of say within the A Squad.

“Cillin and Wheeze, right? Take a seat. No need to be nervous.” one of them let out a friendly smile and pointed at an empty chair.

Mm, this time the chair wasn’t tampered with like the time he met Barthus and Songba Leruo. Well, he should’ve known that not everyone in the A Squad was so idle that they would use a junior’s performance to make a bet at any time like Barthus.

Neither Cillin nor the gray cat were people who would get nervous. After giving his Hunter seniors a salute, he calmly walked over, pulled a chair and sat down. Meanwhile, the gray cat jumped up the table, sniffed at the tea in front of Cillin before licking it with its tongue. After pondering over it for a bit and finding its taste to be pretty good, it ignored the surrounding people directly and licked the cup of tea to the bottom. Once it was done, it raised its head and looked at its surroundings, “Is there more? I didn’t get a chance to drink any water while we were on the way.”

The Vanguard’s people smiled and requested someone to refill its cup. Then, they took out another cup and put the entire tea pot right beside it. Judging from their expressions, they fancied the gray cat far more than they fancied Cillin. Cillin didn’t mind this, however. The more they fancied the gray cat, the more its safety could be guaranteed. At the very least, Vanguard would put on a hard-line attitude when faced up against the military or some crazy research organisation. After all, Cillin’s current abilities could only bring him so far, and he could not influence the entire Vanguard Hunter regiment at all. He could not even acquire certain information he needed.

Sigh, he had a heavy burden and a long road ahead of him.

Young master Lung had not spoken up all this time. He kept twirling the cup in his hands and playing at being deep and mysterious.

After the leading person in charge on Vanguard’s side briefly spoke, he then passed an electronic notebook to Cillin. The rough introduction and description of the relevant mission were all listed on top of it.

Cillin accepted the electronic minute book and began swiftly swiping through the pages with his finger with great speed. The speed at which he was swiping through the pages surprised the people present. They did not think that this kid actually did have some abilities of his own.

What they did not know was that Cillin had purposely lowered his reading speed. Otherwise, if he were to give it his all, the shock might jolt off their front teeth.

When he saw the phrase ‘Sector S’ on the electronic minute book, Cillin immediately recalled the things Enji mentioned in his diary.

Yes, it had been fifty years.

Sector S was the prison sector that made everyone’s faces pale upon talking about it. All infamous criminals of the galaxy were imprisoned there, and many of these criminals were figures who had a good time for a while at a certain sector. Since Sector S was the byword for prison and criminal, it was also regarded as the darkest place in GAL.

Sector S wasn’t big, and it had very few habitable planets. However, every planet in Sector S was like a hell of its own. Some people said that the place was constantly engulfed in ghoulish screams and filled with countless vengeful ghosts and evil spirits.

Among the prisoners who were locked up in Sector S, there were Hunters, traders, and key participants of governments and the military. The army stationed at Sector S was in fact a different kind of army, and thus the GAL military’s influence over them was much smaller than other places.

Cillin remembered that Knight once told him that these people could not even be considered servicemen. The reason why so many innocents died in the prison was because the people stationed at the prison planet or the prison guards who had attacked them directly.

Unfeeling, numb, and slaughterers. These were words used all too often to describe the people who guarded this prison.

The reason why some people of great forces, great business groups, great families, influential politicians and big shots in the army could survive despite being sentenced to imprisonment in Sector S was because they all had some measure of influence in Sector S. One of the major reasons why Sector S was called special was due to its level of complexity.

Once, there was someone who said that they saw a person who was sentenced to jail several dozens of years ago actually become a prison guard after their sentence had ended. There were also such people among the army that was garrisoned there.

Every force kept an eye over their own people in the prison. It was common to suppress another force, or even scheme against and assassinate another person.

Everyone in that place was strong, veterans on the battlefield, and wielded his own respective abilities. Only death awaited the weak who entered that place. It was no wonder Shawton would worry, since Shawton himself had no guarantee that he could preserve his own safety in that kind of a place.

However, when Cillin had finished reading through the data, he was surprised to find that the mission had been suggested by the Andrea Family. Moreover, they had specifically picked out Cillin and the gray cat to accept this mission. If Cillin agreed, then the transaction was complete. If he turned it down, then Andrea would not seek out others among Vanguard either.

The fifty years of prison term was about to come to an end. It was about time the members of Vanguard imprisoned inside Sector S were freed, weren’t they? The A Squad had probably made up their minds already, but the ones to head there would most definitely be elites and not Cillin.

It was not unexpected. Of course the Vanguard members who were imprisoned at Sector S would order the A Squad to send out the elites they had great confidence in to receive them, and not someone like Cillin whom in their eyes was still a soft shoot. Their confidence in Cillin’s ability was still at the doubtful level, and this matter was of the utmost importance. It was highly unlikely they would allow a new command to follow them.

The A Squad had a different opinion about the matter with the Andrea Family. While they would not pass their own squad’s mission to Cillin, Cillin could accept a mission issued on someone else’s behalf. There were both advantages and disadvantages. However, since Cillin didn’t rank high in Vanguard yet there weren’t many people who objected to this appointment. They could also use this opportunity to see just how capable the person both Barthus and Songba Leruo had recommended together was.

When Cillin returned the electronic minute book back to the other party, he did not agree to the mission immediately. Instead he said, “About this mission, I would like to talk with the Andrea Family in private before deciding whether I will accept this mission or not.”

The person in charge on the Vanguard’s side did not object to this request. There was a small meeting room connected to this big meeting room that was specifically prepared for those people who needed to have a separate discussion.

Seeing Lung’s nod, Vanguard’s person in charge pressed a button, and a small door appeared on a wall that looked almost identical to its surroundings. Both Cillin and Lung entered inside the room. There were a few other people on the Andrea’s side who wanted to follow Lung into the room, but were stopped by him. Among them was Berzett. But although he did not go in, Berzett shot Lung a glance before the door was closed: Don’t act too undisciplined, and watch out your own image.

Lung pretended not to see it at all.

The second the door was closed Lung immediately revealed his true form, kicking his shoes aside and tossing his jacket away while half laying on top of his chair panting like he ran a marathon, “I’m so tired I could die! Look, my toes are about to blister. Slippers are still the best…”

Lung did not talk business from the start. Rather, he complained and vented his full stomach of grievance for a dozen or so minutes while showing no signs of ending. Cillin threw him a kick, “Get to the point already!”

Lung scratched his head, “Didn’t we talk about the point outside already?”

Like hell you did!

“Alright alright, ask me whatever you want.” Lung crossed his legs and sat very vulgarly on the chair.

“Is someone in your family imprisoned there as well?” Cillin asked.

“Yeah. He’s a senior who was put into the slammer fifty years ago. Your high and mighty young master volunteered himself to rescue him so that he wouldn’t get killed right after he got out of prison before he left the Sector.”

“It’s fifty years ago, huh.” Cillin frowned. Just how big was that incident from fifty years ago that it involved so many people!

While rubbing the sole of his foot, Lung cast a glance at Cillin before saying, “The mess from fifty years ago was too big and involved too many people. The four great Hunter regiments, some giant business families, the military and some politicians etc. were dragged into it.” after a pause, Lung continued, “Didn’t you realise that your life as a Hunter up till now had been relatively peaceful? Even that suddenly emerging ‘Poison Fang’ or something that you guys destroyed, and some other fellows who unqualified to show their faces on stage but was arrogant as hell did not cause much of a splash. None of the big forces or even the military took very strong measures against them, because they are just too weak in comparison. That was why they were left around to season things up a bit, not to mention that the strong ones hadn’t made a move yet. Let me give you an example. Did you not realise that you’ve only see three out of the four Hunter regiments until now, and that one remaining Hunter regiment had been keeping a low profile all this time?”