Chapter 102: Red Rock Base

The Lunar Eclipse was now inside the Mammoth-class industrial ship’s cargo hold. Xia Fei stretched his body as he stepped off his ship. This was his first time stepping out of the ship over the past twenty-odd days. Phantom was right; being stuck in the ship for a long time was really quite boring.

Xia Fei lit a cigarette as he walked toward the control deck of the industrial ship.

The woman with the wheat-colored skin was sitting on the captain’s seat with gum in her mouth. She was shaking her leg in her seat as she looked at Xia Fei.

She was dressed extremely plainly. The color on her work uniform was completely washed out. She also had a pair of mismatched men’s leather boots. The boots were big for her feet; one of them was black and the other was brown. Moreover, one was a size larger than the other. Also, Xia Fei could not really tell whether she had long or short hair underneath that red cap.

He smiled and reached his hand out for a handshake. “Xia Fei.”

The woman did not shake his hand; instead, she slapped his open palm and said casually, “Sarah, you brought the payment?”

Xia Fei felt that Sarah’s hand had many calluses for it was rough and firm. It was a hand that should belong to a man who had been doing manual labor for a long time, not a young woman in her late teens.

Xia Fei produced an auto-crisper with a swipe of his ring, counting one hundred each of White Dews and Snake Eye Berries for Sarah.

Sarah put the fruits in a cardboard box that previously-stored cans before quickly double-checking to make sure everything added up. She then let out a satisfied smile.

“Seeing how straightforward you are, I’ll give you a piece of advice for free.” Sarah shook the box. “Don’t bring out your valuables when there are others around no matter who they are. Also, your spatial ring is incredibly eye-catching; I recommend that you keep it in your pants. It’s the Wild Star Region, after all. If you want to survive longer, follow my advice.”

Sarah was different from all the other girls Xia Fei had previously met. If Avril was a spoiled, domestic cat, Sarah was a feral cat that did not have a hint of domestication.

Sarah got up, dragging her heavy boots to bring out a dirty-old work attire, tossing it to Xia Fei. “Change into that. You don’t look like someone from the Wild Star Region right now.”

Xia Fei did not really care what he wore. What he currently had on was an old set of Li-Ning sportswear that he had bought a few years back. Xia Fei was taller now compared to before, so he had outgrown most of his clothes. There was even a small hole on his right sleeve from a cigarette burn.

As it was never good to change in front of a lady, Xia Fei walked out of the room with the clothes in hand.

“Are you embarrassed?” asked Sarah mockingly.

Xia Fei stopped in his tracks, turning around and saying to Sarah with a smile on his face, “Old men like me don’t get embarrassed; I’m just afraid you are.”

Xia Fei then started changing under the watchful eyes of Sarah. He looked quite inelegant, but Sarah did not seem to mind as she stared at him with an arm under her chin.

“Are you down for some business?” asked Sarah.

“What business?” Xia Fei asked back with furrowed brows. He realized that the uniform provided by Sarah had quite a few problems. Xia Fei did not care that it was riddled with holes or covered in grease; he could take the sour smell of sweat, too. It was just that the uniform did not fit him.

The sleeves went past Xia Fei’s hands, reaching to his knees; the pants still covered his boots after rolling it up three times. Xia Fei thought that it must have required someone two meters tall at two hundred kilograms to fit this set of clothes.

As Xia Fei was a speed ability user, the bulky set of clothes would cause some unnecessary obstacles when he accelerated.

Sarah brought out a flat candy box from the front pocket of her overalls, clattering as she shook it.

She then took out some Heart of Spirit. The small ones were as big as green beans, whereas the larger ones were about the size of soybeans. “This is the currency of the Wild Star Region,” she said, “The small ones are one dollar, the large ones are ten. I’ll give you twenty-seven dollars for eighty-one Snake Eye Berries; how does that sound?”

Xia Fei was shocked; one dollar for three fruits? That seemed quite alright. The fist-sized Heart of Spirit cost around two hundred million star coins and Snake Eye Berries only cost thirty thousand each; what a great deal.

“No, I’m good.” Xia Fei shook his head.

Although it was a decent price, he could tell from Sarah’s expression that she was taking advantage of him. It seemed that this wild cat had not learned how to hide her intentions.

“Stingy,” complained Sarah as she put away the box.

Xia Fei felt terrible in this baggy set of clothes as he walked around in the command deck.

“Not bad, you look a bit like someone from the Wild Star Region now. If someone asks, you’re Old Allen’s nephew from a distant place.”

After explaining to Xia Fei, the Mammoth-class ship was almost done charging. The old, worndown industry ship arrived at a deserted area.

Standing at the window and looking out revealed the yellow asteroid belt. It was arranged in a ring, enveloping the entire area.

The ship slowly approached a huge asteroid. From the outside, this reddish-brown asteroid looked no different from any other space rocks. The surface looked incredibly dark and void of any life.

After confirmation, a door opened in the asteroid. Only then did Xia Fei realize that there was something in the asteroid. The hollow rock had many docks, with many ships of different shapes and sizes.

The industrial ship stopped on a platform deep into the asteroid. As there was a forcefield around the asteroid’s exterior, the air in the base would not leak out; meaning, there was no need for complicated air-conditioning.

After stopping the industrial ship, Sarah led Xia Fei out of it.

“Hey, Sarah; where did you seduce that handsome man?” asked a man with a huge beard. He looked quite horrifying as half of his face seemed to have melted.

“Real funny.” Sarah viciously kicked the bearded man on the butt before spitting at him. “This is Allen’s nephew. He’s here from another base.”

The bearded man let out a hearty laugh, seemingly not minding Sarah’s kick at all. He then walked over and grabbed Xia Fei on the shoulder. “Where are you from? Do you need me to introduce you to a few big booty babes?”

“Go to hell!” Sarah pushed the bearded man aside and dragged Xia Fei toward a dock.

Xia Fei had seen slums before, but Red Rock Base was worse than any slum. There were drunks lying down in the middle of the road with horrible houses on either side. There was a group of hens and a massive black pig walking around the streets that were not afraid of humans of the ilk at all.

There were ones who were fighting, singing, begging… There was also a big, fat naked man walking abreast with a black insectoid as they sang together. Both had a bottle in their hands and swayed left and right as they walked. Obviously, they were intoxicated.

Although the war between the humans and the insectoids had ended ages ago, both sides had been quite tense and far from peaceful.

Here, however, both species lived together in harmony. There were quite a few female insectoids wearing strange trinkets, trying to attract customers. Xia Fei broke into cold sweats and got quite nervous when he drew the attention of a fat, green female insectoid.

After navigating the messy streets, Sarah and Xia arrived at a residential area. The houses were all shacks that looked to be poorly built and might fall in a gust of wind. Luckily for them, there was no wind inside of an asteroid.

Sarah’s residence, on the other hand, looked quite nice compared to the others in the area. It had a small yard of ten or so square meters, as well as three houses made of welded metal. There were three rows of hydroponic troughs which had some sprouting vegetables.

As there were no plots of land here, all the plants had to be grown via hydroponics.

“Old man, he’s here!” yelled Sarah as she entered the house with a kick.

Xia Fei followed her into one of the houses. There was a metal bowl on top of an old wooden table inside, which contained some things that looked like food. There was also an uneven sofa covered in grease.

Not bothering to wash her hands, Sarah grabbed a few white pieces, which looked to be covered in flour, and stuffed them into her mouth. She appeared to be enjoying her food, too.

She looked back at Xia Fei before grabbing another handful and passed it to him. “Here. Free of charge.”

It looked like some sort of plant that was covered in flour. It was quite light on the nose but still smelled tasty. Xia Fei put a piece into his mouth. “Hmm, not bad. What is this?”

Sarah smirked. “Pudding. Made from algae from the sewers, then steamed after being covered in flour.”

“Oh.” Xia Fei nodded before eating another piece, taking in the taste this time. “I have to say, I’d rate the taste of the steamed algae from the sewers an eight out of ten.”

Sarah laughed. “You sure are something. Last time, a wanted smuggler from the human alliance came here, and he vomited right after hearing that this pudding was from the sewers.”

Xia did not say anything as he quietly ate this unknown plant before brushing the flour off his hands. He then sat on the sofa and lit a cigarette.

This was when Allen hunched out of a room. “Since when did the Azure Weed become something grown in the sewers.”

Sarah pulled a wry face at Allen before walking into her room. “I’m taking a nap; let me know when it’s time to eat.”

Allen then sat down on the slanted sofa, shaking his head. “Sarah’s good at many things; she’s just too unrestrained.”

Xia Fei smiled, holding back any comments he had. She just had her personality, and there was nothing wrong with that.

After a few moments, Xia Fei went straight to the point. “Allen, where can I buy parts? My ship needs fixing.”