CH 193

Looking at the tablet Dondon had handed me, I noticed numerous blueprints on it. As I swiped through the screen, I saw that each blueprint referred to the restoration status of a different battleship.

"This is a treasure. With this tablet, we will be able to freely pick our battleship," said Zhang Bao'er in excitement.

I handed the tablet to Baron Sisse. After spending a short time with the tablet, a wide smile formed on the baron's face.

"The tablet does not have the exact locations of the battleships. We still need to wake this fellow up and ask him for a way to locate them," said Baron Sisse cautiously.

Old Du checked the time. We still had about 10 more minutes before the repairman woke up. At that point, Wind Spirit became hungry and loudly demanded food. Dondon immediately stood up to prepare some food for her. But just as Dondon walked near the desk near the window, a bullet whistled through the window and struck him, instantly causing him to fall.

"Dondon!" Old Du and Wind Spirit exclaimed in alarm.

"What's going on?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"Stay down, everyone! There seems to be a sniper opposite us. Stay low, don't raise your head," said Baron Sisse.

I lay down and crawled toward the window. I pushed my probe out of a hole to scan the square in detail. The results of the scan shocked all of us. There was a juxi beast constantly scanning for us. It had gathered the information about us before transmitting it back to the Eternal headquarters on Planet Eternal.

In fact, the Eternal soldiers had discovered this plan we thought to be perfect from the moment we started luring the repairman. They even had a juxi beast deployed to pinpoint our location.

A few heavy tanks had already arrived at the square, surrounding the battleship we were hiding in. The air defense drones and the fighter drones we hated most had also appeared in the sky. Unknowingly, we were already fully surrounded by the enemy.

"We were too careless. We shouldn't have been in that much of a rush to act, which caused us to expose ourselves so quickly," I blamed myself.

"Odd. Why are the Eternal soldiers standing so far away? There are so few of us. Shouldn't they attack directly?" asked Zhang Bao'er doubtfully.

I felt odd as well. Why weren't the soldiers attacking with their amassed weaponry?

"He's not dead," said Baron Sisse to Wind Spirit, who was hugging Dondon's head.

Everyone felt much better hearing that Dondon was alive. It would be much better to die together facing an overwhelming force than to die off one after another.

"Canyue, Master, something isn't right," said the baron as he remained on the ground with us.

"Baron, what did you find?" asked Master Crystal.

"There are no visible wounds on Dondon, but he is unconscious. I discovered a mark on his suit with a very low temperature that looks like what a bullet would leave behind after blowing apart," said Baron Sisse.

"A bullet blowing apart?" muttered Master Crystal. "Are you sure Dondon merely fainted?"

"Yes. His breathing is steady. He doesn't look injured. It's more like he's asleep," said the baron confidently.

"Tranquilizing bullet. They must have used an ice tranquilizing bullet. A bullet like this will automatically break apart after reaching its target and will inject the tranquilizer into the target's body, causing the target to lose consciousness. A corresponding antidote is needed to undo the effect," said Master Crystal.

"How are you so sure? Have you seen such bullets before?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"I've heard about it before. During the war on Kadote, the Liyates used a large number of these bullets to capture the Kadotes for free labor. They were able to capture a lot of Kadote slaves as a result. Once one was struck, the corresponding antidote must be administered, or one would remain unconscious forever," said Master Crystal.

"I understand. No wonder they're not attacking despite their overwhelming power. They are trying to capture us alive," I said as understanding dawned on me.

"Yes. There must be a sniper watching us. There won't be many snipers on a repair planet like this. With an interstellar war raging, the actually good snipers must have all been deployed. We need to first take down the snipers they have here," said Baron Sisse.

"Bao'er, tie that fellow up first. We wouldn't want him to create trouble after waking up," I said.

At that time, I saw Baron Sisse raise the repairman’s helmet slightly above the window. Instantly, a bang sounded, and the helmet was struck flying. When Old Du picked up the helmet, the same mark of a destroyed ice bullet could be seen on it.

"With the juxi beast's scanning, our location is fully revealed. There won't be a way for us to hit back," grumbled Zhang Bao'er.

"That shouldn't be the case. We're hiding in a battleship. A battleship should have protections against scans," said Master Crystal.

"If so, why are they aware of our location?" asked Zhang Bao'er doubtfully.

Upon hearing Zhang Bao'er's question, I looked at the big hole in the middle of the room. Looking at the sky where Betelgeuse hung through the hole, a realization dawned on me.

"Let's switch to a better-sealed room. The hole in this room has such a big hole. The juxi beast is likely scanning us through that hole," I said.

Everyone came to the same realization. We started crawling away with our captive in tow and our weapons in hand. We were heading toward the combat room beside the command room. The combat room was still completely intact and filled with small lookout holes. After entering, we felt much safer. Old Du and Anxashe immediately used the lookout holes to observe the situation in the square.

The lookout holes were made of transparent materials, allowing the crew to continue controlling the ship's weaponry with their naked eyes even after the ship's systems were damaged.

"The juxi beast has retreated! The juxi beast has retreated!" Old Du exclaimed in excitement.

"Great. Canyue, you're surprisingly good at analytics!" praised Zhang Bao'er as he patted my shoulder.

"Hehe, don't celebrate too early. The juxi beast is gone, but that only signifies the start of the true battle," I said, stopping Zhang Bao'er from becoming too excited.

Demands for us to surrender sounded from the fighter drones, "People in the battleship, lay down your arms and walk out. Surrender to the empire, and your lives will be preserved."

"Fine. Looks like that old fart emperor is really trying to catch us alive," said Baron Sisse with a sigh.

"The emperor had tried killing us multiple times before. Why did he change his mind now?" asked Old Du.

"Because of her. She might be very important to the emperor," said Baron Sisse as he pointed at Wind Spirit.

"In that case, am I the reason you're all still alive? You should properly show your gratitude, then," said Wind Spirit shamelessly.

At that time, I saw Anxashe placing an arrow on each damaged gunport in the combat room.

"What are you doing? Are you thinking of having a sniping contest with their snipers?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"Yes. I have never gotten a chance to pit myself against an Eternal soldier. If I'm going to die today, I might as well go out with a bang," said Anxashe.

His words made sense, and both Zhang Bao'er and Old Du were inspired by his words. They set their laser guns into sniping mode in preparation to compete against the imperial snipers with him.

"Who are you? Why did you capture me?" At that moment, the repairman we had captured woke up.

I was about to answer when Master Crystal sealed his mouth.

"Let's focus on the fight first. We can question him after," said Master Crystal.

I also walked up to the wall. We split into two groups of two; one group was in charge of observation while the other was in charge of shooting. In this way, we aimed to eliminate their snipers.

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Our guns had a range of 5 kilometers in sniping mode, making them an excellent choice in terms of sniping. However, I still had some reservations about Anxashe's bow sniping. I saw the baron and Old Du move back to our previous room. They had probably done so because the juxi beast had left.

Through the lookout hole, I could see that there were only three battleships directly opposite us. Because we were on the top level of our ship, they would only be able to spot us by borrowing the height of a different ship. Thus, it was very likely that our opponents were hiding inside the three ships across from us.

Instantly, I heard a series of gunshots. When I looked over, I saw that Anxashe had raised four helmets up with all four of his limbs. All four helmets were sent flying. At the same time, gunshots sounded from the other room. Only Zhang Bao'er remained still like me to continue observing through the lookout hole. Both of us had yet to join the fight.

"There are at least 10 snipers out there," said Anxashe as he studied the bullet holes on the helmets.

"Do you have a good way to deal with them?" asked Master Crystal.

"Our position grants us some advantages since we have our backs to the sun. They're probably using light-filter scopes," said Anxashe.

"If we can make ourselves glow, will we be able to escape the detection of their scopes?" I asked.

"That might work as long as they don't change the mode of their scopes," said Anxashe.

"My guess is that they are hiding on the top level of the three ships opposite us. But when I tried scanning with my laser probe, I couldn't find their exact locations," I said.

"They are probably using some stealth devices. Your probe won't be able to detect them. We can only counterattack based on their line of fire," said Anxashe.

"If we can bait them to fire, are you confident you can eliminate them?" I asked.

"If you can bait them to shoot while I use a glowing device to hide from their scopes, I am 70 percent confident I can eliminate them," Anxashe gave a prudent answer.

"I'm also 70 percent confident. I'll join the counterattack as well," said Zhang Bao'er.

I shot Zhang Bao'er a glance before nodding at the two. I removed my helmet, and after turning on the light, I gave it to Anxashe. Next, I went below one of the lookouts and picked up a steel plate from the floor. With everything ready, I looked at the two.

"Superior, I'm ready. Remember to raise the plate higher," said Anxashe with a nod of confirmation.

Zhang Bao'er also gave me a confident look. I turned on my morph-capable shield to protect myself from the random pieces of shrapnel. I then exerted a large amount of strength to push the steel plate up above me.