Master of the Stars

Chapter 57: Local Area Network (Part 1/2)

Black Jack’s figure leaped up as his voice faded away. He actually jumped off the driver’s location down the other side. The timing he chose was impeccable. The road roller had just pushed the jeep to the location where the gangsters had their motorcycles all flipped in a mess.

Some people actually hadn’t left yet. They remained in the center of the road and watched the slow moving road roller with shock at first, then they shouted. They sought to start the engines of their motorcycle and get out of the way.

But then Jack leaped from the jeep and seized a motorcycle right at this time. He increased his speed and circled around the side blades of the road roller to go back the way he came.

One second he was like a video game boss, then the next second he just fled?

The front wheel of the motorcycle lifted up as Crag Burst cursed loudly. He forcefully turned, narrowly brushing past the blades of the road roller. He put the pedal to the metal, increasing his speed for the chase.

The speeds of these two motorcycles were over 100 kilometers per hour. They disappeared in the blink of an eye within the darkness of night.

Luo Nan’s soul body could catch up with no problems, but this task would be hard for Ink. A moment’s hesitation had caused the two motorcycles, with their vigorous chase, to leave his range of senses.

Here the road roller pushed against the jeep, rumbling along as it crushed across. The jeep was a sorry mess after being run over. The gangsters had hidden away to the road side with great difficulty and were raining curses. Some were cursing Crag Burst, but most were cursing Jack.

Luo Nan stirred telepathically to try to listen to them in earnest. He discovered that their words contained some very interesting details, but these details were scattered, fragmented, and lacked the main points.

Ink also come over due to Luo Nan’s concentration being fixated over there. Its flapping wings attracted the eyes of the gangsters.

One of the gangsters was getting annoyed just by watching Ink. He had a gun in his hands, but he turned stupefied like a block of wood right when he was about to shoot. He smashed to the ground having lost consciousness.

The gangsters, who were cursing to their delights, all froze on the spot. They looked at their unconscious companion, then they looked up to the sky in astonishment.

Ink spiraled downwards and landed on the roof of a zone-violating building. It towered above the gangsters, observing this group of weak chickens.

A jet-black crow was staring at them in the darkness with pitch-black eyes. On the floor lay their companion who had inexplicably fainted. This scene made the dozen or so gangsters grow soft at the knees.

The crow maintained its silence from beginning to end. The longer it did so, the more frightened and anxious these people’s hearts became.

Luo Nan was a bit embarrassed as he hovered next to Ink.

He originally didn’t want to be so intimidating to these weaklings; the most important thing to do right now was to collect information. But the problem was, Ink was just a crow. How could a crow communicate with people? Things would be no different even if Ink was a parrot.

He could see how useful the HexaEar was with the Psychic Wave Network. Without it, he wouldn’t have been able to communicate with Crag Burst.

Oh, the Psychic Wave Network?

Luo Nan made a leap in thinking. If it was just a network, would using the dark chains1 from within the pyramid structure to connect work?

A new image of a crow had appeared within the pyramid structure. It was none other than Ink, and moreover, Ink was located on the second level, in the Office Worker Level.

Obviously, Luo Nan didn’t understand bird speak, but he was still able to communicate his intentions and converse with Ink without any issues. Even if he had hypnotized Ink many times in the past, the communications between man and bird had all gone unhindered. Things had already departed the realm of common sense.

If a man and a crow could do such a thing, then why couldn’t a man and a man?

Luo Nan became more resolute as his thoughts reached this point. First, he had to make a connection by using the dark chains.

Luo Nan was a bit fastidious. He hesitated a moment and his thoughts continued to spin:

Perhaps he could use a substitute method?

The thought gave birth to a plan. The Human-Faced Arachnid’s cold and devilish eyes swept across the crowd of gangsters.

Of course not one of the gangsters was able to see the Human-Faced Arachnid. But the bizarre gaze of the crow was enough to make them flustered.

The group of people was just about to fall two steps back when the crow opened its beak and let out a caw. The caw was hoarse and unpleasant to the ears, causing a shiver to break out in each person.

But there was something more important than that. At the same time as the cawing of the crow, a weak yet indescribably distinct sound directly struck the depths of their minds, coiling in the bottom of their hearts:

“I ask. And you will answer!”

“MOMMY!”

The miserable and panic-stricken shout sparked people to turn around and run. At the same time, some people didn’t utter a sound; their eyes rolled back and they collapsed to the ground.

“......”

This time Luo Nan didn’t mess around with them. These brothers fainted by themselves.

Of course, soon the those who tried to flee suffered from Siege Hammer attacks in moderate severity. They wouldn’t be knocked unconscious but would feel extreme pain.The pain was enough that they collapsed to the ground and scream with their heads in their hands.

This savage and devilish scene could be seen from front to back. The group of gangsters was frozen dead on the spot.

What devil, what mutant, what black technology…… Similar thoughts as absurd as these came and went in their minds, but in the end, they didn’t dare to move their feet at all.

The road roller rumbled off far in the distance and its noise gradually faded away from their ears. The road was still and silent for a time.

“I ask. And you will answer.”

Luo Nan spoke his previous words once again, all the while paying attention to the changes in the pyramid structure.

The Human-Faced Arachnid located at the Technician Level had changed at the core. This Darksider life form had spat out silk-like threads when Luo Nan had his mind set. These threads were shot out in the chaotic turbid flow of emotions.

The Human-Faced Arachnid was a skilled fisherman. It used the spider silk to hook up fishlings one after another and tossed them into the lowest level of the pyramid to stand side by side with the images of Xie Junping and Cat Eyes. Their images were much weaker and lighter than those two, however. They were like frail bubbles that could pop at any moment.

The dozen or so gangsters were all brought under the Human-Faced Arachnid’s control without exception.

As the mastermind behind the scenes, this was Luo Nan’s first time seeing the Human-Faced Arachnid display this sort of control. He was stupefied watching for a time:

So it was this easy in the first place?

In any case, the psychic-mental connection was formed upon constructing the “local area network”. The following matters would become much more manageable.

The HexaEar transmitted over psychic waves approximately two minutes later. Crag Burst had taken the initiative to contact him: “Crap crap crap! Scout, where did you go?”

Luo Nan was able to determine what had happened from the tone of Crag Burst’s voice: “You lost him?”

“That black rat. He’s a good for nothing, but his alleyway scurrying skills are top notch. He even fired at me from behind…… Hey. Where’s more forward intel?

“Your speed was over 100 kilometers per hour. I couldn’t catch up.”

Obviously, the crow couldn’t have caught up. Luo Nan obviously wouldn’t have to explain this to Crag Burst.

“Crap crap crap crap crap crap!”

Crag Burst exploded with curses: “You should choose something more useful to possess! The speed needs to be fast. What about a falcon or hawk. Aren’t those good? Why the hell did you choose a crow?”

Luo Nan didn’t complain even though Crag Burst was complaining like this. The more Crag Burst was like this, the clearer this large soldier displayed that Luo Nan wasn’t an outsider, that Luo Nan was someone who he started to trust and rely on.

This was a very good beginning.

And sure enough, Crag Burst came around and felt a bit embarrassed. He coughed twice: “Since I know you have this skill now, I’ll help you buy a good bird from the Society later on. The price needs to be right. It’s possible that it could be a mutant.”

“Of course. Help me choose later.”

Luo Nan laughed and then changed topics: “Even though I couldn’t scout, I still managed to obtain some information. Where are you?”

Dark Chains (乌沉锁链, literally Chains Seeped in Black). This is the heavily chained crow. I mistranslated it before, but I changed all the previous chapters to fix this. Basically, 乌 could mean either black or crow, so I thought it was "crow immersed in chains".