Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 241 - 161: Cosmic Pirate King

Chapter 241: Chapter 161: Cosmic Pirate King

Duan Mingyuan had heard more than once that the veteran surfers online each had unique skills and spoke eloquently. Many people, trapped in life’s predicaments, stepped out of their gloom with the help of these nameless yet enthusiastic brothers.

Now, he found himself in a life challenge and urgently needed the support of these kind-hearted brothers.

As the saying goes, great rewards bring out brave men, and the 200-point bounty immediately attracted many power users from the comment section.

A user with the nickname "Not the He Ya You’re Familiar With" mentioned that she had passed through some "Cocooned" planets on her interstellar travels. These planets’ civilizations were long destroyed, and without technological advancement, but some planetary creatures had evolved and metamorphosed to achieve interstellar travel with their physical bodies. She even saw a creature called Leviathan, which, when adult, rivaled the size of the company’s flagship and could accommodate a large number of "Cocooned" creatures within its body.

This enthusiastic netizen said that if the poster was not in a hurry, she could try to get a Leviathan egg, allowing the poster to hatch their very own "Interstellar Flagship."

Of course, Leviathan eggs were extremely rare, and the planet they were found on had already been designated a "Dead Star" by Universe Company. Affected by these "Cocooned" species, the entire star system had become a no-man’s-land, making the price of a Leviathan egg quite steep.

Duan Mingyuan felt this answer was good and tempting, but he neither had the spare cash to buy a Leviathan egg nor the time to incubate one.

By the time he managed to hatch the Leviathan egg and raise it, the company was probably already preparing for the 20th-anniversary celebration of the merger with the Chamber of Commerce.

Another user, nicknamed "Wish a Caterpillar Crawls into Your Coffee," whose avatar was a white-haired anime girl, offered her insight. She believed the key to interstellar travel was to solve the energy problem, which was currently the bottleneck for most civilizations. However, the energy that could empower flagships for interstellar travel isn’t limited to conventional sources. The flagships of the Ashen Consortium utilized Scorching Sun Power produced by their believers, creating a situation where the ship and its crew shared a symbiotic relationship.

She also pointed out that Blue Star’s Life Energy belonged to the same category.

However, these two comment section powerhouses were quickly dismissed by others as keyboard warriors, mocked for watching too many games and virtual works, and seriously explaining knowledge about interstellar travel in the comment section— as if they had been to space themselves.

"Not the He Ya You’re Familiar With" ignored the ridicule in the replies, while "Wish a Caterpillar Crawls into Your Coffee" engaged in a spirited back-and-forth in the comments.

Duan Mingyuan’s question didn’t even survive until lunchtime before it was banned.

The reason was rowdiness in the comment section, including political keyboard activism.

Regardless, Duan Mingyuan had already gained strength and inspiration from the help of these two enthusiastic brothers.

At least he now had a theoretical foundation.

In theory, as long as he could provide enough Life Energy, he could lift the flying device into the sky. He recalled his experience visiting the inspectors’ flagship as a guest, where the baptism of becoming an inspector equated to being the soul of that flagship. All the Scorching Sun Power produced ultimately converged towards them, so they didn’t need to stay in the central control room all day to navigate the flagship.

This caused the Ashen Consortium’s flagships to look like technological products from the outside, but whether it was the energy used or the method of driving the ships, there was an aura of mysticism about it.

Even the energy department of Universe Company couldn’t explain the mysterious energy present in the cosmos.

As a result, the compact Qi Refinement Realm flagship put together by the Third Prince actually had a significant advantage. Even for Duan Mingyuan, providing a single-person supply for a massive Mahayana Realm flagship would require a lot of effort and result in a considerable waste of Life Energy.

He didn’t like waste, especially when it came to Life Energy.

Many evil spirits and villains entrusted their Life Energy to Duan Mingyuan before their demise. How could he betray the trust of the deceased and misuse the energy they provided?

With these thoughts, Duan Mingyuan felt a surge of passion he hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Since finishing high school, he seldom felt this way.

But now, they might be accomplishing a great feat. If successful, it would allow those departed friends to leave Blue Star and experience the beauty of the cosmos.

Before the first voyage, it was time to assemble the crew.

On this matter, he and the Third Prince were in agreement— for a flagship, the crew was its soul.

This tranquil morning, the Cloud Sea Academy was a place of swirling undercurrents.

Today is destined to be recorded in the annals of Blue Star.

Recruited crew members for the future "Cosmic Pirate King" completed their assembly, and though the classroom was sparsely filled with just a few individuals, it exuded the atmosphere of a meeting of great pirates starting at a bounty of a hundred million Bei.

The Elder Princess brought her zither and sword; Yang Ping played with the weapon he and Jiuyue recently developed using materials from the monsters in the back mountains, and even Tang Qianqian solemnly placed an electric shock gun, a fruit knife, and a set of incomprehensible blueprints on the table.

The backbone of the group was undoubtedly Jiuyue, still wearing a white apron, with a frying spatula in his left hand and a pot shovel in his right.

This was the scene that Duan Mingyuan saw upon entering.

The classroom’s atmosphere was solemn, this intangible pressure seemed to convey a message to everyone passing by — "If your bounty isn’t over a billion, you’re not qualified to attend this meeting."

And now, the true captain appeared.

The future Cosmic Pirate King, Duan D. Mingyuan.

With the dawn’s fierce wind, a wanted poster fluttered into Duan Mingyuan’s hand.

"Pirate King, Duan D. Mingyuan"

"Bounty: Ninety-nine billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million Bei"

"Dead or alive"

"I just went to the Association down the mountain and printed this with the printer," said Jiuyue, eager to show his accomplishment.

"Who told you to print this?"

Duan Mingyuan’s eyelids twitched violently, and he had to admit that Jiuyue had a talent for choosing photos; the wanted poster resembled the Universe Company’s interstellar wanted notices so closely that anyone unfamiliar with the truth might actually believe him to be an interstellar felon with a ninety-nine billion Bei bounty.

He didn’t even know how Jiuyue, this leader of his black fans, had managed to capture his fierce expression.

"Hadn’t we discussed becoming cosmic pirates back in the Imperial Court? That day has finally arrived," Jiuyue said.

"Senior, you never mentioned such an important matter to us," Tang Qianqian chimed in, "but rest assured, I’ll strive to become a great pirate with a bounty of over a billion, and I promise not to disgrace our pirate group."

"Who said we were going to become cosmic pirates?"

"Huh? Aren’t we?"

The chief culprit, Jiuyue, blurted out, instantly revealing himself.

"We’re going to the Sixteen Star Summit, not behaving like criminals," Duan Mingyuan corrected.

At that, Jiuyue had an epiphany.

It was her misunderstanding of their role that led to such a colossal blunder.

But correcting this was easy; she immediately instructed the crew, "I got it wrong before, after you go back later, get ready with suits and white shirts, what we’re really joining is the Cosmic Government! And Mr. Mingyuan is undoubtedly the next..."

The little fox with the bushy tail behind him was suddenly grabbed, and with a "yelp," he clenched his legs together and stiffened his body.