Chapter 177: Harris’s Secret
Xia Fei did not know that Harris’s industrial s.h.i.+p was completely empty. In his eyes, Harris was just a regular smuggler—one who enjoyed wealth and respect.
“Follow me.”
Xia Fei turned around and walked toward the command deck with Harris’s navigation computer memory.
Harris carefully put the two sacks on the ground before hurriedly following in Xia Fei’s footsteps. The sacks contained normal rations, as well as some machine parts and plants, that did not appear valuable, which Xia Fei could not understand.
The Vexor battlecruiser was ma.s.sive. Harris was completely taken away as he followed Xia Fei closely. Is he alone on his ma.s.sive wars.h.i.+p?
In the command deck, Xia Fei deftly connected the navigation command memory onto his computer.
“Starting system scan,” Xia Fei commanded the AI computer.
A few seconds later, the cold female voice replied, “Navigation memory is safe and can now be opened.”
The AI computer was an advanced computer system. Any external data must be made safe and could only be opened after making sure that it did not contain any viruses or malicious programs.
“Open.”
The projected screen began to flash quickly. In less than a second, everything was read onto the computer of Tomahawk.
Xia Fei turned to look at Harris, noticing that he was standing carefully at the door.
“Grab a seat,” Xia Fei invited. “I’m trying to get to a planet in Black Abyss called DLC-113, but I’m unfamiliar with the route. How accurate is the information on your navigation computer?”
Harris slapped his chest. “I’ve been to DLC-113 as well, no less than seven times, in fact. There should absolutely be no problems there.”
Xia Fei nodded and commanded the AI computer. “Read the new information and create a fresh fastest route.”
“Recalculating route.”
A few moments later, the new route was created. The initial estimated travel time of twenty-seven days was shortened to nineteen days. It appeared that Harris’s navigation information was more detailed and precise.
Under Xia Fei’s command, Harris checked the route on the projected screen.
“There shouldn’t be any problems. The only threats on that route are the pirates, but since you have an Adjudicator Union insignia on the s.h.i.+p, ordinary pirates won’t even think about attacking you,” Harris said with a smile.
The autopilot of the s.h.i.+p was engaged, following the new route toward Black Abyss.
Xia Fei brought Harris to a crew cabin. The Tomahawk had yet to be retrofitted according to Xia Fei’s preference, so it still had comfortable beds and lavish living s.p.a.ces.
“You’ll be staying here for the duration of the journey. You’d best not wander around the s.h.i.+p outside of mealtime, especially not the control center. If I notice anything suspicious from you, I will throw you out into s.p.a.ce without any hesitation; understood?” Xia Fei said sternly.
Harris quickly nodded. “As you wish. Feel free to order me around if you want anything done. Cooking, cleaning—I can do anything.”
Xia Fei grabbed a seat, then took a few puffs of his cigarette, asking, “I heard that the Death Trio Star Region hasn’t been all that peaceful recently? You should know something about it seeing as how often you’ve traveled this route.”
“You heard it right. Currently, all the three main star regions have their respective leaders, representing the interests of the local tyrants and warlords, where everybody despises one another. You must also know that the Death Trio Star Region is incredibly impoverished. They don’t even have the food to keep their huge population alive, requiring them to import goods from the Alliance.
“Because of this No Man’s s.p.a.ce, it’s incredibly difficult to get goods delivered from the Alliance. Although s.h.i.+pments arrive every few months, they are far from enough to sustain everyone in the three star regions. Even if there are more merchants like me, who transport food and medicine to feed our family, it’ll still be difficult to put food on everyone’s table.
“Recently, a new galaxy was discovered near the edge of the tree main star regions. There are four planets in that solar system, and they are all incredibly suitable for human habitation. Moreover, they were capable of providing plenty of food. The warlords of the three star regions have clashed multiple times over these four planets, and we are at the precipice of war,” Harris explained.
There was not a day and night cycle in s.p.a.ce, so people would have to manage their work and sleep cycles themselves. Although they were now quite far away from Earth, Xia Fei still followed the twenty-four hour lifestyle of his planet.
When it was night, Harris volunteered to make dinner and even cleaned the kitchen. Humble att.i.tudes like this were really to Xia Fei’s liking as most men disliked doing menial tasks like cooking and cleaning, and Xia Fei was no exception.
After dinner, Xia Fei shut himself in his room and went through an introduction to computer coding. The book was incredibly complex, and Xia Fei would learn something new everytime he read it. It was as though the book had limitless knowledge awaiting his discovery.
Suddenly, Xia Fei felt that there was a mental energy spying on him.
The corners of Xia Fei’s lips twitched. He lay down in bed, turning off his microcomputer before pretending to go to sleep.
Outside of Xia Fei’s room, there was only Harris left on the Tomahawk, so the mental energy could not have been from anyone else. As a mental ability user himself, Xia Fei was quite familiar with mental energy; he could feel that Harris was just purely exploring without any malice.
Soon, Xia Fei entered the dream world.
Harris’s mental energy stayed, exploring around a few times before moving in toward Xia Fei’s position as though his target was Xia Fei’s brain.
“What do you plan to do?” Phantom asked, laughing. “Who would’ve thought that this Harris guy is also a mental ability user. Too bad he’s a lot worse than you are.”
Xia Fei replied plainly in his consciousness, “We’ll see; I can kill him using my mental energy whenever I want.”
It was an incredibly dangerous maneuver to stalk someone using mental energy. If the enemy’s mental energy was stronger than the one snooping, they might be drawn into an unstoppable mental vortex, consumed by the stronger mental energy that would ultimately cause their death.
A smart user would never simply spy on others using their mental ability unless they were confident in their abilities; evidently, Harris was not one.
What was most surprising was that the mental energy retreated after hovering around the room for a while. This confused even Xia Fei; why did he retreat despite being so close to his target?
Xia Fei got up, saying as he scratched his head. “Weird. What does he intend to do?”
“Who knows, but by the looks of it, he is interested in you but doesn’t bear any ill-intent.”
Xia Fei thought for a few moments. “We’ll talk about it later; he’s sure to reveal himself eventually.”
Early in the morning of the next day, Xia Fei arrived at the kitchen to see Harris already up.
“Mr. Xia Fei, here’s your breakfast.”
With a smile on his face, Harris brought him a plate of scrambled eggs and milk. There were a few pieces of thinly sliced ham beneath the egg as well as some lettuce next to it.
Xia Fei nodded. Not only did the breakfast Harris made taste good, it looked incredible, too. It was easy to tell that it was a breakfast fit for royalty. The eggs were just done as they melted in his mouth. The ham was sliced as thin as paper, demonstrating his excellent knife skills. The lettuce leaves were well-washed before having their stem removed, leaving behind only the green leaves.
This provided Xia Fei with even more questions on how a smuggler busy working for a living managed to make such an incredible breakfast. Thinking back on yesterday’s ba.s.s and mushroom the man had made that was also just as refined, for not a single piece of bone could be found in the dish. It was just that Xia Fei did not suspect Harris then, so it had not caught his attention.
After finis.h.i.+ng his breakfast, Xia Fei casually asked as he lit a cigarette, “Your cooking is quite good; where did you learn it?”
Harris smiled as he put away the utensils Xia Fei used to be washed in the basin. “My mother used to be a private chef for a major family, so I’ve been learning how to cook from her ever since I was young. It’s great that you like it. I also noticed that there’s some asparagus in the fridge; I’ll make a beef asparagus braise for lunch.”
“Oh.” Xia Fei nodded without indicating anything.
The next night, Harris’s mental energy entered Xia Fei’s room again, and this time, Xia Fei was more mindful of it, pretending that he was just up training. A few hours later, Harris retreated his mental energy.
The third and fourth day went just the same, and in the blink of an eye, a week had pa.s.sed. Because of the Tomahawk’s huge size, no pirates even dared to approach it, making the entire journey incredibly smooth.
“Are you going to show your cards?” asked Phantom.
Xia Fei smiled. “I’ll give him one last chance tonight; hopefully, he doesn’t disappoint.”
The dinner was just as exquisite as always, and he took his time to enjoy the meal. Because of how well he had been eating, Xia Fei even gained a bit of weight. Afterward, Xia Fei silently returned to his room, leaving Harris alone in the kitchen to tidy up.
“That’s unfortunate. It’ll probably be the last time that I enjoy such a wonderful meal,” Xia Fei muttered after closing his door.
It was a quarter to twelve, and Harris’s mental energy arrived right on cue.
What was most disappointing was that his mental energy retreated in less than five minutes, much quicker than the previous times.
Phantom sighed. “You have a killing intent in you. He must’ve felt that something was off and became more vigilant than usual. That would mean that he’s quite perceptive to detect such minute changes.”
Xia Fei hopped out of bed, proudly walking to Harris’s room. “I’ve given him the chances; no matter what his aim is, his time is up.”
In order to make it easier to keep an eye on him, Xia Fei had a.s.signed Harris in a room right next to his, so they were not far apart at all.
His door was now ajar, revealing Harris who looked like a ghost as he eyed Xia Fei.
“You’ve noticed from the start?”
Xia Fei nodded, smiling. “I’ll give you two choices: One, I’ll throw you out right now. Second, tell me your motive, then I’ll throw you out.”
Harris thought for a few moments before laughing happily. Xia Fei was slightly shocked, clearly having not expected Harris to react as though he was unafraid of death.
“Xia Fei, you’ve taken Amethyst before, right?”