Chapter 338: Target: Luoding City

Behind the Outer Space Port floating in high orbit.

A red, hook-shaped spaceship slowly rotated as it detached from its mechanical anchor amidst a low alarm, drifting down toward the massive blue planet below.

“Welcome, everyone, to the Carapace race’s self-developed small spaceship—Shrimp Type Five. We hope you have an unforgettable experience on Shell Star.”

An Imperial language with a slightly strange accent echoed in the cabin. Lin Zhen, sitting with his companions, shook his head.

‘Self-developed spaceship? That kind of talk can only fool ordinary people. Since when does a repaint count as self-developed?’

Setting aside those so-called ingenious Carapace race characteristic modifications.

For example, replacing the soft, comfortable standard zero-gravity seats with crab shell hard seats that can bruise a person’s back; hanging characteristic carapace decorations on the cabin walls…

He could tell at a glance that the whole spaceship was modified from a standard model that had been discontinued hundreds of years ago.

But this was good too—the worse the Carapace race’s technology level, the greater his advantage here.

‘I get it, all-nations self-development.’

‘Hinting at some Eastern superpower again.’

‘We will develop ourselves.’

Lin Zhen turned and looked around. Inside the empty cabin, besides their group of four, there were only a little over a hundred passengers—really pitiful for such a huge planet.

Lin Zhen secretly observed the hundred-plus passengers but didn’t see anyone who seemed to be a member of the Saints’ Hand Society.

But perhaps their disguise was just too good.

Obviously, the limited technology was a deterrent for many tourists.

Half an hour later, Shrimp Type Five slowed down and landed at No.1 Reception City on Shell Star. The group disembarked one after another.

Lin Zhen declined the official guide arranged by the Carapace race and rented a characteristic Carapace transportation—a crab steed—and went straight into the city.

The crab steed, though called a vehicle, is actually a special creature cultivated by the Carapace race using biotechnology. It looks like a crab, with eight pairs of sharp legs, but is the size of an elephant.

Its back naturally grows a shell that can serve as a carriage. Its maximum speed can reach three hundred kilometers per hour, much faster than a car.

But perhaps because this was a tourist city, the rental price was surprisingly high.

The one Lin Zhen rented cost fifty universal coins for ten days, plus the crab steed’s food and drink expenses during that period.

Together, it would probably be over a hundred universal coins.

Universal coins are very valuable. This level of consumption would be considered very high on most tourist planets.

But there’s no way around it—Shell Star is too big. Just No.1 Reception City, built for tourists, is enormous.

Lin Zhen and the others had no choice but to rent.

Otherwise, if they relied on walking, they probably couldn’t leave the city in a day or two.

Their time was precious. If they could save time with money, they absolutely would not skimp.

After all, Scarlet was behind them providing financial support.

‘Classic tourist city: low income, high expenses.’

‘Even in the interstellar era, we still get ripped off? 233.’

Clatter clatter clatter clatter clatter!

‘Rich lady Scarlet!’

Clatter clatter clatter clatter clatter!

Eight pairs of crab legs swung back and forth, almost forming afterimages. Dozens of crab steeds sped along the road at high speed.

But at such a fast speed, the carriage above the crab steed was exceptionally stable.

Inside the carriage of one crab steed.

Lin Zhen and the others took advantage of the travel time to briefly discuss the follow-up action plan.

There were over a dozen possible hiding places for Chatosi.

Although most of these locations were in one area, the distance between them was at least dozens or even hundreds of kilometers. If they weren’t in the same area, it could even be tens of thousands of kilometers.

It was obviously unrealistic for them to search every one.

So it was best to focus on the hiding places with high probability and close proximity.

Leave the rest to the Security Bureau.

“Dark Swamp’s exact location is unknown for now. In that case, we’ll have to go here…”

Lin Zhen pointed at the map projected by his personal terminal and said.

Everyone followed his finger and saw a city that happened to be near most of the hiding places—Luoding City.

Luoding City was quite far from No.1 Reception City. Even by crab steed, it would take at least a day and a night to arrive.

Lin Zhen and the others dared not delay at all. After leaving the reception airport, they hurried nonstop to Luoding City.

While they were busy traveling, a small fleet composed of dozens of frigates, cargo ships, and one destroyer also arrived outside the Pan-Carapace Galaxy.

The leading destroyer was shaped like an arrow, pitch-black all over, and bore the symbol of the Pole Group. It was exactly the Saints’ Hand Society fleet disguised as the Pole Group’s Third Transport Fleet.

Although the Carapace race lacked technological strength, the Pan-Carapace Galaxy was their home turf after all, and they possessed considerable defensive forces.

If the entire fleet entered the galaxy, it would be hard to turn around, and if a conflict broke out with the enemy during the hunt for Chatosi, it could lead to severe losses for the fleet.

Jinsique A considered this and decided, as with previous decapitation missions, to only send Dark Dust and the Nightingale Team—which belonged solely to her—into Shell Star to carry out the mission.

The Nightingale Team would land on the planet’s surface, search for Chatosi, and directly eliminate him.

Dark Dust would remain on the spaceship as support, ready to assist immediately if something came up.

Jinsique A uploaded the operation plan to the Saints’ Hand Society headquarters and began executing the mission.

Twenty-one hours later, two medium-sized private spaceships separated from the Caged Bird warship hidden behind the planet.

They quietly activated stealth and infiltrated the Pan-Carapace C3 Star System.

The spaceships arrived at Shell Star at extremely high speed but had no intention of going to the outer space port.

Instead, they stopped stealthily in the planet’s outer orbit.

“Big Sister, we’re ready to set out!”

Inside the spaceship, Shi Linglin, wearing a Starforce Battlesuit inside and a Colony Armor outside, knelt on one knee before a throne. Looking up at the gray-haired girl on the throne who wore a calm expression, she said softly.

Yun Ruoxi slowly raised her head, said nothing, and looked at her with an unchanged expression.

Shi Linglin, as if she had understood something from that glance, smiled broadly and clenched her fist, saying:

“I’ll do my best!”

With that, she stood up, her smile instantly faded, turned around, and said:

“Let’s go!”

Eight Saints’ Hand Society members, wearing the same outfit as Shi Linglin with no visible insignia, stood silently.

They were both male and female, but mostly female. They were the “personal servants” specially prepared by Dr. Forefinger for Ye Lan.

Usually led by Shi Linglin, they served as genuine personal attendants, handling Ye Lan’s daily chores.

And also, like now, help her solve those minor tasks that were inconvenient for her to handle herself.

That’s right, dealing with Chatosi was nothing more than a trivial matter in the eyes of the Saints’ Hand Society.

In fact, if not for the fact that Chatosi truly knew some things and was trapped in such a heavily guarded place as the Carapace race’s home planet, the Saints’ Hand Society would most likely have only sent two second-level combatants or one third-level combatant to eliminate him.

Why would they send ‘Dark…’