The stars wheeled across the sky, and as the canopy was once again draped in darkness, a new night descended upon Triangle Star.
In a similarly shadowed street corner, a set of double doors swung open and shut. The tinkling sound that followed came from a wind chime made of bone hanging above the frame—a signal that a person of importance had arrived.
Feng Zhixi looked up, his gaze lingering briefly on the swaying white phalanges. These were the finger bones of a creature unique to Triangle Star, a favorite decoration among those who walked the "grey zones."
With a single glance, Feng Zhixi withdrew his gaze. His destination was a private room on the second floor of the bar.
***
A man dressed entirely in black walked down a corridor carpeted in deep purple. Along the walls, white pilasters were carved with intricate, ornate patterns, while the ceiling projected a holographic image of the starry cosmos. The clash of styles lent the scene a distinctly eerie atmosphere.
*A greenhorn arms dealer,* Blood Eye thought to himself. His recent string of successes had allowed arrogance and conceit to swell within him, momentarily overriding his natural caution.
Blood Eye had just completed a massive score. A small family, attempting a long-range jump with their entire fortune, had lost their way and practically fallen right into his lap.
Not only did this provide his subordinates with a feast, but the greatest prize had come from the family patriarch himself: a complete star map.
That patriarch, who had surrendered his family’s core secrets, must have been misled by too many interstellar legends. Did he truly hope a space pirate would keep his word?
A secret, undeveloped planetoid rich in mineral resources—this was supposed to be the final retreat for a small family forced to flee after offending a major power.
However, what they thought was a narrow escape turned out to be nothing more than another dead end.
Facing the patriarch who had bared everything, Blood Eye had counted the old man’s wrinkles with one hand while dealing a lethal blow with the other.
Why would he ever let someone who knew the secret live? How naive.
After obtaining the star map, Blood Eye had already made a quiet trip to the coordinates.
It was a magnificent hiding spot. Guided by the map, he had finally located it; upon piercing the atmosphere, he was met with a vista of pure "wealth." There was no place more perfect to serve as his stronghold.
He needed a secret fallback, and now, this retreat had delivered itself to his door.
Blood Eye was exceptionally satisfied with the "contribution" of that small family. Their Omega had been quite delicious as well, though far too fragile—not nearly as resilient as that interstellar explorer.
As Blood Eye was reminiscing, the door to the room opened inward. The visitor in black had arrived, carrying himself with a forced air of shrewdness and disdain.
The young man stood at the threshold as the heavy black door shut silently behind him. His gaze swept over the bar owner and the greasy, portly middle-aged man with sharp, scrutinizing intensity.
While the youth in black was sizing up the room’s occupants, Blood Eye was doing the same to him. The visitor looked slightly different in person than he had in the holograms; he possessed more presence—or rather, a certain "theatricality." To the two men already in the room, his posturing seemed utterly laughable.
*Wet behind the ears.* Having seen plenty of such brats, Blood Eye took a sip of his drink, half-closing his eyes in enjoyment as the spicy liquid burned down his throat.
Seemingly provoked by Blood Eye’s attitude, a faint blue light flickered on the visitor’s hand—a sign that some kind of weapon was about to be activated.
"Our honored guest has arrived! Please, sit, sit. Come, have a taste of my finest vintage first." The bar owner stood up with a boisterous laugh, offering a "peace-offering" drink to the seemingly incensed youth.
"Harmony brings wealth, after all," the bar owner said, his eyes crinkling as he humbled himself. "We’re just a backwater here, so we can only offer this humble brew. I hope you won't look down on it."
One does not strike a smiling face. The youth in black—Feng Zhixi—stilled his hand. He took the glass from the bar owner and took a small sip.
He frowned slightly, offering a begrudging evaluation: "Not bad."
Whether he meant the wine was not bad, or that this place was indeed a "not bad" backwater, no one could tell.
With just one look, Blood Eye felt he had seen through the other man’s facade. The newcomer was a textbook rookie arms dealer—a little brat with high ambitions but shallow skills.
Recalling the items the youth wanted to barter for, Blood Eye felt he had guessed the man’s background with eighty or ninety percent certainty.
Having "exposed" his opponent's hand, Blood Eye relaxed. He watched as the seated youth instinctively maintained a rigid posture, chin slightly tilted, looking down on others with an arrogance he couldn't quite hide. It was just like the members of that small family when they first met him—laughably ignorant.
"You’re the one who wants to trade for the energy shield?" Feng Zhixi looked at the middle-aged man, whose face looked as though it were coated in a layer of oil. His eyes betrayed a poorly concealed disgust.
Blood Eye glanced at him, his aggressive Alpha pheromones flaring without restraint. "Where’s the goods?"
Seeing anger begin to brew in Feng Zhixi’s eyes again due to Blood Eye’s bluntness, the bar owner quickly stepped in to smooth things over a second time. He said jovially, "It’s fate that brings us all to my humble establishment. You are both honored guests. Shall I introduce you?"
Since everyone was there for business, the bar owner acted as the intermediary.
Of course, he didn't introduce them as a notorious pirate and a clandestine arms dealer. Instead, he presented them as an "interstellar explorer" and a "legitimate dealer of civilian machinery."
Legal and compliant. The bar owner, acting as a "model citizen" of the Federation, maintained that he was merely a simple tavern keeper who sold wine. Whatever business his patrons conducted had nothing to do with him.
Following the introduction, Blood Eye and Feng Zhixi nodded to each other, acknowledging their public identities. As for the actual trade, that was not something the bar owner would be involved in.
Having taken his cut of the "brokerage fee," the owner quietly withdrew. The subsequent matters were not his concern, provided one rule was followed: no trouble in his bar.
Of course, his definition of "no trouble" simply meant that no one could die on the premises.
The black door opened and closed, leaving only Blood Eye and Feng Zhixi in the room.
Once the door was sealed, the newly minted arms dealer, Feng Zhixi, slowly set his empty glass back on the table. His gaze landed on the pirate, who was currently looking at him like a piece of meat on a platter.
"I don't want to waste time. Where is the cargo?"
Faced with the greenhorn’s question, Blood Eye’s guard dropped even lower. This was an easy-to-handle youth—far too impatient.
"No rush. What you’re asking for isn't a small amount. Did you think I could haul it all here for the trade?" As Blood Eye spoke, he placed a spatial button on the table. Inside was a small portion of the trade goods.
As he produced the button, Blood Eye’s gaze swept over the youth’s neck. The black coat made the skin of his throat appear exceptionally pale. The skin there was smooth, extending all the way to the nape, with no visible signs of disguise.
The person before him was a genuine Beta, yet Blood Eye’s gut instinct was telling him something was wrong.
This sliver of intuition sparked a deep interest in the man before him. And when the youth produced a small component of the energy shield, that interest transformed into a predatory hunger.
Feng Zhixi raised his left hand. On his wrist was a simple silver bracelet that shimmered under the warm lights of the private room.
Feng Zhixi swiped his right hand over the bracelet. Upon recognizing the input, the bracelet activated, and an invisible energy field instantly enveloped him.
"Passive protection. Feel free to test it." As he spoke, Feng Zhixi showed his first smile since entering the room—a smirk that seemed to mock the "interstellar explorer’s" excessive caution. He hadn't missed the weapon the other man had produced.
A glint of genuine interest appeared in Blood Eye’s eyes. Just before the youth had activated the bracelet, Blood Eye had already warily drawn a weapon.
The moment Feng Zhixi activated the personal shield, a lethal beam of light from Blood Eye’s weapon struck the invisible barrier and was promptly swallowed by the energy ring.
Feng Zhixi pulled up a floating holographic data monitor above the bracelet, allowing Blood Eye to see the readings. This was actually an energy shield that could absorb attack energy to power itself!
"One base-level shield, equipped with ten miniature shields. As long as the threshold isn't exceeded, the shields can absorb attacks to self-repair," Feng Zhixi explained, demonstrating with a miniature unit. He handled it with a level of familiarity that suggested he had built the device himself.
"As long as they remain within range, the miniature shields can draw defensive reinforcement authorization from the main base shield."
"It also has a custom design: it can absorb ambient mutated radiation from the air and convert it into energy." At this point, Feng Zhixi seemed not to notice the middle-aged man’s eyes suddenly lighting up. He paused, then continued with a look of disdain, "Though the conversion rate isn't high—only 5% right now. It still needs tuning. The design was supposed to be 10%." The last sentence was mumbled, sounding like a private complaint to himself.
*Able to absorb ambient mutated radiation and convert it into energy?!* It was a 100% match for a small planet with open-pit mines!
This base shield was practically tailor-made for Blood Eye. In his immense surprise, he didn't miss the slip of the tongue regarding the 5% to 10% conversion.
He realized then that he had misjudged the man. This youth wasn't just a well-connected rookie dealer; he was a gifted weapon manufacturer.
Blood Eye looked up, staring directly into the black-clad man’s eyes. Only then did he clearly see the madness hidden in the youth’s gaze—a madness identical to his own.
This young arms dealer—no, weapon manufacturer—was looking for a partner. One of his screening criteria was that specific list of materials.
Those who couldn't even reach that threshold weren't the partners he was looking for.
Due to the prevailing craze for outer-galaxy exploration in the Federation, not everyone could afford high-end equipment. Consequently, gifted, "wild" small-scale weapon manufacturers were becoming more common.
Great families had their own carefully nurtured talents. These outsiders, who lacked connections and couldn't enter polite society, were always short on research materials and funding. Their favorite partners were interstellar explorers—or pirates.
Feng Zhixi was exactly the person Blood Eye needed right now.
Of course, even if Feng Zhixi hadn't appeared, Blood Eye would have eventually found another like-minded madman in the near future—someone who would have tossed a torch onto his swelling ambitions.
But now, the butterfly had flapped its wings again. The ambitious pirate had set his sights on this fledgling weapon manufacturer, and his burning greed had completely scorched away his caution.
To be a space pirate, Blood Eye had a natural, bone-deep streak of the gambler in him.
Thus, he cast aside his initial nonchalance, opened the access permissions for the spatial button, and pushed it toward Feng Zhixi.
Now, the real trade began.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 骨头风铃 | Bone wind chimes | Decorations made from animal bones, common in the grey zones of Triangle Star. |
| 空间按钮 | Spatial button | A common sci-fi trope in Chinese web novels; a high-tech device used for portable storage (subspace/pocket dimension). |
| 变异辐射 | Mutated radiation | High-energy radiation found on certain planets that causes mutations or equipment wear. |
| 武器制造商 | Weapon manufacturer | A person who designs and builds weapons, often used here to imply a high level of technical skill. |
| 阈值 | Threshold | The limit of energy or damage a shield can withstand. |
| 以物换物 | Barter / Trade in kind | A transaction where goods are exchanged for other goods rather than currency. |
