Chapter 2458 - Big Sisters and Little Sister
The two partners who had been born and grown up together on the Land of Sins went on separate ways after they came to the boundless space.
The blood of ambitions and restlessness had always been flowing inside Han Te’s veins. He was very curious about the space pirates’ unexpected, unrestrained, and somewhat mysterious and romantic life. When he heard that the fleet of the Cultivators was in need of a liaison officer in the Big Bai Pirate Gang to coordinate the cooperation, he volunteered to take the complicated and arduous task.
After he came to the Big Bai Pirate Gang, not only had he done an excellent job in his post, he also gained access to a lot of other posts, until he encountered the job of “artilleryman” as if it were the fate of life.
The “artilleryman” was much more than controlling the heavy cannons on the starships to attack. The “fire control officer”, a senior profession to the post, was responsible for the distribution of firepower and the rhythm of attack of a starship or even an entire fleet.
Even the most commonly-seen mass-produced attack starship had almost a hundred cannons large and small. For a coalition fleet made of hundreds of starships, their firepower combined could be astronomical.
How to configure the complicated firepower, how to adjust the shooting angle, how to change the rhythm of attack, whether to bombard stormily or to barrage unhurriedly, whether to focus on one point or to shoot the entire area… The answers to the sophisticated questions often lay in the hands of the fire control officer.
In most of the deep-sky fleets, the fire control officer was the second or third person only below the highest commander and was equaled to the chief of staff of the fleet.
Furthermore, when the commander of a fleet was killed or lost combat ability, it was often the fire control officer who took over his place instead of the chief of staff.
The chief of staff only provided assistance, and the fire control officer was the one who made the ultimate call.
To be an excellent fire control officer required not only abundant experience, calmness, and steadiness, but also talents.
When to barrage with all the cannons, when to cancel the attacks, when to bombard without caring about the consumption of spiritual energy, and whether or not to remove all the spiritual shields and focus the energy on the turrets to play a shocking gamble when the starship was under unfavorable circumstances… Those problems could not be answered in books or the crystal processors but had to be decided by the fire control officer’s momentary spark of talents.
It was a common understanding among the fleet commanders that an excellent fire control officer could improve the firepower intensity of a fleet by at least 20% on his own!
Another unquestionable understanding was that the best fire control officer was like the most distinguished artist, who could not be trained and could only be discovered.
Right now, Han Te was still far from an excellent fire control officer, if he was a “qualified” one at all.
However, his calmness when he controlled the cannons and distributed the firepower and his status of both frenzy and peacefulness when he played the wild gambles had made Boss Bai who had the keenest eyes see his talents and determined to raise him.
Han Te’s character was exactly what Boss Bai was fond of too.
The Land of Sins where he was born, like the bleeding space, was an extremely cruel hunting field and arena. Everybody was a predator and prey the moment they were born.
Han Te had a great time in the Big Bai Pirate Gang. He and Boss Bai got along very well too. Although he had been admitted by Liu Li’s father as a disciple in his hometown, Boss Bai was still more than enough to be his teacher. Also, he had learned a lot of stuff from the jade chips Li Yao left behind and Boss Bai. His progress in half a year was more than what other people achieved in ten years.
Just now, the starships of the Big Bai Pirate Gang secretly shifted the direction of the turrets to bombard the space pirates and the garrison in the Blue Sky Market. Han Te contributed to the accurate aiming and the almost perfect coordination of infantry and cannons!
Han Te had great fun in it. He also had the ambitious goal to follow and even surpass Boss Bai one day.
Even though the Big Bai Pirate Gang had successfully met the fleet of the Cultivators, he did not plan to return to the Cultivators’ side anymore.
Liu Li, in the meantime, had been staying in the Cultivators’ fleet, or to be more exactly, next to “Fist King” Lei Zonglie.
The Fist King was a super spiritual puppet that could upgrade and survive permanently. His training methods were unique. In order to be stronger, he had to strengthen his iron body every second or even replace it with a newer and sturdier shell.
Such modification and maintenance work couldn’t have been accomplished by the Fist King alone. He needed at least an assistant.
When Li Yao left the Martial Meritocrats Sector, he had poured some of his maintenance knowledge and secret arts into the jade chips and handed them over to Liu Li.
The Land of Sins was almost a planet-size magical equipment graveyard. Most magical equipments had to be maintained and assembled on their own. The kids born on the Land of Sins often boasted excellent skills in magical equipment maintenance.
Liu Li had the basic knowledge of magical equipment maintenance in the first place. Thanks to the girl’s natural deftness, and under the guidance of Li Yao’s jade chips and the Fist King’s personal instruction, she was more or less able to keep up with the Fist King’s pace.
Right now, she had become the Fist King’s indispensable personal maintainer and upgrader. Her sole field of research was to maintain the Fist King’s body and make him the strongest being in the whole universe!
Such ancillary work was too dull for the ambitious Han Te, but Liu Li enjoyed herself in it.
She preferred peace to action in the first place, and the lonely journey in space could be quite scary. What could she complain about if she could stay next to such an expert like the Fist King and be protected by him all the time?
Han Te could be a superhero or a great thief if he wanted to be, but Liu Li had her own little dream too. It wouldn’t be bad if she could grow a tiny land of Gold Barley!
The drastic changes in life during the past half a year made the young man and the girl who had just passed twenty years of age grow fast.
The newly-grown stubble on the young man’s lips was harder than before, and the girl was also much plumper. When they hugged each other today, they somehow felt that they were “the most familiar strangers” to each other.
When they smiled at each other after hugging for a long time, they finally saw their own reflections from a long time ago in each other’s eyes.
“One year ago, when we were still struggling in the Land of Sins, we never expected that so many changes would happen to us.”
Looking at his hands, Han Te mumbled, “Or that life would be so amazing and incredible!”
“Yes. Ever since Grandpa Yao came to our world, our lives seemed to have been pushed by him into a turbulent vortex.”
Liu Li smiled too, and she said in a crisp voice, “I wish Grandpa Yao could see us right now. I wonder where he is exactly. I truly miss him, but there is no telling when we can meet him again.”
“We certainly will.”
Han Te said, “According to Boss Bai, a super tough man named ‘Vulture Li Yao’ rose in the capital recently. It was probably Grandpa Yao!”
“Master Fist King also said that, but I found it hard to believe—”
Taking a deep breath, Liu Li said in disbelief, “A Cultivator rising in the capital of the Imperium of True Human Beings? Grandpa is truly… perplexing!”
“I can’t agree more.”
Han Te grinned and said, “The two persons that I admire most in my life are Boss Bai and Grandpa Yao. They are the kind of people that you don’t need to be surprised at whatever miracles they bring about.”
“Don’t forget there’s still Master Fist King.”
Liu Li said, not entirely convinced, “You worship Boss Bai, but I think our Master Fist King is more awesome. Hurry and let’s meet Master Fist King. You are our liaison officer in the Big Bai Pirate Gang after all!”
“Of course, I certainly need to visit him.”
Han Te was suddenly embarrassed. Scratching his head, he said, “However, can we visit him this afternoon? Or maybe you can wait for me for two hours? Just two hours?”
“Huh?”
While Liu Li was surprised, female chuckles suddenly echoed behind Han Te, and quite a few girls who were plump, petite, or pleasant-looking rushed at him.
“Han Te, what are you doing here? You are a minor contributor to the conquest of the Blue Sky Market too. Hurry and celebrate with us!”
“Exactly. We’d been waiting for you for a long time, and you snuck out without telling us. We are so sad!”
“Huh, who is this little miss? You look rather strange!”
Liu Li looked at the girls who were bigger than her—”bigger” in every aspect—and looked at Han Te in disbelief. “They are…”
“Oh, allow me to introduce you. They are the big sisters that I’ve met in the Big Bai Pirate Gang.”
Han Te coughed without changing his expression. “This sister is from the bridge, this sister is from the fire control room and half my senior sister, this sister is from the engine compartment, and this sister is an awesome attacker in the space shuttle team!”
Liu Li was stunned for such a long time that her eyes were frozen. In the end, she stammered, “They-They are all your big sisters, then what about me?”
“You?”
Having no idea what was going on, Han Te blurted out, “You are my dearest, dearest little sister, of course! I’ve always treated you like a biological sister—no, a twin sister. You are my most important family!
“Are you worried that I might have changed after the journey in space? Hahahaha, you are overthinking, Liu Li! Let me tell you, whatever I become in the future, and even if I am completely deformed, I will forever protect you as my twin little sister. Forever!”
Liu Li finally couldn’t hold it back anymore. The ice was broken, and the tears of anger ran out.
“Huh?”
Han Te scratched his head. “You don’t have to be so touched by what I said, do you? Even though we haven’t met for a long time, there is no need to be so emotional. How about you go back and tell Master Fist King that I’ll find you after I’m done with the big sisters here. It will be two hours at most, alright?”
“Alright… alright…”
Liu Li’s face had been wrinkled into an ugly orange. She tried to contain herself, but she still burst out in fury, “Alright my a*s! Just go celebrate with your big sisters, Han Te! I’ll never talk to you again!”