Counterfeit Hero

Tian Xingjian had an easygoing nature. Back when he had to escape on the battlefield, he had stayed in all sorts of places. Here, at least, there was a room and a bed. He simply tidied the bed, put a relatively clean cloth on it, and fell asleep as soon as he lay down. Unconsciously, he didn’t know how long he had slept. Fatty was suddenly awakened by the violent shaking of the transport ship. He got up and walked past several beds full of broken parts to the porthole. Looking out, he saw the transport ship slowly ascending under the effect of the anti-gravity device. It was dark, already nighttime.

Fatty felt a little hungry. He had slept for at least seven or eight hours. Checking the time, he saw that it was already ten o’clock at night. He decided to go eat something in the restaurant and take the opportunity to see how this ship was doing. After all, he was somewhat worried that the ship would fall apart once in space, which would be disastrous.

Besides the cargo hold and power cabin, the transport ship was divided into four floors. The bottom floor was the luggage hold, used for storing items like mechanical flying cars. The middle two floors were the crew rooms, and Tian Xingjian lived on the bottom floor near the luggage hold. The top floor contained the bar, restaurant, entertainment room, captain’s quarters, control room, and command room.

Fatty climbed the stairs all the way up. There were many crew members on this smuggling ship, all looking sturdy and wild. Most of them were gathered in the first-floor crew rooms, making a ruckus, gambling, drinking, and fighting. Some guys deliberately glared at the stowaway Fatty as he passed by, trying to startle him. Seeing Fatty’s terrified and honest expression, they laughed heartily as if they had won the lottery.

Fatty, like a sheep passing through a pack of wolves, finally reached the top floor. Although this floor looked shabby, it was much better than the two floors below. At least it was relatively clean. The restaurant was nicely arranged, and some crew members inside were eating and chatting softly, appearing peaceful and calm.

Fatty felt like he had moved from a noisy hell to a peaceful heaven. He shrugged in puzzlement. Without having done smuggling work, it was impossible to truly understand the thoughts of these crew members, who roamed the universe with their lives on the line. Smuggling was not easy. Besides evading patrols of various national space police, they had to be on constant alert for other smuggling ships and often encountered firefights due to route conflicts. The most significant threat, however, came from space pirates who could infiltrate anywhere. These pirates usually possessed space mecha, some even equipped with space energy cannons. They modified high-speed vessels themselves or bought decommissioned warships through certain channels. In terms of strength, they far outmatched smugglers. Hence, an ordinary smuggling ship would spare no expense in equipping long-range high-precision radar and speed-enhancing power systems, hoping to escape before pirates spotted them.