Cosmic Criminals (2)

“These traitors aren’t worth bothering,” Xu Jingming said softly. “It’s just that some of my good friends are blaming me. Sigh…”

Although ordinary people didn’t understand the situation, all the cosmic lifeforms knew about the turn of events. Some of the cosmic lifeforms in China—those who adventured Blood Rain World and had some friendship with Xu Jingming—felt that he was in the wrong!

“I can understand them. They’re right to blame me; I did put the entire civilization in greater danger!”

“Master, you’re a peripheral member of the Primordial Research Institute. It’s impossible for you to sell yourself to Lunardo. You can’t be blamed,” the Primordial Battle Armor AI said. “Moreover, with you around, Earth won’t really fall into a desperate situation.”

“But… Earthings don’t know this. I can’t make it public either!” Xu Jingming now understood his senior brothers and sisters’ feelings.

All of them were elites and peerless geniuses. They had to hide their true talent and identity! Once they were exposed, it would be a true calamity if cosmic aliens targeted them. They were countless times more terrifying than being targeted by space pirates.

I can only make it public after becoming an Origin lifeform, Xu Jingming thought.

For example, Senior Brother Gu Shan’s father was furious and perplexed. He even gave up on his son, but Gu Shan endured it.

It was the same for the others. All of them had to endure it.

This is also a form of mental tempering, right? Xu Jingming thought to himself. Without this bit of endurance, how can one’s mental strength be strong? How can one become an Origin lifeform?

******

The human race in the universe was vast, and the number of humans was uncountable. Coupled with the boundless universe, it was too easy to hide.

Therefore… The scale of cosmic criminals was huge!

“Have you heard? In the Milky Way in the 12th Star Zone, there’s a weak civilization, Earth, that offended the Primestar royal family’s scion. Earth has precious mineral deposits and is very rich.”

“I heard. I heard that it’s worth at least trillions of cosmic dollars.”

In a tavern in a special virtual world, Oohook World, many criminals were drinking and chatting.

This was a virtual world built by the dark forces of the Oohook Star Alliance at some cost. Of course, the technology used to build this virtual world was relatively low! They couldn’t cultivate the evolutionary method in the virtual world; it simply allowed easier communication.

Moreover, only those from the Oohook Star Alliance could log in to this virtual world.

As long as criminals were wanted, they didn’t dare to log into the virtual world! Once they did, they would be exposed.

The technology used in this kind of private virtual world was low-tech, so it couldn’t track the position of every login. This spurred its use by criminals.

“Earth is a civilization after all. It’s not something small-time space pirates like us can snatch.”

“That’s right! No matter how weak a civilization is, it’s still a civilization. It has at least trillions in wealth, so its military strength definitely won’t be bad. I’m afraid only the top ten pirate factions of the Oohook Star Alliance have the confidence to take it down.”

“We definitely won’t be able to gobble it. Come, let’s drink.”

These criminals drank and chatted.

They had crimes to their name. If they were captured, they would be imprisoned for 1,000 to 2,000 years even if they survived the arrest! They naturally would rather be among other criminals.

There were two criminal leaders in the corner of the tavern.

“Nock, I heard that you’ve discovered an indigenous planet? You’re declared yourself emperor on that indigenous planet?”

“Yeah, do you want it? I’ll sell it to you for 200 billion cosmic dollars.”

“I don’t have that much money. I can consider it for 100 billion cosmic dollars.”

“I’ll get at least 100 billion from selling this habitable planet. Moreover, there are a large number of natives on an habitable planet that hasn’t been ‘recorded’ by the Cosmic Human Alliance. You can do whatever you want with it—how satisfying is that? 200 billion is a fair price.”

“Hahaha… Oh right, Nock, are you interested in Earth?”

“I have plans. Are you in?”

The two criminal leaders chatted.

In this virtual Oohook World, the users were mainly criminals, but there were also some mysterious customers mixed in. They could be from large families, corporations, and even the minions of cosmic aliens.

Here, there was no way to trace the login address, so it was naturally easy to set up shady businesses.

There were some things that large families and corporations couldn’t do, but criminals could.

*****

On the 37th day after Prince Lunardo left Earth.

A ferocious-looking, 30-kilometer-long, and hammer-shaped spaceship tore through space and appeared in the solar system.

In the command hall of the hammer-shaped spaceship.

A tall, cold man stood in the middle and looked at the figure on the screen…

“Brother, we’re here,” the cold man said.

“Let’s proceed as planned,” the stocky, bald man sitting on the screen stated leisurely. “This is only the beginning. There’s no need for much; just extorting 300 billion cosmic dollars will be sufficient. We can also use this opportunity to see how strong Earth’s civilization is.”

“Yes.” The cold man nodded. “I believe Earth will bow its head.”

“Begin,” the stocky bald man instructed.

The cold man immediately turned around and looked at the group of cosmic lifeform criminals beneath him.

These cosmic lifeform criminals were all wanted and were his most trustworthy subordinates. Instead, many of the planetary lifeforms were coerced into joining them.

“Let’s begin. Let’s see what Earth has.” The cold man’s eyes were crazy.