Colonel Hopka was startled by Long Ming’s words. The hammer he was swinging screeched to a halt in mid-air. Gritting his teeth, he snarled at Long Ming.

“You bastard! Don’t think I won’t beat your ass just because you’ve joined the Second Legion! It’s because of you, you son of a bitch, that I had to scrub toilets for seven days and became the laughingstock of the entire legion!”

“That has nothing to do with me. You were simply not good enough.”

Long Ming replied coolly.

“I’ll crush you!”

Hearing Long Ming’s words, Hopka flew into a rage and swung his mechanical hammer again.

At this, the color drained from the faces of Woperi and Fakadon, who were standing nearby. They rushed to grab hold of Colonel Hopka, pleading anxiously.

“Captain, don’t do it! If you attack him, you’re toast!”

“Yeah, you’re still trying to make up for what you did.”

…..

Long Ming then leaned in, putting his face right up close, and said.

“Go on, hit me if you want to.”

“You motherf—”

Hopka couldn’t stand such a provocation. About to explode with rage, he lunged forward to smash Long Ming with his hammer.

“Captain, don’t!”

Woperi and Fakadon desperately held him back.

Antilo and Chen Hong watched the scene unfold, shooting Long Ming hostile looks.

‘They never thought this last guy to arrive could push Colonel Hopka to lose his composure so completely. Looks like he’s not someone to be trifled with, either.’

Just then, a shout rang out.

“All of you, stop! Who has the nerve to cause trouble in my jurisdiction?”

CLANG CLANG~

A group of guards in second-generation mechanical exoskeletons rushed over, surrounding Long Ming and his group.

The surrounding soldiers then parted to form a path.

A portly supervisor in a suit with a beer belly walked over, followed by an assistant with a thin mustache.

Hopka and the others all turned to look at the portly man.

“Oh my god… I have something to attend to, I’m leaving. Song Jian, you handle this.”

Supervisor Zhao Da took one look, shuddered, and immediately tried to leave.

“Supervisor, don’t go! I can’t handle this!”

Song Jian frantically pulled Zhao Da back.

Steeling himself, Zhao Da walked up to Hopka, Long Ming, and the others. He began to speak, his voice trembling with nervousness.

“Sirs, fighting is prohibited in the waiting hall. You’ve damaged the floor quite badly, and you’ll need to pay for the repairs.”

Upon hearing this, Long Ming raised his hand and pointed directly at Hopka.

“He broke it. Ask him to pay for it.”

Hearing Long Ming’s words, the anger Hopka had just managed to suppress instantly flared up again. He roared at Long Ming.

“You little punk, I dare you to say that again.”

“I’m just stating a fact. Weren’t you the one who started it? There are security cameras here. Why don’t we pull up the footage and take a look?”

Long Ming replied with a smile.

“You…”

Hopka was so furious he could have spat blood.

At this, Woperi quickly grabbed Hopka and tried to reason with him.

“Captain, calm down. It’s getting late, we need to get going on our mission. The mission is what’s important!”

After hearing Woperi’s words, Hopka forced himself to swallow his anger.

He wanted nothing more than to skin Long Ming alive, but the mission was the top priority.

He had taken this mission to redeem himself; if he screwed it up again, he’d really be finished.

Just then, Zhao Da forced a smile that looked worse than a grimace and said.

“Sir, if you would please pay for the damages…”

“No money. Like hell I’m paying! Let’s move out!”

Hopka waved his arm and led Woperi and the others toward the boarding gate.

Seeing this, Long Ming gave Zhao Da a helpless shrug and followed them.

Zhao Da watched the group of thugs walk away scot-free, feeling so wronged he could cry.

“Sob… I’m done for. I’m going to get chewed out again for sure.”

…

Soon, Long Ming and the others entered a transparent boarding tube.

At the end of the tube, they saw a special Level 4 battleship docked: the Azure Blue. It was seven kilometers long with a shuttle-shaped hull, entirely covered in dark blue armor. Its sides were lined with rows of concealed launch ports and interceptor cannons.

Long Ming looked at the battleship with a trace of curiosity.

‘This battleship might be small, but it doesn’t look like an ordinary vessel at all.’

They soon boarded the Azure Blue through the entrance hatch.

“Sir!”

Soldiers in mechanical exoskeletons saluted Long Ming and the group.

Colonel Hopka gave a curt nod, his face grim, and led the group toward the central control room.

「A moment later.」

Long Ming followed Hopka and the others into the central control room.

The central control room was a square chamber. At the front was a row of control consoles manned by numerous operators.

Behind the consoles was a command platform with a captain’s chair.

To the left of the command platform was an observation deck, and to the right was a mechanical platform.

Colonel Hopka walked straight to the mechanical platform.

Mechanical arms extended down, detaching his Mechanical God armor.

Once his gear was removed, Hopka walked to the captain’s chair, sat down, and spoke in a cold voice.

“You three, over here!”

Long Ming, Antilo, and Chen Hong walked over, regarding Colonel Hopka with cold indifference.

“Hmph. I despise all three of you, and I don’t trust you one bit. But since the General ordered us to carry out this mission together, I have no choice but to bring you along. But let me make one thing clear! If any of you drag me down, don’t blame me for what happens next.”

Colonel Hopka warned the three in a cold voice.

“You don’t need to worry about us. You’d better worry about whether you’ll be the one dragging *us* down!”

Chen Hong retorted with immense arrogance.

“Good. Let’s hope your abilities are as big as your mouths.”

Colonel Hopka gave an incredulous, angry laugh.

“Colonel Hopka, instead of wasting time on this useless talk, why don’t you just tell us what the mission is? What do you need us to do?”

Antilo showed Colonel Hopka no deference whatsoever.

‘This is getting more and more interesting,’ Long Ming thought, watching the scene. ‘These two seem to be in the same boat as me—temporarily assigned to work with Colonel Hopka.’

Colonel Hopka took a deep breath and then began.

“One of our fleets was ambushed by the Insect Race on its return journey. A transport ship managed to escape and fled into the Guangxiao Star Sea.”

“Isn’t that Third Legion territory?”

Long Ming asked, his brow furrowed slightly.

“That’s right. We lost contact with the ship shortly after it entered the Guangxiao Star Sea. We contacted the Third Legion immediately to request a search and rescue operation. But they’ve been stalling, claiming they’re under attack themselves and don’t have the resources to spare. Our mission is to find that ship.”

Hopka explained coldly.

“What was that ship carrying?”

Long Ming asked Hopka, his voice low and raspy.

“That’s classified. You just need to follow orders and complete the mission.”

Colonel Hopka replied coldly.

‘Hearing this, Long Ming had a pretty good idea of the situation. The ship must be carrying something extremely important.’

“Interesting. Where did the ship last go missing?”

Antilo asked.

Hopka raised his hand, and with a wave, a virtual star chart of the Guangxiao Star Sea appeared. He pointed to an area behind Guangxiao Planet.

“It disappeared in the region behind Guangxiao Planet.”

“Why so close to the front lines? The Third Legion is fighting the Insect Race for control of Guangxiao Planet. That whole area is surrounded by occupied territory.”

Antilo asked, his expression turning grim.

“Isn’t that to be expected? The transport ship escaped from the adjacent warzone. But you don’t need to worry. This ship we’re on, the Azure Blue, may only be a Level 4 battleship, but it has excellent camouflage and stealth capabilities. It’s also very fast. As long as we’re careful, we’ll have no problem entering occupied territory.”

Colonel Hopka said with great confidence.

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