Chapter 45: Bubbles

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What’s the first thing to do after coming into money? Spend recklessly, buy two packs of instant noodles, eat one, and toss the other? Only a fool would do that. Buy a designer handbag? That’s something girls like to do. Buy a house? That’s for people who want a stable life and a place to settle down—Han Feng was hardly the type. Buying a small battleship sounded tempting, but it wasn’t necessary for now. He’d probably be staying on the Republic of Longteng’s capital planet for a long while, so it wouldn’t be much use.

So what else could he do?

Obviously, it was time for the daily ritual of drawing cards and testing his luck!

Han Feng now had a total of 22.05 million starcoins. He made money quickly, but spent it even faster—so fast that he might not even hear a sound as his wealth disappeared, spending money as if it were water. To avoid blowing it all in a reckless spree, he transferred five million starcoins to Tifa’s account. He worried that, in a moment of madness, he’d gamble it all away.

When it came to managing money, girls were better at it—so long as they didn’t go on a shopping spree themselves.

That left him with 17 million starcoins—seventeen ten-pulls. Han Feng went to the bathroom to carefully wash his hands, and splashed his face for good measure. He looked in the mirror—decent, not too dark.

First ten-pull: a bag full of one-star junk items.

Second ten-pull: another bag of one-star junk, all fragments.

Third, fourth, fifth… up to the tenth round—it was all bits and pieces of one- and two-star garbage. The most useful thing was a “Hero Experience Book.”

Ten million starcoins gone, and not a single ripple. Han Feng thought about it—he couldn’t recall doing anything bad lately.

This card system was a real scam. In other card games, at least there was a guarantee after a certain number of pulls. Here, after a hundred draws, not even a hint of orange rarity, not even a blue glow.

Yes, a hundred draws—and not a single three-star card. He was starting to question his very existence.

Truth be told, he didn’t urgently need any new hero cards. He only had two usable slots, and the two cards he had were great—no plans to replace them unless a particularly powerful five-star hero appeared.

He mostly wanted to test his luck—to see what he might get. If he could draw a handy ranged weapon card, he’d be thrilled. But everything pointed to terrible luck today—maybe he was being punished for not helping an old lady cross the street recently?

Han Feng refused to accept defeat. He was convinced that persistence was victory.

Two more rounds—yes, keep going.

Another two—should he keep trying?

Another two; by now, Han Feng was scratching the table, his face full of despair and existential doubt. He figured he must have been the chief of some unfortunate tribe in a past life. Clearly, he needed to do more good deeds and build up some karma.

One last chance. He had no hope left, and clicked the draw button mechanically.

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Ten cards spread out in front of him. His lifeless eyes suddenly sparkled with vitality—there, amid the sea of gray, a dazzling streak of purple light.

Han Feng slapped the table and shot to his feet, startling Tifa, who was gaming on her portable computer nearby.

Tifa had no idea what Han Feng had been up to. She thought he’d just been spacing out, so his sudden leap gave her quite a scare. Hesitantly, she asked, “Captain, are you… daydreaming?”

Han Feng waved her off, dropped back onto the sofa, and focused on the purple card.

[Shave]
[Type: Skill]
[Quality: 4-star]
[Absorption Requirements: Strength 935, Speed 1060, Constitution 955]
[Skill Effect: In a split second, stomp the ground dozens of times at high speed to generate explosive counterforce, propelling the user at incredible speed—making them seem to vanish before the enemy’s eyes.]
[Cooldown: 10 seconds]
[Description: A physical technique that surpasses human limits, one of the Navy’s Six Styles.]

A skill card? This was a first—he hadn’t even seen a fragment of one before.

“System, how do you use skill cards?”

[Skill cards have absorption prerequisites. Meet the requirements to absorb and learn them directly. After absorption, you gain the corresponding ability. Skill cards are consumables and disappear after use. The drop rate of skill cards is one-twentieth that of other cards.]

Skill cards were exceedingly rare, and could be absorbed directly. With such a valuable item, there was no way Han Feng would let it go. Besides, “Shave” was one of the most practical of the Navy’s Six Styles—in the original story, even many vice admirals and admirals had mastered it.

Han Feng absorbed it at once. The card vanished, and the knowledge and techniques for “Shave” appeared in his mind. In truth, the skill wasn’t difficult—most people needed long training to master it, but a few could pick it up after watching once or twice, like Luffy in the original story. Of course, that depended on talent and physical condition.

Eager to try his new skill, Han Feng set his sights on the bookcase at the other end of the room.

“Shave!”

Bang!

A human-shaped mark appeared on the wall.

Again!

Bang!

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Bang! Bang!

Tifa stared at Han Feng in horror. She couldn’t understand why her captain kept slamming himself into the wall—was this some new kind of training?

If not for his high constitution, Han Feng would’ve been black and blue by now. Rubbing his dizzy head, he realized he still needed a lot more practice.

Just then, the ship’s artificial intelligence, Alpha, announced, “Jump in five minutes. All crew, please prepare.”

The announcement played three times. Han Feng and Tifa exchanged glances, tidied up the mess he’d made, then settled into the safety seats, fastening their harnesses and donning helmets.

“Adjusting jump course.”

“Jump engine starting.”

“Jump in progress.”

A powerful force pressed them back into their seats as the Taurus-class transport entered its jump phase once more. This jump was expected to last five minutes.

Four minutes later.

A sharp forward momentum nearly hurled them out of their seats—thank goodness for the harnesses, or even Han Feng’s strength and constitution wouldn’t have saved him from being thrown into the wall.

The ship was decelerating rapidly. For some reason, it seemed to have exited jump early.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

“Warning! Ship has encountered an unknown force field. Jump engine forcibly shut down. Attempting restart… Jump engine restart failed!” Alpha’s voice rang throughout the cabin.

Han Feng rushed to the window. The jump had ended, the shields were up, and the ship was now enveloped in a massive bubble, its surface shimmering with blue forcefield ripples.

He recognized it instantly and understood why the ship’s jump engine had been forcibly shut down.