Deep Space Scavenging, Hand Over Alien Warships at the Beginning

”These guys in uniform... are even more corrupt than me...”

...

In the engine room, Lin Yuan listened to the communication recording intercepted by gaia, a cruel curve curling at the corner of his mouth.

”What a fine ’for the sake of glory’.”

Lin Yuan cracked his neck with a series of pops. Although he had just forcibly suppressed the core’s self-destruction, that violent Void Energy was still rampaging through his body, and he was looking for a place to vent it.

”Since they don’t want to be decent, I’ll give them a hand.” Lin Yuan kicked aside the debris blocking his path and, dragging that large iron rod, strode toward the control room.

”gaia, how many doors in this fortress are still locked?”

”Reporting, Boss, there are still twelve A-grade alloy gates leading to the main control hub. Normal hacking would take thirty minutes...”

”Hack my ass.” Lin Yuan walked up to the first blast door, which was half a meter thick, and pressed his palm against it.

[Ding! C-grade alloy scrap detected, determined to be ownerless.]

[Recycling successful.]

With a hum, the gate that was strong enough to withstand the shock of a nuclear blast vanished into thin air, without even a screw left behind. Lin Yuan stepped through without any obstruction, as if he were using a wall-hack.

”In Daxia, this is called a ’scavenger’ passing through—not a single blade of grass is left behind.”

Lin Yuan dismantled everything as he went. Everywhere he passed, let alone doors, even half of the hundred-meter-long metal corridors were recycled by him, leaving only the bare framework.

In just three minutes, he literally forged a straight line through the maze-like fortress with his feet, standing directly at the main gate of the control hub.

There were no pirates guarding the place because the guards had just been crushed to death by beams falling from the ceiling.

Lin Yuan walked into the hub, which was filled with scattered documents and servers that were still sparking. He kicked aside a corpse on the floor and walked straight to the massive mainframe.

”gaia, time to work.” Lin Yuan pressed his hand onto the mainframe interface. ”Expose everything they’ve got.”

”You got it! Boss, this firewall is like paper... holy crap!”

gaia’s voice suddenly jumped up an octave, as if she had discovered something incredible. ”Boss, look at this! These bastards aren’t just collecting protection fees; they’re also the biggest human traffickers in this sector!”

On the holographic screen, an encrypted ledger was forcibly cracked and unfolded.

It was packed with records of every dirty transaction: on such-and-such a date, three million natives of a certain planet were sold to a Mining Planet; on such-and-such a date, they assisted pirates in raiding a merchant fleet for a thirty-seventy split of the profits...

And at the very bottom of the ledger, there was even a draft titled ’Earth Cleansing Plan’, which was clearly stamped with Zeta’s family seal.

”Good, very good.”

Lin Yuan looked at that ledger, the killing intent in his eyes almost solidifying. He dragged the still-unconscious Zeta out of the system space like a dead dog and slapped him awake with two strikes.

”Wake up, Young Master, it’s time to be on camera.”

Zeta opened his eyes groggily and was about to scream when Lin Yuan grabbed his chin and pointed him at the wide-area communication camera that gaia had already taken over.

”gaia, broadcast this video, along with that ledger, on a loop across all public channels in the Orion Arm.”

Lin Yuan had his trademark honest smile on his face, but his eyes were colder than the vacuum outside.

”The title will be—’Shocking! A Certain Noble Young Master and His Unspeakable Dirty Deals’.”

...

The next second.

Whether it was the patrol ships firing on the perimeter, the passing merchant ships hiding in the shadows to observe, or even some relay stations light-years away—all screens were forcibly cut at the same time.

In the image, Captain Zeta, who was usually high and mighty, now had a bruised face and a mouth full of blood, being held up like a small chicken.

”Hello everyone, I’m Lin Yuan from Earth.”

Lin Yuan’s large face squeezed into the frame, holding the electronic ledger that hadn’t been destroyed yet. ”Today we aren’t selling anything; we’re here to tell everyone how this so-called civilized Order Bureau collects protection fees while selling us like pigs and dogs.”

As the pages of the ledger were flipped one by one, the originally silent public channel instantly exploded.