32 The Fastest Way to Make Money Adventuring [Please Add to Your Reading List!]

Lu Chen piloted the armored suit, launching himself with a thunderous roar. Trailing a jet of blackened red flames, he reached maximum speed in three seconds, surging forward like a clumsy rocket driven by a tractor engine, heading straight for the hovering disc-shaped scavenger ship.

At the same time, he remotely controlled the Leonin, suddenly revving its engines and ascending to high altitude, awaiting further orders. Inside the armored cockpit, warning videos from the opposing ship captain flashed incessantly across the screens.

The captain was a corpulent, unkempt middle-aged man, draped in an open brocade robe, his face flushed with drunkenness and his beard in disarray. Lu Chen’s abrupt actions had jolted him awake in fury.

“Remember, it’s the Scavenger Star Alliance!”
“And no scavenger armor allowed onboard!”
“Identify yourself at once, exit your armor, and come meet me in person!”

Lu Chen remained silent. As he closed in, his targeting systems gradually locked onto the scavenger ship’s engine and gyroscope locations.

This scavenger ship was much like the one Golia had crashed on Rust Star. At least eighteen times patched, bearing scars of countless repairs, its defenses riddled with flaws, and its balance maintained by antiquated distributed gyroscopes.

Soon, the opposing captain realized something was amiss with the scavenger armor. He ordered evasive maneuvers, shouting frantically in the video feed:

“Slow down… Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Lu Chen still gave no reply.

The scavenger ship’s captain decided to open fire immediately.

However, before the disc-shaped scavenger ship could fire, Lu Chen had already struck first. He activated the overclocking device, pushing the laser driver to level thirty.

A palm-sized laser cannon!

A crimson beam shrieked through the air, instantly puncturing the distributed gravitational gyroscope at the ship’s lower corner.

The scavenger ship was already in desperate evasive action. Now, with one of its four gyroscopes destroyed, it lost balance instantly. Its hurriedly fired cannons lost their aim. Five tracking missiles were destroyed one by one by Lu Chen’s low-powered laser bursts.

Lu Chen pressed his advantage.

Another blast from his laser cannon took out the ship’s second gyroscope. The scavenger vessel began to tilt, chaos erupting within.

“How does a scavenger armor have a laser cannon?”
“How can he so easily target our gyroscopes?”
“Where’s the drone swarm we just bought?”
“The ship’s unbalanced, and we need more time to prepare!”
“No time—max the engines and get above the atmosphere!”
“We need to stabilize the ship first, or we might crash into the ground!”
“Max the engines—if we crash, so be it!”

The scavenger ship made an emergency maneuver, its hull rolling wildly, like a leaf caught in the wind.

For Lu Chen, who had just upgraded his armor with laser cannons, light sabers, and a level thirty overclocking device, threats and extortion were intolerable. He was broke anyway. Better to strike first than be fired upon.

Though the enemy vessel was a level thirty armed ship, it was a patchwork monstrosity full of vulnerabilities. With his overclocked laser cannon and surprise attack, Lu Chen was more than capable of handling it. If things went awry, Golia was always ready to assist.

In any case, he needed this battered ship and its crew to help him contact Lady Fariel! Laser weapons were his means of negotiation.

Now, Lu Chen was less than a hundred meters from the scavenger ship. Seizing the moment while the crew was off balance, he locked onto the engine position and unleashed a full-powered laser cannon blast from his palm!

This time, the laser didn’t penetrate the hull. It left only a small dent on the outer shell.

Just as expected.

Any ship’s engine hull is heavily reinforced, often protected by defensive formations against lasers. Fortunately, this disc-shaped vessel only had special anti-laser alloy plating at the engine.

Lu Chen didn’t waste another shot. He leapt onto the scavenger ship’s roof, landing at the edge. His thick left arm extended a stabilizing claw, gripping the hull firmly. His right arm slid out the hilt of a light saber, resting in his palm.

The blade ignited, a crimson glow surging forth, humming fiercely under the constraints of the hilt’s spiritual patterns.

With the right hand, the scavenger armor plunged the saber downward, piercing the ship’s hull and slicing a long fissure. Lu Chen retracted the saber, then with his powerful left arm, tore the opening wider and leapt inside.

He entered the rolling interior of the ship.

Inside, chaos reigned—screams echoed as crew members scrambled for escape pods or tried to flee the ship.

Lu Chen activated the twin-engine boots, hovering steadily midair within the inner cabin. Without hesitation, he fired a laser cannon, destroying the ship’s communications tower—preventing any distress calls to other scavenger ships in the star system.

A second shot obliterated the sole escape pod—ensuring no crew could escape.

A third shot wrecked the engine room—painful but necessary for security. Thankfully, the lasers mainly damaged the spiritual patterns on the inner and outer engine layers, leaving the materials mostly intact and repairable.

This was why he hadn’t let Golia intervene.

The scavenger ship lost power instantly, rolling and burning as it plummeted toward the planet, crashing at an angle onto the nearby grassland.

With a thunderous crash!

The scavenger ship buried itself in the soft earth. Fortunately, the ground was loose and the ship’s structure remained intact.

The hatch opened automatically.

Bang, bang, bang!

Inflatable life vests burst forth, enveloping the crew in protective airbags.

Lu Chen exited the ship in his armor, landing steadily atop the wrecked vessel. He surveyed the crash site and its crew.

There were fifty-six crew members in total. Most were common folk, cowering in their airbags. A few level twenty mechanical cultivators and sword spirit warriors dared not challenge someone with laser weaponry.

Some had already sliced open their airbags and tried to escape before Lu Chen emerged.

They hadn’t gone far when gunfire erupted ahead, spraying mud and grass.

Everyone looked up to see the Feondi ship hovering overhead.

Terrified, they abandoned their escape, knelt on the ground, dropped their weapons, and clasped their heads, awaiting judgment.

Lu Chen observed for a while and found only the scavenger ship captain had any real cultivation—a level twenty-eight spiritual warrior.

Now, the captain dragged his hefty frame from the hull, clutching a wine bottle. He stood upright atop the ship, facing Lu Chen, remarkably calm. At least in terms of presence, he hadn’t lost.

“I’ve already contacted the Scavenger Alliance headquarters. Your membership application has been submitted and approved. They recognize your strength and grant you special exemption from fees to join the Alliance!”

Clearly, this was a man who could remain rational even while drunk.

Lu Chen raised his hand and fired a laser cannon, burning through the captain’s forehead.

Faced with a pirate who tried to extort and threaten him, Lu Chen saw no need for chivalry. Besides, even if he cared for honor, he was already justified.

From his first strike to the destruction of the ship’s signal tower, less than two minutes had passed. The ship was rolling uncontrollably, likely unable to send a distress signal. Even if one got out, it didn’t matter—Lu Chen’s identity remained hidden.

He also had escape protocols; any danger, he could flee instantly, unafraid of revenge.

He checked the captain’s corpse and found a black silk pouch embroidered with gold—a storage bag!

Given modern storage technology, ancient storage bags tend to be unstable and vulnerable to cracking, but their energy consumption is minimal, making them rare treasures.

“This is an unexpected bonus!”

Lu Chen gleefully tucked the storage bag away.

To show his gratitude, he granted the headless captain a complimentary laser cremation.

Having established his dominance, he turned to face the trembling crew.

Lu Chen addressed the eight first-star cultivators before him in a deep voice:

“The debt has been settled; the ringleader is dead. As long as you cooperate, I won’t kill another soul.”

His voice, synthesized by the armor, blended electronic resonance, sounding especially intimidating.

Still, among the kneeling crew, one gathered his courage to ask:

“May we know what task you require our help with, sir?”

“To claim the bounty for me.”

With that, Lu Chen’s tone darkened.

“But first, hand over all your spirit stones, pills, and valuable equipment… Anyone caught hiding will be executed.”

Terrified, the crew complied.

Moments later, Lu Chen had collected eight hundred and thirteen spirit stones, several spirit swords, sets of armor, and a handful of healing, marrow-cleansing, and meridian-opening pills.

Combined with the ancient storage bag from the captain and the still salvageable scavenger ship, Lu Chen’s haul surpassed the bounty reward.

He immediately decided to always disguise the Leonin as a civilian vessel, modifying only the interior and keeping its outward appearance unchanged.

Playing the fool paid off handsomely!

Lu Chen glanced at the crew and said,

“Excellent. Next, you’ll help me repair the scavenger ship and go to the Red Cedar star system to claim the bounty on my behalf.”