Chapter 40: Suspicion
Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations
After training for an entire morning, Mu Fan’s training results were as follows…
In the beginning, Mu Fan could only manage two blue and three red mechanical levers, and five control buttons on the control panel. Two hours later, he was able to manage four blue and four red mechanical levers and six control buttons.
Mu Fan was like a sponge absorbing water as he quickly learned from Black’s instructions. Finally, before lunchtime, he was able to make the EH01 walk and even skip a bit. However, Mu Fan was still feeling slightly embarrassed when he exited the PO Battle Network as Black smiled at him.
Black flew a few rounds inside the cockpit and murmured to itself, “Is this too mean to Mu Fan?”
But then, its eyes squinted into two lines again, and it continued to murmur, “Lord Egg has to be the best, because he can’t ruin Lord Black’s reputation! Yeah, that’s right; he can’t ruin my reputation.”
“Mhm? Something interesting is being broadcasted on Planet Surge’s radio channel; I should go check it out!”
Black’s eyes turned from dots to circles as it disappeared in mid-air.
About 2.7 light years away on Planet Surge, a recent piece of news was playing on the radio: “The Annual Beauty Pageant on Planet Surge is about to begin…”
…
Mu Fan could tell that Chubby Harry lost again from the deadness in his eyes. Young Master Harry was exasperated, and he asked Uncle Wu through the skycom to double the lunch today. Chubby Harry decided to finish both sets of lunch by himself after Mu Fan rejected his invitation, and he also needed food to calm himself down as he got badly defeated during the last battle.
Mu Fan was upset as well, so he asked for 12 meal boxes for lunch. He used a lot of energy during the fight with Young Master Wen, and he had to eat it all back. The crowd made way for him as he walked into the cafeteria. Even though Mu Fan was not a sensitive person, he could still feel the respect and fear in their eyes.
The strongest human sandbag is here! It isn’t a joke! Jereff got beaten until he puked blood! However, this boy is sitting here eating 12 meal boxes like nothing! He is fine, and he is eating even more! Much more!
I know I don’t want to irritate him for sure; I’ll walk around him. One of them thought this way, and so did the rest of them as they weren’t dumb. Mu Fan got the same treatment as Jereff before.
Mu Fan finished the nutritious meal, and he felt like every single cell in his body was bathing in the warm sunlight. He was filled with energy again!
When Mu Fan got up and left, everyone looked at the big purple bruise on his arm and paid respect with their stares.
It’s going to be the same routine in the afternoon, Mu Fan thought as he rubbed his chin. Maybe I’ll head out since it’s still early?
After thinking for a bit, Mu Fan changed back to his own clothes and left the Budokan.
The temperature was quite hot in the city district during noon. Also, since the UV radiation was quite high on Planet Loga, there weren’t many pedestrians on the streets; most of them would rather stay in the cool indoors instead, and the streets were the least busy during noon.
Mu Fan wondered how Old Uncle Budd was doing and decided that he could pay him a visit at his shop during the weekends when the Budokan would be closed.
Mu Fan had a little bit of money now. It was roughly 1,000 star coins; he never had this much money on him before. He looked at his worn-out backpack with holes and licked his lips before walking towards the equipment shop not far away. It was time to buy a more durable combat backpack.
“Welcome,” the receptionists at the gate bowed as they welcomed Mu Fan.
“We look forward to seeing you again.”
At this moment, two men with yellowish-green linen tops and guns buckled to their belt walked out of the door. One was taller than the other, and each of them carried a sleeping bag in their arms. Although they looked friendly as they waved goodbye to the receptionists, the occasional viciousness that flashed across their eyes made Mu Fan furrow his brows.
When these two men passed Mu Fan, the shorter one who was carrying his sleeping bag sideways didn’t seem to notice Mu Fan at all.
Mu Fan stood still and waited for him to turn 90 degrees, but the short man walked straight out with the sleeping bag and hit Mu Fan’s shoulder.
“Are you f*cking blind?” the shorter man shouted first when he felt the sleeping bag hitting onto something.
“You are blind, and your mouth stinks,” Mu Fan said coldly as he stared at the shorter man who looked fierce.
“Kid, do you want to die?!” The shorter man was about to attack when the taller one grabbed his arm and scolded, “Hey! Stop that!”
The shorter one forced himself to stop when he saw the taller man’s action.
“Poor hobo, Daddy will forgive you this time.” The shorter man spat onto the ground as he stared at the kid wearing worn-out denim in front of him. He wasn’t in the mood to argue with a poor kid, so he turned around and left. The taller man turned around after walking for about ten meters and glared at Mu Fan deeply, and Mu Fan stared back without fear.
Mu Fan clenched his fists and was about to do something, but then he heard the tall man say something to the shorter man with his acute hearing. If Mu Fan’s senses weren’t sharper than the others, he wouldn’t be able to hear anything at this distance.
“Budokan… Fat sheep…”
[TL Note: Fat sheep usually means someone dull who had a ton of money.]
The two didn’t look back anymore as they carried the sleeping bags and walked towards the suburbs.
“Budokan?” Mu Fan’s sharp brows pinched together as his eyes squinted. Then, he turned around and apologized to the receptionists. “Sorry, I forgot to bring money with me; I’ll be back shortly.”
Then, the boy in worn-out work clothes turned around and left under the receptionists’ look of disdain. It just happened that Mu Fan was walking in the direction that those two men had left.
Mu Fan was light-footed, and he quickly caught up to them. After seeing those two men, he kept quite a distance behind them and didn’t stare at them straight. He hid among the few pedestrians and walked naturally.
It was like chasing down prey in the forest. He would always keep himself ‘invisible’ before attacking.
When the two turned into a food store, Mu Fan pretended to pick up something behind an advertisement stand. At this angle, he soon saw the two men walk out of the store with his peripheral vision, and the taller one had a huge pack of food on his back.
Then, they turned right into an alleyway.
Mu Fan squinted his eyes at the two as they were walking towards the district inspection gate, but they quickly turned in another direction when they got close. The next gate was a long way away if they were to walk that way. Therefore, it was clear that they were taking a fake route.
Mu Fan followed them slowly and turned in the same direction, entering the alleyway right before the one that they entered. There was nobody here!
Mu Fan prepared to follow them on a parallel path because these two men’s strange actions made him suspicious.
Suddenly, Mu Fan’s ears perked, and he broke out of his cover. He ran quickly towards a tilting tree and stepped on it to leap up, hanging on the side of a two-story building. This series of actions was smooth, silent, and light-footed.
He adjusted his breathing, not huffing as if he had just done vigorous exercise. Mu Fan held onto his breath and didn’t let out a sound. He even pressed his pants onto the wall, preventing the hems of his pants from making noises when the wind blew by. He became one with the wall.
Sound of footsteps came from below, and it was purposely slowed down. However, slight noises were created when small rocks, puddles, and leaves were stepped on occasionally.
Someone’s here. Mu Fan was so tightly pressed onto the wall that he almost merged with it.
Two figures in full alertness appeared below, and they walked out after checking left and right.
The voice was quiet, but Mu Fan knew that it was the same familiar voice he had just heard not too long ago; it was the short man’s voice. Even though he sounded quiet, he was careless.
“Don’t be a chicken. Nobody will know what we’re doing here if we don’t say anything.”
The taller man suddenly raised his tone but quickly tried to suppress it as he warned the shorter man, “You, be quieter, okay!”
Mu Fan’s hands dug into the gaps on the wall. He was only three meters above these two people and could be easily seen if they raised their heads.
The taller man’s tone softened. “The higher ups sent us here to keep an eye. It’s already breaking the rules when you set your eyes on a fat sheep. I’m not going to say anything about helping you, but shouldn’t you know how to keep it low by now?”
The shorter man replied with a voice full of frustration, “Did we get any benefits from keeping an eye on those rich people?! What’s wrong with me trying to rob a fat sheep? Who’s going to know if neither of us say anything.”
The alluring voice sounded again, and the taller man was slightly moved this time. “You know that fat sheep at the Budokan. It has been two days, and I’m sure he doesn’t have a security guard with him. It’ll only be him and him only; it isn’t going to affect our mission.”
The taller one was still hesitating when the shorter one added something and persuaded him, “Bro, we’ll split it half-half. Tomorrow afternoon, and no one will know.”
The taller one clenched his teeth and said, “Fine! Nobody should know about this.”