Chapter 29: Harmony of Light and Darkness, Section 9

Traveling through space is lonely and monotonous. Facing the endless starry sky outside the window, crew members who are new to space might feel a sense of novelty at first. But this novelty never lasts longer than a week. Moreover, since they are in space, there is no longer a distinction between day and night. The crew can only rely on the clocks in their cabins to keep track of time, living day after day in a repetitive and boring existence within those enclosed spaces.

The lights in the cabin were bright—it was already the second day since leaving that desolate planet. Following the coordinates given by the Green Elf Graydust, the Black-Haired fleet was rapidly approaching Hahathul. The massive Moorish warships moved at astonishing speeds, like well-oiled weapons. Black-Haired sat silently in his captain’s seat. The lake-colored wine in his hand glowed like a gem under the light.

“Buzz!” The cabin door behind him opened automatically, and Bloodpupil stepped in.
“What’s wrong, Bloodpupil? Why are you up so early? That’s not like you…” Black-Haired didn’t even turn around, as if he already knew what was happening, and snapped out of his thoughts. He asked with a smile. From his position, the starry sky outside the window appeared pitch black, as if enveloped in deep night. He glanced at the clock—it was 2 a.m., the time when humans should be most sleepy.
“I’d like to rest more too. But I just can’t fall asleep. The bed here is as hard as stone, leaving my whole body aching. Damn it, I really don’t understand how the Moors can like sleeping on such beds.” Bloodpupil scratched his head, his messy hair sticking up, as he stepped behind Black-Haired. Perhaps because he had just woken up, his eyes were still blurry. But when he saw the tempting wine glass in Black-Haired’s hand, his eyes widened instantly.

Without hesitation, he snatched the glass of red wine from Black-Haired’s hand and drank it in one gulp. Bloodpupil let out a long sigh, a satisfied expression on his face. After shaking the now-empty glass, he chuckled and, with a shameless grin, handed it back to Black-Haired.
“Hehe, boss. A new day has begun. I feel full of energy now. Please give me orders. No matter what the enemy is, I don’t care how strong he is—only where he is! Ah… Goddess Tia, grant me strength!”

“Damn it, do you still want to shout, ‘I’m fucking Xirei’?” Hei Fa looked at his empty glass in exasperation and gave the still-crazy Xue Tong a firm slap. “Get to work! We’re only thirty minutes away from the target. Go check if your ‘child’ is ready. If so, bring full gear this time. Throw away that useless fancy machine gun of yours.”
Hearing Hei Fa’s angry rebuke, Xue Tong just grinned. Of course he knew that the so-called “child” Hei Fa was referring to was his blood-colored mech. He also understood why Hei Fa wanted him to make adjustments, but…
“Boss, I’ve always prepared my ‘child’ myself. Don’t worry. But if you won’t let me use the machine gun, it’s better to kill me…” Xue Tong put on a pitiful face. He looked as miserable as possible, yet didn’t take a single step.
It was actually simple. Though Xue Tong was experienced and skilled, he had one major flaw: he only liked firearms—specifically, those that could fire in bursts, i.e., machine guns. With any other weapon in his hands, he probably couldn’t even reach 1% of his usual strength. Not to mention the fast-paced battles; even regular target practice would likely see him fail.
This was what specialization meant. Mech weapons came in countless varieties, but they mostly fell into a few categories. Xue Tong specialized in machine guns, a skill he had earned through countless battles and bloodshed. But now Hei Fa wanted him to give them up—it was indeed demanding.
However, he also knew that if they had to fight this time, the enemies might be those massive Rock Warrior soldiers. His machine gun, though highly accurate, wasn’t very destructive. Hei Fa’s request to switch gears made sense.
“Shut up, you brat. I know what you’re thinking. I’ve already had someone deliver the gear to the hangar. Go check it yourself. This kind of weapon was meant for critical moments. But I’ve changed my mind.” Hei Fa looked at Xue Tong’s act of pitying with a mix of anger and amusement, then raised a finger.
“Now. Go prepare my gear right away. Hurry up!”
“Yes, boss!” Xue Tong was stunned for a moment before bursting into joy. Ignoring any courtesy, he turned and ran out. At that moment, his mind was completely confused by what Hei Fa had just said.
“New gear!”

“By the way, the equipment and ammunition given to you this time aren’t unlimited—use them sparingly!” Black Hair suddenly added from behind him.
“R-Right… I know…” His excited smile instantly turned into a grimace. Blood Pupil’s running pace halted, and he soon moved as slowly as a turtle.
As someone who specialized in high-fire-rate machine guns, Blood Pupil’s habit was to unleash a barrage of bullets to suppress enemies. But now Black Hair was asking him to save ammunition? Oh, damn God, why can’t you let my joy last a little longer?
Blood Pupil was extremely frustrated at the moment. Yet when he entered the cockpit and saw his new equipment, all his frustration vanished instantly.
W-What’s that?
A huge blood-red mecha stood quietly in the cockpit. Blood Pupil was certainly familiar with it. But the problem was the equally massive weapon placed at its feet.
Calling it massive was no exaggeration—even for a mecha of Blood Red’s size, lifting this weapon would likely require the use of both hands and thighs. Its length was astonishingly seven meters!! Longer than the mecha itself!! From a distance, it looked like an enormously enlarged Dotlin six-barreled heavy machine gun! Its thick barrels resembled cannon barrels. And its ammunition feeding system was even more extreme—it was simply designed as a backpack!!
“Oh, my God. Is this for me?” Blood Pupil’s eyes sparkled, and his legs trembled so badly he almost lost his balance. Extreme joy overwhelmed him, leaving him unable to speak properly. The few Blood Wolf pirates responsible for daily maintenance, seeing his reaction, immediately turned around and fled without a word.
They were all too familiar with Blood Pupil’s behavior. Every time he got new equipment, he would go crazy like this. And every time, any companion nearby would end up with some part of their body broken under his uncontrolled joy. In moments of excitement, Blood Pupil couldn’t control his strength—and unfortunately, his physique had also been enhanced by the Wandering Clan…
But this time, Blood Pupil’s excitement went too far. Without hesitation, he rushed to the mecha and used his own strength to disassemble the weapon! In less than ten minutes, the huge multi-barreled machine gun on the ground had turned into scattered parts.

“A machine gun, or a machine gun…” Excited, Blood-Pup howled as he stood up from the pile of parts. His face was filled with extreme joy as he suddenly shouted, “Boss, thank you! From now on, I’m fucking Xire!”
Because, after verifying it with his own hands, Blood-Pup finally understood what Black-Hair had given him this time.
It was a multi-barrel pulse rocket launcher! A weapon modeled after the principle of a machine gun, but using rockets as its ammunition for terrifying continuous firing. In the category of mecha weapons, it was an outlier among outliers! Known as a deadly weapon that could hold its own against thousands of enemies! They all shared one common name…
Siege weapons!
Just imagine—the terrifying lethality of a weapon based on the Dottelin six-barrel machine gun, but with high-explosive rockets as its ammunition. Without going into further details, even a warship could be pierced in an instant if Blood-Pup wished. And most importantly, since rockets were real ammunition, there was a variety of types—high-explosive, corrosive, armor-piercing, chain, mixed, and even multi-frequency pulses! Such a weapon in the hands of Blood-Pup, who was already extremely familiar with machine guns, was like giving an unparalleled sword to a master swordsman! Its significance was immeasurable.
However, Blood-Pup truly admired Black-Hair’s courage and vision for daring to use siege weapons in ordinary battles. Such massive and bulky equipment could probably only be handled by elite mechas or the gun turrets of warships.
And Blood-Pup finally understood why Black-Hair had urged him to conserve ammunition at the end…
Damn it, with such a huge weapon still using the principle of a machine gun, how would its ammunition be supplied? Likely, each rocket was as big as several magazine capacities. No wonder the ammo supply system was designed to look like a mecha backpack. That meant if he equipped this weapon, his Blood-Red Mecha wouldn’t be able to carry a backpack anymore. All the original spare parts and weapons would be unusable. Even so, the capacity of a backpack was limited. Blood-Pup roughly estimated that it could support continuous firing for about five minutes when fully loaded?
Only five minutes of maximum firepower… Blood-Pup smiled bitterly after calming down.
Boss, you really gave me a sweet treat, but followed it with a slap… How am I supposed to choose with such a weapon? I don’t have a subspace backpack like the Killing Emperor’s.
“Beep beep beep…” Just then, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded in the cabin!!