Chapter 34: Miss Veli’s Gift, Part 2

Surrender!?
Hei-Bai was stunned.
Although he had long noticed something unusual from the actions at the space station, he never expected such an outcome.
Surrender—second only to rebellion among the Moors as a grave crime. Hei-Bai couldn’t understand why this Moor officer, who claimed to be Tebid, would make such a choice. Damn it, didn’t he know that once he said those words, even if he returned to the Moor Empire later, he would surely be executed? Moreover, he currently held absolute advantage, with nearly a thousand murderous self-propelled armor units at his side—why would he surrender to him? Why?
No!! There must be something wrong here.
Hei-Bai’s eyes narrowed, emitting a cold glint. Almost casually, his gaze swept the surroundings once more.
This time, he finally noticed something unusual.
It was the self-propelled armor!
Those icy machines filled with a murderous aura. Though they had been blocking the Moor officers from the start, Hei-Bai now realized they were at a certain distance from them—a distance that seemed precisely calculated. In his eyes, it wasn’t long enough for protection, nor short enough.
Hmm, not protection. This seemed more like…
A spark lit up in Hei-Bai’s eyes. Alert!!
That’s right—this distance was ideal for the self-propelled armor to launch an attack. So, could it be that these killing machines in front of him weren’t targeting him, but rather these Moor officers!?
For a moment, Hei-Bai felt as if he had grasped the key to the matter, yet he couldn’t figure it out. Why were these self-propelled armor units behaving this way? This shouldn’t happen at all. After all, self-propelled armor had no pilots and were programmed with loyalty from birth. Unless someone could alter their core commands, they would never betray!
But the problem was, as far as Hei-Bai knew, no one in the Moor Empire seemed capable of altering the core commands of self-propelled armor—even their creators couldn’t!
Can’t figure it out… then stop thinking about it. Hei-Bai wasn’t the kind of person who liked to get stuck in dead ends. Besides, there were more important matters to deal with right in front of him.
Without showing any emotion, he helped the Moor officer up and patted the dust off his clothes.
“Surrender? Did I hear that right?”

“Yes. You bastard. I surrender.” Officer Moore looked at Blackhair with a complex expression and replied through gritted teeth. Anyone who saw his face would be shocked. But he hadn’t expected Blackhair’s words to be even more infuriating.
“Oh? Why surrender? Give me a reason. Otherwise…” Blackhair casually raised his eyebrows. “I might refuse.”
Refuse… refuse!?!
Not only Tebiduo but also the Moore officer behind him rolled their eyes.
What a joke. Had he heard wrong? What was that despicable Beck talking about? Refusing to accept surrender? Oh, my Goddess Tia. He’s truly insane. Hadn’t he realized the situation yet? This was the biggest joke he’d heard all year. A guy with just a small spaceship daring to tell a Moore officer in charge of an entire space station to refuse surrender?
For a moment, all the Moore officers’ faces twisted into bizarre expressions.
Yet their temporary superior, Captain Tebiduo, managed to hold back. He took a deep breath as if to suppress his anger, closed his eyes to calm down for a while before speaking again.
“I surrender because this space station is now out of control. Everything you see, including these self-driving armor units, now belongs to you, Lord Beck. I wonder if this answer satisfies you?”
Is all of this mine?
If he hadn’t heard Tebiduo’s words with his own ears, Blackhair would have thought he was crazy. Behind him, the other Blood Wolf pirates were in an uproar.
Unexpected—completely unexpected. Although they had long noticed something was wrong, no one could have imagined such an outcome. How could it be? A huge space station, even if its first commander disappeared, should still have a complete contingency plan. Blackhair’s actions could even be considered treason in the Moore Empire. How could he possibly become the owner of this space station?
However, no amount of uproar could change reality. As the self-driving armor units gradually gathered around Blackhair, the Blood Wolf pirates finally accepted this fact. Before them, the once-entouraged Moore officers were now alone, standing deserted on the dock.
Staring quietly at Tebiduo, who looked unwilling, Blackhair nodded but didn’t press further.

He knew that for a proud Moorish officer, his performance just now was already his greatest effort. Bowing one’s head in front of the enemy was not something a Moor would do. There must be some special circumstance that forced this proud man to such a state. And for Black Hair, the wisest choice was to remain silent.

Black Hair knew that if there was anything that needed to be said, Tebido would definitely speak up.

Sure enough, in the time that followed, Tebido unraveled all of Black Hair’s mysteries.

It turned out that there had indeed been a serious problem at the Seven-Six Three-Star Station. Not only had the Destruction Array destroyed nearly 70% of the docks, but worse still, the core of the station had lost control.

This was actually the work of Blood Pupil. While Black Hair went to pick up his remaining subordinates, he infiltrated the station’s power transmission pipelines with a small team. They installed a blocking system specially developed by the Death Star on the main transmission pathways to control certain functions of the station. He successfully completed this task, and the station was under his control as he wished. The first wave of attacks when facing the outer spaceguard fleet fleet was proof of this.

However, the Moors were not easy to deal with either. They detected the problem right away and sent a large number of troops to search. But to everyone’s surprise, just as they found the blocking device and managed to remove it, an even bigger problem arose.

The station’s control center refused to accept any commands and instead launched attacks on theguard fleet fleet on its own. Moreover, it activated all its internal alarm systems, ordering a merciless kill against anyone who dared approach it. In just ten minutes, the entire station changed completely. Large numbers of self-propelled armored units flooded the streets, dispersing crowds and taking control of all sensitive areas such as the dock weapon warehouses. Even the Moorish ships still at the airport suffered fatal attacks. Dense streams of energy shot out from every corner of the station, crippling them completely. With just one encounter, the situation was fully under control. The confined space of the airport made it impossible for these massive ships to move, let alone resist.

It was only at this point that the station’s control center issued instructions to the remaining Moorish officer for the first time. It demanded that all Moors surrender to Lord Beck aboard the small ship outside starting now.

By this point, Black Hair had understood the whole story. But he still couldn’t figure out why the station’s control center would behave in such a strange way. This was definitely not the result of Blood Pupil’s actions!

This mystery was resolved only when Black Hair arrived at the control room. For when the heavy valve was opened, the first words he heard were…
“Welcome back, my dear Lord Beck. I knew you would never die.”
The voice was soft and gentle. Yet Black Hair’s expression changed drastically as he stopped in his tracks at the door.
It was Veri!!
It was indeed Veri’s voice!!
In an instant, Black Hair understood everything.
Indeed, the core commands of the self-driving armor could not be changed, but if a higher-ranking Moor noble issued different orders, those would take precedence. The control center of the star station was indeed heavily guarded, but with Miss Veri’s status, that wasn’t a problem at all. She didn’t even need to lift a finger—there were plenty of people willing to die for her. Yet no one could have imagined that Miss Veri would have such confidence in Lord Beck. It was almost blind confidence; even as rumors of Lord Beck’s death spread and everyone turned against him, Miss Veri had subtly set up a trap.
A trap that could be activated at any time after she left. And this trap required only a small key.
Lord Beck. Or rather… Black Hair.
The failure of the Grand Duke of Tarot, Miss Veri’s departure—everything was just a setup for this trap. Black Hair could even imagine how proud Miss Veri must have been when she devised this plan. To them, whether the Seven-Six Three-Star Station should fall into the hands of the Grand Duke of Black Hands wasn’t even worth considering. Because once the conditions were right, everything would return to its starting point.
Yet… Black Hair sighed inwardly. Why didn’t such a wise woman doubt herself? Did she really think that a little reward would be enough to bind an excellent commander firmly to her cause?
A star station, handed over to him like this. Truly… truly…
Shameful.
For a moment, Black Hair felt his face burn with embarrassment.
But he wouldn’t feel guilty over this deception. There was still much to do. Since the Seven-Six Three-Star Station was temporarily in his hands, it was extremely useful for his next plans. Black Hair knew that outside, in the starry skies, a massive fleet was lurking, waiting for his call. Originally, this fleet was meant to be used against the Seven-Six Three-Star Station, but now it seemed the plan needed to be adjusted slightly.
Then, he would pay a visit to the Grand Duke of Black Hands ahead of time. Even for Miss Veri’s efforts, he had to let her taste some success first.

In deep thought, the black-haired person stepped into the control room…