Chapter Seventy: Eavesdropping

Chapter Seventy: Eavesdropping

At this moment, he found himself in a finely decorated private room, lined with rows of wine cabinets. An array of liquors dazzled the eye. The attendant introduced that guests could help themselves to any drink; each bottle would be automatically scanned when removed from the cabinet, and at the end, only the room number needed to be presented at the front desk.

“If you need anything else, you can place an order directly through the system,” the attendant said with a friendly smile before preparing to leave.

Although Liu Shaoyu’s attire was nothing more than the simple casualwear of a space traveler, the staff here displayed no hint of the typical snobbery that judged a customer by their clothes. Instead, they were warm and welcoming.

“Thank you,” Liu Shaoyu replied with a smile. The attendant turned and exited the room.

Once the door closed, not even the sound of her footsteps outside could be heard. Liu Shaoyu was very satisfied with the soundproofing.

First, he activated the scanning system. He had no intention of being recorded while eavesdropping.

“Thankfully, it’s clear,” Liu Shaoyu sighed in relief. If there had been surveillance, he would have had to trouble Thomas to alter the system—a hassle he could now avoid.

He opened the full-screen display on his computer and saw that his device remained in the same location in the restaurant as before. During his absence, he had instructed Thomas to automatically record any conversation to prevent missing important information. It seemed they still needed more time, so Liu Shaoyu decided to take his time selecting a drink from the cabinet.

Although he hadn’t specified upon entry, he knew that such private rooms usually came with a minimum charge. To avoid unnecessary complications, he decided to select a bottle as a token gesture.

Liu Shaoyu was not fond of drinking, and besides, he needed to stay alert for eavesdropping, so now was hardly the time for alcohol. Staring at the array of bottles with their strange and exotic labels made his head spin.

“I can’t make sense of any of this…” Liu Shaoyu finally found the control panel in the room and discovered that he could change the language setting.

It turned out that from the console, he could browse the selection in the wine cabinet, complete with descriptions and prices.

Even with enough savings in the bank to support an average family for three years, Liu Shaoyu was still shocked by the prices.

“My goodness! Are these bottles made of gold?” he couldn’t help but exclaim.

Even the cheapest locally produced Zambian wine was close to five thousand universal credits.

Even more so for the baijiu he was familiar with from Huaxia, the cheapest of which was nearly eight thousand credits.

Spending almost ten thousand on a single bottle made Liu Shaoyu’s heart ache. It was only because he hadn’t yet converted the ice ore from his last haul into actual money. The price of a single bottle was little more than the value of a pinch of dust scraped from one block of ice ore—if even that.

Not wanting to dwell on it, Liu Shaoyu finally ordered a bottle of baijiu from the Earth Federation. After placing his order, a compartment in the wine cabinet opened, and a metal tray floated out on counter-thrust, descending smoothly onto the coffee table before him.

Liu Shaoyu smiled. Wasn’t there a saying? Technology brings beauty to life.

“Thomas, help me look up everything you can about Huang Xuan,” Liu Shaoyu decided to use this time to learn more about the man.

Know your enemy and yourself, and you need not fear a hundred battles—an eternal truth.

“Search complete. Additional information requires higher-level access,” Thomas replied in just a few seconds, having gathered all publicly available information from the net. But this wasn’t what Liu Shaoyu needed.

“This is your specialty, isn’t it, Thomas?” Liu Shaoyu joked.

“Now attempting to escalate permissions.” After Thomas finished speaking, Liu Shaoyu felt a mild heat in his brain. He had grown used to this sensation—heat generated by Thomas running at high speed. This made him increasingly curious about the structure of his own body.

Under normal circumstances, even a slight temperature fluctuation in the brain would be fatal, but for him… apart from some heat, he felt nothing unusual. In fact, as it happened more often, the discomfort lessened.

“I must ask Wang Weifu about this when I return,” Liu Shaoyu resolved to question him thoroughly about his physical condition. His body was becoming more and more of a mystery.

Snapping back to the present, Liu Shaoyu studied the information before him. The data obtained through elevated access was not as easily acquired—according to Thomas, it was a complex process.

Huang Xuan, male, 23 years old. Born in Kyushu Island, the capital military district of the Huaxia Republic, Earth Federation. Currently serving as captain of the Xuanyuan Fleet, a division of the Galactic Cyclops Bounty Group.

Among the mass of data, these were the only useful details Liu Shaoyu could find, and even these were gleaned from the bounty group’s internal network.

There was nothing else, which explained why it had taken only a few seconds to gather.

It seemed he would have to wait for Thomas to dig up more.

“Target on the move.” This was the signal Thomas was programmed to send if the group began changing locations.

“Have the device follow.”

In a nondescript corner of the restaurant’s private room, a small mechanical device suddenly vanished. Another of Wang Weifu’s inventions—simple optical camouflage, though each of these little things cost a fortune.

Liu Shaoyu sometimes wondered what exactly Wang Weifu had intended these gadgets for. Was it all just to spy on girls in the shower?

As expected, the group left the restaurant and headed straight for a bar. Their signal finally settled in a private room not far from Liu Shaoyu.

“Come on, let’s go out and have some fun. Young Master Huang said he’s paying tonight!”

After Zhou Anyi’s words, a scattered chorus of voices faded as the door closed and the room fell quiet.

“Now, little brother, can you finally tell us?” Tu Wenhong’s deep voice rumbled. Liu Shaoyu sat up, alert—the real discussion was about to begin.

“Haha, Brother Tu, no need to rush. We didn’t even have a proper drink at dinner. There are some good bottles in this bar,” Huang Xuan said, making no hurry to get to the point. He wasn’t as relaxed as he seemed—he just wanted to keep Tu Wenhong in suspense a little longer.

“We can drink after we talk, can’t we? No point getting muddled and missing the important stuff. Isn’t that right, Young Master Huang?” As he spoke the last three words, Tu Wenhong’s tone grew very low.

Sensing Tu Wenhong’s growing impatience, Huang Xuan, back turned, allowed a smile to flicker across his face. The suspense had reached its limit. Yet his hand moved unhurriedly to the wine cabinet, tapped the touchscreen, and retrieved a bottle before returning to sit beside Tu Wenhong.

By now, Liu Shaoyu had opened the holographic display. He could see the weight of concern etched across Tu Wenhong’s face—a look he had worn since Liu Shaoyu first observed him, solemn and unsmiling. As for Huang Xuan, Liu Shaoyu saw only the words “scoundrel” written on his face.

“Well, the truth is…”