The tavern remained silent until someone asked with a trembling voice, "So he's Kohld Blood, the space pirate with a bounty of 330 million Star Credits?"
Everyone in the Skyriver Sector knew this name. Of course, this included Gu Ding. Kohld Blood was already famous before he became a space pirate. Back then, he was a super-elite military academy student of the Universal Federation.
His life story was the stuff of legends.
He enrolled in the Basic Military Academy when he was seven years old, and finished the entire three-year course within a year. At the same time, his results shattered a three-hundred-year record and granted his enrollment into the Advanced Military Academy. Two years later, he graduated from the Advanced Academy, once again his results broke a hundred-year record. He was only ten years old by then.
After his graduation, Kohld Blood was recruited into the elite branch of the Federation Army and completed one year of training there. After a year of silence, he stepped into the spotlight again after his training. At age eleven, he singlehanded killed the space pirate Lurand, who had an 80 million Star Credit bounty attached to his head. His rise in popularity after that could only be described as meteoric.
In the next five years, he ended the lives of three space pirates with individual bounties of more than 100 million, the highest among them being 160 million. More than three hundred space pirates with bounties more than ten million were sent to federal prisons by him alone.
When he was sixteen, after going through multiple evaluations by the Federation Army, he was promoted to vice-captain of an elite squad. By then, his battle prowess had been greater than many captains of the other squads.
When he was eighteen, he was promoted to captain. In the next seven years, he led his elite squad and vanquished eleven space pirates that had a bounty of more than 100 million. The highest bounty among them was 310 million.
When he was twenty-five, he was promoted to Colonel of the Federation Army. He was the youngest in Federation history to achieve this rank. There seemed to be no limit to what he could achieve.
On his second week of being promoted to Colonel, he received a covert mission. After that, he disappeared for six entire months. When he emerged six months later, he had become a space pirate. He murdered six Federation Colonels and a one Senior Colonel mercilessly and officially broke ties with the Universal Federation Government.
No one knew what happened to him in those six months. The Federation Government had classified the mission as top secret. Even the best hackers in the universe could not find any information about that mission.
Kohld Blood's sudden turnabout had been a topic of speculation for every citizen of the Federation. He was known not as a military genius, but as a traitor.
After severing ties with the Universal Federation Government, Kohld Blood formed his crew of space pirates and named it 'The Punishers'. The Federation Government immediately placed a bounty of 200 million Star Credits to his head.
It had been a year and a half since the formation of his crew. For his exploits in this year and a half, the bounty on his head had risen to 330 million. He was the up and rising star of the Skyriver Sector.
Cerule had been inducted into the Federation Government for less than a hundred years, and its planetary development was still in its early stages. Some of the older star maps did not even include this planet. Even though it was a hotbed for pirate activity, a Cerulean space pirate with a bounty of over a hundred million was almost unheard of. The other pirates in the tavern were uncomfortable in the presence of such a hotshot.
Before the tavern patrons could recover their senses, the door to the tavern was shoved open. A troop of Federation Army soldiers stood at the entrance.
The appearance of Federation troops caused unrest in the tavern. Most of the tavern patrons were space pirates, and it was a known fact that space pirates and Federation soldiers never see each other eye to eye.
"Everyone, there is no need to panic. Please cooperate with the investigative duties of the Federation Army and I promise no one gets hurt. If you are not related to the recent theft case, nothing will happen to you." The troop leader had been in charge of maintaining order in the Red Light District for a long time. He knew about the situation with Rose Tavern. He swept his eyes across the tavern patrons. He knew that most of these people were some sort of criminal. If he came on too strongly, a brawl would be inevitable, though if his approach was too soft, no one would cooperate with his investigation.
"Captain, why don't we just arrest all of them? These people don't look like good guys. I guess there must be a bunch of space pirates in here," a young soldier standing next to the captain suddenly said.
The squad captain's heart skipped a beat. He knew that this encounter would not end well.
The young man standing next to him was not under his command, but rather a student from the graduating class of the Basic Military Academy. His father was a colonel in the army and was also his teacher. This kid went to look for him when the news of the theft in the Red Light District broke out and asked if he could tag along to take a look. He could not reject the request, though he had repeatedly reminded him to not say anything. Still, he ran his mouth at the most inopportune time.
The atmosphere in the tavern became sullen as soon as the young man spoke. Killing intent appeared in many of the tavern patrons' eyes.
Bang!
At this moment, the sound of a door being flung open was heard from the back of the tavern.
The sound of high heels knocking against the hard floor was heard. A massive silhouette appeared in the tavern.
"I was only gone for a moment and you whelps turn this whole place upside-down!"
Auntie Rose, or 'Auntie Roastbeef', finally made her appearance. She wore a pair of blood-red sky-high stilettos, and her black leather miniskirt was stretched taut by her bountiful rear and gleamed under the lights. She had a pair of thick but fair-skinned legs, and the black stubble on them could be seen growing at a rate visible to the naked eye. Her shoulders were broad and she wore a red fox hide around her neck. The stubble on her chin and her lips with bright red lipstick was a shocking contrast.
Everyone turned to look at her when she appeared.
"Feel free to fight in my tavern. You might want to know that the items in here are a little pricey though. Break a plate, and it's a hundred million Star Credits. A table is a billion Credits. If you make a scratch on my antique bar counter, that's 10 billion Credits. If you can't afford to pay, then I'm very happy to bring you in as the co-owner of the Rose Tavern. Don't worry, I'll be gentle on you every night…" 'Auntie Roastbeef' winked seductively at the people in the tavern. She did not realize that her gesture did not add an iota of femininity to her appearance.
Everyone in the tavern was silent for a short while. Then, they quickly fled from their seats.
"You're smart, Auntie!" Gu Ding looked at his 'Auntie Roastbeef' with an admired face.
"Lay it off with the flattery, kid. You are two minutes and three seconds today. I'll cut your wages by half!" 'Auntie Roastbeef' tossed this comment as she waddled toward the bar counter.
"That's not fair…" Gu Ding was trying to explain himself but was cut short before he could finish his sentence.
"Talking back! That's two-thirds of your wages!"