Counterfeit Hero

The environmental balance system was clearly ineffective in this overcrowded hall. The whispers, coughs, and cries of children blended into a cacophony of noise. Various smells mixed together, making the already murky air even more unbearable.

The immigration inspectors here were certainly not government officials. They were rude, with sinister gazes, and the inspection process was arbitrary. Their main focus was checking for weapons and explosives, and items like bootleg liquor were also prohibited.

When it was Meiduo’s turn, the inspectors casually rummaged through her simple luggage. The inspector with slanted eyes glanced at Meiduo with curiosity and greed before waving her through.

After taking a few steps, Meiduo heard a middle-aged man wearing glasses in simple clothing behind her shouting, ”Why are you checking for money? Without enough money, you can’t enter the space station? What kind of rule is this?”

”You can’t afford the costs here. Without money, who will collect your corpse if you starve to death?” the slanted-eyed inspector responded coldly. ”Stop talking nonsense, hand over all your cash and cards. If you have money, you can enter; if not, go back to where you came from.”

The middle-aged man’s face turned pale as he clutched his bag tightly and pointed at Meiduo, ”Why doesn’t she need to be inspected?”

The slanted-eyed inspector sneered, ”She’s a woman. Even if a pretty woman can’t pay, there are a thousand ways for her to earn money here.” He looked the middle-aged man up and down, ”Can you do that?”

The middle-aged man understood the implication and stammered, ”I can work too!”

The slanted-eyed inspector snatched the middle-aged man’s bag and rummaged through it chaotically. After a moment, he smashed the entire bag over the man’s head and snapped, ”You dare come here with a thousand Fei Yuan! Get back to your ship! There’s no work for you here!”

Before he even finished speaking, two security guards dragged the unfortunate middle-aged man out of the immigration hall from both sides. People stared blankly, knowing that the man had no chance of entering Space Station 106. During his stay, he could only remain on the ship without an activated environmental balance system, which was essentially a death sentence. Several faces in the crowd suddenly turned pale.

Meiduo slowly walked out of the immigration hall and stood under the assembly flag of the passenger ship she took, staring dazedly at the thirty-meter-wide street and the gloomy-faced pedestrians on the automatic conveyors on both sides. She only had ten thousand Fei Yuan, and after purchasing an expensive ticket, that was all her savings. She didn’t know if she could endure on Space Station 106 until the day she could buy a ticket to the Mars Free Port.

In the space station, various people came and went.

This place, where the sky could not be seen, was always oppressive.

In a shabby hotel, the room that accommodated eight beds charged five hundred Fei Yuan per night for one spot. A fast-food meal cost 200 Fei Yuan. A glass of water was 10 Fei Yuan. Each day, an environmental resource consumption fee of fifty Fei Yuan had to be paid.

This place was the territory of an organization called the Rifle Association. The soldiers coldly watching every pedestrian on the street carried the same type of one-meter-long rifle. On her first day of stay, Meiduo heard that the Rifle Association not only had its own armed force and fleet but also maintained close relations with all the notable factions on Mars Planet.

In the past, there were a few major factions, but recently, they established connections with the Northern Commerce Alliance, which had nearly taken over the entire Mars. The innkeeper’s young son worked at the port and often saw the Northern Alliance’s warships docked there, with officers being respectfully picked up by cars sent by the Rifle Association as soon as they disembarked.

”Miss...” The innkeeper, after accepting Meiduo’s room payment, inspected the old banknotes with a critical eye while advising in a tone of compassion that seemed out of place with her face of horizontal flesh, ”Don’t provoke those Rifle Association people here. They kill without a second thought. This space station wasn’t originally theirs; they took it after a fierce battle with the previous collectors.”

The woman handed Meiduo a glass of water, deducting ten Fei Yuan from the change on her own accord, smiling broadly, ”And here, don’t mention you’re a Leray person. Your universal language doesn’t have an accent, so you can pretend to be from anywhere. Recently, there are so many Leray people coming here that they can’t be counted, but they all have little money. It’s understandable, after several years of war, any amount of wealth would be blown away. This place dislikes Leray people the most. The Suss people, Jiepeng people, and even Saleria people can bully Leray people.”

”I heard you want to go to Mars?” Before Meiduo could nod, the innkeeper exclaimed, ”I really don’t know what your pretty brain is thinking. Is Mars a place for people now? There’s a war going on there! The dead are piled up like mountains. People still alive want to get out but can’t, yet you want to go in, isn’t that courting death?”

Seeing Meiduo lower her head and stay silent while holding the cup, the innkeeper sighed, ”Well, where you go is your business. When my son comes back, I’ll have him take you to Beer Street to inquire. It’s full of ship runners; if you want to go to Mars, there are no passenger ships, only trying to find a way by asking which trade company’s cargo ship can take you.”