Chapter 1 The Proof of Glory

The Punisher Alliance didn't have the financial resources to build a space fortress. Their headquarters was a large modified spaceship docked at the interstellar spaceport, named the *Punisher*. It didn't take Fording and Aurora long to reach their destination.

Entering the ship, the two followed Raymond around, taking in the *Punisher*'s circular hall-style cabin, divided into different functional areas connected by corridors, like beads on a string.

"This is our base... This is the living area, each member has a private room, I've already arranged yours, fully equipped, you can rest anytime... Over there is the combat training area, and the equipment warehouse is on the other side..."

Comrades they met along the way nodded to each other in greeting. The group walked and stopped, soon arriving at an area. Fording turned to look at a plaque on a room, which clearly read "Trophy Exhibition Hall".

"That is..." Fording pointed to the room, intuitively feeling that there should be clues inside.

"Oh! That's the proof of honor for our Punisher Alliance." Raymond laughed. "These are all the spoils we've obtained from fighting criminals. Come on, come on, I'll take you to see and introduce you to our glorious deeds."

The group entered the room, which was quite spacious, filled with transparent display cases. Some were empty, while others held different items: badly damaged weapons, half-broken masks, a scorched electronic eyeball. At first glance, it looked like a postmodernist waste art exhibition hall.

Raymond led the way, acting as a guide, endlessly introducing the origins of each item:

"This is the heavy chainsaw axe of the wanted criminal 'Tyrant', with a bounty of 300,000 Enas. One of our comrades sacrificed himself in this battle..."

"See this electronic eyeball? That's Doctor Poisonheart's prosthetic eye. He was beaten to a pulp, leaving only this high-tech prosthetic eye..."

"Also, that's the Blood Hammer Bishop's warhammer, still well-preserved, someone just put it up..."

Listening to Raymond's explanation, Fording carefully observed the trophies while comparing them to the pictures Han Xiao had given him.

Suddenly, Fording stopped, his eyes locked on a transparent display case.

Inside the case was a simple, white box, about the size of two palms. The surface of the box had some scorched stains, looking unremarkable and inconspicuous.

"What's this?" Fording's eyes flashed with a hint of joy as he pointed to the box.

This was exactly what Han Xiao had specified for him to find.

*What a joke, it was so easy to find, just in the warehouse. I thought it would be difficult.*

"Let me think..." Raymond recalled, clenching his fist and hitting his palm. "I remember, this is a trophy from a surface civilization operation. A guy relied on high-tech weapons smuggled from interstellar space, trying to conquer a surface civilization and become its ruler. We received the news and went to crusade, killed the guy, and found many trophies in his lair's warehouse, this box was one of them."

"What's it for?"

Fording was curious. This time he wasn't pretending; he was very interested in what Black Star had specifically asked for.

"We don't know its principle or origin, we only know that carrying it with you will increase your mental barrier and psychic strength to a certain extent, but after using it for a long time, the user will experience auditory hallucinations, feel like someone is talking in their ear, and their mind will gradually become distorted. So we call it the 'Bewitching Box'. After one of our comrades went crazy, we sealed it away..."

As he was talking, Raymond's expression suddenly became puzzled. "That's right, we sealed it away, who put this thing back in here?"

Just then, Fording, who had been watching the box, suddenly frowned. He heard a faint whisper in his ear, as if a voice was tempting him to touch the box.

Scanning it with psychic power, a layer of mental energy field wrapped the box, like an invisible coating, with a certain degree of mental defense.

Fording wanted to see what was inside. He used his psychic power to form a drill to break through the box's mental undercurrent field. However, as soon as his psychic power touched the main body of the box, he felt a strong suction force. His face changed drastically, and he quickly cut off his psychic power. The severed mental energy was instantly swallowed by the box, like a clay ox entering the sea, without any further sensation.

Seeing this, Raymond waved his hand and said helplessly, "Don't try it, it's useless. Our psychics have already tested it, psychic power can't detect the situation inside the box."

"Can the box be opened normally?"

"Yes, but there's nothing inside." Raymond opened the display case and directly opened the box. It was empty.

At this moment, Aurora poked Fording's lower back and gestured.

Fording immediately understood, meaning there was a life signal in the box.

*Black Star wouldn't aimlessly do something, there's definitely something strange about the thing he wants.*

Fording thought to himself.

Raymond put the box back in the display case and signaled Fording and Aurora to continue their tour. The two had no objections.

…

After touring the base and meeting some new members of the Punisher Alliance, Fording and Aurora bid farewell to Raymond and returned to their respective rooms to rest.

After a few hours, the two came out of their rooms again and went straight to the trophy exhibition hall.

Most of the trophies in the exhibition hall were only of commemorative significance, and the security equipment was relatively low-level. Aurora took out a legion-standard automated intrusion device and was about to plug it into the interface of the room's door, but was stopped by Fording.

"Are you just going to walk in like that? It'll trigger the alarm." Aurora asked in confusion.

"I know."

Fording slowly said, "Black Star wants their things, and they have no power to fight back. I don't like bullying the weak, and besides, they aren't a group of bad people. Even if we want to take it away, at least let them know the reason. I don't want to sneak away without saying goodbye."

"Isn't that bad? What if Black Star has other intentions?" Aurora hesitated.

To be honest, she also felt that it was a bit demeaning for the two of them to come to this small force to steal things, given their status.

"He didn't mention any special requirements, so there aren't any. Even if there are... he'll only blame me."

Fording smiled slightly, walked in openly, and directly grabbed the Bewitching Box in his hand.

*Beep beep beep—*

He ignored the sudden, ear-piercing alarm and led Aurora swaggeringly towards the door of the base ship.

Unimpeded along the way, they arrived at the hatch, only to see Raymond, Serri, and a group of Punisher Alliance members guarding the place, looking at the two with complicated expressions.

"Why are you stealing the Bewitching Box?" Raymond's expression was painful, unwilling to believe what he was seeing.

Serri gritted his teeth and said coldly, "I almost trusted you! You really have ulterior motives!"

"Maybe they were just twisted by the Bewitching Box..." Raymond said without confidence, staring at Fording with complicated eyes, still with a faint expectation in his eyes.

"Sorry." Fording shook his head and said calmly in the face of the crowd's angry gazes, "I came for this thing."

"So saving me was also planned?" Raymond couldn't help but ask.

"Would you believe me if I said it was luck?" Fording said helplessly.

At this moment, Serri stepped forward, drew his weapon, pointed at the two of them, and shouted, "I said, as long as I find out that you have ulterior motives, I won't be polite to you! Since you admit it yourself, either put down the Bewitching Box immediately and give up resisting, or try and see if my weapon is powerful enough!"

Calmly looking at the agitated crowd, Fording slowly said:

"During the battle at the Ainiya Hub, Aurora and I saved you more than once. Are you... really going to fight us?"

Hearing this, the angry momentum of the crowd suddenly stagnated.

That's right, if it weren't for the healing abilities, they would have suffered heavy losses at the Ainiya Hub. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they saved all their lives. Although these two people had ulterior motives, the kindness was real...

Most people looked embarrassed, and instantly lost their fighting spirit, unable to muster hostility.

Serri was the same. He immediately shook off this mentality, hardened his heart, clenched the weapon in his hand, and said in a deep voice, "One thing is one thing, if you want to steal the Bewitching Box now, you are our enemy, we won't let you leave!"

Fording glanced at the crowd, suddenly smiled slightly, rolled up the corner of his clothes, and actually sat down on the ground.

"Okay, then I won't leave."

Everyone was stunned.

What did this mean, just acting shamelessly?

"What are you doing?" Raymond asked in surprise.

"Waiting for reinforcements." After throwing out this sentence, Fording closed his eyes and rested his mind.

"You really have a personality." Aurora next to him looked helpless and glanced at the stunned crowd, saying weakly, "What are you still holding weapons for, do you really want to attack me?"

Serri's face was uncertain. After thinking about it, he still didn't attack directly. He simply put away his weapon, called everyone to prepare for the response, and stared at Fording, monitoring his every move.

Just as everyone was prepared and their vigilance was at its highest, the hatch suddenly slid open automatically. A black figure stood at the bottom of the gangway with a group of subordinates.

The members of the Punisher Alliance hurriedly turned around and took a look. With this glance, everyone was stunned!

It was actually the Black Star Legion, whom they had met once before, and the leader was none other than Black Star himself!

"You you you..." Raymond's eyes widened, his face full of astonishment.

Han Xiao glanced at him, took the Guard Officers and stepped into the cabin, heading straight for Fording.

The members of the Punisher Alliance hurriedly made way, their faces filled with shock... How could it be Black Star? What was going on!

Looking down at Fording sitting on the ground, Han Xiao was a little helpless, "Such a small matter, you had to bother me to come out personally, stop playing around."

Fording smiled, patted his butt and stood up, and said softly, "You know my personality."

"Yeah, I knew it when I was in Sunil." Han Xiao rubbed his forehead helplessly and joked, "With you messing around like this, I won't dare to reuse you in the future."

"Things have priorities, I don't want to gradually lower my bottom line for such a small matter, besides, you shouldn't let me do something like stealing." Fording winked.

"You really don't let me save worry, it's so hard to slack off." Han Xiao supported his forehead.

People's hearts are unpredictable, this kind of protagonist-like character has his own principles, and you can't just use them without restrictions, it's like they can't show their extraordinaryness without causing some accident.

Listening to the conversation between the two, everyone's eyes switched back and forth between Black Star and Fording, their faces full of horror.

"Who exactly are you?!" Serri was a little panicked, and couldn't help but shout, but his tone was no longer as strong as before.

Hadaway looked over,啧了一声, and said, "His name is Fording, the vice-captain of the Black Star Guard Officer Corps."

Hearing this, Serri froze.

He couldn't believe that the person he had been with for this period of time was actually such a big figure!

Such a big figure could kill him as easily as crushing an ant, but he had thought that Fording was afraid of their numbers. He didn't expect that he was just too lazy to bother with them. He probably looked at them like they were children.

Serri's face turned green and white. Thinking of his previous toughness towards Fording, he felt shocked and ashamed.

At this moment, Han Xiao spoke.

"Alright, since you want them to know the reason..."

Turning his head and glancing at everyone, Han Xiao directly sucked the Bewitching Box into his hand, and with a sudden force with his fingers, he crushed the hard box into pieces.

"Ah—"

Everyone present perceived that at the moment the box shattered, a powerful mental wave suddenly erupted.

Most of the Punisher Alliance members suddenly turned pale, covered their different auditory organs, and the harsh screams that sounded in their minds caused them mental damage.

The mental shriek that sounded in his mind was full of excitement and excitement, as if someone who had been imprisoned for many years had finally seen the light of day!