Interstellar Survival: Invasion

"I'm in charge of the money. What do you want to say? Let it out already," replied Zhang Bao'er in a boorish manner.

"I will accept the payment earlier as a deposit. Since you want to infiltrate the governor's mansion, the full fees will be three times the deposit," said Domo.

"Is this daylight robbery? Do you want me to take your place apart?" Zhang Bao'er grew agitated when he heard the price.

"Bao'er, calm down." I waved my hand and stopped Bao'er from flipping out.

Domo glared at Zhang Bao'er and said, "You have a mixed group with all sorts of shapes. I need to design the entire infiltration plan, the characters you play, and the route you take and consider many other additional factors. The price I quoted you is already at a discount on account of you having a prince with you."

"Bao'er, how many diamonds do you have on you?" I asked.

"I have two more. They're so heavy. Nobody is going to carry too many of them. I was the only one willing to bear the weight," said Zhang Bao'er.

I turned to face Domo and said, "Great master, our diamonds are in our ship. The ones we have on us aren't enough to pay. Help us first. We'll settle the balance later."

I then fished out two diamonds from Zhang Bao'er's bag and placed them on the table. Domo fixed his gaze on the two diamonds. His hands shot out and promptly brought diamonds under the table.

"Fine. Out of respect for the honored prince, I believe you won't renege on the debt. I'll make an exception for you guys," said Domo.

I heaved a breath of relief.

"Please wait here. I need to make my preparations. Don't walk around. There is still a group of guards looking for you outside. Time has been dilated in this room, so the juxi beast's scans won't be able to detect you," said Domo.

Then, he vanished into the wall behind him with a turn.

"That fellow hasn't escaped with our diamonds, right?" said Zhang Bao'er nervously when he saw Domo melt into the wall.

He walked forth and knocked on the wall. It was solid. He then checked under the table, but there was nothing there. The diamonds earlier were nowhere to be seen.

"It's over. That fellow must be a swindler. He escaped with our diamonds," said Zhang Bao'er.

Infected by Bao'er's agitation, Zhang Xingxing looked at me questioningly.

"Calm down, everyone. Be patient. If that Jido was really a swindler, we would have been caught by the juxi beast by now," I said.

"Yes. The Jidos take their reputation seriously when it comes to business. Don't worry," said the prince.

Thus, everyone sat down and waited patiently.

"Canyue, how confident are you at successfully infiltrating the governor's mansion?" asked Zhang Xingxing.

"That depends on how good the Jidos are. They are the only ones here who know the governor's mansion well. From what we know so far, it isn't realistic for us to mount a frontal assault. Stealth is our best option," I said.

"I wonder if they will be using disguise or actual invisibility," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Disguise will be better. The Gandos can see through invisibility," said Toruse.

"I once watched an old movie called Mission Impossible. The movie is about a detective going undercover. I think our mission can be called the New Mission Impossible," Zhang Bao'er suddenly said.

"What a lame name. But sure, as a gesture of support for Zhang Bao'er, we'll call this mission New Mission Impossible," said Zhang Xingxing.

Everyone burst out in laughter, something rare as of late. After experiencing the dangerous battle earlier, this little black room had turned into a harbor for our hearts. While everyone was relaxing, Domo returned. We immediately focused on him.

"The plan and the materials are all ready. Select four people to form a group with the prince. You will enter the mansion as guards on rotation for the next shift," said Domo.

"Only five of us?" I asked.

"Yes. Each Eternal patrol squad has five members. Several squads are in pursuit of your group. We can take this opportunity to infiltrate the mansion," said Domo.

"The most dangerous place is also the safest. Why don't we go as two squads?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

Tired of Zhang Bao'er, Domo retorted harshly, "I don't have that much material to prepare the disguise for useless people."

Zhang Bao'er was caught by surprise, and he was about to retort just before Old Du stopped him.

Soon, we picked the group of five—Prince Toruse, Zhang Xingxing, Old Du, Zhang Bao'er, and me, Li Canyue. Dodo and Titan would be waiting for us in the little black room.

"Everyone, come with me. Walk through this door quickly. Remember, you must walk fast," said Domo before walking through the wall behind me.

"Where's the door? Isn't this a wall?" grumbled Zhang Bao'er.

When Zhang Bao'er wasn't looking, I kicked his rear, sending him through the wall magically. Seeing that Bao'er managed to pass through smoothly, everyone was relieved. One after another, we walked through the black wall. Behind the wall was a white room with several mats placed side by side.

Dommo handed a blue capsule to each of us and said, "Swallow them and lie down on the mats."

I accepted the blue capsule and swallowed it. Shortly after, my lids started feeling heavy. Lying on the mat, I fell asleep. I could faintly feel someone brushing all over my body, but my drowsiness kept me asleep. After an indeterminate amount of time, I slowly woke up. When I opened my eyes, I saw Domo sitting before me, staring right at me. I was given a fright, and my body bolted upright. There were four Eternals lying around me.

"It's done. Your appearance has been changed with virtual projections. Their security system won't be able to detect your transformation. The facial hairs on your faces are actual physical objects because fake beards can't escape their detection," said Domo.

I sized up my own body and saw that I was already clad in the black armor of the Eternal guards. My face had changed into a ferocious face of a boar with a pair of nasty fangs.

Soon, Zhang Xingxing and the others woke up one after another.

"Damn it! You changed me into a pig head? This is inauspicious!" complained Zhang Bao'er when he saw his own face.

After putting on the disguise, everyone looked similar. Thus, we could only recognize each other through our voices.

"Please pay close attention to what I'm about to say next. It's very important," said Domo.

Everyone sank into silence as the team waited silently for Domo to lay out his plan.

"I will open a time door for you. The door will lead you to the alley beside the governor's mansion. After the bell in the mansion chimes six times, enter directly through the front gate," said Domo.

"Enter from the front? Won't they notice us?" I asked.

"No. For the first step of the plan, you will only be facing their scanners. There are no complicated procedures to follow," said Domo.

"How about the second step of the plan?" Zhang Xingxing asked.

"Your team will be assigned to patrol the area around the first level. Remember, the entire mansion is constantly under the monitoring of their air defense drones. The drones will switch locations every five minutes. During the switch, you will have an opening of five seconds to run indoors," said Domo.

"What do we do after we're in?" Zhang Xingxing asked.

"I don't know. Our informer never managed to enter the mansion. We only know that the governor's office is located on the third level. The Gando warriors will be patrolling indoors. That is all I can tell you," said Domo.

"Just what kind of people are the Gandos?" I asked.

"They are the strongest race to serve as bodyguards. The warriors patrolling indoors are the governor's personal bodyguards, and their race specializes in providing security to influential individuals. The regular guards are not allowed to enter the mansion without a proper reason. Those caught entering without permission will be executed without question by the Gandos," said Domo.

"Then what should we do if we encounter the Gandos?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"I have no advice on that," said Domo.

"Looks like this plan has a fatal weakness, and this operation is fraught with danger," said Zhang Xingxing.

"No matter how dangerous it is, we have to go. We have already faced so many dangers to come this far, anyway," I said firmly.

"By the way, to remove your disguise, just press the red button on your arm three times," said Domo.

With the planning stage done and after performing a final check on each other, I nodded at Zhang Xingxing.

"Everything is ready. We can set off immediately. Domo, you may open the time door now," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Happy to help," said Domo.

With a laser pen, he drew a small rectangle on the wall.

"This is way too small, right?" I said as I stepped forth and studied the tiny door.

I had barely spoken when I sensed an impact on my rear, sending me through the wall into a drain. The other four members of the team dropped through the wall one after another.

"Zhang Bao'er, are you looking to die? You ambushed me!" I said.

"Haha, that's karma. Now we're even," said Zhang Bao'er with a cheery smile.

The time door had brought us to a dark alley. Opposite the small building beside the alley was a black building that looked as solid as something made of steel.

"This building was built in a way that there is almost no opening. Old Du, Canyue, go scout," said Zhang Xingxing.

We walked to the corner of the street and hid there before taking out our probes. With the probes, we performed a full scan of the black building. I could see that to the front of the black building was a courtyard surrounded by walls. From the scan, there were about 10 people posted at the front entrance, 2 on the watchtower in the courtyard, and 20 at different positions in the courtyard. Meanwhile,20 people were patrolling outside the building. In the sky, 10 air defense drones covered different altitudes and constantly patrolled around, endlessly monitoring the entire mansion.

"That damn Jido. Why didn't he mention the watchtower?" I said.

"The security here is extremely tight. Canyue, there seems to be an anti-scan system in the building. My probe can't pick up anything inside," said Old Du.

"Yeah, same here. We can only improvise after entering," I said.

"To the right side ahead of us are several patrol cars. The cars will enter from there when the shift changes," said Old Du.

After we were done, we returned to the group and told them our findings. We then waited silently for the bell that indicated the change of shift to ring. After about 10 minutes, a series of chimes rang out.