Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 52

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Chapter 51: Difficulty is always relative
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations

	An Ping sighed and took the communicator. The signal rapidly made its way through Dui-4399's repeaters and connected to the Silver Knights' frequency.

	"Captain, it's me, An Ping. The mission's run into a bit of a hitch, we need you to lend a hand, and yes, I know there'll be a price to pay. Here's what's happened..."

	But before An Ping could provide a progress summary, he was cut off by Li Yu's laughter from the communicator.

	"You guys are being held up by something as trivial as that!?" he said between laughs, "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Does that mean," An Ping said, "You can handle this easily, Boss?"

	"Of course, but easily or not I'm not giving you any discounts."

"Let's get your quote, then."

	"Well, you're one of ours, so let's go with the standard, two million."

	"Doesn't your standard seem a bit excessive?" An Ping asked, startled.

	"Handle it yourself if you don't like it," Li Yu replied.

	"Boss, with a price like that we'll be making basically nothing," An Ping said, attempting to make a counteroffer.

	"But basically making nothing is ultimately still making something right?" Li Yu asked in response.

	An Ping paused, before saying, "Fine then, two million it is."

	This flabbergasted both Uncle Xu and Lü Nan, "What!? You're accepting his first offer?"

	“We've got three million to work with, worst comes to worst you and Lü Nan can split the million, I can work for free."

	"Hold on, you've forgotten Zhuang's cut," Lü Nan reminded.

	An Ping coughed, before saying "I'll take her out when we get back."

	"You'd make it up to her with a single meal?" Uncle Xu questioned, startled, "Captain, that's a bit scummy don't you think?"

	"Wh-who's scum, you know? Zhuang's not like you people, she's not as obsessed with material wealth...." An Ping said, trailing off as he walked away with a communicator in hand into Ning Tao's conference room.

	——

	The Qiankun Corporation Security Sub-bureau Chief Ning Tao had already been in a crazed hysteria for some time now.

	Upon seeing the conference room door open, and seeing An Ping enter, he immediately burst into a deranged laughter, before shifting to verbal abuse.

	"Haha! You want me to betray the Corporation? In your damned dreams! Scum like you... sooner or later, the Corporation'll make an example out of you!"

	"Yeah yeah yeah, when that time comes they can string you and I up in the capital together... Well, in any case, I leave the rest to you, boss," An Ping replied, unbothered.

	As he spoke, An Ping moved beside Ning Tao, and threw his communicator to the ground.

	Ning Tao's smile instantly vanished.

	"Th-the boss? You're Li Yu? Li Yu of the Silver Knights!?"

	From the communicator, Li Yu replied, calm and relaxed, "Ah, yes, It's me, want an autograph?"

	Ning Tao's voice dropped, "They say the leader of the Silver Knights is a smart man. If that's true, then you know what the consequences are for committing crimes against the Corporation!"

	"You've been downgraded to a prisoner of war, don't you feel just a little impotent with that kind of talk? That aside, this is all paid for and I don't want to waste my breath, so let's get straight to business."

	"I have no interest in chatting with you."

	Paying no mind to his counterpart's reluctance, Li Yu continued on, "Truth is, you've wanted to defect for some time now, right?"

	Ning Tao froze up for a moment.

	"A Sub-bureau chief seems like a good job to have, but it can't have been an easy one. You've got to clean the head office's messes, and you've got to deal with dangerous terrorists, and snakes like those Qinglong. The pay, on the surface, doesn't seem all that good, and obviously you've got your under-the-table stuff, which easily puts you in the upper echelon, but it's still troublesome in comparison to something legitimate. With all that, there's definitely nowhere for your career to go from here, no hope of a promotion in your future."

	Pausing, Li Yu smiled, "Compare that with those plutocrats of 'high' birth, they live their lives in boundless opulence, and they never need make an effort... of course, you already knew all that from your time in the bureau, and have long since made peace with your status as common-born, made peace with the fact you'd never reach the vaunted nobility. Yet still, time and time again, those scions call upon you with whatever absurd demands they might have, like making you use your power to arrange for this absurd human-hunting in this old military base... I think most reasonable people would find that a little absurd."

	"I..." Ning Tao opened his mouth to speak, but found that his voice had become hoarse, "I have no idea what you are talking about!"

	"You don't know, but Kongzhang the Hutt knows, and it's been pretty easy for the ringleader of the Qian System's largest smuggling enterprise to help one or two high ranking Corporation officials flee to the Republic. Of course, Hutts are cunning, and reselling their information is also fairly easy. In short, you've already been in touch, and whenever the opportunity arose you'd make your getaway. How much have you had Kongzhang already funnel out of the system? Around five hundred thousand worth?"

	As soon as Kongzhang's name was mentioned, Ning Tao's composure seemed to leak out of him. That local Hutt was his trump card, his best kept secret.

	And with the figure of five hundred thousand revealed, Ning Tao seemed even more deflated.

	"What are you getting at?"

	Li Yu smiled, "A win-win situation, I help you run away, and you help me save these people."

	"You want to help them? How's that benefit you?" Ning Tao asked, incredulously.

	"It doesn't benefit me," Li Yu said, "but it does benefit my subordinates, and so it is my duty to do what I can for them. But this is something you can do, and the benefits are obvious: With my help, there won't be anyone in all of the Qian System who can stop you from leaving, and you can rest easy knowing that Kongzhang will work with you, and that the Hutt won't be double-crossing you."

	"But..."

	"But five hundred thousand credits' worth of assets still isn't enough for you, am I right? You want to carry on living your comfortable life, not hidden away in some hovel. You need a grand estate with a staff of housekeepers and servants at your beck and call, and a battalion of bodyguards just in case the Corporation tries to come after you, and five hundred thousand credits isn't nearly enough. Your original plan was going to take years longer, slowly liquidating your family's dozens of millions, but now there's just no more time. I have a suggestion: I can help you make that kind of money very quickly."

	Ning Tao didn't respond immediately, but eventually could not help but ask, "What do I do?"

	"Get in touch with the family of your friends and let them all know that they've all been taken captive by the Qinglong, and beg them for ransom money. The more the better!" Li Yu answered.

	"But you killed them all!"

	"Trick as many as you can. A tenth would be enough to pay your whole pension, don't you think?"

	Ning Tao was quiet, though he didn't spend long to think before asking, "I can definitely trick those people, but it'd take at least half a day for them to put together ten million. And even if they were all willing to, how exactly am I to collect?"

	"I can take care of that, and I'd only take a twenty percent cut."

	"You'll take care of it?" Ning Tao repeated, angrily, "Do you take me for an idiot?"

	“If you aren't an idiot, then you should know this is your best bet. Right now, the Silver Knight can help you get it done, you should know by our reputation——It doesn't matter if our clients are from the bottom rung of society, when we take a job we finish it, that much you should know.”

	Ning Tao's anger did not dissipate, but his lips drew together into a thin line and he did not speak, so instead, Li Yu continued on.

	"Think about it carefully, for you, this has only upsides. That sub-bureau chief position of yours, you walk that tightrope, and to what end? The hope that someday you can quietly abscond with your savings? Right here is an opportunity that's once in a lifetime. Why are you still hesitating? Of course, I know this is bound to be dangerous for you, but can you honestly say sticking around as sub-bureau chief won't pose any risk? Don't forget about all those scoundrels who've died in your administrative area. Whether or not you've actually cheated them, they're not gonna let that go lightly."

	With all that said,  a moment Ning Tao spoke a moment later through grit teeth, "Fine, let's do it then," while An Ping looked on, dumbstruck.

	Uncle Xu let out a long, lamentful sigh, "That's the boss for you. Here we are, running around with our heads on fire, and along you come and solve it like that, and manage to come up with a few extra million in takings."

	Lü Nan scoffed, "The intel alone will probably cost ten million, I'm afraid. His intel broker, Chen Xuangan, isn't exactly cheap."

	"Chen Xuangan, the broker who only trades intel for intel?" Uncle Xu asked again, "Just getting in touch is impressive already. I was going to say, how's it the Boss has suddenly got all this dirt on Ning Tao..."

	An Ping clapped his hands together, interrupting, "All right, since the Boss has got that handled, let's officially move on to the next stage: Preparing our escape."

Translation Notes
Today I give you: Nothing.

肖恩 - xiāo'ēn - Shawn, Jedi Apprentice
莫斯提马 - mòsītímǎ - Mastema, Jedi Master
李钰 - lǐ yù - Li Yu, Commander of the Silver Knights
白 - bái - Bai, Li Yu’s droid
安平 - ānpíng - An Ping, Captain of the Hongxing Squad
吕楠 - lǚnán - Lü Nan, Hongxing Squad Sniper
许伯 - xǔbó - Uncle Xu, Hongxing Squad Medic
庄原瑛 - zhuāngyuányīng - Zhuang Yuanying, Hongxing Squad Engineer
宁涛 - níngtāo - Ning Tao, ex-Qiankun Corp Military big shot
龙头 - lóngtóu - Longtou, ostensibly a title more than a name; the Dragon’s Head of the Qinglong

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