At the moment the communication connected, Chen Ming gave the pirates no time to react and said, "Come on, give me a reason not to kill you."

The pirate captain responded very quickly, saying, "I am from the Freedom Alliance, we are willing to pay a ransom for our lives."

"Freedom Alliance?"

Chen Ming frowned, recalling in his mind.

The Freedom Alliance mentioned by the pirate left an impression on him as a rather loose faction.

Internally, it was a mixed bag of people, from merchants to politicians to pirates, indeed a motley crowd.

Although the Freedom Alliance is generally loose as a whole, internally they typically maintain a purely interest-based relationship, and through this relationship compete externally with other parties.

Of course, internal conflicts sometimes occur, sometimes to the point of no return.

They focus on freedom.

Although the Freedom Alliance is a gray force that can't stand on the stage, it indeed has significant influence in the gray area.

Chen Ming knew about this Freedom Alliance because almost all companies have connections with them, although not necessarily joining, but the connections are certainly there.

The Sinda Corporation previously was, of course, no exception.

And at times, to avoid taxes or for other purposes, Chen Ming would invariably have dealings with the Freedom Alliance during his work.

After all, to expand the business, there are many things the companies definitely can't avoid them.

Things like the construction of the Pirate Space Station and the connections between different Pirate Space Stations to some extent are related to the Freedom Alliance.

Or basically, all industries and businesses in the gray area are related to the Freedom Alliance.

This made Chen Ming a bit uncertain about the situation.

After all, he truly wasn't sure if these pirates might be connected to the Pirate Space Station where Chen Ming used to stay.

If they only had connections on the company side, Chen Ming didn't care.

But if these pirates knew the manager or the boss, and he ended up killing them, even though technically there's no problem since they started it, Chen Ming would still feel a bit uneasy.

So to be cautious, Chen Ming asked the pirate captain for his name and background, intending to contact the boss.

But before doing so, Chen Ming needed to confirm a few things with the pirate captain.

"Why did people from the Freedom Alliance cooperate with Zuo Jing earlier?"

"Uh... this..."

The pirate leader hesitated a bit but knew that not saying anything would mean death, so he answered honestly, "Because besides working with the Freedom Alliance, I also had connections with Zuo Jing."

"Do you know about Zuo Jing's attack on the Star Realm Capital some time ago?"

"You participated?"

"No, no, no, I just knew some of the participants, occasionally bought some intelligence from them."

Intelligence?

Chen Ming suddenly had a strange premonition and asked, "Who?"

"Someone named Shen Yi."

As expected.

Chen Ming silently confirmed in his heart and could only say that it's a small world.

The purpose of this pirate's arrival is probably inextricably linked to Shen Yi.

Running into the Zuo Jing fleet just now without a conflict, yet coming together to find him, must mean they have the same purpose.

"Since that's the case, you should know who I am, right?"

"Yes, Wu Ping'an."

"?"

Chen Ming's silence made the pirate captain suddenly realize he might have misspoken, quickly adding, "That's what the people from Zuo Jing just told me."

"He said that someone at a Pirate Space Station investigated and found out this engineering ship was rented by Wu Ping'an, one of the people who killed Shen Yi before."

"So for revenge, they chased all the way here, and said there's a ten million bounty on Wu Ping'an, if I help them, they will share the bounty with me."

"I only had a business relationship with Shen Yi, purely for buying intelligence, nothing more."

Chen Ming didn't know if he was just playing dumb or what, since he already knew about Old Wu, there's no reason these pirates shouldn't know about him.

With this doubt, Chen Ming asked, "The people from Zuo Jing didn't tell you anything else?"

"I asked, yeah, Zuo Jing only mentioned Wu Ping'an, and said there's another person I don't need to know about for now; you must be that other person he mentioned, right?"

At this moment, the pirate captain also had a realization in his heart, and roughly understood why Zuo Jing refused to disclose more about this mysterious person to him.

All of this is definitely deeply connected to those nine additional fighters on the Torrent Level.

Chen Ming didn't follow up on the pirate captain's words but continued to ask, "So what did you come here for this time?"

"Uh... that Torrential Rain."

Chen Ming rubbed his forehead.

He had now basically figured out the situation.

This group of pirates had their eyes on the Torrential Rain that Chen Ming purchased, following him all the way but likely found no opportunity along the way.

Then they suddenly discovered that the Torrential Rain ran off with an engineering ship, sensing an opportunity and followed again.

Then, just as they were about to take action, they happened to realize the engineering ship was rented by Old Wu from Zuo Jing, a conversation ensued and they found they could cooperate, thus planning to target Chen Ming.

Of course, the pirate captain could also be lying to him.

He knew about Chen Ming's situation, and he was indeed targeting Chen Ming.

It's just that the coincidence of encountering Zuo Jing should not be wrong, as their reactions at that time indicated they were genuinely surprised.

But this isn't too important.

After all, regardless of which it is, Chen Ming already has a reason to take him out.

Now it's merely up to Chen Ming to confirm with the boss and manager whether this pirate is someone they know.

If not, it would be convenient for Chen Ming to act immediately.

Chen Ming activated the communication device on the Sentinel; nobody on the boss's side would dare to eavesdrop.

So he directly made contact.

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