Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

This was just another ordinary day in the Starport, another round around the barren planet.

Life in interstellar civilizations is not pleasant, far inferior to those backward indigenous civilizations that aspire to an ideal state, and Alex understands this.

Material desires run rampant, and the quality of life varies greatly. This kind of life, which involves traversing interstellar space, is itself a kind of misery. People travel between trading ports and different star systems in dilapidated spaceships to make a living.

As a "mole" at the bottom of society, Alex's huge docking station was not prepared for his spaceship. His bloated and dilapidated spaceship could no longer even travel between star systems many times. The maintenance cost of the simple cold fusion engine in the cabin was about to exceed the cost of replacing the spaceship.

Perhaps he should sell this old fellow after this trip and go to the anchorage to wait for a spaceship that hasn't been handled too many times. He had been thinking about this throughout this trade route.

As a seasoned middleman, Alex had long ago removed the information recording equipment from this dilapidated ship, including the navigation log. For this kind of work, changing ships was common. If he hadn't been holding onto it to make more money, he would have abandoned it long ago after it had been with him for so long.

Alex brought a lot of goods on this trip, such as uranium burning rods or new hallucinogens, which are popular items in the slums. Of course, the most important thing was the goods he brought for his superiors.

Drug addicts living a life of debauchery are a common sight in the Starport garbage dump, completely unrestricted by race or civilization. Their jobs have been taken by corpses, and they end up making a living by selling blood or filling in the gaps in gang conflicts, occasionally taking on the role of robbers to rob each other.

The massive starport brought life to the Heng system, which had no life-bearing planets. However, in recent years, the economy has been in a slump, and business has become increasingly difficult. His small business often requires him to take greater risks to travel routes, but with these risks come higher prices and greater profits.

Alex knew that this game of musical chairs hadn't yet reached a small businessman like himself. He could see that this starport was doomed sooner or later, but before moving his livelihood to another location, he planned to make a few more quick bucks.

"Hey buddy, the stuff we got today was pretty good, huh?" a burly, purple-skinned, reptilian man covered in scars asked Alex as the ships were being docked.

People of the Alex class usually address each other by their code names and never by their given names. In the space environment, his body is hunched over and his muscles are atrophied, making him look like an old mole. His cloudy eyes hold a little wisdom and reveal a cunning look.

He committed a crime when he was young, and even after contributing all his assets to the authorities, he only received a reduced sentence. After being released from prison, he started drifting through life in this starport. He's not even that old now, so he still feels he can work hard for a while longer.

"These are standard goods. We've done this business countless times. Trust me, the quality is absolutely guaranteed."

Their ships were docked together, and Alex placed his hand on a box inside the ship, as if he were checking his accounts that were about to be updated.

This is a prohibited business, but it's also quite common. The upstream and downstream of this industry are very smooth. These low-level moles' smuggling lives are just about picking up the scraps that leaked from above, which is enough to make a considerable profit.

Alex was no longer afraid of any kind of punishment. He had worked in this starport for so long and had his own way of surviving. He took over from all sorts of self-proclaimed adventurers, moving from one star system to another. He was just a link in the trade chain. As long as he found a buyer to take over, like this purple-skinned guy in front of him, the rest was none of his business.

He was quite apprehensive when he first did this kind of work. Looking back now, he realizes he was really timid. He didn't dare to do any lucrative business, and he refused other teams that wanted to bring him along to make money.

If he hadn't refused the invitation back then, would Alex be living in a nice house in the starport by now? He always felt uneasy looking at the luxurious commercial center above the slums and those gleaming spaceships taking off and landing at the dock.

The protection money in Starport doesn't need to be paid by him as a transporter; that's the business of this purple-skinned guy in front of him. Alex had calculated the accounts before, and he probably didn't even earn a fraction of what this downstream guy did. Who knows how much money this smiling purple-skinned guy has contributed to his superiors?

The handover went smoothly as always. The burly man with purple skin didn't say anything useful to Alex. He simply moved the box to his own ship, and the rest was no longer Alex's concern. The money he asked for had already been readily transferred to his account.

The two spaceships separated, much like two animals that had completed their reproductive mission and went their separate ways.

Alex was used to this kind of life where you could part ways at the drop of a hat; it was safer that way. Besides, people who had crawled out of the slums knew that there was no need to say goodbye to each other; it was very likely that they would never see each other again.

However, in a way, their kind of life is still a compromise with life. At least they can save money instead of having to work to pay off debts until the day they are thrown into the furnace.

An elegant gentleman living in the natural sunlight isn't necessarily much cleaner than those moldy creatures in dark corners, but Alex always wants to put on that good look and walk on the front line where the sun shines.

This transaction seems to have gone smoothly again. The cunning Alex changed the ship's logo, as if he would be a new version of himself after each transaction.

Amidst the ships coming and going at the Starport, the old spaceship drifted away from the channel and landed on an inconspicuous platform. Old Alex disembarked, smoking a cigarette. The addictive drug, accompanied by electric shocks, made his humanoid head glow. He leisurely looked at the envious and jealous eyes of a group of poor people beside him.

This deal will allow this old man to enjoy himself for a while longer. He heard that a new batch of gladiators has recently entered the lower district. Those bloodthirsty interstellar slaves have killed countless of their peers. The way they bump into each other in the zero-gravity swamp is quite amusing. Of course, more importantly, an old hand like Alex can use inside information to place bets and make another fortune during his rest time while trading.

Before he could even greet his old buddies at the arena entrance, the alarms went off throughout the Starport. Old Alex gripped his electromagnetic gun warily, hiding in the shadows, ready to retaliate at any moment.

However, before long, a large number of objects around them began to float up, sparks flew, and Alex himself floated up uncontrollably. Curses rose and fell, accompanied by the sounds of smashing and looting, and a fierce conflict broke out on the street.

Another strong tremor struck. Old Alex breathed desperately and laboredly. His last glance in the atmosphere was as he looked up at the upper levels of the starport he had once longed for.

Now, regardless of status, everyone in the entire Starport can see that suddenly appearing silver-white dragon bone. This world has become so unfamiliar, making him, this "mole," feel like he's crawling out of the ground for the first time and seeing the sunlight, and that he's about to be scorched to death by the sun.

"Damn it..." Before he could finish speaking, Alex's respiratory system completely failed, and the expelled bodily fluids condensed into a solid in the air, causing the temperature here to drop rapidly.

This starport is finally finished.