Chapter 441: Good News & Bad News
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"We used rubber. We quickly produced a massive amount of rubber that enveloped the entire body of the Coxcomb utilizing its cohesiveness which separated the metal surface from the sea," explained Mu/Shang. Now everything made perfect sense. Ye Chong could not help but to be amazed at the creativity of the solution. Although it sounded rather plain as concisely Mu/Shang described, the reality must be way more thrilling than Ye Chong imagined.
"Who thought of this?"
"Shang."
Oh it was Mu, as expected fro- wait, Shang?
The answer was beyond Ye Chong's expectation.
Ye Chong then opened up the entrance and called in the Sangs. There were several things to do. For starters, Sang Pu would lead the Coxcomb crew to the resting room. Sang Ling would be having a discussion with Qiu Man regarding the arrangement of the following tasks.
"There, Ye."
And finally Mu/Shang's dimensional keystone had returned to the front of Ye Chong's chest.
"Ye, what are you planning next?" asked Mu.
"Hmm..." Caressed the keystone pendant round his neck, "We'll talk about it after this," said Ye Chong.
"Mhm," Mu/Shang agreed.
The return of Mu/Shang was a boost to Ye Chong's forces. The facilities and apparatuses had been all transferred to safety almost immediately after that. Planet Yi Ju was a planet neither rich with resources, nor crowded with population, but it was a planet abundant with free lands however. Miles and miles of land was under the ownership of the Papatte Squad.
And an industrial area was then found not far from Terry City a few days later. It was a medium-sized area that had included production line of all weaponry and accessories, processors and laser launcher. You could even find machines producing the valve pieces for mech hydraulic stabilizer and the keel of a medium spaceship. As long as they got the resources, they could produce almost anything.
This was when Mu/Shang shone with his computational power. The running production lines were forming a complete circuit of mass production. In other words, such industrial area was already capable of mass-producing complete mechs and spaceships, as well as a few of other end-products.
The industrial area was livelier than ever the moment it was fully established. Tons of laser firing devices were first to be produced since Planet Yi Ju lacked such type of offense the most. The team had to allocate most resources on ranged weapons since most of Ye Chong's mechs were close-combat models, other than Mu/Shang. And none of these models could wield a manual firearm efficiently in the battlefield.
So they chose to produce these automatic laser firing devices. Even though such device lacked accuracy, it could achieve a 100% accuracy as long as it fired in mass with the other devices - perfect for tower defense.
Furthermore, Mu/Shang had brought a few spatial monitors which could be a big help in observing unstable area in the space, allowing Ye Chong to make the necessary move when distortion occurred.
The Sangs were ever-moving even when they were not assigned to the usual patrolling tasks. After Ye Chong's last encounter with bristleworms, he outlined a charging training course for them.
The communicative facilities had also been renewed, now under Little Rock's supervision with Zhang Yu as the assistant. The Virtual World server on Planet Yi Ju had reached an astonishingly high level of security now with both of them.
Ye Chong had been in the commander's room most of the time. According to the data he had been receiving, the unstable space zone ahead was further destabilizing at an alarming rate - that was not a good sign for everyone. The atmosphere of the commander's room was grim as most people's expression. If the spatial destabilizing rate had reached the limit way before the arrival of Sang's reinforcement, what could happen to them?
... (Meanwhile)...
"What? You found Xin?" shouted Shi Tiancheng as he sprung from his seat.
"This...," muttered Uncle Hua as he passed the report carefully to the leader of Shi family, "the report of our intelligence from Virtual World. It's a letter. The sender claims to know the whereabout of Lady Shi... but they are only willing to tell it when you speak to them personally." Uncle Hua was Shi Xin's personal bodyguard since childhood, there was strong bond between them.
Shi Xin seemed to have completely vaporized from the world ever since she joined the apprenticeship under those Jie experts. Shi family took all the efforts in searching her, yet not even a clue was found. Shi Xin was Shi Tiancheng's daughter, one with the highest hopes too, among all his descendants. Shi Xin had never disappointed his father. She was decisive and capable, a very careful person who rarely made mistakes in her work. Her charisma had somewhat pushed her to become the unsaid leader among the youngsters. Almost everyone in the Shi family presumed her to be the next leader of the family. Shi Xin's decision of joining the Jie expert was never an issue for Shi Tiancheng, for he was also curious of these mysterious fighters, but never once he thought Shi Xin would step into the dungeon herself straight off without giving a thought or two. Such move would only be deemed as reckless in the eyes of the elders like him. It was a reckless mistake, a fatal one too.
The whole family had never stopped looking for the talented lady all these years.
And right when they were losing hope, this letter came, certainly the leader was agitated.
"Alright, prompt the transmission." It only took a few seconds for Shi Tiancheng to make up his mind.
Staring into the tiresome eyes of the leader, Uncle Hua left the room after giving a few nods.
The galaxy had been restless all these days. First there was a major reformation among the aristocrats, which caused people of He Yue to fear, including Shi family that began retrieving their dispersed forces. Then one important working partner of the family left without a word. Shi Tiancheng had been withstanding immense stress the last few days, it was not something describable to the outsiders.
Shi Tiancheng took a deep breath and tapped the interface.
"Hello there, Mr. Shi, we meet again." The captivating woman speaking with a familiar tone shocked him.
Qiu Man was still a negotiator after all. Shi Xin, the figure almost-in-the-oblivion of most people on Ye Chong's team, had become the most valuable chess piece in her hand. Shi family not only had returned every single property once owned by Mu/Shang in the past, but had also submitted a large amount of material goods to her. Similarly, the Jin Gui tribe had coughed out some goodies for Qiu Man. She sure had some persuasive skill, that it made Shi Tiancheng, leader of Shi family and Roland, leader of Jin Gui tribe forked out every bit of gold in their pocket.
Well, that income had resolved Ye Chong's most puzzling financial crisis. They had been rushing their productions these few nights that Mu/Shang had consumed a great deal of resources in their inventory. Planet Yi Ju did not have its own mine, so they would need a constant supply from the market or they would have to terminate the operation.
Everything went smooth, till one report from Sang Pu, which caught Ye Chong's attention.
To avoid any distraction on every running operation, Ye Chong had seized control of all areas around Planet Yi Ju and forbade any transportation from approaching. But on today, a small team of mechs somehow had trespassed in the area. And the guarding Sangs attacked without hesitation.
It was good that they had guarded the place but...
Ye Chong looked at the remnants of these mechs...
Those mechs... were the invigilating models... of the aristocrats.
And the next report, within the proximity, 3 spaceships had been detected.
It was an unlucky day for Ye Chong.
Of all times, the aristocrats just had to be alarmed now, when he was engaged in all sorts of preparatory works...