Astral Ants

[Time: 78th Era-191 Yuan-055 Years]

When Longbai finished the work of developing branch nests for seven interstellar trade routes in the Honeysuckle star system and returned to the Tiannanxing star system, the Molan survival mothership with a diameter of 10 kilometers had taken shape.

It has not yet been painted, and the shell is a staggered arrangement of silver-gray and black metal plates.

While the survival mothership orbits the sun in a planetary orbit, it also rotates slowly to maintain its own stability.

As Longbai approached, a large group of butterflies came out of the cabin door at the equator.

"Leader Longbai!"

Xia Li greeted.

Following behind him were 17 Holy Butterfly Warriors of all sizes, at least half of whom Long Bai didn't recognize.

"Leader Longbai!"

A Stellar Realm Holy Butterfly Warrior greeted.

Xia Li solemnly introduced: "Captain Longbai, this is Baiying. He was of the same generation as Lanying and Ziying on the home planet. He participated in the war against Blue Island."

Bai Ying: "Captain Longbai, do you still recognize me? On our home planet, I have a very good relationship with Molan, Zi, Caigang, and Luxin. We have twice teamed up to the Antarctic wasteland to hone our abilities."

"……Remember!"

Longbai had some impression of it, but after hearing what it said and seeing its carefree image, he became secretly alert.

Xia Li and Bai Ying took turns introducing the other Holy Butterfly Warriors to Long Bai.

Give a brief introduction and say hello.

Xia Li said: "We helped get the navigation sequence for the Molan survival carrier. As for the energy ships, I helped order six of them as requested."

“分别为刺枣-01-10型10倍光速能量舰两艘，单艘售价20亿原晶；刺枣-01-50型50倍光速能量舰两艘，单艘售价60亿原晶；刺枣-01-100型100倍光速能量舰两艘，单艘售价100亿。”

"The total is 360 billion crystals. We have obtained the navigation sequence and can put it into use directly."

The so-called "navigation sequence" is the "identity certificate" that all interstellar spacecraft must have. It is a number composed of pure characters, which is a pass for entering and exiting the star system, as well as entering the star port for maintenance and supplies.

The so-called "energy ship" is a special starship that collects, compresses and stores energy to provide energy for the survival mothership.

A ship with a diameter of 10 kilometers consumes billions of energy to travel one light year. Carrying tens of thousands of Zerg fighters to the Force Vacuum Star Region to carry out heavy material collection work, the daily energy consumption is also astronomical.

You definitely can’t use the original crystal.

Therefore, such starships used for galaxy construction projects, including survival motherships, are granted special powers and are allowed to carry "energy ships". Through the energy ships, they can directly collect original energy from primary or secondary source points, compress and store it, and provide energy for the mothership.

Under normal circumstances, it is difficult for a privately built survival mothership to obtain the "navigation sequence" from the Baijing Chamber of Commerce.

The matching energy ship is also difficult to buy separately, and even if you can buy it, the price is ridiculously high.

Xia Li has a certain say in the Holy Butterfly Tribe, especially in the Xiange Star Region. If he steps forward, things will be simple.

With the navigation sequence and energy ship obtained, the Molan survival mothership can sail freely in the Baijing galaxy and undertake projects openly.

"Excuse me, President Xia Li!"

"I'll transfer the original crystal to you."

Long Bai expressed his sincere gratitude, opened his StarNet account, transferred 400 billion integers, and said, "Thank you for your hard work, this is a little reward for your hard work."

"Captain Longbai is too polite..."

Xia Li paused, raised his paw and pointed in the direction of the distant stars, and said:

"Vice President Guishan and his team have arranged two ships to collect energy and are planning to launch the Molan survival mothership for a trial run. We are very curious, so we stayed to take a look."

"Can we sail now?"

Long Bai was surprised. "Calculating the time, it shouldn't be so fast..."

Xia Li said: "The overall framework has been built, and the internal and external power systems have been set up. Now all that's missing is the internal compartments and power system wiring. The various production and maintenance factories and other facilities on the mothership have not yet been assembled. Xing Shen'ao suggested moving outward and hovering at a location close to the star network channel 5 million kilometers away from the planetary orbit to complete the remaining assembly work to prevent the mothership's gravity from affecting the mining planet and the life planet."

"Understood!"

Long Bai waved his claws and called out, "President Xia Li, Bai Ying, let's go and take a look!"

...

Inside the mothership, only sixty-four keels connect the starship's 'heart' and support the starship's hull.

Gui Shan and Xing Yun Bai were commanding 500 technological insects to lay the equatorial partition. They had only laid a very small piece and it had only been a short while since the beginning.

After meeting and greeting each other, Long Bai asked about the situation and was told that it would take at least 110 years to complete.

Then he went back to Hunan Star, greeted Xing Shen'ao, and inspected the factory and warehouse.

Under the command of purple brake, scale oak, black grape and other insects, the operation is efficient.

Over in the Azure Star System, Molan selected 200 Zerg warriors who had innate awakened metal talents, were good at metal abilities and quite smart to come and study, and then to join the work.

The progress of the project has improved, but it is limited.

...

Return to the Molan survival mothership again.

Longbai looked at it for a while and said:

"President Xia Li, I need to go back to the Bauhinia star system to do something. Do you want to go over there and play with me?"

"No. Don't bother."

Xia Li shook his antennae and said, "We are all serving in Xiange Star Region and have a lot to do. It's okay to come here to see something new, but it's not appropriate to go too far. We'll wait to see the survival carrier start up and run, and then we'll leave. We also have to go back to work."

Bai Ying: "Longbai Ant King, please go about your business without any worries. We will just watch over you and won't cause any trouble."

"All right--"

Longbai agreed.

It was obvious that these guys were bored and came all the way here to see something new.

It's good to have the tribe provide resources to support you. You don't have to do too much work, and you don't have to worry about anything. There are no concerns or pressures.

The cypress is different...

Longbai didn't say much and hurriedly set off in the Tubbo.

...

Aphrodisiac star system,

Anye Star, the third floor of the Luoli Chamber of Commerce branch.

"Longbai, you are finally back."

Luo Li stood up from the backstage and walked out, asking anxiously, "I heard from Molan that a group of warriors proficient in metal abilities have been added? How is the progress of the mothership construction?"

"It's a little faster."

"It will probably be completed in a hundred years. We have obtained the navigation sequence in advance, and it can be put into use immediately after completion."

Long Bai asked back: "Luo Li, has the project you mentioned last time started?"

“It started 47 years ago.”

Luo Li raised his claws, and his water ability changed. White water vapor condensed into characters, listing a long string of data.

This time there are 5 source points, the farthest distance between them is no more than 200 light years, and the closest distance is only 18 light years.

The construction of five source points in clusters has to start at the same time, which is a rare large-scale project.

The number of the first-level source is 311049101
Force Concentration 1.34
It is planned to build 17 mining planets and 1 life planet.

The four zero-level source points are numbered 4 to 311049102.

The concentration of the Force varies.

All of them will be reclaimed into life planets, and there are plans to build 27 life planets.

In total,

A total of 5 stars, 17 mining stars, and 28 life planets need to be built.

Luo Li introduced: "The Tao Zi Tiao Ji Ding tribe has a requirement to build all five star systems within 15,000 years. The project is urgent, so this is the opportunity for you to join."

"The person in charge of this project is President Huang Zhu, and it is further divided into three major projects: star, mining, and life planets, which are respectively managed by Presidents Shui Zhu, Yu Chan, and Qian Qu. The temporary office is located in the 1001 Commercial District, 998 Block, Shops 024 to 037 in the South Gongfen Star."

"Because there is a gaseous material belt with a length of nearly one light year near the source point, there are ready-made high-purity gaseous planets that can be directly used. The operating environment is superb, and the construction projects of the five stars have all been contracted out."

"The mining technology is the most difficult..."

Luo Li asked, "Long Bai, if it is a mining star, are you sure?"

Longbai shook his antennae and said, "No!"

Luo Li knew this was the answer and said, "Then the only ones left are life planets that do not require technology or strength. Over the years, I have gone to Gongfen Star every three to five months to greet the four stewards and get some information."

As Luo Li spoke, an idea occurred to him and he listed out a long list of quotations.

Lanyan Chamber of Commerce: Independently contracted the construction project of Star No. 01, with a contract price of 220 million Chaos Stones...

Project payment breakdown:
In the first phase, the gaseous planet has a diameter of 30 kilometers and lights up to become a star.

In the second period, the star diameter is 40 kilometers. In the third period, the star diameter is...

……

Baitong Chamber of Commerce: Independently contracted the construction project of Star No. 02, with a contract price of 234 million Chaos Gems.

Project payment breakdown:
In the first phase, the gaseous planet has a diameter of 30 kilometers and lights up to become a star.

The second issue, the diameter of the star...

……

This guy Luo Li directly took out the engineering contract of Luo Li Chamber of Commerce.

StarNet account, 1 Chaos Ore is equal to 1 million Chaos Crystals.

This kind of big project is usually only affordable by Chambers of Commerce at level four or above led by Sujing-level warriors, and the project cost is based on "billion"!

The size of a star is large, and many motherships and Zerg warriors are needed, so the cost is extremely high.

The construction of a mining planet has many requirements and is relatively difficult. Different chambers of commerce contract different quotes. At the same time, the price is directly related to the material environment of the allocated construction planet. If the material environment is good and construction is easy, the quote will be low, otherwise, the quote will be high.

The contract price of a single mining star is between 2.5 and 3.5 Chaos Ore.

Life planets are relatively simple and inexpensive to build.

Currently, there are 7 construction teams from 19 chambers of commerce, contracting 19 life planets.

The contract prices range from 9000 Chaos Ore to 1.8 Chaos Ore.

It is also payment in installments.
For example, if the diameter of a planet is 3000 kilometers, we will ask the manager of the Luoli Chamber of Commerce, Zhu, to come and inspect it, confirm that it is qualified, and pay the first installment of the project fee.

When the diameter of the planet reaches 5000 kilometers, we will ask the manager of the Luoli Chamber of Commerce, Zhu, to come for acceptance. After confirmation of qualification, we will pay the second installment of the project fee.

The inspection will be carried out in five times and the accounts will be settled.

A total of 28 life planets need to be built, but currently there are only 9 left and we are recruiting teams.

Long Bai quickly scanned the area and asked, "Luo Li, the total cost of the project is over 1500 trillion? And the Luo Li Chamber of Commerce only got the permanent operating rights for one 0.6-level source point and one 0.9-level source point? Even if we successfully rent out these two source point star systems, the annual rent we get back will be less than 1500 million, right? It will take more than million years to get back the investment?"

"That's not the way it works."

Luo Li said: "Level 7 Chambers of Commerce have a fixed amount of ultra-long-term, ultra-low-interest loans from the Baijing Chamber of Commerce based on the distance to the star network under their name. The Chamber of Commerce uses the permanent operating rights of the Level 0 Source Point as collateral to borrow from the Baijing Chamber of Commerce. In fact, they do not need to invest their own money."

"According to the regulations, if the Chamber of Commerce undertakes the construction of the Zero-Level Source Point, it must also build a star network to connect the newly developed source point star systems. This requires a large amount of insect power, equipment, and funds. However, the construction of the star network has the benefits of subsidies from the White Crystal Chamber of Commerce, interest-free loans, and increased loan amounts."

Longbai thought about it for a moment and lightly tapped his tentacles to show that he understood.

The seventh and eighth level chambers of commerce were all operating in debt. The raw crystals borrowed from the White Crystal Chamber of Commerce were basically their own.

Luo Li suggested, "In some cases, matter is the most scarce resource in the starry sky. Its distribution is random and arbitrary, and often not to the insects' satisfaction. The team that enters first will definitely seize the best collection area first. The team that enters later can only collect from areas with poor material density and unsatisfactory material structure. This involves transportation costs, insect power costs, and time costs. For the same purpose of building a planet with life, the final cost difference may be 0.8 trillion and 1.6 trillion times."

"According to convention, President Qian Qu will assign you to go to a material area and perform collection operations within the designated star area."

"I also found out about the division map of the material collection area. Baiwei, Hongtao, Molan, Juniper, and Silver Cypress set out for the survey 42 years ago. They should be back soon."

"I suggest that no matter which collection area you choose, your offer cannot be lower than the current offer, which is 1.8 Chaos Crystals. It can be slightly higher, but not too much. After all, you don't have any experience in the industry, so be careful of being rejected directly."

"Go ahead first. I'll introduce you to President Qian Ku. Let's see what he says."

"If the preliminary negotiation is successful, I suggest that we wait for Bai Wei and Mo Lan to return from their inspection and then discuss and confirm the specific contract price."

"The Luoli Chamber of Commerce has professional bugs responsible for calculating the cost. They calculate it very accurately. They know the construction cost of each planet. You should also understand the situation and calculate the accounts clearly. The final profit of this job may be in the difference between the tens of billions or hundreds of billions of the quoted price."

"understand!"

Long Bai asked: "Then shall we go there now?"

"go!"

Luo Li waved his claws and walked straight towards the stairs.

...

...

Gongfenxing Commercial District,

The Luoli Chamber of Commerce temporarily rented a row of shops as the engineering command base. In addition to the four managing presidents, there were also many Flame Spider Warriors in charge of various sub-tasks.

The Taozi Tiaojiding tribe sent warriors to supervise the work, one to urge the progress of the project, and the other to check the quality of the planet.

Luo Li led Long Bai to the shop numbered 998-024. There was a sign at the door with the words: [Cotinus coggygria·The Fourth Project Department]

Go upstairs,

Second floor.

In a spacious room simply furnished with a holographic projection device, a flame spider warrior with an earthy yellow body and eight silver-white spider legs slowly stood up.

White-legged flame spider? It's a bit like a mutant branch.

"President Chikuma!"

Luo Li greeted him and introduced him: "This is the leader Long Bai of the Xianglan Chamber of Commerce that I mentioned to you!"

"Meet President Chikuma!"

Long Bai greeted.

"Oh--"

President Qian Qu stared and examined him, then said, "An ant king with an extremely powerful star core!"

President Qian Qu asked immediately, "I heard that you explored the starry sky and found the remains of a third-level survival mothership that was not completely scrapped, and you are independently producing various components and repairing them yourself?"

"Yes."

Long Bai took the initiative to introduce: "It has passed the review and certification of the professional warriors of the Baijing Chamber of Commerce and obtained the pass sequence. It can be completed within a hundred years and can go directly to the site to participate in the work."

President Qian Ku was skeptical and asked, "Are you sure it can run again? The shell assembled by the Zerg warriors? It won't leak, right?"

"..."

"We must not allow such a low-level mistake as air leakage to occur..."

Long Bai: "The test was started once, and the core system is operating normally. It is confirmed that it can run. Moreover, it uses the top-level survival carrier power system with a maximum speed of 1200 times the speed of light. There will be no problems."

"it is good--"

"You, the ant king, have some skills!"

President Qian Qu asked again: "How many Zerg warriors can be mobilized to participate in the work? You have no work experience?"

Long Bai replied: "We can mobilize 30,000 Zerg warriors to participate. I can also train a moderate number of ant colonies to do some simple work. Labor will definitely not be a problem."

“As for work experience…”

"To be frank, this type of project is hard work. There is no technical threshold. The key is to command, manage, and dispatch. Assign appropriate and as simple tasks as possible to tens of thousands of Zerg warriors so that they can act in an orderly and efficient manner."

"I have experience in reclaiming six zero-level source star systems, large and small. I know the material structure inside and outside the life planets very well. I directly or indirectly manage five zero-level source points, so I know very well what kind of planetary geological structure is most suitable for the survival and reproduction of life."

"At the same time, I also have extensive experience in commanding the work of thousands of ant kings, bee queens, hundreds of millions of ant colonies, and tens of thousands of Zerg warriors."

"I have never been involved in planetary construction projects, but I have taught myself the relevant knowledge. I don't see any difficulty, and I don't think there will be any big problems. I may encounter some minor problems during my work, but I am confident that I am fully capable of solving them."

"Not bad!"

"A very confident ant king!"

"It can be seen that you are a great leader of the ant tribe with outstanding command ability."

President Qian Qu was very satisfied with Long Bai's answer.

More importantly, they can rebuild their own survival starships. Bugs that have this ability must be well-educated and have a large number of smart and capable bugs under their command.

Theoretically, there is no problem for such a team to build a life-bearing planet.

President Qian Qu asked formally: "Captain Longbai, how many life planets do you plan to contract?"

Long Bai: "I heard that time is tight, and I only have one survival mothership, so I'll take care of one for now."

"Okay~!"

President Qian Qu agreed, and with a thought, the lights in the room dimmed, the holographic projection started, and a three-dimensional image of the star field appeared.

It continues to zoom in and freezes on an area of ​​high-definition material mass, marked with white text and displayed in detail.

President Qian Qu said, "Captain Longbai, you will go to the material group codenamed 'Had' to collect materials from points 024 to 038. The construction period is years. You must ensure that the task is completed within years. This project is urgent. If you move fast enough, you will have the opportunity to participate in the construction of the star and make some extra money."

"As for the price..."

Qian Qu asked tentatively: "Captain Longbai, can you take a closer look and give me a price for reference? If it's suitable, we can sign the contract now."

After that, the star map was magnified to the extreme and displayed clearly.

Long Bai looked at it carefully and asked tentatively, "1.9 Chaos Ore?"

"Forget it~"

President Qian Qu waved his claws and said, "You should go there in person, inspect it on the spot, calculate it carefully, and then come back and give me a serious price." (End of this chapter)