Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 113 The development ideas of fleet and afterglow
After Chen Ming got through the communication with his boss.

He quickly checked the previous password and confirmed his identity.

The boss, who had not contacted me for a few days, asked unexpectedly: "Xiao Ming, do you have anything to do with me?"

Chen Ming said without any further nonsense, "Well, my spaceship was just robbed by a group of pirates calling themselves the Free Alliance. Their leader said they were working for a businessman named 'Baimao'."

The boss sounded like he knew who this person was and asked, "Baimao? How did they find you?"

"I bought a Storm."

"Oh, you've got your eye on this thing, right? You're looking for me just because of them?"

"Yes, after all, I'm not sure whether you recognize the people from the Freedom Alliance or not, including Bai Mao and the pirate boss, so I came over to ask them before killing them."

"Well, let's put it this way, it doesn't matter if you kill them, but it's okay if you don't kill them. I know a little bit about Bai Mao. If you don't mind, just leave him to me."

Chen Ming was a little curious about his boss's plan and asked, "What should we do with them?"

The boss didn't hide anything and said: "Take it in exchange for a favor."

"If his name is not nonsense, then his situation is indeed a bit special. Although the bounty is worth tens of millions, the actual value will be higher."

"You know I'm building a colony now to prepare for my retirement. Bai Mao is from the Free Alliance, so I can exchange favors in this regard."

Chen Ming said clearly: "Okay, then I'll leave them alive."

After getting the answer, Chen Ming turned to the pirates and said, "You don't have to die for the time being."

"But your spaceship must stay. All the people who are still alive must be gathered on that expedition ship. Someone will take you away soon."

"Any questions? If you have any questions, you can ask them now."

The pirate captain was completely acceptable to this result and said repeatedly: "No, no, we have no problem."

Then immediately began to direct the crew to change the spacecraft.

The boss's voice sounded again in the communication that had not been hung up: "Xiao Ming, how are you doing at Yuhui's place recently?"

Chen Ming stared at the situation here at the pirates and replied: "It's not good. Yu Hui's suspicion of me is getting worse. I should be locked up in another place after a while. It should be quite troublesome whether I want to escape or rescue. "

"Isn't it going well? Don't you pay attention to the afterglow of your ability?"

"We take it seriously. It's mainly my problem."

"What did you do?"

"Blowed up a mine in Yuhui."

"..."

The boss was silent for a moment, but he thought that Chen Ming must have a reason for doing this, so he didn't say anything.

"Then do you want me to find a way to get you out? I heard about your current location. If you go deeper into Yuhui's territory, it will be difficult to do many things."

"And I've heard recently that Yu Hui seems to be making some big move. I'm not sure who it's targeting. You'd better be careful."

The boss said it very seriously, but Chen Ming thought about it and said, "Not for the time being."

Although Chen Ming has now controlled several AI cores, and will send one back soon.

But if he leaves now, it means that there will be no room for remediation if something goes wrong in his plans in the future.

And the benefits obtained from Yuhui will be greatly reduced in the short term. If the plan is executed well, there is nothing to say.

But if something goes wrong, even the most basic guarantee, that is, the materials and professional books provided by Yu Hui on a regular basis, will not be available.

And maybe after Chen Ming leaves, Yuhui will pay more attention to the several Yuhui AIs that he is suspected of having contact with. Something might go wrong in what was originally a peaceful situation.

The last trace of serious relationship he still managed to maintain with Yuhui would be completely severed, and there would be no chance of repairing the relationship.

Chen Ming is not completely restricted by Yuhui now, and there is still a lot of room for opportunities.

In addition, the boss's favor is indeed very important, and he does not want to use it easily.

So with the support of so many factors, Chen Ming decided not to go back after careful consideration.

The boss had no objection to Chen Ming's decision and just said: "You can decide for yourself."

"But you have to pay more attention. You are not the only one paying attention to your situation."

"Someone from Sindar Company, Tachyon Technology, the Fourteenth Legion, the Star Territory Government, and even the top war zone have heard of you."

"Zuo Jing also has some ideas for you, and he may want to join a free alliance in the future. You should pay attention to yourself and don't let them affect you."

Chen Ming also knew that if so many forces had thoughts about him, some unexpected situations might occur in the future. Faced with the boss's reminder, Chen Ming solemnly responded: "I understand, I will pay attention to it."

Chen Ming recorded this incident in his heart, and suddenly remembered what happened just now, and said: "By the way, boss, there is something I need to tell you. There should be leftist elements in the space station now."

"In addition to the pirates, I just met a fleet from the left side. They came to hunt down Lao Wu because he rented a construction ship."

"And this Zuojiao fleet planned to cause trouble for me together with this group of Free Alliance pirates."

"It's just that Lao Wu was not on the ship, so they missed the boat, and I also killed the left-wing fleet."

Chen Ming actually kept a list of the space station's left-path personnel in his hand before, and planned to find opportunities to earn some benefits in the future.

However, Chen Ming gave out the list of all other Zuojiao personnel, so these people had already been purged during the previous internal cleaning of the space station.

But I didn’t expect that just how long had passed before the left path started to move again like something growing out of the ground.

It can only be said that the situation of the pirate space station is sometimes like this, and it needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible.

Otherwise, there might be problems with Lao Wu's security.

However, the boss's focus was not on the left path of the space station. Instead, he sounded a little surprised and asked Chen Ming: "What ship did you use to kill the left path? How many fleets does the left path have?"

"There were three mules and eleven escorts on the left path. The pirates with them had two destroyers and seven escorts. In the end, only one destroyer and seven escorts were left. The pirates surrendered, and the left path was completely destroyed."

"The boat I use is a heavy rain."

A pair of 23, a complete victory.

No one would believe such a record, but the boss was quite convinced when it came to Chen Ming.

And the boss also realized a slight problem in Chen Ming's words and said, "Not bad, your psychic abilities have also improved?"

"It shouldn't count. It's just my expansion and use of my psychic powers."

"That's not bad. Keep working hard. I feel that your potential in the future will be more than what you have now."

"I will remember to tell you, Lao Wu, that people like Zuo Jing will never be killed. However, there is still little room for Zuo Jing to move on the space station, so there is no need to worry too much."

"Ah."

"Okay, that's it. Do you have the video? Give me a copy later."

Chen Ming was stunned for a moment and said: "My spaceship can't fly back. At most, there may only be videos from the engineering ship and the pirate spaceship I use to detain people. I will send it to you directly then?"

"Okay, then I wish you success with Yuhui in the future. Let's talk later."

The communication is over.

At this time, we are here in the dark cemetery.

The pirates have all moved to the cheapest sentry ship designated by Chen Ming.

The remaining eight ships of the pirates, and even the people on one destroyer, were all crowded together.

Although the environment is not very good, being alive is much better than being dead.

During the communication, Chen Ming forced the pirate captain to open the porthole protective panels to isolate the inside and outside environment of the spacecraft.

And directly removed all the external cameras on the Sentinel, and used the electromagnetic javelin that Chen Ming had just removed from the Iron Ore and replaced on the Fighter to destroy the spacecraft's sensors with one shot.

Except for the engine, which cannot be dismantled due to the life support system, all other functions of the spacecraft that can see the outside world have been restricted by Chen Ming.

Before the boss's people come.

Chen Ming had to deal with the remaining spaceships and the debris from the battle.

Dealing with these things definitely requires ability. If you can hide them, try to hide them as much as possible.

Although Chen Ming is not in the dark cemetery now, it is not troublesome to deal with the spaceship.

The engineering ship only needs to dismantle the bridges of those unmanned spaceships, find an interface and connect an adapter so that Gamma B can connect to it, and then the spacecraft will be ready.

The pirates had a total of two mules and seven escorts, except for one mule that came up and was blown up by fighter planes, and one was to be used to carry the sentries of the pirate members.

The remaining one mule and six escorts can all be put into Chen Ming's pocket.

Among the remaining six frigates are one Sentinel, three Expeditions, and two armed merchant ships, the Farstrider class.

The overall value is not high. When everything is repaired and sold, the net profit including the mules will be over 2000 million.

After subtracting the value of purchasing repair materials and replenishing battle damage, it's not bad.

At least if you put it together casually, you can get another Heavy Rain.

Of course, the second heavy rain boat could not come in a hurry, and Chen Ming had other ideas.

When all seven of the pirates' spaceships came under Chen Ming's control, three more spaceships suddenly approached in the hyperspace of the dark cemetery.

Based on the direction and model of the three spaceships, Chen Ming could tell at a glance that they were sent by their boss.

Two of the three ships are ordinary Fighter-class frigates.

The remaining ship is an electromagnetic auxiliary ship called the Current Class, similar to Diopter.

It is equipped with non-lethal electromagnetic weapons that are usually only used by patrols, and an asteroid traction device similar to the Iron Ore, which is more powerful and can tow a spacecraft.

The two ships looked a little shabby.

However, there had just been a fight with the military in front of the space station, resulting in heavy losses.

Being able to come out with three ships should already be an effort.

After the space station ship discovered the situation here, it immediately sent a communication and said: "We were sent by Mr. Wu."

Chen Ming confirmed with his boss that there was no problem, and replied very simply: "Did you see the sentinel? All the people have been transferred to that ship, and I'll leave it to you."

"it is good."

Three sentences won't solve the problem.

The three spaceships quickly left after taking control of the Sentinel class filled with pirates.

He regards the wreckage of the surrounding spaceships as nothing, and he knows the rules very well.

After Chen Ming left, he continued to clean the battlefield.

At this time, there are still many wreckage left on the battlefield that have lost the shape of the spaceship.

Chen Ming could not control them, but he could collect the wreckage and choose to dismantle it by relying on the open cargo hold of the mule-class ship he had just captured.

There are a total of four mules and eleven guard wrecks here.

Although most of the exploded spacecraft were destroyed by the terrifying power of the Terminator fighter planes, there are not many remaining wreckage.

But not much compared to before the spacecraft exploded.

All the wreckage combined can still fill the cargo hold of at least a mule and a half.

Even after dismantling, the size of the wreckage has been reduced, but the neatly stacked materials can still completely fill the mule's two cubic cargo compartments with an edge length of 30 meters.

There are still a lot of materials that can only be piled up in other cabins, and you have to find a place to put them after you return.

Thanks to the Mule that Chen Ming had specially left for him before, he had transformed it into an expanded cargo hold. After removing most of the unnecessary cabins, the number of storage cargo holds could be increased by two.

When the time comes, he will pick and choose and stuff the excess into the repair shop. The remaining more valuable ones should be enough to stuff into the mule he keeps for easy access.

After a quick run on the mule and disassembly function to clean up.

Chen Ming also used the materials he had just harvested to repair the seven spacecraft in his hands.

Make them at least look like a proper ship and not junk from the hands of pirates.Get everything done.

Chen Ming arranged the actions after Gamma B and Gamma Z.

Then he took the rest of the ship and drove back to the space station with the spacecraft's own autopilot.

After half an hour.

A mule carrying six spaceships and an engineering ship successfully arrived at the pirate space station and entered the interior of the repair shop.

All the spaceships looked as new as ever, and there was not a single living person on board. Only Lao Wu, who had been fishing for a day, ran onto the spaceship under surveillance.

The company must have seen this scene, but they probably wouldn't have stopped Chen Ming from doing this.

On Lao Wu's side, after boarding the spaceship that Chen Ming drove back, he very skillfully removed the battery of the terminal he carried with him.

I wandered around on the spaceship to the captain's cabin, sat down on the chair in the captain's cabin and asked, "Xiao Ming, have you been robbed again?"

"Well, a group of pirates and Zuo Jing. Look, I have all their ships in my hands now. Don't ask for details."

"By the way, Zuo Jing is keeping an eye on you because you followed me to the auction before, so be careful."

Old Wu chuckled and said, "Old Wu just told me that it's not a big problem. Can I still be killed by them after living for so many years?"

He patted the inner wall of the mule class again and asked: "So you still want me to sell the boat this time?"

"Yes, it's still the same as before, and the share given to you is also the same as before."

"Including the ships next to it, it's more than 1 million. What are you going to buy this time?"

"I'm still thinking about it."

Money has no meaning if it doesn't go out, so Chen Ming will definitely find a way to use the money as soon as possible.

The place where Chen Ming needs money most now is definitely the fleet, and what the fleet needs most now is definitely to strengthen the weak.

Make up for the weaker aspects of the fleet composition.

At present, Chen Ming has determined that Diopto, Fighter Kai and Heavy Rain will be added to the fleet.

Although these three ships have different functions and powerful effects, they all have one problem.
It's just that the ability to withstand the line is not good.

If a spaceship like the military's Centurion could block the front, the combat effectiveness of Chen Ming's ships would be even greater.

And Chen Ming has also tried the Centurion's effect before. It can only be said that when the damping stance is activated and Chen Ming's own repair ability is activated, it can even block the output of a large weapon on the cruiser for about ten seconds before being destroyed.

Not to mention blocking other things.

However, Chen Ming now needs more than just guards. After all, the fleet cannot only consist of guards.

So Chen Ming is now thinking that it would be best to get a destroyer to resist the line.

And he does have some signs now.

It was the flagship of Cheng Xinghe of the Fourteenth Legion who had fought with Chen Ming before, that special law enforcer. The name displayed on its panel was [Fourteenth Legion·Enforcer-class Heavy Destroyer].

Whether you look at the name or the spacecraft itself, it is stronger than ordinary law enforcers.

Although the Enforcer was broken into pieces by the rulers, most of the wreckage of the ship had been collected before Chen Ming.

During this period of time on Yuhui's territory, Chen Ming had already roughly pieced together the fragments of the ship by relying on his skills in spaceships, and was already drawing the blueprint.

Although the finished product and blueprint will definitely have huge errors and a lot of problems.

But Chen Ming can buy an ordinary law enforcer and carry out some modifications that Chen Ming had in mind when repairing the fourteenth legion law enforcer.

It's just the problem.

"Old Wu, do you have a way to get the military ship?"

"What do you want?"

"Enforcer."

"There is nothing in a dream."

"Ok."

It seems that Chen Ming, the destroyer-level ship, can only temporarily put it aside and use the frigate to hold it up first.

"Can the centurion do it?"

"You can get some at a premium of 20.00%."

Chen Ming thought for a while and found that the price of a Centurion was 5000 to 2000 million, and the premium of [-] million was still acceptable.

"Then let's get two ships first."

The number of fleets he is currently planning is around thirty, which should be the upper limit of the number of fleets he can support alone.

Taking two Centurions for temporary transition should be enough.

"Row."

Old Wu agreed and asked, "Is there anything else you want?"

Regarding the spaceship, Chen Ming had no other ideas for the time being. After all, he would not have much money left after buying the Centurion.

However, Chen Ming still has some ideas in other aspects.

"Is there any way you can get the machine clan's chip?"

"What do you want this thing for?"

"it works."

The reason why Chen Ming wanted to acquire the mechanical family chip was naturally because of Gamma Z.

Although Gamma Z is now an individual that cannot be suspected by Afterglow at all, no matter what, it is only a Gamma-level Afterglow.

This determines that its influence is definitely not comparable to that of Gamma AB. Two of them have been heavily suspected by Yu Hui. Although Yu Hui has not yet investigated, it is designated that she is inseparable from Chen Ming.

Therefore, Chen Ming is thinking about letting Gamma Z quickly rise to the beta level by eating mechanical chips.

At least beta-level AI can be responsible for some of Yuhui's large-scale production lines.

If possible, Chen Ming even wanted to directly upgrade Gamma Z to Alpha level.

Lao Wu did not bother Chen Ming about concealing his purpose. He thought for a while and said, "Although this thing is not of high value, to be honest it is not easy to buy."

"After all, it was dismantled from the Machine Tribe. It has dolomite steel on it and some other expensive things inside."

"Also, I remember that some people are actually buying the chips of the mechanical family. It seems that the government is buying them. I'm not sure."

Chen Ming suddenly reacted after listening to Lao Wu's words.

He is definitely not the only one who has Afterglow Cores on hand, but the chips of the Machine Tribe are not monopolized by the government, military or various companies that are most likely to have a large number of Afterglow Cores. They are just purchased normally.

There are obviously restrictions.

So Chen Ming directly asked Gamma B, who was still on the way, and received a positive answer.

Afterglow absorption mechanical family chips do have limitations.

Because the machine race's chip contains the consciousness of mechanical life like the machine race, if you eat too much, it will produce redundant data just like when they come into contact with things like spiritual stones, which will take time to process.

And Chen Ming suddenly thought of another problem that he had to solve.

At present, Gamma Z's identity can be said to be clear to Yu Hui.

But once Chen Ming sends the chip, once it is detected, the problem will be huge.

There was no reasonable reason for Gamma Z to pick up a machine family chip on Yuhui's territory.

Therefore, even if there is no problem of chip absorption limitation, Chen Ming can only let Gamma Z find a way to work hard on its own.

And Lao Wu continued to say: "If you really want, I can give it a try. I have to go somewhere else, to the star field bordering the mechanical tribe's territory."

"The price shouldn't be too high, probably three or four times the same weight as dolomite steel. I have to check for details. How much do you want?"

Chen Ming thought about it. Although Gamma Z could not be eaten, Gamma B and Gamma A were not necessarily the same.

He also has some Afterglow AI controls in other places, which he might be able to use later.

So after Chen Ming calculated the approximate price mentioned by Old Wu, he said: "Ten of the mechanical clan guard-class spacecraft chips will be purchased first, two of the destroyer-class ones will be purchased first, and the higher-level ones will be discarded first."

"Nothing else?"

"Gone."

"Row."

Old Wu stood up from the chair in the captain's cabin, stretched and said, "This is the first time in so many years that I have been so busy."

"You think you don't have enough money?"

"That's not true. It's just a bit sad that so many years have passed."

Lao Wu's words made Chen Ming suddenly curious about his past.

However, Old Wu had no intention of elaborating, so Chen Ming did not ask.

Lao Wu left the spaceship to help Chen Ming handle the matter.

Chen Ming didn't stay here much at the space station and returned his attention to himself.

It was only ten o'clock in the morning Earth time.

At least he still had plenty of time before being sent away.

So Chen Ming was not in a hurry to continue reading, but looked at the three afterglow individuals he had previously controlled.

Examining them doesn't take long, and nothing can be found anyway.

Gamma A, who had close contact with Chen Ming, couldn't find any problems, let alone these three.

But if it can't be found out, it won't be found out. There is still the afterglow of the precautions that should be taken.

The two Yuhui who had gone down the mine tunnel were each arranged to a small exploration station quite far away from the colony.

Responsible for the daily maintenance of the exploration station and scanning of undeveloped deep underground resources.

As for the AI ​​responsible for controlling the entire mining farm, all evidence can prove that there was no contact with Yu Chen Ming's robot.

So I was assigned to a new mining station and had the same job as before.

Of course, it is also quite far from the colony.

However, after this gamma AI was implanted in the factory, the factory equipment controlled by the gamma AI was also controlled by Chen Ming.

Although if the AI ​​core is removed, Chen Ming's control of this industrial equipment will be invalid.

Just like at the mining farm before, after losing three AI cores controlled by Chen Ming, Chen Ming had completely lost the ability to control them.

This is the difference from Chen Ming's ability to control the spacecraft.

Chen Ming has nothing to say. His ability to control the spacecraft, control the core, and then indirectly control factory equipment through the core is outrageous enough. Even if he doesn't have this ability, it's not a big problem.

As long as the AI ​​core still exists on the device, his control of this industrial equipment is still the same as his control of the spacecraft.

Therefore, the other two Yuhui AIs who also worked at this mining station also fell into Chen Ming's clutches.

But Chen Ming wasn't sure whether Yu Hui was deliberately trapping him.

The Gamma AI on the front foot had just been inspected, and the Gamma AI on the back foot was given a new working environment and equipped with two new AI subordinates. This made Chen Ming think there might be a problem inside.

So he wasn't going to let them have any performance, at least not for a while.

If you want to develop rapidly in a short period of time, you still have to rely on Gamma Z.

(End of this chapter)