Chapter 336: Free If Fragile
Chapter 336: Free If Fragile
"Why didn’t we stay behind for a few more days?" Wheeze asked Cillin while chewing on a fish biscuit Hara gifted it.
"‘Infinite’ and ‘Lavish’ are discussing plans with Golden Beginning. Our presence will cause them unnecessary worries."
"So what?" Wheeze snorted while licking its paws. "It’s not like we care about their secrets."
"Yes, yes, I’m aware that the fish biscuits Hara’s smiley-face company is going to produce is all you care about, you glutton!"
At Wheeze’s suggestion, Hara decided to create a brand new pet food product line for his company, and the very first item on the list was fish biscuits for cats. Wheeze had volunteered to be his "consultant", and the "fee" it was paid for its "service" was so big that the damn cat hadn’t stopped chewing since a while ago.
That wasn’t the only thing Hara gifted the Eleventh Squad before they left, of course. For example, Tang Qiuqiu was given a ton of sweets, and Xi Mu was given a ton of desserts. The depot they used to stock food in the spaceship was literally chock-full of food right now. It would be a very long time before they would need to worry about their food supply again.
Finally, Hara gave Cillin his private contact method. It wasn’t official yet, but it was the start of a fruitful partnership.
Cillin checked the schedule and determined that he still had a bit of time before he had to attend the high level meeting Songba Leruo informed him about. He hadn’t been able to shake off the feeling that something would happen during the meeting, so he wanted to complete Xi Mu’s armor and the installation of the super AI to the starship before that. You could never have enough insurance.
The Eleventh Squad had gathered eighty percent of the materials listed on Xi Mu’s list when they took off, and they were now traveling to Sector M to gather the rest. Sector M was famous for its rich minerals, although most of them were controlled by the mining companies.
Currently, the Eleventh Squad was exploring the edges of Sector M in search for the materials they needed. Before the chaos, this space would be private property, and they would’ve been attacked for trespassing. After the chaos, a number of players had died, and the major companies of Sector M had withdrawn their influence to the center similar to how a turtle withdraws its head and limbs into its shell when threatened. As a result, the space they were exploring was half-abandoned.
When they detected a mine with the minerals they needed, Moon and Czedow dealt with the observers left behind by the mine owners while seven of Xi Kai’s robots—newly upgraded as per advised by Xi Mu—and the crew went down to mine the minerals.
In the control room, Cillin watched as the crew gave the "newbies" a Mining 101 on the display. So far, everyone he brought from the Mist Bodhisattva Empire had blended in very well with the crew.
Hunters spent most of their time flying from one location to another, and they never stayed in one place for too long. It was why most hunting regiments preferred to recruit first and assimilate later whenever they found someone with good potential. In this case, it was better to deal with the messy aftermath later than not having any new blood at all. Thankfully, the occasional quirks aside, everyone Cillin brought back from the empire had proven themselves to be a good fit for the Eleventh Squad.
The mining process went smoothly, and the crew sat together for a leisurely chat after the minerals were carried back into the starship. Even Xi Mu had joined in on the conversation while eating a huge cream cake.
"You love sweets this much, Xi Mu?" Cary asked curiously.
"My brain uses up a lot of energy, and sweets can quickly replenish them quickly," Xi Mu explained with his mouth full. It wasn’t a joke. He had played a round of Link of Gypsophila with Moon, Sigma and Dough earlier today—surprisingly, the little chameleon was almost smart enough to complete the third level—and after that he spent some time analyzing the minerals they gathered. That was why he was low on energy right now.
"Oh, I see," Cary exclaimed in realization.
"Duh. Why else would I eat so many sweets?"
Everyone looked at Tang Qiuqiu the moment they heard this.
Tang Qiuqiu was crunching a sweet bean when the gazes caused her to freeze up for a second. Then, she said angrily, "I don’t have a reason! I just love to eat sweets is all! What’s so strange about that, huh!?"
After
Cary scratched his head but acquiesced to her demand. Rising to his feet and following her out of the room, he asked, "What happens if someone loses?"
"The loser will clean up Wheeze’s leftovers!"
"... please no. I would rather sweep Dough’s shit or comb Snowball’s fur…"
After Xi Mu had finished his cake, he passed a list of statistics to Cillin and said, "Here’s the statistics on the minerals we gathered."
Cillin accepted it and gave it a look. They now lacked only four of the materials necessary to create the armor, and Xi Mu had put down all the locations they could potentially be acquired right next to the names.
"Unfortunately, there is at least one material that we can only acquire from the mining companies, and that’s the liquid metal LS-57. It’s very difficult to obtain via other means."
"There are many other liquid metals in the LS-line besides LS-57. Why it?"
"It creates the most stable alloys."
"Got it. There is one problem, however. There are no mineral companies that are publicly selling LS-57 right now," Cillin said.
"None?" Xi Mu fell silent for a moment before replying, "Try Luminous Flower Corporation. Out of all the mineral companies in Sector M, they are the ones with the highest amount of liquid metal in stock, and their stock of LS-57 in particular exceeds the demand for it. Barring any unexpected circumstances, they shouldn’t be out of stock even though my information is outdated by ten years. If they really have no LS-57, then I’ll think of a suitable replacement."
Xi Mu disliked replacements and half-assed creations, but he acknowledged that his commander couldn’t afford to spend too long gathering the materials he needed. If this lead turned out to be a dud, then he would swallow his dissatisfaction and search for a replacement.
"Weren’t you hiding in Golden Beginning for most of your life? How did you learn about Luminous Flower Corp’s stock of liquid metal?" Eudy asked.
Xi Mu shot him a "you are an idiot" look but answered the question, "I followed my clansmen to check out their stock when I was four years old. Of course I remember."
Yes, of—wait, wait, that makes no sense whatsoever. Even if I pretend that it’s perfectly normal for someone to remember their childhood memories perfectly, what kind of four years old would pay attention to a company’s stockpile and sale volume—liquid metal no less!—instead of food and toys??
While Eudy was coming to terms with the impossible genius of a Xi clansman, Cillin searched for Luminous Flower Corporation on the star map and compared it to their current location. Thankfully, it wasn’t too far away from them.
Luminous Flower Corporation was one of the bigger mining companies in Sector M. After GAL had fallen into chaos, the major companies of Sector M had joined forces to form the Sector M Mining Alliance. The goal of the alliance was to protect themselves in case there was a major incident in GAL that could threaten them, and to prevent the army or the hunting regiments from going after their wealth and resources. The message they were trying to send could more or less be boiled down to: "Feel free to attack Sector M, but don’t be surprised if we take you to the grave with us!"
Another interesting thing about the people of Sector M was that their business philosophy was very different from businessmen like Lung. Lung would strive to maintain good relations with his contacts even if a business deal didn’t go through in the end. The people of Sector M however, would ignore you faster than Wheeze could finish its fish biscuit if it became clear that you weren’t going to buy their products. One second they were smiling, and the next they were scowling and shooing you out of their store.
Of course, a frequent visitor of Sector M would have gotten used to their culture. In fact, they would be afraid if a Sector M mine owner was all smiles despite a failed business negotiation because it meant that the person was most likely plotting their death inside their head.
Finally, everyone who worked at the mines was extremely strong, no matter their appearance. Moreover, it was literally written in the sector’s laws that anyone who was caught stealing could legally be killed. It was why most people didn’t dare to steal from the people of Sector M. When losing a limb or two was one of the lightest punishments you could possibly receive, people tended to keep their baser instincts well checked.
The Eleventh Squad’s destination was something like a "hypermarket" of Luminous Flower Corporation where all types of minerals were sold including solid metal, liquid metal, energy ores, decorative gems and more.
In a sense, the buildings of the hypermarket were very casual. Few houses were over three-storeys tall, the architecture was simplistic at best, and the people who worked there looked like what you would expect from a migrant worker at the bottom of the food chain. In reality though, each and every one of them was rich enough to buy a small starship of their own.
"Hey, look! That metal looks pretty good!" Cary ran up to a store with a mineral that caught his eyes.
The shop owner rose at the sight of a customer, and after putting a smile on his face he started introducing the ore to Cary:
"You have good eyes, dear customer. The metals extracted from this ore are of excellent quality and hardness. Are you a hunter? If you are, then know that all the metals you might want in a wrist blade are present in this ore. Here, let me show you the finished product," said the shop owner before pointing at a half-a-meter tall metal block on the shelves.
"This is an alloy made from the metals extracted from the ore. It naturally has a high hardness ratio, so there is no need to add any additional metal and strengthen its hardness further. It is also perfect for dealing with the crustacean-type aliens that annoyed so many hunters. If you don’t believe me, feel free to try and scratch the metal. You can have it for free if it isn’t hard enough for your standards!"
Tempted, Cary pulled out his blade and tried to walk over to the metal when suddenly, a shrill noise pierced everyone’s eardrums.
Creak—
CREAK—
They looked at the source of the noise. It was Wheeze leaving scratch mark after scratch mark on the alloy with its butt in the air.
"Wheeze! What the hell are you doing?!" Cary cried out while covering his ears.
Still scratching the alloy, Wheeze turned his head toward Cary and said, "Hey man, this thing is perfect as a good scratchboard! I can actually feel something on my claws!"
"Ahem," Cillin tried not to smile as he asked the stunned shop owner, "What were you saying again? Oh right, you want us to make a blade out of this alloy and use it against the… aliens?"
He even looked at Wheeze when he said "aliens". You want us to make a weapon out of an alloy that an alien cat could scratch like nothing?
The shop owner’s face turned red, blue, purple, and finally black. Bad enough that he was humiliated by his customers, he even boasted that they could take the alloy for free if it wasn’t good enough for them…
The shop owner was struggling to come to a decision when a transportation spaceplane appeared from a distance and landed on an empty space in the hypermarket. The vehicle looked unassuming, but the fact that it was allowed to land directly inside the hypermarket meant that it belonged to a Luminous Flower employee.
Of course, spaceplanes like this appeared every day, which was why none of the shop owners in the hypermarket had moved at the beginning. Then, the hatch opened to reveal a person, and they jumped to their feet as if an ore had stabbed them in the butthole and ran toward them.
When Xiao Shang and Ba Dao saw the foremost person of the group, they immediately moved to the back of the team and hid themselves. Xiao Shang was a tad faster and took up the spot behind Snowball first, so Ba Dao had no choice but to hide behind Shusag and Dias and withdrew all six of his arms.