Chapter 73
Early in the middle ages, this planet already possessed advanced technology and was the core of the entire universe at one point. The speed of their mechanical civilization advancement was so fast, it caused a conflict between artificial intelligence and humankind, which ended up resulting in the entire civilization being annihilated in war.
Constlac's new rise happened over three thousand years ago. This abandoned planet had been re-opened by the Federal Government, and a large number of the mechanical civilization's remains were dug out, then rebuilt. Over three thousand years, this planet had always held the t.i.tle of being the largest manufacturing planet in the Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation.
Due to the flouris.h.i.+ng manufacturing business, there were plenty of large-scale s.p.a.ce docks as well as s.p.a.ce dock repair shops.
After parking their s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p at the port, Gu Ding and Liliath walked out of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p and took in the truly spectacular sights. A large majority of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps at the port were even larger than Gu Ding's Grey-faced Buzzard model. Various White Gyrfalcon-grade and Silver Hawk-grade s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps were parked at the port, blocking the other small-sized s.h.i.+ps. What made Gu Ding most excited was that he even spotted a Golden Eagle model in the distance, which stood more than seventy times bigger than the Grey-faced Buzzard. It attracted countless gazes from the pa.s.sers-by at the port.
"Who knows what sort of important figure is on this planet," Liliath muttered in a low voice. "Someone who's able to buy a Golden Eagle model is definitely not some commoner."
"What an imposing s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p!" Gu Ding's eyes shone as he stared. "Someday, I'll get my hands on one!"
"Do you know the price of a Golden Eagle?" Liliath attacked mercilessly. "Even if it was some damaged product that had already changed hands many times, the lowest price you can get it on the black market is 800 million Universe Credits. Listen carefully—it's not Star Credits, it's Universe Credits!"
"Can't you just say it's 800 billion Star Credits?" Gu Ding's mouth split into a smile. In the Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation, the exchange rate of Star Credits to Universe Credits was 1000:1. This exchange rate would occasionally fluctuate, but not by too much.
"Star Credits are just the circulated currency in the internal portion of the Cosmic Nation. There are different types of Star Credits in different Cosmic Nations, and they all have different exchange rate with Universe Credits. For this kind of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, people would only be willing to sell them for Universe Credits, not Star Credits," Liliath explained with utmost seriousness. Between different Cosmic Nations, Star Credits would not be accepted. If they wanted to use it, they would either have to exchange it for Universe Credits, or exchange it for Universe Credits and then exchange it once again for the Cosmic Nation's Star Credits.
After exiting the port, under Neptune's guidance, Gu Ding and Liliath found a restaurant that had a great reputation.
Over these three days, it was not just Liliath, even Gu Ding had gotten sick of eating egg fried rice. Having found a good restaurant, the two of them quickly placed their orders.
However, they did not notice one of the customers in the restaurant checking two images on his wrist.w.a.tch after noticing the duo.
Neptune had found four or five repair shops for Gu Ding that had suitable prices and
Gu Ding's original 8 million Star Credits bounty had been increased to 80 million, and Liliath's 6 million figure had been upped to 60 million Star Credits. The duo's net worth had decupled overnight.
What was even more eye-catching was the bounty the Ona.s.sis family had placed. In the three days that there had been no news regarding Gu Ding, the Ona.s.sis family had further increased the private bounty on them, so Gu Ding was now worth 600 million, while Liliath was worth 400 million.
In reality, such a high bounty did not match Gu Ding and Liliath's combat prowess at all. Gu Ding's combat effectiveness was not much different from an Interstellar Pirate worth around two hundred million Star Credits, which was only achieved with Neptune's help. As for Liliath, even with an armor-piercing projectile, she could only deal with a Rank 6 Gene Body and had an attack power worth about a hundred million Star Credits' bounty at most.
For the Ona.s.sis family to have set such a high reward, it was clear what their goal was—they wanted the two of them dead.
As the two of them enjoyed a lavish dinner, a bespectacled man outside the restaurant said, "I am Constlac Division's Bundy. I've spotted Gu Ding and Liliath…"
A moment later, a deep male voice came from the communicator. "Send the duo's pictures to all the bosses of Constlac's s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p production plants and repair companies, so they'll reject all requests from the two of them."
"Understood!" Cutting off the communicator, Bundy called another number…
The next morning, Gu Ding and Liliath brought the blueprint of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p to the first repair shop.
The repair shop's boss was an unshaven, bald man. Upon seeing the two of them, his expression became a little unnatural.
"Mr. Callier, we found your repair shop on Skynet. It has great reviews. We're hoping you can help us repair our s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p." Gu Ding observed the other party's change in expression but did not think much of it.
"Apologies, our workload for this month is already full. The earliest we can accept new orders is the first of next month. Can you wait that long?" The bald Callier immediately turned down their business.
"But we saw your repair shop still accept orders last night..." Gu Ding was confused.
"Yinter, that guy, must have forgotten to update the orders on the website again. I'm really sorry you came all the way here. You two had best find other repair shops and ask around."
"Will do, thanks!" Thus. Gu Ding and Liliath had to go to the second repair shop.
"Why do I feel that the bald uncle just now was acting a little weird? It was like he wasn't very receptive to us from the start." Liliath also noticed this oddity.
Gu Ding nodded. "I feel the same way. He might've seen the video of the two of us on Skynet."
"That's possible." Liliath recalled how she and Gu Ding had been depicted by the media as two troublemakers who would cross any line to get what they wanted, making anyone who saw the video subconsciously distance themselves from the two of them.
The duo quickly arrived at the second repair shop. The boss was a pale, lanky youngster. When he saw the two of them, he visibly furrowed his eyebrows. This slight movement was caught by Gu Ding and Liliath.
"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Adam. We saw the reviews of your repair shop on Skynet weren't bad, and you're still accepting orders, so we came first thing today." Gu Ding immediately mentioned the other party's order status online to prevent the previous issue from reoccuring.
"Let me see your s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p blueprint then." Adam nodded.
Neptune immediately projected the structural diagram of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p in front of the three of them as well as the current damage a.n.a.lysis report.
Adam skimmed it, then forced a smile. "A very beautiful s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, and it has great collection value. However… I can't repair it for you here."
"Why?" Gu Ding could not help asking.
"Yours is a first-generation Grey-faced Buzzard model. It has more than a hundred years of history. This s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p has been out of production for over ninety years too, so we have no way of getting the corresponding parts. I'm really sorry, but there's nothing I can do," Adam explained.
"Can't you use other spare parts to replace them?" Gu Ding pressed him.
"A lot of the parts are custom sized and unique. They are very rarely replaceable. Even if we go back a step and a.s.sume we can find replacement parts, the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p's performance will be affected. I don't allow mediocrity here, and I definitely won't accept any business that might negatively affect my reputation." Adam then politely asked them to leave. "I suggest you two seek out other repair shops."
"Alright then. Thank you for your explanation." Gu Ding nodded and left with Liliath.
"That b.a.s.t.a.r.d was obviously afraid of us, and he sounded impatient." Liliath once again observed the abnormal behavior.
"Let's go to two more places and see." Gu Ding's expression was blank, but he did not express any personal opinion.