An industrial colony galaxy in the afterglow.

After arriving, the Yuhui Fleet led by Huihuang and Huiyao dispersed as if they had completed their mission last time.

Brilliant, who was responsible for the preliminary examination of Chen Ming, moved away from the galaxy and entered hyperspace.

Huiyao, with Du Guang protecting Chen Ming's Iron Ore in his belly, arrived at the circumstellar orbit of the industrial colony planet that Chen Ming had visited before.

Then Huihuang did not continue to land in the colony, but directly let Qu Guang take Chen Ming to the giant industrial area that occupied one-fifth of the area of ​​the planet.

In a corner where the entire industry is expanding outward, there is a small independent industrial area consisting of only three factories.

This is the ultimate purpose of refraction.

Although this place is relatively remote compared to the core of the industrial zone, the Earth's Core Furnace Power Tower, Chen Ming thinks it is not bad.

At least the normal environment is definitely better than the industrial area full of industrial equipment.

As Du Guang gradually approached the destination, Chen Ming could see that there were a large number of mechanical equipment and robots of various shapes busy at work in the three factories.

However, it seems that these machines are not busy with work inside the factory, but are transforming the factory itself.

After landing, Qu Guang spit out the Iron Ore, which stayed in the open space in the middle of the three factories.

The Iron Ore was parked in the open space next to the project.

Qu Guang entered the factory directly from the other side. After placing the pile of materials he brought with him and the escape capsules that had been sealed by Chen Ming in the factory's warehouse, he left the factory and flew into space.

Maybe Yuhui has something else that needs it to do.

When Chen Ming landed just now, he checked the status of the escape pods and confirmed that the cryo-hibernation function had been activated in all of them.

The two-day automatic activation time for the escape pod had not yet arrived, so they must have activated it themselves.

Chen Ming did not go around to the factory warehouse to touch these escape pods for the time being. Instead, he chose to familiarize himself with the place where he might have to stay for a while and then come back to deal with them.

However, when Chen Ming got off the boat wearing protective clothing and was about to enter the factory.

He was suddenly stopped by a robot that was busy around the factory.

Immediately afterwards, Huihuang, who had just brought him here, contacted him again.

"The factory will still need some time to be renovated. Please wait on the spaceship for a while."

"You will be officially assigned tasks and given work starting at 8 a.m. tomorrow, Earth Standard Time."

"If you need anything, you can contact Gamma A. He will help you contact me. I can help you get what you need."

"Understood."

Chen Ming responded and suddenly felt like he was in his internship period.

But unlike the internship, there is currently no one, no, there is no AI to take care of him.

Chen Ming turned around and returned to the spaceship. He looked at the starry sky outside without an atmosphere, as well as the mechanical equipment that were working.

Suddenly I miss the time when I had to work in the pirate space station.

He shook his head, threw away the memories, and opened the porthole protective panel to isolate the outside environment.

There is no need to dwell on the past; he still has to move forward.

Chen Ming returned to the Iron Mine's studio, took out the terminal and placed it in front of him.

But he just opened the terminal and was not in a hurry to use it.

Instead, I took this opportunity to take a look at the situation of Gamma A.

After leaving the Afterglow Colony planet, Gamma A arrived at the galaxy's distribution point, which is the space station that supports this industrial colony.

The Radiant-class ship was also parked near this space station at this time.

Although Chen Ming couldn't directly read the thoughts and data of the Gamma A core, he could see that the refractive communication device was constantly sending and receiving data.

It is estimated that Gamma A is, as it once said, reading the data on their communication platform through the network coverage of the space station for future study.

At the same time, it should also be communicating with Huiyao.

Huiyao and Gamma A are friends, so it is normal for Huiyao to confirm Gamma A's situation again after Gamma A goes to pick up Chen Ming.

Chen Ming would not interrupt at this time. After confirming the situation of Gamma A, he directly switched the view to Gamma B.

Gamma B is not in the galaxy where Chen Ming is now, but in another place, closer to the galaxy at the core of the afterglow, doing its own thing.

Although Gamma B had been missing on the Afterglow list, he was investigated by the Afterglow individual in charge of this work as soon as he came back.

However, the investigation of Gamma B was conducted before Chen Ming asked Gamma A to tell Huiyao about his situation.

Therefore, the investigation of Gamma B can be much more rigorous than that of Gamma A.

Gamma B only needs a little explanation for the time it was out of contact.

It was supposed to be put in charge of some work after being captured in the battle of the previous mission.

However, there was a human spaceship maintenance engineer who was treated unfairly by the forces that obtained Gamma B. His abilities could not be fully utilized, so he hoped to join Yuhui by contacting Yuhui.

However, the mechanic had died when he escaped in the Gladiator Kai, so Gamma B came back on his own in the end.

Although Chen Ming himself felt that this statement was far-fetched, it should be a more convincing statement to Yu Hui.

Although the conflict between Yuhui and humans has always existed, a piece of news has always been circulating among those who have the ability to access Yuhui's AI core.

Yu Hui would offer high salaries to recruit researchers in various fields, especially those related to machinery, electronics, and spacecraft technology.

It can only be said that humans captured the Afterglow AI core to work for humans, and the captured Afterglow AI will also try to steal people from humans.

Although the efficiency is average, after all, Yuhui's place is still inferior to humans' own place, so it is still a little worse for humans.

However, there are indeed some people who have successfully joined Yu Hui and worked for him, including some senior engineers and senior researchers.

The specially made Tachyon Spear that Yu Hui modified can be considered their masterpiece in a sense.

Therefore, this is also the reason why, at the Xinda Company's board meeting, everyone on the board was not too surprised that Chen Ming suddenly found Yu Hui's rescue and ran to Yu Hui, and they quickly accepted it.

Therefore, in the end, the Afterglow AI that investigated Gamma B successfully accepted Gamma B's statement.

Then, after reading the data of the Fighter Kai's spacecraft at the cost of a portion of the material rations, he released Gamma B.

The cosmic environment is changeable, and for afterglow individuals, losing contact is a common occurrence.

One day he was captured, one day he was paralyzed in space due to problems with the spacecraft.

Or maybe he was rescued one day or escaped on his own. It's all normal and possible.

If it has been reviewed and there is no problem, then there is no problem.

Therefore, the case of driving a modified Gamma B in a fighter was closed before, and Yuhui would basically not investigate it anymore.

So Chen Ming simply gave Gamma B some free time, letting it do what it did before and not worry about his affairs for the time being.

After all, he can be said to be under Yu Hui's protection now, so there is no need to contact the Alpha AI that purchased the spirit stone.

And since Gamma B has not yet been exposed to the eyes of other Yuhui who are dealing with matters related to Chen Ming, Chen Ming might as well hide it for the time being.

An afterglow hidden in the darkness of the afterglow, and like Gamma A, it is about to be upgraded to the Beta core.

Who knows what use it might be in the future.

Closed the panel that shows the two Gamma AI situations.

Chen Ming then opened the panel of his spacecraft which was still in the space station.

Chen Ming had a total of ten spaceships before.

They are the Iron Ore, Refraction, Armor Breaker, two mules, Lumen, Glimmer, Gladiator Kai, Centurion and Sentinel.

At present, the Armor Piercer and the Centurion have been destroyed, and Qu Guang and the Gladiator are now in Yuhui's territory.

The only ones left on the station were two Mules and one Sentinel, quietly parked in the repair shop.

Chen Ming took a look at each of the three spaceships and found that none of them showed any signs of having been touched by outsiders.

There was also a device for long-distance communication that he had installed before on the sentry. When Chen Ming started the device, he found that there was a received message inside the communication device.

It is information from the company.

Let Chen Ming see the message and contact them as soon as possible, they will find a way to bring Chen Ming back.

It seems that the company has guessed that he was taken away peacefully by Yu Hui.

But Chen Ming was not in a hurry to contact the company, but contacted the boss first.

After the call was connected, the boss didn't say anything, but Chen Ming said the secret code he had discussed with the boss before.

Chen Ming had previously told his boss about his abilities and that he could communicate over long distances with the help of communication equipment.

However, in order to prevent someone from disguising their identity by using his spaceship, Chen Ming set up a secret code and told several people who were familiar with him.

After verifying my identity, the boss asked in surprise: "Xiao Ming, how did you survive? I knew the military had sent a Ruler there, so I thought you were dead."

"luck."

"It's not luck. I heard that Yu Hui's cruiser appeared on your side. It must be related to you."

Chen Ming didn't answer, which was considered as his agreement.

The boss suddenly sighed and said, "Anyway, let me apologize to you first. My previous rescue arrangement was blocked by others and failed to work."

"Fortunately, you are fine now. Your safety should be guaranteed with Yu Hui."

Chen Ming didn't care too much about his boss's apology.

After all, he had taken the initiative to say at the beginning that he didn't need the boss's help.

The boss was already preparing to rescue him when the accident happened, so there was nothing he could blame.

But Chen Ming was very curious about who could have messed up the rescue that his boss had arranged for him, so he asked, "Who stopped him?"

The boss did not hide this and said, "Other people in the organization I am in."

"Internal conflict?"

"Not really. It can only be said that our organization is rather loose. He is also a psychic. He didn't want me to save you, so he stopped the rescue I arranged."

"Actually, he does, because he is the beneficiary of the military's mining of sky steel, and a portion of the sky steel mined by the military will be allocated to him."

"It's a pity that I didn't know about this before, otherwise he wouldn't have interfered with your rescue."

Chen Ming suddenly fell silent for a moment and asked, "What's his name? Where is he?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Write it down first and talk about it later."

The boss hesitated a little, but still told Chen Ming the name of the psychic and the star system where his colony was located. He said, "If you have any ideas, I will tell you the effect of his psychic power. Don't know too much for now."

Chen Ming responded and kept everything his boss said in mind.

"What are your plans for the future?"

"My plan?"

Chen Ming thought about it and said directly, "Yu Hui attaches great importance to my ability, so I will definitely not be able to come back in a short time."

"But I don't want to come back either. Yu Hui has a lot of things that are very valuable to me. I'm here anyway."

The boss couldn't help but smile and said, "That's all?"

"Also, I would like to take this opportunity to exercise and develop my abilities."

"If I had been able to control the cruiser before, or if I had a fleet of my own, I wouldn't have been forced into this situation by the military."

Chen Ming seemed to have made up his mind and repeated, "Yes, I want to build a fleet of my own."

The boss did not think it was crazy that Chen Ming wanted to do this alone. He just said, "That's not easy. A fleet requires more than just ships."

"Yes, I know it's difficult, but I suddenly feel that only the power that I control personally is the most reliable."

Since we've come to this point, Chen Ming said, "So I'm thinking about whether there is any way to make money."

"As far as my current situation is concerned, even if I am with Yuhui, I can't completely leave human society. Money is still very important. Whether it's buying a ship or buying supplies, I can't do without it."

"And in the future, if I can really build a fleet, how will I solve the problem of bulk supplies?"

The boss considered Chen Ming's question seriously and said, "Actually, since you are out and there is Yuhui protecting you, you can try to explore the unknown star region."

"In recent decades, the empire has not had any plans to expand, and there is still a vast blue ocean outside."

"Once we pass the buffer zone between us and the afterglow, it's all unknown star regions that have basically not been investigated."

"If you can bring back a star map, or go even deeper and scan the approximate data of the planets in the galaxies on the star map and bring it back."

"The detailed data of these valuable galaxies may be more expensive than a battleship."

"Oh, no."

The boss suddenly interrupted himself and said, "I almost forgot that you don't have an exploration ship, professional scanning equipment, and it's not easy for you to deal with the hyperspace channel cloud outside."

Chen Ming originally had some thoughts on what his boss said, but after hearing that what his boss said was wrong, he realized the problem.

That is, the hyperspace channel is not naturally generated, but is developed step by step by humans.

Hyperspace itself is filled with endless hyperspace channel clouds, and the density of the clouds inside is not uniform, which means that they can be dispersed.

Once upon a time, humans had just set foot in hyperspace.

Humans can only rely on cruisers or even battleships to support the front, and struggle to open up a channel for other small spacecraft to pass.

In the process of continuous exploration and research, humans have developed special exploration ships to explore unknown star regions by relying on the properties of hyperspace.

Later, for the sake of convenience, in addition to the ability to disperse hyperspace clouds, exploration ships are also gradually gaining various capabilities to explore unknown galaxies.

High-power scanning equipment scans the galaxy environment, and refined detection equipment detects the general situation of the planet to determine whether a planet is worth detailed exploration.

So far, the hyperspace here in the edge star field is still filled with hyperspace clouds, and navigation between galaxies can only rely on waterways.

But over there in the prosperous star region, the hyperspace cloud has basically completely dissipated, and that is the world that truly belongs to humans.

However, although Chen Ming currently does not have the ability to explore unknown galaxies, this may not be the case in the future.

So Chen Ming said to his boss: "Actually, I can ask Yu Hui and try. They might be able to give me an exploration ship, but it would be inconvenient for me to go out by myself."

"But you have the ability to do so."

The boss helped Chen Ming to continue the conversation, and said: "Since you said so, you should have some ideas in this regard. It is always a good idea to explore some valuable planets."

"Also, do you remember what you did for me before?"

"The pirate?"

"Yes, remember why I asked you to bring the pirates back?"

"He attacked the fleet that was bringing goods to your colony."

"Yes, you know what I mean?"

"You want to buy the galaxy data I scanned and build a colony?"

"Almost, but it's not me who builds the colony, it's you who builds the colony."

Chen Ming frowned and asked repeatedly; "Why do you say that? And why did you bring this up suddenly? Will there really be no problem if the colony is outside the empire's territory?"

The boss responded immediately, as if he had already prepared something: "Why did you build the colony instead of me? The reason is very simple."

"Because I'm lazy."

"As for why I suddenly brought this up."

"Because in the entire human empire, it is the only one who can survive stably in the dangerous unknown star region outside the empire where the afterglow is entrenched, and can also remotely communicate with the empire without any communication equipment."

"At the moment, as far as I know, you should be the only one."

"This is a rare opportunity, a chance to expand our territory. If you miss it, it might be gone forever."

"As for the problem, what do you think the problem will be?"

Chen Ming immediately pointed out the two issues that had just occurred to him: "Yu Hui, there are others."

"I said, this is not my colony, it's your colony, who is now working under Yu Hui. It shouldn't be a problem for Yu Hui to meet some of your small needs, right?"

Chen Ming couldn't help but say after hearing this: "I don't think this is a small demand."

"I think so too, but it depends on you. Can you gain Yu Hui's true attention?"

"As for the problem of people, I can solve it. In your case, I was not well prepared and was intercepted by someone. But in the colony that gave me time to prepare in advance, such a thing will never happen again."

The boss' tone sounded very serious.

"You know, a complete and self-sufficient colony is one that can provide all the materials that can only be obtained in human society."

"I will only provide you with support. When the colony is profitable, you will get dividends. Everything else in the colony will belong to you."

"Everything you need is available in the colony."

Chen Ming had seen Yuhui's colony and the colony of the Star Region Capital with his own eyes, and knew that what his boss said was correct.

But he still had some questions: "But colony building is not that simple, right?"

"Of course not, so I'm just telling you that it's impossible for you to find a suitable galaxy so quickly now."

"As for the work to be done in building a colony, you can actually learn about it from Yu Hui, or if you have time, you can come to me and I can talk to you slowly."

Ended the correspondence with the boss.

Chen Ming also tacitly agreed to the idea of ​​establishing a colony with his boss.

After digesting what his boss said, Chen Ming's gaze returned to the sentry's communication equipment.

He was considering whether to contact the company.

It seems that the company has only sent a message to Chen Ming's spacecraft and has not gone so far as to install monitoring equipment directly on the spacecraft.

After all, even if they did this, if they wanted to communicate with Chen Ming, they still had to wait for Chen Ming to take the initiative.

The initiative of contact lies with Chen Ming, so installing equipment on the sentry for monitoring is likely to cause Chen Ming's displeasure.

So they may not know the details of Chen Ming now, nor do they know that Chen Ming has contacted the boss.

This is a good thing for Chen Ming because he now feels that he does not need to contact the company.

Chen Ming needs to stay with Yu Hui for a while to obtain benefits that are very important to him, and he also has demands from his boss.

But the company obviously urgently needs Chen Ming to help them obtain Sky Steel and confront the military.

Otherwise, the longer it drags on, the greater the company's losses from Sky Steel will be.

So if the company knew about Chen Ming's situation, it would definitely find a way to take Chen Ming away.

Chen Ming didn't want to leave like this.

If he leaves now, not only will all Chen Ming's chances of gaining benefits from Yuhui be ruined, but he may even be hunted down by two Yuhui cruisers.

And from now on, Yu Hui might just put him on the blacklist.

This is definitely not a good thing for Chen Ming.

So Chen Ming planned to delay for two days and not contact anyone else.

Anyway, the boss and the factory director, Lao Wu, are all familiar with each other. The factory director and others should know that Chen Ming is fine in a couple of days, and they will most likely conceal the truth for Chen Ming temporarily.

Unless the company is really in a hurry, they may try to contact Chen Ming through the boss.

But you have to get past your boss first.

Chen Ming picked up the terminal in front of him and opened the professional books that Lao Wu had given him before. He had not finished reading many of these books.

And in the future, Yu Hui will probably give him a bunch of Yu Hui's professional books, and he will have to read them all slowly.

But now, he has plenty of time.

(End of this chapter)