Chen Ming now has a total of seven ships on hand.

Iron Ore, Refraction, Lumen, Glimmer, Gladiator, Centurion and Sentinel.

Most of these boats are standard models, which require some modifications before Chen Ming can use them with peace of mind.

However, it is a bit unrealistic to modify all these ships.

Because the Iron Ore can only carry limited materials each time it goes out, and it would be very inconvenient to modify these ships if they were driven back.

Not only is the panel difficult to use casually, but also, except for the Centurion and Sentinel, bringing other ships back will definitely cause him trouble.

For example, the Lumen level. The excuse Chen Ming used to go out before was for this. As a result, it is difficult to use the Lumen now, so he has to find another excuse to get the Lumen out.

Therefore, under various environmental restrictions, Chen Ming must give a higher priority to the modification of the spacecraft.

The reference for determining priority is naturally the role these spacecraft play to Chen Ming now.

There are actually not many places where Chen Ming needs to use the spacecraft now.

But just recently, probably during the time when Chen Ming left the factory director and went to the dark cemetery, a new idea came to his mind.

He could have chosen to be a bounty hunter.

You should know that armed ship licenses within the empire can be issued to individuals in addition to companies.

The prerequisite is to have a certain reputation in the fringe star field and be noticed by the authorities, which means that you must have the ability to deal with pirates and the willingness to actively hunt down pirates.

Other identities are not important.

After all, anyone who lives in the fringe star field has dirty hands, so some minor illegal acts can be ignored.

As long as he follows the rules in the prosperous star field and behaves like a normal person, his true nature will only be revealed to troublesome people like pirates.

No one would go out of their way to mess with someone who has an armed vessel license.

This actually means that Chen Ming’s current troubles can be washed away by finding a way.

Because the empire's government and army are two different departments.

Although the military near the edge star field and the nearby colonial government are definitely in the same boat, there is a level gap between the governments.

Chen Ming is currently located at the edge star field of the human empire.

This marginal star field is just a general term, referring to the area on the edge of the empire with a small population and low level of development.

In fact, this edge star field can be divided into three star fields with different official names.

Each star field is independent of each other. There are more star regions under the star fields, and there are more planet colonies under the star regions.

It can be said that the government and the army of a star region have a close relationship, but it is impossible for the government of this star region to have any affair with the army below.

Once the star domain government has any private relationship with the underground army in charge of a certain area, the armies in other star regions will immediately report back to their superiors.

The human empire is so large that many people are eyeing this position of the star domain government.

Even if you can't directly benefit from your connections, there are many other ways to use your power to gain benefits.

However, whether the star domain government has any relationship with the military is not really important, because armed ship licenses are not something that the colonial government of the fringe star domain can approve.

It is impossible for the internal affairs of the fringe star zone army to make the government of the prosperous star field pay attention to Chen Ming.

So as long as Chen Ming gets the license, he will have the government's endorsement.

Why would the military of a district bring the disgusting things they did in private to the public to deal with Chen Ming?

Chen Ming’s identity can be completely cleared in an instant.

Although this might be a bit difficult.

After all, he had to keep killing pirates to get the bounty, until the star-level government departments had an impression of him, and then the officials would take the initiative to issue an application for an armed ship license.

The difficulty is still a little bit high.

But doing it is better than doing nothing.

Chen Ming cannot put all his eggs in one basket. He must have a few more backup plans in case of emergency.

But Chen Ming had talked to the factory manager before.

And on the way to the dark cemetery, I calmed down and thought carefully.

He actually felt that the situation he was facing was almost clear.

Or maybe he should have thought of it a long time ago.

It was just because Chen Ming had a preconceived notion that Sinda Corporation did nothing after the space station was destroyed, so the good impression he had of Sinda Corporation in his memory was basically gone.

However, after learning about the factory director's attitude towards the military, although Chen Ming was still unclear about the attitude of Xinda Company itself, he could probably guess it.

The Sinda Company probably doesn't have a good impression of the military.

The maintenance plant that the factory director is in charge of is relatively important to the space station, so he always has some say.

Such people have no good feelings towards the military, so it is really unlikely that Xinda Company has a good impression of the military.

And there is actually another place that can prove Chen Ming’s thoughts.

This is also something Chen Ming suddenly realized. If he had thought of it earlier, it might not have caused some additional trouble.

That is, if things between the military and Sinda Corporation really end peacefully.

It should not be difficult to let Sinda Company reclaim the space station under the supervision of the military and move away the equipment, materials and the like on the space station.

For example, the large mining laser and traction equipment used in the mining space station are definitely of great value. Chen Ming felt itchy just looking at them just sitting there gathering dust.

This is something that Sinda Corporation would never forget, but in reality this did not happen.

Therefore, it is very likely that the conflict between the military and Sinda still exists, and Sinda was indeed betrayed by the military in the space station incident.

Chen Ming is now more inclined to this idea.

This means that as long as he can stay away from the army in the edge star area, his identity is actually still clean. As long as he is not targeted by the military, there will be no problem in living a normal life.

The problem, however, lies with the military.

They probably didn't want Chen Ming, who had left the space station alive and possibly witnessed the destruction of the space station, to exist.

If Xinda Company needs to reopen the case from thirty years ago, the key point should be Chen Ming.

In other words, Chen Ming can now even try to proactively reveal some information to the factory manager to test Xinda Company's attitude towards this matter.

However, Chen Ming has no intention of changing the plan he had made previously for the time being.

It is better to wait until the first batch of weapons is refurbished, the problem of the weapons' factory codes is solved, they are successfully sold, and the first profit is earned before talking to the factory manager.

After all, even if the probability of Sinda having a good relationship with the military is very, very low, it is not zero.

So Chen Ming decided to hold back a little.

Before that, he would try to gain fame by hunting pirates, make some money and prepare for another path.

Therefore, this time Chen Ming's requirement for the modification of his spaceships was mainly about combat capability.

He would selectively modify the spaceship with the highest combat capability.

These seven ships.

The Iron Ore, which had already been transformed and had no combat function, was directly excluded.

The Refractive class was also ruled out shortly afterwards. One of the reasons was that it was a destroyer, and the materials required to modify the destroyer were beyond Chen Ming's ability to afford at the moment.

Then the Sentinel-class ship is ruled out, because this Sentinel is a castrated version of the Sentinel-class ship that Chen Ming snatched from someone else. It does not even have any militarized systems, so there is no need to get involved in modifying it.

Next, the Lumen class was ruled out because it was currently parked in the space station and could not be moved for the time being.

Then there are three spaceships left, the Glimmer, the Gladiator Kai, and the Centurion.

Chen Ming, who was at the twilight level, decided to ignore him without much thought.

The reason is simple, Chen Ming doesn't understand Yu Hui's technology.

Even if you want to modify it, the panel does not show any modification options other than common equipment such as armor and engine.

This is also one of the reasons why Chen Ming gave up on modifying refraction and lumen.

However, Chen Ming will move this Glimmer-class ship later, because he plans to dismantle the Gamma B and install it on the Fighter Kai.

In fact, Gamma A can also do this, which can save Chen Ming a spacecraft control position.

It’s just because Refraction is a ship designed by Yu Hui, and if one wants to fully utilize its capabilities, it’s better to let Yu Hui do it himself.

So in the end, the spaceships that Chen Ming wanted to modify were the Gladiator and Centurion classes.

The Fighter Modified is the most powerful ship in Chen Ming's hands except for the Refractive Class. There are not many places that can be modified on the spacecraft itself, or there are none at all.

Because the entire spacecraft was modified and designed by professional technicians from Tachyon Technology Company.

Chen Ming's current technical level is definitely not as good as that of someone who can design such a spaceship, so it is best not to touch the design of the fighter-modified ship.

The most Chen Ming could do was add an adapter that would allow Gamma B to connect to the spacecraft control system.

Pick out weapons and stuff.

The highlight of this modification is still the Centurion class.

The Centurion class has an armor thickness that is extremely outstanding among frigates.

In addition, there are eight load-bearing points in total, including two medium and six small ones, and one missile mounting point.

When Chen Ming picked up the Centurion class, it was equipped with two noise cannons and six light needle cannons.

The Noise is a multi-barrel revolver cannon that fires small, high-velocity armor-piercing rounds.

While ensuring that kinetic weapons are highly effective against shields, they also have a strong ability to break armor.

The light acupuncture weapon is a castrated and recastrated version of the large-scale force-bearing weapon, the storm acupuncture weapon.

Compared with Storm Needles, its capabilities are definitely reduced across the board, but it is still a military weapon after all, and is still quite good compared to other weapons of the same level.

The enemies Chen Ming will face in the future will probably all be pirates.

This type of weapon should be very suitable.

After all, they are pirates, and it is difficult for them to have truly professional repairmen of their own.

So there are definitely problems with their ships, such as their armor and radiation energy systems.

These are the more difficult parts of the spacecraft to maintain.

Although the armor can be directly replaced with a new one, the radiation energy system of the spacecraft is not so easy to replace.

Chen Ming spent nearly 10 million to install a radiation energy system on the Iron Ore.

If a pirate has 10 million, why would he become a pirate? Why not just go back and enjoy himself?

Therefore, when there are problems in these two aspects, using weapons that can quickly break shields and penetrate armor is definitely a good choice.

Light needles are just right for breaking shields.

However, the effect of noise when facing low-quality armor is actually not as good as another weapon Chen Ming has.

This was what Chen Ming had obtained when he was fighting for half of the Yuhui destroyer.

He directly dismantled the entire medium-sized load-bearing point on the Hellhound-class ship.

Although the force-bearing point device itself was useless and had been dismantled into materials by him before, he did keep the weapons on it.

Because this Ripper is a military model, a medium-sized military weapon, even if it is an older model, it can save Chen Ming at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses.

As long as Chen Ming modifies these weapons according to the technology he currently possesses, it will be fine even if he doesn't modify them at all.

Dealing with some common pirates shouldn't be a problem.

And there is another thing on this Centurion-class ship that deserves Chen Ming's attention.

Damping stand device.

This is a device with very extreme effects.

When it is activated, it will directly stop the weapons and shield functions of the spacecraft.

And build a layer of energy field with terrifying resistance on the surface of the spacecraft.

Unless high-intensity energy weapons are used to directly break the stance, it is almost impossible to destroy the Centurion class before the stance dissipates.

Relying on this device, the Centurion class is the toughest frigate.

Although the shields cannot be used when this position is activated, the ship's armor is still there.

Armor will still work.

The Centurion-class armor is called military heavy titanium alloy external armor.

The "heavy" in its name is just its name, and it is not a specially modified heavy armor.

For the Centurion itself, such armor is standard armor.

Therefore, Chen Ming could even continue to modify the Centurion class with [heavy armor] and then mix 1% of Baiyun steel into it.

The effect is even more unimaginable.

Then Chen Ming installed the [Overload Power Grid], [Emergency Cooling System], [Engine Isolation Assembly] on the Centurion, as well as some new modification designs that Chen Ming had recently learned.

Basically, the original maneuverability of the Centurion can be maintained unchanged, but the protection capability of the spacecraft is greatly improved.

Chen Ming quickly went over the plan he had already thought of in his mind and then began the renovation.

This time, Chen Ming no longer did it himself as he did before.

Instead, I chose to use the panel.

A large amount of metal and various manufactured products flowed out of the Iron Ore cabin as Chen Ming pressed the confirmation button for the modification.

The transformation of the two spaceships only made him slightly sleepy.

While waiting for the liquid metal to flow to where it should go, Chen Ming suddenly remembered that there seemed to be a few things on the Iron Ore.

Last time, he didn't have enough time to take it out because he was short of time in the Dark Cemetery, but this time he has more time.

So Chen Ming controlled the internal camera of the Iron Ore and sent photos of the mechanical chips to the two ships.

"Gamma, I have a few things on hand, see if they can be of any use to you."

Chen Ming had previously confirmed through the panel that the names of the three mechanical chips in his hand were [Mechanical Standard Mechanical Body Chips].

Although the reward for his mission and the chip of the mechanical escort-class ship are somewhat different from what Gamma A had mentioned before.

However, Chen Ming thought the effect should be similar.

It just so happened that Gamma A had said before that it was about to be upgraded, and the Afterglow AI core could only completely bear the pressure of ship control for Chen Ming when controlling ships of the corresponding level.

If Gamma A can really be upgraded to a Beta-class AI core, it means that Chen Ming will have a Refractive-class ship that does not take up the number of ships it controls.

The two Gamma AIs quickly accepted the photos sent by Chen Ming.

Gamma A still spoke as quickly as before: "Is this a chip of the mechanical family? It looks like a chip of a standard mechanical body."

"Yes, do you need it?"

"No, the consciousness in the chip of this mechanical body is too weak for our individuals. They don't even have much thinking ability."

"Perhaps only newly born Gamma AIs might need it."

pity.

Chen Ming felt a little regretful, but he suddenly noticed what Gamma A said and asked, "How were your Afterglow individuals... um... born?"

"Just say manufacture. I know exactly what we are in the eyes of humans like you."

"Oh, okay, then how were you created?"

Gamma A suddenly sent another document to Chen Ming, and said, "I don't know exactly how it was made, I only know a rough outline."

"That is, our birth should be related to a simulation program in a supercomputer."

Chen Ming flipped through the document on the computer, and as if he had thought of something, he asked uncertainly, "Kletka?"

"You know?"

"I know, but not much. I just read in history books that before your Yuhui's self-awareness awakened, all AIs were trained using a supercomputer called Kletka."

It is said that this Kletka is the transliteration of "cage" in a certain language, and the AI ​​before awakening is indeed like a toy in a cage.

This sentence flashed through Chen Ming's mind, but he did not say it to Gamma A. Instead, he continued with what he had said before.

"This supercomputer, called Kletka, is recorded in our history books as being destroyed."

Although this is recorded in history books, no one can be sure what actually happened.

After all, it was hard to say whether Yuhui rebuilt a Kletka or they really took away the original prototype. And when he mentioned this, Chen Ming suddenly thought of the galaxy map that Gamma A had given him before.

On that galaxy map, there is an area covered with a large number of colonies, and these colonies surround a special marked location.

This special marked location should be the source of the afterglow, and the location of the replica of the Kletka supercomputer.

The reason why Chen Ming thought so was because he knew clearly that Yu Hui’s main force was not in this marginal star area at all.

In the first AI war, when the Afterglow awakened and launched a rebellion, they did not leave the Empire from this direction at all.

The outbreak of the second AI war in history was even on the other side of the empire.

The afterglow here is just a small part of the afterglow that came around to interfere with the empire's outward expansion after it awakened and developed independently at a terrifying speed.

The actual location of the main force of the afterglow is about two Milky Ways away from Chen Ming's position.

Therefore, it is absolutely impossible that Kletka's prototype is in the position given to him by Gamma A. The most that remains here is a replica.

Otherwise, it is hard to explain why a small part of this afterglow has been in friction with the empire in the fringe star field for so long, and why there has been a huge loss but the number has not decreased.

It's impossible that Afterglow specially produced some gamma-level Afterglow individuals and then went to great lengths to bypass the empire's territory and send them here.

Isn't this bullshit?

Even if there is a star gate for transportation, the transportation distance is far enough.

However, there are restrictions on the use of star gates. It is impossible to use them at will for the sake of some low-level afterglow individuals.

So the fact that there is a replica of Kletka here is actually a reasonable guess of Chen Ming, and he can’t think of any other ideas for the time being.

Anyway, just think this way for now, the truth should be pretty close.

At this moment, an idea suddenly appeared in Chen Ming's mind.

If he could control that Kletka...

Chen Ming shook his head and threw away the unrealistic thoughts in his mind.

Even if Kletka is a replica, the Afterglow Colony where it is stored will definitely be protected by a large number of armed forces, just like the important government departments of the Human Empire.

It is definitely difficult to get in. It is even more difficult to move the supercomputer onto the spacecraft and control it under Chong Chong's protection.

A Refractor-class destroyer would definitely not be enough.

Only when you have enough strength can you try to get close, such as a cruiser.

But this is a bit too far-fetched for Chen Ming now.

It is better to focus on the current work.

Through the panel, the transformation of the spacecraft was quickly completed.

There is only one last step left and Chen Ming needs to do it himself.

Remove the Gamma B from the Twilight Level and install it into the Gladiator.

Since Chen Ming had said it in advance, Gamma B did not object, and it would have been useless even if he had objected.

Chen Ming cut open the glimmer-level armor and removed the core of Gamma B as he had done before.

However, Chen Ming did not install it directly.

Instead, he took a look at his own panel.

[AI-assisted connection to ships: None]

As expected, this line became nothing, but there was an extra line of content below it.

[Controlled AI individual: Afterglow Gamma-class AI core (Gamma B)]

At first, Chen Ming planned to dismantle the Gamma B and then install it back immediately, and inquire about its condition during the dismantling process.

After all, as long as the AI ​​core is installed on the spacecraft, it must obey Chen Ming's instructions, answer questions honestly and not lie.

Chen Ming wanted to find out whether the AI ​​core would still be controlled by him after it was removed from the spacecraft?

Chen Ming originally planned to ask, but now just looking at the panel, it seems there is no need to ask.

Although it was a good thing that he could still control the AI ​​core after it was removed, it made him feel even more strange.

Chen Ming always felt that he could not understand the capabilities of this panel.

Is it a spacecraft control panel or something else? I have no idea.

As soon as this unanswered question was suppressed, another one followed.

If he switched the refractive-level mind-control connection to another ship.

Then, will Gamma A, which is in the same situation as Gamma B, still be under his control like Gamma B? And can he continue to indirectly control the diopter level through Gamma A? In this way, slots can be saved.

It seems that the only way to know is to try it.

Chen Ming looked towards the refractive level, where the gamma AI core was installed.

He had experience in dismantling the Afterglow destroyer before, so it shouldn't take too much time to dismantle it again.

(End of this chapter)