Chen Ming originally planned to find a hotel to stay in.

But when Old Wu heard what Chen Ming said, he just said hello and ran away . He looked like he had no intention of finding a decent place to stay tonight. Chen Ming had no reason to stop him, so he simply didn't look for a hotel.

It took some time to take the space elevator back to the colony's space station and live on the ship.

By the way, they also received the two focused-charge anti-aircraft guns that had been sent to the temporary cargo storage center at the space station, and sent them to the Gladiator's modified ship, intending to replace them after leaving the space station.

After finishing this matter, Chen Ming did not hang around in the space station, but went straight back to the Iron Ore.

He took out the terminal and started checking the information about tomorrow's auction.

Although there is not overly detailed information, you can get a rough idea of ​​the situation of the item just by looking at the brief introduction.

The items sold at tomorrow's auction will basically be weapons or spacecraft equipment of an experimental or testing nature that have never been sold to the public.

There are ships from different manufacturers, and this kind of items should be sold to match the new armor-piercing class.

Chen Ming did see some things on the list that made him jealous.

As for the price, all I can say is that participation is what matters.

If Chen Ming is willing to spend a little money, he should be able to buy one or two items.

But he didn't want to be penniless, so he decided to wait and see the situation in reality before making a decision.

Chen Ming quickly wrote down the list of auction items and closed the auction website.

Instead of rushing to rest, he went to the engine room.

Came to the spiritual stone which has now become a lie.

Although Chen Ming didn't dwell too much on the familiar figure he saw that day.

But now that he had some free time at night, Chen Ming recalled and found that the figure that looked familiar to him seemed very similar to the man who was shot dead when he touched the Liar Stone.

He felt that this matter still needed to be clarified.

So Chen Ming directly opened the address book and sent a communication request to his boss.

All colonies and space stations within the empire are covered by superluminal communication technology, so contacting the boss is not impossible.

The call was quickly connected, and Chen Ming said directly: "Sorry to bother you, boss, I have something I want to ask you."

The boss said in a rather casual tone: "I'm quite free these days, so I won't bother you. What do you want to say?"

"My spiritual stone has changed."

The boss's voice gradually changed from lazy to energetic, and he asked: "Changes? What changes?"

"My Whispering Stone patterns have become more distorted, and the influence of the whispers has become stronger. When I touch them, I also see an illusion of a person being killed by a single gunshot."

The boss suddenly asked with a hint of curiosity in his tone: "What does that person look like?"

"A middle-aged man with a mustache, quite fair and thin."

"Oh, I thought it would be me or you."

Chen Ming asked with some confusion: "What do you mean?"

“That’s what it means.”

"To put it simply, what you encountered was that there was some resonance between the Spirit Stone and the dead pirate."

"resonance?"

"Yes, although you have seen relatively few spirit stones, you should be able to guess that spirit stones actually correspond to human consciousness to a certain extent."

"Human consciousness includes a lot, such as personality, emotions, thoughts, desires, etc."

"For example, my 'gentleness' corresponds to a gentle character, and your 'whisper' corresponds to a trait that can make people crazy and irritable."

"Although they look different, they are both very extreme, extreme tenderness and extreme whispering, or irritability."

"Do you understand what I mean?"

Chen Ming digested what his boss said a little bit and said, "Okay, the spirit stone corresponds to the extreme consciousness of human beings. Being gentle to the extreme is definitely not a good thing."

"Well, that's fine if you understand it that way."

"In short, the Spiritual Stone itself represents extremes, and once something equally extreme appears next to the Spiritual Stone, it will have an impact on the Spiritual Stone with a similar effect."

"I think it's probably the hatred or madness that the pirate felt when he died that resonated with the Whispering Stone, so your Whispering Stone has changed."

"By the way, this situation will only occur when there is psychic power. It will be useless no matter how strong the emotions of ordinary people are."

"Maybe the pirate had some psychic talent, or maybe he had come into contact with psychic items before. In any case, the extreme emotions he experienced when he died affected your stone. That's about it."

The boss paused for a moment, then continued, "What I can't understand is why the person you saw was not you or me, but the middle-aged man you mentioned."

"But this should be a good thing. It means you can try to act according to the hallucinations you see."

Chen Ming asked in surprise: "According to the illusion? Why?"

"Hmm... well, the effect of your Whispering Spirit Stone is also changing, right?"

"Yes, the effect is getting stronger."

"As long as you find that person and kill him, the illusion will disappear, and the spiritual energy that constitutes the illusion will become part of the spiritual stone itself."

"This extreme resonance of consciousness will be completely unified and completely integrated into the Spiritual Stone, continuing to increase the strength of the Spiritual Stone's effect."

Chen Ming glanced at the Liar Stone placed next to him, and couldn't imagine what kind of tormenting power it would have as its effect continued to grow.

"Then does this person really exist? Also, if the effect of the stone becomes stronger, can I still do what you said before about letting me touch the Whispering Stone on a regular basis?"

The boss answered Chen Ming's questions one by one: "The effect of the spirit stone is strong, so you just need to keep in contact with it for a shorter period of time. As long as you don't carry it all the time, there will be no problem. You are a psychic."

"As for your question about whether this person really exists, let me ask you, do you know this person?"

“I don’t know him.”

"Do you think you could construct a complete image of such a person with all the details just from your imagination?"

"cannot."

"That's it. This person was actually the one that the pirate hated the most when he was dying."

"That's why I'm wondering why it's not you or me. I really don't understand."

"Forget it. Anyway, as long as you follow his social network, you will definitely find this person."

The boss told Chen Ming all the benefits of following his illusion, but Chen Ming still had some questions: "What if I don't do this?"

The boss was not surprised at all that Chen Ming had such an idea, and said, "The power of resonance will gradually fade away, and it will disappear completely after a period of time."

"By then, your spirit stone will only have the enhanced effect produced by the moment of resonance, and the extra effect will disappear as the illusion fades."

That is to say, there is no actual disadvantage.

"I see."

"Well, the specifics of how to do it are up to you. I'm just responsible for watching the show... ahem... helping you explain the situation and giving you some advice."

"You can come to me if you have such things in the future. I still like doing this kind of things."

"If you want to find specific clues..."

Chen Ming immediately thought of a suitable person and said, "I can ask Old Wu. He should know where to start."

"Yes, it's a good idea to find him, so let's do it."

"Thank you, boss."

"Don't be so polite, keep contacting me if you have any questions."

Communication ended.

Chen Ming threw the terminal away and prepared to take a rest.

Old Wu said during the day that he knew where to sell intelligence here, so he must know one or two intelligence dealers here.

It shouldn't be a big problem to check the identity and background of this pirate through intelligence dealers, especially since this pirate has become a corpse.

But Old Wu went out to have fun, so I can only ask him before or after the auction tomorrow.

If he turns around and finds that this middle-aged man is easy to deal with, he will take some time to find a way to get rid of him.

When Chen Ming thought of this, he was suddenly stunned.

He found that he no longer seemed to have any aversion to killing, even though he didn't know whether the other person was a good person or a bad person.

The surrounding environment's indifference to rules is affecting him, and he is getting further and further away from the prosperous star field where rules and order coexist.

He was getting further and further away from the peaceful and stable life he once wanted.

But it doesn't matter.

Chen Ming suddenly became determined.

When he relied on his abilities to obtain everything he has now, it was already difficult for him to return to the prosperous star field.

If you want to stay in a place like the edge star field for a long time, you must not follow the rules of the prosperous star field.

He must not give up an opportunity to gain benefits just because of some ideas within the rules.

Unless there is someone Chen Ming trusts enough and a coveted benefit on both sides of the road, he needs to consider the trade-off between benefits and people.

At that time, Chen Ming was not reluctant to use his benefits to exchange for friends he could trust.

Chen Ming is an orphan. He has very few friends since he was a child, almost none.

So he would value the friends he already had, but what did other strangers have to do with him? Killing this middle-aged man would allow Chen Ming's spirit stone to continue to be strengthened, and in the illusion, there was another spirit stone in the middle-aged man's pocket.

If it really exists as the middle-aged man and the boss said, then there is a high possibility that this spiritual stone also exists.

And this spiritual stone is an unknown spiritual stone.

There is a possibility that it is as gentle as the boss's spiritual stone.

There is a possible existence of a gentle spiritual stone that has the ability to calm people and erase distracting thoughts from their minds. It is impossible for Chen Ming to give it up just because of the rules.

Chen Ming closed his eyes and gradually calmed down the thoughts in his mind.

Waiting for the next day to come.

Just as Chen Ming was taking a break.

Old Wu had a good meal and drank some wine.

Based on his previous experience here, he found a foot massage parlor.

There is no shortage of such places anywhere.

After all, the construction of a colony cannot be done by starting from scratch with just a few people. It must be a large-scale population migration based on the stated dividends.

These migrant populations are not necessarily all high-quality populations.

There always needs to be some ordinary people to fill in the gaps in the foundation.

When there are more people, competition will naturally arise.

Once a person cannot compete with others, his social status will naturally decline.

Even in the most advanced interstellar age, there will always be a lack of people at the bottom.

So there will naturally always be a lot of places like foot massage parlors.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Old Wu, whose mind is full of garbage at the moment.

Since Chen Ming had said before that he would reimburse him, he wouldn't refuse.

Before starting the meal, we have to have a serious meal.

Old Wu agreed at the front desk and found a recliner to lie down on.

A middle-aged man with a mustache, surrounded by three people, walked to the other side of the foot massage parlor.

Old Wu whistled and said, "Wow, you are so awesome today? Wasn't there always the same one before?"

The middle-aged man turned his head to look at the source of the voice and said in surprise: "Old Wu? Why did you come to a place like this?"

"Come over to do something."

The middle-aged man frowned slightly and asked, "What's the matter?"

"It's just a small matter. I've finished it. I'll leave tomorrow."

The middle-aged man relaxed a little, and did not want to chat with Old Wu any more. He said as he walked, "Then I wish you a safe journey."

"I'll lend you my good words."

Old Wu actually wanted to ask the middle-aged man about the group of pirates that Chen Ming had killed before.

But Old Wu felt that they came here just to pay the bounty for these pirates, so it would not be a good idea to directly ask someone who had close contact with these pirates.

Moreover, Old Wu remembered that the middle-aged man with a mustache had more than just an intelligence trading relationship with the pirates. The pirates got their Luddite ship from the middle-aged man.

If he brought up this topic and angered someone related to Lude Zuojing, that would not be the situation that Old Wu wanted to see.

Time passed quickly and it was the next day.

Chen Ming met Lao Wu early in the morning outside the Colonial Development History Exhibition Hall where the auction was to be held.

After arriving, Chen Ming discovered that there were a lot of guard troops here, very many, and it felt to Chen Ming that there were more than at the government building.

It seems that they are all here to protect this auction.

So after the meeting, Chen Ming was not in a hurry to mention the intelligence matter for the time being, and decided to watch the auction first.

The auction identity and entry qualification review does not need to be conducted on-site and is also quite simple.

Just confirm on the auction website that there is money on the card.

Then verify on-site whether the identity registered on the website and the terminal match each other and pass. Nothing else is required.

Although it is indeed very convenient and the identity of the bidder is very well protected, the security of the auction seems to be a bit problematic.

But looking at it this way, it seems normal to have more guards responsible for the security of the auction.

Chen Ming understood the auction organizer's train of thought.

Relying on the assets of over 20 million in his card, he barely managed to enter the auction.

There were quite a few people in the Star Domain capital who could muster tens of millions of movable assets. When Chen Ming brought Old Wu in, there were only a few hundred people in the large conference hall of the exhibition hall.

However, it is hard for Chen Ming to say how many people really came in person.

Chen Ming quickly found the seat arranged on the auction website.

The official list of items is placed at each person's place.

All of today's lots are listed above along with detailed descriptions of them.

This naturally includes a detailed introduction to the main item, the armor-piercing spacecraft.

Moreover, in the conference room, Chen Ming could follow the one-way glass wall next to it, which had obviously been recently renovated, and see the armor-piercing class weapon that had been placed in the emptied exhibition hall next door.

The armor-piercing weapon had a spear-like appearance and carried a sharp aura, which deeply attracted Chen Ming's attention.

What attracted Chen Ming's attention next was the biggest feature of the armor-piercing level.

Its "spear tip" is occupied by a large load-bearing point.

A large load-bearing point capable of mounting large weapons.

Generally speaking, only cruisers can withstand the radiation energy growth and energy consumption of large weapons.

If a destroyer is to be able to carry large weapons, these two problems need to be solved urgently, and this can only be achieved with the support of a large number of new technologies.

The armor-piercing class ship released by Sinda Company now may have completely solved these two problems.

No wonder so many people are interested in this spaceship.

Moreover, Chen Ming also discovered that this armor-piercing class ship used the relatively valuable Baiyun steel composite armor.

Although this material largely originates from the mechanical family, it is often needed by advanced spacecraft.

But Chen Ming remembered that when Sinda designed the spacecraft, it would try to control the proportion of high-grade metal materials used in order to facilitate mass production.

Now that this material is used on the armor, which accounts for a very large proportion of the material on the spacecraft, it can be seen that the company really attaches great importance to this armor-piercing class.

With this armor-piercing ship next to him, Chen Ming had basically no interest in the other items at the auction.

Even though the auction was about to begin, Chen Ming's attention remained on this armor-piercing ship, wondering if there was any way to get his hands on it.

However, the isolation belts next to the armor-piercing class and the large number of guards nearby forced Chen Ming to give up this idea.

But at least it's still watchable.

While Chen Ming was staring at the Armor-Breaking Class, the items at the auction were being bought one by one.

Two hours later, the auction finally came to the last item, a armor-piercing-class destroyer.

However, before the last item was officially auctioned.

The auction opened up the enclosed area next door where the Armor-Piercing Class items were stored, allowing those present to go over and take a closer look at the actual Armor-Piercing Class items.

Many people did not move, but many others stood up and went through the small door next to them to the next room.

Chen Ming and Lao Wu were naturally among them.

The eyes of both of them were attracted by the absolutely violent large load-bearing point of the Armor-Piercing Class.

However, just as Chen Ming was approaching the armor-breaking level, he suddenly sensed a hint of danger nearby.

Chen Ming immediately became alert and looked around at the crowd around him.

Among the crowd rushing towards the Armor-Breaking Class, Chen Ming suddenly saw that person.

In the hallucination brought about by the Falsehood Stone, Chen Ming saw the middle-aged man who was shot in the head.

At this moment, the middle-aged man's hand was in the pocket of his formal velvet suit, as if he was holding something.

And just as Chen Ming saw him, the vague sense of danger suddenly became clear.

Chen Ming's hand subconsciously reached to his waist, trying to touch the holster hanging on his protective suit.

But Chen Ming stopped before he could actually do that.

Because once he pulled out the gun, he would not have time to shoot and would be shot to pieces by the fully armed guards around him.

Individual weapons made with current technology are much more sophisticated than the civilian spacecraft weapons Chen Ming has seen. It is definitely not difficult to accurately hit the target in a crowd.

The same goes for the middle-aged man. If he dares to do anything wrong, he will definitely be besieged by the guards around him.

However, Chen Ming always believed that his sense of danger would not deceive him, so he quickly pulled Lao Wu away from him and fell to the back of the team that was watching the armor-breaking level up close.

Just when Chen Ming saw him and pulled Old Wu to slow down his pace.

The middle-aged man seemed to have noticed Chen Ming as well, but he was not looking at Chen Ming, but at Old Wu.

There seemed to be a hesitation on his face for half a second, but it disappeared immediately.

Then he clenched his hands tightly in his pockets as if he had made up his mind.

The next moment.

Something happened that surprised Chen Ming greatly.

A wave of mental pulse that Chen Ming had experienced quite a few times suddenly spread out from the middle-aged man as the center.

It swept across the people participating in the auction, across him, across the guards on the periphery, and even penetrated the walls of the exhibition hall and swept across the people outside the exhibition hall.

Chen Ming could feel that the intensity of this mental pulse was quite high. Although this level had no effect on him as he was now accustomed to whispers and mental pulses, it was absolutely unbearable for ordinary people.

Just as he expected, chaos and screams broke out in the exhibition hall in an instant, and people present fell down in large numbers.

The guards on alert nearby were completely unable to withstand the impact of the mental pulses. They fell to the ground one after another, losing their ability to fight.

Only a few guards were still struggling, but they could not hold out for long under the influence of the mental pulse and soon fell into a coma.

Old Wu also fell to the ground with a painful expression on his face.

But Chen was clearly stunned for a moment when he first saw Old Wu, and then he pretended to be like this.

Before Old Wu fell down, he pulled Chen Ming's trouser leg, making Chen Ming lie on the ground and pretend to be dead. It was obvious that he was not affected by the mental pulse at all.

Although Chen Ming was curious about how Lao Wu, an ordinary person who was definitely not a psychic, managed to defend against the influence of mental pulses.

However, he still lay down under the push of Old Wu and mixed in with him in the crowd of people who fell down.

Hundreds of people in the entire exhibition hall soon fell down.

After a brief burst of intense noise, the exhibition hall fell into silence.

Most of the people inside and outside the exhibition hall and nearby fell down in the mental pulse. Even if a guard sent out a distress signal before falling down, it would take at least several minutes for the nearest support to arrive.

During these few minutes, the exhibition hall is managed by the few people who are still standing.

But these people did not include the middle-aged man who caused all this.

He fell to the ground like everyone else.

But Chen Ming guessed that the middle-aged man was probably pretending to be unconscious just like him.

The other few people who were still standing looked around, and after confirming that there was no one else still standing, looks of fanaticism and excitement suddenly appeared on their faces.

They suddenly started running, passed the people lying on the ground, and rushed towards the armor-piercing class parked nearby.

Chen Ming, who was lying on the ground, whispered to Old Wu who was also paying close attention to the situation: "What do they want to do?"

"I think you'll know right away."

As Old Wu spoke, he began to crawl carefully on the ground, pulling Chen Ming to the support pillar next to him.

The attention of the few people still standing there was obviously focused on the armor-piercing level, and no one noticed the two people next to them.

Just when Old Wu took Chen Ming to hide behind the support pillar.

The man who was rushing in the front suddenly stiffened, a bloody hole appeared on the back of his head, and he fell violently to the ground.

Chen Ming slowly turned his head and saw a guard leaning against the wall of the exhibition hall with his gun pointing forward.

His hands were shaking and he was obviously in great pain.

Just as he was about to fire a second shot, the body of the person he had shot and fell down suddenly exploded violently.

The violent shock caused him to fall to the ground completely and he could never stand up again.

Along with the shock, surging air waves, smoke and dust, and a large amount of various objects shattered by the explosion hit the supporting pillar where Chen Ming was hiding.

There were many more miscellaneous things flying past Chen Ming.

"Fuck."

Chen Ming's heartbeat almost skipped a beat.

Fortunately, he had noticed the danger before and deliberately fell behind the crowd, and Old Wu had also pulled him behind a support pillar in advance.

Otherwise he would have definitely been affected by the bomb.

Wait, did Old Wu pull him in advance? Chen Ming pinched Old Wu, who was lying next to him pretending to be dead, and said, "This is the fucking Ludwig Left Path, right? You'd better explain to me what's going on."

(End of this chapter)