Chapter 28 Mining Area (1)
After Mingyu clicked confirm, Mu Baixing's communication message popped up.
The image popped up. A man in black combat fatigues held the screen with one hand while reaching over it with the other to remove the spherical starship launcher from the shelf. Hearing the chime signaling the connection, he tilted his head slightly and looked at Mingyu.
"Sorry." Mu Baixing said, "Something happened that needed to be dealt with, so I'm a day late."
Ming Yu: "Are you in the preparation room at the virtual mining area entrance base?"
He was working so hard right after returning from sailing that he almost suspected that Mu Baixing was a perpetual motion machine that didn't need to rest.
Mu Boxing responded and walked towards the small mining starship parking room, "I was in a hurry to buy something and I almost got the change."
He pulled open the sliding door of the parking room with one hand.
The preparation base facilities in the virtual mining area are backward, and even the door of the starship parking bay is not automatic.
Behind the rusty metal door was a square parking bay four meters high and six or seven meters long and wide. In the middle of the bay stood a small mining starship.
This starship was clearly an old model, with sharp angles, unlike the sleek, modern mining ships.
Its head protruded, and inside it was an additional mining and detection device. The lower half of the ship was much higher than that of an ordinary starship, and inside it was a foldable mining device and an additional mining cargo hold.
There are four gun barrels hanging on each side under the unfolded wings at the rear half of the starship. It can be seen that they were installed by Mu Baixing, making full use of the space and load capacity, as if he was afraid that there would not be enough weapons when firing.
The original color of this starship is the most common gray, but it is covered with a thick layer of mineral star dust from the bottom of the ship upwards, dyeing its lower half into brown-black mixed with brown. The outer shell on the front left is not known whether it was attacked by a star beast or an accident, so a large piece of metal skin has been replaced.
The welded interface is quite solid, but the green color inserted abruptly in the gray is quite conspicuous. I wonder if that piece of metal was stripped from another scrapped starship.
Ming Yu: "...Is this the mining ship you want me to redesign and modify?"
Mu Baixing nodded.
He squatted down, pressed down the light screen, and sent the light screen's perspective to the bottom of the mining ship.
"A3 front-mounted engine." Mu Baixing asked Mingyu to look at the engine's thrust port. "I modified the circulation around the thrust port. The instantaneous acceleration is a bit faster, but the parts also break down quickly. I've replaced them three times in a month."
Mingyu: “…”
Mingyu was about to speak when Mu Baixing turned the screen again. "The vertical take-off and landing engine is also the A4 front type. It's a little newer, but also slower."
Mingyu said, "Would you like me to try this on you too?"
Mu Baixing: "Yes. There are also hull-mounted guns."
Mingyu pushed his glasses and moved closer to the screen.
"I can't see clearly." He said after a while, "Share the coordinates. I'll go to the docking bay and show you when I'm done."
Mu Baixing retrieved the light screen from under the starship: "The environment in the mining area is not good." He reminded Mingyu, "To enter the mining area, you must sign a full data interactive projection agreement and a life and death risk agreement."
"But the base has a high-voltage laser protection net and an outer protective buffer zone, so it's relatively safe."
Mingyu nodded, indicating that he understood, and saved the location coordinates sent by Mu Baixing.
Five minutes later, the modeler beeped, reminding Mingyu that the second calculation result was completed.
After the third revision, Mingyu's starship design passed the feasibility test. While it wasn't a first-pass, the complexity of the overall starship design far outweighed the complexity of modifying individual components. Satisfied with his results, Mingyu exited the modeling room and clicked the sync button next to the coordinates.
"User LUCE has applied to enter Mine Area No. 3."
The data interaction agreement and risk agreement immediately popped up on the light screen, and the content was the same as Mingyu knew.
The data interaction agreement states that all of Mingyu's physical data will be rescanned after entering the mining area, enabling real-time mapping synchronization, while the risk agreement states that any injuries sustained in the mining area will appear synchronously in the real world upon disconnection, and in the most serious cases, may cause death.
But as Mu Baixing said, if Mingyu stayed at the entrance base, nothing would go wrong. The entrance base had several defensive measures surrounding it. Since the establishment of the virtual mining area, the base had been attacked only a few times, and it had never been breached.
Mingyu signed the document and clicked "Agree".
The data stream lit up, and the instantaneous transmission was completed in the virtual world. The next second, Mingyu appeared in the parking cabin.
The moment the scene solidified, Mingyu could smell the faint smell of dust. This dusty smell, like the strange odor of burning waste and the lingering scent of war, was similar to other smells.
This is the parking cabin rented by Mu Boxing in the mining base.
Some of the old air exchange systems made a humming sound. The parking bay was sealed on all sides, with only the skylight at the top, which was also currently closed. Facing the white light shining from above, Mingyu could see tiny dust particles suspended in the air.
There was no wind here. Perhaps it was the mining area's reputation that had given Mingyu an illusion, but he felt a bit oppressive standing there. From afar came a terrifying, rough, metallic-grinding howl of a star beast. The sound, shielded by the well-sealed bulkhead, had already dimmed considerably by the time it reached Mingyu's ears, but it still sent a chill down his spine.
The mining area is indeed a dangerous place.
"LUCE." Mu Baixing was standing opposite Mingyu. He also heard the noise outside and followed Mingyu's gaze to the side where the noise came from. "Don't worry. It's far away."
He walked to the door, turned on all the lights in the parking bay, raised the starship parking platform, and motioned Mingyu to move forward.
Mingyu quickly acclimated to the atmosphere of the mining area. He rolled up his sleeves and squatted down with Mu Baixing. He fumbled around the bottom of the starship and unfastened the latches on the lower bulkhead. Mu Baixing reached out from the side and helped him remove the baffles on both sides of the starship's lower vertical engine.
"Is the spiritual realm okay?" He supported the hull of the starship with one hand, stood up, moved the baffle aside, put the removed baffle aside, and asked Mingyu with his head down.
Mingyu raised his head to look at him and was about to speak when he suddenly caught a glimpse of white.
Mu Baixing was bent over, his combat uniform was not pulled tight, and the collar was slightly open due to gravity, revealing a little white bandage.
Mingyu paused, nodded, and asked again, "You were injured while sailing."
Mu Baixing glanced down.
"Minor injury. Already treated."
Mingyu uttered an "oh" and thought to himself that it looked like he had only applied the medicine himself and hadn't bothered to use the treatment device. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any need for a bandage.
He unconsciously slowed down his movements and was quiet for a moment. Although he thought he shouldn't pry into the other person's private life, he couldn't help but ask, "What happened?"
Mu Baixing lowered his eyes and looked at him, with a hint of coldness in his expression.
"I received a rescue request from the exploration team," he said simply. "They asked for a high price, but after being rescued, they don't want to pay and want to kill to settle their debt."
Mingyu: “…”
Mingyu straightened up unconsciously.
The Free Star Outer Port is a place without the rule of law, where only force matters. There are no federal police, no federal courts, and no federal prisons.
It’s like civilization without human society.
There is no justice either.
That extremely chaotic area was once far away from Mingyu, appearing only in sporadic news reports and in the experience sharing of those in the curiosity community who were not sure whether they were true or exaggerated.
But at this moment it was very close to him.
Closer than when he first knew that Mu Bohang was from the outer harbor.
The chaos condensed from a symbol into an entity.
He looked at Mu Baixing, and read a hint of wildness hidden behind the coldness in the man's dark green eyes.
"You didn't let them get away with it." Mingyu confirmed. He looked at Mu Baixing, paused for a moment, and then said, "Did you kill anyone?"
The designer's voice unconsciously lowered.
Mu Baixing stood beside him, knowing that Mingyu had finally realized his danger.
It was as if the herbivores from safer areas had finally realized that their fellow travelers had deadly fangs.
His fingers were still loosely gripping the engine block, and he could clearly feel the rough dust particles and the cold metal surface. Mu Baixing looked at Mingyu and responded.
"Three." His voice was flat, waiting for the designer to respond.
Mu Boxing knew that intelligent people, like animals, would choose to avoid danger.
He watched Mingyu stand up, frowned, hissed, and took a small step back.
Then the designer reached out to hold onto the starship bulkhead and froze in place again.
Mingyu turned to look at Mu Baixing.
"...Why are you looking at me like a cooked duck?" After a while, Mingyu said expressionlessly, "My feet are numb from squatting...I can't move!"
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