Chapter 68 Upgrading the Explosion-Proof Shield, Silver-Ash Mother Ore
The next day, Li Ming and others were called to the conference room, where Qin Xiao was already waiting.
His eyes immediately fell on Li Ming, and the smile on his face suddenly became even more intense. "I never thought that we have such a great genius here."
He seemed to be in a good mood, but that was just his appearance. He learned about this shortly after the banquet ended yesterday.
But he was not happy, because Professor Wu's special treatment might make Li Ming have inappropriate thoughts.
Originally, he was the most important person Li Ming could come into contact with, but now with Professor Wu, would Li Ming still be in awe of him?
"Minister, you're joking." Li Ming said seriously.
The rest of the people had mixed feelings. It would be a lie to say they weren't jealous.
Qin Xiao chuckled twice and got down to business: "At eight o'clock, you will follow Reporter Xu and several Interstellar Alliance staff to the Xingchuang branch to inspect and interview her. Protect her safety and ensure that nothing goes wrong."
It’s time to steal something, Li Ming understood, and listened to Qin Xiao’s arrangements.
This trip to Star Creation Company was just a routine investigation, and the core members of the Interstellar Review Team were dispersed, some stayed in Silver Ash City, and some went to Star Dome City.
"Yes!" Wang Zhiheng nodded. There were sixteen of them in total, divided into two teams, led by Wang Zhiheng and Zhao Xiong respectively.
As luck would have it, Li Ming was assigned to the team led by Zhao Xiong, and Wang Zhiheng glanced at him several times.
Li Ming wondered to himself how many of Qin Xiao’s men were in this entire team.
The transport spacecraft was ready. With nearly forty people in total, the cabin seemed quite crowded.
"Li Ming!" Xu Wei greeted him excitedly, and politely communicated with Li Ming's colleagues and exchanged seats with them.
Xu Wei sat down, pulled the safety belt across his body, buckled it around his abdomen, and asked in a low voice, "Are you okay with your injuries?"
"It's okay, it's just a superficial injury." Li Ming glanced at her. Because of the safety belt, Xu Wei's chest was forced to stand up, which was thrilling.
"That's good..." Xu Wei nodded, and then said excitedly: "I heard that you are also a rookie city guard of Silver Ash City."
"Yeah." Li Ming nodded. Seeing that Xu Wei had taken out the recorder, opened the smart terminal, and a virtual screen popped up.
"I also heard that your father passed away not long ago, and you haven't been to school for two years because of school bullying." Xu Wei's expression changed slightly, and he looked up and asked:
"So that's what motivated you to kill a heinous criminal just a few days after joining the city guard?"
"You..." Li Ming looked her up and down, "Are you interviewing me?"
"Oh oh..." Xu Wei, whose eyes were originally sharp, suddenly reacted and hurriedly explained, "I'm just asking a few questions."
After hesitating for a moment, she continued, "I do want to do an interview with you. You're from a single-parent family, your father just passed away, and this involves the sensitive topic of school bullying. It should be quite a hot topic."
"Can I refuse?" Li Ming's face was calm.
"Of course." Xu Wei nodded and whispered, "I know your concerns, but don't worry, I will beautify some aspects that are not favorable to you."
"You are a regular city guard, from a law enforcement agency. Your positive reputation will be of great benefit to you."
The transport spacecraft had already taken off, and a few people were looking at them vaguely.
Perhaps she wanted to return the favor? But now was not the time. Li Ming shook his head and said, "Reporter Xu, let me think about this matter."
Xu Wei felt a little sorry, but didn't force it. She was a reporter for the Blue Star Times, and being able to come here with the interstellar review team also meant something.
Normally, such a small matter would not be reported in the Blue Star Times, but she could do it.
However, Li Ming seemed a little resistant.
Is it because you don’t want your past, which you don’t want to look back on, to be exposed to the public?
She guessed that, after all, Li Ming was now a mighty city guard, but in the past he was a poor boy who was bullied and dared not speak out.
Many famous people have this idea, not to mention that Li Ming is still at the age where he needs to save face.
But the past is a foregone conclusion and cannot be changed. If one can profit from it, then it will be justified for the injustice suffered.
There is still time, I will make him change his mind, Xu Wei thought.
Li Ming, who seemed to be in a daze, opened the control bar.
In the past two days, when he had nothing to do, he would activate his [Gene Radiation] ability. With painstaking efforts, the development progress had reached 3%, but his physical energy was being consumed all the time.
It would be difficult for him to last a day if he was always on, so he planned to upgrade his explosion-proof shield, increase his physical strength and extend his endurance.
After consuming three thousand points of metal energy, the explosion-proof shield icon became wider and seemed to turn into a cone.
[B-11 High Energy Explosion-proof Shield--Class D: Advanced explosion-proof shield with extremely strong impact resistance.
…
Control effect: Physical strength boost--100%
Control ability - Strong Wall: Increases defense by 150%.
The physical strength is doubled, and the defense ability after using [Solid Wall] is probably not worse than the gene seeds of the same level that excel in defense.
Li Ming was satisfied. Outside the porthole, the Silver-Gray City gradually shrank and was left behind. This voyage took a very long time, and it was the first time that Li Ming was truly away from the Silver-Gray City.
The surface of the planet has hardly changed, with vast deserts, barren rocks, and almost no vegetation.
The mountain-like black mining machines give off a depressing and gloomy feeling under the dark clouds.
Xu Wei took photos many times for record keeping.
Five hours later, they finally landed at the Xingchuang Company branch. Before getting off the ship, they could see the towering building through the porthole.
The exterior walls are made of black metal and glass, reflecting the desolate surroundings. The windows are almost invisible, which makes people feel depressed.
Chen Songnan had already sent people to wait here, rows of black hovercrafts were waiting, and he was very enthusiastic and spoke in a high-pitched voice: "On behalf of Xingchuang Company's Silver Gray Star Branch and all colleagues, welcome everyone here!"
No one paid any attention to him. The highest-ranking person in the group was a short, green-skinned man named Sandra, wearing a blue hooded robe embroidered with purple patterns that looked like some kind of flowers.
"Let's go. I need to review Xingchuang's mining records in recent years, as well as other data..." He said in a dull voice.
"Of course, please come in." Chen Songnan said calmly, asking everyone to get in the car and head towards the huge building.
Buzz--
The glass door opened, and the floor and walls were gray-brown. Apart from the glass booth in the center, there was almost nothing on the first floor.
In the center of the glass booth, a group of gray particles that looked like some kind of particles were suspended, constantly evolving into various irregular shapes, which was quite strange.
"This is the silver-ash mother ore..." Chen Songnan introduced it appropriately, sighing, "I've been in charge of Silver-Ash Star's affairs for many years, and only three pieces of this mother ore have been discovered. The other two were given away, leaving only this one for exhibition."
Mother ore? Li Ming suddenly became excited. The kind that contains special energy?
Xu Wei took two photos. "As expected of a wealthy company like Xingchuang, they put such a precious thing on display here."
"Reporter Xu, you're joking. It's not precious at all." Chen Songnan chuckled. "The mother ore is non-replicable, which means anything made from it cannot be mass-produced. It's mostly used as research material."
Li Ming took a closer look and realized that this was just a virtual projection. According to Chen Songnan's casual remark, the real thing was in his office.
"There are 256 floors and 9,752 employees here. Most of them are native residents of Silver-Gray Star." On the suspended elevator, everyone slowly rose. Outside the glass cabin, every floor was filled with busy employees.
Chen Songnan smiled and introduced, "There are more than 500,000 mining workers on the entire Silver Ash Star. Their food, clothing, housing, transportation, food, drink, and entertainment bring hundreds of millions of star coins to Silver Ash Star every year."
"Really..." Xu Wei said as she took photos, "But as far as I know, it's almost impossible for them to go to Silver Ash City or Star Dome City. All their expenses are paid at the nearest station."
"And the station is run by your Xingchuang Company itself. They squeeze the wages of the mining workers while making money from them."
"Also, on Silver Ash Star, the crime rate among non-natives is increasing year by year. Don't tell me those are all illegal immigrants."
Chen Songnan's face was a little embarrassed, but he forced a smile. "People's hearts are unpredictable. We conduct a strict review before accepting every mining worker, but it is inevitable that there will be omissions."
bite!
The elevator opened, and Chen Songnan said at the right moment: "Everyone, please come in. I have prepared everything you need to check, and I have also arranged accommodations."
"Tomorrow, I will personally accompany you to the frontline for reconnaissance. Rest assured, our Star Creation Company strictly abides by interstellar discipline laws and the local laws of Blue Star, and there will be no violations."
For Li Ming and others, the most important thing is to stand guard. The investigation has nothing to do with them.
"No, we can tell whether Xingchuang Company has violated any regulations by just taking a look. Why bother investigating? Even a child knows this." Wang Zhiheng was dissatisfied and whispered to Li Ming.
"That's not the case." Xu Wei couldn't help but shake her head when she heard this. She explained, "Xingchuang Company's over-exploitation is an established fact, but it's still within the scope permitted by the contract."
"The Interstellar Review Panel is investigating whether Star Creation deliberately concealed the dangers of overdevelopment and bribed Blue Star officials responsible for the matter when signing the contract."
"What do you mean?" Wang Zhiheng was puzzled.
Li Ming shook his head. "What I mean is, if Blue Star knew the dangers of overdevelopment and still chose to sign a contract with Star Creation, and there was no insider trading involved, then there would be no problem with Star Creation."
"Not bad." Xu Wei nodded.
Wang Zhiheng was stunned. "Isn't the Interstellar Review Team here to support us?"
"They?" Xu Wei paused. "We are not of the same race, why should they support us?"
"What about sand-lime disease? What about environmental trauma?" Wang Zhiheng asked.
"You have to pay the money, that's all we have to do." Xu Wei also sighed.
Wang Zhiheng was stunned for a long time, then cursed angrily: "Damn bureaucrats!"
"Li Ming, come over and discuss tomorrow's maintenance plan." Zhao Xiong called him.
The group asked for a meeting room. After closing the door, Zhao Xiong took out a palm-sized metal plate.
After being placed on the table, bases popped out from all sides, and a crack appeared in the middle. A bright blue light column slowly rose, and electromagnetic waves surged, enveloping them.
(End of this chapter)
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