Chapter 119: Could It Be a Colony Ship?
“Ghost ship?”
This indeed piqued Lu Yuan’s interest. “Yes! The ghost ship was first sighted about a year and a half ago,” Lao Yu’s voice was high-pitched. “Its movements are erratic, with only sporadic sightings. No one has ever been able to board it for salvage. Legend has it that it’s incredibly massive, much larger than any Star Alliance ship! Its length exceeds 5 kilometers.”
Lu Yuan: “How much do you know about its origin? Do you have an estimate of its age?”
Lao Yu shook his head: “Aside from being able to confirm it’s a relic of humanity from before the apocalypse, we know very little. Any news about this ghost ship, even just rumors, or even a metaphysical divination of its next appearance, people will spend real Star Alliance Credits to buy it! And the price isn’t low!”
“There are rumors that the ship came from a certain fleet during the golden age and was equipped with powerful automatic cannons, so not everyone dares to look for it. We are a relatively professional thie– ah, no, treasure hunting team,” An Dong added with a bit of cunning.
Lu Yuan nodded slightly.
Interesting.
He wasn't yet clear on how big or powerful golden age ships were.
But according to the data on the aerospace plane's onboard computer, the “cangyuan one” colony ship, launched at the end of the 21st century and ultimately bringing him here, was indeed kilometers in size, with a total mass of 330 million tons.
According to the aerospace plane's automatic docking procedure, the hangar on the colony ship used to house it was 330 meters wide, 100 meters long,
and 60 meters high.
And there were as many as 12 such hangars on the ship.
Furthermore, the colony ship also had two larger cargo docking ports, with internal space more ample than large space stations of the same era.
Could the “ghost ship” be his own ship? But why would it be “erratic”?
This word immediately made Lu Yuan think of concepts like hyperspace jump or subspace travel, but the colony ship didn't even have a warp drive or a Zero Element Furnace, let alone a jump drive.
In short, it's worth a deeper investigation later. Funding Lao Yu and his team, and utilizing the professional skills of these space tomb raiders, was the right choice.
“Alright, I understand. You two go back and rest first.”
After seeing them off, Lu Yuan immediately shared the zero element related information with all players, and then updated it on the official website's homepage.
The importance of this resource was, without a doubt, absolutely the hardest currency in the universe!
Gold compared to it was nothing...
He needed Jubian and Sister Xue to start researching it as soon as possible, to see if zero element had any other exciting uses besides the common “magic” functions Lao Yu mentioned!
“Ugh!”
In the lunar mine, Jubian, who had received a new task, held his chin, displaying his signature constipated expression.
“What’s wrong, buddy?” Ye Xing leaned over. “With this explosion of tech settings, you should be in mad scientist mode, so why the constipation again?”
“You misunderstood, I’m very excited,” Jubian said, frowning.
“But?”
“But Executive Officer overestimated me. This task is really a bit difficult.”
“Ah? Is your intelligence not enough?”
“It’s not a question of whether my intelligence is enough,” Jubian explained. “I studied engineering, and my work after graduation has also been in engineering research. My theoretical physics foundation is too weak.”
Ye Xing: “What kind of foundation do you need— an athlete? Aren’t they all about academics, what’s the difference?”
“That’s wrong, the difference is huge.”
Jubian smiled slightly.
“It seems I’ll have to ask for another player referral slot to invite a true physics master!”
“Executive Officer, your Devil Mountain Camp has sent a communication. All radiation decontamination has been completed. The radiation intensity within the camp area is now below the alert value, but it is still not recommended to remove your tactical helmet for long periods outdoors in the near future.”
Waking up the next day, Lu Yuan received good news from the butler.
The system even flashed three messages.
【Achievement unlocked: Radiation Bath, survived a full-scale nuclear strike, gained 5 exchange points】
【Achievement unlocked: Better than building a seventy-level pagoda, cumulatively saved ten compatriots, gained 10 exchange points】
【Achievement unlocked: Interstellar Expropriation, occupied a space industry of another faction, gained 5 exchange points】
In another day, 60 new players would log in, and a week later, he could complete the final step of the 【Construction】 quest chain and collect all current quest rewards.
By then, he would have at least 278 exchange points, which could be considered moderately wealthy.
Thinking of this, Lu Yuan opened the main quest panel and checked the current progress.
【Main Quest: Phoenix Nirvana】
【Quest Objective: Fulfill all the following conditions】
【Number of Employees: 500; Current: 25→289】
【Control Range: 100; Current: 32→57 (Main Camp 20 + Sub-base 12 + Lunar Mine 25)】
【Prestige: 100; Current: 41→33】
【Industrial Strength: 100; Current: 15→135】
【Military Strength: 100; Current: 9→198】
【Number of Outer Space Strongholds: 1; Current: 0→1】
Very good, it seems the Red Iron Town interns were automatically counted as employees.
Industrial and military strength showed pleasing growth; industrial strength benefited from the salvaged industrial ship, and as for military, with so many new players, power armor, and five “Shrike” fighters, it naturally multiplied wildly.
Moreover, according to good news, out of the 10 Apollo fighters destroyed at the lunar mine, 4 could be repaired.
The five high-yield nuclear warheads in storage probably also contributed a lot to the score.
However, it wasn't all good news; Prestige actually dropped by 8 points, a full fifth!
It seems that being hit by a nuclear bomb, even if it can be defended against, will still have a huge impact on corporate prestige.
Lu Yuan could imagine that in Oasis City, rumors of Cangyuan's complete annihilation were probably already rampant, spreading through the streets, alleys, and every bar.
Hmm—
It seems that even just to meet the prestige requirements in the main quest, this score must be settled. It must be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
And, the final victory must be publicized through media channels so that all seventy thousand people in Oasis City know about it.
At the same time, the player community had been bustling all day, still debating the hottest topic since the game's internal testing.
Power Armor vs. Power Armor!
【Victory Male God】: “Let me tell you, even though I died at the end, I was definitely the MVP! The damage taken, the output, it made the other side piss their pants! Urban Combat Power Armor, worth having!”
“Really?”
【Victory Male God】: “When have I ever lied?”
【Old Man Emitting Black Smoke】: “Friendly reminder, power armor helmets have cameras and chips that automatically record all combat data. Guo Li Cheng had the highest hit rate in the last battle, all hits, no miss.
1
【Jin Yi Ye Xing】: “Doesn’t count, doesn’t count. She was hacking people, her hit rate is deceptively high.”
【Old Man Emitting Black Smoke】: “Caoyuan also had 96%.”
【Victory Male God】: “He’s a sniper, and a professional. It’s not fair to compare him with us!”
“But I never thought that battles between power armor would be so exhilarating,” a cloud player sighed. “I thought future-style combat would become more and more beyond visual range, more and more integrated with information firepower.”
“Right, right, I also thought it would be a beyond visual range style.”
“Both sides can’t see each other, and after firing, you watch a health bar slowly decrease in the distance, right? Even if it were, it couldn’t be made into a game, otherwise how boring would that be?”
“Are you implying World of Warships?”
“You find this boring already? Have you heard of a space battleship game played with Excel?”
【Caoyuan a Caoyuan】: “This is mainly because it was indoor urban combat, and the objective was occupation, so large-scale demolition or bombing wasn’t possible. That’s why it was very close-quarters and bloody. Outdoor field battles will likely be a completely different style.”
“Oh~~~ Bloody is good! Full immersion games, that’s what we want, blood! Will there be more in the future?”
【Caoyuan a Caoyuan】: “Similar battles will likely be plentiful in the future—”
“Yes! Explosive shotgun, loaded!”
“Boarding, boarding, I want to board!”
“By the way, why not issue a few more internal test slots to celebrate?”
“I’ve been waiting so long—”
“Exactly! The internal test has been going on for almost three months, and there are still less than 100 players!”
【Bei Hai Xian Yu】: “Is everyone here? Those who can log in, please log in quickly.”
【Jin Yi Ye Xing】: “What happened?”
【Bei Hai Xian Yu】: “According to the Executive Officer, Apollo’s reinforcements could appear at any time. He invites us to discuss a strategy to eliminate the enemy together! It’s okay if you can’t log in, I’ll stream it in the community, and everyone can talk in the bullet comments.”
“Oh oh oh! Yay! We can watch too!”
Players suffering through early morning shifts on Monday rushed to the restroom, pretending to be on the toilet, and urgently logged in.
A few minutes later, in the industrial ship conference room.
Lu Yuan sat at the head of the conference table, his gaze sweeping over his good employees.
“The previous operation to capture the lunar mine was very successful. Everyone worked hard.”
Male God: “Oh yeah!”
“However, now, we can’t hold this mine, and I don’t really want to hold it.”
The players looked at each other, puzzled.
What… what does he mean?
Lu Yuan explained: “Apollo’s reinforcements will arrive tomorrow or the day after. There’s a high probability they’ll attack the lunar mine first, and their scale should be considerably larger than the mine’s air force. Our number of fighters will be difficult to increase in these two days,
so we’ll have to face them with only 5 aircraft.
“After the previous few battles, I believe everyone has gained an intuitive understanding of the importance of intelligence. Let me put it this way,
the reason we’ve survived until now isn’t because our frontal firepower is stronger than the opponent’s, but rather because we rely more on intelligence advantages.”
Everyone nodded.
There was no disagreement on this point.
Trickery, deception, abduction, fraud, theft, robbery, and deceit – Cangyuan was proficient in all of them, relying on intelligence.
Lu Yuan continued: “But in the upcoming battle, there will be no such intelligence advantage. We don’t know Apollo’s reinforcement’s orbit,
their combat formation, or their specific arrival time, so it’s unlikely we can comfortably launch a preemptive sneak attack like before.
“Therefore, overall, I believe there’s a high probability that we won’t be able to hold the lunar mine. We need to temporarily retreat to Li Star orbit, or even to the surface.”
“If you preserve your people but lose your territory, both your people and territory will remain; if you preserve your territory but lose your people, both your people and territory will be lost,” Salty Fish, sitting to Lu Yuan’s left, said in a deep voice. “I think it’s reasonable. In war, battle lines shifting back and forth are normal. Moreover, we can revive, and lost people can be replaced.”
“I agree too,” Caoyuan, sitting to Lu Yuan’s right, said. “Being too concerned with temporary gains and losses is a major taboo in warfare. As long as we can eliminate this reinforcement force, we can fight back in minutes.”
Seeing that no one else had objections, Lu Yuan got to the point,
“Now let’s discuss how to eliminate the reinforcements. My request is simple: Apollo previously bombed us with nuclear bombs, so this time, we’ll use even bigger nuclear warheads to get even! A gentleman doesn’t rest until his revenge is taken!”
