Chapter 148: The Hidden Leaders
With the little robot Yuan Yuan around, Han felt that life is a lot easier. Han’s finance, travel planning, negotiation with manufacturers about ordering ships, even the hot chocolate Han drinks every day, all of these responsibilities are shouldered by the little robot assistant now.
After entering the galactic wilderness for a whole week, Han didn’t encounter any human settlements or any ships, the vast galactic ocean was silent.
Even if a starship appeared in the radar’s long-range detection, they would rush past Han. After all, this is the galactic wilderness, any ship can belong to star pirates; if not familiar enough, there will usually be no contacts between ships.
Han practiced his 46-ensemble in the cockpit, he’s not too far away from hitting 5 stars, but because he hasn’t done any source energy test recently. He could only feel faintly that he is soon reaching 5-star, and as for when this breakthrough will come, Han doesn’t know either.
Hopefully he can break through the barrier. The higher the level, the harder it is to reach the next breakthrough, and that’s why even the level most talented men like Long Chuan sat at 5 stars for two decades of stagnation.
“Master, we will soon reach Undercurrent Fortress.” Before waiting until Han finished, Yuan Yuan reminded Han.
Oh.
Han paused his training, came to the command desk, Yuan Yuan pointed at the black egg and asked, “Master, what is this thing really? Why will you take it out for a look every few days?”
Han shrugged his shoulders and said reluctantly, “I don’t know what’s inside the egg either. It became dormant as early as half year ago, and now there’s still no sign of it waking up.”
Then, he stored the egg and Yuan Yuan away. Yuan Yuan is way too special of an existence so it can’t make appearances easily.
Shua~
No. Demon Claw docked at the Undercurrent Fortress. There are no rules in the galactic wilderness, and so is Undercurrent Fortress. As long as you are willing to pay the price, even star pirates’ ships can openly dock and shop for whatever they need in the local market.
Undercurrent Fortress is considered a fairly well-known open market in the galactic wilderness. The more rural is the location the greater is the opportunity and profit. For instance, a starship accessory that was worth 1 million GC, after being sold from the Milky Way to the wilderness by a businessman, its price can instantly jump 7 or 8 times.
Although risky, there are still many people willing to do business in the galactic wilderness, and among them the most famous one has to be the Ancient Maple Leaf, which is also Ye Weiwei’s family.
Although Ye family’s business isn’t considered big in the wilderness, but it’s for places that’s even beyond the galactic wilderness. Every time the fleet travels once back and forth, it will often take more than a year.
As for what kind of people lives in places beyond the galactic wilderness and how to do business there, Han doesn’t have a single clue. It’s just that after coming here, Han would occasionally think of Ye Weiwei. Where is this girl now? How’s she doing?
Frigate class starships costs 3000 GC per day for docking, 500 GC per person on the ship, and there’s no limit to time. Han can be considered to have traveled a lot, and Undercurrent Fortress is definitely one of the places that charges relatively higher taxes. But fortunately, Han did not purchase any goods, otherwise he would have to pay a greater amount of business tax.
Forin that rules Undercurrent Fortress relies on these complicated taxes to make income, and to maintain his forces and army. Before landing, Han scanned and detected at least 10 of starships that belongs to Undercurrent Fortress, which is probably considered a little army in the galactic wilderness.
In order to ease his transportation, Han rented older model Land Speeder, two-seat version for a daily rent of 350 GC.
Shua~
Under the Land Speeder’s navigation system’s guidance, Han came to the most prosperous trading market in Undercurrent Fortress.
Looking from afar, Han could see countless warehouses on the open space outside the city, but in front of the warehouse district is a bustling commercial street.
The commercial street is used to display samples for sale from markets nearby, and when the deal is settled then the products will be brought out from the warehouse.
After stopping the Land Speeder, Han walked into this commercial street. The galactic wilderness is very chaotic, so the arms business is very hot in the open market. From small daggers for soldiers to large warships of any models, there are sellers for all of these products.
And there are also many shops for drugs which Han is completely uninterested in. Because of Night Walker, Han had been using the top tier products in the Milky Way Galaxy, and even the large portion of the drugs used by the Earth Military are all multiple times better than those sold in the open market.
Supplements, minerals, machinery, there are over 10 thousand shops on the open market, and they are extremely busy. Aside from humans, there are also a lot of aliens. Mankind has held the position of absolute dominance in the Milky Way Galaxy, so all the alien survivors were all relegated to the galactic wilderness.
Here, humans and aliens seemed to be very peaceful, but who knows? Maybe right after these aliens leave the open market, they will be intercepted and enslaved. The Horton guy that Han previously dealt with, is an alien slave trafficker that always capture aliens in the galactic wilderness.
Han found a relatively remote machinery shop and strode inside.
“Sir, would you like to buy something?” The chubby shopkeeper’s eyes aren’t big but he looks very smart and greeted Han with a smiling face.
Han laughed and said what Old Mo taught him to say, “I manage a mine, need some competent and hardworking mining droids. It’s best that they can work 24 hours a day and doesn’t need to eat or sleep.”
The chubby shopkeeper slightly narrowed his eyes, “Oh, you need workers. Come in please.”
Then Han was taken to a room inside the shop. The chubby shopkeeper asked Han to sit and then he pulled out a book from the gap between shelves and gave it to Han.
“Track-type cleaners, porters, or little more advanced bionic workers, I got them all here and they are all full sets, I promise you that there’s not even a nail missing. Don’t know how many sets you want, boss?”
“How many sets do you have?” Han asked.
The chubby shopkeeper smiled and said, “Tell you the truth, our market is all connected. If you want more and I don’t have enough, I can also transport more from other shops to help you reach that quota. As for the price, I ill be adding on a little pass-through fee.”
Han nodded, “You are really straightforward.”
The chubby boss said, “I can’t say the same about other products, but robots are the specialty product of Undercurrent Fortress, almost all the robots in the Milky Way Galaxy came from here. It doesn’t matter which shop you go through since they all get their supply from a few local figures.”
Han deepened his voice and said, “I know. Salvaging and assembling robots are the livelihood of local people. 7 or 8 out of every 10 local families do this for a living, but these people’s leaders control the sales and prices of these robots. You only have a few sets of samples; the large storage of products is still in the hands of those people.”
The chubby storekeeper hesitated for a second, nodded and said, “So you really understand. I think you probably know too that these leaders won’t make contact with foreign buyers like you, the products are all sent out through us middleman. After all, the people that come to buy are too mixed.”
Slightly frowned, Han said, “How about this, help me deliver a few words to those leaders, just say that I want to buy a large batch of products at once, please meet me once because I have something important to discuss with them.”
“Of course, I won’t let you go for free. Here’s my little gift, one for you and one for those leaders.”
Then, Han’s fingers slid across the dimension ring, pulled out two pieces of money that denotes 1 million GC on each and placed them on the table, and the chubby storekeeper’s eyes lit up right away.
Before coming to the Undercurrent Fortress, Han already made enough preparation. He already knew that all the robots’ storage is in the hands of a few big business leaders.
Although the robots have powerful features, they aren’t expensive. One engineering robot is sold between 10 thousand to 20 thousand GC, and that price is equivalent to a human slave.
Han sent 1 million GC as a greeting gift, and that’s equivalent of their income for selling 100 sets of robots. As for the purpose, well, Han really want to meet these leaders. He wants the robots, but he wants their logic chips more.
Even if it’s 1 million GC per piece, 10 million GC per piece, Han doesn’t care at all. After all, the difference between a normal robot and one with logic chip is way too huge.
The chubby storekeeper’s eyes made a turn, a little greedily placed the money into his sleeves, patted his chest and said, “Rest assured, I will help you deliver your words for sure. As for whether the leaders want to see you or not, that will depend on them.”
“Understood.” Han nodded, got up and started walking out, “I live at Taihe Hotel, come inform me when there’s news.”
The sky seemed to be getting dark, Han got back to his hotel, ate something random, took a bath in his room and started practicing the 46 Ensemble.
The bathroom is palm-size in No. Demon Claw so it only has a tiny shower. Now, to be able to take half hour in a warm tub, Han felt like being covered in an indescribable feeling of comfort.
Han doesn’t sleep much, in the blink of an eye he had been practicing the 46 Ensemble until midnight. Suddenly, Han heard someone knocking on the door outside.
Bang bang bang~
“So late, who is it?”
“It’s me, storekeeper Liu. I’ve already got the response from the leaders.”
Han slightly hesitated, kept a finger on Lunar Mark and gently opened the door.
In addition to the chubby storekeeper named Liu, there were two middle-aged men with him, bronzed skin, muscular with a perennial labor look.
After entering the room, the chubby storekeeper grabbed the drink on Han’s table and drank it all in one gulp.
Rubbed away some leftovers on his mouth, Liu complained, “Brother, for your business I almost ran my legs off. Finally, I did it, those leaders agreed to see you, let’s get going now.”
Han nodded, putted on his coat and followed them down the stairs. They didn’t leave from the main entrance but from the back door of the hotel.
A Land Speeder was already waiting there. Han went in and the two burly workers sat on either side of him.
“You are not going?” Han slightly frowned as he asked the chubby storekeeper.
“I will stay behind, it’s fine for just you going and talking to them. Hope everything goes well.” Fat Liu smiled and waved at Han.
Shua~
The Land Speeder started immediately and soon disappeared in the predawn darkness.