Chapter 173 Polishing the Planet

After receiving the communication from the caretaker Ai, Hao Ren piloted the ship to Purgatory to inspect the project and meet with the representatives of the United Mining Company. He was accompanied only by Vivian and Lily: the former wanted to see the movements of the eldest son again, and the latter... did you think the latter needed a reason to join the fun?

The Crack Nebula, as it had for thousands of years, continued to generate massive fluctuations of information. Fleeting beams of light and bright fissures constantly emerged in the misty purple-red cloud, and at the edge of this cosmic rift, which was seven point seven light-years wide, there was now a new member among the few star systems that could be counted on one hand. Purgatory Star revolved around the edge of the Crack Nebula like a beautiful, glistening white snowball, becoming the only scenery in this desolate place. The brilliant light of the new star illuminated the surface of this white "snowball," scattering large patches of golden light across its smooth cloud tops.

The Petrified Turtle Rock Terrace arrived at the upper layer of the cloud top, facing this brilliant golden sunlight. The calibration equipment left behind last time was still running above the cloud top, constantly monitoring the state of the planet as temporary surveillance satellites. Hao Ren had Nolan hover less than a few dozen meters from the cloud top and first connected to those monitoring devices. The data terminal reported the situation: "Data is normal. Half a month has passed, and it seems that the planet's operating parameters are stable."

"After all, it's powered by the First God's leg, so there shouldn't be any problems," Hao Ren nodded. "When will the representatives of the United Mining Company arrive?"

Nolan's holographic image appeared on the bridge: "They've already arrived, but their ship is parked outside the material belt of the Crack Nebula. They can be called over at any time."

As she spoke, her gaze involuntarily swept across the control panel, for one reason: a blonde girl formed by a holographic projection was sitting on the control panel like an old hand, ignoring any outside gaze, and the main body of this blonde girl was right under her ass: the brick stuck in the slot. Obviously, the battle for control of the console between the two AIs ultimately gave the brick the upper hand. Of course, the reason had nothing to do with the so-called "Patian maiden's heart," it was purely because Nolan's terminal was not thick-skinned enough...

"Don't look, it won't move," Hao Ren could only shake his head and sigh at the "Patian" form of the data terminal. "Didn't I even try a crowbar just now? You should call the representatives of the United Mining Company ship."

Nolan shrugged helplessly and sent navigation signals and landing permits to the Fayal merchants waiting on the border of the Crack Nebula, allowing them to enter Purgatory Star's airspace. A moment later, the gang of profiteers and their mining fleet appeared on the monitor screen.

A series of light blue, door-like spatial rifts suddenly appeared in the near-Earth orbit of Purgatory Star. After these portals opened, a fleet consisting of more than a dozen large mining ships and a navigation command ship jumped into this space. The Fayal ships had a distinctive red paint job, with uniquely structured Fayal crests resembling queen bees painted on the frontal armor belt. The command ship was a slender triple-hulled ship, formed by assembling three symmetrically distributed ship structures around a common long axis. This ship was slightly smaller than the Petrified Turtle Rock Terrace, but its unique position in the fleet and its complex and cutting-edge antenna systems made it clear at a glance that this was the command center of all the ships.

However, Hao Ren's attention was more focused on the Fayal miners, because they were even larger and more conspicuous: the mining ships looked like several giant boxes connected together, and constantly operating mechanical parts could be seen between each connection point. After zooming in, it could be seen that those mechanical parts were actually extensions of the mineral processing facilities. Large open gates could also be seen on the upper and lower additional deck positions of the mining ships, which were channels for small collection ships to enter and exit. The volume of these mining ships was enormous, and considering their special purpose, their long axis basically reached more than ten kilometers—this was a real behemoth unit in the macro world civilian ships, and even the Petrified Turtle Rock Terrace became a small size in front of them.

While Hao Ren was focusing on those mining ships, Nolan also connected to the data network to retrieve information about these mining ships. Hao Ren learned that these heavy, large industrial ships had complete factory systems that could complete the rough processing and transformation of minerals on the spot, and at the end of the series of "large box" ships were space gate devices with huge throughput, which could continuously transport the processed crushed ore directly to the Fayal Mining First Star located in the rear through the hyperspace system. Without this mechanism, it would be impossible to complete the mining operation of an entire planet with only a limited number of mining ships.

The Fayal merchants were wealthy and generous. In order to carry out activities in every universe, they always set up offices and bases everywhere. They spent a lot of money in this universe to buy several planets as commercial strongholds, and the Mining First Star was one of them: the Fayal people built an entire planet and a large area of space around it into a mineral processing plant, and used it as a base to continuously export various ores to their markets in neighboring universes. There were even rumors that the Mining First Star had "eaten" one percent of the mass of this universe to date—which was of course nonsense, but the Fayal merchants gladly used this as a horrifying advertisement to promote it vigorously.

Until this gang of profiteers was actually investigated by the Time and Space Administration's Material Scheduling Department for "uncontrolled transfer of cosmic mass without reasonable backfilling"...

Hao Ren quickly browsed through these various pieces of information. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the Purgatory Star transformation, he had to understand the technical strength of this United Mining Company. Those powerful mining ships made him very satisfied. He felt that this gang of profiteers really had the ability to dig out a meteor swarm halfway—and of course, they also had the ability to polish Purgatory Star once.

A request to connect a signal came from the communicator. Hao Ren straightened his clothes and returned to the captain's seat. After connecting the communication, a middle-aged man with his hair combed back, wearing a smart uniform, and sporting a small mustache appeared on the projection.

Nolan was holding an extra holographic projection next to him as a prompt screen for Hao Ren. Hao Ren learned from the information that the person in front of him was the representative of the United Mining Company, Vancek Kreeden. It was said that he had led a team to dig through the largest solid planet in this universe, and his title was "The Man Whose Drill Breaks Through the Sky."

Hao Ren always felt that there was a problem with this title, but after thinking about it, he decided not to delve into it...

"I am honored to have the opportunity to undertake this extraordinarily meaningful excavation project," Vancek Kreeden said straightforwardly after introducing himself. "We have understood all the project requirements and are ready to start work at any time."

Hao Ren nodded: "Do you know the first requirement of this project?"

"Safety first," Vancek, like any qualified businessman, had a reliable expression when speaking—regardless of whether this expression was sincere or not. "Each of our mining ships is equipped with a gravity control device. The broken crust will be directly drawn into space, so you don't have to worry about anything falling down. Of course, considering the later stages of large-scale mining, the surface crust structure of the entire planet will become fragile. We have also mobilized a sufficient number of gravity generation ships. At that time, we will directly pull the surface crust of the entire planet into space."

As Vancek spoke, he sent their project plan to Hao Ren's ship. The data terminal confirmed the plan and performed a mathematical simulation on it, finally reaching a positive conclusion: "It can achieve the effect he said. Of course, this is definitely the most cost-effective solution."

"There's nothing wrong with the project plan, and the attached contract is signed according to the original I sent you," Hao Ren looked up. "But you only brought these few mining ships? Is it enough?"

"Of course, there are follow-up fleets," Vancek explained. "We hope to start work as soon as possible to solve the client's urgent needs, so we always send a group of advance troops to serve the client before the start of each large-scale project. This is the business philosophy that our company has always adhered to: we would rather increase the cost of additional staffing than let the client experience perfect service as soon as possible..."

When Hao Ren heard this, he immediately felt that this gang of profiteers seemed quite reliable. Then the data terminal reminded him: "Actually, they are just afraid that you will forcibly give the project package to others with your inspector authority. They came here first to drive a thousand or eight hundred stakes on the construction site. At that time, you won't be able to transfer it even if you want to."

Hao Ren: "..."

"Ahem," Hao Ren coughed twice. "Then I won't say anything else. Start work: polish this planet."