Chapter 169 The Black Car Fleet

Vim rushed in with a terrible message, causing Hilda to frown, though she wasn't surprised: "Is that so... it seems they're finally jumping out."

"You guessed it?" Hao Ren looked at her strangely.

"There will always be dissenting opinions," Hilda shrugged nonchalantly. "I've managed to get the majority of elves to support the council's decision, which is a sign of popular support. But there will always be those who think differently. I knew some opposition would arise, the only question was how much. Vim, what are they saying?"

"Some members of the Promised Land organization seem to be spreading rumors on Darklight Island that this is a scam. Other dissenting groups are using various channels to call on the people to question the truth behind the 'Great Migration'," Vim said, glancing at Hao Ren with a slightly embarrassed expression. "In short... they don't trust a group of unknown outsiders, especially that something so generous could happen, that someone would be generous enough to offer an entire planet to help a group of strangers."

Hao Ren had originally thought that once the Great Migration was settled, those Promised Land organizations and similar dissenting groups within Erythrean society would simply dissipate. After all, the crisis of resource depletion would be gone, and the reason for these dissenting groups to gather would disappear as well—but he now realized he was still too young and had thought things too simply. Elves, like humans, were complex creatures with complex thoughts: the queen's announcement had barely been made when conspiracy theories emerged, proving that being a simpleton was a belief that didn't change with circumstances. Even if the sky were falling, some people could still find new ways to cause trouble.

But these dissenters' thoughts were not incomprehensible. Faced with such an unbelievable stroke of good fortune and a group of outsiders whose species was unclear, it was normal for anyone to be suspicious. Those Erythrean commoners who were struggling to survive might be used to obeying the queen's every command without thinking, but if those shadowy organizations that spent their days studying conspiracies didn't jump out in this situation, they would be failing their professional ethics.

Hilda had obviously been prepared for this: "How much intelligence do you have on these organizations?"

"About seventy percent," Vim nodded. "Their activities have been very high-profile in the past month, so the spies have taken the opportunity to gather a lot of information. Mother, should we launch a large-scale arrest?"

"No, taking drastic measures at this time will only cause more chaos. They might even concoct a story about the 'queen being mind-controlled'," Hilda shook her head. "Leave it to Philton; he's specifically for dealing with situations like this."

After Vim nodded and retreated, Hao Ren couldn't help but look at Hilda: "Do you need our help? This seems like a tricky matter."

"No, this is our internal affair. It's best if we handle it ourselves. If my parliamentary group can't even handle this, then the kingdom is beyond saving," Hilda politely declined Hao Ren's offer with confidence.

Vivian walked to the window, looking at the crowds still gathered in the distance: "This is a big shock for them... but is three days enough? A great migration of ten billion people—I think we should prepare for longer."

Hilda was equally confident: "The Erythrean Kingdom is already very accustomed to this kind of large-scale emergency mobilization. Three days is enough for us to prepare. Many emergency plans and departments are already in place. And you just saw those unstable social factors: the longer we drag it out, the more likely they are to cause problems. I want to ensure that the first batch of immigrants arrives safely in their new home before more dissenters can incite more people. Once the first group arrives safely, many things will go smoothly."

Hao Ren nodded repeatedly. Hilda and her governing team were indeed swift and decisive, but they didn't lack consideration. And to be honest... how much more could these elves prepare? They were practically penniless. The supplies and equipment they could take with them were limited. They had always been frugal, so poor that they could pack up and leave at any time—leaving only the packing to do...

Hilda didn't stay in the Royal Spire for long. She was soon summoned by her ministers to the council hall to deal with the surge of official business. Over the next three days, this queen and her governing team would face the busiest overtime in Erythrean history. The kingdom's entire management class probably wouldn't be able to rest for even a minute.

And in these three days, Hao Ren truly witnessed just how efficient these elves could be:

This was a unique civilization that had to mobilize in emergencies every other day, where even three-year-olds had to participate in disaster relief drills with adults. They had the words "emergency situation" engraved in their bones. As Hilda said, all their supplies had been statistically accurate to three decimal places from the beginning. Their equipment didn't need to be re-counted and was already managed by importance and category. Their warehouses were clearly divided into stacks according to importance. Even every citizen was used to classifying their belongings at home into three levels: "basic life support," "emergency portable," and "disposable." Such a race didn't need any special mobilization.

Thanks to those severely outdated and constantly malfunctioning floating islands, the Erythrean elves had experienced no shortage of "emergency migrations" in the past thousand years. When a floating island collapsed, there was no time to prepare. Many times, hundreds of millions of citizens in the dome cities had to be evacuated to other islands within twenty-four hours—this time, Hilda had given everyone three days to plan, which was considered exceptionally generous for many Erythrean civilians and city administrators.

On the first day, all the dome cities sent back their material statistics and population reports. On the second day, the newly established Migration Management Committee, under the delegation of the Material Council, began to summarize the materials of each dome city and pre-allocate them per capita. At the same time, factories on each floating island began to work overtime to dismantle equipment, as they had to take a significant amount of equipment to their new home to ensure they could quickly gain a foothold. And considering that the original social structure would easily collapse after the Great Migration, the first problem facing ten billion people thrown into a strange world was rebuilding the administrative order. Therefore, they also had to bring enough communication equipment and ensure that each migrating team had enough management personnel. Hao Ren passed on all the "immigration experience" taught by Crow 12345 to Hilda and her councilors. The role of this experience was beyond doubt, but in any case, this great migration was not just a rescue for the Erythrean civilization, but also a test:

If their managers were not strong enough, these ten billion immigrants might turn into ten billion refugees. Their social order and reconstruction ability had to withstand this test, otherwise the foreseeable consequence would be years, even decades, of chaos. Crow 12345 had also told Hao Ren a true story: a race with poor social stability broke into seventeen or eighteen separatist forces after a large-scale relocation. The scene was so sour that the examiner responsible for handling the matter was docked two months' salary...

Hao Ren felt lucky that he didn't have to worry about being docked salary, because he hadn't even seen what a salary looked like yet...

When can I get a regular position!

In any case, Hao Ren felt that Hilda and the ministers around her should be capable of controlling the situation.

On the day Hilda's "Queen's Announcement" was released, Hao Ren contacted Captain 883, who said that everything was under control. The fleet's assembly work was going quite smoothly. A group of "old captains with years of experience working together and trustworthy character" were so motivated by the sense of justice when they heard they had the opportunity to help, and were so enthusiastic that they wanted to throw everything out of the cargo hold into space and come over to help. To be honest, Captain 883's sincerity almost made Hao Ren believe him...

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Everyone barely felt the passage of time in the midst of their busyness, and the day of departure arrived in a flash.

The Erythrean space island chain still quietly orbited the lonely star. The cities under the domes were filled with a tense and strange atmosphere. Today was the day the immigration fleet would appear, and whether this was an incredible fact or an unprecedented joke would soon be verified.

Countless elves gathered in the square outside the royal district of Sunrise Island, craning their necks and waiting. Hilda and her ministers stood on the large platform outside the wall. There was no need for any formal speeches or orders. Everyone was waiting. Hao Ren stood beside Hilda, feeling a little sweaty as he looked at the dark mass of people below. He could strongly feel that countless gazes were not looking at Hilda, but were focused on him. Still, he tried to appear as natural as possible: "They should be here soon."

"We'll be able to see the fleet as soon as it reaches above the dome," Hilda said expectantly. "It must be spectacular."

"I don't know if it will be spectacular, but it will definitely be a motley crew," Hao Ren said with a twitch of his lips. "I gathered a bunch of irregulars. They're basically all private transporters. I've personally approved the largest black taxi fleet in history... Wait, let me ask them where they are."

As he spoke, Hao Ren had the data terminal connect to Captain 883: "Hey, have you arrived yet?"

Captain 883's rough and powerful voice immediately came from the communicator: "We're here, we're here—we got stuck a little bit when we passed through the gate. Some newbie idiot didn't unload all the cargo and left unapproved military supplies in the cargo hold, almost getting detained by the automatic security machine... Oh, oh, we're here, one minute to disengage from hyperspace. There's interference, so I'm hanging up."

Hao Ren shrugged at Hilda: "They're here."

Before long, the patrol aircraft squadron patrolling outside the dome city sent back a communication, which was broadcast throughout the city (this would have a heartening effect): "Unidentified energy fields detected appearing at the edge of the island chain... Incredible spatial phenomena are occurring! The ships are here! The fleet is really here!"

The square was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly erupted into a boil.

The largest, most chaotic immigration fleet in history, summoned by Hao Ren and assembled by Captain 883, consisting of independent long-distance carriers from various private sectors, finally arrived in this desolate wasteland. Soon, the first ship followed the guiding signal to the vicinity of Sunrise Island. The patrol aircraft transmitted the ship's magnificent figure to the dome city, and the image of the first ship appeared on the large information screens throughout the city, causing the square to erupt into another boil.

The first ship to arrive was not the 883, but a large passenger ship with a bright yellow and white paint job and a triangular shape. Hao Ren immediately saw a new paint job on the side of the ship, with a line written in huge Erythrean characters: "Warmly welcome Erythrean elves to board this ship! The 'Distant Planet' passenger ship is your inevitable choice for traveling!"

Then, the second ship appeared above the island chain. Another patrol aircraft hurriedly turned the camera around, and the side of the ship was written in even larger characters: "'Aerospace Transportation', fast and efficient, the best choice!"

The third ship practically jumped out of hyperspace on the heels of the second. This ship was even more exaggerated. Almost the entire armor belt on one side was occupied by advertising slogans: "Need to move? Find 'Xunda'! Xunda Interstellar Express, commoner prices, noble quality! The new generation of hyperspace engines, from the Empire's ecological technology, professionally trained Holy crap, the words are too big to write..."

Hao Ren watched the broadcast with a cold sweat and quickly tugged at Hilda's sleeve: "Can we cut the live broadcast?"

Hilda had no less cold sweat than Hao Ren: "How can we cut it now—ten billion people have seen it!"

Just as they were talking, the 883 finally arrived late. Hao Ren was almost blinded the moment he saw the broadcast. Not to mention the armor belt, the entire four sides of the ship were written with super-giant light strips: "Ship 883, a veteran transportation expert, both passenger and cargo, professional and fast, a partner of Imperial government agencies, your eternal choice! This ship looks forward to the Erythrean friends' second ride and will always serve you wholeheartedly!"

There were words on all four sides, each line three kilometers long, and specially illuminated with glowing strips, flashing in space and almost blinding the eyes. You definitely couldn't find a larger vehicle advertisement anywhere in the solar system...

Hao Ren turned to look behind him: standing behind him and Hilda were a group of smartly dressed and spirited elves. These elves were Hilda's most trusted ministers, and they had been preparing since three days ago, their mindset now adjusted to standing here with an almost epic sense of glory as the "diplomatic team." This group of diligent and admirable elves was preparing to welcome this historic third encounter with a great sense of mission, but they didn't expect that what appeared before them was just a bunch of black car drivers who would do anything to get a fare...

Well, not exactly black cars, since this cross-border transportation was approved by Hao Ren, so they were black car drivers who had been recruited.

"I told you that you didn't need to prepare so much," Hao Ren sighed. "None of the people coming are serious. Even someone like me is the highest person in charge of this operation, and the one next to me squatting on the ground picking stones is the chief secretary of the Great Migration Plan (Lily). Do you think this group of diplomats is necessary?"

Vim was actually the organizer of this diplomatic team (and its most ardent supporter). He looked strangely at his mother and Hao Ren before turning his head away: "Although I had heard about it, I really didn't expect..."

Hao Ren glanced at those guys who were vying to print advertising slogans on their ships, wishing they could project their ship's names on the Erythrean elves' sun, and twitched the corner of his mouth: "Tch, competition makes enemies..."

At this moment, Captain 883's voice suddenly came from the data terminal: "We're here, we're here! You should see us, right? We're the lead ships and towing ships of the fleet, and the rest of the irregulars are stopping at this, uh, this... at the asteroid belt at the edge of the island chain. Ask them if they have the boarding procedures ready? Where do we take over from? Do these floating islands have transfer channels that can directly connect to our big ships?"

A series of questions came crashing down, finally waking up the slightly stunned ministers around Hilda. They finally found a bit of the reality of "starting work." The training of the past three days finally came in handy, and someone immediately began to direct:

"Turn the communicator over!"

"Send the scheduled guidance code!"

"Transportation Team, Transportation Team, prepare to open gates fourteen through twenty-six..."

The facts proved that it was better to save as much red tape as possible. The Erythrean elves weren't used to it, and those old drivers couldn't stand wasting time even more. They eagerly began their work, approaching the space floating islands they were responsible for according to plan and preparing to start loading.

However, one problem could not be avoided: most of the ships could not directly dock with the Erythrean floating islands.

These transport ships were all huge, and their loading and unloading methods and docking methods were also varied. The only universal interface they had followed the Shillar standard: the Erythrean elves certainly didn't have this professional equipment. Therefore, this loading and unloading process was going to be much more troublesome: each large ship would send small transport planes to load from the entrance and exit gates on the edge of the floating island to the mothership one by one.

It was estimated that it would take a day or two just to load the first batch of personnel and supplies. This was still an optimistic result considering the Erythrean elves' high efficiency and the old drivers' familiarity.

Of course, some ships had hyperspace teleportation devices, and their teleportation stability could be tolerated by the elves' physique. The loading process for these ships would be much faster.

In any case, both sides of this handover had considered this situation. The old drivers' small transport planes were ready, and the municipal transportation department in the dome city had also prepared sufficient transport capacity. Although both sides were in contact for the first time, under the premise of thorough preparation and the efforts of professionals, the entire work was proceeding relatively smoothly.

And those captains weren't just waiting idly on their ships. It was necessary for them to contact this "big customer." So, under the leadership of Captain 883, a large group of interstellar veterans came to Sunrise Island on a variety of shuttles.

And they shoved advertisements at everyone they saw...