Chapter 74 The Inevitable Situation and the Gradually Changing Ideas

The factory manager was really surprised that Chen Ming directly told him that he had a military ship.

And Chen Ming did have some gambling ideas in mind.

Because the factory manager now has the military's inaction and not helping the space station when the afterglow attacked, and Chen Ming has provided the factory manager with a lot of benefits.

So Chen Ming felt that under such circumstances, he could take the initiative to test the factory manager's attitude towards the military.

In this way, he could decide whether to continue to maintain the current relationship with the factory manager as colleagues, superiors, and business partners, or even a closer relationship.

However, Chen Ming's test did not seem to be of much use.

The factory manager did not seem to care, but stared at Chen Ming with a puzzled look on his face for a few times, realizing where Chen Ming had gone when he was out.

Then he did not shy away from talking about military ships at all, and said directly: "The identification codes of military ships can indeed be obtained, and they are easier to obtain than those of Yuhui ships."

"Their ships often have some obsolete models, which are sold to the public after the military systems are removed."

"You can use the fake identification code as you like, as long as you don't expose the military system to the military."

"Speaking of this, I have to remind you again, that is, if you really want to return to the prosperous star field in the future, it is best to directly dismantle those military systems, otherwise it may cause trouble."

Dismantle the military system?

Chen Ming was stunned for a moment, and his mind suddenly went blank as if he had been electrocuted, leaving only this sentence.

He has always ignored one thing intentionally or unintentionally.

That is, the prosperous star field within the human empire is a place with perfect order and rules, and there is also a strong force to ensure the existence of order and the implementation of rules.

If Chen Ming wants to go back, he must follow the order and rules established by force.

According to the requirements of the laws of the empire, people like him who have no special status can only drive civilian castrated spaceships.

This means that all the ships he has on hand, except the Iron Ore, must be castrated before they can be safely driven in the prosperous star field.

Even the weapons of the Iron Ore must be castrated according to the regulations. At least the weapons removed from the two mechanical clans are absolutely unusable.

Chen Ming felt a little uncomfortable when he thought of this.

But he also knew that this was not something the factory director could decide. The factory director just reminded him of the rules that he must abide by if he wants to go back.

Faced with the factory director's kind reminder, Chen Ming could only honestly say: "I will pay attention."

As soon as he said this, Chen Ming suddenly felt an inexplicable feeling of anxiety and discomfort in his heart.

This is not physical discomfort, but psychological discomfort.

It's like wearing loose casual clothes here, and you have to wear tights when you go back.

And the actual situation is much more serious than what clothes you wear.

If Chen Ming didn't do this, and if he was found out by the authorities after returning, having his spaceship towed away and required to make corrections would be considered a light punishment, and he might even have to spend several years in prison.

When thinking about what might happen in the future, Chen Ming felt an indescribable feeling in his heart.

Not only must he be restricted by the rules, but there is also the uneasiness of losing the ability to fight and protect himself.

No matter how prosperous the empire is, it is not solid. It is impossible to say that there are people in every galaxy and every planet.

This means that there are also pirates in the prosperous star field, and those pirates in the prosperous star field who can form their own fleets will be stronger and more brutal than those in the marginal star field.

Although Chen Ming knew that there would not be as many pirates in the prosperous star field as in the marginal star field, the probability of encountering them was very low.

But if his spacecraft dismantled the military system, he would really have no ability to resist if he really encountered danger.

This situation without any sense of security made Chen Ming, who has always been inclined to plan before taking action and take a safe path, very uncomfortable.

So much so that he now has a slight shaken idea of ​​returning to the prosperous star field.

He even forgot about the current situation.

Chen Ming's sudden silence and strange behavior made the factory director discover something.

He reached out and dragged a chair to Chen Ming's side, and asked in a gentle tone: "Is this your first time to the edge star field?"

Chen Ming suddenly got rid of his anxious thoughts. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to answer truthfully: "It can't be considered the first time, but it is indeed the first time to come to a place like this."

"That's not surprising. Do you feel that you don't have to care about any rules now, but you have to abide by a lot of rules after you go back, which gives you a headache?"

The factory director said everything Chen Ming was thinking about at once. After all, he must be an old man, and many things are definitely not accustomed to him.

Chen Ming is indeed a little confused now, so he can try to listen to other people's opinions and make decisions based on his own situation.

So Chen Ming nodded and said, "Yes, a little."

"Well, I have a few ways to help you solve the problem. Just listen to them. It's up to you to decide."

"The first one is the simplest. Go to any regular space station in the fringe star field for a while. It's best to find a temporary job and try to stay in a normal environment to concentrate."

"Follow the rules honestly and don't run around. Generally, you will adapt in one or two months. Then you can go back with the big caravan with official background. Your safety is guaranteed."

The factory manager looked at Chen Ming while talking.

However, Chen Ming is now sitting motionless on the chair. No one can see what kind of expression or thoughts he has under the protective suit.

The factory director exhaled slightly, and after a slight hesitation, he suddenly said as if he had made up his mind: "Another way."

"You saw it when you signed the contract before, we are a subsidiary of Xinda Company."

"In fact, Xinda Company has a special armed fleet, which can drive military ships in the prosperous star field."

"You know this thing called an armed ship license, right?"

"Yes."

An armed ship license is something that ordinary people can never apply for, but it will be issued to certain people by the imperial government.

In addition to giving it to large companies like Xinda, the government will also give such licenses to bounty hunters or mercenaries who have made a name for themselves in the marginal star field, requiring them to deal with pirates.

Deal with those elite pirates in the prosperous star field who are not worthy of the army's special handling, but the patrol team of the galaxy cannot handle them.

It is normal for Xinda Company to have such things, and it is also normal to distribute them to people, but it is not normal to distribute them to Chen Ming.

So Chen Ming did not speak, and waited for the factory director to continue.

"Although our space station is in such a ghost place and has no proper name, the promotion channel within the company is counted together."

"That is to say, if you do well here, you can also be promoted to the main company."

"As long as your technology can be promoted, it won't be a problem to approve a license."

The factory director said it very clearly, but Chen Ming knew that he hadn't said it out loud, but both of them understood one thing.

If Chen Ming wants to go up through the internal path of Xinda Company, he must join with his real identity.

In the past, Chen Ming only wanted to support himself, but now he has always pursued opportunities to improve and develop himself.

So joining a big company is definitely an option.

And Chen Ming has indeed had a general idea during this period.

Thirty years ago, Chen Ming wanted to do this more difficult job in the marginal star field to mix up his qualifications.

When the task arrangement cycle is over, he will definitely be promoted to a level or a half when he returns to the company headquarters.

Repeat it several times when he was young, from a maintenance technician to a maintenance technician manager, and from a technical position to a management position.

At this point, it was enough for Chen Ming in the past.

But it is far from enough for Chen Ming now.

Now he also wants to return to the technical position from the management position on this basis.

Of course, he is not going to be a maintenance worker, but a researcher.

Chen Ming knows that large companies like Xinda generally have their own specialized research institutes, and only the top technical talents can enter.

Even if these technicians have been in the laboratory research institute for many years, they have mastered more and stronger skills than Chen Ming now.

So Chen Ming wants to invest more in the research of spacecraft technology and wants to join such a place on his own.

The purpose is very simple, one is to improve himself.

The other is to cooperate with his panel.

Chen Ming's ability to directly control the spacecraft through the panel can definitely be used in the research of spacecraft technology.

As long as Chen Ming can use his ability to publish some research results, give full play to his ability and technical talent, and gradually gain a certain voice in the institute.

If everything goes well, he should be able to have his own research institute in the end.

Isn't this much better than being a low-ranking manager in the company?

Chen Ming believed that he had talent.

Because if he remembered correctly, he should be 25 years old now, not counting the time of cryopreservation.

An orphan spent 25 years from nothing to become a professional repairman responsible for important maintenance tasks under Xinda Company. If this is said to be without talent, then no one can be said to have talent.

And Chen Ming himself, without any foundation, spent only half a year to thoroughly master everything in the past 25 years through memory.

Even the actual operation did not fall behind, at most there were only some long-term experience deficiencies.

So in the right time, right place and right people, Chen Ming had both the right time panel and the right people's talent.

Joining a large company and becoming a professional technical researcher is a path that Chen Ming is very happy to accept.

But this matter just happened to have a problem with the location.

The factory director mentioned the Xinda Company at this time, which made Chen Ming completely unable to make a decision.

Although it is certain that the factory director has no good attitude towards the military, and the millions of dollars in profit that day is enough for him to protect Chen Ming in many places.

But Chen Ming is still unclear about the company's attitude.

If the upper echelons of Xinda Company and the military are birds of a feather, then Chen Ming is basically no different from walking into a trap.

In front of the real upper echelons of the company, the identity of the factory director is not good enough.

Chen Ming can't go to the office of the director of the Space Station Administration Bureau to ask him what he thinks about the abandoned mining space station.

He can only conduct an indirect investigation through the factory director.

And Chen Ming had better wait until the factory director sees the benefits of his technology and has substantial interests tied to it, and then try to ask the factory director if he knows about the mining space station.

After the company's attitude is completely determined, Chen Ming can really make a decision.

So now, Chen Ming's answer can only be: "I'll think about it again."

"Okay."

The factory manager said casually: "Anyway, you actually have a third way to go, just stay here."

"When you make enough money and can live a life of luxury, wouldn't it be better to find a good planet to stay on?"

"Come to me if you change your mind, and the same goes for the previous one. The price I give you will definitely be the best."

Chen Ming nodded solemnly to the factory manager, got up and left the office.

After leaving the building of the Administration, Chen Ming returned to the No. 15 space arm, but he did not go back to the maintenance plant, but chose to skip work directly.

Came to the vicinity of the Iron Mine.

The Iron Mine was now very different from when Chen Ming just returned to the space station.

Because he had made a major transformation of the Iron Mine in the past few days.

The overall appearance of the Iron Mine has changed from the original square iron block to the current slightly streamlined appearance, and the overall bright white color has not changed.

And not only the appearance, but also the interior of the Iron Ore has undergone a lot of transformation.

All the old equipment on the Iron Ore from thirty years ago was dismantled by Chen Ming and replaced with the best models within the range that his wallet could accept.

After the equipment was updated, Chen Ming also deliberately slightly reduced the proportion of useless space in the ship, such as the captain's room that was completely useless.

More space and load were used on the cargo hold, armor and engine.

These are nothing. The most important thing is that Chen Ming also installed a new system on the Iron Ore, the radiation energy system.

This means that the Iron Ore can start using shield modules and truly professional and powerful military weapons.

This whole system cost him nearly 10 million, almost one-fifth of his assets.

So much so that Chen Ming was still thinking during the transformation.

Can it save expenses by cutting a complete shield module on other frigates into two halves, and then repairing each of them to make two complete shield modules?

Unfortunately, Chen Ming found that it didn't work after trying it. The shield module cut in half would reconnect as soon as it was repaired.

And the repair interface of the panel always only showed the almost negligible materials needed to stick the shield module cut in half together.

Even if he stayed in the space station with half of the shield module and threw the other half into the dark cemetery, it would be the same.

As long as the repair button was pressed, the other half of the shield module would suddenly appear in the palm of Chen Ming's hand in liquid form and connect with the half of the shield module in his hand for repair.

And doing so would also consume a lot of his mental energy, which was completely a loss-making behavior.

So in the end, Chen Ming could only spend the money with great pain.

The final result of the transformation was that although this ship still looked like a civilian mining ship, it was actually a professional military spacecraft with extremely strong survivability.

After all, the purpose of the Iron Ore was very clear. It was the spaceship that Chen Ming drove on a daily basis, and it was also the last line of defense to protect him.

All modifications were made with the highest priority of life-saving ability, which took Chen Ming a lot of time and effort.

But it was such a spaceship that gave Chen Ming a headache when he saw it.

The reason for the headache was naturally the rules he had to abide by after returning to the prosperous star field.

Chen Ming hadn't figured out what to do now, so he could only sigh slightly and move his eyes away from the Iron Ore, not considering this aspect for the time being.

He didn't come here to see what happened to his spaceship, but he had other things to do.

At this time, next to the Iron Ore, there were several strong men wearing exoskeletons waiting for something.

Chen Ming naturally knew who they were waiting for, but he didn't rush over immediately. Instead, he took a few more glances at their exoskeleton equipment.

This was one of the few times Chen Ming saw someone wearing this kind of mechanical exoskeleton for assisting work after he came to the space station.

Chen Ming was definitely interested in these things.

But he had no intention of actually studying or using them.

Because most of the knowledge in Chen Ming's mind was about the technology of spacecraft and large equipment, and he didn't know much about this kind of exoskeleton machinery used on individuals.

If he really wanted to study, he would have to learn a lot of new things.

But now, apart from work, he spent his evenings and other free time reading various professional books, and had no extra energy to do other things.

And there was actually no suitable environment for the use of exoskeletons.

Chen Ming had now returned from Raymu, and it was unlikely that he would need to go out to work in person, so it was enough to just look at the exoskeleton, but there was no need to actually use it.

Chen Ming looked at the exoskeleton for a while and then walked up and greeted the few people waiting next to the Iron Ore.

After confirming their identities, he asked them to help carry all the more than a dozen boxes of heavy goods he brought onto the spacecraft.

These goods were a large number of materials that Chen Ming bought from the owner of the recycling shop that Lao Wu recommended a few days ago.

Because some materials need to be pre-ordered or are out of stock, they have not been gathered until today.

It happened that Chen Ming was on duty today and did not need to go out, so he asked the owner of the recycling shop to deliver them today.

In addition to a large amount of basic materials and high-grade metal materials, there are also a small amount of special metal materials.

The effect is naturally obvious.

After more than a dozen boxes of goods were moved, although Chen Ming had confirmed that the boss had not been short of weight, he still pretended to count them and signed the receipt.

But today's business is not over yet.

Chen Ming directly closed the hatch and started the engine of the Iron Ore.

He drove the Iron Ore out of the space station alone and entered the hyperspace channel at the edge of the galaxy.

Set off for the dark cemetery.

The Iron Ore arrived at the destination almost instantly and connected to the communication channel of the two spacecraft controlled by the Gamma AI.

Although Chen Ming took time to chat with the two AIs near the Dark Cemetery every day, talking about Yuhui or human beings.

However, out of concern, in case Yuhui would suffer from depression or other problems, Chen Ming still asked: "Is it okay for you to stay here alone?"

Gamma A was still the same as before; he immediately answered Chen Ming's question: "No problem, we can kill time by learning the data downloaded before."

"As long as you can take us back to the galaxy with Yuhui communication beacon every once in a while, we can stay like this forever."

After Gamma A finished speaking, Gamma B simply said: "Me too."

"That's good."

After Chen Ming confirmed that Gamma AI was fine, he turned around and began to prepare what he had to do.

Repairing the spacecraft.

There are a total of four spacecraft parked here in the Dark Cemetery, namely Refraction, Glimmer, Fighter Kai and Centurion.

The Refraction class had been inspected in the Yuhui Colony before and did not need repair, while the remaining three ships were repaired with the help of the panel.

Except for the Glimmer class, which was also a ship of the Afterglow, which was relatively seriously damaged and took a little longer, the other two ships were basically repaired in an instant.

In fact, the Glimmer class had a chance to be repaired when the Refraction class docked in the colony before,

but because the ship was taken away by the Refraction class in a destroyed state, the original AI core on it had been removed and the hull was abandoned.

So in the Afterglow side, the Glimmer class was in the hands of Gamma A.

Therefore, repairing it in the colony is not free, but requires the consumption of Gamma A's material quota.

Although it is not that it cannot be repaired, if it really needs to be repaired, all four ships that were squeezed together in the belly of the Refraction class at that time must be taken out.

And the most abundant thing in a place like a factory is various equipment with strange functions.

If the ship factory has scanning equipment and happens to scan the situation inside the Iron Ore, then it will be a big problem.

So at that time, Chen Ming felt that it was too dangerous to do so, so he simply gave up the idea.

It was not until later that Chen Ming learned about the specific situation of the ship factory in Yuhui when he was chatting with Gamma A.

Simply put, the factory will only do what you need it to do for you.

Without special requests and when the ship is not obviously damaged, the factory will definitely not waste fuel to start the scanning equipment.

But the problem is not big, at most Chen Ming can repair it himself.

Anyway, Gamma A's property is his property now, and using Gamma A's material rations is equivalent to using Chen Ming's own money.

So from the results, Chen Ming did not spend any unnecessary expenses.

After waiting for a while, until the glimmer level was completely repaired.

Chen Ming opened the panel to confirm that there were still a lot of materials left in the batch he bought.

These were not extra materials due to his miscalculation, but he had bought them before, intending to modify other spacecraft similar to the Iron Ore.

Although after the factory director's reminder, Chen Ming knew that his deformed modification might not be useful in the future and could only be dismantled.

But what if?

What if he got the armed ship license, what if he did not go to the prosperous star field in the end, wouldn't these modifications come in handy?

So Chen Ming finally decided not to think too much and modify it first.

The ship will naturally straighten itself when it reaches the bridgehead.

If it can't be straightened, then he will rely on his own ability to straighten the ship.