Under the Empire's current laws, prospecting rights did not represent ownership. If mineral deposits or the like were discovered, one still had to purchase the acquisition rights.
But since Duo Gan had bought out the rights, no one else was allowed to conduct private prospecting without first obtaining her permission.
If the military or the authorities had a need, they were also qualified to conduct prospecting—what she had purchased was not exclusive prospecting rights.
Duo Gan had invested a fair amount to protect her opportunity.
The reason she had not bought exclusive prospecting rights was, first, because exclusivity was too expensive, and second, because she did not want to draw attention.
Given her status in the Empire at the time, even if she discovered something good, she did not have to worry about being unable to keep it. She simply disliked trouble.
Buying the prospecting rights here was more like a declaration... I've set my sights on this place. Nobody else needs to covet it.
To say nothing of the fact that if she had not commanded such a vast force, it would have been difficult to buy prospecting rights for such a huge expanse of space.
Much less at such a low price.
In any case, at first, she had not paid much attention to those two starships—perhaps they were prospectors commissioned by the authorities.
But after the opposing starships recognized them, they turned and fled. They clearly had guilty consciences!
Obviously, they had guilty consciences. Otherwise, they would not have run the moment they saw them.
But trying to escape before Digital Phantom—even the Alliance's Division Level Ships could not manage it! Jing Yuexin and Paranoid's avatar each piloted a Small Ship in pursuit.
The Large Merchant Ship tried to flee as well, but unfortunately, neither starship could