Black Swan

Accompanied by Great Xia Empire officials, Lin Jie took a brief tour of the Spaceport.

However, it was difficult to judge the technological level from the Spaceport environment alone.

In some respects, the people's standard of living fell short of expectations.

Yet in other details, it displayed a strangely advanced level.

For instance, certain metal materials and mechanical performance exceeded the standards of the Blue Star Federation.

In the end, Lin Jie could only attribute it to the peculiarities of the imperial system.

Exploitation—he understood that.

The Blue Star Federation had exploitation as well. They used all kinds of ideological brainwashing, then controlled people with various psychological drugs, ultimately achieving covert exploitation.

The tour was merely a routine activity. With people accompanying him, he could not really see anything.

However, the Great Xia Empire soon demonstrated its sincerity. First, the captured mining mothership was returned to Maple Leaf Mining.

Then Michel, representing the Governor's Mansion, delivered good news.

"The Governor's Mansion has decided to grant you the mining rights to the Ninth Planet without charging any additional fees, as a testament to the friendship between both sides."

Of course, Maple Leaf Mining could not avoid the usual taxes and certain infrastructure construction obligations.

But compared with the Blue Star Federation, they certainly would not receive such treatment there.

The Blue Star Federation possessed eleven life-bearing planets, along with even more dead star systems, so there were actually many mineral resources available for extraction.

Yet not many were cost-effective. Even then... Maple Leaf Mining had never obtained the mining rights to an entire planet for itself.

Even after deducting transportation expenses and factoring in the time cost, they could still make a profit.

If they directly invested in local smelting plants, the profits might be even higher.

They might even use