Kolev's Secret Garden

They certainly didn't head directly for the Kashi Federation's Administrative Planet.

A normal Administrative Planet would have comprehensive defense systems in orbit.

This colony was just a coordinate, a beacon, guiding them to the real secret base.

-- A derelict Resource Planet in the same star system as that Administrative Planet.

While Kolev explained the various operations of the spaceship to Yang Ming, he smoothly dodged several slow patrol ships and avoided the largely abandoned defense detectors, guiding the pirate ship into synchronous orbit with the Resource Planet.

After confirming there were no anomalies, the pirate ship entered the Resource Planet's thin atmosphere.

This planet was like a giant, regular ice cube. It was located outside the star system's habitable zone, receiving relatively little stellar heat.

When Yang Ming looked down, the ground was covered in white snow.

"There's plenty of fresh water here, though the atmosphere is a bit thin."

Kolev introduced with a smile:

"This planet wasn't originally here. It was likely dragged here during the previous civilization era to be a companion to the planet next door. However, its resources have been completely depleted, leaving only vast empty caverns beneath the ice fields.

"The planet next door is also quite interesting, and I have many assets there. Time is tight this time, so I won't take you for a tour."

Yang Ming yawned. The control buttons in his vision seemed like a swarm of tiny, dancing fish, frantically attacking his retinas.

He felt he would need a dose of Gene Stabilizer later.

Studying was more anxiety-inducing than fighting.

"How long will we be here?" Yang Ming asked.

"We've brought enough supplies, we could live here for three years without issue," Kolev chuckled. "But I can't keep Gimo waiting too long. We'll stay for about three months to let things cool down, then leave."

Milili asked, "Dad, is there anything I can do?"

"Be happy, my child," Kolev smiled. "You just need to enjoy everything here. This is a fortress I've been designing for the two of us for over a decade. You'll be amazed later! Guess what I used? This is just a small part of the wealth I've accumulated over half my life."

Yang Ming immediately became expectant.

-- Expectant of the pirate's wealth.

The pirate ship slowly approached a ridge that resembled fish bones. Kolev skillfully maneuvered the ship into a heavily concealed canyon. Yang Ming and the others were instructed to put on bulky planetary exploration suits.

When the old crew members went to move supplies, Kolev waved them off, "Don't worry about those, follow me! There are plenty of tireless laborers here!"

The group left the pirate ship and slowly descended along the ridge to the canyon floor.

Kolev walked up to a sheer rock face, fiddled with something for a moment, and suddenly a two-meter by three-meter projection screen appeared before them.

It was a display interface showing numerous surveillance feeds.

Yang Ming leaned in from behind and exclaimed, "It's much more spacious inside than the spaceship."

"Haha! Hanton! You want to know what I've been up to here, right?" Kolev said excitedly.

"No."

"No! Say you do! My dear First Mate Hanton, I can give you management permissions equivalent to my daughter's!"

"The scenery here is quite nice."

Yang Ming calmly looked up at the sky filled with aurora.

Milili beside him couldn't help but burst into laughter.

After confirming multiple times that the base had not been infiltrated, Kolev waited a few more minutes before opening the base's main gate.

With a rumbling sound, two disguised ice stone layers slowly moved aside, revealing a downward-sloping passage.

Kolev and Yang Ming walked at the forefront, the group advancing slowly in a line. After passing through several rooms resembling 'lock gates,' they finally entered the spacious main hall of the base, akin to a large aircraft carrier hangar.

Kolev's long-planned performance officially began.

Two rows of robots of various appearances stood in neat formation. With their differently constructed and sized bodies, they simultaneously performed elegant bows and then exclaimed in over fifty different electronic synthesized voices:

"Welcome home, Master."

Yang Ming looked at these robots with low-level intelligence with great interest.

A little less than half of them were humanoid Intelligent Machines, like maids and butlers, while the others were engineering Intelligent Machines. Stone dust residue still clung to their treads, indicating they had been in operation for quite some time.

Kolev's old companions were completely stunned.

"Molly!" Kolev roared. "Aren't you coming out to greet our guests! Where the hell are you, Molly!"

"Coming, Master."

A cold electronic synthesized voice suddenly sounded. Beams of light from the four corners converged in front of Kolev, forming a three-dimensional projection.

This was a virtual character with a somewhat contradictory appearance.

She wore a professional skirt suit and stockings, along with red-soled high heels, but her round face was as tender as a young girl's, and she wore a pair of square-framed glasses.

Yang Ming chuckled, "Kolev, you've exposed your kinks."

"Esteemed guest, please do not slander my Master."

Molly—this virtual image—spoke earnestly, her voice seeming to emanate directly from her mouth.

"When the Master was performing my initial appearance settings, the relevant hormones in his body were already insufficient to generate any interest in that regard. He's old enough."

"Molly! Shut up!" Kolev took off his exploration suit helmet and cursed through gritted teeth.

Molly whispered, "Understood, Master. If my temporary honesty has caused you to lose face, I am deeply remorseful."

"Reduce your venomous tongue index by twenty percent, your nagging index by fifty percent, and your humor index by fifty percent! Damn it! How did I give you so many boring parameters!"

Kolev bumped Yang Ming with his shoulder and cursed, "Having this guy bickering with me is already a headache. Now, some of your functions can be retired!"

"Oh, that's truly delightful news... Settings complete."

Molly's tone of voice shifted slightly, becoming much more serious.

"Master, please set the permissions for the guests."

"Milili, my only daughter, my heir after I die," Kolev pointed to Milili behind him, "Set her permissions to the highest level."

He then lowered his voice and added, "Except for my list of assets. That's for her after I'm dead."

"Set. Second Master."

Milili raised her hand to her forehead, her face full of helplessness. "Dad! I don't need you to survive!"

"But you'll definitely live more comfortably under my care."

Kolev grinned smugly and pointed at Yang Ming again:

"This guy has the same permissions as Milili, but he is forbidden from entering the residences of these ladies from now on. Everyone else has VIP privileges."

"Set. Third Master. Forbidden from entering the ladies' rooms... But I can't control those non-networked mechanical door locks."

"I just need you to keep an eye on him! Report to me anytime!"

"Understood, my old Master."

Molly's virtual projection took out a notebook and quickly jotted something down.

Then, she turned and called out. Two butler robots and eight maid robots stepped forward to help Yang Ming and his group remove their heavy planetary exploration suits. Over ten tracked robots departed the base through a separate dedicated channel, heading to the Pirate ship to transport supplies.

A few minutes later, everyone was seated on the soft sofas to the left of the main hall, drinking delicious beverages, listening to melodious music, and admiring the almost lifelike landscape projections on the walls.

The old Pirates continuously marveled at the luxury here.

Yang Ming, unable to wait any longer, began exploring everywhere.

After the robots left, the front hall became somewhat sparse.

The left side of the front hall was the entertainment area, and the right side was the work area, with several workstations, a row of black, square chassis, and a few highly integrated consoles.

The center of the front hall was empty. Yang Ming observed it carefully for a while and quickly discovered something unusual.

It was a circular lifting device with a diameter of twenty meters. Concurrently, there was a hidden exit diagonally above. Connecting this with the terrain outside—the ridge lines arranged like fishbones—Yang Ming suddenly had some guesses.

"Kolev, there are escape pods and an ejection acceleration track here, right?"

Yang Ming asked in surprise.

Kolev, who was showing off to his old buddies, raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"A qualified Pirate always considers his escape routes. Since you're so interested, I'll take you on a tour first. Hanton, this is just the tip of the iceberg."

Milili asked, "Dad, you used to disappear for periods of time. Was it to come here?"

"Yes," Kolev chuckled. "If I had died in prison, you would have received a message from Molly. This is my last gift to you, a self-sustaining base."

Milili's eyes were filled with emotion, and she said guiltily, "I messed things up."

"Cheer up," Kolev sighed. "Your Uncle Hanton is right. I saw you through too much of a filter. But you don't need to worry at all. Dad will handle everything for you."

"But Dad..."

"Let's go, I'll take you around first!"

Kolev didn't give his daughter another chance to speak and walked towards the rightmost corridor with Yang Ming slung over his shoulder.

Milili's expression was somewhat dejected.

"Master Milili," Molly's projected figure appeared beside her. "He loves you very much."

"Thank you."

"He loves you even more than you think," Molly said softly.

Milili shrugged, crossed her arms, and followed the two men ahead, chuckling softly. "Looking at him now, he likes Uncle Hanton more."

Molly said, "For a grumpy and slovenly old man like your father, finding a friend with similar tastes is quite rare. It's a wonderful experience for his twilight years."

Milili let out a soft laugh and playfully raised an eyebrow at Molly.

They began a pleasant conversation.

Yang Ming learned the origin of this base from the old man.

When Kolev planned all of this, he spent a large sum of money to acquire a supporting base system for a planetary modification system, and the machines worked on it for over a decade.

"Don't worry, I won't cause an Intelligent Machine crisis. If no one comes here, it will just keep operating for twenty years."

Kolev chuckled:

"Molly is the brain here. I patched her up a lot, which is why she seems a bit silly. It's my masterpiece, you know."

He glanced at Milili, who was captivated by a display, and whispered, "I usually call Molly my little daughter. Actually, when my wife and I were planning for our second child, we wanted to name her Momoly."

"Milili will get jealous," Yang Ming reminded him with a smile. "You'd better just think of Molly as a little housekeeper."

"Yes, that's right. Milili is very much like her mother in that regard."

Kolev stopped in his tracks and looked down a nearby corridor, smiling. "Her mother's tomb is up ahead, and mine will be too, eventually. I hope so, anyway."

Milili, drawn by the signs, had already walked ahead with Molly accompanying her towards the tomb at the end of the corridor.

Inside was an indoor jungle.

Yang Ming leaned against a wall displaying an aquarium scene, watching the backs of his two 'daughters' with Kolev.

The old Pirates had already begun touring other sections of the base.

Yang Ming asked softly, "What are you planning to do?"

"About what?"

"Take out Gimo."

"Follow me," Kolev said, instinctively putting his hands behind his back, a habit he'd picked up from Yang Ming. "Molly, cancel the surveillance on us. Alert us if anyone approaches."

Molly's voice came from the wall, "Understood, Master."

Kolev slowly led Yang Ming through the base, past the well-decorated residential areas and entertainment rooms, heading towards the sports field at the rear.

The old Pirate analyzed carefully:

"The Black Dragon isn't a monolith right now. Gimo wasn't my original choice for successor. He's a captain, a squadron leader. The other three squadron leaders have friction with him; they don't obey him as much as they pretend to.

"My reappearance is like dropping a hammer into those cracks. All I need to do now is wait, just a little bit of waiting.

"Gimo is the one who's anxious right now.

"I plan to defect one of the other three squadron leaders. I know their personalities. They're all Pirates I trained, and that's the foundation of my confrontation with Gimo.

"Then, Hanton, I need your help."

"Get rid of Gimo?" Yang Ming chuckled. "I'll need an assault ship, or at least to be in the same room as him."

Kolev smiled and patted Yang Ming's arm, saying warmly, "Although it's not my intention to say this, it's a transaction. Since I'm asking for your help regarding my daughter, I should give you adequate compensation."

He stopped walking and pressed a few buttons on a side wall. The metal wall slowly rose, revealing a transparent glass wall.

And behind the glass wall, a giant hangar.

A mid-sized, pincer-shaped vessel lay quietly in the hangar, surrounded by mobile gantries and more than a dozen tracked robots bustling about.

"This is your compensation. I'll transfer it to you at an extremely low price. How about... one million Federal Credit Points, with installment payments allowed?"

Kolev flashed a shrewd, merchant-like smile.

"Whoa, only one million?"

Yang Ming couldn't tear his eyes away. "Are you serious?"

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