No one knew how poorly Kolev had slept over the past three days.
He'd already caught glimpses of it before—
That transparent ship, the transparent ship equipped with Particle Transmission, the Feinan he'd poured his heart and soul into building over five or six years!
It had casually broken through the Kashi Federation's piece-of-junk planetary defense system.
Kolev was desperate to get aboard and take a look—to see what strange technology this ship, supposedly "blessed" by a higher civilization, possessed.
It was the best pirate ship in my dreams.
Kolev repeated the thought to himself over and over.
But three days later, in the estate's reception room, he watched Yang Ming walk in through the front door in a well-tailored suit, then saw him offer Kolev two metal tickets...
"Weren't we setting off on your ship?" Kolev blinked.
Yang Ming smiled. "This isn't a secret operation. We need to make sure our movements are easy to track. Besides, from now on, I'm your nephew, Uncle Haton."
"Oh, this!"
Clutching the metal plaque, Kolev shouted in frustration, "Let me go aboard and have a look!"
"Go where?" Yang Ming asked, though he already knew.
"Your ship!"
Kolev's eyes gleamed with fervor. "Let me see it for myself. I'm not going to steal it from you."
"So that's what this is about." Yang Ming smiled at Kolev. "Don't rush, Uncle Haton. We'll have plenty of time once we get there. For now, we should head to the Spaceport. The self-driving taxi I booked will pick us up in an hour."
"Oh!"
Kolev gritted his teeth. "Can't we just transmit there directly? What's so difficult about that?"
"There really is a problem."
Yang Ming explained quietly:
"I'm the only one who can use Particle Transmission. That machine can only be linked to one person. There's not much else that's changed inside the ship. It just has a transmission machine, a mainframe to house Lü's photonic brain, and a few devices to make it harder to detect. Everything else is the same as before."
"Fine." Kolev shrugged. "It's not like I was looking forward to it that much."
"They...don't want to disrupt the balance of the Milky Way Galaxy," Yang Ming explained. "The benefits they've given me are actually pretty limited. The real benefits come later, once I'm officially able to inherit this legacy."
Kolev perked up and studied the metal plaque in his hand.
"Let's see where you want to go, my dear nephew. Tsk, the Luofeng Empire? What's that?"
"A vassal state of the Sherman Empire, in the Milky Way Galaxy's first spiral arm. It has eleven Administrative Planets and 102 resource planets, six of which are extremely poor. Its political situation is very complicated, and there's a chance of a coup breaking out. It's a battleground between the New Federation and the Sherman Empire."
Yang Ming rattled off the details like an expert:
"I've already done my research on the way here. We'll need to change ships twice to get there."
"Where are you planning to get an Administrative Planet?" Kolev asked, thinking it over seriously.
"That's right. And we don't necessarily need an Administrative Planet. A resource planet that's barely habitable would work too. That gives us a lot more options."
Yang Ming replied cheerfully, then walked over to the full-length mirror and looked himself over.
The well-tailored suit, his neatly trimmed short hair, his fairly handsome face now free of stubble, and his muscular build temporarily subdued by the suit—all of it made the fabric stretch tight across his body.
"Do I look like a rich kid?" Yang Ming asked.
"No," Kolev replied glumly as he set up his butler robot. "Your eyes are too murderous, Yang Ming. There's no sign that wine and women have drained you dry. Other young men will instinctively feel hostile toward you. You need to tone down that edge."
Yang Ming frowned slightly, turning the life-or-death problem over in his mind.
Kolev asked, "Need to buy more medicine?"
"I've got enough for two years," Yang Ming said. "With that transmission machine, getting to the Black Market will be easy."
Kolev thought for a few minutes. "We need a perfect cover identity. Unrest is about to break out there, and no sensible investor would go there to invest."
"The Luofeng Empire should have been wealthy," Yang Ming explained. "Its Prime Star produces a special composite mineral used to make key components for coating machines and shield generators. Merchants have been flocking there to get their hands on it. The Sherman Empire has been exploiting them for years, and recently they've become a dumping ground for the New Federation's goods. Their royal family is corrupt and incompetent."
"Oh! Right!"
Kolev immediately realized what he meant. "Rhodium-6 rings for the flow channels!"
Yang Ming smiled. "At any given time, there are merchants trying to get a piece of the action. We're no different. But I suggest, Uncle Haton, that you invest in building a downstream factory to supply the industry."
"Right. We don't have enough capital to shake up the existing market for Rhodium-6 rings."
Kolev thought it over carefully.
Suddenly, he caught on and glared at Yang Ming. "Wait, why am I the one investing? I work for you, and you still have to pay me!"
"It's just an investment suggestion." Yang Ming shrugged. "My funds are limited. If you don't want to invest there, I'll pay back the million later."
Kolev's face instantly brightened.
Yang Ming smiled. "Then I'll borrow another three million New Federation Credits from you to build the factory."
"Not a chance! Don't even think about it!"
Kolev raised his Walking Stick and shouted, "I'm the one who robs other people! No one's ever robbed me! No one!"
And then—
Half an hour later.
Ding-dong!
Yang Ming glanced at the successful payment notification on his wrist screen and winked at Kolev.
Kolev covered his forehead with one hand, feeling a little nostalgic for his previous project.
Son Robot had really been pretty good. Really.
To save money, Yang Ming had bought ordinary seats on Star Alliance Aviation (Galaxy Interstellar United Airlines).
But he hadn't expected old Kolev to have gone from a brave, frugal pirate chief to a lavish, unscrupulous capitalist.
Old Kolev frowned at the economy-class cabin before them.
Hundreds of passengers were crammed into the cramped space. Two extra rows of seats had been added without authorization, leaving the aisle so narrow people practically had to turn sideways to get through.
"What is it, Uncle?" Yang Ming asked in a clear voice.
Kolev turned and walked toward a flight attendant instead.
"Upgrade two tickets for me...Yes, all three legs of the trip. Ordinary business class? No, no, something better...A semi-private cabin? Why would my nephew and I need a couples' private cabin? Is there anything higher? Oh, the Royal Suite. That's the one. I can pay here, right?"
Yang Ming approached with his suitcase, ready to swipe his card, but Kolev had already paid with a flick of his finger.
"It's my treat," Kolev said with a click of his tongue. "My dear nephew."
"Uncle, we should try to save a little."
"Oh, no need." Kolev smiled smugly. "After our last trip, I took stock of my assets. As long as I don't go messing around with businesses or making big investments, I can live extravagantly for two hundred years without running short."
Yang Ming could only shrug.
They walked from the middle of the six-hundred-meter passenger ship to the forward section.
It was directly above the bridge. Several huge windows stretched across the front, offering an unobstructed view of the breathtaking universe as they traveled. The spacious area contained only sixteen egg-shaped seats, each one practically a small cabin with enough room for two or three people to play cards and have fun.
The "independent escape pod" was another reason for the steep ticket price.
Aside from the two of them, there were four or five other passengers here.
"Luxurious,"
Yang Ming muttered, shaking his head.
Kolev settled confidently into his seat and turned to Yang Ming with a cheerful smile. "Want to talk about our investment plans, my dear nephew?"
"We can look things over once we get there, Uncle."
Yang Ming stretched and walked into the cabin next door. He hung his suit jacket on the wall, picked up an electronic book made of projected light, and reclined in his seat.
Kolev hummed a simple tune and fiddled with a square glass device.
Yang Ming was a little worried that the old man might suffer a bout of occupational habit and start exercising authority on behalf of the passenger ship's captain.
"Where's my cousin working now?" Yang Ming asked.
"She hasn't gone far," Kolev said with a smile. "Since she wants to start her career from the ground up, I don't want to interfere."
"You mean you don't know where Molly is?"
Yang Ming asked doubtfully, then switched on his wrist terminal's projector and stared at a diagram for a moment.
"All right, I do know." Kolev looked puzzled. "What are you looking at?"
"An Attribute Board I made myself."
"An Attribute Board? What's that?"
Kolev wanted to get a closer look, but Yang Ming had already turned off the projection.
Yang Ming smiled. "One of Lü's jobs as my assistant is to help me understand myself at a glance. All right, Uncle, if you don't have any worthwhile questions, I'm going to study."
"Go ahead, then! You don't know the first thing about caring for the elderly!"
Kolev shut his cabin door in a huff.
Yang Ming glanced at the two fellow passengers who'd been drawn in by their conversation, gave them an awkward smile, then lowered his head and continued reading the book about industrial development.
If he was going to build a factory, he needed to know a little of the technical jargon.
The first two-thirds of the journey were peaceful, so peaceful that Yang Ming was starting to feel drowsy.
After two galactic days, two jumps, two stretches of smooth travel, and a stop at two bustling space stations, the ship took on passengers for the third time. Two new passengers had also joined the Royal Suite at the front.
Yang Ming was reading when a scent tickled his nose. He looked up at the graceful figure passing by.
She was a young woman with striking curves, her figure accentuated by a fitted, light-brown tea dress. Her slightly wavy brown hair framed a sharply defined face, and her full lips kept pursing from time to time.
She seemed uneasy.
Yang Ming keenly sensed that the beautiful woman was afraid of something. Her eyes kept scanning the area around her.
"Nothing to do with me."
Yang Ming put on his Earpiece and leaned back, focusing his attention on the ocean of industrial knowledge.
Soon, the ship set off again, heading for the Jump Channel. Its next stop was the Luofeng Empire's Prime Star.
Yang Ming keenly noticed that the beautiful woman diagonally ahead to his left seemed to be growing more and more uneasy.
She kept checking the time on her Network Terminal. She opened a variety show video a few times, only to shut it off in frustration soon after. Whenever anyone moved behind her, she immediately looked back, her eyes full of tension.
What the hell?
Yang Ming felt uneasy too.
Please don't let anything weird happen.
On an ordinary flight, there wouldn't be any blood tests. But if someone caused trouble, there was no telling what might happen.
Besides, they were heading to the Luofeng Empire to stir things up. If they attracted extra attention right from the start, it could cause unnecessary trouble.
"Hopefully she's hiding from a love rival."
Yang Ming prayed silently.
Two hours later, the ship entered deep-space travel. The lights in the cabins dimmed, and the starfield beyond the windows grew especially brilliant.
The woman stood up with her Network Terminal in hand and walked past Yang Ming with her head down, heading toward the back.
Yang Ming hoped she was just going to the bathroom.
Even though he knew that was impossible.
Yang Ming had long since picked up the sound of breathing from behind the forward-cabin door. Two well-trained men were hiding there, and they'd been watching the woman for quite a while.
The woman entered the public washroom at the front of the ship. Inside were three private stalls and two single-person shower booths.
The two men rushed in!
Yang Ming rubbed the corner of his eye.
He keenly picked up the faint sounds coming from the public washroom: knocking, muffled cries, high heels scraping against the soft carpet, and urgent growls.
They were strangling her.
Didn't those two thugs have any high-tech spy gear on them?
"I can't get involved in this. I can't create extra trouble. I'm no champion of justice. Everything I do has to be part of the plan."
Yang Ming repeated the reminder to himself.
He decided to remind Kolev, too.
"Uncle Haton," Yang Ming called, turning his head. "Are you asleep, Uncle Haton? I think we should—"
Yang Ming shot to his feet.
Kolev's "egg cabin" was closed, so he couldn't hear any breathing. He peered through the gap. It was empty inside.
When had he disappeared?
Yang Ming had been monitoring the surroundings for the past half hour and hadn't noticed anything unusual. Kolev definitely hadn't moved during that time!
Yang Ming frowned and looked toward the public washroom. Surely the old man hadn't—
"Oh, finally."
Kolev let out a soft groan.
Old-age constipation really was a miserable problem.
Kolev sighed with relief, pressed the button on the automatic toilet, and neutralized the last trace of escaping odor.
He pulled up his pants and rubbed his lower back with a sigh, humming a cheerful tune as he unlatched the door and opened the soundproof bathroom door.
Before you continue