Legendary Talent!!

"Eighty-five thousand!"

Someone immediately placed a bid, and the price quickly soared to 180,000 Star Points.

Scanning the hall, Feng Xiao saw that only four or five people were still bidding. Without hesitation, he entered a price and instantly raised it to 200,000 Star Points.

"K-014 private room bids 200,000!

200,000 going once! 200,000 going twice! 200..."

"210,000!"

"240,000!"

Someone had just raised the bid to 210,000 when, before the auctioneer could react, Feng Xiao immediately entered 240,000.

This was currently all of Star Origin's assets. Rather than inching the price upward and giving others opportunities, it was better to raise it drastically and put them under pressure.

Besides, 240,000 was already the price of a blue shield-type Star Weapon, exceeding the value of most Blue Matrices. After all, it did not even come with any data.

"K-014 bids 240,000!

...going once... going three times!

Congratulations to the distinguished guest in private room K-014 for acquiring the Matrix Star Weapon!"

He did not continue watching the excitement. After confirming that the auction item would be delivered to the docking warehouse where Star Origin was parked, he got up and left.

Standing on his Floating Disk, Feng Xiao gazed at the alloy buildings hundreds or even thousands of meters tall around him, along with the intricate, crisscrossing transportation network, and could not help but sigh.

"Interstellar society..."

Hm?

Something seemed to enter his peripheral vision. Feng Xiao swiftly stopped his Floating Disk and looked toward a hall-like building several hundred meters away, his eyes lighting up slightly.

A recruitment market!

He had the Heart of Dawn, which could examine other people's talents and abilities. The recruitment market had plenty of civilians who had traveled light-years to this place in search of high-paying work.

They generally possessed special abilities, but because they could not afford testing fees, or because they had only tested positive for ordinary, superficial abilities, they could only come to regions crowded with starships to look for work.

Although the overwhelming majority of abilities and talents were truly useless, exceptional high-level talents were sometimes buried and overlooked.

After all, talent-testing equipment could only detect manifested talents. At least in the Morton Galaxy, few nations could detect latent abilities.

He acted as soon as the thought occurred to him.

Riding his Floating Disk, Feng Xiao drifted unhurriedly into the recruitment market. Countless spherical booths floated at varying heights in the air.

Each booth had several or even a dozen plainly dressed young people sitting in chairs, with virtual screens scrolling through their personal résumés.

There was not a single high-level talent. If there had been, they would presumably have been hired straight away with a high salary. Why would they need to come to a job market?

Quite a few people, like him, rode Floating Disks while looking through résumés, hoping to recruit the talents they needed. The vast majority were merchants or personnel from ordinary adventure warships.

Feng Xiao saw only seven or eight starship captains.

It seemed they were not specifically here to recruit talent, but merely to enjoy the spectacle and perhaps pick up a bargain.

As a result, Feng Xiao drew attention almost everywhere he went.

After once again politely declining a banquet invitation from a potbellied merchant, Feng Xiao shook his head helplessly.

As his gaze swept across the surroundings, his high-end minimalist combat uniform and Star Ring—

made every applicant in his line of sight straighten up and show themselves off.

As long as one got onto a starship, even as a cleaner, life would be better than that of a minor manager at an ordinary company or corporation!

Feng Xiao's gaze suddenly halted. Intrigued, he floated over to a booth and looked at the timid-looking youth before him.

The Heart of Dawn had reacted!

"Eighteen years old, awakened ability... extreme long-range vision?"

This ability was indeed useless in interstellar society. With current technology, any auxiliary iris chip could let someone see tens of thousands of meters away.

But a gifted person who could make the Heart of Dawn react could not possibly be useless!

"Y-yes, I... My name is Ilde Gates. I can do many kinds of work..."

Feng Xiao gestured for him not to introduce himself yet, then pretended to review his résumé as he activated the Heart of Dawn.

[Ilde Gates

Age: 18 Height: 184

Personality prediction: Steady and introverted

Race: Human

Ability: Artillery Master (10%)

Current ability: Intuitive Calibration

Effect: The hit rate of controlled ship cannons increases to 80%, with a 5% chance of triggering a weak-point strike that deals triple damage.

Potential: Legendary

Recommendation: Core Weapon Control position]

Feng Xiao's heart shook violently. Uncontainable ecstasy surged within him, but on the surface, he calmly raised his head and looked at the youth.

"As you can see, I'm a starship captain. Your ability looks quite good, and I happen to need someone like you.

So, are you interested in joining my starship as a crew member?

The salary is 2,000 Alliance Coins per month."

Doing his best to keep his tone calm, Feng Xiao asked with a composed expression.

Alliance Coin was the universally accepted currency of the Star Sea Human Alliance, with greater value than the local currencies of almost every nation.

Including the four most powerful superstates of the Human Alliance, most powerful nations allowed only Alliance Coin transactions within their borders.

Two thousand was enough for an ordinary family to live comfortably for an entire year!

Ilde froze, then a trace of excitement appeared on his face.

"I am! Of course I am!"

The applicants beside them, who had overheard the entire conversation, could not help but look envious and resentful. Two thousand Alliance Coins was considered above average even among ordinary starship crew members.

"Then tell your parents first. We'll be taking action soon..."

"My parents died when I was very young..."

"You don't have parents?!

That's wonderful... Cough, cough. My condolences."

Feng Xiao's delight became even more apparent. Those with steady and introverted personalities were generally loyal, and without parents, Ilde was practically a permanent employee!

A permanent employee with a Legendary-grade ability!

But...

Since he had no parents and seemed to need money badly... Could it be...

Feng Xiao gestured for Ilde to step onto the Floating Disk, then directly asked, "Do you have another immediate family member?"

Ilde, standing beside him with a restrained expression, looked astonished. "How did you know? I have a twin sister. She's still in school, and money is tight right now..."

No wonder.

Since they were twins, and the older brother had Legendary-grade talent, perhaps the sister born alongside him also possessed an ability talent. Her grade was probably not low either.

"Then I'll advance you this month's salary first. Remember to work hard."

Shaking his head to rein in his wandering thoughts, Feng Xiao spoke calmly.

"Ah? Yes!"

Ilde, who had been thinking that his sister would no longer have to suffer in the future, raised his head and stared at Feng Xiao in surprise before nodding heavily.

"This is my starship, Star Origin!

Unless something unexpected happens, it'll be your and your sister's home from now on."

Feng Xiao smiled as he looked at the stunned Ilde.

"If your work meets the annual standard, I'll hire your sister to work aboard this ship."

Upon hearing that, Ilde, who had already decided to work hard, became even more determined.

Ignoring Ilde's blazing fighting spirit, Feng Xiao entered Star Origin first with a smile on his face.

Perfect. He had gotten a potential high-talent ability user for free. Even if she did not have one, he could still build loyalty.

Sigh... I really am righteous capital... a righteous entrepreneur!

Wang Hao, who had returned earlier, took Ilde around to familiarize him with Star Origin. Feng Xiao, meanwhile, headed to the control room, opened the warehouse, and placed the Star Matrix inside.

The Legendary-grade hull's built-in Star Weapon Slot ×4 effect gave Star Origin four times as many Star Weapon slots as other starships of the same grade. It happened to have one slot remaining.

It was perfect for equipping the Star Matrix. In any case, after one more level, it would gain another four Star Weapon slots.

[Star Weapon equipped...]

[Star Matrix: Matrix type

Quality: Blue

Level: Lv. 0

Range: 100,000 km

Effect: ...]

A three-dimensional projection instantly appeared on the left side of the main virtual screen, displaying the environmental conditions within a hundred thousand kilometers around them.

However, most of it was pitch-black at the moment, with no information detectable at all.

There was no doubt that this was the effect of Qiansen Starport's standard technological jamming equipment. It was probably military-grade jamming equipment from some powerful nation.

It was actually stronger than a Blue-quality Star Weapon.

"Boss, Ilde has roughly familiarized himself with the environment. Also, all the star chart data has been stored in the database. When are we leaving?"

Wang Hao entered the control room with Ilde and asked eagerly.

"We leave now!"