Open the Gate, Free Trade

There had never been any shortage of clever people in the world, and there were countless others like Orphea Armengarde who could infer the truth from scattered clues.

But intelligence alone was useless. Only when paired with a little decisiveness and courage, along with the right timing, could it be turned into a tangible opportunity.

As the first person brave enough to take that initial step, Orphea had now obtained the operating rights for the Empire's first Space Bridge stargate.

Even she had not truly realized just how vast and abundant the profits her bold decision would bring to the Armengarde Rogue Trader Dynasty would be.

Obtaining operating rights meant obtaining control over an entire interstellar route, and the profits it generated would far exceed those of any ordinary interstellar trade.

It was a genuine money tree, capable of creating an endless stream of wealth for the Rogue Trader family.

After reaching an agreement with Lox, Orphea returned to the Calixis Sector with the newly manufactured Space Bridge matrix components from Ganymede, accompanied by over a hundred Tech-priests dispatched by the Advanced Technology Consortium.

Of course, given the Space Bridge's transmission limit of just over a hundred light-years, it was clearly impossible to construct one directly in the Calixis Sector and reach the Solar System in a single jump.

They would use the Calixis Sector as a Space Bridge network hub, then continuously extend the bridges toward Terra, piecing together the entire network one segment at a time.

Going by the logic of tackling the difficult tasks first, Lox should have chosen a star system near the Solar System, built a Space Bridge there, and linked it closely to humanity's Throne World.

But since a Rogue Trader had already taken the initiative to come to him, Lox decided to take