Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

Chapter 1011: Chapter 377: How Dare They?

This time, there were four Supremes and two A-levels on the journey.

Qu Jianlei originally thought there was no need for four Supremes, three would be enough, leaving one to guard Gemini Star.

However, none of the three were willing to stay behind, and Qu Jianlei was even less likely to stay—after all, Little Lake would be without a commander.

Besides, Flower Scorpion and Bentley also strongly requested to follow along.

So the ones left to guard were six people: Fourth Master, Youyou, and Celestial Sound at Home, with Xiang Xue, Xiao Qin, and Claire at Paradise.

Xiang Xue also strongly wanted to join, but once she joined, the guarding force would be too weak.

The six of them boarded the Omen Ship and left, transferring to Ship 8384 after reaching Lost Star.

Following them were the Omen Ship, Ship 3344, one standard warship, and two armed merchant ships.

The repaired Space-Air Carrier and frigate continued to hide on Lost Star.

The six transferred to Ship 8384 and then jumped together.

To this day, Qu Jianlei still remembers the scene of jumping with two large groups of damaged starships.

It was earth-shattering, causing a vast space area to become unstable.

However, this time it was fine, as six intact starships jumping together at once posed no problems.

Their jumping place was quite remote, and after emerging, they didn’t encounter any trouble.

But because it was so remote, by the time they reached the asteroid belt, it was already half a month later.

Ship 8384 sneakily slipped beside the abandoned mine star body, taking about ten days.

The reality was quite frustrating, as the abandoned mine star body where Qu Jianlei hid the supplies was completely... blown up!

It was indeed blown up, with debris scattered everywhere around, leaving everyone speechless.

The stored supplies were gone! Although Qu Jianlei was prepared for this and was heartbroken, it wasn’t too bad.

He wondered if the star body was destroyed by accident by the enemy or deliberately to vent their anger.

Just then, the Big Head Butterfly began to move, "Detected energy monitors, light sensors, thermal sensors, etc..."

"Tch," Qu Jianlei clicked his tongue, relieved that their starship was still more than a million kilometers away from there.

8384’s invisibility ability wasn’t very strong, but these monitoring devices were all passive types, with not much power.

At such a distance, even if the monitors detected the starship, they wouldn’t have detailed information.

However, speaking of which, there weren’t many similar monitors in the Celestial Hook Star Realm, at least not many he had observed in the past.

In other words, whoever placed the monitors considered this place quite important.

Qu Jianlei pondered for a moment and said, "Withdraw to 800,000 kilometers, perform a full active scan."

This proactive scanning couldn’t be hidden from those monitors, but that didn’t matter as long as the enemy couldn’t perceive us clearly.

The key was to test if there were any hidden warships around.

8384’s detection equipment wasn’t very strong, at least slightly inferior to the military’s equipment, so the detection wouldn’t be very accurate.

However, combined with the 20 million computation units, they should be able to find some clues.

The scanning lasted for more than an hour, but nothing unusual was found. Qu Jianlei decisively decided to leave.

Then, he had the other five board Ship 3344, while he himself took Ship 8384 to Lanyun Market.

Mu Yu wanted to stop him, but Paranoid advised her to let it be—"Don’t question the boss’s decisions."

In fact, he knew how cunning Rhodiola rosea was and that it was impossible to place himself in danger unless necessary.

Granny Jia also commented, "We can better support him from the outside."

She least wanted anything to happen to Qu Jianlei, yet she made such a decision, showing that trusting teammates also takes a strong heart.

Qu Jianlei indeed had his calculations, but this trip to Lanyun was an unavoidable risk.

When he was still far from the market, he activated the starship’s active scanning.

This obviously unfriendly behavior immediately caught the market’s attention.

But upon checking who was doing the scanning, the market’s managers understood: Oh, it’s this starship!

The past two years had seen Red Rhodiola’s team causing a big stir, with the entire asteroid belt being rectified.

As for Supremes, five were captured and one was killed. This team’s name was indeed extremely notorious.

Despite high cooperation with the military, the Anomalous Management Division still hadn’t found the team, only just slightly reducing their search efforts recently.

But now, the famed broken ship... reappeared?

The first feeling of many was: How dare they show up so brazenly?

However, thinking about it again, with how arrogant this gang was, it actually made sense for them to do so.

Ship 8384 scanned around without finding any standard warships, prompting Qu Jianlei to send a landing request.

It wasn’t long before his request was approved—without military backing, who would provoke such lunatics?

The ramshackle Ship 8384 landed, causing nearby starships to quickly relocate in fright.

Qu Jianlei connected to the local network and sent out an online mission.

First, he needed to resolve the previous Shelter Card issue.

Although he had avenged two households, after killing Balrog, the team disappeared without a trace, appearing to lack follow-through.

This time he needed to provide everyone an explanation—at least for the first two deals, he had to give the other party an account.

As soon as the task was issued, someone came looking—not the aggrieved party, but the person entrusted by the aggrieved party.

Before this, Lanyun Market had also been subject to a focused search by the military, and the few aggrieved parties were specifically targeted.

In light of this, all the personnel left behind by the aggrieved parties were evacuated, entrusting others to wait for news and relay messages before leaving.

As the intensity of the search decreased, military ships had already withdrawn, although some spies and developed informants likely remained.

But clearly, the main forces had already withdrawn, leaving only a few leftovers who certainly didn’t have the guts to confront the Rhodiola rosea team head-on.

Qu Jianlei, cloaked in Rock Armor, disembarked from the starship and started chatting with the entrusted individuals.

He first introduced his findings—even though the other party should already be aware.

Then he stated that an armed merchant ship would be compensated to the largest aggrieved party, and another one sold at 40% off to the second aggrieved party.

However, the entrusted individuals unanimously expressed that they could forgo compensation and were satisfied that Rhodiola rosea could vent their anger.

It seemed that the few aggrieved parties had reached a consensus—at least Rhodiola rosea stood up for everyone, which was worth it.

As long as the Rhodiola rosea team wasn’t caught, others would certainly think twice before attempting to coerce them again.

In fact, their minimum requirement was to prove that their purchase of the Shelter Card wasn’t just paying a stupidity tax, which was basically enough.

Qu Jianlei indicated that compensating with a merchant ship was a must, and if the other merchant ship had to go, 50% off!

Yet the entrusted individuals still unanimously refused: the aggrieved parties themselves had purchased insurance.

Some of the related losses would be compensated by the insurance company, how could the aggrieved parties dare to take advantage of Rhodiola rosea?

Indeed, capital is greedy, but in the face of forces daring to challenge military fleets, capital also has a risk-aversion instinct.

As for acquiring the starship from Qu Jianlei... how to put it? Even at 50% off, it has to be paid in full.

However, purchasing starships here is almost always done in installments; very few forces can pay in full for a starship.

This has little to do with wealth, as those selling starships strongly recommend this payment method.

Those who really want to pay in full often meet with a cold shoulder or even deliberate obstacles—how else are we to profit?

Supposedly, many forces purchasing starships have significant backgrounds, and some are even subsidiaries of conglomerates.

Yet it doesn’t help; conglomerates are accountable to shareholders, and subsidiaries must still siphon money as expected!

There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes maneuvering involved, mostly concerning interests.

The entrusted individuals said, if you could accept installment payments, this could still be negotiated.

Of course, Qu Jianlei couldn’t accept this; he didn’t have the leisure to collect payments on time.

So he pointed out: installment payments are only for banks or conglomerates; they front the money.

As a seller, I only deal with lump-sum payments; is there a problem with that?

What he said indeed made sense with a good understanding of finance.

However, the entrusted individuals replied: you are dealing directly with the aggrieved parties, without banks or conglomerates in between!

And you previously had no banking partners, and now with your sensitive status, no one would risk challenging the military’s boundaries.

The key is that the forces to which the aggrieved parties belong aren’t big, otherwise, they wouldn’t be coerced.

These small and medium forces, wanting to purchase a starship outright, simply aren’t capable.

Never mind that the Rhodiola rosea team is being heavily targeted, who would want to get involved in this vortex?

The entrusted individuals cautiously explained for quite a while, and Qu Jianlei finally understood why he couldn’t even sell cheap goods.

Seeing the plan about to fail, his expression tightened.

"I don’t care about these matters. No matter what, I must sell an armed merchant ship, even if it’s at 50% off."

This demand was somewhat unreasonable, with a hint of forced buy-sell, but... does the Rhodiola rosea team reason with anyone?

And to be fair, although he demanded full payment, a 50% off sale wasn’t a bad deal.

At least it wasn’t about forcibly extorting benefits.

In fact, in the eyes of the entrusted individuals, the other party was trying to show their commitment to maintaining the Shelter Card through this method!

"Actually, your attitude towards the Shelter Card is already visible to all... there’s no need to do this anymore."

If it wasn’t for fulfilling the "Shelter" promise, they wouldn’t have run into Balrog leading the Anomalous Management Division fleet.

You have to know, before Rhodiola rosea made a move, Balrog had already put a bounty on the team across the entire star realm.

I’m just trying to make some money back! Qu Jianlei spoke expressionlessly, "This is non-negotiable!"

The Rhodiola rosea team was indeed principled! The entrusted individuals exchanged looks, and then tactfully expressed.

"But now... we can’t gather that much money; we’re just here to convey the message."

"That’s irrelevant," upon hearing this, Qu Jianlei waved, "as long as the condition is agreed upon."

He really didn’t need to sell the starship immediately; who knew how many fierce battles he’d face this time—a starship would add combat power.

As long as they acknowledged the deal, it was a success—selling a starship was really difficult.

He instead asked, "Lanyun Market actually didn’t refuse my landing, why?"

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