184: Troy's blueprints

The secret workshop was filled with the smell of ozone and burnt metal. Under several stark white shadowless lamps, Eve was hunched over a workbench, her fingers rapidly dragging and reorganizing components on a complex holographic blueprint. Her silver hair was messily tied back, speckled with a few drops of oil.

"This is crazy... this is absolutely insane."

Old Mo squatted to the side, a welding torch in his hand, his calloused fingers trembling slightly. He stared at a tiny logic circuit marked in red on the hologram; it looked like a malignant tumor lurking on a heart valve.

"Girl, do you know what this is?" Old Mo looked up, his clouded eyes filled with terror. "This is a civilian energy block! You're adding this kind of thing inside... if it's found out, according to the Pan-Dimensional Commercial Convention, everyone in Hanhai will be sent to mine black holes for ten thousand years!"

"That's only if they win." Eve didn't even look up, her voice as calm as if she were reading a string of meaningless code. "If we lose, we won't even get the chance to mine."

"This is different!" Old Mo stood up in agitation, banging his welding torch against the table. "This is a 'trojan Horse'! It's a backdoor! It's a bomb! We are in business, not terrorists!"

"Old Mo."

Chen Feng's voice came from the doorway. He had appeared in the shadows at some unknown point, still holding that damned lighter.

Old Mo stiffened and turned around, his tone carrying a hint of pleading. "Boss, talk some sense into her. This thing... this thing is burning self-destruct commands into the low-level hardware! Even if it's just a temperature control protocol normally, once it receives that frequency..."

"Once it receives a high-dimensional pulse at a specific frequency, the output power increases by 50%, and after ten minutes, it melts down and self-destructs." Chen Feng finished his sentence for him, his tone flat. "I know. I authorized this."

"You authorized it?" Old Mo's eyes widened, as if he were seeing Chen Feng for the first time.

"Giant Star Mining has a fleet, they have the Black Water Conglomerate, and they have the protection of the Alliance's laws." Chen Feng walked to the workbench and looked at the complex red circuit, a cold light flickering in his eyes. "What do we have? We only have this pile of scrap metal. If we don't turn this scrap into bombs, are we supposed to wait for them to rush in and slaughter us like chickens?"

Eve finally stopped her work. She turned her head, her eyes devoid of any emotion. "Old Mo, your technical ethics can't save Reno. What nearly killed him last time was exactly the fact that we weren't 'dirty' enough."

Old Mo opened his mouth, looked at Eve's young but deadened face, and finally let out a long sigh, his whole body collapsing like a deflated ball.

"What a sin..." he muttered, squatting back down and picking up the welding torch. "What's the frequency? I'll make the shielding layer; otherwise, this thing will blow up if it's even slightly bumped."

"That's more like it." Chen Feng patted Old Mo on the shoulder and turned to look at Su Li on the other side of the holographic projection. "We have the 'bomb.' Where's the fuse?"

Su Li was sitting in the command room, surrounded by dozens of floating financial trend charts. She pushed up her glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold light.

"I have already formulated the 'Scorched Earth Plan'."

Her finger traced a graceful arc through the air, like the Grim Reaper swinging a scythe. "Using these funds, I will launch a saturated price-cutting strike on all of Giant Star Mining's traditional sales channels on the day of Hoffman's press conference. Meanwhile, I have already contacted that greedy fool, Iron Hook."

"You're going to bribe him?" Reno's voice chimed in. He was leaning against the doorframe, wiping his tactical knife. "That One-Eyed Dragon is Hoffman's loyal lackey. Last time, he nearly smashed my old ship to pieces."

"Loyalty only exists because the stakes for betrayal aren't high enough." Su Li sneered. "I will buy up all his debts and make him realize that if he doesn't defect, he won't even be able to keep a single screw. However..."

She paused and looked at Reno. "For a desperate man like him, a carrot isn't enough; you need a stick too. Reno, you need to go 'visit' him."

"Visit?" Reno blinked, then grinned, revealing a row of stark white teeth. "I'm good at that. Should I bring a gift? Like... a grenade?"

"Just bring your fists," Chen Feng said calmly. "Tell him we'll either be his boss or his gravedigger. Let him choose for himself."

"Heh, crude, but I like it." Reno put away his knife and strode out the door. "Don't worry, I'll have him crying for his daddy."

Having arranged all this, Chen Feng walked to the communication console and entered a frequency he had long since memorized.

It was the private frequency of Old Knife from the Sharp Tip Merchant Fleet.

The moment the connection was established, Old Knife's scruffy, bearded face appeared on the screen, with a chaotic cargo hold in the background.

"Boss Chen?" Old Knife seemed a bit surprised, even a little flustered. "Er... things have been tight lately. That old man Hoffman is checking everything strictly, the boys really don't dare to..."

*Ding.*

A crisp notification sound interrupted Old Knife's complaining. He instinctively looked down at his terminal, and then his entire body froze as if he'd been struck by lightning.

That string of zeros... he hadn't seen anything like it even in his wildest dreams.

"This... this is..." Old Knife stammered as he looked up, his expression shifting from panic to a complex mix of terror and greed. "What is this? Severance pay?"

"An advance payment."

Chen Feng leaned back in his chair, his gaze deep. "Old Knife, gather every ship you can find—cargo ships, junkers, smuggling boats, all of them. Even if you have to burn out the engines, get them to Ashen Earth Star within two days."

"What... what are we hauling?" Old Knife swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "This is enough money to buy munitions. Are you going to war?"

"Something more lethal than munitions."

A faint smile touched the corners of Chen Feng's mouth, a smile devoid of any warmth. "We are going to haul the truth, and enough cheap energy to drown the entire star sector."

"Are you in or out?"

Old Knife stared at the number, scratched his messy hair violently, and roared through gritted teeth, "I'm in! Damn it, with this much money, I'd haul nuclear bombs if I had to!"

The communication cut off.

Chen Feng turned around, about to speak, when he heard a loud *bang* from behind him.

From the direction of the secret workshop, a plume of black smoke rose into the air, and alarms began to shriek piercingly.

"What happened?!" Chen Feng rushed out of the office.

Old Mo ran out of the smoke, his face covered in soot, coughing and shouting, "It blew! The first prototype blew as soon as it was powered up! The command conflicted with the energy crystal structure; it can't hold at all!"

Chen Feng's heart sank. If they couldn't solve this problem, what they were sending out wouldn't be a trojan Horse, but a suicide vest that would blow them all to kingdom come.

"How long to fix it?"

"I don't know!" Old Mo spread his hands in despair. "This is a rejection of physical laws; it's not something that can be solved with money!"