139: Preparing to return to Earth (3.5K, support needed!)

Bosses, tomorrow, July 12th, is my birthday. (｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ Hi

I'll be doing extra updates today and tomorrow. (●’◡’●)

The next chapter will be at 12:00 PM. (*^_^*)

I hope you all are as happy as I am~ Oya!!! ┗|｀O′|┛ Aow~~

——

Space was cold, and the ferry detached from the moon's gravity, like a tiny the silver beetle breaking free from the gray quagmire.

As the ferry silent glided into orbit, the massive Lunar Orbit Space Station slowly rotated outside the porthole.

The massive radiator panels were located behind the solar arrays, facing the infinite darkness of the void.

Jiang Feng leaned back in his seat; as the ferry docked with the space station, a dull vibration spread through his body from the chair.

“Ding-dong.”

Just as the wristband reconnected to the Interstellar Web, a message came through.

Jiang Feng looked down; it was Jasmine.

[“Industrial Design AI” has been obtained. Deploy the local server cluster now?]

Jiang Feng paused for a moment. He still had to dismantle the server cluster, so how could he activate it now? This hardware was just enough to allow the Mainframe to escape its small suitcase and enter a much broader world.

He typed a reply.

[Delay activation. I'm not sure about the other side's system backdoors. Wait for my return.]

After a dozen seconds, a message popped up from the other side.

[When? Was Forward Eagle successful?]

Jiang Feng could sense Jasmine's emotions; she was a bit incredulous.

[Arriving on Earth in nine hours at the earliest. Forward Eagle was successful; I already have a lead, just need the final push.]

Jiang Feng had just sent the message when he received a reply the next second.

[Wow, you're amazing — [Piggy Emoji].]

The corners of Jiang Feng's mouth curled up, but he quickly pressed them down and stopped replying.

Closing the wristband window, a train of thought surged in his mind. With the blueprint for the Industrial Design AI's server cluster in hand, once it merged with the Mainframe, everything else would follow naturally.

How to most efficiently dismantle the William II, how to further upgrade the robot and Robot Dog, how to manufacture things the market urgently needed, how to research and develop entirely new configurations...

These questions would no longer be out-of-reach concepts.

The Mainframe, his increasingly trusted partner, would undergo a true transformation, becoming an almost unbeatable trump card in his hand.

‘Once Industrial Design AI is acquired, the Mainframe will complete its evolution.’

Jiang Feng's joy rippled through his mind. However, before the ripples could spread, a sharp, cold sting attacked his mind without warning, like a stone thrown into calm water.

It wasn't physical pain, but the feedback of some deeper, more primitive connection being violently severed.

It came from the direction of Earth, from those "partners" he had lent to Xiao Qiang and Su Wen.

Instinctively, Jiang Feng knew that a “Peregrine” robot had been destroyed. It wasn't a malfunction shutdown; it had triggered its own self-destruct protocol, which meant someone wanted to probe the robot's secrets and had crossed that red line that should never be touched.

Jiang Feng's palm resting on the armrest suddenly tightened, and his eyes lowered.

‘It seems this return to Earth won't be a glorious homecoming, but a rain of fire from the sky.’

‘Public Security Bureau. Fobler. Anti-Terrorism Mobile Unit.’

‘They really shouldn't have...’ Jiang Feng looked at the porthole, where his blurred profile was reflected.

His originally weather-beaten eyes were now terrifyingly sharp: ‘...touched my robot.’

Docking was complete, a green light lit up at the hatch, and the gravity inside the cabin smoothly restored.

Jiang Feng stood up abruptly, his movement so fast it stirred a gust of wind.

Carrying the black suitcase, he said nothing and strode toward the docking hatch.

Little Handsome and Gold-Wrapped Silver glanced at each other and immediately followed.

The loop line tram inside the space station sped along the magnetic rails, weaving through a jungle of massive pipes and compartments.

There weren't many passengers, mostly exhausted spaceport workers, many of whom were elderly.

Looking closely, one could find similarities in many of their faces; they looked like one big family.

Jiang Feng sat in a corner of the carriage. His body swayed slightly with the tram's gentle turns.

His eyelids were slightly lowered, but his focus was not on any physical object, as if he were staring into the depths of the void.

The tram glided to a smooth stop, and the gates opened silently. The massive signage for the "Shunshui" storage base was exceptionally clear under the cold lights.

Cargo area.

Countless standardized giant containers were stacked layer upon layer, forming an endless mountain range of steel.

The air was filled with a faint smell of paint, engine oil, and the scent of iron dust from metal friction.

There were few people in the corridors, but surveillance drones and maintenance robots were everywhere.

Jiang Feng's footsteps echoed in the corridor. He had a clear goal and walked straight toward the area leased by Lin Xiaoyu.

Four dark green containers were filled with high-demand goods for the nightlife scene.

Beside them, twenty-two alcohol containers were piled up like mountains, stacked very evenly in groups of four.

A massive fortune. It was worth 19 million now, but once it reached Earth, even if he gave Jasmine a friendship price, it wouldn't be that number.

Just the stockings alone, if the four containers were sold according to Lin Xiaoyu's pricing, would be worth 42 million.

After deducting costs, the net profit could reach a staggering 32.2 million earth federation coin.

The alcohol was worth a bit less, but it was still nearly thirty million worth of goods; the net profit would reach twenty million no matter what.

The two combined meant a net profit of fifty million earth federation coin, all transferred through gray channels. Just the handling fees and exchange losses for virtual currency would be an astronomical figure.

But that was the rough estimate, and Jiang Feng was confident.

He looked down at the black suitcase. If not for the existence of the “Miniature Galaxy,” he wouldn't have been able to pull off this deal at all.

Jiang Feng raised his wrist and said in a low voice, "Mainframe, take over the nearby surveillance nodes, overwrite the visual signals of the drones and robots, and maintain a silent scan."

“Understood, overwrite complete. The nearby area has entered a silent state,” the Mainframe replied.

Jiang Feng nodded and walked to the first container. The heavy alloy door opened silently after identity verification.

The boxes inside were neatly stacked. Jiang Feng carried the black suitcase and reached out to touch them.

As his fingertips moved, the mountain of boxes inside the entire container vanished without a trace, as if erased by an invisible, oversized eraser, leaving only the cold metal walls and floor.

Jiang Feng repeated this action.

Open, touch, clear.

One container after another was emptied, yet the black suitcase showed no change at all.

When the twentieth container was completely emptied, Jiang Feng could sense that he could actually still put more things inside.

But since any additional items would exceed the range he could interfere with, it meant that once put in, they couldn't be taken out.

Jiang Feng's movements paused. He glanced at the remaining six alcohol containers and smiled slightly.

‘I'll just come back and load them next time.’

Without the slightest hesitation, he closed the container, locking those six fully loaded containers back into the darkness.

Twenty containers were empty, but because the surveillance had already been taken over, all the electronic eyes "saw" that the goods were still there. Thus, in the data records, the containers were still "full."

They hadn't been touched, and they wouldn't be questioned.

He turned and left, as if he had just completed an ordinary pickup. In the fully automated storage base, he occasionally encountered pedestrians and simply nodded with a smile as they passed each other.

The space station outside was brightly lit, with aliens and humans bustling about in what seemed like perfect order.

But Jiang Feng only saw the undercurrents surging.

Just as he returned to the tram, preparing to head to the launch station, the Mainframe's voice sounded.

“Received encrypted data packet, source: robot-09 Robot Dog. Transmission complete, parsing complete.”

Jiang Feng found a corner and leaned against the wall, his trench coat draped down, covering Gold-Wrapped Silver's iron heads.

The wristband projected a light screen. The first thing to hit his eardrums was a piece of extremely poor audio, full of electrical static, blurred reverb, and irritating silence.

It was a soundwave fragment that the Robot Dog had forcibly captured and reconstructed from a great distance, through thick obstacles.

The voice was distorted, and the semantics were fragmented.

“Su Wen! Eat XX...”

Chair legs creaked, and a sharp scraping sound was suppressed at a steady frequency.

It sounded like the sound of a branch breaking under snow in the distance.

“Jon... sheng.”

Jiang Feng frowned, remembering the last call Xiao Qiang had made was to someone named “Jon.”

‘That's Su Wen's voice. Xiao Qiang had her eat something, and then they met Jon?’

Jiang Feng pondered as he continued listening, his expression gradually becoming helpless.

“You have... us, this is the... reason why you...”

“Race... they... Terran Union... spy network, recent activities... frequent and rampant.”

Jiang Feng took a deep breath and thought to himself: ‘It sounds like Jon and Xiao Qiang are allies, which is why he stepped in to save them. And now, Su Wen is clearly talking about the Qien Empire's spy network.’

‘So that means Su Wen and Xiao Qiang are both agents, like 007?’ Jiang Feng mused, continuing to listen carefully.

“Just like a group of...?”

“Hazbzan... exerting... so great that the Terran Union... sit idly by.”

“Sides have been... and the Terran Union has no choice but to yield...”

Jiang Feng narrowed his eyes: ‘Just as I thought, undercurrents are surging, and the Hazbuzan People are involved too. So, Jon came to Xiao Qiang and Su Wen because he needs their help to deal with the Tzynn?’

He continued listening and, as expected, heard what he had guessed.

“Clearing the Qien Empire's nails is both a... show of loyalty and self-preservation...”

“This... hot potato, dangerous... light.”

“Can only be by... not...”

“If it succeeds, the credit goes to the Earth Alliance Intelligence Bureau. If it fails... scapegoats.”

“Human Federation spies... there... it would also be a plausible explanation.”

Jiang Feng gasped, his eyes darting around: ‘How did this get connected to Human Federation spies again? Could it be that Jon is going to lead Xiao Qiang and Su Wen to defect to the Human Federation, and that's why they need a show of loyalty?’

‘How is this getting more and more complicated?’

Jiang Feng sighed; he really hadn't expected that spies were right by his side.

But the dialogue that followed shattered his original guess.

“Enough!”

“Jon! We... are!”

“Now, immediately put us... us! We want... us...”

Jiang Feng's face contorted, his features looking like a wrung-out rag. Even passersby felt like he was about to have an episode.

‘That's Xiao Qiang's voice. He sounds so excited, why does he sound like a stutterer?’

‘What on earth is he yelling about?’ Jiang Feng covered his forehead and continued listening.

“Leave...”

“Xiao Qiang, are you... speaking for Fobler...?”

“Do you think those... Super Corporations will easily... two... heroes?”

“...my... you... that moment will be your... end.”

What followed was a segment of extremely faint, fragmented sounds that Jiang Feng couldn't distinguish at all.

He didn't know how to interpret the words above; they were too broken, leaving no room for any association.

Before long, a peak suddenly appeared in the audio—a dull "thud," like someone had slammed into a chair.

‘It's Xiao Qiang; only his weight could cause such a loud thud...’

Jiang Feng began to ponder: ‘It might not be as I imagined. Otherwise, if friends were having a pleasant conversation, why would one suddenly sit so forcefully in a chair?’

After a few seconds, Jiang Feng heard Xiao Qiang say something in a muffled voice.

“...things... us.”

“Send the evidence... items, and that Titan... exoskeleton, to... outside the interrogation room.”