163: Chapter 163 Gorgons

The Marshal sat up abruptly, his gaze turning cold: "Whether they have colluded with aliens or not, we, the Adeptus Arbites, will have our own Arbiters conduct an on-site investigation. There is no need for a loser like you to teach me how to do my job!"

Governor Cromwell was trembling with rage: "Fine! Very well! Since the Adeptus Arbites is shielding heretics, once Warp communications are restored, I will personally file a complaint against you to the Sector Lord Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites for your gross dereliction of duty!"

Having said that, Governor Cromwell flicked his cloak and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Watching the Governor's retreating figure, the Marshal let out a sneer of disdain.

"The Warp is completely locked down, the situation in the surrounding star systems is unclear, and you can't even send out a distress signal right now. Wait for communications to be restored? Who has the time to deal with the petty troubles of a remote star system like yours?"

In truth, the Marshal had absolutely no interest in investigating the so-called accusation of colluding with heretics that Governor Cromwell kept harping on about.

Because just a short while ago, the secret investigators dispatched by the Adeptus Arbites had simultaneously discovered traces of dangerous Genestealer cult activity on the neighboring Prison Planet and the agricultural planet of Cerise in the same system!

These were the vanguard of a xenos race capable of triggering an extinction-level crisis!

However, just as the Marshal was preparing to mobilize forces to suppress them, he unexpectedly learned that the Genestealer nest on the Prison Planet had actually been wiped out by the Spark Alliance from that junkyard!

The Marshal was now pouring all his energy into keeping a close watch on the bugs on that agricultural planet.

He was waiting to assemble his forces to wipe out the bugs there in one fell swoop and score a major achievement; how could he have the spare time to deal with the Governor's nonsense?

Moreover, the Adeptus Arbites had actually been secretly and closely monitoring the movements of Lin Li.

From Lin Li's initial annexation of the mining area, to his army taking Shahe Town, to the bloody battle against millions of greenskins, and even displaying miracles outside Coastal City to subdue a population of two hundred million.

The Marshal's intelligence desk was piled high with detailed reports about Lin Li.

The Marshal was also well aware that Lin Li had an army of clones that appeared to have been churned out of incubation tanks.

He even knew exactly how many Beastmen and mutant abhumans were mixed into this army!

But from beginning to end, he never ordered any action against Lin Li. On the contrary, in the current desperate situation of the Warp being locked down and being isolated without aid, this Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites, who held significant military power, greatly admired the iron-fisted warlord Lin Li for his rapid rise!

Most importantly, this man had a bottom line and kept his word. Because only someone like this could maintain the last vestiges of human order in such chaotic times! He was far better than a parasite like Governor Cromwell who only knew how to suck people dry!

"Well fought." The Marshal picked up the coffee on his desk, watched the Governor's car driving away outside the window, and muttered to himself, "Keep fighting, hurry up and fight your way over here to Mobius."

"When you are at the gates, I will send you a gift you won't be able to refuse!"

Meanwhile, in another part of deep space far from Mobius Prime.

An old merchant ship, fully loaded with highly refined Promethium, was spewing exhaust flames as it slowly entered the orbit of the Gorgon industrial world, finally docking safely at a hidden black market starport.

This ship was truly too old, and its flight speed was agonizingly slow. Inside the merchant ship's cargo hold, the player [Mudslide of the Merchant World] unbuckled their pressure-resistant seatbelt and kicked the hatch open:

"Damn! Finally here! This piece of junk flies slower than a turtle!"

"To pull off this merchant run, we missed those two epic battles back home, brothers! We didn't make it to the Prison Planet, and we missed that starship boarding battle earlier too!"

"If we don't make much on this job, this whole run will be a massive loss!"

[Heisi] also chimed in sourly:

"Who's to say it isn't? I was browsing the forums earlier and heard that a few lucky newbies actually managed to seize a large, armed, and modified merchant ship during the boarding battle! They're currently bragging like crazy and posting screenshots all over the forums! Damn, I'm so jealous!"

[Legend of Lu Shi], who had been sitting at the main console the whole time, was quite composed.

He was leisurely wiping the plasma rifle in his hands, his gaze calm: "What are you panicking for? How many battle merit points can you get from fighting? This merchant run of ours is where the real, monopolized, super-profits are. In a moment, when we go to the black market to deliver the goods to those NPCs, once the money is in hand, never mind a crappy merchant ship, even buying a frigate will be more than enough."

Beside them, the down-and-out noble NPC Paul had lost a significant amount of weight after this long space journey, his eye sockets deeply sunken. Watching these three audacious outsiders, his scalp tingled with fear.

"Hey, hey! Are you crazy? There's a planet-wide riot going on out there! Hurry up and put your weapons away!" Paul nervously reminded them.

The three players acted as if they hadn't heard him and walked straight toward the exit. Accompanied by a harsh grinding sound, the ship's hatch slowly lowered.

As soon as they stepped out of the hatch, the sight before them left the three inexperienced, bumpkin players stunned in their tracks. The sky that met their eyes was a suffocating, dark red.

It was clearly the twilight hour on this planet, yet the sunset glow on the horizon was not the usual orange-red, but an eerie blue-purple with the texture of heavy metal chemical pollution.

"Holy shit." Mudslide took a deep breath of the pungent air, which was thick with the smell of machine oil, "Why does this sky texture look like Mars?"

And under that blue-purple sky stood countless steel factories towering into the clouds. Huge metal chimneys and intricate cooling pipes were densely packed together, filling the entire horizon; one couldn't even see the end of it at a glance.

The massive black market starport beneath their feet was merely an insignificant branch within this boundless steel jungle.

However, what was unsettling was that all these massive steel factories within sight were completely shut down. One could not hear the roaring of machines, nor could one see thick smoke rising. The entire surface was terrifyingly dead silent.

Legend of Lu Shi recalled the background information released by the officials and analyzed: "The data says that this industrial planet is currently experiencing a labor riot that has swept across the entire planet. And it seems to have been going on for a long time; the industrial chain has broken, which is no wonder even the most basic cesium fuel is so scarce."

Just as the few were looking around, Paul nervously gripped a small-caliber laser pistol with both hands and poked his head out from the cabin: "The people for the handover haven't arrived yet, hurry and get back inside! It's dangerous out there!"

Heisi rolled his eyes: "Why is this NPC such a coward."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a squad of people wearing tattered coarse cloth robes and equipped with numerous crude mechanical prosthetics walked out of the dark passageway of the starport, their heavy metal footsteps echoing.

Leading them was a bald, burly man whose left eye and jaw had been completely replaced with cold mechanical structures. He coldly scanned everyone, and asked in a mechanical synthesized voice accompanied by the sound of electric current: "Who is Paul?"

Paul's legs went weak with fear, but he took a deep breath and mustered the courage to step forward: "I... I am. Are you the contact?"

The leader nodded: "Where is the cargo?"

Paul swallowed hard: "The cargo is in the hold. Where is the money?"

The leader's only remaining biological eye narrowed slightly, and his tone became stiff: "I need to see the cargo first and verify the purity before we talk."

With that, he waved his hand and, taking his subordinates, prepared to force their way into the merchant ship.

However, Legend of Lu Shi, who had been standing to the side, stepped forward directly, blocking the leader like a wall. He held the plasma rifle that emitted a faint blue glow in one hand, the muzzle pointed intentionally or unintentionally at the leader's mechanical chest, his gaze icy: "Where is the money?"

The atmosphere in the air instantly dropped to freezing point. "Click, click!" Mudslide and Heisi both drew their Bolters and power swords without hesitation, instantly entering combat readiness.

They were the The Fourth Calamity, how could they possibly chicken out when it came to robbing an NPC?

The group of mechanical cyborgs opposite them, seeing this, also drew the plasma pistols and shock batons from their waists. Both sides were at daggers drawn.

Only Paul, caught in the middle, was so scared that his legs were shaking like a sieve, and he could barely hold the gun in his hand.

The bald leader stared fixedly at Legend of Lu Shi for a full half minute. He suddenly grinned with his mechanical jaw, emitting an unpleasant laugh. He waved his hand, signaling his subordinates to put down their weapons.

"Very good. You know the rules."

The leader beckoned. A subordinate walked forward carrying a heavy, large metal box, placed it on the ground with a thud, and opened the lid. It was packed full of Imperial Credit coins, the hard currency of this sector, and highly purified gold bars.

Mudslide leaned in, quickly counted them, and nodded at Legend of Lu Shi: "The amount is correct."

Legend of Lu Shi then put away his gun and stepped aside: "The cargo is inside, the purity will definitely satisfy you. Go ahead and verify it."

The subsequent transaction went much more smoothly. Money was exchanged for goods. This batch of high-purity Promethium from the Shahe Town refinery was definitely a strategic material that would make people envious on this shut-down heavy industrial planet.

Watching his subordinates struggling to carry those barrels of fuel, the bald leader turned around and looked at these three daring outsiders, nodding with appreciation: "You guys, you're very much to my liking. If you have more of this high-purity cargo in the future, you can come directly to me. The price will be negotiable."

Legend of Lu Shi keenly grasped the opportunity in his words. He asked nonchalantly: "We want a larger merchant ship; do you have any leads?"

The leader seemed to have expected Legend of Lu Shi to ask this, and he smiled: "Leads, of course I have, it just depends on how big you want."

Legend of Lu Shi glanced at Paul next to him and directly stated his most core requirement: "I want a large ocean-going merchant ship equipped with its own Geller Field and a complete Warp jump engine!"

This answer was clearly somewhat beyond the leader's expectations. In this remote star sector, ships with Warp engines were absolutely scarce strategic resources, basically all monopolized by the nobility.

The leader was silent for a while, then nodded: "I have one; I happen to have an Imperial ocean-going freighter grounded in my hands. But with the money you've traded for right now, it's far from enough."

The leader held up a finger, "It will take seven more ships of this kind of high-purity fuel you just delivered to trade for that ship."

Legend of Lu Shi didn't even frown, agreeing immediately: "Easy! Next time I will bring seven ships' worth of cargo!"

The leader looked at him with some surprise, and finally nodded heavily: "I'll wait for your good news."

Having said that, the leader took his subordinates, who were loaded with fuel, and turned to disappear into the steel jungle.

It wasn't until this group of dangerous black marketeers had completely left that the down-and-out noble Paul collapsed to the ground as if exhausted. Then, looking at that heavy box of Imperial currency, he couldn't help but laugh excitedly.

"Hahaha! We're rich! Now Father will definitely never look down on me again!"

Legend of Lu Shi walked over, kicked the box, and interrupted his self-indulgence: "Alright, according to the rules, let's split it."

Paul nodded repeatedly and very consciously began to divide the money according to the ratio agreed upon before departure, a 30/70 split. The three players would take the 70% majority, and Paul, the local guide who provided the ship, would take 30%.

While splitting the money, Mudslide leaned over to Heisi and whispered in Mandarin: "Holy shit, we risked our heads to come to this godforsaken place, giving this NPC 30%? This is too cutthroat, isn't it?"

Before he could finish, Legend of Lu Shi slapped Mudslide directly on the back of the head. "Stop talking crap!" Legend of Lu Shi scolded, "If you aren't cutthroat, why are you running a merchant business? Without this NPC leading the way and smoothing out the black market connections, you wouldn't even be able to get past this planet's air defense network! Hurry up and take the money!"

After splitting the first pot of gold, this interstellar merchant journey was only halfway through. Since they had come all the way to a Forge World, the ship definitely couldn't go back empty. Next, they would go to the local market to buy cheap industrial supplies in bulk and haul them back to their home, Outpost Planet, to resell at a high price.

But when Legend of Lu Shi suggested going out for a stroll, Paul refused to go no matter what.

"Outside is full of rioting laborers and gangsters, I... I'll just stay on the ship and guard it for you!" Paul hugged his share of the money tightly, hiding firmly behind the hatch. "Suit yourself."