284: Chapter 285 Governor of Black Harbor

Then, accompanied by a heavy sound of gears meshing, the iron door slowly opened.

Inside was a space resembling a large workshop.

The air was filled with the scent of paper and ink.

Dozens of scribes wearing gray uniforms were sitting in front of long tables, pounding on ancient Cogitator arrays and calculating complex accounts.

A middle-aged man who looked like the manager walked over, staring at them with a gloomy gaze.

Legend of Lu Shi completely ignored the coercion exerted by this kind of NPC.

Without saying a word, he directly took out a snow-white square brick contained in a sealed bag.

With a crisp snap.

Legend of Lu Shi heavily slapped that white square block emitting a faint wheat fragrance onto the table in front of the middle-aged manager.

"This is pure compressed wheat flour without a trace of impurities."

Legend of Lu Shi stared into the manager's eyes, the corners of his mouth curling into an oppressive smile,

"I have a whole ship of goods here, make an offer."

With good things in hand, the other party quickly gave a price.

But the trio did not blindly dump all the goods in their hands to this exchange.

Out of caution.

Carrying the samples, they rushed non-stop to run through several large and small exchanges in the intricate underground blocks of Black Port.

After careful comparison, they finally locked onto three buyers that looked the most financially robust and reliable in background.

After all, the Rogue Trader warrant in their hands was stolen.

Although in this chaotic gray zone, the vast majority of buyers simply did not care about the origin of the goods.

But legally speaking they were at a fault, so finding a safe and reliable channel to offload them was the top priority.

When this batch of pure natural compressed wheat flour without any radiation pollution was introduced into the Black Port market in batches,

the entire black market merchant and noble circle of Black Port was instantly and completely sensationalized!

This high-purity natural food naturally was not meant for the precarious poor at the bottom.

However, the aloof nobles, the massive naval officers, and those pampered lackeys of the powerful had a demand for such high-grade goods that was simply a bottomless pit.

Within the borders of the Empire, valuable hard currency was actually not much:

unpolluted natural organic food, high-concentration cesium fuel, adamantium ore, and various military arms.

Among these types of hard currency, unpolluted natural food always firmly ranked first!

For a time, all kinds of informants and chamber of commerce secret agents of Black Port were mobilized.

Like madmen, they inquired everywhere about who was selling this batch of wheat flour, and which unknown galaxy the backing source actually came from.

In just a few days,

large quantities of compressed wheat flour were carved up and emptied.

Looking at the skull coins piled like a mountain in the warehouse, the three returned to the bridge of the void ship and immediately started calculating the profits of this windfall with great impatience.

Mudslide held a calculator in his hand, frantically pressing the buttons with clacking sounds.

After pressing, he grabbed a piece of scratch paper and scribbled on it.

"Exchange all the skull coins into Alliance points, then deduct the wages paid to the crew these past few days, and finally convert it..."

Mudslide raised his head abruptly, his eyes bloodshot, panting heavily:

"Holy shit! Old Lu! Heisi! This trip alone, our net profit earned a full 3.8 million plus points!"

Hearing this number, green light shot straight out of Mudslide's eyeballs.

Legend of Lu Shi was biting on a toothpick, leisurely shelling a plate of stir-fried melon seeds.

He spat out a melon seed shell and said in a calm tone:

"Small scene, what kind of windfall is this, this is what we call starting out. Next is the real snowballing."

Heisi raised an eyebrow on the side: "Brother Lu, how do you say that?"

Legend of Lu Shi mysteriously pulled the two to his side and lowered his voice to say:

"A few days ago, I fished out some internal news from the mouth of that sharp-tongued Men of Iron 73."

He spat out the melon seed skin in his mouth:

"After layer B8 was unlocked, our Alliance mastered a piece of black technology that can directly change planetary climate. No matter what kind of ghost-like wasteland dead star that planet originally was, as long as this thing is deployed on the ground, within a few months, it can be forcibly transformed into a comfortable and habitable planet!"

Heisi's eyes instantly lit up: "You mean..."

Mudslide's brain spun extremely fast, immediately letting out a villain-like creepy laugh:

"So, the combat players in the guild who went to pioneer in extra-solar galaxies will definitely encounter a large number of dead stars with harsh environments and completely uninhabitable conditions. In order to develop the planets, they must engage in this kind of climate modification!"

"And when developing dead stars, what is most lacking? It's population!"

Mudslide slapped his thigh,

"So, are we going to resume our old trade and do our old line of work — legal and compliant human trafficking?"

"Slap!"

Legend of Lu Shi unceremoniously slapped Mudslide on the head:

"What human trafficking? Can you speak properly? This is called rescuing bottom-tier laborers suffering in dire straits! Then conducting cross-galaxy labor dispatch, settling them nearby, do you understand what sustainable development means?"

Mudslide rubbed his head, pondered for a long time, and then gave a thumbs up:

"Brilliant! May I ask what sacred deity Lord Lu actually is in reality? Those words come one set after another."

Legend of Lu Shi smiled proudly: "Hehe, the Chaoshan people who went out to sea back then, understand?"

The three hit it off immediately and decided to adjust their business plan at once.

Through the underground snakeheads of the lower district, they prepared to directly purchase tens of thousands of strong young male and female laborers in Black Port to bring back to the Alliance, completing this wave of windfall population labor export.

The three Hive City scales of Black Port were massive.

The bottom layer of every Hive City was stuffed with billions of numb bottom-tier residents.

The birth rate here was shockingly high, giving birth to tens of thousands of newborns every year.

Those bottom-tier people were simply not treated as humans; as long as they ate a little inferior hormone supplement, they could go down the mines to work before turning ten, every single one of them robust and full of unspent strength.

Therefore, when the three found those black market snakeheads and said they wanted to wholesale a batch of healthy bottom-tier labor force,

the bottom-tier snakeheads not only did not charge them money, but even to clear out excess ration burdens, they actively subsidized the three with a large sum of black market funds.

The three never expected that in this universe, human life could be so worthless.

In less than a week,

they scoured a large number of young laborers in the Black Port lower district who were physically healthy and showed no signs of genetic mutation.

This was still because they were picky and only took healthy ones.

If the players relaxed the restrictions just a little bit and accepted those slightly mutated aberrants as well, they could probably haul away hundreds of thousands of people from the lower district with a wave of their hand.

At this moment, in the lower accommodation area of the void ship,

it was temporarily converted into densely packed collective cabins.

In each space of less than ten square meters, ten people were forcibly crammed in.

The environment appeared very crowded.

However, those bottom-tier civilians who were forcibly brought onto the ship not only had no dissatisfaction or complaints, but instead felt that the conditions here were simply superior to heaven!

Because here, two meals of white bread exuding a wheat fragrance could actually be provided on time and for free every day.

As long as they opened their stomachs, it was enough to eat their fill! For the bottom-tier people who grew up eating corpse-starch and drinking poisonous water in the lower hive every day, this was simply top-tier treatment they wouldn't even dare to dream of.

The three wearing Power Armor patrolled the lower accommodation area once.

After confirming that there were no hidden dangers like infectious epidemic diseases, they turned around and returned to the bridge.

"The starch synthesizer has been driven to the point of smoking these past few days."

Mudslide said while walking,

"With our current cabin capacity, we can cram at most another thirty-thousand-plus people. After a few days when it's full, we can directly return fully loaded. But to be honest, this profiteer ship of ours is still a bit too small."

Legend of Lu Shi leaned against the bulkhead of the metal corridor:

"Hehe, when we go back this time, we'll directly use the earned points to buy a heavy ocean-going cargo ship of a larger tonnage in full! By then, we will be interstellar tycoons owning two ships."

Right at this moment,

Heisi's voice suddenly rang in the team's encrypted channel:

"Brother Lu! Mudslide! People have come outside the bridge! It's the Imperial Guard of Black Port, and judging by the military rank and armor specifications... the one leading seems to be the Guards Commander of the Governors Mansion!"

Legend of Lu Shi put away the flippancy on his face: "Call them in."

A moment later.

Several fully armed elites of the Imperial Guard stepped onto the bridge of the void ship.

What made the three feel somewhat unexpected was:

This group of Imperial grunts, after walking into the bridge this time, unusually did not perform the standard Imperial military salute to Legend of Lu Shi, who was nominally a Rogue Trader.

The leading Defense Force commander glanced coldly at the three and said in a rigid tone:

"My lord, Her Excellency the Governor requests your presence."

After saying this baffling sentence,

this group of Defense Force didn't even give the three a chance to ask questions, turning around and leaving directly, leaving the players with dumbfounded faces.

Mudslide looked at the retreating back of the Defense Force and frowned:

"Did the Governor take a fancy to our source of goods? Wanting to get it for free?"

Legend of Lu Shi rubbed his chin:

"High probability yes. Heisi, you checked the intelligence of Black Port before, how much do you know about this Governor?"

Heisi recalled:

"The data says this is a hereditary young female governor. Ruthless in methods, and very clever in means.

But because the northern defense line just suffered a massive rout, a large amount of strategic supplies were forcibly transferred and requisitioned by the front-line main fleet.

Her days in Black Port are currently actually very difficult, and she badly needs a brand new material supply channel that does not rely on official Imperial taxation.

It's completely normal for her to set her sights on our grain route."

Half an hour later.

The three took a shuttle and arrived at the Governors Mansion located in the core area of Black Port.

Even in this cold Hive City constructed of reinforced concrete, the luxury of the Governors Mansion far exceeded imagination.

The interior of the mansion was brightly lit.

The overhead installation turned out to be rare full-spectrum bio-lamps capable of simulating natural light, illuminating the entire hall as bright as day.

Even on the outside of the magnificent colonnades, a large number of real green plants were artificially cultivated and placed.

On this planet where even a blade of grass was hard to see, this was simply a symbol of luxury.

Under the guidance of the guards.