"Eh?" Li Yaqi's eyes went wide; she could scarcely believe what she'd heard. Zhao Chen actually meant to go after the Hurricane Conglomerate's T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!
This was a ship that had topped the T2 destroyer best-seller charts for 10 years running — even some of the Imperial garrisons responsible for defending the various star regions would procure a batch of T2 Hyenas from time to time. True, on the wealth amassed from the T2 Hyena, the Hurricane Conglomerate had researched and released other warships besides, and had even stretched its hand into the T3 warship market. But all along, the Hurricane Conglomerate's money tree remained the T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer! It could be called the towering, sky-high tree that held the whole Hurricane Conglomerate up.
No few starship technology groups had wanted to seize a slice of the vast T2 destroyer market. For while T3 warships turned high profits, they were, after all, expensive — a single hull sold for over 100 million star coins, so sales volumes stayed low. The technical bar was extremely high too: the powers capable of building T3-grade warships numbered, at the very most, no more than 10! And of those, no few still had to procure certain technical components from partner firms. Those producing entirely on their own likely numbered fewer than the fingers of one hand.
In the T2 warship market, the T2 carrier and the T2 battleship were the most iconic warships, the dream of a great many. But dreams, sometimes, are only dreams. The reality was that the highest-selling class was the interstellar destroyer! The so-called all-purpose workhorse. Next came the interstellar frigate, and after that the interstellar battlecruiser.
"This isn't really possible, surely? The T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer's been out for decades, but every few years they roll out the newest model, updating and iterating without cease. Plenty of people would like to fight for their market share too. Yet to this day, in the T2 destroyer market across the whole Starlight Empire, the Hurricane Conglomerate holds half the realm!" Li Yaqi still thought this a very difficult undertaking.
Zhao Chen smiled faintly. "In a day, I'll contact you again. In the meantime, go and see to the things I asked of you." With that, Zhao Chen left the holographic communications room, leaving Li Yaqi sitting there utterly at a loss.
Could this Zhao Chen truly produce a ship that would seize the Hurricane Conglomerate's market? If it really came to that… Li Yaqi felt her blood begin to surge. As a merchant, what she craved was the cut and thrust of the marketplace.
Zhao Chen opened his eyes; around him was the desk of his quarters.
A warship to surpass the Hurricane Conglomerate's — how could Zhao Chen not have one? He opened the System Mall interface directly and began selecting a suitable class. Since the benchmark was the Hurricane Conglomerate's T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, it naturally had to be a destroyer too, and a medium one — best of all, similar in every respect, yet far, far outstripping the T2 Hyena.
Soon Zhao Chen fixed on his target.
T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer
Quite the coincidence — both ships' names had to do with dogs.
Spend 300 system points and 4 task points to redeem the item "T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer"?
Confirm redemption!
Congratulations — "T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer" blueprints acquired.
Remaining system points: 7,420
Remaining task points: 60
Soon the technical blueprint of this T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer surfaced in Zhao Chen's mind — without question a warship that could crush the T2 Hyena across the board.
Taking the chance, Zhao Chen also had a look at the T3-grade interstellar industrial ships. The T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship was gradually becoming unable to meet the future need to field T3-grade ships. But if he built a T3-grade industrial ship without enough T2 Iron Hammers to backstop it, he'd very likely face a stretch of insufficient production capacity. So Zhao Chen chose first to mass-produce a batch of T2 Iron Hammers, securing the most basic capacity, before seeking out the higher-grade T3 industrial ship.
Soon Zhao Chen found a suitable T3-grade industrial ship. Only, a few of its construction requirements rather stunned him.
First: a per-ship build cost as high as 60 million star coins! This was frankly terrifying — the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser cost a mere 12 million to build, and this was a full four or five times that! Even as rich as Zhao Chen was now, he couldn't build many of these industrial ships.
Second: if a T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship were used to construct this T3 industrial ship, with a single ship handling the build, it would take a full year. Happily, several T2 Iron Hammers could handle the construction together — at fastest, 10 T2 Iron Hammers could complete one such T3 industrial ship within a month.
Third: the personnel requirement — a single ship needed as many as 1,000 crew! This was no warship at all; it was, quite simply, a mobile, large-scale shipyard. And from the simple data available, this T3 industrial ship's capability actually surpassed that of a true, dedicated shipyard — its output several times greater!
There was one more problem: this T3 industrial ship required a full 18,000 system points and 30 task points. Task points Zhao Chen currently had enough of, but on system points he fell a great deal short!
"Looks like I'll just have to wait a while longer. Once the next quarterly mission and the annual mission are complete, I can redeem this T3-grade ship. And in that same span, I can settle this shortfall of starship engineers." Zhao Chen laid out his plans for the future.
To build an interstellar fleet, one must possess a vast industrial system — and, of course, a vast supply of funds besides. Zhao Chen now had two lines: one out in the open, Governor Chu of Chu River; the other in the shadows, Li Yaqi. Both fronts at once — double insurance. This too was why Zhao Chen meant to help Li Yaqi defeat the Hurricane Conglomerate: on one hand, for revenge; on the other, to let Li Yaqi's Northern Goose Starship Technology Group expand into the interstellar market all the faster, and strengthen her capabilities.
No more need be said. Zhao Chen set to editing the technical dossier for this T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, and after several hours' work, sent the completed ship-technology dossier to Li Yaqi.