T1 Grey Rat-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer… T1 Shield-Soldier-class Medium Interstellar Frigate… T1…
Zhao Chen's spark of excitement gradually guttered out.
Scrolling on down, it was, basically, T1 ships the whole way.
The redemption terms weren't steep, either: one task point and a few dozen System points would redeem a single T1 item.
The trouble was, Zhao Chen had no use for these T1 ships. True, by Zhao Chen's understanding these system ships all outstripped the real-world vessels of the same tier and type — every one of them a ship of extremely high value for money.
But however high the value, however high the combat power, a T1 was still a T1.
The aged ship Zhao Chen had assembled was already a T2-tier vessel; how could he possibly go back and build himself a T1?
The problem was that, for now, the store sold only goods at the T1 tech tier.
"Let's have a look at how to upgrade this thing. If it were T2-tier that'd be one thing, but T1 is honestly too feeble." Zhao Chen went straight to querying how to upgrade the system store.
T1 System Store upgrade conditions:
First — redeem one T1-tier item (incomplete)
Second — complete one D-rank system mission (complete)
Third — spend 100 System points to upgrade the store (requires the first two conditions be met)
So there were upgrade conditions after all.
Zhao Chen's earlier duel with Zhang Haoran, being a D-rank system mission, counted as smoothly completed.
And 100 System points was a sum Zhao Chen had to spare now, too.
The one condition left unmet was redeeming a T1-tier item.
"So it loops right back around — I still have to redeem a T1 item." Zhao Chen frowned.
He thought it over a moment, and all at once a flash of inspiration struck.
If he redeemed a T1 ship, he didn't necessarily have to build the thing himself — he could sell it!
Fine starship technology had always sold briskly; it was only its preciousness that kept so few people willing to put it up for sale.
Zhao Chen, for his part, had no such worries. To sell it outright would turn less profit than building the ship first and then selling that, true — but Zhao Chen hadn't the leisure right now to fuss over all that. Better to sell it straight off and make some quick money.
If I rashly bring out a piece of T1 ship technology to sell — even the lowest-tier T1 tech — then, as a mere student, I can hardly avoid drawing eyes. I'll need to keep my identity hidden first. Sell the ship anonymously, and do it in some way that spares me the fuss and bother… Zhao Chen turned it over this way and that.
And all at once, someone came to mind.
Li Wei!
Li Wei's family was in the interstellar trade, with a conglomerate under them called the Northern Goose Interstellar Trade Group.
By all accounts, in recent years they'd been expanding into the starship-arms trade — but the several ship products they'd funded and developed had all fared poorly, orders trickling in scarce and few.
Back when Zhao Chen and Li Wei were chatting once, Li Wei had let drop, in passing, that if by year's end they still couldn't turn out a bestselling ship product, his Li family might well give up the whole starship-sales venture.
Now wasn't this a ready-made opportunity?
Having Li Wei broker it in the middle would cut down the risk of exposure besides.
Zhao Chen went straight onto the academy network and began looking up material on the starship trade Li Wei's family was engaged in.
Over the past five years, Li Wei's family had put out six ships in all — some support-type vessels, some combat-type — and every last one of them, without exception, had flopped.
Either they carried some grave performance flaw, or they were poor value for the money.
The most wretched of the lot had sold under 10 units before performance-flaw complaints saw it discontinued, along with a hefty sum paid out in compensation.
Even the best-selling of them had shifted under 100 units — a loss made purely for the noise of it, a bid to make a name that had likewise failed.
Zhao Chen fell to rapidly browsing and studying, hunting for the ship type best suited to Li Wei's family, and matching it against the T1 ships in the system store.
"This one's a touch high in build difficulty…"
"This one's no good — the market for it's too small…"
At the last, after Zhao Chen had picked his way through 1,000 options, he finally settled on a single piece of T1 ship technology.
"This one, then!" Zhao Chen tapped to redeem.
Spend 50 System points and one task point to redeem the item "T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer"? [Y/N]
"Confirm."
Congratulations — acquired: the "T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer" blueprint.
Your remaining System points: 350.
A jolt ran through Zhao Chen's mind, and then a string of ship blueprints came welling up into his sea of consciousness.
This, then, was the T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!
Small a thing as this T1 ship might seem, it was one Zhao Chen had picked with great care; were it not that he already had Blizzard Zero on hand, and the blueprint of the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser besides, he might well have thought to build this one himself.
Its strength lay in being good and cheap both! Sturdy, and able to take a beating!
Just then the starship system's artificial intelligence sounded in its soft, gentle female voice.
Beep, beep, beep — Captain, someone on the ship's external network is requesting to open a comm with you. The system has identified them as your classmate, "Li Wei."
Speak of the devil.
The corners of Zhao Chen's mouth curled up, and a thoroughly profiteering look came over his face.
Little Li — don't go blaming your big brother for naming a steep price. Even brothers keep clear accounts. If this ship gets sold to your Li family, it'll make your family's name ring out in the starship-arms trade — above all in the T1 line.
"Have him wait outside; I'll be right out." Zhao Chen instructed the AI, and got down off the bed himself, making ready to leave the ship.
Before that, he ordered Deputy Captain Charlotte to stand by aboard: without his command, no crew member was to leave Blizzard Zero, nor was anyone to be allowed aboard her. Any emergency, and she was to contact him at once.
Outside, at the ship berth, Li Wei stood running his eyes over the steel behemoth before him with a glow of fascination. Blizzard Zero ran close to 260 meters end to end; because it used the hull of an interstellar battleship, it was no small bulk.
Looking at that somewhat rust-mottled hull armor, and the design so heavy with the weight of its years—
—Li Wei found himself, all the same, with the sense of gazing upon a ship of real, overbearing presence.
The one pity was that the 1200mm cannon it carried was of a concealed design, and couldn't be seen just now.
At that moment the ship's hatch opened, and Zhao Chen came strolling out at his leisure.
Li Wei hurried forward and threw an arm straight around Zhao Chen's neck. "When did you go and cobble together a ship like this, you little punk?"
"Didn't you already know? Assembled out of those three ships I redeemed from the academy," said Zhao Chen.
"What I mean is, since when did you have this kind of skill!" Li Wei pressed.
Zhao Chen shrugged, and laughed. "While a certain someone was off chasing girls, playing games, and lounging around at his leisure, I, you'll note, was reading books."
"So it was starship-engineering books you were reading!" Li Wei eyed Zhao Chen dubiously. The old Zhao Chen had indeed been a hardworking student — where theory was concerned, at least, he'd always been among the top five in their Class 8.
So Li Wei didn't doubt this excuse of Zhao Chen's; he'd only never imagined Zhao Chen had taught himself to such a level.
"Big brother, let me go aboard and have a peek — best of all if I could get a look at that 1200mm cannon!" Li Wei begged.
"Not out of the question. But I'll need you to do something for me." Zhao Chen looked at Li Wei — and at this moment it felt, to him, rather like looking at a great fat money-tree.
"Is it that you want my collection of action-and-romance blockbusters — the one with 720 races, a full 10,000 terabytes of it!" Li Wei grinned, then leaned in to Zhao Chen's ear and said with a wicked snigger, "It's all yours. I've laid hold of a few truly outstanding films lately, too — we can sit down and discuss them together when the time comes!"
Zhao Chen sprang three meters back on the instant and regarded Li Wei with a face full of disdain. "Do I look like that sort of person to you?"