After the talk with the North Wind Governor was over, Zhao Chen returned to the Owl Dragon System.
As for the North Wind Governor's entrustment, Zhao Chen had, on the surface, agreed to it.
But what Zhao Chen was actually thinking, and what he was actually arranging, only Zhao Chen himself knew.
The first thing Zhao Chen did on returning to the Owl Dragon System was to have Lilith organize a department to begin studying the aid-and-development work for the Morton System and the Ellis System.
The most important was, of course, the Morton System.
After Lilith received the task, she at once dispatched a batch of people to the Morton System to investigate the matter; and, at the same time, the very first thing she did was to dispatch a star-gate escort fleet composed of 30 T2 Black Rhinos, to take over the Morton System's star gate.
From this point on, this star gate was controlled by the Owl Dragon Legion.
During this stretch of time in which Lilith was seeing to matters, Zhao Chen was, too, seeing to matters of his own — assisting Annie in drawing up the detailed construction plan for this year's final quarter; what had been nailed down before was only the construction outline-blueprint.
Refined down to what model needed building each month, how many to build, and which interstellar industrial ship would build them — all these needed to be planned out in detail.
Of course, this was, chiefly, still because Annie — sporting a pair of dark eye-circles — had looked at Zhao Chen all aggrieved, and entreated Commander Zhao Chen to help and assist, otherwise the adorable Annie would drop dead of sudden exhaustion, and words of that sort.
Only then had Zhao Chen joined in.
Having completed one stage of the work, Zhao Chen stretched himself out lazily.
Snatching a spare moment, he opened up the System-mission interface.
Upon it there were still recorded the records of the missions completed earlier.
System mission "The Fall of the Xu Family" triggered.
Mission difficulty: B-rank.
Mission reward: 20 task points and 10,000 System points.
Mission requirement: help the Xu family keep the Morton System and the Ellis System.
Complete; the reward may be claimed.
Before — System points: 340,000
Before — task points: 240
Gained — System points: 10,000
Gained — task points: 20
After — System points: 350,000
After — task points: 260
This was the record of the earlier mission.
"About the right time." Zhao Chen looked toward the hovering clock at his side; as the last few digits ticked over —
A new mission appeared within Zhao Chen's mission list.
> Quarterly Mission: The T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser's Maiden Battle.
Mission content: Please use the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser to annihilate one T4 interstellar warship and 30 T3 interstellar warships.
Mission reward: 100,000 System points, 50 task points.
This last quarterly mission of the year to appear was, of all things, to use the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser to fight?
"This mission… is somewhat hard to manage." Zhao Chen knit his brows slightly.
Up to now, the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser was still in a classified phase; the outside world had no idea whatsoever that this Starlight Empire marquis would, of all things, possess a T4-grade interstellar warship, and possess the relevant construction technology besides.
Were the outside world to learn of it, by all estimates the whole Starlight Empire would boil over.
For, after all, the Starlight Empire, developed to this day, had only two classes of T4 interstellar warship technology.
And, moreover, this one of Zhao Chen's was, besides, an interstellar cruiser!
That meant it was a class of interstellar warship that could be mass-produced on a large scale — unlike the two classes the Starlight Empire currently possessed, the T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship and the T4 Starlight-Emperor-class Medium Carrier Starship, which could not be built and outfitted on a large scale.
And so, when Zhao Chen truly did reveal this class of T4 interstellar warship, that would be the time to arm-wrestle with the Prince Faction.
For the present, it was impossible to bring it out within the Starlight Empire.
And the mission requirement was to use the T4 Vermilion Bird to wipe out a T4-grade interstellar warship; and a T4-grade interstellar warship would by no means sail alone — the moment Zhao Chen moved against any T4 interstellar warship within the Starlight Empire, the risk of exposing the T4 Vermilion Bird would be enormous.
"The Starlight Empire won't do… so I can only look outside. But an ordinary interstellar pirate or interstellar mercenary fleet couldn't possibly have a T4 interstellar warship." Zhao Chen scratched his head, feeling somewhat vexed.
This being so, then the only targets he could set his sights on were the Holy Radiance Empire and the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth.
Zhao Chen rubbed at his chin, pondering how to deal with this mission.
"Your Excellency the Commander, the secretary Lady Lilith requests an audience outside the door." a mechanical voice sounded at this point.
"Let her in," Zhao Chen said.
The office door opened automatically, and Lilith walked in.
"My lord, the future planning and aid you charged us with for the Morton System and the Ellis System — we've already finished drawing them up," Lilith said.
"Let's hear it, then." Zhao Chen brought his two hands together, looking at Lilith.
Lilith raised a hand, and the holographic projections of the two star systems thereupon appeared.
"The Morton System is a resource system, with a great quantity of resource deposits; it ranks third in the North Wind Star Region. But according to our investigation, if some of the unexploited resource deposits are added in, it can rank first in the North Wind Star Region. And top 10 in the Starlight Empire!" Lilith first put forth a piece of good news.
"Oh? So fine a resource system — then why would it be given to a count?" Zhao Chen was baffled.
"Because those resource deposits are exceedingly hard to mine — some, indeed, weren't even discovered by the empire's interstellar prospecting teams; it was the several T3 Prospector-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ships we dispatched this time that scanned them out and found them. The Morton System's resource types are of the kind that are very great in quantity, but mostly of very high mining difficulty. And so, before this, Count Morton went so far as to take out loans to purchase interstellar mining ships and the relevant industrial equipment, so as to conduct the extraction operations; under his development, the Morton System's highest annual extraction of raw-material resources, in the year before the hive-race disaster, could reach 30 billion star coins!" Lilith said.
30 billion star coins a year.
This figure wasn't very high; one could only say it ranked in the top five of the North Wind Star Region — and in the great map of the Starlight Empire, by all estimates it wouldn't even rank in the top 50.
For, after all, the North Wind Star Region was, to begin with, not a very wealthy star region.
Lilith went straight on, "But if, in the future, we use, in full, our T3 Prospector-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ships as the mining tools — then the annual extraction efficiency can be directly raised fourfold; indeed, along with our discovering yet more hidden ore-points, this figure will climb higher still. By the look of it now, we can, at the very least, raise the Morton System's annual extraction volume to 100 billion to 120 billion star coins. The single-month gross production value could reach 10 billion star coins!"
Zhao Chen's two eyes lit up bright as burnished metal in an instant; with a single flash of his body, he appeared before Lilith, his two hands gripping Lilith's shoulders.
"How much did you say?"
Feeling Zhao Chen's big hands, Lilith — a succubus, whose body was, to begin with, comparatively sensitive — had her tail go straight and rigid on the spot.
"One… 100 billion to 120 billion star coins…" Lilith said with a slight stammer.
Zhao Chen didn't notice Lilith's change; before his eyes there was only a string of figures.
A great gold mine!
This was a great gold mine!
An annual production value of over 100 billion star coins — it could, beyond doubt, rank in the top 10 of the Starlight Empire's various great resource systems; an existence of even the top five, indeed.