The system missions had come!
Zhao Chen found a pretext to slip away from the banquet grounds and came to a quiet spot.
Two system pop-ups appeared before his eyes.
Annual Mission: Host is to graduate, in the normal course, from the Northstar Starship Military Academy within one year.
Zhao Chen was taken aback.
Graduate from the Northstar Starship Military Academy within a year?
He was only a fourth-year cadet now; in the ordinary way, graduation was better than two years off yet.
By year's end, at most he'd have become a fifth-year.
But the Quarterly Mission rewards being rich as they were, an Annual Mission reward could hardly fall short of them. To waste it would truly be a pity.
It seemed he'd have to find a way to graduate from the Northstar Starship Military Academy early — and as it happened, he meant, once he had a certain foundation laid, to throw his whole strength into building up the Owl Dragon Star System.
He looked at the other mission pop-up.
Quarterly Mission: Own five different classes of T2 or above-T2 starship (3/5).
Build an interstellar fleet numbering thirty ships. Note: they must be T2 or above-T2 ships (12/30).
Own one T3-tier starship (0/1) (system-produced).
This mission's requirements were many indeed.
The first two, though, weren't of any great difficulty.
Five different classes of T2-or-above ship — Zhao Chen had already built three T2 classes: the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship, the T2 Black-Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy-Assault Frigate, and the T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship.
And in his system warehouse he had, besides, the blueprint of the T2 Bronze-Eden-class Starship, and that of the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser.
Failing that, redeeming a T2 ship from the T2 Store was, for Zhao Chen as he stood now, a thing done with a flick of the hand.
The second requirement, 30 ships — building T2 Black-Rhinos alone, Zhao Chen could meet that in two months.
It was the third requirement that mattered most.
A T3-tier starship.
Zhao Chen opened once more that T3 Blizzard blueprint, long lying in his system warehouse.
To build this T3 Blizzard, the build cost alone came to 13 million star coins!
That was the equal of a full 130 T2 Black-Rhinos' build cost — or near 10 T2 Queen Bees.
And Zhao Chen had under 1,200,000 star coins left in hand.
A full tenfold gap.
To make up that tenfold gap in three months — no small difficulty.
And besides, if the T2 Iron-Hammer were set to build the T3 Blizzard, it would need to give over its whole production capacity for a two-month build.
Only then could it be brought to completion.
Even at the finest starport workshop, the time would run to much the same.
But this T3 Blizzard could not, on any account, be built in a starport ship workshop — for once it was done and sailed out, its hull's very shape would tell anyone at a glance that this was a T3 ship, and an unregistered class of T3 at that! Check the starport's workshop-rental records after, and Zhao Chen would be exposed.
Building T2 ships might do little harm — but that he could build a T3 ship never seen before was certain to draw some unwelcome attention onto Zhao Chen.
Exposure might be inevitable in time, but the later the better, to give him more room to prepare.
Build cost, build time.
These two were the twin problems set before Zhao Chen.
"This Quarterly Mission's no small difficulty," Zhao Chen muttered — yet not to complete it, to waste a Quarterly Mission's reward, would pain him.
Zhao Chen closed his eyes, and in his mind began, without cease, to plan and to plot.
Some seconds later, Zhao Chen opened his eyes.
He had a whole sequence of build plans worked out.
First, use the T2 Iron-Hammer No. 1 over a month to expand out a second T2 Iron-Hammer.
In the second month, T2 Iron-Hammer No. 1 would begin the build of the T3 Blizzard — a two-month job to completion.
Also in the second month, T2 Iron-Hammer No. 2 would build a T2 Bronze-Eden; by rough estimate under a month to finish, for though this support-type ship ran pricey, its build time was short.
In the third month, T2 Iron-Hammer No. 2 at full throttle would build a great many T2 Black-Rhinos — or other T2 ships that could be finished within the limit — to meet the Quarterly Mission's 30-ship standard.
"As for time, there's no great problem. The problem, then, is this shortfall of raw-material resources; counting every ship's build cost, it comes to a full 20 million star coins." Zhao Chen put a hand over his face.
Reckoned so, the funding gap only grew larger.
Where was he to raise the money?
The fief?
Forget it; the Owl Dragon Star System was still a shambles.
Then the money could come only from outside.
Zhao Chen thought of Li Yaqi. The arms trade was the fastest way to raise money!
Before, in his haste for a sum of funds, he'd sold cheap the T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer blueprint, and by an outright buyout at that — a choice forced on him by need.
Had he chosen instead to sell a technology license or agency rights, the funds gained in the short term would surely not have run so high, nor come all at once; a straight buyout alone let him make his quick money.
But this time, Zhao Chen had no such plan.
With the trust the T1 Wolf-Louse technology had built in Li Yaqi—
—this time he meant to do something big with Li Wei's sister!
He had it all worked out in his mind.
Afterward Zhao Chen returned to the banquet grounds, savoring the rare, easy hours of this New Year's Eve banquet.
…………
The first day of Galactic Star Calendar year 3031.
The Owl Dragon Fleet formally set sail — 13 ships in all, driving out of Arctic Fox Starport in mighty array, bound for the distant star regions.
Zhao Chen looked at the fleet sailing in carrier-battle formation, and thought: Now this can be called a fleet with a carrier at its heart.
Before, a neither-fish-nor-fowl assembled ship paired with a single T2 Queen Bee — how did that make a fleet?
Now 10 T2 Black-Rhinos screened all around, and Blizzard Zero rode at the T2 Queen Bee's flank.
So arrayed, they could answer any threat that might arise, at any moment!
"Report — we've sailed clear of the zone where Arctic Fox Starport forbids the use of warp travel," Lilith reported.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair and gave the order. "The whole fleet — make ready to enter the warp-travel state. Target: the Arctic Fox star system's star gate!"
They'd use the Arctic Fox system's gate to reach the Northstar system, then return to the Northstar Starship Military Academy.
Six months on, Zhao Chen was, at last, going back to school.