Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 1058: Chapter 302: Departure

He Gu’s strange expression in the end didn’t affect Chen Ming’s actions.

He just needed to prepare a bit and then set off to finish his own tasks.

Once his affairs were settled, he could directly follow He Gu to the Fourteenth Legion’s main headquarters.

However, there wasn’t much for Chen Ming to prepare.

After all, most of the necessary items could be easily made by hand when traveling, but he needed to arrange the lab work before leaving.

This was simple.

There was still a lot of content to test from the special catalyst produced by the catalytic core obtained earlier, and it was absolutely impossible to finish all tests while he was away, not even in ten days or half a month, so he could just assign this to the lab researchers.

After quickly organizing the work.

The next morning, early.

Chen Ming took off from the Fourteenth Legion Branch in a frigate he casually built himself without bringing anything.

Absolutely no one stopped him, not even a single person asked where he was going, a stark contrast to when he first arrived, the Fourteenth Legion just let him loose like that.

But that wasn’t a bad thing, having no restrictions was better than having restrictions.

When the spaceship entered Superspace, Chen Ming directly activated the Superspace Navigation Teleportation Engine and set the destination as the Pirate Space Station.

He preferred to meet with people he knew before a long trip.

To avoid any sudden deaths occurring to himself or those he knew, resulting in them never meeting again.

The spaceship quickly reached its destination.

Landing steadily in the maintenance bay.

As soon as Chen Ming entered the maintenance factory, he saw Bald teaching something to a group of newcomers.

Upon noticing Chen Ming, Bald immediately brought the newcomers over to greet him.

The maintenance factory still maintained a scale of about ten people.

There wasn’t a single robot, mainly relying on various fixed equipment, but it was enough.

After learning from Bald that the only newcomer Chen Ming personally mentored who had survived was out on a mission today, Chen Ming didn’t linger in the maintenance factory and headed straight to the city center of the Space Station.

He arrived at the bar Old Wu frequented.

The guard at the door, as always, respectfully opened the door for him.

Old Wu was still sitting in the corner of the bar as before.

Although it was early in the morning, Old Wu’s presence here couldn’t be attributed to him suddenly becoming diligent and getting up early, but rather because he hadn’t slept all night.

From Old Wu’s bloodshot eyes, it was evident.

However, Old Wu’s mental state seemed fine, and he was talking on the phone about something important, so it should be nothing serious.

Chen Ming didn’t directly disturb him but instead ordered an orange juice and a refreshing tea from the bartender and approached Old Wu.

Before he got close, he overheard Old Wu angrily saying on the phone, "The price went up? By how much?"

"10%? Are you robbing us?"

The voice on the terminal sounded helpless: "It’s now gone up by 10%, and it might increase even more later. I really can’t supply you guys at the old price anymore."

"Don’t talk nonsense."

"I’m really not. Last month, the raw material prices had already started to rise. I should have increased the price then."

"But I thought it was just a price fluctuation back then, and since you’re an old customer, I kept it at the old price for another month. But this month, raw material prices didn’t drop but went even higher, so I really can’t continue at the old price, there’s nothing I can do."

"If you don’t believe me, go check it yourself. I’m not unaware of these things."

"Okay, let me ask around first, and I’ll get back to you."

Old Wu hung up the phone.

Chen Ming also took a seat beside him.

After handing the tea to Old Wu, he said, "What’s going on? I overheard you talking about some price hike."

Old Wu took a swig of tea and, looking somewhat frustrated, said, "Yeah, lately the weapon prices flooding the market are rising, along with the materials behind them, except for Lao Bai’s side."

"Lao Bai..."

"I can’t just say it’s the route from the Fourteenth Legion, can I?"

"True."

"So it means the supplier has increased the price, and now they’re asking me?"

"Yeah, I was going to call you, but you came just in time, so what’s your take? There’s really nothing that can be done about the price hike."

Chen Ming had nothing much to say, the price hike was within his expectations.

"It can increase, at most by 20%. If it’s more, then forget it, I’ll find someone else and change the supply channel."

"The same goes for other manufacturers if they intend to raise prices, just let them raise it a bit, it’s no issue."

"Alright."

Old Wu raised his glass and drank with Chen Ming.

After finishing the drink, Chen Ming lowered his voice and said, "There’s a war coming."

Without changing his expression, Old Wu refilled their glasses with wine, looked around, and asked, "What’s the situation?"

"There’s going to be a war with the Mechanical Race. Although Galor primarily borders Dusk, there’s a part that borders the Mechanical Race, and it will eventually become a frontline."

Old Wu nodded slightly, deep in thought, and said, "I was wondering why prices were rising so fast lately. So, you’re here this time to..."

"To talk to you, because I’m going to be away for a while and may not be able to take care of things here. Once the war starts, no one can say how big it will get."

"So I want you and the factory manager to retreat to the inner Star Realm for a while to lay low."