Chapter 68 (1/2)

The ACG galaxy, which was positioned on the outskirts of Endaro Star Region, could be considered as part of the lawless zone. As such, the existence here of many illegal transactions of all kinds was not much of a surprise. Apparently, even the notorious Paridae Pirates often did their resupplying here in this galaxy.

Porter piloted a small frigate with Xia Fei and drove toward ACG-19, which was also the location of the black market.

ACG-19 was a planet mostly covered in deserts. There were few water sources here, and the climate was harsh. It was not suitable for human inhabitation, but that did not stop some shrewd outlaws in stationing themselves there.

The spaceship circled around a part of a certain desert as Porter rhythmically keyed in a few words on the intercom, as if he was transmitting morse codes.

In no time, one of the sand dunes in the desert began to shift gradually, and a circular sky entrance opened up after a while.

Porter directed the spaceship to vertically land on the parking apron as the circular sky entrance slowly closed above them.

Xia Fei and Porter alighted from their frigate and saw two muscular, strapping men standing right below the landing apron. Weapons were slung across their shoulders as both beamed at them.

“Old Porter, you’re back.” The two men had a face-splitting grin as they greeted him.

“Yup.” Porter nodded at them, stuffing some money into their hands from his pocket. “Help me look after this spacecraft. I’ll be sure to buy you guys some drinks once I get back.”

With that, Porter led Xia Fei along a narrow and gloomy corridor which brought them deeper into the facility.

“This is a well-known black market to procure for every sort of stuff, be it psychedelic drugs, weapons, or even women. This place here is the liveliest location out of dozens galaxies nearby.” Porter introduced the place to Xia Fei.

“Why is it I feel like I’m inside a spaceship?” asked Xia Fei as he observed his surroundings.

“You’re not wrong. This was originally an abandoned warship, and it was at first used by someone as a storage facility that ultimately came to be of this scale after many years of development. Not only did the entire spaceship end up being utilized, they had even dug many more tunnels on the planet, and this is one of the entrances. There are many other entrances like the one we just entered all over the planet surface.”

They traveled along the narrow, winding corridor for quite some time before it suddenly opened up to another wide space.

This area was like a huge farmer’s plaza market that was well-lit, of which both sides had rows of stores.

Hundreds and thousands of men and women were gathered around this plaza, each one looking shifty and reprehensible, a majority of them staring at a stranger like Xia Fei with great vigilance.

Porter seemed awfully familiar to everything here and could be seen constantly greeting people left and right.

Xia Fei noticed that not one of the stores around the plaza had any name to them, nor was there even any goods on display, much less what they were actually selling.

Porter and Xia Fei stepped into one of these tiny stores, and it was filled with empty beer bottles. Walking inside the place was like wading through a river of beer bottles.

There was only a single rack in the store, and it was still filled with beer. Behind the rack was a long couch; a scrawny, middle-aged fella was presently fast asleep on it. Without saying another word, Porter kicked the man down the couch.

“Who’s there?!”

The skinny man leaped to his feet, startled by the rude awakening. He pulled out a sharp knife from his waist and thundered, bleary eyed, “Who’s the douchebag courting death?!”

His breath reeked of alcohol when he spoke; the stench was so heavy that Xia Fei had a hard time breathing.

When the scrawny man finally made out Porter’s face, he pulled out an ingratiating smile as that knife in his hand magically disappeared into thin air.

“Oh, it’s brother Porter; come on in and have a seat.” The middle-aged man very politely vacated the couch and invited both to sit on it.

He eyeballed Xia Fei several times before smiling at Porter again. “And who might this be?”

“Enough with your nonsense; where’s the thing I ordered?” imperiously demanded Porter.

“In the warehouse, in the warehouse. All packed up for you.” The middle-aged man wringed his hand.

He jogged over to the back wall and pushed a button. Xia Fei could hear the sound of a motor starting, then the wall parted in the middle, revealing an elevator inside.

Porter and Xia Fei followed the middle-aged man down aboard the elevator, arriving at a warehouse with a floor size of about a thousand square meters.

There were all sorts of wooden crates of various sizes in this warehouse. The man brought Porter and Xia Fei before a certain pile of goods, pointed to about 3 one-cubic crates, and said, “Brother Porter, these are what you wanted.”

Porter nodded expressionlessly. The middle-aged man called for two able-bodied men to pry open the three crates using their crowbars. Inside were three very intricate equipment.

The three pieces of equipment were a warp disruptor, a traction control module, and a warp stabilizer respectively.

When two warships engaged in combat, if either spaceship ended up at a disadvantage, they could utilize their emergency warp drive and escape far from the battlefield at the last minute.

A warp disruptor could interrupt such maneuver by transmitting a high-frequency interference, preventing the warp drive from being engaged. The enemy would, thus, be unable to run away even if they wished to do so, leaving them with the only option of staying there and facing their destruction.

A traction control module allowed a spaceship to unleash a traction beam, and enemy spaceships ensnared would see a ninety percent decrease in speed at the very least.

A traction control module was essential when going up against spaceships capable of achieving high speeds. Such spaceships would have near light-speed propulsion power, able to rely on its superb mobility to evade attacks and retaliate against their targets easily. Just like an annoying fly buzzing around, even if they were unable to defeat their targets, they could most definitely leave them annoyed to death.

A traction control module meant a spaceship would have the ability to catch such buzzing flies before delivering a fly swatting attack, which could put an end to the annoyance.

Furthermore, a traction control module still had great practical value as it was able to secure suspended objects floating in space and drag it nearer to the spaceship for salvaging.

There were an innumerable amount of treasures, be it an ancient spacecraft wreckage or a chunk of highly valuable ore, floating in the cosmos.

With a traction control module, a spaceship would be able to pull those spaceships or minerals near it, even able to contain those in the cargo hold and claim such for itself.

If a traction control module was used in conjunction with the warp disruptor, enemy spaceships would be completely ensnared and unable to escape, leaving them in a situation where they would be on the back foot and have to take the beating. It was a truly diabolical method of warfare.

The warp stabilizer worked exactly the opposite of a warp disruptor. It protected a spaceship from high-frequency disturbances and shortwave invasions of the enemy, allowing the spaceship to safely make a jump upon bumping into danger.

The two shared a relationship like spear and shield; a disruptor was like an offensive spear, while the stabilizer was a defensive shield. Engaging against an enemy with a spear and shield, a spaceship could prevent the enemy from attacking using similar means.

A civilian spaceship would rarely have these three abnormal, electronic weaponry fitted, first, because of how pricey these components were and, second, because there were very few manufacturers out there capable of producing them, making it difficult to obtain a steady supply of such items.