Chapter 510: Unexpected Profit I (1/2)
Chapter 510: Unexpected Profit I
Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation
”Uhh... Wait... Never mind...,” he muttered, shaking his head right after the out-of-the-place question, ”No way, yeah, no way. The Xue Lai clan is also in a sticky situation now, no way they could have someone here for treasure-hunting... although that model bears a resemblance to Xue Lai's model a lot...” Pondered he.
His confused sight fall upon Shang again but this time, the expression changed, ”Wait, is that... no... impossible... forget it...,” he thought deeply with his eyes partially shut.
”We aren't from Xue Lai,” said Ye Chong, with a tilt made towards the man. ”Do you recognize this mech?” The man's statement was truly intriguing, Ye Chong had been fairly curious of Shang's identity the whole time.
”Huh? Uh, umm...” His eyes grew clear, ”I think I made a mistake, sorry.” He looked at Shang again, ”I don't recognize this mech, not at all. That aside, how did you guys find this institute in the first place?”
Ye Chong, a little disappointed, sat up and briefed the man his adventure there.
”Mhm...” Nodded Kui, ”It is not easy to make such judgement at times like this. I'm certainly impressed by your decisiveness. You're pretty much a hero, one with a fortune too.”
Ye Chong had no interest in the compliment, he just took a look around, ”Anyway, what had happened here?”
”We got attacked,” Kui replied expressionlessly with slight grief in his tone. ”About 6000 red-tailed beasts came to the place we did not manage to hold them outside. They intruded the base and a massacre happened. Nobody had survived, I presumed. Until now we still have no idea of how these beasts discovered our secret base. I guess they smelled us, but who I'm kidding with?” Kui's eyes reddened, he became choked in tears.
”Why none of you seek assistance from the outside?”
”Nah, we aren't as lucky as you, hero boy.” Shook Kui, ”Our transmission towers were destroyed by the red-tailed beasts upon arrival. We could not send anything out. It was a long defense war that lasted for months and we thought time would be on our side, that someone or some ships would notice the warring here and come to rescue, but no one had come. There was indeed our army camping near the planet, but they were fully unaware of the existence of this central base.”
There were regrets in his word.
Upon recalling the chaotic moves by the Consortium recently, Kui's words made sense to Ye Chong out of sudden.
”I see...”
”What did you see?” asked Kui.
Ye Chong then briefed Kui the terrible actions taken by the Consortium in Gray Valley. Kui could not help but to feel even more remorseful, as he began wailing and thrashing a little.
It took a while before Kui became calm again, he stood up, his lifeless eyes gazed upon the ruins of the once-magnificent, ”Well... Looks like it's the end for the Consortium,” he muttered.
Ye Chong did not reply. The Consortium was no longer what it used to be. It was an organization with only name by then. It was evident as this very ruin was formerly the center of the Consortium, the consolidation of all their forces, the core of the entire research magnificence, and it fell, as the war arrived uninvited. It was only natural for Kui to have such dramatic reaction upon seeing such a formidable organization being wiped out unknown to the public.
”Well!” Rose Kui, ”Let's go. I'll show you around. I'll let you see the area with the best, the topmost, the highest end technologies in the entire Gray Valley. It should not look shabby even compared to the the core of the Aristocrats! The laboratory of Consortium!” He turned away with the last bit of pride.
Ye Chong followed the proud man, as curious he was towards the mysterious consortium.
The security was pretty tight there, as they had to hold their steps before a locked gate every 20 meters. Kui turned his face to Ye Chong, ”This is the only pathway to the laboratory. And hardly anybody knows the code.”
”So what are you in the Consortium?” asked Ye Chong, with instinct screaming at him that Kui must not be a simple subordinate in the Consortium.
”Me?” Hah! I'm just an engineer,” replied Kui indifferently.
Just an engineer? Likely story. It sounded like a blatant lie to Ye Chong, but he did not see the point in pursuing it. He moved on with another question, ”Why did your organization decide to build the center here?” There was nothing peculiar about Spectre. To Ye Chong, Spectre was just like the other planets, he could not see the point of investing so much time and money on building a base here, especially when the Consortium worked so hard on fabricating horrifying rumors just to keep people away.
”Well, this has always been the biggest secret of the Consortium but there's no longer a need to make it a secret, not anymore, I guess,” said Kui casually. ”At first... Mhm... probably some time before the Gray Valley has been established... we discovered something here.”
”What was it?”
”We found a handful of Teardrops and a very unstable phenomena, a distortion window.” Kui's description reminded Ye Chong a lot of the underground cave where he also discovered a few Teardrops and the distortion horror.
”Regarding Teardrops, it need not to convince people of its rarity I believe. We were more interested in the window. The Consortium was fully invested in Space Science researches. And clearly a spatial distortion phenomena would be a hidden shortcut to the other galaxy, also another galaxy unknown to the people would be a giant treasure chest to be opened. You know about the Aristocrats, don't you?”