Chapter 510: Unexpected Profit I

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: 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?"

Ye Chong nodded.

"All the three Aristocrats owned a shortcut that would lead them to the Five Galaxies, respectively. And these 3 pathways were also an unstable spatial distortion phenomena when they were first discovered. Perhaps you were unaware of this, it's alright, it's a major secret among the Aristocrats, not many residents of He Yue knew it," smiled Kui.

"I know, I am from the Five Galaxies, after all," nodded Ye Chong.

Kui nearly tripped himself upon hearing the statement, "You're a resident of the Five Galaxies? Which?"

"Fal."

"Oh?" Kui took a careful look at Ye Chong, "Not bad. You were able to come this far. Though, how do you associate with the Aristocrats?"

"Not much of an association." Shook Ye Chong, "I was being hunted."

The interest intensified on Kui's expression, "Hunted... huh? Well, you must be really something that the Aristocrats could chase you all the way here. And you survive well too. Which of the Aristocrats?"

"Hah..." Ye Chong smiled bitterly, "All three..."

Kui was stupefied and he laughed out loud, "Ahahahahaha! Man, you have such luck. All three families want you dead? Hahaha! Seriously I wonder what you have done that it could drive all 3 families this mad!"

"They were too strong...," said Ye Chong briefly, "And I felt threatened of my life."

"Well..." Shrugged Kui, "Let's not talk about that. No point of dwelling in the past. You are in luck now, the Aristocrats are too busy to even track you. Still, it almost felt impossible for you to get back home now."

Ye Chong was speechless. That had always been the pain in his heart.

"And here we are," reminded Kui. "This is the room where we store the chips, containing every report, the outcome of our researches. Well, they'll be piling dust anyway so feel free to take any if you like. Every research was a brave and tremendous attempt by the researchers who drained themselves completely for their passion. Some even took their whole life just for a small piece of report. If they knew their life effort eventually became part of the ruins unknown by the people, I guess we won't have a fine reunion when I met them in heaven," said Kui, a little sentimental.

Ye Chong was astounded.

It was ... a giant library of microchips. A sea of them specifically, in all sorts of colors, labeled by an array of categories, stored chronologically as well as based on the field involved.

Ye Chong could see at least 300,000 microchips there,

"Hehehe..." Shang was there, stunned. yet his beeps formed unintelligible giggles, "Ye, we'll be rich. We will be rich!"

Ye Chong's breaths intensified. He was sort of a researcher after all and he certainly recognized the value of these data streams. These would be strength, the greatest strength and wealth, that one could use to build a family as competent as the Aristocrats.

"If you want to know the exact number of chips here, sorry, I don't know." Kui sounded really depressed, "We started from Space Science, then Mechanical Researches, and then the Biological Science today. We almost have every scientific field covered. We even have a breakthrough in our latest research but well... you know what happened. An annihilation, as if a punishment from the heaven..."

Ye Chong's once excitement had also been assaulted by the raining tails of the crimson beasts, the bloodshed of the researchers.

"You sure are interesting," smiled Kui as he looked at Ye Chong's expression.

"Why don't you give me some recommendations?" asked Ye Chong. There were too many chips here, he really would appreciate someone giving their opinion on the choices. Well Kui should be fine with this, if he truly intended to give him the chips, that is.

"Uhh..." Kui flinched and hurled a smile promptly, "Okay, what do you need?"

"Which field do you guys have most researches on?"

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm... At first, we focused on Space Science, as I've said, then Mechanical Science, did you see the mechs out there? Yup, those are our creations."

"Nah, keep those," shook Ye Chong. Space Science was too foreign for Ye Chong's comprehension, while Mechanical Science? It was interesting to see those gold fighters flying out there but they were not the best mechs out there, especially when compared to the aces of the Aristocrats.

He was a mechanic after all. He believed he could build a better mech if he had sufficient materials.

So yeah.