漫画啦

The Union Exchange was a super-scale commercial website with several hundred different categories. It was primarily open to official Union businesses. It wasn’t only individuals who could trade there, as the military would often put retired and old-fashioned ships up on the site for auction. The trades there were mostly carried out in Union Contribution Points.

Of the many categories, the most bustling was the ship category. After all, traveling the sea of stars was almost everyone’s dream. Even if one couldn’t immediately buy a ship, it was perfectly fine to do some window shopping.

Xia Fan skimmed the rules. As he was a junior investigator of the Special Bureau, he currently had the right to register a destroyer or below as a personal ship. As for larger ship classes with greater firepower, like cruisers and battleships, Xia Fan currently didn’t have the right to procure them.

Thus, Xia Fan turned his gaze to the frigate category. A frigate normally cost anywhere from five hundred thousand to one million Contribution Points, which was just within Xia Fan’s spending limit.

Of course, most of the expenses from warships didn’t come from the purchase cost, but from the follow-up maintenance, repair, equipping, fuel, and other such expenses. Those would be just as costly over time as the initial purchase price.

!!

While at Brenia, Xia Fan had worked as a bounty hunter, and he had accumulated 6.3 million Union dollars in his account at the Starcloud Development Bank, so he had some wealth to his name, enough for him to maintain a frigate without a problem.

Xia Fan wanted a frigate for two reasons. One was that one of Xia Fan’s grandpas had been an engineer, so he had excellent engineering foundations. Such skills would greatly cut down on his expenses for maintaining the frigate, with Xia Fan able to perform most of the work himself.

The second was that he needed it for exploring. With his investigator badge, Xia Fan essentially had an all-Union passcard. Xia Fan still hoped to find the Skywing Emblem left by the Skywings and find his family, no matter what else happened.

He couldn’t let the Bureau know that he was looking for the Skywing Emblem, so Xia Fan would have to engage in that investigation in secret. A ship of his own would undoubtedly be a huge help to him in searching for the Skywing Emblem.

Xia Fan had read a great deal of materials passed down from his Engineer Grandpa, and he had a rather deep understanding of the various large frigates used in the Union. Each model had a different function, and its own pros and cons. Thus, he first needed to filter out more than one hundred most common models in the hopes of finding the more specialized one.

His eyes brightened as he muttered, “A Mauler!”

Zooming into the image to take a closer look, he confirmed that it was a Mauler, an elite frigate made by the Holy Federation’s Imperial Shipyards.

While the three great Federations occasionally warred with each other, their commercial relationships were also very tight-knit. It wasn’t particularly rare for someone to be able to buy Holy Federation warships in the Starcloud Union.

The Imperial Shipyards had always been a famous and rather high-class company. It carried the prestigious “Imperial” moniker, and its ships were made with high-class alloys and top-class technology.

Maulers were produced with that line of thought in mind. The most exaggerated aspect of that frigate design was that it required a Mech Core to activate.

The problem was that Mech Cores were precious items from an ancient era. Ordinary people had no means of buying them, and current technology was still incapable of replicating them. Thus, there were an extremely small number of Maulers, and the few that were available on the market were extremely old and no longer usable.

After all, placing an expensive Mech Core inside a frigate was a huge waste. Thus, the Mauler was known as one of Imperial Shipyards’ greatest failures.

A failure in sales volume didn’t mean a failure in quality, however. The Mauler used large amounts of S-grade trititanium alloy, and its key parts were made with the rare Keller alloy. Its radar, fire control systems, and weapons were all the best that Imperial Shipyards could provide.

Put simply, Maulers were a rare kind of frigate that was extremely high-class and extremely pricey.

This old ship without a Mech Core was actually going for eight hundred and fifty thousand points, enough to buy a brand-new top-class frigate!

Xia Fan inspected the ship in the three-dimensional view. While the ship seemed old, all of its systems and hull had been maintained in excellent quality.

After all, the Mauler had been produced with large amounts of expensive and high-class alloys. Even if it was left idle for a long time, it still wouldn’t break. It was just that Xia Fan would have to clean it up once he bought it.

Through Blue Moon’s renowned instant communication software Cloud Message, Xia Fan chatted with the seller. It turned out to be the Seized Goods Sales Office under the Anti-Smuggling Bureau. The ship had been smuggled into the Union, but it had been seized by the Bureau before it could be sold.

It was no wonder all of its systems were intact. The ship hadn’t been able to travel very much, and its most precious Mech Core had been seized by the Anti-Smuggling Bureau, leaving only an empty ship that had remained in the hangar until now.

As the seller was a government office, there was no negotiating needed. Once the other party found out that Xia Fan was an investigator at the Special Bureau, they agreed to ship it to him for free.

...

Two days later, at noon, the shipping company sent a message that the Mauler Xia Fan ordered had arrived, asking how he wanted to handle it.

“There’s no need to send it into the Camp. Just leave it at the public spaceport.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll immediately go to get it.”

“Thank you.”

Turning off his communications terminal’s viewscreen, Xia Fan excitedly grabbed Traveling Buddha and drove one of the Camp’s hovercars out to the public spaceport.

While Traveling Buddha still appeared to be half-asleep, when he heard that Xia Fan had brought a frigate, he still followed along, interested in seeing it.

“If you buy one, you have to buy one that’s a little bigger. While frigates are fun, if you had told me earlier, I could have gotten you one of my clan’s old ships,” Traveling Buddha said breezily.

“Forget it. It almost sounds like you’ve got the guts to go home and get it.”

Traveling Buddha’s father had once declared that since Traveling Buddha was still stuck at the Blue Boiling Point and refused to show any initiative, he would break Traveling Buddha’s legs if he dared to return to the family home.

Traveling Buddha quickly shook his head. “Oh my, it’s not like that at all. Haven’t I already graduated? If I want to go home, I can go home. Nobody will boss me around.”

Xia Fan ignored him. Traveling Buddha had been talented enough to graduate in a few months, but he had instead chosen to stay at Blue Boiling Point for seven years. Even if his father didn’t press the matter, there was still the problem of explaining himself. From Traveling Buddha’s tone, he seemed to be quite afraid of his father and grandfather.

—

Once the hand-over paperwork at the shipping company was done, the Mauler was sent to a maintenance hangar as Xia Fan had requested.

Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha went to the hangar, where a fat engineer was waiting for them, his legs crossed. The engineer was wearing an oil-stained blue work uniform, and his hands were filthy.

“Hello, I’m from Ship Service and Repair.” The man saw Xia Fan and handed over his card. “This ship of yours is no good. The engine thrusters need a new protective coating, and while the shell is usable, the electronics and internals are a mess. It’s very troublesome to get everything and will cost you at least 15 million. Eighty percent of the parts have to be switched out.”

Xia Fan was startled. He had looked at the 3D view of the ship before; the ship certainly hadn’t been in as bad of a state as this guy claimed.

But Xia Fan quickly realized that repair companies relied on repairing ships to make money. Thus, they would over-emphasize a ship’s problems to make more money.

Alas, the repair company had no idea that Xia Fan wasn’t planning to use them, instead wanting to do the work himself.

“Do it yourself? Don’t joke around. This is an imported frigate. How could you do the work yourself?”

“That’s not your concern.”

“Hmph!” The engineer raised his big oily head and said in an ambiguous tone, “Fine, but don’t blame me for not warning you. Once you can’t fix it and find me again, it won’t be as cheap as it is today!”

The fat engineer stalked off, ready to see Xia Fan make a joke of himself.

—

Traveling Buddha walked around the Mauler and rapped on its dark alloy shell. He cocked his head and said, “Look at what you bought. It’s an old ship that no one wants to buy. It’s a big oaf, looking like a big triangle, so ugly.”

Traveling Buddha didn’t understand warships, but he had managed to accurately describe the Mauler.

Yes, the first impression the Mauler gave was that of an unwieldy oaf. With a rare triangular structure, it had sharp lines. If those sleek frigate popular in the market could be compared to elegant swords, the Mauler was a dumb hammer.

Imperial Shipyards loved to use the golden hue symbolic of the Imperial household, so the Mauler was dark gold, making it look quite gaudy.

The gaudy gold exterior and its crude appearance made Traveling Buddha think the ship was quite ugly.

As the saying went, amateurs looked at what was popular, while professionals knew what to actually look for. Xia Fan didn’t care about the shape or color. His concern was the seams in the deck, the layout of the wiring, and the material quality of the machinery.

This ship’s quality was incredible!

S-grade trititanium alloy was normally only used in carriers, and a Kelley Alloy superstructure was both expensive and extremely difficult to work with. Only top-class shipyards like Blue Moon had the technology and equipment to use Keller Alloy in ships.

“Just wait a few days and look again. I’ll perform a magic trick for you!” Xia Fan said to Traveling Buddha confidently.

Although he didn’t plan on requestings the services of a repair company, he needed their tools and equipment.

Large equipment could be leased on a daily basis from the spaceport’s logistics department. As for the Mauler’s equipment, Xia Fan could just buy it, as it wasn’t expensive and he would only need a set of tools that could be stored on the ship.

Xia Fan didn’t have many other abilities, but he was very fast!

—

Once the repair work started, he became a blur. One moment, he would be at the bottom of the ship inspecting the connectors, and in the blink of an eye, he would be in the engine room, testing the fusion reactor.

Traveling Buddha found a table and chair. Brewing a pot of tea for himself, he watched Xia Fan work.

He didn’t particularly like the ship, but he loved to see Xia Fan work.

After all, he was a super-speedster, working so fast that it looked like he was in a movie, and his cadence really made things exciting. As Xia Fan dismantled the fire control radar, he found that the internal structures were perfectly fine. Xia Fan worked efficiently, needing only a few minutes to reinstall the massive fire control radar.

Traveling Buddha had a lazy nature, only moving his mouth and never his hands. After watching for a while, he found the entire thing boring. Dismantling this and that was so annoying, and it made one all dirty.

—

Traveling Buddha didn’t come the next day, so Xia Fan worked in the hangar from early morning until late night, when he returned to the dorm.

Xia Fan truly was very tired after working all day, but this was his own ship, and once it was repaired, he could freely travel the stars. This thought filled his body with energy once more.

As it was an imported ship, some parts couldn’t be found locally, so he had to order them online and have them shipped over.

When ordering parts, Xia Fan did some pre-planning and ordered extra things like air filters and force nozzles, which broke more easily, putting them in the storage as a reserve.

—

Xia Fan finally finished repairing the Mauler after a full week of work. Part of the week had been wasted waiting for the needed parts to be sent over, or else he could have been done faster.

“Isn’t it just a single ship? What’s there to look at? I have plenty at home,” Traveling Buddha grumbled impatiently as Xia Fan dragged him to the public spaceport.

Outside the hangar, Xia Fan activated the automatic door, which slowly opened with an electric hum.

Traveling Buddha’s eyes flew open when he saw the newly-repaired Mauler.

One week ago, this old ship had been covered in dust and oil, its airlock had been pried open when the Anti-Smuggling Bureau had seized it.

But now, the Mauler was flashing gold, so clean that it could be used as a mirror, and its surface was also as smooth as one, with not even the smallest speck of dust on it.

“You did this all by yourself!?” a shocked voice came from outside the hangar.

The speaker was the chubby engineer. He had waited for a week and felt like it was about time to come over and laugh at Xia Fan, and at the same time take his business.

He had already thought about what he was going to do, and for Xia Fan’s stubbornness, he had decided to charge Xia Fan at least three times the price, squeezing money from this kid who didn’t know his limits. In any case, people from the Special Bureau had money, so he might as well make some profit off him.

But in the end, what he saw was a frigate that seemed to be brand new parked in the hangar.

This efficiency was far too terrifying. Even if he had brought twenty experienced engineers with him and had them spend a whole week in the hangar, they still wouldn’t have finished such a complicated job.

It was absurd! How did such a young man do it?

“Do you want to go in and take a look?” Xia Fan extended his hand and made an inviting gesture to them both.

Traveling Buddha nodded and shamelessly said, “Mm, mm, I suppose I can bring myself to take a look!”

The chubby engineer quietly tiptoed onto the ship after them. When he stepped inside the hull, the engineer was filled with utmost admiration. Everything was sparkling clean. When he opened the wiring, he found that the tens of thousands of different wires had all been neatly organized into a pleasing sight.

A repair company’s employees would never have done that. At most, they might bundle up all the wires together and stuff them back into the cable housing. But Xia Fan had done these minor tasks as a matter of course.

The captain’s chair had been given new leather upholstery and a highly flexible sponge cushion. Traveling Buddha sat on it and nodded. “Mm, pretty good. It’s got the feel, and it’s rather comfortable.

“Right, what do you plan to name this ship?”

Xia Fan smiled and replied, “I’ve had a name in mind for a while. Come out and take a look.”

Sticky paper had been applied to the sides of the ship. Xia Fan gave it a hard pull and tore the paper off.

“Puh!” When Traveling Buddha saw the name printed on the hull of the ship, he immediately did a spit-take.