Chapter 139: Matters Behind the Scenes

The light from outside the porthole slanted into the room, tracing undulating shadows along the walls. Nie Yuanlong looked out through the window, where the monolithic hyper-structural weapons of the war planet stood in grim defiance.

It gave him an illusion of a lifetime separated by worlds.

Perhaps it was a psychological aftermath, but ever since escaping that high-dimensional space, he felt his entire body trembling subtly... Recalling the various conversations and scenes just now, Nie Yuanlong reached a conclusion.

He had struck gold.

To sum it up in one word: an encounter with destiny.

A thorough and absolute stroke of fortune.

"As of today, the trajectory of my life is finally beginning to climb upward."

He silently buried the recent experience deep within the most secluded corner of his heart, resolving to tell no one.

"As for my family... No, not even my family. I won't say a word."

"They were just discussing pulling strings behind the scenes at the Royal Academy of Sciences. If this gets out, there's no telling what the consequences might be."

Thinking of Ji Cheng's promise, Nie Yuanlong's excitement surged once more.

Yearning for the future, he retrieved a crystal from the cabinet, which meticulously embedded a family portrait.

In the photo, there were six people in total, young and old, but each of them had a mechanical arm extending from behind their backs.

"Grandpa, Dad, Second Uncle... I won't let you down!"

"Let's fight together on the battlefield!"

...

"Ah, you finally picked up! I called you so many times earlier and you completely ignored me."

Inside a hovercraft, Niu Xin replied vaguely, "I was dozing off just now, my apologies."

Of course, he would never confess that he had been pulled into a high-dimensional space.

"What do you want?"

"The space station says there's a delivery for you, but the transport vessel can't enter the Outer Bay Star. You'll have to go pick it up yourself."

"Oh, I know. It's the suitcase I ordered. Thanks."

Outer Bay Star was a private planet belonging to an interstellar workshop, maintaining quite strict entry and exit regulations.

This was because the planet's soil contained a vast amount of raw materials that could be used to produce active metals, making it immensely valuable.

Niu Xin maneuvered the hovercraft toward a specific location in the planet's atmosphere while simultaneously taking a grain-sized object out of his mouth.

He wiped it clean, inserted it into the hovercraft's instrument port, and dialed another communication.

"Hello, this is Niu Xin."

"Don't worry, I've jammed the monitoring installed by the workshop."

"That thing has already been shipped to Outer Bay Star. Can you guarantee that no abnormalities will be detected?"

"Yes, yes, yes. The volume is definitely massive."

"Alright, then I'm hanging up. May fortune smile upon you."

Niu Xin pried the grain-sized object back out, put it back into his mouth, and wore a smug smile on his face.

"Working for others doesn't make money this fast... Still, I need to be careful. After cashing in this once, I'll cut down on contact with these people. They always feel a bit off."

...

After receiving the data sent by Ji Ruyue, Ji Cheng exited the Gaia network.

Darkness and deathly silence receded like a tide, and his vision cleared up once again.

It was his own office once more, surrounded by absolute quiet.

"The data for that Phoenix gene progenitor is in hand. Now, as long as Elder Sister undergoes an absolute-match mimesis and unlocks her genetic locks, she can be injected with the Tier 2 progenitor."

Ji Cheng smiled, rubbing his hands together, and walked to the door to unlock the mechanical latch he had previously secured. "Sister's talent is certainly top-notch; she should be able to help me with plenty of dirty and hard work in the future."

In the game, Luo Rao's title was the "Lady of Desolation," a quite renowned boss. Since this world was so similar to that game from his past life, Luo Rao's talent couldn't possibly be bad.

And given her brainless, doting "little brother complex" behavior, she was essentially a free laborer. It would be a waste not to use her.

"And all these ability users in South Harbor right now—logically speaking, they are all quite talented individuals. They can all be put to use in the future. These are all my foundational assets."

The special circumstances of Baishan Star meant that for people to become ability users, they had to survive a brutally cruel selection process, face endless mining tasks, and deal with unpredictable and dangerous mutated creatures.

Anyone who could survive until now was extraordinary.

Even the Zhang sisters, who seemed soft and frail, possessed combat and striking skills vastly superior to the imperial average when they really fought.

After all, the empire had experienced a prolonged era of peace. Technology kept advancing, but the various attributes of ability users were actually declining.

The only place in the entire country with a slightly fierce folk custom was the Shuofang Province where Nie Yuanlong lived, as it faced periodic invasions by the Zerg.

Yet that couldn't really be considered a war; at best, it was small-scale skirmishes.

Furthermore, the intensity of the combat had always been restricted to a relatively low range, with both sides exercising restraint.

Today you dismantle one of my mechanical battle-infantry units, tomorrow I kill one of your spore-dragons.

Nothing more.

"Chen Qian, come to my office, right now." Ji Cheng pressed the intercom on his desk.

"Understood, Boss. I'm on my way."

As a private secretary, Chen Qian always stayed in the adjoining secretary's room to ensure she could arrive as quickly as possible whenever Ji Cheng needed her.

Ten seconds later, a knock sounded, and Chen Qian, wearing a black uniform skirt, appeared at the door.

She had still carefully dolled herself up today, stepping into a pair of slim high heels that made her legs appear even longer.

"What is it, Boss?" Chen Qian pursed her crimson lips and smiled slightly.

"That radioactive raw material I brought back from the Hive Laboratory—go to the 'Hunter' spacecraft and fetch it for me."

"Is it that material used to unlock the genetic locks?"

"Yes, and be careful not to open the lead box on the outside." Ji Cheng thought for a moment and added, "Also, notify the warehouse to send a gravity well and a gene chamber to my office. The gene chamber should preferably be an original imperial model, not something we produced ourselves."

He still harbored doubts about things produced in-house by South Harbor, especially when it concerned Luo Rao's future, and he was not willing to be the least bit sloppy.

"Understood. Anything else you need?"

"No. Oh, help me throw this broken box out."

Chen Qian looked down and only then noticed the instrument case, which had been riddled with holes by the whistle-arrow yet somehow refused to fall apart.

...

Ji Cheng certainly didn't know what kind of misunderstandings he had caused by summoning Chen Qian to his office in the middle of the night. After familiarizing himself a bit more with the operation of the whistle-arrow, he headed upstairs to the dedicated cafeteria, which stayed open all night to prepare meals, and consumed seventeen or eighteen light dishes and simple meals. By the time he returned to his office, it was already the early hours of dawn.

His family had now moved to the lower level of the command building, converted and renovated from a safe house originally used to store classified documents.

However, it wasn't as comfortable and spacious as his office, so he usually just crashed and slept on the office sofa.

At noon the next day, Ji Cheng was awakened by a knock on the door.

"Little brother, I heard you're going to favor me with your presence today."

Luo Rao was wearing a snow-white dress, leaning against the doorframe with a playful smile.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Ji Cheng was stunned.

"Chen Qian said you're opening the back door for me."

"Speechless. I'm opening the back door for you to advance as an ability user! Hurry up."