Nan Qingchuan fell silent for a moment before looking at the towering machine glowing beside them. “Is that a weapon?”
His voice was not particularly loud, but Gu Jiaqi could still sense the yearning in it.
At this moment, Gu Jiaqi was already playing around with the night-vision goggles and dust mask she had just “confiscated.” In her eyes, these things were practically antiques!
“Yes, this is a weapon. Brother, is this thing the most advanced technology you have?” Gu Jiaqi held the goggles up to her eyes and took a look. The glare made her vision blur for a moment. This thing really was pretty good! The technology might be outdated, but the craftsmanship was genuinely impressive.
Remembering what this ancient man had just said, she continued, pretending to be nonchalant. “This is my mecha.”
The corner of Nan Qingchuan’s mouth twitched. Although Gu Jiaqi’s tone was perfectly pleasant, he could not help feeling that something was off.
He tried his best to calm himself down. “Ma’am, I mean no harm. I came here this time to discuss cooperation with you.”
Gu Jiaqi paused. They had finally gotten to the actual business.
“If you want to discuss cooperation, tell me about your situation first.” Naturally, she was not going to reveal the slightest bit of her own trump cards.
“My name is Nan Qingchuan. I’m an ordinary armed police officer from Ming Country. Yesterday, I… but just now, I was the only one who came through.”
Nan Qingchuan briefly recounted what had happened to him. Of course, he left out some of the arrangements Ming Country had made. Gu Jiaqi noticed, but she could not be bothered to ask. From Nan Qingchuan’s account, she had already figured out the likely nature of the black hole she had been speculating about.
This black hole was probably a passage connecting multiple worlds. From now on, she would likely have to deal with people from many different worlds.
“So, you want my mecha? That won’t do. My mecha is the most advanced in the interstellar world. With your current level of technology, I’m afraid you wouldn’t be able to figure it out even if you studied it.”
Gu Jiaqi spoke sincerely.
“You may not know this, but we’re an interstellar civilization. You’ve probably heard of the interstellar world, right? Our country controls an entire star system, and I am the owner of this planet.”
“You’re the owner of this planet?” Nan Qingchuan looked at her standing there alone and clearly did not believe her.
Gu Jiaqi said, “Of course. This planet belongs to me, so naturally, the doorway you came through belongs to me as well. Everything on this planet is mine.”
Nan Qingchuan was somewhat dazed. When he was young, he had read some novels too. The protagonists in those wish-fulfillment stories had all kinds of overpowered cheats, and owning an entire planet was one of them. But encountering something like that in real life was an entirely different matter!
“Of course, I’m not alone. There are plenty of soldiers on their way here.” Gu Jiaqi quickly added a safeguard. She could not expose her weakness!
“Understood, ma’am.”
Nan Qingchuan felt that both of his hands had already gone numb. He shifted uncomfortably, only for the ropes to tighten further.
Only then did Gu Jiaqi seem to notice his predicament. She smiled and said, “Oh, look at that. I forgot to untie you. Hahaha.”
“Now, let’s talk business…” Gu Jiaqi curled her lips upward, her eyes gleaming.
Nan Qingchuan stared at her in silence.
“Mr. Nan, I’m Gu Jiaqi. Everything on this planet belongs to me, so how exactly would you like to cooperate?”
Nan Qingchuan’s eyes were still darting toward Gu Jiaqi’s mecha, but when he saw her smile, he also realized that there was no way he was going to get his hands on that red mecha.
“What about those over there? Are those mechas too?” He pointed toward the towering “mountain of mechas” piled up in the distance.
Gu Jiaqi gave him a flat look.
The junk pile did indeed consist of discarded mechas from the Empire. There were certain standards for when a mecha was considered obsolete. First, its energy absorption device had to have failed. Second, its mental-power control equipment had to be unusable.
As for damage to the external materials, compared with those two conditions, it was practically negligible. Therefore, the mechas in that pile still looked relatively intact on the outside.
Although Gu Jiaqi really wanted to make a little profit, she did not want to be a profiteer. Planet Lord Gu still had a conscience.
“Mr. Nan, those mechas are actually severely damaged. I don’t know if you can understand, but although their weapons and hardware are still relatively intact, their energy acquisition and maneuverability systems are already considered useless.”
Nan Qingchuan had more or less guessed that himself. If they were truly high-quality mechas, they probably would not have been piled up so casually. However, what mattered most was what benefits they could obtain from them. Breaking through their own limitations in difficult circumstances had always been Ming Country’s specialty.
“Then which of these mechas can still be used?”
The overall technological level of these mechas was definitely higher than Ming Country’s. Even if some of the equipment was broken, the rest would certainly be useful! Even the manufacturing techniques for the metal used in the mechas might be more advanced than Ming Country’s current level.
Gu Jiaqi had never rummaged through the pile of mechas, so she did not know how badly damaged they were. She simply brought Nan Qingchuan over, intending to show him.
As they walked, Gu Jiaqi suddenly asked, “Are you a soldier too?”
Nan Qingchuan paused. “Yes. I’m an armed police officer with the Ning City Armed Police Brigade in Ming Country.”
Gu Jiaqi nodded knowingly. She was considered tall among women, standing a full 177 centimeters, but Nan Qingchuan was even taller than her. His posture was ramrod straight, and he clearly looked like a soldier.
Nan Qingchuan was obviously not someone who was good at casual conversation. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, and even the muscles in his body remained tense as he walked. His face was originally somewhat gentle and handsome, but his overall bearing was cold and stern.
Compared with him, Gu Jiaqi felt like an amateur soldier.
Fortunately, they both walked quickly, and it took only a few minutes to reach the large pile of mechas.
Gu Jiaqi controlled Xiao Hong to step forward and pick up a small mecha standing two meters tall, then effortlessly tore off its outer shell.
She removed the weapon barrel enclosed inside, then took out the built-in lightsaber emitter from the mecha. Its artificial intelligence had long since become unusable due to insufficient energy, but Gu Jiaqi still took it out. She could find a way to convert it into electrical energy. The remaining circuit boards and remnants of ammunition and weapons fell to the ground, and Nan Qingchuan picked them up as well.
“Mr. Nan, this is a light gun. You can understand its principle as converting captured light into an extremely powerful shockwave. Its destructive power is very high.”
“This is a lightsaber. Its principle is similar to that of the light gun, but it’s more difficult to operate…”
Since she frequently worked with mechas herself, Gu Jiaqi was quite a competent salesperson.
But that was not how Nan Qingchuan saw it.
He had witnessed with his own eyes how Gu Jiaqi’s mecha had torn another mecha to pieces. He had also seen the agility and destructive power of a fully functional mecha.
As the saying went, mechas were every man’s dream, and Nan Qingchuan was no exception.
“Miss Gu, can I take pictures of these?”
“Of course.” From what Nan Qingchuan had told her earlier, Gu Jiaqi already knew that he was not actually the person in charge. He would have to take the things she had shown him back to his superiors so they could decide whether to purchase these discarded mechas.
Gu Jiaqi placed the weapons and other equipment she had removed from the mechas on the ground and let him photograph them. She herself stood to the side, seemingly waiting, but in reality, she was searching for an external energy box inside her spatial chip.
These energy boxes were extremely common in the interstellar world. Not only could weapons use them, but various other machines could as well. After the Empire had completely phased out the use of electrical energy, these energy boxes had become indispensable in every household. However, in recent years, with the invention of equipment that could automatically store cosmic energy, standalone energy cores had become less popular, so Gu Jiaqi did not have many on her.
After photographing the various weapons and devices Gu Jiaqi had placed on the ground, Nan Qingchuan still could not resist picking them up to examine them. Even through his gloves, he could feel that the texture of the light gun’s metal surface was completely different from steel.
“Mr. Nan, I have a few energy boxes here. These energy boxes can be externally connected to the weapons, allowing them to be used temporarily.”
The moment Gu Jiaqi finished speaking, Nan Qingchuan’s eyes lit up. No amount of imagination could compare with seeing it with his own eyes. Seeing how expectant he looked, Gu Jiaqi had him raise the small camera in his hand. With an exceptionally cooperative attitude, she carefully demonstrated how to attach the energy box externally. She gently inserted the pinky-sized energy box into a small opening on the surface of the light gun.
Gu Jiaqi was extremely proficient at using the light gun. Holding the arm-length silver weapon, she aimed at a steel tree in the distance in the standard stance used by interstellar soldiers. Moments later, Nan Qingchuan saw an exceptionally bright beam shoot out and instantly bring down a steel tree. The entire area where the tree had been hit was reduced to powder.
“This light gun is designed specifically for mechas, so it’s somewhat large. The light guns used by our soldiers are about the size of a palm, making them easier to carry and conceal. Of course, they’re also less powerful than this larger light gun.”
Gu Jiaqi placed the light gun on the ground and earnestly told Nan Qingchuan this fact.
Nan Qingchuan was still staring at the fallen steel tree. He had no idea what kind of material the tree was made of, but it was extremely thick, probably too thick for a single person to wrap their arms around. Yet it had actually been brought down with a single shot…
Nan Qingchuan tried hard to regulate his breathing. He was genuinely excited, but he still had to take care of business.
“Miss Gu, I think I need to go back and report the situation here to my superiors, but before that, I’d like to clarify what you need. In other words, if we want to trade with you for these discarded mechas, what do we need to provide?”
Gu Jiaqi took out a pack of wet wipes and wiped her hands. They had finally gotten to the important part.
“Mr. Nan, you’ve seen it yourself. At the moment, there’s no way to farm on my planet, so food is a major problem.” She took a tube of nutrient solution out of her spatial chip. “Have you seen this before? Right now, I can only rely on this nutrient solution to maintain my strength. So, if you want to trade with me, bring me some food that will satisfy me.”
Ming Country, Ning City, Huanxin Square.
A group of people who could see the black vortex were desperately trying to rush into it. Nan Qingchuan had been inside for quite a while this time, and everyone was deeply worried about his safety, but everyone had tried and found that it was simply impossible to enter.
Old Tao and Academician Liang were connecting the magnetic sensors they were carrying to their laptops, trying to detect changes in the magnetic field, but unfortunately, they found nothing at all.
Several academicians from the Academy of Sciences were rushing over by military aircraft, but they would not be able to arrive immediately. Ning City was not close to Ming Country’s capital, and it would take the academicians at least another hour to get there.
“We don’t even know how Xiao Nan is doing right now…” Old Tao said worriedly.
All the communication devices they were carrying had already lost contact. The ropes they had tied around themselves earlier to prevent anyone from getting separated had also broken. The situation was truly worrying.
But there was nothing they could do now except wait in silence.
Everyone was also worried that an enemy might follow Nan Qingchuan out, so they quickly dismantled all the flowerbeds and turned the surrounding area into a flat, open space.
“Xiao Nan must have run into trouble…” Old Tao said gloomily.