In addition, there were 50 Destroyer blueprints and materials, priced at 15 million per blueprint and 90 million per set of materials, for a total of 750 million in blueprints plus 4.5 billion in materials in Star Credits.
There were also 500 Escort Ship blueprints and materials, priced at 2 million per blueprint and 12 million per set of materials, for a total of 1 billion in blueprints plus 6 billion in materials.
Whether Destroyers or Escort Ships, they were all standard Gale-class Destroyers and standard Swift-class Escort Ships.
Additionally, he spent a full 2.5 billion Star Credits to purchase a completed God-Crossing Super-Large Transport Ship, which had 50,000 cargo holds, each 1,000 cubic meters, for a total capacity of 500 billion cubic meters, and could be fitted with Towing Pods carrying five times its own capacity.
He also spent 2 billion Star Credits to buy five completed Mammoth-class Large Transport Ships, each with 10,000 cargo holds and a total capacity of 100 billion cubic meters, likewise able to be fitted with Towing Pods carrying five times their own capacity.
For a total of 720 million Star Credits, he purchased ten medium Transport Ships and ten small Transport Ships, with total capacities of 2 million and 500,000 cubic meters respectively.
Beyond that, he spent 4 billion Star Credits on a Super-Large Industrial Ship with 40,000 holds and a total capacity of 40 million cubic meters.
Two Large Industrial Ships, 7,500 holds, 7.5 million cubic meters, 800 million each, totaling 1.6 billion Star Credits.
Two Medium Industrial Ships, 1,500 holds, 1.5 million cubic meters, 150 million each, totaling 300 million.
Five Small Industrial Ships, 300 holds, 300,000 cubic meters, 30 million each, totaling 60 million.
Then there were a full ten Large Mining Ships, each equipped with 8 unmanned reconnaissance drones, 200 unmanned mining robots, 8 mining laser guns, and 5,000 cargo holds totaling 5 million cubic meters, priced at 800 million each, for a total of 8 billion.
Just these alone cost him a total of 30.88 billion Star Credits.
After that, he spent around 1.5 billion to purchase a complete set of Large Base Modules.
This included one Large Main Command Pod, a cube measuring 1,000 meters × 1,000 meters × 1,000 meters.
Nine Large Auxiliary Module Pods, each measuring 300 × 300 × 300 meters.
Thirty-six Medium Auxiliary Module Pods, each measuring 100 × 100 × 100 meters.
And one hundred twenty Small Auxiliary Module Pods, each measuring 30 × 30 × 30 meters.
There were also a full 100 Large Cargo Container Pods, each with 50,000 cubic meters of space, specifically for storing supplies.
Beyond that, there were several sets of Water Extraction and Purification Devices, five large cold storage units filled with food, two sets of artificial food cultivation production lines, one small biology laboratory for 500 million, one small physics laboratory for 500 million, one small engineering laboratory for 500 million, more than a dozen Planetary Flyers, and three sets of large-scale ore crushing, screening, and Refining equipment, each costing as much as 1.1 billion Star Credits.
All told, this came to another 6.6 billion or so, bringing the total to 37.48 billion.
In just four short days, assets worth 40.2 billion Star Credits had shrunk to 2.73 billion Star Credits.
But that wasn’t the end.
He also spent 300 million Star Credits to purchase 2,000 robots and 200 million Star Credits for 2,000 clones.
Once the base was established, this manpower could be put to use immediately.
Considering the possibility of boarding actions, he also had to buy a batch of Naval Marines.
“This money really doesn’t go far!”
Li Qing clicked his tongue, endured the heartache, and gritted his teeth to continue.
The ground forces he could directly recruit came in only two types: the Clone Army and the Robot Assault Squad, both priced the same at 500,000 per soldier.
The Clone Army was a One-Star Army, meaning clones specially loaded with various combat skills, far stronger than ordinary clones.
Every soldier was equipped with a standard set of tactical gear: a Laser Rifle, a High-Strength Alloy Tactical Dagger, and a first-aid kit.
Additionally, each squad was equipped with two armored vehicles, two Heavy Gauss Machine Guns, two Electromagnetic Sniper Rifles, and two Tactical Guided Rocket Launchers.
Each company, on top of that, was equipped with a Subterranean Flyer with a capacity of 120 people, enough to carry the entire company and rapidly deploy them to the battlefield.
A squad of the Clone Army, 20 soldiers total, cost 10 million to recruit.
A company of the Clone Army, 100 soldiers total, cost 60 million to recruit.
A battalion of the Clone Army, 500 soldiers total, cost 3.5 billion to recruit.
Li Qing directly recruited one Clone Army battalion and one Robot Assault battalion, a thousand men in total, spending 700 million Star Credits.
It was worth noting that fully-staffed Naval Marines came with their own command structure—squads had squad leaders, companies had company commanders, battalions had battalion commanders.
Moreover, the Clone Army and Robot Assault Squad required neither salaries nor complicated logistics, making them cheap, effective, and easy-to-use cannon fodder units.
In just four short days, he had spent a full 38.2 billion Star Credits.
This whole set of purchases could basically sustain a fully self-sufficient personal base for a long time.
But it was only basic—far from perfect.
There were actually many more things that needed to be configured, but his money had run out.
No big deal, though.
Getting by in the early stages was enough.
He’d go make some money first and slowly acquire the rest later.
Once everything was ready, Li Qing sent Yang Yunbo a message, gifting him the small base and a mining ship over there.
It wasn’t worth much anyway, and he couldn’t be bothered to spend over half a year traveling there.
Warm starlight spilled across the starry sky as a Destroyer, bathed in stellar radiance, slowly departed the Starport. The source of this chapter is g.com.
After all this preparation, he was finally setting sail again.
Without telling anyone, Li Qing left alone.
The Destroyer arrived before the central Super Stargate of the Jinmen Star System, paid the toll of 3 million for a Destroyer, and after a brief wait in line, entered the Stargate.
As an immensely surging Energy Tide rushed in, space began to distort.
This was the main reason why, even when two locations had Stargates, some large merchant caravans would rather spend a long time crossing star system after star system over hundreds of light-years to reach the other side instead of taking the Stargate directly.
Taking the Stargate directly cost money—it wasn’t free.
Generally speaking, the toll for an Escort Ship was 1 million Star Credits, corresponding to small warships.
The toll for a Destroyer was 5 million Star Credits, corresponding to medium warships.
The toll for a Cruiser was 25 million Star Credits, corresponding to large warships.
A battleship ticket cost 500 million Star Credits, corresponding to super-large vessels.
A flagship ticket cost 5 billion Star Credits.
And that was only the price for distances within 1,000 light-years.
Beyond that, the toll increased by 1% for every additional light-year.
For every 2,000 light-years exceeded, the toll increased by 2% per additional light-year on top of the 1,000-light-year base rate.
Beyond 3,000 light-years, it was a 4% increase per additional light-year on the same base, and so on.
If you exceeded 10,000 light-years, the ticket price would become absurdly high.
Those large caravans typically had dozens or even hundreds of large or super-large cargo ships.
If they went through the Stargate, the toll alone would run into the billions.
How much profit could a single trip possibly bring?
Losing billions just on tickets—who would be willing to do that?
Granted, some goods could still turn a profit even through the Stargate, but for profit-driven merchants, pointlessly losing billions or even tens of billions was a psychological hurdle they simply couldn’t get over.
Wouldn’t it be better to band together into an even bigger caravan, spend a few months or a year crossing the star systems, and earn tens of billions more?
When space recovered once more, the Destroyer had already left the Jinmen Star System—indeed, it had already left Jinmen Province.
Li Qing opened his star map, which showed that his position had left Jinmen Province and arrived at the border between the Tianjin Sector and the Zutal Sector.
Ever since the United Empire began its campaign against the Zutal Sector, the Yu Clan had established a transit base with a Stargate at the border between the Tianjin Sector and the Zutal Sector.
The base had no name—it was simply called the Transit Base.
It had one Tier-1 Star City, one super-large Space Habitat, and seven large-to-medium Space Habitats.
Although this entire surrounding region had no Life Planets, and it was far from the three discovered alien civilizations, when Li Qing arrived here, he found the place just as bustling as Jinmen—in fact, even livelier and more active.
Not only were the three Regional Channels buzzing with activity, but even the Elite Channel, where people in Jinmen rarely spoke, was very active here, with people posting messages from time to time.
The Destroyer first entered the Transit Base’s Star City to register with the Expeditionary Force.
At the moment, because the Outpost Base in Zutal was still under construction, the Expeditionary Force headquarters was still located here.
Once construction there was complete, the headquarters would move over.
It was worth noting that even after the Outpost Base was established and the Star City erected, there would be no Stargate directly teleporting there.
Because the Zutal Sector was covered by the Dust Nebula, certain special substances within it could interfere with transmission.
The nebula was like a vast Interference Field covering most of the Zutal Sector—not only could Stargates not teleport into it, but even ordinary warships’ Hyperspace Engines could not control their exit point inside.
If used forcibly, there was a high probability of a transmission error, causing the ship to appear in the endless void between star systems.
Therefore, traveling from the Transit Base to the Outpost Base required sailing there yourself—there was no way to use Stargate teleportation.
Unless, of course, one could obtain a Super Stargate capable of forcibly penetrating the nebula.
After completing registration, Li Qing didn’t go anywhere.
He stayed aboard his warship watching the Regional Channels, preparing to analyze the current situation in the area from the channel discussions.
“Large merchant caravan heading to the Outpost Base seeking escort teams. Small and medium-sized teams with a Credit Rating above 70 required. Salary negotiable.”
“Bauhinia Chamber of Commerce recruiting escort teams. Destination: Outpost Base. Large and medium-sized teams with a Credit Rating above 75 required. Salary negotiable.”
“The Sky Surveyor Legion is recruiting Independent Pioneers. Requirements: less than ten years as a Pioneer, new and old both welcome. Veterans will be evaluated on past combat records, newcomers on Innate Attributes. Generous benefits. Also recruiting a batch of miners: Mining skill lv3 or above, Mineral Analysis lv3 or above, Space Geology lv2 or above required.”
“Attention: the Tianji Team accepted an escort mission but did nothing when ambushed midway, resulting in the cargo being stolen. All merchant caravan bosses, take note.”
“Idiotic Qianyuan Chamber of Commerce—changing course and taking a detour midway, forcing us to do tasks unrelated to escorting, which led to us being attacked. This has nothing to do with the escort mission. We refused, and we broke no rules.”
Ignoring the two parties hurling insults at each other, just one rough glance was enough for Li Qing to see how prosperous trade at the Transit Base was.
With the Outpost Base being established, massive quantities of supplies would certainly need to be shipped over from Jinmen.
In fact, gathering supplies counted as one of the military missions, and in the early stages before the Outpost Base was established, such missions made up an enormous proportion.
“Hmm, should I try my hand at trading too?”
Although he would still have to fly the stretch from the Transit Base to the Outpost Base himself, he wouldn’t need to lead a huge fleet—he could simply store the fleet in his Palm Universe and travel light with a single Destroyer.
That would save both the travel costs from Jinmen to the Transit Base and the expense of hiring an Escort Fleet.
As he was mulling it over, he suddenly received a communication from an unknown source.
He answered casually, and a light-screen popped open.
Li Lie appeared on it, asking in surprise:
“Didn’t you say you weren’t coming to Zutal? What gives?”
Li Qing was even more surprised.
“How did you know I was here? I just arrived.”
“My dad told me.”
“Second Uncle, huh.”
“By the way, did you come alone?”
“Yep.”
“Perfect timing, then. We’ve joined forces with several small and medium-sized teams to organize a super fleet heading to the Outpost Base, and we’re recruiting escorts. Want to join? You’ll be paid according to the ships under your command.”
“Ah, well…”
Li Qing thought for a moment and asked:
“When do you depart?”
“In about a week. The fleet is so large that we need more escorts—we haven’t finished recruiting yet.”
Li Qing asked curiously:
“How big is it exactly?”
“Over two thousand large Transport Ships, worth at least two trillion in total.”
“Hss!”
Li Qing drew in a sharp breath.
“You’re playing this big?”
Li Lie nodded.
“Yeah, we’ve got a big shot in our team. You know Yu Yuefei? The treasured pearl of the Yu family, the one with the Purple Epic-grade Innate Talent. She and her twin sister, along with several clansmen, formed a team, then joined forces with several other small and medium-sized teams to pull off this huge operation. If they successfully deliver the goods to the Outpost Base, the profit will be at least 40%.”
“Hss!”
Li Qing was shocked again.
Forty percent of a two-trillion principal—that was eight hundred billion.
Just a few days ago, he had been feeling smug about earning 40 billion Star Credits in one go, but now, looking at what others were doing—trillions at a stroke—he was completely outclassed.
“Two trillion in capital? How does she have that much money?”
“A lot of the same-clan members she recruited were pioneers from the previous expeditions and the one before that. They come from wealthy families and have had six or seven more years than us to build up their fortunes. Saving up tens or even hundreds of billions wouldn’t be a problem for them. On top of that, quite a few of the teams that joined her or partnered with her are noble scions from other top-tier clans—they have money too. All things considered, putting together two trillion isn’t impossible.”
“That’s insanely rich!”
“Heh, quite a few of them are direct descendants of top-tier clans. Word is one of them is a direct descendant of one of the Empire’s fourteen Starsea Lords. They all joined for the sake of pursuing a beauty.”
“I see!”
Li Qing clicked his tongue.
“By the way, did you join to pursue her too?”
“Of course not. I saw that her team was attracting so many noble elites—it’s bound to go places. If I stick with them and we manage to seize a Life Planet in the future, I’ll be counted as one of the founding members. I’ll definitely get a share, and whether I hold onto my equity or sell it, that’s a fortune right there.”
“Oh right, do you want to join too?”
“With just two ships, would they take me?”
“Of course. You’re a member of the Qinghe Li Clan, after all.”
“Alright then, I’m in.”
“That’s more like it. I’ll send you the coordinates. Come by and check in when you have time.”
“Sure. I’ve got some things to take care of here—I’ll come over in a few days.”
“Great.”