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Chapter 62: Stepping into the Sea of Stars

“That’s right. Choose every component of your ship seriously. See with your two eyes as your spacecraft gets fitted piece by piece,” said Phantom earnestly.

Xia Fei leaned back in the lounge chair and pulled out a cigarette. He took several drags. “Building my warship by hand—what an excellent idea. Which spaceship manufacturing company are we heading?”

“What are we going to a spaceship manufacturing company for?” Phantom casually dismissed. “All spaceships have their service lifespans, and they will all be dumped on a warship graveyard once their use is exhausted. We’re going to find out where Endaro Star Region’s warship graveyard is and build a functional spaceship from there.”

Xia Fei blinked his eyes, an incredulous expression etched on his face. “People will throw an entire spaceship just like that? Won’t that be too much waste? Why not recycle and refit it?”

Phantom chuckled. “Do you think it’s so easy to dismantle a warship which weighs over hundreds and thousands of tons? Just the cost of dismantling a spaceship alone easily surpasses the value of the ship itself. The parts with some value still will be pulled apart to be sold separately to those small companies around the graveyard, leaving them to collect and reuse those, but the hardly valuable parts are considered scraps.”

Xia Fei pondered on this for a while. “So that means we will only be buying second-hand goods from those warship graveyards?”

Phantom shook his head and solemnly explained, “The most important aspect is that this motley pack of small factories can give you the chance to get hands-on experience with building your own spacecraft. You won’t get such treatment if you go to the four major warship manufacturers. Knowledge is what’s most important to you right now; if you must know, there are plenty of people who pilot spaceships their whole lives but aren’t even able to assemble one after seeing them with their two eyes.”

“Besides, the warship graveyards often buy from the army or purchase top-grade spaceships abandoned by prominent figures. Spaceships made from second-hand parts of such quality sources will be far more outstanding than the average newly-crafted spaceship. In fact, they will even let you fashion a vessel according to your wishes so that it can look however you want it to. You’ll be able to supervise the entire assembly process and guarantee that it will be top quality as well.

“The warship graveyard is your only choice if you wish to spend the least amount of money on the best possible spaceship. Only a true expert will opt to head over to a warship graveyard and construct space vessels for themselves. After all, even a normal Eagle-class frigate will cost you around eighty million, and if you wish to fit it completely with quality parts, expect to spend upward to three billion star coins!”

The points Phantom had raised were all very reasonable; which would be faster, a brand new Jetta or a second-hand Jetta that had a Ferrari engine fitted inside? The answer to this was evident in itself.

The greatest expenditure on a warship would not be the hull but rather its engine, electronic equipment, weaponry system, etc. If they were able to pick some good parts from a warship graveyard and fix up a spaceship, even though it would be a second-hand aircraft, its performance would no doubt be better than a newly-made spaceship.

Besides, he was already hugely drawn to the idea of being able to watch in person as his spaceship got fitted part by part, and since there were still several months before he was scheduled to report to Heaven Execution Training Camp, it would not be a bad idea to use this time to understand more about spaceships.

“I remember you saying that I need to reach Star Domain rank in terms of cultivation before I can have the qualifications to own a spaceship... I’m still quite a distance away from reaching that rank at the moment.”

Phantom guffawed. “You should really give that member’s handbook the Adjudicator Union had given you a good read. Indeed, your cultivation is slightly lacking, but you’re already a cadet adjudicator now, and that’s just one of the perks of being the organization’s member.”

This was when a blue helicopter appeared in the sky with a blast of its roaring blades. Landing on the far side of the beach, three widely smiling men stepped off it.

Wulong was the first to rush forward, hollering loudly, “Xia Fei! I heard that you’d qualified as an Adjudicator. Congratulations!”

Xia Fei waved his hand as he got up from the chair to greet them. “Hey, actually I didn’t pass the assessment, so I have no idea what they did to especially enroll me in the camp.”

“A special enrollment isn’t bad, either. I want to be specially enrolled, yet they won’t want me.” Wulong reached out his large two arms and engulfed Xia Fei in a firm hug. The man was strong, so much so that Xia Fei felt pain in his bones just from the embrace.

The four then lounged on the beach chairs. Wulong wanted two dozen bottles of cold beer, but Xia Fei was unable to drink during his medication, so all he drank was a glass of cold water.

Charlie was shyly sitting by the side, drinking his drink. Xia Fei smiled at the lad and asked, “Have you taken the Gene Optimization Fluid I gave you?”

Charlie’s face suddenly turned a little despondent as he quietly nodded. “I got the mathematics special ability, not my favorite speed ability.”

Seeing Charlie looking so crestfallen, Xia Fei, Andre, and Wulong could not help but laugh out loud.

“No one can guess what sort of special ability they will get after unlocking the seventh region of their brain. Actually, getting the mathematics ability isn’t bad for you. You studied finance, so having that special ability will be beneficial to your profession,” said Xia Fei.

Charlie sighed. “But I wanted to be as fast as you.”

Andre smiled as he patted Charlie’s head, his eyes filled with concern and care.

“Andre, what special ability did you get?” Xia Fei asked.

The old man shook his head and calmly answered, “I didn’t get anything.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Xia Fei felt a little sympathy for the man. He took another bottle of medicinal concoction and drank from it. He needed to drink a bottle of it every hour, and it just so happened to be time for his hourly dose.

Xia Fei’s body still had some drug residue—the bit that had not been completely absorbed from the last time. Adding the large amount of body improvement medicines he had taken during his fight with Chen Dong, the drug residue count in his body was fairly high presently. As such, only by taking many small doses of medicine could he slowly recover.

“I’ve thought about it, too. What use would acquiring a special ability be at my age, anyway? This is all destiny.” Andre chuckled, bearing a fairly optimistic outlook in life as he expressed his thoughts.

Xia Fei pulled out papers and handed it to Andre and Wulong. “I plan to establish a holding company which specializes in introducing technological advancements from other civilizations to Earth, then cooperate with the major companies in the Earth Federation by investing in technology.”

This talk of investment had immediately piqued Andre’s interest. He promptly scanned through the business proposal, his expression growing more excited the more he read.

“Xia Fei, this is a great idea. Right now, the various major companies have been stressing over their inability to pioneering advanced technology here on Earth. If you collaborate with them and provide the technologies they lack, they will most definitely be happy to do so. This will be a huge boon to the Federation as a whole,” sincerely opined Andre.

Wulong was not the sort to involve himself in something like investments, so he could not make heads or tails of what he was reading no matter how much he did. “Though I have no knowledge of investments, I do feel that your idea isn’t too bad. Since you’re gonna do it, I’ll jump into it with you.” Wulong patted his chest as he gave his word.

Andre handed the document to Charlie. “What are your thoughts on this?”

Charlie conscientiously read the document containing Xia Fei’s initial idea carefully. He spoke only after he was done reading the pile and had placed it on the table. “Earth is now only at the initial stage of civilization and lacks the power itself, but we do have cheap labor, and a base salary of six thousand federal dollars a month is no more than sixty cents in star currency. Such labor costs will simply be too low.”

“The development model you’re proposing here is very similar to what the Japanese did after World War II—utilizing low-cost labor to seize control of the market, then waiting until the necessary funds have been gathered to initiate the second and even third industrial upgrade, and establishing a powerful industry in the process.”

“This is best suited for the Earth Federation at its current stage of development. I do believe establishing such a company will not only bring in considerable profits but also greatly accelerate Earth’s progress itself. Still, based on your drafted proposal, we’ll need a large-scale investment to get started. How much do you intend to invest?”

Charlie truly lived up to his name as a finance genius, able to comprehend Xia Fei’s intention just by going through the document once.

“A hundred million star coins,” softly answered Xia Fei as he lifted a finger.

The three men nearly fell off their chairs from the shock they got. A hundred million star coins were equivalent to a trillion Federal dollars. Such an astronomical sum would even cause someone who was used to seeing such large figures like Andre to feel their hearts leap out of their chests.

“Do you really intend to invest a hundred million star coins?!” asked Andre, buzzing in his excitement.

“That’s right.” Xia Fei nodded.

Upon recalling that Xia Fei had once spent ten million on a flower, the three were no longer that shocked to hear him say that he would invest a hundred million star coins just to set up this holding company.

Andre laughed bitterly. “I originally intended to use my family funds to participate in this project of yours, but it seems that this plate you’ve got is simply too big, and the Rothchilds presently don’t have the power to do so.”

Xia Fei did not share this sentiment. “I’ll need your help in managing this company of mine, so you and Wulong will hold ten percent of the stocks.”

Andre immediately shook his head. “What sort of joke are you pulling? That’s an a-hundred-million-star-coin project you’re talking about; ten percent of that will come at about ten million star coins.”

Xia Fei lit a cigarette, looking all serious. “I’m not kidding. I only plan to invest, so you guys have to manage it for me. Trust me; ten percent of the shares isn’t overkill.”

Andre remained skeptical. “I’ve got plenty of friends in the investment bank, and they are all experts with rich experience in the field. If you lack a manager, I can introduce you to some talents that I know.”

Xia Fei laughed. “I definitely won’t entrust my back to someone I don’t know.”

“That, you don’t have to worry about. They are all professionals, so their character isn’t in question,” insisted Andre.

Xia Fei shook his head. “I don’t see it your way. I can only trust those who have gone through a life-and-death experience with me. In our search for Atlantis, that dangerous expedition that we embarked on together is the only reason why I’m willing to trust you guys. No matter how much you praise those men’s character before me, I’m sorry, but I won’t have any confidence in their capabilities.”

There were two levels of consideration why Xia Fei was so adamant about Andre and Wulong being his co-shareholders. While he indeed trusted these two, it was also because he had gotten plenty of benefits from that search for Atlantis, so this was a disguised compensation for them.

Andrew nodded his head slightly. “If you have that much faith in me, then you can just leave this matter to us; we won’t let you down.”

....

Four days later, Xia Fei sold all the spoils he had collected during the assessment for a total of 1.864 billion star coins.

Handing over a hundred million star coins to Andre as the startup funds for the holding company, Xia Fei proceeded to board a flight, which brought him out into the vast sea of stars all by himself.