Chapter 359: Chapter 358 Next Stop, Riley Star

After the meeting, Zhang Yuan specially called over Ye Kaifu, the Chief Mineral Engineer from the Ministry of Industry, and cheerfully made him a cup of tea.

“The scientific achievements of the past two years have been quite impressive, haven’t they? If we stayed at Gliese 581, where would we have achieved this? Ah, war really is a good channel for progress. We’ve merely plundered a small portion of a third-level civilization’s achievements, and we’ve developed so well, saving who knows how much time.”

Ye Kaifu unceremoniously took a sip of water. “So, you want to rob even more powerful civilizations? You must be tired of being a captain, huh?”

Zhang Yuan smiled and said, “Don’t assume that higher civilizations are necessarily more powerful than us. Take the Badeit Civilization for instance, if they exhaust their racial potential after a few million years and fail to establish a better system, they might regress or even collapse…”

“There are certainly such regressing civilizations in the universe.”

“Decline is a common occurrence in the universe. Just like the history of Earth civilization, the decline of The Sun Never Sets Empire allowed the rise of subsequent nations…”

After some small talks, Zhang Yuan shifted the conversation to more serious matters. “By the way, we should mine more of the Rhodium element and the Platinum Element for future use… to make the super-magnetic ‘A’ generators, we’ll need a large amount of these two elements.”

“We also need to prioritize nuclear fuel replenishment. It would be best if our spaceship could carry raw materials; having enough raw materials would at least give us some peace of mind. Also, have there been any problems with the entire smelting process? Do we need more manpower?”

Here it comes!

This guy was bound to ask these questions!

Ye Kaifu’s old face suddenly wrinkled like a crumpled sheet of paper, that feeling of being on the brink of sudden death appeared again.

“A debtor is the real boss! I’m not afraid of him!”

Thinking this, Ye Kaifu carelessly put his legs up, and nonchalantly said, “The overtime hours are just too much. I went to the hospital a few days ago, they said my heart pacemaker is having issues due to my age… Old Zhang, can I take a few days off to rest?”

“Oh,” Zhang Yuan said indifferently, “then I approve you to get a bionic heart replacement. After the surgery, you can rest for half a day… It’s just a minor surgery anyway.”

“Only half a day…”

Ye Kaifu then said, “My wife’s teeth have been hurting; I want to accompany her to the hospital. It’s been delayed for a long time, and her entire face might swell up if we delay further.”

“Oh, then I approve another half day off for you.”

“Li Zhendong has been having trouble with hemorrhoids these past few days; I want to accompany him to the hospital for surgery.”

Zhang Yuan looked up at the ceiling. “I approve another half day off for you.”

“Colonel Guo’s shoulder has been hurting these days; I want to accompany him to the hospital…”

“Then, I approve another half day off for you.”

Adding up to two days off…

Ye Kaifu was absolutely delighted.

Wait a minute!

He saw the mischievous smile on Zhang Yuan’s face, and a shiver ran down his spine.

Sure enough, Zhang Yuan said expressionlessly, “I recorded just now. I will send this message to your wife, Li Zhendong, and Guo Qiang’s phones. Especially to Li Zhendong, he’s got hemorrhoids, huh? After the surgery, he’ll have to lie in bed for several days…”

Damn, this guy is still so scheming!

Ye Kaifu quickly jumped up from his chair, with a face that pleaded affectionately, “Delete it, just delete it quickly! It was just a joke… I just wanted to rest for a while, right?”

Zhang Yuan sighed, “I was joking, who has time to record all day here?”

“But, although your mineral mining and smelting team has a heavy workload, taking a few days off occasionally shouldn’t be a problem. Why come to me for approval? Holidays can be taken as usual.”

“Isn’t it because there are too many tasks, and we’re afraid of delaying things?” Ye Kaifu turned serious again.

Zhang Yuan recalled that Old Ye had nagged about wanting a holiday in front of him several times, yet he had never once taken one off, surely making it one of the most laborious departments.

He sighed slightly, “We’ve just discussed this in the meeting. The technology of the Sea Swallow-IV Spaceship is not up to par, so there’s no need to mass-produce the related machinery anymore. The demand for mineral resources has also decreased a lot, so you guys can take a few days off, it won’t hurt. We’re still going to stay here for two more years, which will be enough for you to mine plenty of minerals.”

“Really?” Ye Kaifu took a sip of water, his fingers inadvertently gesturing.

Then, suddenly realizing, he felt his excitement seemed somewhat inappropriate, and couldn’t help but smile awkwardly.

The technology of the Sea Swallow-IV Spaceship not being up to par was hardly any good news…

Zhang Yuan, however, didn’t care about the other’s reaction but was silently contemplating.

Looking down from this spot toward the planets below, humans had only developed a tiny part of this planet, not even one ten-thousandth of it.

This planet was extremely active; having formed just 300 million years ago, its rapid rotation had reduced the difficulties of constructing the Space Elevator significantly.

But, since the planet was so young and its surface still had a small amount of atmosphere yet to escape, various geological disasters, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, happened frequently, and a significant amount of harmful gases filled the atmosphere…

Fortunately, humans were no longer the same as before, with some important factories being equipped on transport ships. In the case of an emergency, they could take off and evacuate immediately.

Although the overall industrial progress was not smooth, it wasn’t impossible to develop.

The accumulation of experience was indeed a critical step; should humans face an emergency in the future requiring them to mine such planets to replenish resources, scrambling to gain related experience at the last minute would surely be a loss-making deal.

“You know what our most urgent need is now?”

“What?” Ye Kaifu asked in confusion.

“Shields!” Zhang Yuan said excitedly, “Third-level Civilization, in theory, should possess Shield Technology. The electromagnetic shield we can barely manage now is too weak. We need a genuine Ion shield! With an Ion shield, when facing a lower-level civilization, it would be a complete domination, no more fears.”

In interstellar warfare, the fastest weapon is the laser, followed by the Ion cannon.

An Ion shield can primarily defend against laser weapons and also diminish some of the ion cannon’s power.

These two types of high-speed weapons are difficult to intercept; having them neutralized by an Ion shield would undoubtedly guarantee an unbeatable position in warfare against lower-level civilizations.

Of course, the Ion shield is not invincible.

An electromagnetic gun could penetrate its defenses, but the speed of an electromagnetic gun is generally not very fast, at least not reaching near-light speeds.

Then there’s also antimatter weaponry, which is on another level of advanced interstellar warfare.

“Didn’t they say that our next stop has a low-level civilization?” Ye Kaifu said, “We surely won’t be afraid of a low-level civilization.”

Zhang Yuan nodded, “Yeah, it’s already been explored by the Badeit Civilization, called, what is it… the Riley Civilization, a Primitive Civilization that has yet to develop technology. Sadly, the Badeit Civilization wasn’t interested in investigating further.”

“But, that was a thousand years ago. Who knows what can happen in a thousand years?”

“I bet nothing will happen. A Primitive Civilization remains a Primitive Civilization.”

“A bet?” Zhang Yuan quickly shook his head, “Let’s not, I also think nothing will happen… It should be a very interesting journey.”

…