This is not mechanical ascension...

Chapter 172 Red River Star Waterfall Fisherman Li Ming

Ya Luo held the smart terminal and gestured to Li Ming, "The Land of Stars is near the Red River Star Stream. The magnetic field interference from several meteorite belts is very high, and it is almost impossible to contact the outside world."

"Only the owners of the floating islands can contact the outside world."

Li Ming took a quick look, took out his smart terminal and joined the local network. A large amount of information was constantly being updated, including purchases, sales, and even team formation on the spot, which gave Li Ming a sense of déjà vu.

After putting away the smart terminal, he couldn't help but ask: "Who built these floating islands in the first place?"

"I'm not sure about this." Yaluo shook his head. "Anyway, the owner of the floating island changes constantly, but no one is allowed to destroy the floating island, otherwise the major forces in the Land of Stars will attack together."

Li Ming seemed to be thinking about something.

"Let's keep a low profile." Yaluo came up and whispered, "The Star Hunters must have known that we have arrived at the Land of Stars. Although this is the territory of the Collectors, the boss of the Star Hunters is also an A-level life form."

They killed Atom and came here in Duke Bai Ye's carriage. The shipyard's tight-lippedness was only relative. They certainly wouldn't dare to hide anything from the Star Hunters.

Li Ming nodded, then asked, "Is there any place here where I can get a large amount of metal materials?"

"A lot of metal materials?" Ya Luo was confused. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Is scrap metal okay?"

"Waste?" Li Ming thought, "That's fine."

"Red River Star Falls." Yaluo uttered an unfamiliar term, and then explained: "The Land of Stars is at the edge of the Red River Star Stream. The Red River Star Stream is extremely long and runs through a large number of star clusters."

"Every once in a while, there will be a star waterfall erupting, like a meteor, spewing out a lot of debris and even ruins of civilization from the Red River Star Stream. Many people make a fortune from this."

"Red River Star Waterfall..." Li Ming thought of the red galaxy that spread to the depths of the universe, and couldn't help but ask: "Where do those things come from?"

Ya Luo also shook his head: "Who knows? The Red Star Stream is extremely dangerous. No one dares to go deep into it."

Li Ming seemed to be thinking about something. Ya Luo glanced at him and shook his head, saying, "However, if you want to get a ticket, you must have a floating island."

"Hmm?" Li Ming frowned.

"The Land of Stars has been divided up by various A-level life forms. It's impossible for them to reveal the benefits to others for nothing." Yaluo whispered:

“The owners of the floating islands are basically all their people, and only their people are allowed to gain benefits.”

"Each floating island has a gravity grabber, which is used to capture a large number of things in the Red River Star Falls."

"Is that so..." Li Ming frowned, and Ya Luo said helplessly: "Yeah, don't even think about it."

Li Ming did not comment, and suddenly asked: "You said before that we can do business here?"

"Yeah." Yaluo didn't understand.

"Where is the place to rent a shop?"

Ya Luo was slightly stunned and asked in surprise: "You want to open a store?"

Li Ming shook his head, meaning something unclear: "No, I want to go fishing."

Yaluo led the way in front without saying a word. This area was a well-known trading zone in the Land of Stars.

All kinds of contraband that are rarely seen in ordinary civilization are available here, and many slaves in chains are openly displayed on the streets for people to choose from.

There are not many rules in this area, and one of them is that conflicts are not allowed in stores.

This boosted trade in the area, but also made prices in its shops extremely high.

"The minimum lease term is one year, no deposit is required, and there will be no refund." The pot-bellied pig man, with a fishy smell all over his body, lazily lay on the huge metal recliner without even opening his eyes.

All the houses on the entire floating island belong to collectors and are divided according to areas, and the prices are very high.

There are no empty houses in the best core area, but in the slightly inferior area, there is a three-story shop that has just been vacated.

"Five million a year, paid in one lump sum." The pig man glanced and casually quoted a price.

Li Ming couldn't help but be shocked. The price of five million for renting for a year was really high.

However, this is the Land of Stars, the most chaotic place. These houses have some security attributes and are naturally extremely expensive.

Ya Luo glanced at Li Ming and nodded, "That's it."

The pig man sat up with difficulty, followed the procedure familiarly, and asked them to give their names.

"Qinglong." Li Ming simply gave the name. The pig man didn't care whether it was true or not. He entered their current appearance into the data and reminded them:

"Remember the facial features on the mimic mask. If you change your face, we won't recognize you."

Then he threw out a crystal card, which was the key.

The whole process was short and rough, with too many loopholes.

After walking through several blocks, they arrived in front of the shop they rented. The walls were covered with gray-brown marks, but at least it was made of metal.

The door number area is a black screen, and it seems that it can be adjusted at will, which is very good.

On either side are the "Small Armor Shop" and the "Old Saab Pharmacy."

There are quite a lot of people on this street. There are no regulatory departments here. As long as you have good skills and can surpass others, no one will care no matter how high the price is.

I opened the door with the key card and a bloody smell hit me in the face. The first floor was empty and there were spurted blood marks all over the ground.

"Fuck, these people are getting lazier and lazier. They don't even clean up." Yaluo cursed.

Li Mingze said, "Didn't you say that conflicts are not allowed in the store?"

"Rules are rules." Ya Luo hesitated, "That's nominally true, but if the enemy is too strong, they will be killed without any reaction and the bodies will be cleaned up."

"The island guard will classify the case as missing. How can an A-level life form have the time to investigate such a thing?"

Li Ming made a "tsk" sound. Safety is relative. At least one must be able to protect oneself.

"So, by opening a store, we are simply setting ourselves up as a target for the Star Hunters." Yaluo said helplessly.

Li Ming ignored him and several people started cleaning the room.

With [Smart Assistance] turned on, Li Ming was even able to pick out dried chunks of meat from many cracks, as well as monitoring equipment that he wasn't sure if they were still useful.

"I really like this place more and more." Li Ming shook his head, crushed the surveillance camera in his hand, opened the door number manager and adjusted it.

"Qinglong Machinery Shop."

Seeing Li Ming was still seriously picking a name, Ya Luo felt a toothache, "Are you really planning to do business here?"

"What's wrong? Are there any other rules?" Li Ming was puzzled.

Ya Luo was helpless, "No, that's good, with your skills, you should have no shortage of business."

"Collectors are very fond of mechanics. I heard that he has a lot of broken things and often asks people to repair them. If you make something famous, maybe he will take a fancy to it."

Having said that, Yaluo obviously didn't hold out hope, as the collectors were mostly great mechanics.

"You reminded me." Li Ming opened the door number management system again and added a few lines of words--
"We only accept customization and repair of weapons of C-level and above."

The level is too low, you can't earn much, it's a waste of time.

"Hiss~" Yaluo took a breath, "Do you want to add a cap?"

"You reminded me again." Li Ming raised his eyebrows and added another line of words: "If it can't be repaired, double refund!"

Yaluo stared in astonishment and said, "What if someone comes with an A-level weapon to harass you?" "Let them come." Li Ming didn't care. If you want to fish, you have to put down a big bait.

The opening of the new store didn't attract many people.

However, after adding this line of small words, it attracted many interstellar villains to stop, point, speak in an interstellar dialect from somewhere, and then laugh.

People also came out from the shops on both sides and opposite, looking quite surprised, and then shook their heads.

"It's easy to get killed by pulling this kind of gimmick." Yaluo couldn't help but remind that in a normal civilization, this kind of gimmick might be able to attract some attention.

But in the land of stars, playing too big can easily lead to failure.

But Li Ming seemed not to have heard it. There were six rooms on the first and second floors, which could be renovated at will during the rental period.

Li Ming directly opened up the entire third floor, and gave the second floor to Yaluo and Kai to live in.

Kai helped clean up. Due to the presence of the gene inhibitor, he was sweating profusely. After hesitating for a while, he finally found Li Ming and asked, "May I ask what arrangements you have for me?"

After following him all the way, he has discovered that Yaluo has little say, and all the decisions are made by this man named Qinglong.

But this person doesn't seem to be from the Interstellar Alliance.

He hardly ever saw this person on the spaceship, which made him feel uneasy all day. Now he finally had the chance to ask him about it.

Li Ming said casually: "I have just opened a new store and don't have any waiters. You can take over for the time being."

Kai's face was stiff: "Waiter?"

"How about three thousand five hundred star coins per month?" Li Ming asked with a smile.

"This..." Kai forced a smile and said, "Sir, just tell me what you think. I don't think you want to let me go."

"Indeed." Li Ming admitted frankly, and Kai's expression froze.

"I am a profit-driven person, and I finally rescued you..." Li Ming smiled gently, but Kai almost couldn't hold back.

"You should also know that I am an exiled noble and I don't have much money on me." Kai said helplessly.

"No, you are very rich." Li Ming smiled, "The gene sequence of the golden-eyed people is called Judgment Blade, right? I want the theory of evolution."

"Evolution?"

Although Kai's mimicry mask has two eyes, it has no adhesive, so it looks empty and no emotions can be seen.

But from his high-pitched tone, one could sense his turbulent emotions, and he flatly refused: "I can't possibly tell you."

Unexpectedly, the other party was not angry, but laughed, "That means you really memorized the theory of evolution, that's amazing."

Kai's face turned pale, and he reluctantly said, "It's useless even if you get the theory of evolution. Your gene seed and the Sword of Judgment don't match at all."

Li Ming laughed, knowing that this matter could not be rushed, and said: "Don't worry, the room on the right upstairs is yours. Also, Tepper will follow you, so don't do anything tricky."

Kay felt depressed but helpless.

Li Ming didn't want to let him go for the time being. This guy still had secrets. He hadn't figured out what the golden vertical pupil he picked up was used for.

Moreover, the anti-plunder organization of the Interstellar Alliance seems to be quite interested in him.

Li Ming was already thinking about how to squeeze enough urine out of this toad.

Ya Luo, who was not far away, looked over again and again, his eyes flickering, as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself.

What Yaluo didn't expect was that a few hours later, some living beings came to his door. They were a few humans wearing simple armor.

"Everyone, we won't open until tomorrow. We're not accepting customers today." Kay said expressionlessly.

"Why are there still people chasing customers away?" One of them looked at Kai, "Your store is really interesting. It's okay that they are so arrogant, but this waiter is actually wearing a gene inhibitor?"

Kai couldn't help but frown when he heard that. Ya Luo came over and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, it's true that we haven't opened yet. Look, there's nothing on this floor. Are you still not working?"

The scarred man next to him grinned and said, "I don't care. We are here to inform you that if you want to do business here, you have to hand over one third of your net profit to us."

"Remember, it's net profit, not turnover. We'll have people watching it, so don't try to play any tricks."

Ya Luo's expression became calm, "Who are you? The Collector's people?"

The scarred burly man sneered: "How can the old collector have time to take care of these trivial matters? If you want to do business here, you must abide by our rules!"

"Otherwise, do you know how the original boss here died?"

Yaluo's face turned cold.

"No problem." A voice came from the stairs, and Li Ming walked down slowly, "One third, right? I understand."

Several people looked at each other, sized up Li Ming, and said with satisfaction: "You are the boss? Not bad, you are quite sensible."

After getting a satisfactory result, several people left cursing.

Li Ming casually threw out a [Positioning], which covered a range of 10,000 meters, enough to determine the other party's location.

Ya Luo frowned and said, "This shouldn't be the case. How dare someone collect protection money in the collector's territory?"

"Protection money?" Li Ming shook his head. "They are here to collect the money for not causing trouble. If they can't protect me, they can always cause trouble."

Ya Luo was stunned. "Yeah, fuck, I used to come here just to buy things, but I didn't expect there are so many tricks here."

Then, he couldn't help but ask, "One third of the net profit was given away just like that?"

Li Ming did not comment, "Wait and see, they should not be the first group of people."

Yaluo was a little suspicious and waited for about half an hour. Surprisingly, another group of people came. They were a subspecies of lizardmen.

It’s similar to what those people said before, they also want one-third of the net profit.

There were three groups of people going back and forth, and Ya Luo finally cursed.
"Each of them wants one third. It won't be enough if we give it all to them. We have to collect the protection fee piece by piece. How can there be such a person?"

"Ha..." A low laugh came from outside the door, and it turned out to be an old guy who was almost skin and bones, with messy beard, bald head, hunched body, and sinister eyes.

"You..." Yaluo stared at him, "Are you the owner of the pharmacy next door?"

"Saber." The old man introduced himself and said in a hoarse voice: "For the sake of us being human, I have to say a word to you. Close the shop as soon as possible."

"Who are they?" Yaluo was not angry, but asked instead.

"Let's go together." Saber's words made Ya Luo stunned for a moment: "Let's go together?"

Saber sneered, "Yes, mechanical maintenance and weapon customization are only accepted for C-level and above. With such a big tone, the mechanics in this area will join forces to squeeze you to death."

"You are smart. No one has a conflict. Don't be fooled by their fierce looks. If you dare to attack them, believe it or not, they will lie on the ground and let the Collector's guards come to punish you."

Yaluo grinned, "I guessed that. They definitely won't do anything."

Then he asked tentatively: "Is there a solution?"

"Yes." Saber laughed, "But I don't want to tell you."

Yaluo's face froze slightly, and Saber had already turned and left.

(End of this chapter)