Jing Yang was working in his studio to create an even stronger mecha. Avery and John were just relying on the fact that their mechas were stronger than those of other countries to act unscrupulously in certain situations. Now the Wilkesa Empire had Jing Yang, so they would be at odds with Fetani sooner or later. Jing Yang wanted to use the mecha he created to crush the mecha Avery made. He would give him a heavy psychological blow, while also getting revenge on John.
Jing Yang sat in his wheelchair, watching as the metal that he wanted to use to make the armor casing of the mecha was being tested for impact and explosion resistance.
Denanfry walked in the door, stood beside him, and watched the experiment together with him.
"Does the general know how much of a gap there exists between your current mecha and John's mecha?" Jing Yang asked, eyes still facing forward.
"I exchanged moves with him a few years ago. At that time his mecha was clearly better than mine, but he still lost to me." Denanfry said. "Although afterward I never faced off with him again, according to the information I've received, Fetani's current strongest mecha—that is, John's mecha—has technology that is at least 300 years ahead of the other countries. I would quite like to fight with him once and see what it feels like to fight against a mecha 300 years ahead of its time."
"Do you believe that I can create a mecha that's even stronger than theirs?" Jing Yang turned to look at him.
"Of course." Denanfry looked him in the eye and earnestly answered. "Since I have already decided to trust you, I will not start doubting you halfway through."
"Then, when I am finished creating your mecha, you will drive it to help me get my revenge!" Jing Yang said.
"Good! I promise you!" Denanfry said seriously and solemnly.
Jing Yang smiled at him, then continued to watch the metal being tested.
"Now there's a good opportunity for you to hit Avery and John once. Do you want to try it?" Denanfry said.
"Oh? What opportunity?" Jing Yang was very interested. He certainly didn't want to miss an opportunity to strike at Avery and John.
"Come with me to my office. I'll tell you the details." Denanfry turned and left the workshop.
Jing Yang followed him in his wheelchair.
The two people arrived together at Denanfry's office. Denanfry hugged Jing Yang to the sofa. He opened the handrail of the wheelchair, took out Jing Yang's medicine, and then poured a mug of hot water for him. "It's time for you to take your medicine. First take it."
Jing Yang took the medicine and then slowly sipped at his hot water.
Denanfry sat down on the couch opposite of Jing Yang. "Within the territory of the Kingdom of Billiver, there is an area called the Haiyun star cluster. Do you know about the situation with this star cluster?"
"Of course." Jing Yang put down his teacup. "All of the planets in the Haiyun star cluster are covered in oceans, without the least bit of land. There aren't even islands. But the oceans are quite rich in resources, and there are large amounts of untapped energy reserves in the deep sea. The resources on the country's other planets are relatively scarce, so they are entirely relying on the Haiyun star cluster's resources to support themselves. But these resources from the Haiyun star cluster can only support their citizens' survival, so their country is relatively poor. Even though the Haiyun star cluster is rich in resources, once they are mined the oceans will be polluted, so the country's people would obviously not agree. The matter you wanted to tell me wouldn't be related to their country wanting to mine these resources, would it?"
"You're right." Denanfry nodded. "What I am about to say is exactly that. The Kingdom of Billiver holds such a huge energy treasure trove yet still remains a relatively poor and backwards country, they are naturally unwilling. But precisely because their technology is outdated, they would definitely suffer in combat, so they were also one of the first countries to join the Federation. With the protection of the federation treaties, in recent years they haven't experienced much war. They have always wanted to mine the resources in the Haiyun star cluster, but like you just said, once they start mining they would destroy the marine environment, and they don't even have the technology or equipment needed to mine. So they want to request the help of the other countries to help them extract this energy without polluting the marine environment."
"They're requesting help from other countries to help them mine for free?" Jing Yang raised an eyebrow.
"Of course no country would help them mine for free. They will offer a very high reward. If the energy can be mined without polluting the environment, the energy mined would be split 6 to 4, where they would receive 6 and the country mining it would receive 4. If during the mining process there is pollution, depending on the severity of the contamination, it would be split 8 to 2 or 9 to 1."
"That is indeed a big deal." Jing Yang sighed.
"There are a lot of countries who want to help them mine, because even if you just get 10% of the energy, that's still a very considerable amount." Denanfry asked Jing Yang. "So, would you be able to create mining equipment that wouldn't pollute the marine environment?"
Jing Yang didn't answer him immediately. He closed his eyes and leaned back on the sofa, using the system to search to see if there were designs for any equipment that could extract energy resources from the sea while not polluting the surroundings. The system suddenly showed many different kinds of equipment. Jing Yang looked through them for ones that would match the Haiyun star cluster's situation, and found that there were still a dozen or so that were appropriate. But he still needed to know more about the specific situation to decide which kind to use.
Jing Yang opened his eyes. "Give me some information and data from their deep sea explorations. I'll study it and then I can tell you whether or not I can make it."
"The information is here. The Kingdom of Billiver sent a copy to every country that wanted to fight for the mining rights." Denanfry got up and walked to his desk to pick up his laptop, then returned to the sofa to hand the laptop to Jing Yang.
Jing Yang took the laptop and flipped through the data.
"The Kingdom of Billiver will definitely leave some things out, so this information is most likely incomplete." Denanfry said.
After glancing through the data, Jing Yang smiled. "The data is indeed incomplete. Their exploration equipment was already not that good, and then in their data files they also took some out. Their new king is not only very decisive but also very cautious."
"I'll find a way to get a more detailed copy." Denanfry said.
"No need." Jing Yang said. "Before receiving the mining rights, it would be very difficult for any country to get the complete data. And even if we were able to get the complete exploration data from the Kingdom of Billiver, it would still be worse than us personally going to explore it ourselves. This data is enough. I will go try to create a design that doesn't pollute the seas, and then we can try to mine it. In the worst case, even if we pollute the ocean, aren't we still able to mine?"
"The Kingdom of Billiver will formally decide on the Federal Star which country would be able to mine. Before then, every country can submit a mining plan and cooperation contract." Denanfry looked at Jing Yang. "Now there are already teams from many countries heading toward the Federal Star, so I wanted to ask if you are willing to lead a team over, or if you want to just stay behind the scenes to provide programs and complete the equipment?"
Jing Yang thought a bit and asked, "Avery will also be going, right?"
"He will definitely go." Denanfry said. "For Fetani, the right to mine is something that they must seize. As far as I know, the team led by Avery has already set out toward the Federal Star. They have had experience mining energy resources in the ocean before, and their equipment is truly more advanced than the other countries', so this time they want to go negotiate directly and take down the mining rights."
"Then I will also go." Jing Yang decided. "I will let Avery personally see who he was defeated by. I am quite interested in seeing what kind of expression he will show after he sees me."
"Then I will let people make the preparations. We will set off in a few days, and I will accompany you over." Denanfry said.
"You can go with me?" Jing Yang looked up at him.
Denanfry explained, "En. The troops that will replace me here on the Jinming star cluster have already set off. I was originally planning to go to the Federal Star for a while, and now I am just pushing it forward a few days. Plus this time teams from many different countries will be escorted by their armies, including during the mining process. And I have always been responsible for you, so later I will keep an eye on you and protect you."
"Then I will be troubling the general." Jing Yang looked at him with a vague smile.
Denanfry said with a serious expression. "This is my duty."
~
Even though the Wilkesa Empire also had mining equipment for extracting energy from the ocean, they wouldn't be able to mine without any pollution of the oceans. Jing Yang very quickly drew up a detailed equipment manufacturing design. He handed it over to the mechanical team of the First Legion to complete, and he would just be in charge of supervision and guidance.
The equipment was still under construction, but soon Jing Yang, as the team's chief mechanic, set off for the Federal Star.
All of the countries that arrived at the Federal Star began to negotiate mining with the representatives from the Kingdom of Billiver. They described their own strengths and abilities.
After an entire round of negotiations, only the Wilkesa Empire and the Fetani Empire's mining plans said that they could mine without any pollution of the marine environment.
So the representative from the Kingdom of Billiver decided to bring together the teams from both sides. The three sides would have a meeting together, and whichever country gave a higher commitment would receive the mining rights.
"Brother, did you investigate the identity of the chief mechanic of the Wilkesa Empire? I let some people go check, but they actually couldn't even get a single bit of information about him. What kind of person is he, making everything so mysterious." Before meeting with the representatives from the Kingdom of Billiver, Avery asked John.
"I let people go investigate. From the information I got from the Billiver representative, I only know that the chief mechanic is the same person as the maker of the Jinming star cluster's mining equipment. I don't have any other information." John stood up and sorted out his uniform. He walked out. "Let's go."
"The same person?!" Avery snorted coldly. "Then I really want to see him. I want to see what kind of person he is, to be hidden so deeply by Wilkesa, not leaking the least bit of information."
A group of people stood outside, and seeing the two men come out, they followed behind the two to walk out to the lobby.
One of the people in the crowd was Tony, who, as the deputy finance minister, should not have appeared in this kind of team. But after he got into a fight with Avery because he came home late, Avery directly went to ask John to cut off his position. In addition, wherever he went, Avery would always bring Tony along, which made it more convenient for him to keep an eye on Tony.
Tony was furious but didn't dare to voice it. No matter how angry or unwilling he was, he couldn't resist at all because he had to protect his father's job. Right now he was living without any freedom, and without even any dignity. He didn't feel the least bit of love for Avery anymore, and besides his disgust toward him, his strongest emotion was regret.
After getting on the car, John patted Avery's hand. "Relax, no matter what kind of person he is, we will definitely be able to get the mining rights this time. Not only do we have an abundance of experience in marine energy mining, the new equipment that you have already transformed is not something that any other country's equipment can be compared to. It's impossible for even Wilkesa to have stronger marine mining equipment than us. And the Wilkesa Empire would never be able to give them a higher commitment than us."
"I heard that this General Denanfry Kinlock will also appear. I am quite interested in seeing this person who even big brother would want to avoid offending." Avery looked out the window.
Translator Notes:
[1] Billiver – 比利弗, pinyin bi li fu
[2] Haiyun – 海运, much like the Jinming star cluster, this one is named after the resources on the planet. translates to marine, but I'm just putting the pinyin to be consistent with the Jinming one
Random Notes:
About 1 hour: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm, for 3.6k characters to 2.2k words.