Jiang Ye tucked his pistol into the back of his waistband, covering it with his clothes.
Leaving Isabel’s home, he quickly arrived at the agreed-upon alley.
The alley was still empty. Jiang Ye didn’t enter but stood in the shadows across the street to wait.
There were few pedestrians on the street; it wasn’t yet time for factory shifts, and most people were at work.
He waited and waited, and finally, someone arrived!
A tall beauty in a red dress, sunglasses covering half her face, with a slit in her skirt that revealed glimpses of her fair legs as she walked. The real person was almost identical to the photo!
Jiang Ye’s phone vibrated.
Pu Simeng: I’m here, how much longer for you?
Da Wei Tian Long: Count down ten numbers, and I’ll give you a surprise.
Jiang Ye crossed the street and walked towards the alley, precisely ten seconds.
Pu Simeng stood in the middle of the alley, waiting with a smile. The moment she saw Jiang Ye, her smile froze, and the phone in her hand dropped to the ground with a crack.
“You’re the one impersonating my secretary?” Jiang Ye asked, hands behind his back. “And doing this illegal business?”
Pu Simeng was flustered and helpless. She took off her sunglasses and bowed repeatedly. “Lord Commander, please forgive me! I know I was wrong!”
“Wrong about what?”
“I shouldn’t have impersonated your secretary, nor should I have done this business.” Pu Simeng was sweating profusely.
She hadn’t expected such a disastrous turn of events, having hooked a Lord Commander!
She had been boasting online about being the Commander’s secretary, only for the person she was chatting with to be the Commander himself!
She regretted it immensely, feeling an urge to smash her head against a wall.
“What is your job? Is it purely a flesh trade?” Jiang Ye frowned. “Looking at your fair skin, you’re not a colonist, are you?”
“I… I am an electrical engineer at the Termite Real Estate Building. I used to work at the Node Star headquarters, and my household registration is in Node Star’s Cangshi City. I was transferred here last month.” Pu Simeng’s face turned bright red. “I do this as a side job.”
“How long have you been doing it?”
“Just started…”
“Bullshit! Tell the truth, or I’ll have you taken back to the police station.”
“Three… three years.”
Jiang Ye was stunned. She was an experienced hand?
“You’re young, why are you doing something like this? Isn’t being an electrical engineer a good job? Why get involved in such a dirty business?” Jiang Ye reprimanded. “I don’t care what you did before, but in my territory, such absurdities are not allowed from now on, understand?”
“Understood, understood! I absolutely won’t dare again!”
“Pay a fine or go to the police station?”
“Pay the fine!”
“One hundred thousand,” Jiang Ye said.
Pu Simeng’s face instantly turned pale. One hundred thousand credits was equivalent to two months’ salary as an electrical engineer.
But it was better than going to the police station.
She took out her phone and, suppressing her heartache, transferred the money to Jiang Ye.
“Do you know anyone else who does this?” Jiang Ye asked again.
“No, no, I’m a freelancer.”
“Let’s go. Behave yourself from now on, and don’t let it happen again,” Jiang Ye said.
Pu Simeng fled as if escaping.
A whistling sound came from afar, clearly from some large flying vehicle. Jiang Ye looked out from the alley; it was Isabel’s transport ship returning.
He jogged back to the delivery center.
Just then, Isabel returned in a flurry, wearing a tight delivery uniform, looking heroic and spirited.
“What did you want to see me for?” Isabel’s eyes lit up the moment she saw Jiang Ye. “Miss me?”
“I need your help transporting troops,” Jiang Ye said.
Isabel’s expression immediately fell. “Serious business? Then sit down and wait. I’m hungry, I need to eat first.”
Jiang Ye, helpless, sat down to wait.
Isabel went to the kitchen to print food and spent twenty minutes preparing a large table full of meat and fish.
“Get your own chopsticks,” she said.
Jiang Ye got up to get chopsticks and a small spoon and sat down to eat without any pretense.
Isabel sat opposite him, sweating profusely from the heat. She unzipped her uniform and took off her top, revealing her fair upper body clad only in black underwear. She was still uninhibited in front of Jiang Ye, even happy to show off her good figure.
“It’s like this, I’m expanding my troops, but we’ve encountered a vast desert. There are too many sand worms in the desert, like fish in the sea, making it impossible to cross. Detouring or building bridges isn’t feasible,” Jiang Ye explained. “So I wanted to ask if you could use your transport ship to help me send my armored vehicle units to the other side of the desert?”
“No problem, three thousand credits per armored vehicle,” Isabel said, holding up three fingers.
Jiang Ye’s vision went black. “So expensive?”
“I’m short on cash lately, need to make some money,” Isabel said directly, showing a profiteer’s smile.
“Don’t, sister. I’m still drowning in debt.” Jiang Ye tried to put on a pitiful expression. “For the sake of our great friendship…”
“We can also lower the price to one thousand, provided you stay with me tonight.” Isabel bit her chopsticks, her eyes like a hungry wolf eyeing a lamb.
Jiang Ye scratched his head anxiously.
Expanding the frontier was a dangerous job, and the number of armored vehicles deployed at once was at least a hundred.
If the transport cost was three thousand per vehicle, sending the troops to the other side of the desert in the morning would cost three million, and bringing them back at night would be another three million. The transportation costs alone would be six million.
Although Jiang Ye’s daily income was already approaching a hundred million, six million was still a significant sum!
“What do you say? Consider it?” Isabel narrowed her eyes. “Do you think your looks are worth millions? No, right? So why are you still hesitating?”
“Get out, get out! I’m not that kind of person! I have integrity!” Jiang Ye said with a serious expression. “Don’t think you can buy me with money!”
“Tch!” Isabel rolled her eyes.
The two stopped talking and ate in silence. Although there were many dishes on the table, the portions were small, and half of them were quickly cleared.
“Did that art installation in your basement win an award?” Jiang Ye suddenly remembered. “The one with a bunch of my mannequins, that very perverted art exhibition?”
“Third prize,” Isabel shrugged. “Third prize is actually an honorable mention, with almost no prize money.”
“The mannequins?”
“Threw them away. Didn’t you tell me to throw them away?” Isabel pouted.
Jiang Ye breathed a sigh of relief, finally putting a worry to rest.
After eating in silence for a few minutes, he was almost full.
Jiang Ye put down his chopsticks and stood up. “Tomorrow morning at nine o’clock, you’ll fly your ship to Chalkland. I’ll send you the coordinates for Chalkland.”
The next day.
Chalkland, new military base.
At seven in the morning, the sun had just risen, and it was still cool in Chalkland and the desert.
Squadrons of spider armored vehicles poured into the new base. Cheers erupted on the channel. The scale of this military base was larger than all the previous bases combined, and the soldiers were very excited.
The spider armored vehicle factory next to the base was also completed. From now on, damaged armored vehicles could be replenished faster, and the ability to rapidly deploy troops would also increase.
In the main building’s conference room, a group of officers had just taken their seats, waiting quietly, occasionally glancing towards the empty end of the long table.
Finally, the conference room door opened again.
Jiang Ye stumbled in, his eyes dark as if he were a panda, clearly suffering from poor sleep.
“Greetings, Commander!” The officers stood up in unison.
“Sit, sit, sit. Is everyone here? Then let’s officially start the meeting.” Jiang Ye threw himself into the chair at the end of the long table, letting out a tired sigh. “Secretary, a glass of water!”
The secretary sitting in the corner of the conference room immediately brought a glass of hot water. Jiang Ye drank it in one gulp, his pale complexion improving slightly as he slowly sat up straight.
The attendees exchanged glances, having never seen their Commander looking so haggard.
Indeed, as Commander, he was burdened with important matters and was busy every day. The higher the status, the greater the responsibility!
The officers thought to themselves, all of them filled with admiration for their Commander.
“The content of today’s meeting is to continue the advance!”
“In two more hours, a large transport ship will arrive to pick up a squad of spiders and fly them to the other side of the desert. Then the ship will return to pick up another squad.”
“The spiders that reach the other side must not be idle. They must diligently explore the new territory and scan everything they pass. The transport fee for the ship is very expensive, do you know how expensive? It costs over ten thousand credits to transport one spider across the desert, one way!”
“At ten o’clock tonight, the spiders on the other side of the desert will gather and return to the base by ship to rest.”
“Today, squads one and two will go. After that, we will rotate daily.” Jiang Ye said with murderous intent. “We cannot stand still. We must continue to capture and eliminate the sand worms in the desert, but we also need to divide our forces to explore new worlds!”
The officers’ expressions became animated.
They had long been eager to advance but were hindered by the desert. Now, their Commander had brought a large transport ship to assist them!
Advancing meant new territories and new merits!
“We guarantee the completion of the mission!”
“We will not fail the Commander’s trust!”
A group of officers expressed their commitment, and the atmosphere was quite enthusiastic.
“The troops not going to the other side of the desert must not be lazy either. According to the previous deployment, continue to hunt sand worms. I will check the daily combat results. The units that are more efficient at hunting and capturing sand worms will be awarded collective merit in a few days,” Jiang Ye instructed.
“Report!” the captain of the first squad suddenly said.
“Speak.”
“Fifty worm farms have been completed. If we catch more worms, there will be no more farms.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll sign a contract with the real estate company again as soon as possible to build the second batch of farms,” Jiang Ye said. “For the next few days, focus on hunting. There are plenty of sand worms in the desert, and they can’t all be killed in a short time. When you kill a sand worm, remember to cut open its body and extract the feces to sell.”
“Yes, all officers said.”
“How much does the army have in deposits now?” Jiang Ye looked at Che Zhen.
“Report, a total of 630 million,” Che Zhen said.
“Good, keep saving, and let’s build an air force as soon as possible,” Jiang Ye nodded. “Meeting adjourned. Everyone go and have breakfast quickly, then get to work.”
The officers left one by one.
Jiang Ye took out his phone and tapped a few times, bringing up the base panel interface.
This was a remote function he had just learned last night. After connecting to the base panel, he could perform various operations using his phone.
He opened the rankings.
The development index had already jumped significantly.