“Sister Xue, would you like a cup of coffee and some pastries? There seems to be a nice afternoon tea shop over there.”

“Sure, there's still time.”

Qiancheng Xue glanced at her phone and nodded slightly.

Su Mo looked around and found a pretty good spot.

“Over there looks good. Go sit down, I'll go order.”

“Okay.”

Qiancheng Xue replied.

Then Su Mo walked towards the afternoon tea shop. There were quite a few people buying there.

Su Mo consciously lined up to wait.

While Su Mo was bored, he suddenly heard a group of burly men in mechanical armor, not wearing military uniforms, chatting next to him.

Their attire didn't seem like GT department people.

“Did you hear? The Z area leader has been replaced. That Wang Hai got pushed down. I said it long ago, it was going to be a problem sooner or later.”

“You can say that again. During the battle to defend the capital planet of Bartek, he was interfering in everything, forcing us to hand over resources, which made us lose a lot of money. Otherwise, we would have made a fortune just from that one reserve depot.”

“Don't say that, Wang Hai's strength is still very strong.”

“He's strong, but isn't Su Mo weak either? And I heard that one of the big reasons why Wang Hai wasn't allowed to participate this time is that he can't even control his own mecha well. Look at that Su Mo, I heard he drives mecha like it's a game. The two of them are bound to fight sooner or later, it'll be a sight to see.”

“Who do you think will win?”

“That's hard to say.”

.....

Su Mo frowned. He felt that the public opinion was a bit off. He and Wang Hai were on pretty good terms.

In these guys' mouths, it was all twisted, as if they wanted to kill each other.

“Sir, what would you like?”

Before he knew it, Su Mo had reached the front of the line, and a very young waitress asked with a smile.

“Two cups of coffee, and some of these pastries.”

Su Mo ordered casually. His good mood was completely gone.

“Okay, sir, please wait a moment.”

....

A moment later, Su Mo returned to the seating area with the afternoon tea.

Qiancheng Xue looked at Su Mo's frown and asked with a puzzled expression, “What's wrong? You don't look so good.”

“I don't know who started the rumors, but it sounds like Wang Hai and I are going to fight.”

Su Mo replied in a low voice.

“That's not a good thing. It might have some impact on you. You have to know that Brother Wang Hai has a high reputation in the military.”

Qiancheng Xue said with some concern.

“I know, too. Forget it, let's not talk about it. People can say what they want, you can't control them. And the more you try to clarify this kind of thing, the more trouble it causes.”

Su Mo was getting a headache just thinking about it, so he didn't want to say anything more.

“Yeah, have some pastries.”

Seeing that Su Mo was in a bad mood, Qiancheng Xue didn't say much.

Just as the two were enjoying a rare moment of leisure, there was a sudden commotion in front of them.

At least a third of the people in the lounge got up and gathered in one direction.

“Quick, let's go.”

More and more people got up.

Su Mo and Qiancheng Xue looked at each other, and they tacitly got up to see what was going on.

They saw a group of people walking over in another corner of the lounge, all wearing special mechanical armor similar to skirts, which was very eye-catching.

Su Mo recognized them at a glance. Weren't these people from the Hongji Empire?

He looked closely and, sure enough, the leader was Jialan.

At this moment, her long blue hair was loose, and her outstanding appearance made her exceptionally radiant and easily the center of attention.

But what Su Mo cared about most was the white mechanical ball floating next to Jialan, which had a pair of small mechanical wings.

The surface of this mechanical ball was painted with colorful paint, making it very kawaii.

“Are those the Hongji Empire's survivors?”

“What survivors? They are now specially decorated nobles of the Federation Government, enjoying privileged status. They're very noble.”

“I heard that they provided the information for this exploration mission?”

“That's right. Didn't you see a lot of people preparing to go up and try their luck, hoping to get some information from them?”

“Look, isn't that Lord Xilisi?”

.....

They saw Xilisi walk forward like a gentleman and said to Jialan, “Miss Jialan, hello, I am Xilisi. It's an honor to meet you here. Could I buy you a cup of coffee?”

Jialan replied coldly, “Thank you for your kindness, Lord Xilisi, but no need. I'm just resting here for a while, and I'll be leaving soon.”

She had no intention of communicating with Xilisi.

Although Jialan was quite friendly when communicating with Su Mo, that was based on the fact that Jialan recognized Su Mo. Years of living underground had made her very hostile to strangers.

“It doesn't matter, maybe later.”

Xilisi didn't plan to give up. He was determined to explore the Titan ruins this time, so he was naturally in great need of first-hand information.

Because he knew a secret that no one else knew, a secret he had accidentally overheard from Vice President Augulas.

After the Black Obsidian successfully returned, the Federation would implement a major opening. At that time, everyone could freely explore the Star Sea, collect resources to the greatest extent, and strengthen the Federation.

The reason why a major opening was not carried out from the beginning was because resources were limited, ships were limited, and intelligence was limited. They could only concentrate their efforts to develop steadily.

So now he had to obtain resources as much as possible, and when the great opening came, these would be the cornerstone for them to step into the Star Sea.

At this time, the mechanical ball floating next to Jialan suddenly spoke, “Can't you understand human language? I already said I don't want to have coffee with you, so stay away! Don't even think about a toad trying to eat swan meat!”

Xilisi was also stunned, looking at the mechanical ball in surprise. What the hell was this thing? It looked so cute on the outside, but spoke so nastily?

The onlookers were also dumbfounded. Someone actually dared to mock Xilisi like that.

But they immediately realized that it wasn't a person, but an intelligent machine.

Some people wanted to laugh, but no one dared to actually laugh, so they were very uncomfortable holding it in.

At this time, Xilisi also came back to his senses. He wasn't angry, it was just a small matter. He calmly replied.

“Since Miss Jialan is not available, then maybe next time. I'll take my leave first.”

After Xilisi finished speaking, he turned around and prepared to leave. The exploration mission had only just begun, and there was plenty of time to take things slowly. He still understood the principle that haste makes waste.

“Lord Xilisi's conversation failed. Should we give it a try?”

“Forget it, it's nothing to be rejected. But that mechanical ball has a really sharp tongue. With so many people watching, you'd lose all face.”

“Yeah, look, someone else is going up.”

“Who's that? He looks a bit unfamiliar.”

.....

They saw Su Mo and Qiancheng Xue walk forward.

“Miss Jialan.”

Su Mo asked with a slightly surprised greeting.