Chapter 1297: Investing in the Future

So right now, Sheyan had only one pressing concern, and that was to transform his status as a Brigadier General into a Major General!

But when he eagerly went to request the mission to promote to a Major General, he met with a cruel fact – the promotion to Major General required the approval of the General Staff Headquarters of the Empire, because every Major General was regarded as an invaluable asset to the Empire. Before he could become an asset, he first had to undergo a difficult test. And the difficulty was several folds harder for a contestant.

Normal trials were no longer enough to test a Major General’s ability. A Major General must be baptised on a real interstellar battlefield, against the gunfire of thousands of warships!

On these epic and magnificent battlefields, the personal strength of an individual was completely insignificant! On the contrary, a person without any strength but had outstanding commanding and tactical ability could perform miracles!

Sheyan seemed to be excellent in laying down schemes and traps, but that had always been limited to the scope of a few dozen people. Excelling in those kinds of small-scale fights did not mean that he would also excel in war strategy, just like a captain proficient in guerrilla warfare in the jungle could never hope to reach the level of Louis Mountbatten. The two were on completely different levels.

( From wikipedia: Admiral of the Fleet Louis Mountbatten was a British Royal Navy officer and statesman, an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II. During the Second World War, he was Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (1943–1946). He was the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first Governor-General of independent India (1947–1948). )

More importantly, the Empire would certainly not put an interstellar warship fleet under the command of a contestant, no matter how amazing the contestant was. Those warships were extremely valuable.

Therefore, Sheyan had to wait patiently for an opportunity or a mission that suited him to appear. It was the last thing Sheyan wanted.

Fortunately, thanks to the intervention of the Realm, Sheyan could see a ray of hope – the waiting period could not exceed three Nightmare Worlds. If he was not promoted yet after going through three Nightmare Worlds, he would be promoted automatically. This was at least a more reasonable arrangement.

Everything on Alps Base 7 went as planned afterwards. Some people were happy, some were not so happy. The ones who were not so happy were, of course, the Arnold family, while the one who was happy was Prince Pombaru, who had achieved his objective in coming here. Sheyan also obtained the authorisation to pass through the wormhole he needed.

But he received more bad news after that. The Predators had quietly appeared again, and this time, they had implemented a technology that the Empire was still in the process of researching – breakpoint distortion technology!

In simple terms, it was a technology which could create a temporary fault in spatial dimensions, thus making a wormhole unusable! The wormhole was estimated to need at least five days to recover…

When Sheyan heard the news, he took a deep breath to suppress his impulse to go on a tirade. He knew that no amount of angry speeches would help, so he could only try his best to calm himself down.

But then, Old Charlie came to Sheyan and told him, “I noticed something, master.”

Sheyan knew Old Charlie was a very prudent man. He would not come to Sheyan for matters that he was uncertain of, or were unimportant. So, Sheyan took his words seriously.

“What is it?”

“I noticed that the position of Alps Base 7 on the interstellar map is about fourteen degrees off compared to the last time you came here, probably because of the previous Salmon Runs. This means that Alps Base 7 is even closer to Uplos now than the Kitty Hawk Advanced Base was back then, by more than 400,000 kilometres!” said Old Charlie.

“For real?” Sheyan was surprised to hear that. To tell the truth, although he was an expert in seafaring, he had no knowledge in the field of interstellar navigation, because the space was simply too vast! It was not until Old Charlie reminded him that he realised this. He immediately fell into deep thought.

“Are you encouraging me to go to Uplos again to see if I can get any spoils?”

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“Why not?” asked Old Charlie. “First of all, master, you’re now much stronger than before. Second, you’ve already been there once, so you don’t have to waste time familiarising yourself with the environment. And lastly, the Empire have studied every type of monster on the planet that they have a record of and have developed specialised weapons for them. Therefore, they should be pretty easy for you to deal with now. The Predators also wouldn’t appear again so soon. Five days is more than enough. Besides, you have nothing else to do anyway.”

Sheyan contemplated for a while and said, “You have a point, but why would I take the risk to go to Uplos? Pi element ingots are useless to me! ”

“But the Empire have clearly demonstrated their determination to mine the element on Uplos. The price of Pi element will reach its peak within the next few months! It may be useless to you, but it’s extremely useful for Prince Pombaru and Mungo! Prince Pombaru is very influential in both the General Staff Headquarters and the Big Ben Research Institute. You’re not only investing in the present, but also in the future,” explained Old Charlie.

While Old Charlie was explaining his reasoning, Sheyan suddenly thought of something that had nothing to do with the topic at hand – Tom, the skull-wearing man he met on his previous trip to Uplos. When Tom was dying, his entire body was almost completely controlled by an organ that resembled cancer cells. The organ told Sheyan through Tom’s mouth:

“You must go to the Big Ben Research Institute! Inside…is…is…your…your….”

Although he died before he could finish, Sheyan was instantly filled with a strong sense of curiosity that he had not managed to calm until now. The words “Big Ben Research Institute” had been deeply engraved in his mind.

Sheyan inhaled a deep breath and said to Old Charlie, “You’re right. Let’s go look for Archer.”

Three hours later, a spacecraft known as a “Frog”, which was at least five times larger than a “Wasp”, was prepared for him. The reason he could use a larger spacecraft now was because after two “Salmon Runs”, the asteroid belts had also lost a lot of asteroids. The AI system made some detailed calculations based on the data of the contestants’ previous trip to Uplos and concluded that it was possible for Sheyan to fly this specially modified spacecraft to planet Uplos, and then return safely in it.

Sheyan activated the engine expressionlessly and put his hand around the control column. A dazzling blue flame was instantly ejected from the rear of the spacecraft propeller. The spacecraft then accelerated into the asteroid belts!

***

Four days later, the battered “Frog” spacecraft slowly landed back on Alps Base 7, sandwiched in the middle by three cross-shaped spacecrafts which was sent to receive it. Of the eleven powerful fighters that departed within the Frog, only five returned alive.

However, the spacecraft had brought back an amount of wealth that was so astonishing that it made the finance officer sent by Prince Pombaru tremble. No one knew the exact amount, but an incident afterwards clearly reflected the abundance of the treasure.

Within seven days of the spacecraft returning, the price of Pi element in both the black market and the open market dropped by 33%! This was as ridiculous as the price of RON97 petrol in the real world suddenly dropping to UD $0.70 per liter!

After resting for 18 hours, Sheyan set out on an Amazon-class galactic warship that Archer had personally modified for him. It was a small spacecraft about 50 meters long. There was a pansy emblem painted on its surface. Its main body was a little flat, sort of like a sports car, but from the side, it looked like a streamlined bird that spread its wings, preparing to fly. Its appearance was gorgeous.

This galactic warship was not a simple spacecraft. It was actually the personal ship of Prince Pombaru! From this, Prince Pombaru’s strong appreciation of Sheyan was evident. The pansy emblem on the ship alone would let Sheyan move unimpeded within the Empire. Its sturdiness goes without saying, but most importantly, the spacecraft forwent all manual control systems and could be controlled directly with the mind. That eliminated the risk of misoperation.

Sheyan had also received a clear, definite answer from Prince Pombaru regarding his promotion to Major General. By the time he came back from this trip, he would either be promoted directly or would be given a promotion mission. This was a large step forward compared to waiting for three Nightmare Worlds.

Sheyan did not mention the Big Ben Research Institute at all. He did not want to alert them to his real intentions. From Sheyan’s point of view, it would be perfect if they could reach out to him on their own initiative.

Sheyan quickly reached the designated region thanks to Noah Realm C’s instructions and the conveniences brought by the royal emblem. At 11:15 p.m. every day, the Starship Troopers universe would try to invade the Prime Material Plane. Although they would always be quickly beaten back, there would always be fierce conflict when two planes overlapped.

Sheyan arrived at 11:15 p.m. under the precise control of the computer, but the space in front of him was not as violent and dangerous as he had imagined. It looked the same as the other planes in the universe. When he looked carefully, he could see a faint layer of blurry whiteness, as if an incandescent light was shining on the space.

It wasn’t until Sheyan boldly charged in did he realise the great danger contained within!