Compared with the remote Blue Valley star system, the Rogel star system is an important border town of the Weixi Kingdom, the empire's second-level ally. It is only ten light years away from Haixia Port, the starting point of the Pangu Corridor.
In the imperial era, the Rogel star system was once a neglected but heavily guarded military town. It relied on the empire's perennial blood transfusions and backward agriculture to barely maintain its economy.
Now in the new era, many emerging adventurers from the empire have come here to make the last supplies before the sea.
As a result, the Rogel star system turned into one of the preparatory ports for interstellar adventurers, and the economy gradually prospered, especially the spiritual equipment transformation industry.
This was one of the reasons why Lu Chen chose the Rogel star system as his first destination...
The second reason is: The Rogel star system is very large and there are many undeveloped wild planets that may have treasure hunting targets.
Sure enough, as soon as he arrived at the outer reaches of the star system, red dots were flashing on the treasure map in Lu Chen's mind.
Paradoxically, these red dots seem to be concentrated in the same area...
Without any further delay, Lu Chen immediately changed course, entered the Rogel star system, and headed straight for the target location.
Soon, the entry inspection information of Weixi Country came on the main screen of the spacecraft.
The prosecutor is a virtual artificial intelligence woman with a pair of mechanical rabbit ears, in line with the aesthetics of the surrounding area.
"Welcome to the Rogel star system of the Weixi country. Before landing on the planets in the system, please upload your ship's identity information and the purpose of coming to the Rogel star system!"
Lu Chen immediately gave a video response.
"Feondi Zhou-type modified ship, two crew members. I am the captain Lu Chen, a ninth-level spiritual weapon master. I come from the independent kingdom of the adjacent Blue Valley star system. I plan to go to Haixia Port and enter the Pangu Corridor to come to the Rogel star. This is a final supply."
"Your information has been registered, welcome to Rogel, and wish you a happy replenishment!"
Lu Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
For the sake of economic development, the review of the Rogel star system is very relaxed, and the license plate of the spacecraft is not even reviewed.
After the review was completed, the spacecraft moved forward at full speed and headed straight for the target.
after an hour.
The spacecraft finally arrived at the target location.
It's actually a small black hole located at the edge of a star system!
The ability to produce black holes within a star system indicates that the Rogel star system was originally a binary star system. Later, one of the stars collapsed into a black hole, resulting in the current situation.
The black hole is not large and continues to swallow up the nearby asteroid belt, forming a huge high-temperature accretion disk and a long colorful drag strip.
Although black holes are commonplace in the universe, Lu Chen was still shocked when he saw them with his own eyes.
The black hole in front of us only absorbs a part of the approaching objects. The remaining objects are torn, rubbed, and burned, turning into a huge, rotating accretion disk, ejecting high-temperature gas outwards.
The interior is the outer spherical event horizon of the black hole. If you look carefully, you can see many spaceships floating above it.
These spacecraft were probably trying to hunt for treasure in the drag strip, but they made a control error, bypassed the accretion disk, and fell into the black hole.
The spacecraft enters the interior of the black hole and is torn into ions, but its shadow will remain on the horizon of the black hole's surface forever.
It’s like taking a snapshot before death.
This is the adventurer's epitaph.
Gloria held the wine bottle in her hand, raised her head and took a swig. She glanced at Lu Chen with the eyes of someone who had come before, shrugged and said:
"Newbies who have just stepped into the universe like to see black holes."
Lu Chen only stared at the drag strip in the distance.
"I'm here to hunt for treasure."
Gloria curled her lips.
"You don't want to explore in the drag strip, do you? The safe area far away has been raided by others, and there is a danger of being sucked into the black hole at close range. Even if nothing happens, a lot of spiritual oil will be consumed. The treasure you are looking for Probably not enough for gas.”
"You can't tell, I've always been very lucky."
With that said, Lu Chen drove the boat into the drag strip.
Gloria's eyes twitched slightly, she proudly raised her chest and said:
"I have been adventuring in the stars for three years. The black holes I passed by were more than the garbage you picked up. If you don't listen to the old man's advice, you will suffer the consequences. You are a newcomer, and you don't listen to the advice of your seniors at all?"
"It's only been three years of adventure, no wonder you're still alive!"
Gloria tilted her head and was stunned for a long time before she realized that Lu Chen was scolding him. She wanted to scold him back, but Lu Chen had already gone to the back cabin.
The flashing targets on the road dust treasure hunt map are all located within the drag strip, and some are even close to the accretion disk of the black hole.
The drag strip resembles a winding rainbow, made up of surface material from various nearby asteroids.
There are atmosphere, dust clouds, ice cubes, meteorites, shells, ancient trees, and even living spiritual beasts and a certain concentration of spiritual energy.
As Gloria said, the locations far away from the black hole's accretion disk were almost completely plundered by other adventurers.
There's a missing target, though.
Lu Chen finally drove the spacecraft to the target location through the vague navigation of the treasure map.
There are a lot of floating ice here, the carcasses of various marine animals, some live fish, and various shells... It should be from an ocean asteroid.
Lu Chen, who was inside the spacecraft, could not activate the object recognition ability, and it was difficult to determine which one was the target.
So, Lu Chen climbed into the scavenger armor and shouted to Gloria in the cockpit:
"I'm going to drive the armor to pick up a treasure. Don't touch it randomly in the spaceship."
Gloria sat down on the recliner without looking back.
"This is space, it's very cold. Is your tattered armor really good?"
"This is sealed armor and air-conditioned."
With that said, Lu Chen turned on the sealing mode of the armor, opened the belly compartment of the spacecraft, and jumped off.
After entering the drag strip, I discovered that the concentration of atmosphere and dust clouds inside was not low, and there was a high-temperature accretion disk in the distance. The surrounding area was not too cold, only more than ten degrees below zero.
The armor can rely on the atmosphere to stabilize the body, making it easy to pick up floating objects.
The sound of waves caused by dust clouds and the distant roar of high-temperature gas ejected from the black hole's accretion disk reached my ears.
Lu Chen felt like he was picking up shells on the beach...
His first spacewalk actually reminded him of his childhood experience of playing at the beach.
This eliminated his nervousness and fear of facing a black hole, and he actually felt a bit of childhood happiness.
Soon, Lu Chen picked up a shell.
To be precise, it's a giant conch frozen in ice.
About the same size as a pig.
Gloria's mocking voice came from the cockpit screen:
"You came here to pick up frozen seafood?"
"I heard that an extremely rare pearl with flame patterns can occasionally be found in the interstellar conch. It is called a dragon pearl. It can be called the Rolls-Royce of pearls."
Lu Chen was not talking nonsense.
The item identification shows: In the huge conch in front of you, there is a flame-patterned pearl. The psychic level is less than ten, but it is an extremely rare luxury product!
Gloria drank a little wine, pursed her lips, and said with a smile:
"I also heard that the conch girl lives in the conch!"
Lu Chen thought to himself, there are not only pearls in the conch, but also conch meat.
"Don't you want to eat barbecue? I'll ask the conch girl to put it on the grill later. I'll add more cumin and garlic. It won't taste bad."
Before Gloria could respond, an alarm sounded in the cabin.
She stood up in agitation and stared at the densely packed spiritual reaction points on the big screen, remembering her unpleasant experience.
"Come back quickly, a wave of beasts is coming!"
"Tide of beasts?"
Lu Chen thought Gloria was joking, after all, he had not received the danger warning.
After returning to the spaceship, the shipboard radar actually showed that a group of low-level spirits were approaching.
There are tens of thousands of them, hard to count, like a tide of beasts.
There was no danger avoidance warning, so Lu Chen didn't care. He drove the spacecraft towards the other two targets according to the established route.
Gloria was a little panicked.
"Get out of the way, idiot. This ship doesn't even have a defensive formation. The bugs have corrosive fluid and will just eat the outer shell of the ship."
Lu Chen asked her:
"How do you know it's an insect wave?"
"Of course the only thing that can survive in the starry sky is the insect swarm. The nomadic insect horde is one of the four major disasters in the galaxy. Do you understand?"
"It's as if you demons are not the four major disasters."
"..."
Gloria has black lines all over her forehead.
I don’t know if this teammate’s choice was correct or if it was due to his subconscious appearance association thoughts that made him make a wrong judgment.
Soon, the spaceship flying in a straight line encountered a tide of beasts halfway.
Only then did Lu Chen see clearly that it was not a swarm of interstellar insects, but thousands of man-eating flying fish!
"Is there such a vicious beast alive in the drag strip?"
However, with its sharp teeth alone, it is impossible for the piranha flying fish to chew through the hard outer shell of the voyage ship, and it will be useless no matter how many it has.
Even so, they still rushed upward one after another.
Feiyu suffered heavy casualties.
Soon, the school of fish changed tactics and rushed toward a point on the spacecraft.
There was a ding-dong sound all of a sudden...
Lu Chen guessed that these fish schools wanted to achieve an attack effect similar to that of water dripping through rocks.
Generally speaking, only the interstellar Zerg have group intelligence.
From this point of view, there is probably a beast master behind the school of fish.
Soon, Lu Chen also received an early warning.
[If you continue to be attacked by the beast tide, the hull may be partially damaged. Please drive away or avoid the beast tide as soon as possible. 】
This is an initial warning.
If Lu Chen didn't make any reaction, he would soon receive another warning, as well as the final warning with a final ten-second countdown.
There is so much debris in the drag strip that it is difficult for the spacecraft to accelerate away from it.
Fortunately, the spacecraft's course drag zone is at the root, which is close to the accretion disk, and the temperature is very high, so the fish will naturally disperse.
[Remind again: The beast tide is continuing to attack the spacecraft, which may cause irreparable risks to the hull. Please drive away or avoid the beast tide immediately! 】
The wording is already quite serious.
Lu Chen gritted his teeth and persisted.
Wait for the ten-second countdown before trying to drive away.
really!
As the spacecraft approached the black hole accretion disk, the beast tide could not withstand the high temperature and had to disperse without following.
Lu Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
In addition to the high temperature, the gravity here is also very strong. In order to maintain stable flight, the fuel consumption of the spacecraft skyrockets.
After Lu Chen got rid of the beast wave, he jumped out of the spaceship in the scavenger armor and found the second target:
A fallen log wrapped in mud!
The mud was burned red by the continuous high temperature, almost turning into bricks.
Item identification shows:
[Half ten thousand year old snake grain wood is very hard in texture and has excellent spiritual power conductivity. It is the perfect material for making high-end spiritual weapons. 】
"good!"
Lu Chen carried the snake wood back to the spacecraft.
On the way, he also accidentally picked up a drift bottle with a letter inside.
"Are there any drifting bottles in the universe?"
This was not a treasure hunting target. Lu Chen was just curious and picked it up by the way.
After returning to the ship, Gloria ran over to take a look, and her beautiful face fell instantly.
"What, a large conch with pearls in it, a piece of broken wood, and a drifting bottle...can they be sold together for ten spiritual stones?"
"It should be more than that."
Lu Chen didn't care about her.
The spacecraft continued to drive inward.
Until he got close to the wreckage of a cruise ship that was constantly spinning and slowly falling towards the accretion disk.
The distance is already less than ten miles. If we take another step forward, it will be difficult for the spacecraft to fly out.
This is the last goal on Luchen's treasure map.
This time, Gloria stopped joking.
"There is an abyss ahead, we can't get any closer!"
Lu Chen said:
"The spaceship is close to its limit, but my armor can go further."
Gloria was very dissatisfied with Lu Chen's extreme operation.
"You are only at level nine, and your armor is only at level ten. Do you want your life? I thought you were a skilled person so I took you out to sea. I didn't expect you to be so reckless. You lost your life before you even made any money."
Lu Chen didn't expect that Gloria still had some brains. It seemed that she was just a simple dish.
"Will it be our turn to find a treasure that can be easily picked up without risking our lives?"
"This time is an assessment of your captain's qualifications. I won't help you fight to the death. At most, I will help you collect a corpse. You have to think about it."
"Just pay attention to whether there are any beast masters nearby. Also, no matter what happens, don't touch any spaceship buttons!"
"..."
Lu Chen mainly refused to listen to advice.
After that, he turned around and went to the back cabin.
Driving the armor, he jumped out of the cabin, braved the high temperature, and approached the wreckage of the cruise ship ten miles away.
The cruise ship was very large, and there was a hole in the wreckage near the engine, as if water had been pierced by a piranha flying fish.
The engine exploded, causing the cruise ship to lose power.
Later, it approached the black hole's accretion disk and was roasted by the high temperature, causing a larger fire.
Lu Chen drove the armor into the interior of the cruise ship and found that it was burned down and there were human ashes floating inside.
The cruise ship's engine blew up and became useless.
The ship's materials are good materials that can withstand high temperatures, but the scavenger armor's engine cannot be carried away by road dust.
The target is obviously the cruise ship's gyroscope!
The engine exploded, followed by a fire. The gyroscope in the central control room may have been intact.
Lu Chen went straight to the central control room.
"Except for the spiritual pattern being baked, the hardware is intact!"
He dismantled the two-meter-wide gyroscope, turned on full power, got rid of the strong gravitational constraints, and flew out of the wreckage of the cruise ship with difficulty.
Back on the spaceship, Gloria stared at the gyroscope and asked:
"What is this iron lump? Is it valuable? Is it worth risking your life to pick it up?"
"A gyroscope that is intact should be quite valuable."
"real or fake?"
Lu Chen didn't explain any more, piloted the spaceship and quickly left the drag strip.
At this time, half of the spiritual oil in the spiritual pool had been consumed.
…
Half an hour later.
The spacecraft landed on Rogel's third planet, Forli.
This is a desert planet with many sandcastles.
Foley Star is the largest second-hand goods trading market in the Rogel star system.
The sand castles in the desert have different shapes. In addition to banks and restaurants, they are basically shops that sell second-hand goods.
There are independently operated shops, and there are also comprehensive second-hand shopping malls that are rented to individuals and only charge rent.
Lu Chen had three treasures to sell, and setting up a stall was too time-consuming.
He turned on the bracelet, logged into Liujiu Tongxing.com, automatically located Forly Star, and selected a five-star collection chain store.
The spaceship landed in the dock at the entrance of the chain store Sandcastle.
"You can either stay on the boat, or change your clothes and come with me to sell your treasures."
Gloria rolled her eyes at Lu Chen and had no choice but to put on a black knight costume, get off the boat with Lu Chen, and walk into the sandcastle shop.
Although this chain store is cautious in setting prices, it has no tricks, fixed prices, and no false claims. It is suitable for outsiders who are not familiar with the local area.
Chain store lobby.
The time is morning.
The fat and bearded boss of the chain store, armed with a high-level elf identification device and a material-setting device, personally appraised the value of Lu Chen's three treasures.
"The gyroscope of the Zang'er cruise ship? You two are really brave... Oh my God, the gyroscope was intact when there was an explosion of that magnitude. You got a big deal!"
"Thousand-year-old snake grain wood, even though it's only half-cut, it's still a rare and good material!"
"This is...the dragon pattern bead!"
The fat boss's eyes were bright, he suppressed his excitement and realized a key issue.
"Wait a minute, the last two things were also picked up by you at the black hole drag strip?"
Gloria frowned and was about to answer when Lu Chen pulled her aside and replied:
"We are interstellar scavengers. These two things were brought from the Blue Valley star system."
Gloria tilted her head, not understanding, and didn't say anything.
Lu Chen just didn't want to show off his talents too much in front of outsiders to avoid being noticed.
The fat boss looked at the spaceship parked outside the store. It was indeed a scavenger ship that was broken beyond repair.
"Let me tell you, there is no treasure like this in the drag strip."
Lu Chen said straight:
"Make a price."
The fat boss looked at Lu Chen, but he didn't expect that this young man was actually the captain of the ship.
"Please wait a moment, sir, I need to find someone to discuss this with."
So, the fat boss called a few more employees to repeatedly appraise the value of Lu Chen's three treasures.
Gloria waited anxiously. She and Lu Chen waited for a full hour, eating the snacks in the store and drinking coffee.
The fat boss then completed the more detailed appraisal work and reported the price to Lu Chen and the others.
"There is only half of the snake grain wood. I bought it with two hundred spirit stones."
"Although the cruise ship's gyroscope is intact, the spirit pattern has been burned by the high temperature and must be re-engraved. Five hundred spirit stones were purchased."
"Half a catty of dragon-marked pearls...eight hundred spirit stones!"
"The above price is what I specially applied for for you. The purchase price for three items together. If you only sell one or two items, it will be reduced by 5% to 10%."
"make a deal."
Lu Chen nodded.
Then he signed a contract and received fifteen hundred spirit stones in cash.
The bulging bag weighed ten kilograms!
Two hundred, five hundred, eight hundred... one thousand and five hundred spirit stones!
Gloria's jaw dropped.
Looking at Lu Chen who looked proud, she suddenly remembered an unspeakable honorific and quickly grabbed the fat boss by his collar:
"Did you make a mistake? Look carefully before making an offer. One hour is too hasty. I advise you to reappraise it!"
The fat boss was stunned. He suddenly couldn't understand the position of the woman in front of him. He turned to ask Lu Chen:
"This girl is handsome and handsome. Who are you?"
Lu Chen glanced at Gloria, lifted up the whole bag of spirit stones as if to show off, and said with a doting look on his face:
"She is my daughter."
