Chapter 100: The Ancient Star Map

Chapter 100: The Ancient Star Chart

Inside the shuttle, Liu Shaoyu reviewed the files on Young Dragon Star once more.

By today, the ownership of Young Dragon Star had been fully transferred to his name. There was still a gap of time before the official testing period notified by Wang Weifu, and Liu Shaoyu decided to take advantage of this interval to visit his planet.

Opening the star chart, the planet’s new name appeared clearly on the screen. Before Liu Shaoyu had named it, the planet possessed only a designation: Industrial Planet SW485703209.

This string of numbers appeared in parentheses following the name "Young Dragon Star." The "Industrial" prefix indicated the planet’s purpose, a classification system established back when humanity was eagerly expanding across the stars. As space technology progressed, real estate moguls on Earth had been forced to turn their gaze toward the vast universe.

Planets were essentially inexhaustible in the cosmos. Before the invention of the "Life Scepter," the price of a planet fluctuated based on its environment. Naturally, location was the most critical factor in determining value; one must remember that in the early days, humanity could not navigate such vast distances as they could now. Those initial days were the hardest, yet Earth’s merchants still spared no expense to terraform planets. Naturally, those early residential and immigrant worlds were now worth thousands, if not tens of thousands, of times their original value.

However, real estate moguls were not the first to explore these star systems. The initial beneficiaries of deep-space navigation technology were resource-based corporations. The vast universe nourished countless mineral resources, and Earth, long since hollowed out, no longer produced a single scrap of ore. The initial extraction of Helium-3 from the moon was the first step in humanity’s sale of extraterrestrial minerals—a step that propelled the space industry forward by leaps and bounds. Following that, vast tracts of land, low prices, and unrestricted emissions attracted even more industries to relocate their operations.

Liu Shaoyu’s Young Dragon Star was a heavy-industrial planet. It was also a resource-rich world where factories were built directly atop mineral deposits, creating an integrated production line. Naturally, such unbridled extraction led to the planet being hollowed out within a century, and the enterprise eventually moved on. The profits earned over that century were enough to purchase countless similar planets, leaving this one abandoned once again.

At the time, the planet had been mortgaged to Du Yue to settle a debt, with an estimated value of less than ten billion. In the end, it fell into Liu Shaoyu’s hands. For thirty billion, Liu Shaoyu felt it was a bargain.

It was not because the planet held secrets known only to him, but because Liu Shaoyu valued its geographical position. It sat at the intersection of three territories—a lawless "no-man's-land"—yet it was easy to defend and advantageous for launching offensives. How perfect! Furthermore, since the planet's outer crust had already been hollowed out, it saved him the trouble of extensive excavation. Combined with his mining company, his intentions were clear.

The current mining market was a monopoly, dominated by United Mining, in which the military held a 40% stake. The remaining shareholders divided the other 60%, with the largest among them also serving in the military. United Mining controlled 80% of the Federation's low-to-mid-end mineral supply and held a significant portion of the high-end market. The rest of the high-end market was split among several companies, including the Galactic Universal Corporation owned by the Shen family. The remainder consisted of small-scale individual miners and self-sufficient enterprises, such as the shipyards under the Galactic Sisterhood Alliance.

Small enterprises did exist, but their business scope was generally limited to their home system, or at most, the three or four surrounding systems. Long-distance mineral transport was handled exclusively by United Mining.

Liu Shaoyu had previously worked as a miner for United Mining, so he understood the situation clearly. His mining company was positioned to focus on various rare minerals—a market that was truly scarce throughout the Earth Federation. Why? Because the most important thing for a resource-based industry is the resource itself. If the entire galaxy produced no rare minerals, where would one get them? United Mining and the Galactic Chamber of Commerce imported barely enough to meet internal demand; there was simply no supply left to circulate in the open market.

Liu Shaoyu’s ace in the hole was… another gift Carter had given him before they parted ways: an ancient resource distribution map. This map recorded nothing but high-energy refined ores, some of which possessed energy densities comparable to ice blocks. Liu Shaoyu was naturally baffled by Carter’s gesture.

The answer he had received was: "You are my first friend here. I hope you are still alive when I see you next."

Those were the final words before they parted. "A friend, huh?" Liu Shaoyu asked himself. As he pondered this, he made a firm decision. Since Carter considered him a friend, he would certainly be a friend in return.

***

The Ilsdie Star System.

This was the system where Young Dragon Star was located. Its star was very similar in structure to the sun, radiating a searing, brilliant light. Young Dragon Star was the fourth planet in the Ilsdie system, which contained a total of only four planets. The entire planet appeared as a uniform grey, similar to the moon, though its surface lacked those characteristic craters. The total surface area was less than two hundred million square kilometers—less than half the size of Earth.

However, for Liu Shaoyu, it was currently sufficient—even extravagant.

After the ownership transfer, the real-time status of the planet was visible on the management page. The "Nature" Life Scepter he had ordered was designed to terraform planets, living up to its name.

Nature.

It was a fully automated planetary transformation machine capable of executing a series of modifications to a planet's terrain and atmosphere based on programmed settings. In other words, the machine itself was a localized nature. Of course, the civilian-grade "Nature" Life Scepter only possessed basic terrain and atmospheric modification capabilities and lacked extra external ports. These primary functions were sufficient for an ordinary planet. Military-grade models, however, added planetary military infrastructure on top of the base model—such as a full-planet defensive barrier and the construction and management of defensive orbital arrays. Each "Nature" unit was a scaled-down sub-machine of a "Glory of the Republic" system, utilizing a hybrid biological and electronic structure.

The emergence of the "Nature" Life Scepter had significantly accelerated the pace of humanity’s expansion across the universe. Liu Shaoyu needed the military-grade expansion modules, as the location of his planet was far from peaceful.

As he pondered, he heard the AI’s voice emanate from the ship:

"Coordinates for autonomous navigation reached. Automatic navigation has concluded."