Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 83 "Black Market" and "Armor Breaking"

Chen Ming stood outside the "black market".

Looking at the bustling commercial street in front of me, I couldn't help but say, "This place is different from what I imagined."

Old Wu knew that Chen Ming was just sighing, so he walked in first, waved to Chen Ming and said, "It's different just because it's different. Let's go in and take a look first."

Chen Ming stepped forward to follow.

Observing the goods in the large stores on the black market street.

The cargo includes a variety of advanced weapons and equipment.

Among them, there are many military weapons produced by Tachyon Technology with cutting-edge technology as the core design idea.

At the same time, there are also many weapons and equipment with obvious military characteristics.

Sinda Company's weapons are not very common, probably because Sinda Company's main research and manufacturing direction of weapons and equipment is to ensure low-cost mass production while ensuring average quality.

Most people come to a place like the black market to get the best, so Sindar's weapons are not very popular.

Chen Ming is very greedy for those Tachyon technology and military things, but he is not in a hurry to buy them.

Just read along the way, record things that may be useful to him, and finally confirm and compare them.

Although he currently has over [-] million in money, it's really not that much and he needs to be more careful with his calculations.

As Chen Ming walked, he suddenly said to Old Wu next to him: "I thought the black market would be more secretive, or simply an online platform."

"Online? Who knows what stuff is sold online? Here you can pay and deliver the goods, and any problems can be solved on the spot. Isn't that great?"

"There are a lot of good products here that have been passed around without ever being used."

"What you mean is that there are also second-hand refurbished ones for sale."

Lao Wu spread his hands and said: "If you don't recognize the refurbished goods after buying them, it's the buyer's problem. No one will recognize them after they go out of the black market."

"Ah."

Chen Ming responded and continued to scan the surroundings. Second-hand goods were also something he had to pay attention to.

And in addition to looking at the weapons displayed in the store, he was also paying attention to some people.

Some were disguised, but Chen Ming still saw that they had bounties on their backs.

They walked openly and openly on the streets of the black market without being troubled by anyone at all.

It seems the government plans to eat both pirates and bounty hunters.

After all, pirates and bounty hunters are big consumers of high-end weapons.

After Chen Ming saw a pirate with a certain bounty for the third time, he couldn't help but asked Lao Wu: "Is there anyone else here who can have ideas?"

"What do you mean? Robbery? Don't take me with you if you want to die."

"No, it's a pirate."

"pirate?"

Old Wu's eyes swept over the people around him, and he also saw a few ordinary pirates in disguise.

However, he shook his head and said: "No, any act of force is prohibited on the planet. You can't do it."

"It's not easy to fight even outside the planet. It's definitely impossible to fight inside the galaxy because of the patrol. Didn't you see that patrol on the way here? A patrol led by a cruiser."

"If you really do it, you have to wait for the opportunity and wait for someone to take the initiative to leave the galaxy."

"But if you can't crouch in advance, it's easy for others to get into the channel first and then run away as fast as possible."

"There is a limit to the speed in the waterway. If someone runs away first, it will be difficult to catch up. If you do it, you must be prepared in advance."

"If you really have an idea, I know where the place selling information is. Do you want to go and have a look?"

Chen Ming just saw it and mentioned it casually. Since Old Wu mentioned so many problems, he didn't have to do this.

So he said directly: "That won't work for now, let's buy something first."

"Let's go then."

Chen Ming continued to pay attention to the goods in the shops on the commercial street.

While checking the goods, he also gradually went deep into the center of the black market district.

We arrived at the busiest part of the black market.

Here, Chen Ming could even see several shops with an area as large as a city square.

Of course, the shop itself is a commercial building, and the main reason is that the open space outside occupies a larger area.

There are goods placed in these open spaces just like in commercial buildings and shops.

But it's not weapons and equipment, but some intact spaceships.

These spaceships are all standard military spacecraft that have not been castrated, and they come from all manufacturers.

Chen Ming even saw a Lumen-class destroyer in the afterglow, which was obviously being sold as a collectible.

Such a black market that sells military spaceships and various controlled products to ordinary people is right under the nose of the Star Territory government. The most prosperous place in the Star Territory is blatantly violating the law.

There are even government security forces helping to maintain order, which clearly demonstrates to Chen Ming the thin legal concept of the Fringe Star Territory.

This place would definitely not be possible without government backing.

And Chen Ming's eyes lingered for a while on a brand-new Centurion class for sale.

The military should also be involved. That spaceship was definitely not paralyzed or abandoned, but was transported here as soon as it left the factory.

Although other companies also have boats for sale here, because the company's boats themselves are sold to external parties, it is not sure whether any company is actually involved.

After passing through the most prosperous place in the black market where spaceships are sold, it is almost the same as the place Chen Ming passed before.

If you continue reading, you will spend too much time on the road.

So Chen Ming turned around and returned to the place where the spaceship was sold, starting from the opposite direction to confirm step by step what he needed.

First of all, you definitely can’t buy a spaceship.

Because Chen Ming is actually doing pretty well with the spacecraft at the moment.

Three destroyers and six frigates are enough to deal with many situations.

I really can't take any more.

But in terms of weapons, Chen Ming felt that it was necessary to add new ones.

Because the weapons he has on hand are a bit biased.

Energy weapons on medium load-bearing points include ion beams and tactical laser cannons.

Live weapons include the Ripper, Noise Cannon, and Assault Chain Cannon.

The small energy weapon only has a prompt HPD laser cannon, which is still a point defense weapon.

The best small live ammunition weapon is the military light needle.

Others, such as the light assault guns and Vulcan point defense guns on the Mule class, are better than ordinary civilian-grade weapons, but they are only better.

Then add an electromagnetic javelin modified from a personal weapon.

That leaves missile type weapons.

There are two types of small missile weapons. The Salamander focuses on locking missiles and can adjust its trajectory by itself. It tracks the tail flame of the spacecraft and hits the engine, causing the engine to be paralyzed or even destroyed.

There is also a death torpedo, but this thing is not very practical.

Although there is only one type of medium-sized missile, it is the Cyber ​​SRM missile above the Fighter level that has extremely strong shield-breaking capabilities.

In general, Chen Ming currently has only a few weapons.

It seems like a lot, able to cover every combat environment needed.

But in fact, there is still a lack of a weapon that can terminate the enemy spacecraft when it breaks the shield of the enemy spacecraft.

Energy weapons certainly don't count.

Because energy weapons rely on excellent output and radiation energy amplification ratio to gain advantages.

Unless the energy output exceeds a certain limit, such as a tachyon spear, it is still difficult to have powerful destructive capabilities.

Therefore, the only way to terminate the spacecraft is with live ammunition and missiles.

At least the expulsion and escort level ships can only rely on these two to end the ship in most cases.

Almost all the weapons Chen Ming currently has on hand are used to break shields and armor.

But what you need to do to destroy a ship is completely different from destroying shields and armor.

Weapons that are useful for piercing armor may not necessarily be useful for the structure of the spacecraft.

Just like noise.

This is a multi-barrel rotating cannon that fires small high-velocity armor-piercing projectiles.

While ensuring that kinetic energy weapons are highly effective against shields, they also have a strong ability to shatter armor.

Then there is no more then.

The design of the armor-piercing projectile determines that it can only break armor and cause certain damage to the outer structure of the spacecraft, but it is difficult to cause sufficient damage to the interior of the spacecraft.

Another weapon, the Ripper, uses armor-piercing high-explosive shells, so it is better than noisy armor-piercing shells.

However, precisely because it is an armor-piercing high-explosive bomb, its actual destructive power and armor-piercing ability cannot be compared to a purely single type of weapon.

The ability to break shields is also somewhat limited due to the design of its own armor.

So the Ripper is okay for dealing with pirates with weak armor and weak structures, but it won't be very effective against targets with heavy armor and shields.

Unless fighting pirates, the final possible result of the fight is that the shield and armor of the enemy spacecraft are broken, but there is no way to completely destroy the spacecraft, end the enemy, and give the enemy a chance to breathe.

Just like the time when Chen Ming fought with the pirates.

Because the Centurion suffered a frontal fire attack from six spacecraft, it could only activate the damping stance defense and could not use the Ripper to counterattack.

So Chen Ming could only rely on the excellent performance of the Fighter Kai and the radiation system that could almost catch up with the destroyer, and relied on the shield-breaking ability of the Cyber ​​SRM missile and the shield suppression ability of the ion beam to defeat the pirate mule-class shield.

Then the problem arose when dealing with the engine.

Chen Ming could only rely on the ion beam strengthened by the overloaded power grid and high-energy focusing device to barely destroy the mule-class engine, and it was not even destroyed.

In addition, the Fighter Kai and the Centurion are just one spaceship, and they are very easy to contain.

In future fights, when the number of spaceships increases, there will be no chance for Chen Ming to attack the engines from the flanks.

If the engine cannot be disabled, the ability of the spacecraft Chen Ming has to terminate will be even worse.

Even the slightest surprise when dealing with pirates can cause problems.

This further illustrates that Chen Ming currently lacks terminal weapons that can quickly damage the structure of the spacecraft.

Although the death torpedo can be regarded as a kind, and its name is also very famous.

But its number is very small, and its actual combat effectiveness is a mystery. Whether it can be used depends on luck.

In fact, Ludd's self-destruction ship is very suitable for the final attack on the spacecraft, but the cost of the self-destruction ship is higher than any other attack method combined. At most, it is used as a trump card, and it is impossible to rely entirely on the self-destruction ship to fight.

Therefore, after Chen Ming actually fought and noticed the problems in the battle, he urgently needed this kind of excellent terminal weapon.Chen Ming's notes on the terminal at this time did record some valuable weapons.

Among them, there was exactly the same weapon that met all Chen Ming's needs.

Tachyon Technology's shaped charge anti-aircraft cannon.

A half-energy, half-live ammunition weapon, each warhead is a grenade loaded with special charge materials.

The warhead is rapidly charged when launched. When it actually hits, there is not only the explosive impact of the grenade, but also the arc generated when the internal charge material is destroyed.

The grenade alone has a powerful destructive effect on the structure of the spacecraft.

The arc generated by the charged material can have a great impact on the shield.

Although its effect on armor was average, Chen Ming could not expect a weapon that could break shields, armor, and structures.

It is the best weapon Chen Ming has found that can effectively destroy structures and have an additional effect on shields.

It can just make up for Chen Ming's current situation.

It's just that this charged anti-aircraft gun is a weapon installed on a medium-sized load-bearing point, and the price is quite outrageous.

One door is 500 million, two doors is [-] million.

Chen Ming's current worth only allows him to buy two cars.

Who can bear the loss of one-third of their assets in one fell swoop?

If it weren't for Chen Ming not needing extra spare ammunition, the price would only be higher.

Moreover, Chen Ming, the weapon developed by Tachyon Technology, cannot be modified at all and can only be used.

Because Tachyon Technology's weapon design ideas are different from Xinda Company's low-cost mass production.

You can find designs that were actively weakened in order to ensure mass production in Sindar Company's spaceship weapons.

But Tachyon Technology's weapons are all designed according to cutting-edge weapons, and Chen Ming can't find anything he can enhance.

This is actually good news, indicating that the quality of Tachyon Technology's weapons is at least guaranteed.

And it also made Chen Ming understand his technical shortcomings again.

Not only cutting-edge technology, but also common energy weapon and semi-energy weapon technology in tachyon technology,
Therefore, Chen Ming had better find a way to learn more technologies to prevent him from being blind to technology in the future.

It just so happened that all he had to do now was spend a few minutes refurbishing weapons every day, so he definitely had time.

Since he has to learn this, Chen Ming can actually learn some more advanced knowledge.

Such as cruiser level knowledge.

Chen Ming has never been exposed to a cruiser-level spacecraft and has only learned theoretical knowledge, but he feels that he should one day control a cruiser in the future, and he will not suffer any disadvantages if he learns.

In addition, Chen Ming can also learn the techniques from Yu Hui.

However, there is a big gap between the technology on Yuhui's side and that of humans.

At most, it can be used as a reference and may come in handy when modifying the Afterglow spacecraft.

Just when Chen Ming suddenly had a lot of ideas in his mind because of buying something.

Lao Wu suddenly patted him on the shoulder and said, "What are you thinking about? You've signed the order."

Chen Ming suddenly broke away from his thoughts and said, "Oh," and signed the contract with the government's seal and endorsement.

The weapons will be delivered to the designated location within an hour.

The merchant will contact Chen Ming at that time.

After walking out of the store selling shaped charge anti-aircraft guns, Chen Ming began to think about the previous problem again.

After thinking about it, he suddenly asked Lao Wu next to him: "I was wondering if there is any way to learn new techniques."

"You still want to learn this skill now?"

"There are many people with better skills than me. If I don't learn from them, I will be like this for the rest of my life. I don't want to be like this."

"Then go to the company."

As soon as Lao Wu finished speaking, he realized that he had said the wrong thing and quickly added: "Pretend I didn't say it."

Chen Ming came from the company and the higher level of expertise is not accessible to ordinary employees.

Moreover, the attitude of the company is not clear at the moment. He simply refuses to pick up which pot.

Old Wu touched his head with a hint of embarrassment, and after thinking about it, he simply said: "Actually, there are other technical books as well. When I was studying technology, I left a pile of professional books."

Chen Ming waved his hand casually and said, "You and I both come from the same place. I have everything you have."

Seeing Chen Ming's reaction, Old Wu chuckled and said, "Who said that? I switched jobs from Suzi before."

"Although some technical books with high confidentiality levels are not available, some lower-level technical books are still available."

Chen Ming became energetic all of a sudden, almost dozing off and giving him a pillow.

But there was something he didn't understand, so he asked, "Your terminal has not been checked?"

"This happened many years ago, and I was an apprentice at that time. I switched jobs and handed in the company's terminal. I checked it personally and let it go. I can only say that they didn't check it very carefully."

"Then you didn't sell it?"

"You dare to sell?"

"I don't dare, but I think you can sell it."

Lao Wu stared at Chen Ming with wide eyes, but he also knew how he was a profiteer, so he really couldn't criticize Chen Ming.

"Tsk, forget it."

Old Wu smacked his lips, took out the terminal and sent a packaged information directly to Chen Ming, saying: "It's okay for you to see these things in private, just don't spread them out."

After Chen Ming received the document, he briefly looked at it and determined that the contents were all genuine.

Although the basics will be similar to Xinda Company's approach to educating newcomers, Tachyon Technology will start to provide specialized technical teaching later on.

Very helpful for his current situation.

Chen Ming turned off the terminal and looked at Old Wu up and down. Old Wu couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?"

Chen Ming suddenly felt in his heart that there was some truth in the saying that people should not be judged by their appearance.

However, Chen Ming, knowing Lao Wu's character of hitting snakes with poles, still said: "It's okay, I just need to look at you and let's go on."

Things have been bought, but Chen Ming still has many places he wants to see in the black market.

Although I can't afford it, it doesn't cost much to see it.

Especially those spaceships in the center of the black market, Chen Ming was quite interested.

Especially when Chen Ming passed by just now, he saw a military Hammerhead-class destroyer.

This kind of spaceship is a product selected by Xinda Company during the military's external bidding. If it is selected by the military, the quality can be said to be very good.

Moreover, Chen Ming generally liked Xinda Company's spaceships, mainly because they were easy to use and modify.

But the price of this Hammerhead is 3000 million.

It can only be said that the price of military grade is actually about the same.

Chen Ming can't even pay a small change now.

There was another boat that he was also very interested in.

I heard Gamma A say before that there was a Tachyon-class frigate captured by Yuhui.

Equipped with an unmanned fighter aircraft equipped with a Terminator core, it has the ability to grasp the battle situation almost similar to that of Afterglow AI.

However, the price of this frigate is even more expensive than the Hammerhead-class destroyer.

One hundred and ten million.

Chen Ming took a look at the number of people watching outside the isolation zone around the spacecraft and the early 2000 million in money he had on hand, and he knew that this ship most likely had nothing to do with him.

Unless he works on the space station for a while longer, Chen Ming might be able to earn enough money to buy these two spacecrafts.

But now, all we can do is take a look.

Chen Ming had no desire to buy at all at this time, so he walked in the black market with the idea of ​​seeing more good things.

And this thought made him suddenly think of something.

Chen Ming turned to Old Wu who was playing with the terminal and said, "Old Wu, do you know if there is anything like an auction here?"

Old Wu raised his head, glanced at Chen Ming and said, "Why did you think of such a thing as an auction?"

"That's what I thought of."

Old Wu lowered his head and said: "It did happen many years ago, during the years when the empire's development progress slowed down."

"Explors at that time often took the initiative to explore galaxies outside the empire's territory and brought back many rare things. Auctions were very popular at that time."

"But recently, I haven't really heard of anything worthy of being auctioned."

"And to be fair, there really isn't anything particularly rare or out of control in our fringe galaxy that you can take pictures of..."

Old Wu suddenly stopped mid-sentence. He quickly clicked on the terminal a few times and said, "Wait a minute, it really does exist."

"The main auction item is an armor-breaking destroyer? It's a spaceship I've never heard of."

"Look at it."

Old Wu reached out and handed over his terminal, which displayed information about an auction website.

Tomorrow the government will hold an auction in a colonial development history exhibition hall next to the black market, borrowing a large conference hall and venue there.

Although the main auction item was not introduced in detail, Chen Ming could tell at a glance that the design of this armor-breaking spaceship was definitely related to Sindar Company.

Old Wu has worked in the repair shop for so many years, and he can obviously see the characteristics of the spacecraft design.

He pointed to the armor-breaking level on the terminal and asked: "This should be the company's newly designed spacecraft model, right? How come it is being sold at the auction?"

"Who knows, but I think this spaceship is interesting."

"If it's interesting, go and check it out. It happens to open tomorrow. We should have time to check it out. With the money you have now, you should be qualified to enter."

Of course Chen Ming had no objection to this, but he was thinking about more things: "Of course it's okay for me to go, but wouldn't it be boring for you, Old Wu, to just follow me like this?"

"I am very interested in these spaceship weapons, but Lao Wu, you usually seem..."

Old Wu looked at Chen Ming with a strange look on his face and said, "I'm also interested in spaceships. Who said I'm not interested anymore? What man wouldn't be interested in spaceships?"

"I usually like to drink and have fun, but I don't just like to drink and have fun. Don't look down on others."

"Speaking of this."

A lewd smile suddenly appeared on Lao Wu's face: "Are you going to have some fun with me tonight?"

Chen Ming decisively refused: "No, I'm not interested, but if you go, Old Wu, I will reimburse you."

"so good?"

"It's that good."

(End of this chapter)