Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 239 - 159: Ship Repairer, Qi Refinement Realm!

Chapter 239: Chapter 159: Ship Repairer, Qi Refinement Realm!

"How did you manage that?"

At dawn the next day, it wasn’t just the first ray of sunlight that entered the room, but also an uninvited crow.

The moment the crow locked eyes with Duan Mingyuan, it asked.

Evaluations were always three days, yet Garoya didn’t even stay in the academy for one day, leaving overnight. The haste of his departure didn’t seem like he was under threat, but rather like he was avoiding the plague.

This did not match Duan Mingyuan’s understanding of a Chamber of Commerce representative.

"Who knows?"

Duan Mingyuan was awake, but he was utterly listless.

The cruel reality made him realize that the problem wasn’t his method of making money, but luck—his luck was so bad that not even Ruihu or the top investment experts of the Universe could save him from his predicament, which could only be described as abject misery.

But Jiuyue was secretly delighted, humming a tune early in the morning, swaying her tail, and heading to the back mountain with a spring in her step for her lesson preparations.

In her view, Mr. Mingyuan’s terrible fortune was not a bad thing at all.

Her own fortune was excellent, so much so that she could find money just by going outside. Since the day she left her home, Jiuyue had never been short of money; she didn’t need to earn it intentionally. Whenever she needed it, money would find its way to her on its own.

According to what the emotional literature said, couples needed to complement each other in many respects.

Consequently, Mr. Mingyuan, whose fortune was extremely poor, would need her even more.

"What’s wrong with you?"

The crow felt that Duan Mingyuan’s state was also very abnormal. It reckoned that if this were a game, one would be able to see a "Weak" status debuff above Duan Mingyuan’s head.

If one combined these two abnormal phenomena...

"My God, don’t tell me you’ve done something with that Chamber of Commerce representative? I’ve heard that those representatives are very open in their ways, and that woman could well be a conquistador of hundreds. You’ve got that little fox by your side who’s not bad at all, why bother with such a woman? You definitely can’t outplay her."

The crow thought Duan Mingyuan looked exactly like someone whose emotions had been toyed with by a bad woman.

"What are you talking about again?"

Duan Mingyuan scrutinized the crow with a skeptical look. He had heard through the grapevine that the chatroom software, upon which he had pinned his dreams of wealth and success study, was banned due to the appearance of undisclosed perverts.

This crow’s thoughts fit the profile of a pervert rather well.

Upon reflection, it was also he who founded the Pervert Club.

"Is that not the case?"

"It’s much worse than that."

Duan Mingyuan still couldn’t muster any fighting spirit, "I’m destined not to make any significant amount of money in this life."

If he had known that he would never be affluent in this lifetime, he shouldn’t have wasted his time on studying and learning about success. He should have skived off now and then in his school days, and why should he have worked so seriously afterward?

Looking back, he had been dutifully hardworking at his position for four years, yet he never got a chance for a promotion or a raise. This could very likely be due to his financial dissipative constitution.

Having neither enjoyed life properly nor earned significant money, according to the terminology of the books he read, this was maximized loss.

"I see, that’s a relief."

The crow breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, it didn’t care whether Duan Mingyuan made a lot of money or not. What it worried about was that if Duan Mingyuan got involved with the Shan Clan and defected at the last moment, that would result in a scenario where the Chamber of Commerce and the Company merged and ended up with a top fighter in their possession. If that happened, there probably wouldn’t be any person or force in the universe that could stop the Shan Clan.

Fortunately, Duan Mingyuan was not a "strong union" enthusiast.

"In order to divert the Chamber of Commerce’s attention, I’ve exposed my identity and can no longer stay at the academy."

The crow spoke.

"If he falls into the hands of the Chamber of Commerce, he might experience the most terrifying torture in the universe. Let me cut to the chase—did the Chamber’s representative give you something before departure, like a navigation beacon?"

"He did."

"Let me see it."

Though somewhat puzzled, Duan Mingyuan still brought up the applet sent from Garoya.

Duan Mingyuan had never used such an applet before and, because of his despondency, he hadn’t bothered to study it.

The crow stood on the phone and fiddled with it using its claws, then with a sigh of relief said, "Good, they haven’t tampered with the beacon. It seems that, for now, the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t regard Blue Star as an enemy."

In gaming terms, they were temporarily... safe.

At the very least, they wouldn’t find half a corpse inside the flagship during their travel to the summit and then enter a voting discussion phase.

"I don’t like this."

Duan Mingyuan’s gaze sharpened, "You’ve scratched my phone screen."

The crow’s claws were so sharp that it had left a clear scratch on Duan Mingyuan’s phone.

Such minor abrasions wouldn’t normally be a problem for him—he could fix it in an instant—but he always felt the crow’s words were unpleasant to hear, and now it had added the crime of damaging another’s property.

In the past, he didn’t understand Jiuyue, but now Duan Mingyuan realized there was a reason humans liked to eat roasted bird.

"...I’ll compensate you!"

Sensing Duan Mingyuan’s unfriendly gaze, the crow said.

It knew its words were not pleasant to hear and that it always did as it pleased, which is why it usually acted alone.

"The important point I want to make is that some beacons of civilizations that did not satisfy the Chamber have been tampered with. These beacons will lead them into danger; interstellar travel relies entirely on the guidance of beacons."

"If beacons are so important, why does the Chamber provide them to the summit’s Council?"

"Because many Council Nations do not possess the capability for interstellar travel. The summit was originally counterbalancing Universe Company, so they accepted the help of the Chamber of Commerce, a third-party force. In fact, even the venue for each session of the summit is provided by the Chamber."

The summit seeks balance.

They believe that a balance of power among three forces, preventing any single one from becoming overly dominant, is the best way to protect the interests of the majority.

At this point, the crow suddenly stopped.

It looked up, fell silent for a long time, and then tentatively asked, "Blue Star has the ability for independent interstellar travel, right?"

Extraditors were born on Blue Star, but this generation of Extraditors had hardly ever returned to their home planet and knew nothing about Blue Star’s development.

Having heard that Blue Star had taken down a company flagship, it subconsciously thought that Blue Star must have already entered the rank of a star civilization.

It didn’t need some outsider like it to give advice on how to use the navigation beacons.

"Wait a moment, I’ll ask."

In front of the crow, Duan Mingyuan picked up his phone and sent a text message to the Third Prince, inquiring how the repair work on his flagship was coming along.

The Third Prince’s life at the Imperial Court seemed as leisurely as ever; it didn’t take long after the message was sent to receive a reply.

『Don’t worry, it’s progressing steadily and improving.』

『What do you mean ’progressing steadily and improving’?』

『If we compare it to cultivation, my Ship Repairer would have reached the Qi Refinement Realm by now.』