This is really not mechanical ascension
Chapter 223 - 126 Sain’s Bounty Everything is Ready_2

Chapter 223: Chapter 126 Sain’s Bounty Everything is Ready_2

"Recruit people? Isn’t that just asking for trouble?"

Li Ruoning rolled her eyes, "Hmph, you’ll see, managing a lab is not that simple."

Li Ming couldn’t be bothered to respond to her, and simply went back to his own room, while Li Ruoning, still amazed, urgently wanted to share the news with others.

Less than two hours later, the news that Li Ming had been approved to establish a small laboratory had spread throughout the laboratory, with staff from several departments discussing it.

This was beyond their imagination; people approved for small laboratories were at least supposed to be at the mentor level, but Li Ming had not even finished half a semester at the University of Science and Technology.

Many people subconsciously believed there was an insider deal, but it was soon overturned—the idea wasn’t hard to understand if it was within their own lab.

Professor Wu’s high regard for Li Ming was well known.

But this time, it involved the entire college of science and technology, and there were many who disliked Wu Yanqing; even they had received quite a few cold shoulders on normal days.

They even said that applying for a small laboratory themselves would be more difficult than it would be for a normal person.

What they did not know was that due to Li Ming’s astonishing potential for development, the number of people willing to inexplicably make things difficult for him was not large.

Curiosity drove them to harness their networks to uncover the truth behind this matter.

By evening, information from various sources came together, clarifying the situation.

"He formed a Grade-C armor with his bare hands? What a heaven-defying talent."

"The alloy materials we bought weren’t in vain; our civilization doesn’t have a production line that can make Grade-C armor."

"..."

The lab was buzzing with excitement; for them, this was a big deal.

However, Li Ming was indifferent to it, and after finishing his workout, he returned to his room amid the subtly scrutinizing glances of others.

He opened the bounty section of the Black Hole Network, staring at Sain’s avatar and the series of numbers below it.

Thirty million.

The Night Pursuer could temporarily elevate his life form level to Grade-C, and it was a proportional improvement.

Every main Control Object on him was Grade-C; even if his own life form level was elevated to Grade-C, they would still function effectively.

Once his development progressed further, the synergy would allow him to confront a Grade-B life form in a short duration, and at least escaping would certainly not be an issue.

No matter what grand plans Torch had, or what other complications might arise from it, he would be much more composed.

But how to get money on the Black Hole Network became an issue.

He definitely wouldn’t top up directly unless absolutely necessary, as it’d be a significant loss, and besides, he was currently out of money.

So, bounties became his choice; he had been looking for an appropriate one for the past two days,

and what surprised him was that he had actually found a bounty on Sain.

This had just appeared recently. Li Ming speculated that the Sela Civilization had already dismissed him from his duties, and killing him would almost have no additional impact on public opinion.

That’s why it hit the bounties.

The maximum reward for a Grade-C life form was one hundred million Star Coins; Sain’s thirty million was not much.

The data included showed Sain’s developmental progress was not more than 50% in Grade-C, with gene seed fusion sequence respectively being Grade-F Bell Rabbit, Grade-E Stripe Leopard, Grade-D Falcon, Grade-C Sky Splitting Eagle, skilled in speed.

Compared to his developmental progress, this price wasn’t high.

Sain currently resided within the Sela Civilization embassy, heavily guarded, virtually impossible to eliminate.

However, the bounty issuer probably did not think anyone within the Blue Star boundaries would take action—it was more probable that someone would strike after he returned to Sela Civilization.

Killing Sain would definitely cover the purchase of Night Pursuer’s assets, and there would be a lot left over.

He had thought of this before, but forcefully invading an embassy was truly unrealistic.

He thought for a moment, then suddenly exited the Black Hole Network and started browsing through the news, eventually stopping on one particular piece—

[Duke Bai Ye of Sela will soon arrive in Jingnan]

"A member of the Sela royalty is coming, he’ll have to go meet them," he pondered.

Just then, a knock on the door sounded. Opening the door, Chen Yan arrived as promised.

This woman’s gaze was strange, the whole afternoon, the lab had been buzzing about Li Ming being approved to set up a small laboratory.

Even a few colleagues who usually did not get along well with her came over to try and ease the tension.

"I’ve decided to help Torch. Pass this message on to them, but the specific time of entry and which starport will be up to me to decide," he told Chen Yan.

"You agreed?" Chen Yan was astonished, "Aren’t you afraid of getting entangled with Torch?"

"You said they have a big plan that needs my cooperation. I’m bound to get involved sooner or later, better to seize some initiative," Li Ming gave a couple of perfunctory replies, "Do you understand? Make sure there are no slip-ups when you convey this."

"Don’t worry." Chen Yan nodded, and as she was about to leave, she hesitated and asked, "Should we wait another half hour?"

Li Ming looked at her in surprise, then waved his hand, "Not today, we can’t do this every day."

Chen Yan’s face darkened, and she walked out.

Having seen Chen Yan off, Li Ming’s expression gradually grew somber.

At one in the morning, he took out his backup intelligent terminal, logged into the security system backend, synchronized the monitoring images, and adjusted the surveillance probes.

Once everything was ready, he switched the Controlled Objects to [Soul Mask], [Intelligent Terminal].

He activated [Intelligent Assistance] and the [Energy Shielding] capability.

Still feeling uneasy, he rummaged through the Control Bar to the long unused [Mimic Mask], making a slight alteration to his appearance.

This device was grade D; the mimicry could cover the entire head and even slightly adjust the size of the head, but it couldn’t change features of other body parts.

He carefully opened the door, ensuring there was no noise outside, and slipped out.

He checked the synchronized monitoring screen again; his own door showed no change.

After confirming, Li Ming left the area; it was late at night, and there weren’t many staff in the lab.

He still encountered a few, but with the help of [Intelligent Assistance], he managed without trouble.

Arriving at the underground laboratory, the thick alloy door was tightly shut, nearby detection devices all turned off by him, the logs of which he would erase later.

However, he still couldn’t get in yet, as he didn’t have the code that Luo Chuan had; today was just to scout the route, to see if his plan was feasible.

He retraced his steps back to his room, calculating the time and distance exactly.

Thinking it over, he sighed, "Ah... my own territory, yet I’m sneaking around like a thief."

He had no other option; without Wu Yanqing’s order, Luo Chuan definitely wouldn’t let him in alone.

Wu Yanqing, that interstellar street-roamer, had vanished again, unreachable by contact.

"Create a virus, see if I can steal it out." Li Ming took out a USB drive, inserted it into the intelligent terminal, and began typing a series of codes.

Early the next morning, before he could look for Luo Chuan, the latter came to find him instead.

"Junior brother, you really surprised me," Luo Chuan said with a wry smile, "Just yesterday while I was in a meeting, I heard that you were approved to establish a small laboratory."

"I just came back this morning, and those old guys from a few departments, they all came probing."

"I was just about to go find you." Li Ming smiled broadly, casually handing over a USB drive, "I’ve drawn up a set of design plans, along with the related equipment purchases, just wondering if brother could check if they are feasible."

"Oh?" Luo Chuan raised an eyebrow, teasing, "So eager to move out, huh? This little studio really is beneath you, junior brother."

As he spoke, he took the USB drive smoothly and plugged it into his own intelligent terminal, several pages flipped open, displaying a mass of data and drawings, and documents appeared before him.

"Tsk, smart as always, no major issues, but this bio-metal forging platform won’t do. The main manufacturer—Pavila Civilization—is currently being sanctioned by the Yitelan Civilization, we can’t trade with them."

"You can use a magnetic levitation melting platform instead." Luo Chuan immediately pointed out an issue, then after a brief discussion, pointed out a few more inadequacies to Li Ming.