In the overhead view captured by the starship, one could see a fairly distinct dividing line upon the planet Jarilo-VI.
In essence it was an unbroken, continuous range of blue-green icebergs and frozen tundra. On one side of the dividing line lay a dazzling white, infinitely stretching world of ice and snow; on the other, the barren rock laid bare after the tundra had thawed, with only a scattering of trees and greenery.
Half sealed in ice, half teeming with life.
"Heh, so this is Jarilo-VI? Doesn't look half bad."
Inside the starship, a middle-aged man clad in luxurious silver-white garments—his blue eyes deep and unfathomable as a lake at night—gazed down loftily upon the planet below.
Bryce, a senior executive of the Market Development Department, held the same rank as Topaz. Within the IPC's pyramid he stood at the apex of the second tier, P45—only two steps away from the most powerful people in the Galaxy.
By all rights, a fledgling spark of a civilization—cut off by a Stellaron for seven hundred years, brought to the brink of extinction, having only just weathered its long winter and re-entered the Galaxy's field of view—was hardly worth the personal visit of a P45-level existence.
Dispatching a P44, or even a P43, to handle it would have been more than enough.
But considering that this project had been pushed over by the head of the Strategic Investment Department—even though the reasons that party had given at the IPC's upper-management meeting were quite sound...
After all, the project's previous lead had been one of the Strategic Investment Department's Ten Stonehearts.
His chief and Diamond were locked in a head-on struggle over a seat on the board of directors, and one had to guard against the other laying traps. The Geomarrow Ore native to Jarilo-VI held considerable value and was one of the IPC's targets.
Taking both of these points into account, the Market Development Department had, after all, sent him out.
Even within the same rank there were differences in seniority; Bryce's seniority firmly outweighed Topaz's, and the Market Development Department was already more dominant than the other departments—so sending him here was a sure bet.
After the starship had circled half-way around Jarilo-VI, it had grasped the planet's current environmental conditions, and Bryce found it very much to his liking.
"Beyond the Geomarrow Ore, given this planet's present state, a bit of development might well turn it into a rather fine tourist destination."
Bryce looked down upon the surface split between ice and vitality, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"Keeping it as it is might actually be better."
The ice and snow could serve as one of Jarilo-VI's distinctive features; if all the frozen tundra were to thaw, then there wouldn't be much difference between Jarilo-VI and any other scenic planet.
As for whether keeping half the environment locked in ice would trouble or affect the locals—that question simply fell outside the scope of Bryce's considerations.
This was the Market Development Department's consistent creed: so long as these 'barbaric' lands were brought into alignment with the civilized IPC, it was a win-win.
Jarilo-VI reconnects with the interstellar world, throws itself into the IPC's embrace, and gains a brighter future—a win.
The IPC obtains the Geomarrow Ore, along with Jarilo-VI's industry, cultural value, and human resources—a win.
"How are the test results?"
The automatic door opened with a low electromagnetic hum and the sound of metal rails sliding. Bryce, maintaining his posture of looking down upon Belobog, asked without even turning his head.
"Boss, after verification by the Technology Department, that device matches none of the planetary-modification apparatuses currently on the pan-Galaxy market."
An employee walked up behind Bryce and spoke respectfully:
"Analyzing the scan results, its level of technology rates as B+ on the interstellar civilization scale—roughly a middling level."
The employee called up holographic projection data, a parameter list glowing with blue light. "But the strange thing is…"
Bryce's brow twitched slightly. "Just get to the point."
"Yes, sir!"
The employee hurriedly enlarged a stream of data marked in red. On the image appeared a pale-green gemstone—the deactivated Herrscher Core of Earth's Previous Era civilization.
"The technology used in the core energy module has no corresponding record anywhere in the civilization tech-trees we know of."
Bryce finally turned around, his gaze falling upon the holographic projection. After pondering for a few seconds, he nodded. "Understood."
"So, boss, shall we carry out an attack?"
the employee asked.
Bryce felt Jarilo-VI's environment was better kept as it was; earlier he had considered simply opening fire and destroying this satellite that had been steadily restoring Jarilo-VI's ecology.
The Market Development Department's style was just that aggressive!
Of course, no one who could reach this position was a fool. On his way over, Bryce had already had someone investigate Jarilo-VI's basic situation.
A small planet that, by a fortunate coincidence and with the help of Trailblaze forces, had escaped its apocalypse—a civilization that couldn't even fly off its home planet; the satellite repairing the planet's ecology was definitely not made by Belobog.
Or was it a legacy left behind from when the civilization had flourished centuries ago?
In any case, at Belobog's current technological level, they couldn't even touch the sky.
Even if he directly destroyed the satellite with firepower, Belobog would have no idea what had actually happened.
Bryce could simply deny it, insisting flatly that he knew nothing of the matter—and even if he admitted it outright, so what?
The satellite was in an optical-stealth state; he could just say the starship had failed to detect it during its voyage and had accidentally collided with it. Bryce could even turn it around and demand that Jarilo-VI compensate for the damage the satellite had caused to the starship!
Bryce could easily come up with a dozen-odd such plausible, reasonable excuses without breaking a sweat.
And afterward, the IPC could even propose a 'planetary ecology reconstruction' project.
At that point, using technological means to preserve Jarilo-VI's current state and market it as a tourism planet—and as payment for the ecology-reconstruction project, Belobog would be smoothly and naturally annexed by the IPC.
Had it not been for the discovery of that unknown core energy module, Bryce would already have given the order to fire.
But now…
"Cancel the direct firepower targeting. Set a demolition device to follow the satellite's trajectory."
After a moment's thought, Bryce issued the order.
The value of that unknown core energy module was as yet undetermined, but judging from the current analysis, it was absolutely not low—and it might even contain an entire tech-tree.
Destroying it outright would be something of a waste. Better to first have a talk with Belobog's leader; if he could use debt to force the other party to submit, then this satellite would in due course become IPC property, to be recovered and studied.
Setting the demolition device was a precaution against the unexpected; if it came to that, Bryce would detonate the satellite and switch to Plan B.
"Yes, sir!"
The employee nodded and bowed, then immediately turned and left to carry out his boss's order.
Carrying explosives with power comparable to a small nuclear bomb, a small spacecraft detached from the starship and flew along the orbit of the Fourth Divine Key.
Once only Bryce remained in the office, he turned to look down upon the ever-nearing Belobog, tapped a finger to his earpiece, and put through a call to Topaz.
Although the open rivalry and covert struggle between the Market Development Department and the Strategic Investment Department were common knowledge, surface courtesies still had to be observed—besides, he still had to conduct the project handover with Topaz, a necessary procedure and formality.
...
Goethe Manor. Today Topaz, in the capacity of an honored guest, was visiting the political heart of Belobog, discussing with Bronya the details of investing in Jarilo-VI.
Applying to become the venue for the Interstellar Showdown Ceremony required submitting documentation and going through the review of the corresponding project team.
Bronya only needed to provide the required information; the application and the subsequent review process would all be handled single-handedly by Topaz's team.
The members of the Trailblaze group each went about their own business today. The Haxxor Bunny was studying Aether replication and printing technology.
Big Seele needed to work, so Seele took back control of the body and used the Tiger Talisman to split off Black Seele, dragging Black Seele along to play together with Hook and Clara.
The loli-girl cuddle squad!
The festive atmosphere grew thicker and thicker. Stelle and March 7th had entered full-on play mode. Caelus very much wanted to dig the Stellaron out of Stelle's body and put it into his own—the Stellaron's enhancement to one's constitution was just too obvious!
Being suppressed by Stelle in everyday matters was one thing, but he couldn't even overpower Stelle one-on-one in bed—instead, he'd end up being ridden by her.
As the saying goes, there's no field that's been over-tilled, only oxen worked to death. And buried beneath this very field was the Stellaron, a spirit-treasure, transforming an already extraordinary field into spiritual ground.
Fortunately, Caelus wasn't fighting alone—he had plenty of bodies!
Silver Wing and Rand-Duck used the Tabora Earrings to fuse—a merger of two bodies and three hearts. Probably the biggest difference between fusion among isotopes and other fusions was the appearance after merging.
Normally it would blend the two's appearances to manifest a new image, but since the two fusion components looked so highly identical, the merged image naturally wouldn't undergo any subversive change.
Even the name remained Bronya.
But Caelus and Stelle were excited all the same. The merged Bronya bore a 95% resemblance to the two ducks, with her looks optimized by 5%.
Don't be fooled by how small the number sounds—out of a perfect score of 100, a 96 and a 101 are two entirely different dimensions!
The extremely faint traces of the Authority of Reason remaining within Silver Wing grew, after the merger, to a degree surpassing the youth-version Haxxor Bunny.
Conjuring up black stockings, white stockings, fishnets, nurse outfits, teacher outfits, JK uniforms, and all sorts of toys was effortless.
Caelus joined with the half-female-bodied Bronya and cut the Stellaron spirit down from its horse.
The absurd thing was, after that fellow got up today she was still lively as ever, going off full of energy to romp around with March 7th, while Caelus had to eat some state-restoring snacks before he recovered.
Pillowed on Silver Wing's plump, milky-white lotus thighs, Caelus enjoyed a massage from those fragrant, soft little hands. The fully-ripened duck was truly a poppy that lured one into ruin!
Even though last night he'd practically wanted to stuff his ○○ all the way in, today his interest in cuddling was as high-spirited as ever.
Stelle was the same. Stelle, dressed in all kinds of qipao and striking static poses, could no longer be described by the word 'stunning'—rather, one would use her to define the word 'stunning' itself.
Damnable beauty and cuteness!
How can Lord Caelus be so gorgeous and charming!
Just as Caelus was fiercely indulging in self-admiration, he saw Topaz, who had been conversing with Bronya, come to a stop—she raised a hand to signal Bronya, then pressed it to her earpiece.
From her perfunctory, dissembling attitude and the occasional sharp word, one could easily deduce the identity of the person on the other end of the call.
"So they've come."
Caelus sat up, stretched lazily, and pulled the Breast Duck into his arms for a deep, hungry sniff.
Just before this motion, Silver Wing had activated Auto-Battle, handed control over to Little Duck, and returned to the Honkai World herself.
"..."
Feeling that gentle, scorching breath, Little Duck very much wanted to curse him as a pervert, but that didn't fit Silver Wing's persona, so she could only keep up her smile.
She'd already grown used to being pampered—besides, they'd even tried such shameful games last night.
Who'd have thought that beneath Rand-Duck's dignified exterior lay hidden a heart that was actually…
Without a doubt, Silver Wing's whims had brought ruin upon Rand-Duck's reputation.
Five minutes later, Topaz hung up the call and looked with a soft laugh toward Caelus and the two 'Grand Guardians':
"Best get ready—he's already arrived. The one who's come is called Bryce. Would you like me to give you a rundown of his résumé?"
Topaz didn't mind in the least handing over a colleague's information to Caelus and Bronya.
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