Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 118: Chapter 74 Attempting to Break Free of Limitations

Chen Ming now has a total of seven ships on hand.

Iron Ore No., Refraction, Lumin, Dawn, Warrior Mod, Centurion, and Sentinel.

The majority of these ships are standard models, requiring some modifications for Chen Ming to use them confidently and securely.

However, modifying all these ships is somewhat unrealistic.

Because Iron Ore No. can carry only limited materials on each outing, and sailing these ships back for modification would be highly inconvenient.

Not only is the panel not easy to use at will, but also bringing these ships back, except for Centurion and Sentinel, would certainly bring him some trouble.

For example, the Lumin-class, the previous excuse Chen Ming used to go out was for it, making the Lumin difficult to deploy now; he needs to find another excuse to get the Lumin out.

Therefore, given all these environmental constraints, Chen Ming must prioritize the modifications of the ships to some extent.

The basis for determining priority, naturally, is the current utility of these ships for Chen Ming.

Currently, there aren’t many places Chen Ming actually needs to use the ships.

However, just recently, roughly during the time Chen Ming left the plant manager for the Dark Graveyard, a new idea occurred to him.

That is, he can completely choose to become a Bounty Hunter.

It’s important to know the armed ship licenses within the Empire can be issued to individuals as well as corporations.

The premise is to have a certain reputation in the Edge Star Realm and be noticed by the authorities, meaning to have the ability to handle pirates and the willingness to actively hunt them down.

Other identities don’t really matter.

After all, in the Edge Star Realm, who doesn’t have a bit of dirt on their hands? Some not-so-serious illegal activities can be overlooked.

As long as one complies with the rules in the Prosperous Star Realm, behaving as a normal person should, and only revealing their true self to pirate-like troubles.

No one would specifically want to provoke someone holding an armed ship license.

And this actually means the troubles Chen Ming currently faces can potentially be cleared.

Because the Empire’s government and military are two separate entities.

Although the Edge Star Realm’s nearby military and the nearby colonial governments are surely in cahoots, there’s a hierarchy among governments.

Chen Ming’s current location is the Edge Star Realm of the Human Empire.

This Edge Star Realm is merely a general term, referring to the far edges of the Empire with sparse populations and low development.

In reality, this Edge Star Realm can be divided into three regions with distinct official names.

Each region is independent of one another, with more Star Zones underneath, and more planetary colonies under each Star Zone.

It’s safe to say a Star Zone’s government and military have close relations, but the Star Realm’s government can’t possibly have ties with the lower military.

If the Star Realm Government and a military unit in charge of a certain area have any covert relations, other Star Zones’ military would promptly report it to a higher authority.

The Human Empire is so vast, with many eyes on the position of the Star Realm Government.

Even if one can’t directly benefit from relationships, there are many other ways to gain advantages through authority.

However, whether the Star Realm Government and the military are connected or not isn’t particularly crucial, because the armed ship license can’t be approved by colonial governments in the Edge Star Realm.

Matters internal to the Edge Star Zone military can’t possibly draw the attention of the Prosperous Star Realm’s government to Chen Ming.

So as long as Chen Ming gets the license, with government endorsement.

What basis does the military of a given area have to bring their dirty dealings into the open against Chen Ming?

Chen Ming’s identity can be instantly cleared.

Although this might be somewhat difficult.

After all, it’s necessary to continuously kill pirates for the bounty until the Star Realm Level government department takes notice of him, only then will they initiate an application for an armed ship license.

The difficulty is somewhat high.

But doing something is better than doing nothing.

Chen Ming cannot put all his eggs in one basket, must keep several backup plans, just in case.

However, after Chen Ming talked with the plant manager before.

And calmed down, pondering carefully while en route to the Dark Graveyard.

He actually feels that the situation he faces is now relatively clear.

Or maybe he should have realized this long ago.

It’s just that Chen Ming previously preconceived that the Sinda Corporation did nothing after the Space Station’s destruction, so he lost his good impression of Sinda Corporation in his memory.

However, after learning the plant manager’s attitude towards the military, although Chen Ming still doesn’t know Sinda Corporation’s own stance, he can roughly infer.

It’s likely the Sinda Corporation also harbors no favorable impressions towards the military.

The maintenance plant managed by the plant manager still holds significant importance to the Space Station, having some bargaining power.

Someone like this having no fondness towards the military suggests that the Sinda Corporation’s chances of having any good relations with the military are really slim.

Moreover, there’s actually another aspect that can validate Chen Ming’s thinking.

It’s also something Chen Ming suddenly realized, which could have prevented some additional trouble if he had thought about it sooner.

That is, if the matters between the military and the Sinda Corporation had truly ended peacefully.

Then allowing the Sinda Corporation to recover the Space Station under military surveillance, moving equipment and materials off the station, shouldn’t have been a hard task.

For instance, the large mining lasers and traction equipment used by the Mining Space Station, of considerable value, just collecting dust like that makes Chen Ming itch.

```