Chapter 552: Chapter 167: Professor Ai Arrives, New Characters Debut (Part 3)

Right now, forget about live chickens inside the city, you can’t even buy a whole frozen one.

The only meat for sale is fish, and having fish at all is already pretty good. It took several days to completely clear the Insect Men out of the sea.

If it weren’t for those ocean giants being able to wrestle with the Insect Men for a while, there probably wouldn’t be many fish left either.

"You guys came this time to rebuild the Mechanical Planet, right?"

Ai Shengping didn’t mind telling Su Xiaocai, "We were invited to come teach some of the contestants, and also to build a satellite base in orbit over Blue Star."

"Not to build a new Mechanical Planet? Didn’t Admiral Bai say you were still drawing starship blueprints?"

"It’s not like I’m the only one working on those blueprints. I can spare some time to discuss them online with the others. But the front line here is more urgent. The satellite base is basically the rear of the battlefront. You know the geography here—food supply is a bit tricky."

Blue Star can develop crop farming and animal husbandry.

The construction of the satellite base, including the large ring-shaped space shuttle, that’s the real key to free trade.

After all, only large warships can do independent jumps; other vessels don’t meet the requirements.

There’s a loophole in the Space Jump points: if someone knows the anchor point, they can leap across star systems.

The Empire has always wanted to come to the border, so the ring-shaped space shuttle usually keeps moving.

The anchor point has to be linked through software to provide coordinates for the ships.

Otherwise it’s entirely possible the Empire’s people could just shuttle over directly.

Once, an imperial noble even bowed his head and pleaded with our side, saying that as long as we gave them a small place, they were willing to defect with loads of resources. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The upper echelons of the Ten Stars Republic didn’t believe a word of it. The Empire only grew to its current size through pure aggression and war.

Now they’re being attacked by Insect Men, and suddenly they want to find a safe place to hide.

When it comes to peace and comfort in the rear, what country can compare to here?

Why does the Empire have so many spies lurking in the Ten Stars System? Because they’re still coveting it, hoping to come over in a pack.

Anyway, the way the Empire plays it, once they set their eyes on something, they just assume it’s theirs. If you don’t give it to them, they want it even more.

That’s exactly why the Ten Stars System is so resistant to contact with the Empire.

"When the time comes, we might need you, Teacher Su, to look after us a bit." Ai Shengping saying this out loud meant the higher-ups hoped Su Xiaocai would get involved.

Su Xiaocai accepted the sentiment. "Alright. If you have questions and I can answer them, just come ask me."

"Then... can I sign up for your classes?"

"What are you signing up for? Once you digest the courses you’re already learning, you’ll naturally understand. Total waste of money."

"That’s not necessarily true. Maybe I’ll gain some new insights from your course."

"If I charge you, that’d be treating you like an outsider." Su Xiaocai’s eyes rolled as she thought of something. "I heard you all have to take on apprentices. When the time comes, take these two from my team. Everything else is negotiable."

Ai Shengping’s knowledge was more than enough to guide Sasha and Leilei.

With him leading them, there was no need to worry about the two of them getting bullied.

Ai Shengping knew Feng Wansha and Li Leilei.

Feng Wansha was fine; Ai Shengping felt Li Leilei’s temperament was still a bit lacking. Even so, Ai Shengping—who was always extremely strict with apprentices—smiled and agreed.

Su Xiaocai didn’t hesitate to let him attend her class for free.

If she could get more chickens, ducks, and geese out of it, she’d get as many as possible. She loved eating them.

The chickens were still alive, and Su Xiaocai ordered Xiao Wanzi to help her build a chicken coop.

The leopard-print cat was a feral.

Without a coop, these chickens would probably end up as its dinner.

On the other side, the contestants who wanted to attend classes were on the software picking professors. Once they picked, it would then be the professor’s turn to pick them.

If someone didn’t get chosen, they either quit, or continued regular training. There was no third option.

Feng Wansha and Li Leilei smoothly ended up following Ai Shengping, and were the only two apprentices he took.

If there were more, Ai Shengping wouldn’t be able to teach them all. He was already bringing two assistants, both graduate students who also needed guidance.

...

Not long after, the Blue Star Reboot Plan began. Vice Admiral Bai led a group into outer space to slay Insect Men. Over a hundred thousand contestants formed a new army and headed to the ruined Mechanical Planet, killing Insect Men every day.

Whenever they came across intact machinery or building materials, they’d drag them back to Blue Star, refurbish, and reuse them.

While the Vegetable Farmers ran around outside, Su Xiaocai diligently planted on Blue Star, even freer than she had been on Su’s Planet.

She discovered that Blue Star had a lot of thunderstorms, which made it very suitable for testing Blue Gold Healing Mushroom cultivation.

She piloted the hoe Mecha into the forest to look for decayed wood, hauled it back to the fields, and planted nearby.

She watered the rotten wood, then smeared spores over it.

While she was working hard, a native of Blue Star passed by. The person was very good-looking—young and vibrant in a way that really stood out.