The flat, gray-black ground was dominated by a massive, block-like structure. Its outer walls, two stories high, were coated in yellow dust, as if it had weathered a sandstorm. In reality, it was merely normal construction dust.
Several robots, pulling long hoses, attached high-pressure water nozzles and began spraying the entire wall. The yellow dust washed away, revealing the iron-black walls, which gleamed under the sun.
Jiang Ye and Xu Yan waited at a distance. Ten minutes later, the robots retracted their long hoses and departed.
The pistol bullet factory was officially completed!
The construction had finished ahead of schedule, taking only two days.
"Let's go, time for inspection," Xu Yan gestured for Jiang Ye to proceed.
The two entered the factory gate together, passed through a security checkpoint, and finally arrived at the production workshop.
The workshop was as vast as an aircraft hangar. White lights illuminated every inch of the black floor from above. Six brand-new, gleaming production lines were laid out, with more than a dozen massive machines positioned along them.
Xu Yan introduced and operated the machinery one by one, while Jiang Ye watched intently. He hadn't realized that producing a small pistol bullet required so many machines and processes.
The inspection began at nine in the morning and concluded at eleven.
"No issues. It can start production immediately."
"Since there are no problems, I'll be going now," Xu Yan shook hands with Jiang Ye. "When will our next collaboration be?"
"Probably within these few days." Jiang Ye asked sincerely, "May I ask you a question? Is it more profitable to sell private bathrooms to residents, or to build a public bathroom and sell tickets? Bathing is a big issue in town, and I need to solve it."
"Children make choices, adults want it all," Xu Yan smiled. "Private bathrooms are a basic necessity and can be sold. Public bathrooms are for leisure and entertainment, and can also be built."
"Leisure and entertainment?"
"Yes. Bath attendants, saunas, spas, special services, and so on," Xu Yan's smile was meaningful.
Jiang Ye scratched his head. "That might not be appropriate?"
"That depends on you, after all, you are the ruler here," Xu Yan said. "On some planets, gambling, prostitution, and drugs are completely banned, and anyone involved is shot. Some planets ban them, but not as severely. Some planets turn a blind eye. A few planets even rely on gambling, prostitution, and drugs to sustain their economy. Nebula M78 has six pleasure planets, and two planets where 80% of the surface is used for poppy cultivation."
"Holy crap, that's outrageous!" Jiang Ye was astonished.
"The Galactic Empire allows colonial planets to govern themselves, and it's a hands-off autonomy. As long as they pay taxes on time and don't collude with outsiders, they can do as they please," Xu Yan said. "Remember what the base panel told you when you first arrived? Colonies have no laws; you are the law."
Jiang Ye nodded heavily, understanding the weight of that statement more and more.
"This should be an era of great expansion, which is why such freedom is given to various planets."
"So, are you going to build a public bathhouse?" Xu Yan asked him.
"In a few days. I plan to save money to upgrade the base. It hasn't been upgraded in a while," Jiang Ye said. "I'll contact you again later."
"Alright, I'll await your good news."
"Please take care."
Jiang Ye escorted Xu Yan out, watched her return to her spaceship, ignite the engines, and gradually disappear into the midday sky.
The entire bullet factory required 36 workers, who had been recruited the day before. They had just assembled and were walking towards Jiang Ye in small groups.
Jiang Ye spent another hour assigning workstations to the workers and personally teaching them how to operate each machine.
Then, the entire factory commenced operations, beginning trial production.
It took ten minutes for a single bullet to go from parts to finished product.
Jiang Ye walked along the assembly line with his hands behind his back, observing each worker's operation.
Ten minutes later, a shout erupted from the end of the first assembly line:
"They're out!"
Jiang Ye immediately ran over to see a long string of golden pistol bullets pouring out from the end of the assembly line with a clatter.
There were special bullet boxes with small slots. As the bullets emerged, they rolled into the boxes, arranging themselves neatly with the tips facing down. Each box held 500 rounds and was filled in an instant. After a visual inspection confirmed no issues, the workers placed the bullet boxes into the nearby trading bay.
[Delivery successful! Profit of 250 yuan has been transferred to your account.]
A notification message appeared on the screen. The "you" here, of course, referred to Jiang Ye.
The other production lines also began producing, delivering boxes of bullets one after another.
Jiang Ye stayed at the factory until one o'clock. Seeing no further issues, he left with his hands behind his back.
He headed straight for Isabel's place.
He pushed open the glass door and went upstairs.
"You always come at mealtime!" Isabel said without turning around.
The table was laden with a large assortment of grilled skewers.
Yes, grilled skewers. Lamb, squid, gluten, chicken hearts, leeks, mushrooms, small steamed buns, small fish – all the popular items from a barbecue stall were there.
Isabel was dressed scantily: white shorts, a white bra, her long legs, slender waist, and the upper half of her back were all the same shade of white.
Jiang Ye hugged her from behind.
"What are you doing? Sit down and eat," Isabel said, holding a bullfrog skewer with her cheeks puffed out.
"You look so beautiful like this, I wanted to hug you," Jiang Ye said truthfully, reaching out to touch her belly.
Isabel's face flushed slightly. "Get lost, get lost. Eat if you want, or don't."
Jiang Ye released her, sat down beside her, and began eating skewers.
Isabel's place had practically become his canteen. Whenever he wasn't busy with work, he would come here for all three meals.
In the base vehicle, he could only eat poorly textured canned food, eating alone. But here, it was different. The environment was comparable to a top-tier restaurant, the dishes changed daily, and most importantly, there was a sexy woman to feast his eyes on.
"Your cooking is really good. It's a shame you're not opening a restaurant," Jiang Ye said, devouring lamb skewers.
"Let's talk about it when more people come to town," Isabel said. "By the way, a woman in town asked me yesterday if you had a significant background."
Jiang Ye froze. "What did you say?"
"I said Mayor Jiang's background is quite intimidating, and it's best not to inquire. The less you know about these things, the safer you are," Isabel said with a sly smile.
Jiang Ye covered his face. "No wonder there are rumors recently that I have a powerful background. It turns out it started from you."
"Hey, I'm not taking the blame for this. It's been rumored for a long time, I just added fuel to the fire," Isabel giggled. "Just accept it. It's not a bad thing."
Jiang Ye shrugged. He couldn't refute it even if he wanted to. By the time people passed it around, it had already become fact.
After eating, he didn't linger and returned directly to the base vehicle.
He opened the base panel to check his account balance.
31,275,000 yuan.
Exactly enough for an upgrade. Spend it!
Jiang Ye clicked on [Base Upgrade] and directly confirmed.
A prompt message popped up:
[Congratulations! Your base level has been upgraded to Level 20!]
[Your title has been upgraded from Colony Officer to Colony Lord!]
[New Territory Certification function added. You can declare certain areas on the planet as your territory. As long as the majority of people in that area choose to acknowledge it on their base panel, it will be successfully marked. Your territory will be displayed on everyone's planet map.]