Chapter 2 The Next Day

The next day.

Han Xiao arrived at the shipyard early in the morning, ready to start building the spaceship components assigned to him by the corporation.

To maintain secrecy, the overall blueprints for the spaceship were divided into various components, which were then crafted by different senior engineers. The most critical components were handled by the corporation's core personnel. As a newly hired external engineer, he wouldn't usually be involved in such a large order.

However, considering the construction schedule and the fact that he had demonstrated B+ grade abilities, Cornerstone Group was eager to bring him into the plan, but they wouldn't hand over the blueprints for the core components to him.

The three components Han Xiao was responsible for were technologically demanding but not crucial devices. Because they were customized high-end components, the corporation didn't have corresponding production lines, so senior engineers came in handy.

He hadn't originally planned to steal the blueprints, but if it was a Star Cluster-grade flagship... cough, can a mechanic's actions really be called stealing?

He planned to use virtual technology to have Phillip infiltrate Cornerstone Group's database. He should be able to steal the basic framework of the Star Cluster-grade flagship. The virtual security engineers hired by Cornerstone Group were like little brothers in front of him. It was annoying how he could wander around their house like a thief and they wouldn't even notice.

However, the more critical component blueprints were stored in paper form. Although this method was primitive, it would never be outdated. After all, virtual mechanics were benevolent missionaries with a notorious reputation. No one wanted their database to be pampered every day.

Cornerstone Group was rushing to meet the deadline, and his manufacturing speed was an advantage. As long as he quickly completed the tasks at hand, the corporation should give him some more component blueprints to manufacture at their discretion, which would also accumulate progress for the Mastery mission.

As long as he could find a way to steal the remaining classified blueprints, he could assemble the complete Star Cluster-grade flagship blueprints.

Arriving at the senior engineers' work area, Han Xiao saw Luke at a glance and nodded in greeting.

"Barn, what are you doing here?" Luke asked, surprised.

"Why do you look so shocked?" Han Xiao raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you'd spend the whole day studying the blueprints... If you want a tour, I'll have someone else show you around. The deadline is tight, and I'm very busy today. I probably won't have time for anything else."

Luke assumed Han Xiao was still familiarizing himself with his future work environment.

Han Xiao shook his head. "You misunderstood. I'm here to start work today."

Hearing this, Luke's eyes widened.

"You learned the blueprints I gave you overnight?!"

That was too efficient.

He was a little incredulous. These high-end spaceship components were extremely complex. It took him three days to master them. In his opinion, Han Xiao would need at least a day or two to learn them, but this new colleague had learned them overnight?!

"If there's nothing else, I'll go to work." Han Xiao reminded him when he saw Luke staring blankly at him.

Luke came back to his senses and quickly replied, "Okay, okay, I won't disturb you."

Han Xiao nodded, swiped his card, and walked into the workshop.

It wasn't until Han Xiao's figure was obscured by the door of the private workshop that Luke turned away, secretly clicking his tongue... This new colleague named Barn was more impressive than he had imagined.

...

The senior engineer's credentials allowed access to Cornerstone Group's high-end private workshops, which were fully equipped. Although not as luxurious as Han Xiao's private workshop at Black Star Army headquarters, it was still quite valuable.

Closing the door, Han Xiao was the only person left in the workshop. He surveyed the workshop environment and nodded.

"They gave me a two-week manufacturing target. I can probably finish it in half a day... Well, that seems too exaggerated. Let's slow down a bit and drag it out to three days."

*Ka-la-la—*

Han Xiao ejected a series of compressed spheres, forming various assistant robots. These were all mechanical creations that he had personally manufactured and modified, the exclusive equipment of a peak A+ grade mechanic. Their performance was extremely powerful, and they were all private equipment that couldn't be bought on the market.

*Zi-zi—*

Mechanic Force overflowed from his hands, and bright electric arcs connected the machines. All the assistants started moving, using various devices to process materials and begin manufacturing.

The vast experience pool was his confidence to ignore the Soul Embryo. While manufacturing, he used the [Quantum Matrix Thought Field] to connect to Cornerstone Group's network and infiltrate the shipyard's database.

Han Xiao's virtual technology made it far too easy to deal with an ordinary shipyard's virtual intelligence. He effortlessly concealed his tracks, bypassed the database's firewalls and warning mechanisms, and allowed Phillip to enter the database and diligently copy data.

"Let me see what goodies you have~" Han Xiao was in a cheerful mood.

Countless pieces of information were directly displayed in his mind. Cornerstone Group's past order history was laid out before him. After filtering out a large amount of redundant data, Han Xiao extracted valuable information from it.

The database wouldn't store blueprints for spaceships that were too valuable. Generally, a special blueprint storage warehouse would be built, but the shipyard's floor plan didn't mark it, so he didn't know where the blueprint library was for the time being.

The blueprints stored in the database were all relatively ordinary spaceship blueprints, but Han Xiao didn't refuse them and took them all. No matter how small a mosquito was, it was still meat. Besides, he had a special talent, [Theoretical Research]. For every 3 skills, he gained 1 Intelligence point. The more blueprint skills, the better.

After searching for a while, Han Xiao finally found the information he wanted, which was Cornerstone Group's current major order.

"Eternal Light Fortress Ship?!" Han Xiao was stunned.

This model of flagship was too famous. It wasn't a product of any Star Cluster-grade civilization in the Shattered Star Ring... but one of the flagship types of the Glory Federation!

Although the Eternal Light wasn't the ace flagship of the universe-level civilization, it was still in the front-line service. It was one of the main warships of the Glory Federation fleet in regular interstellar warfare. Its combat power was comparable to that of a Star Cluster-grade civilization's flagship, and it was even slightly stronger in terms of energy, while the manufacturing cost was relatively low, making it a flagship of the Glory Federation with lower technical requirements.

The Glory Federation's warship blueprints were priceless on the black market. An ordinary shipyard located in the Shattered Star Ring was actually building a high-end flagship of a universe-level civilization.

There seemed to be something fishy about this?

Han Xiao's eyes flickered, and he couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.

"Is the Glory Federation secretly hiring local shipyards in the Shattered Star Ring to build warships in order to garrison troops in this star field? Could it be that they have some big plans? If that's the case, Cornerstone Group definitely isn't the only shipyard building Glory Federation warships...

Hmm, no, the Glory Federation has its own secret military factories in the Shattered Star Ring. There's no need to outsource the work, and their goal of garrisoning troops in the Shattered Star Ring can only be to confront the Crimson Empire... Could it be that the negotiations are just a pretense and they want to use force to occupy the Glimmering World?

That doesn't seem likely either. Let's not talk about how there wasn't this part of the plot in the past. If the Glory Federation really wanted to do this, they would have sent a large army over long ago..."

After letting his thoughts wander for a while, Han Xiao came up with a more reliable guess.

——This matter should be unrelated to the Glory Federation. It's possible that someone obtained the Eternal Light blueprints from some channel and then placed an order with Cornerstone Group, asking this capable shipyard to help build it.

If that was the case, then this major client was either closely related to Cornerstone Group, or they were someone they couldn't afford to offend. Otherwise, it would be impossible to casually provide a priceless blueprint to an outsider.

"So, stealing the blueprints might be more difficult than I thought. I might even offend some powerful forces..."

Han Xiao frowned slightly, then relaxed.

I'm "Barn" now, not "Black Star". Barn stealing blueprints has nothing to do with Black Star.

Just steal it.

The basic framework blueprints of the Eternal Light Fortress-class were stored in the database. The framework referred to the hull structure and external armor, which was like building the shell of a vehicle. It was the spaceship's skeleton and skin, without any critical technology. Because the framework of this type of large flagship was generally built in outer space orbit, the engineering difficulty was high, and virtual intelligence was required to coordinate, so the framework blueprints had to be entered into the database.

However, the components of the spaceship were the core, such as the energy furnace, shield generator, warp engine, and hundreds or thousands of other devices. These components were the spaceship's organs, which were more important than the framework.

Han Xiao browsed through the basic framework blueprints of the Eternal Light Fortress Ship, and the panel quickly popped up a notification.

[You have obtained [Warship Blueprint - Eternal Light (Incomplete)]!]

Incomplete, huh. I'll try my best to steal the complete blueprints... Han Xiao chuckled inwardly.

...

Over the next ten days, Han Xiao stayed in the shipyard, burying himself in the construction of spaceship components. The [Engineer] mission progress steadily increased.

He completed the first wave of tasks in three days, which really surprised the corporation's higher-ups.

After checking that the quality of the components was fine, the higher-ups felt that they had recruited a treasure. They gave Han Xiao a few more component blueprints for him to build, and he completed them in less than two days.

The corporation's higher-ups successively handed over a portion of blueprints to Han Xiao, and he quickly completed them all. However, the higher-ups were now in a dilemma. Han Xiao's work efficiency exceeded their expectations, which had now caused a problem. If this continued, this newly arrived "Barn" would learn the blueprints for more components, which wouldn't be in line with the original intention of splitting up the spaceship blueprints to share the risk.

Just as the higher-ups were hesitating, the corporation's behind-the-scenes boss came to inspect the place.

...

In the conference room, Sideredam flipped through Cornerstone Group's recent reports, glanced at the several corporate executives waiting on the side, and said faintly,

"I'm a little disappointed with your efficiency. Why hasn't the Eternal Light been built yet?"

"Lord Sideredam, this is a flagship model of a universe-level civilization. With our technical reserves, there's really no way to quickly build a high-end flagship. Besides, the engineers within the corporation are at most B+ grade. The productivity of those high-end components is too low..."

"Oh?" Sideredam narrowed his eyes. "I highly suspect that you've placed your focus on the shipyard's sales performance, only thinking about completing external orders to get commissions, and don't want to work for me for free?"

"You, you misunderstand! We don't have such thoughts!" The faces of several executives changed, and they hurriedly defended themselves.

Although they were the corporation's senior managers, Sideredam was the boss. Cornerstone Group itself was an industry under Sideredam's name. In addition to undertaking external orders, another responsibility was to produce machinery for him. All production resources had to be prioritized for the manufacturing tasks issued by Sideredam.

If Sideredam was the king of Mexibur Star, then Cornerstone Group was a state-owned enterprise. As long as Sideredam wanted to, he could take back the power of these executives.

Building the Eternal Light Fortress Ship was Sideredam's task objective for Cornerstone Group. This blueprint belonged to him.

"Don't forget whose subordinates you are." Sideredam tapped the few people and said faintly, "I'll give you another four months. If you still can't complete the Eternal Light..."

Several executives hurriedly expressed their loyalty. "Don't worry, we'll definitely be able to build it."

Sideredam nodded noncommittally and looked at the reports for a while before suddenly asking, "You recently recruited a new senior engineer?"

"Yes, his name is Barn."

Sideredam pointed to the data on the report. "Even if he's B+ grade, this level of work efficiency is rare. Hmm... There are two possibilities. He may have outstanding mechanic talents and the potential to become a Calamity Grade, or... he's deliberately hiding his strength for some purpose."

The executives were shocked. "What should we do?"

"You don't need to worry about this."

Sideredam waved his hand, revealing a look of interest.

"If he's the former, I'm interested in taking in a disciple with good potential... If it's the latter, that might be even better."

The many executives exchanged glances.

"How should we arrange his work? Should we let him continue to participate in the manufacturing of the Eternal Light? With his efficiency, he'll learn the blueprints for a large number of components..."

The corners of Sideredam's mouth curled up. "As long as you protect the core component blueprints, you don't need to worry about the others being leaked."

"Okay, alright." Everyone didn't dare to retort.

Sideredam stood up, his eyes playful. "Observe him for a while. I'll find a time to contact him later. I have a feeling he'll be an interesting fellow."

...

The Milky Way was vast, and the universe was boundless.

The Shattered Star Ring was one of the edges of the explored universe. This star field was divided into more than a dozen Star Clusters and contained hundreds or thousands of star systems.

Among these star systems, the Eternal Night Star System was the most special.

Because this star system was nurturing the next Star Cluster-grade civilization.

A race blessed by nature reproduced here. Under the leadership of a great man, their civilization rose at an astonishing speed, and the race evolved in incredible ways. This race remembered the glory brought by its leader and changed the name of the race. Today, they call themselves the Star Pupil Divine Race.

Sysko was the leader of this civilization.

And on this day, the Star Pupil Divine Race welcomed a group of uninvited guests.