After Zhang Xiuhe and Igor had left, Liu Hai turned his attention to the wreckage of the pirate spaceships.
The twelve pirate vessels had mostly been destroyed when their reaction furnaces were hit, causing catastrophic explosions. The internal equipment was severely damaged, with most beyond repair. However, Liu Hai was keenly interested in the small portion of salvageable components. Another concern was how this massive debris field in Garbage Star's outer orbit was interfering with radar systems and spacecraft navigation.
Working quickly, Liu Hai directed the Intelligent Nexus to manufacture five thirty-meter-long landing crafts equipped with force field generators to collect the scattered wreckage.
The five landing crafts deployed force fields to create an interception net spanning thousands of square kilometers. Like fishing boats casting their nets, they systematically gathered the floating metal debris before containing it within force fields and slowly transporting it down to the planet's surface.
As the wreckage safely touched down, the waiting engineering robots immediately began sorting operations. Scrap metal destined for the smelting furnaces was sent accordingly, while relatively intact equipment was delivered to the Pyramid Core for scanning and reverse engineering, using existing technology as reference.
This process repeated over a dozen times across nearly half a month until Garbage Star's orbital space was finally cleared. The remaining minor metallic debris no longer posed significant interference to radar detection or spacecraft traffic.
While Liu Hai continued tinkering with his first spacecraft, a message from the Smuggling Port brought him unexpected good news.
"You're saying you need a batch of air combat weaponry?" Liu Hai asked excitedly to the smuggler's projection.
Broli responded respectfully, "Yes, Mr. Liu. We witnessed your battle against the pirates, and after thorough comparison, we've found your company's fighter jets perform comparably to current mainstream models. Having consulted with the Liu Clan of Deka Star—who expressed satisfaction with your armaments—we wish to place an order."
"Of course, we'll pay in metal materials as before. However, our requirements are substantial. We wonder if your company can meet the full demand."
Liu Hai immediately responded, "Quantity isn't an issue—we can deliver in batches if needed. But transportation will be your responsibility; we don't offer delivery service to the Smuggling Port. Now, about your specific order...?"
"That's acceptable. Here's our purchase list. Please arrange production accordingly—we'd prefer balanced weapon variety in each delivery batch," Broli said as he transmitted the order, adding one final note.
"Agreed," Liu Hai readily consented before examining the order details.
"400,000 fighter jets? Enough to fill four motherships' hangars?" Liu Hai muttered in surprise. "200,000 mecha units—another four motherships' worth. They're planning something major. If they'd seen my warships in action, they'd probably have ordered those too."
The enormous order would require two years of production at current capacity. Even with monthly deliveries, raw material collection would become challenging—after all, Liu Hai's true objective wasn't arms dealing, but legitimately accumulating funds to purchase Federation warships.
"We'll need to adjust the production lines. The Fighter Jet production needs to increase to 50,000 units per month, and the Mecha to 25,000 units. That means roughly quintupling our current output—what a hassle. Just expanding these production lines will take a full month."
Liu Hai stared at the revised production plan from the Intelligent Nexus, muttering to himself while wondering why Igor's ship still hadn't been repaired. He was counting on him to transport and sell the metal materials under the Star Sea Group's name.
After reviewing the Intelligent Nexus's production plan, he saw that the recycling robots had been increased to 5,000 and the Smelting Furnaces to 100. This setup could produce about 43,000 tons of metal materials daily. After deducting the materials needed for orders, there would still be around 10,000 tons left for his own use and reserves—more than enough.
Liu Hai leaned back in the command chair, feeling grateful that his starting point had been this Garbage Star. The centuries of accumulated junk had given him the capital to build his empire. Otherwise, he would have had to find ways to legitimize himself before he could develop using the Pyramid Core's technical data.
After a moment of reflection, Liu Hai quickly calculated how much he stood to earn this time: "Sparrow-class Fighters at 150,000 Credit Points each, totaling 400,000 units; Assault-class Mecha at 230,000 Credit Points each, totaling 200,000 units. That's 600 billion plus 460 billion—1.06 trillion Credit Points! Hell yeah!"
Overjoyed, Liu Hai nearly burst into song right there in the Control Room. He immediately ordered the service robots to prepare him a feast—though the ingredients would, of course, be synthetic. Fortunately, after connecting to the star network, the biological structures of various raw materials had been refined down to the DNA level.
"A trillion Credit Points! That's enough to buy three standard Battleships. Has my path to becoming a lord really been achieved this easily?" Liu Hai was still reeling from the shock of this windfall, his mind spinning.
In truth, Liu Hai simply hadn't fully adapted to this interstellar era yet. A trillion Credit Points was indeed an astronomical figure to the average citizen of the Federation, but to the various interstellar factions, it was merely ordinary.
A low-end Corvette could sell for as little as two to three million Credit Points, while a top-tier configuration could reach three million.
Destroyers followed the same pattern, starting at ten million and reaching hundreds of millions for premium models. Cruisers typically ranged from 300 million to 3.5 billion, while Battlecruisers could even hit tens of billions. Battleships represented another leap, with base models starting at ten billion—and that was for barebones ships without weapons. A fully equipped one would cost around 30 billion.
As for Motherships, their individual value wasn't much higher than Battleships, with base prices around 10 to 20 billion. But once fully loaded with Fighter Jets, crew, and equipment, the cost could skyrocket to 40 or 50 billion.
These massive price disparities were normal. The alloys used alone could vary several times in cost, and the sheer volume differences multiplied that gap by factors of ten or more. Even the basic equipment included with factory-standard "white-label" ships created significant disparities. As a result, the price difference between warships of different tiers could easily span an order of magnitude.
Liu Hai hadn't quite grasped all this yet, which was why he thought a hundred billion Credit Points was a huge amount. But once he actually started spending, he'd realize that a top-tier Corvette alone costs twenty to thirty million, plus it requires a crew of at least fifty to operate properly.
Since crew salaries are essentially hazard pay, the starting rate is five times the standard Federation internal wages. Just the monthly payroll would run close to three million, making the annual personnel costs exceed the price of the spacecraft itself.
So while a hundred billion might seem like an enormous figure, when it comes to assembling an exploration fleet, that amount would only buy a few Corvettes coupled with one or two Destroyers. After that, they'd need to immediately venture into uncharted star systems to explore resources and earn military merits—otherwise, bankruptcy would be inevitable.