Starting Cultivation in Wasteland-Chapter 630 - 500: Successive Incidents

A large portion of Bida Company's starships do not belong to the company's assets.

Neither Qu Jianlei nor archaeology enthusiasts are interested in targeting these assets.

Forcing bystanders to become enemies is truly unnecessary.

Similarly, there's also a part of joint venture assets that these two have little interest in.

They are only interested in handling the assets that Bida owns outright or holds overwhelmingly large shares in.

However, among these targets, they still have to look for the best point of attack.

So despite the fact that many freight starships take off and land daily at Bida, very few actually meet the criteria.

It is precisely because of this that Granny Jia said she couldn't take down ten starships.

With Xiao Hu's support, Qu Jianlei found it easy to figure out the details of Bida Freight's starships.

At midnight, Charles dragged his weary steps toward the dormitory.

He was the inspection assistant at Pier 7 of Fengrao Airport. Although called an assistant, he was actually just a slightly higher-level porter.

The automation level at the airport is high, but as long as machines are involved, failures are inevitable at times.

Charles' job was to fill in for omissions outside of inspections and to do the hauling himself if issues arose.

Technically, transporting cargo shouldn't be too problematic for a Modified Warrior, who doesn't have a bit of strength in their hands?

But Charles was not a Modified Warrior; he'd only been injected with the Genetic Modifier twice, giving him slightly better physical fitness than the average person.

Can someone like him still work as an inspection assistant? Yes, they can. After all, Modified Warriors and Superpower Warriors make up a very small percentage.

Competition was also fierce, and he only got this position when he was nearing fifty.

Yet, under the same conditions, his promotion speed was not considered slow and he was well respected.

Now, nearing sixty, he's at the prime of his life.

However, the inspection work is also exhausting. Though not high in intensity, year after year of shift rotation can't tolerate errors.

Now at shift change, he's off work and planning to have a drink and snooze.

In five days, he could rest for two days and then go home to see his parents and children, bringing back some treats.

As he pondered this, someone called out to him, "Old Charles, cover my shift. I think I ate something bad, gotta hit the bathroom."

The one calling was another inspection assistant coming on shift, not yet forty.

But he was a Modified Warrior with a much brighter future, so he routinely and justifiably had Charles cover for him.

Charles didn't want to provoke this person, but as an old-timer, he wouldn't unconditionally comply either.

"Always making me cover; if you don't fall into the toilet, half an hour should be enough, right?"

"An hour." The other chuckled dryly. "If not, you can bring your drink to the office."

Having worked together for years, everyone knew each other's little hobbies.

"I wouldn't dare," Charles muttered, thinking to himself that he wasn't a Modified Warrior.

But there was no need to say it, or it might seem envious. "An hour it is. I'll be off when time's up."

"Old Charles, you always nitpick," the other murmured, ending the conversation.

Charles shook his head helplessly. His colleague wasn't overly domineering, but there was always a bit of superiority.

Yet... it's quite normal, for a Modified Warrior to speak so casually to an ordinary person is already quite good.

He turned and walked back, passing through a shadowed area when someone suddenly called out to him, "Old Charles!"

Charles glanced and felt the person looked familiar but couldn't immediately recall, "What's up?"

"Just a little something..." These were the last words Charles remembered vividly.

After hypnotizing Charles, Qu Jianlei led him to a corner, let him inhale some anesthetic gas to ensure he wouldn't wake up.

Then he put on Charles' clothes, took his ID badge and wristwatch.

His Transformation Technique didn't support very fine changes, but with careful adjustments, others couldn't easily spot differences.

An hour later, he returned and, while leaving the office, exchanged a few words with that Modified Warrior.

Facing his resentful tone, the other didn't realize he'd interacted with an impostor.

Then, Qu Jianlei controlled Charles to return to the dormitory, watched him drink a lot, and quietly left.

The reason he chose Charles was not just because he was in charge of inspections but also due to his physical condition.

If he hadn't been an ordinary person, it would have been harder to use Spiritual Power to control a Modified Warrior, making mistakes more likely.

Two days later, at the Hope Planet, the scheduling room of Bida Company's headquarters was suddenly filled with a piercing alarm.

"Alarm, alarm! Cargo Hazard 79886 alert, self-combustion in the cargo hold, requesting abandonment of the ship, requesting abandonment!"

"Hazard" in Cargo Hazard means hazardous materials transport, which typically has a high level of security.

The dispatcher, upon receiving the alarm, immediately reported to the command center.

The command center was concerned about who the duty captain was, and upon learning the name, decisively indicated it was possible to abandon the ship after evidence collection.

Because the duty captain was an old-timer, not only reliable but also experienced, if there were a chance for rescue, they wouldn't casually abandon ship.

As for the reason for abandoning the starship, there's no rush to explain it right now; anyway, they'll bring back relevant information.

The crucial point is that the decision to abandon the ship has been made, losses are inevitable, and there's no need to add an extra sum for compensation.

On the Hazard Series starships, there are generally no escape boats, only a few Space Mechas and escape pods.

There's a simple distress system in the escape pods, but it doesn't support interstellar communication.

Fortunately, the captain has an interstellar caller, which can help get a rough idea of the situation.

After organizing the freight team to evacuate, the captain began reporting to the dispatch center on what had happened.

A fire burst occurred in the cargo hold; the intensity wasn't strong, but it was enough to break open the packaging of the goods.

The dispatch command is carefully implementing the investigation into how this incident occurred, while another alarm sounded at the dispatch center.

"Alert, alert! This is cargo… Zizilara@!~#()@*"

Clearly, the other party's communication system has been destroyed, and it's impossible to determine the specific situation in the short term.

The dispatcher found the caller's number, "It's Cargo Express 35466... Medium Transport Ship."

"Cargo Express..." The dispatch commander was stunned, "How could there be electromagnetic interference?"

The Hazard Series starships transport bulk hazardous materials, but in space, the danger of hazardous material dispersion isn't too significant.

However, Cargo Express is different; it handles medium and small shipments, emphasizing timely delivery, and the value of goods is difficult to estimate.

The value isn't important, as there's insurance in place. The problem is the clients aren't one or a few but many.

As such, compensation becomes quite complicated, and the most critical issue is the impact is too great.

Bida Freight can stand firm and isn't afraid of negotiating with medium and small clients, but once the goods are damaged, it's an objective fact.

Reputation is truly crucial for the service industry.

From this perspective, an incident with Cargo Express type starships is much more severe than with Hazard starships.

The dispatch commander can't even consider the Hazard starship now; he takes a deep breath, "Locate it and immediately arrange for the rescue team to search and rescue."

Just after speaking, another alarm sounded.

"Alert, alert! This is Cargo Fresh 25683, this is Cargo Fresh 25683, we're..."

Cargo Fresh is a starship transporting fresh goods, equipped with large freezing and constant temperature devices, typically used for shipping food, medicine, etc.

The dispatcher is already a bit irritated, "Speak properly, don't curse!"

"We're heading towards the star…" shouted the other side, "The control system has failed!"

"Heading towards the star?" The dispatcher was dumbfounded and thought for a moment before asking, "Are you trying to use the gravitational field?"

In interstellar navigation, there are many ways to conserve energy; using a planet's gravitational field to accelerate and then escape is one method.

Generally, in complicated regions of space, ordinary transport companies do not encourage this behavior.

Once close to a planet, numerous complex situations may arise, let alone heading towards a star.

Even fully automated control starships rarely take this risk; if it's semi-automatic, you truly have to rely on the captain's skill.

However, there indeed are experienced old captains who dare to play this way.

Ultimately, transport companies have assessments for energy consumption during starship transportation.

The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that captains and crew don't casually consume energy, as space round trips require tremendous energy.

Paying a bit of attention can save quite a bit of energy; with consistent application, the energy saved can be astronomical.

However, since there's an assessment, those who waste energy bear some economic losses, while those who save should be rewarded.

So some old captains dare to use this method to earn a bit of rewards.

Anyway, what they earn is certainly far less than the savings for the company.

Over time, this has become an unspoken rule: if you have the ability, consider making money this way.

The company indeed doesn't encourage it, but as long as the movement is small and not talked about, firmly claiming it's "luckily saved" won't be a problem.

Even the dispatcher knows about this money-making trick, as it's already an open secret.

The captain of Cargo Fresh 25683 loudly responded, "The gravitational field doesn't matter... Maybe it's lost."

"We now request guidance; we request guidance. Please let headquarters forcibly take over the starship's control center, forcibly take over!"

"Forcibly take over, okay," the dispatcher quickly contacts the expert seat while emphasizing.

"But please understand that forcibly taking over is quite difficult, with very high uncertainty, will you still insist?"

"Of course, insist!" The captain of Cargo Fresh 25683 replied without hesitation, "The manual control system is already destroyed!"

He dared to use the star's gravitational field, quite the old veteran.

Only in near-desperate conditions would he choose to be forcibly taken over, because he knows the consequences very well.

The dispatch commander also understood the risks; hearing this, he couldn't help but grimace, "Damn... this is messed up, right?"

At this moment, another piercing alarm sounded.

"Alert, alert, this is Cargo Sea 182 Fleet, Cargo Sea 182 Fleet, we encountered..."

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