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Chapter 31: The White Tower Local Network
Chapter 31: The White Tower Local Network
Two minutes later, Shen Qing dispelled the dark energy that had gathered in his ears.
"What’s wrong?"
Noticing the sudden gravity in his expression, Song Chi took the initiative to ask.
"Our neighboring booth is likely occupied by members of the Black Mountain Society. Someone just took a call, and the voice was too low for me to hear clearly, but I managed to catch two sensitive words."
Before Song Chi could press for more details, Shen Qing continued.
"Kidnapping, titanium crystals."
Song Chi's pupils contracted sharply. Kidnapping wasn’t that unusual in a society where everyone practiced cultivation, but titanium crystals were a different matter entirely.
According to textbooks, titanium crystals were an extremely high-end resource for reinforcing Embership components. Materials like mercury crystals and mithril were far inferior in comparison.
It was said that only high-quality ship components, such as those of purple grade and above, required titanium crystals for reinforcement and upgrades beyond level 20. Moreover, titanium crystals had long been classified as a strategic resource by the upper echelons of the Ember Human civilization, making them a highly contested resource among all major powers.
Upon hearing the words "titanium crystals," Song Chi and Shen Qing realized that this was no longer something they could easily get involved in.
Moreover, Song Chi immediately recalled the incident from half a month ago at the spicy hotpot restaurant on Minyuan Road. He remembered that it was the Black Mountain Society who were searching for the whereabouts of two miners from Tianyu Mining. Connecting these dots, it was hard not to be suspicious.
Regardless of the veracity of the information, they had to inform their elders.
After settling the bill downstairs and ensuring they were well away from the restaurant, the two of them pushed their kinetic flyers to their limits, heading straight for the Ember Bureau.
In Shen Wenhua’s office, his reaction and Song Chao’s were similar to Song Chi and Shen Qing’s earlier. However, after Song Chi and Shen Qing provided a detailed account of the events, they were promptly dismissed from the office.
Shen Wenhua and Song Chao would now use all their resources to investigate the authenticity of this information. Song Chi and Shen Qing were instructed to go about their business and not to get involved in the matter, nor to disclose anything they had seen or heard.
Despite having anticipated this, the two of them still felt uneasy. The frustration of being too weak to help was truly unbearable.
Shen Qing drove the patrol flyer and escorted Song Chi back to Dongjiang Neighborhood, giving him some parting advice before leaving.
Back in his bedroom, Song Chi immediately entered the Multiverse Market to continue his cultivation of the Guiding Technique.
The next day, he interrupted his practice because the Ember Network he had activated the previous day was now ready for connection.
The thought of connecting to a network where all users were Embership captains filled him with anticipation.
Focusing his mind on the Ember Ancestral Node, he concentrated on the glowing white Ember Seed. Soon, a small screen appeared on his retinas.
Do you want to connect to the Ember Network - White Tower Local Network?
"Confirm!"
As he confirmed, the screen changed, and an image began to play.
In the vast starry expanse, a dozen battle-scarred warships were traveling at full speed. Behind them, over a thousand ominous triangular spacecraft were in hot pursuit, relentlessly firing their cannons. One by one, the warships exploded under the barrage.
Finally, by chance, they encountered and passed through an unstable space-time wormhole, evading the alien civilization’s pursuit and avoiding total annihilation. By then, only six warships remained.
The video ended there, seemingly without a clear beginning or end. However, every citizen who had received proper Ember education would instantly feel a deep resonance upon seeing this scene.
The final six warships depicted in the footage were the founding vessels of the Ember Human Civilization, a low-tech human civilization that had almost been wiped out. After passing through a wormhole, the ancestors aboard these warships discovered an ancient civilization's ruins, from which they obtained the first ember seed. This marked the birth of the Ember Human Civilization, which has since grown and thrived to become what it is today.
After the footage ended, Song Chi was lost in thought for a long time. Then, sixteen words appeared on the screen:
"Star sea journey, a long and arduous path.
Civilization's flame, eternal and unextinguished."
Following this, he had officially logged into a local network within the Ember Network.
The Ring White Tower Local Network, one of many such networks under the Ember Network, encompassed the entire White Tower Floating Land, the asteroid belt and debris field surrounding it, and all citizens who had awakened the ember seed within the star fortresses. It was the largest information exchange hub in the vicinity of the White Tower Floating Land.
In addition to this, the local network included systems for posting and accepting missions, free trade, and a friends list, among other features.
The reason it was just the Ring White Tower Local Network, rather than the entire Ember Human Civilization network, was because Song Chi's ember seed rank was still too low. Although he had recently improved the quality of his ember seed to white, quality and rank were entirely different. Quality only indicated the potential for future enhancement, while rank represented the current strength of the ember seed-bound starship.
The Cangqiong had just been bound to his ember seed, and he had only used one of its special slots, which was sufficient for now. Therefore, his rank remained at LV0.
Song Chi didn't pay much attention to this and instead focused on understanding the various functions of his account. According to the assistant from the Ember Network who had helped him awaken his ember seed, his account had some special privileges. He spent about half an hour figuring out these privileges.
Compared to ordinary ember accounts, his account indeed had some unique benefits:
1. Ordinary accounts had to use real names when chatting on the Ember Network, while he could set his messages to be anonymous.
2. His account did not have to pay a 5% transaction tax when trading on the Ember Network, whereas other accounts did.
3. Ordinary accounts had to pay additional floating land essence to top-post or prioritize mission acceptance, but his account had these features built-in.
After understanding the special features of his account, Song Chi's curiosity remained unquenched. He began to browse through the various chat messages on the local network with great interest.
"Jiangyuan City {Jianghai}: Looking for teammates to clear the debris field in the northern sky of the floating land."
"Changhe City {Chaotian}: Offering 100 first-tier floating land essence for coordinates to the 'Blood Jing Star Pirate Gang's' hideout."
"Jiangyuan City {Tianma}: 100 first-tier essence for the 'Blood Jing Star Pirate Gang's' hideout? Are you dreaming? Anyone who can find their hideout wouldn't need your 100 first-tier essence."
...
"White Tower City {Changkong}: A psychic airship from the Yellen Viscount's estate has gone missing. Those who provide relevant clues will receive a substantial reward."
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
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