"Got it, first take us to meet those Apollo employees."
Prioritizing tasks, Ye Xing still decided to investigate Apollo first.
"Alright."
Cheng Lei drove to the liveliest bar in the city, "Lakeside," a place frequently visited by Apollo employees after work.
"This bar is also considered one of our secret strongholds; the bartender and servers are all our own people," she said, leading the two in through the back door to the employee changing room.
"I won't go in; too many people in the city recognize my face. Brother Stone will take you; ask him if you need anything."
A man in his thirties walked forward, and Ye Xing recognized him at a glance.
This person was in Cheng Lei's team last night.
The three exited the way they came, re-entered through the front door, and walked directly to a booth like regular customers.
After sitting down, Brother Stone drank while "complaining" about his daily work as a petroleum Engineer.
This was actually revealing information about the city. Caoyuan and Ye Xing only needed to occasionally chime in with a couple of words to avoid others wondering why the people at this table were just drinking silently without talking.
Through Brother Stone's complaints, the two learned that crude oil, like rare metals, is a commodity highly favored by the Tianren.
Caoyuan, who was familiar with military matters, knew that Apollo was definitely not buying oil for power generation, and most likely not for petrochemicals, making plastics, or making soap.
They were likely extracting the carbon elements from it to make carbon fiber, carbon-carbon composite materials, or even more advanced carbon nanotubes.
The tensile strength of these materials far exceeds titanium alloy, potentially by a hundred times, yet their density is even lower than aerospace aluminum, making them very lightweight.
In outer space, there is no air resistance; the only factors affecting vehicle maneuverability are engine output and weight. Therefore, space warships and fighters are necessarily very sensitive to weight. A 50% weight reduction means a 100% increase in maneuverability, bringing a huge tactical advantage.
Looking at it this way, Oasis City, which can provide huge quantities of cheap carbon elements, has its strategic significance elevated another notch.
Caoyuan was just calculating in his mind when rather heavy footsteps sounded.
Two guests wearing black power armor walked into the bar, glanced disdainfully at the customers who looked up at them, then sat down at the bar without a word, took off their helmets, and prepared to drink.
Apollo's security personnel!
Target sighted!
Coming to a bar wearing power armor, it seems you know you're not welcome.
"How should we handle this?" Caoyuan lowered his voice.
"Just start asking," Ye Xing said confidently. "Brother Stone, are there usually many people trying to talk to Apollo employees?"
"Not a few. There are some from time to time, those wanting to sell goods, those wanting to join them, and those purely wanting to hear space stories. Just striking up a conversation won't necessarily arouse suspicion."
"But?"
"But they'll likely be sent away. Even if they're in a good mood and willing to chat a bit more, their security awareness is very strong. If you ask about topics like troop deployment or weapon power, you'll definitely be taken away for questioning, and might even get beaten."
It seemed Cheng Lei's people had done a lot of asking, but didn't get any valuable information and even suffered losses.
Ye Xing: "You're not approaching the conversation correctly."
Caoyuan: "Don't be too confident. If you get taken away here, it'll be hard for me to save you."
Ye Xing chuckled, his tone quite smug.
"You might not believe it, but in this area, I really am an expert."
Caoyuan didn't think much of it.
"Keep up the suspense then. But I should remind you, when talking up close, first take off the translator under your collar to avoid giving yourself away. By the way, is your spoken Li Star language good enough?"
"Looking down on me, are you? Brother here has been practicing Li Star language desperately these past few days, diligently."
"Are you sure you don't have an accent and can express yourself fluently?"
"I have an accent and I'm not fluent enough, but I've been drinking! Smell the alcohol on me. After getting drunk, am I not allowed to slur my words?"
Caoyuan nodded silently.
There's actually some damn sense to that, no wonder he came to the bar!
"What if the other party is those two people who confronted us before?"
Caoyuan was referring to the two very arrogant Apollo employees they encountered when scanning the reconnaissance drone blueprint.
It's not good to wear the hoods and masks used for sun protection during the day in a bar, otherwise it would look very strange.
"We were wearing tactical helmets then and didn't show our faces. I'll just speak in a strained voice later."
"What if, by chance, they were equipped with scanners that could penetrate masks at the time?"
"Stop with all the 'what ifs'!" Ye Xing patted Caoyuan's shoulder. "Everything involves an element of luck. When in doubt, just go for it! Wish me luck!"
He waited patiently for another 40 minutes until the two Apollo employees showed obvious signs of drunkenness, then got up and walked towards the bar.
"Serve two 'Breeze Nocturnes' to the two distinguished gentlemen, put it on my tab."
That was the most expensive drink.
Ye Xing said to the bartender with an air of haughty confidence.
Then, facing the two Apollo employees, he placed his hand on his chest and bowed in a very affected manner.
Without waiting for the other party to say "scram," he put on a fawning expression and stammered, "It must be hard for the two of you to work on our backward planet! The people here are tasteless, ignorant, and it's dusty! I'm sure it didn't leave a good impression on you two. I apologize on their behalf!"
As soon as these words came out, the surrounding customers immediately cast hostile glances.
The two Apollo employees also showed expressions of contempt.
Belittling one's hometown and compatriots will not earn the respect of wealthier and stronger outsiders; instead, it will only expose a base personality, even if the outsider is a villain.
"Can this kid pull it off..." Caoyuan was sweating for him.
However, after all, one doesn't hit a smiling face.
The Apollo employee looked up: "Aren't you the same damn way?"
Hearing the other party's tone, Ye Xing knew that the fish was half-hooked.
"People can't choose where they are born, but please believe me, I am the person closest to a kindred spirit you two can find in this city! I am truly different from others!"
"Where do you get that confidence?"
"No, no, no, it's not confidence, it's a fact! Just listen to me tell you..."
In the distance, Caoyuan was stunned.
Ye Xing, this kid, really did strike up a conversation with Apollo!
Although most of the time he was talking volubly, fabricating stories one after another.
One moment he was talking about how noble his family was before the apocalypse, being merchant nomads, sector governors, using aliens as dogs at home; the next he was saying his ancestors participated in the Great Crusade and had slain "Dark Warriors" on the highlands of the planet Mustafar...
It was as outlandish as could be.
After mumbling a few sentences, the other side started to refute.
"Bullshit, that's clearly a plot from an ancient movie."
Refute?
Refuting is exactly right!
Ye Xing was secretly delighted.
Compared to normal expression, people always can't help but refute, can't help but "argue"!
Especially towards that kind of idiot who is clearly a good-for-nothing but is excessively self-superior and thinks they are very noble.
Moreover, they can't help but use real knowledge, information, and ideas to refute.
This full-time streamer realized this "mindset" while browsing the bullet comment section!
"What you're saying... how could it be a movie? It's all real! That Dark Warrior piloted a custom-made titanium fighter with a Level 28 warp drive, able to fly from one end of the galaxy to the other in an hour! But it was useless; my ancestor still chopped off his legs."
Seeing that the other party was completely hooked, he began to steer the conversation towards the performance of space vehicles.