Chapter 456: Will she come back to eat?

Well, compress matter to turn it into black-hole matter, then extract antimatter; it's a perfect process.

It can be used to make bullets, sold for money, and is also handy as a weapon.

Zhang Jie is very satisfied with this use of antimatter; this stuff requires a large amount of matter to substitute, the heavier the metal the better, but for ordinary civilizations the biggest limitation is matter and technology, so this is important for small civilizations.

Advanced civilizations will go to black holes to get it themselves; small civilizations wanting this must produce it themselves, which is very troublesome, and just the technology barrier is enough to stop them.

Still the same saying: some things, civilizations that can mass-produce them don't need them, while those that need them can't make them.

But Zhang Jie isn't afraid! He has plenty of garbage that can't be properly processed! And he's not in a hurry to use it—how wonderful!

So he immediately decided to have his Ship Girl collect more garbage from the neighboring Garbage Star for you, and thus a miraculous scene appeared.

Other garbage dumps keep shipping out, but only your Ship Life keeps pulling back.

Especially Xiao Jiu, who is used to picking up garbage; each time she watches others, as soon as they drop a huge container of garbage, she snags it on the spot and flies out of the Garbage Star shoulder‑to‑shoulder with them.

Cough.... It's just like a dumb dog that keeps staring at your plastic bottle in your hand, waiting for you to throw it into the trash can.

In short, the fact that a group of Ship Lives steal garbage spread quickly across the planet, becoming an interesting topic of conversation here.

Of course, Qiong, as a military person's dignity, prevented her from being so brazen; even to save effort taking others' dumped garbage, she only did it sneakily.

And that white‑haired Ship Girl, helplessly, started working for Zhang Jie, becoming an unwilling garbage porter....

Oh right, this silly white‑haired Ship Girl says she calls herself Daitao.

Well, it's a good name; you can tell at once that its owner is a fool.

While Zhang Jie was eagerly preparing to produce antimatter, he discovered that this white‑haired Ship Girl was, intentionally or not, trying to curry favor with him—actively caring for him, buying snacks with her pocket money—clearly she had some ulterior motive.

Offering service for no reason—either treachery or theft!

And her abnormal behavior immediately aroused Xiao Jiu's vigilance; finally, when the other party once again tried to ingratiate herself with Zhang Jie, Xiao Jiu caught her red‑handed.

"Speak! You Daitao! Why are you trying to seduce my driver!"

Xiao Jiu grabbed the other's head and applied an ultimate chokehold, making Daitao's eyes roll back.

"Huh....."

"Speak, you airhead!"

"Huh.... I...."

"Xiao Jiu.... hurry up and choke her to death, you bastard."

"Oh.."

Xiao Jiu released the arm that was locked on the opposite side, and Daitao then took a deep breath.

"This is clearly also my driver...."

"That is clearly mine...."

Furious Xiao Jiu suddenly stopped, glanced furtively at Zhang Jie, seeing he had no reaction, then continued to ruthlessly lift Daitao's face.

"Pah! You're just plotting evil! Speak! What exactly do you want to do!"

Daitao was about to fight Xiao Jiu, but suddenly remembered she was no longer the beloved Ship Girl of before, and could only speak in a wronged tone.

"I just want the driver to help me reinforce my hull..."

"I want to go compete in a match!"

"Oh, I see, that's how it is."

Xiao Jiu suddenly shifted from furious to utterly calm, even feigning ladylike by tossing her hair to hide her embarrassment.

"Then I'll go work, human."

Well, Xiao Jiu ran off, running like crazy; Zhang Jie wanted to shout but couldn't in time, so he just scratched his head in confusion.

"Will she come back to eat?"

"Don't worry about her, tell me about yourself first."

"What do you want to do?"

"I want to compete!"

"No, you don't want to."

"I do!"

"No, you just want to pick up garbage."

"Are you going to let a precious Ship Life keep picking up garbage!!!"

"Um, it's not impossible...."

Daitao has no recourse; all these days of effort, aside from angering Xiao Jiu, have been useless, hey!

Is it really that Daitao Dawang's entire life must end in this little garbage dump?! No way!!!

Daitao's visible dejection sank in, and the whole ship began to wilt.

If it were Xiao Jiu that guy.... this human would surely agree....

"I just... just want to prove myself..."

"I want them to know, abandoning me was the wrong choice!"

Daitao's emotions were a bit agitated; this counts as her obsession.

"But if you don't allow it, I'll just leave..."

Daitao lowered her head in dejection, turned away from Zhang Jie and wiped her tears, the picture of a strong little Ship Girl.

Zhang Jie felt a headache; this little trick of playing hard to get is quite good, though there's probably some genuine feeling in it.

Forget it, they're all our Ship Girls; being a bit kinder to them is hardly blameworthy.

"Alright, alright, I agree to let you enter the competition."

"Really?!"

"Well, but there's one thing I need to make clear: the power from my modifications doesn't belong to you."

"......"

"What should we do..."

"You can join the competition, but you have to go during your rest time."

"I'll make you a ship hull with roughly the same strength, with enhancement parts from my own hand, and you'll need to exchange your prize money for them."

"This also counts as your own effort; if you want to get stronger, you have to strive for it yourself."

"Can you do that?"

"After all, she and Qiong, in various senses, are not entirely considered their own ship life; they are not like Xiao Jiu, and they each have their own ship-life experiences."

"They cannot be like Xiao Jiu, always staying by Zhang Jie's side; perhaps someday they will leave, so he will ultimately not treat them the way he treats Xiao Jiu."

"I can!"

"Daitao said very firmly, although the road ahead looks a bit arduous, she is not afraid."

"At least, this human in front of her is already quite good to her."

"Then that's fine."

"Go on, go play."

"Zhang Jie still has a bunch of things to do: extracting antimatter, replicating antimatter weapons, observing the condition of the little insects, researching that blank."

"Hey, being busy is busy, but it's a fulfilling busy life as a scavenger; living like him, there's nobody else."

"Oh right, he recently promised Xiao Jiu to help her upgrade her ship hull; goodness, this matter is practically giving him a headache."

"If only there were a scavenger ship girl who could help him research things together."

"But it's better to just think about it; besides picking up scraps, he currently has no way to obtain ship life."

"Speaking of which... has he still not seen a kind of heavenly disaster?"

"It seems to be... that kind of genuine beast disaster."