Chapter 578: Giant God's Gravity

"Did AEON Logistics say when their people will arrive?"

In the noisy starport, a bearded middle-aged man crouched on the ground, a half-burnt cigarette pinched between his fingers, and casually asked a young man nearby who was maintaining a mechanical arm.

As he spoke, he took a deep drag, his face involuntarily showing an expression of utter delight.

But before he could exhale the smoke, a squad of fully armed machine soldiers arrived before him: "Mr., smoking is prohibited in the starport. We ask for your understanding."

"Ah? Sorry, sorry."

Hearing this, the middle-aged man chuckled awkwardly and quickly crushed out his cigarette.

Yet when he noticed the machine soldiers did not leave, he couldn't help scratching his head: "Is there something else?"

"Mr., according to the Starport Management Regulations, we must impose a fifty-credit fine on you." The lead machine soldier took a fine slip handed to him by a companion and shoved it into the middle-aged man's hand. "Please sign here."

"."

Looking at the fine slip, the middle-aged man opened his mouth to speak but held back, finally resigning himself and signing his name.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

Seeing this, the machine soldiers bowed, then turned and left.

After watching them depart, the middle-aged man sighed helplessly: "Why did the corporation assign us this secret investigation? Now I've gotten a fine for no reason."

With our status within the corporation, not even smoking in the starport would be an issue—let alone setting off fireworks here.

The young man didn't answer immediately. Instead, he applied the final layer of maintenance oil to the mechanical arm, then carefully connected it to the stump of his left arm.

Only after finishing did he calmly ask in return: "Do you think a normal person would dare touch our things—or those of the Dragons?"

". True."

The middle-aged man quickly accepted this reasoning, then scratched his messy hair and muttered: "I hope the ones coming aren't those lunatics from the Tiamat branch."

Those five-colored Dragons are indeed powerful, but their brains are equally faulty—tasking them with a covert investigation is asking too much.

At that moment, an extremely oversized yellow starship slowly entered the starport.

The middle-aged man was about to complain to his companion about the ship owner's terrible taste, when he noticed the young man had already begun walking toward the yellow starship.

Seeing this, he froze for a moment, then hurried after him: "What's going on? Xiao Pan, do you know them?"

". Didn't you read the intel I sent you?"

In response, the young man furrowed his brow slightly, clearly puzzled why his companion hadn't recognized the yellow starship.

Hearing this, the middle-aged man felt embarrassed: "Lately I've been overhauling that dead-star warship—I had my AI block all external information."

"."

The young man let out a barely perceptible sigh, unable to understand why the corporation assigned this task to this guy.

As they approached the yellow starship, the middle-aged man suddenly realized it was a living warship.

Staring at the absurdly massive vessel, he couldn't help wondering: "Don't Dragons prefer traveling through space using their own bodies? Why are they riding a starship this time?"

Before he could form a reasonable conclusion, three figures stepped out of the starship.

Without caring what the middle-aged man was thinking, the young man stepped forward and extended his right hand: "Senior Engineer, Giant God's Gravity, Pan Mingrui."

"Li Ang. I'm sort of an off-the-books employee of AEON Logistics."

Hearing this, the young man froze.

Although AEON Logistics had sent personnel info ahead, it hadn't specified this man was an "off-the-books employee"—and he'd never heard of such a position in this galactic giant.

'Could he be a freelance bounty hunter hired by AEON Logistics?'

Bounty hunters weren't rare—after all, the universe was vast, and someone had to do the dirty, grueling work.

If so, it would explain why he owned such a starship.

After all, bounty hunters' vehicles were always bizarre; this yellow starship, aside from being huge, was already fairly normal.

Thinking this, Pan Mingrui instinctively glanced behind the man—and two female figures, one tall and one short, entered his view.

The shorter one was gnawing on a piece of metal like a hamster; the taller one smiled at him.

"."

Is this team actually reliable?

A sense of helplessness rose in Pan Mingrui's mind.

Just as he was about to speak, the middle-aged man stepped forward and shook Li Ang's hand: "Senior Engineer, Giant God's Gravity, Chris Wu. Call me Lao Wu."

After saying that, he released his grip and pulled a filthy pack of cigarettes from his oily overalls: "Want one?"

"Thanks, I don't smoke."

Li Ang politely declined Lao Wu's offer.

Hearing this, Lao Wu sighed slightly and slipped the cigarette pack back in—he wasn't so low-class as to make everyone inhale his secondhand smoke.

Pan Mingrui didn't count—secondhand smoke couldn't harm a physical iron lung, even if high-tier professionals weren't affected by such trivialities anyway.

At that moment, Li Ang introduced the team members: "This is Elise, elite employee of the Tiamat branch."

Upon hearing her name, the dragon pup blinked, then mumbled indistinctly: ". Ni men hao."

As Pan Mingrui watched the dragon pup still eating, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.

So this is a Dragon?

He hadn't even recognized it without detection devices.

Just as Pan Mingrui was thinking this, the man continued: "This is Sophia, elite employee of the Bahamut branch."

"?"

One Tiamat branch member, one Bahamut branch member—clearly, this wasn't the bounty hunter team he'd imagined.

But why was the leader of such an elite team a young man claiming to be an "off-the-books employee"?

With a puzzled expression, Pan Mingrui's pupils contracted slightly.

Then nothing happened.

In the eyes of this senior engineer, the other had no trace of anything unusual—merely an ordinary Level-5 occupationalist, not even a dragon.

Rather, those two dragons possessed terrifying strength, even among Level-5 occupationalists they could be considered top-tier.

But the absence of anomalies was the greatest anomaly; Pan Mingrui did not believe an ordinary Level-5 occupationalist could become the leader of such a team.

After a brief silence, he spoke: "Let's leave here first—this isn't a place for conversation."

"Then we'll leave it to the two of you to lead the way."

As guests, Li Ang naturally had no reason to object to his proposal, especially since the starport was indeed noisy.

Thus, the group quickly left the starport and arrived at a small abandoned factory.

Yet unlike its dilapidated exterior, the interior of the factory was surprisingly tidy.

After signaling the robotic butler beside him to serve everyone a glass of iced water, Pan Mingrui said with a hint of apology: "Time is limited, and we won't be staying on this planet afterward, so please don't mind."

"You're too kind."

Li Ang shook his head slightly; he hadn't expected someone who looked so cold to be unexpectedly easy to deal with.

Ultimately, this incident was 【Aio Logistics】's mistake—【Giant God Heavy Industry】 was already being generous not to show their displeasure.

But Li Ang didn't know that 【Giant God Heavy Industry】 also feared that the ones sent to handle the aftermath might be the mad dragons of the Tiamat branch.

If they'd sent another occupationalist with a bad temper, not only would uncovering the truth be impossible—they'd probably start fighting the moment they met, until both sides' brains were spilled.

But regardless, a cooperative client always lifted one's spirits.

Without dwelling further on the matter, Li Ang asked directly: "Before we arrived, did the two of you uncover any useful information?"