On the surface, all teams had withdrawn their personnel, but secretly they had each left a few people mixed in with the independent scavengers, quietly observing that silver-white metallic structure.
Following the Intelligent Nexus's recommendation, Liu Hai installed multiple layers of Composite Energy Shields around the Pyramid Core to conceal the construction work of the Engineering Robots and guard against potential long-range attacks.
As plans were implemented one after another, Liu Hai found himself with nothing to do. All construction projects were already at full capacity, and the Pyramid Core's factory had only one production line, which couldn't keep up with the demand for equipment. Thus, Liu Hai had no choice but to wait.
With time on his hands, Liu Hai realized he had never truly explored this planet. Apart from the scavengers who survived by picking through garbage and the Mutated Rats that fed on the waste, he had never encountered any other lifeforms.
So he pushed ahead with the production of two Distant Orbit Reconnaissance Satellites and launched them into space.
Through the scanning and optical imaging of the two satellites, Liu Hai first saw mountains of garbage covering the entire planet.
What puzzled him was that the highest concentration of scavengers was within a few hundred kilometers of his location. Other areas had very few people, with only the occasional individual spotted here and there.
When the reconnaissance satellites turned to the other side of the Garbage Star, a small town entirely welded together from scrap metal caught Liu Hai's attention.
At first, Liu Hai didn't even recognize it as a settlement. It wasn't until the projection highlighted the thermal signatures of living beings that he realized those seemingly orderly piles of garbage were actually houses.
Just as Liu Hai was curiously observing the town, the other reconnaissance satellite, which was facing outward, suddenly sounded an alarm. When he expanded the projection, he saw a long, narrow ship about a hundred meters long and over ten meters tall.
The ship was painted black and resembled an oversized space shuttle, with no visible external weaponry.
According to the Intelligent Nexus's analysis, it was a small cargo vessel, with its slender body housing the cargo hold. However, it was impossible to determine whether it had a warp drive.
Watching the ship head straight for the town he had just discovered, Liu Hai's interest was immediately piqued.
He continued observing as the ship extended its landing gear and touched down in a cleared area among the garbage mountains beside the town. Only then did Liu Hai notice several similar flat areas around the town. Upon closer inspection, he realized the garbage had been deliberately arranged to form these spaces. From the outside, they looked like ordinary garbage dumps, but the cleared areas were just the right size to accommodate small ships under a hundred meters in length.
"Interesting. This doesn't look like a legitimate operation. What kind of official ship would use garbage piles as cover? Could it be some kind of secret organization?"
As Liu Hai watched the ship open its belly hatch and begin unloading cargo on the projection, he wondered if he should prioritize building some anti-air defenses. If he were discovered and attacked from the air, he currently had no means to fight back.
As if answering his fears, a few hours later, Gray Rat arrived at the Smuggling Port. After a brief handover, he boarded that very ship.
By the afternoon, when the air was at its most scorching, the spacecraft finally finished loading and unloading its cargo and took off. However, instead of accelerating away from Garbage Star immediately, it hovered in low orbit for over half an hour before heading toward the Pyramid Core.
Rewind three hours earlier—Gray Rat, accompanied by two underlings, drove a hover car to the Smuggling Port. Only after passing inspection by fully armed security personnel did they gain entry.
Gray Rat's hover car glided down the town's only street. Spotting a few familiar faces along the way, he exchanged brief greetings before leisurely arriving at the landing site of the spacecraft.
Igor Green, captain of the smuggling ship Destroyer, was accompanying the cargo owner inside the hold, overseeing the unloading. Laborers clad in industrial exoskeletons carried sealed crates into a warehouse nestled within the garbage mountains.
"Keling, this time you've got to pay me in full—no more credit! I can't even afford fuel for my damn ship anymore!" Igor, dressed in work clothes, roared at the pot-bellied cargo owner beside him.
Keling, the owner, acted as if Igor's outburst didn't exist, casually counting his goods without a care.
"Keling, are you even listening to me?" Igor bellowed again, seeing Keling's indifference.
Only when it seemed Igor was about to explode did Keling finally turn to placate him. "Hey, Igor, I'll definitely settle up this time. Plus, I've got a new deal for you."
"You owe me 32,000 Federal Credits from the last two shipments, plus 15,000 for this one—that's 47,000 in total. So, are you paying in Credits or energy blocks?" Igor immediately pulled out a notebook from his pocket and started tallying the moment Keling mentioned payment.
Keling shrugged helplessly, adopting a regretful tone. "Igor, I don't have energy blocks or Credits. Just a few crates of tobacco I picked up to cover the debt."
"Damn tobacco! You pulled this same stunt last time! That cursed tobacco of yours barely sold—cost me 5,000 Credits in losses!" Igor refused outright.
Last time, he'd accepted the tobacco, thinking it'd be easy to sell. But when he hauled it to the market, he discovered it was Noxious Tobacco from Bulunxing—untreated and too dangerous for ordinary people to smoke. It barely sold, and when it did, he was shorted 5,000 Credits. A total disaster.
Keling raised his hands in assurance. "This time, I'll throw in five extra crates. That should cover your losses, right?"
"No, at least ten crates!"
"Fine, deal."
With the deal struck, Keling was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something. "Oh right, I mentioned introducing you to a client—a scavenger. Needs transport to Konor Administrative Star. Since you're heading that way anyway, three people for 3,000 energy blocks. Take it or not?"
Igor nodded. Three thousand energy blocks—equivalent to 6,000 Credits—for a two-week trip. Net profit around 4,000 Credits. Not bad.
"Good. He should be arriving soon. I'll have him come straight to you. His name's Gray Rat." With that, Keling hurried off. As for the promised tobacco? Well, it'd have to wait until after unloading, of course.
After just a few minutes, Gray Rat appeared at the cargo bay entrance and found Igor organizing the warehouse: "Hello, Captain. I'm Gray Rat, referred by Keling."
Igor, wearing a mask, glanced at Gray Rat and the two others, paying particular attention to the large safe they were carrying.
"Gray Rat, huh? Heading to Kono Administrative Planet? Fine, follow me." Igor had no intention of interacting much with these scavengers who probably hadn't bathed in their lives and led them straight to the lounge.
"Captain Igor, I have a profitable piece of information to sell you. Interested?" Though Igor wasn't keen on conversation, Gray Rat still planned to sell the intel about the Pyramid Core.
"That depends on the price and the information." Igor didn't even turn around, convinced that scavengers couldn't possess anything of real value.
"How about a metal structure guarded by combat robots? Worth anything?" Gray Rat asked with a smirk.
Igor stopped and turned to face Gray Rat: "Where is it? How much?"