Ten thousand Star Coins!
What kind of concept was that?
You must know that the currently best-selling T1 Wolf Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer was priced at only thirty thousand Star Coins!
This was equivalent to eating one-third of a starship in a single meal!
"Scoundrel…!" Zhou Min angrily blurted out.
"I said it before, eat it or don't. If you, this woman, dare to say one more word, forget about eating—I'll throw you right off the starship. You're on your own!" The cook retorted without backing down.
Zhou Min was furious but dared not speak her anger aloud.
"If it's a hundred times for her, fine, but why is it a hundred times for me too?" That fair-faced young man deliberately distanced himself from Zhou Min, as if he had nothing to do with her.
But the students of Tianyao Noble Starship Military Academy all knew very well that this man and Zhou Min were in a relationship—and a very intimate one at that.
"Hurricane Consortium, Feng Xiao Wei. Our commander asked me to relay a message to you.
Dare to use a T3 starship to woo my sister? Believe it or not, I'll spend a T3 starship to take your life!" The cook said this with a slight smile.
But Feng Xiao Wei felt that this smile carried mockery.
He understood the threat in those words. If Zhao Chen really dared to put a T3 starship up as a bounty on the Black Market, plenty of people would risk it all for his life, which would be worth a T3 starship.
"Pfft…" Xue Xiaoxiao, who had just taken a sip of soup, couldn't hold back and sprayed it out.
But to avoid dirtying the food on the table, she quickly turned her head to the side. Fortunately, the food on the table was spared.
But Zhao Wan'er's face was not so lucky.
Zhao Wan'er glared darkly at Xue Xiaoxiao, who was struggling to hold back her laughter across from her.
"Wan'er… your… your brother… is too fierce… 'Dare to use a T3 starship to woo my sister? Believe it or not, I'll spend a T3 starship to take your life!'
Hahaha… Is your brother a siscon or something…" Xue Xiaoxiao doubled over with laughter.
"Fierce, huh? I've got something even fiercer here." Zhao Wan'er grabbed a nearby food item called a "baguette," walked up to Xue Xiaoxiao, and shoved it toward her mouth.
"Mmph… too big… too big… no… it won't fit… mmph… stop… I'm… I'm… gonna die…" Xue Xiaoxiao struggled frantically.
In the end, only after half the baguette was stuffed in did Zhao Wan'er let go of this loose-lipped troublemaker.
By now, the others also understood why this pair received such treatment.
One was Zhou Min, the other Feng Xiao Wei—both had previously had "friction" with Zhao Wan'er and her brother back at North Star Starship Military Academy.
They just never expected Zhao Chen to hold such a grudge.
"Hmph… a hundred times the price serves them right. With Zhou Min's attitude before, several times I wanted to just punch her myself!" Zhao Wan'er looked at the two who had been put in their place, feeling absolutely delighted.
She promptly downed another bowl of rice.
She glanced at Xue Xiaoxiao, who had finally caught her breath beside her, and pointed at the half-eaten baguette in her hand: "Want one? It tastes pretty good."
"N-no… I'll pass…" Xue Xiaoxiao looked at the baguette with terror in her eyes. From then on, she developed a lifelong fear of that particular food.
Afterwards, Zhou Min and that Hurricane Consortium young master had no choice but to reduce their own food portions. Even so, the two of them still spent a staggering total of nearly five thousand Star Coins!
Soon, the first batch of meals was delivered.
The teachers and students who hadn't ordered, watching those eating with great relish, saw some of them waver and choose to place orders.
In the end, basically everyone had ordered food, though the portions varied greatly.
Some 'suckers' who paid high prices but only received the same food as those who spent a few dozen Star Coins could only silently swallow their losses.
Meanwhile, the teachers and students from North Star Starship Military Academy who had benefited from this situation didn't feel the slightest bit of heartache now.
Because they had spent less than a hundred Star Coins to enjoy food that others had to pay thousands of Star Coins for—and the others' meals weren't even as lavish as theirs!
This sense of superiority even made them think more highly of Zhao Chen.
Because of this, the lead teacher from Tianyao Noble Starship Military Academy approached Teacher Qin, hoping she could speak with that student Zhao Chen. Even if they could just receive the same treatment as the North Star Starship Military Academy students, that would be fine.
Teacher Qin responded that this was Zhao Chen's starship, and how Zhao Chen set the rules was Zhao Chen's business. As a teacher, she had no authority to interfere.
Actually, during this dual-academy interstellar mission, Teacher Qin had long been dissatisfied with Tianyao Noble Starship Military Academy. Before the incident occurred, their lead teacher had been throwing their weight around.
After the incident happened, they acted completely useless, and she had carried the entire process forward on her own shoulders.
Seeing them suffer now, Teacher Qin felt quite pleased.
At this moment.
"This... this is my food?" Professor Jiang's meal was delivered, accompanied by a mini dining table.
On it were three dishes and one soup with both meat and vegetables, plus a serving of after-meal fruit. Additionally, there were simple dry-cleaning hygiene products and clean clothes.
Although the food couldn't compare to Zhao Wan'er's table, according to standard pricing, these meals would normally cost at least over a hundred Star Coins.
"Yes, please enjoy your meal." The starship crew member delivered the food and then stepped away.
As Professor Jiang ate this food, he unexpectedly found his eyes growing moist.
Because of being 'blacklisted' at Tianyao Noble Starship Military Academy, his salary was extremely low. He basically ate synthetic food all the time, and only occasionally could he eat some very ordinary natural ingredient meals.
Things like fruit and natural meat—he basically hadn't eaten any since that incident.
He never imagined that he would get to eat such food under these circumstances.
Among those enjoying their meals, there were naturally still those who resented Zhao Chen.
For example, Zhou Min and that Feng Xiao Wei.
"That guy actually dares to treat us like this!" Feng Xiao Wei stared at the food before him that had cost him five thousand Star Coins, feeling so angry it made him itch.
Zhou Min was wolfing down the food, having already eaten nearly half of it.
Feng Xiao Wei hurriedly cried out: "Hey! I paid for this, don't eat it all!"
"Xiao Wei, I'm really too hungry... how about... you buy a little more?" Zhou Min looked at Feng Xiao Wei.
"Buy more? At a hundred times the price? Do you really think I'm a sucker? If you want to buy, go buy it yourself!" Feng Xiao Wei snatched the remaining food, not allowing Zhou Min to touch another bite.
Zhou Min could only watch with grievance from the side. The little she had eaten earlier left her far from full—instead, it only made her feel hungrier.
Feng Xiao Wei ate the exorbitantly priced food, thinking to himself: I'll remember this grudge. No one dares to rip off Young Master Feng like this!
...
At this very moment, in the Starship Dining Hall.
Zhao Chen was currently watching the video window before him with a sly grin. The scene displayed was from inside the hangar, while his account continuously chimed with incoming payment notifications.
Payment received: 150 Star Coins… Payment received: 5,000 Star Coins… Payment received: 3,000 Star Coins… Payment received: 500 Star Coins…
Don't underestimate these seemingly small amounts—Zhao Chen had rescued nearly two hundred students this time. In just this short while, the income from meal orders had reached an astonishing forty to fifty thousand Star Coins!
This was even more lucrative than the Arms Trade.
Of course, such opportunities were rare and only occurred under special circumstances like these.
Zhao Chen didn't want to return empty-handed from this trip, only to have to pay out of his own pocket for starship repairs and military supplies procurement.
But this income was more than enough to cover several rounds of repairs for the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser.
"Next up is sending these big spenders back," Zhao Chen muttered.
The smile on his face faded at that moment.
Although the people had been rescued, the chain reaction from this operation was significant, and he had no idea how many challenges awaited him afterward.