On the border of the Emerald Dragon Realm, on the border between the San Vano Empire and the Harpy Federation, the wreckage of large and small ships and asteroid bodies floats - centuries ago, there was a war of conquest in which tens of thousands of fleets attacked each other for dominance of the Emerald Star Domain. These starship wreckage belts are relics of brutal warfare.

Neither the erosion of the atmosphere nor the pull of gravity, the torn ships and shattered stars have remained abandoned for centuries, converging at the edge of the field into a vast and chaotic belt of starfall, thus providing the best cover for those with bad intentions.

In the vast starless belt, there is an empty star field with relatively sparse drifts, and in the center of the star field floats an artificial star body that looks like a sea turtle and is entangled with many cables. Painted in a low-visibility iron-gray hue and scattered among the wreckage, the star is impossible to detect from the outside, but it is a desert oasis for smugglers and underworld dealers who travel to and from the borders of the Empire and the Union.

In fact, the turtle-shaped artificial star was formerly the supply ship "Daedalus", which was part of the Imperial Fleet. It is known for having the load capacity to feed half a detachment at a time, and for its heavy armor that can withstand direct fire from Federation ships. At the end of the War of Conquest, it was struck by a bolt of lightning laid by the Federation fleet, lost power and was abandoned, becoming one of the largest objects floating in the Death Belt.

After centuries of solitude in the icy void, Daedalus once again welcomed visitors, though neither the Federation nor the Empire, but smugglers who ventured across the Dragonrealm's borders in an attempt to reap the vast profits. Crossing the Dragonland on the scale of a transport fleet is an obvious act of death, but smuggling in pieces requires the support of a supply relay station, and the smugglers fancy the sheer size and intact hull of Deedalus, so they do not hesitate to repair and transform it into an interstellar space station.

As for the pipelines that floated out of Deedalus, they were the transport pipes that connected to the smuggling ships. Many legal and illegal materials from the Harpy Federation and the San Vano Empire, as well as from the neighboring star fields, converged through the transportation pipeline to the docks of Daedalus, and then transferred to other star fields. Because the Emerald Star Field is the only star field bordering the Empire and the Federation, even if the two countries have a feud, but the people naturally have a trade demand, so the smuggling trade is quite prosperous. The huge profits generated not only made the smugglers a lot of gold, but also attracted pirates who came to plunder the wealth and interstellar mercenaries who were hired to protect the smugglers.

Centered on Deedalus and the Star Belt, the smugglers, pirates, and interstellar mercenaries, the three forces are impregnated with each other like red, yellow and green paint, ignoring the territory owner, tossing the dragon territory border into a miasma, and also allowing the imperial forces to reach their tentacles into the dragon territory without hindrance through this pedal. This continued for two centuries, until soon Grumbell finally ushered in a new lord and was authorized by the dragon queen to put down the chaos in the dragon realm.

The change of intentions of the White Moon Palace and the cleanup of Grumbel heralded the profound changes that were about to take place in the Emerald Dragon Territory, but the winds of change rising from the center of the star field had not yet reached the borderlands, so Daedalus' active smuggling business had not yet been affected.

"Although I have heard of it for a long time, I didn't expect it to be so prosperous......

Walking on the streets of Daedalus, Wen Dao looked around with the expression of Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden.

In fact, by the universal standards of interstellar civilization, Daedalus may not be considered to be prosperous. However, since meeting Long Ji and being able to set foot in the astral plane, Wen Tao has seen the medieval Leubek City, the beautiful Baixia Dragon Palace, and the imperial base full of soldiers, but what he has not seen is the normal situation of interstellar civilization, so when he first saw the crowd of people in Daedalus, the shock he felt was almost comparable to that when he first arrived at the Dragon Palace.

"Yes, is that so......"

The Hubby envoy next to him replied in a somewhat humble tone.

Before being hired as envoys by the federal government, Harrom and others were active as smugglers on the borders of the League and the Union, and were recruited by the dailord when they tried to tap the trade value of Grumbell. Unable to resist the authority of the vicarious lord, the Harpy merchant had to take Wendao back to the place where he used to make his fortune, and at this moment, the mood of Harrom and the others was probably similar to that of the farmer who led the tax officer to check the tax title deed, right?

"Don't be nervous, I won't pursue the smuggling tax with you. ”

Wen Dao comforted the Hubi envoy softly, but the effect did not seem to be significant.

Harrom, Asum, Gurem, and the three harpy merchants trembled and accompanied the Acting Lord all the way through the streets of Dedalus, and Wendao looked around with great interest.

In addition to serving as a space port for the transshipment of supplies and a base for refueling, Daedalus also provides a wide variety of entertainment for those who gather here. Walking through the streets of Daedalus, you can see the heavily armed Orcs passing by, as well as the little people with light wings on their backs flying through the air. The former is the mercenary bodyguard of the Imperial smuggling caravan Niztak, while the latter is the clown of the Federation Star Circus "Fire Cart" - all races from the Imperial Federation gather in Daedalus, coupled with the dazzling array of goods on both sides of the street, all the way to look at the prosperity of Daedalus, Wen Dao's heart also swelled with other thoughts.

(It's a pity, if you destroy it like this...... ）

Daedalus is the largest stronghold of chaos on the Dragonlord's borders, and destroying it will wipe out most of the chaos. In Wendao's original plan, he planned to find out the details and summon the wolf cavalry to suppress Dai Dalus in one fell swoop, but since this place has developed so prosperously, it would be too wasteful to rude it - at least for the poor finances of the Baixia Palace, it is definitely a difficult task to squeeze out the budget for rebuilding the trading post.

(Consider recruiting it?) It would be nice to bring it under control.) ）

Wendao began to plan the possibility of co-opting Daedalus and using it to levy a large tax to enrich the Dragon's finances. There is no harm in doing so, but only if absolute control over the trading post is ensured. In other words, he had to find a way to separate the Imperial Black Hand from the tangled and infiltrating threads that were confusing in Daedalus, which required surgical precision rather than indiscriminate destruction.

"Hector, can you do it?"

Wen Dao tried to call out a mental model of a self-proclaimed "Imperial Military Master", but two or three seconds later, the bronze beast face slowly appeared.

"What? I told you wouldn't call me if it's okay, right?"

Hector's tone was rather grumpy. During this period of time, in addition to giving advice to the Wolf Riders to clean up Grumbell, the remaining acting power has been concentrated on analyzing the huge data of the memory nest of the base, and he also ignores Wen Dao's greetings - according to his own account, there seems to be a deep dark curtain hidden in the memory nest, and to break through the blockade and dig it out, it can only be done by relying on the acting power of super thinking crystallization.

"I want to revise the ...... of the combat objective"

Wen Tao outlined his idea of stripping himself out of the black hands of the empire and co-opting Deedalus, and asked Hector about the possibility of success. After a few seconds of silence, the Imperial Warlord gave a less optimistic answer.

"The failure rate is as high as 85.9 percent. Hectok snorted coldly. "Originally, as the commander of the Independent Legion, he actually went to the extralegal place where the pirate mercenaries gathered without any escort, such an adventure has no value at all!

“…… That is, there is still a possibility of success?"

"Hmph, suppressing Daedalus is not difficult for the Independence Legion, but there is only one way to get rid of the imperial black hand lurking in it. Hector looked at Wen Dao with a dear look, and the latter immediately put on a deferential look.

"Although it is not known who the ruler of Daedalus is, he should keep a comprehensive data on the coming and going ships. As long as the channel information and supply load are analyzed, the activity of the opponent in the Emerald Star Field can be roughly calculated. Those who are not smuggled for trade probably have nothing to do with the black hand of the Empire. ”

"Just find the data, right?" Wen Tao confirmed.

"Do you think that's easy? That data is the core secret that rules Daedalus, and it is absolutely carefully kept in the strongest position of Daedalus, and it is casual to get to the root of it...... Tsk, sure enough. Hector snapped.

"Sure enough?"

"Just now I tried to hack into the communication port of Daedalus, and found that there is no complete Sijian network built here, especially the dock part is still the most primitive single-chain structure...... It's too primitive, it's impossible to invade from the outside port without physical authorization!" Hector said angrily, turning his head to look at Wen Dao, his voice suddenly taking on a sympathetic tone.

"If you're serious about co-opting this place, recruit. Then you must find the ruler of Daedalus and get the key to the physical authorization from him. So I can connect to the database and get the data I need. ”

“…… It doesn't sound that difficult. ”

Wen Dao nodded, roughly understanding what Hector meant. If Daedalus is compared to an oasis kingdom in the desert, then all Wendao has to do is find the king who rules the kingdom and then seize his scepter.

"That's pretty much it, I'm busy, call me when you find the key!"

Before the words could be heard, Hector's image vanished from his eyes. Wen Dao shrugged helplessly, turned to the Harpy envoys who were trembling as they listened, and smiled as gently as possible.

"Can I take me to the head of this place?"

"Find, find what you want to do!?" [.]