Formerly known as Imperial Transport and now a smuggling trading post, "Daedalus" is home to treasures from the Confederate Empire, as well as many facilities for smugglers. () Since most of the smugglers are not short of money, the fees for these facilities are high enough to scare ordinary civil servants into weakness.

Wendao stayed at a hotel called "Asaga". In terms of luxury, it is only in the middle of the ranks among Daedalus, but according to the Hobbits, the food seems to be very popular among the guests of all galaxies. With this expectation in mind, Wendao ordered a dinner with a recommended menu on the night of his stay.

Twenty minutes later, dinner was brought to the room by a lobster-like waiter, and Fumidao was caught in a dilemma - he had no interest in the drink that smelled of strong motor oil, and the few white fish swimming in the sticky soup made it impossible to fork it, and after looking away from the pile of dirty and foamy desserts, the cubes that seemed to be compressed biscuits became the only thing that Wendao felt could put down his mouth.

Luckily, the hotel at least provided a common biomass like H2O, which allowed Wendao to nibble on the cracker chunks that were as hard as marble in plain water.

"Fuck you......"

Wen Dao warmly greeted the ancestors of the hobbits in his heart, and chewed the biscuit pieces that would be smashed out of the guests when they were placed on the earth.

He had been leading the Hobbits to Dedalus all day today, and it must be said that it was very rewarding.

Once the largest tonnage supply ship of the Imperial Army, Daedalus was almost as small a city in size, and its prosperity far exceeded Wendao's expectations. However, thinking that at the moment when Baixia Palace was so poor that it couldn't open the pot, there was actually such a huge amount of wealth flowing into the void at the Dragon Territory Border, Wen Dao's mood couldn't get any better. Adding this trade tax that should have been collected by multiplying it by the number of years that had been ignored for centuries, the astronomical amount obtained made Wen Dao almost want to rush back to Longguan to lift the table of the chief deacon.

(That bastard who even has his brain trained into muscles!, didn't you want to come here to see it!?)

Wen Dao scolded his boss who was useless, and he suddenly had an unprecedented strong sense of mission in his heart.

In order to save the endangered finances of the Dragon Palace, even if you do whatever it takes, you have to take down Daedalus, the cornucopia of the Dragon Territory's borders! As for finding out who is behind the ignition of the fire everywhere in the Dragon Territory, it is the same priority as solving the Dragon Palace's finances, so Wen Dao must find a way to get the core data of Daedalus.

(The question is, is the data in whose hands...... ）

Wen Dao washed away the sour taste in his mouth with boiled water, and tried to focus on the task at hand.

With such a thriving trading post, it is natural that there should be a strong ruling power. However, when he asked the ruler of Deedalus, the hobbit gave a rather ambiguous answer. According to them, it seems that Daedalus did not have a definite ruler, and its structure was more like a loose aggregate naturally formed by a myriad of small forces.

The first to come to Daedalus was a profit-seeking smuggler, and the need for smuggling and shipping gave rise to a supply society, a mercenary to guard against pirates, and then a weapons trade for mercenaries...... In this way, Deedalus slowly grew and took shape, and now has formed a complex social body like an ant's nest.

No one knows how Daedalus operates, and the hobbits liken it to a bottomless waterhole. Although everyone can drink the water in the pool, those who want to dive into the center of the pool have disappeared without exception.

"So, it's best not to fight the idea here!"

"Even if you make up your mind, please don't implicate us!"

"We're mentally supporting!

Utterly unreliable, the hobbit hurried back to the trading ship at the docks, fearing that he would be implicated.

Although he didn't think they were reliable from the beginning, he still made Wen Dao cry and laugh so decisively that he broke up the relationship. Wen Dao moved his gaze to his left wrist, and the warm breath of Long Ji came from the dragon pattern wrist chakra, which was probably the only thing to rely on at the moment.

Regardless of his personal favor or loyalty to Long Ji, this deacon profession in Baixia Palace can be said to be the longest time he has done so far, and Wen Dao has no reason not to be unsatisfied. Open the terminal wrist wheel at the moment, and manipulate it very dexterously on the pop-up window interface......

The water in Daedalus is so deep that anyone can drink it as long as they don't explore the secrets underneath. This is the earnest advice of the hobbits to Wendao, and in fact, for Wendao, who has just set foot in Daedalus, there are indeed not many means to explore the mysteries hidden underwater. Although Fumidao once wanted to gather bits and pieces of information through the Internet, under the fragmented and primitive communication situation of Deedalus, such an idea encountered obstacles that were difficult to break through while being put into practice.

Wen Dao struggled in his room for half the night, but he couldn't make any useful progress, but instead made himself dizzy and haggard. Even Hector had to raise his hand in surrender to Deedalus's original network, but Xia Dao had to give up trying to piece together the pieces and call up Deedalus's hologram instead.

Previously, the Hobbits had only walked him through less than half of the trade plots of Deedalus. According to the Hobbits, the trade, mercenary, consumption, and pauper plots have very different looks. Wen Dao planned to go around the remaining plots and collect information in a down-to-earth manner before making the next judgment.

"Sir, don't you want to walk all over Daedalus?"

"That's what I think, what's the problem?"

Before leaving the hotel, the lobster-headed waiter kindly suggested that he hire a moving altar to get around, as a steep walk was quite a laborious task for the size of Dedalus. Wen Tao accepted the waiter's suggestion, rented the moving altar, which looked little different from a skateboard, and then left the hotel on the moving altar.

In order to take care of the basic needs of the biological clock, the interior of Daedalus also adopts a day-night alternating lighting mode. It was two o'clock in the evening when Wen Tao stepped into the mercenary plot, but the darkness of the canopy did not affect the hustle and bustle of the street at all. Wen Dao stepped into the mobile altar and floated in the air, looking down, the scene of mercenaries drinking and making noise could be seen everywhere in the street.

(I see, it's pretty well-equipped, isn't it?)

Most of those mercenaries were bodyguards hired by smugglers, and some were even engaged in the smuggling trade themselves. They are not short of money, they have spent a lot of money on equipment, and those weapons are not inferior even to the imperial soldiers, but whether they can be used skillfully is another matter.

Wen Dao quietly estimated the possibility of letting the wolf cavalry suppress this place, but the scene of the prosperous neighborhood in front of him being crushed into ruins by the Imperial Heavy Tank came to his mind, and he couldn't help but shudder.

(What are you thinking, I'm ...... ）

The corners of Wen Dao's mouth pulled out a wry smile. Perhaps it was the illusion brought about by the condescending perspective of the mobile altar, just now at that moment, Wen Tao actually felt that he was like a king who held the right to kill and seize it.

Strictly speaking, this is not an illusion.

As far as the actual situation is concerned, Wendao, who has been authorized by Ryuhime and holds the authority of the legion, does have the power to reduce the prosperity of Daedalus to ruins in an instant. However, Wen Dao, who realized that he had unknowingly grasped such terrifying power along the way, could not give birth to any similar feelings of joy.

Wen Dao pursed his lips and moved his gaze to the street above. I saw a restaurant on the corner of the street, several mercenaries who seemed to be drunk were scolding the waiter serving the plate next to them, and the trembling waiter bowed his head and scolded. In the waiter's body, Wen Dao seemed to vaguely see himself not long ago.

It's not that Wen Dao likes that kind of situation, but he just thinks that instead of looking down on everything with the arrogance of an astral hegemon like this, looking up at the sky from the ground seems to be a more suitable position for him.

If he hadn't met Yan Sui that day, then he would probably be in a similar situation to the waiter now. Regardless of his own will, the torrent of fate pushed him to a position he never dreamed of before, but it also completely cut off the connection with the past world. Just as a galloping horse can't step on the earth, the sense of alienation that has existed since stepping on the astral plane has unexpectedly reached its peak in the moment of solitude.

An inexplicable emotion mixed with weakness and anxiety lingered in the chest.

After a long time, Wen Dao remembered that it was originally a feeling called "nostalgia".

However, now he can only grit his teeth and endure it, waiting for the turbidity current that suffocates his spirit to subside on its own. Not wanting to bear that arrogant perspective anymore, Wen Dao instructed the moving altar to descend downward.

Avoiding the noisy streets of the mercenaries, the mobile altar slowly lands in the middle of nowhere. Although I don't plan to dance with the turbidity of my heart, I really don't want to meet others at this time. Wen Tao walked along the dusky alleyway, where the walls of the four walls were made of raw and hard metal, and the broken pipes that wrapped around the walls like intestinal animals further highlighted the sparse fact that "this place is a foreign land".

A sigh leaked out of Wen Dao's mouth, and his mood was captured by an indescribable sense of weakness. With nowhere to go, his eyes chased a ladybug-shaped cleaning servo on the ground, and slowly moved to the vending machine standing in the corner of the alleyway. The vending machine in the shape of a telephone booth constantly plays advertisements in the form of holographic projections, and the colorful scene slightly arouses Wendao's interest.

Don't know what will be sold there?

When Wen Dao was thinking like this, a female exclamation suddenly came from the top of his head. When he looked up, the figure that had fallen at high speed had already swept past the holographic projection advertisement, and with a loud bang landed on the vending machine in front of him, and the phone booth collapsed in an instant.

"W-What?"

After about two seconds from being stunned to coming back to his senses, Wen Dao, who had reacted, hurriedly rushed forward to check.

Slamming on the vending machine in a sleeping position was a woman in a beautiful kimono, her red hair that looked like vermilion sparkling in the darkness. Before he got close to Wendao, he smelled a strong smell of wine, and the source of the wine smell seemed to be the wine jug that the woman was holding in her right hand.

Strange to say, the flask looked like it was made of fragile clay pottery, but it fell from a height with such a fierce force, and there was no trace of cracking. And it's not just the flask that's safe and sound, it's the same with women. Obviously, the vending machine was broken, but the woman's head was broken and bleeding, and even her clothes didn't seem to be scratched at all.

Wen Dao looked up in amazement, only to see that above the vending machine was a randomly erected suspended trail, twenty or thirty meters above the ground. The woman should have slipped and fallen drunk drunk, but the unscathed situation clearly violated the common sense of physics-

Speaking from personal experience, those who can ignore the laws of physics to such an extent are basically fierce men of the level of the chief deacon. Although I don't know where the drunken woman in front of me comes from, a premonition of trouble from the sky strongly stung Wen Dao's nerves.

As if to prove her premonition, the woman lying on her back suddenly sneezed and sat up from the ruins of the vending machine. Then he blinked, and turned his amber eyes to look at the young man beside him.

“…… Who are you, little brother?"