Alien Relic Hunter

"Mr. Manstein, why do I feel that you seem a little reluctant... Are these small shield generators your personal property?" Ke Lan asked with awareness.

Before Manstein could speak, Yuyi spoke first: "Mr. Ke Lan, I just borrowed your authority in the name of secretary to investigate the property ownership of these shield generators - three in total. The small shield generators, two Nov2 and one Nov3, were all purchased by Mr. Manstein at the official Ark auction in his own name, but when paying for the goods, he used the ones from the base purchasing department. Public account, three expenditures totaling 47.76 million credits... Before Mr. Manstein repaid the amount in full, these three small shield generators should be the property of the Soma Consortium. ."

"Oh, it turned out to be embezzlement of public funds. This is so awesome. Didn't you even make false accounts?" Ke Lan was a little surprised.

"Mr. Manstein used the base's public funds for the reason of 'strengthening the base's protective capabilities,' so from a certain perspective, this is not considered embezzlement of public funds..." Yui replied.

"But he didn't use this thing to 'enhance base protection'? Oh, by the way, Mr. Manstein, why did you buy this thing? Do you still like to study the cutting-edge technology of Alpha Civilization?" Ke Lan said as he took out his mobile phone, quickly edited an email and sent it.

"Ah, this..." Manstein didn't even mention how much he regretted it. At first, he just mentioned it casually. He didn't expect that Ke Lan actually planned to carry that thing that weighed half a ton. He went down to the mine and even found out about his use of public account funds... Fortunately, although the three shield generators were in his name, they were placed in the public warehouse of the base. There is still room for change.

"I was worried that the base's main shield generator was malfunctioning, so I took pictures of these three small shield generators... I participated in the auction in my own name because... I was worried that the consortium's competitors would maliciously raise the price... ..." Manstein said with some inarticulate speech. It was obvious that he was trying hard to smooth over the matter.

Misappropriation of public funds is not a big deal or a small matter. In a situation like his, the consortium generally will not take any very severe punishment... But if this matter leads to him being transferred back to Ark, That would be a big loss.

The supervisor of the mining base is a very good position. Putting aside other gray income, the oil and water scraped out during the crystallization and refining process alone is several times his nominal salary.

"But the power of this small shield generator is less than one thousandth of the main shield of the base. If there is a problem with the main shield, what use can these three little things do? Protect Mr. Manstein. Your office?" Ke Lan asked. At this moment, his phone vibrated slightly, and he glanced quickly - the email he had just sent had received a reply in less than a minute. .

The content of the reply was very brief, just a photo and a few lines of text, but this little thing cost Ke Lan a full thousand credits.

But in Ke Lan's opinion, these one thousand credit points are well spent.

"Mr. Manstein, you should know this young man, right?" Ke Lan raised his phone and showed the photo.

It was a young man wearing a mecha pilot suit. His face was very handsome, and his beautiful long golden hair lay smoothly on the shoulder armor. Behind him, stood a four-meter A multi-tall, red and white-colored competition-specific mecha.

Seeing this photo, Manstein felt his vision go dark. He stumbled and almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, Ke Lan reached out his hand in time to support him: "Be careful, Mr. Manstein, if you are at your age, If you accidentally fall, something big will happen."

"...That...that's my little son, Andrew." Manstein sighed and whispered.

"Andrew von Manstein, twenty-nine years old, top 16 of the 18th Ark Mecha Competition, top 4 of the 19th Ark Mecha Competition, 20th... huh? Not shortlisted? It's a pity..." Ke Lan read out the contents of the email sentence by sentence, "With these three shield generators, Mr. Andrew might be a stronger candidate to compete for the championship this year, right?"

"..." Manstein said nothing, and his face was completely filled with an expression of "Just do whatever you want."

"Oh, actually I quite sympathize with him. He obviously made it to the semi-finals the year before last, but he didn't even make it to the top 32 last year..." Ke Lan patted Manstein on the shoulder, "Don't worry, I I’m not familiar with the shareholders of the Soma Consortium, so I won’t tell anyone about this. If we can come back safe and sound, Mr. Manstein, you will still be the nominal owner of these equipments... Of course, remember to fill in the gaps The payment was replenished in a timely manner.”

"You really won't report me to the shareholders' meeting?" Manstein looked at Ke Lan in disbelief.

"Of course not, it won't do me any good." Ke Lan shrugged, "By the way, since your son is a mecha competitor, you should have a lot of mecha parts here, right?"

Having said this, Ke Lan turned his head and gave Layton a meaningful look, and the latter was already rubbing his hands with excitement.

"Yes." Manstein gritted his teeth and said, "They are all the latest models of competition-grade accessories, and some of them are pre-sale models that have not yet been officially launched... Because I haven't been able to close the loopholes in the public account, so Things are still piled in the base's warehouse. If you, Mr. Ke Lan, need it, feel free to take it and use it."

"That's right!" Ke Lan hooked the other party's shoulder, "Look, if we really find ultra-pure crystals in the mine, the money spent on buying accessories is nothing—"

…

Four hours later, Warehouse No. 1 of the base.

Three power armors modified by Layton himself and equipped with small shield generators have been worn on Ke Lan, Lao Gou and Zhuo Ligetu. In addition to the basic skeleton, these three armors use the "Odyssey Type 1". "Except", all other parts are backward compatible competition-grade mecha parts. In Layton's original words, "Only people who have too much money to spend and no longer regard money as money will choose it." The top-grade customized armor purchased."

Powered armor and mecha are two completely different concepts. The former can only be regarded as a set of equipment worn on the human body, while the latter is a war machine that integrates various top technologies, and is made of mecha parts. Powered armor, in Layton's opinion, can definitely be regarded as a waste of natural resources.

Of course, he also had the second half of his sentence: "Although it's a waste, it's really fun."