Yang Ming opened his eyes the next day and instinctively felt the space beside him.
The zero-gravity cabin was empty, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.
Last night... he was flirting with Catherine.
If it weren’t for his high evasion attribute, he might have been half-heartedly taken down by Captain Catherine!
Yang Ming was no fool; he obviously noticed that Catherine seemed to want to try out a romantic fling with him, which was quite in line with the current social trend in the Empire — meeting a few times, knowing each other for a few days, and already having the legal opportunity for deep exchanges.
But it was really inconvenient for Yang Ming at this stage.
If his biological information got leaked, especially directly to the supermodified people, he would have to summon the East Wind to break through the encirclement.
Outside the cabin, Lyu called out, "Boss, there’s big news!"
Yang Ming pushed open the cabin door and crawled out, the gravity around the resting cabin gradually restoring, allowing Yang Ming to stretch comfortably.
"What’s the big news?"
"A bigwig in the Free Federation’s Parliament was exposed at an orgy!"
Lyu raised his hand to project two screens, showing a series of pixelated images.
Yang Ming frowned, "Remove the pixelation for me."
Lyu snapped his fingers, and the images instantly became explicit.
Yang Ming turned his head with a dry heave, "Put the pixelation back; this bunch of old geezers are disgusting! How can such news be exposed? Are these old politicians’ PR skills that weak?"
"Not exactly," Lyu opened two more projection screens, "I went online in the Free Federation to follow the gossip, and there’s a ton of juicy stuff. Their Head Star had a series of car accidents last night, crazy chase scenes, and reportedly intense shootouts. Several media heads died violently, and I found a few explosive street shootout videos!"
Yang Ming was immediately intrigued, staring at the projection screens for a while.
After the gossip, he felt quite satisfied.
"Pretty fascinating," Yang Ming clicked his tongue in wonder, "Which new political group challenged the old guard? Although the Free Federation won’t change hands this time, the political scene will definitely be unsettled."
"The old politicians’ current PR direction is to dismiss this as foreign forces slandering them, intending to overthrow the Galaxy’s third strongest nation’s rule, and they’re saying those videos are synthesized, almost indistinguishable from reality."
Lyu adjusted his glasses.
"I, on the other hand, think it’s more likely that some shady deal fell through, and one side tore its mask off."
Yang Ming rubbed his chin, muttering, "Could it be the Pioneers?"
"Uh, boss, are you being too sensitive?"
"Look," Yang Ming seriously counted on his fingers, "at this stage, the Pioneers with the most ability to stir things up are these three or five. I’m in the Empire’s camp, there’s a bastard hiding in New Federation’s Minter City, the Pioneer in the Guel Alliance got eliminated, don’t know if he can come back; as the third strongest nation in the Galaxy, the Free Federation should also have one."
"That doesn’t prove anything, boss," Lyu hummed softly, "should I investigate?"
"Isn’t your computing power quite tight right now?"
"It is tight in the Emperor Star Circle, but there’s plenty in reserve at Wind!"
Lyu giggled, "If we can detect these Pioneers early, your advantage will be bigger!"
"It’s not that simple," Yang Ming laughed, "Pioneers will certainly prioritize hiding. Even if they do nothing, as long as they survive until Faya’s game starts, and transmit the related information to their home planet immediately, they would have completed their basic mission."
"Uh, why don’t you hide yourself then, boss?"
"My home planet is quite special; if I can’t prepare a few backups in advance, when I stand up and call out in front of them, I have a high chance of getting sent to a mental hospital."
Yang Ming did a few stretches; having not fought for a long time, he had some longing for battle.
Catherine was a good opponent.
Sadly, he couldn’t openly spar with her.
"Boss, I’ll continue following the gossip! I’ll sync any news to you immediately!"
"Go on," Yang Ming shook his head, "if 026 is done over there, let her come help with the plan-making, I have no experience with media companies."
"Don’t worry, boss, we have nothing but money right now."
Are Mechanical Thought Bodies this puffed up now?
Can Dark Star already build Dreadnoughts?
Yang Ming opened the network terminal and saw an app invitation from Catherine.
She really switched to a chat app that shows read messages, with a paid holographic meeting room option.
After contemplating, Yang Ming accepted Captain Catherine’s invitation.
Although Catherine’s strength and identity made her someone Yang Ming could only admire from afar at this stage, he couldn’t get overly flirtatious. But damn, the girl’s figure was spectacular.
Bryant just wanted to laugh right now.
Here’s a joke: last night, under the guise of observing Hui Saka, they went to help Catherine on a date.
Then, the next day’s meeting evaluated everything based on his, Bryant’s, loyal opinion as Hui Saka’s subordinate.
"Of course he’s not the White Ghost," Bryant said slowly, "based on my perception and all the instrument data, he’s just a quick-witted ordinary human. Even if you don’t believe me, the instrument data can’t lie."
"I trust you in official matters."
Catherine nodded solemnly, then looked over at Griss:
"Captain Griss, what do you think?"
"Slept well last night," Griss wiped his face, "I’ve already applied for a secret big search on Yaha Star; next, I’ll lead my team to turn this place upside down."