Super Spender

Chapter 792 - 786: Calculations (Part 2)

Chapter 792: Chapter 786: Calculations (Part 2)

Of course, the outfit Lucy Watson is wearing right now is not the obvious military uniform from before, but the noticeable pirate style clothing, and everyone else is done the same.

“Who are you,” Barry uttered, suppressing the anger within him.

“Black Rose Space Pirates.” Lucy quickly invented a pirate group without much thought.

“What do you want?”

“So, the incidents at the nobles’ academy are not so secret, are they? Heh, we know what kind of deal we’re dealing with. Now, imagine our surprise when we unintentionally get such a large bargaining chip just by letting off some steam. So, the problem at hand is, if we want to resolve this peacefully, you should at least give us something,” Lucy said, chuckling sinisterly.

The smug smile on Lucy’s face made it clear to Barry that she knew everything about the situation. The words about the nobles’ academy didn’t surprise him as the forum is not exclusively for the students. Everyone is allowed to log in.

It wouldn’t be hard for the space pirates to access it.

“Your terms?”

“We’ll return these factories to you all, but not without 10 billion star credits, not one less is acceptable. If it falls short, I’ll blow up your factories immediately and create chaos around your star system. I already have all the coordinates of your factories. If you don’t believe me, I can send them to you.” Lucy grinned strangely, and then snapped her fingers.

Then, a document was sent immediately, and several bright points appeared on a map in front of Barry. When he saw the positions of these bright points, Barry’s face darkened. These were the locations of all their battleship production factories, the primary factories. If these factories were utterly damaged, it would mean they could not complete their tasks.

Even though they could increase their defensive efforts, if they were seriously disturbed, their manufacturing process would also be impacted. But 10 billion star credits had already left them paralyzed.

The question was, did they have any other options? If they did, they wouldn’t be looking so gloomy. Regardless of whether Suleiman Cooper took action or not, they had to think of a solution. If they couldn’t come up with a solution, even if Suleiman made a move…

Would their opponent help them for free? They would still have to pay a huge price. One could say it was their own greed that had led them to this situation.

“We need to discuss this.” Barry quickly stated.

Jasmine Davis didn’t have to wait too long, because Barry and his crew had no other option. Or rather, if they chose otherwise, the result would be clear—they would eventually have to compensate. But if they paid, then they could at least mitigate part of the damage. Regardless, they’ve already suffered a massive loss.

The question at hand was how to minimize the losses. Barry and his associates were all arguing. Though Barry’s family had their own clan fleet, the problem was the distance between them and the factories. Even if they could warp shift there, their opponent would have enough time to flee.

Or the opponent could directly warp and escape, detonating the factory in their wake, leaving them to face the same fate. “I disagree. 10 billion star credits are too much. Even if we pooled all our family’s funds, we would just barely have enough. Instead of spending such a high fee, we can spend 5 billion star credits and ask someone else to produce 800 of these rubbish battleships to hand over to them. We can definitely complete this task within three months.”

An assertive clan member stated. Even in such a small family, the clan leader didn’t make all the decisions. The extent of the leader’s influence in the family was determined by their credibility. However, even highly credible leaders would be met with opposition from some family members.

“What you said makes sense. But now we need to think about where we can find someone to help us produce [the battleships]. The royal families? There are no more than ten families capable of doing so. But let’s not forget how big the disparity is between us. Will they listen to our requests? Perhaps they might help us for the money. But can we be sure they can get it done within three months?” another member immediately retorted.

“I think you all are missing the point of the matter. Right now, the crux of the issue is how to handle these space pirates. I admit, this sum of money is substantial. But if we refuse to give it to them, creating disturbance between us, they can attack within our territory. What will our loss be in that case? A few tens of billions of star credits perhaps.” Barry asked, tapping on the table.

Everyone fell silent. Their family might not have a lot of available cash, but even 10 billion star credits amounted to a trillion federal coins. This financial strength within the scope of their family was good. But most of their family’s wealth was in immovable assets like planets, territories, residents, etc.

While these assets were part of the family’s property, they could not be cashed in during critical moments. But such family wealth was very valuable. For example, the value of these two factories might not be as high as 100 billion star credits, but they were worth several hundred million.

The problem wasn’t about several hundred million star credits, losing these would mean a similar or higher investment for the reconstruction of these factories. Given they could successfully protect these two factories, there was no guarantee the pirates, after demolishing these two factories, would leave and not disturb any other places.

Otherwise, the losses would be much higher.

So, right now, the Aitken Family didn’t have many options. “Report this to the surveillance bureau and prepare our fleet for attack. I want to negotiate with them.” Barry pondered for a moment and spoke.

“Yes, Clan Leader.” Even though they were nobles, the bureau had these obligations. However, they should not rely too much on the surveillance bureau. The bureau only has three fleets and each of the bureau’s battleships had their own task. The territory of the Galactic Federation was vast, and numerous events occurred simultaneously.

The bureau would help them, but there was a request sequence for each case. If a royal family made a similar request, they would respond to the royal family before them. Therefore, for most nobles, they had their own defensive fleets.

But they had no idea what this implied. They had no idea about the size of their opponent’s fleet as of now. But, in their view, since it was a group of space pirates, the scale couldn’t be that large. It was probably just one battleship, and not even one of the good ones.