Gottle is indeed a competent Coordinator. Seeing that the two sides were getting nowhere, he decisively ended the conversation.

The tempers on both sides were flaring, and continuing the talks was pointless. It was better to pause and let everyone calm down.

To avoid any appearance of bias, he only escorted Qu Jianlei to the office door, letting Li Ang accompany him for a bit.

Li Ang assured Qu Jianlei, "Don’t worry, sir, Wanmi will do its best to facilitate the negotiations and ensure you won’t suffer any losses."

For Wanmi Mining, successfully mediating between these two major powers would also be an achievement worth boasting about.

Qu Jianlei, still feeling a bit aggrieved, said, "They really take it for granted. If I weren’t worried about affecting your production, hmph..."

Then he remembered something, "I can understand Gottle wanting to avoid suspicion, but you tell him not to pull any surprise attacks."

He didn’t mention any consequences, but he believed the other side would understand.

"Rest assured," Li Ang quickly promised, "the issue of passes has been quite embarrassing for us too."

Feeling a bit pressured in conversation with this Supreme, Li Ang couldn’t help but ask, "Why don’t we see Brother Baiji Fish?"

Qu Jianlei, of course, couldn’t reveal that he was the only one in the team.

He calmly replied, "We’re going the elite route. There aren’t many of us; he’s preparing for battle on the Starship."

Li Ang didn’t have any intention of probing further and nodded at this, "Indeed, you’re elite. Your warriors are truly strong."

Qu Jianlei returned to the battered merchant ship without any intention of moving it into the hangar, not even recalling the Attack Ship.

It wasn’t concern over a sneak attack; Little Lake had already quietly infiltrated the opponent’s network and could detect any sign of trouble.

The reason for not entering the hangar was simply to retain a faster reaction speed in case a fight broke out.

After Li Ang returned, Gottle called him over to ask what Rhodiola rosea meant.

There was really no need to ask much; just looking at the state of the opposite fleet showed they were ready to act at any moment.

But Sheriff’s temper was still high, feeling the other side was disrespectful and lacked sincerity in the negotiations.

He even complained to Gottle, saying that they hadn’t put their heart into coordinating and were only speaking on behalf of the other side.

Gottle, although more like a businessman, wasn’t without his own temper.

"I’ve been really restrained, haven’t I? This issue was your fault from the beginning; the documents were indeed arranged with Wanmi’s help."

"You two sides want face; doesn’t Wanmi deserve it too? Let me remind you... they realized we were coming in advance!"

"Yes," Li Ang nodded in agreement, "they figured out it was a warship, almost falling out with me!"

Sheriff, not being a brute, thought for a moment before asking, "Do they have observation satellites outside the atmosphere?"

"It shouldn’t be," Li Ang shook his head, "if there were satellites, even if we couldn’t detect them, those other two would be able to."

There were indeed satellites over Gedel, mainly for alert purposes.

But there were only three mines in total, with only a few satellites, everyone knew which belonged to whom.

If a new satellite appeared, the three would communicate, and without anyone acknowledging it, they’d definitely shoot it down immediately.

Hearing this, Sheriff looked a bit sour, "Are there other warships on the periphery?"

He felt the concept was a bit off. Would a mere mine’s security require two warships?

"There weren’t any before," Li Ang understood his intent, answering seriously, "they weren’t detected when Siegwa attacked last time."

The fact that additional warships were deployed definitely meant they were guarding against your sneak attacks.

Sheriff could understand his words, and so he looked toward the military A-level, "You didn’t notice any warships?"

The military A-level found this a bit unpleasant to hear, I’m here to back you up, not assist you!

However, given the importance of those across from him, he couldn’t offend them too much and responded calmly.

"Lord Sheriff, you asked us to reduce the intensity of our probes to avoid alarming others."

"But I’m sure of one thing: they can detect us, and we know nothing. This must be related to their invisibility performance!"

Sheriff’s expression grew darker, "So, the Starship responsible for their security isn’t an ordinary Armed Merchant Ship?"

"Correct," the military A-level nodded, silently adding to himself: it’s highly likely to be a Standard Warship.

But even if he didn’t say it, wouldn’t Sheriff figure it out?

The next moment, he sighed, furrowing his brow, "What kind of force is so unreasonable?"

The military A-level couldn’t help himself, "Lord Sheriff, I feel it’s necessary to remind you; it was you all who started excessively!"

The military warship followed along, but that was the result of the Transfer Star Government’s coordination—after all, the nature of this matter was quite vile.

In truth, the relationship between the military and the Customs Enforcement Division wasn’t great.

The Customs Enforcement Division was vertically managed, directly accountable to headquarters and the Imperial authority, and didn’t accept other assignments.

They even had a role of supervising military warships to prevent smuggling.

The military is supposed to be the largest force of violence, with their starships, the Customs Enforcement Division has no authority to inspect them, however, that isn’t quite the case.

The Empire is truly vast, so to firmly grasp military power, it’s essential to limit the military from two aspects—financial power and personnel authority.

If the military can profit through smuggling, over time, not only will the officers and soldiers become corrupt and degenerate, but it will also foster independence.

—They wouldn’t need Imperial financial appropriations anymore, and then orchestrating the military won’t be so easy.

That’s why the military’s current attitude isn’t surprising—I’m willing to accompany you, but I’ll speak up if I don’t like what I see.

Your people are messing around recklessly, and now they’ve hit an iron wall, but you blame the other side for being too tough?

Sheriff knew deep down about this all along? The military’s willingness to speak only after the other party left was already giving him face.

He pondered for a while and felt that confronting directly was inappropriate—what if I really become the scapegoat?

He expressed with frustration, "I really shouldn’t have accepted this task, but what should I do now?"

After a long silence, Gottle spoke up, "Or maybe just forget it, obviously it’s a retired warship, not within your Customs Enforcement Division’s purview."

He sincerely felt the other party was too pretentious, "You can bully ordinary people, but wanting to mess with this group, you lack the strength."

Sheriff sighed again upon hearing this, "I know, but I also need to save face... meeting these conditions makes it hard to explain."

Gottle spoke weakly, "They’ve already given a reason, you just say the warship was dismantled, since it’s retired anyway."

Sheriff replied with difficulty, "But that starship isn’t exactly old, it’s retired to make way for a new warship."

Gottle became increasingly helpless, "So, what exactly are you guys doing... acquiring a new warship also costs the Empire money!"

Sheriff glanced at him, "If not calling it poor, appropriations will only decrease more; you surely understand that, right?"

"Sir, you’re overthinking it," the A-level military personnel couldn’t take it anymore, "Besides appropriations, your account has a lot of money too!"

That’s really the point of discontent for the military, we can only live off appropriations while you not only receive appropriations but also private income!

"Redeeming the warship?" Sheriff considered seriously for a moment but still shook his head, "Though there’s money in the account, I really can’t agree."

The A-level military personnel gave a faint smile, "Not even if it’s cheaper, you’d rather buy new ones?"

"I’d rather buy new ones," Sheriff nodded, "You were right, buying new ones is on Imperial expenditure, redeeming them would earn me a scold."

The A-level military personnel raised his eyes to look at the ceiling, "Indeed, financial money, if you don’t spend it, it’s wasted..."

The next day, the negotiation continued, this time Sheriff truly faced reality.

No choice, those from the military who came along didn’t support his appeal, what else could be done?

So this time, his request was: You don’t have to return it, but you must destroy it and record a video to send to me.

This is the essence of negotiation, where everyone brings forward their various demands, seeking common ground while reserving differences, and eventually finding a solution.

Of course, making such a video is still something disgraceful, he demanded the other party not to leak it.

Once leaked, not to mention more, at least that exempted pass wouldn’t be used again.

Can the pass still be used? To Qu Jianlei, this was considered good news, "If the Customs Enforcement Division people still trouble me, I won’t be polite."

"Trouble again?" Sheriff glanced at him, replied solemnly, "Do whatever you want, but I won’t be the one negotiating then."

Such a big issue has been stirred up, who would dare to provoke it again, that really isn’t an issue of intelligence.

"Then it’s settled," Qu Jianlei nodded, silently thinking, "Little Lake, faking the video shouldn’t be difficult, right?"

"Too easy," Big Head Butterfly started spinning, "Even if number 2 on 8384 fails, we still have number 1 on 3344."

This is the codename it has given to the computing unit group, the number 1 on high-replication warships worth fifty million dollars, with remarkable processing power.

Faking videos, isn’t that about composition ability and level of detail?

But Qu Jianlei also knows very well that a fake is ultimately a fake, no matter how Little Lake handles it, there can be no absolute perfection.

In fact, just from an analytical standpoint, even a terminal with slightly lower computational power can find doubts.

Construction is hard, especially aiming for perfection, but questioning is easy, just picking out parts you find unsuitable.

After confirming with Little Lake, Qu Jianlei spoke in a deep voice, "If I give you the video, what will you say if someone finds flaws?"

"Find flaws?" Sheriff sneered coldly, you must not know my status in the Customs Enforcement Division, "That’s impossible."

"Very likely," Qu Jianlei responded calmly, "You could provoke the first time, won’t you again for a second time?"

Sheriff was stunned, truthfully after advancing to Supreme, he really seldom worried about such trivial matters.

He felt that as a grand Supreme, could there possibly be mistakes in the assignments he arranged?

However, thinking again, this possibility indeed objectively exists.

The individuals specifically executing below can truly act wildly, risking everything for insignificant gains.

No matter it’s Supreme, what’s above Supreme? People die for wealth, birds perish for food!

(Update ends here, summoning monthly tickets, subscription, and recommendation votes.)