Within forty-eight hours, the first shipping route of the Taichu Star-Whale Express began operating at full scale.
Ten thousand Star-Whales glided through the folds of subspace like silent starlight shadows. Across twenty core trade sectors, they carried billions of tons of fresh spirit-produce, organic jade-kelp, mountain wheat, and pure spring water.
Because the whales traveled through fifth-dimensional currents, they consumed zero liters of plasma fuel. Because they ignored physical warp gates, they paid zero coins in extortionate tolls to the Blood-Tax Chamber.
Shipping costs dropped from forty percent of cargo value to absolute zero.
“Chairman Lin,” Su Wan said, handing Lin Mo a newly stamped ledger on the bridge of Canteen Station One. “The logistics network is fully stabilized. With shipping overhead eliminated, we have millions of tons of fresh ingredients arriving at twenty orbital waystations every morning. Our freight costs are completely wiped out.”
Master Lu Jian was adjusting an array manifold on the central broth vat, chuckling as he wiped grease from his Divine Array Hard-Hat. “We’ve installed thirty high-density thermal inductors under each soup reservoir, Chairman Lin! These cauldrons can boil ten thousand gallons of starlight broth per minute without scorching a single scallion!”
Grandma Chen walked onto the station deck, her chef’s hat perched proudly on her white hair. She wiped her hands on her clean red apron, looking out through the transparent dome at the endless stream of rusty cargo freighters queuing up in the docking lanes.
