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

Before Manstein could speak, Yui spoke first: "Mr. Ke Lan, I just borrowed your authority in the name of your secretary to investigate the property ownership of these shield generators. There are three small shield generators in total, two Nov2s and one Nov3. They were all obtained by Mr. Manstein at the official auction of the Ark in his personal name. However, when paying for the goods, he used the public account of the base procurement department. The three expenditures totaled 47.76 million credit points... Before Mr. Manstein repays the full amount, these three small shield generators should belong to the property of the Soma Consortium."

"Oh, so it was embezzlement of public funds. This is too much. They didn't even cook the books?" Ke Lan was a little surprised.

"Mr. Manstein used the base's public funds on the pretext of 'strengthening the base's defenses', so from a certain perspective, this doesn't count as misappropriation of public funds..." Yui replied.

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

"Ah, this..." Manstein regretted it so much in his heart. He really just mentioned it casually at the beginning. He never expected that Ke Lan actually planned to carry the half-ton thing down the mine, and even dug up the fact that he had used funds from the public account... Fortunately, although the three shield generators were in his name, the things were placed in the public warehouse of the base, so this matter could barely be reversed.

"I was worried that the base's main shield generator might malfunction, so I bought these three small shield generators... I participated in the auction in my personal capacity because... I was worried that the consortium's competitors would maliciously raise the price..." Manstein said incoherently, and it was obvious that he was trying hard to smooth over the matter.

Embezzlement of public funds is not a big deal, but it is not a small matter either. In cases like his, the consortium generally does not take any severe punishment... But if he is transferred back to the Ark because of this incident, it would be a big loss.

The position of supervisor of a mining base is a lucrative one. Not to mention other gray incomes, the profits that can be scraped out from the crystallization and refining process alone are several times his official salary.

"But the power of this small shield generator is less than one thousandth of the base's main shield. If the main shield has problems, what use will these three little things be? Can they protect your office, Mr. Manstein?" Ke Lan asked. At this moment, his cell phone vibrated slightly. He glanced at it quickly - the email he had just sent had received a reply in less than a minute.

The reply was very brief, consisting of only a photo and a few lines of text, but even with these few things, it cost Ke Lan a full thousand credit points.

But in Ke Lan's opinion, these 1,000 credit points were well worth it.

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

He was a young man wearing a mecha driving suit. He had a handsome face and beautiful long golden hair draped softly over his shoulder armor. Behind him stood a four-meter-tall, red and white painted competition-specific mecha.

When Manstein saw the photo, he felt his eyes go dark, and he stumbled and almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, Ke Lan reached out and supported him in time: "Be careful, Mr. Manstein, if you accidentally fall at your age, it will be a big accident."

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

"Andrew von Manstein, 29 years old, ranked in the top 16 of the 18th Ark Mech Competition, ranked in the top 4 of the 19th Ark Mech Competition, and was not shortlisted in the 20th... um? What a pity..." Ke Lan read the contents of the email sentence by sentence, "If he had these three shield generators, Mr. Andrew might be a strong candidate to compete for the championship this year, right?"

"..."Manstein didn't say anything, his face was full of an expression of "Whatever you say, it's up to you."

"Alas, I actually sympathize with him. He made it to the semi-finals the year before last, but last year he didn't even make it to the top 32..." Ke Lan patted Manstein on the shoulder, "Don't worry, 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 equipment... Of course, remember to make up the missing funds in time."

"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 contestant, you should have a lot of mecha parts here, right?"

Having said that, Ke Lan turned her head and gave Leighton a meaningful look, while the latter was already rubbing his hands excitedly.

"Yes." Manstein gritted his teeth and said, "They are all the latest models of competition-level accessories, some of which are pre-sale models that have not yet been officially launched... Because I haven't been able to fill the loophole in the public account, the things are still piled up in the warehouse of the base. If you need them, Mr. Ke Lan, feel free to use them."

"That's right!" Ke Lan hooked the other person's shoulder and said, "Look, if we really find super-pure crystals in the mine, the money for buying accessories will be nothing—"

…

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

Three sets of power armor that were modified by Layton himself and equipped with small shield generators have been worn by Ke Lan, Lao Gou and Zhuo Ligetu. Except for the basic frame which uses the "Odyssey Type 1", all other parts of these three armors are backward compatible competition-level mecha parts. In Layton's own words, it is "top-level customized armor that only people who have too much money to spend and no longer regard money as money will buy."

Power armor and mecha are two completely different concepts. The former can only be regarded as a set of equipment worn on a person, while the latter is a war machine that integrates various cutting-edge technologies. In Layton's opinion, using mecha parts to build power armor can definitely be regarded as an act of squandering resources.

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