Volume 6: Mecha Contest Chapter 303 Cocktail Party
…
the next day.
The reception was held in the "Empire Ballroom" on the top floor of a five-star hotel owned by the Morgan Consortium in the West Third District.
As soon as Ke Lan got out of the car, a well-dressed waiter came to lead the way and took him and Zofia to the VIP elevator located in the center of the building.
This hotel of the Morgan Consortium has a total of ninety-six floors. The main building is more than one thousand meters high. It has completely broken through the dome of the inner wall of the Ark and is nested together with a high tower on the outside.
From the 66th floor up, there are two layers of windows on the outside of the hotel - in addition to the hotel's own glass curtain wall, there is also a layer of highly defensive Ark portholes on the outside. Looking out through these two layers of windows, hotel guests can not only see the towering buildings and suspended airports of the Ark's superstructure, but also the horizon of Alpha in the distance, and the scenery of the wilderness is even more panoramic.
In sharp contrast to the desolate and rugged exterior is the hotel's luxurious and exquisite interior decoration - jade-smooth marble floors cover almost every inch of the ground, all aisles and corridors are covered with thick and soft brushed carpets, and precious metal and solid wood decorations can be seen everywhere... These things may have been standard equipment in every five-star hotel in the old era, but in this age of material scarcity, it is no exaggeration to say that to achieve this level, the cost is definitely more than a hundred times that of the old era.
The "Imperial Banquet Hall" on the ninety-sixth floor is more luxurious than ever, especially the giant crystal ceiling , which can be called a priceless work of art. As the owner of the hotel, he would never use cheap products produced by industrial assembly lines. Every light tube in the crystal ceiling is hand-polished by craftsmen, and the inner wall of the inner tube is engraved with fine reliefs. When light passes through these reliefs, due to the refraction angle, these light tubes will emit a dazzling and brilliant light.
The production of these crystal lamps alone is a huge project. However, in Ke Lan's opinion, they have no practical use other than showing off skills and wealth.
When Ke Lan and Zofia entered the Imperial Banquet Hall, there were already many young people in bright and beautiful clothes. They were holding goblets, gathering in groups of three or four, talking about important or unimportant things. Waiters carrying trays were moving between the crowd and the wine tables, and white cold air was floating above the ice buckets filled with wine bottles. For these people, the monthly limit on alcoholic beverages set by the Ark administrators did not exist. Whether it was by paying high taxes or directly purchasing quotas that ordinary people did not need, they had countless ways to bypass the shackles of the rules...
Most of the ordinary residents don’t even know that there is such a hotel on the Ark - even those who go out to work, when they see the towering buildings on the upper floors of the Ark, will subconsciously think that these are military buildings. They can’t imagine the extravagant life inside these towers...A glass of wine picked up from the waiter’s tray is worth as much as the miners’ several months’ labor.
Ke Lan couldn't help but frown.
He did not feel disgusted, but rather found it somewhat ridiculous…For some reason, a picture suddenly popped up in his mind of a group of ants happily holding a banquet around a piece of rotten meat discarded by humans.
"Zofia, is this the fiancé you chose for yourself?" Just as Ke Lan was looking at the layout of the banquet hall, a voice came from behind him.
Ke Lan turned her head and saw a tall and thin man in a light beige suit. His hair color was the same light golden as Zofia's. He must be a member of the Soma family.
"Ke Lan, this is my third uncle, Luche Soma; third uncle, he is the person you were talking about, Ke Lan." Sofia introduced the two.
Third uncle? Ke Lan was slightly stunned. Didn't they say that only the younger generation could attend this cocktail party? However, judging from his appearance, Zofia's third uncle looked like he was only in his early thirties... But then again, for a wealthy family like the Soma family, it was not uncommon for an old man in his fifties or sixties to marry a young wife in her twenties and then have children in his old age. Unlike women who would go through menopause at the age of fifty, men could still have fertility even in their sixties as long as they took good care of themselves.
Ke Lan noticed that when Lu Che looked at her, there was a trace of contempt in his eyes that was difficult to hide, but he did not express this contempt directly. After Zofia finished the introduction, he still took the initiative to extend his hand to Ke Lan.
"I heard that your hunting group has developed well and even found the core of an S-level ruins. You are really promising."
"Just good luck." Ke Lan said modestly. The two shook hands, and taking this opportunity, Lu Che took a step closer and said to Ke Lan in a low voice: "Then I hope you can have such good luck every time."
Lu Che looked down on the high-risk industry of relic hunters from the bottom of his heart. It is undeniable that the top elites in this industry do have high incomes, which can be said to be the best way for the lower class to cross the class and change their fate. However, no relic hunter dared to guarantee that he could complete every mission alive... In Lu Che's opinion, Zofia's choice of a relic hunter as her fiancé was obviously an irrational move.
Unless this guy named Ke Lan in front of him turns to behind-the-scenes operations after accumulating enough funds, no longer exploring the ruins, and at the same time expands the scale of his hunting group and uses capital operation as the main means of profit, his opinion of this young man will change... Of course, the prerequisite is that this young relic hunter has the ability to live until that time.
A hunting group with only six hunters, even if it is a consortium-level hunting group, would take too long to develop into a behemoth that can have equal qualifications to talk to the Soma Consortium . Lu Che felt that this was an impossible task.
In this competition, Zofia herself is at a disadvantage, so it is reasonable for her to want to take a gamble, but placing the bet on a relic hunter is too risky... The risk and benefit are completely disproportionate, and this is definitely a stupid move.
"Thank you for your good wishes." Ke Lan was not angry. Instead, she smiled at Lu Che, turned around and called a waiter, took two glasses of champagne from the tray, and handed one of them to Zofia beside her.
Luche, on the other hand, chose whiskey with a much higher alcohol content. The clear brown liquid swayed gently in the stemless whiskey glass, and the ice cubes hit the thick wall of the glass, making a crisp sound. But before he could take the first sip, a slight commotion was heard on the other side of the banquet hall.
"What's going on?" Lu Che frowned, a look of displeasure on his face.
