Brother Dao's ideas about its own carrier vehicle, the escape pod, left Shen Cong at a loss for words.

It wasn't really so strange for a dog to think that way, he supposed. Still, Brother Dao was brainless in a way that was almost beautiful. He just plain liked a dog with principles and the stubbornness to stick to them.

"Brother Dao, let's make a deal."

"What deal?"

"I want to buy your escape pod and make it a module component for my carrier vehicle, the Four-Armed Vajra. As far as that can work without getting in the way of the integrated life you share with it, anyway. Don't worry, I won't cheat you. I know several ways to raise Talent, and Talent can still go up even at particle-grade. I can help you get stronger."

A particle-grade carrier vehicle. Shen Cong had to admit he was tempted.

The nuclear-grade monster truck and pyramid battle-truck made excellent module components too, but next to the particle-grade Four-Armed Vajra they still fell a notch short.

Above all, particle-grade vehicle material was far stronger than nuclear-grade.

If Shen Cong meant to build the Space Fortress, nuclear-grade material probably wouldn't stand up to conditions in space. That was why, even though he was getting ready to draw up the Space Fortress Plan, he hadn't been collecting vehicles to use as module components. Nuclear-grade barely passed muster with him, let alone ultimate-grade, super-grade and the rest of that low-quality stuff.

Now a good chance had come along to get a particle-grade module component, and of course Shen Cong was going to make a play for it.

Brother Dao shook its doggy head hard. "Kid, you think Brother Dao's that simple? Okay, so I'm not into the escape pod. It's still half my life. You're trying to buy my life!"

"I'm not buying your life. Just the right to use your carrier vehicle."

"No way. Forget it, Shen Cong! I, Brother Dao, am a space hero. You're a human! Why won't you show me some respect?"

Shen Cong could see that nothing was going to get…