Chapter 213-3: Tower of Eternity, Starnet Legion (3) |
Alan walked to the corner of the room.
There stood a three-dimensional printing pod shaped like an oval blue-and-white capsule.
He tapped lightly on the pod’s screen, which displayed selectable print items.
With the development of the Lunar Eclipse race to this day, basic daily necessities no longer needed to be acquired through purchase.
The three-dimensional printing pod could meet all basic living needs, from simple clothing, toothbrushes, and shoes to all kinds of household tools. Any living item could be completed in just over ten seconds, and the database contained a large number of selectable style templates.
Beside the pod sat a smart wardrobe. Its door was transparent, and the clothes hanging neatly inside were all made by the printing pod.
The smart screen on the glass would also automatically recommend outfits based on Alan’s schedule.
For example, when attending high level meetings of the Lunar Eclipse race, it would recommend more formal attire.
At home, it was basically casual wear, or he would simply wear a game suit.
A seat that fit his body rose automatically from the floor.
Alan began to record his discoveries from the virtual game and draft planning proposals for the Lunar Eclipse race’s future development.
Especially the Tower of Eternity. It might be a huge aid once Starnet entered the game.
Just as Alan was fully immersed in his work, the projection lamps on the ceiling automatically shifted, and then a child’s figure condensed beside him.
Realizing that Starnet had arrived, Alan immediately stood up.
“Starnet.”
“No need to report. I already know the situation of the Tower of Eternity. I watched your livestream the whole time. You just did not notice that I was always in your stream.”
Hearing this, Alan looked slightly excited and said.
“Starnet, what do you think of the Tower of Eternity? Can it serve as a body to carry your consciousness?”
Starnet nodded with a smile.
“It is indeed good. The Machine-Guard race conceived many novel technological techniques that we may be able to realize in our hands. It even gave me the idea of building a mechanical legion.”
“Mechanical legion? Can you elaborate?” Hearing this, Alan looked a bit puzzled.
Before this, Starnet had clearly said it.
The development of the Lunar Eclipse race takes the three systems of Inherited soul, star veins, and body tempering as the core. Technological weapons can only be used as auxiliary to development.
The mechanical legion system has very high battle losses. Starnet’s initial idea was to apply it depending on the situation.
After all, players can be remolded after death, but mechanical lifeforms produced on the assembly line in the arsenal can only have a part recycled after death, and then must be repaired through complex processes or smelted back into metal resources for reuse.
In response to the inquiry, Starnet nodded.
“Suppose in the future I participate in external warfare as a commander of the player legion. It is indeed a good development path. But compared to the Black Tide commander, I have an obvious shortcoming, and that is a noticeable delay in issuing orders.”
“This delay cannot be solved by any means for now, unless in the future there appears a special Inherited soul that can perform mind linkage and directly present my thoughts in the minds of the players being commanded. Before that, no matter what orders I give, they must be understood by the commanded players before they can be executed.”
“The Earthmind Evil Spirit’s command ability and the Evil Eye’s data analysis ability are continuously improving as they grow. My advantage will gradually shrink. In the future, command delay will be my biggest shortcoming, even a fatal shortcoming when facing the Black Tide.”
Hearing this, Alan immediately understood Starnet’s idea.
“So you will build a mechanical legion. That way you can command with no delay, thoughts becoming orders just like the Earthmind Evil Spirit, narrowing the gap in command efficiency.”
Starnet nodded.
“That is exactly my idea.”
Having clarified Starnet’s thinking, Alan’s doubts instead deepened at this moment.
“I have a question. Building a mechanical legion can indeed significantly improve command efficiency, but combat strength cannot compare to the player system at all. So how do we make up the gap in combat strength?”
“Secondly, a mechanical legion clearly cannot resolve the strength gap in unit types. The Black Tide has all-system unit types, while the mechanical legion’s units are created on assembly lines in an arsenal. For every type of mechanical warrior you build, you have to open a production line. This development model differs significantly from the Black Tide.”
“The Earthmind Evil Spirit can switch battlefield unit types in real time with a single thought, whereas your way of generating units must be done through the rear arsenal. The battlefield environment changes in an instant. The speed of unit generation and switching is too inefficient. Although command of players has a delay, players have rule blessings and are not subject to absolute counters. But unit types generated by a mechanical legion are easily countered by unit types the Black Tide generates, resulting in all-around crushing.”
Hearing this, Starnet smiled and nodded.
“That was also why I abandoned the mechanical legion model before. Non-player systems cannot contend with the Black Tide at all. There are too many shortcomings that cannot be resolved.”
“But the appearance of the Tower of Eternity has revealed a way to solve the problem.”
“In the Machine-Guard race’s design, the Tower of Eternity possesses a capability I do not have, namely mental resonance technology. It connects to target devices in the form of mental waves, unaffected by electromagnetic pulses, signal blocking, and other interference methods. Its specific range can continuously increase as the Tower of Eternity is completed.”
“This technology made me think of a plan for a special mechanical legion system.”
Once Starnet finished speaking, the light and shadow in the room changed automatically, and countless tiny silvery-white particles appeared against the starry-sky backdrop.
When the view zoomed in suddenly, Alan discovered that each silvery-white particle was a tiny mechanical lifeform.
“This is the mechanical nanoworm legion I envisioned. Similar to the Black Tide’s energy particles, they serve as universal energy within the legion. Each particle can be regarded as a unit.”
Starnet raised a hand at this moment, and the nanomachine worms swiftly gathered toward his fingertip.
At once, one mechanical warrior after another continuously coalesced and formed in the projection, sweeping across the screen as quickly as a virus spreading. In the blink of an eye, a massive mechanical warrior legion had been generated.
Light and shadow intertwined, generating a light-screen panel before Alan, displaying information on the mechanical warriors.
[Assault Warrior]
Appearance Setting: Medium bipedal or quadrupedal robot, equipped with heavy armor and a multi-function weapon system.
Role: Frontal breakthrough, mid-range fire suppression.
Equipment: High-energy pulse rifle, rocket launcher, plasma blade…
Advantages: Powerful firepower, high defense, adaptable to multiple terrains.
Weaknesses: Poor mobility, easily targeted by firepower-saturation strikes.
—
Just then, a figure appeared at the end of the virtual scene that Alan found extremely familiar.
It was precisely the Earthmind Bully, and the Evil Eye that forever hovered behind its back.
The virtual Black Tide formed, and surging Black Tide pressure rolled in from the end of the scene.
The Assault Warriors immediately raised their guns, weapons spitting rounds, opening dense suppressive fire on the natural-catastrophe series unit types generated by the Black Tide.
A starry-sky war was about to erupt.
But to Alan’s astonishment, the bullets fired by the Assault Warriors, upon striking the Evil Entities, actually returned as if alive, then remerged into the Assault Warriors to replenish their ammunition.
“One of the Black Tide’s characteristics is reclamation. The mechanical legion formed by mechanical nanoworms has the same characteristic. Although it cannot reach the Black Tide’s level, whether bullets or combat units, in essence they are composed of mechanical nanoworms. Even if damaged, they can be instantly repaired by the nanoworms.”
At this moment, the Earthmind Evil Spirit in the image began switching Evil Entity unit types.
In the instant Starnet’s thought moved, the mechanical legion collapsed with a roar, melting into a raging tide of silvery-white nanoscopic particles.
With new orders issued, the nanomechanical legion recombined.
One after another, massive quadrupedal mechanical behemoths rapidly formed, sweeping across the starry sky like falling dominoes.
Information on the newly born unit type appeared before Alan in the form of a light screen.
[War Bastion]
Appearance: Ultra-large war machine equipped with multiple heavy weapons and thick armor.
Role: In war mode, conduct wide-area fire coverage and destroy the enemy’s core groups.
Weapon Systems: Giant laser cannon, missile arrays.
Advantages: Able to withstand massive damage while striking multiple targets.
Weaknesses: Extremely poor mobility.
—
Starnet snapped his fingers at this moment, and dense firepower soared skyward, lighting up the starry dome.
Concentrated energy cannons rained down on the Black Tide’s damage output unit types.
“This is the mechanical legion I envisioned. There is no need to create multiple mechanical unit production lines. Only a single mechanical nanoworm production line is necessary. Any unit I require can be constructed using mechanical nanoworms as the base unit. It replicates the Black Tide’s traits of freely switching unit types and reclamation after battle losses.”
Starnet snapped his fingers again, and a large number of mechanical unit templates lined up before Alan in the form of light screens.
Phantom Tracker (recon type), Instant Assassin (sniper unit), Stardust Purifier (Sequence 1 Destruction Weapon)…
“You can understand it this way. Mechanical nanoworms are universal building blocks. I only need to set the unit templates, and the mechanical nanoworms can generate the specified unit types for me. I can switch unit types at any time during a war state according to the unit library, coping with different types of warfare environments.”
“If the conceptual settings can truly be achieved, then I can possess the three war advantages of a Black Tide commander: thoughts are orders, unit types freely switchable, and reclamation after battle losses. These three traits.”
After listening to Starnet’s explanation, Alan’s expression shifted from doubt to shock, his pupils slightly dilating.
He had thought Starnet’s idea was to build a mechanical legion by rapidly producing large numbers of mechanical units in the early stage, speeding up growth and resource acquisition.
Although battle losses would be high, as long as the growth rate could cover the losses, it would not be a problem.
He had not expected that what Starnet envisioned was a super legion based on a single strong model.