Material Issues

"While I do wish every suit of armor could be made with the best materials, material is indeed a significant problem."

Chen Mu chuckled lightly, looking at the parts being produced on the assembly line, and then turned to Xu Jia.

"However, armor doesn't necessarily have to be made solely from titanium alloy; other materials can also be used as substitutes."

Just like the Mark 2, its materials weren't titanium alloy. In reality, any steel with sufficient high strength would suffice.

"Actually, by simply changing the materials, it's not impossible to forge them from steel. It's just that, in comparison, the strength would be a bit weaker."

Of course, the difference in strength would be limited. Steel armor would still be countless times more powerful than any conventional weapon in the world today!

"Steel works too?"

Xu Jia was surprised. If that were the case, although it would be relatively weaker, the cost would be significantly reduced. Furthermore, they wouldn't be restricted by material availability, allowing them to produce as much as they wanted!

"Of course, steel is just a temporary measure, a makeshift solution for now,"

Chen Mu said softly, looking back at the production line.

In truth, he felt a bit uneasy about producing "low-end" products. In his opinion, anything he produced should be exceptionally high-quality.

He wouldn't think much of an "Iron Man" actually made of "steel."

In his view, when manufacturing armor for the Chinese military, the best materials should be used, just like his vibranium armor, which used vibranium!

Naturally, using vibranium would be ideal, but if not possible, it shouldn't be forced. In any case, he didn't want "Huaqiangbei" to become synonymous with "low-end products," "knock-offs," or "cheap imitations" in this world.

He wanted "Huaqiangbei" to become the most high-end, most advanced manufacturing base in the world!

Surpassing Stark was just Chen Mu's first step!

And this step wasn't difficult at all; it only required making his "Kirin Armor," built for the military, known to the outside world.

This single "product" would be enough to surpass Stark's past weaponry and become the world's most powerful "arms dealer"!

That's right, this was Chen Mu's definition of "Iron Armor" – it was an armaments!

It was most appropriate for the military to use it!

An individual's strength was ultimately limited, and fighting alone was definitely not Chen Mu's style.

"Since steel works, then our production line doesn't need to stop. Let's continue manufacturing with steel!"

Xu Jia, on the other hand, was extremely excited. Being able to produce with steel was the best news for her, and perhaps for the military!

"That's right, we just need to modify some parameters to continue production. I'll leave the parameters in the Hongmeng system, and then all that's needed is to press the switch."

"I'll report this news up. Since ordinary materials can also be used for production, we need to expand our production scale and develop the industrial zone!"

Xu Jia, standing nearby, was already rapidly considering how to achieve rapid development.

"I personally don't like using ordinary metals. If possible, I still hope to use the best materials."

Chen Mu sighed. Although ordinary metals had the highest cost-effectiveness, Chen Mu didn't particularly like them. He genuinely hoped that "Huaqiangbei," which he had established in this world, wouldn't produce low-end products!

"But, the better the materials, the harder they are to obtain. Moreover, our army's scale is also the largest in the world. Equipping everyone might..."

Xu Jia gave a wry smile. Did she not wish for all soldiers to be equipped with the best gear?

"It's fine, Earth is vast. One day, there will be enough materials to arm our army."

Did China have many soldiers? Yes, it did. At its peak, it had a scale of eight million, which was indeed an unimaginable scale on Earth.

However, this number was utterly insufficient in cosmic-level interstellar warfare!

Look at Thanos, whose soldiers could defeat planet after planet, wiping out half their populations. To reach such a level, it would be impossible without armies numbering in the billions or tens of billions.

In cosmic warfare, armies numbering in the hundreds of millions were not enough; they couldn't even establish a battle line, let alone fight.

Don't be fooled by the armies Thanos brought to Earth in Avengers 3 and 4. There were so few of them, and they were even defeated by the Earth coalition, or rather, the "hero coalition." It was like Earth was given a cheat code.

Could Thanos conquer planets with only that small number of people? And they were still no match for Earthlings?

That's probably a joke!

In any case, Chen Mu never believed the plots in movies. He absolutely refused to believe that Thanos's subordinates were so few!

Moreover, Chen Mu believed that China would eventually venture into space, and the universe was vast. With the current army size, it would be difficult to secure a place in the cosmos.

Therefore, eight million soldiers were far from enough!

Besides, China didn't even have eight million active-duty soldiers!

However, Chen Mu knew that the quantity of vibranium could easily support the armor requirements for the Chinese army.

In Wakanda, there was an entire mountain range of vibranium!

The Wakandans even used vibranium to build a city!

To Chen Mu, this was simply a waste!

"Moreover, even if Earth doesn't have enough resources, we can look further afield, for example, to the universe..."

Compared to the boundless expanse of space, Earth was merely a tiny speck. Earth's resources were limited, but by venturing into the universe, there would naturally be endless resources to utilize. At that point, would they still need to "make do" with ordinary steel?

Absolutely not!

"The universe..."

Xu Jia's face was a mask of disbelief. The Shenzhou 7 hadn't even launched yet, and Chen Mu was talking about getting resources from space?

If that wasn't the definition of wishful thinking, what was?

Not just China, but no country on Earth had the capability to mine resources in outer space. Chen Mu's gaze was fixed on the cosmos, not out of foresight, but sheer ignorance of the impossible. By the time China could mine resources from space, who knew how many years it would take? And he expected to use those resources to build the Kirin Armor?

What a joke!

"Alright, I guess we'll just use regular steel for now..."

Seeing the disdain in Xu Jia's eyes, Chen Mu sighed. He'd forgotten that the Chitauri hadn't invaded Earth yet. Humanity didn't even know about aliens, let alone thought about utilizing cosmic resources.

So, talking about "mining cosmic resources" right now was indeed laughable.

'But I will reverse-engineer the alien spaceship technology and build one myself!'

By then, while other countries were still researching planes and cannons, China would be launching spaceships. That scene would surely be quite amusing!