Back at the Mechanical Workshop, Jiang Xiao, Li Yuan, and Qian Ling went up to the second floor.
Xi Guang was seriously writing something on paper. Seeing this, Qian Ling's eyes brightened, and she immediately leaned over.
"Sister Xi Guang, huh? Mathematical formulas?"
"Mm... Mr. Jiang needs them." Xi Guang seriously recalled the Mental Speech her teacher had used six or seven decades ago.
In fact, she had secretly infiltrated the Wicked Soul Market earlier, preparing to support Jiang Xiao depending on the situation. Who could have known that he would possess a method resembling a Spatial Ability and directly catch Gulab off guard?
She did not even know when Jiang Xiao had placed the Plasma Bomb there.
Meanwhile, Li Yuan looked at Jiang Xiao solemnly.
"Mr. Jiang, bringing the Spark Gang into the open may not necessarily be a good thing. Could you tell me your thoughts?"
Jiang Xiao smiled.
"How could Sin Capital have no place for Pan-Humans? As for Chief Li's concerns, I naturally understand them."
"Oh?"
The Spark Gang had never lacked high-end combat power.
At her peak, Xi Guang had been strong enough to kill most Tier 2 Peaks. Someone like Gulab had not been able to last a hundred moves against Xi Guang in her prime. Only the Viper Gang's leader could stand on equal footing with her!
Li Yuan was no weakling either. Even though his Source Energy Intensity had fallen due to his severe injuries, his physical qualities and neural reaction speed had not declined.
With Source Energy Equipment, few Tier 2 Elites in Sin Capital could stand against him.
One had to know that many of Sin Capital's large gangs had only a single Tier 2 Elite guarding the premises. A gang controlled by a veteran Tier 2 Elite could be considered a mid-sized major gang!
If the Spark Gang truly wanted to step onto Sin Capital's public stage, it would not be difficult. If Li Yuan ignored his injuries and went all out, killing the Viper Gang's three leaders together with Xi Guang was not impossible.
The problem was that he was the Rebel Army's chief. He had to take responsibility for the Rebel Army's soldiers and Starfire Camp.
--There were far too few Pan-Humans on Prison Star.
The enemy did not even need to defeat him and Xi Guang. Attacking every few days would be enough to wipe out the Pan-Humans. Unfortunately, after the Sin City Council probed them repeatedly, they gradually realized that the weakness of Li Yuan and Xi Guang was their own people.
This exposed the facade they had maintained: pretending not to care about their fellow clan members, as if they would dare to wipe out the enemy's higher-ups if the enemy dared attack the gang.
Li Yuan could not abandon his fellow clan members for his own selfish desires like the Viper Gang had.
As for Xi Guang, she was not a member of the Rebel Army. Li Yuan had encountered her in Sin Capital more than twenty years ago. At first, he had thought Xi Guang was a child born in Sin Capital and had kindly brought her back to Starfire Camp.
In short, to protect their fellow clansmen as much as possible, the Spark Gang could only hide and flee from place to place.
Otherwise, with his and Xi Guang's strength, they would never have ended up in such a state!
This was also why the Viper Gang and Blade Armor Gang, despite knowing many of the Spark Gang's bases, did not dare launch large-scale attacks against the Pan-Humans.
They feared that once the restraints disappeared, the Spark Gang's powerful fighters would attack without regard for anything else.
Based on the power Xi Guang had displayed, no one in Sin Capital's open society could guarantee victory against her!
If Xi Guang truly died in Kasar Street Block, the Spark Gang would inevitably face the Viper Gang's bloody retaliation. When that happened, they would have no choice but to withdraw from Sin Capital and enter the wilderness.
Without Sin Capital's resources, the standard of living in Starfire Camp would be no better than that of wanderers. Going hungry for three days out of seven was no exaggeration.
Jiang Xiao could naturally see the Spark Gang's awkward situation.
On the Doran, he had studied almost every day—not only knowledge, but also broader horizons and the ability to assess situations in different environments.
Strictly speaking, Jiang Xiao was not boasting when he said he was ambitious.
"Chief Li's concern is nothing more than that the Pan-Human population is too small. If you rashly step into the open, you could easily be countered by attrition tactics, ultimately resulting in the deaths of all your fellow clan members?"
"That's right." Expectation appeared in Li Yuan's eyes.
Jiang Xiao smiled. "Prison Star doesn't have any guided missiles or heavy weapons with a range of more than ten kilometers, does it?"
"Of course not. The starport doesn't permit any guided weapons or high-range weapons. The weapon with the farthest attack distance is the Sin City Council's Electromagnetic Tank, whose range is only eight kilometers, though I have my doubts about it."
"This is the solution. If we gather the Pan-Humans in one area and equip them with weapons capable of deterring multiple Tier 2 Elites, this problem can naturally be resolved."
Jiang Xiao came to the workbench and toyed with a battery.
"Alien gangs dare to use attrition tactics because, so long as they don't have to face you and Xi Guang, the other humans lack the power to resist or kill them.
"If I station multiple weapons capable of killing Tier 2 Peaks in the Spark Gang's permanent area, and equip Tier 1 Ordinary soldiers with equipment that allows them to kill Tier 1 Peaks, who else would dare use such tactics, Chief Li?
"Criminals all fear death, especially creatures like the Viper Clan and Blade Armor Race. Their loyalty is worth less than dirt in the face of a high death rate."
Li Yuan nodded in agreement, then frowned. "I don't doubt your Mechanical Technology. The problem is that high-end materials of this kind are extremely scarce. Otherwise, the Sin City Council wouldn't have only a little over forty Electromagnetic Tanks."
"No. The Sin City Council will soon have only a little over twenty Electromagnetic Tanks left." Jiang Xiao spoke calmly.
"Hm?"
"The Electromagnetic Tanks in Kasar Street Block are ready-made materials, aren't they? As for individual weapons, the Spark Gang only needs to equip five or six hundred soldiers. Sin Capital's resources are more than sufficient."
"..."
It had to be said that Li Yuan was tempted.
If Jiang Xiao could truly create weapons capable of deterring multiple Tier 2 Elites or even Peaks, while greatly increasing the strength of their rank-and-file soldiers, the Sin City Council's attrition tactics would indeed become ineffective.
No criminal would blindly obey the higher-ups and throw away their life. Betrayal was commonplace in Sin Capital.
Moreover, if they could truly establish themselves in Sin Capital's open society, conditions at Starfire Camp would improve considerably. At the very least, the infant mortality rate would drop sharply.
The Spark Gang claimed to control the entire black market of the Dark Side, but in a city full of criminals and devoid of law, being forced to hide in the Dark Side was a joke in itself.
The Spark Gang could not obtain high-end medical resources at all, and its supply channels for daily necessities were equally unstable. Only common ordinary weapons were readily available.
Sin Coins could not buy everything in Sin Capital.
"Then I'll be counting on you, Mr. Jiang."
In the end, Li Yuan chose to believe him.
"All right."
"I'll conduct a thorough purge of the Spark Gang's interior soon. It should take one or two weeks," Li Yuan said, his tone somewhat indifferent.
Jiang Xiao was curious. "Qian Ling or Xi Guang's ability?"
"No. We only need to test all the dozens of Pan-Humans recruited after coming to Sin Capital. The Rebel Army members who followed me to Prison Star had already undergone countless tests of money and life-or-death situations. The problem couldn't possibly lie with them."
As he said this, a hint of pride entered Li Yuan's voice.
"Many of the soldiers who have followed me until now were promised life-extension surgeries and estates spanning several square kilometers, yet they never betrayed us."
Jiang Xiao praised him at the appropriate moment. "Their wills are indeed steadfast. By the way, was Chief Li also the strongest person in the Rebel Army back then?"
"No. I had several Tier 3 Martial Artists under my command, but the real main force was still the army equipped with large quantities of weapons. After all, Ordinary Humans have low Life Bases, and even Tier 3 Martial Artists can't defeat special mechs from Primary Civilizations.
"Before reaching a certain level, whether Martial Artists or Espers—even Tier 4 Martial Artists—were, to a Primary or Intermediate Civilization as a whole, merely fairly decent special individual soldiers.
"In front of a genuine fleet, a Tier 4 Martial Artist was just a thin sheet of paper, shattered at the slightest touch." Li Yuan sighed. He seemed to recall something and suddenly fell into melancholy.
Jiang Xiao fell silent. This was why he had chosen to become a mechanic.
In the Interstellar Alliance, if one wanted an individual's strength to earn a civilization's respect, one had to be at least Tier 4, and one's Talent Value (Life Base) could not be too low.
Mechanics, Spellcasters, and scholars, on the other hand, were usually judged not by their tier but by their knowledge. Compared with others, they found it easier to earn the respect of powerful civilizations. Of course, having Source Energy and supernatural abilities as support would be even better.
As for why it was difficult for high-tier Martial Artists to earn the respect of powerful civilizations...
Jiang Xiao had once seen it in the Doran's Database. A young Tier 1 Martial Artist from a powerful Advanced Civilization had somehow ended up in the territory of a Primary Civilization and was besieged by a Pirate Group.
Three Tier 3 Martial Artists and more than a dozen Tier 2 Martial Artists had joined forces, only to be forcefully cut through by that Advanced Civilization's Tier 1 Martial Artist within seven minutes!
Jiang Xiao thought of Xi Guang. She should have suffered a Damaged Foundation before coming to Prison Star.
Otherwise, no one on this Prison Star would have been her match.
Powerful civilizations were far more powerful not only in their upper limits, but also in their lower limits.
Qian Ling and Li Yuan did not stay long.
There were still many things to handle if the Spark Gang wanted to step into the open. Before leaving, however, Li Yuan left dozens of soldiers behind to help him process the resources moved down from the Wicked Soul Market.
They were looking for anything that might be useful.
Jiang Xiao sat beside Xi Guang. Watching her serious appearance, his somewhat restless emotions after the prolonged slaughter gradually settled.
Right, I should see how many Experience Points I got this time.
Thinking of the unspent experience, Jiang Xiao's mood improved greatly.
Chapter 44: Enhancement, the Wonders of Data Construction
Current Experience Points: 51230
"Mm..."
Over fifty thousand Experience Points—not too many, but not too few either. They basically matched Jiang Xiao's expectations.
As his strength increased, the rewards from hunting Tier 1 criminals and ordinary aliens had sharply decreased. Some ordinary aliens could contribute only two or three Experience Points.
If the three major gangs led by the Viper Gang had not dispatched large numbers of Martial Artists, his gains would probably have been cut in half again.
"Tsk, I miscalculated..." Jiang Xiao clicked his tongue.
If he had known, he would have prepared some large-area weapons. He would not have cared about power, only range.
No matter how much he overloaded the Thunder Cannon Floating Cannon, its killing efficiency was ultimately limited. At least two-thirds of the tens of thousands of criminals watching had managed to escape!
A full two-thirds of the aliens!
If this had happened in the Human Federation of the Clustered Stars, letting so many aliens escape would probably have gotten him branded a weak appeaser of outsiders and an extreme conservative!
Jiang Xiao sighed and shifted his gaze to the Source Energy and Spirit Energy Intensity columns.
Source Energy Intensity: 77 (0/3000) Spirit Energy Intensity: 51 (0/5000)
The extra intensity points had been added to replenish his energy at the time. He had to admit that this additional effect was truly heaven-defying in actual combat.
Increasing Source Energy Intensity also restored his stamina and health, while increasing Spirit Energy directly refreshed his mental state!
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