Although these things were not enough to make her fall for him, they were still enough to leave her feeling a trace of regret.
Especially the young man's abilities, which she greatly admired. He was skilled in both the literary and martial arts, and incredibly powerful—in truth, he was the ideal type of partner.
Sigh. All I can do is lament that I didn't seize the opportunity back then...
The inexperienced Banshee silently buried her thoughts in her heart, hoping that time would wash away this impulse.
But burying a seed that had yet to sprout in the soil was itself an extremely unwise act.
As long as a healthy seed encountered water in suitable soil, the result would inevitably be a towering tree.
Even the dignified Banshee Queen could not escape this.
Thus, guided by this seed, Lamian did not question whether her next actions were reasonable. She subconsciously wanted to make further contact with Huang Cao.
"Miss Warfarin, I would like to strengthen the connection between River Valley and Eden once more. You could consider this a small personal request of mine."
"Don't worry. From now on, the sisters of River Valley will receive a ten percent discount on everything they buy here."
"Thank you very much, but that's not what I meant. I want to bring several of my Banshees here to learn Eden's management methods, so I would like an authorization that allows us to pass freely."
"Of course that can be arranged!"
Warfarin had no suspicions whatsoever. On the contrary, this was a good thing for Eden.
After all, in a sense, Huang Cao had gained the recognition of the Banshee Royal Court.
When the time came to compete for the position of Demon King, he might even receive Lamian's support.
This was an extremely profitable deal!
Moreover, after several days of observation, the truth about Eden had essentially been completely exposed before the Banshee Queen.
So Sister Lamian was someone worthy of trust!
There would be another update this afternoon, though it might be a little late because I was writing my thesis.
Live Battleship and Cells
"I figured this was how it should be built!"
Huang Cao had no interest in the conversation between the girls. Rubbing his city was still far more exciting to him.
The living city and high-speed battleship projects had begun!
A living city that could devour everything—let me add some extra punch to you!
Huang Cao envisioned the specific appearance of the living city in his mind.
First, since it was alive, it had to reduce its energy consumption while stationary.
People would be living on it as well, so the living city he created could not simply be a land-roaming monster.
He had to plan all these issues carefully as the lord, but fortunately, none of them were problems with the Power of Abundance.
The living city had one major advantage: if it encountered any special circumstances, its biological activation speed would be extremely fast, with practically no startup lag, allowing it to flee the danger zone swiftly.
At the same time, a living city did not need to arrange large numbers of operators, nor did it need a command room or anything similar.
In future wars, as long as the enemy decapitated the command echelon of a Mobile City, the steel behemoth would instantly collapse on the ground and become a sitting duck.
Operating a Mobile City was exceptionally complicated. Without the relevant technicians, it was simply impossible to move the massive thing properly.
If one was not proficient, it might crash into a mountain while driving it, and everyone would die together.
That was why Chernobog required a key to open the control room. The Reunion Movement could only control the Mobile City well enough to crash it into Lungmen.
After all, it only had to travel in a straight line. Just keep the accelerator pressed down.
But the living city had no such trouble, because it had no command echelon at all.
As long as its thoughts were linked with Huang Cao's, the rest of the operation was just like playing a game: it could go wherever he wanted.
This greatly reduced the cost of operation and the time needed to train personnel. The people aboard only needed to fire toward the enemy according to his instructions.
Because it started so quickly, by the time the other side reacted, the city would already have crashed right into their faces.
Unfortunately, it could not fly. Huang Cao sighed.
Otherwise, he could fly directly above the enemy city and drop things onto it.
Perhaps he could build a flying Mobile City in the future, but for now, he would have to honestly remain a land-bound chicken.
"What does a Mobile City use to move? It can't still rely on tracks, can it?"
How to make a Mobile City move was a major problem.
People had to live on it as well. It could not sway back and forth like a pack beast every time it moved.
Huang Cao would definitely live inside a Mobile City in the future too. He did not want to ride a rocking toy every day.
Suddenly, Huang Cao remembered a monster from some tokusatsu show.
A dinosaur tank.
So he would switch back to tracks after all. Although they probably could not be blown apart, what if the city overturned?
The tracks had to retain some mobility even after being bombed, at the very least allowing the city to crash into the enemy's Mobile City.
As for when the tracks were blown apart, there was no need to worry about the people living inside the city anymore. As long as it devoured the enemy's Mobile City, it could replace the tracks with a new set.
Huang Cao's tracks were not powered by mechanical engines. More precisely, the living city itself would turn the wheels.
The mechanical systems of a Mobile City were exceptionally complicated. The difficulty of manufacturing even the Originium engine was already sky-high.
It was too complicated—not Orky enough at all!
How could the Power of Abundance be such an inconvenient thing?
As long as turning the wheels was made an instinct of this gigantic monster, the city could run wherever it turned.
In theory, biological energy efficiency was very low, but the intervention of Abundance made up for that deficiency.
It was simply perfect!
But now was not the time to manufacture a Mobile City.
He should make the living high-speed battleship first. The Mobile City could wait until he had occupied Gaul's territory.
Whenever Huang Cao mentioned Gaul's future fate, a surge of excitement welled up inside him.
The War of the Four Emperors—Grandpa Huang Cao would tear off a hefty piece of the pie too!
Who said only four countries could participate? Did the Lord of the Royal Court of Kazdel have no dignity?
He still had Victoria as a card he had yet to play. Once he gave the new nobles a heads-up, someone would surely handle the aftermath for him.
What? Theresia might not let him participate?
He was not even Sarkaz. Why should he listen to her?!
Once he decided to act, Huang Cao felt the Power of Abundance within his body, and a green orb of light instantly appeared in his hand.
That entire night, Huang Cao carefully constructed the interior of the orb, as if he were creating a new cell.
This "cell" could be said to be part of Huang Cao's body.
However, since he was not currently making a Mobile City, the cell was not particularly difficult to create. But its interior was overly intricate, and before Huang Cao became proficient at operating it, his output remained low.
Thus, he only produced four in one night.
Huang Cao planned to embed these green cells as cores inside the high-speed battleship, granting the battleship the ability to repair itself.
Why would a battleship suffer damage? It was nothing more than physical deformation caused by cannon fire.
When casting the hull of the high-speed battleship, Huang Cao would mix these cells into the molten iron before it was made into steel plates.
Each "cell" was about the size of a palm. Once thrown into a high-temperature environment, they would divide into smaller components.
These smaller components would greatly enhance the steel's flexibility and defensive strength.
The main enhancement was to its toughness, ensuring that even if it was pierced, it would not undergo excessively severe physical deformation.
These substances could not be used directly as part of the battleship's structure. Otherwise, the sight of the entire thing bursting into slurry when struck by a cannonball would be far too comical.
The cells' ability was to press deformation caused by damage back into place, secrete special substances to offset metal fatigue, and expel impurities that did not belong to them.
At times, they could even absorb the substance of incoming cannonballs into themselves.
Thus, even if a high-speed battleship were cleaved in half in an instant, a cell-equipped battleship could reconnect itself within a short time.
That time was roughly one or two seconds.
Of course, if it was focused down in an instant and completely reduced to dust, that would be another matter.
Have you ever seen a high-speed battleship grow larger the more it was attacked?
And you had better not let my battleship ram you, or your Mobile City would belong to me.
The cells Huang Cao created had an even more outrageous function: they could actively absorb matter from other ships to strengthen themselves.
As soon as they collided, they could automatically determine whether the other ship was an ally. If not, they could rapidly dismantle it like inkmarks, while also killing the organic units aboard.
"If it rams a Mobile City, then a single high-speed battleship can be exchanged for..."
High-speed battleships were very fast, easily able to catch up with Mobile Cities.
So once they collided, the "cells" could rapidly multiply and find the city's core through tiny gaps.
Using the energy of the enemy city's core, they could further enhance their reproductive ability, then use their destructive power to swiftly eliminate all living forces within the city.
And all this required only one small high-speed battleship.
As for why Huang Cao would imagine cities ramming into each other in the future...
Of course it was for greater efficiency. The difference in size between a Mobile City and a high-speed battleship was enormous, and the number of cells they could carry was on completely different levels.
Huang Cao's idea was to create a super living city. In any case, it would have to ram something to devour it, and it would have to ram something even if it did not devour it.
He might as well ram it first and save time.
Perhaps in the future he could streamline things even further, directly attaching the cells to shells. Hitting something would mean profit.
For now, however, the output of these cells was limited, and they had not been tested in actual combat. He would fight one battle first and see how they performed.
Writing my thesis nearly burned the author out. Today's update was a little late—my deepest apologies! 4
Warfarin: What Are You Planning?
"Those who will set foot on the battlefield in the future must also be selected with the utmost care."
His territory had an extremely small population. If even one person died, it would take a long time to recover.
As the saying went: mercy could not command an army, and kindness could not manage wealth.
But Huang Cao did not want the people of his territory who had accompanied him this far to lose their lives over some minor injury.
People were complicated, after all.
Although Huang Cao said he wanted to become a feudal noble who exploited people, when it came to the friends and things he interacted with day and night, it was still difficult for him to harden his heart.
I will become the Scourge in the mouths of my enemies.
The savior of those precious to me.
Life should be respected, not wasted. Wasn't that the driving force of Abundance?
Although this was somewhat hypocritical—after all, the lives of those Huang Cao treasured were life, but were the enemies he annihilated not also alive?
It could only be said that this was an unsolvable dilemma. One could only blame the world for not having enough good people.
If everyone thought this way, the world would not have so many awful things happening.
Thus, to cherish his soldiers, Huang Cao planned to take the elite-soldier route. He could not guarantee that none of them would die, but at least it would be extremely difficult for them to do so.
He would form an Abundance Army, one with powerful regenerative abilities and the ability to devour the vitality of its enemies.
Conquer cities and seize territory! Unbeatable in war!
Moreover, soldiers who accepted his power would basically have no possibility of harboring ulterior motives.
If they ever grew even slightly tired of it in the future, the soldiers could submit a request of their own accord. Huang Cao would reclaim the power he had granted them and erase all information related to military secrets from their minds.
Before you continue