"Hm?" Lin Zhichen started in surprise, grabbing Wei Peng by the hand. "Let me see!"
Psionics surged, and he indeed detected a faint twist within Wei Peng's Dantian.
That was the essence of the human body, refined and distilled.
According to the cultivation philosophies of previous lives, this was the Innate Foundation Establishment Realm, the true beginning of cultivation. Reaching this step meant casting off mortal coil, combing through bloodlines and bone marrow, and gradually approaching the state of physical perfection.
"You've stepped into cultivation." Lin Zhichen smiled and nodded. "Although ancient cultivation lacks overt might, it is currently the only path I know of that allows a mortal to step onto the path of a psionicist!"
The few people inside the room listened with bated breath, their hearts pounding.
If they had still been somewhat skeptical before, now that Lin Zhichen had achieved psionicist status through cultivation himself, they believed it entirely.
"Cultivation is hard labor. If you rely entirely on talent, bitter cultivation for a lifetime might not achieve anything, and learning it would be learning in vain," Lin Zhichen said. "But if it's paired with my talent, then it is a supreme path to the heavens in this world!"
Lin Zhichen's talent was the greatest secret among the few of them, one he never spoke of aloud, and it was also the source of everyone's confidence.
As brothers who grew up together in the orphanage, they were far closer than actual brothers.
At this moment, the group's faces were flushed, their emotions stirred.
Without standing at the top tier, one could not know the status of a psionicist. It could be said that among the Federation's renowned heroes, over seventy percent were psionicists, while mechanical synths and gene evolvers occupied the remaining thirty percent, leaving zero room for ordinary people.
Among those willing to put in tremendous effort to become a captain, who didn't harbor a dream of becoming a hero of the starry seas?
Yet talent alone already isolated ninety-nine percent of people, and harsh reality would teach them what it meant to keep their feet on the ground.
But now, a shortcut to the heavens had appeared!
"Big bro, we'll practice! We'll practice to the death!" Link gritted his teeth and made up his mind.
"Don't act recklessly! Take it slow; if you ruin your body, all hope is completely gone!" Lin Zhichen glared at him, speaking with concern.
"Don't rush, practice slowly first. Once we have money, I plan to set up a hydroponic farm specifically to cultivate psionic plants. These are good things comparable to heavenly materials and treasures; eating even a mouthful is enough for you to cultivate for half a day!"
"There's such a good thing?" The others were pleasantly surprised.
"Of course. I've already handed this set of body tempering techniques over to my NPC crew members, instructing them to practice it once every morning, noon, and evening. Judging by the progress, they probably won't enter the threshold until a month from now, and you can practice together with them then," Lin Zhichen said casually, yet his words left the others dumbfounded.
"Even that's possible?!" Wei Peng's eyes almost popped out of his sockets. "Big bro, you're preparing to train a psionicist troop!"
Psionicist troops were the legendary elite army special forces of the Federation. People only ever heard their name and never saw them in the flesh; their infiltration operations were almost invincible, and there was very little information on StarNet—much of it was just smoke screens put out.
"Brothers are going to do great things, how can we do without reliable helpers? Tomorrow when your crew arrives, hand them all over to me. A month of drilling and they'll shed their mortal shells!" Lin Zhichen declared.
"I'll head to the asteroid belt first. Tianyi, once your and Ake's ships return, take Dapeng with you!"
"Big bro, is there a use for the army?" Wei Peng asked in surprise when he heard this.
"Found a pirate base on this trip out, let's find a chance to see if we can wipe them out in one go!" Lin Zhichen said.
"Alright!"
The group made a commotion for a while, only dispersing to rest late at night.
Early the next morning, Lin Zhichen piloted the Qinyuan toward the asteroid belt.
He didn't use a space jump at first, trying out the speed after retrofitting to ion engines instead. Coupled with the pilot's navigation skill, the speed was blazing fast.
The ion engines add 25% to ship speed, and coupled with the pilot's additional 26%, the ship's speed has increased by half!
Joy welled up in his heart. This relied entirely on the frigate's own speed; if he used the gravity drive, it would be 50% of the speed of light—and that referred to ordinary cruising speed!
After a brief test without further delay, he locked onto the coordinates of the asteroid belt and jumped directly into the airspace tens of thousands of kilometers away from it.
This time he didn't have his own crew pilot the vessel, but instead used the crew recruited by Link and the other guy, navigating and training at the same time while stumbling toward the pirate base within the asteroid belt.
It seems that the closer someone is to me, the better my talent works?
Lin Zhichen discovered that the skill growth of subordinates under his direct jurisdiction was extremely fast. Even with power-leveling now, the speed was faster than the training speed of Link and Wei Peng. Nominally, whether it was Link or Link's subordinates, they were all his subordinates, but the rate of skill growth in the hands of the two differed noticeably.
A week later, the vessel encountered three pirate ships.
"Pirate raiders, nice, just right for practicing!" Lin Zhichen's eyes lit up as he watched, and just as he was about to order the new crew members to set up an ambush, he stopped. "I remember I'm a fleet commander now, right? Attacking like this is a bit wasteful!"
Thinking along those lines, he paused and opened StarNet to search.
Generally speaking, personal factions developed along two paths: one was a mercenary group, and the other was a merchant guild.
Mercenary groups walked the path of war, usually accepting employer missions, while some combat missions were released by the military to guide mercenary groups to complete them. In times of war, they would be summoned by the United Government, functioning equivalent to reserve troops.
Merchant guilds walked the path commerce, initially focusing on trade runs across various star systems to transport and sell products. In the later stages, they would embark on the path of industry, carrying out industrial production such as pharmaceuticals and the cultivation of psionic plants.
While it sounded distinct, there were actually no clear boundaries, with the most being a difference in emphasis.
"We'll take the path of war!" This was the established plan, and Lin Zhichen directly opened the Mercenary Guild's homepage to register.
As a subordinate unit of the military, the Mercenary Guild naturally possessed his relevant information. Such an operation was naturally not allowed on normal administrative planets; otherwise, it would turn into private armies for various military generals, becoming too big to control.
Yet for an administrative planet that had just joined the Federation, it showed extraordinary tolerance. Soon, a mercenary group named Meteor was born.
There was no need to worry about duplicate names because the commander and other important personnel of each mercenary group were the unique symbols of that mercenary group.
Name: Meteor Nature: Mercenary group Rank: 1 Military Merits: 0 Mission Completion Rate: -- Headcount: 1/100 Warships: Psionic Frigate * 1 Base: Earth Evaluation: A fledgling newbie!
The mercenary group panel was brief, standing at the lowest rank.
He casually pulled Link and the others in, and the mercenary group finally had some popularity.
He had no mood to look closely at the moment. He recorded the pirate information he had just scanned and uploaded it to the military database of the Earth Defense Directorate.
Very quickly, the smart brain completed the review, and a list of missions was fed back.
Clear Pirates 562 Mission Intel: Fleet scale: Micro, initially judged to be three frigates Mission Rank: Gray Mission Requirements: 1. Mission time: 1 week; 2. Mission objective: Destroy the pirate fleet Mission Rewards: 1 Military Merit, 1 Energy Coin Mission Description: As the Solar System merges into the New Universe, gamified signs are becoming increasingly obvious over time. Some dangerous pirate fleets have been refreshed, threatening the safety of Earth's tens of billions of citizens and the Hyperspace Lanes.
"Self-produced and self-sold!" Lin Zhichen proudly completed the re-examination and casually claimed the mission.
This truly was a seamless connection!
According to the normal mission issuance process, the space radar station first scanned the pirate fleet, then sent the information to the military database. The military smart brain would automatically evaluate and review it, followed by a re-examination by officers at the commander or chief of staff level, before finally being sent to the Mercenary Guild's database to issue missions to the broad mercenary groups.
Lin Zhichen's operation was to designate the mission recipient, bypassing the Mercenary Guild to send the mission directly into the mercenary group he had registered. As a high-ranking Earth military officer, he could directly issue missions.
Through this hand, having similarly eliminated three pirate ships, he could gain 1 extra Energy Coin, and most crucially, 1 Military Merit. Military merits could upgrade the mercenary group.
Upgrading the mercenary group had many benefits, such as the natural person member cap, and the most crucial point: only by continuously advancing 10 levels to evolve into a legion did one possess the authority to purchase flagship-class warships from the military!
Whether it was a dreadnought battlecruiser or a heavy aircraft carrier, both were the soul of a fleet and a combat power multiplier!
"Now, take them down!" Lin Zhichen gave the order with satisfaction.
"Buzz, buzz—"
The electromagnetic cannons charged up, firing electromagnetic projectiles across a distance of two light-seconds.
Two light-seconds was a distance of 600,000 kilometers. In space, this distance was very close, but for the two sides in combat, it was far away.
At least judging by the pirates' radar, they hadn't even touched the edge.
Even under the clumsy shooting of the new crew members, five consecutive rounds missed completely, while the pirates were still patrolling leisurely, completely unaware that they had already stepped under the sickle of death.
The sixth round finally hit. The battered pirate raider had to slow down, but immediately became an obvious target.
After the ninth round of firing, this pirate ship finally turned into a ball of fire, while at this moment its companions were still spinning around in circles, failing to even figure out the position where the Qinyuan was located.
The power of beyond-visual-range strikes in space combat was evident. Under technological suppression, the enemy couldn't even find the direction of the counterattack.
When fifteen rounds of firing were completed, the new NPC crew members, who had already been promoted to junior gunners, finally sent the pirates back into the darkness.
"Not bad! The training effect of actual combat is truly extraordinary! If one were to rely on the Virtual Academy for training, they probably wouldn't even have mastered their skills by now!"
Lin Zhichen nodded, though a thoughtful look appeared on his face. Although it was already fast, it was still not fast enough; right now, every second counted.
The Qinyuan flew forward rapidly, packing away a basic combat computer.
As a universal shipboard combat computer, it could enhance the operational efficiency of basic tactics, producing remarkable effects during large-scale operations and serving as essential equipment for warships.
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