Even the slightest error during this process meant smashing straight into an enemy ship or even a planet, resulting in the immediate destruction of the vessel and death of the crew. It required pairing with extraordinary mind perception to reduce the probability of accidents to the absolute minimum.
At that moment, the pirate fleet had not yet withdrawn from the firing range of the base's ship-borne cannons, while the space fighters had already flown deep into the cosmos, soaring toward deep space.
Awaking to the speed of the Qinyuan, both the pirate base and the fleet frantically turned their turrets in a panic at that moment, preparing for battle.
Yet by then, the psionic warship was already fully prepared. It executed a nimble turn in space, its three turrets completing their targeting and firing within a brief fraction of a time.
"Boom, boom~"
Three starships exploded with a roar. At that exact moment, beams of light happened to intersect right through the middle of the pirate fleet—this was the counterattack from the pirate base's turrets. With the assistance of electronic control systems,
accidental friendly fire in the space age had been reduced to a minimum, but the presence of the fleet still affected the artillery fire trajectory of the turrets. The Qinyuan did not even leave its spot; instead, with a crafty swivel of its hull, it aligned itself directly on the same straight line as a space mothership.
The power of a large warship's energy shield far exceeded that of medium and small warships. The Qinyuan's turrets could pierce through frigates and destroyers, and could even barely destroy most models of cruisers, but battleships were out of the question.
Refusing to waste the opportunity attacking the mothership, the three turrets separately aimed and fired at a cruiser and two destroyers that presented the best firing angles. After another round of artillery fire, three fireballs appeared in the vastness of space.
Yet this was already the limit. The next instant, the pirate turrets had already swung around, streams of light tearing through the darkness and vanishing in a flash.
The Qinyuan had once again transformed into a streak of light and departed, dodging the artillery fire of the pirate fleet and base through a few twists and turns before instantly disappearing.
"Big Brother, with a fleet of this scale, I'm afraid it will be very difficult for us to swallow them up," Link said with some concern. "And the pirate base—did you notice, Big Brother? There's also a hidden pirate base inside that molten planet!"
Lin Zhichen nodded slightly, silently activating the holographic projection which displayed the image of the molten planet. Within one interstellar base after another displaying menacing gun ports, distinct docking bays were also visible.
As it turned out, before the battle began, he had already utilized a short window of time to photograph the surface of the molten planet.
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In the brief imagery, the specially magnified section revealed starships rising one after another from the magma terrain.
Clearly, amidst the seemingly uninhabitable magma, there was indeed at least one deeply buried base.
"We need a base like this!" Lin Zhichen sighed. He had already recognized that the greatest advantage of this base was its sufficient concealment, which was precisely what they required.
"Big Brother, it'll be tough." Link felt his throat grow a bit dry. "There's simply no way to capture this base with conventional ground forces!"
"There will be a way," Lin Zhichen said. The Qinyuan traced an arc through the darkness, space trembled, and within a breath, it vanished into space.
Space warp—this spaceship had already vanished from this star system.
When it reappeared, it had arrived at the Solar System, with Earth close at hand.
At the headquarters of the Meteor Mercenary Group, inside a recreation room, Link was vividly recounting this heart-stopping journey through the dark galaxy to Wei Peng and the other.
Wu Tianyi pondered slightly. "Big Brother, are you planning to sell the positron light spears to build a mothership as soon as possible?"
"That's right. We need a batch of space fighters, as well as pilots," Lin Zhichen nodded slightly. "Currently, the Jupiter asteroid belt is the best training ground."
The Dark Star Domain was far too dangerous; at every turn, hundreds or thousands of starships would clash, and if one weren't careful, they would find themselves surrounded and wiped out by the NPC fleet.
"Then, shall we check it out right now?" Wu Tianyi asked. "We still don't know the market price for such a rare, ultra-powerful warship main gun."
Lin Zhichen thought for a moment, shook his head, and asked, "No, I'll handle it. Tianyi, once the space mothership arrives at port, the main force of the legion will move toward the asteroid belt. How is that batch of pirate crew members training right now?"
"Their loyalty is basically no longer an issue, but most of their professional skills are still at the basic level, rendering them unfit for heavy responsibilities." Wu Tianyi shook his head. Wild NPCs generally had low skills, and individuals from the pirate faction tended to be even inferior to those from the rebel army faction—though, of course, their numbers would be somewhat greater.
Lin Zhichen nodded slightly. He didn't hold high expectations for these pirate NPCs; as long as their loyalty met the standard, their skills could achieve rapid improvement later on through combat.
"What has Dr. Will been up to during this time?" he asked.
"He's been researching the ship data from the Federation Academy of Sciences," Wu Tianyi deliberated and replied. "Shall I call him over to ask?"
"Let's go take a look over there. Now that we have a draftsman, the upgrades for the frigate class should be put on the agenda." Lin Zhichen stood up, and the few of them walked together toward the research institute. Guided by Dr. Li Ping, they quickly found the ship design department.
"Welcome, Your Excellency Commander. I hope you bring some good news." Dr. Will was modifying ship parameters on a holographic computer with the assistance of a group of research assistants. Seeing the arrival of the base's senior leadership, he did not display any approachable emotion.
Because they lacked a draftsman, the ship design work had fallen into stagnation. He had already petitioned the base's senior leadership several times, but had not received an effective response all this time.
Lin Zhichen took no offense and smiled. "Of course, Doctor. I have found you an excellent assistant; you are bound to like him."
With that, he gestured toward the draftsman.
"A draftsman? Now that really is good news." Only then did a trace of joy finally break through Dr. Will's cold expression. Certain rules of the New Universe made it difficult for him to adapt, the most severe being that blueprints—even for the modification of existing vessels—required a draftsman to draw the corresponding modification blueprints.
"Doctor, if I want to upgrade warships of the frigate class, what difficulties are there?" Lin Zhichen asked.
"Money, of course. A huge sum of money," Dr. Will replied. "To be honest, the rules of the New Universe are truly absurd. Do you know? Wanting to upgrade a frigate to a genuine second-generation one normally requires you to spend three times the construction cost of the frigate!"
Wu Tianyi, standing nearby, listened in confusion. "Doctor, what do you mean? Isn't upgrading a frigate just raising the supporting ship-borne equipment to the second generation? It shouldn't cost that much, right?"
"No, you're talking about equipment upgrades, while I'm talking about warship modification!" Dr. Will shook his head. He opened a holographic projection, displaying two completely different-looking frigates.
The reason one could tell they were frigates was that one of the holographic images clearly showed the holographic projection of a standard Petrel-class Frigate at a glance.
The gazes of everyone landed on the second frigate. Compared to the standard-tier frigate, its size and parameters were vastly larger and taller.
Petrel-class Frigate Scale: Length 207 meters, width 95.8 meters, height 39.4 meters Hull Value: 600 Armor: 8 Shield: 300 Shield Recharge Rate: 4% Damage: 15.02 Speed: 150 Evasion: 55.1%
Every standard of the second-generation frigate had nearly doubled, though its speed and evasion were slightly lower.
The most prominent feature was the number of mounted turrets. If equipped with small electromagnetic cannons, it could mount six at a single time, doubling the firepower density of the first-generation warship!
"How much will the modifications cost?" Lin Zhichen was captivated at the sight. With firepower enhanced by a fold, the combat power of the second-generation frigate could easily defeat twice the number of enemy ships of the same tier, matching the battle prowess of three first-generation ships.
"1,200 Energy Coins!" Dr. Will stated a price that made his heart skip a beat. "If you want to upgrade to the third generation, just add another 2,400 Energy Coins!"
"At this price, it's no lower than a cruiser!" Link sucked in a breath of cold air, feeling a shudder at the cost of hull upgrades and modifications.
Although the number of turrets on a third-generation frigate doubled once more, allowing it to simultaneously equip 12 small turrets, the exorbitant price meant it held no advantage when facing a cruiser—cruisers were equipped with large turrets, after all!
The attack capability of large turrets against warships far exceeded that of medium and small turrets, and the gap between them could not be bridged by mere numbers alone.
"Doctor, is the third generation the highest it can be upgraded?" Lin Zhichen looked at the third holographic projection and asked thoughtfully.
"Yes, currently at most the third generation." Dr. Will shrugged. "Perhaps there are fourth and fifth generations, but what would be the point? In the end, they're merely frigates."
Above frigates were destroyers, above destroyers were cruisers, and above cruisers were battleships. With so many ranks of warships, why obsess over the most basic vessels?
"By your estimation, what is the highest a frigate can be upgraded to?" Lin Zhichen pressed on.
"I estimate the maximum potential is level 5, equipping at most 48 small turrets. Your Excellency, such an upgrade is not worth the cost." After a brief moment of thought, Dr. Will arrived at a conclusion. "For that, we would have to pay 18,000 Energy Points, which is enough to build a battleship."
Hearing this price, the hearts of the few skipped a beat—using the price of building a battleship to build a "monster" armed with a massive number of small turrets...
"Doctor, if we were to push the frigate template to that level, about how long would it take?" Lin Zhichen asked.
"If you insist on it, about a month," Dr. Will contemplated. "We also have NZT-50 to thank; our researchers have improved considerably during this period, otherwise the progress would require at least three months."
Hearing this, Lin Zhichen opened the personal panels of the dozen or so NPC assistants in the laboratory and checked them, discovering that the main skills of these assistants had all reached the expert level.
Clearly, Dr. Will had overestimated the effects of NZT-50; a dosage once a month was simply insufficient to cause a qualitative change in a short time. The reason these NPC assistants underwent a transformation in such a short period was due to his own talent, but there was no need to voice that out loud.
"Very well, Doctor. If upgrading warships requires going up level by level, then I want to take the blueprints for the first two upgrades right now," Lin Zhichen said.
"No problem." Dr. Will instructed the draftsman, "It's up to you."
The newly recruited warship pilot finally returned to his old trade. He took the holographic computer and rapidly input some information.
The group was very patient. The value of these strategic NPCs was immeasurable, and having the opportunity to understand this now, they naturally didn't feel impatient.
Dr. Will had already completed the design work with the largest workload, and the draftsman only needed to output it and use his skill to manifest it into a blueprint. The speed was not slow; merely an hour and a half later, a blueprint radiating a rich white light appeared in Lin Zhichen's hand.
Petrel-class Frigate Upgrade Blueprint (White) Activation Effect: Upon activation, permits upgrade and modification of a selected Petrel-class Frigate Cost: 200 Universal Alloy
Universal alloy was worth about 900 Energy Coins, and combined with other accessories, the total came out to roughly 1,200 Energy Coins.
Lin Zhichen took a glance and put the blueprint away. Looking at the draftsman, who was still busy, he asked, "Doctor, is there a modification plan for the pirate raiders?"
Dr. Will activated another holographic projection, displaying a brand-new vessel—the pirate raider:
"The design concept of the pirate raider is completely different from a frigate. It places more emphasis on speed while relatively neglecting hull strength. Even if upgraded further, its hull strength will still be weaker than frigates of the same tier.
"Conversely, its speed and evasion capabilities both exceed those of frigates of the same tier."
Lin Zhichen nodded. "There shouldn't be a shortage of captured pirate ships in the future. You can optimize and upgrade it when you have time. The second generation will do; anything higher is unnecessary."
"I understand." Dr. Will nodded.
An hour and a half later, the group finally walked out of the laboratory.
"Big Brother, the speed of drawing blueprints is really slow. At this efficiency, if the warships needing upgrades and modifications numbered in the tens or hundreds of thousands, how could anyone possibly keep up?" Link asked in puzzlement.
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