"That was the bonus from the new Relic, the AllSpark," Lin Zhichen said with a smile. "We'll be able to put it to use soon."
He was looking at the second Relic. Like NZT-50, it was a permission-type Relic.
Civilization Relic * Blazing Star Radiance (Yellow) Special Permission: Allows the Meteor Mercenary Group to produce Blazing Star Radiance. Note: This permission cannot be transferred. It will disappear if the Meteor Mercenary Group disbands. Production scale is directly proportional to the size of the Meteor Mercenary Group. Activation Effect: Blazing Star Radiance can absorb stellar energy. It can be used to produce Energy Coins or rapidly charge weapons.
Blazing Star Radiance was an X-Slot weapon attachment that could be fused with any X-Slot energy main cannon, such as the Positron Light Spear Lin Zhichen had obtained earlier.
Under ordinary conditions, it could absorb stellar energy to produce Energy Coins. During wartime, it could instead use that energy to charge weapons rapidly, allowing them to fire much faster than normal X-Slot weapons.
But it had a drawback, too. To achieve this effect, it had to remain close to a star. If it was too far away, it became an ordinary X-Slot main cannon—rather expensive to build, yet offering no advantage in range or energy damage.
Clearly, Blazing Star Radiance came from Transformers. It was the superweapon hidden beneath the Egyptian pyramids, designed to destroy the Sun.
"Too bad Cybertron never made it here. Otherwise, it would've been a mechanical planet!" Remembering the final scene in the Instance World, where the enormous planet Cybertron had been cut in half when its wormhole was severed midway through a Space Jump, made Lin Zhichen's heart ache.
That had been part of the story. If Cybertron had completed its jump, Earth had no weapon capable of fighting the mechanical planet. The result would have been GAME OVER, the Instance World would have collapsed, and he still wouldn't have gotten it.
Even though he knew that was how it had to be, Lin Zhichen still felt a pang of regret. Compared to what he had obtained, if he had really gotten Cybertron, there was no doubt it would have been a giant mechanical planet in the real universe. The Meteor Mercenary Group would have risen straight into the ranks of first-rate powers!
What is a mechanical planet?
It's a planet made entirely of machinery. Such planets exist in the real universe, too, built by Intelligent Life. Their production capacity is off the charts: as long as they have enough materials, building a starship is as easy as making a toy.
Composing himself, Lin Zhichen turned his attention back to the present.
"The AllSpark's effect is like having a powerful Hero deploy a domain!"
After briefly sensing the effects of the AllSpark's boost, Lin Zhichen was brimming with confidence. He locked onto the Pirate Base again.
"With the AllSpark's boost, the carrier's onboard radar can reach almost 6.5 light-seconds. We'll launch our attack from here!"
The extreme distance imposed a severe penalty on the fleet's firing accuracy. Even with a series of bonuses, the cannons' hit rate was still under 10%. But the advantage of attacking from so far away more than made up for the loss in artillery precision. Before the enemy could locate the fleet, they could blanket the enemy fleet with even more fire.
Three hours later, the Meteor Fleet was fully in position. The cannons charged, and the fleet began firing.
Hundreds of projectiles streaked through space. Thanks to the extreme range of Kinetic Weapons, most of the Meteor Fleet's cannons were Electromagnetic Cannons.
Now, dense volleys of electromagnetic projectiles cut through the darkness, looking just like meteors streaking across the sky.
Fortunately, the area around the Pirate Base was relatively clear. The repositioned starships had good firing lanes, with no asteroids to block their shots.
Dense volleys of projectiles shot out, one after another. With the AllSpark's support, even the cannons' Charging Speed received a boost, and the entire fleet's firing interval suddenly dropped to six seconds!
Of course, this applied only to the small Electromagnetic Cannons, which were by far the most numerous. Medium and large Electromagnetic Cannons took longer to charge, while X-Slot Main Cannons usually needed several minutes, or even more than ten.
Even so, the small Electromagnetic Cannons' continuous barrage was already having a major impact on the pirate fleet.
The fleet had been patrolling at its leisure, but after receiving an emergency transmission from the Pirate Base, it began evading. However, the fleet's firing pattern had already been optimized once, and all three hundred pirate ships were within its firing range.
Some pirate ships, making emergency evasive maneuvers, would normally have avoided the barrage. This time, they collided with the projectiles' trajectories instead.
At a distance of 6.5 light-seconds, even a one-millimeter discrepancy in a projectile's path could mean a deviation of kilometers in the distant reaches of space. Most of the projectiles missed. Even two of the six rounds fired by the Qinyuan missed; only the lucky ones happened to hit.
Lin Zhichen had entered a whole new state. With the Psionic Crystal's boost, his Psionic perception now encompassed the entire fleet.
The long-range volley was ineffective. For the first time, he tried to unite the minds of every crew member in the fleet into a single local psychic network.
"Boom—"
The moment he made contact with their minds, countless jumbled thoughts surged in like a flood, nearly overwhelming his consciousness. He withdrew from the Mind Link.
Being knocked out of this state would damage Lin Zhichen's consciousness under the impact of the information torrent. Fortunately, the boost from the Psionic Crystal showed its worth. After enduring the first wave, he forced himself to bear the headache and filtered out most of the useless information.
"Whew—"
He let out a breath. Filtering out the mass of useless information quickly eased the pain deep in his soul. Now it felt as if a hundred people were calling out noisily in his ears, leaving him thoroughly annoyed. He forced down his negative emotions, began sensing Psionic thoughts, and sorted more of the information, sending it to the fleet's NPC crew according to their roles.
At first, most people couldn't adapt to this unusual form of Mind Link. It didn't improve efficiency at all; in fact, the results of the next two volleys were meager.
But with the bonus from the Diligence Repays the Heavens talent and the rapid growth of their skills, the NPC crew gradually adapted to the new system, and their firing efficiency soared.
Through Lin Zhichen's Psionic perception, the crew's jumbled thoughts gradually receded, while the transmission of clearly defined, role-specific mental information kept accelerating. The impact of the information stream on his soul rapidly diminished, and the pressure in his mind soon vanished.
A few minutes later, the new psychic network was fully established. It included every NPC, pilots included. Each person received a different amount of information relevant to their role. With their objective clear, the fleet's efficiency skyrocketed in almost no time.
In terms of offense, the firing interval for each volley dropped from eight or nine seconds to three or four. That was practically the limit!
Without a sound, a new rare skill appeared on Lin Zhichen's character panel: Mind Resonance.
Mind Resonance (Yellow), Apprentice 12.42%: Effect 1: Thought Filtering +20% Effect 2: Thought Speed +1% * total number of people Effect 3: Learning Efficiency +5%
"An Hero-level skill?" Noticing something unusual, Lin Zhichen checked his character panel, overjoyed. He nearly broke away from Mind Resonance.
For a normal Psionicist at Elite Tier to advance to Hero, they had to raise one of their Psionic Combat Skills to the Domain level—that is, Yellow or higher.
A Psionicist with a Yellow skill only needed to steadily improve it and convert it into a talent to advance naturally to Hero. It was a whole tier easier than the normal advancement path!
Even better, he could already experience some of the benefits of a Heroic Domain. With this skill, for example, he could create a local psychic network.
Under the skill's influence, with the support of the entire fleet's NPC crew, Lin Zhichen's thought speed had increased more than tenfold.
That state wasn't suitable for researching technology, of course. But if he activated it in battle, both he and his NPC crew would see their skills grow at a breakneck pace!
In the state of Mind Resonance, it seemed that everyone in the fleet was sharing their thoughts and intelligence in some inexplicable way. Lin Zhichen, the one secretly coordinating it all, was astonished to discover—
NPCs in the same profession especially seemed to resonate with one another. Their thoughts were more focused, and they shared certain professional instincts. They might not even realize they were communicating in this subtle way, but the benefits were real. At that moment, their skills were growing far faster than a mere 5% boost could explain!
"Every person has their strengths and weaknesses!" He suddenly understood. Everyone had their own personality, and their thinking naturally had its own biases. Even people with the same profession and level had slightly different abilities. He had noticed that before.
But now, this subtle yet profound professional exchange was slowly breaking down those individual barriers. Suddenly, the skills of a dozen NPC crew members who had been stuck at the Master-level peak finally broke through their limits and reached the highest level ordinary people could attain: Grandmaster!
Name: Gunner DQXJ Gender: Male Age: 19 Class: Gunner, Grandmaster Talents: Artillery Fire (Light Red): Kinetic Weapon range +25% * 10 Long-Range Artillery (Red): Range +25% * 10 Precision (Red): Kinetic Weapon accuracy +25% * 10 Skills: 1 - Artillery Fire (Red), Grandmaster: Firing speed +75%, artillery damage +100% 2 - Long-Range Artillery (Red), Grandmaster: Range +1000% 3 - Precision (Red), Grandmaster: Artillery accuracy +100% 4 - Cultivation: Qi Refining to Godhood (Red) 7.3% Evaluation: The pinnacle of ordinary people, the elite of the elites!
"Is this the limit of the NPC template?" Lin Zhichen studied the NPC crew member's character panel, his expression unreadable. There probably weren't many in the Federation with stats this impressive.
Once he completed Psionic Awakening, this man would be able to convert three skills into Psionic Skills and become a peak Elite. He'd be just one step away from Hero!
Now the NPC crew members throughout the fleet were undergoing successive transformations. Even the last group to join, the pirate crew, were rapidly improving.
In the state of Mind Resonance, Lin Zhichen seemed to become an invisible giant. The NPC crew members were extensions of his brain, and the warships were his limbs.
His Psionic perception seemed to have entered a new realm. His calculations and predictions were both a tier better than in his normal state.
With a thought, he could send a simple, clear order to an NPC crew member. The fleet's volley would immediately shift in subtle ways.
With help from the base's radar scans, the pirate fleet had now pinpointed the direction the projectiles were coming from. After being struck again and again, the pirate ships began turning toward the Meteor Fleet.
Under normal conditions in space, a distance of just 6.5 light-seconds wasn't far. At Sublight speed, the pirate fleet could cover it in perhaps ten minutes. But this was the Asteroid Belt. Under the fleet's continuous bombardment, every volley inflicted some damage on the pirates.
At first, even with all their skills and bonuses, the Meteor Fleet's hit rate hadn't exceeded 10%. Now it had climbed to 20%, and it was still rising.
It seemed that in the time it took to blink, the fleet's hit rate had jumped by a large margin. Even in the middle of the battle, Link couldn't help wondering why. He spared some attention to check the character panels of the NPC crew under his command, then gaped. It took him several seconds to recover.
"Expert-level..."
Before leaving Earth Starport, they had been a bunch of beginner rookies. Before launching their attack on the Pirate Base, they had become a group of experienced high-level professionals. Now they were Expert-level specialists in operating warships!
The battle didn't stop just because Link was momentarily stunned. At this point, Lin Zhichen could even bypass the captain and issue precise orders directly. Volley after volley, their accuracy kept improving. And as the gunners' professional levels rose, the projectiles gained power, too.
The pirate fleet was struggling to charge toward them from light-seconds away, and the danger it faced kept growing. Before, it took eighty or ninety hits to destroy a pirate ship. Now, five or six hits were enough to blow one up in a burst of flame.
As their hit rate improved, every step the pirate fleet took toward them came at a cost: several, sometimes a dozen, bursts of flame. In just over ten minutes, the entire pirate fleet had been badly mauled, losing more than fifty Raider Boats.
In this special state, with the carrier's radar at his disposal, Lin Zhichen could clearly "see" the pirate fleet's formation beginning to waver. Its rate of advance was also slowing, in a way that was hard to notice.
In the past, it might have taken another half hour of combat to see these signs. But in the state of Mind Resonance, he seemed to have become a precision computer, discerning the tiniest changes across the battlefield.
"The enemy has lost its fighting spirit. They'll break and retreat soon!"
After reaching that conclusion, he abandoned their stationary firing position without hesitation, even as the pirate fleet continued closing in at high speed. He ordered the fleet to advance and pressed the attack.
This meant giving up their advantage in long-range fire to engage the pirates at close range. No competent commander would make such a mistake, but Lin Zhichen did so without hesitation!
The fleet fired while moving. Their accuracy dipped slightly, but after a dozen volleys, the NPC gunners adapted to firing on the move. Not only did they regain their accuracy, but their skills improved even faster. In a short time, they had gone from the beginning of Expert-level to nearly 50% experience.
By now, the two sides were six light-seconds apart, and the distance was closing rapidly. As the NPC crew's skills improved, their coordination grew faster and more effective.
Their hit rate climbed from 20% toward 30%. All the while, the pirate fleet was still under relentless attack, and the radar still couldn't find the enemy in sight.
Before you continue