Global Crossing: Empire of Stars

"That's the bonus from the new Relic, the AllSpark," Lin Zhichen chuckled. "We'll be able to use it soon."

He was currently looking at the second Relic. Just like the NZT-50, this one was a permission-based Relic.

"Civilization Relic Blazing Star Radiance Yellow

Special Permission: Allows the Meteor Mercenary Group to produce Blazing Star Radiance. Note: This permission is non-transferable. The permission disappears 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, which can be used to produce Energy Coins or rapidly charge weapons."

Blazing Star Radiance is an X-slot weapon attachment that can be fused with any X-slot energy-based main cannon, such as the Positron Light Spear Lin Zhichen obtained earlier.

In peacetime, it can produce Energy Coins by absorbing stellar energy. During wartime, it can be used for rapid charging, allowing for much faster firing than normal X-slot weapons.

However, it also has a drawback: to achieve this characteristic, one must stay near a star. If too far away, it becomes a normal X-slot main cannon, which is expensive to produce but offers no advantage in range or energy damage.

It's clear that the Blazing Star Radiance originates from the Transformers, a superweapon hidden beneath the Egyptian pyramids intended to destroy the sun.

"It's a shame the planet Cybertron didn't appear in the end, otherwise it would have been a mechanical planet!" Thinking of the final scene in the Instance World, where the massive planet Cybertron was cut in half mid-way through a rapid Space Jump due to a wormhole interruption, Lin Zhichen's heart ached.

This was part of the plot. If Cybertron had successfully completed its jump, Earth would have had no weapons capable of fighting such a mechanical planet. The result would have been GAME OVER, the Instance World collapsing, and he wouldn't have obtained it either.

Despite the facts, Lin Zhichen still felt heartbroken. Compared to what he had obtained now, if he had truly acquired Cybertron, it would undoubtedly be a giant mechanical planet in the real Universe, and the Meteor Mercenary Group would instantly become a first-class power!

What is a mechanical planet?

It's a planet entirely composed of machinery. Such planets exist in the real Universe as well, built by intelligent life. These types of planets have incredible production capabilities; as long as there are sufficient materials, building a starship is as simple as making a toy.

Composing himself, Lin Zhichen refocused his attention on reality.

"The effect of the AllSpark is equivalent to a powerful Hero unleashing their Domain!"

After briefly feeling the boost from the AllSpark, Lin Zhichen was filled with confidence and locked his target onto the pirate base:

"With the AllSpark's boost, the carrier's shipborne Radar has reached nearly 6.5 light-seconds. We'll launch our attack from this position!"

Admittedly, due to the extreme distance, the fleet's shooting accuracy suffered a huge penalty, resulting in a hit rate of less than 10% for the Ship Cannons despite all the buffs. However, the advantage brought by the ultra-long range completely compensated for the lack of artillery accuracy. Before the enemy ships could locate the fleet's position, they could cover the enemy fleet with overwhelming firepower.

Three hours later, the Meteor fleet was in position, its Ship Cannons charged and ready to fire.

Hundreds of projectiles streaked through space. Due to the ultra-long range of Kinetic Weapons, most of the Meteor fleet's Ship Cannons were Electromagnetic Cannons.

At this moment, the dense Electromagnetic Projectiles sliced through the darkness, truly resembling meteors tearing across the sky.

Fortunately, the star system where the pirate base was located was relatively open. The adjusted starships had good firing arcs, so there was no need to worry about asteroids blocking the cannonballs.

The dense projectiles rained down wave after wave. With the support of the AllSpark, even the charging speed of the Ship Cannons was enhanced, compressing the entire fleet's salvo speed to just 6 seconds!

Of course, this only applied to the most numerous small Electromagnetic Cannons. The charging time for medium and large Electromagnetic Cannons was longer, and X-slot main cannons usually took several minutes or even tens of minutes to charge.

However, even the continuous attacks from the small Electromagnetic Cannons had a significant impact on the pirate fleet.

The fleet, which had been leisurely patrolling, began to evade upon receiving an emergency communication from the pirate base. However, the fleet's artillery, which had already undergone optimization, had brought all three hundred warships within its firing range.

Some pirate ships that attempted to evade urgently would have otherwise been safe, but at this moment, they ran into the trajectories of the projectiles.

A cannonball traveling 6.5 light-seconds, even a millimeter of deviation would result in a deviation of kilometers in the vastness of space. The vast majority of the cannonballs missed. Even two of the six Electromagnetic Cannons on the "Qinyuan" missed, and only the lucky few scored accidental hits.

At this moment, Lin Zhichen entered a new state. With the enhancement from the Psionic Crystal, his Psionic energy perception encompassed the entire fleet within his sight.

The effect of the ultra-long-range salvo was not ideal. For the first time, he began to attempt to unify the minds of all the crew members in the fleet into a single psionic network.

"Boom~"

The moment their minds connected, countless chaotic information flooded in like a torrent, nearly overwhelming Lin Zhichen's consciousness. He withdrew from the mind-link state.

Being "knocked away" in this state, Lin Zhichen's consciousness could be damaged by the intense information flow. Fortunately, the enhancement from the Psionic Crystal showed its effect. After enduring the first wave of impact, he suppressed the headache caused by the information overload and stripped away and blocked most of the useless information.

"Hoo~"

He took a breath. The filtering of a large amount of invalid information quickly subsided the soul-deep pain. It felt like dozens of people were shouting noisily in his ear, causing immense annoyance. Suppressing the negative emotions, he began to perceive the psionic thoughts, categorizing more information and sending it to the fleet's NPC Crew according to their professions.

Initially, this special method of mental connection was difficult for most people to adapt to. It didn't improve efficiency; in fact, the results were meager in two consecutive volleys.

But soon, with the boost from the Diligence Repays the Heavens talent and rapidly growing skills, the NPC Crew gradually adapted to the new mode, and their combat efficiency soared.

In Lin Zhichen's psionic perception, the chaotic thoughts from everyone gradually receded, and the psionic information transfer with distinct professional characteristics accelerated. The impact of the information flow on his soul quickly diminished, and the feeling of fullness in his mind also rapidly disappeared.

A few minutes later, the new psionic network was fully formed, encompassing all NPCs, including the pilots. Each person received varying amounts of information relevant to their profession. With clear objectives, efficiency rapidly climbed to a new level.

In terms of offense, the fleet's salvo speed compressed from 8-9 seconds to 3-4 seconds, which was almost a kind of limit!

Silently, a new rare skill, Mind Resonance, was generated in Lin Zhichen's personal panel.

"Mind Resonance Yellow, Apprentice 12.42%: Effect 1: Thought Filtering +20%, Effect 2: Thought Speed +1% * Total Number of People, Effect 3: Learning Effect +5%"

"Heroic-tier skill?" Lin Zhichen, sensing the anomaly, looked at his personal panel and was overjoyed, almost losing himself in Mind Resonance.

For a normal elite-tier Psionicist to advance to Heroic, they must elevate one of their psionic combat techniques to the Domain level, meaning Yellow or above.

A Psionicist with a Yellow skill only needs to steadily improve their skills and spiritualize them into talents to naturally advance to Heroic, making the process a level easier than normal advancement.

Even better, he could already feel some of the benefits of a Heroic Domain. For example, with this skill, he could completely construct a psionic network.

Affected by the skill, with the support of the entire fleet's NPC crew, Lin Zhichen's thought speed had increased more than tenfold.

In this state, researching technology was out of the question, but if activated during combat, both he and his subordinate NPC crew would experience an explosive growth in their skills!

In the state of Mind Resonance, it seemed as if everyone in the entire fleet was communicating through an unknown state of thought and wisdom. Lin Zhichen, who was secretly orchestrating everything, was astonished to discover that

especially among NPCs of the same profession, their thoughts were purer. The certain resonances between professions, their subtle communication might not even be noticed by themselves, but the benefits were real. The growth rate of skills at this time was far more than a mere 5%!

"Every man has his strengths and weaknesses!" he suddenly realized. Everyone had their own personality, which manifested in their thoughts as different focuses. Although their professions and levels were the same, there were slight differences in their abilities, differences he had already noticed in the past.

But now, this subtle yet profound professional exchange was breaking down these individual barriers little by little. Suddenly, the skills of over a dozen NPC crew members, which had been stuck at the peak of Master level, finally broke through their limitations and reached the highest level for mortals: Grandmaster!

[Name: Gunner DQXJ]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 19]
[Profession: Gunner Grandmaster]
[Talent: Artillery (Pale Red): Kinetic Weapon Range +25%*10]
[Long-Range Artillery (Red): Range +25%*10]
[Precision (Red): Kinetic Weapon Accuracy +25%*10]
[Skills: 1. Artillery (Red), Grandmaster: Firing Speed +75%, Artillery Damage +100%]
[- Long-Range Artillery (Red), Grandmaster: Range +1000%]
[- Precision (Red), Grandmaster: Artillery Accuracy +100%]
[- Cultivation*Qi Refining to Godhood (Red) 7.3%]
[Evaluation: The pinnacle of mortals, the elite of the elite!]

"Is this the limit of the NPC template?" He looked at the personal panel of the NPC crew member with an unreadable expression. Such luxurious stats were probably rare even in the Federation.

It could be said that as long as they completed Psionic energy awakening, this individual could directly transform 3 skills into Psionic skills, becoming an elite of the peak level, just one step away from being a Hero!

At this moment, the NPC crew members in the fleet were undergoing successive transformations, and even the last batch of pirate crew members who had joined were rapidly improving.

In the state of Mind Resonance, Lin Zhichen seemed to have transformed into an invisible giant. The NPC crew members were extensions of his brain, and the warships were his limbs.

His Psionic energy perception seemed to have entered a new dimension. Both computation and prediction were elevated by a level compared to his normal state.

With a mere thought, simple and clear commands were transmitted to a certain NPC crew member, and the fleet's volleys immediately underwent subtle changes.

With the help of the base Radar's scan, the pirate fleet had already locked onto the trajectory of the cannonballs. The pirate fleet, having suffered continuous attacks, began to turn and charge towards the Meteor Fleet.

If this were normal space, a distance of merely 6.5 Light-seconds wouldn't be considered far. In near-light speed, it could be reached in a dozen minutes. But this was an asteroid belt. Under the continuous bombardment of the fleet, each wave of artillery could inflict a certain amount of damage on the pirate fleet.

In the beginning, even with numerous skill enhancements, the Meteor Fleet's hit rate wouldn't exceed 10%. But now, the hit rate had directly increased to 20%, and it was still growing.

It seemed like just a moment of distraction, and the fleet's hit rate had significantly improved. Even amidst the battle, Link couldn't help but feel curious. He diverted some of his attention to check the personal panels of the NPC crew members under his command. He immediately widened his mouth, and after a few seconds, he came to his senses and muttered, "Expert level."

Before departing from Earth's starport, they were a group of novice rookies. Before launching an attack on this pirate base, they were seasoned veterans of high-level professions. But now, they were expert-level talents proficient in operating warships!

The battle did not stop due to Link's brief daze. At this moment, Lin Zhichen could even issue precise commands directly, bypassing the Captain. Round after round of volleys not only had an increasingly high hit rate but also, due to the improvement in the Gunner profession's level, even the power of the cannonballs received a boost.

The pirate fleet, charging desperately towards the Light-seconds-distant objective, faced increasing threats. Pirate ships that previously required eighty to ninety cannonball hits to be destroyed were now exploding into flames after being hit by just five or six.

Coupled with the increase in hit rate, with every step forward, the pirate fleet would erupt in several or even a dozen fiery explosions. In just a dozen minutes, the entire pirate fleet was heavily damaged, losing over fifty raiding vessels.

Being in a special state, and utilizing the carrier's Radar, Lin Zhichen could clearly "see" the pirate warships' formation gradually wavering, and their forward speed slowing down in an imperceptible manner.

These details, in the past, might have taken half an hour of combat to discern. But in the state of Mind Resonance, he seemed to have transformed into the most precise computer, perceiving the subtlest changes on the entire battlefield.

"Enemy morale is lost, they will falter soon, retreat!"

Reaching this conclusion, despite the pirate fleet still rapidly approaching, he unhesitatingly abandoned the static output strategy and commanded the fleet to advance rapidly, pressing forward.

This was abandoning the advantage of their own Long-Range Artillery to engage in close-quarters combat with the pirate fleet. No competent commander would make such a mistake, but Lin Zhichen did so without hesitation!

The fleet moved and fired, and the hit rate slightly decreased. But after more than ten rounds of firing, the NPC gunners, having adapted to mobile firing, not only restored their hit rate but also saw their skill improvement speed accelerate. In a short period, they had progressed from newly entered Expert level to nearly 50% of the experience bar.

At this point, the two sides were a full 6 Light-seconds apart, and the distance was still rapidly closing. As the NPC crew members' skills improved, their coordination with each other became more swift and effective.

The hit rate gradually approached 30% from 20%. At this time, the pirate fleet was still enduring endless attacks, and the Radar couldn't even find any trace of the enemy.