Gender: Male Age: 24 Profession: Master Scientist Talent: Matter Reorganization (Yellow), Material Research +30% Psionicist Red: Effect 1: Awakens Psionics; Effect 2: Skill Learning Speed +10%; Skill: Material Research (Red), Master 11.32%: Material Research Ability +28%, allows research into Yellow-grade materials and below Psionic Combat Skill: Matter Reorganization (Elite): Reorganize matter using the power of Psionics. Psionic energy cost: 1~ Psionics: 65 Evaluation: A master of manipulating matter!
No wonder he was a talent with a Yellow-grade ability. He had become an Elite right after awakening!
His Psionic level could only be considered that of an ordinary Apprentice, but he already possessed a Psionic Combat Skill. As long as he raised his Psionic level, with talent of this caliber, he could awaken directly as a Hero!
"I can feel it—the perfect structure of matter!" Li Heng murmured after awakening. His eyes turned toward the hull, and everything made of matter revealed its secrets to him.
"I can change it!" That was what he felt. With a thought, his Psionics began to work, and the matter immediately transformed.
"What are you doing?" Wei Peng's furious voice rang in his ear. Li Heng snapped back to his senses and saw a deep groove in the smooth alloy wall. It looked as if the wall had been kneaded into shape by a powerful hand; the hard metal had become putty.
"I'm sorry, sir, I—" Li Heng hurried to explain, but Lin Zhichen stopped him with a wave. "You can alter the shape of matter?"
"Yes, sir. As long as I expend Psionics." Li Heng steadied himself and answered.
"Good. Here are the blueprints for a Destroyer. See if you can modify the Qin Yuan's hull structure into a Destroyer's design," Lin Zhichen asked.
The holographic projector immediately sprang to life, comparing the Qin Yuan's main structure with that of a Destroyer.
This was the bare-hull state, with all onboard components removed, leaving only the hull structure.
Li Heng was a materials scientist and knew little about warship construction. But there was a senior hull expert right there in the small command cabin: Dr. Will.
"What a marvelous power!" Dr. Will finally managed to tear his gaze away from the Psionic Crystal. According to the promise made by the group's leadership, he would be the next to awaken.
"If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me!"
Wei Peng watched the two scientists discussing the matter and asked, "Big brother, can we really count on this?"
"NPCs with Matter Reorganization are the most essential talents to any faction. Their status is even higher than that of draftsmen. If he hadn't lacked awakened Psionics, he probably wouldn't have been available on the market at all." Lin Zhichen waited patiently for the results.
"Talents of this strategic importance are indispensable to the group. Whether we'll be piloting Psionic Frigates or Psionic Titans in the future depends on how well he performs."
The others' hearts pounded as they looked at Li Heng with burning eyes.
In Lin Zhichen's view, while talents with Matter Reorganization were rare, one such person was enough for any faction to train...
After all, the prerequisite for upgrading a Psionic Warship was for its ship spirit to grow to a certain limit. Only when the hull became a constraint could an upgrade be considered.
Generally speaking, ship spirits grew extremely slowly. It was normal for them to show no noticeable improvement over decades or even a century. A talent like this was rarely needed in everyday operations—and awakening an ordinary person's Psionics came at a considerable cost.
Perhaps that was the main reason the Federation hadn't taken Li Heng in. He mused, There's still so much more I can do with my Diligence Repays the Heavens talent.
Although the Qin Yuan grew far more slowly than an ordinary NPC, he had noticed that it was indeed still growing. Its Psionic pool alone had increased from a limit of 100 points at its birth to nearly a thousand. Its growth had clearly slowed over this period and was gradually grinding to a halt.
This seemed to suggest that the Qin Yuan had indeed reached its limit.
Inside the cabin, Li Heng and Dr. Will continued their discussion while the Qin Yuan had already set sail, exploring near Dakan I.
As if it had noticed the Qin Yuan's surveillance, dazzling beams of light quickly cut through the darkness and locked onto the Psionic Warship.
"Particle Light Spears!"
The Pirate Base had reacted. A large number of ships were taking off and moving to surround the Qin Yuan from a distance.
"There's at least a large Pirate Base on Dakan I. There's another base beneath the lava on Dakan Ia, though I don't know whether it's medium-sized or large." Lin Zhichen calmly dodged one deadly beam after another, using radar waves to scan and probe the enemy's true strength.
Only when the pirate fleet drew near did the Qin Yuan trace an arc through space and vanish in an instant.
"Big brother, there were definitely more than two thousand pirate warships just now!" Wu Tianyi said with a sigh of relief, then added anxiously, "At least ten of them were Battleships!"
A Battleship's Slot Main Cannon was a powerful, long-range energy weapon. A single sweep across a fleet could destroy a whole swath of small and medium-sized ships. It was an absolute weapon of destruction in fleet combat.
"The large Electromagnetic Cannons mounted on Destroyers can pierce a Battleship's Energy Shield!" Lin Zhichen shook his head. No matter how far the Light Spears could reach, could their range really exceed 6.5 light-seconds?
"What I'm worried about now is whether the Qin Yuan can upgrade Space Jump again when it advances, turning this Psionic Combat Skill into an area-of-effect ability."
Lin Zhichen spoke. According to the secret information Conilia had provided, Psionic Warships had rarely advanced throughout history. When one did, there were two possibilities: it could gain a new Psionic Combat Skill, or strengthen an existing one. He clearly hoped for the second outcome.
For one thing, simply bringing the entire Meteor Mercenary Group to the Dakan System would normally take four or five months. That was far too long. At least with his current sense of time, he was absolutely unwilling to wait that long.
"Wooo..."
As if sensing its master's anxiety, the usually silent Qin Yuan gave a rare response. Its Psionic waves rippled gently, seemingly soothing Lin Zhichen's agitation.
"Of course. I've always believed in you." A faint smile appeared on Lin Zhichen's face. In any case, they'd had a perfect start. As long as they kept going, things would work out.
Time passed, and the Qin Yuan once again returned to the Solar System via Space Jump, docking in the Whale's internal hangar.
By then, the Meteor Mercenary Group had officially set out. After several days of purchasing supplies, the Whale's cargo hold was packed with a vast quantity of materials, mostly metals and components. Eighteen units were intended for manufacturing starships.
The ten thousand Engineering NPCs had all reported for duty, and under the engineers' coordination, the bumpy process of building starships had begun.
Starship construction was part of a comprehensive heavy industry system with extremely strict requirements. To function properly in the vacuum of space, every aspect—from the hull structure to the use of interior space—had to be backed by rigorous scientific analysis.
Fortunately, though the New Universe strictly limited the upper bounds of technological development, the emergence of blueprints had both advantages and disadvantages. At least the Meteor Mercenary Group didn't need to support a large number of scientists and research tens of thousands of scientific projects from scratch.
In fact, ship blueprints contained extremely detailed data, making them very friendly to beginners. As long as they followed the standards and procedures, shipbuilding was far easier than in the Old Universe. That was the main reason Lin Zhichen dared to let a group of rookies try their hand at this great undertaking.
The hum from within the hull accompanied a bustling production effort. NPCs piloting different kinds of Engineering Machinery used machines to shape various alloys into Components, then placed them in designated areas as directed by their personal wristbands.
The power of technology was on full display. The dedicated industrial construction AI aboard the industrial ship could use holographic wristbands to arrange every task with perfect clarity, maximizing work efficiency.
Lin Zhichen stood by the hangar, quietly watching Li Heng at work.
Three days of careful discussion and analysis had passed before Li Heng and Dr. Will finally reached an agreement. Every step of the modification had to follow a strict sequence.
Now, the Qin Yuan's upgrade was beginning!
This was the Meteor Mercenary Group's most important undertaking at present. It would determine whether the group's development would slow down for a time over the coming months. Wei Peng and the others had set aside their work and gathered at the hangar, waiting for the final result.
On the automated hangar's holographic display, images of one Component after another kept shifting, their shapes twisting until each transformation was complete. The result looked rather strange.
In fact, after Dr. Will and Li Heng had discussed it, they had specially created these images to depict the starship's advancement. Each step was projected in order. Li Heng then only had to use Matter Reorganization to reshape the Qin Yuan's Components according to the display, one by one, to complete the overall upgrade.
Of course, because of the enormous difference in size between a Frigate and a Destroyer, a considerable amount of additional material was needed for the process. All of it had already been prepared.
Starting with the Qin Yuan's keel, the outer hull was stripped away, and matter was gradually added, rapidly increasing its size.
The Psionic Crystals came in handy at this point. Li Heng had only just awakened, and his Apprentice-level Psionics were nowhere near enough to support a modification on this scale. Fortunately, with a tenfold boost, his demonstrated ability had genuinely reached the Elite level.
As Psionics surged, the metal writhed like flesh, gradually taking the shape of a Destroyer.
The process couldn't be stopped, and it was best to work quickly, because a damaged warship would injure its ship spirit. In fact, Lin Zhichen had already felt the Qin Yuan's "agony" from the very beginning. On the Psionic level, it was like hearing a giant scream as it was flayed alive.
"This is still too much for it," Lin Zhichen sighed. His Psionic senses were connected to the Qin Yuan, and he shared in the agony of its advancement.
Legend had it that when an eagle grew old, it faced a choice: endure the agony and hunger as it shed its beak and talons, then grow new ones and be reborn—or choose comfort and wither away in its twilight years.
Every advancement was a trial of life and death. Those who overcame it gained a new world; those who failed returned to stillness.
Time passed bit by bit, and Li Heng's movements grew faster and faster. At first, he was unfamiliar with his talent and worked like a fledgling Apprentice. But later, with a single thought, he could shape several cubic meters of matter. As his skill soared, the new Psionic Warship quickly took shape.
Only after three days did the new Destroyer hull finally take shape. Li Heng, who had consumed only a few bottles of Psionic potions, let out a long breath and stopped. "Commander, I've done my best!"
"Excellent work!" Lin Zhichen finally relaxed, too. The upgrade was complete, and at least the ship spirit wouldn't perish now.
Li Heng stopped, but the automated hangar got to work. He had only completed the main hull structure. The internal energy lines, outer armor, and onboard weapons still needed to be installed one by one.
"Commander, it'll take another three days," Dr. Will reported as he came over. "The hardest work is done. From here, the engineers can finish the rest by following the procedures."
"Good," Lin Zhichen said.
"Sir, if you aren't in a hurry, I can reinforce the Qin Yuan's hull," Li Heng offered.
"You can strengthen the hull?" Lin Zhichen asked in surprise, looking at him.
"Yes, Commander," Li Heng explained. "Standard warships use Universal Alloy for their hulls. Its advantages are mature manufacturing technology and low cost, making it easy to mass-produce.
"But Psionic Warships are rare, so building their hulls from Universal Alloy is really wasteful. Replacing it with a stronger alloy would greatly improve the hull's strength, including that of the outer armor."
"Do you have a plan?" Lin Zhichen asked eagerly.
"BC-106 Superalloy, a Red-grade material, is far stronger than Universal Alloy," Li Heng replied calmly. "Its advantage is that it combines strength and toughness, making it an excellent material for shipbuilding. But it has a clear drawback: it needs a large amount of Tachyon Crystal to catalyze the metal."
"How many units would we need, based on the Qin Yuan's size?" Lin Zhichen asked.
"About six units for the internal hull structure alone, not counting the outer armor. Twelve units total, including the armor," Li Heng replied. Clearly, he'd already worked out the numbers.
"Then use BC-106 Superalloy for all of it. Manager Xu, meet Director Li's every requirement!" Lin Zhichen ordered.
Tachyon Crystals were precious, but Lin Zhichen had military connections. Strategic materials like these were always welcome, and they bought as much as they could get. They had a decent stockpile now, too.
"Understood!" Manager Xu Wen responded at once.
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