Machine Guns, Artillery, Tanks!

Based on the vehicle's structure and operating method, the clone was almost in a flurry as it cranked one lever after another, pressed button after button, and pulled trigger after trigger. After a great deal of maneuvering, the vehicle finally began to move forward slowly.

There was no helping it. This primitive vehicle had no automated systems whatsoever, so operating it was this troublesome.

An automatic transmission was out of the question. Even a modern manual transmission was impossible.

When shifting gears, the clone first had to disengage one gear, then engage another gear in the transmission before completing the shift.

When starting the engine, the clone also had to keep a precise eye on the Instrument Panel, monitoring the pressure of the methane and oxygen and manually adjusting the amounts of both gases.

When the speed increased, it also had to manually increase the fuel supply. Otherwise, the vehicle would stall.

Still, it did not matter. Though the operation was complicated, it was still a trivial matter to Li Qingsong.

After the clone acting as the driver familiarized itself with the controls and practiced for a while, all the clones had learned how to drive this incredibly complicated vehicle.

Li Qingsong drove the vehicle around the outskirts of the base for several hundred kilometers, then inspected it once more.

The results still satisfied him. After making several hundred minor adjustments, the vehicle was finalized and put into production.

Obviously, this vehicle was still far from perfect. Through practical use, Li Qingsong had discovered some designs that could practically be called "anti-human," yet could not be adjusted for the time being. He could also be certain that as it saw widespread use in the future, more and more design flaws would be exposed.

But it did not matter. As long as it worked, that was enough. The clones would not file complaints anyway.

To manufacture all kinds of vehicles, Li Qingsong temporarily requisitioned several dozen workshops and built several dozen new factories.

Some specialized in producing engines, some steering assemblies, some Fuel Tanks, some tires, some Vehicle Bodies, some glass, and so on.

Thus, the crude Off-road Vehicle Li Qingsong named the "Hunter Type-1" was rapidly produced, and soon a thousand had been assembled.

Li Qingsong selected a thousand clones to serve as drivers, filled each vehicle with enough fuel to travel more than ten thousand kilometers, loaded them with food, drinking water, sufficient oxygen, and other supplies, then sent the thousand reconnaissance vehicles out.

From this moment onward, they would roam all over Luoshen Star, searching for and determining the number and locations of the strange bird flocks.

They would not be idle even when they failed to find strange birds. They would also survey Luoshen Star's surface, determining the reserves and locations of various mineral deposits in preparation for future large-scale development.

With the experience of building vehicles, Li Qingsong immediately began developing special vehicles such as Armored Vehicles, tanks, and Tanker Trucks on that basis.

In terms of basic principles, these special vehicles were not fundamentally different from Off-road Vehicles. They were all just large shells powered by Internal Combustion Engines, only with some extra armor, weapon systems, or other additions.

The requirements were not that high anyway. As long as they worked, that was enough.

While vehicle development and production continued, Li Qingsong did not neglect another area.

Machine guns and artillery!

Based on the existing Assault Type-1 firearms, Li Qingsong wanted to develop weapons with greater power, higher rates of fire, and larger magazine capacities.

Ideally, they would not even need magazines, but would use Ammunition Belts directly.

Then there was artillery.

In fact, in terms of basic principles, artillery was not all that different from firearms. Both used burning gunpowder to generate scorching gases, then relied on their pressure to launch projectiles.

The only difference was that artillery shells contained explosive charges, while bullets did not, relying entirely on kinetic energy to inflict damage.

Even so, Li Qingsong had to assign quite a number of clones to the research.

These were weapons, after all, not civilian equipment. If a barrel exploded and set off the Ammunition Depot as well, that would be quite a disaster.

With all these lines advancing simultaneously, even though the war had temporarily halted and the front no longer occupied too many consciousness-link slots, Li Qingsong clearly felt the pressure.

Not only were all the clones withdrawn from the front thrown into the new production lines, Li Qingsong also "cut corners" a little to meet the current demand for manpower and brainpower.

The clones responsible for perimeter security at the various bases clearly did not all need to remain on alert. Only some clones needed to maintain consciousness links and the ability to conduct active reconnaissance.

So Li Qingsong "stole" back another three thousand consciousness-link slots and deployed three thousand reserve clones into production. Only then did he barely manage to handle the current construction tasks.

Time quietly passed. At the firing range, machine guns and artillery boomed, and the ground trembled faintly without end.

Inside the vehicle factories, equipment roared day and night. Steel was kneaded into all kinds of shapes like noodles, then assembled together, eventually becoming vehicles of every different appearance.

There were Armored Vehicles three meters tall with a total mass exceeding five tons; tanks two meters tall, moving on tracks, with a total mass of fifteen tons. They also had long barrels mounted atop them—Tank Cannons specially developed by Li Qingsong. There were also vehicles five meters high and twenty meters long, towing enormous tanks with volumes of one hundred and twenty cubic meters behind them, specially used to transport methane or oxygen...

Like bamboo shoots after rain, all kinds of weapons and equipment appeared in the Main Base before long, completely unlike the days when they could only wield kitchen knives as weapons.

At this moment, Li Qingsong's confidence swelled as never before.

Though he still could not build aircraft, with so many assault rifles, machine guns, cannons, and tanks, Li Qingsong was confident that even if another hundred thousand strange birds came, he could wipe them out in a single battle.

Yet the situation at the moment seemed somewhat strange.

A thousand reconnaissance vehicles roamed all over Luoshen Star, searching for traces of the strange birds. But after searching for so long, aside from a few dead strange birds, they had not found a single living one.

"Where did they all go?"

Li Qingsong was filled with doubt.

If Luoshen Star only had the fewer than one hundred thousand strange birds they had seen before, Li Qingsong absolutely would not believe it.

They had to have gathered somewhere, which was why he could not find them.

But what were they doing gathered together?

The unknown left Li Qingsong faintly uneasy.

The search continued without progress, but something happened at the Biological Laboratory.

Li Qingsong stared at the embryos that had yet to fully develop inside the Culture Pods, his heart filled with shock.

Though they had not yet been born, even as embryos, Li Qingsong could clearly sense their "exceptional" qualities and "strength" through certain data.

Compared to the embryos he had cultivated before, they were far stronger!

And... with such strong, healthy bodies, what kind of high-quality brains would they develop?