"Hiss..." After unleashing its terrifying strike, the barrel of the thirtyfold prototype World King Cannon gradually cooled from its red-hot state.
Tiny particles of cosmic dust nearby had evaporated into white mist, while fragments of rock left on the barrel had melted into lava and slowly trickled down.
The terrifying sight lent this sleek, elegantly shaped giant "weapon" an air of ferocity.
"Energy output efficiency: 99.8%. Peak temperature: 98 million degrees. Energy crystal consumption: 9,672 kilograms. Cooling expected to finish in three minutes..."
Codename reported the figures, and Nie Yun's mouth twitched as he listened.
Every boom of a cannon burned a fortune.
This wasn't firing a cannon. This was burning money!
At current prices, nearly ten tons of energy crystals would have been enough to buy the entire Tomson Riviera complex in Earth's Magic City.
The more technology advanced, the more expensive war became.
When tribes fought in the Stone Age, they could grab a rock and charge in. Zero cost.
On a modern battlefield, one volley of missiles could wipe out several percentage points of GDP.
These days, you could hardly feel confident picking a fight without a money printer. Why else was Uncle Sam the only one who dared wage wars all over the world with such abandon?
And in the interstellar age, energy, as a currency equivalent, had become the most direct measure of a war's expenditure.
When advanced interstellar civilizations fought a large-scale war, they generally didn't talk about how much money they had spent. They talked about how many stars they had burned through...
"The World King Cannon's independent power supply can support another nine shots at full power. Lowering the output would allow even more shots. If the Sea Wolf supplies external power, plowing through their entire force shouldn't be a problem," Codename