Photon Barrier

Some Russian mobsters remained on the dock, and upon hearing the screams and gunfire from the ship, they knew something had gone terribly wrong. However, the gangway had already been retracted, and they couldn't climb up the dozens of meters to the cargo ship in such a short time.

Luo Xia instructed Li Bai to keep watch, then ignored the men on the shore. This was the most secluded corner of the dock, and the commotion here would certainly not attract any attention. The Russian mobsters had chosen this spot for their illicit activities, which actually worked out perfectly for Luo Xia.

Following Violet's guidance, Luo Xia entered the ship's hold. Most of the stacked shipping containers were filled with people intended for trafficking; only one contained the nuclear waste used as a cover to deter inspections.

After snapping the lock on the container door, Luo Xia quickly found what he needed.

Yellow oil drums were neatly stacked to fill the entire container. These were containers made of radiation-shielding material, and the cost of these drums alone was quite substantial.

Nuclear waste generally refers to radioactive waste that is no longer needed after the production, processing, and use of nuclear fuel in reactors. After recycling, some useful plutonium can be extracted, but the remainder must be specially treated to prevent environmental contamination.

And what Luo Xia needed, precisely, was this highly radioactive nuclear waste.

The armor plates of his Sensor Glove folded back automatically, and Luo Xia reached out without hesitation to touch the yellow oil drums filled with nuclear waste. The special material designed to block radiation could not block the sensing of AllSpark energy.

Luo Xia soon obtained a satisfactory result.

As the AllSpark energy was continuously consumed, a ball of blue light was drawn directly out of the oil drums by Luo Xia. Like a thread being pulled from a cocoon, each blue strand represented all the radiation energy contained within the drum.

Luo Xia patiently touched each drum one by one. The blue strands staining his hands grew more numerous and brighter, eventually condensing into a sapphire the size of a fist.

It looked like the purest gemstone in the world, shimmering even in the dim environment.

By condensing an Energy Activation Device, the cap for his AllSpark energy increased to five thousand. Luo Xia had no intention of stopping; he spent over half an hour extracting all the radiation energy from the container, eventually condensing a total of seven Energy Activation Devices.

Adding the previous three, the AllSpark cap was raised to exactly ten thousand points.

Current AllSpark data:

[AllSpark Energy (Phase 2): 44/11000, Energy Recovery Rate: 11/sec.]

[AllSpark Energy has reached Phase 2, robot limit increased to 7, remaining slots: 4.]

[Limit exceeded 10,000, new equipment unlocked: Photon Barrier.]

[Photon Barrier: Consumes 1000 AllSpark energy, crafted using an Energy Activation Device. Once activated, it grants a Photon Barrier capable of blocking certain energy and physical attacks.]

"The raw material actually requires consuming an Energy Activation Device. Thank goodness I had exactly eleven thousand, otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to use this new equipment," Luo Xia remarked.

After waiting a few more minutes to let the AllSpark energy recover, Luo Xia consumed one Energy Activation Device to craft the new Photon Barrier equipment.

The fist-sized sapphire had transformed into a metal cross smaller than his palm, looking much like a slightly oversized necklace pendant.

[Photon Barrier: Consumes 100 AllSpark energy to activate a photon energy shield, maximum deployment area: 16 square meters.]

"Defensive equipment, this is truly perfect." Luo Xia genuinely felt this gear was a timely gift.

In this world where almost everyone is "cheating," staying alive is the greatest skill of all. Luo Xia still possessed the physical fitness of an ordinary person, which left him feeling quite insecure.

Now that he finally had a life-saving item, how could he not be happy?

One hundred points of AllSpark energy meant only ten seconds of recovery time. Luo Xia tried injecting AllSpark energy into the cross, and in the blink of an eye, a translucent blue barrier appeared before him.

Four meters by four meters—exactly sixteen square meters. It looked like a phantom light projection; whenever the edges touched the ground or other objects, they simply vanished without any sensation of impact.

Luo Xia tried to control the shape of the translucent barrier, only to find it quite difficult. He could only twist the plane into an arc of up to 120 degrees, roughly matching the angle of human vision.

Adjusting the size was also not easy. Sixteen square meters was the maximum deployment range, but if Luo Xia wanted to compress it to shield only his front, it would take several seconds of adjustment.

"Looks like I need to practice often, otherwise, it'll be quite troublesome to walk around with a giant screen every time," Luo Xia said, feeling slightly dissatisfied.

However, for a piece of defensive equipment, the key is its defensive capability.

Luo Xia used his mind to control the Photon Barrier to flip around, facing the defensive side toward himself, and then drew his Pulse Pistol to fire.

He emptied all forty Pulse Energy Blasts, which functioned like micro-grenades, and the Photon Barrier was merely covered in spiderweb-like cracks without shattering completely.

"Not bad, but does this thing only block bullets?" Luo Xia tried reaching out, his fingertips slowly passing through the barrier without any resistance. He switched to the alloy dagger from his Sensor Glove, which also seemed to pass through the shield surface with ease.

But when Luo Xia clenched his fist and slammed it into the shield, he clearly felt he had struck a very tough surface. At the same time, more cracks appeared on the shield, clearly indicating it had taken an impact.

After testing it several times, Luo Xia finally understood the principle of the Photon Barrier: it was a special type of energy with properties similar to a non-Newtonian fluid.

Luo Xia had seen experiments with non-Newtonian fluids; they look like a bowl of gooey flour paste. When you poke your finger in slowly, your entire arm can sink in with ease. But when you punch it, even the surface doesn't break.

You can even run across the surface of this gooey liquid, as it can support a person's weight. But the moment you stop, you sink right into the slime.

Simply put, when the Photon Barrier encounters a fast, high-impact attack, the energy on the shield's surface instantly condenses, forming a strong resistance. But if an object moves slowly, like Luo Xia gently touching it, it passes through without any obstruction.

If it were close-quarters combat, this thing might not be very effective, but against long-range attacks like firearms, the Photon Barrier was incredibly useful.

After stowing away the new equipment, Luo Xia released the poor people from the container. He didn't offer them any explanation, simply emptying the ship's hold of water, food, clean clothes, bedding, and emergency medicine.

These tangible supplies piled in front of the women and children were more persuasive than any words.

Just as he finished doing all this, Luo Xia received a call from Matt: "Luo Xia, the car I was tracking has entered a military zone. I can't get in at all."