264: Chapter 264: A whopping 400,000 points collected! Nuclear missiles maxed out!

6:47 PM on the 74th day.

Cockpit.

Degradation of the middle-rear wreckage of the crusher finished at 3:28, yielding 87,321 Truth Points.

Then, Polaris moved to the front 500-meter wreckage of the crusher, and Degradation began at 4:00 sharp.

The front section of the crusher was the command cabin area, with extremely high steel density, but the real jackpot was the archive library three levels underground in the command center.

It contained over a thousand files of military research blueprints and energy technology data from the pre-civilization era, collected by the Iron Hoof Legion over nearly a century.

The moment Degradation gnawed into the archive, the balance jumped ten times faster.

Lu Chen watched the numbers on the panel jump from 70,000 to 90,000.

Then from 90,000 to 120,000.

Then 150,000.

180,000.

"City Lord," Zhou Yuan's voice was already hoarse, "The blueprint density in the archive far exceeds anything we've degraded before. This goes way beyond just a few blueprints; this is the entire knowledge reserve of the Iron Hoof Legion's civilization."

210,000.

250,000.

300,000.

At 5:30, the crusher front section Degradation was complete.

The total yield for the front section was 194,000.

The archive contributed 150,000 of that.

"Power Engine casing," Lu Chen ordered directly, "The last piece."

Polaris moved to the power core casing wreckage discarded by the crusher.

The 300-meter-long casing contained the wreckage of the crusher's sourcefire coal crystal reactor.

The reactor itself was destroyed in the detonation, but core materials and unreacted fuel rod fragments were scattered inside the casing.

Degradation began.

The balance climbed from 304,000.

The truth logic density of the superior coal crystal fuel rod fragments was terrifyingly high.

310,000.

330,000.

360,000.

400,000.

At 6:47 PM, the crusher power core casing Degradation was complete.

The total yield for the power core was 126,000.

The total yield of the crusher's three wreckage sections was 87,000 plus 194,000 plus 126,000, totaling 407,000 Truth Points.

The balance on the panel fixed at 467,521.

467,521.

No one in the Cockpit made a sound.

Lin Wan's pen dropped to the floor.

Zhao Tiezhu's mouth hung open, unable to close.

Zhou Yuan slumped in front of the panel, his shoulders heaving.

Master Wu Bingde stood up from the corner at some point, his old eyes wide, his legs trembling.

"It's not over yet," Lu Chen said, his tone flat, "Four lv.4 wrecks and over a dozen lv.3 wrecks haven't been touched yet."

"City Lord," Lin Wan bent down to pick up her pen, her hand shaking, "With the 80% efficiency bonus after the upgrade, each lv.4 is estimated at over 20,000. Each of the dozen lv.3s is over 10,000."

"Total estimated 250,000 to 350,000," Zhou Yuan finished the calculation.

Adding the existing 467,000, that's 700,000 to 800,000 total.

"Unlock," Lu Chen didn't wait.

He opened the lv.4 technology tree interface.

Four major branches, sixteen gray nodes.

The first batch of four nodes were 20,000 each.

"Unlock all."

Power Engine lv.4 node 1, Ion Vector Nozzle, 20,000, confirm.

Infrastructure Armor lv.4 node 1, Carbon Nanotube Composite Armor, 20,000, confirm.

Ecological Logistics lv.4 node 1, Biological Meat 3D Printer, 20,000, confirm.

Armament and Weaponry lv.4 node 1, Autonomous Swarm Drone, 20,000, confirm.

The balance dropped from 467,521 to 387,521.

Four physical modifications started simultaneously.

The vibrations underfoot merged into a continuous low-frequency resonance.

Ion Vector Nozzles grew on the outer walls on both sides of the city.

Carbon Nanotube Composite Armor covered the old armor layer by layer.

The Cockpit lights flickered again.

"Continue," Lu Chen didn't stop.

The second batch of four nodes were 35,000 each.

Power Engine lv.4 node 2, Suspension Ground Effect Thruster, 35,000, confirm.

Infrastructure Armor lv.4 node 2, Thermal Absorption Deflector Field, 35,000, confirm.

Ecological Logistics lv.4 node 2, Nano-scale Air Purification Matrix, 35,000, confirm.

Armament and Weaponry lv.4 node 2, High-Energy Particle Beam Main Cannon, 35,000, confirm.

The balance dropped from 387,521 to 247,521.

Eight modifications were underway simultaneously.

Polaris's vibration intensity rose by a level.

"City Lord," Zhao Tiezhu stared at the fire control panel, his throat dry, "The parameters for the High-Energy Particle Beam Main Cannon are generating. Caliber doesn't apply; this isn't a solid projectile, it's an energy weapon. Effective range is 120 kilometers, penetration capability is theoretically infinite, depending on energy density and irradiation time."

120 kilometers.

Railway Gun 38 kilometers.

Particle Beam Main Cannon 120 kilometers.

"This thing," Zhao Tiezhu swallowed, "can hit over the horizon."

"Third batch," Lu Chen continued.

The third batch of four nodes were 50,000 each.

Balance: 247,521.

Enough for three, the fourth is short by over 2,000.

"Unlock three first."

Power Engine lv.4 node 3, Micro-Tokamak Reactor, 50,000, confirm.

Infrastructure Armor lv.4 node 3, Memory Alloy Self-Repair Layer, 50,000, confirm.

Ecological Logistics lv.4 node 3, Artificial Sun Lighting System, 50,000, confirm.

The balance dropped from 247,521 to 97,521.

Armament and Weaponry lv.4 node 3, Tactical Fusion Nuclear Missile, 50,000, insufficient balance.

Short by 2,500.

"Wait a moment," Lu Chen looked at the balance, "The lv.4 wrecks haven't been eaten yet."

He turned on the comms.

"Cheng Zheng, where is the nearest lv.4 wreckage?"

"Four degrees north-northwest, 3.2 kilometers away, the one you stopped with two Railway Gun shots earlier."

"Go."

Polaris started its engines and drove toward the paralyzed lv.4 wreckage.

Arrived ten minutes later.

Degradation started.

The lv.4 The City-State wreckage produced output extremely fast under the lv.4 Degradation efficiency bonus.

97,521.

102,345.

108,976.

115,432.

When the first lv.4 wreckage Degradation finished, the yield was 23,400.

Balance 120,921.

"Armament and Weaponry lv.4 node 3," Lu Chen unlocked it directly.

Tactical Fusion Nuclear Missile, 50,000, confirm.

The balance dropped to 70,921.

Twelve modifications were underway simultaneously.

Every layer of Polaris was vibrating.

New structures were growing.

New weapons were forming.

New systems were coming online.

The Micro-Tokamak Reactor slowly began to rotate in the deepest part of the city's bottom layer, the magnetic confinement field locking the super-high-temperature plasma firmly within the toroidal vacuum chamber.

Nuclear energy.

"City Lord," Lin Wan's voice was airy, "The Tokamak is online. The power generation data on the panel has refreshed."

She looked at the number.

Then she closed her eyes for a moment.

"The previous power generation of the gas turbine was 320% of the baseline."

"And now?"

"12,000%."