267: Chapter 267 Lv.5 First Batch of Nodes! Zero-Point Energy and Spatial Curvature

2:00 AM on the seventy-fifth day.

The voice of Forge came through the communicator.

"City Lord Lu, the Dawn Legion's blueprint library isn't something I can decide on my own. The Dawn Council has regulations; external transactions for core-level blueprints require at least seven votes to pass."

"Seven votes." Lu Chen repeated. "When the Joint Strike passed seven to five, Evening Bell had five opposing votes. Now that the Iron Hoof Legion has been completely wiped out, do those five votes still oppose it?"

There was silence on the other end for three seconds.

"They don't oppose it anymore." Forge's tone was laced with bitterness. "Iron Hoof is gone, and the Dawn Legion's biggest external threat has vanished. Evening Bell is now dying to trade with you to maintain friendly relations."

"That makes things easier." Lu Chen listed his conditions. "I want all core-level blueprints in the Dawn Legion's library regarding energy and materials. In exchange, I will provide permanent access to Polaris's radar monitoring data, as well as a promise of range coverage from my particle beam main cannons."

"Range coverage promise?"

"120 kilometers of effective range." Lu Chen laid it out plainly. "Polaris will be stationed on the periphery of the Iron Curtain Frozen Sea, with a range covering the entire core area of the frozen sea. Any faction that dares to touch the Dawn Legion's research station will have to ask my particle beams if they agree first."

The communicator was silent for nearly ten seconds.

"I'll go find Evening Bell." Forge replied. "I'll give you an answer within half an hour."

The communication cut off.

"City Lord." Zhou Yuan turned away from the panel. "I took a look at the Lv.5 technology tree. The first batch of nodes costs 100,000 each. The second batch is 200,000. The third batch is 500,000. The top-level core is one million."

"What's the total?"

"7.2 million."

7.2 million Truth Points.

Current balance: zero.

"A balance of zero doesn't mean there's no source of income." Lu Chen stared at the technology tree interface. "The Degradation efficiency of Lv.5 is 120% higher than Lv.4. The yield from degrading a ton of steel has more than doubled."

"But Iron Hoof's wreckage has already been consumed." Lin Wan pointed out the problem.

"The wreckage is finished, but the ice plains aren't." Lu Chen tapped the terrain map on the panel with the tip of his pen. "The Rustwind Wasteland is the site of a pre-civilization heavy Industrial Zone. Buried twenty to fifty meters below the surface in the permafrost layer are the foundations of pre-civilization factories and underground pipeline networks. The underground metal reserves within a radius of one hundred kilometers, when degraded at Lv.5 efficiency, are conservatively estimated to be over ten million points."

"How do we degrade underground metal?"

"I've read the description for the Lv.5 Degradation function." Lu Chen pulled up the system instructions. "The detection radius has expanded to 500 meters, including underground. There's no need to dig it out; the system penetrates the ice layer directly to complete molecular-level Degradation."

A 500-meter detection radius.

Every step Polaris takes, all metal within a 500-meter radius beneath it will be consumed.

"Let's go." Lu Chen stood up. "Eat while we move."

Polaris's suspension chassis activated, and the 3,200-meter-long steel marvel slowly moved across the Rustwind Wasteland.

The Degradation system beneath the chassis automatically activated, and the underground metal within a 500-meter radius was converted into Truth Points layer by layer.

The balance began to climb from zero.

0. 234. 567. 1203. 2876.

It wasn't fast.

The distribution of the underground pipeline network was uneven, with dense and sparse areas alternating.

But Polaris was moving. Continuously moving. For every one hundred meters it advanced, it consumed a new patch of underground metal.

Half an hour later. Balance: 12345. One hour later. Balance: 38976.

"City Lord." Zhou Yuan reported the numbers. "The current rate is approximately 35,000 points per hour."

"Where are the dense areas?"

He pulled up the scanning data. "Three degrees south-southeast, four kilometers away, there is a cluster of pre-civilization factory foundation ruins underground, where the metal density is eight times that of the surrounding area."

"Go."

Polaris adjusted its course and advanced toward that dense area.

Ten minutes later, it entered the coverage area of the dense zone.

The speed at which the balance jumped skyrocketed. 38976. 45678. 53421. 62345. 74567. 88901.

The Degradation rate in the dense area soared to 150,000 points per hour.

"Cheng Zheng." Lu Chen turned on the communicator.

"Here."

"Has Forge replied?"

"Replying now." Cheng Zheng's voice was filled with unconcealable tension. "Evening Bell called personally, saying the Council held an emergency vote, and it passed unanimously. The blueprints are being packaged."

"Unanimous?"

"Twelve to zero."

Passed unanimously. Not a single opposing vote.

Because everyone on the communication channel had seen Polaris transform from a lv.3 fortress into a lv.5 marvel even larger than Dawn in less than a day. No one dared to cast an opposing vote.

"Number of blueprints and estimated value." Lu Chen asked.

"Thirty-four core-level blueprints." Cheng Zheng read out the list. "Twelve for energy, eight for materials, six for weapons, and eight for propulsion. Evening Bell said this is the essence of the Dawn Legion's fifty years of accumulation."

Thirty-four core-level blueprints. Degradation yields.

"Conservatively estimated." Lu Chen calculated in his mind. "The truth logic density of each core-level blueprint is no less than 10,000. Thirty-four of them will total over 340,000."

The blueprint data packet was transmitted within fifteen seconds. He proceeded to degrade them directly.

[Degradation complete. Thirty-four pre-civilization core-level research blueprints. Total yield: 417,300 Truth Points.]

The balance jumped directly from the current 90,000-plus to 510,000.

"Unlock."

The first batch of four Lv.5 nodes, 100,000 each.

Power Engine Lv.5 Node 1, Zero-Point Energy Intake Module. 100,000. Confirm.

Infrastructure Armor Lv.5 Node 1, Spatial Distortion Refraction Layer. 100,000. Confirm.

Ecological Logistics Lv.5 Node 1, Local Spatial Weather Controller. 100,000. Confirm.

Armament and Weaponry Lv.5 Node 1, Gravitational Collapse Bomb. 100,000. Confirm.

Balance dropped to 110,000.

Four modifications started simultaneously.

The intensity of Polaris's vibrations moved up another level.

The Zero-Point Energy Intake Module grew and formed beside the Stellar Furnace; it was a device capable of extracting energy from vacuum quantum fluctuations.

Extracting energy from nothingness.

"City Lord." Lin Wan's voice was filled with a sense of unreality. "After the Zero-Point Energy Intake Module comes online, the Stellar Furnace will no longer be the only energy source."

"Zero-point energy is a backup energy source." Lu Chen clarified its positioning. "The Stellar Furnace is the primary supply, and zero-point energy is the supplement. With both systems running in parallel, the energy output will double again by ten times."

The modification of the Spatial Distortion Refraction Layer was the most intuitive.

A layer of visible optical distortion appeared on the surface of Polaris's outer armor.

That wasn't a coating. It was space itself undergoing a slight curvature deflection on the surface of the armor.

Any physical projectile hitting this spatial refraction layer would be guided by the curved space to deviate from its original trajectory.

It couldn't hit. It wasn't interception. It wasn't immunity. It was physically impossible to hit.

The shells would be pushed off course by the spatial curvature before contacting the armor, sliding past the city.

"How many levels higher is this than Reactive Explosive Armor?" Zhao Tiezhu stared at the data on the protection panel.

"It's not even in the same dimension." Lu Chen replied.

The balance continued to slowly rise, bolstered by the chassis's Degradation. 110,000. 130,000. 160,000. 190,000.

They hadn't finished passing through the dense area yet. Polaris kept eating while moving and upgrading.

The 3,200-meter-long steel marvel moved across the Rustwind Wasteland, with the pre-civilization ruins beneath its feet being devoured bit by bit, transformed into fuel to push the technology tree to climb higher.