92: Spending 14,000 GP requires more brainpower than fighting a war.

Li Cang returned to the control cabin holding a bowl of instant noodles.

It was the cheapest kind, braised beef flavor, three dollars and fifty cents a pack at the supermarket.

The broth was scalding hot, the noodles were soft, and there were only three beef granules, each pitifully small.

But he ate it with relish.

He hadn't eaten for six hours. The immersion of the simulation mode was too strong, so strong he completely forgot about hunger.

It wasn't until he took off the helmet that his stomach suddenly woke up and let out an undignified gurgle.

He placed the noodle bowl beside the console. It wasn't a great spot; if the broth spilled, it would splash on the keyboard. But he was too lazy to move it. His mind was full of numbers.

Fourteen thousand, one hundred and sixty-five GP.

One thousand, seven hundred and sixty BP.

Seventy-four casualty vacancies.

One legendary database.

One human bone ring under appraisal. And two hero units waiting for upgrades.

He slurped a mouthful of noodles, opened the holographic panel on the console, and started calculating.

Seventy-four vacancies.

According to the standard forging cost of a Thunder Warrior Type II, each unit requires a 120 GP chassis fee plus the base filling cost for three rare plugin slots, 30 GP per plugin, totaling 210 GP per person.

Seventy-four people would be 15,540 GP.

Li Cang looked at this number, his chopsticks frozen mid-air.

Fifteen thousand, five hundred and forty. He only had fourteen thousand, one hundred and sixty-five.

Not enough.

Short by nearly fourteen hundred.

He rubbed his temples and looked over the forging panel again, trying to find a way to save money.

There was one.

The standard configuration is three rare plugins. But if two of the slots are replaced with common plugins, 40 GP can be saved per person. For seventy-four people, that's 2960 GP, bringing the total cost down to 12,580 GP.

Enough.

But the money saved meant the quality of these new recruits would drop. A standard Thunder Warrior with three rare plugins is B-grade, roughly 65 points. A watered-down version with two common and one rare would probably only be C+ grade, around 55 points.

Can C+ grade Thunder Warriors fight? Yes.

Can they fight hard battles? Doubtful.

Li Cang stared at the panel, thinking for a long time.

Then he made a compromise.

Replenishment would be done in two batches.

The first batch of forty would be forged according to the standard configuration, costing 8,400 GP.

The second batch of thirty-four would wait; they wouldn't be built until subsequent GP income came in.

This left 5,765 GP in hand, enough to cover upcoming tech decryption and upgrade expenses.

He confirmed the first replenishment order on the panel.

[Forging Order Submitted]

[Thunder Warrior Type II × 40]

[Cost: GP 8,400]

[Estimated Completion Time: 6 hours]

[GP Balance: 5,765]

Forty new recruits.

Rolling off the assembly line in six hours.

Li Cang took a sip of the broth and continued calculating the next expense.

The Mariana Deep Palace database had a whole pile of tech waiting to be unlocked. But right now, only one was most urgently needed: Gene Engineering: Advanced.

This was the prerequisite for upgrading the C-19 chassis from T2 to T3, and also the key to solving the Thunder Warriors' genetic collapse problem.

He opened the decryption panel.

[Tech Decryption: Gene Engineering: Advanced]

[Prerequisites: Gene Engineering: Basic – Unlocked / Mariana Deep Palace Database Access – Obtained]

[Decryption Cost: BP 800] [Decryption Time: 72 hours]

Eight hundred BP.

Currently, he had one thousand, seven hundred and sixty.

Enough.

But after spending it, only nine hundred and sixty would remain. Subsequent tech decryption would have to wait for BP to regenerate.

Li Cang hesitated.

Seventy-two hours.

Three days.

In three days, the advanced Gene Engineering tech would be unlocked, and then he could consider the C-19 chassis upgrade.

But the chassis upgrade itself required an additional 5,000 GP and 1,000 BP.

The current GP balance was 5,765.

Subtracting Nathan Doom's daily 50 GP maintenance fee, in three days it would be 5,615.

Barely enough. But almost nothing would be left.

"Too poor," Li Cang muttered.

After thinking it over, he still pressed the decryption button.

[Tech Decryption Initiated: Gene Engineering: Advanced]

[Cost: BP 800]

[Estimated Completion Time: 72:00:00]

[BP Balance: 960]

Then he glanced at other decryptable techs.

Deep Sea Engineering, BP 400, decryption time 48 hours.

Not very useful for now, skip.

Advanced Metallurgy, BP 600, decryption time 56 hours. Could improve equipment quality but not a top priority.

Energy Systems: Fusion, BP 2,000, decryption time 168 hours. Good stuff but too expensive, and the prerequisite Energy Systems: Fission wasn't unlocked yet.

He closed the tech panel.

"One step at a time."

Third expense: Unit upgrades.

Both C-19 and Corvin had reached their upgrade thresholds.

But C-19's chassis upgrade needed to wait for Gene Engineering: Advanced to finish decrypting, so for now, only other upgrade options were available.

Li Cang reopened C-19's upgrade panel.

Option A: Unlock the 5th Trait Slot, cost GP 2000.

Option B: Enhance existing traits, cost GP 1000 plus corresponding quality plugins.

Option C: Chassis Upgrade T2 to T3, cost GP 5000 plus BP 1000 plus prerequisite tech.

Temporarily unavailable.

He looked at C-19's current four traits.

Gene Primordial Seed Type I (Legendary Gold), Commander's Soul (Epic Purple), Battlefield Intuition (Rare Blue), Genetic Stabilizer (Rare Blue).

Four traits: two gold, two blue. Good synergy but room for improvement.

Unlocking a fifth slot would allow plugging in another plugin.

The question was: what to plug in?

He flipped through the plugin repository.

Tactical Coordination (Rare Green) two, Chainsword Proficiency (Rare Green) one, Fire Suppression (Rare Green) two, Desperate Surge (Rare Green) one.

Echo of the Bridge of Sighs (Epic Purple), one.

Effect: Enemy morale reduced by 10%.

If this was plugged into C-19's fifth slot, how would the overall rating change?

Li Cang tried to calculate it in his head, getting three different numbers after three attempts.

The rating formula had too many coefficients; manual calculation was impossible.

"Forget it," he gave up on manual calculation and directly pressed the simulation button on the panel.

[Simulation: C-1 Echo of the Bridge of Sighs · Epic Purple]

[Simulation Result]

[Trait Bonus: +35 · Epic]

[Synergy Bonus: +3 · Partial Linkage – Commander's Soul and Echo of the Bridge of Sighs form a command-type linkage]

[Projected New Rating: SS-grade · 121 points]

One hundred and twenty-one points.

From 113 to 121, an increase of 8 points.

Moving from the lower range of SS-grade into the mid-range.

Li Cang looked at this number, his finger hovering over the confirm button for a few seconds.

Two thousand GP to unlock a slot.

Echo of the Bridge of Sighs was a one-time loot drop; using it meant it was gone.

But the gain from using it on C-19 would be permanent.

"Worth it."

He pressed the confirm button.

[Upgrade Confirmed: C-19 – Unlock 5th Trait Slot]

[Cost: GP 2,000] [GP Balance: 3,765]

[Plugin Installation: Echo of the Bridge of Sighs · Epic Purple → C-19 5th Slot]

[Installation Complete]

[C-19 Comprehensive Rating Updated: SS-grade · 121 points]

Looking at that 121 score, the corner of Li Cang's mouth lifted slightly.

Then he turned to Corvin's upgrade panel.

Option A: Unlock the 4th Trait Slot, cost GP 1500.

Option B: Enhance existing traits, cost GP 800 plus corresponding quality plugins.

Note: This unit's genetic collapse level is relatively high, approximately 40%. Upgrading may accelerate the collapse process.

Upgrading may accelerate collapse.

Corvin's genetic collapse level had already reached 40%.

Nathan Doom estimated he had about three months of lifespan left.

If upgrading accelerated the collapse, that time might become even shorter.

But if not upgraded, Corvin's combat power would remain stuck at A-grade, 78 points, unable to improve further.

And if the Gene Engineering: Advanced decryption succeeded, perhaps a method to delay or even reverse genetic collapse could be found.

Three days.

In three days, the tech decryption would be complete. He could decide about Corvin then.

"Wait first," Li Cang closed Corvin's panel. "No hurry."

He leaned back in his chair, looking at the numbers on the panel.

GP Balance: 3765.

BP Balance: 960.

In Progress: Replenishment 6 hours, Gene Engineering Decryption 72 hours, Human Bone Ring Appraisal 48 hours, Void Crusher Reverse Engineering ~12 hours.

Ongoing Consumption: Nathan Doom Maintenance Fee 50 GP daily.

He ran these numbers through his mind, confirming nothing was missed, then closed the panel.

The instant noodles had gone cold.

He picked up the bowl and drank the remaining broth in one go.

"Next..." He put down the bowl and wiped his mouth. "Wait."

Wait for the replenishment to finish, wait for the tech decryption, wait for the appraisal results, wait for the Reverse Engineering.

The most important skill for a card player isn't playing cards, it's waiting for the right cards.

He stood up, stretched, and walked towards the control cabin's rest area.

In six hours, forty new recruits would roll out. Then he'd have to assign them plugins, integrate them into the formation, and arrange training.

In twelve hours, the Void Crusher's Reverse Engineering results would be out. If they could master the tech of that six-legged walker mech, the Legion would no longer be just infantry.

In forty-eight hours, the Human Bone Ring's appraisal results would be out. He had an indescribable premonition about what that thing was, and it wasn't a good one.

In seventy-two hours, the Gene Engineering: Advanced decryption would be complete. By then, C-19's chassis upgrade could be put on the agenda.

Three days.

For the next three days, there was nothing to do but wait.

But after three days, everything would be different.

Li Cang lay on the folding bed in the rest area, staring at the ceiling.

A lamp on the ceiling emitted a dim yellow light, just enough to see the outlines of the surroundings but not enough to make out details.

He closed his eyes.

His mind was still churning.

C-19.

Corvin.

TW-201.

Nathan Doom.

Mariana Deep Palace.

Red

marked data.

The Other Side.

Singularity Brotherhood.

Too many things.

But he was a card player.

card players aren't afraid of complexity; they're afraid of not having enough information.

Now he had enough information. All that remained was to wait for the cards and then play them.

He rolled over, burying his face in the pillow.

Three minutes later, he was asleep.