56: Chapter 56 New Area Saline-Alkali Land

After upgrading the Thousand Mechanism Tower and the Imperial Armor Camp, it was time for the other buildings.

The most standard procedure was upgrading the production facilities.

All production buildings could be upgraded to Rank 3, costing 20 units of copper ore and 40 units of iron ore, with the effect of increasing production capacity by 50%.

Because the consumption of iron was too high, and the current resource production speed within the territory was already sufficient.

Su Yang lowered the priority of this upgrade.

Next were the defensive facilities.

Rank 3 territory brought iron walls and a brand-new defensive facility, the skyfire tower.

Currently, the territory's walls were only Rank 1, and Su Yang planned to prioritize upgrading them to Rank 2.

Rank 2 copper walls would increase in height compared to the Rank 1 walls, and would be divided into two levels, with more firing ports set into the walls to facilitate output from ranged units.

Each section of copper wall required 1 unit of copper resource and 1 unit of stone ore resource to upgrade.

However, each section of iron wall required 1 unit of iron and 1 unit of stone ore, which was an astonishing consumption.

Therefore, at the current stage, Su Yang would only upgrade the walls to Rank 2; Rank 3 walls would be considered later.

As for the skyfire tower, Su Yang would choose the timing for construction based on the Insect Swarm's offensive.

If the Insect Swarm's offensive was not enough to pose a threat in the short term, then using the Skyfire Guard for defense would be sufficient.

The last area that could be upgraded was in the Generals Mansion hero building panel.

Besides being able to summon general-level units, the Generals Mansion also allowed for upgrading and learning general skills.

General Li Xin's "Commanding Vanguard" could be upgraded in the Generals Mansion; after upgrading, it could obtain stronger effects, and besides upgrading skills, new skills could also be learned.

However, General Li Xin's general Rank was currently 1, so he could not yet upgrade or learn.

Judging by the effects of "Commanding Vanguard," general skills were likely area-of-effect skills that acted upon the entire squad.

Compared to individual unit upgrades, upgrading general skills could bring a huge instantaneous boost to the team.

Sometimes, the triggering of a single general skill could be enough to turn the tide of a situation.

Once the Generals Mansion was upgraded in the future, Su Yang would definitely pay close attention to it.

With this, all known upgrades brought by the Rank 3 Main Base had been reviewed.

While waiting for the research time, Su Yang took out that special System item from his backpack—the decryption card.

It was time to see what effects that ruin had.

[Do you wish to use the decryption card to obtain information about the ruin?]

[Yes]

With a flash of thought, the body of the decryption card began to turn transparent.

[decryption card usage detected, decrypting ruin information...]

[Blue Star's third round of Forbidden Area Trial, Forbidden Ground number NO.517314 # C]

[Ruin Name: Ruins of the Abyss]

[Ruin Number: Insect Swarm Secret 009]

[Ruin Mission: The Sleeping Killer]

[You have trespassed into the Holy Land of the Tyranid Swarm; your ignorant actions have triggered a mechanism, waking the guardians buried beneath this land.]

[Mission Objective: Kill the awakened Insect Swarm and destroy the hive mother nest located underground.]

[Mission Difficulty: Highest Rank 3rd Generation Insect Swarm]

[Trigger Condition: The Lord must personally enter the ruin to trigger this ruin mission.]

[Note: Once the ruin mission is started, it cannot be aborted, and you cannot exit.]

[Mission Reward: Xeno Experiment Station]

[A special scientific research building capable of researching alien creatures.]

[Currently unlockable Xeno technologies: Biomass Fuel, Caiman Bone Armor, Network Vision Sharing]

Xeno Experiment Station, a special scientific research building!

Su Yang's eyes lit up immediately upon seeing the mission reward.

There was no certainty to ruin mission rewards; it was possible to complete an extremely difficult mission only to receive a worthless reward.

Therefore, opening ruin rewards was just like opening a loot box, and Su Yang had clearly hit the jackpot!

The Xeno Experiment Station, as the name suggests, was an experimental station specifically for researching alien races.

It could conduct research on alien creatures and create things that did not belong to the human technology tree.

For example, the first technology, Biomass Fuel, sounded very useful just by its name.

If he guessed correctly, this technology should be able to turn the corpses of the Tyranid Swarm into fuel.

By then, after killing the Tyranid Swarm, he wouldn't have to worry about a lack of fuel; he could just burn their corpses and the fuel would come pouring in.

Consume fuel to kill bugs, kill bugs to obtain fuel—a continuous cycle, sustaining the war through war!

Also, the Caiman Bone that Su Yang had obtained previously and had not yet used would likely also need to be developed in the Xeno Experiment Station.

In short, this reward was extremely useful and completely worth the risk.

However, the mission difficulty was the highest Rank of 3rd Generation Insect Swarm, so rushing in blindly would definitely be dangerous.

The strength of the Insect Swarm in each hive varied, depending mainly on the Rank of the mother bug in the hive.

Based on the Rank of the mother bug, the Insect Swarm could be divided by evolutionary generation.

Insect Swarms with mother bugs of Rank 1 to Rank 2 were called 1st Generation Insect Swarms.

Mother bugs of Rank 3 to Rank 6 were called 2nd Generation, Rank 7 to Rank 10 were called 3rd Generation, and so on.

Generally, the Rank of individual units in the Insect Swarm would not be higher or lower than the generation interval.

For example, all individuals in a 2nd Generation Insect Swarm were between Rank 3 and Rank 6, while 3rd Generation were between Rank 7 and Rank 10.

The Tyranid Exterminator that attacked the base on the Arrival Night was Rank 6, meaning it was produced by the highest-ranking 2nd Generation mother bug.

The highest-ranking 3rd Generation mother bug in the ruin mission was a Rank 10 mother bug; an Insect Swarm led by such a Rank of mother bug would certainly be formidable.

Before triggering the mission, it would be best to conquer a 3rd Generation hive so he could know its true strength.

Closing the panel, Su Yang organized his to-do list in his mind in order.

After the Thousand Mechanism Tower finished its research, he would first upgrade the Scouts to let them search for resources.

Iron ore and saltpeter were the two most critical resources at the moment; the sooner they were discovered, the better.

After that, he would summon the new unit type, the Skyfire Guard, to test their combat methods and combat strength.

Then he would research Iron Smelting Technology and Gunpowder Research to prepare for upgrading the Imperial Armor Troops.

Once the resources were in place, he would gradually upgrade the Rank 2 walls, mining machines, and build the skyfire tower.

After conquering at least one 3rd Generation hive to determine its strength, he would adjust his troops and trigger the ruin mission.

Su Yang thoroughly enjoyed the process of gradual planning; he liked this sense of control.

As long as he moved forward step by step according to the plan, the development of the territory would never fall behind...

Night fell, and there were still 2 hours left until the two technologies at the Thousand Mechanism Tower were unlocked.

Because the upgrade had to be completed within the territory, Su Yang recalled all four Thousand-Mile Scouts.

The Scouts returned to the territory, bringing back a large amount of information.

This included the specific locations of two 2nd Generation hives, as well as the locations of numerous mineral veins.

One of the most critical pieces of information was that a Scout had discovered an area suspected to be Salt Flats.

Because he had already reached the maximum boundary and would have no fuel to return if he went deeper, he could only mark it simply.

Hearing the three words "Salt Flats," Su Yang immediately perked up.

The Salt Flats were exactly the areas prone to producing saltpeter.

Obtaining saltpeter would allow the territory to enter the age of thermal weapons!