94: Chapter 94 Steel and Oil: The True Power of Qin Heavy Industry

Su Yang opened the lords residence panel.

[ Level 4 lords residence is upgrading... ]

[ Remaining time: 1d, 23h ]

With a little over a day, nearly two days, remaining, it was the perfect time to use a Rare-grade Heart of the Hive.

With a flash of thought, he inserted one Heart of the Hive.

[ Used item Heart of the Hive, shortened construction time by 2d ]

[ Level 4 lords residence upgrade complete! ]

As the message of the upgrade completion appeared, a sound of mechanical parts colliding echoed.

The Level 3 lords residence began to continuously upgrade and transform according to the blueprint.

With a loud bang, the Level 4 lords residence transformation was complete.

The Level 4 lords residence had not changed in footprint or height, but its appearance had changed drastically.

The building, originally composed of large areas of iron, now turned into a smoother-looking metal.

"Steel?"

Su Yang quickly guessed what this metal was.

The material upgrade for the Level 4 Main Base was from iron to steel.

"Steel, the backbone of modern industry."

Steel and iron are essentially the same thing, with iron being the primary material.

However, compared to iron, steel possesses higher strength, is lighter, and has better tensile capacity.

Furthermore, steel has better corrosion and heat resistance, and higher flexibility, allowing it to adapt to the transformation of various components.

Unlocking industrial steelmaking technology meant that the territory's civilization process had begun to move toward modernity.

Although it wasn't an epoch-making material upgrade like the one from copper to iron, the leap that steel brought to the territory was definitely no smaller than that of iron!

It was the same old routine; technology is the foundation of all upgrades.

The first thing to do after upgrading the Main Base was naturally to upgrade the Thousand Mechanism Tower.

Unlike iron ore, a mineral that can be obtained even without unlocking related exploration technologies, steel cannot be obtained without relevant technology.

Fortunately, this time the Thousand Mechanism Tower upgrade did not require steel, only 100 units of iron ore and 50 units of copper ore.

Su Yang was glad that the System had finally wised up and wasn't being as annoying as it was before when it used iron ore to unlock iron ore exploration.

Resources were invested, and the Level 4 Thousand Mechanism Tower soon finished its upgrade.

Just like the lords residence, its appearance also turned into a smoother and brighter refined steel material.

Su Yang did not hesitate to open the Thousand Mechanism Tower panel to check the brand-new technology brought by this upgrade.

First and foremost, of course, was resources; resources are the foundation that determines all upgrades.

There were two resource technologies this time; the first one was steel, which Su Yang had guessed.

The second one was unexpected—it was a fuel resource with epoch-making significance.

"Petroleum!"

Steel and petroleum—these two technologies are the cornerstone and lifeblood of modern industry.

Unlocking them was equivalent to opening the door to modern industry!

Although the previous bronze and steam were powerful, they did not bring out the true power of the Great Qin Heavy Industry characteristic.

After entering the modern industrial era of steel and petroleum, the power of Great Qin Heavy Industry would be further manifested!

"The era belonging to Great Qin has only just begun!"

Su Yang first clicked on the steel category.

[ Technology: Steel Casting ]

[ Real Men!: Obtain modern smelting and casting technology, unlock the Steel Mill building, and unlock a series of technologies for upgrading and modifying steel equipment ]

[ command points: 8000 points ]

[ Time: 24h ]

As a newly unlocked material, steel would definitely be a prerequisite for many upgrades of the Level 4 Main Base.

So Su Yang didn't even think about it and clicked it directly.

[ command points - 8000 ]

[ Technology: Steel Casting under research... ]

The Thousand Mechanism Tower now supported researching two technologies simultaneously, so after clicking on steel, Su Yang shifted his gaze to the other crucial technology.

[ Technology: Petroleum Industry ]

[ Have a drink, it's on me!: Obtain petroleum extraction and a series of processing technologies, unlock the Oil Refinery building, and unlock a series of technologies powered by or using petroleum as raw material ]

[ command points: 8000 ]

[ Time: 24h ]

"The blood of modern industry—petroleum."

Whether it's internal combustion engines that use it directly for power, or rubber and plastics obtained after processing, these are all crucial and extremely important technologies for modern industry.

Su Yang likewise selected it for the research panel without hesitation.

[ command points - 8000 ]

[ Technology: Petroleum Industry under research... ]

After selecting the two core technologies, Su Yang directly used the last Rare-grade Heart of the Hive.

[ Used item Heart of the Hive, shortened research time by 48h ]

The Rare-grade Heart of the Hive could shorten time by a maximum of two days, which was just right for this.

At the same time the research was completed, the System prompt rang out.

[ Prerequisite technology research detected, unlocking special unit—Great Qin Fire Dragon Guard ]

"A new unit is here!" Su Yang's eyes flashed.

Ever since experiencing the explosive increase in kill efficiency brought by the Skyfire Guard, Su Yang had high expectations for subsequent new units.

Full of anticipation, Su Yang opened the Imperial Armor Camp panel and scrolled to the last category.

[ Unit: Great Qin Fire Dragon Guard ]

[ Unit Type: Heavy Infantry Unit ]

[ Production Requirement: Level 4 Imperial Armor Camp ]

[ Required Prerequisite Technology: Steel Casting, Petroleum Industry ]

[ Description: A special infantry unit equipped with heavy Imperial Armor, capable of large-area flame attacks ]

[ Fire Dragon Guard is equipped with a heavy flamethrower, capable of spraying scorching flames to deliver devastating strikes to enemies within range ]

[ Summoning Cost: 3000 command points ]

[ Base Consumption: 5 units of fuel/day, 5 units of concentrated water/day ]

[ Maintenance Consumption: 5 units of copper/time, 5 units of steel/time ]

[ Reloading Consumption: 3 units of petroleum fuel/time ]

"A heavy flamethrower unit!!"

Su Yang's eyes lit up.

Ever since he first saw the Bug Swarm Tide, Su Yang had always had an idea in his mind.

"With such a large-scale, dense Bug Swarm Tide, how satisfying would it be to let loose with a flamethrower!"

Now, the Fire Dragon Guard perfectly satisfied Su Yang's imagination!

Compared to the Skyfire Guard, which conducted long-range precision bombing, the Fire Dragon Guard could perform large-area attacks at close range.

Furthermore, as an infantry unit, the Fire Dragon Guard's attack method was more flexible, and its attack targets were broader!

"Using a flamethrower against a dense Bug Swarm Tide—just thinking about it is satisfying."

If he could deploy the Fire Dragon Guard in legions in the future, then no matter how large the Bug Swarm Tide was, it would only be obediently burned to charred remains.

The Fire Dragon Guard's combat power was unquestionable, but the biggest problem currently was petroleum resources.

The currently unlocked technology was Petroleum Industry, not Petroleum Exploration.

In other words, Great Qin's technology tree likely did not contain this technology.

Furthermore, there was another serious problem: petroleum is generally distributed in deserts, bays, and other such areas.

It was difficult to determine if petroleum existed in areas like the Insect Hive Forest, which resembled the tropics.

Moreover, even if petroleum existed in such an area, its reserves would definitely not be abundant.

"The scarcity of petroleum resources will become a major challenge!"

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