Chapter 10, Technological System
[You have successfully allied with the Covenant Empire faction: Abandoned Cave Society]
After finishing his speech, Gu Hang reopened the system interface and saw this new message.
The Covenant can do this?
In the system's judgment, even a small place like the Abandoned Cave Society was recognized as a faction?
He looked further.
[Current Grace Points: 11]
[Total Revenue of Territories: 6/Terra Month]
[Governor's Temporary Camp: 5/Terra Month]
[Abandoned Cave Society: 1/Terra Month]
The total revenue had risen slightly each month, Gu Hang pursed his lips, not particularly satisfied. The population of the Abandoned Cave Society wasn't large enough, and their productivity wasn't strong enough. By contrast, his temporary camp, although built from scratch, had more than three thousand people.
Of course, there was still considerable room for development on both sides. He believed that once productivity and prosperity increased, the monthly Grace income would also see a substantial rise.
But as far as Gu Hang's current knowledge was concerned, relying on monthly fixed income would at best ensure a basic guarantee.
To become wealthy, one must rely on warfare.
What Grace system? This is a War Frenzy system!
After wiping out the main force of the 'Prisoners of War', he had gained 19 Grace points. The windfall gave him a taste for more. Once the work at the Abandoned Cave Society was done, he dispatched Yan Fangxu, instructing the captain to take half of the elite marine corps and a Mechanized Servant Infantry Company to launch an attack on the 'Prisoners of War' bandit stronghold based on the confessions of the captives.
It should be an easy battle. The main force of the Prisoners of War had already been annihilated outside the Abandoned Cave Society, and most of those left in the camp were the old, weak, sick, and disabled.
After all, bandits have families too.
The handful of bandits left behind weren't much of a concern, they added up to barely fifty people, and it was unclear how many guns they could muster. The forces that Yan Fangxu took were more than enough to annihilate them completely.
Gu Hang hoped that Yan Fangxu would save as many of the still-living Abandoned Cave Society prisoners as possible, but if not, he couldn't force it.
Besides, what Gu Hang was looking forward to more was the harvest of Grace points. Although he knew the enemy was weak and the Grace earnings wouldn't be high, it should be better than simply waiting for the fixed income each month, right?
Thinking this, he continued to look down.
Then, a bigger surprise came.
He saw that the system had silently added a new function.
Beneath the [Heroes] and [Soldier Cards] options, a new choice quietly sat there.
[Technology].
Gu Hang was far from calm.
He had previously felt that the system was a War Frenzy system, not only because it awarded many points for winning battles but also in terms of the system's functionalities.
Whether it was individual leveling or the training and leveling of troops, it was all in preparation for war.
It seemed to be a cycle system where the more you fought, the stronger you became, and the stronger you became, the more you could fight, with farming being a secondary element.
But unexpectedly, the system's functionalities had not been fully disclosed to him.
Could there be other new functionalities in the future?
And what conditions would be needed to unlock them?
It was unknown.
There would be plenty of time to delve deeper later; right now, what Gu Hang was most eager to see was exactly what this [Technology] function entailed.
Upon opening it, the system interface displayed a sky full of stars, except that each star was dim, waiting for him to light them up.
Upon closer inspection, these dark stars seemed interconnected in a rather intricate manner, varying in size. Each star seemed to represent a specific technology.
[You may invest Favor points to initiate a random technology unlock. The success rate and the level of technology unlocked will increase with more points invested. The minimum tier requires 10 points for one unlock, the second tier requires 100 points, and the third tier requires 1000 points for one unlock…]
A gacha, lottery mechanism?
Could it be a scam?
Gu Hang had some psychological shadows regarding these gacha things.
But there were no other options.
He currently had only eleven points of Favor. After one draw at the lowest standard, they'd be gone. Judging from his understanding of similar mechanisms, drawing once at the lowest level often didn't yield any good results.
But the problem was, if he didn't spend them here, he had nowhere else to use the ten points of Favor!
In terms of heroes, he was now at level 2, capped by experience. Even with Favor points, he couldn't level up; as for troop training, from non-elite to T5, it cost 1 point of Favor for every hundred people, from T5 to T4, 1 point for every 10 people, and from T4 to T3, 1 point per person.
Now, his Mech Servant Battalion was T5 and couldn't be upgraded due to hardware limitations. The elite troopers of the marine corps could be upgraded, but elevating just 11 of them to T3 wasn't very meaningful, especially since their equipment wouldn't improve; thus, their comprehensive combat ability wouldn't reach the mark.
With that in mind, if he didn't want his Favor points to mold away, drawing technology was indeed his only choice.
So, he might as well draw.
Hopefully, he wouldn't be unlucky.
As his thoughts commanded, ten points of Favor quietly vanished, and in their place, a star in the dimly lit sky lit up.
[Basic Technology: Alloy Plastic Steel]
[A research product of the Empire Mechanical Doctrine, it is a qualified multi-functional material, based on steel, blended with various minerals to forge. It has different properties depending on the specific formula used. It can be used for soldier's bulletproof inserts, construction materials, vehicle armor, spaceship components...]
As expected, it was just the most basic technology, and it was in the domain of raw materials.
But upon further understanding, Gu Hang's mouth dropped open:
"I've struck gold!"
Alloy Plastic Steel was not an exceptionally rare material, and the performance gap between different ratios and manufacturing processes could be drastic. The best-quality plastic steel could be used to make core material components for precision instruments, while the poor-quality ones could only serve as construction materials.
If it were just the process, the formula, and the blueprints, their usefulness wouldn't be that great. Given Gu Hang's current poor state, he didn't have the means to implement the process or blueprints.
But... what the system provided was akin to spoon-feeding.
The illumination of one technology provided three things:
Firstly, there were theories, processes, and design blueprints. With these, as long as there were sufficient technological talents and an industrial base, one could apply this technology on a large scale directly and build factories.
That wasn't peculiar, but what came next were two items: Black Box Manufacturing Machines.
Black box is an adjective, implying that no one can know how the equipment operates internally. Just by inputting the rawest materials, it can directly produce finished products.
And such Black Box Manufacturing Machines numbered two, each distinct. The first one is a finished-product black box, which required only iron ore and any ratio of materials to directly produce the highest level of Alloy Plastic Steel material.
The second one is a master black box, similarly requiring only the most basic materials to produce the smelting furnaces capable of manufacturing qualified Alloy Plastic Steel.
This was amazing, Gu Hang thought, looking at the two machines that he could materialize at any time, along with the knowledge in his mind, and realizing how powerful the technology system was.
The food was literally being fed to his mouth.
Indeed, Gu Hang lacked any significant technological or technical talents under his command, but with these devices, he figured that even a group of baboons could manage to put together an Alloy Plastic Steel production line.
Ten points of Favor, a massive profit!
"What Battle Frenzy System? I declare, this is the ultimate Farming System!"