Three days later.
Zhao Yu stood at the observation point of the base and looked into space through a pair of binoculars.
From what he could see, four spaceships lined up in a square formation and headed toward the moon's orbit.
"It's finally here…"
Zhao Yu was waiting for the deal to finish so he could receive more technology points. He thought that he would receive the points after a deal was agreed between him and Earth, but as it turned out, he would only receive the points after the goods were delivered to his base.
To him, the original intention of trading watches was to obtain technology points he gained by obtaining the title of Mysterious Merchant. This was a one-time deal. Trading watches with Earth was only a one-time deal. That being said, if he decided to invest in a factory on Earth, he would be able to obtain a source of limitless resources.
Under Zhao Yu's watchful eyes, the four spaceships slowly landed on the surface of the moon. They landed exactly where White Rabbit Nine had left.
That was the place where the two sides had agreed to trade. There were a large number of Xiaotians, and they were already on standby. They activated their jammers as soon as the spaceship landed.
..
Earth Alliance Defense Agency.
This was the first time they had made a deal with aliens. All the staff of the newly established Defense Agency were on standby, keeping an eye on the four spacecraft.
On the spaceship, there were not only the resources needed for the trade, but also various detection equipment. The major countries had gathered many experts to come up with ways to bypass Xiaotian's jammer. They were eager to figure out a way to not have their signals blocked on the moon.
"All data is good. The spaceship is landing…"
"Landing successful. All detectors activated!"
"Activation complete…"
"Next, we'll see if it works!"
Not far from Colonel Chu, there was a row of sixteen screens connected to the equipment on the four spaceships. They were prepared to use various methods to bypass the jammer. Each of the screens represented one detection equipment, which meant that there were sixteen of the detection devices.
Whoosh!
As soon as he finished speaking, the sixteen devices in front of him instantly went dark.
"It's all black?!"
Colonel Chu frowned. From the looks of it, all sixteen attempts to connect signals on the moon had failed. It seemed that alien technology was more powerful than they had imagined. It would take Earth a lot more work to try not having their signals jammed.
Colonel Chu wasn't the only one who was unhappy. The experts and scholars who had set up these experimental methods were all very sad.
"Is it possible that the equipment malfunctioned?!"
"Impossible. Right now, the spaceships are on the agreed trading location on the moon. The aliens must've jammed the signals again …"
A minute later, the sixteen screens returned to normal.
From what they could see, all the resources inside the spaceships had disappeared. What replaced them were the 10,000 watches that were placed in the four spaceships.
"Only the watches are left…"
"The transaction is considered complete. Control the spaceship and return…"
..
"The transaction has been completed. You have received 850 technology points!"
On the moon, after Xiaotian moved the resources away, Zhao Yu received the system's reward of technology points.
Including the remaining points that he had not used in the past few days, Zhao Yu now had a total of 1150 technology points.
"We can build a spaceship now!"
Zhao Yu took the technology points and went straight to the control room. He planned to build the spaceship with the dual-core power system that was worth 500 technology points.
Zhao Yu found a nuclear powered and magnetic dual-core spaceship and clicked on the exchange button. As soon as he did, a notification popped up on the screen.
"You need to first purchase a 'disc-shaped spaceship' and a 'U-shaped nuclear spaceship' for this exchange."
"There are prerequisites, as expected ..."
Previously, Zhao Yu had also seen items that cannot be purchased unless certain conditions were met. He wasn't surprised with what he was looking at.
He now had 1150 technology points. The disc-shaped spaceship was worth 400 technology points, and the U-shaped nuclear spaceship was worth 450 technology points.
He could buy everything with the money he had, but he wanted to use 500 technology points to exchange for the gravitational lens.
Gravitational lenses were the upper limit of detection methods that could be exchanged for level-1 bases. They could detect everything through gravitational waves. Whether it was natural celestial bodies or man-made celestial bodies, as long as they had mass, they could be discovered by gravitational lenses.
After thinking for a while, Zhao Yu pulled up the list of gravitational lenses and clicked on the exchange button.
"Gravitational lens purchased successfully. That would be 450 technology points."
Zhao Yu picked a place and set up the production line before turning to look at the spaceship.
With the remaining 700 technology points, he could only make one of the two spaceships.
Zhao Yu thought for a moment and copied the detailed data of the two spaceships. He left the control room and found the butler.
"If we are only traveling between Earth and the moon, the disc shaped ship will be faster…"
"However, if you want to install weapons onto the vehicle, the U-shaped spaceship is a better choice…"
"What?! What do you mean?" Zhao Yu was stunned for a moment, "Adding weapons to the disc-shaped spaceship will affect its speed?!"
"Yes, the disc-shaped spaceship is much smaller than the U-shaped spaceship. In order to increase the magnetic force, the entire spaceship frame is made up of a special structure. Adding weapons will definitely disfigure this structure and eventually cause the speed to decrease..."
"The U-shaped spacecraft relies on the nuclear fusion reactor to propel itself. Although the power system alone takes up one-third of the spacecraft, the remaining two-thirds can be equipped with weapons without affecting traveling speed."
"What about the speed?"
"The maximum speed of the disc-shaped spaceship inside the planet is 100 mach. After leaving the planet, it will weaken. The fastest speed between the Earth and the Moon is only four and a half hours…"
"The U-shaped spaceship has two power modes. The speed of conventional nuclear power in space is about 50 mach. Inside the planet, due to the influence of air friction, it will be slightly reduced..."
"In addition to conventional propulsion, the U-shaped spacecraft is also equipped with nuclear pulse propulsion. It can provide 200 times the speed of sound for no more than 10 minutes at a time…"
"What happens if it exceeds 10 seconds?" Zhao Yu asked curiously.
"It will explode!"
The advantages and disadvantages of the two types of flying ships were told, and Zhao Yu began to think.
His current purpose in building the spaceship was to build a factory on Earth and sneak around Earth. From the looks of it, a disc-shaped spaceship was more suitable for the job. It used magnetic force, so there wouldn't be any noise when the engine was activated. There also wouldn't be any noise when the whole thing was flying.
On the other hand, the U-shaped spaceship was obviously more suitable to be modified into a warship with weapon systems.
"Then is there no way to install weapons on this disc-shaped spaceship?"
"About that…"
"We can build a sonic weapon production line and assemble it on the disc-shaped spaceship…"
"How powerful is the sonic weapon?"
"Not very powerful. It can barely do any damage to buildings. At most, it will shatter the glass…"
"However, it's fatal to living things. The exact data will only be known after the construction and testing…"
After chatting with the butler for a while, Zhao Yu gradually came up with an idea.
Under the condition that safety was not an issue, he would first build a production line for a disc-shaped spaceship and then install a sonic weapon system on the spaceship.
As for the U-shaped nuclear spaceship, he would have to wait for another ten days to accumulate enough technology points before he could make it.
Exchange complete.
After deducting the 400 points he spent on the disc-shaped spaceship production line, he also deducted another 50 points for the sound wave system.
In the end, Zhao Yu was left with 200 technology points. Based on his daily growth rate of 24 technology points, he would be able to exchange for the production line of the U-shaped nuclear spaceship in another 10 days and 10 hours.
"Sir, Xiaotian has successfully received the resources from Earth. Do you want to build the star destroyer cannon?"