Star Gate

Chapter 857: Luxurious Equipment (I)

“Other standard equipment includes ten inner world tents. They can expand or contract space and instantly enlarge. Their maximum capacity is one thousand people and they possess extremely strong defensive capabilities. They’re suited for resting in all sorts of environments and can transform into cubes when not in use to transport military supplies.”

“How are their defensive capabilities?” Li Hao’s eyes lit up.

“Effective against anything below Apex!”

Li Hao beamed. Hot damn! That impressive? So this is a real division. I was just playing house before! I didn’t get anything in terms of equipment.

“What else?”

“A flying ship for aerial battles, a sea cruiser for navy battles, an earth driller for underground battles...”

“And how do they work?” Li Hao swallowed hard.

“Those are specially assigned and thus are naturally used to great effect. The flying ship is most suited for battles in the sky and can even enter the void for void battles. The sea cruiser can intimidate and repel sea monsters. They’re forged with the essence blood of monster spirit powerhouses. The earth driller burrows through five hundred kilometers in a split second, but a large sum of energy stones are needed each time. The equipment is meant to hunt down Apexes with!”

Li Hao continued to swallow hard.

“There’s also a void shield that can obscure the void and block attacks from that direction. It prevents Apexes and above from reaching through the air! Another is the void chain that can seal off a radius of five hundred kilometers and prevent Apexes from breaking through the void to escape...”

Li Hao’s jaw sagged at this point. All of the equipment was aimed at Apex and above. That meant that the Battle Heaven Army only fought Apexes and above in their time!

My heavens! Such a strong army of millions was gone, just like that! And this was only Silver Moon Territory. What of the main world? Could the ancient civilization really have fallen? It was so hard to believe!

One division could absolutely overcome an Apex or even Immortal. It was absolutely festooned with all sorts of machines for war meant for Apex and greater. This was terrifying!

“Do you have all of this in stock?”

“Yes!” Zhang Liang nodded, but explained with difficulty, “I can... give you all of them, sir, but there are no corresponding reserves of energy to go with them!”

“What do you mean?”

“These weapons consume a lot of resources. The city has run out of energy ever since contact ceased with Skystar Town. We only have a little bit of cultivation energy stones left and their sum is very, very little. That is insufficient to power the commander’s equipment.”

“Do they consume a lot of resources?”

“A lot!” Zhang Liang was the very image of cooperation now. “According to the standards of your age, any weapon will require at least one hundred thousand mysterious power stones for activation. This is the bare minimum! You must throw in even more if you’d like to continue operating.”

Li Hao opened and closed his mouth, shocked by the response. The hell? I only have thirty million or so stones left and gave almost all of them to General Pagoda. There’s only a few million in my storage ring now. Are mysterious power stones that useful??

“Then... aren’t they useless without energy stones?”

“Pretty much... but not entirely. The tents, for example, are still usable. Their defensive capabilities just greatly decrease compared to their full abilities...”

So basically what I said. Li Hao wanted to vomit blood. These were money hungry monsters! How much did the Battle Heaven Army have to expend in energy stones if it brought its full strength to a battle? No wonder the army’s strength greatly declined when its energy reserves were exhausted.

As dismaying as these revelations were, he still wanted the equipment. All of it had to come into his hands!

“Anything else?”

“No.” Zhang Liang shook his head. “This is it. There was more before, but their shelves are empty. I've given you everything we can.

Alright then! Li Hao was quite regretful. Although they were costly to operate, these were all great treasures.

“Then... what else would be allotted to a division if this was still back in the day?” he couldn’t help but ask. So much had been given already, was there more? n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“Temporary transportation passages, emergency voidbreak talismans, and the Forbidden Sea compass... These are all standard for first rate troops.”

There was no need for further explanation! Li Hao could tell what those were from their names alone. How nice!

“This is for a first rate troop, the true core troops are equipped with other treasures such as dominating weapons that can erupt with Saint or above level power under the direction of the army. The first troop of Battle Heaven was equipped with one. Us reserve defenders don’t have one.”

Fine then, Li Hao was numb to it all. One could do whatever they wanted when they possessed sufficient money!

“Ah, I received ten thousand merits for accomplishing a mission. What do you think I should trade it for?”

The Voidbreak Incantation?

It existed at Evenround Martial as well, but Li Hao wasn’t qualified to trade for it. He’d gone with The Accounts of Evenround instead. He wasn’t qualified to further trade for core technology, but could do so in the army. But was there anything other than this that they could trade for?

As the head of Military Supplies in everything but name, Zhang Liang should know more than him.

“Ten thousand merits?” Contrary to before when Zhang Liang threw over a booklet, he treated Li Hao with utmost respect this time as Li Hao was now a person of great note. He hoped for the young man to get him the position of Commissioner of Military Supplies!

He racked his brains before some thoughts finally revived in his memories.

“I can give you three choices, sir,” he said after a long moment. “They’re all suited for you. The first is the Voidbreak Incantation. If you’d like to focus on the sword, sir, then this is a very suitable choice for you!

“The second is that of a war puppet. This is not standard issue. It can house one thousand soldiers and connect their blood qi. Utilizing a formation will instantly activate the puppet and an eruption of strength. The level of strength is based on soldiers. It can bring Immortal level battle strength to bear under the strongest conditions! Of course, that will require one thousand ninth rank soldiers to do so.”

Ninth rank... that’s six element Arcanus. One thousand six elements to kill an Immortal... forget it. Li Hao shook his head. It was very tempting, but where was he supposed to gather so many six elements? Not to mention, his group killed an Immortal by themselves.

Granted, the deputy commissioner was undoubtedly speaking of one at full strength and peak condition, not a partially crippled one like the big tree. On Li Hao’s side, whether it was the little tree, Li Hao, or Deputy Zhou—they were all stronger than ninth rank cultivators. It was a different notion.

“Third...” Zhang Liang looked at Li Hao and suddenly stopped talking. The young man blinked. Keep going!

“Commissioner Zhang?” What’s number three?

“Will you... really talk to General Pagoda about my promotion?”

“Of course!”

“You’re not lying to me?”

“Of course!”

Zhang Liang debated silently for a while. “Then... please swear on the honor of the Lis, sir, that you will speak of my matter!”

“Is my reputation that bad?” Li Hao rolled his eyes.

“Um... I don’t know, sir.”

“Is the third choice that important?” the young man had no choice to ask.

“Mmhmm!”

“I swear on the honor of the Lis that I will talk to General Pagoda about promoting Zhang Liang. However, I do not promise success!”

“That’s fine too!” Zhang Liang nodded. That was just as well. It didn’t matter if the attempt succeeded. It was just the worst feeling to have no one remember him. “Third, I recommend that the commander trade for a weapon forge if neither of the two satisfy you.”

“What is that?” Li Hao blinked.

“Where do you think the million soldiers of Battle Heaven Army obtain their armor, repairs, and spare sets from? Battle Heaven Army does have a complete military system and a weapons factory, but most of our equipment is standard issue and not personalized. They are mass produced.

“The weapon forge comes from the Weaponry department. It was overseen by an exalted emperor in my time and there were one hundred forges operating in the factory. The armor is cast from one mold and one forge could produce one hundred sets a day at most. We could craft ten thousand sets of armor per day at our peak!”

Li Hao was tongue-tied at the explanation. An assembly line for ancient armor?

“This item normally isn’t traded for and is jointly overseen, but it consumes a lot of energy and materials. Battle Heaven started running out of resources in the late stage. Authorization for usage was relaxed in order to encourage everyone to overcome the difficulties by themselves. Some division leaders and reserve commanders could trade for one so that they could make repairs in a timely manner when they were outside or fighting.

“They can still be traded for, authorization has not been retracted yet.”

“Then... is it difficult to use?” Li Hao asked excitedly.

“Not at all, it’s very simple to operate. The most troublesome part of it is the materials required.”

“What materials?”

“Just some of the usual ore—such as gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Old armor can be used if you have none of that. Didn’t you give me the armor from other troops before? All of that was actually dumped into the forges...”

“The key to the armor lies with the operating system. Is that system automatically installed into newly crafted suits of armor?”

“Yep, it’s all one format. You just need to connect it to the Battle Heaven Army system,” Zhang Liang responded. “You are in charge of a new division, sir. There is a lot more authorization available to your golden armor now. You can find it all with some study and activate new sets of armor by yourself.”

Li Hao hastily nodded. He’d wanted to trade for the Voidbreak Incantation, but isn’t it better to trade for this instead? He could create one hundred sets of armor a day... with enough materials, of course.

But I don’t lack armor! How would I? The royal family has thousands of Black Armaturas and they’re all going to be mine. I’ll throw them all into the forge. Waste not want not! I won’t have to come here and trade for it everytime. That’s too much of a hassle.

Of course, one hundred sets is still too little. It’s best if I can get one thousand sets a day. I’ll create ten thousand as soon as I eliminate the Black Armaturas.