Chapter 1
Since learning of the next movie and that they were entering it late, everyone had a
strange feeling that couldn’t be expressed by words.
They were struggling by the border of hell ever since entering this realm. Several
times had they almost wiped. This condition never changed at all. Even though they
found out the difficulty was due to Jie but this feeling persisted afterward. Team
China entered the movies first in both team battles. Then the other teams came to
chase for their lives. This condition finally changed.
“I’m feeling complex. Can’t explain how I am feeling now. It’s like a peasant suddenly
turned the table. Even though I know this is only God’s way of determining strength
but fuck. This feels amazing.” Zheng let out a profanity as he talked.
In the next few days, Xuan dwelled in his room all day long to make magical items for
everyone. The other five people gathered in Zheng’s basement to train. Four days
passed like this. They would eat together after each training and talked the same
topic each time, that team China was finally the stronger of two teams.
“This isn’t something to be happy about.” Zheng said. “Although we can be certain
the other team is weaker, but situations change every second in a battle field. No
one can be sure what happens next, especially in a military science fiction world.
Starship Troopers takes place in a bug filled planet where millions and even billions
of the Bugs might attack us. Several species are extremely destructive. This is a life
and death test!”
“You are saying one thing but your eyes are obviously smiling.” Lan smiled and
pointed at his eyes.
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Zheng coughed then said to Lan. “Contact Xuan. Tell him we are looking for him. It’s
not a good thing to keep making things on his own. We still haven’t used our points
and rewards yet. Let’s discuss it after he comes. The next movie is a war film and
team battle. He’s the team’s strategist, not engineer. It’s four days already.”
Lan waved her hand. “Tried it before. Psyche force can’t scan into each other’s
rooms. God gives a high degree of privacy for the rooms so soul link isn’t going to
work either.”
“No problem. I am here. We can begin discussion.”
Zheng sighed and was going to speak when Xuan’s voice came from behind. He
walked over with a pair of dark circles and casually threw over two plain silver rings.
“This is the energy storage mithril rings. There are 846 energy storage rules on them,
enough for all your qi or several times your blood energy. Their crafting is too complex.
The cost to craft one is around 1000 points. A lot of mithril was discarded. Even
though you can melt them to recycle but that requires another set of equipments. The
crafting time also takes too long, about two days each. Even if I get proficient with
the process, it will still take a day and half. So I won’t be making anymore before the
next movie begins.” Xuan sat down on a chair and grabbed an apple.
Zheng was excited when he received the rings. His qi kept channeling into a ring
but it seemed like a bottomless abyss. After he depleted all his qi, there was finally
a sense of being filled. His gave it a thought then the qi returned to his body. There
was no loss of energy in the process and no uncomfort. In other words, as long as
he kept the ring filled, he would have a second reserve of qi. The same for blood
energy, and perhaps even better.
“This is amazing!” Zheng stood up in excitement and said out loud. “I was pondering
how to deal with the sea of bugs. Do you still remember the bracelet of Anubis?
If I have extra reserve of blood energy, I can summon the army of Anubis and still
continue fighting. My blood energy is enough to summon an 800 army. And I can
still use Explosion and Destruction!”
Xuan finished the apple in several bites. He rubbed his eyes and said calmly. “Correct.
This is the reason I rushed these two rings. These rings belong to magical items.
My speculation is correct that magical items are a branch of science. Your Destruction
can last ten seconds, then can you sustain twenty seconds with the rings? If your
body can take the toll.”
Zheng wore the rings on his two hands. The one on left hand filled with qi and the
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one on right hand with blood energy. He said with a bitter smile. “For Explosion, I
can make it last a minute or a little longer. I have much less blood energy than qi right
now. The ring can even the quantities out. Explosion can last one minute and ten
seconds to twenty seconds. However, Destruction isn’t going to work. My body can’t
sustain the strain. Ten seconds is my limit. Once it gets past that, my body will begin
to collapse and lose control over the two energies. The volatility will then disappear.
Do you think I am going to use Destruction a lot in the next world?”
“Just in case. We will give the matter a further thought. WangXia, test this timed
bomb.” He threw over a bomb the size of two fingers.
WangXia understood the options with a glimpse but to his surprise, the core of the
bomb was a black rock instead of gunpowder. The rock was carved with symbols
and characters. Next to it was a fingernail size silver metal.
Xuan said. “Zheng, give the bomb some qi. If the ring can store all your qi, this bomb
takes about a tenth. The material to convert energy into electricity is obsidian, not
too expensive. However, the storage material requires mithril which is costly. So
we are only going to test this one bomb. If the effect is powerful, I will make more.
Otherwise, we will just exchange gravity mines.”
Zheng took the bomb and acted carefully. This might be the main explosive for team
China in the future. He channeled qi into the mithril and it glowed in white. Just as
Xuan predicted, the mithril absorbed a tenth of his qi. WangXia took the bomb with
a serious expression afterward.
The detonation site was on a pillbox a thousand meters away. WangXia set it for
three minutes then ran back. The accident with the gravity mine taught them to be
careful with sci-fi weapons.
After WangXia ran back to the group, they stared at the site with full attention. Three
minutes passed then a faint yellow light flashed across. Nothing else happened for
a few seconds. They sighed but no one blamed Xuan. It was reasonable to fail a
magical item. Xuan wasn’t a god.
As they were about to walk over, a thunderous sound exploded by their ears and
made them dizzy. Dozens of blue spheres of light whirled around the explosion site.
Everything that came in contact either melted instantly or vaporized, even the alloy
ground was no exception. The craziness lasted for ten seconds before it calmed
down. The team stood in shock for several minutes, even Xuan had the same expression.
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He adjusted his glasses and said. “Plasma is horrifying. I didn’t expect a little qi to
turn into such powerful electricity. Even the legends about Xians striking the earth
with thousands of thunders aren’t as powerful.”
“Aside from these two things, I plan to craft three more items in the remaining days.
An anti-gravity device to put on the Sky Sticks, energy storage for the Sky Sticks,
and we will revive Gando, the teen with ideas on robots. Then we will gather funds
together to exchange him a tier C bear like suit. I can modify it to give it an electrical
attack and high density energy reserve. If he is actually worthy of such a robot, his
combat strength will be as strong as Kampa and Zero!”
As the others turned their eyes to Xuan, he smiled. “These are the items I can think
of with the three rules. We have too little rules. If there’s a few more, I can craft more
items, like the magical items used by cultivators in legends.”
WangXia got excited. It seemed like he was sensitive to these items from legends.
He immediately asked. “Which magical items? What rule do we need?”
Xuan thought for a moment. “The ones that attack with electricity. We will at least
need rules for remote control, finer control over energy, and energy encryption.
Maybe also energy projectile type of rules. Anyway, it requires a complex set of
rules for these items.”
“The items aside.” Zheng asked with confusion. “Why do you plan to revive Gando?
First of all, we don’t know anything about him nor him as a person. He said he’s
skilled with driving but that doesn’t have anything to do with piloting robots. You
can’t be sure a person can pilot a robot just because he can drive a motorcycle. Can
you tell us about the reason?”
Xuan nodded. He took out a sheet from his pocket. “This is the electrical jet engine
I designed. The one on the side is the design of the bear suit. Due to time constraint
and materials, I won’t be able to craft one myself. So we have to gather the funds
together to exchange one for him. You can see from the design that the suit’s movement
speed will increase by three times with the engine, up to a 200 kilometers an
hour on the ground and 600 kilometers an hour during flight.”
Zheng was surprised. “I saw that suit before. I don’t think it can fly. It’s just a mini
robot with good defense. You have to exchange weapons for it separately. To be
honest, I don’t have faith in this robot.”
Xuan nodded and said. “The original one can’t fly. However, we have the anti-gravity
rule. This rule can also be applied to the tier B VF-1 Valkyrie or the tier A RX-78
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Gundam that we may get in the future and gives flight ability to non-aerial robots while
enhancing ones that can already fly. Furthermore, with the addition of the electrical
jet engine, any robot will have achieved an increase in quality.”
“Another reason is all these robots have a critical flaw, energy reserve. The tier C suit
can fight for an hour before needing to change battery. The tier B robot can only fight
for thirty minutes. Tier A robot drops to as low as ten minutes. If we give it the energy
storage device filled with qi or blood energy and an energy conversion device, their
combat duration can increase to four or five hours.”
“In conclusion, we may be able to get a main combatant with an extremely low investment.
There is no reason not to take this risk.” Xuan said calmly.
Zheng said. “I think I get what you meant. Since Gando died in his first movie, it
doesn’t take anything to revive him. So all we need is to exchange a robotic suit.
If we succeed, we will gain a main combatant, otherwise, we only lost a modified
robot.”
Xuan nodded. “Correct. Compared to the cost of reviving veteran members and the
need to protect their lives, he doesn’t cost anything. The modified robot will also be
at least two to three times stronger than its original.”
Zheng breathed out. “Ok. We will do as you said. However, since you are here
already, let’s discuss about our exchanges for Starship Troopers. Do you have any
suggestions?”
Xuan shook his head. “No suggestions. You can decide on this area since you are
the leader.”
Zheng stood up and said with a smile. “Let’s go. We will discuss further on the
platform and revive Gando.”
They came to the platform. Xuan seemed like he hadn’t rested for several days but
he stood among them. Those black circles make the others worry about him. Zheng
exchanged a bottle of potion as soon as he came to the platform and threw it over
to Xuan.
“Drink it. A potion to remove fatigue.” He said.
Xuan opened the cap and drank it with one gulp. At the same time, Zheng took
out the Book of Amun-Ra under God. When he opened his eyes again, Gando had
already appeared on the floor. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
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“Then we will discuss how to spend our points and rewards. First, Kampa and Zero
only have two rank D rewards left because you need to buy freedom for the girls you
created. Understand?” Zheng sat on the floor and said to the two.
They were surprised then nodded. Zheng continued. “For the rank D rewards, Zero
can use it to exchange powerful bullets for the sniper rifle. I checked it, there’s one
called nuclear fusion gauss bullet that costs a rank D reward and 500 points. The
effect is nuclear fusion explosion in a 250 meter diameter upon impact, about the
same area as the gravity mine. Why don’t you exchange two of these bullets? You
should save the remaining 3000 points since the next movie is a team battle. We
can’t be sure that no newbies will die.”
Zero nodded quietly. He walked over to God and closed his eyes. A moment later,
two long and narrow yellow bullets appeared in his palm. Such an inconspicuous
bullet with a powerful effect over 250 meters.
Zheng then turned to Kampa. “I think you can exchange for an enhancement. Didn’t
you said you want the werewolf enhancement? You can spend a rank D reward for
the entry level bloodline. It will increase your stats by a lot. Your speed and strength
will further increase after transformation.”
Kampa cried with excitement then ran to God and closed his eyes. A beam of light
enveloped him. The light came and went fast. Kampa howled as he opened his eyes.
His muscles began to grow.
The others looked at him with anticipation. Yet, his muscles only grew by a little
before they stopped and his body hair only grew a little thicker. Not only was the
others baffled, Kampa also stood there in shock.
“Uh. This is only the entry level bloodline. It basically makes you look hairier. Haha.
You probably need the intermediate or even high level bloodline to transform.” Zheng
laughed out.
Kampa was a Russian to begin with. He was hairy and had a big build like a bear.
Now that his muscle and hair grew a little more, he looked even more like a bear.
Kampa’s disappointment aside, Zheng advised him to save up the remaining points
and rank D reward. Then he turned to Lan. “This movie is important since it is a large
scale war and we have to fight against another team. So your effect will be even
more crucial than usual. You are the team’s eyes and connection. I plan to give you a
rank C reward then you can exchange a CC psyche force ability, called psyche whip.”
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“Psyche whip, when a team member is being watched or controlled by another person,
the user will form a whip with his psyche force to attack the other person’s psyche
force. This ability gets more powerful as your mental capacity stat increases and
can be enhanced to the next level, psyche shock. This is your offensive ability.”