Chapter 121: Chapter 118: Ruthless Spending
「Two months later.」
Zone F, Workshop 37.
In the office area, Allen leaned back in his chair, his eyes slightly closed, deep in thought.
A tall stack of borrowed books sat on the workbench before him, all of them about the various functional designs of Golems.
A massive design schematic, ford from an illusion, hovered in mid-air. It was the main structural design for the "PX-0" project.
It was the fruit of two months of overti. Every piece of armor, every joint, and the path of every Rune Circuit had undergone hundreds of simulations and optimizations, pushing the design to the very limit of Allen’s abilities.
It was a Steel Giant standing 4.2 ters tall with a shoulder width of 1.6 ters. All that was left was the design for its most critical component: the weapon modules.
Allen was pondering how to upgrade the Judgnt Weapon Platform and create the two beam-type weapon modules.
The main cannon in its chest, codenad "Divine Punishnt."
He was using the firing unit from the "Judgnt" sniper rifle as a base, then scaling it up tenfold.
[Simulation start...]
In DSeek’s virtual space, a massive model of the chest cannon began to charge. The Energy Core outputted frantically as light gathered at the muzzle, and then...
[Warning! Energy overload! Focusing crystal is beginning to lt... Simulation failed.]
In an instant, the virtual model exploded into a brilliant ball of light.
"DSeek, change of plans. Construct a multi-layered composite crystal lens group, add a triple-stabilizing flow array, and increase the runic containnt field on the inner wall of the cannon barrel. Run it again."
[New plan constructing... Simulation start...]
This ti, the energy beam fired successfully, but after just two shots, the virtual model exploded again.
[Warning! Heat buildup has exceeded the threshold. Irreversible tal fatigue detected in cannon body structure... Simulation failed.]
Allen frowned.
The problem was more complex than he had imagined.
A Level 3 Golem’s Energy Core is a High-Tier Magic Stone. The technical difficulty of containing that wild energy and shaping it into a highly condensed, lethal, high-temperature beam was skyrocketing.
Heat dissipation was a particular issue. If handled poorly, the main cannon would just be a one-ti-use self-destruct device, lting itself with the first shot.
He tried seven or eight different solutions in a row, but without exception, they all failed.
Either the range was insufficient, the power was lacking, or the heat dissipation couldn’t keep up.
’Should I lower the safety requirents?’
The mont the thought appeared, he extinguished it.
To compromise was to accept diocrity. His first mainline Golem could absolutely not be a half-finished product.
"DSeek, pull up the biological data on the Volcanic Fierce Ape. Focus the analysis on its high-temperature beam crystal organ."
’If the chanical route is a dead end, let’s see how biology solves this problem.’
Soon, a detailed anatomical diagram and an energy cycle model appeared before him. Inside the Volcanic Fierce Ape’s throat was a special biological chamber.
It used a "pulse-like" thod of energy compression to compress and excite the Magic Power in its body in an extrely short ti, then converted it into a beam through a crystal structure.
After each shot, the biological chamber required a period of ti for its tissues to repair.
This thod was simple and crude, but the problem was that self-repairing, high-temperature-resistant Magic tal was not sothing he could afford right now.
’Disposable... a pulse...’
Allen’s eyes suddenly lit up.
’Why am I so fixated on a perfect main cannon that can fire an infinite number of tis?’
’War, by its very nature, is a matter of consumption.’
"DSeek, scrap the original design!" Allen’s Spiritual Command beca excited and urgent. "Change the main cannon system to a two-part design! The firing module will still use a Transformation Crystal. The Magic Conductivity and overclocking module will be designed as a ’disposable high-energy amplification unit’!"
His line of thinking had completely opened up.
This module was a Magic Amplification Transmission Unit inscribed with a one-ti-use Overclock Rune Array.
During combat, the Golem’s Energy Core would give it a montary, ultra-high-power charge. After firing, the entire unit would be destroyed by the overload, becoming a piece of red-hot scrap tal that would be automatically ejected from the chest cavity, allowing the next unit to be loaded automatically.
Just like that, the problems of heat dissipation, energy stability, and sustained output were all solved in one fell swoop!
"That’s it!" Allen slapped the table.
This was his solution! Not just piling on massive amounts of resources to boost performance—the cost-effectiveness was far too low!
With the main cannon’s problem solved, the remaining Palm Cannons were much simpler.
Allen directly adopted a miniaturized energy cycle design. Although its power was only twelve percent of "Divine Punishnt’s," its advantage was its stability and reliability, allowing for continuous fire.
"DSeek, give
a cost estimate for one shot from the ’Divine Punishnt’ main cannon."
[Based on the latest design, the material cost for one ’disposable high-energy amplification unit’ is approximately 75 Low-Level Magic Stones, and the labor cost for production is approximately 20 Low-Level Magic Stones... In total, including the cost of Magic Power consud, each shot costs 500 Low-Level Magic Stones.]
"Hiss..."
Even though Allen had been ntally prepared, the number still made him wince.
Five hundred Magic Stones per shot.
That wasn’t firing a cannon; that was practically burning Ah Fu for fuel.
A single shot would vaporize enough Magic Stones to build one and a half Ah Fus.
"This is insane..." he couldn’t help but mutter.
But in the next instant, his gaze beca resolute once more.
As long as this cannon could secure victory on the battlefield, it would be worth it. It wouldn’t matter if it cost eight hundred, or even eight thousand!
The final piece of the design schematic was in place.
Allen stood up, walked to the other end of the workshop, and took out the Black Crystal Card that represented his credit line with the Association.
It also served as identification for making purchases through the Association’s internal channels.
It was ti to stock up.
He touched the card to his personal terminal, and the internal procurent network of the Plane Exploration and Developnt Association opened up before him.
The interface was simple and efficient, exuding a comrcial atmosphere.
Allen glanced at the various astronomically priced materials inside and was secretly astonished. ’The prices are blinding!’
He didn’t dare look for long and directly pulled up the materials list for "PX-0" to start placing his order.
"Auric Gold Ingots, 3,000 kilograms—that’s for the main body."
"Mithril, 2 kilograms, for inscribing the Rune Circuits."
"High-Energy Crystal Lenses, three sets in total—one large and two small."
"Composite armor plates, fifty units."
"One High-Tier Magic Stone."
"..."
His fingers tapped continuously on the light screen, selecting one item after another. So of the expensive materials he chose would be enough to make an ordinary Alchemy Apprentice drool with envy.
But now, Allen was tossing them into his shopping cart one by one, as if they were cabbages on a supermarket shelf.
He even added a surplus for building the Golem, just in case of failures during trial and error.
Finally, the last item on the list was checked off.
Allen glanced at the automatically calculated total price in the bottom-right corner of the light screen.
[Subtotal: 26,833 Low-Level Magic Stones]
[Association Internal Discount (-5%): -1,341.6 Low-Level Magic Stones]
[Final Total: 25,491.4 Low-Level Magic Stones]
Allen’s mood at that mont was like buying a car in his previous life—that feeling of splurging.
He selected the paynt thod: [Association Interest-Free Loan Credit].
A confirmation box popped up.
[Your loan credit has been deducted. Current used credit: 26,841.4 / 50,000]
[Order has been generated. Estimated delivery to Workshop 37, Zone F, within three business days. Please be ready to receive it.]
It was done.
Allen leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh of relief.
The money was spent, but a grand creation was about to transform from numbers and schematics into reality.
The sense of anticipation made the blood in his veins run hot.
Just then, in the bottom-right corner of the procurent interface, a silver probe-shaped insignia suddenly began to flash, and a ssage window popped up.
In the sender field was a na he recognized.
[Senior Observer: Eleanor]
[Subject: Inquiry Regarding Your High-Value Loan Utilization]
[Body: Weisren Apprentice, good afternoon. The system has detected that you have just utilized a loan amount exceeding fifteen thousand Magic Stones. This action has triggered the Association’s internal "High-Risk Investnt Monitoring Protocol." Please submit an expected outco assessnt report for your current project to
within three days.]
At the end of the ssage, there was a postscript in bold.
[We need to confirm that the Association’s investnts are being used to create assets with value-adding potential.]
"..."
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