Vol 14: Chapter 1-1.
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 f*ck. 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.
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 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.
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!”