In the end, under Zhao Chen's persuading,
Hive Princess was willing to carry out the arrangement Zhao Chen had made.
Thereafter, Zhao Chen's orders began to go forth.
First, within a certain uninhabited star system among the Fifteen Owl Dragon Star Regions, a hive-race cultivation star system was to be established, set apart for that purpose alone.
All the corpses of the interstellar hive-race that had been gathered were to be brought together here, every one of them.
And Hive Princess would have the charge here of cultivating her own hive-race.
It must be known that, before this, the use of these hive-race corpses was nothing more than the harvesting of the Hive Motherships' scale-armor for certain raw materials.
The rate of utilization was low indeed.
Now these hive-race corpses could be used to forge a hive-race fleet that Zhao Chen might move at his own command, and why should he not be glad of it?
As to the numbers,
there were besides two permanent cosmic bug-nests welling up without cease, which could supply raw materials forever.
And more than that: upon the other end of this universe there were two hive-race nests, with above a hundred million Hive Motherships over there.
All these might be looked upon as raw materials.
Thinking upon these things, Zhao Chen's humor mended greatly.
After leaving the Owl Dragon Star System, he went of set purpose to look upon the building progress of the T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship.
Attending him was Spider Queen Iris, the chief engineer.
Zhao Chen looked upon the interstellar warship within the dock before him, which had already taken its outward form.
"It has come at present to the fitting-out stage. Before the end of this month it can surely come off the line and enter service. I would beg the Commander to set his mind at rest," Spider Queen Iris gave her assurance.
Zhao Chen nodded in his satisfaction.
By the original plan, the lead ship of the T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship was to be finished and delivered before the end of October; so the task might be counted completed upon time.
And now the thought came to him that it was already October.
Whereupon there rose within Zhao Chen's heart an unaccountable displeasure.
For his quarterly mission of the quarter past had been adjudged not completed.[1]
That quarterly mission had required Zhao Chen to find and destroy seven hidden starship factories of the Demon Race.
In the end he had found and destroyed five only, and the two remaining had been all this while of unknown whereabouts,
until the two hive-race nests appeared.
In this way, this quarterly mission of Zhao Chen's might be counted bankrupt.
And this was the first time Zhao Chen had ever failed to complete a quarterly mission.
At the thought of those task points let slip, Zhao Chen felt the pinch of it still.
Having taken his leave of Spider Queen Iris, Zhao Chen looked out through the porthole upon that Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess all but built.
And looked at the same time upon the new quarterly mission before him, the last quarterly mission of this year besides.
Quarterly mission
Mission content: take the Demon Castle star system
Very short; two lines of words only.
Neither was the mission's reward directly set down.
"Take the Demon Castle star system within three months." Zhao Chen reckoned it over; upon the time there should be no very great difficulty.
He could talk it over further with Charlotte.
Zhao Chen returned to his flagship.
"Commander, where do we go next?" the captain of this starship asked respectfully.
"There is nothing else. Go straight to the Demon Castle star system battlefield, to the station of the Owl Dragon First Legion," Zhao Chen ordered.
"Aye."
"Target region entered: the Demon Castle star system battlefield, the station of the Owl Dragon First Legion. Route planning now commencing…"
Zhao Chen sat upon the sofa and closed his eyes.
And opened the System interface.
The quarterly mission of the quarter past uncompleted, the task points let slip, this brought it about besides that he had at present no means of exchanging for any new goods of the T6 technology series.
The T6 goods column had been renewed already at the beginning of October.
By the look of it, as with the quarterly missions, new stock came up once each quarter.
The goods column, left empty after those three had been exchanged for, had now new options within it.
【T6 Steel Star City · technical drawings
Exchange requirement: 1 billion System points and 3,000 task points】
【Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship · T6 upgrade module (T6 Sacred Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship), together with the technical drawings
Exchange requirement: 1.5 billion System points and 5,000 task points】
【T6 Seraph-Ballista-class Interstellar Long-Range Hunter-Killer Ship · technical drawings
Exchange requirement: 100 million System points and 300 task points】
Zhao Chen looked upon these three options.
They might be called exceedingly even.
An industrial-type starship, a battlefield auxiliary-type starship, and a fighting-type starship.
The T6 Steel Star City, as the name declares, is an industrial city.
If the T5 Galaxy-class Large Interstellar Industrial Base be but an industrial base,
then the T6 Steel Star City is an industrial city entire.
It is not merely an industrial base: it takes a planet and forges it outright into an industrial city, and draws besides upon the energy of the planet's core directly, to serve what the Steel Star City's building requires.
Even the Hades, a hundred kilometers in length, set within it at that time, would have room and to spare.
The second option.
It too was very simple: the T5 Dragon Emperor could be raised to the T6 Sacred Dragon Emperor.
Much as with the case of the Hades.
The third option was the more particular.
This was a class of interstellar warship Zhao Chen had never seen before.
An Interstellar Long-Range Hunter-Killer Ship.
Its function was rather that of a sharpshooter upon some ancient battlefield, able to pick off the enemy from beyond the range of engagement.
This T6 Seraph-Ballista-class Interstellar Long-Range Hunter-Killer Ship was of the same conception.
By the basic data shown, it carried one weapon only, and that was the Seraph Ballista, a weapon of peculiar outward form, much like some great crossbow of antiquity.
What it used was a laser weapon.
It could compress the intensity of the laser, and make of it a super-laser.
This greatly increased the range; it was the longest-ranged weapon among all the known interstellar warships.
It surpassed even three to five times the range of a T5-grade interstellar warship!
Its use upon the battlefield was to seek out the angle and the occasion of attack, and to hunt down the enemy's high-grade interstellar warships.
One stroke, and death.
Though it could not be counted a main-force starship of the frontal battlefield, its particular ability might yet serve a great use upon the field.
Only it was a pity that Zhao Chen had now not a single task point;[2] looking upon these three T6 technologies, he could only gaze and sigh.
"This quarter's mission must be completed!" Zhao Chen muttered within his heart, in a tone that brooked no doubt.
Demon King, O Demon King.
For nothing else, if only for these three great treasures of mine,
I can but beg you to go to your death.
Thereafter Zhao Chen's temporary flagship carried him to his destination without mishap.
And so, after a month and more, Zhao Chen could come again upon his true flagship.
The Dragon Emperor!
The Dragon Emperor's bridge.
Zhao Chen had no sooner walked into the bridge than he heard the voices of them all.
"Commander."
The bridge petty officers and crew saluted Zhao Chen and gave him greeting, one after another.
Zhao Chen drew a deep breath; whether it were the work of his own fancy he did not know, but he felt that the air of his own flagship was more comfortable to breathe.
"How big…" Hive Princess shrank behind Zhao Chen, looking upon the vast space of the bridge, her curious eyes taking in everything about her.
"Is she the one you brought back from that world?" Lilith came up, looking with curiosity upon Hive Princess behind Zhao Chen.
She looked at Zhao Chen in her banter: "Did I not say it: wherever our Commander goes, he brings something back with him. Only this one is far too small, surely. Can the Commander truly bring himself to it?"
Even as Lilith made her joke, she dodged the foot Zhao Chen kicked at her.
Charlotte, off to the side, watched in silence, smiling, the Commander and the frolicking Lilith.