"We have now built and commissioned the second batch of five T6 Steel Star Cities; counting the first batch, eight T6 Steel Star Cities in all are in service. The third batch of T6 Steel Star Cities is already under construction: twelve of them, taking five to six months to build. The fourth batch of T6 Steel Star Cities is scheduled as well. Once the third batch is complete, we will begin on the fourth. In the fourth batch we will build thirty T6 Steel Star Cities at once, again within half a year. That will bring the Owl Dragon Empire's active T6 Steel Star Cities to fifty, and we will truly have entered the age of T6 technology, rather than merely being able to build T6-technology things without the capacity to produce them," Chief Engineer Nana explained.
Zhao Chen was eating a heap of fatty beef rolls he had lifted out of a slotted spoon, paying no mind at all to Annie opposite, her chopsticks frozen in midair, looking at him in grievance.
"That's as it should be. Our capacity to mass-produce T6-grade warships alone falls short as it is, let alone producing T7-grade warships in the future."
Producing T7-grade warships?
At those words from the Emperor, Chief Engineer Nana felt her head ring.
Having felt at first hand how powerful T6 technology was, she could hardly imagine what kind of technology a T7 warship would need.
"And then our other low- and mid-tier technology industries…" Chief Engineer Nana was about to go through the related industries as well.
Zhao Chen cut her off: "No need to go through those in detail; just show me the relevant data."
"Yes." Chief Engineer Nana at once brought up all the industrial data.
It covered not only the Owl Dragon military's own industry; even the industrial capacity of civilian-facing concerns like the Northern Goose Group was in the table,
and the industrial data of every kingdom and territory below as well.
With industrial data this detailed,
whenever there was need, the Owl Dragon Empire could call on every part of this industrial capacity at once.
"Very good." Zhao Chen was well satisfied at what he saw.
The Owl Dragon Empire had come all this way one solid step at a time.
So there was no great problem to speak of.
"Those few technologies I handed you before I left. You've got them all done, I take it?" Zhao Chen looked at Chief Engineer Nana.
Before that campaign against the Order hive-race, Zhao Chen had handed the chief engineers certain technologies to put into production.
The T6 Emerald Dream-class Interstellar Jump Ship, which had saved a great many Owl Dragon warships in that last great explosion, was one of them.
It had been on the very eve of the great battle then.
Zhao Chen could hardly load them with more building projects, but he had still asked them to find some way to build those T6 Emerald Dream-class Interstellar Jump Ships, in case they might prove of use on the battlefield.
As it turned out, they truly had.
Later, when Zhao Chen met that disaster and knew there was no escaping it.
He had hurried to redeem the last three T6 technologies from the System and sent them back to the Owl Dragon.
What Zhao Chen had thought of then was not what last words he might leave.
It was that, if anything truly happened to him, leaving the Owl Dragon a few more technologies to save its life would be a good thing.
At the mention of those technologies,
chief Engineer Nana's eyes lit up.
First she raised a hand and opened an enormous electronic window that hung over the whole table, even covering Zhao Chen and the others.
Clunk.
It startled a leg of mutton Annie was dipping right out of her hand and onto the floor; she pouted and looked at her sister with some reproach.
But she could do nothing but meekly put another leg of mutton in the pot for herself.
"This is the T6 Universal Space Dynamics Monitor you handed us before and had us build. It is finished and in service. For now its main station is set up somewhere in our Owl Dragon Star System, guarded by a garrison of its own as an S-class military exclusion zone. Besides that, thirty reinforcing substations have been set up across the universe. The main station alone could monitor the whole universe, but rather slowly; with these substations to boost its performance, the efficiency is greatly increased. So now any abnormal spatial fluctuation anywhere in this universe is right under our noses. Including where the star gates are, and where warships are making spatial jumps or spatial warps, and so on. We see all of it clearly." Nana explained the enormous blueprint.
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied.
This was just why he had valued this technology to begin with.
With it, he could hold every stir of wind and grass in the whole universe in his hand; not, of course, to use against the powers within the universe.
He had no need of anything like this to deal with them.
It was chiefly for dealing with enemies from outside the universe.
"This is of great strategic value to us. It's not a combat device, but on the battlefield, being able to make our dispositions in advance can sometimes make victory certain," Zhao Chen said approvingly.
Chief Engineer Nana went on to the next technology: "The first batch of five T6 Divine Palace-class Interstellar Complexes is about to be completed. And each has been placed in a different location."
As she spoke, holograms of five fortresses of surpassing splendor appeared on the map of the universe.
Zhao Chen remembered this technology, naturally.
In some respects it overlapped with the existing T6 Angel City Fortress technology.
But thinking it over, might that not make them complement each other?
The T6 Divine Palace-class Interstellar Complex.
It was not in fact a very formal name; in its description it had many names, such as T6 Divine Palace-class Super Star Gate, Divine Palace-class Super Star Port, and so on.
For it truly had those capabilities.
It was a multi-purpose, all-in-one interstellar structure.
It was enormous, larger than an ordinary planet.
It could serve at once as a great star gate, a great star port, a great fortress, a great space station and more.
It could even serve as a habitable planet.
Zhao Chen saw these as the anchors the Owl Dragon Empire would one day set across every part of this universe, to hold it steady; they would be the garrisons of the imperial fleets in every region.
A sharp sword hanging over the heads of every lord and governor.
And the Divine Palace-class Interstellar Complex in the Owl Dragon Star System would become the new seat of the Owl Dragon Empire's government departments.
"Also, Lady Lilith has asked. Are these five Divine Palace-class Interstellar Complexes to be given names? They are so enormous, after all, just like planets. Each can hold hundreds of thousands of interstellar warships, and a population of hundreds of billions," Chief Engineer Nana asked Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen thought a moment, then pointed at the Divine Palace-class Interstellar Complex in the Owl Dragon Star System and said: "Call this one Chang'an City."
Chang'an City.
In Zhao Chen's manufactured memories, it was a city of dazzling splendor.
Zhao Chen knew those memories had been made for him, but they had become a part of his mind he could not shake off.
Since he could not forget them, he would not trouble over it.
He would simply leave a bold mark of them in this universe.
"Call the other four Luoyang City, Jinling City, Kaifeng City and Yanjing City. As for any after that, the Owl Dragon's leadership can choose by vote," said Zhao Chen.
"Very well." Chief Engineer Nana noted it down.
In time, Chang'an City became the most prosperous place in the Owl Dragon Empire.
If the Owl Dragon Star System was a crown, Chang'an City was the most brilliant gem in it.
And in the most prominent place on each of these cities hung an enormous gilded sign.
'Chang'an City'
These gilded signs became, too, places where people of later ages came on their interstellar travels to have their pictures taken.
Even when there came to be more and more interstellar cities of this kind, the first five always had a charm all their own.
For it was said that the names of the five cities had all been given by the first Emperor.
"Besides that, the three combat-type T6 warships you handed us are all in production now, and several batches are already in service." Chief Engineer Nana raised her hand, and holograms of three interstellar warships appeared before them.
The smallest was an interstellar cruiser.
【T6 Wind Sprite-class Light Interstellar Cruiser】
Next was an interstellar warship whose type could be told at a glance from its shape.
【T6 Holy-Blood Hell-Angel-class Heavy Interstellar Strategic Missile Ship】
And last, a warship with a truly gigantic hull.
【T6 Divine-Wing Empress-class Super-Heavy Carrier Starship】
These three combat warships were the last T6 technologies Zhao Chen had handed them.
"The performance and fighting ability of all three have been rated very highly by the generals. Above all the T6 Holy-Blood Hell-Angel-class Heavy Interstellar Strategic Missile Ship. This missile ship has greatly raised the Owl Dragon Legion's firepower, and given the Owl Dragon Legion, once and for all, T6-grade high-intensity firepower. Only…" At this point Chief Engineer Nana very nearly laughed.
Zhao Chen asked curiously, "Only what?"
"Only that ever since General Baixue the wolf-girl took delivery of this warship, she has kept grumbling. Such a fine warship handed to her, and not one opponent in the universe worth using it on. This time, when she finally caught this blind lot of angel rebels popping up, she might have had a chance to show what it could do. But who would have thought they'd lose their nerve in the end. I'd guess General Baixue is stamping her feet in fury aboard the lead ship of the T6 Holy-Blood Hell-Angel class this very minute."
Zhao Chen could not help laughing at that.
Nana's guess was very likely right.
That girl Baixue, without such equipment, might have been all right; she would not have hankered after it.
But with equipment this good laid in front of her, if you did not let her have a thoroughly good fight, she would be out of sorts from head to foot.
"No hurry; there'll be a use for it sooner or later," Zhao Chen said with a laugh.
Chief Engineer Nana summed up: "As things stand, the Owl Dragon Empire's combat T6 warship technologies are nearly all gathered in. The only ones missing are two: the T6-grade interstellar battleship and interstellar escort. The rest are minor matters. Because the T6 interstellar battleship has been so long in being developed and built, General Xue Xiaoxiao has glared at me every single time we've met. But there's nothing I can do about it." Chief Engineer Nana shrugged helplessly.
At the thought of how that girl Xue Xiaoxiao doted on interstellar battleships, Zhao Chen did not need to think to know what face she made.
Come to that, he had promised her once that he would certainly get her a T6-grade interstellar battleship.
It was about time now for him to make good on that promise.
Zhao Chen took out two USB sticks and gave them to Chief Engineer Nana.
"As it happens, I have them ready here. These are the T6 Purple-Gold Silver Dragon-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship and the T6 White-Jade Black Tortoise-class Heavy Interstellar Strategic Escort," Zhao Chen explained.
Spider Queen Iris, who had been sitting quietly listening all this while and eating a little now and then, stirred for the first time and looked over eagerly.
She was not like Chief Engineer Nana; she loved her work, but not these sessions of reporting.
So she had only been listening from the side until now.
But now two new T6 technologies had appeared, and something in Spider Queen Iris jumped; she was all attention at once, and began studying the technologies stored on the two USB sticks Zhao Chen had handed over.
Chief Engineer Annie, who had been busy eating, felt her heart sink.
Right, so it's overtime again the minute I get back.
Which made Chief Engineer Annie look at Zhao Chen with some resentment: he really is still the same black-hearted big boss; back only a moment, and already showing his true nature of squeezing his workers dry.
It hasn't even been a little while, and he's already handing out new build tasks.
To think how many brain cells I, Annie, starved to death this past half year getting those new technologies into fast mass production.
Hmph.
While I've got the chance, I'll eat back a bit extra first.
Thinking this, Annie slurped down several more super oysters, each of them as big as a washbasin, the meat very fresh and sweet.
"Get these two warships into the family of the Owl Dragon Legion's fleets as soon as you can. Round out our legion fleets' establishment." Zhao Chen looked at Chief Engineer Nana.
Planning of this kind could only be left to Chief Engineer Nana; left to Chief Engineer Annie, who knew what year of the monkey it would be.
"Rest assured. We have enough T6 Steel Star Cities now to make sure the first batch of both these T6 warships can be produced in the shortest possible time, and to speed up production of the batches after. We'll fill that gap in our legion fleets!" Chief Engineer Nana said with full confidence.
At that Zhao Chen was reassured.
Beep beep beep beep.
Just then, on the data panel before Chief Engineer Nana, there was a flash of fire.
"Holy crap." A piece of oyster fell straight off Chief Engineer Annie's chopsticks onto the floor, and she felt her heart break along with it.