"Lilith, make ready. We can head back to the Owl Dragon System now." Zhao Chen looked to Lilith at his side.
"Yes." Lilith began arranging the matters of the return voyage.
Zhao Chen, for his part, sat in the captain's chair in an attitude of resting with his eyes closed. In truth, he was claiming his System rewards.
Ding! Task one: Destroy thirty T3 Hive Motherships. Complete!
Claiming mission reward: acquired a T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Reconnaissance Ship technical blueprint.
The first task reward, in hand — and it turned out to be a T3 interstellar stealth reconnaissance ship! This was a battlefield auxiliary-type warship; though it had little by way of combat ability, it was an indispensable link in a large-scale campaign.
Ding! Task two: Annihilate a total of one billion hive-race units. Complete!
Claiming mission reward: 300 task points.
Ding! Task three: Rescue the common people whose lives are threatened by the hive-race plague, reaching a certain order of magnitude…
Claiming mission reward: 250,000 System points.
Task two and task three gave Zhao Chen, respectively, a great quantity of task points and System points.
Ding! Task four: "The Morton System hive-race battle" and "The Sapphire System Third Planet Rescue Battle" are complete.
Claiming mission reward: a T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship.
In an instant Zhao Chen's mood soared!
A T3-grade missile ship!
Having witnessed the ultimate charm of the T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship's firepower output, Zhao Chen was exceedingly fond of this ship-type, the missile ship, as well. And just now Zhao Chen already had the T3 Triceratops in hand; the coordination of this one shield and one spear was, quite simply, too perfect for words.
Zhao Chen at once began taking in the sight of this "great beauty."
Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship
Ship-type: Missile Ship
Tech grade: T3
Hull armor strength: 1,000–1,100 units
Shield energy value: 10,000 units
Cruising speed: 80 star-knots
Warp engine: tier-6 warp engine
Length: 1,098 meters
Mass: 680,000 tons
Crew posts: 300
Ship weapons: 10,000 Judicator Type-I conventional interstellar missiles; 2,000 Judicator Type-II mid-range heavy interstellar missiles; 2,000 Judicator Type-III ultra-long-range medium interstellar missiles; 500 Judicator Type-IV mid-to-long-range cluster-submunition missiles; 500 Judicator Type-V heavy anti-energy-shield special missiles.
Zhao Chen gulped.
An interstellar arsenal ship!
This was a true interstellar arsenal ship!
Set against the T2 Lion King's paltry ammunition load from before, this was a true mobile powder-keg! Fully loaded, its interstellar missiles of every model came to 15,000 in all! Five kinds of interstellar missile. Usable for conventional combat, mid-range fire support, ultra-long-range fire-strike, saturation-coverage fire-strike, and special missiles aimed at star shields!
Seeing these dense, teeming introductions of the interstellar missiles, Zhao Chen had one intuitive feeling.
Money!
These were all money.
And it had to be said, this was, beyond all doubt, a "bizarre" model of warship. Have you ever seen a warship whose consumable munitions carried aboard cost more than the warship itself to build? And costlier by no small measure, at that — a full four times over!
The T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship's hull build cost was a mere 50 million star coins — at present the second-highest build cost among the combat-type T3 warships under Zhao Chen's hand, next only to the T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship. But…
the 15,000 interstellar missiles the T3 Judicator carried required a full 200 million star coins! And, mind you, that was only the build cost! Reckoned this way, this missile ship's overall build cost came to 250 million star coins! It was, beyond all doubt, the single most expensive-to-build T3-grade warship in the Starlight Empire, indeed in the whole Galactic Alliance! Bar none!
The Type-I conventional interstellar missile aboard this T3 Judicator cost a full 5,000 star coins per single missile! The Type-II and Type-III each reached an astonishing 20,000 star coins per missile! And the Type-IV and Type-V above all — those two kinds of interstellar missile cost a terrifying 70,000 star coins per single missile!
What sort of concept was 70,000 star coins? The T2 Hyena's build cost was a mere 200,000 star coins! Three of these interstellar missiles of ours were as good as a whole T2 Hyena of theirs!
"I'd thought the T2 Lion King was already money-burning enough — how small my vision was!" There was some complexity in Zhao Chen's heart, whether joy or sorrow there was no telling. This missile ship couldn't be used lightly. This was truly a case of one missile fires, and 10,000 taels of gold go up with it!
Of course, this was, too, a double-edged sword. If this T3 Judicator were caught by an enemy ship's surprise strike while fully loaded with interstellar missiles, then it might well cause damage to friendly ships across a very wide range! This was, too, the reason no small number of interstellar powers were unwilling to have missile ships — a moment's carelessness, and it became a "whole-team-wipe engine"!
Though the T3 Judicator burned money, this meant, too, its absolute capacity to dominate the battlefield! Just think — 15,000 interstellar missiles fired in a single salvo — what sort of scene would that be? And if there were 10 T3 Judicators, firing at full power! What a scene that would be. The mere thought of it was thrilling.
"As it happens, the T2 Lion King's firepower output was somewhat lacking to begin with — this T3 Judicator will just make it up." Zhao Chen laid the plans in his heart. He took a look at his own data situation just now.
Host: Zhao Chen
Profession: Top-tier Starship Engineer
Special Attributes: Fleet Luck Bonus · Eye of Insight
System Points: 250,000 (single-month fleet revenue: 2,600 points)
Task points: 320
Ship count: 143
Missions: Quarterly mission (incomplete), Annual mission (incomplete)
Warehouse: T4 Reviver-class… …
Leaning on this one wave of System missions, he'd become, straight off, a "great tycoon."
"Looked at this way — is it enough to upgrade to the T4 mall?" Zhao Chen rubbed at his chin. But there was a problem in this: though Zhao Chen now had a great many System points, after upgrading to the T4 mall, in all likelihood it would still not be enough to redeem a T4-grade warship. So the T4 mall would be but a "decoration."
"But just now I've got no small number of T3 warship-types in hand already; redeem too many more, and the production capacity won't be enough to build them either," Zhao Chen muttered. In the end, he still chose to upgrade the mall first. Even if for the moment he couldn't redeem a T4 warship, he could collect some data on the T4 warships, and set himself a few small goals.
T3 System Mall upgrade conditions:
Item one: Redeem three T3-grade goods (3/3).
Item two: Complete three B-rank System missions (3/3).
Item three: Consume 60,000 System points to conduct the mall upgrade (250,000/60,000).