Quarterly Task
Task: Launch a Sacred-War Duel against the Holy Radiance Empire, and win the Sacred-War Duel in the end.
Task reward: issued by task completion rate
Task completion rate 83%; task reward may be claimed
Congratulations — obtained 500 task points, and the "T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport" technical blueprint
Zhao Chen looked over the reward from this task.
500 task points — exactly what Zhao Chen lacked at present; this reward could not have been more fitting.
For as the Owl Dragon Legion grew mightier, the passive income of System points was already enough to sustain Zhao Chen's expenditure; the crux was the task points.
As for the T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport, this too was a support ship type Zhao Chen needed now.
With the development of the five resource-star-regions, Zhao Chen had T3 Prospector-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ships doing the mining.
And the hauling-back was handled by interstellar transports.
Originally the T3 Great White Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transports had borne that hauling task; but once the T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transports entered service, efficiency would rise enormously!
This T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport, at a raised cruise speed, still had a loadout dozens of times a T3 Great White Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport's!
This could greatly increase transport efficiency!
Most important of all, the T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport could mount a grade-8 warp engine.
Don't underestimate that two-grade gap.
For the interstellar-transport trade, time is money!
"When the time comes, I'll build 30 of this transport model first, to form a transport fleet — dedicated to running the route out to those five resource-star-regions." Zhao Chen began reckoning within.
By now the situation had, near enough, grown clear.
Because of the three-year limit, the Holy Radiance Empire could not, for three years, bring military force directly to bear on the Starlight Empire.
The Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, with the revolutionary army it had propped up setting fires in its own backyard, had no leisure for the time being to launch another expedition against the Starlight Empire either.
And on the frontal battlefield, with Zhao Chen's supply of strategic materials now in place, the half-year "war-lifespan" curse that had bound Chu Changhe was, one might say, thoroughly lifted.
The Starlight Empire war to come would be fiercer still.
And with the worry of combat consumption gone, plus Zhao Chen's ship-factories churning out warships full-bore, this civil war too would enter its most savage phase.
The chessboard before Zhao Chen had come alive!
And on this board Zhao Chen had, at a stroke, grown his own power too, gaining five resource-star-regions.
Nominally he was developing them on another's behalf — but as for things that had gone into Zhao Chen's pocket, expect him to cough them back up?
Dream on!
And this stretch had given Zhao Chen time enough to develop the Owl Dragon Legion besides.
The Owl Dragon Legion had grown a further step, not only in quality but in numbers too.
And as the interstellar industrial ships expanded further, this war-machine in Zhao Chen's hands was, bit by bit, baring its towering menace.
Still, Zhao Chen had one more thing to settle in hand.
That was the annual task.
The Sacred-War Duel over, there were under 20 days left to year's end.
Zhao Chen naturally had to find a way to complete this annual task.
Three of its items — the Owl Dragon Legion's monthly income, the Owl Dragon Legion's in-service T4-grade warships, and the star regions the Owl Dragon Legion controlled — had all met their requirements long since.
Two task requirements remained unmet.
Requirement Two: Possess T2-and-above interstellar warships in counts of "3,000 / 6,000 / 9,000 / 12,000 / 15,000." Progress: 15,000 (five stars)
Requirement Three: Possess "one / two / three / four / five" T4 combat-type interstellar warships. Progress: three models (three stars)
So Zhao Chen's annual task had already earned 23 stars; two short of the top of 25.
And the only two stars still lacking were, of course, two models of T4-grade combat-type warship.
Zhao Chen opened his page.
Host: Zhao Chen
Profession: Top-tier Starship Engineer
Special Attributes: Fleet Luck-Value Bonus, Eye of Insight
System points: 2,090,000 (single-month fleet income: 1,280,000 points)
Task points: 800
Ship count: 15,311
Task: Annual Task (incomplete)
Warehouse: T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought, Hades Matrix module…
System points and task points were both plentiful.
Zhao Chen at once began browsing the T4-grade warships.
This time he was looking at the interstellar-destroyer category.
After all, there were only a few days left to the deadline he'd agreed with old Chu Changhe; since he had to complete the task anyway, he'd redeem it now.
But the T4-grade interstellar destroyer he'd redeem this time wasn't customized for the Owl Dragon Legion — it was to meet old Chu Changhe's requirements.
That is: high value for cost, fast to build, low in cost, low in mastery-difficulty, and so on.
And these didn't fit the customized requirements of Zhao Chen's crack Owl Dragon Legion fleet.
So afterward Zhao Chen would still arrange another interstellar-destroyer model for his own Owl Dragon Legion.
Soon, Zhao Chen locked onto the item to redeem.
Spend 1,000,000 System points and 60 task points to redeem the "T4 Skeleton-Legion-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer" technical blueprint?
Confirm!
Congratulations — obtained the "T4 Skeleton-Legion-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer" technical blueprint
Before — System points: 2,090,000
Before — task points: 800
Spent — System points: 1,000,000
Spent — task points: 60
After — System points: 1,090,000
After — task points: 740
This T4 Skeleton-Legion-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer fit Chu Changhe's needs very well.
A few of its traits alone made that plain.
First was its build-tech requirement: T4-grade warship though it was, a great many T3-grade dockyards and build-factories could handle it perfectly well — no great technical difficulty in it.
Next were its build-resources and build-cost.
The build-resources were all common raw materials, which brought the per-ship build-cost down to a mere hundred million star coins!
100 million star coins — what did that mean?
For instance, the Owl Dragon Legion's in-service T4 Paladin-class Heavy Interstellar Missile-Escort cost 500 million each to build.
Even the T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport Zhao Chen had just gotten cost 100 million star coins to build.
Perhaps that's still not direct enough.
The Owl Dragon Legion's in-service T3 Imperial-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship cost 100 million star coins each.
Now, then — one thoroughly grasps how cheap this T4 Skeleton-Legion-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer is.
And this warship's weakness was plain too: its single-ship combat power was comparatively weak; its one advantage was perhaps its stout, hard-to-batter hull armor.
Its all-round strength fell far short of the Holy Radiance Empire's Divine-Envoy-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer.
But when its numbers were stacked up.
With hundreds, thousands of them, it was a wholly different matter — this interstellar-destroyer model was fitted with a special combat system that could link up all destroyers of the same model, and came with a mid-tier intelligent combat system besides.
So that, however many of this T4 Skeleton-Legion-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer there were, once that combat system engaged, they could act in exceedingly well-coordinated concert.
In large-scale legion battles, this was a formidable combat capacity.