Quarterly Mission: Own three classes of starship (system-produced).
Mission complete; reward available to claim.
Mission reward claimed.
Acquired: 10 task points.
Acquired: 1,000 System points.
Acquired: one T2 Super-Soldier Serum.
Acquired: one T2 Black-Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat Mecha blueprint.
The Quarterly Mission's reward was rich indeed, sure enough — it hadn't wasted this month of Zhao Chen's anticipation.
Beyond the standard rewards — 10 task points and 1,000 System points — Zhao Chen saw a familiar item.
A T2 Super-Soldier Serum.
By the look of it, this Super-Soldier Serum came in a series.
After injecting the T1 Super-Soldier Serum before, Zhao Chen had felt his physique strengthen enormously all at once.
What, then, would injecting the T2 Super-Soldier Serum do?
Zhao Chen drew a deep breath, and at a flick of thought, a serum tube exactly like the last appeared in his hand.
Recalling the "sensation" of that first injection, Zhao Chen sat down on his bed in advance, drew a deep breath, and jabbed it straight into his arm.
"Ssss, ssss, ssss…"
In an instant Zhao Chen felt as though his head had been jolted by a current, every cell in his body trembling, his very consciousness seeming about to leave him.
After a few minutes of pain, a look of blissful ease spread over Zhao Chen's face, his mouth parting slightly, his eyes narrowing.
The state held half a minute before Zhao Chen came back to himself, still savoring it.
First he threw a punch.
Whoosh.
The blur of a fist flashed past.
Zhao Chen looked around, walked straight to the bedside, and lifted this great bed with a single hand, without the least strain.
He looked at himself in the mirror again: his gaze firmer still, his face as though carved to a sharper contour, the muscles of his abdomen better defined — the just-right sort of degree.
"Had I kicked that Old Chen from before with the strength I have now, I'd likely have taken his whole life with it," Zhao Chen muttered.
Zhao Chen drew back his thoughts and looked to the last of the mission rewards.
The T2 Black-Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat Mecha.
A weapon like the combat mecha had, in fact, been reduced to a supporting role in this interstellar age.
Even so, the combat mecha remained something not to be done without.
For a starship could fight in the environment of space — but to take and hold a planet?
If you meant only to wipe out the powers on a world, you could simply have your ships carry out an orbital bombardment, scouring the ground with fire.
But if you wished to bring a world under control while doing it the least possible harm, then the combat mecha was a weapon you could not do without.
Note that the combat mecha and the interstellar combat mecha, though the same class of weapon, were two wholly different branches.
The former was generally deployed among ground forces within a planet.
The latter could fight in the environment of space, and could even carry out ship-to-ship boarding actions!
Zhao Chen looked over the interstellar mecha's data.
T2 Black-Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat Mecha
Type: interstellar combat mecha
Tech tier: T2
Frame armor strength: 40 units – 50 units
Frame cruise speed: 10 star-knots
Frame maximum speed: 30 star-knots
Frame height: 15.8 meters
Mass: 420 tons
Crew posts: 1
Frame weapons: two thirty-six-barrel gatling-type laser autocannons, 30-cell light missiles, one Black-Knight light-sword
The frame's armor strength was already the equal of a T1 ship's, and its weapons could match a T1 ship's firepower besides, with a melee weapon on top of that.
Its cruise speed was rather slow — it was, after all, an interstellar combat mecha, not a starship.
But its short-burst maximum speed could match the cruise speed of some T2 ships.
"I could build and deploy some interstellar combat mecha to stand ready in the ships' hangars; they may well come in useful for future operations targeting a planet's surface," Zhao Chen mused inwardly.
Having gone over the interstellar combat mecha, Zhao Chen cast an eye over his own data interface.
Host: Zhao Chen
Profession: Master Starship Engineer
Special Attribute: fleet Luck-value bonus, Eye of Insight
Points: 2,950
Task points: 20
Starships: 12
Mission: none
Warehouse: T3 Blizzard-class……
The task points and System points had both been added on; besides the 1,000 System points from this reward, there were the monthly ship-income points accrued over October and November — 160 System points in all.
Zhao Chen pondered a moment, then opened the T2 Store upgrade page.
T2 System Store upgrade conditions:
First — redeem two T2-tier items (2/2)
Second — complete two C-rank system missions (2/2)
Third — spend 2,000 System points to upgrade the store (2,950/2,000)
All three of the T2 Store upgrade conditions were met.
Confirm spending 2,000 System points to upgrade the T2 Store to the T3 Store? [Y/N]
"Confirm."
2,000 System points spent; T2 Store upgraded to T3 Store.
Your remaining System points: 950.
Congratulations — you have unlocked the T3 series of the system store, and gained one opportunity to redeem any item without the need for task points.
The same reward-privilege as before — but running an eye over the T3-series goods, Zhao Chen found their average price ran to 6,000 System points; this "pauper" of a Zhao Chen had no System points to spare to redeem a thing, and could only feast his eyes.
Afterward, Zhao Chen went along with Charlotte to oversee the T2 Black-Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy-Assault Frigates' first shakedown run.
The 10 T2 Black-Rhinos formed up and left the starport, not returning until several hours on.
The first shakedown run was completed without a hitch.
Next came buying a batch of military supplies and living supplies; Zhao Chen still had a good deal of funds on his account — not enough for building ships, perhaps, but more than ample to keep the 600-odd interstellar soldiers fed and provided for.
At the same time, Zhao Chen made ready, on purpose, a banquet.
A New Year's Eve banquet!
This ought to count as Zhao Chen's first New Year since transmigrating into this world.
In the ship workshop, a patch of open ground was cleared, laid with a rich spread of food and drink, the hottest music of the moment playing.
Some danced, some ate and drank their fill, some sang.
"This banquet must have cost no small sum in star coins." Charlotte took a sip of some fierce liquor of no known brand, looking at Zhao Chen and Lilith beside her.
Lilith answered, "5,000 star coins in all."
Charlotte shook her head. 5,000 star coins — back in her days with the resistance fleet, that would have been who-knew-how-many months of the meal standard.
And now it was all spent in a single night.
Extravagant indeed, one might well say.
"What, does it pain you?" Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte, teasing.
Charlotte said nothing, but her expression told all.
"Warriors of the Owl Dragon Fleet — tell me! Are you happy!" Zhao Chen suddenly cried out.
Hearing their commander's voice, everyone shouted, "Happy!"
The corners of Zhao Chen's mouth lifted; he took up the wine cup beside him and drained it in one draught, then said with a laugh, "I, Zhao Chen, have no grand aim. I want only not to fail my family's hopes — to build up my Owl Dragon Star System and my Owl Dragon Fleet well. To let me, and those willing to follow me, live well — live like people, live with hope! Not merely to stay alive, like so many puppets and marionettes. And at the same time, we will hold the strength to let no one bully us! Dignity is always within a starship's firing range!"
No few of the female soldiers stopped what they were doing, gazing at their honored commander with brimming eyes, some of them even with their eye-rims gone red and swollen.
"This day next year, I hope we can still lift our cups and talk freely, dance together beneath the moon! To our future!" Zhao Chen raised his cup once more.
Lilith stepped forward a few paces, laid a hand over her heart, and said solemnly, "By stars and bright moon, we follow unto death!"
"By stars and bright moon, we follow unto death!" the great host of female soldiers said, all as one voice.
Zhao Chen tipped back his head and drained the fierce wine in his cup once more.
And at this moment, the time crossed into a new year.
System advisory: Annual Mission triggered.
System advisory: Quarterly Mission triggered.