Chapter 320: The Possibility of Annexing the Eastern Continent (Patreon)

Chapter 320: The Possibility of Annexing the Eastern Continent

"High-energy lasers, energy shields, and levitation engines."

Before Su Wu, several different technological development paths emerged.

These were the anticipated branches that would unfold after reverse-engineering the biological warships.

After weighing the options.

Su Wu determined the order of research.

"Let's prioritize the high-energy laser, as it's the closest to success."

"Conventional electromagnetic weapons have limited effectiveness against biological warships."

"Strategic-level super-large electromagnetic railguns and the Eden Satellite's space-based strikes."

"However, the preparatory time required is too long, and the risks in actual combat are too great."

"Laser weapons serve as an excellent supplement."

"They can achieve instant strikes."

"And more easily form concentrated firepower advantages."

"For example, in this battle, the electromagnetic weapons of ordinary Spider Robots were almost useless."

"If they were replaced with laser weapons."

"Even with lower power, when combined, they could cause significant damage."

After marking the laser weapons.

Su Wu then chose the energy shield over the engine between the two.

The difficulty of researching both was equal.

But currently, the farmhouse.

Was a massive, immobile super-sized shelter.

Whether facing natural disasters or war.

It could only confront them head-on.

Therefore, the desire to enhance defense surpassed all else.

Having an additional protective method like an energy shield.

For Su Wu, was temporarily more meaningful than making a breakthrough in engines.

After all, only by surviving and preserving the foundation.

Could one then discuss development and the future.

"Currently, including the fixed income from the ruled population and the income from the game."

"About 20,000 to 30,000 points of Spirituality can be obtained daily."

"Let's invest 200,000 points of Spirituality first, to analyze the spoils from this battle."

"That should be sufficient."

200,000 Spirituality was a huge amount.

Except for projects involving controlled nuclear fusion, which could change the course of civilization.

Investing in any ordinary research field.

Could bring significant results.

However, spending such a large amount of Spirituality was not an easy task.

Especially since Su Wu wanted to maximize the value of Spirituality.

It could only be fully allocated to Liu Qianqian, who had a special talent in reverse engineering.

It was foreseeable.

That in the coming days.

This girl, who grew up in a wealthy family, never having suffered much, with a somewhat naive and lazy personality.

Would likely have to make the laboratory her home.

She might even be exhausted to tears.

After dealing with the spoils.

Su Wu then turned his attention to communications.

After using the Eden Satellite's space-based strike, which triggered a disaster akin to geological changes.

A large number of communication requests.

Started pouring into the farmhouse.

However, without Su Wu's authorization.

Neither the Artificial Intelligence nor the personnel responsible for diplomacy.

Could answer the corresponding questions.

They could only set them aside temporarily, waiting for Su Wu to handle them personally.

This, to some extent, was a drawback of centralization.

Even though an event that shocked the entire world had occurred, even putting hundreds of millions of people on the front lines of the battlefield.

Except for Su Wu himself.

No one else could understand the specific details.

He could only gather information and make assumptions from the side.

After glancing through the communication messages.

He selected a few of the more important ones.

For example, Song Hong from Changming City of the Southeast Alliance, the capital of East Continent, the Federal Ministry of Defense, and the Joint Autonomous Council of West Continent, among others.

He personally responded to these.

The majority of the rest were delegated to Artificial Intelligence by Su Wu.

Given his current status.

Apart from acquaintances and some continental-level forces.

Ordinary super cities were no longer worth his time to personally engage with.

The exchange with Song Hong.

Was nothing particularly special.

It mainly involved explaining the reasons for using weapons.

And catching up on old times.

As for the capital of East Continent.

After Su Wu provided the data on biological warships.

He received some unexpected returns.

The capital of East Continent authorized him to exploit mineral resources across the entire East Continent, except for the West Desert Plateau.

Additionally, they subtly indicated.

That apart from super cities.

He could freely incorporate some regional-level shelters.

As long as he didn’t go too far, they could turn a blind eye.

They would help Su Wu keep the impact within the continental level.

Preventing the Federation from having an excuse to intervene.

"So generous."

Su Wu pondered for a while.

And chose to accept the goodwill from the capital of East Continent.

Although he had already started mining in many places without authorization.

Having legitimate permission would ultimately allow him to stand on the side of righteousness.

Avoiding a lot of trouble.

As for the incorporation of regional shelters, it was an even more substantial gift.

The main factor hindering Su Wu’s expansion in East Continent.

Was essentially the official system led by the capital of East Continent and the Federation.

As long as higher powers didn’t interfere.

Most shelters in East Continent would be like cash on the ground, ready for Su Wu to pick up.

"They must have seen the demonstration of the Eden Satellite."

"Worried about escalating the conflict between the two sides."

"So they took a step back."

"Perhaps they also included the intention of letting the upcoming unknown crisis deal with me."

The attitude of the capital of East Continent was not hard to understand.

Fighting was difficult, and restrictions were ineffective.

So it was better to simply let it be.

As long as he didn’t cause them trouble in the short term.

The rest could be left to natural selection.

However, the logic was sound.

The problem was that Su Wu’s development speed could not be judged by normal standards.

Allowing him to incorporate regional shelters on a large scale.

He could indeed end up moving most of East Continent’s population into his rural compound.

"It seems, moving forward."

"I’ll need to find ways to further accelerate the expansion of the Ice Lake-class transport ships."

"Preferably to form a sweeping momentum across East Continent before the capital of East Continent realizes it."

Realizing this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rise to the top in one step.

Su Wu felt a surge of excitement.

Silently, he raised the future production plan by another level.

Of course.

To truly swallow the entire population of East Continent.

He couldn’t take too big a step at the beginning.

He would start province by province, sweeping from the civilian to the official level.

Once the transport ships were sufficient.

He would then make a concentrated effort to incorporate all civilian shelters and regional official shelters in the shortest time possible.

Move everything away.

This way, the success rate will be a bit higher.

"Additionally, if we really want to transport a large population,"

"the current 450 merchant fleet trains are somewhat insufficient."

"We need to at least double their scale."

The Ice Lake-class transport ships are low-cost to manufacture.

They are Su Wu's main transportation tools now and for a considerable period in the future.

However, the merchant fleet trains also have their own advantages.

Although their load capacity is only equal to that of the Ice Lake-class transport ships,

the internal space composed of a hundred snow transport vehicles is much larger than the latter, and they are also faster.

In terms of transporting population alone,

a single merchant fleet train, in long-distance transport mode,

can carry up to 20,000 passengers.

Whereas, the Ice Lake-class transport ships need to undergo significant modifications at considerable cost to transport population,

and even then, the upper limit is below 5,000 people,

only a quarter of the merchant fleet trains.

The cost-effectiveness is low, far less suitable than using them exclusively for transporting supplies.

Moreover, the merchant fleet trains are not purely transportation tools.

The Icebound-class Land Battleship, leading the merchant fleet,

is, strictly speaking,

a combat unit of a higher level than tanks, with some carrier ship characteristics.

Each additional one equals a simultaneous increase in Su Wu's armed forces.

It's like using one manufacturing resource to gain two benefits.

After ending the communication with the Eastern Continent's capital,

the subsequent calls with the Federation's high officials and the Western Continent Union

were somewhat routine.

The distance between the two sides

is almost half the planet away.

Even before the apocalypse, it was considered very distant,

let alone after the apocalypse.

Under normal circumstances,

both sides would probably never set foot in each other's territories in their lifetimes.

Therefore, this call

was more like a mutual greeting, getting to know each other.

However, compared to the aloof attitude of the Federation's high officials,

the Western Continent Union showed a bit more sincerity in communication.

Su Wu obtained a lot of intelligence from them,

gaining a vague understanding of the current situation in the other half of the Earth.

Overall,

compared to the Eastern Hemisphere, where the Eastern Continent is shrouded in extreme cold and frequent earthquakes,

the Western Hemisphere, which gathers several continents,

is even more disaster-stricken.

Out of the four main battlefields opened by the Amethyst Crystal Entities globally,

they occupy three.

And among them, the main battlefield in the Black Continent

has completely fallen.

The billions of people living on that continent have ceased to send out any information,

most likely having become the Amethyst Crystal Entities' food.

The main battlefield on the Western Continent itself

has also brought great threats and turmoil to the Western Continent.

So far,

over a hundred large shelters have been lost,

and tens of millions have perished in battles with the Amethyst Crystal Entities.

Compared to these losses,

the extreme cold currents and various other natural disasters ravaging the Western Continent's land

seem somewhat gentle,

not always dragging countless populations into desperate situations.

In terms of civilian forces,

with the Federation authorities intentionally reducing the coverage of the satellite network,

communication between various continents in the Western Hemisphere, and even between shelters within the same continent,

even if they are only a few kilometers apart in a straight line,

is extremely difficult.

The level of information isolation is high.

Compared to the situation in Dongzhou before Su Wu activated the satellite network, the current state is even more severe.

The only remaining advantage is that, before the apocalypse, many areas in their region were popular for building doomsday shelters. Many of these doomsday shelters have even been constructed for one or two centuries, passed down through several generations. With such ample preparation, the supplies in many shelters in Xizhou are abundant to an unimaginable extent, capable of sustaining them for decades or even centuries without significant issues.

"Abundant supplies, ample population."

"Except for the fact that the distance is too far."

"That place is practically fertile ground for developing shelters."

Not knowing about it before was one thing, but now, facing such a rich environment in the Western Hemisphere, Su Wu suddenly feels that it would be a waste not to do something. However, this matter is not urgent. It's not too late to consider it after dealing with Dongzhou.

"First, we can use Survival Points to enhance a geostationary satellite and extend the internet to the Western Hemisphere." In the initial phase, through internet services and sixth-generation fighter jets, we can acquire some rare resources that don't occupy much space. The rest can be gradually conquered."

After setting the preliminary plan and shifting his gaze back from the distant Western Hemisphere, Su Wu reopened the map of Dongzhou. Yesterday's battle with the Amethyst Crystal Entity did not affect the resource extraction and transportation operations outside of Jianghe City. The team transporting marine life returning from Fuhai Province in the south and the main transport fleet gradually collecting supplies step by step along the Kuanjiang River Basin are still operating stably and normally. At most, some of the faster Binghu-class transport ships temporarily stored the transported supplies at the border between Jianghe City and neighboring Tumen City. This is not a big problem. Unlike people and some special items, ordinary supplies can be stored outdoors for a short period, at most wasting a bit of loading and unloading time.

"Let the latest batch of Binghu-class transport ships just produced go and retrieve these supplies.""

Su Wu casually made arrangements without much concern. Even during the most intense moments of yesterday's battle, when the Amethyst Crystal Entity's biological warships used lasers to pierce part of the assembly workshop on the ground floor of the farmhouse, the shelter's internal production and manufacturing activities, presided over by Artificial Intelligence, did not stop. They continued to produce Binghu-class transport ships and various mechanical equipment needed for the shelter. This resulted in Su Wu, who had already dispatched all Binghu-class transport ships before the battle with the Amethyst Crystal Entity, now having over 100 newly produced ships in hand, which can be used for this task.

Besides the Binghu-class transport ships, the caravan trains Su Wu conscripted for the battle are still gathered around the farmhouse, temporarily idle. Through the holographic map, Su Wu naturally planned their next tasks from a distance, looking at this massive fleet, which is completely sufficient to form a mobile super city. First, they will return to the farmhouse in sequence to repair battle damage, replenish ammunition, and load the Spider Robot army. Then, they will head south to Xiaojiang Province to take over the area already agreed upon with the owner of Xiaojiang Province, Changming City. With experience in conquering the Kuanjiang River Basin and the area around Yu'an City, the team sent to Xiaojiang Province is now even larger.

Su Wu was well-versed in taking over the region with its massive population of 70 million.

Moreover, he was fully confident in minimizing the likelihood of conflicts and losses during the transition process.

(End of Chapter)