"It's nothing. I'm just a little tired."
Even though Brian forced himself to act normal, his body betrayed him.
He lost his balance and collapsed, falling into Number One's arms.
He could smell the fragrance from Number One's skin.
Then, Brian instantly sobered greatly.
"Number One, bring me to the underground base. I need you to help me relieve my fatigue."
Number One's skin was rather dark, but her face was very rosy.
She did not pretend to be shy. Instead, she answered decisively.
"Yes, Divine Lord. Number One firmly obeys orders."
Then, the two of them walked toward the secret chamber in the underground base.
They left behind the other nine male Sweepers, Harris, and the other production staff.
They looked at each other and all flashed a smile that only men understood.
"Big Sister and the Overlord are finally taking that step."
"Yeah, it hasn't been easy at all."
…
Everyone waited for a while. It was neither a long nor short period of time.
Just as everyone was getting impatient, Brian and Number One walked over.
Number One was slightly behind Brian as she followed closely behind him.
Brian was clearly in better spirits than before.
"As expected of battleships capable of spatial hyperdrive. Just the production line alone cost more than half of our resources."
Harris glanced at Number One and immediately lowered his head, not daring to look at her any longer. Then, he quickly added on.
"That's right. The stronger the combat power of the equipment, the more energy consumed to build the production line. This is very normal. I just didn't expect the production line of a destruction-grade battleship to be as big as a city. It seems that the combat power of a destruction-grade warship is indeed extremely powerful. It's not something that ordinary people can imagine."
"This is just the production line. If we were to actually produce the battleships, the amount of resources consumed would reach a terrifying amount."
"It's not wonder that Planet Bhutler only had three full fleets before executing interstellar plundering, even after almost 100,000 years of development."
After a long sigh, Harris suddenly thought of a question.
"Overlord, our current technology level is enough for interstellar travel, but our energy is far from fulfilling our needs. You previously said that you have a way to solve the problem of materials and energy, but this…"
The energy problem that Harris mentioned was very practical.
Without sufficient materials, no matter how advanced a battleship was, it could not be built.
Without sufficient energy, no matter how powerful a battleship was, it would be useless.
Harris' voice trembled slightly towards the end as he spoke as he knew very well how big the resource gap was. They needed tens of billions of resources. Even if he were to extract all the resources currently present on Planet Helka, it would be like pouring a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood.
After all, Planet Helka had long been regarded as a "mining planet" by Planet Bhutler, and most of their mining resources had been seized by Planet Bhutler.
Harris even felt that Brian had no so-called solution at all.
Thus, he was afraid that his question would make Brian angry.
However, Brian's reaction was very calm.
"If Planet Helka has no resources, can't we borrow the resources of other planets? After all, I can use any resources."
Harris suddenly understood.
Then, he hurried back to his workshop and took out a fiber-optic storage device.
"Overlord, this is the information I collected previously."
"I know of a colonial planet closest to Planet Helka. It is the newest colonial planet of Planet Bhutler and is called Planet Terra, a mineral resource planet. It's 100 million kilometers away. You can easy reach it with the help of the Rising Fighter Jets."
Brian took the device and checked against the photon computer system. Then, he nodded in satisfaction.
"That's right. This planet has a rich variety of resources, and they haven't been exploited on a large scale yet. The Terrarians also have a grudge against the Bhutlerians that cannot be easily resolved."
"The enemy of the enemy is our friend. The Terrarians are also an intelligent race. On average, they are four meters tall. They have round bodies, many feet, and two hands. Furthermore, their reproduction speed is extremely fast… They are called 'rats' by the Bhutlerian bandits… They are a low-level civilization. They are not even a Level 1 Civilization."
Brian quickly read the information and immediately asked Harris a question.
"How long will it take us to get to Planet Terra on the Rising Fighter Jets?"
"With the warp drive engines of the Rising Fighter Jets, we only need three days to reach Planet Terra. Meanwhile, the S Battleships of Planet Bhutler would need at least twenty days to reach there. It's beyond their reach. This is simply a mineral planet prepared for us!"
Number One added on. "Previously, when we were gathering resources, we had also secretly entered Planet Terra and interacted with them. The people of Planet Terra were very kind, and a portion of them had previously revealed their willingness to cooperate. However, due to the interstellar treaty, Planet Helka was too weak to brazenly head to Planet Terra."
Brian nodded several times in agreement.
"This time, we will send all of the Rising Fighter Jets there, as well as half of the Snow Eagle Mechas that will be used as escorts. We will also equip them with large-caliber electromagnetic cannons. Furthermore, we will improve the battleship left behind by the S Battleship Squadron, install a warp drive engine, and send it over. We will let the people of Planet Terra witness our strength."
"There's no need to bring too much power. It only has to be enough to defeat the guards from Planet Bhutler and Terrarians who don't agree to cooperate with us."
"Yes, Overlord."
"Has Bob's fake news gotten out?"
Number One replied, "Divine Lord, I've already asked him to use the communication device in the 'dark spots' that he left behind previously to transmit false information about our equipment to Planet Bhutler. Now, the information they have received is that we have suffered a huge loss. They think that we can't organize our basic armed forces and can't even maintain our self-defense forces."
"Very good. As expected of the woman I admire."
Number One blushed after hearing Brian's compliment.
Brian's purpose was to make the upper echelons of the Planet Bhutler look down on Planet Helka. He wanted them to think that Planet Helka was only able to defeat the elite troops of Planet Bhutler because of a "dying flash". He wanted to minimize the pressure of the battle against the full S Battleship Fleet as much as possible.
After all, people's thoughts were always changing. No one knew if the upper echelons of Planet Bhutler would go berserk and deploy multiple full fleets to attack Planet Helka.
It was just a full S Battleship Fleet. Thus, Brian believed that there was no need for a fleet of destruction-grade battleships. They could defeat the enemy battleship with his current basic armed forces.
After all, Planet Helka was fighting in her own home. Thus, they could continue to fight while their logistics were safeguarded. Furthermore, Brian had prepared many pieces of technological equipment.
Moreover, the Bhutlerian S Battleship Fleet had come from a very long distance away to execute a long-range raid. Thus, their energy resources would only be enough for a short battle.
When Brian received this information, there was no turning back.
"Go and prepare. We'll set off in a day."
"The most urgent thing right now is to train the destruction-grade battleship soldiers. In the future interstellar battlefield, large battleships will definitely be the main force used. Right now, it's already very difficult to defend ourselves with just small fighter jets."
Brian was responsible for the lives of all the inhabitants of Planet Helka. Thus, he felt a great sense of danger.
Planet Helka's greatest problems were the problems of population and resources.
If they had a shortage of resources, they could borrow the resources of other planets.
However, the problem of population was not so easy to solve.
Collecting resources did not require specialized personnel as long as one had sufficient stamina. In fact, one could even use simple robots to complete most of the work.
On the other hand, the interstellar battleships could only be controlled by professionals who had undergone long periods of training.
Capturing intelligent creatures from other planets could solve the problem of personnel shortage quickly. However, they also had to consider the problem of loyalty.
After all, the people they captured were outsiders.
Brian had thought of using intelligent robots to replace Helkans for work. However, he had not come into contact with highly intelligent robots.
There was no such robot on Planet Helka. They did not even have a blueprint of it.
This was one of the flaws of his ability.
He could not create things he had never seen before.
"The problem of manpower resources is not a small problem."
After Number One, Harris, and the others left, Brian sighed as he faced the production line that stood in the previously empty clearing.
They had battleships that were powerful enough, and the problem of energy resources was also about to be solved. However, they did not have any qualified battleship operators. This was truly a pity.
Now, due to the lack of resources, the number of battleships on Planet Helka that Brian had created was not enough.
However, in the future, when his battleship fleet grew in size, this problem would bother him even more.
The longer this dragged on, the bigger the problem would be, and the more trouble he would face. The sooner this problem was solved, the better it was.
Otherwise, when the time came, there would be a situation where there would be a "surplus" of battleships.
After thinking for a long time, Brian still could not think of a better solution.
He would think about the next step after taking a step. Right now, he had to solve the energy problem of battleship production.