With this vast fortune in his hands, Su Wu became even more cautious. He understood that how he allocated this massive amount of survival points would determine his future development trajectory and pace.
Pouring all of it into military expansion might seem thrilling and exhilarating at first, but after the excitement wore off, he would still need to face reality. His enemies were not just other humans.
On a larger scale, even the formidable official refuge was merely a checkpoint in the apocalypse. The greatest threat, from beginning to end, had never changed. It was still the natural disasters that plagued the world.
"I need to control expenditures. Expand the armed forces appropriately—just enough to meet our needs."
Su Wu decided on his expansion principle.
This might sound simple, but striking the right balance to ensure the forces were sufficient yet not wasteful was a challenge.
Calling up the AI's database on the control console, Su Wu scanned through designs of various weapons.
After reviewing these once-perplexing blueprints, he now felt completely different. Thanks to the enhancements brought by his biochip—boosting both thought processes and memory—he could effortlessly dissect these once-arcane concepts.
He even incorporated flashes of inspiration into the existing designs.
"First and foremost, it's time to establish a true mainstay for field combat."
Unlike the small fry he'd faced in the past, dealing with an official force required creating a strong, large-scale field unit.
The primary requirement for such a unit was firepower.
Robotic dogs and drones, in the face of this pure and overwhelming demand, were insufficient. Using them as the backbone of a field force felt like feeding meticulously prepared meals to pigs—it was a waste.
After careful consideration, Su Wu focused on a 155mm howitzer.
In terms of firepower, the 155mm howitzer was a behemoth. Its maximum destructive radius reached 200 meters. A single shot could impact half a mile, and even a heavy tank struck directly would likely leave its crew with no chance of survival.
Cost-wise, under the same destructive power, a single shell cost less than a tenth of a rocket's price, making it an epitome of affordability and effectiveness.
In terms of range, the 155mm howitzer could fire up to 40 kilometers, not falling short compared to most rockets.
It lacked precision and terminal guidance features, but for heavy artillery, precision wasn't critical. With sufficient firepower, whether the shot deviated by a few meters or a dozen made little difference.
This weapon was truly capable of systematically wiping out regular armies—a lethal tool of war, economical yet effective.
"This will be it."
Using the blueprint of the 155mm howitzer, Su Wu made numerous adjustments.
Finally, a tank-like vehicle combining the treads of the Ore Type-1 transport vehicle and the turret of the 155mm howitzer appeared in the design.
This 155mm self-propelled howitzer weighed 25.25 tons and could carry 50 rounds of 45kg shells. It boasted a firing rate of up to ten rounds per minute.
It was the epitome of an extremely violent and professional killing machine.
The drawbacks were its weaker defense compared to true tanks or armored vehicles and its high cost.
Even with no need for survival points, just its weight of 25 tons required a staggering amount of metal materials.
At the Sentinel Base, with two geothermal generators and a small high-temperature furnace running non-stop for 24 hours, the daily output barely sufficed to produce a single unit.
In the wider world, many small refuges might not even manage to gather enough scrap metal to assemble a single 155mm self-propelled howitzer, even after exhausting all appliances and metal possessions.
"It's expensive, sure, but as a symbol distinguishing a proper military from civilian forces, it's acceptable."
Reviewing the materials in the refuge inventory, Su Wu weighed his options and eventually set a production target for 20 units of the 155mm self-propelled howitzer.
But just having the artillery wasn't enough. Complementary systems for command, air defense, and concealment were also indispensable. Without these, the 20 self-propelled howitzers would essentially be one-time-use items, vulnerable to being wiped out before even firing a shot.
For these supplementary systems, Su Wu couldn't afford to skimp on survival points. He anticipated a minimum expenditure in the double digits.
With the plan for the main field combat unit established, Su Wu shifted his focus to robotic dogs and drones.
Not choosing them as the primary field force wasn't due to their lack of power, but rather their cost. That said, they remained highly formidable and indispensable in close quarters, especially within refuges, where conflicts were more likely to occur.
"The original robotic dogs sacrificed computational power to save on cost and energy. But if energy consumption isn't a concern, I can integrate more mid-level chips into individual units, enhancing overall computing power while easing the load on the cluster command core."
Mid-level chips represented the pinnacle of Su Wu's refuge's 3D printing capabilities. They were technically still micro-level chips but, through ingenious designs and unrestricted size expansion, their performance could rival some nano-level chips under high power consumption.
After these modifications, without altering the performance of the command core robotic dog, each ground combat cluster, originally composed of 20 robotic dogs, could expand to 30 units. This would match the scale of drone clusters.
Furthermore, these enhanced robotic dogs could function with greater flexibility in combat scenarios.
For these indispensable tools of refuge control, Su Wu commissioned the production of 30 robotic dog ground combat clusters and 40 drone clusters, alongside ten dedicated transport vehicles for swift deployment and maneuverability.
Once these hundreds of robotic dogs and drones rolled off the production line, Su Wu would wield enough strength to suppress the public order of a refuge housing tens of thousands of people.
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