Chen Xiaolian was standing within a square-shaped space. The place… looked like an elevator.
After the wall had rotated outward, Chen Xiaolian stepped inside and the wall behind him automatically closed up.
Next, he found himself inside this square-shaped space.
The ceiling above him, the floor beneath him, the four walls around him, they were all glowing with a silvery metal lustre. Chen Xiaolian reached out with his hand to feel them.
Cold and hard.
He could sense that he was rapidly descending. However, during the process of descending, he felt neither vibration nor quivering.
Chen Xiaolian began calculating within his mind. After a full 10 seconds, the descending sensation vanished.
The metal plate before him that had no cracks on its surface suddenly split open from the middle.
Chen Xiaolian’s eyes lit up!
What lay before him was… a room!
The room was dark. However, a light lit up on the wall, casting a soft illumination upon the room.
Chen Xiaolian walked forward until he was standing within the room. Then, the metal plate behind him quickly closed up.
The floor beneath his feet was as smooth as the surface of a mirror, yet it had the same metallic quality to it.
The room itself was very spacious and was about as big as a school classroom.
There were around four to five metal doors around Chen Xiaolian, each of them bearing words on them… however, Chen Xiaolian could not recognize the words used.
He sensed that he had found the right place!
Those words that he could not decipher may very well had been left behind by… the Conqueror Guild!
A round metal orb floated in the middle of the room. The orb was roughly the size of a computer monitor and it floated in the middle of the air. The sight of the orb there was truly mystifying.
Chen Xiaolian strode forward.
He had noticed something on the surface of the metal orb!
It was a long and circular groove!
Chen Xiaolian pulled out the memory crystal that he had acquired earlier and gently inserted it into the groove.
Instantly, light shone out from the metal orb and it began to rotate.
The speed of the orb’s rotation was not too fast and appeared to be very gentle.
A curving image appeared on top of the orb. The image flashed slowly… like ripples in the water.
Chen Xiaolian was surprised and he observed the ripples. Then, he attempted to reach out with his hand to gently feel it.
It was very soft.
Just like a… liquid body?
At the same instant when his fingertips made contact with the surface, Chen Xiaolian noticed the orb flash out. His heart skipped a beat and he quickly pressed his entire right hand down on its surface.
The seemingly rippling image swiftly transformed into the shape of a palm print and a light swept back and forth. It would appear that the light was scanning the palm print?
When he exerted a little more force, Chen Xiaolian felt his hand sinking into the metal orb…
Liquid metal?
Chen Xiaolian was surprised. This is some high-grade goods!
A few seconds later, a few lines of words appeared on the surface of the metal orb.
“Screening of identity complete, language system accessed. Acquired Level 1 clearance.”
Seeing that he could now recognize the words, Chen Xiaolian breathed a sigh of relief – this thing seems quite intelligent. It could select the language that I understand based on my identity.
At the same time, he also noticed that the rooms around him had been changed. The words on the nameplates had disappeared and replaced with words that he could understand!
“Provisions.”
“Weapons and Equipment warehouse.”
“Training Ground.”
“Maintenance and Repair.”
“Main Energy Control.”
Seeing those words, Chen Xiaolian became ecstatic!
This is it!
This is the place!
Chen Xiaolian pumped his fist triumphantly before moving to the door on his left.
It was the one closest to him, the one labelled as ‘Training Ground’.
When he was standing before the door, ripples automatically appeared on the surface of the door. Chen Xiaolian pressed his palm on the surface. One second later, the metal door slowly opened up.
The interior was very large. From what he could see, it was comparable to a football field.
The empty feeling he got by standing inside made him feel uncomfortable.
However, he did notice a small metal orb floating near the door.
Chen Xiaolian walked over and he slowly pressed his palm down on the orb.
He was able to quickly trigger a response.
“Please select the background for the training simulation.”
“Simulate city terrain.”
“Simulate mountain terrain.”
“Simulate space terrain.”
“Simulate battlefield terrain.”
“… … …”
Seeing those options, Chen Xiaolian became shocked.
Upon each of those options, there was also a simple and miniature picture of a map.
Additionally, there was another option below.
“Upload background for simulation.”
I can even upload?
In other words… I can personally decide what terrain I want?
Chen Xiaolian was unable to stop himself from exhaling.
Chen Xiaolian suppressed his curiosity and impulse to instantly simulate out a terrain. He turned around and walked out of the ‘training ground’.
The door of the training ground room automatically closed up.
He was presently in an urgent situation. There was a monster outside chasing after his ass. Thus, it was not the time to be looking into those details.
The second room situated beside was…
“Provisions.”
The door was opened the same way.
Likewise, the interior was a room as big as a warehouse… however, Chen Xiaolian was disappointed at what he saw. Although there were many shelves inside, all of them were… empty!
Empty?
Chen Xiaolian frowned. He turned around and left.
The third room…
“Weapons and Equipment warehouse.”
Chen Xiaolian watched as the door was opened and stepped inside…
The first word to enter his mind was… huge!
It was a gigantic warehouse!
At a glance, the size of the warehouse seemed comparable to the research warehouse of the underground research institute he had encountered in the Tokyo instance dungeon!
He raised his head to assess the height of the warehouse and saw that it was capable of accommodating a full on mech!
Weapon racks were placed around him.
All the racks had been categorized accordingly.
Cold weapons, fire arms…
Tanks, aircrafts…
However, Chen Xiaolian was disappointed to find that… they were all empty!
Empty!
Chen Xiaolian observed the empty Weapons and Equipment warehouse…
He thought of something…
In the town above, there were so many wreckages and damaged objects…
Tanks, aircrafts and even mechs…
Those things were probably stationed here as reserve before, right?
He exited the room and turned.
He walked to the side…
The fourth room.
“Maintenance and Repair.”
Again, it was also a gigantic warehouse. The size and capacity of this room appeared nearly similar to the weapons and equipment room.
However, there were three workstations left inside this room.
The workstation before him was very big. On either side of the workstation was a large metal arm. The arms were upright, like three-dimensional cylindrical columns.
Considering the size… it would not be an issue to place a mech on top of the workstation.
The other two workstations were similarly shaped. However, their size was much smaller in comparison.
The largest workstation could accommodate a full on mech.
The medium-sized workstation could accommodate a tank or even an aircraft.
As for the small workstation…
It was like a refrigerator. There was a transparent cover on its surface… the cover seemed like glass. However, Chen Xiaolian believed that it must be something more advanced compared to glass.
“Maintenance… repair…”
Chen Xiaolian’s heart suddenly pounded and he removed the damaged [A] class protective suit that he was wearing. Then, he placed it inside the workstation.
After that, he closed the cover.
Soon, a row of words appeared on the metal surface of the workstation.
“Automatic analysis in progress… [A] class protective suit. Percentage of damage: 60.5 %. Status: Can be repaired. Repair result: 95 %+. Expected loss of energy: 300.
“Do you wish to continue?”
Chen Xiaolian hesitated for a moment. Then, he selected ‘Continue’!
As his heart was filled with anticipation…
“Insufficient energy, cannot proceed with repairing process. Please check the main energy control room.”
“F**k!”
Chen Xiaolian swore in a low voice.
Insufficient energy?
Clearly, the repairing process was not something that can be done casually. The process was one that will consume energy…
Chen Xiaolian rushed out of the room and dashed to the ‘Main Energy Control’ door beside.
Opening the door, he saw that the room was filled with far more objects!
The moment he entered, he saw another metal orb. However, this metal orb was by far bigger!
Its diameter was roughly the same compared to Chen Xiaolian’s height and it floated there, rotating slowly. However, the rate of rotation was extremely slow. Without a careful analysis, one would miss that detail.
Additionally, the light glowing from the surface of the metal orb was very dim. The glow of light was so dim it was nearly unnoticeable.
Chen Xiaolian walked forward and saw a platform beside the metal orb. He placed his palm on it…
“Total energy reserve remaining: 30 points. Percentage of reserve: 0.03 %. Main Energy Control is presently in energy saving sleep mode.”
Chen Xiaolian sighed.
There really isn’t enough energy.
However, Chen Xiaolian was also somewhat pleasantly surprised to find something peculiar inside the room.
It was a long conveyor belt. At the end of the conveyor belt was a large oval-shaped module hatch that was as big as a full on mech…
“Energy Smelting Furnace?”
Seeing the nameplate on the object, Chen Xiaolian’s mind raced.
Energy smelting?
The question is… what do I use to smelt?
Chen Xiaolian began testing it out. He pulled out a few items from his Storage Watch.
The first item he brought out was a pack of hardtack biscuits.
He tossed the biscuits on the conveyor belt and immediately received a response. A red coloured glow lit up the metal conveyor belt.
“Target object does not meet the requirements for smelting.”
Mm?
Chen Xiaolian retrieved the pack of hardtack biscuits and pulled out an ordinary military blade.
The conveyor belt shone with red light once more.
“Target object does not meet the requirements for smelting.”
Still not?
Chen Xiaolian retrieved another item.
It was the item that he had picked up from one of the rooms he checked earlier.
Cross Medallion Sword!
The instant he placed the Cross Medallion Sword on the conveyor belt…
A green light shone out.
“Target object meets the requirements for smelting. Beginning the smelting process.”
The conveyor belt slowly moved, sending the Cross Medallion Sword into the module hatch…
A few seconds later, the Cross Medallion Sword had been sent into the module hatch. The module hatch closed up.
A prompt quickly appeared on the surface of the platform beside the metal orb.
“Smelting of target object completed. Energy extracted: 180 points. Consumption for smelting: 20 points. Energy remaining: 160 points.
“Total energy reserve remaining: 190 points. Percentage of reserve: 0.19 %.”
Chen Xiaolian came to understand!
190 points was the equivalent of 0.19 %. In other words, if the energy reserve were to be filled to the max, the total amount should be 100,000 points!
Additionally, it would appear that only items produced by the system could be used for energy smelting!
The items from the outside world do not meet the requirements for smelting. Those hardtack biscuits, military blade… all of them were items from the outside world.
Chen Xiaolian suddenly thought of something!
In the town outside, there were damaged weapons, equipment, aircraft, tanks, armour and even… mechs!
All those items could be brought back here!
And be smelted into energy!
Or… when there was enough energy, those items could be repaired!
Hot damn!
Chen Xiaolian was suddenly feeling excited!