Chapter 300: Battle Fortress
After receiving the grant from the National Defense of the United States’ executive officers, Tesla could finally execute his idea.
His first step was, of course, to purchase more soul coins. With the financial support of that huge grant, Tesla bought all the soul coins with relatively reasonable prices in the Soul Coins Transaction Center of the American server in one go.
Despite that, the soul coins were still insufficient for him to carry out his plan as the building and execution of a battle fortress required an extreme amount of soul coins. Besides, many players in Naraka were unwilling to sell their soul coins since they didn’t even have enough soul coins for their own use. Meanwhile, he was not the only person purchasing the soul coins. There were other cash rich players like him who were splurging money on soul coins. This resulted in a continuous increase in market price. Some of them were even the players from the National Defense.
In the face of such a predicament, Tesla had no choice but to increase his bid price, forcing the soul coins in Naraka to double in cost.
Although Tesla’s act antagonized many players who wanted to spend money in-game, he couldn’t care less about them and had his heart set on fulfilling his own plan.
In the end, he managed to collect an adequate amount of soul coins for his research, but he had ramped up the market price of soul coins so much in Naraka and it wouldn’t drop any time soon.
The players were cursing him again and again for his madness, but other than feeling helpless, there was nothing they could do about it since they had no idea of the purchaser’s identity.
After acquiring enough soul coins, Tesla bought a total of about a hundred draft papers from the shop, different types of mechanical arms, and hundreds of components for the purpose of remodeling, and a corresponding big remodeling device. After he was fully equipped, he formally threw himself into remodeling the mech.
First, he drew an analytical diagram of his Rechargeable Mech on a draft paper, and then considered the way to merge the content on the design draft with his Rechargeable Mech.
He even bought a book called the Mech Manual for Beginners from the shop for this.
Bei Li put that Mech Manual for Beginners up for sale so that the Naraka players could have a better understanding of the functions on the mech. The selling price was only 10 soul coins, and yet less than ten books had sold until now.
Owing to the reason that the mech description in the book was very complicated that one would not be able to comprehend it without a certain degree of technical expertise. It was like abstruse writing that was unintelligible to the players.
However, Tesla was different from the other players. Based on his enthusiasm and dedication to scientific research, his progress was totally limited by the available knowledge on science and technology nowadays. Now that he had the manuals for these high-end technology products, he kept on absorbing information in the manual like a sponge and rapidly increased his understanding of mech.
After spending three days studying, the whole manual was filled with the relevant content he had annotated, and he was quite confident about his newfound knowledge.
Although it was a crazy idea, so much so that even Tesla himself found it difficult, he had no intention of giving up because this place could provide him with all the resources he needed to carry on his project.
However, he could not find a zone for him to develop mech safely in Naraka because danger was lurking everywhere. In the end, all he could find was a fairly remote building in a state of disrepair to carry out research on his plan.
Thanks to the nutrient solution, Tesla could really dedicate himself to the research without resting or eating.
(Note: The gaming pod is in the mode of nutrient solution, in which it is directly assimilated to the body and thus situation like the urgency of urination will not take place.)
After five days of sketching out the project, repeatedly modifying and simulating with the aid of the mech editor from the shop, there were significant changes in the mech’s structural diagram on the draft paper.
By relying on the shop’s powerful setting, Tesla was able to finalize the prototype of his Fortress Plan pretty quickly. What he had to do next was to assemble the components and parts.
This was undoubtedly the hardest part. In order to obtain a better result in remodeling, Tesla even invited his old mates in the army and conferred with them on how to continue remodeling.
Tesla started live streaming specifically for this purpose. Meanwhile, all the executive officers were watching outside and expressing their opinions from time to time.
His crazy idea was soon spread among the players, leading them to enter the live streaming channel to see whether the modification was feasible.
Even though the function for remodeling had always been available, none of the players had given it a try. After all, this was an exceptionally huge project. Perhaps it was fairly simple to equip the mech with some peripheral functions, but they dared not think about remodeling the mech from the interior part to the exterior part.
Therefore, they found Tesla’s actions intriguing.
The players expressed their outside-the-box imaginations and ideas in the live streaming channel during their observation. Although it was hardly applicable in reality, Tesla took note of all the ideas for further reference.
Half a month later during the ongoing progress of the project, the whole Rechargeable Mech was changed beyond recognition, turning into a giant machine as tall as twelve feet in height.
However, he was not even halfway done since the internal part was not equipped with compartments yet.
First of all, he had to purchase the core component, which was the power source. As a result of Bei Li’s reluctance for the technology in the game to interfere too much in reality, the most important core was not available for the players to forge and build. Hence, Tesla had no choice but to purchase it from the shop.
Of course, Tesla had to choose a device that could produce the highest energy due to the huge size of the machine.
Following a short round of selection, Tesla had chosen a high-load power source, which was called the T1 VIT Nano Core.
This power core had a special characteristic of continuous high-frequency power transmission, which was exactly what Tesla wanted. Although the selling price was extremely high, Tesla bought it anyway without any hesitation.
After installing the core, Tesla kept on modifying and discussing with his old mates on the ways to install the components while looking over the manual.
There was an application of eleven different systems, which included the energy system, actuating system, skeletal system, armor system, plugin system, perceptual system, master control system, control system, power system, auxiliary system, and weapon system. The huge workload didn’t make Tesla feel depressed, in fact he was quite excited about it.
One by one, Tesla filled up the giant metal mech with the help of his old friends. They meticulously polished every connecting part and attempted to execute it several times in order to ensure that it ran perfectly before they could proceed to assemble the next system.
The giant battle fortress, that was once thought to be impossible, eventually revealed its basic form.
Tesla proceeded in all cases from his personal safety, hence the weapon system was of utmost importance for a battle fortress. He started the last step of modification on assembling the weapons after he studied the manual.
About thirty weapons were loaded in the Fortress Mech, for instance: Arca Plasmor, Saboteur Missile Container, Sinos Particle Rotating Barrel, V1 Photon Gun, Soul Crystal Hand Grenade, Three-barrel High-Speed Charge, and so on.
The whole chain of operations had shaken all the players spectating in the live streaming channel.
There were so many weapons of mass destruction loaded in this mech. It was undeniable for it to be called a war machine if this mech could really operate perfectly.
The players watching the live stream were full of anticipation, wanting to have a look at the horrifying lethality of the so-called Fortress Mech after it was modified.
Nonetheless, this was just the foundation of a battle mech since Tesla hadn’t yet perfected his idea. What came next was the construction of the defense system, making the Fortress Mech extremely ferocious by installing all sorts of protective barriers and defensive weapons. The mech was radiating with a cold, metallic luster.
With the help of the shop and existing tools, Tesla only spent a month to complete the construction of the super fortress, without taking any breaks.
Unfortunately for Tesla, the shop did not supply the remodeling for upgrading the mech. After the complete modification of the system, he had to rely on leveling up and the additional point of spiritual ore for further upgrades.
As such, this research maniac was planning to level up and collect spiritual ore by using his battle fortress, so that he could fully refine it
After climbing into the control cabin, a few hoses connected to his nerves automatically and reached out to link with different parts of his body. The cabin door slowly closed afterward and his eyes recovered after a short period of darkness.
He did not feel any discomfort. It was as though the mech was an extended part of his body. This first test was a perfect success.
He tried to clench his fist and the blue light on the mech suddenly lit up, followed by the roaring of the power source.
Rumble!
Tesla threw a punch and the wall collapsed with a loud crash. He then walked out, step by step, from this deserted building where he had spent a month in seclusion.
“It’s my turn now!” said Tesla, his eyes beaming with excitement. Then, he started running, putting the kinetic system into action. The blue lights on the body surface flickered one after another, and the mech’s status was constantly fed back on the panel board.
When he ran to a fairly wide zone, a launch port revealed at the back of the Fortress Mech and fired a signal flare in an instant, which then exploded in the air.
Then, Tesla waited silently.
Soon, the ground began vibrating as numerous creatures flooded in.
There was no doubt that the first appearance of this Fortress Mech attracted the attention of many players. They gathered around Tesla’s live stream and stared attentively at the mech on the screen, wanting to see whether the final result of this crazy experiment was a success or a failure.
Whirr… whirr…
As the crowd of creatures was approaching, the internal part of the mech started whirring. The three-barrel gun emerged in front of the arm, the barrel then rotated and fired a hail of bullets. The dense bullet rain turned numerous creatures into sieves.
This was just the beginning. The weapons that emerged on the mech’s body surface were increasing as the number of creatures increased. In addition, all the weapons were operating simultaneously. The fortress had become a radiator, appearing as though it was roaring as the mech vibrated, and venting its endless flames of fury at his surroundings.
The players in the live stream were stunned at the scene before them. Apparently, the toughness of the Fortress Mech was far beyond their imagination.
“Fortress, battle mode!”
It became harder and harder to defend as more and more creatures gathered around him. At this moment, Tesla initiated the second form of a fortress.
The players were in total bewilderment at what had taken place.
All they saw was the Fortress Mech instantly change its form and lay flat on the ground. Centering upon the place it stood, it turned into a fortified point of ten square yards full of different kinds of weapons and missiles.
“Initiate Unlimited Firepower!”
Accompanied by Tesla’s growling, all the weapons thundered at the same time, covering half the sky with bullets and missiles.
The toughest part of the Fortress Mech finally cut a striking figure.