Chapter 167: The Metal Specialist
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
“The Monster Factory has finally made a name for itself as it has continued to take over the competition, and is now sitting in the prized seat of the local top ten.”
“Congratulations to you for all the hard work and persistence in satisfying the Rank 4 conditions.”
“After reaching Rank 4, a new provincial ladder will be unlocked. Additionally, more scientific and technical information will be made available for you to utilize.”
“Rank up requirement: Reach top ten on the provincial ladder.”
Upgrading……
Ye Qing took the chance of the commercial break and made a quick run for the underground base.
Without question, the fourth M.C. X had already rolled out.
After such a long time and such hard work, Ye Qing had finally ascended the Monster Factory to Rank 4.
With Rank 4, the population cap of the monsters will double to 80. Additionally, more technologies and brand new monsters would be made available.
These rewards had Ye Qing feel like he was beyond cloud nine, as they were available as soon as the Monster Factory reached Rank 4.
When the completed X series had filled up its massive diesel tank, Ye Qing, with the help of the support ladders, climbed into the cockpit of the giant machine.
After pressing the engine button and engaging all the transmissions, the 150 ton Mechanical Colossus immediately shook like an earthquake.
While inside the cockpit, Ye Qing felt that even the Raging Miners were small in comparison. And with the controls over the massive arms, he even felt like he had a chance in a fight with Titans.
This was industrialization, heavy industrialization. And it was also the final product of the Rank 3 Monster Factory.
Having slowly edged this just completed X series next to the other three, Ye Qing then ran back to his office to continue watching the hilarious «The Great Escape», as well as to wait for the upgrade to finish.
The entire episode was 90 minutes long. After reviving again, the four “explorers” clearly became obedient, as they strictly adhered to not flipping any switches or taking any causal steps.
Lang Xue, who had fallen into a trap hole before, while walking, would always tap the tiles ahead of her in case of traps before walking on them.
And this actually had its uses. Twice, when she tapped the tile in front her, the tile dropped open with a click to reveal the spike filled traps inside.
Of course, those spikes were all fake as the they were all made out of foam.
This time, the quickest to die was one who had acted as a soldier before, named Yang Hong. When he had successfully bypassed four rooms and on his fifth, he didn’t pay attention to what was under his feet: an ultra thin, nearly invisible, transparent tripwire.
The trip wire immediately broke on touch, and foam blocks and smoke effects exploded out like popcorn.
Ye Qing against couldn’t bear the laughter. Most likely, neither could the other viewers, because this military actor actually died on a landmine.
Having ended his laughing fit, Ye Qing was now somewhat admiring just how much effort the station invested.
Although the traps and hidden mechanisms inside the rooms weren’t difficult to create, but to create them one by one for each individual room wasn’t something anyone could do.
Especially when after each episode they had to switch the rooms and traps around. Otherwise, the audience and competitors would be able to guess what was going to happen in each room.
Taking the opportunity during advertisements, Ye Qing took a look at the upgrade progress bar: 64%.
Ye Qing watched the entire episode from start to end, then stared at the progress of the Monster Factory upgrade, as it slowly crawled from 90% to 99%.
At that moment, Ye Qing held onto his breath in wait for the progress bar to hit 100%.
*Beep Beep Beep*
“Upgrade complete!”
Then this phone, which did not have any cracks or gaps, began to emit a dream like blue glow.
This blue wasn’t eye piercing, however, when it dissipated, nothing on the outside changed. It still had the same metallic and futuristic feel with its operating system, but what it could do was completely different.
Its background was now a map of the entire Dragon Creek Beach that Ye Qing had bought. The underground base was completely outlined by dotted lines on the map. If it were to be enlarged, then it would just look like the Umbrella Corporation’s base in Resident Evil, as every detail was clearly outlined.
Enlarge again and the four hidden Raging Miners would also be shown in real time as they moved.
“6666!”
This came as a huge surprise to Ye Qing because the previous background just had the factory, which couldn’t move or be enlarged.
This basically gave Ye Qing an unobstructed view of the entire factory no matter where he was.
Although there existed many cameras that could perform similar things on the market, the difference in technology was as big as night and day.
What Ye Qing had here was an all around 3D view, where he could move and enlarge any corner of the factory.
The ladder systems also changed. He now needed to switch tabs to view the local rankings, as the main tab became the provincial ladder.
Ye Qing had already scouted this ladder. It was a ladder containing every manufacturing company within the province.
First on the list, [Shagang Group].
Second, [Jinling Petrochemical].
Third, [Yueda Investment Co., Ltd].
The well known [XCMG] could only settle with fifth.
In total assets, [XCMG] wasn’t big, only worth a couple dozen billion. However, they were well known to have massive results in the field of mechanical manufacturing, as they possessed a huge amount of patents and multiple product series. For example, their crane series was well known throughout the world.
As for Zhongyun’s pride and joy, Huaxing Heavy Industry, they only came in at 26th place.
And Ye Qing’s current Monsters Heavy Industry didn’t enter the top 300 of the ladder.
The ladder rankings had Ye Qing completely dejected. Like he was at the top of the Zhongyun, but now he had to compete with all the hundreds of other companies within the province.
This was a ladder only for manufacturing industries. If sales were included, then the ladder would definitely included retail giants like the Suning Group, and the top would definitely be defined with hundreds of billions, which to Ye Qing would basically mean: Good luck, you’re going to need it.
Of course, the further back in the ranking, the quicker it was to catch up. That was why when Ye Qing crawls up to the regional top tens, he would already have became nationally famous, which will make entering the national ranking that much easier.
Continuing to explore and read, Ye Qing finally got a grasp of everything the Rank 4 Monster Factory had to offer.
First, the glory store finally had something for Ye Qing to buy.
The draws system was also updated with twelve new boxes.
And most importantly, Ye Qing was now finally able to hire more monsters and purchase new black technologies.
The number of new black techs was still the same as the last time: four. However, Ye Qing was much more interested in the new monster he could hire.
Opening up the monster hiring screen, a brand new type of monster appeared in front of Ye Qing.
When compared to the peon, their build was much smaller, comparable to a normal human being.
But everything else about them was completely abnormal. Their dark black skin was completely different from the black skin color of those African inhabitants. Rather, it was more like the dark black color of metals.
They had a pair of full red eyes, a pair of horns on their head, a face that was as cold as a rock sculpture, and a suit of similarly black coloured body armor.
Their name — Metal Specialist!