Chapter 118: Chapter 116, Reactor Technology
Gu Hang received benefits not only from the system interface but also from the aftermath of the storm event.
The battle settlement he’d been waiting for did not appear.
It seemed as if the system did not regard this action as a battle.
However, it did show up elsewhere.
His “Events” interface was flickering slightly.
With a thought, Gu Hang opened it.
A new event appeared before his eyes.
“Extinction Storm: Event Completed”
“The Primordial Wrath Owl Sect, believers of an evil god, plotted to sacrifice Revival City in its entirety, but you foiled their scheme. You and your allies eradicated the Primal Fury Owl’s projection, halted Its revival, extinguished the storm, and saved your city.”
“But evidently, you have also incurred the wrath of that fallen primordial deity. It will watch you from hell; Its followers will target you.”
“Event Reward:”
“Grace Points +500”
“Acquire Trait ‘Enemy of the Storm’”
“You are the enemy of the storm; you can command storms to bend to your will. When there is a target using storm-related psychic spells near you, they must have your permission, or their spiritual energy’s potency and spellcasting success rate will be suppressed.”
…
This “Enemy of the Storm” trait was very specific. Its general utility wasn’t great, but if Gu Hang were to encounter followers of the Primordial Wrath Owl Sect in the future, this trait could be greatly beneficial.
As for the part of the event description mentioning that the native primordial god who fell into hell would from then on view him with great enmity, and Its followers would target him…
Gu Hang was not worried about this in the slightest.
It was as if without this event, they wouldn’t already be enemies.
In Gu Hang’s view, there was no difference between ninety percent hatred and one hundred percent hatred.
On the contrary, he might not even need to wait for them to come seeking trouble; he would likely be the one to seek them out.
…
Beyond this trait, the 500 grace points from the event reward was another huge boost!
It once again set a new personal record for Gu Hang’s single largest gain of grace points.
Ever since he entered Revival City, his acquisition of grace points had never stopped.
From the initial war, to the victorious ambush on the grain transport convoy, and now this 500-point haul…
During this process, Gu Hang spent 17 grace points to upgrade the remaining 17 of 28 Navy Marine Corps soldiers—who turned out to be of little use; 200 grace points to raise himself to Level 4; and 50 grace points to activate Tadeusz.
In total, that amounted to a consumption of 267 grace points.
Yet, even so, the number of grace points remaining in his hands still reached a whopping 654!
He had never been so affluent before!
Within the entire system, the places where one could spend money were very few.
The character system is a major investment, but if no talent is detected, it cannot be activated; Gu Hang’s own upgrades are quite costly, yet without sufficient experience, money alone cannot buy advancement.
The Army Badge System can also consume funds, but if the training only reaches T5 level, even if the more than seven thousand people from the former Alliance Legion were all trained, it would only cost about 70 Grace points—a mere trifle. Unless in the future the army reaches tens or hundreds of thousands in strength, the cost of training, even at just T5 level, might escalate to hundreds or thousands of Grace points, potentially becoming a significant burden. But at least at the current scale, the expenditure pressure for troop training is minimal.
The event interface can be paid for, and a repeatable event for a Phoenix Seed worth a hundred points sits there, ready for Gu Hang to activate whenever he wishes. Then, upon his command, a gene seed coveted by the Phoenix Battle Group would materialize. Coupled with a boy of outstanding talent, a set of powered armor, and several years of training, a new Phoenix would be born.
If all goes well, that is.
But this is the kind of thing that’s likely to result in failure upon testing, so for now it’s not being considered.
The remaining area where money could be spent was on the [Technology] panel.
This was the real money pit.
He had by now roughly figured out the mechanics of the [Technology] system.
The investment of Grace into this system is tiered. 10 points, 100 points, 1000 points… and so on.
10 Grace points can only exchange for basic level technology, with a guaranteed success on the first try; subsequent successes have a decreasing probability by 30%. He had already hit the jackpot three times at this tier: alloy steel production line, the G9 Gun Family production line, and the “Whetstone” Engine production line were the results of those three successes.
Now, the probability of winning the 10 Grace point tier had dwindled to 10%. Another win might deplete the chances entirely or something else entirely. In any case, the cost-performance ratio was already very low.
As for the 100-point tier, the ‘first-time purchase bonus’ was still available; just one infusion guaranteed a prize.
There was a 50% chance of acquiring a basic level technology and another 50% chance that it could yield an advanced level technology!
The specific decline mechanism for the winning odds at the 100-point tier was unclear, and it might take a few more investments to understand it.
But as it stood, spending money on the 10-point tier to gamble on that 10% chance, the expected value to hit a prize once would still consume 100 Grace points. Although there is a chance to hit the jackpot on the first try, it is equally possible to spend over a hundred points without yielding any results.
Yet for the same price of 100 points, one could guarantee success at the 100-point tier.
So why would Gu Hang have any reason to continue investing in the 10-point tier?
In any case, he still had quite a few Grace points on hand, so why not… take a shot and see what happens?
Thinking this, Gu Hang went ahead and clicked on the [Technology] interface.
“Advanced Technology: Controlled Reactor”
“The main source of energy in most of the empire’s medium-to-high-level worlds.”
Upon seeing this item, Gu Hang’s first reaction was: He’d hit the jackpot!
Its simple description implied limitless possibilities!
Indeed, as the technology description suggested, in most of the more advanced worlds, controlled reactors were the primary energy source. Using the simplest elements—water and air—as raw materials, they could refine nuclear fuel for electricity generation.
In many resource-rich worlds, relying solely on controlled reactors for power generation, alongside the production capabilities for energy storage cells, was enough to produce batch after batch of fully charged cells and pay considerable taxes.
Rage Owl Star, in this regard, was a world rich in resources.
In many worlds developed over a long period, water resources were scarce. In the Nest Capital Worlds with hundreds of billions of inhabitants, water had to be deliberately and continuously recycled. Moreover, a significant amount of energy had to be invested in the regeneration of water resources.
But on Rage Owl Star, water resources remained abundant and inexpensive. Just recently, a storm nearly flooded Revival City.
Gu Hang knew that with this technology in hand, he might not be able to roll out a mass production line for mother machines to explode the capacity of reactors, but that was not key. All he needed were three ready-made black box reactors, placing them both in Revival City and Weixing City, ensuring that for a very long time to come, he wouldn’t have to worry about energy issues.
The era of importing thermite stone for power generation in Rubbish Town, which lasted only a brief period, could be declared over!