Chapter 43: Money Flows Like Water

Looking at the psionic engine reinforced to its limit, with its psionic pool barely reaching 9,000 points, Song Chi made a mental note to acquire a high-quality engine component as soon as possible.

Back then, the "Atomic Fusion Nuclear Energy Engine" component possessed an energy pool of up to 5,000 points even at Level 0.

Had it been reinforced to Level 19, the energy pool would likely have exceeded 30,000 points at least. There would have been no need to endure the current situation, where not only is the energy supply efficiency low, but the energy pool's storage is also far from sufficient.

With the current psionic pool of 9,000 points, Song Chi estimated that if the [Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator] were reinforced a few more times, the capacity would once again fall short.

However, nothing could be done about it for now. When he logged into the White Tower local area network yesterday to check, there were no engine components of Blue quality or higher available in the LAN mall. There were a few of White quality, but their attributes were mediocre and their prices exorbitant, failing to catch his eye. He had no choice but to make do with what he had for the time being.

Having reinforced the psionic engine, the next logical step was the dark matter energy shield. He still had plenty of Tier 1 floating continent origins and mercury crystals on hand, and Song Chi felt no reluctance to use them. An Orange Glory-quality component was worth using for a long time, and investing sufficient resources into its reinforcement during the early stages offered a very high cost-performance ratio.

Dozens of seconds later, he reinforced the dark matter energy shield generator all the way to Level 15, consuming a total of 200 strands of Tier 1 floating continent origin and 150 tons of mercury crystals.

Examining its attributes, they had indeed seen a massive enhancement.

Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator Lv.15
Quality: Orange
Special Effect 1: Shield value additionally increased by 85%
Special Effect 2: Shield defense value doubled
Consumption: 60/s (Psionic Points)
Defense: 880
Shield Value: 16,280 / 16,280
Recharge: 20s; Buffer after overload: 35 minutes
Required for Upgrade: 70 strands of floating continent origin (Tier 1), 10,000 psionic points, 45 tons of mercury crystals

It could be said that the attributes of the dark matter energy shield generator reinforced to Level 15 had undergone a terrifying surge. In particular, the defense and shield values had jumped from 380 to 880, and 6,080 to 16,280 respectively—an undeniably massive improvement.

Such a drastic increase was naturally inseparable from the quality of the dark matter energy shield generator component. High-quality airship components all came with unique inherent traits, and the two percentage-based scaling traits of the dark matter energy shield generator meant that the higher its reinforcement level, the more terrifying the resulting enhancements would be.

In fact, Song Chi had wanted to continue reinforcing the dark matter energy shield generator. He still had 102 strands of Tier 1 floating continent origin and 50 tons of mercury crystals left in his possession, which was more than enough for another reinforcement.

Unfortunately, his psionic points were no longer sufficient. Reinforcing the dark matter energy shield generator from Level 15 to Level 16 required 10,000 psionic points, but his current psionic pool reserve stood at only 9,000 points.

With no other choice, Song Chi shifted his target to the [Fiery Sunflower Terracotta Tree] component.

Aside from the dark matter energy shield generator and the Goldrock hull armor, this component was currently the only other one on the Firmament that required Tier 1 floating continent origins. Since he was not yet ready to reinforce the Goldrock hull armor, his target naturally shifted to the Fiery Sunflower Terracotta Tree.

In the end, he expended a total of 90 strands of Tier 1 floating continent origin to similarly reinforce the Fiery Sunflower Terracotta Tree component to Level 15.

Fiery Sunflower Terracotta Tree Lv.15
Quality: White
Consumption: 200 per puppet (Psionic Points)
Effect: Fiery Sunflower Terracotta Puppets (Summons ten Level 15 Fiery Sunflower Terracotta puppets. As long as they do not die, the puppets can persist indefinitely; once destroyed, it takes 24 hours to re-summon them.)
Required for Upgrade: 30 strands of floating continent origin (Tier 1), 4,000 psionic points.

At this point, only 12 strands of Tier 1 floating continent origin remained in his hands, making it impossible to perform further reinforcements on other Tier 1 components in the short term.

After completing the reinforcement of the two highest-quality components on the Firmament, Song Chi turned his attention to the "White Fire-Seed Hull" component.

Although this component could not directly increase the airship's offense or defense, it determined the number of "special component slots" on a Fire-Seed airship and set the upper limit for the psionic cultivation platform's level.

Of course, the psionic cultivation platform was optional for Song Chi, but he could never have too many special component slots. Even though the Firmament currently possessed no other special components besides the [Fiery Sunflower Terracotta Tree], who could guarantee one wouldn't appear tomorrow? Reinforcing it in advance to secure a few spare special component slots was a good idea.

The White Fire-Seed hull followed the same progression rules as the colorless version—or rather, the amount of reinforcement resources required had nothing to do with the quality of the Fire-Seed itself.

From Lv.0 to Lv.1, it only required 5 strands of Tier 0 floating continent origin + 200 psionic points.
Lv.1 to Lv.2 required 10 strands of Tier 0 floating continent origin + 400 psionic points.
Lv.2 to Lv.3 required 15 strands of Tier 0 floating continent origin + 600 psionic points.
And so on.

In the end, Song Chi spent 225 strands of Tier 0 floating continent origin to elevate the White Fire-Seed hull from Lv.0 to Lv.9. He could actually have pushed the hull—meaning the level of the Fire-Seed itself—directly above Level 10, but after some thought, he ultimately decided against it.

This was because once the Fire-Seed hull advanced from Level 9 to Level 10, the Firmament would transition from a psionic shuttle into a psionic airship. Advancing to a psionic airship was not a difficult task, and given the Firmament's foundation, failure was virtually impossible.

However, the crucial point was not this, but rather that once the Firmament advanced, the corresponding danger level of future alien territory drops would also increase. For Song Chi, who only wished to safely scavenge ordinary resources, this was clearly something he did not wish to see.

Therefore, he chose to stop the reinforcement level of the White Fire-Seed hull at Level 9.

Even without advancing into a psionic airship in one go, the Firmament—having been reinforced to Level 9—saw its special component slots increase from the initial 2 to 6.

For the Fire-Seed airships of the Fire-Seed human civilization, depending on the quality of their Fire-Seed, every 5 levels the "Fire-Seed hull" gained would increase the number of special component slots by a corresponding amount.

Colorless Fire-Seed hull: +2 slots every 5 levels.
White Fire-Seed hull: +4 slots every 5 levels.
Blue Fire-Seed hull: +6 slots every 5 levels.
Purple Fire-Seed hull: +8 slots every 5 levels.
...

As a Fire-Seed airship bound to a White Fire-Seed, every 5 levels gained by the Firmament's hull added 4 special component slots.

Of course, this was not entirely set in stone. If Song Chi managed to further elevate the quality of his Fire-Seed in the future, the airship itself would add corresponding special component slots based on the level of the Fire-Seed hull.

Having finished reinforcing the White Fire-Seed hull and noticing he still had a considerable amount of Tier 0 floating continent origin left, Song Chi finally shifted his gaze to the "Goldrock Hull Armor," which had remained unreinforced until now.

As a White-quality "hull armor" component, its reinforcement cost-performance ratio was quite respectable. It had simply never made it to the top of Song Chi's priority list because its function overlapped with that of the dark matter energy shield generator.