dmims Page 10
Page 10
The first three stages of advancement for extraordinary individuals are relatively simple; once you know the method, it's not difficult. It's only from the second stage onwards that blood crystals are needed to assist in energy supply. Currently, Qin Shan isn't worried about a shortage of blood crystal reserves. With over 400,000 units of blood crystals in hand, it's enough for him to advance to the sixth stage by simply grinding blood crystals. As for mental training, it's completely unnecessary. His life experience from his previous life is enough for Qin Shan to easily overcome these kinds of mental demons. In fact, it's uncertain whether those mental demons will even appear at all.
The so-called demonic obstacles are not as mysterious as they seem. In fact, they are the conflicts between the ego, id, and superego of extraordinary individuals during their advancement. A person who has walked through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and who has shouldered the heavy responsibility of continuing human civilization and always fought on the front lines, has mental strength comparable to steel bars. The resilience and hardness are perfectly integrated, focusing on balance. They are dangerous characters that even inner demons have to avoid. Qin Shan might even bite into the inner demons and taste their saltiness.
As a max-level expert who returned to the village and reopened it, Qin Shan's cultivation speed was extremely fast, or rather, the first six stages were not difficult for him at all. Now that he had even met the energy requirements, why be polite? He could just skip them directly.
Just two days later, Qin Shan became a fourth-order cultivator.
Well, the leap was a bit too aggressive, but the result was good, and the form was very stable.
"In this way, I will have more skills at my disposal."
Qin Shan smiled and snapped his fingers. The pots and pans in the kitchen instantly gathered in the kitchen work area, and then suddenly disappeared, returning to their original positions.
"Wow, the admiral is amazing!"
The two little ones (Xiao Zhai and Xiao Luo) clapped enthusiastically from the side.
"Come on, let me show you a little magic trick."
It's actually just simple spatial teleportation. You use your mental energy to scan and lock onto an enemy, then activate a spatial skill to teleport. It can be used on yourself or on enemies, and the effect is quite good.
For example, moving a skyscraper high in the air and playing with it like a meteorite.
When tens of thousands of tons of something crash down on you, the effect is absolutely stunning.
Although Qinshan can't produce tens of thousands of tons right now, it can still teleport people onto the road and let passing semi-trailers kill them. This is called "I'll send you to another world".
Many otaku in Japan who are disappointed with real life will surely love this one-way ticket.
However, Qin Shan cannot guarantee a successful teleportation.
The fourth-tier also gained the ability to create a personal space. Although it could only hold ten tons of real-world mass, it was more than enough for Qin Shan and his group. After filling it with various canned goods and wilderness survival tools, Qin Shan set off with Rodney, Saratoga, Xiao Zhai, and Xiao Luo.
Lexington will also be in charge of operations here, and North Carolina's information warfare capabilities are also needed, so barring any unforeseen circumstances, both of them will be stationed on Earth for an extended period.
"Gate of the Abyss, activate."
As the system function was activated by Qin Shan, a deep blue vortex slowly took shape. According to the system prompt, the abyss gate could expand to a radius of five kilometers, which was already quite sufficient for the time being.
However, Qin Shan was more curious about the fact that the Abyss Gate had changed from a blood-red vortex in his past life's memories to a blue vortex. Was this just a change of appearance, or was there a deeper meaning behind it?
Forget it, what I can't understand now is the research on supernatural powers. Even those professionals in my previous life spent over three hundred years and still couldn't grasp the essence. If I could make discoveries just by relying on my own brain and a simple change in appearance, that would be disrespectful to the professionals.
"Then let's set off."
As soon as Qin Shan finished speaking, Lexington stepped forward and kissed him on the cheek.
"Have a safe journey, Admiral."
Lexington smiled as she saw him off, just like a virtuous wife bidding farewell to her husband.
"Then I'm going."
Qin Shan returned the kiss. He wasn't an insensitive person; faced with such a group of gentle, loyal, kind, and beautiful ship girls, he already knew that they were his life partners.
Taking the initiative is a statement and an affirmation. As someone who has been fighting to the death in his past life, Qin Shan is not one to be wishy-washy when it comes to relationships. He has done things like hitting it off today and having sex that night before. After all, everyone is probably living for today and not tomorrow, so why waste time on romantic feelings? If you like someone, just let it go and don't let yourself have any regrets in life.
This could be considered a consequence of the high-pressure life he led in his previous life. But to put it another way, Qin Shan quite liked this decisive and efficient approach, while he found those who were hesitant, procrastinating, and lacked any sense of responsibility or initiative extremely disgusting.
The farewell atmosphere was very warm. Perhaps it was Qin Shan's initiative that made them both let go of their grudges. After crossing the Abyss Gate, Qin Shan's character Saratoga's attitude towards him was somewhat different. In the past, when expressing enthusiasm, she would try to hide it a little, but now she hugged him directly and without any politeness, since it was safe around them anyway.
Qin Shan smiled and kissed Saratoga on the forehead. After a moment of surprise, Saratoga became even happier.
However, things still needed to be done. Saratoga was a sensible and capable wife, whose professional knowledge was no less than her sister's. Xiaozhai and Xiaoluo were also helping out. Soon, Qin Shan had a general understanding of his current situation.
This is an island.
Section 21: This is a fucking surprise!
"Admiral, we've caught him."
"Me too, I caught it too."
Xiao Zhai and Xiao Luo directed their transformed, massive ship equipment to toss large fish ashore one by one.
They were indeed large fish; the smallest were about the size of an adult killer whale, and all of them were at the first level of the Extraordinary Realm.
However, Saratoga had already searched the entire planet and found no individual with strength exceeding the seventh rank. The highest was only the sixth rank, and that sixth-rank individual was currently lying next to Qin Shan as an ingredient, with Saratoga in charge of cooking him.
For ship girls, going to sea is like coming home. In the sea, whether on the surface or underwater, their combat power can be doubled. The difference is that submarines will have their combat power doubled even more underwater, while surface ship girls are stronger on the surface.
What are the environmental adaptability of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards?
"You've worked hard. Let me see. Hmm, they're all new species. We can take them out to be exploited."
Qin Shan and Saratoga worked together to build a blood extraction device. Although it looked like the recycling station from Yuri's Revenge, the results were undeniable. They had already earned tens of millions of yuan worth of blood, and in the realm of superhumans, Qin Shan had taken a step towards financial freedom.
In the previous life, blood crystals had become a universal currency. These things had value in themselves and could be used. Purified and compressed blood crystals were even more valuable and could not be counterfeited, forming an absolutely safe and valuable currency. It was difficult to cause inflation. At most, there would be some fluctuations (with more extraordinary people, the demand was also large, and the supply and demand were at most balanced, but more often than not, the supply could not meet the demand). Therefore, the wages of ordinary people were also pegged to the quality of blood crystals.
At that time, the ratio of superhumans to ordinary people had reached 1 to 10. Many superhumans were engaged in grassroots work. To put it simply, Captain America could tighten screws without any problem. In the case of explosive production, the efficiency completely outpaced conventional intelligent production equipment.
Extending the timeline is less effective, since machines can work endlessly before they break down, but humans can't. Overworking can cause people to faint (or even die suddenly). Machines can have parts replaced and continue working, but humans can't. At least in the previous generation, humanity hadn't yet developed the machine slave technology tree.
Over the past two days, Qin Shan's main task has been to investigate and understand this world. After confirming that it was safe enough, he began to think about turning it into his main base.
The island's area is around 30,000 square kilometers. There are no extraordinary individuals above the third tier in the surrounding area. This world is more than 90% ocean, and most of the land is fragmented. The so-called continent, compared to its counterparts on Earth, is at most equivalent to half of Australia. The ship girls here are invincible in combat.
The more I think about it, the more suitable it seems.
Anyway, if he wants to come over, he can just open a door anytime. With the help of the system, Qin Shan's spatial abilities have been upgraded to an unprecedented level. In the past, he could only teleport within one world, but now he can move between two worlds.
Even if there were a nuclear war on Earth, it wouldn't be able to attack another world, right? This place is ridiculously safe.
If there's a downside, it's that with only a few people doing the development, it'll probably take forever to complete. But those are minor issues that will be resolved sooner or later, so have confidence in your future.
Qinshan isn't just making empty promises; there are real opportunities to make money.
"It would be great if the system could be shared."
Qin Shan opened the system interface and had to admit that the system was quite amazing. It could even connect to the Earth's network, connect across worlds, and there was no delay. The technology was terrifying. The civilization that could create the system was definitely beyond his current ability to understand and comprehend. He wondered if he might encounter it in the future.
So aren't you worried this might be a trap?
Dear friend, if the system is a trap, does Qin Shan have any chance against the person who created it?
Since we know that our resistance would be futile in that situation, let's not fall into the trap of conspiracy theories. The main contradiction now is between the continuation of human civilization and the influence of supernatural forces after the abyss descends.
"In response to the governor's request, open up the subsystem."
"Holy crap!?" Qin Shan's exclamation attracted the attention of the other ship girls. Only after Qin Shan showed that he was alright did they look away.
"System, are you secretly spying on me?"
The system did not respond to Qin Shan's question.
Is this an automatic response mechanism, or an intelligent improvement based on its own needs, or...? Many possibilities flashed through Qin Shan's mind, but in the end, he could only shrug it off.
As I said before, if it really is a trap, there's nothing I can do about it now. Besides, using something so magical and out of the ordinary to trick myself is just too costly. Even people who want to have fun need to consider the costs.
Forget it, whether he's faking death or really dead, my plan remains unchanged.
"come over."
Qin Shan waved to a crab not far away, and the crab quickly crawled over.
The crab is fine, it's just a bit too big, about the size of a small car.
There are countless crabs like these on the other side of the island, thousands upon thousands of them. However, judging from their tastes, unless you're a superhuman, you'd be their prey.
One of the alternative options.
Commanding extraordinary beings is a skill from the Summoning school. It allows one to control extraordinary beings through a contract-like arrangement. In the previous life, among the ninth-tier extraordinary beings, there were ninth-tier Summoning beings, regardless of their quality.
If so, commanding ten thousand horses would not be a problem.
You ask where Qianjun is?
With ten thousand horses, of course the entire army must be on horseback; they can't be without horses.
Just kidding. In any case, it indirectly proves the value of summoning-type superhumans.
This department also has other derivative branches, such as the mental superhumans who multi-thread intelligent units. You could say it's a summoning department, but it's not strictly speaking a summoning department. You could also say it isn't...
It's a summoning system, right? They actually have other combat units that they can command, and they can even summon them in batches from a factory assembly line.
Just as no one stipulates that a sword immortal cannot be a ship immortal, the return of ten thousand swords to the origin can also be the return of ten thousand ships to the origin, and the latter's destructive power is definitely more terrifying than the former.
So should it be called the Mechanical Engineering Department? And where is the Civil Engineering Department?
Don't laugh, there really are people with a civil engineering background among the superhumans; they're experts at building roads and cities.
Watching the giant crabs frantically farming treasures under his command, Qin Shan suddenly realized that his plan could be taken a step further.
Many of Shanghai's problems are deeply entrenched and difficult to resolve. Furthermore, the local powers within Shanghai have largely grown by physically relying on the city's existence; after all, it's an international metropolis. Without Shanghai...
Having only gained experience in the capital, it would be absolutely impossible for him to realize his governing philosophy in a higher position.
How can one understand the preciousness of red faith without experiencing the corruption of capitalism firsthand?
If, unfortunately, you are corrupted, then I'm sorry, there are plenty of alternatives, but you're out of the running.
"The Gates of the Abyss, the Battle of Shanghai, I think I've found a very suitable solution."
Afterwards, Qin Shan called Xiao Zhai over and asked her to learn some summoning skills to control those sea beasts.
Immediately afterwards, he instructed Lexington, posing as the Fairy of Cloud Dreams, to inform the higher-ups that there was an energy reaction resembling the Gate of the Abyss above Shanghai, indicating that an invasion from another world was about to begin, and that the population of Shanghai should be evacuated immediately.
I believe the nation's mobilization capabilities will not disappoint. Of course, all sorts of messy and unpleasant things will inevitably happen during this process, but as long as Shanghai, as the core of the economy, is undermined, the Shanghai-based system...
Influence would plummet, and in political maneuvering, once either side loses power, surrounded by wolves, countless people would pounce to devour them. At that point, it wouldn't be difficult to eliminate any corrupt elements from the Shanghai system. Excellent.
Then others will understand it as "the appearance of the Abyss Gate was caused by the depravity of some people in the Shanghai system".
In reality, the two have absolutely no connection, but that doesn't stop some people from inducing others to think that way, or from genuinely believing it.
That's what Qin Shan wants to see, so don't be shy, I'm not making this up, it's all in your imagination.
Scumbags deserve a proper exit. Now, let the whole world see your ugly faces.
Section 22: Have a problem? Keep it to yourself!
The news that Shanghai was about to be attacked instantly ignited, or rather, set off a firestorm within the country's top leadership.
What kind of place is that? It's the economic heartland, a place connected to the world, the Little Mumbai of the East (laughs). It's a bustling metropolis with a capitalist atmosphere inside and out. Oh, and it's also home to the headquarters of a bunch of internet and financial companies, such as Bilibili, miHoYo, and XX Bank. I believe that such a powerful city can definitely crush any invaders with money (funny).
It's definitely possible. Tencent will guard the nation's borders, while Alibaba will perish for the country (I'm certain).
Wake up, one of them has already gone abroad.
Capital has no homeland (a profound statement).
Although every era has its own destiny, Qin Shan really wanted to learn Zhu Yuanzhang's nine-clan management techniques when he thought about how the manufacturing industry in his hometown had to shut down due to a lack of funds, and then looked at the booming financial industry.
The economic base determines the superstructure, so economically powerful regions have always wielded significant influence throughout history. Indeed, upon learning of the impending attack on Shanghai, the Shanghai faction couldn't sit still and immediately mobilized all its resources to exert pressure on higher authorities.
The content is very simple: Shanghai's economy is a boon to its people. Our country can lose anywhere but Shanghai. Shanghai's existence is everything, and everything is for Shanghai's existence.
Of course, I can't say it so bluntly, but that's the gist of it.
Large cities, relying on their influence on the surrounding areas, especially those cities with economic interests, will take the same actions as them, whether actively or passively, since the two are a community of shared destiny.
Even the Soviet Union, which had never had an airport for some reason (for sure), had to stand firmly in the position of protecting Shanghai. The Shanghai faction, after banding together, seemed to have a large number of people and great power.
Their economic strength is also formidable, giving the impression that if Lord Jing disagrees, they will take up arms and march on Luoyang.
A real physical exchange is impossible, and political games don't start off on the spot. Besides, the Abyss Gate doesn't care what people in the Shanghai system discuss. When I appear, all your begging and pleading won't help.
"Excuse me, Fairy Yunmeng, is it impossible to prevent the Abyss Gate from appearing?"
A prominent figure in the Shanghai system asked this privately.
"I'm sorry, our technical capabilities do not allow us to do this."
This translates to, "You're a real genius for asking such a question."
Yunmeng Fairy had said something similar before, and everyone already knew it, but the other party still asked in private, clearly unwilling to see the interests of Shanghai suffer.
After all, this is tantamount to bringing the battlefield to Shanghai. Nobody knows what the final outcome will be. If the destruction is too horrific and causes Shanghai to decline directly, then the Shanghai faction's base will be finished, and their dream of entering the top three will vanish. It's equivalent to taking the life of their faction.
This is exactly the result Qin Shan wanted: to destroy an old Shanghai, leaving those who had benefited from it to watch helplessly as it was destroyed, and then to strike at them after they lost their power, eliminating them completely.
But that's not enough. After all, even without Shanghai, other coastal cities can become Shanghai. Given the current infrastructure capabilities in China, creating a new Shanghai out of thin air is just a matter of cost. If the Shanghai faction receives some compensation as a result, it will be very unpleasant. Not only will the Shanghai faction need to be cleaned up, but related coastal factions will also be implicated, leading to a major reshuffle so that superhumans can further intervene and influence, promoting capable individuals or simply replacing them with new ones to solve the problem.
Coincidentally, Qin Shan also had a list, but it was a whitelist. It recorded the heroes who sacrificed their lives on duty during those five years. They were not the kind of people who were passively sacrificed, but those who took the initiative to step forward and sacrifice themselves, as well as the heroes who showed their humanity in the process.