Chapter 44 - Aircraft Carrier Blueprint

Chapter 44: Aircraft Carrier Blueprint“No, you all continue training on Earth and wait for my return,” Lin Zhichen shook his head. “How are things with the Rockefeller family?”

“The asteroid base has been secured, and the energy credits have been transferred. Our regiment has leveled up twice,” Wu Tianyi said with a smile. “Big brother, do you know? We’ve found a way to increase the production of NZT-50!”

“What method?” Lin Zhichen asked, immediately excited. Increasing the production of NZT-50 meant greater profits for the Meteor Mercenary Group, providing significant support for his plans.

“It’s the mercenary group’s level! Upon upgrading to level 3, the production of NZT-50 increased to 30,000 pills per day,” Wu Tianyi explained.

“According to our estimates, each level of the mercenary group represents a production capacity of 10,000 units!”

With a daily production of 30,000 pills, even if each pill was sold for just 1 energy credit, that was 30,000 energy credits per day, enough to build a battleship.

“The economic value may not be significant, but the strategic value is immense!” Lin Zhichen sighed slightly. NZT-50 has a tremendous impact on society as a whole. Many young people who had lost their dreams due to mediocre talent might regain hope for the future because of it, greatly driving societal progress.

“Recently, we’ve been specifically searching for information on relic-permitted specialties on the star network. We found that those factions possessing such specialties eventually established their own nations, and the originally scarce specialties began to increase in quantity,” Wu Tianyi said seriously.

“Perhaps there’s a key to this. Only by establishing our own nation can the limitations on NZT-50 be completely lifted.”

Lin Zhichen nodded. This was the most likely answer.

“Name: Meteor

Nature: Mercenary

Leader: Lin Zhichen

Level: 3

Military Merit: 44

Mission Completion Rate: 100%

Members: 4/100

Warships: Psionic Frigate*1, Frigate*2, Pirate Raider*20, Pirate Gunboat*3

Base: Earth

Specialty: NZT-50 (30,000 pills/day)

Evaluation: Greenhorns just starting out!”

“How is the recruitment for the mercenary group going?” he asked.

“We’ve just started, and already over a hundred locals who have completed the virtual academy’s captain profession assessment have submitted job applications. I took a quick look; there are no A-level elites, but there are quite a few B-level and C-level ordinary captains,” Wu Tianyi replied.

“In addition, there are a dozen or so army generals. The rest are engineers and such, but their abilities are average.”

“Average ability is normal. In this era, anyone with a bit of talent starts their own business. Who would work for someone else?” Lin Zhichen laughed.

“Lack of ability isn’t a problem; we have plenty of ways to improve that. Loyalty is what matters most. Make sure to screen carefully and try to identify spies from other factions.”

“When NZT-50 hits the market, the entire Federation’s attention will be drawn to it. We’ll have to be extremely cautious with our recruitment then.”

“Understood, big brother,” Wu Tianyi nodded.

An hour quickly passed, and the “Qinyuan” once again entered a spatial jump, disappearing from the solar system.

Dakan star system, in the outer space of a certain planet’s orbit, lay a vast warship graveyard.

“We’re too late,” Lin Ke said, disappointed by the information returned from the gravity sensors. The starry sky was dark, with no light spots remaining. The three-day protection period had already passed, and they didn’t have the time to slowly sift through the useful components, as there were too many other tasks to attend to.

Lin Zhichen didn’t respond, instead piloting the “Qinyuan” slowly into the graveyard, delving deeper and deeper.

This maneuver was extremely risky. If any starship detected the “Qinyuan” on the outskirts of the graveyard, they could launch long-range artillery strikes. In such a scenario, the “Qinyuan,” trapped in the interstellar debris, would have very little room to accelerate and escape.

However, what seemed like a dangerous environment was well within Lin Zhichen’s control. His psionic energy constantly sensed the information in space, and the amplification from the Psionic Crystal elevated his perception to a whole new level, allowing him to detect even the subtlest threats more quickly.

This heightened intuition led him to sense something particularly intriguing.

Soon, an object emitting a faint glow appeared. No, it wasn’t just one; this seemed to be the center of the graveyard, with four or five objects scattered in a small area.

Massive wreckage floated in space, occasionally colliding with surrounding metal fragments, sending out showers of metallic debris. In the virtual academy, Lin Zhichen had seen various types of starships, and he could tell at a glance that these were the remains of battleships.

Lin Ke perked up and quickly extended his psionic perception: “Big brother, there are blueprints!” Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ ɴøvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Lin Zhichen didn’t respond. He carefully maneuvered the “Qinyuan,” docking beside a piece of debris. To Lin Ke’s surprise, he didn’t immediately salvage the valuable spoils but instead extended his psionic energy to retrieve a life pod floating in space.

“Big brother…” Lin Ke was puzzled. Life pods were where survivors stay after a starship explosion. Due to limited oxygen and energy, they could only sustain life for three days. If no one rescued them within that time, the occupants would die from lack of oxygen.

The issue was that this starry space was filled with NPC life pods. Why save this one in particular?

“Use your psionic energy to sense deeply. It will guide you to the most valuable spoils,” Lin Zhichen replied. After retrieving the life pod, a slight smile appeared on his face. He then used his psionic energy to gather all the nearby glowing spoils.

At this moment, the faint psionic perception had completely vanished. There might still be some overlooked spoils in this graveyard, but it was undoubtedly not worth his time to continue searching.

The “Qinyuan” slowly navigated out of the graveyard. To expedite their departure, Lin Zhichen even used his psionic energy to form an arm, pushing aside the nearby metal fragments to clear a safe path.

“Big brother, a blueprint for a light aircraft carrier?!” Lin Ke exclaimed as he sifted through the spoils, finding the most valuable item among them.

Lin Zhichen glanced at it and was immediately captivated by the three-dimensional image of the aircraft carrier on the blueprint.

Similar to the combat methods of the planetary era, aircraft carriers primarily rely on carrier-based aircraft for combat. In a fleet, they usually serve as the flagship or auxiliary ship, using their aircraft to extend the fleet’s vision and bring enemy fleets into combat range first.

However, unlike their dominant role in planetary-era naval battles, the importance of aircraft carriers in the space era was significantly diminished. This was due to starships having thicker armor, more powerful energy shields, and higher-performance combat computers, which greatly enhanced the defensive capabilities of point-defense cannons.

As a result, the combat effectiveness of space fighters was severely limited, and the importance of aircraft carriers was greatly reduced. In most cases, they could only serve as the flagship of a support fleet or the eyes of a main fleet.