Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Warship ModificationRealizing the speed of the “Qinyuan,” both the pirate base and the fleet hurriedly rotated their turrets, preparing for battle.

But by then, the psionic warship was already ready. It deftly turned in space, and its three turrets had completed aiming and firing in a short time. Sᴇaʀᴄh the NʘvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“Boom, boom~”

Three starships exploded violently. At the same time, beams of light pierced through the middle of the pirate fleet—this was the counterattack from the pirate base’s turrets. With the aid of electronic control systems, friendly fire in the space age had been minimized, but the presence of the fleet still affected the trajectory of the turret fire. The “Qinyuan” didn’t even move from its spot; instead, it cunningly aligned itself with a space carrier, positioning them both on the same line.

The energy shields of large warships far exceed those of medium and small warships. The turrets of the “Qinyuan” could penetrate frigates and destroyers, and even most types of cruisers could be barely destroyed, but battleships were out of the question.

Not wasting the opportunity to attack the carrier, the three turrets aimed at the best-angled targets: one cruiser and two destroyers. After another round of fire, three fireballs appeared in space.

But that was the limit. The next moment, the pirate fleet’s turrets had turned, beams of light cutting through the darkness and disappearing in an instant.

The “Qinyuan” had already accelerated away, making several sharp turns to evade the pirate fleet and base’s fire, and vanished in an instant.

“Big brother, with a fleet of this scale, it will be very difficult for us to take them down,” Lin Ke said worriedly. “And the pirate base—did you notice, big brother? There are hidden pirate bases within the lava planet!”

Lin Zhichen nodded slightly. He silently activated the holographic projection, displaying the image of the lava planet. The projection showed interstellar bases with menacing gun barrels and visible docks.

Before the battle began, he had used the brief time to capture images of the lava planet’s surface.

In the brief footage, the specially magnified sections showed starships rising from the magma surface.

It was clear that within the seemingly uninhabitable lava, there was at least one deeply buried base.

“We need a base like this!” Lin Zhichen sighed, recognizing the greatest advantage of the base—its concealment, which was exactly what they needed.

“Big brother, it’s very difficult,” Lin Ke said, feeling a bit dry-mouthed. “This base can’t be taken down with conventional ground forces!”

“There will be a way,” Lin Zhichen replied. The “Qinyuan” traced an arc in the darkness, space trembling, and in a breath, it vanished into the void.

With a spatial jump, the ship disappeared from the star system.

When it reappeared, it had arrived in the solar system, with Earth close at hand.

At the headquarters of the Meteor Mercenary Group, in a lounge, Lin Ke was vividly recounting the harrowing journey through the dark star system to Wei Peng.

Wu Tianyi pondered slightly, “Big brother, are you planning to sell the Quark Light Spears to quickly build a carrier?”

“That’s right. We need a batch of space fighters and pilots,” Lin Zhichen nodded slightly. “For now, the asteroid belt around Jupiter is the best training ground.”

The dark star region was too dangerous, with battles involving hundreds or even thousands of starships. A single misstep could result in being surrounded by NPC fleets.

“Then, should we check it out now?” Wu Tianyi asked. “Such a rare and powerful main cannon for warships—we don’t even know its market price.”

Lin Zhichen thought for a moment and shook his head. “No, I’ll handle it. Tianyi, once the space carrier arrives at the port, the main force of the legion will move to the asteroid belt. How is the training of those pirate crew members going?”

“Their loyalty is basically not an issue anymore, but their professional skills are mostly at a beginner level and not very useful,” Wu Tianyi shook his head. The skills of wild NPCs were generally low, and the individual strength of the pirate faction was often inferior to that of the rebel faction. However, they did have greater numbers.

Lin Zhichen nodded slightly. He didn’t have high expectations for these pirate NPCs. As long as their loyalty was up to standard, their skills could rapidly improve through combat.

“What has Dr. Will been up to lately?” he asked.

“He’s been studying the Federation Academy’s ship data,” Wu Tianyi thought for a moment and replied, “Should I call him over to ask?”

“Let’s go see him ourselves. Now that we have a cartographer, the modification of the frigate class should be put on the agenda,” Lin Zhichen said, standing up. The group headed to the research institute, and with Dr. Li Ping’s reception, they quickly found the ship design department.

“Welcome, Commander. I hope you bring some good news,” Dr. Will said as he modified the ship’s parameters on a holographic computer with the help of several research assistants. Seeing the arrival of the base’s senior staff, he did not show any warmth.

Due to the lack of a cartographer, the ship design work had stalled. He had applied to the base’s leadership several times but had not received an effective response.

Lin Zhichen was not offended and smiled, “Of course, Doctor. I have found an excellent assistant for you, and I’m sure you’ll like him.”

With that, he introduced the cartographer.

“A cartographer? That is indeed good news.” Finally, a hint of joy appeared on Dr. Will’s otherwise cold face. The rules of the New Universe had been difficult for him to adapt to, especially the requirement for blueprints—even modifications to existing ships required a cartographer to draw the corresponding modification blueprints.

“Doctor, if I want to modify a frigate-class warship, what difficulties would we face?” Lin Zhichen asked.

“Money, and a lot of it,” Dr. Will replied. “To be honest, the rules of the New Universe are quite unreasonable. Do you know that to upgrade a frigate to a true second-generation model, you would normally need to spend three times the cost of building a new frigate?”

Wu Tianyi, standing nearby, looked puzzled. “Doctor, what do you mean? Upgrading a frigate just involves upgrading the onboard equipment to the second generation, right? It shouldn’t cost that much.”

“No, you’re talking about equipment upgrades, while I’m talking about warship modifications!” Dr. Will shook his head. He activated the holographic display, showing two completely different frigates.

The reason it was recognizable as a frigate was because one of the holographic images was clearly a standard Seagull-class frigate.

Everyone’s attention was drawn to the second frigate. Compared to the standard frigate, its size and parameters were significantly larger and higher.

“Seagull-class Frigate II

Dimensions: Length 207 meters, Width 95.8 meters, Height 39.4 meters

Hull Value: 600

Armor: 8

Shield: 300

Shield Recharge Rate: 4%

Damage: 15.02

Speed: 150

Evasion: 55.1%”