Chapter 59

Chapter 59: NPC GrandmasterOf course, due to the long distance, the fleet’s shooting accuracy suffered a significant penalty, resulting in a hit rate of less than 10% despite various bonuses. However, the advantage of ultra-long-range compensated for the accuracy deficit—before the enemy ships could locate their fleet, they could completely cover the enemy fleet with more firepower.

Three hours later, the Meteor Mercenary Group was fully in position, the ship cannons charged and began firing.

Hundreds of projectiles rapidly streaked through space. Due to the ultra-long range provided by kinetic weapons, most of the Meteor Mercenary Group’s cannons were electromagnetic railguns.

At this moment, the dense electromagnetic projectiles cut through the darkness, truly resembling meteors streaking across the sky.

Fortunately, the space in the star region where the pirate base was located was relatively open. The adjusted starships had a good firing arc, without worrying about asteroids blocking the projectiles.

Dense projectiles shot out rapidly, wave after wave, under the support of the AllSpark. Even the charging speed of the ship cannons was boosted, compressing the entire fleet’s volley interval to just 6 seconds!

—Of course, this only applied to the most numerous small electromagnetic railguns. Medium and large electromagnetic railguns had longer charging times, and the X-slot main cannons took several minutes or even over ten minutes to charge.

But even the continuous attacks from the small electromagnetic railguns had a significant impact on the pirate fleet.

The fleet, which had been leisurely patrolling, began evasive maneuvers upon receiving the pirate base’s emergency communication. However, the optimized fleet bombardment had already brought the entire fleet of three hundred warships within firing range.

Some pirate ships, which would have otherwise avoided the attack, ended up colliding with the projectiles during their emergency evasions.

Even a millimeter’s deviation over a distance of 6.5 light-seconds would result in kilometer-level discrepancies in the vastness of space. Most projectiles missed their targets, and even the “Qinyuan” ship’s six electromagnetic cannons had two shots miss. Only the fortunate ones occasionally hit their marks.

At this moment, Lin Zhichen entered a new state. With his psionic perception enhanced by the psionic crystal, the entire fleet was within his field of vision.

The effect of the ultra-long-range volley was unsatisfactory, so for the first time, Lin Zhichen attempted to unify the minds of all the fleet’s crew members into a single mental local area network.

“Boom~”

At the moment of mental contact, countless chaotic pieces of information surged like a torrent, almost overwhelming Lin Zhichen’s consciousness and forcing him out of the mental connection state.

Being “knocked” out of this state could damage Lin Zhichen’s consciousness due to the intense information flow. Fortunately, the enhancement from the psionic crystal showed its effect at this critical moment. After enduring the first wave of impact, he gritted his teeth through the headache caused by the information surge, stripping away and blocking most of the useless information.

“Phew~”

Taking a deep breath, Lin Zhichen filtered out a large amount of ineffective information, causing the soul-deep pain to quickly subside. It felt like a hundred people were noisily calling out in his ears, making him genuinely irritated. Suppressing his negative emotions, he began to sense the psionic thoughts, categorizing and organizing more information, and sending it to the fleet’s NPC crew members according to their professional needs.

Initially, this special method of mental connection was difficult for most people to adapt to. Not only did it fail to improve efficiency, but it also resulted in minimal success in the first two rounds of shooting.

However, with the enhancement of his “Heaven Rewards Diligence” talent and the rapid growth of his skills, the NPC crew members gradually adapted to the new mode, and their shooting efficiency quickly improved.

In Lin Zhichen’s psionic perception, the chaotic thoughts from everyone gradually receded, and the transmission of mental information with distinct professional characteristics accelerated. The impact of the information flow on his soul quickly diminished, and the swelling sensation in his mind rapidly disappeared.

A few minutes later, the new mental network was fully formed, encompassing all NPCs, including the pilots. Each person received varying amounts of information relevant to their profession. With clear objectives, efficiency soared to a new level in a very short time.

—In terms of attack, this meant that the fleet’s volley interval compressed from 8-9 seconds to 3-4 seconds, which was almost an extreme limit!

Silently, a new rare skill appeared on Lin Zhichen’s personal panel—Mental Resonance.

“Mental Resonance (Yellow, Apprentice 12.42%): Effect 1: Thought Filtering +20%, Effect 2: Thought Speed +1% * Total Number of People, Effect 3: Learning Effect +5%”

“Hero-level skill?” Lin Zhichen noticed the anomaly on his personal panel and was overjoyed, almost losing his connection to Mental Resonance.

Normally, for an elite-level psionic to advance to hero level, they must elevate one of their psionic combat skills to the domain level, which is above yellow.

However, a psionic with a yellow skill only needed to methodically improve the skill and spiritualize it into a talent to naturally advance to hero level. This significantly reduced the difficulty of advancement by one tier! Seaʀᴄh the Novelƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Even better, he could now experience some of the benefits of the hero domain in advance. For instance, with this skill, he could completely construct a mental local area network.

Influenced by the skill, with the support of the entire fleet’s NPC crew, Lin Zhichen’s thought speed had increased by more than tenfold.

While this state wasn’t suitable for researching technology, activating it during combat would significantly accelerate the skill growth rate for both him and his NPC crew members!

In the state of Mental Resonance, it seemed that everyone in the fleet was exchanging thoughts and wisdom in an inexplicable manner. As the one secretly orchestrating everything, Lin Zhichen was amazed to discover this.

Especially among NPCs of the same profession, due to their purer thoughts and certain resonances between their professions, this subtle communication might not even be noticed by themselves, but the benefits were tangible—the skill growth rate at this moment was far more than a mere 5%!

“Every person has their strengths and weaknesses!” He suddenly realized that everyone has their own personality, which manifests in their thinking with different emphases. Despite having the same profession and level, their abilities varied to some extent, a difference he had noticed in the past.

But now, this subtle yet profound professional exchange was gradually breaking down these personal barriers. Suddenly, the skills of a dozen NPC crew members, who had been stuck at the peak of the master level, finally broke through their limitations and reached the highest level attainable by mortals—Grandmaster!

“Name: Gunner DQXJPS** (Human, Red)

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Profession: Gunner (Grandmaster)

Talent: 1: Bombardment (Light Red): Kinetic weapon range +25% * 10

2: Ultra-Long-Range Bombardment (Red): Range +25% * 10

3: Precision (Red): Kinetic weapon accuracy +25% * 10

Skills: 1: Bombardment (Red, Grandmaster): Shooting speed +75%, Bombardment damage +100%

2: Ultra-Long-Range Bombardment (Red, Grandmaster): Range +1000%

3: Precision (Red, Grandmaster): Bombardment accuracy +100%

3: Cultivation * Refining Qi into Spirit (Red) 7.3%

Evaluation: The pinnacle of mortals, an elite among elites!”