Xyrin Empire
Chapter 755: Official Business

Chapter 755: Chapter 755: Official Business

Chiruno and Dingdang were chatting affectionately, but I didn’t go over to eavesdrop on their conversation, because I didn’t think there would be much informative content coming from two people whose combined IQs only equaled eighteen. I just watched them gesture animatedly as they talked, which seemed quite joyful.

"Right, let’s do it like this!"

A sudden shout from Chiruno snapped everyone to attention from the -15 degrees Celsius cold wind. I brushed the snowflakes off my shoulders and curiously looked towards the counter, only to see Chiruno retrieving a new ice pop box from behind it, while Dingdang hopped to the other end of the long counter, her hands emitting a faint green glow as she rubbed them together.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my breath visible in the cold air as I glanced skeptically at Dingdang, "Trying to teleport back to town by rubbing stones?"

Dingdang stuck her tongue out at me while continuing to rub her hands together, "Just watch, Ah Jun! Dingdang is very impressive!"

"Crackling sounds" ensued shortly after Dingdang’s words, and the surface of the ice at the counter cracked slightly. A green plant burst through the ice and grew rapidly before our eyes. Dingdang joyfully flew around the spontaneously sprouting plant, which turned into a small fruit tree in less than half a minute. It wasn’t even two meters tall, seamlessly merged with the counter, with half-exposed roots deeply embedded in the ice below. The upper part of the fruit tree was laden with shiny golden fruits that looked somewhat like apples—if normal apples were reflective enough to show one’s reflection.

Chiruno conjured an ice blade and, giggling, harvested the fruits from the tree, slicing them into thin pieces and tossing them into the ice pop box along with other various unconventional ingredients. She shook the box, a cold aura emanating from her hands, quickly freezing the contents into solid ice.

"New product!" Chiruno exclaimed happily, pulling out a popsicle embedded with fruit slices, "Golden Apple Ice Cream!"

Gold... this thing is a golden apple! Dingdang planted a golden apple tree here in this tiny store! And then Chiruno used it to make ice pops!

I almost passed out in the chilling wind as I looked at the not even two-meter-tall golden apple tree and the few dazzling, chillingly intimidating golden apples hanging from it, with a thousand critiques in my mind culminating in one sentence:

Hercules, all your struggles back then were completely in vain!

Chiruno, inspecting the ice pop in her hand, was greatly satisfied. The divine power of the sacred fruit enveloped it in a pale golden halo, which made the ice pop look as grand as a gold bar and strikingly beautiful—although it was still an ice pop. Chiruno, pleased more than ever with her creation, pondered for a moment before handing one to me, "Here, thanks for harboring so many demons, Ling Meng said you are a friend of Fantasy Country... Consider it a favor for Dingdang, so please accept it graciously!"

I took the potentially level-boosting Nine Revival Ice Stick with awe, wondering whether I should hang it above my doorway and then publicly select heroes from around the world. Letting them compete through twelve trials and defeating twelve Saint Fighters, with the final reward being the ice stick: in every way, this item was qualified for such trials.

Having made the Golden Apple Ice Cream, Chiruno and Dingdang were still not satisfied, once again huddled together, chattering away, seemingly having become business partners. I wondered whether I should have Lady Shining from home come over to help out. With the three fools running the cold drink store together, the sign could say "San 9 Cold Drink Store," and the tagline could be: San 9 Cold Drink Store, powerful enough to give you a cold, look for the 9️⃣9️⃣9️⃣ trademark!

Chiruno and Dingdang eventually came up with a series of products, such as Golden Apple Porridge and Golden Apple Cones, and they could even collaborate with Sylvia to introduce a Golden Apple Pie meal deal. As it turned out, in some aspects, Chiruno and Dingdang weren’t stupid; their intelligence was just peculiarly shaped. The two who had fallen into delusions discussed, experimented, and demonstrated over an hour, proving how wonderful this world is. What once made Hercules endure so much hardship ultimately turned into a table full of ice creams and sundaes.

Most importantly, each one could boost one’s level by five upon consumption.

"I can’t imagine what kind of bloodbath would ensue if this thing really entered the market, and I dare not think what havoc it would wreak if it ended up in another world. Two unparalleled masters meet and fight to the death, each swallowing a supreme elixir, then their powers surge, and they battle until heaven and earth darken—that’s classic mainstream. Two Sword Saint and Magic Gods, green with envy, each put on an innate treasure before their duel, then their potential explodes, and they grapple until the sky shatters and the earth splits—that’s newbie mainstream. Two unmatched champions fight at the peak of Forbidden City, pausing for a minute upon meeting, one pulls out an ice stick and chews it, then they fight while sucking in cold air and shaking the heavens—that’s typical Xyrin mainstream."

As a result, my own imagination left me totally disheveled.

And what added to the confusion, Chiruno declared just minutes later that this brand-new popsicle would be sold for 2.5 each, suddenly making me feel that Hercules’s near-death experiences were truly frustrating. But then again, isn’t the Holy Grail only five bucks?

Thinking this way, I felt oddly balanced again.

After hanging out with Chiruno for a while, mainly watching Dingdang play, I took my leave with a Golden Apple Ice Cream in hand. Its surging life energy was even overflowing from the surface, making the nearby landscape trees rustle. Dingdang earnestly assured that such an ice cream could cure over a hundred diseases or instantly restore a drained mage to full health and magic.

But before I could even taste it, I ran into someone.

Two giants at least two and a half meters tall stood before me.

One, an Atlantis Artificial God named Ares, I had just seen that morning; he must have just come back from testing at the institute, and the other was more theatrical: Berserker, Uncle B.

Everyone surely remembers, Uncle B has another name—Hercules.

The two giants respectfully saluted as they approached, recognizing our direct superiors (Dingdang and some leader), and then Uncle B, quite puzzled, looked at the ice stick in my hand, "Um, this looks kind of familiar."

"You might not want to know what this is," I said subtly.

When Hercules undertook the Twelve Labours, risking offending the gods to steal golden apples, those things definitely weren’t the same as what Dingdang grew from a two-meter-tall mini fruit tree. But the problem is, Dingdang personally named the fruits from that mini tree ’Golden Apples,’ which makes the situation quite mystical. The words of gods carry power, and so do the things they create. If a god creates something and then personally names it, it becomes an undeniable truth in the world.

When Dingdang named her produce ’Golden Apples’ and Hercules was one of Dingdang’s heroic spirits, a part of Uncle B’s life was rewritten—he recognized the substance in the ice stick.

"This... is a Golden Apple?"

"Go ahead, eat it," I sighed, handing the ice stick to the giant before me, "You worked hard back then. These are selling for 2.5 each at Chiruno’s cold drink store now. If you can live with it, cheating her out of the whole tree shouldn’t be a problem."

Hercules, holding the ice stick like chopsticks between two fingers, shed silent tears: "Ladon, you died in vain!" Then handed the ice stick to Ares beside him: "Here’s half for you, in memory of our mythological era from the tomb."

Ares was slightly stunned, while I looked at the two giants before us with some emotion, "Both are mythical figures, so why do they look so chaotic standing together?"

While the civilian sectors of Shadow City continued to enjoy their peaceful daily lives, its military sector remained in high-speed operation, determined to continually push the limits of relentless militarization.

After an initial series of preparations and organizational works were completed, some substantive materials were taken out. A few days later, as the residents of Shadow City woke up in the morning and looked up out of habit at the sun clock, they discovered something new above their city.

A massive floating facility with a complex structure of triple steel rings was in place; the outermost metal ring nearly had a radius of ten kilometers and a width of one kilometer, while the innermost circle was a massive "coil" of blue light flow made of Ghost Energy. This gigantic structure hovered majestically above Shadow City, slowly rotating and orbiting around the central fortress area of the city, silent yet visually staggering.

Citizens speculated wildly about what this was. Many thought it was a new type of Imperial Battleship, others believed some young general had crafted a new superweapon, and some self-proclaimed insiders insisted these three ring-shaped mechanisms were evidence of the coming era of Big Sister. Some newer residents of the city worried about this huge fortress suddenly appearing above, fearing it might fall and destroy their plants and their 300-dollar hairstyles, while seasoned locals were unfazed by any oddities appearing in the city, their only complaint being, "This giant iron ring is floating right above our district, blocking the sun—although it doesn’t affect the lighting, how will we tell the time in the future?"

During the day, they looked at the sun, and at night, they gazed at the moon, right down to the second. Many residents had formed this habit due to a dubious theme pack added by Bubbles to the city management system, as they didn’t have clocks at home.

This lone complaint from the residents was resolved within minutes: they noticed a huge projection appearing underneath the floating fortress in the sky, sharply displaying the current time, and thus, the majority of the citizens were satisfied, "So that thing was an electronic clock after all."

Hardly!!

"Imperial Military Integration Department Command Center," I said as I looked up at the huge floating structure in the sky and shrugged to Sivis, "I know you guys built it, but has the Military Integration Department only started operating now?"

Sivis was still dressed in her impeccably tidy Imperial Military Uniform. Since stabilizing the makeup of the Shadow City Command Center, she had not taken any time off, nor had she changed her uniform style. Confronted with my query, this admirable Deputy Officer seemed to flash a hint of helplessness and then replied firmly, "My Emperor, the Military Integration Department began operations a month ago and started normal functions half a month ago. This command center was just established afterward. Regarding these documents, you personally signed them."

I knew you’d say that last part.

Honestly, I have seriously reviewed the documents I signed, but my memory is limited and with being this busy recently, who has the time to remember everything? Now that Sivis reminded me, I suddenly recalled indeed signing some related reports a while ago. To enhance the power of the Imperial Vassal Army comprehensively and to strengthen the logistics and organizational management of the affiliated armies, we established an organization called the Military Integration Department, directly under the command of the Imperial Command, with the military leaders of various worlds as officers, covering and integrating the organizational sectors and unified research and development production systems of every vassal army, and many more complex things that I couldn’t even understand myself, in short, a department to transform the irregular army + civilian corps into a uniform, well-equipped regular army.

Such a busy military unit certainly demanded an array of dedicated personnel and a workplace for them.

Currently, every affiliated world had already established units related to the Military Integration Department, along with administrative, production, research, and development facilities related to this comprehensive department, such as a Power Armor modification center in Azeroth, and an Magic Power enhancement modification base on Capital Star of the Pan-Galactic Civilization Community—an odd-sounding yet essential department. Of course, the supreme command center of the Military Integration Department should be located in Shadow City.

Initially, the Military Integration Department was just a subordinate division of the Supreme Command and did not handle many tasks, but once the major restructuring of various species’ vassal armies began, we suddenly realized that this was a complex task beyond description, with countless issues needing integration and an enormous number of projects piling up, which was impossible for the spare capacity of Supreme Command to handle: flesh and bone vassal army soldiers aren’t clay to be kneaded all together and pressed out in a uniform mold. Not to mention, do you know how much effort Qianqian spent improving a nail clipper for Tauren—though I think that girl is just too idle.

In any case, to improve the efficiency of the Military Integration Department and facilitate management, we specifically added a facility to Shadow City just for it, which is the circular floating fortress currently in the sky. A few days ago, Bubbles completed its assembly and testing in Other Space, and now, this fortress has made its debut before everyone.

The construction is rapid, and the name is straightforward—you can call it the "Military Integration Department," "Integration Department," or "Second Command Post," also referred to as "Integration Command Post" or "Integration Center"—it depends on which one Qianqian thinks of that day.

I knew it, trusting that girl to name things is unreliable.

"Now, the standardization of equipment and supplies for the Servant Army is proceeding in sync. We’re preparing to classify those diverse military forces into several operating types based on their world characteristics while recompiling them broadly under the general categories of technology/mystery powers, otherwise it’s just too chaotic."

"Which equipment plan did we finally settle on?"

"Sandora’s plan. The frontline infantry will uniformly be equipped with power armor, the baseplates of which are the improved version of the New Eden Federation Marine Corps power armor using the Ghost Energy system. Following the advice of several veteran soldiers from the Civilization Community, we decided to abandon further enhancements of the Ghost Energy Shields and instead significantly strengthen the physical armor strength."

I gave a puzzled look, as Ghost Energy Shields are a trademark technology of the Xyrin Apostles. The cost of their shield generators is not much higher than that of interstellar alloy. Yet, achieving the same level of protection by increasing the weight of the power armor’s physical armor required sacrificing more payload, which seemed uneconomical.

Sivis noticed my confusion and proactively explained, "The technology of Ghost Energy Shield Generators is more complex. The frontline technicians or engineering soldiers of the affiliated races can’t even learn how to replace the energy circuits, let alone the ordinary infantry wearing the armor. Considering scenarios where the power armor is breached on the battlefield, we can’t let soldiers die just because they don’t know how to replace the shield generators. In comparison, replacing a metal plate on the armor is much easier. All military research departments of the affiliated worlds have already begun studying the new batch of Imperial technology we sent, but they won’t grasp much in a short time. Perhaps power armor enhanced with energy shields will be valuable in equipping the next generation."

I nodded, thinking that such matters indeed require knowledgeable advice; being killed on the battlefield because you can’t change a battery due to an overloaded shield would definitely be the most frustrating way to die.

"Integrating supplies for daily necessities is somewhat troublesome," Sivis continued, "The Servant Army is diverse in species, each with different living conditions. It’s basically impossible to prepare uniform supplies, and considering that we might add more diverse affiliated races later, it’s better to let them handle this logistical aspect themselves."

I nodded: "Trusting the abilities of those racial leaders, they shouldn’t find it too hard to provide their own troops with food and clothing. We just need to take care of their equipment."

Sivis nodded and then brought up another matter.

Whether or not to start implementing bio-enhancement technology in some affiliated worlds.

The carbon-based life enhancement technology received from Atlantis has already achieved many results. The Xyrin Technicians have collected and integrated some simple techniques that can be learned and mastered by common civilizations. According to the analysis of the Integration Department, these technologies should be applicable to at least fifty percent of the Empire’s affiliated races.

I had thought of this when I saw Ares at the Institute; unexpectedly, it had come to my immediate attention so swiftly.

"There are currently three types of enhancement technologies. The simplest one is a mass-producible lifelong effective drug that can be applied to the majority of carbon-based soldiers, enhancing their physical strength, recovery speed, reaction ability, and thinking ability. The costs are low, and any affiliated world can afford these enhancement costs on their own. The second-level enhancement comes from simplified DNA modification technologies that have been used on Atlantian civilians, which can be applied to Servant Army members with greater endurance capacity. It is more effective than the first level, and there’s a certain chance it enhances the user’s spiritual energy—two Protos volunteers saw a significant improvement in their spiritual energy. Its cost is a bit higher and requires Ghost Energy devices, but widespread implementation is still feasible. The third-level enhancement involves the technologies analyzed directly from beings like Atlantis-created artificial gods such as Zeus; it involves simultaneous genetic, spiritual, and physical transformation, turning ordinary humans into superhumans similar to Imperial soldiers. Moreover, carbon-based lifeforms undergoing this bio-transformation will gain special abilities, such as superpowers and an extremely high talent for magic that can assist in combat. More promisingly, this transformation is hereditary for the next generation, though slightly weaker, it continuously improves the overall quality of our affiliated races. The only issue is that this transformation uses high-purity Ghost Energy Crystals and can only be applied to a few elite soldiers, plus there’s a 0.3 percent chance of immune rejection in test embryos—this transformation risks causing disabilities, and although treatable, the process is definitely not comfortable."

Sivis reported the matter in a businesslike manner, then added, "The above three enhancements are general technologies prepared for soldiers. There are more advanced technologies in the Atlantian heritage, but the risks are too high." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)