Chapter 759
Chapter 759 - 745: Design
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The composition of Lu Ping’an’s combat power has become somewhat skewed...
"Rather than a gardener, he seems more like a Heavy-armor warrior,"
The Big Cat’s words left Lu Ping’an with no comeback. Not only did a gardener’s career ability require time to cultivate, but the inherent growth curve, weak in the early stage, powerful in the later stage, was also a factor.
Reliant solely on being a Gardener, Lu Ping’an would find it difficult to build up his combat power in the short term.
Faced with constant formidable enemies and an urgent need for combat power, Lu Ping’an naturally resorted to some extreme measures.
It can be said that more than 90% of his combat power now is actually built on a battle platform centered on "Zhi Xi".
Breathing Technique, Career Ability, Extraordinary Martial Skills, Silver Taboo items, Flame Skill, and so forth, all are weapons loaded onto this "platform", ultimately serving the purpose of consolidating their usage.
"Zhi Xi is actually a hollow shell..."
𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
This was not meant to be disparaging, because this was the original design. Lu Ping’an needed a platform to consolidate his varied abilities, achieving a result where one plus one far exceeds two.
Similarly, he needed a protective shell to safeguard his "fragile" self.
In fact, Lu Ping’an has succeeded, achieving even better results than initially anticipated.
When he was using an array of 1-2 tier abilities, he brought out third-tier combat power, and once he generally reached the level of 2nd-3rd tier professions, he even reached Decree-level combat power.
Now? He might already be on par with an average fourth-fifth tier in a face-to-face confrontation.
As for the defense ability he initially pursued, with the enhancement from Divine Bone powder, after an initial build up of four to five layers of defense, resisting the Vortex Stone Cannon is a piece of cake.
"...Perhaps, it’s time to fill this hollow shell."
Originally, he pursued the two characteristics of "defense" and "integrated platform", having no high expectations for it as an individual combat unit.
"As an individual combat unit, its Qi...physique, doesn’t seem to match up."
For close combat units, the most important and basic thing is actually Qi... which directly determines your speed, explosiveness, load capacity, and attack power.
This is just like boxing, if your brute force is enough, you’ll take someone down with one punch. If your Qi is inadequate, it’s just like giving them a massage.
The armor that Lu Ping’an has is just a shell, the real effort isn’t from it... his physique is merely at Brass Upper. It’s not bad for his age and tier, but it’s inadequate for someone specialized in close combat.
"...Relying solely on the symbiotic Demon Plant and Zhi Xi, it can only achieve Silver Lower brute force."
In addition to "Zhi Xi" of the Animated Armor really exerting force, Lu Ping’an’s "live muscles" too, exist as symbiotic Demon Plants.
The problem is that symbiotic Demon Plant being the Sun Blood Vine, its advantage does not lie in pure physical strength. Relying solely on this indirect symbiotic organism not only makes control difficult, but the limit is very apparent.
What’s more troubling is if the symbiotic Demon Plant provides the output, Zhi Xi would be subjected to more internal pressure, which in a way is self-destruction. The two parties seem to be tending towards internal consumption.
With the current combat conditions, this degree of output is sufficient.
But Lu Ping’an is increasingly relying less and less on pure close combat, he needs a more powerful "physique" to raise the limit of his combat platform.
"How much longer will it take?"
"...Who knows, your requirements are too high."
The "Mecha" in front of them is similar in construction to an exoskeleton of an auxiliary living body, but it is actually an "endoskeleton" fitted inside the Silver Knight.
If the casually moving "live muscles" have a limit, then create a real skeleton for it, facilitating its precise and safe output... and if the skeleton itself could exert force, that would be even better.
"Theoretically, this is a perfect design. Your flame-producing symbiotic Demon Plant encountered an internal mechanical structure that converts thermal energy into kinetic energy, nearly one kind of perpetual motion machine in a different sense. You can achieve considerable instant explosiveness with very little consumption..."
As the constructor, Fang Wen affirmed Lu Ping’an’s design concept, and then discussed her construction concept...
"...But this is too difficult. You have no idea how hard it is to manufacture the control device. Are you sure that when you charge the mechanical arm, it won’t just shoot itself out?"
Fang Wen, a design master who has designed countless mechanical creatures, eventually negated Lu Ping’an’s initial design concept.
Insisting on constructing an integrated "humanoid endoskeleton" poses too much difficulty. With interconnections and interference, it may easily harm oneself instead.
Divine Bones combined with Vortex Stones are not easily tamed steeds; they are wild horses that can turn on the master at any time.
"My personal recommendation is for you to adopt a four-plus-one model. First, create four independent limbs as power points (buried with Divine Bones) and connect them with metal parts and wires. You control this system through manipulating the ’limbs’."
With the client completely disregarding the difficulty of the contractor, based on the present situation, Fang Wen proposed a downgraded version of the problem’s solution.
Lu Ping’an pondered for a moment and felt it made sense, then added new requirements as the client....
"...Can you integrate my new profession’s ’dance shoes’ into the limb components of the feet? The hands need it as well. This is something I discovered after ascending to the Heavens. The hands should primarily be concerned with exerting force, they don’t need the flame control intensity of the feet, but they need more flame output holes."
Merely kinetic energy output isn’t enough, additional "fire exits" are also needed? And they need to integrate the energy conversion module of the "dance shoes"? If not for the fact that she no longer had flesh and blood, Fang Wen might have fainted on the spot.
But don’t forget, her technical skills were top-notch. Even though Lu Ping’an’s design concept was quite nonsensical, she truthfully managed to create a prototype after working overtime for some time.
Now, it’s time for the inspection.
It was an eerie humanoid "Mecha", with four limbs like an armor Giant and a pillar on its back, connected by metal components on the left and right.
The real core components were actually the components of the hands and feet. They are the components that exert force and can be further strengthened by constant adjustments.
Lu Ping’an was just about to happily step in, but he was stopped by the designer, Fang Wen.
"....Let’s use the Demon Wolf to test it."
A Demon Wolf will do? If you’re just going to place the wolf in the driver’s seat, it could actually work.
In an instant, there was nothing but a pile of minced meat and blood in the seat.
And two parts of the limbs had already been blown out, the metal components that were originally linked were twisted like doughnuts, this heavy-handed "Robot", had completely disintegrated.
"...It seems that we might need some minor improvements."
Alright, it seems there’s still work to do.
"We have limited time..." At this point, it was actually Lu Ping’an who was somewhat hesitant.
At this moment, as more information surfaced, some restrictions were also laid out before them. When the Divine Boat returns, they were all certain to go home.
And if they left this world, let alone development progress, this thing would basically become mostly useless once it is brought out.
"Perhaps, we can think of it differently and not be obsessed with forming it all at once. First, make a pair of ’gloves’ and a pair of ’dance shoes’, turning them into Taboo items, preserving their core characteristics, and completing the rest on Earth."
"If we take this route, we can enhance and perfect the individual limbs through continual gains, raising the entire system’s maximum limit. The only issue is..." Lu Ping’an’s gaze turned to Zhi Xi, the implication was clear, if they messed around like this, Zhi Xi’s pressure would be huge.
At this time, Zhi Xi agreed straightaway.
"Don’t worry about me, I want to become stronger, I’m about to enter the third-tier."
— End of Chapter 759 —