Chapter 105: World Zone 99 (Second Update)

At the same moment.

Within the Virtual Universe, over 8.2 billion people appeared across one hundred independently generated worlds.

The Universe Genius Battle, the first round of the preliminary qualifiers for the Ganwu branch, had officially begun!

From the high and mighty Undying Gods down to ordinary citizens of the universe, countless people logged into the Virtual Universe to watch this grand spectacle.

—

Sector 99.

Jiang Chen felt a blur before his eyes, and his surroundings shifted instantly.

After about a second, the scene before him gradually came into focus.

He stood in what appeared to be an ordinary room, filled with mundane household items like clothes and cups. It looked as if, just a moment ago, someone had been living there.

But now, the "residents" who once lived here were gone, and the entire world had been transformed into a battlefield for 8.2 billion Star-level fighters to slaughter one another.

*Swish!*

Jiang Chen immediately deployed his "Iron Man" mecha.

His telekinesis instantly shifted into an "informational" state, seizing control of the mecha's central AI core. Streams of data flooded his consciousness, and every thought he had could now be converted into corresponding data, feeding instructions directly into the mecha’s brain.

The armor on the mecha’s chest split open like a door, revealing a human-shaped space. Jiang Chen stepped inside, and under his telekinetic control, the armor sealed shut, leaving not a single seam visible.

In front of Jiang Chen’s vision, lines of prompts appeared:

"Main engine activated."
"Smart control module self-check complete."
"Flight module self-check complete."
"Detection module self-check complete."
"Weaponry module self-check complete."
"All self-check procedures finished. No abnormalities. Entering combat mode."
"Current environment: Gravity is 42,548 times standard Earth gravity. Atmospheric composition is..."

Countless pieces of information filled the interface in front of him. This mecha was not only powerful in combat but, in terms of comprehensive auxiliary functions, was in no way inferior to a high-level intelligent unit equipped with advanced detection gear.

"Detection complete. Within a ten-kilometer radius, there are 6,274,658 life forms. All discovered life form locations have been marked..."

As the final prompt appeared, a three-dimensional map materialized on the side of the screen, densely packed with red dots.

Over 6.27 million participants within a mere ten-kilometer radius—one could only imagine how crowded this world sector was.

"More than six million. A bit troublesome, but not unsolvable."

With a thought, Jiang Chen issued a command to the mecha's AI: "Clear the area!"

Following his order, ballpoint-pen-sized "probes" popped out from the mecha’s arms, aiming in different directions. A moment later, a dazzling light ignited at the "tips" of the probes. After an imperceptible pause, laser beams shot out, piercing through the floors, walls, and ceilings of the room to strike the Star-level fighters on the other side.

C3-grade laser guns were not particularly powerful weapons, but against the average Star-level stage nine fighter, they were an instant kill. Even among the geniuses at the Star-level stage nine, while some could resist such attacks with domains or laws, a light-speed attack was impossible to react to if not anticipated beforehand.

Without prior preparation, whether they were ordinary Star-levels or heaven-defying geniuses, they were finished with a single shot. And this "Iron Man" mecha was equipped with over a hundred C3-grade laser guns!

In fact, had it not been for cost-control considerations, Jiang Chen could have easily manufactured C9-grade laser guns using B9-grade materials. However, balancing cost and performance, the C3-grade laser gun was the optimal choice. It could penetrate the defenses of most B9-grade materials to instantly kill a Star-level stage nine enemy, while keeping energy consumption low enough to ensure maximum endurance.

—The energy cells powering the mecha were also factored into the cost. Compressing ordinary energy cells into higher-density, high-grade cells was quite expensive.

Under his telekinetic control, the mecha moved rapidly through the buildings. Enemies were struck down through walls and ceilings without even having a chance to react.

This scene left the spectators outside stunned.

Inside a viewing spaceship, a red-skinned fat man couldn't help but curse: "How is it allowed to use technological weapons in this Genius Battle?! This is outrageous! It’s cheating!"

Beside him, a companion immediately explained: "Look at the detailed terms of the Genius Battle. Technological weapons are permitted, but the restrictions are harsh: you must manufacture them yourself. I see this kid as a talent skilled in technology."

"Indeed," an elderly man with graying hair agreed. "Look at the power of those laser guns. Piercing through nearly a meter of flooring without any decay in power—those are definitely C-grade laser guns. Being able to craft such weapons using only B9-grade materials requires high technical skill. This ability alone would be enough for him to secure a high-ranking position at our Ganwu Universe Kingdom's 'Glacier Group'."

The "Glacier Group" mentioned by the old man was a massive inter-stellar conglomerate within the Ganwu Universe Kingdom. It held significant advantages in energy, spaceship engines, and technological weaponry, with business spanning the entire kingdom and even collaborating with the five major powers.

"Glacier Group?" The fat man understood the weight of that name and fell silent. Anyone qualified to seek a high position at the Glacier Group was not someone he could afford to provoke—even if the other party was merely at the Star-level.

Suddenly, the fat man spotted something and pointed at the battlefield below: "Look, what is that thing he just released?"

—

Below, Jiang Chen had already cleared out the enemies in the residential complex. On the 3D map marking life signals, only one green dot—representing Jiang Chen himself—remained in the entire block.

In a space beneath one of the buildings, Jiang Chen deployed his command center vehicle and SCVs.

"Every stone and handful of dirt here is a B-grade material. With a little research into the properties of these materials and targeted processing, I can manufacture all sorts of powerful technological weapons."

"This complex has been cleared; it’s safe enough to leave the command vehicle here. Let's start mining resources from underground."

With a thought, Jiang Chen linked his telekinesis to the SCVs and the command vehicle. The vehicle unfolded slowly, its processing modules occupying most of the underground space, leaving only a small corner empty.

The SCVs swung their mechanical arms, their sharp drills boring massive holes into the walls. As the SCVs excavated, the buildings above lost their support and collapsed rapidly. However, the location and angle of the digging had been carefully calculated, so the underground space did not cave in.

Near a hundred residential buildings in the complex collapsed in a circle due to the SCVs' excavation. Although the entire city was in a state of chaotic slaughter, the noise had attracted little attention, and the few who tried to investigate were killed by Jiang Chen’s long-range laser sniping before they could even get close.

After quickly gathering materials from a few buildings and clearing a large area, the SCVs began digging deeper. Deep underground, the foundations of the buildings were buried—all made of incredibly hard B9-grade stone and metal. Beneath those foundations, a wealth of B-grade materials was mixed in.

Unlike a natural planet, this planet, specifically "manufactured" by the Virtual Universe, was a chaotic jumble of materials. There were no proper "veins" of ore. One shovel might turn up soil, the next might hit a mix of stone and metal, and a bit further over, one might inexplicably find a pile of sand.

This was somewhat unexpected for Jiang Chen and caused him a bit of trouble, as identifying and sorting these materials was tedious. But it was only a minor nuisance. The chaotic mixing meant that he didn't have to worry about a "lack of material variety." Almost any type of material could be found just by digging in one spot. Even if these materials were simulated by the Virtual Universe and not real natural resources, their physical and extraordinary properties could still be utilized.

Inside the command vehicle, analytical instruments rapidly assessed the properties of the different materials and sorted them accordingly. Jiang Chen kept a lookout while carefully calculating processing plans based on the data fed back from the vehicle.

For the same mechanical unit, different materials required adjustments in production and processing. Sometimes, due to the lack of a key material, an entire blueprint had to be replaced. However, Jiang Chen had a vast reserve of blueprints, and combined with "Alchemy Technology," which could significantly alter material properties to serve as perfect substitutes, he didn't have to worry about ending up unable to build anything.

Jiang Chen had the confidence to play this way in the Genius Battle—occupying precious "technological equipment" slots with a command vehicle and SCVs that provided no direct combat help—precisely because of the foundation provided by his "Alchemy Technology."

The transmutation of materials and matter was the core ability of alchemy, bar none. Relying on this, as long as he obtained enough "extraordinary traits," Jiang Chen could almost manufacture anything he wanted out of thin air. Of course, the higher the grade of the material, the more difficult it was to manufacture or transmute, and the more "extraordinary traits" it required.

In Sector 99, most of these randomly generated B-grade materials could only support Jiang Chen in transmuting them into the B-grade materials he needed. Even in the most extravagant scenario, wasting vast amounts of materials for "synthesis," he could at best obtain C-grade materials.

After confirming that his surroundings were temporarily safe, Jiang Chen exited the mecha, set it to "alert mode," and controlled it remotely with his telekinesis. He then entered the command vehicle to begin using alchemical methods to transmute the vast amount of materials excavated by the SCVs.

The process was not slow. Before entering the qualifiers, Jiang Chen had anticipated the need to transmute materials, and the command vehicle had been designed with corresponding modules. Fully deployed, the command vehicle occupied nearly 10,000 square meters. Nearly one-third of this area was a massive "Alchemical Transmutation Array," which could absorb and imbue materials with unique extraordinary traits, turning them into the substances he needed.

The only thing Jiang Chen had to do was provide a steady stream of spiritual telekinesis to maintain the array's operation.

Piles of materials were fed into the array, transmuted into the required resources, and then fed into other modules of the command vehicle for processing. One by one, parts were produced and rapidly assembled by countless mechanical arms.

The first batch produced were not combat units, but more SCVs and brand-new processing and production modules. A portion of the new SCVs went to mine materials, while others used the resources to begin constructing a massive factory to enclose the command vehicle.

In just three days, a factory over a hundred meters high and covering ten thousand square meters was erected through the efforts of the SCVs. The interior was divided into twenty floors, each filled with precision processing equipment.

"It feels like playing an RTS game; as long as I mine some crystals, I can build anything..." Jiang Chen couldn't help but mutter.

This wasn't a metaphor; it was reality. Any material the SCVs dug up could be treated like "crystals" in an RTS game—truly universal.

Of course, in the outside world, the cost of this transmutation array was usually higher than simply buying ready-made materials with the same properties. The process of transmutation consumed a large amount of the "extraordinary traits" contained within the materials. Once these were extracted, the materials would quickly degrade into low-grade waste. The cost of transmuting B-grade metal into C-grade metal using the array was enough to buy several times the amount of C-grade metal directly.

But here, in a special zone of the Virtual Universe where this was the only way to obtain materials, it was a necessary compromise.

After the processing area was expanded, Jiang Chen "hand-crafted" an energy tower modeled after those of the Machine Race to generate power. While it wasn't as efficient as a [Space Furnace], it was more than enough to supply a mechanical legion. Most importantly, the manufacturing process was much simpler and could be completed in a few days. If he were to build a [Space Furnace], the qualifiers would be long over by the time it was operational. It was better to use a less efficient but simpler "Mechanical-style Energy Tower."

Jiang Chen was lucky. The first phase of expansion was completed within a week without any large-scale interference. The occasional lost Star-level fighter that wandered by was easily dealt with by Jiang Chen via his telekinetically controlled mecha.

With raw materials, energy, and production capacity all resolved, on the eighth day of the qualifiers, the factory officially began large-scale production of combat-ready mechanical units.