Bang!
The door was blown open.
The little players swarmed in, originally thinking there was still an elite monster to fight, but after entering, they only saw a blond man sitting in the corner.
There was a bloody hole in the man's temple, and his pistol lay beside him.
Victory Male God walked over and cautiously kicked him twice.
"Looks like he's completely dead!"
Black Smoke: "What else? There's a hole in his forehead..."
Male God: "A coward who killed himself out of fear of punishment!"
Lu Yuan didn't pay much attention to Hart; now, that person was just a corpse, merely raw material for creating player clones.
What caught his eye was the large-scale military map on the table.
He walked over and found that the map marked all the villages and towns west of Oasis City, and also meticulously noted the output goods and estimated annual production of each village and town.
Not bad, not bad.
Many villages and towns were hidden in valley crevices, not easy to find. With this map, they could later find these villages and towns to discuss cooperation matters.
"It's a pity the leader killed himself," Caoyuan sighed, "otherwise we should have been able to get a lot of information about Oasis City from him."
"Even if he's dead, it doesn't necessarily mean we can't find out," Lu Yuan pulled open the drawer under the map table.
Inside were several thick logs.
"Oh!"
Caoyuan's eyes lit up.
Hart was not a good-for-nothing; he was, after all, a competent commander. Lu Yuan quickly flipped through them.
"These few books record the Stormwind Gang's past plundered gains, this one is a plan that didn't have time to be implemented, and this one... is a memorandum about Oasis City."
He handed the last logbook to Caoyuan.
"Okay, I'll take this back and study it!"
"Speaking of which, classmate Hart's wardrobe is quite large."
Ye Xing noticed the most conspicuous item in the room, "Could he be a fashion expert? Let me see what good stuff there is, wow!"
Opening the cabinet door, the players were all stunned.
It was a set of pitch-black power armor, very well maintained, and its appearance was clearly different from standard power armor!
It was equipped with two small-caliber short-barreled automatic cannons on its shoulders, and also two hexagonal light-colored blocks that looked like antennas for a small phased array radar.
There were independent melee weapon kits on the forearms, an enlarged battery pack on the back, and two missile backpacks that could hold 8 vertically launched miniature smart missiles.
Other functions would probably only be known after scanning.
"Is this... the legendary full loadout?"
Seeing this luxurious configuration, the players were extremely excited and envious.
"Probably," Ye Xing glanced contemptuously at Hart's corpse, "Such good equipment, looking at its brand new condition, it must have never participated in actual combat after being bought, treated like a large-scale figurine standing around."
"Executive Officer, under your command, this truly is a glorious complete victory! Shall we try on the spoils of war right here?"
Black Smoke was good at seizing opportunities and suggested to Lu Yuan.
"Hey, you old geezer, you're quick to take credit and flatter! You've hogged all the Executive Officer's reputation, haven't you!"
"Go away... What do kids know..."
"Let's talk about it later," Lu Yuan suppressed his inner excitement, maintaining his image, "Have you found that legendary underground secret chamber?"
"Found it! Jubian should already be there."
"Very good, take me there first."
The secret chamber was located in the lowest foundation part of the shelter.
It was almost entirely embedded in solid rock, with only one metal wall exposed.
There were no seams on that metal wall, but there were many scratches and scorch marks, indicating that the Stormwind Gang had attempted to force it open violently more than once, but without success.
Jubian had completed a preliminary scan. After seeing Lu Yuan, he ran over quickly, looking very cheerful.
"Executive Officer, there's good news. The space inside the secret chamber is quite large. We can't scan the full extent yet, so we don't know what's inside."
Lu Yuan raised his eyebrows.
"How is that good news?"
"Because the secret chamber walls aren't ordinary metal, but a powerful new material!"
Jubian's tone was high-pitched.
"Specifically, it's a new type of iron-based metal ceramic. Its hardness far exceeds most alloys, and its melting point is very high, over 4500 degrees, making it excellent at defending against armor-piercing rounds and molten metal jets."
"So it's a good armor material?"
Lu Yuan now knew why the secret chamber had remained unopened for hundreds of years.
"Right! And this metal ceramic's advantage is that its raw materials are easily obtained. Synthesis only requires iron, silicon, nitrogen, and a very small amount of rare metals."
Lu Yuan: "It can be mass-produced using just scrap steel, sand, and air?"
Jubian: "Yes! However, scanning can only reveal the material's microstructure, not the manufacturing process. So currently, we can only replicate it from an atomic scale using a 3D printer, which consumes a significant amount of power, about 8000 kilowatt-hours per ton; even if we extract material from here, recycle it, and reshape it, the cost per ton exceeds 4000 kilowatt-hours..."
Alright.
Production capacity had just increased, and now electricity was becoming scarce again.
"It's acceptable," Lu Yuan nodded, "If it's only used to reinforce power armor and the front armor of vehicles, it won't take many tons in total. Is there a way to open the secret chamber?"
Jubian: "The scanner detected circuit structures in the wall. It should be opened through some kind of command or verification, but forcing it open is also fine. This thing is only invincible against the natives. Our plasma cutting temperature far exceeds the melting point of the metal ceramic. As long as we spend some time, we can make a hole."
Not bad, not bad.
In fact, even if it couldn't be opened, just the formula for a high-performance metal ceramic would make this trip worthwhile!
Lu Yuan walked forward a few steps, originally just wanting to observe it up close. However, at this moment, an electronic voice came from within the metal wall.
【Human individual matching DNA database detected】
【System emergency startup】
【Identity confirmed: Cangyuan Future Technology Executive Officer】
【Identity information registered in 2085 AD, permanently valid】
【This secret vault has been closed for 898 years, two months, and 15 days. During this period, parent company communications: zero】
【Continuous human mental and technological degradation detected over the past 311 years, severity: severe; based on default protocol, judged as an extinction-level event. Any surviving Cangyuan Executive Officer is considered the corporate legal person and chairman, with authority elevated from A1 to the highest level A0】
【Highest authority confirmed】
【Highest authority delivered, Executive Officer, please issue instructions】
Oh?
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.
This underground shelter is also an asset of Cangyuan?
That makes things easy!
"Open the secret vault."
He said softly.
As soon as he finished speaking, a square recessed area appeared on the metal ceramic wall. It slid to one side, forming a passage to the interior.
Lights came on inside the secret vault. The area inside wasn't particularly large, about half a tennis court. Unknown equipment was arranged on both sides, and a container was placed in the center of the area facing Lu Yuan, looking somewhat like a player stasis pod, but not exactly the same.
"Awesome..."
Jubian, standing nearby, was filled with awe.
"Please wait a moment before going in. I'll go up and call a few more people, just in case!"
"Hmm, alright."
