245: Chapter 246 Gains and Losses

The dust had settled.

In the operations room, Lin Li methodically finished delegating all the strategic clean-up work.

He left Iron Man 999 and Chief of Staff Ushtan in the fortress to oversee the situation and continue mobilizing the players to clear out the remaining bugs.

As for himself, he immediately took Iron Man 73 and rushed back to their headquarters on the Outpost Planet.

The reason he gave internally was very reasonable:

"During this boarding action, we suffered a direct strike from the Warp. The souls of the Central Army's elites have been severely corrupted. We must immediately return to the surface to seek holy purification and psychological intervention from the Ecclesiarchy."

Of course, this was indeed an objective fact.

But in truth, Lin Li knew best that the bigger reason... was that he was truly terrified!

When the shuttle landed on the surface of Shelter, it happened to be dusk on the Outpost Planet.

A giant purplish-red gas giant, like a static demonic eye, hung spectacularly on the horizon.

After months of base construction and ecological terraforming, most of the Outpost Planet's surface was now covered with a layer of resilient, radiation-resistant vegetation.

The atmosphere was a hundred times better than when they first started colonizing, and the sky, which had been permanently shrouded in sandstorms, was finally clear and transparent once more.

Lin Li stepped off the shuttle, looked at the purplish-red gas giant, and suddenly remembered that eerie, giant eye in the Warp.

He stood in the cold wind, watching it in silence for a long time.

Then, as if fleeing for his life, he plunged through the heavy underground alloy gates of Shelter.

He didn't say a word the entire way.

Only after returning to the underground core area, which was filled with a maximum sense of security, did he relax.

Recalling his life-threatening experience in space just now, facing the Chaos Gods of the Warp and those indescribable illusions, Lin Li couldn't help but feel a spine-chilling dread, and cold sweat instantly drenched his clothes.

"So close, just a little bit more!"

Lin Li leaned against the cold metal wall of the elevator.

"If I hadn't crossed paths with Old Man Huang by chance back then and left an anchor, I'm afraid my body would be cold by now, and even my soul would have been devoured clean by those mad gods!"

The more he recalled that high-dimensional terror that defied physical science, the more panicked Lin Li became, to the point of sheer restlessness.

Even in the shadows of the corridor, he suspiciously wondered if he had been pulled back into some illusion in the Warp to be beaten again.

Lin Li quickly hurried back to Main Control Room No. 1 on the first basement level.

With a thud, he collapsed face-up onto his single bed.

Taking several long, deep breaths and listening to the white noise of the surrounding machinery, he finally managed to calm his racing heart.

After resting his eyes for a moment, Lin Li opened them again, his gaze having cleared.

"Damn it, there's no use being afraid."

Lin Li muttered to himself.

"I can't go back to my original world anyway, so I just have to bite the bullet and keep going. In this outrageously cruel Warhammer Universe, standing still is equivalent to slow-motion suicide.

Never mind any grandiose talk about reviving the human race; even if it's just for my own survival, I have to keep grinding!"

Lin Li quickly came to terms with the harsh reality.

He rolled out of bed, sat at his computer desk, opened his terminal, created a new document, and calmly began to review and analyze the gains and losses of this Tyranid invasion.

First of all, there were definitely losses.

When The Guardian pushed forward with all its might and abandoned the defensive line,

those Tyranid fleets that bypassed them caused varying degrees of infrastructure damage to the surrounding agricultural planets, Hive Worlds, and industrial worlds, as well as a certain number of casualties among the native Defense Force.

But these were all acceptable costs within Lin Li's strategic plan.

Looking at the specific data, the headquarters had not suffered any crippling damage.

Compared to these losses, the Spark Alliance's gains this time were ridiculously bountiful!

First, they had completed the system challenge quest to kill the Norn Queen.

Lin Li looked at the long string of zeros on his panel, filled with gratification: "A whopping ten million points! Plus a rare Volkite weapon system STC print!"

With these ten million points, Lin Li could once again gamble on that scammy system roulette.

Based on the patterns Lin Li had summarized from his previous draws:

the more points he wagered in this trash system, the more likely he was to draw something amazing!

Although drawing prizes had a certain element of non-reproducibility,

as long as he could draw an epoch-making high-tech creation,

Lin Li could use the World Forger to mass-produce and reverse-engineer it, bypassing all physical barriers!

This meant that combining point draws with the World Forger was the ultimate shortcut for the Spark Alliance to rapidly advance its tech tree and crush the natives in a short period of time!

In addition,

besides the massive amount of points, the Volkite weapon STC print rewarded by the challenge quest was an even more priceless treasure!

Just like the deflector shields and other items before, with this core blueprint print and the Matter Constructor,

the Spark Alliance could completely skip the R&D phase and begin mass-producing Volkite weapons on an assembly line!

This stuff was way better than those plasma weapons!

Lin Li rubbed his hands in excitement.

In Warhammer lore, even during the technologically prosperous Golden Age, Volkite weapons and graviton weapons were the Imperium's top-tier infantry weapons.

In the current Terra Imperial Palace, even the most elite Custodes couldn't produce many intact Volkite guns.

This thing was incredibly powerful; even a metal block like a Necron would have to obediently go back to wait for its respawn timer if hit by a single shot.

"Now, we'll have a production line for Volkite weapons very soon."

Lin Li stroked his chin and began plotting.

"As for graviton weapons... I can target Iron Man 999 directly! He has a graviton weapon module from the Golden Age installed on him! In exchange, at worst, I'll reluctantly donate some genetic material to him. I'm sure that breeding-obsessed Iron Man would be more than happy to let me dismantle his parts."

However, to Lin Li's slight regret,

the main quest to unlock the next level of Shelter on his computer had not refreshed yet.

This left Lin Li a bit unsure of his next direction.

Aside from these tangible, hard gains, there were also many intangible gains on a strategic level.

For instance, this time the Spark Alliance withstood immense pressure to face and defeat the terrifying alien army head-on.

This would play a decisive role in solidifying the Alliance's dominant position in the entire Yuanwang Star System!

The native populations of each planet would also become more fanatical and steadfast in their support for the Alliance's absolute military power.

Furthermore, to Lin Li's surprise,

two official Space Marine Chapters, the Carcharodons and the Death Spectres, had actually joined and participated in the final boarding action.

Moreover, these proud transhumans of the Imperium had brief, substantive contact and fought side-by-side with the players, who were The Fourth Calamity.

What kind of chemical reaction this would produce was still unknown.

But in this sector, making contact with Space Marines was certainly not a bad thing.

If they could seize this opportunity to directly open up equal communication and trade with the Imperium's regular forces, that would be the best possible outcome.

"And finally..."

Lin Li raised his hand and flipped his palm, and a ball of golden, holy flame ignited silently in his hand.

"Is that I myself have received this permanent blessing bestowed by Old Man Huang himself."

Lin Li looked at the flame, his brow furrowing slightly.

"This is a bit of a double-edged sword."

First, with this aura protecting him,

any low-tier Warp demons trying to launch a mental corruption sneak attack from behind would have their influence on Lin Li minimized to the lowest degree.

It could even be said that he was directly immune.

But as a leader, Lin Li valued the political and religious attributes attached to this miracle even more!

Especially the religious attributes!

One must know that in the Imperium's extremely massive and rigid Ecclesiarchy system,

although the Adepta Sororitas were nominally armed affiliates of the Ecclesiarchy, in terms of faith, they swore allegiance to the God-Emperor himself, not some corrupt cardinal.

"Now, I can show the Emperor's fiery blessing anytime, anywhere, with zero cooldown."

"Whether this is some advanced psychic trick or not, in the eyes of those fanatics, it is an unquestionable miracle!

With this identity protecting me, I believe that in the future, no blind, idiotic bishop in the Ecclesiarchy would ever dare to openly mobilize the Battle Sisters against me.

This can be considered a top-tier get-out-of-death-free card!"

"I guess I can be considered a veritable Daemon of Big E now."

But everything has its pros and cons.

The downsides were also obvious.

Just as 73 had warned, his pure human genetic blueprint had been irreversibly and deeply corrupted by Warp psychic energy.

On various levels, he was also more deeply entangled with the Emperor.

As a transmigrator, being tied to the biggest variable in the Warhammer Universe meant it was still unknown what uncontrollable stage things would develop into in the future.

This was definitely a double-edged sword.

After taking stock of his current gains and losses, Lin Li's mind finally calmed down completely.

Next was the core strategic planning for the Spark Alliance's next steps.

"Once the players have completely cleared out the remaining bugs in the surrounding sectors,

and we have fully digested the technological dividends brought by the ten million points and the Volkite weapon blueprint,

the Alliance must immediately initiate the next phase of frantic military expansion and infrastructure building."

Lin Li tapped his fingers on the desk.

"We must build even larger defensive fortress groups on each resource planet. Furthermore, to have decent strategic offensive capabilities, we need a heavy star fleet."

"We must also establish production lines for the two core technologies: the Geller Field Generator and the Warp jump engine, to prepare in advance for the Great Crusade to expand our living space in the future."

"A Geller Field Generator was rewarded in a previous quest, which can be used as a master unit for replication, but we'll need to scavenge for a Warp jump engine!"

The Ghoul Stars is notoriously unstable.

Even if the main force of the Tyranids doesn't show up for now,

those Necron Flayed Ones, roaming Orks, or space pirates will sooner or later wander into the Alliance's territory to raid and plunder.

Not to mention, the Yuanwang Star System's position on the star map is far too close to that massive Warp rift—the Demons Throat!

Chaos armies and demonic tides could spew out from that hole at any moment.

Furthermore, we must not only defend against external alien threats, but internal security checks and stabilization efforts within the Alliance cannot be relaxed in the slightest.

According to Ushtan's previous battle reports, during the period when the Tyranid army was pressing down on the borders and the defensive lines were strained,

several lower hive areas actually experienced severe incidents of cultists taking advantage of the chaos to perform sacrifices and incite riots.

Thinking of this, Lin Li couldn't help but get a headache.

"The influence of that cesspool, the Warp, is truly pervasive. There are shadows of their troublemaking everywhere!"

Having experienced that beating in the Warp, he firmly believed that the Warp and those Chaos Gods were the true, immortal enemies of all sentient life in this cruel universe! The bugs, the metal skeletons, and the Orks were, at best, minor annoyances compared to Chaos.

Yet, unfortunately, the physical universe had no particularly good way to eradicate an idealistic concept like the Warp.