Chapter 613 - 592: Spoils of War
Chapter 613: Chapter 592: Spoils of War
Allen slowly opened his eyes. The azure data stream completely faded from his artificial irises. His consciousness severed its link with Xiong Er and returned to the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine.
On the sandbox before him, the red dots representing the enemy forces had been almost entirely devoured. Only the last few remained, scattered inside the three captured enemy ships, vanishing one by one at a visible rate.
The blue dots, however, were densely packed, forming an inescapable net that enveloped the entire battlefield.
This asymmetrical encirclement battle, fought with overwhelming numbers, was finally drawing to a close.
"Jarvis, order the entire army to regroup," Allen instructed. "All combat units are to return in an orderly manner, with priority given to recovering damaged units. Steer the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine and prepare to return to the G-771 Plane."
"Understood, sir. The order to regroup has been issued. Battlefield cleanup is estimated to be completed in forty-seven minutes."
Forty Space Combat Corps began systematically salvaging all usable resources from the battlefield.
The PX-3 boarding troops had completely secured the three captured medium-sized battleships. The remaining enemy forces inside were systematically eliminated, and the cargo was cataloged, packed, and sealed.
Other PX-3s shuttled through the debris, dragging broken bone dragon fragments, battleship wreckage, and Necromantic Materials back to the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine, sorting them into distinct categories.
No. 18, forced into dormancy after engine overload, was carefully brought back by two PX-5s and would soon be sent to Cybertron for repairs.
"Calculate the battle results," Allen said.
"Conducting final tally. Data link syncing... complete."
A dense stream of data unfolded before Allen’s eyes.
"Of the enemy’s seven battleships, four have been sunk. The enemy flagship, the White Bone Throne, has completely disintegrated. The salvage value of its wreckage is approximately twenty million Low-Level Magic Stones.
"The remaining three medium-sized combat Floating Ships are under the complete control of our boarding troops. Their hull structural integrity is 87%, 74%, and 41% respectively. After repairs, they can be integrated into the Wesren Heavy Industry Team.
"It has been confirmed that the three enemy Dawn Star Level combat units have no other means of Resurrection.
"Enemy conventional forces: 1,047 Black Wizards and Servant Wizards were killed. Over 38,000 Blood and Flesh Puppets and Low-tier Undead Armies were annihilated. Zero escapees.
"Our casualty and loss statistics are as follows.
"73,121 Mad Bee drones were lost, accounting for 50.7% of the total deployed. 2,517 PX-3 main Combat Golems were damaged. Among them, 860 suffered over 70% damage, holding no repair value and deemed write-offs. The remaining 1,657 units are repairable.
"Sixty Storm Falcons and five Freedom Gundams were lost. Gabriel and the Hive Mother Ship sustained zero damage.
"As for Dawn Star Level combat units—"
Jarvis brought up a detailed set of unit status schematics. "No. 18’s second-generation bionic skin is completely destroyed, and its Spiritual Remains Steel skeleton has sustained 17% damage. The Hephaestus Type-III Engine requires a comprehensive overhaul due to overload. The estimated repair cycle is twelve days.
"Thanatos is undamaged and can be immediately deployed for the next operation. PX-5s Xiong Da through Xiong Si sustained no structural damage. Their Silent Extinction Silver Armor and coating wear rates range between 7% and 15%, requiring minor maintenance.
"Factoring in repairs, replacements for destroyed Golems, ammunition replenishment, and the energy consumption of all combat units... the total cost of this battle equates to 1.34 billion Low-Level Magic Stones."
Before the battle, he only had 1,462,900,000 in his account. After this fight, his liquid funds plummeted to just over 120 million.
"Calculate the incoming revenue," Allen sighed.
He rubbed his temples. This battle had nearly reduced him to abject poverty. If these Star Thieves had nothing but lint in their pockets, the entirety of Wesren Heavy Industry would be going hungry next month.
"Inventory is complete," Jarvis replied.
"Item one: three medium-sized combat Floating Ships. Following a preliminary damage assessment, their combined residual value—whether repaired and transferred to the Wesren Commerce Association or dismantled for modifications—is estimated between 400 and 600 million Low-Level Magic Stones.
"Item two: intercepted supplies from the enemy cargo holds. This includes High-tier Necromantic Preservative Materials, Dark Magic Potion Embryos, black-market munitions, and rare ores that had yet to be fenced. Liquidating these on the black market is estimated to yield 370 million.
"Item three: valuable corpses and puppet bodies. There are 421 intact bone dragon skeletons, along with over 1,600 Dawn Star Level corrupted flesh lumps and base bodies. Feeding these into the Cybertron furnace can extract a massive amount of high-tier biological alloys, valued at 150 million.
"Item four: soul recovery. The Black Wizards, Servant Wizards, and High-tier Undead eliminated on the battlefield have been processed by Thanatos, resulting in the recovery of approximately 470,000 viable soul units. Based on current market rates, they are worth about 230 million Low-Level Magic Stones.
"Among these are three Dawn Star Souls.
"According to prior data from the trading market, an intact Dawn Star Soul is priced between 800 million and 1.2 billion Low-Level Magic Stones. The conservative estimate for three Dawn Star Souls is three billion Low-Level Magic Stones."
On the holographic sandbox, all the valuation data for the spoils ultimately merged into a single total.
Total estimated value of spoils: approximately 4.15 billion Low-Level Magic Stones.
On paper, this was an absurdly lucrative subjugation with a profit margin exceeding 200%.
"I’m still short on money..." But as Allen looked at that string of numbers, his furrowed brow did not completely relax.
He wasn’t entirely satisfied with the haul. After all, Dawn Star Souls that had manifested Laws were incredibly useful and couldn’t possibly be sold.
The only things that could be quickly liquidated were the billion-plus worth of miscellaneous goods and battleships. After deducting the 1.3 billion in war expenses, the actual liquid cash surplus would only be two or three hundred million.
If he had ten billion Magic Stones or sufficient Magic Power, he wouldn’t have needed to bother setting up any sort of encirclement. A fully charged blast from the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine’s "Zero" main cannon could have turned the Skeleton Duke and his ship into cosmic dust in a single shot.
Sending hundreds of thousands of Golems to gang up on Black Wizards—if word of this got out, it would probably be told as a horror story by the Black Wizards along the Gray Channel.
But for Allen, this had to be done. For his Plane to develop stably, he had to ruthlessly execute an "optimizing the business environment" campaign.
War wasn’t a means to vent anger; from start to finish, it was simply an investment—using resources to leverage higher returns.
Allen began to mull over the three clusters of souls he had acquired.
The Skeleton Duke had manifested the Law of Undead and the Law of Boneification. Blood-handed Sara had manifested the Blood Law.
By extracting them through Law Stealing, he would obtain two ready-made Law Crystals. Although forceful extraction would cause them to irreversibly downgrade to the first stage, "Touch," even this first stage would bring about a radical, qualitative transformation for a Golem.
As for Kesuga...
Allen shook his head, a trace of disgust flashing in his eyes.
He possessed Dawn Star Level Magic Power in vain, turning out to be a piece of trash who hadn’t manifested a single complete Law.
Such a soul was utterly useless for his subsequent Golem Ascension plans. Liquidating it directly was the choice that maximized profit.
"Return to the Divine Kingdom of Ten Thousand Machines first," Allen ordered.
"We need to extract the Laws while they’re still hot. If we delay too long, their purity will degrade."
"Received, Commander."
The Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine turned around, its massive hull tracing an elegant arc through the void.
Behind it, shattered bones spanning hundreds of kilometers drifted in the void’s undercurrents, faintly radiating a chilling, ghastly pallor.
It wouldn’t be long before this wreckage was recorded onto Star Maps by passing ships, becoming a brand-new landmark known as the "Skeleton Duke’s Tomb" along the D-24 navigation sector.
Allen walked to the porthole and gazed into the deep, starry sky outside.
Along this Gray Channel running through the Wizard Civilization, Black Wizard factions like the Skeleton Duke’s were innumerable. In the latter half of the D Channel alone, there were six more. That meant there were several more Law Crystals waiting for Allen to claim.
These rats entrenched themselves at the sector’s choke points, gnawing away at the profits of passing merchant caravans like Vampires. Since no one could govern them before...
Allen raised his hand and lightly swiped across the Star Map, marking the entire area representing the latter half of the Gray Channel in red.
"Then let me be the guiding light of justice!
"Notify Wesren Heavy Industry. The production lines are to maintain full-load wartime operations. Once we’ve rested and regrouped, we’ll set off again."
Allen turned around, the hem of his robes cutting a sharp arc through the air.
"The great purge of the Gray Channel has only just begun."