Translator: AnubisTL
He can alter the weather.
This ability proves useful in certain situations, lasting for six hours.
Like the "Nightfall" Set Skill, it's largely ineffective most of the time, but in rare circumstances, it can be incredibly powerful.
Without pausing, Chen Jiang moved on to examine the +1000 Set Skill.
[+1000 Set Skill]
[Skill Name]: Vacuum Bomb
[Skill Effect]: Fires a light bullet that creates a forced vacuum zone on the ground, with a diameter equal to its range. This zone ignores all energy shields and lasts for one hour.
[Skill Restriction]: Each use consumes an entire energy cartridge.
Chen Jiang stared at the +1000 Set Skill enhancement with a peculiar expression.
His current range was 150,000 meters. A circle with a diameter of 150,000 meters would cover an astonishing area—a square footage so vast he couldn't even estimate it!
And it lasted for an hour.
Could anyone survive being trapped in that vacuum for an hour?
Although the galactic federation was composed of aliens whose physiology might differ from that of Blue Star People, spending an hour naked in a vacuum environment would likely be fatal under normal circumstances.
The most crucial aspect was that the "Vacuum Bomb" skill had no cooldown period. This meant that if he so desired, he could subject an entire city to a 24-hour vacuum.
Even considering individual variations in resilience, he doubted anyone could survive 24 hours in absolute vacuum.
Afterward, the city's population would be wiped out, while the vegetables and other perishables would remain relatively fresh.
This "Vacuum Bomb" skill was ideal for attacking cities when he wanted to eliminate the inhabitants without damaging the infrastructure. A single blast could kill most of the population, leaving him with an uninhabited city to claim.
Of course, a small fraction of people might have oxygen tanks nearby.
"Excellent," Chen Jiang nodded in satisfaction. This skill was remarkably versatile, and most importantly, it bypassed energy shields. If he ever encountered a powerful energy shield within the galactic federation that he couldn't breach with conventional means, a single "Vacuum Bomb" would resolve the situation instantly.
Perfect!
According to his information, the Black Europe Company had made a substantial profit from their collaboration.
First, shorting Eugenia Company's stock had likely yielded a massive windfall. The remaining 60 million miscellaneous items, if sold, would also be quite valuable.
The challenge lay in selling these goods. They would need to be stockpiled for a year or two until the scandal subsided. After all, Eugenia's transit planet had just been destroyed by an unknown force.
For Black Europe Company to immediately flood the market with miscellaneous goods would be insulting to people's intelligence—treating them like blind fools.
While Black Europe Company had profited handsomely, he had also gained significantly.
Forty million one-star items! If he had to acquire these items himself, it would have taken an immeasurable amount of time, even with his Trash Manufacturing Machine, which rapidly produces one-star items.
Even with that machine, accumulating forty million one-star items would still require over forty days.
Enhancing all five upgrade options to +1500 would unlock a new Set Skill.
However, he had already exhausted his supply of one-star items. To upgrade both ammunition capacity and recoil from +1000 to +1500, he would need a total of 12 million one-star items.
For now, he didn't have that many items.
It had to be said that while his innate ability was powerful, it was also incredibly resource-intensive. Even if he gave this ability to someone else, few would be able to afford its upkeep.
To enhance the caliber to 3,000 meters, he estimated it would require billions, perhaps even tens of billions, of one-star items.
But this was understandable. After all, a giant cannon with a 3,000-meter caliber had long surpassed the realm of science; it belonged to the realm of theology. For such a divine weapon, consuming such vast quantities of items seemed almost reasonable.
Meanwhile, he instructed Scar Dog and Li Hao to head toward the nearest coordinates displayed on the Heaven's Eye Pursuit Order, continuously mapping the terrain as they advanced.
He was now eager to test the power of his enhanced turrets against a new mechanical race city.
Last time, he used nearly a hundred Heaven's Eye Pursuit Orders in one go, obtaining the coordinates of several mechanical race cities. However, these coordinates were too distant, making them unreachable even with a phantom gate.
Now, Li Hao had selected the closest coordinates, and he and Scar Dog were mapping their way there.
Meanwhile, on a planet within the galactic federation, a man lay in bed, casually stuffing a sandwich into his mouth while impatiently glancing at the communication screen before him. "Alright, alright, I get it. I'll go check it out now, okay?"
He was a member of the Night Watchers, codenamed "Seer."
After hanging up, he swallowed the last bite of his sandwich, wiped the grease from his fingers on his clothes, and retrieved a book.
The book had a wordless, golden cover.
This was his three-star rule item—a symbiotic item that had evolved alongside his innate ability. Such items had a limitation: they could only be used by him alone.
If three-star rule items were ranked, this one would likely be in the top ten, perhaps even higher.
[Item Name]: Seer's Diary
[Item Star]: Three-Star Item.
[Item Effect]: Each day, a sentence will appear in your diary, left by your future self from the following day.
[Item Restriction]: The sentence must be no more than five characters long.
[Item Description]: "This item will be very powerful."
At that moment, when he opened the diary, he saw only a single line of pale gray text:
"Good night."
"Everything's fine. Nothing's happening."
Seeing this, the man idly opened his chat panel and sent a casual reply.
Since Jiang Cheng Company had launched several terrorist attacks and declared war on the Night Watcher, public opinion online had turned sharply against the organization. Many netizens were demanding that the Night Watcher cease its operations, arguing that further action would only provoke Jiang Cheng Company and lead to more innocent civilian deaths.
The Night Watcher had temporarily refrained from taking action, instead instructing their Seer—this very man—to focus his attention on Jiang Cheng himself.
The item's major flaw was its five-character limit. To overcome this, the man had developed a complex system of coded abbreviations only he understood, using these codes to construct cryptic messages within the diary entries.
For example:
"阿" represented Orange Red Star.
"拔" represented North Creek City.
"姜" represented Jiang Cheng Company.
"坏" represented terrorist attack.
"a" represented noon.
If the diary contained a sentence like "姜a阿拔坏," it meant that Jiang Cheng Company would launch a terrorist attack in North Creek City on Orange Red Star at noon the following day.
He had many single words and letters to represent specific locations, coordinates, and general events.
For this purpose, he kept a thick codebook.
"晚安" meant that everything would be safe and uneventful tomorrow, at least as far as Jiang Cheng Company was concerned.
This method allowed him to convey a large amount of information in the shortest possible phrases, greatly circumventing the five-word limit per sentence.
The message was recorded at 11:59 PM the following day.
This meant that from now until midnight tomorrow, everything would proceed normally. Jiang Cheng Company would take no action, and this item could effectively prevent them from launching another terrorist attack.
Furthermore, it allowed him to arrive at the scene in advance, set up traps, and wait for Jiang Cheng Company to walk into the net.
All he needed to do was think about what he wanted to know the next day before opening the diary. When he opened it again, he would find a message from his future self.
This was a peculiar item that involved the timeline.
Because he, the Seer himself, had never written anything in the diary. He had always been merely an observer, while the entries were invariably written by his future self.
When he first obtained this item, he nearly suffered a mental breakdown.
He couldn't understand: if he never wrote in the diary, who was writing the entries his past self saw?
Eventually, he calmed down and stopped worrying about such trivial matters. He settled into his role as a tool for the Night Watchers, occasionally using the Seer's Diary to determine whether his confession of love would succeed the next day.
As for lotteries, he had won two grand prizes before joining the Night Watchers. When he tried for a third win, he was caught, but the Night Watchers bailed him out and he voluntarily joined their ranks, registering his innate ability and items with the galactic federation.
After that, he lost the eligibility to purchase lottery tickets, stocks, futures, and all other financial products.
The man stopped caring about the matter and collapsed onto his bed, falling into a deep sleep. For some reason, ever since acquiring this item, he had become increasingly drowsy.
"Phew."
In a cramped room, a middle-aged man let out a soft sigh of relief. "The Seer has sent word. Everything is clear. Jiang Cheng Company won't make any moves today or tomorrow. All is safe."
"It seems Jiang Cheng Company isn't as fearless as we thought. They're probably lying low for now."
"Tch."
A blond man sitting nearby scoffed. "They were so arrogant yesterday, and now they're suddenly silent? What's the deal? Are they really going to cower like turtles forever? The Seer can't possibly predict their every move, can he?"
"That's unclear for now. But given Jiang Cheng Company's dangerous nature, we need to monitor them closely for at least the next seven days. We should also have a good grasp of their capabilities by now."
The middle-aged man in charge tapped the table lightly, and footage from the Rose Club showing Jiang Cheng Company's group appeared on the screen.
"This is footage of close-range encounters with Jiang Cheng Company's group."
"First, you can see someone attacking Jiang Cheng from behind with a laser rifle."
The man slowed the footage down several times and froze it at the moment the laser rifle struck Jiang Cheng.
"As you can see, Jiang Cheng showed no reaction before the laser rifle hit him. This suggests he lacks any innate ability or item related to sensing danger, which is good news for us."
"After being struck by the laser rifle, Jiang Cheng emerged completely unharmed, yet no energy shield or similar defensive barrier appeared around him."
"This implies Jiang Cheng possesses a defensive item, but it's neither an energy shield nor a rapid healing device. It's more likely a rule-based defensive item."
"This complicates matters somewhat, but we can observe that when the attack landed, the rabbit badge on Jiang Cheng's chest briefly flashed with a white light. This strongly suggests the rabbit badge is his rule item."
"We've already sent people to investigate whether rabbit badges have ever been auctioned or if there's any related intelligence, but the chances of finding anything are slim."
"Secondly, this group possesses either an innate ability or an item that allows for rapid teleportation."
"As you can see, they can use a teleportation gate to transport the muzzle of that giant cannon directly above North Star Corporation headquarters, allowing them to launch point-blank strikes. It's similar to the federal technology of Remote Space Transmission gates."
"Furthermore, they can teleport living beings, granting Jiang Cheng Company immense mobility. Now that their methods have been exposed, they're less of a threat. I've already submitted a request to Night Watcher Headquarters for Item No. 18."
"That item can suppress all teleportation gates, effectively crippling Jiang Cheng Company's mobility by severing their legs."
"As for their firepower... it's clear that Jiang Cheng Company's two terrorist attacks and all their combat capabilities stem primarily from that giant cannon with a caliber of approximately fifteen meters. Such a high-energy weapon is nearly impossible to defend against with conventional energy shields, especially in urban environments."
"The city's energy shield can't stop bombings within the city, and residential buildings can't install their own energy shields."
"But that's alright. From these video clips, we can easily deduce that while the Jiang Cheng Company possesses immense firepower and extreme mobility, their weakness is their limited range of tactics."
"I've already submitted a request to Night Watcher Headquarters for Item No. 39."
"Item No. 39?"
The man sitting beside him frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and then spoke: "I seem to recall... This item can disable all firearms with a caliber smaller than thirty meters within a vast area for twelve hours, right?"
"That's correct."
The middle-aged man replied calmly, "The effective range is roughly the size of North Creek City. Jiang Cheng Company's giant cannon has a caliber of only about fifteen meters, so it will be completely neutralized for twelve hours under this item's effect."
"Once we learn the location and timing of Jiang Cheng Company's next operation through the Seer, we can arrive in advance, set up an ambush, completely disable their giant cannon, and engage them in close combat."
"If Jiang Cheng Company dares to strike again, their days are numbered."
(End of the Chapter)
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