Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 554: Chapter 179: Yan Xiong’s Application Method

The next day.

At the agreed time, Chen Ming dialed Bai Quan’s number.

According to Bai Quan’s previous suggestion, command techniques are best taught via video calls.

So Chen Ming did just that.

Bai Quan’s appearance soon showed up on the terminal screen.

Chen Ming skipped the small talk and said directly, ”I’m ready on my end; we can start now.”

”Okay.”

Bai Quan responded but made no other movements.

Prompting Chen Ming to ask in some confusion, ”Where’s the instructor?”

Bai Quan patted his chest and said, ”I’ll be doing it personally.”

”Uh... aren’t you dealing with your stuff? Your Vice Admiral promotion ceremony won’t get settled that quickly, right?”

”No worries.”

Chen Ming stared at the video call, seeing Bai Quan dressed in formal wear clearly going to do something, and asked again, ”Really no problem?”

”No problem at all.”

”Alright.”

Since Bai Quan said so, Chen Ming had nothing more to say.

Chen Ming projected the image of Bai Quan’s video call onto the wall, then took out another terminal and said, ”I’ve received the teaching materials, where do we start?”

Bai Quan also took out an extensively revised new textbook, based on several recorded battles Chen Ming participated in, and said, ”The basic terminology of command.”

After Bai Quan started formally teaching Chen Ming.

Two days passed in a flash.

Although Chen Ming was busy almost every moment, after two days he was more or less getting used to it.

And today, after finishing his daytime studies, during dinner, Chen Ming also reviewed the situation of those Mechanical Race he had to occasionally control by visiting the Supreme Point warehouse during his studies.

It can only be said that he was still constrained by having to physically contact these Mechanical Race to control them.

Moreover, the Mechanical Race themselves aren’t lifeless objects and cannot be transported directly using industrial assembly lines.

This resulted in Chen Ming having very low efficiency in controlling the Mechanical Race.

Even as the number of Mechanical Race he controlled increased, the efficiency of transporting them rose.

But so far, among the entire Mechanical Race city, the part he controlled merely accounted for a little over twenty percent.

If efficiency could continue to increase at the current growth rate, it would still take half a month to completely control the Mechanical Race in the city.

This kind of efficiency made Chen Ming almost want to let the Insect Queen he held bring his newly bred Insect Race to actively attack the Mechanical Race.

After all, the Insect Queen can still protect the consciousness of those individual Insect Race through the Hive Mind Network.

And the Mechanical Race, once damaged in battle, can be controlled very easily.

It might even allow the Insect Queen to evolve some capabilities in battle, creating Insect Race individuals more suited for fighting.

In the end, Chen Ming held back and didn’t implement this idea.

Because he discovered that the Hive Mind Network of the Mechanical Race in the city had significant issues.

The Mechanical Race here are different from the swarming Mechanical Race faced by the Empire; they are independent.

Their Hive Mind Network is limited to individuals already dispersed outside and doesn’t have a sufficiently strong main consciousness to guide them here.

This means all the mechanical individuals, after their physical bodies die, won’t be preserved by the Hive Network awaiting new body implantation.

Instead, they die utterly and completely.

In these days controlling these Mechanical Race, Chen Ming confirmed this point.

Almost every day, about ten Mechanical Race in the city die naturally due to equipment aging.

But these deceased Mechanical Race did not revive in some factory’s un-implanted new Machine Race body that isn’t fully aged and unusable.

Or rather, there wasn’t a single Mechanical Race body that manifested with a Mechanical Race consciousness.

The total number of Mechanical Race is declining.

This clearly shows that there isn’t a strong consciousness leading the entire hive network within the independent mechanical hives.

Causing the Mechanical Race connected to the network to not receive effective control.

Once a Mechanical Race dies, they are indeed dead.

This means all the Mechanical Race lost in battle will reduce the number Chen Ming will later control, ultimately causing the rebounding of Spiritual Power to decrease.

Once a battle erupts, it isn’t something that can be halted just by Chen Ming wanting it.

So these Mechanical Race that he could definitely control in the future, he didn’t want to waste them here.

In any case, he still needed time to let the Dusk individuals under him explore the surrounding Star Systems. Dealing with the Mechanical Race wasn’t that urgent.

Additionally, with the vast universe, Chen Ming will surely need to land on some other planets in the future and will encounter some dangerous clustered creatures, presenting opportunities for the Insect Race to make appearances.

While Chen Ming was contemplating the matter of the Mechanical Race, dinner was quickly finished.

Just as Chen Ming was preparing to continue studying those cruiser-related technical documents Bai Quan provided for tonight and asking the Extraordinary some questions to resolve yesterday’s leftover issues,

Chen Ming suddenly received a long-awaited communication from the foreman after several days.

”Xiao Ming, the information over here is almost all interrogated.”

Chen Ming wasn’t in a rush, prepared all the documents he planned to study, and then said to the foreman, ”Alright, I’m listening, go ahead.”