Chapter 286: No Upper Limit

At this moment, all two billion Clones were engaged in the final stages of production for the complete Unified Force Field apparatus. This meant they were exclusively manufacturing components, writing and debugging intelligent code, and assembling terminal devices.

Obviously, there were a vast number of upstream production tasks that preceded this stage. Li Qingsong had not assigned these to the two billion Clones; they were all handled by his other Clones.

These two billion Clones, to be precise, were not involved in any other work whatsoever. They were dedicated entirely to the production of the complete Unified Force Field apparatus.

Even during the research and production of the Mars-class Warships, Li Qingsong had never devoted so many Clones to a single project.

Yet, for all this immense productive power focused on this one apparatus, it only yielded an annual output of just 100 million components.

Based on the minimum requirement of one billion components to assemble a complete set, Li Qingsong would need a full ten years to produce them, even if he committed every Clone currently at his disposal.

It couldn’t be helped. The components for the Unified Force Field apparatus were simply too precise and complex, making them incredibly difficult to manufacture. And at present, Li Qingsong simply couldn’t divert any more Clones from other sectors.

This production speed might not seem fast, but it was a feat only Li Qingsong could achieve. Any other civilization wouldn’t even be able to complete the initial design, let alone the subsequent manufacturing.

Amidst this near-total production effort, components of all shapes and sizes, large and small, were manufactured one after another. They were then stored inside several Space-Air Carriers constructed specifically for this purpose.

Time slipped by quietly. In the blink of an eye, ten years had passed, and Li Qingsong had finally amassed the one billion components for the Unified Force Field apparatus.

At that moment, even with his immense composure, Li Qingsong found his excitement difficult to contain.

‘There are so many other production tasks that need doing! So many Warships, spaceships, industrial facilities, Unmanned Combat Systems, and Supercomputing Bases I need to build… but all I could do was watch, force myself to be patient, and pour nearly all my industrial capacity into this one project. Manufacturing one piece at a time, accumulating them bit by bit… for a full ten years. I finally have enough!’

Li Qingsong carefully retrieved all one billion components and arranged them in space. He then placed some Warship wreckage and decommissioned Warships within the designated area.

With production complete, the next step was naturally to run tests and make adjustments. He had to confirm that it could function properly.

Of course, Li Qingsong wasn’t about to let them unleash a truly self-destructive attack.

He had spent ten years of all-out effort to produce this. To have it all destroyed in a single test? That would be a joke in the worst possible taste.

For this test, Li Qingsong set the power to just 1% of its full capacity. This way, he could test the integrity and performance of the apparatus without causing its complete destruction or the deaths of billions of his Clones.

With a mix of anticipation and nervousness, Li Qingsong gave the final command.

At that instant, all of Li Qingsong’s production and research tasks came to a halt. All of his consciousness links transferred to the 3.5 billion Clones seated in the control base.

Because this was only a test, these Clones hadn’t been injected with thought-enhancement serum. They didn’t suffer from cerebral collapse due to the high-intensity calculations, but merely felt a sharp pang of pain in their heads.

In space, the one billion devices he had so painstakingly accumulated were not burned out by the overload either.

But even so, in the testing area, the decommissioned Warships and Warship wreckage Li Qingsong had placed there erupted in violent explosions an instant later.

Under the coverage of the Unified Force Field, a significant portion of matter was forcibly converted into energy, which then erupted violently.

For a moment, it was as if a new Sun had appeared in the testing grounds.

After closely monitoring all the data and completing his final analysis, Li Qingsong finally let out a long sigh of relief, a wave of joy washing over him.

The results of the test were even better than his most optimistic projections.

Extrapolating from the data gathered at only 1% power, if this second-generation Unified Force Field apparatus were activated at full capacity, its field strength would be a full 30% greater than the first generation’s!

All of its key metrics—field coverage rate, area of effect, penetration power, conversion efficiency, stability, and more—had improved significantly.

Don’t be fooled by a “mere” 30% increase. It might not sound like much, but on the battlefield, it could be the difference between being unable to scratch an enemy Warship with superior defenses and being able to annihilate it outright!

But even with such a massive improvement… it wasn’t enough.

Li Qingsong still wasn’t satisfied.

‘The Intelligent Mechanical Calamity Fleet hasn’t arrived yet. I still have time.’

‘In that case, I’ll just keep producing components for the Unified Force Field apparatus! The more components, the greater the power. I’ll just keep making more!’

‘I should try to stockpile ten billion of them!’

‘If I unleash them all at once, just how powerful would this apparatus become…?’

Li Qingsong was greatly looking forward to that possibility. But he also knew in his heart that it was just a fantasy.

He could never divert that many Clones and spend that much time dedicated solely to producing force field components.

Now that the minimum requirement of one billion components had been met, the most he could do was assign another 200 million or so Clones to continue their production.

After all, there were still so many other production tasks that needed Clones to carry out.

Li Qingsong adjusted his industrial capacity and once again threw himself into all-out production.

This round of production simultaneously advanced work in every category: Manned Warships, including Mars-class, Earth-class, Venus-class, and Mercury-class Warships; elements of the Unmanned Combat System, such as Unmanned Warships, Interstellar Mines, Space Fortresses, and Various Satellites; materiel, including Energy Cannons, projectiles of all types and sizes, Laser Emitter Devices, and Interstellar Missiles; and elements of the industrial production system, like numerous backup factories and stockpiled raw materials.

This time, he was truly spreading the effort evenly, leaving no category of production behind.

As for the scale and duration of production… there was no limit.

For every day the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity Fleet did not arrive, Li Qingsong would maintain a full day of production.

‘All kinds of Warships, Unmanned Combat Systems, supplies, factories… the more, the better. It would be best to stockpile tens of millions of Manned Warships and billions of Unmanned Warships!’

And so, time continued to slip quietly by.

In another Star System, Haimo Lan sent a solemn message to an ally over a dedicated communications channel.

“Esteemed Red Dog, with your tremendous support and the all-out efforts of our researchers, the ‘Variable Energy Shield’ has been successfully developed and has passed our internal evaluations. …”