Liu Yi's eyes widened after hearing Bai Hao's introduction.
After all, with such a large base appearing before him and his brother being the founder of the organization, anyone would be surprised.
"So, you're saying Shanhai is a force you created?"
Bai Hao nodded and said, "That's right, I created it. It took a lot of effort."
Liu Yi looked around the hall, left and right, as if he had never seen the world, praising everything he saw.
Xiezhi looked at his excited expression, curled its lip, and sneered, "Hmph, what an uncultured bumpkin!"
Bai Hao smiled without speaking, as he himself had been full of novelty when he first saw this high-tech equipment, and had also made quite a few jokes.
"What do you mean! What's wrong with not having seen it before? Does that make me a bumpkin?"
Liu Yi looked at Xiezhi indignantly, his face clearly showing anger: "You, a researcher, are provoking me, a combatant. Be careful, or I'll delete you!"
"Heh heh."
Xiezhi sneered disdainfully, pointed its small hand, and suddenly a dense array of weapons appeared around them, their muzzles all aimed at Liu Yi.
Seeing this, Liu Yi immediately raised his hands in surrender, his expression serious and solemn, saying, "I was wrong!"
Forget about not bending in the face of power; this is what a true man does. It's ridiculous, he wasn't that noble. Why show off when he could save his life? Throw away his life for dignity? To him, it wasn't worth it at all.
Bai Hao, of course, knew Liu Yi's temperament. This guy always presented himself as someone who clung to life and feared death, but those close to him knew the truth.
Liu Yi wasn't afraid of death; he simply understood the preciousness of life.
Liu Yi had experienced a magnitude 7 earthquake. In that earthquake, his family and friends had left him, and his life had been saved by his childhood friend.
Therefore, Liu Yi himself understood the value of life and the weight in his heart even more. His personality also became gloomy until he transferred to Bai Hao's school, where his personality slowly returned to its former self.
Bai Hao was aware of Liu Yi's past; after all, they were good brothers who talked about everything, and to a deeper extent, they were brothers who had faced life and death together.
The two had even helped Uncle Police catch criminals, and specifically, criminals who had committed murder.
But when truly dangerous situations arose, Liu Yi would not hesitate to stand in front of Bai Hao, because he didn't want to see his friend disappear before him, powerless to stop it.
"Xiezhi, put the weapons away. Liu Yi is just like this, a bit erratic. You'll get used to it."
"Hmph!"
Xiezhi retracted the weapons, crossed its arms, looking at Bai Hao with annoyance, and at the same time, glared fiercely at Liu Yi, the warning in its eyes self-evident.
Liu Yi breathed a sigh of relief when the weapons around him were withdrawn. There was nothing he could do; the oppressive feeling was too strong. So many guns pointed at him, one shot from each could turn him into a hornet's nest.
"Liu Yi, as a member of Shanhai, we must never lose to the warriors of Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, and World Serpent.
You possess Stigmata and can withstand the genes of Honkai Beasts, but your body is not yet resilient enough.
Over the next two days, you will undergo a series of intensive training and surgeries! This week is a holiday, so you don't need to attend classes. I will be in charge of improving your combat abilities!
Next... Zheng! Come here!"
A figure draped in a black cloak emerged from the shadows and approached Bai Hao.
"My Lord!"
"Mm. Zheng, this is our new member of Shanhai, Liu Yi, codenamed Qiongqi. His body enhancement surgery and daily intensive training are entrusted to you. Don't disappoint me!"
Zheng placed his right hand on his chest, bowed his head, and said, "I will not fail to live up to My Lord's expectations."
Bai Hao nodded and then walked out. Liu Yi saw Bai Hao leaving and called out, "Bai Hao, where are you going?"
Bai Hao waved his hand, and his figure disappeared from his sight, leaving only a lingering sentence: "I'm going home. No one's home. What if a thief comes? You just follow the plan Zheng makes."
"Alright, senior, what's my training for today?"
Facing Liu Yi, who was like a curious baby, Zheng chuckled and said, "Just follow me, Qiongqi."
Liu Yi innocently followed Zheng, unaware that this experience would make him involuntarily tremble whenever he saw Zheng.
"Hmm... The gap in top-tier combat power between us and Schicksal and World Serpent isn't very large. The main difference lies in mid-to-low-tier combat power, especially when compared to Schicksal."
After returning home, Bai Hao kept thinking about how to narrow the gap between Shanhai and organizations like Schicksal. In terms of top-tier combat power, Schicksal had S-Rank Valkyries, World Serpent had Kevin and Raven... Anti-Entropy, not to mention, had the Herrscher of Reason, Welt Yang. Shanhai, on the other hand, had Bai Hao, Zheng, and future Herrschers.
The only significant gap between them and the three major organizations was in mid-to-low-tier combat power, but they couldn't build as many mechs as Anti-Entropy, as the cost of building one mech was enough to train a Valkyrie.
The more Bai Hao thought about it, the more his head ached: "What should I do? Eh, wait a minute, Hyperion."
Bai Hao suddenly thought of Hyperion. Since building too many mechs might be counterproductive if they were destroyed, why not directly build a battleship like Hyperion?
After all, creating a massive mech force like Anti-Entropy's seemed impractical, but a battleship was different.
It had firepower, defense, and could house mechs—not too many, just enough—and it could be recovered and repaired. It was simply too good.
In terms of technology, they had Previous Civilization technology. In terms of personnel, they had Zheng and his clones. In terms of AI, they had Xiezhi, the top AI in the world. In terms of funding, Shanhai had dozens of top companies under its banner.
It seemed everything was ready, all that was left was to start working!
"OK, that's what we'll do!"
Bai Hao lightly tapped the communication device on his ear. This device was developed by Xiezhi for Bai Hao, connecting to Xiezhi within Shanhai.
"Is there anything, My Lord?"
"Xiezhi, Shanhai's strength needs to be further improved. I have an idea: we need a battleship that can provide rapid support and powerful firepower! So, I'm entrusting this to you. You have full discretion over the funds."
There was a clear pause on the other end of the communication, followed by uncontrollable joy: "My Lord, are you serious? All the funds are at my disposal? Really, really?"
Bai Hao held the communicator, his ear a meter away, but he could still clearly hear Xiezhi's joyful voice.
"Yes, that's right. All the funds of Shanhai's subsidiary companies are at your disposal, but I must warn you, be mindful of the limit. Otherwise, if you bankrupt the company, we won't even have money to eat."
"My Lord, rest assured! I will. Just wait to see the finished product; it will definitely be much stronger than Schicksal's Hyperion!"
After saying that, it hastily hung up the communication. Bai Hao covered his face. This girl was still the same, getting excited whenever she heard she could do whatever she wanted. What a headache.
On the other side, Xiezhi threw the novel in its hand aside. This scene puzzled Zheng; that was Xiezhi's favorite novel, and it just threw it away?
Before Zheng could ask, Xiezhi excitedly picked up a pen and paper: "Zheng, activate one of your dormant clones. We have work to do!"