After getting up, Lu Yuan came to the mountaintop as usual, holding a can of cola, contemplating his next move while admiring the beautiful sunrise.
By this point in time, student Hart, the "Desert Bear Louse," should have realized his crushing defeat and will likely lie low for a while, retreating into defense.
There is no impenetrable wall in the world; in two or three days at the shortest, or a week at the longest, City Lord Cole will also learn the outcome of this battle.
Next, as long as he isn't foolish, he will definitely realize that Cangyuan is a huge problem.
What Lu Yuan is more concerned about is "Apollo," which has a cooperative relationship with Oasis City.
This Celestial company began intervening in Li Star half a year ago and clearly possesses interstellar navigation capabilities.
And the technological unlock time for nuclear weapons is much earlier than interstellar travel! In other words, the other side almost certainly has nuclear warheads.
Of course, considering that Apollo needs to import rare metals, at least in the remote "emerging market" of Li Star, their ability to conduct industrial manufacturing on-site is limited. They might have just sent a pioneering team and recently established an outpost branch, so the number of nuclear warheads should not be large.
But, we still have to be prepared.
It doesn't take many; just one high-yield nuclear warhead directly hitting the camp could end the game early.
In response to this threat, three things must be done as quickly as possible.
First, the spaceplane must be sent into space as soon as possible, even if just for a lap in low orbit.
Doing this is to create a facade, leading Apollo to misjudge Cangyuan's scale, thinking it's just a small force sent to Li Star from headquarters, a drop in the ocean of overall strength.
The most ideal outcome is to make the opponent misjudge Cangyuan's strength as greater than their own.
This way, they will be cautious in using nuclear weapons and other potentially more powerful weapons, avoiding the instigation of large-scale conflict.
Secondly, a nuclear missile defense system must be established.
After acquiring the Pulse Laser Cannon technology, this is not a pipe dream.
Finally, our people must be sent into Oasis City as soon as possible to understand Apollo's strength.
Lu Yuan took the elevator down to the camp at the foot of the mountain and walked into the cave hall where the production equipment was placed.
One of the large 3D printers here had been running continuously, completing the manufacturing of aviation fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer tanks. It is currently printing the three main engines for outer space flight and will be finished soon.
He thought for a moment and sent an email to each employee in the game, stating the reasons why the spaceplane must be repaired as soon as possible.
"Now is not the time to relax and celebrate. This task is very important. Employees participating in the spaceplane repair will all receive triple experience."
He had originally planned to hold a meeting after all players were online, but decided against it.
Such things only require the Team Leader to shout it out. Players come online to play games, not to work.
After winning a battle, the players didn't know what to do. Under the temptation of triple experience, everyone's spirits were high.
Lu Yuan seized the time and produced four more "Worker Ant" industrial exoskeletons.
A day later, under the piloting of Ying Ji Chang Kong, the spaceplane took off again and landed smoothly on the sand beneath Devil Mountain.
The players quickly erected cranes on both sides of the aircraft. Led by Black Smoke, 7 main repair personnel wearing industrial exoskeletons climbed onto the back of the plane, cut open the metal skin of the rear section, and removed the severely damaged high specific impulse hydrogen-oxygen engine.
Subsequently, a heavy-duty truck brought the freshly manufactured three methane engines and hoisted them into place.
The methane tank and liquid oxygen tank were also brought out, the pressure valve was connected, and fuel was refilled into the aircraft body.
After confirming there were no issues, the skin was reset, and the spaceplane was restored to its original state.
The massive project lasted for two and a half days. Every player participated, either joining the repairs, operating cranes or trucks, or patrolling the surrounding area to ensure safety.
So, in fact, everyone received triple experience.
The current genetic modification decryption difficulty is not high. After the number of player hibernation pods increased, the overall computing power was greatly strengthened, which is directly reflected in faster leveling speed.
This perfectly aligns with the fact of gaining a large amount of experience, so players won't feel like "everyone getting a raise equals no raise" or that they have been fooled.
Thus, after the spaceplane was repaired, the players' levels increased again.
Guo Li Cheng got many kills, and coupled with her merit in melee combat capturing power armor, she leveled up twice, reaching level 4 along with the three veterans, Ye Xing, Caoyuan, and Jubian.
Other players were either level 3 or level 2. There were no pure beginner players left in the camp, only veterans.
The employees enthusiastically signed up for the first space mission.
The standard crew for the spaceplane is 4 people, equipped with 4 sets of EVA extravehicular space suits. Lu Yuan selected the crew members according to this number:
Main Pilot: Ying Ji Chang Kong
Co-Pilot: Jin Yi Ye Xing
Flight Engineer: Shenceng Jubian
Communications and Security: Caoyuan a Caoyuan
As night fell, the mission officially began.
The vast majority of players came online during the evening peak time to watch this launch, and the number of viewers in the live stream reached a new high.
Among them were some "little blackies" who were still skeptical about the game's authenticity.
They believed that Xing Hai was a huge scam, not a next-generation online game at all, but a giant reality show secretly filmed in the western region with lots of special effects added, a new trick in the entertainment and live streaming industry.
In other words, this giant reality show absolutely could not create a completely weightless space scene!
Especially, it couldn't produce continuous footage of entering space from within the atmosphere.
Lu Yuan had traced the origins of these "little blackies" in his spare time. After learning that they were trolls hired by a few major companies, he stopped paying attention.
Caring about these people is a true waste of life.
At 10:30 PM Li Star time, the crew members were ready to go.
Ye Xing: "All systems self-check complete, everything is normal!"
Chang Kong: "Received, entering takeoff mode!"
The nozzles of the four jet engines deflected downwards, spewing out cyan-blue high-temperature exhaust gas.
The spaceplane took off vertically, steadily leaving the ground. After ascending to a height of 500 meters, it first transitioned to level flight, then decreased altitude.
"The route Team Leader gave us is heading east," Ye Xing pointed to the electronic compass, "During this time, pay attention to whether we are being scanned by radar. If not, maintain ultra-low altitude!"
"Understood, just heading to Oasis City to show our faces."
Chang Kong deflected the control stick, the massive spaceplane tilted gracefully, and in the blink of an eye, the nose was pointing towards Oasis City.
Caoyuan: "Alright brother! You're flying steadily enough, have you flown a real one?"
He had genuinely sat in military transport planes and could tell at a glance that Chang Kong had some skills.
Chang Kong: "Haha, no, but this plane should be easier to fly than civilian and transport planes in reality, it's a piece of cake!"
Half an hour later, the spaceplane arrived near Oasis City. During this time, it maintained ultra-low altitude flight and was not scanned by any radar.
"It's time to say hello to the City Lord."