Chapter 759: The Ultimate Expedition Weapon

Watching the Tier 9 dark beast get closer and closer, everyone could only pray the Eternal Military Outpost would work as advertised.

[Detecting a Tier 9 Dark Beast...]

[Entering Overlimit Mode...]

[Please replenish the Chaos Engine energy chamber in time before the threat is eliminated.]

Hearing the notification from the outpost’s autonomous intelligence, Russell and the others bolted to the outpost’s core.

As the Overlimit Mode activated, the Eternal Military Outpost began to pummel the Tier 9 Dark Beast to the ground. Unable to even get close, it could only endure the barrage of attacks from the outpost.

"Amazing! I didn’t expect it to be this strong!"

They had thought the outpost could at most fight and escape for its life. However, the scene before them was like a father teaching his son a lesson. They estimated that even if another one or two Tier 9 dark beasts arrived, the result would be the same.

Meanwhile, as the others arrived at the console of the Chaos Engine, they saw the rapidly dwindling energy.

[Warning!]

[Energy Meter at 21%]

[Warning!]

[Energy Meter at 15%]

[Warning!]

[Energy Meter at 11%]

[Warning!!!]

[Energy Meter at 9%]

[Energy Meter at critical value!!!]

"It’s about to run out!" Bolting to the tank, Russell and the others quickly poured mountains of Void Source Crystals in.

However, instead of the energy meter going up, it was going down.

[Warning!!!]

[Energy Meter at 8%]

"Lord Russell! Take out the Chaos Stones!"

"Void Source Crystal is not effective in this situation!"

"Right! Right, didn’t they lend us 3 million Chaos Stones?" Russell suddenly remembered, filling the Chaos Engine with piles of Chaos Stones from his storage ring.

Usually, Void Source Crystals were enough to maintain the activity of the Eternal Military Outpost; however, once it entered Overlimit Mode, the energy consumption seemed to shoot up by thousands of times.

Pouring in tens of thousands of Chaos Stones, the energy meter finally climbed up to a safe range.

[Energy Meter: 90%]

"It’s safe..."

"It’s too early to celebrate," Russell muttered, watching the energy drop every second. Every time it dropped, his heart also grew colder and colder.

Minutes passed, and after devouring hundreds of thousands of Chaos Stones, the Tier 9 dark beast outside was still alive.

"Could the Eternal Military Outpost really kill this dark beast?" They muttered in doubt and desperation.

Although the firepower of the outpost was enough to beat the Tier 9 dark beast without it even getting close, it was also rapidly recovering through the dark origin essence around it. Coupled with the different life origin between a Tier 8 and 9 being, they were beginning to think it was impossible.

"Just stay alert. If it doesn’t work, we can still get out."

They had already contacted the Eternal Star Alliance about their situation. As long as they called, the dimensional teleportation array would lock their position and take them out.

Calming down, they began to help the outpost whittle down the Tier 9 dark beast to death. Although the firepower of their battleships was a mere tickle, with their numbers reaching hundreds of thousands, it could still tickle the enemy down to death.

---

Soon, after a grueling few hours and over 1.5 million Chaos Stones, they finally wore the Tier 9 dark beast down to death.

"We succeeded!"

"We killed a Tier 9 dark beast!"

"Hahaha, we survived! We did it!"

Celebrating in joy, everyone nearly teared up, as if having just danced with death itself.

"Buying the Eternal Military Outpost might be the most profitable decision we’ve made..." Russell muttered, watching the scene.

For just 300 mother core ships, they were given a weapon that could kill the unkillable. They could venture into perilous land as if it were a treasure paradise. They could dance with death and celebrate after.

"Go forward! We still need to earn our money back if we want to celebrate!"

With the remaining 1.5 million Chaos Stones, they only had one bail-out card left. If they didn’t want to be buried in debt and still wanted to keep exploring this treasure paradise, they had to earn their money back as soon as possible.

"Go! We will not go back until we earn a billion!"

---

On the other side of the unexplored domain area, the others weren’t as unlucky as Russell’s team. Not encountering a Tier 9 dark beast, they had been smooth sailing, finding resource clusters one after another.

However, the smooth journey didn’t make them reckless. Noticing the heavy consumption of the Chaos Engine and the news they received from the Communication Tower, they honestly skirted along the edges.

Although the Eternal Military Outpost was strong and sturdy, they didn’t want to waste Chaos Stones and gamble on their luck. Wasn’t it better to safely farm and earn millions a month?

---

While the foreign cosmic elites stayed along the edges, the 1,500 Eternal Military Outposts of the Eternal Star Alliance kept pushing toward the center.

Having taken a loan of 30 billion Chaos Stones from the Mechanical Race, they had no shortage of energy. Even if they encountered multiple Tier 9 dark beasts, they had no worries.

The only thing they needed to watch was the ever-changing environment. If they weren’t careful, they might get sucked away by a void vortex and sent outside the protective range of the universe plane. Once that happened, they would be gone for good.

Pushing into the core area not only skyrocketed their harvest multiple times, but also made the materials rarer and more sought-after.

---

A month later, the Eternal Star Alliance called back all their 1,500 Eternal Military Outposts.

It’s not that they were out of energy, but they needed to retrieve the data as well as to repay the money they borrowed from the Mechanical Race.

With 10% monthly compounding interest, if they didn’t pay it as soon as possible, they would be crying tears in their sleep.

"How is your harvest, Teal? Did you encounter any problems?"

"No, everything was great! The only problem was that the Eternal Military Outpost consumed too much energy. The speed is also almost nonexistent. Otherwise, we could harvest more."

The Eternal Military Outpost was made to defend and control dark gates. Its slow speed was only meant for calibration and repositioning, not exploration.

As for energy consumption, it was minimal. To control the flow of dark beasts, the outpost only needed to kill the occasional dark beast that strayed off course.

However, once deployed in an unexplored domain, the nature was different. Not only did it have to deal with endless swarms of dark beasts, but it also needed to deal with stubborn dark origin essence that could enhance their strength.

Consuming hundreds or even thousands of energy was already the norm. If they encountered a Tier 9 dark beast, money even had to flow in torrents.

"Should we reconfigure the Eternal Military Outpost to be more suited for exploratory missions?"

"We can’t solve these problems in a short time. We still need to deal with the Dimensional Array formation on our territory first." Nash said, shaking his head.

Although they had the Eternal Military Outposts holding the fort, their range was too small to prevent every invasion. To truly secure the Eternal Star Forbidden Domain, they had to build a Dimensional Array formation.

"I understand..." Teal sighed in pity.

"Anyway, how much is your harvest? Don’t tell me you’re operating at a loss."

"No, of course not. On average, an Eternal Military Outpost harvested resources worth 35 million Chaos Stones. The problem was that almost 15 million Chaos Stones were also spent..." Teal sighed in frustration.

Spending half of their harvest to power their outposts? What kind of wasteful operation is that?

Although they didn’t encounter many Tier 9 dark beasts, the environment in the core area of the unexplored domain was so harsh that the Eternal Military Outposts had to work at full capacity at all times.

"That means we earned 30 million per Eternal Military Outpost? What are you still complaining about?"

Not including the energy they spent, they still earned over 30 billion Chaos Stones!

"Sigh, I’m just too greedy."

Previously, even with an all-out effort, they could earn at most a billion each month; now that it had increased dozens of times, he should be celebrating instead.

"What about the Merit Source? How much were you able to gather?" Nash asked, getting to the important point.

They could acquire resources and money anytime. Only Merit Source was something they could never get enough of.

With each Eternal Military Outpost having a Tier 8 shelter standing guard, they should have been able to earn a decent amount of Merit Source through the clearance order.

"Each of our outposts could purify about 5,000 worth of Merit Source a day, which yielded us over 200 million this month. I don’t know about the other foreign cosmic teams, but they should have earned a few thousand each per outpost."

"Oh? 200 million?" Nash’s eyes lit up. Their dark gates only had a yield of 168 million each month, yet just 1,500 outposts could already generate 200 million. This doesn’t even include the 3,500 outposts owned by those foreign cosmic teams.

"How are those cosmic teams? Did they have any problems? How much have they earned so far?"

If feasible, he could loan the Eternal Military Outposts to every willing cosmic team. With the tax he could earn, plus the Merit Source, it would be a massive profit!

"Based on what they reported on the Communication Tower, they should earn a few million on average. A few also encountered bad luck, but so far they were still safe."

While others on an expedition were like a lonely island, unable to communicate with the outside world, those at the Eternal Military Outpost could use the Communication Tower to access the module system and communicate seamlessly, whether with fellow explorers or their people in the territory.

"That’s good! Quickly compile the data and send it to those major-level teams. Since those high-level teams can earn a profit, they should be able to do even better."