Chapter Fifty: Under the Upgrades of Technology

"Xiaobai, you didn’t really embezzle the points, did you? What use could you possibly have for them? I’m not a petty person—just tell me what happened, and we’ll still be good friends…” Sun Li said, dejected.

“I didn’t take any points, nor do I need them. Points are merely a special unit designed to serve you. Every point you spent was at your own command—it has nothing to do with me,” Xiaobai replied, helplessly.

“I spent them? Are you trying to say I’ve got dementia, that my memory is failing? How could I forget something so important? What’s really going on? Confession will be met with leniency; resistance with severity!” Sun Li demanded, his expression stern.

“Before you left, didn’t you order the full-scale development of grenades, bursting shells, and twelve-pound siege cannons? The technological foundation in the Song Kingdom is essentially zero. Do you really think you could develop such advanced weapons in less than two years? The system is powerful, but its technological prowess is built on absorbing the scientific knowledge of its native world. If the world you crossed into wasn’t tech-based, but instead was a world of fantasy, immortals, or martial arts, then the system wouldn’t produce era-defining technology.

Of course, it doesn’t matter now, because the system’s basic foundation is determined only by the first world you entered. That means, if you travel to other divine or demonic realms in the future, you’ll only be able to use the existing technological armaments—and if that world lacks advanced technology, you’ll have to rely on your own research teams to slowly develop it.

But that pace would drive anyone mad, so the powerful Empire System gave you a loophole, using the life force of the world’s natives. As long as you have enough points, you can accelerate research. The number of points and time consumed depends on the weapon’s power and the amount of relevant knowledge available. The more you shorten development time, the more points are consumed, exponentially. In theory, with enough points, you could instantly develop any weapon that doesn’t vastly surpass current technology—as long as there’s a theoretical foundation or even just a concept. Of course, if it’s something entirely imagined, the points required would be astronomical—even if you wiped out the world, you wouldn’t earn enough!

That said, fantasy-grade weapons aren’t just castles in the air; you can actually use them if you’re lucky enough to slay a few gods or monsters—then you’d have enough points to develop a weapon of considerable power.

I’m just giving you a lesson in common sense—fantasy weapons in this world are out of your reach for now; you simply don’t have the strength to build them!

Back to the matter at hand: you ordered the full-scale development of new weapons, so all your stored points were maximized to accelerate research. That’s how the university managed to develop the era’s most advanced weapons in less than two years.

But let me remind you: while the cost of developing these new weapons isn’t high, the technology is only a step above the current world’s system—a simple upgrade. With the most advanced native technology, it’ll be easy to copy. Since the Empire System has fully merged with this world, any simple technological upgrade you develop will influence the world’s own research progress. Put simply: when you upgrade your weapons, your enemies will soon catch up and develop their own advanced arms.

Unless the technology is a generational leap, any progress will stimulate the natives’ own research. Unless you unify the entire world, making it your vassal, you’ll always have to worry about keeping ahead.”

Xiaobai imparted some basic knowledge about the Empire System to Sun Li, so he’d stop suspecting him—points really meant nothing to Xiaobai.

“So, in other words, any technological research I want to do costs points. Well, that’s just one more thing draining my points…” Sun Li muttered, exasperated.

“You don’t have to spend points. If you don’t give special orders, the university will automatically pursue technological advancements. It might take many wrong turns and a long time, with countless failures, but except for some cheap experimental materials, you won’t spend a single point. Only when you order accelerated research does it cost points, and you can set the timeframe—saving points that way. If you don’t set a timeframe, it’ll spend all your points to finish as fast as possible.”

After Xiaobai’s explanation, Sun Li finally understood the so-called research expenditures. In the future, he’d approach this cautiously—he’d rather use points to purchase finished products!

Grenades, shells, and similar small items didn’t cost much, but for things like Minié rifles, breechloaders, or even machine guns, it wasn’t worth spending points on research—it was better to just recruit directly.

Of course, without inventing the Minié rifle, don’t even think about recruiting soldiers armed with breechloaders, let alone machine gunners…

Weapons that are too far ahead of their time can’t be recruited with points!

Sun Li abandoned his plan to expand his army using points, turning his focus to conventional gold recruitment.

Right now, line infantry equipped with bayonets counted as cutting-edge on the Europa continent. The local white folk were still using combinations of long spears and flintlocks. No nation had yet officially adopted bayonets. Against such outdated tactics, line infantry could easily crush them.

Even if they eventually acquired bayonets and flintlocks, the unwavering morale of system soldiers would easily overwhelm armies mobilized and trained for less than a year.

After reading the battle reports between the Maurice Empire and the Holy Knight Order on Europa, Sun Li was confident that his Song Dynasty’s line infantry were the finest elite troops in the world—the only shortcoming was their limited numbers. With a force of 100,000, he could utterly crush his opponents!

After producing grenades and a small number of shells, Sun Li spent all remaining funds recruiting line infantry. Supplementing the spear cavalry to three thousand was sufficient; a few dozen cannons would do. The cannons of this era were woefully inaccurate and slow-firing, so Sun Li didn’t expect to win battles with artillery. It’s not that lots of cannons aren’t formidable, but the gold spent on enough cannons to make a difference could instead equip a much larger, vastly more powerful force of line infantry!

Right now, numbers matter more than elite quality, so recruiting cheap line infantry took priority.

After recruitment, Sun Li would command an army of fifty thousand—enough to launch a new round of expansionary war!