Mechanic endlessly amassing troops in the apocalypse

Over the next few days, Li Fei was like a wound-up machine, shuttling back and forth between the two worlds.

During the day, he harvests zombies from the window in the apocalypse; at night, he smelts steel balls in the repair shop.

In just four days, I gained more than 2 experience points.

It's incredibly fun! No wonder so many people enjoy playing those fast-paced, action-packed online games; they're truly addictive.

Li Fei resisted the urge to continue going into the apocalypse to grind monsters.

There's still one day until the assessment, so we can put aside the experience-farming for now.

We need to convert our current experience points into combat power.

For mechanics, the biggest boost to combat power comes from creating new equipment.

The panel prompts that the knowledge I just learned can be integrated with the blueprints.

Give it a try. If it succeeds, even if it's not a weapon that increases combat power, you can still make items to sell for money. In short, you won't lose out.

Thinking it over, Li Fei sat cross-legged on the bed, opened the panel, and put all three newly acquired knowledge points into the fusion slot.

[Testing knowledge input: "Basic Multi-Unit Networking Protocol", "Bionic Structural Engineering", "Basic Modular Weapon Mounting Principles"; Knowledge fit: High; Should 10000 experience points be consumed for blueprint generation and deduction? Note: The blueprints generated by the deduction are random and have a chance of failure.]

As usual, I washed my face.

After washing, Li Fei did not hesitate and immediately began to deduce.

[Driving in progress... Obtained "Bionic Raven" blueprint]

Li Fei immediately clicked to view the details.

On the drawing, a three-dimensional model of a mechanical raven with an exquisite structure and smooth lines slowly rotates.

He quickly skimmed the core description: Focus on high-altitude reconnaissance, silent flight, real-time image transmission... Combat capabilities: None.

"A purely reconnaissance unit, huh..." Li Fei rubbed his chin, pondering.

This blueprint is undoubtedly valuable; in the apocalypse, it's an invaluable tool for mapping and monitoring enemy movements. However, the problem is—its direct assistance to tomorrow's assessment is limited.

Police station assessments are most likely to be practical or simulated exercises; a scout bird that can't be used for combat can't be a trump card.

He immediately thought of renovating his workplace.

Should he strap a bomb to a crow? But he rejected the idea as soon as it came to mind.

This isn't a game where you can just stack modules randomly.

Mechanical creations are a precisely balanced whole. Forcibly adding loads beyond the design will only significantly reduce their core performance, making them clumsy, sluggish, and ultimately turning them into a useless, hybrid mess.

True transformation requires a deeper knowledge system and entirely new blueprints, and it cannot be accomplished overnight.

Therefore, the original blueprints represent the best application of this machine.

Currently, it seems that ravens are not very effective.

Li Fei was not discouraged. After a moment's thought, he immediately began the second deduction, since he still had plenty of experience.

[Drill in progress... Obtained "Bionic Combat Mechanical Cat" blueprint]

Mechanical cat? Li Fei's eyes lit up, and he opened the blueprints.

The agile mechanical beast on the drawing, covered with biomimetic transmission structures and with claws gleaming coldly, was clearly no ordinary creature.

Then I looked at the drawings and their descriptions.

Close-quarters assassination and covert protection.

Isn't this exactly the piece of the combat power puzzle that he's currently missing the most?

Li Fei excitedly pumped his fist.

Without the slightest hesitation, he directly invested two thousand experience points to instantly upgrade the blueprints for "Raven" and "Mechanical Cat" to the maximum level. A massive amount of structural details, optimization schemes, and operating tips flooded into his mind, as if he had personally created them hundreds of times.

Just as both blueprints reached their maximum level, a sudden change occurred.

On the panel, the three icons representing the [Pneumatic Spiral Machine Gun], [Bionic Raven], and [Bionic Combat Mechanical Cat] suddenly resonated faintly with each other, their edges rippled with a pale golden aura. A notification slowly appeared:

[Multiple max-level blueprints detected, compatibility check in progress...]

[Test passed. "Deep chimerism" criteria met.]

[It can perform "drawing fusion" simulations to generate composite drawings.]

[Estimated experience points required: 20000.]

Li Fei's breath hitched, and then his heart burned!

"Blueprints merged... a composite type!"

He immediately understood what this meant.

Clearly, the mechanical cat, or perhaps the raven, can be equipped with machine gun modules in the future!

This integration is not simply a matter of strapping a gun on; it's a complete fusion, creating a completely new mechanical being.

But Li Fei's joy didn't last long. The next second, the requirement of 20000 experience points was like a bucket of ice water, instantly sobering him up.

"Hoo..." Li Fei exhaled a long breath, forcing his boiling blood to cool down. He had to take things one step at a time; now was far from the time to be overly ambitious.

After calming down, he looked at the material requirements automatically generated at the end of the drawing:

1.战斗型灵能核心 x1；2.高扭矩关节电机 x12；3.特种硬质合金（用于爪刃）x 0.5kg；4.微型高压电击模块 x1。5.……（后续是一长串令人眼花缭乱的专用零件与耗材）

"They're all money-burning junk..."

Li Fei smiled wryly. Especially that energy core; just hearing the name made it sound incredibly expensive.

He took stock of his assets: the money from selling crystal cores last time was almost gone after purchasing equipment, leaving him with only a little over three thousand star coins.

He wasn't sure if it was enough. He scratched his head, thinking, "I should have known better than to use all the crystal cores in the first place. Headache..."

Fortunately, while fighting monsters in the apocalypse, I managed to loot some scattered gold and silver jewelry from some zombies. I had previously thought it was worthless and hadn't sold it, but now I can use it in an emergency.

Without further thought, Li Fei put on his bulletproof inner armor, grabbed his gun case, draped a dustproof overcoat, and went out.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Guicang Pavilion.

"Hey, Xiao Fei, you're here again!" Boss Zhang said with a shrewd smile, handing over a sour juice. "I heard you've hooked up with Sheriff Lawrence? You'll have to look after me from now on."

Li Fei didn't take the juice; instead, he placed the small cloth bag on the counter and pushed it over. "Boss Zhang, take a look at these, how much can you give me?"

Boss Zhang poured out the gold necklace, silver ring, and small gemstones inside, narrowed his eyes, and took out his equipment to test them. "The quality is alright, just some loose pieces. Package deal, two thousand three hundred, pretty reasonable, right?"

Two thousand five hundred.

"Deal!" Boss Zhang readily pointed out the star coins, then leaned closer and lowered his voice, "Brother, why aren't you selling crystal cores today?"

Li Fei glanced at him sideways, but still didn't answer his question. Instead, he took out the list he had prepared.

The list concealed the core parameters, so Li Fei wasn't worried about others noticing anything amiss.

"High-performance energy core, high-torque micro motor, special alloy. Do you have any connections?" Li Fei asked casually.

Boss Zhang glanced at the list, his smile widening, a barely perceptible glint in his eyes. "High-performance energy cores? Not easy to get, strict regulations… But," he changed the subject, "I have connections to get 'industrial grade,' powerful enough! And the price…"

"How many?"

Boss Zhang held up five fingers and shook them.

"Five thousand?"

"No, fifty thousand."

"fifty thousand?!"

Li Fei clicked his tongue in amazement.

"Hey bro, this is industrial grade, stable and powerful! You can't find it on the market." Boss Zhang patted his chest confidently. "I have the motors and alloy in stock, a package deal: motors are 300 each, and alloy is 1000 per kilogram. Pretty good deal, bro?"

Li Fei mentally calculated: 50,000 for the core, 3,600 for twelve motors, 500 for alloys, and over 60,000 for miscellaneous items.

He currently has less than 5,000 yuan in assets, and the shortfall is not small.

However, he wasn't there to buy anything today.

Li Fei raised his eyes, his gaze calmly fixed on Boss Zhang. "Boss Zhang, let's put the price aside for now. There's something I'd like to ask you."

"Oh? What do you want to say, brother?" Boss Zhang's smile remained unchanged.

"About a week ago, I sold a crystal core to you and bought an exoskeleton and light armor. The next day, I came back and sold another crystal core." Li Fei stared at the wine glass in his hand, swirling it around, and said to himself, "Back then, you asked me if I was an unregistered resident, and I gave you a vague answer."

But that very evening, the Sand Wolf Gang showed up at my door, demanding a maintenance fee of five thousand star coins, calling me a stray dog, and clearly aware of my unregistered status.

He paused, watching as the smile on Boss Zhang's face gradually froze.

"Very few people in the town know I'm an undocumented immigrant. My master, Luo Jun, is one, but he wouldn't possibly reveal it. Sheriff Lawrence is another, but he has no reason to tell the Sand Wolf Gang."

Li Fei leaned forward slightly and said, enunciating each word clearly, "Boss Zhang, tell me... how did this news leak to the Sand Wolf Gang's ears?"