Chapter 80: The Combat Power Helmet

With the information provided by the goblin general, Sun Licheng and his team quickly figured out the layout of the base and the locations of various supply storages. Unfortunately, their excitement was dampened when they discovered that most of the supplies had not withstood the ravages of time. Some had turned to dust; others had completely lost their value.

After a thorough search, they finally found two magic crystal cannons, twelve sets of combat suits, ten intact battle puppets, five mechs, and a batch of cold weapons from the Goblin Empire. Looking at the rows of empty battle puppet control panels, Master Dexterous floated over and said, “These mechanical puppets were the main fighting force. I’d guess most of them were taken away in the past. The ones left behind have some issues and need repairs, but there are plenty of good parts, so they should be fixable.”

Sun Licheng smiled, patting Master Dexterous’s large head. “I’m already very satisfied. I only hoped to get a mercury mine, but ended up discovering a significant Goblin Empire base. That’s extremely lucky.”

Compared to the weapons, the institute’s archives were plentiful. Yet most required a robust industrial foundation to be of use, something the Flower Tribe currently lacked. However, Sun Licheng was unconcerned about this, for what truly intrigued him was the helmet capable of displaying combat power.

Master Dexterous, after consulting the data, explained that the helmet’s visor was actually a display screen, processing data via a goblin computer CPU embedded in the helmet. Energy came from a magic crystal slot at the back of the head.

Sun Licheng inspected Joey’s helmet and, sure enough, found the magic crystal slot hidden at the back. The crystal inside had long since depleted its energy, now faded to a pale gray.

The institute housed several large devices for recharging magic crystals. With Master Dexterous’s help, they quickly modified one to suit their needs.

Once a recharged magic crystal was placed in the slot, Sun Licheng donned the helmet and looked at Master Dexterous. He saw that the figure’s color in the visor changed. Turning to Dogmeat, he saw a different color yet again.

Sun Licheng pondered for a moment and realized the device indicated the target’s combat strength through color.

“It’s certainly primitive! We must improve it.”

Having memories of the battle power testers from Dragon Ball, Sun Licheng was dissatisfied with this rudimentary qualitative analysis.

He removed the helmet, called over Master Dexterous, and explained his idea: build a comparative model, display the target’s combat power through data, quantifying it with colored bars and numerical values to aid judgments.

After some thought, Master Dexterous understood. In fact, the Goblin Empire’s combat power helmet was already highly developed, just lacking user-friendly displays. Thus, it didn’t take him long to rewrite the helmet’s program.

Sun Licheng put the helmet on again. In the visor, a colored bar appeared beside Master Dexterous, pale red, with a value of 130. Dogmeat’s bar was orange-red, value 200.

“Master Dexterous, is this value accurate? How is Dogmeat’s combat power so much higher than yours?”

Sun Licheng was puzzled, lifting the visor to ask.

“Boss, this combat power helmet not only shows the individual’s combat strength but also adds that of their weaponry. Dogmeat has a magic crystal cannon on his back, so naturally he’s stronger than me. Also, the baseline I set is arbitrary; we still need a proper reference point.”

Master Dexterous’s reply enlightened Sun Licheng.

After further adjustments, the combat power helmet was functioning properly. Sun Licheng grabbed a weapon for Master Dexterous to test. The colored bar was pale yellow, value only 20.

Upon seeing this result, Sun Licheng nearly stumbled. He was far too weak; the numbers just didn’t make sense.

Through their research, they realized the helmet currently only displayed physical combat power. To show magical values, more data needed to be added.

“No wonder it wasn’t widely adopted—the data was incomplete.”

Only now did Sun Licheng understand what the goblin general meant by unfinished research.

Still, having something was better than nothing, and Sun Licheng was fairly satisfied with the current helmet. Soon, however, he confronted another issue: he disliked its current style.

“Boss, you can replace the energy control unit with a magic array,” Master Dexterous suggested after hearing Sun Licheng’s complaints.

Sun Licheng thought about it and realized he was right.

The combat power helmet consisted of four main parts: the helmet itself, the display, the computing unit, and the energy unit.

According to the documents, the display could be reshaped under certain conditions, and Sun Licheng’s elemental guiding force could achieve this even more efficiently.

The computing unit was simply a CPU. Sun Licheng and his team already mastered CPU installation and parallel programming, making their version much more powerful.

The Goblin Empire’s energy control unit was complex, but Sun Licheng’s storage magic array was simple enough to be engraved onto any material.

Thus, miniaturizing and lightening the combat power helmet was hardly a challenge. While it might not be as compact as those in Dragon Ball, making it more attractive was certainly possible.

With this in mind, Sun Licheng and his team began sorting through the institute’s materials.

This was truly a major Goblin Empire research facility, with vast stores of goblin CPU chips and display lenses. After tallying, they found over seven hundred CPU chips and more than three hundred display lenses—almost as much as a goblin air force supply ship. That didn’t even include the computing units scattered throughout the institute; counting those, there were nearly two thousand goblin CPUs.

Sadly, the magic crystals they found were few—only about a hundred. Sun Licheng guessed most had been taken by retreating goblins, since geothermal energy was available and they hadn’t needed many crystals.

Using materials from the base, Sun Licheng and his team built a small cart to carry their spoils. Heavy equipment was gathered and stored together, to be modified when they had time.

With a rumbling sound, Sun Licheng piloted Joey’s mech, towing the cart, accompanied by Master Dexterous and Dogmeat as they exited the institute, where the impatient Flowerback Spider was already waiting.

Flowerback hadn’t expected Sun Licheng to emerge in a mech and was a little intimidated.

Viewing Flowerback Spider through the helmet’s screen, Sun Licheng saw its combat power was respectable, just slightly less than Master Dexterous’s.

“Flowerback, are you willing to accept my recruitment?”

Exiting the mech, Sun Licheng released the power of a hero toward the Flowerback Spider.

After some consideration, Flowerback agreed. Previously, it had followed the necromancer, but with the mage dead, switching allegiance to Sun Licheng was acceptable, especially given his prowess—and now with a mech.

After successfully recruiting the spider, Sun Licheng was delighted. He had Master Dexterous grab Flowerback and lead the way, while he drove the mech and cart out of the cave.

Passing the necromancer’s camp, he took the opportunity to remove the pillar that attracted the undead, restoring peace to the cave.

Returning to the valley, Sun Licheng saw it was midday, though which day it was, he couldn’t tell. After all, the cave knew neither sun nor moon.

With the undead magic array destroyed, sunlight now flooded the valley, dispelling its chill.

Sun Licheng found an open patch of ground, drew a healing and purification array, and had Master Dexterous place Flowerback Spider inside.

Setting a magic crystal, a curtain of light rose, enveloping Flowerback. When it faded, Flowerback was fully healed.

“All right, let’s leave the valley. I wonder if Little Cabbage and the others have arrived yet. There’s plenty to do outside.”

Sun Licheng piloted the mech, spoke to his followers, and then, towing the cart, strode out of the valley.