Chapter 692: Start of Rapid Growth
A few days later, with the arrival of professionals from the Sun Star Void Area, the allied teams successfully produced the first batch of dark energy purification devices.
"Ten million per device? What a steal!"
"Haha, we’ll be rich in no time if this keeps up."
"The real question is, can Lord Nash actually afford to keep paying us?"
Based on how frugal he spent energy, they had their doubts.
Going by their production efficiency, within a month, they would have the capacity to produce 13.5 billion dark energy purification devices per month.
13.5 billion! Even at a mere 10 million production fee per device, that came out to a staggering 1.5 quintillion.
It was a figure too large to truly comprehend, let alone believe they would actually be paid.
"Don’t worry. Each purification device sells for 10 billion. Compared to that, what we’re being paid is pocket change."
Hearing this, nearly everyone was left dumbfounded.
They had known the dark energy purification devices were expensive, but not that expensive.
Going by that price and their production efficiency, did that mean Nash stood to net 15 quintillion every month?
With wealth on that scale, they could only wonder how far the Neon Star Alliance might grow.
At that moment, more than a few of them found themselves quietly tempted by the idea of joining.
"Alright, enough daydreaming, get moving! Every second wasted is money lost. No slacking off."
Snapping out of their reveries, they returned to work in an orderly fashion.
---
Meanwhile, in the central command room, Nash was tabulating the output figures from the allied teams.
Currently, 1,150 cosmic team alliances are situated within the public trading zone.
The unfortunate reality was that not all of them possessed a Tier 7 mother core ship.
Some had none, others had multiple, bringing the total count of tier 7 mother core ships to 1,050.
Combined with the mother core ships from the Neon Star Alliance, they could produce approximately 16,000 industrial machines per day, each capable of churning out 16 million purification devices.
In a single month, that translated to a monthly output of 15 billion dark energy purification devices.
And this was not the ceiling; it was merely the starting point.
As the elites and professionals from the allied teams continued to raise the purity of their power, the theoretical production capacity could reach 150 billion purification devices per month.
Once that threshold was reached, never mind top-level teams, he could rapidly close the gap with the foundational strength of a major-level team.
"The only problem is security."
High production capacity meant immense wealth, but it also meant becoming a target.
With an income far exceeding that of the Mechanical Race, Nash had better ensure he could protect himself; otherwise, he risked being reduced to a pawn of more powerful players.
"The expansion of the Neon Defense System cannot stop. If possible, I need to extend the neon defense system coverage across the entire domain area." Nash thought grimly.
With billions or even trillions of defensive modules in place, who would dare invade his territory?
Not even an ant could slip through unnoticed, let alone rival teams.
Unfortunately, such an ambition was little more than a fantasy at this stage.
Never mind the sheer volume of materials required; the energy needed to power that many modules alone was already out of the question.
Even if Nash reached the theoretical production capacity of 150 billion devices per month, he doubted even the major teams would be able to pay in enough void source crystals.
One of the most precious resources in this wild void territory was not materials, it was energy.
Once transactions scaled into the quintillions, most parties would opt to pay in materials rather than void source crystals.
After all, materials could be mined at any time, but energy could only be sourced or converted from dark beasts.
Nash had come to understand this reality more and more as the Neon Defense System continued to expand.
No wonder the top-level teams kept building public trading platforms, extracting wealth from lower-level teams who lacked the ability to mine energy on their own.
"Though... perhaps I could optimize the energy conversion yield of the dark energy purification device."
Currently, the dark energy purification device converts less than 1% of the dark energy it absorbs into usable energy.
While that was marginally sufficient to sustain the energy needs of a single planetary system, it fell far short of what a defensive system would require.
Even at full capacity, the energy a purification device could yield in a day wouldn’t amount to a fraction of a single void source crystal.
"This would require long-term experimentation." Nash shelved the thought for now.
Studying the nature of dark energy was currently beyond his comprehension.
Similar to void energy, understanding its surface-level properties was one thing.
Like water, he knew how to make it cold, hot, or turn it to mist and ice.
But probing its microscopic structure, its atomic composition, the very essence of its origin, that was currently impossible.
Nash would need his genetic ability to advance to another level before he could delve deeper into its properties.
"Huh... I wonder when the envoys from the Azure Heaven Alliance will arrive." Nash sighed.
It had been exactly a month since they had taken the domain-level teleportation array.
Their arrival at the Neon Star Public Trading Zone shouldn’t be far off now.
Nash could only hope they hadn’t been delayed by the opening of the dark gates.
If they had, given the rate at which energy was being consumed, Nash would have to revise his plans.
---
As the week passed, just when Nash had begun to wonder if the delegation from the Azure Heaven Alliance would ever show, the teleportation station at the center of the large-scale platform lit up.
Alerted by the guards at the station, Nash quickly made his way over to receive them.
"Marcellin? It’s you!" Nash greeted him with a smile.
"Haha, they sent me precisely because I’m the most familiar with you."
"Even better. It’s a pleasure to finally have you here in my territory. Come, let me show you around."
"The pleasure is mine!"
Touring the Neon Star Public Trading Zone, Marcellin couldn’t help but gasp at the sheer number of people.
Though the platform was still somewhat small, the number of allied teams gathered within it far surpassed what he had in his own territory.
"What do you think of the place?" Nash smiled, watching Marcellin’s expression.
"It’s remarkable. I can hardly believe you’ve grown this much in just a few years." Marcellin said, a note of nostalgia in his voice as he thought back to the first time he and Nash had met.
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