Technological advancement begins with devouring.

At the factory gate, a helicopter slowly landed.

Li Dawei disembarked from the plane with several entourage, and Jiang Chen, accompanied by Lu Gang, immediately went to greet him.

"Welcome, Mr. Li." Jiang Chen glanced at Li Dawei's entourage. These people didn't seem like soldiers to Jiang Chen; they seemed more like a group of scholars.

"Why don't you put up a sign here?" Li Dawei pointed to the empty gate, not in a hurry to mention his purpose, but instead chatted casually with Jiang Chen.

This was done to deliberately project an image of not being in a hurry for what Jiang Chen had, in order to gain as much benefit as possible in subsequent negotiations.

Although Jiang Chen wasn't particularly skilled at this kind of thing, he had seen it so many times that he could understand it to some extent. He immediately followed up on Li Dawei's words and said, "It's my own studio, not a company. Why would I need to put up a sign?"

"It would be better to set up a company," Li Dawei said meaningfully.

In the previous collaboration with [The Ripper], Jiang Chen signed the contract in the name of the company.

However, according to the law, companies operating under this personal studio model have a size limit and a clear ceiling.

If you really want to grow your business, it's more appropriate to establish a more formal company.

“I’ll think about it.” Jiang Chen changed the subject and talked to Li Dawei about the [Ripper]: “We were a bit too optimistic about the [Ripper] before. Now it seems that it’s best to team it up with traditional martial artists. The martial artists can restrain the monsters and create opportunities for the gunners, which will make the [Ripper] more powerful.”

After the previous battles, Jiang Chen and Jarvis had repeatedly discussed and simulated different battle scenarios.

It was discovered that at the level of War General and War God, it is still more efficient to have high-level warriors restrain the monsters to create opportunities for machine gunners, ensuring that they hit the monsters' vital points as much as possible. This hunting efficiency is much higher than that of a pure gunner lineup.

It also has a higher tolerance for error.

Even when teaming up with a "boxer" to hunt down lord-level monsters, the efficiency is worlds apart from having a war god-level warrior to cooperate with.

Of course, this is just a simulation, and the actual effect still needs to be tested in real combat.

Fortunately, the military has the capability to do so.

Jiang Chen planned to encourage Li Dawei to conduct this test in order to better plan for his future armed forces.

Upon hearing Jiang Chen's suggestion, Li Dawei was immediately intrigued and made a decision: "The plan you mentioned... I'll go back and form two teams, one led by a War God Warrior, and the other composed entirely of gunners. We'll test them separately and see how they perform in actual combat."

After exchanging a few words, Li Dawei finally couldn't hold back any longer and tentatively asked, "Mr. Jiang, about that robot you sent to the wilderness before..."

"It's a powered mech that can be piloted by humans or remotely controlled. The one I used before was the remote control solution. However, when dealing with some monsters that possess special abilities, the mech will stop if communication is interrupted or the communication device is destroyed." Jiang Chen didn't tell the whole truth, concealing Jarvis's existence and using 'remote control' to gloss over the matter.

"I see..." Li Dawei didn't doubt it and nodded seriously. He looked at Jiang Chen and asked, "Can I take a closer look at this...powered mech?"

“Okay, please follow me.” Jiang Chen had no intention of hiding it from the military, so he immediately led Li Dawei and the others to the factory where the [Boxer] was assembled.

"I call it 'Boxer.' 'Boxer' sustained some minor damage in the previous fight and is currently undergoing repairs. I also discovered some other issues during this battle and am considering how to improve them."

Jiang Chen pointed to the motionless mechs in the factory and said, "Without extra weight, the [Boxer] can reach a maximum speed of 750 meters per second and a maximum power of 400 tons. In terms of defense, it can withstand most attacks from high-level lord monsters head-on. However, in remote control mode, it is very vulnerable to electric and electromagnetic attacks. As for weapons, you can create specialized melee weapons, but it's best to use the [Ripper]. I have made special optimizations to the [Ripper]'s aiming module in the built-in program."

There's no point in hiding these parameters; they've already been revealed in previous battles.

Although no traces were found, Jiang Chen was certain that the military had been monitoring the entire process of [The Boxer]'s fight in City 003.

Sure enough, when Jiang Chen presented these figures, neither Li Dawei nor his scholarly 'followers' showed any surprise, clearly indicating that they were already aware of them.

"Are there any special requirements for the driver? What about the manufacturing cost?" Li Dawei asked with concern.

Based on the performance shown by the [Boxer], it's not a problem that it can reach at least the level of a high-level war god, if not the planetary level.

Even if a novice War God is needed as the pilot, it is equivalent to raising the strength of that War God by two levels.

If even a warrior at the general level can undertake the driving task, then its value is even higher.

However, cost is also one of the factors that must be considered.

With Earth's current technology, there is no shortage of powerful weapons, at least not at the God of War level.

However, those weapons were either too expensive to manufacture or had unacceptable flaws, making them difficult to popularize.

What humanity needs most right now is a high-powered weapon or equipment that is reasonably priced, has few major flaws, and is suitable for large-scale deployment.

“The cost is a bit high.” Jiang Chen shook his head and said, “My experimental model, not counting research and development costs, costs for materials and processing alone exceed 20 billion. And the biggest problem is that, in order to ensure defensive capabilities, the armor shell and many key parts must use ‘A3-3221 alloy’. Each mech requires about 1.5 tons of ‘A3-3221 alloy’. In addition, it also needs ‘Dragon Might IV chip’. From what I understand, the production of both of these items is very low, and it cannot be scaled up in the short term.”

“'A3-3221 Alloy', 'Dragon Might IV Chip'…” Li Dawei turned to look at the person behind him.

The middle-aged man, whose hair was thinning to the point of near baldness, immediately said, "The annual production of 'A3-3221 alloy' is less than one million tons, of which more than 95% has a fixed purpose, mainly for building fixed fortifications, reinforcing the outer walls of base cities, and so on. Less than 50,000 tons can enter the market each year, and our Jiangnan base city's share is only a little over 1,000 tons, which is allocated by the HR Alliance."

"As for the 'Dragonway IV chip,' it is also a core product of the HR Alliance. Even if we spare no expense, our Jiangnan base city can only obtain a maximum of 10,000 chips per year."

This bald, middle-aged man knew all the data without consulting any sources.

Jiang Chen had a vague guess that he was probably someone in charge of logistics and supplies.