Technological advancement begins with devouring.

Jiang Chen and Jia Yi met in the reception room of the War God Palace.

"Councilor Jia Yi, the reason I've invited you to this meeting is to discuss the final payment for the first batch of [Boxer] orders," Jiang Chen stated his purpose directly.

Jia Yi nodded slightly and said, "As per your request, the special treasures will be jointly provided by our eight major forces. You can choose any item within the limit. As for the others, we will coordinate among ourselves."

As he spoke, Jia Yi waved his hand, and a screen appeared between the two of them, displaying a list.

According to the previous agreement, a certain percentage of the cost of purchasing the [Boxer] from the eight major powers would be paid for with special treasures that are extremely valuable and difficult to buy with money.

Subsequently, the parties made several more contacts with Jiang Chen and signed a supplementary agreement. The general idea was that the list of treasures Jiang Chen needed would be provided jointly by the eight major forces, and Jiang Chen could choose from it at will. The parties would then coordinate and compensate each other for any price differences, etc., instead of Jiang Chen negotiating with each party individually.

Of course, Jiang Chen had already confirmed the preliminary list when the contract was signed, but the settlement was delayed until now due to the delivery cycle.

“You have a quota of 3.51 trillion Chinese yuan. Within this quota, you can choose any of the treasures on the list,” Jia Yi reminded you.

3.51 trillion is the total amount of money paid by the eight major forces for the [Boxer] mecha purchased from Jiang Chen, including the portion offset by 'special treasures'.

Of course, this only applies to the first batch that has already been delivered.

As for the second and third batches, although the contracts have been signed and the deposits have been received, the final payment will not be received until delivery is completed.

The 3.51 trillion could be used to purchase those precious treasures, but the eight major powers would not be willing to sell anything beyond that, even if the price were doubled.

To have Jiang Chen's approval, the treasures on this list must be of very high quality, each possessing immense value.

Of course, the price tag isn't low either.

The cheapest treasure, 'Jade Marrow' provided by the Thunder Martial Arts School, is priced at a staggering 30 billion Chinese Yuan.

Some of these items were quite expensive, far exceeding the amount Jiang Chen could exchange.

For example, there is a weapon provided by the HR Alliance called the 'Blade of the Giant God', which is priced at a whopping 50 trillion. Jiang Chen's amount is not even a fraction of that.

Clearly, these items were intended to entice Jiang Chen to continue signing orders to sell the "Boxer," and even to persuade him to relinquish some of his profits in exchange for a higher "treasure quota."

"I'd like a copy of this 'Fundamentals of Spiritual Mastery'."

"I'll take one of these 'space rings'."

"Let's get one of these 'Ancient Civilization Supercomputers' too."

"..."

Jiang Chen had already seen the list and had decided what he wanted to exchange before this meeting, so he quickly made his choice.

The variety of treasures available for exchange is limited. The cheapest item is the "Basic Techniques for Spiritual Masters" manual provided by the Limitless Martial Arts Academy, but it still costs a whopping 2400 billion.

The most expensive item is a 'space ring' provided by the Chinese military, containing storage space measuring ten meters in length, width, and height, with a price tag of two trillion.

It measures ten meters in length, width, and height, which is insignificant compared to the 'World Ring' in the universe, but it is actually a very large space. It could easily fit at least several hundred 'Boxers' inside.

In other words, Jiang Chen can carry a mechanical army with him at all times.

In addition to other items such as the 'Ancient Civilization Supercomputer' and the 'Spirit of Plants and Trees', Jiang Chen spent most of the 3.51 trillion yuan limit, leaving only a few hundred billion yuan for future use.

Although these treasures cannot directly increase Jiang Chen's strength by much, they can still provide him with considerable assistance.

"Some of these treasures are located on other continents, which is quite a long distance. They will be delivered to you within three days at the latest." Jia Yi noted down the treasures Jiang Chen needed and immediately asked about something he was concerned about: "I heard that the second [Boxer] production line has already started operation?"

Jiang Chen nodded: "The main equipment has been installed and tested. We can start trial production after a few tests. If there are no problems, the efficiency will be at the level of the first production line."

Jia Yi tentatively said, "Logically speaking, with so much capital, you could easily expand more production lines at the same time. As for sales, don't worry, no matter how much production capacity there is, our eight major forces can handle it all."

Based on the performance of the "Boxer" in actual combat, if there were hundreds of thousands of mechs, Jia Yi would even dare to shout the slogan of conquering Asia from the monsters.

The same applies to other forces.

At least until the monsters are defeated, no one will complain about having too many of these powerful and relatively inexpensive 'weapons of war'.

“I don’t have as much capital as you think. The cost of the [Boxer] is also very high, and a large portion of my funds will be used to exchange for these expensive special treasures.” Jiang Chen shook his head slightly and continued, “Moreover, if the production scale expands too quickly, the supply of raw materials will not be able to keep up. Ordinary mineral raw materials are fine, but some rare metals are very difficult to supply in the current environment.”

Vast territories have been occupied by monsters, and their impact on humanity is multifaceted.

In particular, some mineral veins located in the wilderness are simply impossible to mine.

Currently, mining areas are either located around base cities and protected by the base city's military forces, or they are small mining areas similar to 'forward bases' that are established for mining operations.

But regardless of the method, the scale of mining will certainly be far smaller than before the Great Nirvana.

"Resources are indeed a problem..." Jia Yi nodded slightly, pondered for a moment, and said, "At the previous operational meeting, some people suggested taking over several major mineral resource producing areas first, but most people preferred to take over important cities. I will discuss this with the experts in the General Staff Department when I get back."

"Currently, the [Boxer] production line enjoys priority access to various resources, and other factions are also willing to provide resource support. However, if we want to further expand production capacity in the future, it will still be very important to have control over several mineral-producing areas."

Jiang Chen thought for a moment and said, "I have a mecha squad that can clear out an area."

"You want to get support from me to establish your own base city?" Jia Yi saw through Jiang Chen's thoughts.

Jiang Chen didn't hide anything and went straight to the point: "The grasslands in the north, the Golden Triangle region in the south, or the mountains of South America all have abundant mineral resources. I plan to acquire one of them and establish a base mainly based on heavy industry."

Jia Yi did not agree immediately. After thinking for a while, he said, "I need to discuss this with others before I can give you an answer."