But for C-level items, it gets somewhat challenging. As a rule of thumb, only C-level items can bring career-specific traits, and it’s normal not to fully understand items of the same level.
Moreover, creating designs from scratch, relying solely on a Mechanical Engineer’s knowledge, is insufficient; further assistance is required.
Mechanical design, which specializes in design-related mechanical knowledge, should be able to complement the deficiencies of a Mechanical Engineer.
After spending over ten thousand points of metal energy, a prompt popped up on the control screen.
[Mechanical Design Advanced Career—Mechanical Designer acquired. Do you want to consume Controlled Objects to solidify this career?]
[Mechanical Designer: Possesses related knowledge and has the career abilities of [Design] and [Optimization].]
[Design: Consume metal energy to aid in creating blueprints.]
[Optimization: Consume metal energy to optimize the design of blueprints.]
This career was his target, but he hesitated a bit.
To upgrade to B-level, it would take a hundred thousand points. Should he give it a try?
He was eager to find out if the careers could be advanced further. If they could, it wouldn’t be a loss, as their abilities would be incredibly strong.
Li Ming did not hesitate for long and soon made up his mind.
However, to his surprise, the metal energy didn’t budge—it was unable to upgrade.
He frowned slightly, sensing the flow of information in his mind.
"Special energy is required as support to continue upgrading," Li Ming realized. So the fundamental role of special energy was to assist in upgrades.
No wonder items reinforced by special energy undergo a transformation when upgraded.
It seems the importance of special energy has increased, Li Ming considered, realizing he already had several items enhanced by special energy.
He was ready to take a gamble, and he wasn’t disappointed now, immediately solidifying the Mechanical Designer.
After solidification, the expected influx of information didn’t come. Instead, another prompt appeared—
[Mechanical Engineer and Mechanical Designer share common traits. Would you like to merge them?]
Careers can be merged? Li Ming was astonished and didn’t hesitate to try it out.
[Career fusion acquired, new career—Mechanical Research Scholar.]
The next moment, the familiar sensation finally arrived. His mind was flooded with a massive amount of information, causing him an excruciating headache. After adjusting for a while, he finally recovered.
"If it were an ordinary person receiving so much information all at once, they’d probably be overwhelmed into stupidity," Li Ming massaged his temples.
It wasn’t just his own resilience that got him through—it was also supported by another force.
After all, this kind of information transfer wasn’t merely rote memorization; it truly became as natural as moving one’s limbs. Shaking his head, he examined his new career.
[Mechanical Research Scholar: Proficient in relevant knowledge and has the abilities of [Mechanical Maintenance] and [Temporary Optimization].]
[Mechanical Maintenance: Consume equivalent metal energy to instantly repair damaged Controlled Objects.]
[Temporary Optimization: Consume equivalent metal energy to designate the enhancement of Controlled Object abilities.]
Li Ming was quite surprised. Originally, both were support functions, but after merging, they could provide a certain level of enhancement in combat.
The so-called equivalent metal energy is the control energy needed for the target Controlled Object.
This ability corresponds to two aspects: Controlled Objects used for materialization and items placed in the main Control Bar.
For instance, Combat Armor, if shattered by an enemy, could be instantly repaired, which would certainly surprise the enemy.
He tried it out with a low-level Controlled Object, and [Temporary Optimization] could temporarily increase ability data by 50%, which was quite powerful.
However, it also consumed metal energy, and his main Controlled Objects were mostly at the ten-thousand level, so they could be depleted with just a little use.
After all these operations, he had about a hundred and fifty thousand points of metal energy left. The merged career was good, and although it contradicted his original intent, it was an unexpected gain.
"Although the abilities of a Mechanical Designer are gone, the knowledge remains, so it’s not a big problem; it’ll just take some time." Li Ming pondered, considering how to maximize its use.
The first thing he thought of, of course, was to design and build himself.
However, a production line factory presented a significant challenge, involving a complex series of operations, market development, and competition. The current environment was clearly not suitable for these activities.
In the future, he even wanted to establish his own mining base, alloy smelting, and other production lines, which would reduce the cost of drawing metal energy to an extremely low level.
The only issue was that the Blue Star market wasn’t great, and there was no guarantee that the designs would sell.
Li Ming had already thought of a solution—the Black Hole Network.
He browsed it and found not many selling blueprints. After looking at the related procedures, he realized they were quite troublesome.
Because the blueprints needed verification, and if the other party picked nits after verification, disputes could ensue.
He accessed the backend, reached out to the official communication, and sent a message: "Do you accept design blueprints?"
"Anything of value, the Black Hole Network will accept," the reply came promptly, clearly from artificial intelligence.
Once he confirmed this, Li Ming was at ease. The only thing he needed to focus on now was the price.
In the Secret Council, within Fu Zongchen’s office, he held a serpent-neck flask, its contents, a faint purple liquid shimmering with a misty glow, slowly pouring into a goblet.
Sain reached out to take it, swirling the glass and taking a sniff at the rim before exclaiming, "Deerport, at least three hundred years, tsk... what a find."
"Your Excellency Sain is truly spectacular, 312 years, just the right vintage," Fu Zongchen said with a smile. Both men were seated on a sofa, letting the liquor slide down their throats, and neither spoke at first.