Chapter 416: Metallic Platforms

"Why do I feel like I’m turning into an ATM for the system recently?!"

John muttered the complaint under his breath as he headed directly toward the basement. The moment he reached the centre of the expansive facility, he didn’t waste a second, initiating the handshake.

The platforms before him were massive, engineered marvels, placed edge to edge in a grand, sweeping circle. Each platform was big, vast enough to park ten mobile fortresses side by side with plenty of extra space left over for walls and defensive towers.

John knew that simply combining the core on a single platform wasn’t going to cut it. If he wanted to achieve the full potential of this attempt, he needed to perform the handshake with the entire interconnected grid.

However, a manual handshake for every single block would drive the cost into the stratosphere and take days he didn’t have. He consulted the system, and two distinct options flickered into his field of vision.

[ Ding! Option 1: You can pay 1k Mental Points for every individual handshake you perform to force it to connect with adjacent areas.]

[ Ding! Option 2: You can pay a lump sum of 30k Mental Points to instantly expand your current handshake from this focal point to cover all desired connected areas. Which will you choose?]

John looked at the endless rows of square platforms stretching into the darkness of the basement and did the math. There were, at least, hundreds of them forming the foundation of the club base. "Of course, the second option. Without a doubt, it’s the cheapest one," he decided.

He paused for a heartbeat, acknowledging that this was by far the highest single transaction he had ever made with the system. And yet, the potential of the Machine Factory fragment was too great to ignore. He needed to see how effective that would be when merged with a metallic foundation of this scale.

To prepare for the massive Mental Points requirements, John opened his inventory and took out a mountain of metal scraps, letting them clatter and pile up in a large hill underneath him.

Since the enhanced handshake required both hands to be pressed firmly against the platform, he had no choice but to sit atop the scrap heap to maintain contact while activating the handshake.

"Let’s do it... MP Absorption!"

He activated his ability while pressing his palms flat against the cold, metallic surface of the central platform. The next instant, the system provided a one-hour countdown for the handshake’s completion, confirming that his strategy of using the scraps as a battery was working.

As he had nothing to do but wait for the progress bar to fill, John’s mind began to wander, imagining the potential effects of the machine fragment. "The earlier description said it would form a machine factory. Hopefully, it maintains that function after a successful merge," he muttered lowly, his voice echoing in the basement.

He was still largely oblivious to the specifics. Would the fragment start churning out autonomous combat drones? Would it allow him to upload his own blueprints and design custom machinery? Would he be able to manufacture the cyborgs he had seen in the pocket trial world? He questioned whether such things would even be beneficial in this current academy setting.

He was driven by a raw, restless curiosity. He hoped that after paying such a steep price, something truly revolutionary would emerge from the merge. However, John totally underestimated the real value of the asset he was about to obtain.

Time passed in a slow snail’s pace. Finally, the system chime broke the silence.

[ Ding! You have successfully completed the handshake with the base foundation!]

He didn’t need the notification to know it was done. The moment the process finished, a staggering web of sensory data flooded his mind. He felt connected to the entire structure, to every plate, and every piece of metal was now an extension of his own body. It was an intoxicating feeling of total control that he knew he would never grow tired of.

Without delay, he tested his influence by modifying a small section of the platform beneath his feet. With a thought, he commanded the sharp angles of the edges to soften into rounded curves.

It was a functionally useless change, but it served as the catalyst that the system was waiting for. The merge notification instantly flared to life, and this time, John was eager to accept, and yet...

[ Ding! The Machine Factory Fragment is initiating the merge process. Analysing merge compatibility and projected success rate...]

[ Ding! Analysing the estimated cost for the integration.]

[ Ding! Merge compatibility is Perfect (100%). Success rate is Very High. You must pay 100k Mental Points to finalise the merge. Do you accept? Y/N]

"This is a daylight robbery right here," John said, rolling his eyes as he looked at the staggering six-figure cost. He felt like he was throwing his precious Mental Points into a bottomless pit.

Even though he had gathered tons of metal scraps during the pocket trial, they were a finite resource, and his reservoir of Mental Points batteries was being drained at a terrifying speed. "At least tell me exactly what I’m going to get for this, or I’m not playing this reckless gamble."

He didn’t expect much in the way of a detailed receipt, but the system’s response was more informative than he had dared to hope.

[ Ding! The Machine Factory Fragment merge will yield an Enhanced Version of the Machine Factory Ability, reflecting the fragment’s final, evolved form!]

[ Ding! The merge will also integrate with any existing defences currently deployed on the circular structure. The resulting Machine Factory will be capable of producing Standard, Enhanced, or Supreme versions of those weapons, plus other possible variations based on the final success rate of the merge!]

[Ding! Version tiers will dictate the quality and volume of materials required, manufacturing time, the scale of mass production, and the amount of Mental Points consumption!]

John stood in a daze in front of the incredibly detailed answer provided by the system, and his heart started to pump with an intensity that made his chest throb.

He sucked in a cold breath of air as the full weight of this merge step settled into his mind. He wasn’t just building a factory; he was creating a stable source of many weapons, weapons he desperately needed.