"How are you feeling, Lius.h.i.+?" asked Xiaotian.

"Still ill, but getting better."

"Hey, brother Lius.h.i.+?"

"What is it, Lu?"

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"You must be really good in engineering and stuff to make all of this. Why would you still be an university student? You could have already gotten a good job!"

"Ha ha, you're wrong. I'm not that smart. You see, when I use my ability, my consciousness expand. When I scan something, at that moment I know its full composition up to molecular level. I get how each of its components interact with each others to make the thing work. I don't make any calculations using scientific methds and rules, I just feel what works and what doesn't works. I bypa.s.s all industrial processes because I'm directly manipulating the molecules."

Of course, everything he was saying was part of the excuse he had prepared to keep the existence of the Sta.r.s.eed secret.

"It's a lot of informations to process at once, something that is impossible in my normal state of mind. When I stop using my power, my consciousness return to its human limits and I don't keep a clear understanding of everything I did."

"Whoaa... How lucky" whispered Lu.

"That sort of make sense I guess" replied Xiaotian. "So, what kind of modifications do you intend to make?"

"When I started making the Doomsday Ride, I wanted it to be a mobile safe place for me and my sister Zhuying, with everything we would ever need in one place. However, as my experience in this apocalyptic world grow, I find myself wanting to add more and more things to the truck. And it's not good. I realised I'm trying to give it too many roles: shelter, factory, exploration, combat, storage. If I keep it up its size would only be a hinderance when trying to move in towns and cities, or using smaller roads. If I had expanded the truck instead of making the trailer, it probably wouldn't have been able to navigate in your hometown."

"So, you're going to restrict its role and make another vehicle to handle the other functions?" asked Xiaotian.

"Yes. The Doomsday Ride is my mobile base, a moving shelter with a factory. I will make a second vehicle for exploration and combat, small enough for smooth navigation in town and cities, big enough to ram into most abandonned vehicles and some barricades. As for the trailer, I will get rid of it for 2 slightly smaller ones. One for food, drinks and medecines, the other for various items and materials. It will increase both the overall storage capacity, as well as manouvrability. When not in combat, the combat and exploration vehicle can tow the double trailer."

"And who will drive it?"

"I'll do it" exclaimed Lu before Lius.h.i.+ could get an answer.

""No.""

Lu flinched at the instant and simultaneous denial from Xiaotian and Lius.h.i.+. They glanced at each other and Xiaotian avoided his gaze, a small shy smile on her face. Lius.h.i.+ shook his head with an amused grin.

"I will be driving it" he said. "You will stay with your sister."

"You're recovering" she retorted with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Your wounds aren't healed and you're still ill. You're probably going to faint and crash."

Then she smirked.

"You stay in your truck until my sister say you can leave, while I drive your new car."

Lius.h.i.+ lowered his head with a groan.

"... Sorry brother Lius.h.i.+ but she is right" Xiotian relucantly said after sighting. "Besides, you'll probably be tired after the upgrades. It may not affect your body, but it probably affect your mind. You said you would be fine, but I doubt it. We will be keeping a good eye on you while you work."

"Fine, whatever."

While Lius.h.i.+ was annoyed at being weak in front of the girls, he really appreciated their concern for him. Once more, he thanked whatever deities may exist in the world for having found them as companions.

With the help of the girls, he organised the materials he needed to use. Some of them would be used directly, while the others would be transformed before use. He had to strip some items from some of their materials, meaning the girls whimpered a little seeing the mighty tanks being taken appart. But they were also awed by seeing such level of ability, completly different fom just altering a machete or an axe.

Just moving matter around didn't take a lot of energy. It only started to become a problem when making complex constructions. With the amount of energy available, synthetizing new and advanced elements wasn't possible. But it was possible to make better alloys, ceramics and composite materials. Especially with the help of the mutant beasts cores.

With the materials neatly arrayed, he took out the first mutant beast core. He stopped for a moment, and even the girls held their breath, because they didn't know what it would be like to use it. Holding the core firmly in his hand, he pressed it against the material pile, alongside his index.

The core vibrated and glowed as it channeled the Sta.r.s.eed ability, and the regular circuits-like marking spread faster and more numerous than before. There was a low humming sound, and both him and the girls felt their hairs straighten a little from the ambiant electrical charge. The transforming pile of material was also releasing a bit of heat.

After a few seconds, the static electricity disappeared, and the heat released was also reduced. That was because the Sta.r.s.eed had adapted to the mutant cores caracteristics and was no longer wasting extra energy. All available energy was focused on the compounding of better materials. The mutant boar core was entirely used for that task, and crumbled after losing its l.u.s.ter.

He made a composite transparent material to use for the winds.h.i.+eld and windows of the vehicles, the cameras, sensors, solar panels and others components. He called it the stargla.s.s mark 1, and it was strong enough to stop 3-4 12.7mm rounds. He wasn't going to bother looking for an elaborate name. Since he wouldn't be able to do anything without its bonded partner, he decided to give it the credit its due.

He then made a composite material based on graphene and hastelloy he named starcore mark 1, to use mostly for the frame of his vehicles, but also various components. The third material he made was called starsh.e.l.l mark 1. It was a composite armor on par with the ones used on the latest generation of main battle tank, but 17% lighter. The last material he made was a composite fabric of polymers and carbon fibers he named starskin mark 1.

Once he got better energy supplies and spare mutant beasts cores, he would make mark 2 materials. What he had was already at the peak of humanity's current capabilities. He was looking forward to what he would be able to make in the future.

When he was building his Doomsday Ride, at some point he had turned it into a 6 wheel camping SUV. He used that form as base, with some inspiration from the chinese version of the humvee, the Dongfeng Mengs.h.i.+. Though, unlike the dongfeng, it had 30mm of armor on the doors, and up to 60mm on other parts. The armored b.u.mper would allow it to blast through minor obstructions and barriers.

It had a lenght of 5.5m, a width of 2.4m and a height of 2m. The 12.7mm heavy machine gun from the tank was placed on a turret, with all available targetting equipment. To be able to fit through pa.s.sages with height limits, the turret could be completly retracted into the car. Aside from the driving c.o.c.kpit, one third of the interior s.p.a.ce was reserved to the the turret operating system.

Among the things transported by the military train were dozens of Type 82-2 fragmentation hand grenades, 5 Type 67 7.62x54mm general purpose machine guns and QBU-88 5.8x42mm precisions rifles, 5 Type 91 35mm handheld grenade launcher and 3 DZJ-08 80mm unguided, shoulder launched, multipurpose rocket launchers. The amnutions available for the grenade launchers were mostly anti-infantry ones, with a few incendiary ones. The rocket launcher had 9 amnutions available, with all 3 anti-armor, anti-personel and anti-fortification capabilities in each grenade.

Adding a 35mm grenade launcher with a 3 rounds drum magazine to the turret was easy. Lius.h.i.+ though that the 12.7mm would be good enough on big mutant beasts like the boar they encountered before, because it was the same caliber used with anti-material rifles. If that wasn't enough, there would be the 35mm grenade. If even that wasn't enough, the DZJ-08 was available. The 105mm canon of the tank was burdensome and unnecessary.

After making the combat SUV, which he named Doomtrooper to the dismay and amus.e.m.e.nt of the sisters, he worked on the double trailer. Each trailer had 50mm of armor, a lenght of 5m, width of 2m and height of 3m, with 4 wheels.

The first one had a sliding door to the side, and was separated in 3 sections: dry, fridge and freezer. Each section had shelves for food, drinks, and medecine. The second one opened at the back with double doors and a tail lift. It had a small section that was separated between fridge and freezer for the very few industrial chemicals that needed to be kept cool. The generators providing the fridge and freezer were incorporated with the frame and accessible from a locked panel under the trailer.

The first trailer was equiped with a small gun turrets on each side near the back, while the second one had one turret at the back above the doors. The guns were 9x19mm with silencers and the same kind of top-mounted magazine as the needler turrets, based on the FN P90.

Lius.h.i.+ nearly depleted the second mutant core with the construction of the armored SUV and the double trailer. He used the rest of it to upgrade the factory of his engineering section. There was a chemical section, a mechanical section, and a hybrid section from where finished products would be delivered. The factory was made of a swarm of small robots and self-reconfiguring modular parts, and with the new materials, their size was reduced, but their capabilities was increased.

This change took the final bits of power from the core, and that had barely been enough. The whole construction and upgrade process started around 9pm and ended at 4pm. The girls took turn looking after him after the first 3 hours, because after those first hours, Lius.h.i.+ would be half-asleep during the upgrade.

Thankfully, for both Lius.h.i.+ and the sisters, the last upgrade took place in the truck. As soon as he was done, they got to their respective bed and quickly fell asleep.