Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Choices for Weapon Transformation

As Iron Ore No. gradually flies into the sky within the atmosphere, the number of airborne creatures following the spaceship is slowly decreasing.

Just like the terminal broadcast during Chen Ming’s clearance of the airborne creatures.

The gas inside the airborne creatures cannot swiftly transform, meaning they find it difficult to immediately reduce the density of the gas inside their bodies, unable to quickly ascend to high altitudes within the atmosphere.

Just need to find a way to ascend rapidly, and after the gas density reduces at high altitudes, the airborne creatures can be left behind.

The spaceship quickly evaded the pursuit of the airborne creatures, and Chen Ming immediately made the spaceship hover in place, maintaining balance.

He hurriedly unfastened the seatbelt, picked up the terminal that had just fallen to the ground, and quickly checked it.

Luckily it was just a minor issue, Chen Ming grabbed a tool from the repair kit always kept beside him and promptly fixed it.

Chen Ming immediately opened the segment introducing the airborne creatures again and quickly went through it.

Only to find that what was documented in the terminal was completely different from what Chen Ming had just encountered.

The airborne creatures documented should be a kind of docile animal, but the group he encountered was, for unknown reasons, exhibiting a strong aggressiveness.

Chen Ming glanced through the porthole at the originally planned location below.

Anyway, it’s certain that he can’t go there.

Iron Ore No. is ultimately a civilian spaceship, and the onboard weaponry’s firepower is incapable of handling that number of airborne creatures.

Even though Chen Ming has a panel to replenish bullets, there is the same possibility of the machine gun’s firing rate being insufficient, not being able to handle it, allowing the airborne creatures to get close and explode.

The ship’s armor is already under strain, and any mistake could lead to a disastrous end of ship destruction and loss of lives.

Chen Ming is not willing to gamble.

Fortunately, he had made preparations beforehand.

He selected several alternative landing locations, unexpectedly having to actually use them.

Chen Ming pulled up the map on the terminal and found the second priority landing location.

This place is not far from the first priority location, also a plain.

But the difference is, the color observed from space is purple.

This time, Chen Ming was extremely cautious, carefully confirming the target location while airborne.

He focused all his attention on the nearby purple forest, ready to immediately fly away if there’s any sign of disturbance, prioritizing the spaceship’s safety.

But this time everything went smoothly, and the spaceship successfully landed on the gentle slope of a hill.

No aggressive creatures approached.

Chen Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The first thing Chen Ming did after the spaceship stabilized was open the ship panel to assess the armor damage.

Under the self-destruct attacks of the airborne creatures earlier, the damage to the spaceship armor was more severe than when entering the high-density asteroid belt.

The portside armor’s durability dropped once again to about 40%, with other areas suffering various damages.

Chen Ming immediately pressed the repair button, consuming a certain amount of mental energy, raising all armor durability back to around 70%.

At least it can withstand a round of attacks with the intensity of earlier.

If he repairs more, Chen Ming might spend the rest of the day in a daze.

After repairing the spaceship armor, Chen Ming quickly brought up the machine gun panel.

[22mm Machine Gun]

[Type: Small Kinetic Energy Weapon]

[Manufacturer: Sinda Rockwell Weapons Company]

[Ammo: 1000/1000]

[Effective Range: 2000 meters]

[Fire Rate: 240 shots/minute]

[Durability: 19%]

[Available Actions: Replace/Repair/Transform]

Just as Chen Ming thought, the transform option appeared, just like the mining laser, in the available actions section.

After clicking it, four options appeared before him.

[Transform Options · 22mm Machine Gun]

[Chain Ammunition Supply][Dual Barrels][Stabilizing Bracket][High-Strength Barrel].

[Chain Ammunition Supply] involves changing the internal mechanical assembly from supplying ammo to chain ammunition supply, speeding up bullet loading, though not friendly to logistics.

But Chen Ming doesn’t need logistics; bullet consumption can be replenished with a panel button press, no downsides.

[Dual Barrels] as the name suggests, install another barrel to the machine gun, doubling the overall firing rate, approximately increasing it by 80%.

[Stabilizing Bracket] places equipment within the machine gun to stabilize the barrel from vibrations during continuous firing.

Even when the computer controls the machine gun firing, recoil cannot be avoided. This transform is meant to enhance firing accuracy.

And [High-Strength Barrel] allows the machine gun to maintain barrel temperature without overheating after prolonged firing.

These four transform options were also seen by Chen Ming when reading earlier books on transform methods.

Previously, Chen Ming wondered why the types and content of books about weapon and spaceship transformations were so numerous when flipping through the terminal.

Now, looking at the portside machine gun’s remaining 19% durability, Chen Ming understood.

In space exploration, encountering unexpected dangers is uncertain, using only two basic weapons surely can’t reassure seasoned crew members who often venture out.

Thus, transforming ship and weapon becomes a very common practice.

As long as one doesn’t engage in extremely absurd transformations like biochemical weaponry, most law enforcement personnel in various places will turn a blind eye.

So Chen Ming decided to follow the predecessors’ ways, transforming the weapon.

He doesn’t want to encounter dangers and lack sufficient capacity to retaliate ever again.

And for these four transform options, Chen Ming could only say he wants them all.

Just not now.

The recent armor repairs consumed a significant amount of Chen Ming’s mental energy, at most he can only replenish the machine gun’s durability first.

Chen Ming regretfully only repaired the machine gun, when suddenly, he saw a few blue balloons drift past outside the porthole.

Chen Ming immediately tensed up.

The machine gun barrels were already aimed at them.

These newly appearing airborne creatures are larger than those he saw earlier, potentially more explosive in power.

However, this time, these large airborne creatures did not exhibit aggressiveness, rather they were very docile, as if merely passing by.

Yet Chen Ming dared not relax for a moment, concentrating his awareness on the spaceship’s engine, ready to fire up the engine and flee at any moment.

Until these airborne creatures drifted away with the wind, Chen Ming’s tense nerves relaxed, sighing in relief.

It seems not all airborne creatures are hostile towards the spaceship.

But this does not mean Chen Ming is safe; danger can arrive at any moment.

However, Chen Ming did not retreat, the risk is something he must endure for seeking food to support his space exploration.

Chen Ming firmed his resolve, carrying an advanced plant analyzer as large as his arm, taken from the cultivation chamber, standing at the spaceship’s side door.

The door opened.

Under the gradually brightening stellar light, a purple world appeared before Chen Ming.

Purple trees, purple grass, purple sky, everything appeared purple, not the sickening purple, but like lavender, a somewhat soothing purple.

Chen Ming did not rush out of the spaceship but looked at his protective suit’s wrist.

The wrist-mounted gas quality detector from the protective suit displayed several lines.

Habitable air environment.

No lethal gases.

No pathogenic microorganisms.

Chen Ming double-checked the surroundings for no dangers, then removed his helmet.

Standing at the edge of the doorway, breathing a breath of fresh outside air, Chen Ming’s expression gradually calmed.

He then walked down from the spaceship.