After much thinking, Mark decided to rush his plans too.
First of all, he cannot keep Shang Jiao hostage for too long. He never knows if Lan Jingyi suddenly loses her patience.
Secondly, there is a high chance that things might get cool down if he gives too much time for Phoenix Empire to recover.
Before he left, he did hear of the announcement made by the Emperor. Mark assumed it might be because of his allegations but he didn't have any pity for his biological father anyway. In fact, he thought this is a perfect opportunity.
For the civil war to happen, Shang Zexi cannot win the race at all costs. But, he cannot lose by extreme either. The crown prince should feel like he has a strong chance.
As long as he loses by a tiny margin and Shang Wei ends up being a winner, Mark felt like he could support the crown prince in the shadows through funding and breaking up the military.
Once Shang Zexi emerged as a strong opposition, he will reveal the truth about the new Emperor Shang Wei. Neither the primitive-thinking ministers nor a proud person like Shang Zexi would ever accept an illegitimate child to sit on the throne.
As the hell breaks loose at the Southern Empire, Mark will rake in money while supplying weapons to both parties. He will have his revenge and money at the same time, like hitting two birds with one stone.
However, there's also another problem, which is the fact that Shang Zexi and Shang Wei are still brothers who grow up together. They might have rivalry but didn't have hatred against each other.
If they have strong hatred, then, Shang Zexi would have a strong motive to overthrow his brother even if he has to destroy his own Empire in the process.
But, what can spark such hatred? Mark wondered.
He had a few thoughts like staging an assassination attempt on the crown prince, abducting the crown prince's wife, creating rumors like the crown prince turned out to be impotent, etc…
He wants to have a strong emotion of hatred from the crown prince. After thinking for a bit, a familiar face came to Mark's mind.
A smile appeared on Mark's face as he thought, "Nie Rougang."
Nie Rougang is someone who is a strong player in politics and he was cherished by the crown prince too much. To save him, the proud Shang Zexi bowed his head before Mark in front of everyone without being ordered.
Mark decided to target the man who he didn't like either.
Seeing Mark deep in his thoughts and then have an evil smile made the father and daughter wonder what was going on in his mind. But, they remained patient until he was done with his thinking.
In the end, he apologized and then further said to King Shen Niu that he will keep his suggestion in mind when taking the decision.
After sending away both of them with an excuse that he need to take a light nap, Mark closed the door and lay on the bed as if he was sleeping.
But, in reality, he isn't.
He spoke to the system, "Open Mark's Factory."
Mark's factory
Level: 4
Available machines: Drill press (10), Welder (10), Milling machine (10), Lathe (10), Weighing and measuring equipment, Blender, Grain-forming machine, Curing machine, and Computer Numerical Control machine (CNC).
Available time: 240 minutes
Cooldown: 6 hours
Computer-Aided Design software (CAD)
Testing Ground
Analysis lv2
<<<Go>>>
It was leveled up automatically when the system was upgraded and there was new equipment added for his next level of manufacturing.
He has ideas to make new guns but his eyes were set on something else.
Taking out a few destroyed robots and robot dogs on the floor, Mark flexed his fingers and looked at them in the way a kid looks at the toy section at the department store.
"Let's see how these robots are different from normal ones. How could they use ether energy as an alternate power source of electricity? We'll have our answer soon enough."
Mark's face brightly glowed as he dismantled them to pick up some important components.
Three and a half hours later;
Mark's spirit was seen engrossed in making a large-sized multi-headed robot dog using the spare parts from the destroyed ones and the machines available around him. He had a couple of built-in robots from the factory as assistants for more precision and faster.
Eventually, a 7-foot big large sized robot dog with three heads was built successfully. It was quite an achievement considering it has only been a little more than 200 minutes have passed.
Looking at it, Mark imagined the figure he took inspiration from and mumbled in a bit of disappointment, "That Cerberus looked menacing but this looked quite docile even with its size. And their eyes are also slightly small but then again, I didn't have the necessary equipment to make my own camera lens.
I had to use what I have at the moment. Even to give it a zooming function, I had to buy 20x scopes and modify them so that they cover their eyes with a voice-activated function from me.
Anyway, let's test it and see the final result. If this prototype works, then, I can make better ones in the future. I can even add various weapons to it."
Taking it to the open area of the testing area within the factory realm, Mark then jumped onto his back and pressed his hand at the joint part where its three heads attached to its body.
There was a type B socket to plug in the adapter. But, Mark intends to test with the ether energy. He placed his hand over it and concentrated a lot, trying to pour as little ether energy as he could.
After all, a rank-5 robot consumes about 1000 ether particles worth of energy to run for a whole day.
He doesn't know its rank yet but he was confident that it won't exceed rank-5 as he didn't use stronger materials anyway and much of its body was also salvaged from rank-3 robot dogs and rank-3 battle robots.
Hence, he was wary about pouring the ether energy, not wanting to short-circuit it. Mark just wants to know whether it is working or not.
And just as his ether energy entered the prototype and reached its batteries, they instantly passed the current all over its circuits. The six eyes of the prototype glowed up in blue as if it came to life.
*Woof* Woof* Woof*
The three-headed robot dog let out powerful barks simultaneously, lighting up the eyes of Mark in excitement.
But, his happiness was only short-lived.
Before he even got down onto the ground and took a good look at his invention, he heard something like an explosion inside the dog and heavy smoke coming out of their mouths, and their heads were hung down.
"System, activate, Analysis lv2."
He analyzed the dog in a hurry. And the system only gave him a piece of bad news in response.
*Ding! The circuits were fried completely due to incorrect voltage input, component failure, and a power surge.
As if that wasn't enough, the sassy system went on adding a comment of its own.
*Ding! System score: 2.5. Don't put too much focus on the exterior appearance, host.
"Dammit…" Mark's face darkened.
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