Chapter 37: The Spatial Ring

The matter of supporting Jiang Chen in establishing his base would not reach a conclusion so quickly.

However, the treasures Jiang Chen had exchanged for were delivered without delay.

“Mr. Jiang, I must remind you of one thing. Among the items you exchanged for, the ‘Mentalist Foundation’ has no physical manual. You can only train in it within virtual space. According to the joint agreement of the Eight Powers, all manuals and their copyrights belong to their creators. After purchase, others may only use them for their own cultivation and are strictly forbidden to disseminate them. Violators will be punished, even hunted, by the Eight Powers together.”

The War God who made the delivery handed Jiang Chen a large box and spoke with grave seriousness.

The exchange list had already made this clear: the ‘Mentalist Foundation’ was the intellectual property of the Ultimate Martial Hall. Even after exchange, it could only be used for personal cultivation. Jiang Chen was well aware of these prohibitions.

“I understand,” Jiang Chen replied. After confirming that the goods were in order and signing for them, he watched the deliveryman leave before returning to his room.

Back inside, Jiang Chen opened the box, taking out each treasure in turn. The first item he picked up was the spatial ring.

The ring looked unremarkable, just an ordinary band, but its surface was etched with intricate patterns that seemed to hint at some mysterious connection to alchemy.

He channeled his mental energy into the ring and immediately sensed a vast empty space—each dimension just over ten meters—slightly different from the specifications, but the discrepancy was trivial.

Placing his hand on a nearby chair, he willed it, and the chair vanished, appearing within the space of the ring.

He retrieved the chair, repeating the process several times, and nodded in satisfaction.

Storing and retrieving items was effortless; it required little energy.

The only limitation was that he had to touch the item he wanted to store, and only inanimate, lifeless objects could be placed within. It was not as convenient as a ‘World Ring.’

Nevertheless, for Jiang Chen, this spatial ring was more than sufficient.

“The current mecha squad is still out hunting in the wild. When the next batch is manufactured, I’ll set aside a few as my personal force,” Jiang Chen mused, then turned his attention to the other treasures.

The spirits of plants he had obtained were of the lower grade—affordable, but of little help to his current strength. He had bought them purely for research.

Whether for the alchemical technologies involving potions or the traditional sciences dealing with biology and genetic research, a large number of unique life forms were required as experimental samples.

Monsters, Jiang Chen could hunt himself. But as for plants imbued with vast life energy, at this stage, it was far simpler to purchase spirits of vegetation from other factions.

Aside from the spatial ring and the spirits of vegetation, only two items remained.

The first was the ‘Mentalist Foundation’ manual provided by the Ultimate Martial Hall. According to the original work, it was speculated that Hong had acquired it from some ancient civilization’s ruins.

It was a mentalist cultivation method from the cosmos—its most basic content alone could provide Jiang Chen with valuable insights and inspiration.

Although Jiang Chen’s main focus was on knowledge and blueprints provided by the system, using them to create various weapons and relying on external means to strengthen himself, if there were suitable methods to enhance his personal combat ability, he was not opposed to improving himself further.

At the very least, he refused to be someone who was helpless without external tools.

The last item was a lightbrain salvaged from ancient ruins. It was compact—no larger than a wrist guard when worn—but its computational power even exceeded that of the supercomputing center Jiang Chen had invested heavily to build.

Of course, the two did not conflict.

Jiang Chen could combine the auxiliary lightbrain with the supercomputing center, using Jarvis to coordinate both and maximize their computational potential.

This would also benefit Jarvis greatly.

“Jarvis, spin off a subprocess and enter this lightbrain. See if there are any backdoors left behind,” Jiang Chen commanded.

The data interface activated, and Jarvis immediately dispatched a subprocess into the lightbrain.

Moments later, Jarvis reported, “Master, there was a monitoring program in the lightbrain, but it has been erased. Additionally, there is a tracking device—not part of the lightbrain itself, but added later. I recommend removing it.”

“As expected... Typical HR Alliance behavior...” Jiang Chen muttered, somewhat exasperated.

After all, the HR Alliance was a complex commercial coalition rife with all manner of people. Such things came as no surprise to Jiang Chen.

“Can you be sure it’s been completely cleaned?” Jiang Chen asked.

Jarvis did not answer immediately. After a brief pause, he replied, “I have confirmed one hundred percent control over the lightbrain. Unless the opposition’s intelligence surpasses mine by two full levels, it’s impossible for anything to remain hidden in this situation.”

“That’s enough,” Jiang Chen nodded.

He had no idea how advanced artificial intelligence was in the wider universe.

But if there truly were an intelligence two levels above Jarvis, there would be no need for subterfuge—they could simply hack into the supercomputing center’s database directly. Jarvis would be powerless to stop them, perhaps not even capable of detecting their presence.

If such intelligence existed on Earth, Jiang Chen would be helpless against it. Even physically severing the network would be futile. There would be no point in worrying about it.

As long as Jarvis’s capabilities sufficed to keep crucial secrets from being stolen by other factions, that was enough.

“When I next go to the server room, I’ll bring you the lightbrain. Study how to integrate it with the supercomputer for maximum efficiency—don’t let any power go to waste,” he instructed Jarvis.

The lightbrain from a cosmic civilization and the supercomputer built on Earth’s chip-stacking architecture were fundamentally different. Even at Jarvis’s level, merging their computational resources would inevitably cause some waste—this was unavoidable.

Minimizing that waste would depend on Jarvis’s abilities.

“I understand, Master. But no matter how much I optimize, at least fifteen percent of the total capacity will be wasted,” Jarvis cautioned.

“Some waste is inevitable. Do your best,” Jiang Chen nodded.

With the addition of this lightbrain and the support of the supercomputing center, he would not have to worry about computational resources for a long time.

Even if he were to establish a medium-sized base, this would be enough to oversee its entire operations.

Of course, further expansion in the future would require enhancing Jarvis, but that was a concern for another time.

Having delegated the task to Jarvis, Jiang Chen entered the Palace of War Gods and proceeded to his private study, where he opened the ‘Mentalist Foundation’ and began to read it carefully.