Mechs, having evolved considerably, now incorporate many concepts from warships, effectively becoming miniature versions of them.

They are widely favored because they avoid the bulk of traditional warships while retaining their sophisticated functionality.

The sole constraint on their further development lies with the energy plates.

Due to their compact size, installing sufficient weaponry on a mech often leaves insufficient space for a comprehensive energy circulation system; even if one is installed, it cannot deploy its full power rapidly enough.

This inherent weakness often confines mechs to the hangars of warships, positioned alongside drones.

In reality, a mech’s utility vastly exceeds that of a drone.

Because it can carry a human pilot! If the mech's energy plate issue could be resolved, mechs might finally break free from the confines of warship bays and become independent entities traversing space.

At that point, the mech would undoubtedly become an economical tool for everything from domestic errands to outright banditry.

As Ziye pondered this in her mind, she received a sharp dose of disdain from Little Sprout: "You're only just realizing this now? You really are a blockhead!" Ziye bristled, "You figured this out ages ago? Then why didn't you tell me sooner?" Little Sprout flapped its wings, "Remember the Ping An model? Didn't you install an energy recharging system within the Ping An specifically to prevent running low mid-journey? That clearly solved part of the problem already, didn't it?" Ziye: "..." Ziye was certainly aware of the Ping An's situation.

That modification was made to ensure success on the journey from Silver Talisman Star to Siyat Star.

To guarantee power, she had stripped the mech of everything non-essential.

In that context, it had been a success.

Recreating the Ping An now wouldn't be difficult.

But the Ping An model wasn't a true solution that eliminated the core defect.

Now, she needed to strive anew, aiming to eradicate the flaw entirely.

Ziye temporarily ceased her bickering with Little Sprout and continued chatting with the first-year freshmen, answering their questions.

After class, she shared her secure communication number, welcoming future inquiries.

—For daily life questions, the robot butler could answer.

For professional inquiries, that was even better; she could use the opportunity to investigate the character and goals of the inquirer, seeing if they might be suitable recruits for the Wolf Den Legion.

Ziye clenched her fist: For the expansion of the Strategic Weapons Department! After school, Ziye returned to the small building and briefly described her plan to Little Black, Little White, Little Orange, and An Junlie: "My goal is to find a solution for the mech energy plate defect within three months.

Interested?" Little Black, Little White, and Little Orange all wore expressions of blank confusion.

They had too little experience with fully operational mechs, and their focus remained primarily on piloting; it took them a long time to process what the mech energy plate defect even was.

An Junlie, far more familiar with mechs than the other three, said seriously, "I’m interested.

Apply for a dedicated lab space; I’ll bring over several energy plates tomorrow for you to examine." Ziye glanced at him: "Don't think it'll be that easy.

You have to get your hands dirty too!" An Junlie smiled broadly, "I'm with you until the end." Little Orange looked doubtfully from An Junlie to Ziye, "So, where exactly is this defect?" Ziye sighed, shaking her head, and listed several books on the principles and design of energy plates for him; she also assigned Little Orange books on metal characteristics, and Little Black books on energy detection.

This time, she didn't just want to fix the mech energy plate issue; she hoped that through this research, she could uncover the strengths and specialties of the three of them, and hopefully, they could learn to cooperate to improve efficiency.

The future Strategic Weapons Department couldn't rely on her alone.

It needed them to strive together.

An Junlie sat to the side, watching the other three plug into the school database to search for books, and threw his hands up, "What about me? Are you planning to exclude me?" Ziye asked, "Do you understand energy plate principles?" An Junlie shook his head, "No." Ziye pressed, "Do you understand battery principles?" An Junlie paused in thought, "Using an electrolyte medium? Where the ion particles exist in a liquid state within it?" Ziye nodded, "Many modern energy plates still use that principle.

A certain amount of energy is stored in the plate; when released, the mech runs; once the energy is depleted, the mech stops moving." An Junlie immediately made the connection, "So, you plan to start by altering how much energy the energy plate can store?" Ziye confirmed, "Precisely.

The current research direction for all legions is focused on cramming more energy into the existing fixed energy plates, but I feel that even if they push this to the absolute limit, achieving double or even triple the energy capacity is highly unlikely." An Junlie considered this.

The Angel Domain’s research direction seemed similar; after several years of continuous study, energy plate improvements were fluctuating by mere fractions of a percent—doubling the capacity was impossible.

Perhaps it was time for an energy revolution.

But in what form? An Junlie knew he wasn't an expert in this field and couldn't contemplate the problem deeply; he could only ask in the most straightforward way, "Are you planning to change the energy storage method, or change the material of the energy plate?" Ziye replied, "Both.

Let's start with the material." An Junlie instantly understood, "I'll help you with the material sourcing." After listening to the exchange between Ziye and An Junlie, Little Black, Little White, and Little Orange finally grasped the direction they needed to focus on, and their data searches in the database became much more targeted.

Ziye instructed them, "You three will spend the next three days studying.

Don't touch the energy plates until you’ve finished the first read-through." Three days wouldn't transform them from novices into experts, but Ziye’s only goal was to give them a foundational understanding so that when they finally encountered the energy plates, they would know where to begin investigating.

Besides the four men, Ziye didn't even spare Tang Wan, pulling her in to contribute.

She had wanted to involve Lingyin too, but Lingyin clearly wasn't suited for this technical field; she could fall asleep within three seconds of looking at the material, much like during the mech competitions when her main role was handling interpersonal relations.

Ziye didn't press the issue, but when she needed a break from intense work, she and Lingyin would do volunteer work together, especially teaching, where Ziye’s ambition to recruit talent never died, constantly asking Lingyin to keep an eye out for any exceptionally outstanding junior students...

Most of the time, Ziye and Tang Wan were in the lab researching the energy plate problem.

An Junlie swiftly procured six or seven types of mech energy plates, three of each: one for comparison, one for testing, and one spare in case they accidentally destroyed one during experimentation.

Ziye’s idea was to implement a rotor-based energy storage method.

During energy release, the rotor speed would decrease according to the law of conservation of energy; conversely, during energy storage, the rotor speed would increase.

Someone else had tried this method before.

Using the rotation of magnetic levitation bearings could minimize friction to the greatest extent—this part was feasible.

Many people had attempted this approach previously.

But without exception, they had all failed.

While using a rotor could speed up energy storage, it couldn't increase the storage capacity itself.

The central floor of the small building housed only the kitchen and the conference room.

Every day, they were either in the lab or the conference room.

They weren't meeting in the conference room; they were there simply to sit together for easy discussion.

After reading through the material, Little Black began attempting to dismantle an energy plate, immediately pulling up the holographic screen to search whenever he hit a snag—learning and working proceeded simultaneously.

Little Orange's issues were easier to address; Ziye simply requested Iron Hand send over a professional metal analyst to work alongside him.

Coupled with the fact that Little Orange's auditing courses were also metal-related, his progress was significant.

As for Little White, since the small building lacked the necessary detection equipment, he simply moved into the lab and lived there, refusing to come back! Ziye’s initial concept had been straightforward, but as the research deepened, she increasingly felt the difficulty, sensing they had walked into the same dead end as the military research institutes—all viable paths seemed blocked, progress halted.

Ziye sought help from Little Sprout, but Little Sprout ignored her.

Ziye gazed pleadingly at it as it drew designs for an aircraft carrier on the holographic screen, feeling deeply frustrated.

While she was still grappling with the mech energy plate, Little Sprout had already completed the Wolf Den's mech management system and was now designing carriers.

The aircraft carrier Little Sprout was drawing was toroidal (ring-shaped), feeling strangely familiar to Ziye.

Ziye pointed at the drawing, "This...

this...

where have I seen this before?" Little Sprout scoffed, "You really forgot? That was the most popular warship shape three hundred years ago—a ring structure, supplying energy to the entire vessel via the rotation of the central main axis." Ziye’s finger froze abruptly, her jaw dropping, "I remember now, it’s the Cavalier, we saw it during military training!" Little Sprout shook the small sprout on its head, "Not entirely hopeless, I suppose." The image of that battleship flashed across Ziye’s mind again: a ring warship powered by the rotation of a central axis...

Rotor energy storage also required the rotation of a central bearing to achieve the requirement of storing or releasing energy.

Their principles were identical! She had found the key to solving the energy storage problem for the energy plate! They didn't need to obsess over how much energy one plate could store; they needed to figure out how to use the rotor to achieve recycled energy usage.

This required integrating the energy circulation system, the energy recharging system, and the energy plate into a single component to be installed in the mech.

This was definitely not an easy task.

But Ziye was filled with fighting spirit.

Such moments of sudden clarity were never unwelcome.

Ziye conferred with Tang Wan and An Junlie and received their full support.

Most reassuringly, Little Sprout did not object either.

This gave Ziye the confidence of a solid foundation.

She called back Little Black, Little White, Little Orange, and the metal analyst, Xie Er, to reconvene the research meeting and explain the new direction.

Little Orange raised his hand, "We've already found a much better energy metal." Ziye looked surprised, "What metal?" Little Orange replied, "We don't know what metal it is either; I searched every book I could find and couldn't locate it." He pushed the holographic screen towards Ziye, "The parameters are on there.

We've run the tests many times." Ziye scanned it, found it vaguely familiar, and instinctively glanced at it a second time.

This time, she understood completely, "Where did you get this metal?" Little Orange exchanged a look with Xie Er.

Little Orange weakly admitted, "I found it under Douzai’s backside."