Wang Dong had a good reason for not activating the optional feature of the auxiliary system at that moment.
On one hand, he only had 2 units of Low-Grade Energy Crystal left—clearly insufficient.
On the other hand, in this lifetime, he didn't want to tie his fate entirely to the Battle Axe—now renamed Pond.
Pond was just a third-generation ship, with severely limited growth potential and mediocre quality.
In his previous life, Wang Dong had no choice.
But in this life, he had higher standards for his flagship.
Pond could only serve as a transitional vessel.
It wasn't worth wasting Energy Crystals on.
Wang Dong had already planned how to deal with Pond ever since his rebirth.
First, he needed to get his hands on Pond, formerly known as Battle Axe, no matter what.
Sure, Battle Axe would bring a string of trouble—especially pursuit from the Jin family.
But the Mirage System and the other two auxiliary modules were temptations he simply couldn't give up.
Secondly, after inheriting Battle Axe from Yuan Shu, Wang Dong had drawn a clear line in his mind:
His identity must never be exposed.
If even this bottom line couldn't be kept, he would decisively abandon the Battle Axe.
Between life and wealth, Wang Dong was no hot-blooded fool—he knew what truly mattered.
Of course, before giving up the Battle Axe, Wang Dong would dismantle its auxiliary modules and hide them away.
As it turned out, everything had gone more smoothly than expected.
Through multiple Hyperspace Battlefield missions, he had gathered enough Source Points to carry out both hull repairs and renaming of the warship—both critical steps.
Due to the cooldown time of the Shipborne Fire Seed, each trip into the Hyperspace Battlefield required at least a month before another entry was possible.
Originally, he had expected this process to take several months.
But thanks to the Yatai Civilization's generous contributions, Wang Dong achieved his goal in just a few days.
After upgrading both the armor and Sky-Survey Radar modules to LV.2, all of Pond's standard modules—main cannon, armor, engine, and Sky-Survey Radar—had reached LV.2.
At the same time, Pond's overall combat rating had risen to LV.7.
Its official designation had now changed from "Scout-Class Destroyer (Battle Axe) LV.6" to "Scout-Class Destroyer (Pond) LV.7."
Now that was truly secure.
With an LV.7 rating, Pond and the LV.6 Battle Axe were no longer considered the same ship by any reasonable comparison.
Just now, Wang Dong had spent a total of 1300 Source Points on renaming and upgrading the ship's modules—transforming Battle Axe into Pond.
Those 1300 Source Points represented decades of effort under normal Spark Warship acquisition rates.
But thanks to that transformation, Wang Dong had finally carved a deep enough divide between Pond and Battle Axe—a divide that would take decades for others to cross.
Now, after returning to his home universe, the Pond would no longer be associated with the Battle Axe.
There were still a fair amount of Source Points left—enough for one or two more upgrades on Pond's standard modules.
But Wang Dong didn't pursue further upgrades on standard modules.
His eyes turned to the auxiliary modules instead.
Whether it was the remote control capabilities of the Quantum Entangled Brainwave Manipulation System, or the powerful stealth functionality of the Mirage System, both were irreplaceable for Wang Dong at this stage.
Thus, spending Source Points on these two modules was the smarter investment.
With a combat rating of LV.7, Pond was already more than adequate for the current stage of the Hyperspace Battlefield.
For Spark Warships, once their rating exceeded LV.10, the enemies in the Hyperspace Battlefield would no longer be low-tier interstellar civilizations.
On the contrary, they might even run into Tier-3 civilizations.
To play it safe, Wang Dong decided not to raise Pond's combat rating further for now.
After all, his immediate goal was to lay low—not jump out and start a frontal assault.
"Upgrade the Quantum Entangled Brainwave Manipulation System from LV.0 to LV.1."
"Consume 200 Source Points and 1 ton of Gas Ore to upgrade the green-quality Quantum Entangled Brainwave Manipulation System (LV.0) to LV.1. Estimated time: 30 minutes. Confirm?"
"Confirm."
Remaining Source Points: 317
"Would you like to use 1 unit of Low-Grade Energy Crystal to activate the Module Growth Value Multiplier?"
This time, Wang Dong chose "Yes."
With that, half of his remaining Low-Grade Energy Crystals were consumed.
"Quantum Entangled Brainwave Manipulation System (Green) (LV.1) upgrade completed. Current attributes:
Energy Consumption: 1 point/hour
Effective Range: 0.05 light-years
Next Upgrade Requirements:
1.Source Points: 200
2.Gas Ore: 2 tons"
The effective range had increased by 0.04 light-years!
Without the auxiliary system's multiplier, the upgrade would've only yielded a 0.02 light-year increase.
Clearly, auxiliary modules had significantly better upgrade returns than standard ones.
That was one of the main reasons Wang Dong prioritized them.
Their Growth Potential was much higher.
And with the auxiliary system in play, even a single upgrade had pushed the Quantum Entangled Brainwave Manipulation System's range to five times what it was before!
Terrifying.
Now that's how a real cheater operates!
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。