Universal Power System

Chapter 366: The Military Display: Planning

The group gathered at the entrance of the military display, and now came the hard part which was figuring out how to get the best combination of gear without blowing their budget. 

Mako started jotting down potential purchases on a small notepad, his brow furrowed as he considered the options. "We've got 6,000 tokens to work with," he said to his group, glancing at Alexi and Erin. "We need to prioritize Survival gear, essential supplies, and medical supplies first, Weapons and armor come after that. We also have to consider that each of us has different abilities, so we need gear that complements them."

The group nodded as Mako began listing down items in order from things that had the highest priority.

First and Foremost, Mako jotted down the three sets of the two different kinds of protection suits, one for extreme heat and one for extreme cold which cost 250 tokens each, totaling up to 1500 tokens for the three of them.

These protective suits were practically skin-tight onesies that didn't compromise their movement at all and provided them great protection from the intense temperature, increased gravity, and varied air pressure.

Next on the list were the high-tech oxygen masks that didn't require any big tanks of oxygen but rather had multiple small cartridges filled with liquid oxygen inside that took the outside air and mixed the oxygen with the nitrogen in the air to produce a perfect replica of the air composition on earth. The masks were also equipped with advanced filters and synthesizers that recycled the exhaled gas back into pure oxygen, extending the breathing time greatly.@@novelbin@@

With a singular fill of liquid oxygen cartridges, a person could easily breathe for 2 days before the quality of the air would have significantly degraded but it would still be breathable for up to 4 days.

The mask cost 70 special tokens and additional filled cartridges each cost 5 special tokens. To remain on the safe side Mako opted to buy 6 additional cartridges alongside the one full one that already came preinstalled with the mask, totaling 300 special tokens for the three sets of the oxygen masks.

Next, came shelter and food. The stalls had many different deployable shelters for sale, with it getting more expensive as the size of the shelter increased.

Mako didn't want to purchase the absolutely high-end luxury shelters that also had all the basic utilities as one of those alone cost 1000 special tokens which would be way out of budget and honestly and bit unnecessary for them.

Mako wanted to make sure that the shelter they would purchase would be strong enough to survive the harsh environment and temperature of the planet Infernis and also be strong enough to take a couple of strong blows before completely collapsing.

Of the tens of different options, one that Mako quite liked was a large tent-like shelter made from a special material that appeared to be like a cloth but once an electric current was passed through it, it would stiffen up to become stronger and harder than concrete. It also had excellent resistance to temperature and an internal pump to regulate air pressure so that it would feel the exact same as Earth.

It didn't have any utilities but the unique thing about it was that it was redeployable. This meant that they could recompress and pick up their shelter after they had already deployed it making it very versatile.

At the cost of having no furniture or utilities inside the shelter, the shelter provided them with great mobility as it meant that they could always be on the move and wouldn't be restricted to a radius of operating within the vicinity of their shelter at all times.

The shelter cost 550 special tokens. That combined with the regular sleeping bags that only cost 10 special tokens and a simple power generator costing 70 special tokens completed their shelter expenses totaling 650 special tokens.

Next on the list was, of course, food and water. The display had a whole line of stalls selling various foods and drinks in the form of MREs. Some were prepackaged portions of food that only needed to be reheated while some were just pills that contained all the basic essentials food groups and were a quick way to get some nourishment into your body however, they weren't very filling.

There were also packaged ingredients that were far cheaper than the pills and MREs but it would require the cadets to cook the food themselves which would be a greater hassle when surviving on a whole different planet.

However, Mako wasn't completely opposed to the idea of cooking his own food as after all he would consider himself somewhat of a chef thanks to all the lessons Sir Derek had taught him but it wasn't guaranteed that they would always have the luxury of cooking their own food every time as they also had to tackle finishing all the various tasks that they would be assigned which was why having an alternative option was also important.

In the end, Mako decided to buy 8 prepackaged ingredient bundles each costing 25 special tokens which were enough for 40 different cooked meals additionally, he decided to buy 5 All-Day MREs as a backup that each cost 30 special tokens and had 3 meals for the whole day which totaled to 350 special tokens spent on food.

Lastly, there was water. On average, a person needs 4-5 liters of water per day so taking that as the base average for 3 people, they would have to purchase a little more than 200 liters of water just for survival, and that didn't include the water they would need for cooking and hygiene as well water for Erin's fighting abilities.

It was obvious that they would have to come up with a workaround as even though they could purchase that amount of water, by no chance would they be able to move with such a large quantity of water with them alongside everything else they had to carry too.

However, this was the problem that they didn't have a solution for as unlike oxygen which could be compressed and stored in small containers, water was a liquid and the fundamental property of liquids is that they aren't compressible which meant they couldn't store that much water in a smaller container.

There were of course special storage devices for sale that had dimensional storage similar to how Mako's inventory worked which was the perfect solution but one that would cost them a lot of special tokens to obtain as the cheapest one with the carrying capacity of 200 Kg was on sale for 1500 special tokens which way out of their budget.

This was the problem that finally stumped Mako as he couldn't figure out a workaround for their problem, that was until Erin came up with a potential solution.

"How about we get one of those traveling campers?" Erin suggested.

The military display also included a wide range of different transportation options to help cadets better traverse the planet's lands. Still, the group had already dismissed that option as unnecessary during their talk yesterday, as the terrain wouldn't be the best for land vehicles to traverse and would require an additional piece of equipment that they would have to look after.

However, since Erin had given a suggestion it was fair to listen to her reasoning.

"I had been thinking... Since Mako has the Earth ability, we can create a smooth terrain for the camper to traverse. While we were browsing through the display, I noticed a small camper van that had a water recycler system installed inside with a 50-liter water-carrying capacity. It also has some storage space which we can use to store additional water. I don't need much water to fight with, I can get by with only a couple of liters." Erin explained.

The camper in question that Erin was talking about had 800 special tokens and it had just enough storage to squeeze in another 50-liter water tank alongside the space needed for them to store all of their other stuff. 

The camper would provide them with excellent transportation and Erin's idea of using Mako's earth ability to level out the rough terrain for a smooth ride was also not bad and all of this would cost a little more than half of what it would cost to purchase the dimensional storage device that didn't give any of the other benefits that the camper would provide such as faster transportation.

It was a great idea that Mako hadn't considered but still, the cost was a bit high which would mean they would have fewer credits to spend themselves for things such as armor and weapons.

However, Erin quickly justified the price by explaining that she didn't need any weapons as she was most comfortable fighting with her abilities and she already had the combat knife as backup. 

She was willing to give up her share of special tokens for a weapon to have enough to be able to afford the camper. Initially, Mako was against having to compromise but she insisted that this was the best decision and that she wouldn't be hindered in any way as she mostly fought with her abilities anyway.

In the end, Mako gave in and wrote down that camper as one of the purchases they were going to make. The camper combined with additional batteries to power it and the additional water tank all totalled 900 special tokens.

Mako nodded, scribbling down the cost. "That is all the essentials done and the total comes out to... 3700 tokens and that leaves us with 2300 tokens left to spend on our gear."