Chapter 1 Gathering Clues

The Mactan Star Floating City. Sedum was dispatching all mechanical police forces to gather clues, searching for the culprit who attacked Ekoring and the others.

He hadn't slept all night, from yesterday evening until now. Cisco's order was to blockade the planet to prevent the attackers from escaping, but Sedum thought that if he could find the attackers as soon as possible, he wouldn't need to continue blockading the port and affecting the planet's business.

Concerned about his own interests, he was full of energy.

Unfortunately, he gained nothing after searching all night. This group of attackers seemed to have disappeared out of thin air. All surveillance equipment failed to find any trace of them.

"Could it be that they have an ability similar to teleportation?" Sedum couldn't help but scratch his head. "Or is all my surveillance equipment malfunctioning?"

Sedum couldn't help but pull up the operation records of the Floating City's control center, and found no signs of intrusion. Han Xiao had already cleared his browsing history and cancelled his temporary permissions. With Sedum's specialization, it was almost impossible to find the tricks he had done in the control center's backdoor.

Ding ding...

Just as Sedum was distressed, Cisco's relentless calls came again.

"Your Excellency Cisco, what is it this time?" Sedum suppressed his irritability, making his tone sound natural.

He was a subordinate of the Machinery Country and had done a lot of things for Cisco for the sake of the Super-A grade. Now Cisco seemed to really be using him as a subordinate, which made Sedum a little unhappy—mainly because the blockade of the planet damaged his interests, which was the key to the change in attitude.

However, Cisco's words almost made Sedum jump up in shock.

"The fugitive has already left Mactan Star. He is escaping out of the Shattered Star Ring. What exactly are you doing?" Cisco's tone was no longer relaxed, but rather solemn, with a hint of questioning.

Just now, the Evolutionary Cube in his perception suddenly left Mactan Star and moved towards the distance at warp speed. It was undoubtedly being carried away, which immediately made Cisco lose his confident grasp and become anxious.

"How is that possible? I've already blockaded the port. No one has left Mactan Star during this time!" Sedum looked incredulous, almost thinking that Cisco was shirking responsibility.

The passengers on the Light Fox spaceship were one thing, but how did Cisco know the whereabouts of the attackers? He was clearly not here, and even he, the local overlord, hadn't noticed anyone slipping away.

"Perhaps the fugitive has some ability to evade your blockade. In any case, he has escaped. I need you to do one more thing for me," Cisco said in a deep voice.

He was in a bad mood. He was originally about to arrive at Mactan Star and retrieve the Evolutionary Cube easily, but an accident happened at this time. He didn't know if it was other subordinates of the Heterochromatic God secretly responding, or if the Evolutionary Cube was intercepted midway. In either case, the situation was gradually getting out of his control.

The Heterochromatic God's subordinate was dead, and the intruder who was now escaping with the Evolutionary Cube was a mysterious figure!

"What do you need me to do?" Sedum asked, putting away his petty thoughts.

"I will give you the escape direction of the fugitive. Help me chase after him and track him all the way. My spaceship is very fast. I will catch up with you and join you."

"This..."

Sedum hesitated. He was very confident in his own strength, not because he was afraid of danger, but because he was worried that if he left Mactan Star, with no one to guard the base camp, someone would cause trouble.

Because Cisco had not told him the truth all along, Sedum had already noticed that the incident he was involved in seemed to be very deep.

"If you help me, you will not be short of benefits."

"...Okay." Sedum finally agreed. He rolled his eyes and asked, "Then can the blockade of Mactan Star be lifted?"

"As you wish." Cisco's only goal was to retrieve the Evolutionary Cube, and he didn't care about anything else.

The communication ended, and Sedum didn't delay. He immediately began to pack his things, count his mechanical troops, and prepare to set off, tracking Han Xiao along the coordinates sent by Cisco.

While gathering the mechanical troops, Sedum released the control of the spaceport, and the passengers of Mactan Star began to circulate.

At this moment, Sedum suddenly remembered something and immediately contacted the high-level executives of the Cornerstone Group.

"Where is Barn?"

"Your Excellency Sedum, Barn did not return all night last night and has not appeared until now."

Sedum narrowed his eyes. This unknown Calamity Grade powerhouse was the most suspicious person in his mind.

"I remember he has three companions. Where did they all go?"

"Uh, they have also disappeared."

"Then the attackers are probably them!" Sedum slammed his hand heavily, his eyes unkind. He thought Barn was here to steal blueprints, but he didn't expect that it was related to Cisco's incident. This guy was bad. He had been lurking as early as twenty days ago!

Thinking of this, Sedum immediately retrieved the appearance of Barn and his party of four, and entered them into the control center, so that the mechanical police force, detection satellites, spaceport border crossings, and other monitoring facilities would pay attention to the whereabouts of Barn and his party of four. Once they appeared, he would be notified immediately.

After completing this matter, Sedum took a large number of his famous elite giant soldiers, got on his chariot, and turned into a stream of light to chase Han Xiao.

...

At the same time, in the wilderness of Mactan Star, a mechanical stronghold in a certain mountain range.

Only Fording and the other two were left in the stronghold. Han Xiao had already left the planet quietly through void dimension warp, while the mechanical stronghold was left behind for Fording and others to hide in and monitor Sedum's movements.

"Sis, the control of the spaceport has been lifted, and Sedum has also left."

In front of several virtual screens, Aurora's fingers were moving nimbly, skillfully operating the machine.

Because her ability lacked combat power, she had learned a lot of miscellaneous knowledge in Longtan, including vehicle driving, potion mixing, fighting shooting, ship gun control, battlefield command, tactical deduction, group operations, and so on. She was proficient in a large number of sub-occupational skills, and knew the illustrated books and customs of many races. She was quite all-round, and was developing towards the route of commander.

"Black Star guessed correctly. Sedum left the planet and started chasing him." Fording said helplessly.

"But we were left behind..." Hella clenched her fists, her expression unwilling.

In order to protect the three of them, Han Xiao left alone to draw away the possible Cisco. Obviously, the three of them were regarded as a burden.

Hella wanted to follow Han Xiao to face the enemy together, but was rejected by Han Xiao, the reason being that she was not yet able to deal with Super-A grades.

She was annoyed that she couldn't help.

She had clearly followed Ames for ten years and became a high-level force in the universe, thinking that she could help Han Xiao, but she was still holding him back...

Hella gritted her teeth, feeling wronged. She came out of the mountain to help Han Xiao, but now she has become an object that needs his protection again. She didn't want to be protected by Han Xiao all the time. She wanted to stand by Han Xiao's side and fight side by side, otherwise how could she repay her former kindness.

Seeing that her face was not good, Fording couldn't help but worry: "Hella, don't think too much..."

Hella regained her expressionless face and said coldly: "Don't worry, I won't disobey his orders without authorization. Even if I insist on chasing after him to help, it will only give him trouble and become his burden."

Fording breathed a sigh of relief. After spending this time together, he already understood Hella's stubbornness. At this time, he let go of his heart and smiled helplessly: "You don't need to underestimate yourself. Black Star regards you as a backbone. You still have a lot of room for growth, and you will definitely be his right-hand man in the future."

Hella pursed her lips and secretly clenched her fists.

"You don't need to worry about him either. After all, we have all accepted the baptism of the Evolutionary Cube. Don't you know the effect? Black Star must have become stronger." Fording said.

Hella nodded. She had a deep understanding of the effect of the Evolutionary Cube. The increase was too great, it was like Nirvana rebirth.

"Don't worry, I temporarily made a lot of vitality potions for him. He won't be in danger. Don't you believe in my ability? You just asked me to make more potions." Aurora smiled.

Before Han Xiao left, Aurora made a lot of vitality potions for him on the spot. She had learned pharmacy from Yi Ye Qing, and later studied hard in Longtan. Her sub-occupational level was very high. With her ability, each vitality potion was equivalent to a full blood recovery.

When Aurora was making potions, Hella was uncharacteristically not only did not stop her sister, but instead acquiesced to Aurora using more vitality to make potions for Han Xiao.

Thinking about it now, Hella couldn't help but blush, turned her face away, avoided Aurora's gaze, and changed the subject.

"The planet blockade is over, and Sedum has also left. What should we do now? Should we continue to stay here, or leave in a spaceship?"

Fording thought for a while and said: "Let's wait for Sedum to go farther away before we leave Mactan Star. This is safer."

Hella and Aurora nodded, without disagreement—as long as it was a decision made by Fording, it might not necessarily make money, but it would definitely not lose.

...

Outside the border of the Shattered Star Ring, the barren universe belt.

In the dark space of the universe, a ray of light suddenly lit up. Han Xiao emerged from the void dimension, his skin flushed, saturated with cosmic radiation.

In front of him was a gray, barren planet. Han Xiao slowly landed on the cracked earth, sitting cross-legged and suspended one meter above the ground, waiting for the Barracks Box to warp over.

He used void dimension warp to leave Mactan Star. The Barracks Box was still stored on the spaceship, so he had to wait for the mechanical legion to warp up. Only then would he, the Mechanic, be in a complete state. Since the Emperor Mechanic's [Sub-Dimensional March] had not been activated yet, he could not solve the problem of the legion traveling with him.

"Speaking of which, this is the first time I've left the Shattered Star Ring area."

Looking up at the starry sky, Han Xiao raised his eyebrows and suddenly had this thought.

For the past twenty years, he had been mixing in the Shattered Star Ring.

There are barren universe belts between star clusters and between star regions, and the latter is much larger than the former. He had fought in the barren universe belt between Klent and the Purple Crystal, but compared to now, it was nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

The barren universe belt separating the two star regions has extremely scarce resources and low development value. The planet distribution is sparse and dead silent. Even if civilizations are born here, they will have no future due to the harsh environment and be extremely desperate. In the entire explored universe, the barren universe belt occupies more than 60% of the area, and the area of the barren universe belt is even more vast in the unexplored universe.

After feeling emotional for a while, Han Xiao got down to business, opened the faction panel, and launched a wave of promotional discounts on various knowledge items in the faction store, creating various pretexts, claiming that the legion members had participated in the secret war for several months, and the legion was giving back welfare, directly reducing the contribution fee for learning knowledge by 60%!

With only the last two levels of experience left, in order to make up for it as soon as possible, Han Xiao did not hesitate to use promotions to stimulate the desire to consume. Originally, players learning knowledge was a rigid demand, the difference was when to learn. At this time, in order to speed up the accumulation of experience, Han Xiao needed players to learn immediately, and promotional methods were the best way, for which he could earn a little less Enas.

In this way, even with a 40% experience penalty, a mere two levels of experience would not be delayed for long.

Before the enemy caught up, Han Xiao had a great chance of advancing to level 240.

Beep beep...

At this moment, the communicator suddenly rang, receiving a message from Hella.

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes when he saw it.

"Sedum left Mactan Star? As soon as I leave, he comes out to chase me. It seems that their detection methods are not precise enough, but they can remotely locate the Evolutionary Cube."

In that case, my whereabouts are transparent to them, and Sedum and Cisco are heading straight for me...

Finally figuring out the enemy's detection methods, Han Xiao felt confident.

The ability to locate the Evolutionary Cube should be their greatest reliance!

He didn't continue to wait for the Barracks Box, and once again entered void dimension warp, turning into a stream of light and heading towards the distance.

Since the pursuers were behind him, he couldn't stop. This battle was inevitable, so he could only slowly detour to find an opportunity to join up with the Barracks Box and delay as much time as possible.

While warping, Han Xiao pondered:

"I have a lot of trump cards, Aurora's potions, the Dragon Throne's character card, and the rarely used [Painful Revenge] and [Lucky Curse]. To deal with a Super-A grade, I have to use all my means. It's been a long time since an opponent has made me use my full strength... But the Esper is a bit of a restraint on me, and Cisco also has powerful AoE abilities. The destructive power of the Super-A grade is completely different. He can easily kill a large number of mechanical soldiers. Unfortunately, I don't have time to strengthen the mechanical legion now..."

He had already tried it at the stronghold. The Evolutionary Cube had no effect on mechanical soldiers, after all, machines are inanimate objects and have no biological genes that can be optimized... Perhaps it will only take effect after becoming a true mechanical life?

Unfortunately, [Teacher of Kings] has not been activated yet, so he can only try it later. But there is no time for it now.

Without machines that match the Super-A grade, he could not reach his best combat power state immediately after advancing. It would be great if he could improve the combat power of the mechanical troops before fighting Cisco...

Han Xiao's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Oh right, Sedum~"