Chapter 1 Ziggler

North Continent, Ruilan Capital.

Ziggler walked slowly inside the political building. Everyone he passed, whether officials, secretaries, or guards, acted as if they didn't see him, as if he was just air. However, if someone was about to bump into him, they would subconsciously avoid him.

Arriving at the entrance of the leader's office, Ziggler didn't stop. He pushed the door open and walked in. The guards outside showed no reaction, as if they didn't see him.

Inside the room, the Ruilan leader was talking to the military on an internal line. He also acted as if he didn't see Ziggler. Ziggler tapped his forehead, and an invisible psychic power spread out, turning into more than a dozen illusory tentacles that entered the Ruilan leader's brain,篡改 (cuangai) distorting his memory.

The Ruilan leader's tone suddenly paused, and a look of confusion flashed across his face. The next second, he returned to normal and continued his phone call. In this short pause, his memory had been altered.

Ziggler nodded expressionlessly and turned to leave the way he came, triggering the psychic marks in his mind as he walked, sending a telepathic message to Stephanie and the others from afar.

"I checked their previous memory. Black Star's attitude towards them is normal. He used threats and doesn't know that these national leaders' memories have been tampered with. We can basically confirm that he hasn't noticed anything unusual about this incident. Let's act as soon as possible. He's not on guard right now. If we delay any longer, things may change."

Stephanie's soft laughter rang in his mind, "Don't forget Albert's lesson. Black Star is even more cautious than the Antartan. It's foolish to let your guard down against him. But you're right, a long delay invites complications. We'll ambush him the next time he leaves Black Star City. In his own territory, he'll be restrained."

"I'll join you after I finish my work."

Ziggler nodded and then activated his psychic power, levitating into the air and flying toward Tirius, also in North Continent, which was his next target.

He was a member of Stephanie's team, an A-grade psychic master with the skill of tampering with memories. He acted alone, one by one, instilling false memories into the leaders of the six nations, distorting most of their knowledge of Black Star and making them believe they were fighters resisting tyranny.

In his eyes, the political struggles of surface civilizations were just petty intrigues among the weak, futile and childish, easily manipulated at will. If it weren't to set a trap for Black Star, he wouldn't have wasted his energy using the exquisite means of memory tampering on a group of surface civilization natives.

...

North Continent was a snowy, mountainous region.

Ziggler soon left the borders of Ruilan, flying over the undulating glacial land.

As he flew over a mountain range, Ziggler's heart suddenly constricted, as if grasped by a large hand. A mysterious sense of crisis descended, and he suddenly looked up at the sky.

He saw mysterious blue starlight piercing through the clouds, burning in the sky.

"What..."

In the blink of an eye, beams of ghostly blue light suddenly descended from the sky, and a world-destroying wave of energy arrived!

Rumble!!

The earth cracked, as if gods had thrown lightning-filled blue spears from the heavens, plunging them into the world!

Hundreds of miles were encompassed within the strike range. Besides the blinding blue light, nothing else could be seen. Half of the mountain range was instantly flattened, and terrifying circular craters appeared on the surface, as if a dozen meteorites had simultaneously struck the planet!

At the edge of the bombed area, Ziggler barely managed to keep himself flying in the air. He was covered in burns, horrified. He hadn't expected to be suddenly attacked, and with such terrifying power.

"Cough!"

Unable to help spitting out a mouthful of blood, Ziggler felt as if all his internal organs were about to shatter. He retreated rapidly, anxiously looking around, trying to find the enemy's trace.

"Who is it? Show yourself!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a blue meteor flew at high speed from the horizon, dragging a long trail, breaking the sound barrier and the clouds, braking sharply not far away, facing Ziggler from a distance.

"Black Star!"

Ziggler's eyes suddenly widened, his face filled with shock.

He hadn't expected Black Star to suddenly come to his door.

Han Xiao opened his helmet, stared at Ziggler, and snorted coldly.

"As expected, someone is manipulating the six nations from behind. Otherwise, they wouldn't be so abnormal. Tell me, why are you targeting Aquamarine Star?"

To make the act complete, Han Xiao pretended not to know that Stephanie and the others were targeting him, pretending to believe that Ziggler was the biggest mastermind.

Because there were definitely more enemies behind Ziggler, he took the initiative to kill him, disrupting the other party's deployment, so he could take the initiative. Without the Observation Mark, he could only wait for the enemy to attack him, which was too passive and could cause casualties among innocent people.

Now, he could actively choose the battlefield and counter-attack the enemy.

After confirming Ziggler's appearance, Han Xiao used his spaceship's radar to lock onto Ziggler's approximate coordinates, using more than a dozen psionic space-based cannons to indiscriminately bomb the area. Fighting in this uninhabited area, he didn't have to hold back.

The power of the psionic space-based cannon was even greater than the original Eye of Divine Might.

He didn't know that Stephanie and the others' original choice of battlefield was Black Star City. The Observation Mark allowed Black Star City to escape the fate of being destroyed, not turning into a battlefield for more than a dozen 天灾 (tianzai) Calamity Grades.

Psychics were even more fragile than mechanics. Seeing Ziggler's badly injured appearance, Han Xiao knew the battle was fruitful.

Ziggler hurriedly used the psychic mark to turn his mind into a server, pulling Stephanie and the others into a group chat, sharing his vision.

"Crap, I've been discovered! Come and save me!"

Stephanie was surprised. "Black Star is indeed as cautious and observant as rumored… But fortunately, he's only discovered you."

Black Star discovered Ziggler's tracks and attacked directly, which disrupted Stephanie's plan, but when she saw Han Xiao's performance, she felt relieved.

Han Xiao's previous and subsequent behavior were linked together in her mind. Black Star must have been cautious and done something to the leaders of the six nations, so he discovered Ziggler and thought he was the biggest enemy. But Black Star didn't know Ziggler's motives, nor did he know that there were nine other powerful people lying in ambush for him, simply believing that the enemy's target was Aquamarine Star… In that case, the situation was still under control. Black Star still didn't know this was a trap for him.

"We only have one choice now, which is to change our plan and attack Black Star immediately. He hasn't discovered us yet. Ziggler, do your best to hold him back. We'll be there soon."

Stephanie made a decision, feeling certain.

Black Star thought there was only one enemy, Ziggler. When all nine of them appeared, they would definitely give Black Star a "surprise"!

Stephanie and the others weren't nearby. Even with the speed of a Calamity Grade, it would take some time to arrive.

Ziggler's heart sank.

He was seriously injured, and the other party was a mechanic who controlled psionic energy, and also had the title of Undying. He knew he was no match for Han Xiao. Without saying a word, Ziggler turned around and ran.

"You want to run? Do you think you can!"

Han Xiao clapped his hands, and the [Army Box] teleported over, turning into an overwhelming mechanical legion that engulfed Ziggler in the blink of an eye.

Psychic powers restrain mechanics, and mechanics also restrain psychic powers. After all, mental attacks have little effect on mechanical creations. Only psychokinesis and similar methods are effective.

Bang bang bang!

The ranged and turret units fired psionic cannons, constantly blasting through Ziggler's psychokinetic barriers. Mechanical soldiers wielded multi-functional melee weapons such as electromagnetic, shockwave, high-temperature, and laser weapons, repeatedly掠过 (lueguo) brushing past Ziggler, leaving various kinds of wounds on his body.

Ziggler fought back desperately, but was exhausted from running for his life. Surrounded, the new generation of mechanical legions, coupled with the buff from the [True Mechanic], had their combat power increased by several levels.

Without Han Xiao having to personally take action, Ziggler was in a precarious situation, his health steadily declining.

Han Xiao released his mechanical force buff from the side, constantly paying attention to his surroundings. He took the initiative to lure the enemy out, but he still didn't know how many people were in this group of mysterious hunters, so he remained vigilant.

After fighting for a while, Ziggler was covered in wounds, bathed in blood, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"Ah—"

Ziggler suddenly roared, and his psychic power turned into a giant spiral drill, wrapping him up as he charged into the mechanical legion's encirclement.

He was already at the end of his strength, and this attack condensed all his power, a desperate attempt to break through.

The psychic drill broke through layer after layer of encirclement, about to break out of the army.

But at this moment, the shield units suddenly gathered, blocking in front of Ziggler, while releasing psionic shields. The shields condensed together, turning into a psionic barrier hundreds of meters in size.

The invisible psychic drill collided head-on with the thick psionic barrier!

Chila la—

Countless energy sparks burst out from the point of impact, like the sparks that fly when cutting metal.

The impact of the drill lasted for a while before quickly weakening. Ziggler widened his eyes unwillingly. He couldn't break through this psionic barrier.

Fatigue washed over him like a tide, wave after wave, he only felt drowsy, which was the side effect of overloading his psychic power.

If it were normal times, with his mental strength, he could recover after a short rest, but he was currently surrounded!

In the instant Ziggler froze, countless psionic cannons struck his body.

Bang bang bang bang—

Blue explosions appeared one after another!

Flesh and blood scattered, incinerated into ashes the moment they left his body.

One by one, the mechanical soldiers dragged high-temperature cutting weapons, constantly hacking at Ziggler's body, causing him to fly around in mid-air.

Kacha!

An arm flew into the air, cut off.

Kacha!

This time, it was a calf!

Bang!

The next second, dozens of mechanical soldiers joined forces in one attack, and Ziggler was instantly blasted into a pile of碎肉 (suirou) minced meat, limbs and organs bursting open, like a firework of flesh and blood, with blood raining down.

He died on the spot!

The mechanical legions all stopped moving. A cold wind blew past, and only the sound of the wind remained on the battlefield.

Han Xiao was stunned. The battle ended faster than he expected. If he remembered correctly, this seemed to be the first Calamity Grade to die at the hands of his mechanical legion?

Oh my god, my kind mechanical legion killed someone.

"This guy is a bit fragile..."

Han Xiao scratched the stubble on his chin.

If he didn't have a body full of meat shield talents, with his endurance attribute, his health would only be a little over 70,000. The consensus among transcendents was that psychics had strong attacks but weak defenses. If Ziggler hadn't been so focused on breaking through and had instead used mental attacks on him, Han Xiao estimated he would have suffered minor injuries.

Unfortunately, Ziggler seemed to be afraid of his Undying Body and didn't have the guts to fight him to the death.

Killing Ziggler in a one-on-one fight was a good thing that Han Xiao hadn't expected. Not only did it weaken the enemy's overall strength, but the advancement mission on the panel also showed a "completed" status.

Which meant, as long as Han Xiao wanted, he could advance anytime, anywhere and complete his race evolution!

"This is stable..." Han Xiao felt relaxed.

He could advance at any time, he felt more confident.

The accumulated experience was enough to directly level up to level 195 after the advancement, reaching the upper limit of the [True Mechanic].

At his stage, he could still maintain such a leveling speed, thanks to the huge accumulation in version 2.0.

Just then, a sound of air being torn apart suddenly rang out.

Whoosh—

Figures flew from the horizon and stopped in mid-air, precisely Stephanie and her group, their eyes all turning to Ziggler's corpses, their expressions changing.

In the short time it took them to travel here, Black Star killed Ziggler?!

Stephanie narrowed her eyes. She had no feelings for her teammates. She wasn't angry at this time, just staring deeply at Han Xiao, her eyes shining with a strange light.

'He is indeed a formidable fellow.阁下 (Gexia) Your Excellency Wan Ying will definitely like him.'

The thought flashed through her mind. Stephanie didn't intend to explain to Han Xiao. She made a gesture, and the others scattered, surrounding Han Xiao from a distance, occupying all the escape routes, staring at him with ill intentions.

Stephanie looked at Han Xiao's face, anticipating him to reveal a shocked and horrified expression after realizing he had fallen into a trap.

Seeing this, Han Xiao directly closed his helmet, covering his face, not letting her see it. The plan to lure the snake out of its hole had already succeeded, and he was too lazy to use his Oscar-worthy acting skills.

Stephanie couldn't help but feel disappointed and dispirited. Although she knew that Black Star must be extremely shocked in his heart, but he controlled his expression and didn't show it. But she just wanted to admire the prey's expression of distress, but she failed.

"Nine Calamity Grades… Hmm, I guess that's all the enemies, what a large investment."

Han Xiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If he were alone, he would definitely face a bitter battle. Fortunately, he had planned ahead, inviting heroes and finding helpers in advance.

Phillip had already called Wilton, Nagokin, and others to come and support him. He only needed to hold on for a while. He wasn't as fragile as Ziggler.

Moreover, he didn't expect this trip to have an unexpected huge gain.

Under the mechanical helmet, Han Xiao's eyes stared at Stephanie, who was in the lead, looking her up and down, and then revealed a meaningful smile.

He recognized this woman.