Chapter 1 The Bumbling Thugs

Clang, clang!

With a series of fluid Farmer's Three Fists, in less than two minutes, the Teng Snake mech, piloted by Phillip, made short work of the group of thick-skinned Stoneman warriors. The rocky figures lay scattered on the ground, emitting weak, painful groans.

These thugs were only Class C, and the mech, enhanced by Han Xiao, easily defeated them.

"No--my smooth skin!" The leading rock warrior, looking at his cracked body, wailed. In the Stoneman aesthetic, the stone texture of the body's surface was equivalent to looks. The most beautiful were naturally minerals like crystal and diamonds, and if it was ordinary stone, being as smooth as a pebble was also a handsome hunk.

The injury of being covered in cracks was probably equivalent to disfigurement for a Stoneman. Even if the Stoneman could digest stones to repair the scars, it would take a long time to recover.

The big guy was now whimpering and crying, making people inexplicably want to beat him up again.

"You're about the same strength as me, and you still want to teach us a lesson? Who gave you the courage?!" Volga the boss looked disdainful, painfully aware of his own limitations.

The weakness of the rock warriors also surprised Han Xiao. The employer behind them couldn't possibly not know their strength. What was the point of sending these weak chickens? Was it just a warning or a greeting? Or had he guessed wrong, and the employer wasn't their target?

Events involving prophets always gave him a headache. Han Xiao didn't dwell on it, grabbed the rock warrior, and directly asked, "Who is your employer?"

In theory, mercenaries would not betray their employers, and he was prepared to use force to extract the information, but the rock warrior's answer surprised him greatly.

"Waaah, the employer told us to come here today to deal with whoever rang the doorbell of that villa, and said we wouldn't be in any life-threatening danger. If we lost, we should tell you a location, and let you go there to find a person. Someone there knows his whereabouts." The rock warrior said nervously, "He also said that you would force us to reveal the employer's identity, and told me to relay his original words: 'You guessed right, it's me. Don't think I don't know you've been misusing my name. If you want to find me, let's play a game.'"

Everyone's expression changed slightly.

"Damn it, the prophet!" Han Xiao gritted his teeth.

Melos slapped Han Xiao on the back, making a muffled thud, and laughed loudly, "Hahaha, you've met a fellow professional!"

"Professionals hate each other the most." Han Xiao snorted from his nose, forced the address, and the rock warrior tremblingly said the next location, which was in the northern part of Eight City, requiring them to cross an entire district.

Standing up, Han Xiao put his finger to his chin and pondered. The prophet hired this group of rock warriors to actually pass on clues, instructing them to go to the next place.

The target deliberately left a trail sixteen days ago, and then used his prophetic ability to peer into their movement time, thereby knowing that they would arrive at this place today, so he deployed the rock warriors--prophetic ability is not omniscient and omnipotent, can not be used at will, it needs some inducement, and the clue the target deliberately left for the intelligence organization is naturally this inducement.

He could break the prophecy by killing this group of rock warriors here, but the problem was, wouldn't that also be within the prophet's calculations? The other party deliberately told the rock warriors that there was no danger in order to stimulate his rebellious psychology, and actually wanted him to kill this group of rock warriors, attracting the security team...or even, was it possible that this reversal of thought was also spied upon by the prophet? Perhaps the other party was using his personality, so he said the Stonemen were absolutely safe?!

"That's why I hate prophets." Han Xiao had a headache.

Even though he had long known about his teacher, Dragon Emperor’s, abilities, the feeling of being tied up and led by the nose still made Han Xiao very depressed.

Prophets are good at using their abilities to play tricks. For a powerful enough prophet, the level of intelligence doesn't matter. The wise and the foolish are just chess pieces with different ways of using them. When you think you're very smart, you don't know that the prophet has long used your "smartness." You don't even know what kind of action the prophet really wants you to take.

Fortunately, Han Xiao also had his own advantages, which was that he knew the target's abilities and personality very well, so he could judge the other party's thoughts using the prophet's thinking mode. He couldn't guarantee that he could get rid of the calculations, but at least he wouldn't be confused and tricked. Moreover, based on his understanding of the target, although the other party had a bad personality, he didn't have much malice.

This was good news, after all, although prophets do not have great power, being an enemy with them would be a very, very, very troublesome thing!

"What should we do? Are we going to the place he told us about?" Melos asked.

"Let's go see what kind of tricks he's playing."

Han Xiao snapped his fingers and rubbed out a spark of mechanical force. The Teng Snake mech immediately turned into a compressed ball and was absorbed into the necklace.

At the same time, current-like mechanical force spread out from under his feet, connecting to one damaged robot part after another. These parts suddenly floated in the air, gathering together and quickly assembling under the control of mechanical force. Some metal that had been deformed in the explosion returned to its original shape under the action of the mechanical force field. In a breath, this pile of scrap parts turned back into the round robot body.

Beginner Mechanical Creation + Scrap Modification!

The round-headed and round-brained little robot moved again. Phillip waved his mechanical arms and slid to Han Xiao's feet, reporting: "Automatic inspection is in progress, buzz...performance reduced by twenty-five percent, buzz...stored data has been backed up, buzz..."

Sylvia's eyes flashed with bright light, as if a bunch of stars popped out, "Teacher, I want to learn this!"

"You haven't learned to walk yet, and you want to run?"

Han Xiao glanced at her, retracted the mechanical flying insect that he had secretly sent out to detect the inside of the villa not long ago, confirmed that the house was empty, and then turned and took a step, "There are no clues here. Let's go."

The group left this remote street, leaving only a group of lying corpses of screaming Stonemen.

...

At the same time, Norius City Number Four, a secret location.

Many DarkStar members gathered in this dimly lit room. Secret operations always like to be stationed in such dark places.

"The information has been sorted out. The traitor appeared at the same time in the center of City Number Seven, the northwest of City Number Six, and the train station of City Number Four. His ability is to turn into five physical clones. One clone is in our hands, three other clones have exposed their tracks, and one is missing. It should be his hidden main body. His clones can't be too far from the main body, otherwise they can't be maintained. The specific distance is unknown, but it won't exceed one planet, so he is still in Norius," a DarkStar warrior said.

In the corner of the room, a Godoran was tightly bound to a chair, covered in blood, not knowing how much torture he had suffered. His appearance was exactly the same as Ovene, and he was now wearing a mocking sneer.

"What are you laughing at?" a DarkStar warrior shouted.

"Hehehe, you'll never catch my main body."

Ovene was the traitor DarkStar was tracking. His ability was to create clones. The one caught by DarkStar at this time was one of the clones.

If Han Xiao was here, he would probably think of the Black Spider eating prison food in the Sea Blue Star Doomsday Island prison. Both were clone-type abilities, but the specific effects were different. The Black Spider's clones were puppets that could only perform simple manipulations. His consciousness could only exist in one puppet at a time, but it could be transferred. As long as a clone was alive, he would not die, and his vitality was tenacious.

Ovene was different. At most, there could be five clones at the same time, and each clone had complete combat power. His consciousness was divided into five, and these clones were all himself, capable of acting simultaneously. One of the clones was the main body. Because the senses were shared, if a clone was injured or died, the main body's consciousness would also receive a portion of the pain, and the spirit would be damaged. Moreover, if the clone was too far away from the main body, it would collapse, which was equivalent to death, and would also cause some damage to the main body's consciousness.

Therefore, as long as you control a clone, you can determine the approximate range of the main body--Ovene is still hiding in Norius.

A warrior suddenly said, "Captain Fossatude, the latest news shows that the clone located in City Number Four took a train to City Number Eight, and Vice-Captain Sheman did not take action as planned..."

"I know." Fossatude responded calmly. He was a mixed-blood Godoran, a Class B Esper of DarkStar, and also the captain of this pursuit team.

...At least the captain on the surface.

After looking at the intelligence for a while, Fossatude walked out of the room. Outside was a long corridor. After turning two corners, he entered an empty room, touched the wall, and pressed a disguised button. The wall slid open silently, and the cross-section was an alloy door. Inside was actually a secret room.

He walked in. There were only two people here, Anul and Ash.

This time, DarkStar not only dispatched a large number of elite warriors, a full seven Class B Espers, but even Anul and Ash, two Calamity Grade powerhouses, could be called a big mobilization!

DarkStar hated this traitor to the bone. Ovene leaked some internal DarkStar personnel information to Godora, causing an A-level member of the organization, Vemila, to fall into a trap during a mission. After exhausting her strength in a bloody battle, she was captured by Godora and imprisoned in Rainbow Prison. Moreover, Ovene also had more information in his hands. If he revealed it, Godora would have a better understanding of them, which was a big hidden danger.

DarkStar would never allow a defector to survive. Now the pursuit team has trapped Ovene in Norius, playing cat and mouse, and they will find him sooner or later, so the information will not be spread out for the time being--Ovene wants to live, he can only rely on reinforcements. If he hands over all the information, he will have no value to Godora, and when it comes to life, promises are not credible, so he dare not hand over all the information at once, and must hold it as a rare commodity to coerce Godora to send people.

DarkStar is also well aware of this. Because of the particularity of Norius, neither DarkStar nor Godora will dispatch warships to surround the planet. This consortium has deep connections and is intricately linked with several Star Cluster level civilizations. Both sides want to plot against Ovene, they can only send out their respective Esper warriors to act on the planet.

"Your Excellencies." Fossatude stepped forward respectfully and bowed, saying, "We have new information. One of the traitor's clones took a train to City Number Eight, and Sheman did not take action as planned."

Anul asked in a deep voice, "Why?"

"He unexpectedly encountered the Black Star mercenary group on the train!" Fossatude said, "Ovene and them sat at the same table. Sheman was not confident and did not dare to take action."

"Black Star?" Anul frowned and looked at Ash on the side. He still remembered Ash's deep obsession with Black Star, and said in a deep voice: "The mission is important. We are in the dark and they are in the light. There is no need to provoke him."

Hearing this name, Ash's expression did not change at all. To him, this name seemed to have become an insignificant passerby, and his mood was indifferent, his tone indifferent.

"Don't worry, I have long stopped taking him seriously. The traitor is our target. As long as Black Star doesn't interfere with our affairs, he can live."

"Good." A hint of relief flashed in Anul's eyes, fleeting, with a serious expression:

"Sheman's decision was very correct. Black Star is backed by Dragon Emperor Ames. Don't create unnecessary complications. Ovene is lucky and happened to encounter this group of mercenaries, but his luck will not last forever. Let Sheman continue to track...

"Calculating the time, Godora's reinforcements should be arriving soon. Ovene can share the experience of his clones. All his clones know that you are tracking him. Tell the people outside to be careful and not to fall into his trap."