Chapter 1 An Old Saying

As the saying goes, if you want to learn to be a meat shield, you have to be beaten first. How can you have thick skin and bones without breaking dozens of bones all over your body?

After sending Nilo away with this theory, Han Xiao began to think about whether there were any dangerous jobs recently that could be used to obtain the [Perfect Mechanical Sense] on Nilo.

After thinking for two seconds, Han Xiao raised his eyebrows.

"That's right, the infrastructure construction of the three star clusters is nearing completion, and the empire's second phase of exploration is about to begin. There are some things Nilo can do."

In six years, the infrastructure construction of the Renault, Golu, and Guanhuan star clusters in the first phase of the Shining World project was basically completed. What was lacking was just human habitation.

Commander-in-Chief of the Exploration Army, Talrokov, notified Han Xiao a few months ago that the empire had begun preparing for the second phase of exploration. He was going to convene allies tomorrow for a meeting, and Han Xiao was among those invited.

If he remembered correctly, in the historical background of his previous life, the Red Empire encountered some unexpected but reasonable troubles during the second phase of exploration. There were plenty of combat opportunities, which was perfect for pulling Nilo and his graduates over and calling it "blood and fire combat training."

...A high-level lucky life-form; the probability of turning danger into safety should be quite high, right?

Whenever he thought of Nilo's current appearance, Han Xiao's anger flared up. He was doing so well, yet he wanted to learn the way of the meat shield from him. You are a proper mechanic, damn it!

The reason wasn't even for self-improvement, but to resist domestic violence?

Useless!

Why not learn from your godfather's decisive and swift style of life!

While calculating, Han Xiao issued instructions to his subordinates to arrange accommodation for Nilo and the other students. Then he returned to the Mechanical Throne, and with a thought, issued control commands to it.

Crackla—

In the next moment, the ceiling of the room began to squirm, mechanical structures flowing from the inside out, as if something was about to squeeze out from the depths.

The Mechanical God itself was Han Xiao's palace. Within it, he could control all constructions as he wished.

Soon, a black mechanical polyhedron dropped from the ceiling and floated in front of Han Xiao. Its length, width, and height were about one meter.

Han Xiao touched one of the sections. The touch was fiery, and he could feel the heat, which meant the temperature was indeed high enough.

The panel also displayed the item description.

[Unknown Core: A special mechanical component. It's unknown what it does, but it doesn't seem to be scrap.]

"Alas, it's still difficult to create universe treasure-grade machinery." Han Xiao shook his head.

In the past six years, in addition to strengthening the mechanical army, Han Xiao had also made efforts in terms of "quality", trying to create equipment of golden quality (universe treasure-grade).

The ability of a God's Throne Mechanic definitely met the manufacturing requirements, but even if he had the ability to create it, he might not be able to create a universe treasure. This thing had too much uncertainty and required the cooperation of various factors, coordinated to a perfect state.

And the difficulty of the first hurdle was the blueprint.

Han Xiao didn't have a blueprint for universe treasure-grade machinery. Golden blueprints required the skill [Inspiration Creation] brought by the Ultimate Knowledge [Ultimate Mechanical Engineering], but Han Xiao's [Inspiration Creation] was still a gray, unactivated skill. The activation condition was that [Ultimate Mechanical Engineering] reached the maximum level of Lv5.

Moreover, [Inspiration Creation] had randomness. Not to mention that no player in his previous life had announced the combination of universe treasure-grade blueprints, even if he knew the combination, the synthesized product might not be the same.

Because he didn't have a blueprint in hand, Han Xiao tried to create it freely using his own technology, using a certain amount of [Simulated Everything], but he still had no clue and created countless scraps. This polyhedral mechanical body was the only component that might be a little useful.

So every day, Grand Technician Han would play with this polyhedral mechanical body, hoping to find inspiration...

But in the end, it was confirmed that this method had no effect other than psychological comfort.

"It's still too difficult without theory and blueprints. Inspiration Creation is too random. Maybe Taylorx's inheritance can steadily give me golden-level blueprints, but the next inheritance blueprint level is 360, which is still early." Han Xiao shook his head secretly.

...

On the other side, Nilo and his group left Han Xiao's Mechanical God and returned to the outside world, landing on the Fifth Orbital Mechanical Planet. A clerical staff member of the legion was already waiting there, leading everyone to their accommodation.

Along the way, the students visited the surrounding base buildings, quite excited, chatting with each other like they were on a trip.

Not only had they come to the very mysterious Shining World in interstellar rumors, but they had also seen the legion leader, His Excellency Black Star. These first batch of academy graduates felt double the joy.

Many people surrounded Nilo, trying to curry favor, mostly girls.

As Black Star's godson, Nilo had always been popular, and now that he had arrived in the legion's territory, this situation became even more frequent.

"Your godfather is so handsome. I like that type. He looks so safe."

"That's right, that aura makes my heart beat so fast. It's too exciting."

"I heard that His Excellency Black Star has never had a family. I wonder if super-A level figures like him have needs in that area."

"Can you tell us more about what kind of person His Excellency Black Star is?"

Nilo had an embarrassed but polite smile on his face, and he slandered in his heart:

—Damn, I thought you admired me before, but I didn't expect you all wanted to be my godmother.

He had never been comfortable with the feeling of being surrounded by stars. Although his background was strong, he had never been arrogant or bossy... of course, this was inseparable from Leonard's torment.

In terms of education, Han Xiao had always been willing to call Leonard the strongest. If a sapling is not trimmed, it will not grow straight. Leonard can make students feel the beatings of society in the ivory tower, so one cannot but admire him.

In the back-and-forth jostling, Mia, who was standing next to Nilo, was almost squeezed out. Unable to bear it any longer, her aura burst out suddenly!

"Don't push! I'll hit someone if you push me again!"

Hearing this, the surrounding classmates calmed down a lot. They were still quite afraid of Mia.

Mia used to be timid and inconspicuous in the class. Unexpectedly, after her talent was tested and she was assigned to the martial arts department, her whole personality changed, becoming more and more straightforward and lively (irritable and shrewish). During the inter-academy sparring matches, almost everyone had been beaten by Mia... Among them, Nilo was beaten the most times. Even if he won, he would still have a bruised nose and swollen face when he stepped down.

Learning martial arts really cultivates violent tendencies... Everyone couldn't help but sigh again.

Soon they arrived at their accommodation. Everyone was assigned a room. The clerical staff said that they would arrange their work after a while, and now they were to wait in Black Star's palace for a period of time.

Everyone found their rooms. Nilo had just put down his things when a knock sounded on the window.

He turned his head and saw Hardaway outside the window, driving a levitating motorcycle, floating outside the window.

"Eh, why is it you..." Nilo scratched his head. He knew all the guards beside his godfather, and he had a good relationship with Hardaway.

"Stop talking nonsense, get in the car." Hardaway patted the back seat.

Nilo hesitated for a moment, straddled the motorcycle. Hardaway immediately started the vehicle, and after a burst of speed, stopped at the door of a building.

"This is..." Nilo looked at the sign, rubbed his eyes, and said uncertainly, "A casino?"

"That's right, it's a casino."

"Wait! Why is there such a thing in the legion's territory? Who opened it?" Nilo looked surprised.

"Who else could it be? Of course, it was opened by me... cough, our beloved Black Star. We guards are by his side, and we usually have nothing to do. How can we not be allowed to have some fun? Let me tell you, don't look at this as the legion's second headquarters, but the entertainment facilities here are very complete."

Hardaway threw the levitating motorcycle aside and dragged Nilo in without saying a word. The inside was crowded with people and extremely lively, with a burning heat wave floating in the air.

"What did you bring me here for?" Nilo asked timidly.

As soon as he finished speaking, Hardaway squeezed him in front of a Veen card gambling table, exchanged a lot of chips, and slapped them on the table with a bang. Then he put his arm around Nilo's neck and leaned into his ear, grinning:

"Hehe, I've lost a few years' salary here, and I'm counting on you to win it back."

Leonard stayed in the Shattered Star Ring to preside over the logistics department, and they rarely met. Fording was so annoyed that he had already blacklisted Hardaway. Among the remaining people, Hardaway only knew Nilo, who was good at playing cards.

Now that he had finally caught a chance to make a comeback, how could he miss it!

"I, I'm still a child..." Nilo's mouth twitched. He looked up at the expressionless robot dealer behind the gambling table and couldn't help but swallow.

He strongly suspected that Black Star opened this internal casino to recycle the salaries of legion members...

As expected of my godfather! Every mechanic who knows how to save costs is a good one!

...

The next day, Beacon Star, Shining World, Command Conference Room.

The meeting of allies for the empire's second phase of exploration was held as scheduled. Remote projections gathered in the conference room, all of them big figures in the Red Empire faction, such as diplomatic officials from ally civilizations and subordinate civilizations like Klent, as well as many super-A level allies.

As soon as Han Xiao's remote projection arrived, many acquaintances greeted him.

"Yo, Black Star's here."

"Come over, come over, sit next to me. I saved a seat for you."

After the events of six years ago, Han Xiao had gained a higher status in the empire's super-A level circle and was quite popular.

These super-A levels only had to think a little to know the empire's attitude towards Black Star. Everyone with discerning eyes knew that he was likely to be the backbone of the next generation of super-A level combat power, so their attitude towards him was much warmer.

Not to mention old friends like Old Dragon and Bernie, Ravenlaude, Maxiroll, Viru, Swordsman Fowle, and others were also present. Han Xiao also saw Herber.

Of course, Herber would not greet him. He snorted and turned his head to the side, so as not to be bothered.

As soon as Han Xiao saw Herber, he thought of the legion's development in the Shattered Star Ring. In the past six years, with the help of the Infinite Consortium, the War Domain was still competing with the Black Star Legion in various fields. While competing with each other, both sides were nibbling away at other forces, and their business scope had grown a lot, but they couldn't do anything to each other.

The Budding Financial Group had developed rapidly and had become the representative financial group of the Black Star Legion, becoming a vanguard in the legion's commercial competition with the Infinite Consortium. Intespice and other talents had taken up high-level positions through excellent performance. With the support of the Black Star Legion behind the scenes, the Budding Financial Group had shown signs of becoming a first-class interstellar financial group in just six years.

The Red Empire had also made some commercial expansions in the Shattered Star Ring, providing indirect assistance. The pressure brought by the Infinite Consortium had been temporarily resisted by the Black Star Legion, but since the Infinite Consortium had entered the market of the Shattered Star Ring, it would not easily withdraw. It had become a strong competitor that was too big to fail and could not be driven away.

Han Xiao responded to the super-A levels who greeted him one by one, and finally sat between Old Dragon and Maxiroll, chatting with those around him, and the atmosphere was harmonious.

The super-A levels formed a small circle, and the representatives of other civilizations stayed far away. No one sat around this group of big shots.

The meeting had not yet started, and everyone was chatting with each other, like a classroom before the bell rang.

After waiting for a while, everyone finally arrived, and Talrokov finally arrived late. He walked to the podium, coughed twice, and asked everyone to look over.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone. Now that everyone is here, let's begin."

The room immediately quieted down, and everyone's eyes focused on him.

Talrokov pressed the podium, and a huge virtual screen popped up behind him, displaying a star map of the Shining World. The green area representing the explored area had expanded, and the four star clusters of Dawn, Renault, Golu, and Guanhuan were all lit up.

"Everyone here is an old acquaintance, so I won't introduce you too much and go straight to the topic... As you can see, the first phase of exploration and construction took us about ten years. The infrastructure construction is progressing smoothly and is about to come to a successful end. The empire's second phase of exploration has been put on the agenda."

With that, Talrokov pressed the screen and circled two unexplored star clusters.

"These two star cluster areas are the targets of our second phase of exploration, namely the Lusso Star Cluster and the Light Dust Star Cluster."

Everyone's spirits were lifted.

The two star clusters were close to the area explored in the first phase. Among them, the Lusso Star Cluster was where Han Xiao got the Time-Space Amber, adjacent to the Golu Star Cluster, while the Light Dust Star Cluster bordered Renault and Guanhuan.

"Is the area for the second phase of exploration one less than the first phase?" Someone asked.

Talrokov nodded and explained slowly:

"That's right. There are many reasons for this. The two most direct factors are that we need to continue to build the area in the first phase. Infrastructure construction is just the beginning. There are more things to improve later, so it will involve a lot of manpower and resources.

"The second reason is that from the second phase of exploration, we will adopt a new exploration method, with exploration and construction carried out simultaneously. Because there is more work to be done, we have reduced the scope of the second phase of exploration."

Looking around, Talrokov saw that everyone had no questions, so he tapped the table and continued, "The number of personnel participating in the second phase of exploration is more than in the first phase. Please see the list for details. I won't go into details here."

The tables in front of everyone turned into screens, listing the forces involved in the second phase of exploration.

Han Xiao glanced at it. The scale was much larger than the first phase, and the newly added forces were more subordinate civilizations and hired interstellar engineering teams.

Not all allies were qualified to participate in the first phase of exploration. For example, those weaker subordinate civilizations were not within the scope of the empire's consideration. Now that the second phase had begun, the empire needed to share the costs, so it had to call in more younger brothers.

According to this situation, it will be opened to the public in the fourth phase... Han Xiao nodded secretly.

Only the first phase was the best opportunity for these super-A level allies to seize the opportunity. The more people involved later, the more the benefits would be diluted.

Talrokov waited for everyone to finish reading the list before continuing, "The precautions for the second phase of exploration have been compiled into a manual and will be sent to each participating force soon. Everyone must read it. We have added some new clauses to the rules of the first phase, which have become stricter in terms of exploration."

Hearing this, many super-A levels looked at each other and nodded secretly.

The loose rules of the first phase of exploration were precisely the empire's intention to allow them to obtain extra benefits, while the rules for these subordinate civilizations would naturally become stricter.

"To all super-A level allies," Talrokov looked over at this time and said with a smile, "The empire will directly assign tasks for the second phase of exploration. Please forgive us for not allowing you to choose your own targets."

Everyone had no objection and nodded to signal Talrokov to continue.

As expected, the empire will eventually control everything... Han Xiao shook his head. This made it inconvenient for him to use his advantage of having a full map.

But he had already obtained the most valuable Time-Space Amber, so it didn't matter whether he chose or not. Anyway, according to his understanding of the second phase of exploration, no matter what task the empire assigned him now, he would probably be conscripted to deal with a native advanced civilization in the end.

He remembered the historical background of his previous life—in the second phase of exploration, the Red Empire encountered an advanced civilization, located in the Light Dust Star Cluster.

For some reason, this advanced civilization was hostile to the empire and was not easy to deal with, and even caused trouble for the empire's exploration army.

In the first phase, they encountered a galactic-level native civilization, while this advanced civilization had already reached the star cluster level... Of course, the star cluster level without the support of interstellar society was an incomplete definition, but it was indeed very powerful, and it was different from the frogs in the well they had encountered before.

If they followed the normal method of contact, the empire might not use force against it, but behind this, there were other forces at work.

The object of Han Xiao's "Nilo Trial Plan" was precisely this Shining World's native advanced civilization.