Chapter 1 Hearing This, Kang De Naturally Misunderstood And Couldn't Help But Laugh

"Hey, you're really open-minded. That's a good attitude. You have to try to maintain it… By the way, do you know why the Machinery Country is targeting you? The Empire told me to tell you the inside story. If you know it, I don't need to say it."

"Please explain it to me."

Han Xiao knew it was related to the Machinery Faith, but it wouldn't hurt to hear the Empire's version.

Kang De nodded and simply explained it. It was the same as the description of the [Key of the Machinery Faith]. The reason was to compete for the faith of the Machinery Faith believers. However, he added some details for Han Xiao.

For example, although the Machinery Faith believers were a bunch of two-faced guys who believed in everyone a little bit, they couldn't receive faith feedback from two or more Machinery Gods at the same time. Therefore, they were divided into primary faith and secondary faith. The same believer could only provide the [Key of the Machinery Faith] bonus to the God Seat Mechanic of the primary faith.

Moreover, only the people of the Machinery Faith could provide power to the God Seat Mechanic. Other types of believers couldn't trigger the [Key of the Machinery Faith] - unless they developed other believers into new members of the Machinery Faith. This involved some kind of idealistic rule that resonated with the Machinery God. The Void Spirit Religion was an expert in this area, but the Empire's research was not deep.

As everyone knew, most of those who believed in the Machinery Faith were mechanics. As the recognized peak of mechanics, Manison had the most believers.

The Machinery Faith was a group of very realistic guys. For most believers, they would believe in whoever was currently the strongest mechanic. If the strongest mechanic changed, they would change their faith as well. Therefore, they didn't care about so-called potential, only recognized facts, and only looked at the strongest. Their behavior was a bit like online sports fans.

Moreover, the Machinery Faith believers only valued mechanical abilities. They didn't recognize other aspects of power. Therefore, they couldn't be moved by racial talents or physical strength unless they could prove that this ability originated from machinery.

"Back then, I didn't win against Manison either. He defeated all the competitors and sat on the main God position of the Machinery Faith for a long time. The strong eat everything, so you don't have to be discouraged. It's very normal to lose to him in virtual technology."

Kang De shook the green leaf on his head, not forgetting to comfort Han Xiao.

He had also been defeated by Manison before. If he couldn't beat him, there was nothing he could do. He could only make concessions and no longer challenge Manison to seize the position, so the conflict between the two eased.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

Han Xiao frowned slightly.

He didn't want to provoke Manison. Even if he had to be hostile one day, it shouldn't be now. Unfortunately, the ability after the advancement disrupted his plan and attracted Manison's attention in advance.

As expected, peers are the greatest enemies!

Han Xiao paused and asked, "What's the Empire's attitude?"

"I know what you want to ask, but don't expect the Empire to stand up for you in this regard."

Kang De blinked and said, "This isn't the first time for Manison. This is a competition within the mechanics. If you can beat him, you can beat him. If you can't beat him, you can't beat him. There's no danger to life, so what else can you do? If you're angry and want to declare war on Machinery Country, then you can only do it in the name of the Black Star Army, not under the banner of the Empire… Don't think about threatening the Empire with your status as an ally. I've had painful lessons in this regard."

Hearing this, Han Xiao shook his head, understanding the Empire's attitude towards this matter. It was to try to comfort himself, but it wouldn't stand up for him.

This wasn't the first time Manison had done this. In the end, his goal was only to defeat mechanics of the same level and prove that he was the boss. Therefore, he rarely caused deaths. The nature was a contest between Super-As. If you lost, you could only blame yourself for being inferior. Super-As could only rely on their own strength to determine who was superior. The three major civilizations couldn't help, at most supervising the situation to prevent it from going too far.

Moreover, Manison was still an important ally of the Guanghui Federation, and his background was strong enough. Advanced civilizations wouldn't go to war over such a small matter.

"But why didn't the Empire remind me earlier?" Han Xiao raised his eyebrows.

"This information requires merit points to exchange." Kang De's tone was strange. "Did the Empire give you your professional knowledge for free?"

Han Xiao was immediately speechless and finally understood.

Well, because ordinary God Seat Mechanics might not be aware of all their abilities, the nature of the [Key of the Machinery Faith] was the same as the ultimate knowledge of a class. It required contribution points to exchange, and the three major civilizations wouldn't casually tell their allies. Now, actively telling him was already an exception.

In that case, because of the panel's description, I still have a sum of contribution points left… Thinking of this, Han Xiao didn't know what expression to make.

"Don't mind it too much. The Empire also has the intention of protecting you by not actively telling you. They probably worried that after you knew about this ability, you would actively develop believers of the Machinery Faith and escalate the conflict. Your potential is great, and you have a long way to go. Moreover, it's a sensitive period now. They don't want you to fight to the death with an old monster like Machinery Country. They hope you can make some concessions."

"Understood." Han Xiao was noncommittal.

This was indeed the logic of advanced civilizations. Various plans were generally considered from the perspective of decades or hundreds of years. The potential he showed made the Empire very patient and wanted to use him as a long-term chess piece. It didn't matter if he couldn't beat Machinery Country, as long as he lived longer than him. The Empire was quite confident in Black Star's ability to survive.

However, this method was contrary to Han Xiao's style and naturally couldn't be agreed with.

After finishing what the Empire had ordered, Kang De shook his body. "Alright, the matter has been resolved. I'll leave first."

Han Xiao came back to his senses and subconsciously made a transactional sound:

"This is our first official meeting. Won't you stay and chat?"

"Forget it, it looks like you have a lot of things to deal with." Kang De glanced at the messy central hub of the Black Star Army headquarters, the meaning was self-evident. "We'll have plenty of opportunities to chat in the future, so I won't bother you."

After saying that, Kang De's virtual soul turned into a stream of light and disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving along the network cable.

His attitude towards Han Xiao was not bad, but if Han Xiao had not reached the level of God Seat Mechanic, Kang De would not have been so easy to talk to. As peak Super-As, both of them were big shots, so they would value each other more.

Watching Kang De leave, Han Xiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief, finally having time to deal with the mess left by Manison.

He cleared the virus data remaining in Phillip's core logic and had Phillip self-check several times, confirming that all hidden dangers were eliminated before restoring the internal network connection of the entire Black Star Army.

"Thank you, Master, my nodes have all recovered, buzz." Phillip recovered his health, grabbing Han Xiao's virtual soul's earlobe and swinging, his tone cheerful.

"Oh, you called me Dad when it was dangerous, and now you've changed your tune when you're okay?" Han Xiao joked.

"Ptooey…" Phillip made a face.

Resda had been floating silently beside him. After Han Xiao repaired Phillip, he flew forward and said:

"Your Excellency Black Star, regarding Manison…"

"I know what you want to say."

Han Xiao took Phillip off his ear and smiled, letting him fly to the side. He turned to look at Resda, his expression becoming serious:

"To be honest, I've been hesitating whether to help you or not, because I don't want to provoke Machinery Country. But now, you've seen the situation. If I don't make concessions, there will be irreconcilable conflicts of interest between him and me."

"I understand." Resda nodded.

"Now, I can't defeat Manison in mechanical terms for the time being, but there's plenty of time in the future. Sooner or later, I'll have a battle with him and launch an attack on his position. Therefore, you and I have reached a consensus of interest. Helping you fulfill your wish is weakening Manison's strength. I will try to find opportunities to rescue your AI civilization."

Han Xiao usually搪塞 Resda, but this time he made a serious promise.

The Undying Mechanical Country troops were Manison's trump card. Not only did they have powerful armed combat capabilities, but those AI lives also provided Manison with extremely high virtual technology bonuses, which needed to be dealt with. If he could complete the [Restart] series of quests, he could weaken Manison's strength.

Manison改造ed Finit and all the AI life slaves, the principle was to distort the underlying logic, which was equivalent to the brain and thinking structure of the AI life. He now had the ability of a God Seat Mechanic and was qualified to解除 Manison's 改造 of AI life, so as to restore the AI life to its factory settings, which was equivalent to breaking the shackles and giving freedom.

However, the gap between the two was not small. Han Xiao knew that the success rate of cracking was limited and he still needed to improve his virtual technology.

Moreover, it must be very difficult to access the core data of the Undying Mechanical Country troops. It was impossible for Manison not to strictly guard against it.

"Then, from now on, I will be at your disposal." Resda nodded heavily, looking very excited. He had placed his bet on Black Star for so many years, and finally waited for this day. It was not easy!

The way you say that makes it sound like you haven't been used by me before… Han Xiao secretly吐槽ed.

Although he lost, his mood was not bad. In terms of confidence, perhaps there was no one in the entire universe who was more confident than him.

After seeing Resda off, Han Xiao asked Phillip to search the database to see how much internal data Manison had taken away.

Phillip quickly screened it and gave the statistics.

"Master buzz, 43.7% of the general database is missing, 35% of the low-level permission library is missing, 21.6% of the intermediate permission library is missing, 11.4% of the high-level permission library is missing, 2.5% of the confidential database is missing, 27% of the drawing files are missing… Do you want to restore the backup buzz?"

"Yes, restore the backup."

Han Xiao nodded, secretly sighing.

He didn't care much about the theft of the database. The army database basically contained information related to the development of the army, which was not too important. Most of it was historical logs, and Phillip would back it up every day in order to deal with data loss. It could be easily restored at this time.

As for Manison stealing these data, it didn't have much impact on him. The army database contained very little information about himself. Those very important things were stored in Han Xiao's brain memory palace. Manison basically stole unimportant data.

Whether it was blueprints or professional knowledge, Manison didn't lack them. Their specializations were exactly the same. Taking Han Xiao's blueprints and knowledge was useless, because he already had them… Moreover, the "Eternal Light" mother ship blueprint that Han Da技师 had at the bottom of the box was stolen from Manison…

What Han Da技师 cared about was the powerful strength Manison showed this time. This was just a remote invasion, and his virtual technology was discounted. If he brought his complete family fortune, he didn't know how strong he would be.

"A terrible competitor." Han Xiao sighed.

Losing to Manison was not embarrassing. As a "newcomer" among Super-As, it was not strange to lose to the peak of mechanics. Moreover, Manison was not a霸者, and there were no entanglements of grievances between the two before. Therefore, a failure had a limited impact on his reputation… But in the Machinery Faith, he was indeed unable to shake the main God position of Machinery Country. This was exactly Manison's goal.

- The views of ordinary interstellar citizens are not important, influencing Machinery Faith believers is important.

"It seems that I can't plan for the Machinery Faith for the time being. It's difficult to surpass Manison in mechanical ability during the version update."

Han Xiao secretly said regretfully.

Before his mechanical ability caught up with Manison, the core expertise of [Key of the Machinery Faith] could only lie on the panel and gather dust.

"But well, Manison made a lot of money, but I didn't lose out either."

Looking at the quests on the panel, Han Xiao smiled.

Running over to have a fight provided him with two new abilities. He didn't know who was losing out!

If he could trigger this quest every time, Han Xiao couldn't wait for Machinery Country to come and play every day, letting him fleece his wool.

In Han Da技师's eyes, Manison seemed to have become a walking skill treasure trove. Maybe he could collect all kinds of specialties of the mechanical system from him.

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. What Zhou Shuren said is really all true.

…

Exiting the quantum network vision,解除ing the virtual soul, his consciousness returned to his body. He picked up the vibrating communicator as soon as possible, all inquiries from Sylvia and other subordinates.

Han Xiao replied uniformly, saying that the matter was resolved and they should return to their posts.

After sending the message, he looked at the group of guards and魔法部 staff gathered around him, as well as a拉基.

"Are you okay?" Aurora's hands were spitting out golden light, ready to press a团 of life energy onto Han Xiao's face at any time.

"I'm fine. Virtual battles are difficult to endanger life. Manison has already withdrawn." Han Xiao waved his hand.

拉基 had a bitter face. "We were actually targeted by Machinery Country, our future is bleak. As the deputy commander, I think I should set an example. Please give me enough time to train."

"Shut up, go be your principal."

Han Xiao was not in a good mood. He knew 拉基 too well. He knew what shape of poop he was going to pull when this咸鱼 stuck his butt out.

After comforting everyone, Han Xiao打发ed the group of cadres, and by the way, he rubbed some luck off of Fording, and closed the door in Fording's helpless eyes.

Only Han Xiao was left alone in the room, he excitedly rubbed his hands.

"Let me see what good things I can draw. This time the object is Manison, if I draw a resistance specialty again, my nickname will be written backwards!"

Opening the panel, Han Xiao began to结算 the quest.

[【Restart】Sixth Ring has been completed]

[You have gained 15e experience, random reward x2]

[You have gained a new specialty 【Intelligence Affinity】!]

[The seventh ring quest has not been triggered yet]

Han Xiao smiled in satisfaction.

【Intelligence Affinity】can increase virtual technology by 30%, the bonus is okay, but the focus is on the influence of AI life, if there is a day to deal with the Undying Mechanical Country troops in the future, it can be used.

After thinking about it, Han Xiao called Phillip out and tested the effect of this specialty, always feeling that Phillip had become more beautiful in his eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Han Xiao then结算ed the Machinery Country's Boss quest.

[【"Machinery Country" Manison·Virtual Battle】has been completed]

[You have completed all the quest requirements, you have gained 762e5000w experience]

[You have gained 【Character Descend Card-"Machinery Country" Manison】]

[Character Descend Card-"Machinery Country" Manison: 【Ancient One】-A long life has given you a wealth of experience, which is a valuable spiritual wealth, Intelligence +20%, Mystery +10%, all skill levels +2, lasts 24 hours, usage limit: 0/2]

[You have gained a reward: Draw one of Manison's abilities (skill/specialty)]

[Hint: Manison is a virtual specialization mechanic, perfectly adapted to your class, you can draw any ability Manison has, if you draw a duplicate class skill, the skill will be strengthened to a certain extent]

[Randomly drawing… Drawing completed!]

[Please choose one of the following five abilities as a reward:]

[1. 【Apostle-level Mechanical Affinity】-Skill: Mechanical Affinity +105% (You already have this skill, which can be strengthened)]

[2. 【Titan-level Planet Fortress】-Blueprint Skill: A planet transformation blueprint suitable for the development of mechanical civilizations, with extremely strong combat capabilities, specific parameters (expand/fold), manufacturing requirements: character level no less than 220, Intelligence greater than 3500, has 【Super-composite Mechanical Architecture Technology】, 【Advanced Materials Science】, 【Abnormal Energy】and other knowledge]

[3. 【Innate Mechanical Spirit】-Specialty: You are born with extraordinary mechanical talent, your understanding of mechanics is constantly innovating with the rise of strength: Lv1~Lv100, every 10 levels of Mechanical Affinity +5%, virtual technology +3%; Lv100~Lv200, every 10 levels of Mechanical Affinity +7%, virtual technology +5%; Above Lv200, every 10 levels of Mechanical Affinity +10%, virtual technology +7%]

[4. 【Legion Firepower Salvo】-Skill: An excellent tactician knows the timing of concentrated fire, the mechanical legion that accepts the Mech Force connection, the rate of fire of ranged weapons is increased by 25% in the next 8 seconds, no consumption, cooldown 160s]

[5. 【Mech Race·Endless Barrier】-Blueprint Skill: Mech Race exclusive blueprint, defensive mechanical equipment, specific parameters (expand/fold), manufacturing requirements: character level no less than 255, Intelligence greater than 6000, has 【Endless Materials Science】, 【Ultimate Mechanical Manufacturing Science】, 【High-level Space Application】, 【Abnormal Energy】and other knowledge]

…

ps: (The Qidian official informed me today that Han Xiao's three-star exclusive avatar is already being made, and his and Ames' four-star character exclusive gifts are also being produced. Brothers and sisters, if you have time, you can click on Han Xiao's heart every day to see if there is a chance to let Qidian give Han Laonong a character birthday this year (*｀▽'｀*))