Chapter 1 The Apostle Star

On the other side, in the Black Star Army's territory, the Mechanical Life Civilization, Apostle Star.

Apostle Star is located in the central region of the Sigmar Star System in the Shattered Star Ring. This is a gigantic, super-large planet, its surface covered with crisscrossing mechanical structures. Colossal buildings are everywhere, filled with the industrial aesthetic.

Over the years, Apostle Star, as the homeworld of the Mechanical Life Civilization, has undergone several transformations. The mechanical lifeforms used planetary engineering to hollow out the entire planet, replacing most of the planetary material with metal, almost completely mechanizing it. Now, the entire Apostle Star is a mobile interstellar war fortress. With the exponential growth of the mechanical civilization's population, the planet's size has also been artificially expanded several times. Originally just an average-sized planet, it has now been transformed into a super-giant planet.

Four giant satellites surround Apostle Star, mainly used by mechanical lifeforms to carry out interstellar megastructure projects.

At this moment, a huge wormhole rift appeared next to one of the satellites, and a dark mass of mechanical troops dragged out a giant, unknown mech, like a busy colony of ants.

Streaks of light flew out from Apostle Star, hovering not far from the mech. They were the Apostle Weapons, including Youzu.

As Han Xiao's technical level rose, these Apostle Weapons also underwent significant upgrades. They proactively updated and strengthened their components time and time again, and their appearance had changed significantly. If their appearance a few decades ago was that of poor, ordinary people, then now they were wealthy, top-spending players.

At this moment, a flash of light appeared beside Youzu, and Han Xiao's figure teleported in. The many Apostle Weapons had already received the news and bowed in salute.

Youzu's electronic eyes flickered, and a green virtual screen bubble with a curious expression popped up above its head. It asked in a voice devoid of emotion:

"Master, what is this thing?"

"A mechanical wreck containing unknown technology. I'll use it for research. I'll store it with you first. I don't want too many people to see it, so it's not suitable to put it in the Black Star Palace," Han Xiao replied.

Youzu nodded. "I will arrange for people to establish a secret research institute to store this mech. Should I start the project now?"

"Hmm, create a file. The serial number of this big guy will be SWY-001 in the future."

Han Xiao casually came up with a code name. SWY didn't have any special meaning; he just used the initials of the pinyin for "sha wan yi" (what is it) on a whim. He felt that the meaning of this code name was very clear. In the future, if he encountered anything unknown, he would just use this code name series. It would be clear at a glance.

While the engineering team was transporting SWY-001, Han Xiao turned his head and glanced at the scene of the Mechanical Life Civilization, nodding secretly.

After seventy or eighty years of development, the Mechanical Life Civilization, with the support of the army's resources, has greatly expanded in the Sigmar Star System, demonstrating their interstellar industrial level of development. They have achieved self-sufficiency and are thriving, and their population has exploded, becoming one of Han Xiao's main sources of troops.

Even without his own Esper Ability bonus, the current Mechanical Life Civilization is enough to deal with ordinary Star System civilizations. After all, the biggest advantage of mechanical civilizations is high efficiency in resource allocation and a high degree of ideological unity. Their physiological and recreational needs are almost zero, and the entire population is soldiers. They can be described as militaristic, but they do not encounter various negative livelihood and social problems like normal civilizations. It can be said that the industrial system of mechanical civilizations is born for war.

Han Xiao couldn't help but think of the Black Spirit Race developing in the neighboring Edney Star System. They also have a hive mind that efficiently mobilizes resources, rapidly digesting the technology tree through amazing collective learning ability and deducing new technological directions from it. They are also developing rapidly, have begun interstellar colonization, and are transforming into a Star System civilization.

Because of the strong group learning ability of the mind network, the Black Spirit Race has cultivated a large number of scientists in basic subjects and has currently supplied a large number of talents to the logistics department and the Superpower Academy.

However, due to individual differences, the Black Spirit Race has embarked on another path. Unlike the mechanical civilization, which has become a war machine, it has bred a new culture. In comparison, the Black Spirit Race is the form of civilization recognized by interstellar society.

Both civilizations are developing rapidly. With these two cards in hand, the Black Star Army's ability to be self-sufficient is still outstanding. Han Xiao is quite satisfied with the development of both. It only took decades to quickly catch up with the standards of Star System civilizations, which is already extremely amazing.

Although the Black Star Army has provided unreserved resources and technical support, Hai Lan Star, which has the same treatment, still has a huge gap from Star System civilization.

"It's true that there is no harm without comparison. Apart from being a place with outstanding people, Hai Lan Star probably has no other advantages..."

As he sighed with emotion, the engineering team finally transported SWY-001 over, and the directional wormhole rotated and shrank until it disappeared.

Han Xiao regained his composure and ordered the mechanical troops to quickly build a research room around SWY-001's mech.

Interstellar engineering is extremely efficient. Before long, a huge research institute took shape from scratch, wrapping SWY-001 inside.

"Let me see what good treasures you have..."

Han Xiao was in a good mood and walked into the research area, impatiently summoning various scientific research instruments and immediately plunged into the bustling reverse engineering research.

His first step was to find SWY-001's memory module. He quickly discovered the damaged memory chip module and a huge biological organ with brain tissue structure. However, both mechanical technology and biological technology were within his technical scope.

Han Xiao ordered the mechanical assistant to remove the memory chip module and put it into a special data analysis device to start reading the data. At the same time, he asked another batch of assistants to take out a set of probe-shaped cables, immerse them in the light-white brain marrow fluid of the biological organ, automatically adhere them to the memory synapses, and analyze the memory information stored in them.

Soon, reports were displayed on the screen. Due to the fusion, the memory module seemed to contain the life experiences of all the dedicating mechanics. However, SWY-001's memory files were severely damaged and mixed with a large amount of useless redundant information, and the process of parsing and piecing them together was quite slow.

Han Xiao had several research goals. One of them was to directly obtain the blueprints and knowledge of these mechanics by mining the memory module. If successful, it would save a lot of time and avoid having to completely reverse engineer all parts of the SWY-001 mech.

While the equipment continued to parse the memory, Han Xiao also specifically found the intelligent central control module, which most likely stored the usage logs of all the mech's functions, which was like a manual to him.

However, the intelligent central control module was protected by a virtual firewall, which used the basic code of this unknown civilization, which differed from the virtual technology of interstellar society. It also required basic analysis, just like the virtual rebellion virus of the intelligent plague.

This was not a difficult task for Han Xiao today, but it would take a little time.

Based on the characteristics of SWY-001, the nature of the existence of consciousness was likely to be twofold. One was the soul consciousness sleeping in the biological brain, and the other was the intelligent consciousness stored in the mechanical memory element. It was a combination of normal life and mechanical life. Therefore, as long as he could break through the firewall and rewrite the other party's intelligent program, he would most likely be able to brainwash it.

After all, Han Xiao also mastered the Criminal technology and was no stranger to such ideological transformation.

Just as he was busy, the interface suddenly moved and a message popped up.

[You have gained some insights from your current research]

[Exclusive Specialty Research Progress +16.4%]

[Current Progress: 61.1%]

"It triggered the exclusive specialty again? Today is really my lucky day!"

Han Xiao paused and his eyes lit up.

In the past few decades, he had only triggered it three times. Now, the progress of the exclusive specialty has finally improved again. If this prompt hadn't popped up, he would have almost forgotten about it.

During the version update, the experience reserves were a bit tight, and Han Xiao didn't use Awakening Points to exchange for specialty progress, but now that the players have returned, this approach is not something that cannot be considered.

However, advancement is the top priority right now. Han Xiao doesn't plan to use experience randomly. He plans to gather the advancement requirements before using the surplus experience to learn skills and get Awakening Points.

After all, he doesn't know what the threshold for a higher level is. He has already decided to improve his energy level as much as possible before advancing. The metamorphosis of the Void Divinity is one aspect, and having another exclusive specialty is also good.

...

After obtaining SWY-001, Han Xiao's research focus shifted. Most of his time was spent in the research institute analyzing SWY-001, taking the time to talk to the Covenant members one by one, persuading a group of people, and waiting for the right time to come out of seclusion.

Outside, the three major civilizations and the Super-A Grade Association have not continued to have conflicts on the surface, but the struggle in the black market has become increasingly fierce. Players who took over black markets in different regions encountered different challenges. Most people cooperated spontaneously to overcome difficulties and slowly improve the progress of black market integration.

Endless Star Cluster, Didora Star System, a certain transit station planet.

"Crack... crack..."

The sound of footsteps, as if stepping on broken glass, echoed in the dim room.

Corps Commander Da Ji Ji leaned against the wall, covered in wounds. A pool of blood had already formed under him, and he was in a state of serious injury and stiffness, unable to move. He could only open his eyes wide and glare angrily in the direction of the footsteps.

Soon, the footsteps gradually approached, and the outline of a heavy figure gradually became clear in the dim light, wearing a black and red mechanical armor and holding a blood-colored mechanical heavy axe, which was dripping blood.

Behind him was a scene of devastation. Corpses lay scattered all over the ground, blood flowing everywhere, and bullet holes were all over the walls. A large number of bullet casings and metal fragments were scattered on the ground, looking like they had experienced a fierce battle.

This was a black market base that was recently taken over by Corps Commander Da Ji Ji and was gradually getting on track.

However, today, someone came to his door, destroyed the black market channel alone, and killed everyone in the base, leaving only Corps Commander Da Ji Ji alive. He was killed several times in a row, used up all his resurrection opportunities, and had no power to fight back.

Because the enemy who came to his door was a Calamity Grade!

The mecha warrior stopped in front of Corps Commander Da Ji Ji, opened his helmet, revealing a brown-scaled face, like a pangolin that had transformed into a human, and said lightly:

"Only you're left..."

"Dafeis, we have no grudges in the past and no enmity recently, why are you dealing with us?! Did you accept the employment of the affiliated forces of the three major civilizations?"

Corps Commander Da Ji Ji gritted his teeth.

After operating in the black market here for a while, he learned about the nearby forces. The guy in front of him, who looked like a pangolin, was the leader of a well-known private armed organization in this star system, a Calamity Grade Mechanic!

Hearing this, Dafeis let out a short laugh, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Do I need to notify you if I want to kill you?"

"Don't be arrogant! You ruined my mission. I remember you. Just you wait!" Corps Commander Da Ji Ji gritted his teeth and threatened.

"What, a B-grade superpower user wants to take revenge on me? Just because you're a so-called Undying?"

Dafeis was indifferent and unmoved at all.

Then, he slowly raised the heavy axe in his hand and said indifferently:

"You're too weak. It's useless no matter how many times you come... Dying in my hands is your honor."

As soon as he finished speaking, the heavy axe fell and blood splattered.

This time, Corps Commander Da Ji Ji did not resurrect. He had used up his resurrection opportunities for the next six days.

Seeing this, Dafeis turned around and left, leaving only corpses all over the ground.

Corps Commander Da Ji Ji was directly ejected from his body and could not go online for a day. He could only log in to the forum.

"Damn it, you forced me to call for reinforcements!"

Corps Commander Da Ji Ji was furious.

The black market he had finally taken over was destroyed by a Calamity Grade with a dimensionality reduction strike. His mission had failed, and he could only go to other areas and start again.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became!

He was extremely annoyed and couldn't hold back. He gritted his teeth and opened the forum's built-in group chat function and said in the army channel:

"My black market has been smashed. The other party is a Calamity Grade! Brothers, we've been quiet for so long, are you interested in opening a Boss to make the Corps Commander proud? I'm willing to pay!"

The channel was silent for a moment, and then messages poured in like a waterfall. To sum it up in one sentence:

Who? Where? When? How much money?

One arrow shot through the clouds, and thousands of troops came to meet!