“Since no one responded, we shall go in and take a look before…”
Boom!
Han Xiao’s sentence had yet to finish when a loud bang suddenly came from above. He was way too familiar with this sound—it was the sound of a cannon being fired. Han Xiao could analyze the cannon’s model with just the sound. “Dodge!”
Everyone there was a Super, so their reaction speed was extremely fast. They immediately jumped away from their initial spot.
Boom!
A chain explosion happened on where they initially stood, and black smoke filled the air—this was the effect of an exploded rocket.
Looking up following bullet trajectory, it was from one window in the building opposite the villa. Quite a few vertical creatures were extending their heads out of the window and looking down. One of them was still holding the rocket launcher.
The next moment, ten or so creatures jumped out of the window and fell right onto the ground from dozens of meters high!
The thick smoke dissipated in the wind, showing the true face of those creatures—a group of stone creatures. They had four arms, two legs, and one head, wearing simple and plain battle suits, and had some firearms in their hands. Some even had melee weapons like mechanical axes, war hammers, and the like. They gave off a mercenary vibe as they were on the verge of attacking.
Han Xiao and gang were just looking for someone; they did not expect to be attacked, so they were surprised.
“Why did you attack us?” Sylvia asked.
“Someone paid us to teach you a lesson,” a stone man said.
Teach us a lesson?
Sylvia was about to reply, but suddenly, her face changed, and she yelled, “No, Phillip!”
Han Xiao looked over following her voice. Around the feet of these stone mercenaries, broken parts were spilled all over the floor.
Phillip had been too slow and could not dodge the earlier explosions. It had been blasted into pieces and become a pile of scrap metal.
At this time, these stone warriors struck. They growled with a weird voice and charged toward Han Xiao and the others.
Han Xiao tutted. He pulled out a compressed orb from his necklace, threw it onto the floor, and it rapidly expanded into the black Amphiptere mechanical suit. However, he did not wear it—it stood beside him.
This time, Han Xiao said with a deep voice, “Beat them up!”
Hum!
The eyes of the Amphiptere mechanical suit suddenly lit up!
This mechanical suit moved on its own. It swung its leg sideways like a black lash, whipping the foremost stone warrior on his chest.
Pa!
The huge strength blew him away and smashed him against the wall, shattering a huge pile of pebbles. It was unknown whether it was from the wall or from the stone warrior’s body.
“Order effective, hum… Combat Mode activated, hum… The enemy is blown away, hum…”
The empty Amphiptere mechanical suit was in combat mode, and Phillip’s voice came out of the helmet.
Phillip was an artificial intelligence, so it lived in computer systems. Machinery was just what he controlled. When the shell was destroyed, it would not be damaged with it. Its core was behind layers of protection. With the computing speed of an artificial intelligence, it could simultaneously control dozens more mechanical beasts than before. Furthermore, with the combat simulations in the database, it could improvise on the spot and battle independently with a high standard!
This meant that Phillip could replace him and pilot the mechanical suit, and it could pilot more than one!
The smart chips before this had limited computing speed, comparatively weak combat capabilities, and could not react quickly. These were the most necessary attributes in the everchanging battlefield, so the smart chip could only be used as an assisting feature in combination with Han Xiao’s nerves connection. However, with the new smart system built with [Advanced Artificial Intelligence Technology], like the improvement from gunpowder weapon to electromagnetic weapons, it was a complete update and enhancement!
Han Xiao’s Hound Style had very limited effectiveness against enemies at the same Grade, but together with the strong mechanical suits operated by an artificial intelligence, it would make an entirely different level of impact. His mechanical suits were high quality mechanical weapons, so this made up for his shortage of robot warriors! Even if it was against someone at the same Grade, it would still last very long!
All High-End Knowledges were useful. The artificial intelligence technology that had powerful computing speed was one of the prerequisites of completing the Army Style!
Han Xiao turned around to Sylvia and said, “Go back and copy the theory for smart chips five times.”
Sylvia’s face immediately dropped, completely downcast.
Buzz!
Mechanical Force gushed out from Han Xiao’s fingertips and entangled with Amphiptere mechanical suit, providing it with his bonuses.
There was no need for him to fight; Phillip controlled the mechanical suit and dealt with the enemies. It analyzed all the movements of the enemies and accurately dodged all their attacks. Its heavy punches cracked the rock skin of the stone warriors, making suppressed loud noises.
Dong, dong!
Pebbles spurted everywhere!
“Don’t hit too hard. We can’t randomly kill people on Noriosse.”
Han Xiao leaned against the wall and watched the one-sided battle. His eyes flickered. “Furthermore, these stone men were probably hired by that Oracle to wait for us. It looks like he indeed knows that someone is looking for him. Humph.”
Chapter 477 - DarkStar Traitor
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Clank!
With a set of effortless punches and less than two minutes, the Amphiptere mechanical suit controlled by Phillip defeated those stone warriors. The rocks lay down on the ground and whined weakly.
They were just Grade C, so the mechanical suit enhanced by Han Xiao easily crushed them.
“No! My smooth skin!” The head of the stone warriors looked at his cracked body and wailed. In terms of stone man aesthetics, the quality of the stone on their body’s surface was the same as their attractiveness. The most beautiful ones were, of course, diamonds, crystals, and minerals of the same sort. Even if it was normal stone, if it was as smooth as a mirror, they would be considered handsome.
Even if they could digest stones to heal their wounds, it would take a very long for them to recover.
This enormous sized guy’s moaning made Han Xiao feel like beating him up again.
“You’re not even stronger than us, yet you want to teach us a lesson? Where did you find the courage‽” The oldest Volga looked at them disdainfully.
Han Xiao was a little surprised by how weak those stone warriors were. It was impossible for their employer not to know how strong Han Xiao and the others were. What impact would it make for him to send these weaklings? Was it just a warning or welcome gift? Could he have guessed incorrectly and the stone warriors’ employer was not their target?
Matters involving Oracles were always a headache. Han Xiao did not want to dwell on it; he grabbed the stone warrior and questioned him directly. “Who is your employer?”
Accordingly, mercenaries would not sell the identity of their employer. Han Xiao was already prepared to interrogate then, but to his surprise, these stone warriors gave him an expected reply.
“The employer wanted us to come here today to deal with the person that pressed the doorbell of that villa and said that our lives wouldn’t be in danger. If we got defeated, we should tell you a location to find a person there, and there will be someone there that knows his whereabouts,” the stone warrior said nervously. “He also said that you will forcefully ask for the employer’s identity and told me to relay his exact words. ‘You guessed right—it is me indeed. Don’t think I don’t know you used my name fraudulently. Play a game with me if you want to find me’.”
Everyone’s expression changed slightly.
“Damn Oracle!” Han Xiao clenched his teeth.
Herlous slapped Han Xiao’s back heavily and laughed loudly. “Hahahaha, you met a colleague!”
“Colleagues hate each other.” Han Xiao snorted and asked for the location. The stone warrior said the next location while shivering—north of City 8. They had to cross the entire city to go there.
Han Xiao stood up and pondered. The intention of the Oracle to hire these stone warriors was actually to leave some clues and lead them to the next location.
The target had intentionally left traces sixteen days ago then used his foresight ability to peek into their whereabouts, knowing that they would be arriving at this place today. Hence, he hired these stone warriors. The ability to foresee was not omnipotent or omniscient; it could not be used randomly and needed some attached strings, which was why the target deliberately left clues for the intel organizations.
He could certainly break the prophecy and kill these stone warriors. The problem was whether that would be in the Oracle’s calculations, telling the stone warriors there would be no danger to provoke Han Xiao’s rebellious thought, while his true intention was to make Han Xiao kill these stone warriors, which would attract the security forces. Would there even be a possibility that the counter thoughts that Han Xiao was currently having had been seen through by the Oracle? Could he have used Han Xiao’s personality as the foundation for telling these stone men that they were definitely safe‽
“This is exactly why I hate Oracles.” Han Xiao felt a headache.
Despite knowing the powers of the Dragon Emperor’s teacher, this feeling of restraint and following the opponent’s plan unwillingly made Han Xiao very irritated.
Oracles were good at using their powers to plot. To Oracles who were strong enough, intelligence had no meaning. When someone dealing with an Oracle thought that they were being smart, what they did not know was that the Oracle had used their ‘smartness’ from the start. One never knew what the Oracle really wanted one to do.
Luckily, Han Xiao had his advantage. He knew the target’s powers and ability very clearly, so he could judge his mindset from an Oracle’s perspective. It would not guarantee that he would escape the target’s calculations, but it would at least ensure he would not get tricked unknowingly. Furthermore, from what he knew about the target, although the target had a bad character, he rarely meant harm.
This was a good piece of news. After all, although Oracles were not physically powerful, being their enemy would be something very, very, very troublesome!
“What’s next? Should we go where he said?” Herlous asked.
“Let’s see what game he is playing.”
Han Xiao snapped his fingers, creating a Mechanical Force spark. Amphiptere quickly turned into a compressed orb and attached itself to his necklace.
At the same time, Mechanical Forces spread out like electric currents, connecting the broken robot parts with each other. Suddenly, these parts levitated and gathered, then quickly assembled. Some distorted parts recovered to their original shape under the Mechanical Force. In the blink of an eye, the pile of waste parts turned back into the round robot body.
Basic Machinery Construction and Waste Modification!
The tiny round robot started moving again. Phillip waved its mechanical arms, slid beside Han Xiao’s feet, and reported, “Self-checking, hum… performance decreased by twenty-five percent, hum… storage data backed up, hum…”
Sylvia’s eyes were sparkling so brightly that stars almost jumped out. “Teacher, I want to learn this!”
“You want to run before you learned to walk?” Han Xiao glanced at her. He retrieved the mechanical flying bugs that he had discreetly sent out earlier to detect the inside of the villa, confirmed there was no one inside, and turned away. “There are no more clues here, let’s go.”
They left this rural street, leaving a group of wailing stone men behind.
…
At the same time, in a secret location in Noriosse City 4, many DarkStar members were gathered in a dark room. They often liked to host secret operations in dark places like that.
“According to our intel, the traitor appeared simultaneously at the center of City 7, northeast of City 6, and City 4’s train station. His ability is to have five doppelgangers. One of them is in our hands, the whereabouts of the other three have been exposed, and the last one has yet to be found. That should be his original body that he hid. His doppelgangers can’t be too far away from his original body, or they would vanish. The exact distance is unknown, but it won’t be further than a planet. Hence, he’s still on Noriosse,” a DarkStar warrior said.
In the corner of the room, a Godoran was tied tightly to a chair. This Godoran was covered in blood, and it was unknown how much suffering he had gone through. He looked exactly like Alvin, and he was sneering.
“What are you laughing at?” a DarkStar soldier yelled.
“Hehehe, you will never catch my real body.”
Alvin was indeed the traitor that DarkStar was tracking down. His Esper ability was creating doppelgangers, and the one that had been caught by DarkStar was one of the doppelgangers.
If Han Xiao was there, he would most likely be reminded of Black Spider, who was imprisoned in Bell of Death Island on Planet Aquamarine. Both of them had doppelganger-type Esper abilities, but the specific effects were different. Black Spider’s doppelgangers were puppets—he could only manipulate them to carry out simple tasks, and his consciousness could only exist in one puppet at a time but could be transferred. As long as one doppelganger lived, he would not die. He was very difficult to kill.
Alvin was different. Up to five doppelgangers could exist at one time, and every one of them could fight on their own. His consciousness was divided into five—these doppelgangers were all him, and one of them was his real body. As they shared senses, if the doppelganger was injured or died, the pain would be fed back to the consciousness in his real body, and his mind would be damaged. Furthermore, the doppelgangers would shatter if they were too far away from the real body, which was the same as dying and would also deal a certain amount of damage to the real body’s consciousness.
So as long as they had control of one doppelganger, they would be able to determine the approximate area that the real body was in—Alvin was still hidden on Noriosse.
“Captain Forsyth,” a soldier suddenly said, “the latest intel shows that the doppelganger in City 4 is taking the train to City 8. Lieutenant Sherman did not follow the plan and attack…”
“Okay,” Forsyth replied indifferently. He was a hybrid Godoran, a Grade B Super of DarkStar. He was also the captain of this team… on the outside.
Forsyth looked at the intel for a while more then walked out of the room. Outside was a long corridor. He turned two corners, walked into an empty room, and pressed a disguised button on the wall. The wall silently slid open, and behind the door was a secret room.
He went inside, and there were only two people there, Anur and Ember.
To pursue this traitor, not only did DarkStar dispatch a large number of elite soldiers consisting of seven Grade B Supers, they even dispatched Anur and Ember who were two Calamity Grades. This was a huge operation!
DarkStar abhorred this traitor. Alvin had leaked part of DarkStar’s information to Godora, leading to one Grade A member, Vivira, falling into a trap during mission, getting captured by Godora, and being imprisoned in Rainbow Prison. Moreover, Alvin had more information on his hands. If it was revealed, Godora would come to know even more about them. This was a huge hidden danger.
DarkStar would not allow traitors to live. Now that the team had trapped Alvin on Noriosse, it was a game of cat and mouse. Sooner or later, they would find him. Therefore, the information would not be leaked for the time being. If Alvin wanted to live, he could only rely on the rescue, and if he gave out all that he knew to Godora, he would have no value to Godora anymore. Hence, he could not say any
thing until Godora sent someone to save him.
DarkStar was also very clear on this point. Because of Noriosse’s specialness, neither DarkStar nor Godora would not dispatched battleships to surround the planet. This consortium had a very deeply rooted network and complex connections with several Star Cluster level Civilizations. If they wanted Alvin, they could only send their Super warriors to act on the planet.
“Your Excellencies.” Forsyth bowed respectfully and said, “We have new information. A doppelganger of the traitor took the train toward City 8. Sherman did not follow the plan of attack.”
“Why?” Anur asked with a deep voice.
“He accidentally met the Black Star mercenary group on the train!” Forsyth said. “Alvin sat down with them, and Sherman didn’t have the confidence to attack.”
“Black Star?” Anur frowned and looked at Ember on the side. He still remembered how obsessed Ember had been with Black Star. Anur said with a deep voice, “The task is more important. We’re hidden in the dark, so there’s no need to provoke him.”
When Ember heard this name, his face did not change at all. To him, this name seemed to have become meaningless. His emotions did not fluctuate at all, and his tone remained indifferent.
“Rest assured, he’s nothing to me now. The traitor is our goal; as long as the Black Star does not interfere with our affairs, he can live.”
“That’s right.” A sense of satisfaction flashed within Anur’s eyes and disappeared in a split second.
“Sherman’s decision is very correct,” Anur said. “Behind the Black star is the Dragon Emperor, so there’s no need to cause more problems. Alvin was lucky to have accidentally met this gang of mercenaries, but his luck will not keep going. Have Sherman continue to track him…
“Looking at the time, Godora’s reinforcements should be arriving very soon. Alvin’s doppelgangers share their senses, so all his doppelgangers know that you’re tracking him. Tell those acting outside to be cautious, don’t fall into his trap.”
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