Machinery Building.
Virtual Technology.
Machinery Combat.
“The two Unique Talents of old Manison are building and Virtual Technology, which should be strong enough for me…”
Han Xiao considered for a while, then chose the third choice.
Secondary focus confirmed.
Please replace one of the bonuses from the three options below.
Long-range Attacks.
Mechanical Force Enhancements.
Machinery Efficiency Enhancements.
“Replace one effect, huh? This means that these last three options are the bonuses given by the talent in the end.”
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, pondered for a few seconds, and chose the first one. It was the only one that was slightly weaker than the other two.
Replacement complete.
(Long-range Attacks) randomly switched to (Class Main Attribute Bonus).
All preferences confirmed, creating Unique Talent…
Creation complete.
You have received Unique Talent ((Unnamed) – Han Xiao]!
(Unnamed)—Han Xiao: +10% INT. In battle, +1.2 Mechanical Force multiplier, +1.3% machinery efficiency multiplier. All multipliers are applied after other bonuses
Remarks: (To be filled).
You have received your first Unique Talent. Difficulty of activating the next Unique Talent increased. Initial level of the next Unique Talent increased, meaning higher bonuses and more preferences.
Chapter 1295 - The Second Key and Invasion Operation
“Overall multiplier bonus, huh? Quite powerful.”
Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled.
The bonuses of this talent clearly reached the Molding Talent level.
Given his current Intellect, the ten-percent Intellect increase would give him a few thousand Intellect points. With the Mechanical Force strength and the Machinery Efficiency bonuses, his actual combat capability increased significantly. One of his Apostle Weapons could now fight a high level Beyond Grade A for some time.
Judging from the interface’s description, the difficulty in awakening Unique Talents increased each time he obtained one, but the effects would also be stronger. Old Manison had both a single bonus talent (Virtual Technology Innovation) and a large-scale bonus talent (Billion Mechanic Empire). Clearly, Manison obtained the latter many Unique Talents later than the former. Yet, Han Xiao acquired it easily.
“Sigh, Old Manison, oh Old Manison, how sad for you…”
Han Xiao sighed and was so sad he laughed.
Since his Unique Talent would get stronger after each one he acquired, he could not complain about his first Unique Talent. Only, he had no idea when he would trigger the brief structure of the next Unique Talent.
“I wonder if Old Manison has talents that increase the chances of awakening Unique Talents…”
Han Xiao subconsciously licked his lips and was tempted.
Thinking back, he had to admit that Old Manison really had a rich inventory. Sadly, he was an ally on his side now, or he might really be tempted to hack into Old Manison’s database… After all, others’ databases were way too tempting to Mechanics.
Putting this impulsive thought behind, Han Xiao looked at the interface. The name and the remarks of the talent had yet to be filled up, and he had a headache about it.
As an ‘expert’ in naming things, he had extremely low confidence in his ability to name things.
“What should I call it? I have to think of a proper name this time, or what will happen if the players get this talent through Character Summon Cards one day?” Han Xiao pondered for a while and filled in a name he felt was acceptable.
Having confirmed the name, the content of the talent was updated on the interface right away, and he could not change it again.
Emperor of War-Han Xiao
Remark: Born for wars.
“This name should be normal for this kind of fighting talent.”
Han Xiao felt it was fine, but he was not very sure about his naming sense. However, since he had already named it, he stopped dwelling on the matter.
As he was about to leave the lab and try out his new talent at a desolate planet nearby, his communicator suddenly rang.
He took out to look at it, and to his surprise, it was the head of the Land of Four Gods, the elderly whom he beat up before, ‘Mystery Mage’ Joey Terrain.
He accepted the communication request, and Joey appeared on the screen.
“What is it? Have you contacted me because you guys made up your minds?” Han Xiao sounded interested.
Joey looked a little gloomy, took a deep breath, and said softly, “We agree to join the Beyond Grade A Association, but we hope to keep our freedom. Plus, the coordinates of the Land of Four Gods must remain a secret to the other members. We’ll attend the plenaries, and if something important happens, we’ll also provide assistance, but we won’t be forced… Is this okay?”
Han Xiao smiled.
These four b*stards finally made up their minds. This was probably their limit.
“Sure, this is a good start. With you guys, the association will become stronger. I won’t publicize the coordinates of your secondary dimension, and the association doesn’t force its members to do anything. However, I’ll mention you guys are Beyond Grade As who retired. Plus, you guys have to be at the venue yourselves when showing up for the first time. Is that ok?”.
“Sure.” Joey nodded and hesitantly said, “So, about the Sanctum Revival…”
“Don’t worry, you’re one of us after joining the association. If you guys die, I’ll revive you.”
“That’s good…”
“Alright, send me all of your information later. I’ll register you guys into the association and arrange for your welcome ceremony.”
After chatting a bit longer, Han Xiao hung up the call. About ten seconds later, he received the personal information of the four of them and told Phillip to arrange the procedures to have them join the association.
He thought for a while before calling Oathkeeper. He had already spoken with some of the Holy Accord members to have them appear in public when the time was right. Since Joey and the others were joining the association too, he might as well have them join at the same time so that it would be easier and more convenient.
Very soon, Oathkeeper appeared on the screen.
“Black Star, what is it?”
“Hmm, it’s about the welcome ceremony of a new batch of Holy Accord members. I’ve already made the arrangements, so you can have them come to the Flickering World now,” Han Xiao said.
“I’ll tell them.” Oathkeeper nodded. He hesitated for a moment before suddenly saying, “Black Star, there’s one thing I have to tell you. The second set of the Sanctum keys have almost all been collected.” “… So soon?”
Han Xiao was surprised.
Oathkeeper was in charge of this matter, and Han Xiao did not pay close attention to it. He thought the Holy Accord would need a few years to collect the second set of keys. He did not expect them to be this efficient.
“Yes. The resources list the Super Star Cluster Alliance provided included quite a number of materials for the Sanctum keys that are very difficult to purchase elsewhere, but these advanced civilizations had them. Some more sensitive materials that are banned from circulating on the market are surprisingly circulating on the black market, and you gave them to us, which increased our progress greatly,” Oathkeeper explained.
“I see.” Han Xiao understood and felt relieved like invisible weights were lifted off from his shoulders.
He would only really be confident about facing the cleansing with the second set of Sanctum keys. He no longer had to act like it in front of the three Universal Civilizations.
“Which Sanctum?”
“The First Sanctum this time.”
Han Xiao was delighted.
The Third Sanctum he entered the last time contained knowledge mostly about biology, genes, and Esper Abil
ities. Although he acquired quite a lot of knowledges, it was not very compatible with his class. However, the First Sanctum seemed to be closely connected with machinery technology. If he could enter it once, he would probably obtain the technology that suited Mechanics best, which would be incredible.
It just so happened that his authority level in the First Sanctum was even higher than the Third Sanctum. He currently had seven fragments. Entering the First Sanctum would give him one more, meaning he would have level eight authority when he entered and would be able to do many more things while inside.
“What about the collection of the keys of the other Sanctums?”
“I’ll show you…” Oathkeeper sent him a set of data.
The Holy Accord recorded the progress of the several Sanctum keys, so it was easier to see. At this point, other than the First Sanctum key, which was at ninety-two percent, the second highest was the Third Sanctum key, which was at sixty-seven percent. The others were all around forty percent, except for the Sixth Sanctum, which was only at seven percent.
Han Xiao looked at the progress before looking at the material lists of the various keys. “I’ll pay attention to these materials too. Keep up the good…” “Hmm, you keep up the good work too. The organization will treat you generously.” Oathkeeper said it and felt extremely good. Before Han Xiao could respond, he hung up the communication right away.
Han Xiao placed the communicator down, scratched his head, and had a weird expression.
Usually, he was the one who spoke like that to Oathkeeper. However, this time, Oathkeeper suddenly changed his tone and took him by surprise.
Interesting, he’s not happy with being ordered around by me, so he wants to gain small advantages over me verbally?
Humph, childish…
I’ll definitely say it quicker than you next time!
Han Xiao curled his lips and decided not to be concerned. Besides, everybody knew who was making the calls.
“The second set of keys is almost ready. I can consider showing some of my cards to the three Universal Civilizations now…”
Han Xiao focused and pondered.
According to his judgement of the situation, one of the most effective ways to defuse the stalemate between the three Universal Civilizations and the association was to seek peace after a war. Let the three Universal Civilizations start the cleansing and let the two sides fight all they wanted. When the association suffered from severe losses, they would revive all their members and display the truth about the Sanctum Revival not having a limited number of uses.
This way, while learning a painful lesson, the three Universal Civilizations would realize there was no way they could restrain the Beyond Grade As. Then, they would most likely abandon their current strategy and focus on studying the Sanctums. The balance achieved through this should last for a very long time.
However, although this method would have limited damages to the Beyond Grade A Association, the three Universal Civilizations would suffer severely from it. After all, the destroyed fleets, armies, and killed soldiers could not be revived. If the three Universal Civilizations’ direct members died in this war, even though the Sanctum Revival could revive them, Han Xiao was definitely going to postpone their revival to after reviving the association’s members.
He had two goals, one to deal with the World Tree, another to protect the Beyond Grade A class to not take the Celestial Star Alliance’s path. The former was more important.
“Before the World Tree war breaks out, it’s best not to cause too much damage to the military force of the explored universe. Therefore, the intensity of the conflict has to be controlled; the association can’t start a battle, and the current situation has to be maintained. This plan can only be executed if the three Universal Civilizations actively start a cleansing…”
Han Xiao let out a deep breath.
From another perspective, stopping the cleansing was possible. In order to avoid damaging the explored universe’s strength, he might have to go against his initial plan and share the World Tree Civilization’s information in advance so that the war would break out earlier…
However, whether the three Universal Civilizations believed it or not was not for him to decide.
“Hope the three Universal Civilizations don’t play with fire. Maintaining the current state is good enough…”
In the Primeval Star River, somewhere in a desolate universe belt, a spherical galactic fortress hovered. It looked like an enlarged metal brain. This was a Super Long Range Virtual Mind Wave Enhancer. On its surface were matrix-style quantum network bases that could hide the data sent to a certain extent and enhance the strength of a Virtual Intrusion.
Two round mechanical devices flew around it. This was the Federation of Light’s Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device. Outside it, highly advanced stealth devices hovered like buoys and shrouded the area, preventing all kinds of detection means, including prophecies.
At this point of time, the avatars of Mornisa and several Beyond Grade A Mechanics sat inside the Virtual Mind Wave Enhancer on their own seats. They were all direct members of the three Universal Civilizations.
After preparing for about two to three months, the three Universal Civilizations finally agreed to this operation. The participants were all direct Beyond Grade A mechanics. Led by Mornisa and assisted by the three Universal Civilizations, they had gone to the Primeval Star River to hack into Manison’s database.
The three Universal Civilizations took out many cutting-edge devices, even sharing the computing power of their civilizations’ main artificial intelligences to help with the intrusion, all to successfully break into Manison’s database and take him by surprise.
“Virtual Mind Wave Enhancer and Intrusion Style Quantum Network Base Matrix operating at full power output, Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device entering preheating stage… Federation of Light, Crimson Dynasty, Arcane Church main artificial intelligence computing power shared. Hacking route adjusted. Preparation complete. Please give the command.”
The emotionless voice of an artificial intelligence sounded in the room.
Mornisa looked around at the teammates present, and a red light flashed across her avatar as she firmly said, “Guys, let’s do it!”
Chapter 1296 - Siege
Inside the wide factory filled with mechanical devices, many mechanical arms were working constantly. Teams of mechanical assistants worked day and night, and countless assembly lines produced all kinds of machines.
Manison hovered midair in the factory and meditated with closed eyes. Golden electric arcs jumped on his body like snakes. His brain was operating rapidly, focusing on training his computing power. This was something most Virtual Mechanics did every day.
While he traveled in the sea of data, an alarm suddenly rang from the firewall at the link between his mind and the quantum network, echoing loudly in his mind!
“Alert! Alert! Abnormal data detected, infiltrating the database firewall!”
Manison suddenly opened his eyes, his focused state interrupted.
“Someone’s hacking into my database?”
He frowned and subconsciously thought of Han Xiao.
The last time someone did this was many years ago. Could it be that b*stard Black Star this time?
Although they were now on the same side, Manison never stopped expecting the worst from Black Star.
His consciousness sunk into the quantum network. Through the network nodes, he instantly jumped to the firewall that was hacked. The next moment, the scene before his eyes changed drastically, and he came to a virtual world formed of data streams.
In front of him was a thick firewall like layers of translucent protective shields, and endless code flowed on its surface. This was what protected his virtual artificial intelligence center and his multiple databases, making it invisible on the quantum network so that ordinary people could not find it.
Anyone who could hack into it would either be a
Beyond Grade A or the main artificial intelligence of an advanced civilization or a large organization. Regardless, the attacker did not come with good intentions.
At this time, a large pile of slightly illuminated dark purple data stream was stuck to the surface of the firewall like a slime, rolling and moving nonstop to corrode the firewall. Large portions of purple spread out. At a micro perspective, the two sides’ data codes were slaughtering each other at the point of contact. The shattered bits of the firewall reformed and became the purple data stream’s bits, devoured and assimilated by this strange data stream, causing its size to slowly grow.
Inside the firewall, a data stream rose from the ground and turned into the appearance of Manison’s Virtual Soul. He looked at this with narrowed eyes, extended his palm, and grabbed a data stream. The two sides of the data stream extended outward, and it turned into the shape of a staff in Manison’s hands.
He tapped the ground with the staff, data streams rose from the ground like lava and quickly became a fully armored AI soldier army, standing behind him.
Having completed the preparation for battle, only then did Manison speak with a poker face. “Dare to invade my territory but don’t dare show yourself?”
As soon as he said that, Mornisa’s virtual figure appeared outside the firewall. Looking at Manison who was protected by the firewall, she coldly said, “We meet again… teacher!”
“So, it’s you.” Manison narrowed his eyes. “What, you still haven’t given up?”
In the past, Mornisa tried to secretly steal his technology because she found out some secret routes from him, so her ambition pushed her to do it. However, back then, Mornisa was not strong enough and failed; Manison discovered her plan and scolded her heavily. Afterward, Mornisa joined the Federation of Light, and this matter was left unsettled.
In all these years, Manison had taught many Mechanics, Mornisa being the most talented one among them. After Mornisa became a Beyond Grade A, he originally wanted to support her to found her own organization, make her his ally, and indirectly expand his forces. Sadly, Mornisa stabbed him in the back, and this plan was abandoned. Since then, the two of them had been colleagues instead of teacher and student.
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