Chapter 864 - Whereabouts Exposed
Amid the bustle of the neutral space harbor, the duo headed toward the storehouse while planning their route of escape.
“We have a few plans. Two of the most stable plans are to borrow the aid of the spies and escape through the stargate or continue hiding out identity and slowly travel through the Shattered Star Ring.”
“Both plans have their risks. If we want to travel through the Star Field, the Seoul Star Cluster and Colton Star Cluster are regions that we must avoid.”
“There is another method that would be to try our luck. There is a wormhole cluster in the middle of the Shattered Star Ring, and we can make use of the unstable wormholes to escape into another Star Field.”
Just when they were discussing the matter, they suddenly felt people following them from behind. Their footsteps paused, and they turned around to take a look, only to see the few Black Star Army members that they had spotted earlier following behind them.
Taylor was stunned for a moment. “Why are the members of the Black Star Army eyeing us?”
“Don’t make a commotion and see what they want to do. It may just be a misunderstanding...” Sagman frowned and pretended that he did not spot anything.
After going down a few split paths, the number of people in the surroundings decreased, but the Black Star Army members were still following them. Only then did they confirm that these Black Star Army members had their eyes on them. It seemed as though they wanted to find where their spaceship was docked.
The duo looked at each other.
“What should we do? Did they recognize us?”
“Doesn’t seem that way... but we should get rid of them just to be safe. We can then change into another disguise.”
“This is a neutral harbor. Don’t make too big a commotion or let others notice that we are the culprits.”
“Alright. I will make them disappear without a trace.”
On the other side, the players were following behind and chatting in their party chat.
“Both of the red names are Fatally Dangerous. Will we be able to win?”
“It’s alright. The army will give us the bounty for catching the pirates, but we can also request aid from the nearby members of the army.”
These players had already used their detection skill on Sagman and Taylor, but their names were not revealed. Instead, their disguised names appeared. However, the other party were red names from a hostile faction.
It was not too strange for them to meet a red-named monster out in the galaxy. The majority of them were galactic pirates or scavengers. Thus, these players only thought that they were galactic pirates. It was not that they could not talk to the red-named characters, but it would be extremely easy for them to be attacked since the other party was hostile toward them.
The Black Star Army was in the same camp as the Crimson Dynasty. With the Crimson Dynasty being in open confrontation with the Arcane Church, all members of the Arcane Church became red names for the players in the Black Star Army.
Just when the players wanted to continue tailing the two, their bodies disappeared, and they were suddenly waiting to be revived.
“Eh? Why did I die?”
“Me too. Why didn’t we even see the attack?”
The players were all taken aback and hurriedly opened the interface to see the battle notification. Although they were not able to see how the enemy attacked, the interface would show the damage that they took and the attacker’s name. It was one of the two red named characters, and he seemed to have used a mental attack to one-shot all the players.
It would not be much if this was the case. However, what truly shocked the players was that they suffered 84,000 damage points!
They almost thought that they had read an additional zero!
Just what kind of strength was this?
Just what was the level of the red-named character who attacked them? Was he a Calamity Grade?
The players were all extremely curious.
“We seem to have met a fantastic character.”
“This is a large fish. Coming into contact with them will definitely trigger a hidden storyline, right?”
Just as they were discussing, one of the players suddenly asked, “For them to easily deal 84,000 damage... do you remember the Planet Lighthouse dungeon we fought yesterday?”
“Wait... I think I understand something!”
The players came to a realization. This party did not join in the Flickering World exploration mission and had been performing missions for the Mercenary League in the Shattered Star Ring. Thus, they had immediately seized the chance to experience the battle the moment the dungeon was released. They still had a vivid memory of how they died an unknown death at the hands of a Beyond Grade A.
Furthermore, damage of such a level seemed to be at the Beyond Grade A level in the dungeon!
This meant that the two Fatally Dangerous red-named characters might not be just Calamity Grade Supers but Beyond Grade A!
Thinking about the mission recently issued by the army to find the Arcane Church’s Beyond Grade As...
The players suddenly realized that they might have met the targets.
After using a spell to get rid of the Black Star Army members, Sagman and Taylor found the warehouse and flew out from one of the docks.
They purchased an extremely common model that could be found anywhere.
Following that, they looked toward the neutral harbor and heaved a sigh of relief when they saw that there were no Black Star Army fleets pursuing them.
Taylor began to relax.
With the large difference in strength between both parties, they had been able to get rid of the few Black Star Army warriors without anyone noticing. It seemed like their identities would not be exposed.
In order to be safe, they decided to change into their next set of identity and purchased a new spaceship again.
However, they just could not understand why the Black Star Army members would suddenly follow them.
Indeed, all the subordinates of Black Star were extremely strange.
...
Ka ka ka!
In Han Xiao’s workshop, a few mechanical arms were currently assembling a human-shaped machine, and it was gradually being formed.
The robot that left the furnace was burning hot, and it was quickly cooled down by the coolants being sprayed on it from the sides.
This step was completed extremely quickly, and the next step would be to apply a coat of paint.
Han Xiao waved his hands and said, “Phillip, conduct a test.”
“Understood, hum... RX001 generation mechanical body. Nickname ‘mammoth’. Conducting the first test...”
historical
The nanoparticles then flowed around the body of the robot.
The test was very quickly concluded, and the data from the test was presented to Han Xiao.
Han Xiao looked through the numbers of the test and nodded with satisfaction.
He was not creating a mechanical soldier this time but a host for his [Lord’s Descent] skill.
Han Xiao had already tested the effect of the [Lord’s Descent] skill. During his tests, he realized that there was a difference when he used the different mechanical soldiers as a host. The difference was largely due to the attributes of the mechanical soldier and the materials used to craft it.
He realized that mechanical soldiers were not the best hosts, and using [Lord’s Descent] on Mechanical Life was not ideal. A Mechanical Life had its own consciousness, and it would be counterproductive to have two consciousnesses in a single body. Furthermore, the consciousness of the body might be damaged if he sent out too much energy.
Thus, after a series of calculations, Han Xiao decided to create a special mechanical container to serve as the host of the [Lord’s Descent] skill to fully maximize the effect of this skill.
At the same time, if he used [Lord’s Descent] on the same target multiple times, there was a chance to have a soul connection, which would probably strengthen the effect of the skill. He was not prepared to treat this container as a disposable product but a long-term host.
This host was created from many precious materials, including a new material that he had forged with [Endless Material Combination] called ‘First Generation Black Star Alloy’. It was able to endure high energy, temperature, and pressure and also had the ability to repair itself. It was able to absorb various types of materials and could take a heavy load. These were the conditions required to endure [Lord’s Descent].
Han Xiao then knocked on the outer armor of the ‘Mammoth’ host, but not a single sound was given out as though all the vibrations had been absorbed by the alloy.
“Not bad. It has the ability to absorb energy and repair itself. Only then will it be able to enjoy my energy conversion and cell regrowth talents during Lord’s Descent.”
Just as he was about to test the actual effect, Phillip’s voice rang in his head.
“Master, hum... a member of the army would like to report to you their whereabouts of the Arcane Church Beyond Grade As. According to the priority system that you set, I skipped past Sylvia and reported the matter directly to you.”
Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled and said, “Oh? Someone actually managed to find a clue? Quickly let me take a look.”
The next moment, a report from the players could be seen in front of his eyes.
Although they were not able to reveal information like ‘red-named characters’ and were only able to give a vague description about them being killed, Han Xiao was extremely clear about the players’ characters and did not doubt the player’s advantage when it came to information.
“There is a large chance that they are the Arcane Church’s Beyond Grade As. Since there are only two of them, it means that they must have split up. Hmm, these two fellows have changed their identities, and this will not be their only identity. Now that the players have alerted them, they will probably switch to another identity. However, this information can also help us achieve a breakthrough.”
Han Xiao was extremely excited. The biggest difficulty of the dynasty was that they were unable to lock onto the whereabouts of the four and could only search blindly.
Although the players had alerted the two and were unable to tail them, it had at least narrowed their location down to a specific region and would be extremely helpful to the dynasty. They dynasty would not have to search blindly and could narrow their search.
“In this respect, the players seem to have an advantage. Hmm, I know...”
After thinking for a while, Han Xiao opened the interface and issued a mission to the players.
_____________________
The Crimson Dynasty Search Operation: Region Investigation
Mission Introduction: The Black Star Army has received clues that the Arcane Church’s Beyond Grade As have appeared in the Fleur Star Cluster, Three Wood Star System, Star Zone 9, Furnace Neutral Harbor. The members of the army should head over to the region and report any new clues to the Army Commander, Black Star.
Mission Requirements: Search the region and find the target.
Tip: The target is in disguise, so you should pay close attention to Red Named characters that are Fatally Dangerous. If they are moving as a pair, it is very likely for them to be the targets.
This will be a Prize-Pool Mission. Accepting the mission will require 200 Experience, and those who discover clues can split the Prize Pool.
Prize Pool: 10,000,000 Experience, 3,000,000 Enas.
Accumulated Reward: 0
_____________________
After checking that there was nothing wrong with the mission, Han Xiao issued it to the players.
He was currently a wealthy tycoon. In the past, he needed to risk his life for a few hundred thousand Enas, but he could now give out a few million Enas without even batting an eye.
The Black Star Army had extremely deep pockets. There were many financial groups who wanted to help the Black Star Army become listed on the market, but he had rejected them all temporarily.
As for the players who provided the intelligence, Han Xiao was not stingy and gave them rich rewards through the interface.
“Right, duplicate a copy of this intelligence and send it to Tarrokov.”
“Roger, hum...”
Following which, Han Xiao asked, “Is the battleship of those members still present in that neutral harbor?”
“Yes, hum...”
Han Xiao raised his brows and entered the quantum network.
“Alright. Phillip, infiltrate the database of the harbor.”
Phillip was able to easily access the database of many different locations.
Asking the players to help him was only one approach. Han Xiao was also prepared to use his Virtual Intrusion to check the records of the harbor and find information about the disguises that the two had on. He would then dig through the history of those two individuals, and he might be able to find more useful information.
The galaxy was in the quantum network era, and every galactic resident would leave some traces on the net—where they were born, where they worked, where they went, and so on. Everything was recorded, and there was no such thing as privacy before a Virtual Mechanic.
Although the four from the Arcane Church were Beyond Grade As, there was no Mechanic among them, and it would be impossible for them to use Virtual Technology skills to clean up their traces in the quantum network.
This gave Han Xiao a chance.
“Perhaps they will change their identities, but I doubt they will switch spaceships halfway during the flight. I should be able to locate them based on the records of the spaceship.”
Han Xiao nodded in his head.
As long as the targets exposed themselves, it would not be so simple to escape from the hands of a Virtual Mechanic like him.
Thinking about the advice that Lagi had given not too long ago, Han Xiao had a strange look on his face.
That was truly some sh*tty advice...