With the completion of the last piece of Knowledge needed, the world in front of his eyes seemed to have undergone a subtle change, and his perception of space transformed.Han Xiao raised his head to look at the cup on the table. By the corners of the cup, a variety of function formulas appeared, excluding its outer appearance, and only the precise lines denoting the outline of the spatial structure of the cup were left. Glancing around, all objects in the room appeared in this manner, where everything appeared as a coefficient of spatial structure rather than as its original appearance.As he blinked, this feeling slowly disappeared, and the room returned to normal.
This is probably the change brought about by [Hyperspace Thought]. It seems that it has elevated my spatial perception to a whole new level.
That feeling seemed to maintain the view of multiple perspectives at the same time. It seemed to even overlap with other dimensions.
[Relativity Theory] only provided one talent by nature, but the effect was considerable. It comprehensively enhanced the mobility and controlling skills of the Mechanic, and it also improved Psychological Resistance. The other two talents obtained were brought about by the [Erudite] ability.
Generally speaking, the players could never afford the expenses needed to collect all the Knowledges, and it was difficult to learn all of them. However, there were a minority of people who grinded like crazy to completely learn all of the available Knowledges. Han Xiao was one of such ‘Liver Emperors[1]’. Thus, he was no stranger to the effects both talents brought about to him.
With the two extra talents, my strength has increased by yet another level, and I can be considered to be an all-rounder Advanced Mechanic now.
Han Xiao calculated that the enhanced [Ultimate Knowledge Possessor] as well as the newly obtained [Almighty Mechanic] would enhance him to the point of the [Perfect Mechanical Sense] standard.
The higher his Machinery Affinity, the greater the increase of the total bonus from his Mechanical Sense talent. So long as he managed to get [Perfect Mechanical Sense], his damage would fly off the charts!
By that time, he would be roughly similar to [Mechanic Emperor] Manison, the only difference being their exclusive talents.
“Now that I’ve gotten my hands on all the Knowledges, the next step will be to upgrade all of them.”
In his previous life, while there were players that learned all Knowledges, there had not been anyone who raised everything to the maximum. That was Han Xiao’s goal this time. To complete this, he needed huge amounts of experience. The accumulated amount in this version was far from being enough, and he could only work on this from the next version onward.
Han Xiao had no idea if there would be additional rewards for maxing out all his Class Knowledges. In any case, with the huge player market that he had, levelling up everything would not bring him any losses.
The interface also showed that he had an additional five hundred Free Attribute Points. Gazing at his attributes, he saw that his Intelligence had finally broken through the ten thousand mark. Intelligence was the main attribute of a mechanic, which would determine the attributes of his mechanical creations as well as the Mechanical Force bonuses. Currently, his Endurance was not lacking; he was so tanky that even he could no longer bear it. Thus, Han Xiao decided to continue to pump his Intelligence.
After seeing the huge increase in his attributes, Han Xiao closed his interface in satisfaction. He chewed on two high energy nutrition bars as a celebration before taking a private space shuttle to the satellites around his headquarters. He found an idle one and entered its large, open-air training ground to summon all his machinery through the secondary dimensional army box.
After years of accumulation, Han Xiao now had more than a hundred thousand mechanical lives and over ten Apostle Weapons, which served as his commanders, lining up in front of Han Xiao.
In the huge square, the various mechanical lives stopped making any noise and turned to look at Han Xiao. Those with legs knelt on one knee, while those without lowered their heads to show respect. A magnificent scene was displayed.
“Lord.”
“Rise.” Han Xiao waved his hands before turning to look at Psionic Prime, who was at the forefront. “The time has come. The Machinery Civilization plan can now be implemented.”
“I will not disappoint you, my lord.” A determined expression appeared on the facial features of Psionic Prime.
Han Xiao gestured with a finger, and a star map appeared on the sky, showing the territory of the Garu Star Cluster. The picture zoomed in and quickly locked onto one of the planets within the Star System, situated within his own territory.
“This planet will be your new home in the future. It is rich in ores. Psionic Prime, at that time, you’ll take all the mechanical lives to develop on this planet. The Black Star Army will provide you with all sorts of support, and I only have one requirement, which is to expand the population as much as possible.”
In order to develop his own Mechanical Civilization, Han Xiao had released all his mechanical lives. They need not stay within the secondary dimensional army box for the time being.
After being transformed by [Tinder Awakening], the machines had already become true living bodies. Their bodies were filled with silicon-based nerve fibers. They had independent thoughts and even the ability to reproduce.
Of course, the method of propagation for mechanical life was not through ‘pa pa pa’ but asexual reproduction. Two or more of the mechanical lives would extract their own tinder gene code and transfer to the reproducing mechanical life, or they could insert it within the assembly line to ‘hatch’ a newborn. After a long period of energy supply, the newborn’s tinder would be strengthened into a complete mechanical life.
The mechanical life created in this manner of reproduction was equivalent to sharing the life energy of the first generation of machines. Its purity and basic attributes would of course be far inferior compared to the first generation. The parent mechanical life would also enter a period of weakness due to huge consumption of their life tinder.
But the advantage was that births could be mass-produced, so Han Xiao did not need to work laboriously anymore. The production efficiency would skyrocket, and even the weakest mechanical life borne through this would still be stronger than most mechanical soldiers. The original intention of developing a machinery civilization was just to form a large-scale arsenal.
Manison had a machinery civilization that had developed for many years as his barracks, and the soldiers were endless.
With these hundred thousand first-generation mechanical lives, as long as they are allowed to develop for several years, I will then have a new army of mechanical lives, Han Xiao secretly thought.
All the mechanical lives raised their heads up to gaze at the virtual screen and started to discuss among themselves.
“I won’t let you down.” Psionic Prime retracted his gaze, simulating a solemn tone.
“Good. You can recommend another person with an outstanding ability, and I will give him a spot as an Apostle Weapon.” Han Xiao smiled.
His new talents gave him a total of +3 to all Mechanic skill levels, which meant that the quota for [Apostle Life Creation] had now increased by three. Letting Psionic Prime pick a soldier would help him to consolidate his leadership position.
Because Han Xiao would not continuously monitor the development of his machinery civilization, he needed the first generations to manage everything well. Thus, the stronger the position of his spokesperson, the smoother the development of the machinery civilization.
Hearing this, Psionic Prime raised his spear and turned back. “Heaven-Suppressing Banner, step out.”
Han Xiao looked at where the spear was pointing and saw a towering mechanical life enveloped in heavy outer armor within the crowd. It was as though he was clad in full plate mail, with all sorts of weapons hung around him. He had six arms, and on his back was a giant alloy battle shield, held by magnetic force. From afar, it looked like a huge banner.
“He’s the strongest and bravest warrior in our clan, having defeated hundreds of others and taken their weapons. At the same time, he also knows how to command the army. I urge the Lord to grant him the qualification of an Apostle,” Psionic Prime said.
Han Xiao sized Heaven-Suppressing Banner up. This guy’s gear was actually loot taken from his opponents and installed on himself.
These mechanical lives had a high growth rate, and the blessing of [Machinery Fusion] allowed them to self-transform their hardware structure without limits.
“You indeed have the qualifications to be my Apostle. Make good use of this power.” Raising his palm, a golden beam of Mechanical Force appeared in his palm like a bolt of lightning.
Flicking his hand, his Mechanical Force shot into the body of Heaven-Suppressing Banner, transforming his body and creating a brand-new Apostle.
Han Xiao did not continue to observe the transformation process but turned to Psionic Prime. “I shall hand the right to command the mechanical lives over to you. Serve me well.”
…
After the transformation a few years ago as a result of the Evolution Cube, the Black Spirit Race had become far more intelligent and even possessed visual senses now. They gradually got used to living on the ground, no longer living in nests underground. With their efficient command over the mind network, they had built a stone city.
The largest stone city currently belonged to the Germinal Tribe, and in the center of the city, a stone statue, carved in the likeness of Black Star, stood tall. At this moment, this status held a metal statue, which was the Evolutionary Totem.
Evolutionary energy continuously radiated from the totem. For species with evolutionary space, the effect of the totems was excellent, and this had resulted in the evolution of the Black Spirit Race to be accelerated by hundreds of times. The proportion of the carapace on their body had shrunk once again, and their original bestial and insect-like characteristics were reduced a lot. Some of the Black Spirit Race had already begun to stand upright rather than crawl.
The liberated forelimbs also gradually played the role of a palm and began to learn how to use tools.
Up till now, Han Xiao had not forced the civilization process of the Black Spirit Race but focused more on improving the quality of the Black Spirit Race itself. From his viewpoint, as long as the species itself became perfect, it would be more effective to help them develop.
The racial characteristics of the Black Spirit Race lay in its mind communication network, which improved communication efficiency and knowledge penetration rate. Their Race Specialty was related to the mind, and the totem would subtly enhance the mental and spiritual strength of the entire race.
The Black Spirit Race was also very prolific. After more than ten years of reproduction, several generations of newborns had been born, and the population had grown a lot.
At this moment, in the center of the Germinal Tribe, a large group of children played around an adult, who happened to be the leader of the Germinal Tribe.
The leader of the Germinal Tribe was wearing a coarse animal skin robe and holding a simple scepter made out of Prophecy Stones. His dress was very different from the other tribesmen, who were not wearing clothes.
Countless years before they were transformed by the Evolution Cube, the Black Spirit Race had produced a very small number of variants, which could build a mind communication network on their own instead of utilizing the Prophecy Stones. These variants were known as ‘Sages’.
The current leader of the Germinal Tribe was one of the strongest variants, with his mental network able to accommodate most individuals. At the same time, he was also the spokesperson of their ‘Black Star God’, so he was hailed as the Great Sage.
“Great Sage, why do we worship the Black Star God?” The group of toddlers crowded around the Germinal Tribe leader, chattering away in his mental network.
Lifting his scepter, the Germinal Tribe leader spoke in equal seriousness and fanaticism. “The Black Star God has brought us the gospel for evolution, as well as the fire of our civilization. He is the omnipresent greatness.”
“I don’t believe you. I feel that you are stronger than him, Great Sage!” One of the toddlers laughed.
“Humph, you know nothing about power.” The Germinal Tribe leader pointed at a battleship suspended in the sky with his scepter. “Do you see that? That’s called a spaceship. It’s what brought us here from our ancestral land. Just relying on our powers, we would not even have reached here in ten thousand years, but Black Star God brought us here in an instant. That is the power of a God.”
“Ancestral land? This place is not our ancestral land?”
“Sigh, our ancestral land was long taken by others. If the Black Star God had not led us away, maybe…”
The Germinal Tribe leader sighed again and shook his head.
At this moment, hundreds of black specks appeared in the clear blue sky. They floated down slowly toward the Germinal Tribe and caused a commotion within the tribe. Many of the tribe members gathered in the square, watching the descending spaceships.
The hatches opened, and Psionic Prime flew out and landed in front of the leader of the Germinal Tribe. The Black Spirit Race scattered, but they were not nervous at all.
In their eyes, this sort of metal creature was the servant of their Black Star God.
“I’m the Chief Apostle under Lord Black Star. My lord has commanded me to take you away from this planet.”
The Germinal Tribe leader stood up, speaking jerkily with vocal cords that had yet to fully develop.
“Where is the Black Star God taking us?”
“Your new home.”
…
With a lot of investments from the financial groups, the Black Star Army had sufficient funds to purchase engineering equipment as well as to prepare to build troops. The process was smooth.
After a month of preparations, the construction team of the army finally departed officially under the universe’s interested eyes, full of manpower and resources to develop the Flickering World.
Lagi, Reynold, Sylvia, and Herlous were directly involved, and Han Xiao was only responsible for remote supervision since he wanted to go to the dynasty to avoid any danger. He had left the blueprint for the construction of the site with them, so he did not need to be present.
On the day that the construction team set off, Han Xiao arrived at the stargate leading to the Central Galaxy with only a few Black Star Guards and Aurora with him.
This was to avoid danger but also to visit the various Beyond Grade A allies of the dynasty. After all, they would be working together for many years, so it was necessary to build relationships.
At the same time, he also prepared to visit those future famous characters of the dynasty that he recalled.
The version update would take several decades, and the dynasty would experience a change in power. His cooperation with the dynasty would last a long time, so he needed to have wider vision. For the sake of his future, it was necessary to build good relations with the powerful people of the future in advance, granting him a louder voice within the dynasty.
Sweeping his eyes over Feidin and the rest, Han Xiao turned his head to look at Aurora in the pilot’s seat and nodded.
“Let’s go.”
Aurora swiped her finger on the control screen, and the spaceship slowly moved into the stargate.
At the same moment, Ames and Hila arrived at the stargate at the edge of the Shattered Star Ring.
Turning back, Hila had a complicated expression.
She had a hunch that it would be a long time before she returned.
The Beyond Grade A realm…
A slim hand rested on her shoulder, and turning back, Hila saw Ames standing there with a light smile.
“Let’s go.”
“Sigh… I got it.”
Hila recollected her thoughts and also directed the spaceship to enter the stargate.
[1] Probably named so because you need to donate a liver to get enough money to buy everything