Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

The window disappeared, the sunlight disappeared, the flowerpot disappeared, leaving only a Thought Box placed on the table. In the chair behind the table lay a corpse of unknown years, with decayed flesh, revealing white bones.

On the white lab coat hung a work badge named ’Han Yuan’, with a photo of Professor Han, grinning slyly.

Gao Gong grabbed the Thought Box and put it in his pocket. This thing was about the size of a thumb, a urn from the Civilization Era.

After a person dies, the Neural Collection Center collects some of the deceased’s still-active neural circuits and places them in the box. This way, during holidays or festivals, the ’dead’ can still chat with you, talk about their life below, and encourage you to join them soon.

The whole ’Thought Box’ was also given a ’bionic transformation’, with more implanted neural circuits, making it more lively. After the real Professor Han died, he was responsible for handling everything here.

”Professor Han was actually a bionic man, truly unexpected yet inevitable.”

Looking back now, indeed, there were some oddities about Professor Han.

For example, he was very secretive about the institute’s past.

And also, his perception was extremely strong.

Or how he easily fished out the Brain-in-a-Vat.

This kind of ’pan-conscious lifeform’ like the Brain-in-a-Vat is a rare treasure not just in a Level 2 Civilization, but also in Level 3 and Level 4 Civilizations.

Recalling what the real-life Professor Han just said, Gao Gong murmured to himself.

”There’s intrigue afoot.”

...

’Little Lady No. 2’ looked at ’Little Lady No. 3’ and tilted her head.

”This flesh body is just one of my shells. You turning into this state is a sign of self-recognition deficiency from a psychological perspective.”

”Though you seem restrained, I sensed your hostility the moment you started speaking.”

”You’re quite sensitive, befitting the consciousness hub of my current shell,” ’No. 3’ chuckled.

”Let me tell you a story about this institute. The story begins with the Imperial Academy of Sciences selecting key personnel to build a secret research facility in this primeval forest. The research content was advanced technological knowledge obtained from an alien civilization. But who would’ve thought that just as the research was nearing completion, a group of star thieves invaded this secret unit...”

”...The plan succeeded. As the star thieves were on the verge of slaughtering all the researchers, that super lifeform awoke, using the facility’s defense systems to kill all these alien warriors and destroy their bionic ’Black Prince’.”

Gaia listened quietly and then shook her head. ”If it were truly as you say, the consciousness hub of that super lifeform should be me, and I was not merged at that time.”

”Yes, the precious Brain-in-a-Vat, the empire’s most core research secret, should be able to control this newly born super life,” No. 3 remarked sarcastically.

”But who would’ve thought that at the time within the institute, it wasn’t just one group pushing a rebellion plan secretly, but two groups instead.”

”According to the star thieves’ plan, they wanted to bionically replicate a perfect Black Prince’s body and then perform consciousness transfer — a common technique for consciousness carriers within the standard forces of Level 3 Civilizations.”

”But during this process, a small problem arose. As the Black Prince bionic body approached completion, this ’Bionic Black Prince’ developed its own consciousness. He didn’t want to be replaced, nor be someone else’s substitute.”

”So, it wasn’t me controlling that super lifeform, but rather the ’Bionic Black Prince’ merging with it,” Gaia said: ”Are you that Black Prince?”

”Yes and no,” No. 3 revealed a strange smile. ”After I killed all the star thieves, I realized that a researcher’s bionic form had escaped the institute. To prevent information leakage, I remotely deleted their memory with the institute’s main brain.”

”What changed afterward?” Gaia asked, ”You clearly had enough time to kill Professor Han and me.”

”Yes, a slight change occurred. Those star thieves were actually just mercenaries, backed by a Star System Civilization. After realizing something was wrong, that civilization actively made a deal with me.”

”I can’t tell you the details of the deal. What I can tell you is, I left with them to accomplish something big, but I had no plans to share the institute’s legacy with them.”

No. 3 tapped his forehead, and his green head slowly became transparent, revealing a ’Thought Box’ inside his skull.

”I left this behind to manage the institute’s defense work until my main body returned to retrieve the ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ and the remaining bionic technology data.”

”But I didn’t expect that the researcher’s bionic man would return and even used internal authority to steal the ’Brain-in-a-Vat’.”

”This is troublesome, very troublesome, but luckily they returned — him, the Brain-in-a-Vat, and a human,” No. 3 laughed: ”The moment he stepped into the institute, I controlled him.”

”Do you know why I’m telling you all this? It’s not because I’m bored, but because I’m waiting for him to disable all control systems. Once all control systems are shut down, a hidden mechanism will activate, which is the entire defense system merging with me!”

Accompanied by the last sentence, ’No. 3’ stomped heavily, once again restoring itself to a height of over four meters, yet its face remained that of a Little Woman, looking quite out of place.

In the next instant, the mechanical balls on its body once again transformed into energy weapons. These weapons, equipped with a suspension system and controlled autonomously by neural impulses, were now firing thumb-sized laser beams, electrically shooting towards Gaia.

Gaia did not move; only her eyes became even more misty white, and those laser beams capable of inflicting thousands of damage refracted in mid-air, leaving scorched holes on the surrounding floors and walls.

’No. 3’ seemed to be well aware of this situation, with countless biological pores appearing on its green skin surface, emitting thick smoke.

Human beings, or rather the intelligent species of the Mechanical Split Star, are left-handed amino acid life forms, while this Michael Star person is a right-handed amino acid life form. Their perception is stronger, and their life force more vigorous, allowing them to survive in both low temperatures and lava. More importantly, they are born with a kind of biological toxin which is lethal to left-handed amino acid life forms.

Gaia finally furrowed her brow, pulled her hands, causing layer upon layer of floors to collapse. Tens of tons of steel and concrete came crashing down, while her figure flew backwards, entering the underground laboratory and appearing suspended in mid-air.

However, in mid-air, a large amount of current appeared out of nowhere. These currents were colorless and transparent, all belonging to bioelectric currents.

One of the traits of bioelectric currents is that they ignore defense, causing true damage.

Gaia’s blood volume is immense, so she is not afraid of being electrocuted, but in Huang Yuanli’s current body, just one hit might be fatal.

The mouth opened, and a dense white mist sprayed out from within, sparkling like stardust in the night sky. Upon closer inspection, each spark was a tiny tentacle.

The bioelectric currents struck it, instantly causing over twenty tentacles and hundreds of spark points to vanish.

Gaia used her true form to take the hit.

But in the next moment, a whistling sounded, and a shower of ’arm arrows’ erupted from one of the laboratories. Gaia opened a palm, remotely blocking them, yet these ’flying arrows’ continued to split in the air, with each segment turning into fierce marbles, densely covering all directions.

Helpless, Gaia could only extend another palm, rapidly enlarging ten or so tentacles, transforming them from virtual to real, turning into a giant tentacle barrier to block the various bone joints.

Yet, suddenly, ten or so laser beams shot from the ground, sweeping across the tentacles and directly severing half of them.

Instantly, the ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ emitted a series of heart-rending screams, and the surrounding glass shattered to pieces from the sound waves.

No. 3, who had just burst out of the underground research institute, was stimulated by the sound waves, with its skin cracking in multiple lines. Unlike ordinary human bleeding, countless sticky threads emerged from the cracks, entwining and mending them.

The human body is more than 50% liquid, but this ’Michael Star person’ seems to have evolved past ’bodily fluids.’

This granted it immense regenerative abilities.

The shuttle-shaped energy weapons fired alternately, not stopping for a moment.

Gaia clasped her hands together, and in the next instant, tentacles of terrifying size surged forth, their ends transforming into Radiation Beasts, pouncing towards No. 3.

A third eye, unique to the Michael Star people, grew on No. 3’s forehead. As its light flashed, a spiritual barrier emerged, blocking the ferocious spiritual Radiation Beasts that charged at it.

Meanwhile, the massive tentacles, swimming like dragons or snakes, started to deform, resembling slugs sprinkled with salt, their size shrinking rapidly.

Gaia looked up to the sky, only to see that, at some unknown time, the roof of the research institute had been covered in a web of electronic circuits, flickering with electronic signals.

Gaia reached out, and in the next moment, a dozen water-cask-thick tentacles ascended like dragons, crashing into the ’web.’

Although pan-conscious lifeforms are powerful, they are not without their nemeses, such as the Cyber Network, Planet Host, and Biological Main Brain.

All three have methods to digest vast streams of information.

The research institute at this moment had grown neurological circuits akin to a Biological Main Brain.

No. 3’s lips curled into a smirk as it beckoned gently, and in the next moment, all the shuttle-shaped laser guns began combining into a single energy cannon, as thick as the hand-held cannon of a large combat robot. The difference was that when the hand-held cannon gathered energy, the particle stream spread chaotically, whereas when this energy cannon gathered energy, not only did the energy light stream disappear, but the sound was also nearly silent, forming a blue energy orb.

Under the same caliber, the power of this cannon was ten times that of a large robot’s shot.

However, heavy footsteps approached from behind.

No. 3 had just turned its head when a fist imprinted itself on its face, directly caving in the face of the ’Little Woman.’

”Roar!!!”

’Red Liquid’ extruded countless spikes from its body, letting out a satisfying roar.

It had long wanted to do this.