Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Mother City, Cybertron, Seventeenth Weapons Exhibition.

Unlike the fully virtualized Deep Net, Cybertron is more like a super mechanical city. Kilometer and ten-thousand-meter mechanical creations rise and fall. Some are landing interstellar spaceships, some are endless space elevators, some are fortresses of the Mechanical Legion, and others are industrial ships, landships, or even crust excavators and planetary engines.

If Mechanical Split Star is a cracked egg, then Cybertron is the center of that egg’s cracks.

At this time, representatives of military contractors disembarked from the plane and took special vehicles heading to various weapon experiment venues.

The six months before any corporate war are the happiest days for military contractors.

The reason is simple. Although corporate hegemony is not military warfare, each time a corporate war happens, major companies will invariably raise their defense budgets.

Every military contractor will rack their brains during this phase, doing everything to attract customers like a peacock displaying its feathers.

”Wow, Sister Du, did you see that? It’s full of flying cars.”

Little Woman leaned against the window, her eyes shining as she looked around. The tail of the flying cars spewed dazzling streams of particles, and under the control of the Planet Main Brain, they seemed perilous but moved as steadily as an old dog through the air.

Cybertron doesn’t have a ground transportation system. The ground of Cybertron is composed of various energy pipelines, oil pipelines, and transport pipelines.

Some of these pipelines lead to the sea to absorb rare gases, some enter the Earth’s crust to absorb nuclear reaction power from the core, and some extend to other continents to transport survey robots and mining robots.

The entirety of Cybertron is a super factory operating on a planetary scale.

This aligns perfectly with Du Zhaodi’s mechanical aesthetic.

Where there are resources, you must extract them; where there is space, you must build projects.

”Sister Du, do you think those bigwigs will be interested in our stuff?” Secretary Bean Sprouts couldn’t resist asking.

”There’s still a month until the exhibition. We’re here mainly as a preliminary step, so why rush?” Du Zhaodi maintained her customary tight-lipped demeanor.

”Sister Du, in the morning we need to report to the Mechanical Hub for qualification certification and registration. At noon, a representative from Mas Sharpness wants to have lunch with us. In the afternoon, we have a class to attend,” Bean Sprouts started reporting the schedule.

”Class, what class? I hate attending classes.”

Little Woman griped, her gaze falling on an ultra-luxurious mall.

”Mainly it’s about the technical data from the previous weapons show. Every time a weapons exhibition opens, a significant portion of the development data is unsealed. Some emerging forces, like us, register not primarily to exhibit but for these technological data.”

”Are these data free?” Little Woman asked.

”Yes, they’re free.”

”No patent fees?”

”No patent fees either.”

”Is that even possible? For instance, if we sell a lot of mechas at this exhibition, wouldn’t our mecha data and research secrets be freely given away by the next exhibition?”

”That’s correct.”

”Damn it, let’s get out of here, Sister Du!”

”It sounds fair,” Du Zhaodi said calmly, ”Mother City’s message is simple: without progress, without breakthroughs, death is certain. On this planet, there is no such thing as a fortress of patents.”

Little Woman rolled her eyes. These madmen, if it were up to her, she’d milk the patents for as long as possible.

”What the—”

Little Woman was just about to say something when the flying car suddenly jolted, and tens of thousands of flying cars in the sky simultaneously stopped.

On the ground, a huge pipeline suddenly opened, and a dense swarm of Combat Robots jetted out, attacking a mechanical building to the south.

Then came various sounds of explosions and fighting.

Du Zhaodi looked at Bean Sprouts, who quickly made phone calls to confirm the situation, and after a while, said: ”Sister Du, the afternoon technical sharing class has been canceled. Someone hacked into a Mechanical System at Cybertron, triggering a small-scale robot rebellion.”

”Who would do that? This is Mother City!” Little Woman suddenly felt wide awake.

For everyone born after the Mechanical Era, Mother City is like a god to them.

”It seems to be a Cyber Hacker, a very famous one. The hacker’s code name is Terria.”

”Terria?”

Du Zhaodi had heard her mother mention this name before. It was a Holy City during the Civilization Era, and several large-scale religious wars occurred on Mechanical Split Star over this ancient city.

Terria, Cybertron.

It all seemed to carry a special significance.

A moment later, Little Woman grew impatient.

”How long do we have to wait? Had I known Mother City also has traffic jams, I would have gotten some cards to play with.”

Du Zhaodi closed her eyes to rest, ”There’s a holographic TV in the car.”

”Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Little Woman found the switch, and as soon as she turned it on, she saw several channels broadcasting the same news.

”Breaking news, Mr. Aramaki, termed as the Hand of the Deep Net and the Enemy of Corporations, Head of the Mobile Unit’s First Department, was assassinated by a rebellious faction yesterday. His data processing center was severely damaged, and a large amount of Personality Data was lost. Repairs are ongoing, but the situation is not optimistic.”

”Another assassination,” Little Woman muttered. In the smoke-filled scene, the frenzied host was gesticulating vividly, but the next moment, the host was kicked aside, and an intensely fierce female bionic man appeared on the screen.

”Wow, a stunner!”

This female bionic man was incredibly beautiful, with exquisite short blue hair, pale red eyes, and a curvaceous figure. But what was most captivating was her aura, much like a burning flame. Her voice was low and hoarse, full of killing intent.

It reminded Director Du of an extremely detestable woman.

”My name is Yagami Suuji, Captain of the Mobile Unit’s First Division.”

”Remember this, perpetrator, no matter who you are, no matter where you are, whether human or AI, I will find you, tear your flesh apart, dig out your Personality Chip, and obliterate your Memory Data. No matter how many avatars or subprograms you have, I will hunt them all down and utterly destroy you!”

With a ’bang,’ the holographic screen exploded.

Not just one channel, but all the channels were the same.

”That woman is very strong,” Du Zhaodi opened her eyes, a look of solemnity flashing in them: ”I just sensed surveillance satellites were watching us. If I’m not mistaken, that woman is using over a thousand satellites covering the planet for global positioning.”

”Once the perpetrator views this program and experiences specific emotional or facial changes, this woman will immediately detect it.”

”She appears to be venting, but in reality, she’s hunting the perpetrator.”

...

In Nightless City, Business District, waiting in a long queue to pay taxes, Gao Gong saw this scene and clicked his tongue in wonder.

”Another planetary protagonist has emerged, the future first enforcer of the Deep Net, the most advanced bionic man within ten years, and a frequent visitor to the 3D region, Yagami Suuji.”