Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 901: Chapter 7: Mining

Among the many complex and diverse cosmic star bodies, pulsars count as a relatively special type.

Strictly speaking, a pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star; its density is second only to a black hole, and because of its high-speed rotation, it emits electric pulses outward like electron beams, which, in the black ocean of the cosmos, are like the light from a lighthouse.

Exactly because of these Traits, in interstellar navigation it has become a kind of ”navigation lighthouse” existence. Some seasoned veterans, like Interstellar Pirates, love to tweak the ”lights” and send out encrypted messages.

Blowing up the ”lighthouse”—in other words, snuffing out a neutron star—is standard practice in interstellar war.

It’s also one of the few star bodies not protected under the Interstellar War Convention issued by the Civilization Council.

And the reason Gao Gong is paying attention to this, aside from using it to confirm the route, is that—using a neutron star, you can pull aggro.

According to the Star Map, from here to the Relic Black Market is about 2.5 light-years.

And based on the typical Light-speed cruising speed of Level 3 Civilization Spaceships, it would take roughly 2.5 years to reach that Black Market (though the actual time will definitely not be that long).

With that much time, if there are no wild mobs to soothe the Players, it’s hard to imagine what this 4th Celestial Calamity crowd would get up to.

Even Gao Gong himself needs some materials dropped by Star Thieves to Enhance the Spaceship and train up his Soldier Species.

So once he confirms the existence of a neutron star, he can be sure he won’t be bored for a long while.

...

Time flew by, and half a month passed. The five Starships—three Escort Ships, one Industrial Ship, and one Exploration Ship—were finally completed.

The Planet Host Deep Net was also moved onto the Great Curved Saber, since if you’re putting on a show, you might as well go all in.

And when the five Starships lifted off, in the vicinity of the atmosphere, that dense swarm of Mechanical Octopus in space—numbering in the tens of millions—also departed from the planetary surface. They were about to enter the nearby space troop carriers, then be Teleported in bulk and reclaimed by the Mechanical Sovereign.

The members of Du Gao Technology all stood by the space windows, complex emotions in their hearts as they watched the planet growing smaller and smaller.

Not everyone was leaving.

For example, Aunt Xiang, Old Sunx, Professor Han and other old-timers, who had already decided to retire on this planet.

And for example, the Six Ministries members who originally served the Mother City, and who were now becoming the only official force on this unclaimed planet.

As well as some Super Corporations that had resumed operations; they were probably even more excited about the coming age of opening up.

The ones most eaten up with envy, jealousy, and resentment were the little Players who didn’t get on board.

Most of these Players hadn’t taken part in the mission, and the reason they didn’t take part was that their level wasn’t high enough.

So they could keep playing on this newbie map, Mechanical Split Star, for a while yet.

...

On the Great Curved Saber

Gao Gong stood facing the Spark Storage: fourteen Spark Storage towers in total, each a hundred meters tall. Inside the Spark Storage, there were Mechanical Leader Celestial Might and Mechanical Pioneer Venus, who he was familiar with, as well as other Cybertron Leaders he didn’t know so well.

But these level 90 mechanical big bosses were now all floating in the mechanical fluid like corpses.

Their Spark Modules had already been repaired; as long as there was enough energy, they could be rebooted at any time. But for their thought modules to restart, that would probably take some time.

And even if the reboot succeeded, their previous memories were probably wiped clean.

”That’s fine too,” Gao Gong muttered to himself. ”Saves me the trouble of having to brainwash you.”

Even though he, who had mastered the Memory Worm, could restore their memories at any time.

But as long as Gao Gong’s brain was functioning normally, he would never do that.

”However, using the Memory Worm to digest the Thought Steel Seal is actually a pretty good method.”

Although he’d mastered the Memory Worm, Gao Gong wouldn’t use it lightly. After all, once people discovered that he carried a civilization-level disaster around with him, pretty much every civilization out there would be hunting him down.

This could only be kept as a last-resort trump card.

Spark Technology was different; it belonged to Tier 3 Mechanism Technology. Using Spark Technology as the blueprint, whether Mecha or Mechanical Hunter, both now had further possibilities.

Once he advanced to Tier 3, Gao Gong could use a full set of Spark Technology to forge his own Cybertron Corps.

As mechanical tech progressed, Biotechnology had to advance in step.

Thinking of this, Gao Gong turned on his heel, left the Spark Storage, and walked into another Seed Vault on the Great Curved Saber.

This Seed Vault was a bit like an oversized morgue; every ”compartment” held Radiation Plants seeds from Mechanical Split Star, and even more held biological embryos.

At least until he secured a stable production base, Biotechnology was going to be in a stalled state.

Like Director Du had said, building a large Space Base could support breeding some Radiation Beasts, but a single Starship—especially one whose most areas are crammed full of all kinds of machines—just doesn’t have spare room for breeding Radiation Beasts.

”What brings you here, rare guest.”

A bob-cut Big Lolita in a white lab coat, with straight, slender thighs and an utterly average chest, glanced at Gao Gong in surprise. She was holding two biological test tubes, probably having just done some gene extraction experiment and about to store the samples.

”Perfect timing, give me two drops of blood. I want to study that SSS+ Bloodline of yours.”

Seeing that Ye the Big Lolita was shamelessly trying to strip Gao Gong’s clothes, Gao quickly grabbed her hand, cleared his throat, and said:

”First, I’m not here for you to experiment on.”

”Second, seeing your current boss, you don’t know to at least say hello, former President!”

Just like some people stayed on the planet, some people also left with Gao Gong, such as Ye the Big Lolita in front of him.

Ye the Big Lolita rolled her eyes, withdrew the hand that was tugging at Gao Gong’s pants, made a silly face, and stuck out her tongue.

”Du Gao Technology, Du Gao Technology, is your surname Du?”

Gao Gong didn’t mind her ’offense’. Toward this Dark Girl whose plotline he’d already scrambled into a complete mess, he had a subtle sense of ”raising” her. He walked behind her, chatting idly.

”Still, I really didn’t expect you’d give up being President of Holy Brain Group and come over here to work.”

”Hmph! You should be grateful. With the help of a former President like me, this corporation definitely has more of a future than with you, this salted-fish Boss.”

”Then I’ll wait and see.”

Gao Gong watched as she placed the biological test tubes into the storage container, then Ye the Big Lolita complained, ”S-Level Radiation Beast Bloodline is just like sulfuric acid; ordinary test tubes can’t store it at all. And even if you finish extracting it, the genes in the cell fluid burn out at high speed. For this research, the Biologists I brought over are practically going bald.”

”That part can only be figured out slowly. If we can store S-Level genes, that basically means we’ve taken the first step toward mass-producing S-Level Radiation Beasts. It’s not going to be easy.”

Gao Gong shook his head, then looked toward the operating table. There was another older lolita there, recording something.

Ever since the Brain-in-a-Vat died, the Little Woman had quieted down a lot. Normally she wasn’t so loud anymore, nor did she show up much. She spent most of her time in her own room, absorbing the Brain-in-a-Vat’s remaining Spiritual Power. From Gao’s Sensing, her Spiritual Power was already close to that of an S-Level Radiation Beast, and within her Spiritual Power, there was a kind of life transformation that even Gao found hard to understand.

After all, she was the product of the Brain-in-a-Vat and that Super Giant Tree.

Seeing that the Little Woman’s mood was much better than before, and that she even had the interest to roll her eyes at Gao and Ye the Big Lolita bickering, Gao pondered for a moment and said:

”One of you is the Brain-in-a-Vat’s successor, and the other has operated the Brain-in-a-Vat. Maybe you two could start a research project—develop a Brain-in-a-Vat-type biological environment. In that kind of environment, it should be possible to accommodate S-Level Bloodlines.”

The Little Woman and the Big Lolita both showed thoughtful expressions.

Seeing this, Gao Gong opened the Alliance Panel. The panel hadn’t changed.

In fact, whether it was Ye the Big Lolita and the Elite Holy Brain Group research team joining, or those fourteen mechanical big bosses, all of it should have increased Alliance Points.

But the Alliance Points remained stuck at 1,000,000.

So in the end, we still have to get Level 3 Civilization Knowledge before the Alliance can evolve smoothly, huh.

”What are you thinking about?” the Little Woman suddenly asked.

Gao snapped out of it and casually said, ”I was thinking, when we catch Space Creatures in the future, we could mix outer space creature Genes with S-Level Bloodlines. Maybe that could push the Radiation Bloodline a step further.”

...

After Gao Gong made a round of inspections, he quickly received a helpless notification from Lady A.

”Boss, that bunch of Players is stirring up trouble again.”

Hearing A Lady’s speechless tone, Gao couldn’t help but laugh.

To make an Artificial Intelligence speechless, this bunch of Players really had skills.

And it had only been 10 days.

In just 10 days, this group of Players had already developed countless ways to play with Spaceships—and successfully gotten bored of them.

And as the facts prove, a bunch of liver-busting grinders with nothing better to do is terrifying.

”What did they do this time?”

”To decide whether to plant potatoes or corn on the ship, they started a massive brawl onboard, causing over a thousand casualties.”

”Who won?”

”The potato faction won. And they’re planning to use outer space Radiation to mutate the potatoes and make pumpkin-sized Super Potatoes.”

”Ambitious.”

Faced with the Players’ crazy operations, Gao remained very calm.

”By the way, we’re almost to the Asteroid Belt, right?”

”In five more planets, we’ll enter the Asteroid Belt. That also means we’ll officially leave the Primary Celestial Body System centered on Mechanical Split Star, and enter the Level 2 Celestial System named Robert Star System–Holt Inner Star Spin–Atlantean System.”

Through the space window, Gao saw the Fixed Star named ”Atlantis”. This star not only shone on Mechanical Split Star, but also illuminated the Asteroid Belt.

Gao pondered for a moment and said, ”Let’s stay in the Asteroid Belt for a few days and find something for them to do.”

”What do you want them to do?” Lady A asked.

”Mining.”