Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 914: Chapter 20: Emmett Protozoa

This alien who ejected from the starship finally had the demeanor of the alien boss that players had envisioned.

The four eyeballs looked down, and players who were scanned felt as if a current ran over their skin, causing their hair to stand on end. From the perspective of carbon-based evolutionary science, this was a bioelectric backflow caused by the suppression of a strong biofield over a weak one.

This indicates that the other party has gone much further on the path of carbon fusion than the players.

Moreover, the opponent’s menacing face and massive body, resembling a combination of the final boss from ”Cadillacs and Dinosaurs” and Kong’s lower half plus the Ghat’s limb, indeed exuded the aura of an interstellar supervillain.

The most crucial point is, the majority of players cannot determine this guy’s level. Only the top players like Brother Umbrella, who are above level 50, can barely confirm that the opponent is level 84 and is a rare three-template boss.

The three NPC templates are ’Blue Blood Demon,’ ’Star Thief King,’ and ’Shrek Remnants.’

Apart from the ’Star Thief King’ template, which is a group buff type, the remaining two are enhancing the spirit and enhancing body transformation templates, respectively.

There is no doubt this means one thing: not only can the opponent use powerful skills, but they can also transform!

This is an all-purpose type of boss.

Vervi silently glanced at the players below, looked up at the sky, and, as expected, three more escort starships drifted out from the meteorite sea. The gates opened, and the number of these mercenaries with a radical modification style increased.

It’s a very old-fashioned tactic to pin down the enemy with planet-level defenses and launch a two-pronged attack with the fleet. It’s similar to some ancient siege battles but much more complex, as enemies can traverse space at any time.

As a star thief group, naturally, they can’t afford or need to purchase large space anchors, which are equipment for locking space and engaging in star wars. Their standard style is hit-and-run.

Vervi finally set his eyes in a northeast direction. From that starry sky, he faintly felt a force suppressing him, a force he had only felt when around his former captain.

That was the aura of a top-level ’Super Interstellar Warrior,’ who, based solely on their attack power, could brush the edges of ascension civilization weapons.

Under everyone’s gaze, just as the players thought this antagonist would deliver a plot CG, say something overbearingly cool, this alien antagonist adjusted the ’Universal Translator’ at the corner of his mouth with a serious expression, and then his knees buckled, kneeling in mid-air on the spot.

”I surrender!!!”

[Mission Complete: Experience +10 million, Star Thief Reputation +1000 (Holt Inner Star Spin), Specialization Points +30, and a random piece of Tier 3 implant equipment.]

Players: ”...”

As it turns out, when you are cautious enough, even your enemies are left speechless.

The interstellar survival wisdom of Vervi is twofold: first, avoid strong opponents you cannot defeat at all costs; second, if inevitable in reality, surrender as quickly as possible.

This is also why, as a notorious former member of the Shrek Star Thief Group, he managed to stay safe and live until now.

When Gao Gong appeared and saw the leader of the star thief group surrounded by players, he was also rendered speechless.

In the players’ first battle in the cosmos, the mystery and unknown of the universe were fully displayed, especially the unknown.

”Why not secretly kill him and see if any equipment drops?” One clever player boldly spoke in front of Gao Gong.

Gao Gong gave the person a sidelong glance, silently issued a red warning from the player’s panel, and threatened to expel him from the camp if more nonsense was spoken.

That bright player sheepishly smiled and slipped into the crowd. It’s not that he has a strong affiliation with the Du Gao Group; it’s just that the universe is vast and empty, and since they haven’t encountered any other civilized forces so far, where would he go if he was expelled now?

Facing Gao Gong’s arrival, Vervi actually breathed a sigh of relief. He knew the top interstellar warrior before him was the leader of this group of mercenaries. The nearly hundred-meter-tall giant shell was shrinking progressively, while the arms on the massive arm also withdrew into the body. For carbon-based species above Tier 2, controlling the size and distance of cells is possible, so for species of different civilizations, body size is no longer a barrier to mating.

Seeing how insightful the opponent was, Gao Gong wasted no words and executed a ’Black Tiger Heart Stealing,’ plunging straight into the opponent’s chest. The next moment, two stripes resembling the opponent’s complexion appeared on Gao Gong’s face.

’Alien Bloodline System Alien Form’ activated.

’It’s akin to possessing the physique of an SS-level Radiation Beast, and a three-template one at that.’

Gao Gong finally spoke. From the player’s point of view, it was a raspy, strange accent, some frequencies of which their vocal cords couldn’t even produce. Vervi’s body visibly trembled, and his expression turned even more reverent.

The two communicated in this ’alien language’ for a while, then soared into the sky simultaneously, flying towards the star thief gang’s flagship one after the other, while the players received the mission completion directive.

Gao Gong arrived inside the star thief ship, wild on the outside and even wilder within.

The metal punk style framework of the ship was adorned with various biological skeletons turned collectibles, heaps of genetic regulation liquid, dopamine-releasing beverages, and grimy, yellowish genetic generation pods. This type of level 2 biological architecture is oddly like a toilet.

However, Gao Gong obviously didn’t care about the other party’s decoration style or the level of cleanliness. He was more concerned with the technological level of the other party, which is the simplest way to assess a power’s strength.

The weapon system is the ’Floating Cannon System,’ a type of small ship-mounted cannon about three meters long. It has triangular energy storage modules and flight modules on the sides, with an empty middle line for firing the cannon. However, the damage is low, ranging from 10,000 to 50,000. The only advantage is the number, being easy to control, with each set of floating cannons comprising over a hundred pieces on average.

As for the starship’s most crucial reactor system, it wasn’t the curvature engine Gao Gong had expected but a linkage reactor engine, which is quite large, taking up about one-third of the entire ship.

”Not a curvature engine?” Gao Gong looked at Vervi with some surprise, ”Your Star Thief Group’s situation seems a bit lacking.”

The curvature engine is not the same as a light-speed engine; it is a type of superluminal engine.

Vervi was a bit embarrassed.

It’s not that all Star Thief Group ships must be equipped with superluminal engines; that would be unrealistic.

Rather, for a force like the Star Thieves, it’s very difficult to resist a large fleet. Once they are surrounded by a civilization fleet, they must ensure that their small star thief ship can enter ’superluminal mode’ in a short time to shake off the opponent.

If you can’t fight them and you can’t outrun them, the materials of the Star Thief Ship will certainly not compare to those supported by a civilization force. If you burn out all your energy and still can’t shake them off, then you’re finished.

However, Gao Gong soon let out a small exclamation.

He realized he had been mistaken.

Although it’s just an ordinary energy reactor, it’s an interconnected system of ten large reactors using a very ingenious technology. In this way, a short-term speed increase of up to 120% can be achieved.

It should be known that even a 1% increase at light-speed is a significant improvement, the result of thousands of scientists’ research over many years.

Gao Gong conducted an ’investigation’ on the reactor engine.

Gates Light Energy Engine (Tier 3): Through large-scale adjustments of mechanical pipelines, it temporarily stimulates the speed-up of the ship’s engine, involving complex astronomical energy and mechanical knowledge.

Gao Gong’s eyes lit up, and he said, ”Who crafted this model of energy engine?”

”It was a teammate from my former Star Thief Group. His name is Gates; he is now retired at the black market in the Five-Ring Stellar Vortex,” Vervi said apprehensively.

Gao Gong nodded thoughtfully and said, ”I’d like an introduction if there’s a chance.”

”No problem, General,” as Gao Gong requested to be called by the other party.

”Let’s go to the control station.”

The small star thief ship didn’t have a bridge, but near the ship’s engine lies the control hall of this ’Blue Demon’ ship.

And when Gao Gong appeared in the hall, all the screens in the hall lit up, and blurry images of girls appeared in the hall, smiling happily when they saw Gao Gong.

”Brother.”

Vervi showed an even more respectful expression.

It could even be said that more than 50% of his reason for surrendering was due to this information lifeform. When he knew the other party could simulate time evolution, he knew he couldn’t escape.

Although, in the player’s eyes, this ship’s force doesn’t even have a firewall, invading the ship is as simple as hacking a bare machine, but Gao Gong alone knew that the virtual defensive power of Vervi’s Star Thief Gang had long been subdued by Gao Yuanyuan, a Tier 3 top-level virtual lifeform.

”Let me have a look at what good things you’ve subdued,” Gao Gong said with great interest.

Gao Yuanyuan smiled with her lips pressed together, and the next moment, a ’flurry of goose feathers’ fell from the ceiling.

Gao Gong let out a small exclamation, opened his palm, and a ’goose feather’ landed in it, then melted away. But in his ’biological computer’, a string of ’live’ code suddenly emerged and split data rapidly, quickly creating a large-scale database-sized mountain of junk data.

[You’ve been attacked by Tier 3 virtual creature ???, consciousness -100]

[You’ve been attacked by Tier 3 virtual creature ???, consciousness -100]

[You’ve been attacked by Tier 3 virtual creature ???, consciousness -100]

......

In just a moment, Gao Gong’s consciousness decreased by 600 points, but this splitting soon stopped, and the junk data devoured each other, turning back into that string of ’live code’. Then Gao Gong felt an itchy sensation on the back of his hand, looked down, and saw a white caterpillar slowly crawling on the back of his hand. It looked harmless, except for its noteworthy small red bean eyes.

Only Gao Gong knew that this thing was quite dangerous. Its splitting ability alone matched the ’authority’ of a big data conceptual body.

This meant it could split infinitely.

Massive production of junk data is a formidable enemy of any information system — especially for virtual lifeforms.

”Would you introduce it?” Gao Gong looked at Vervi.

With a struggling expression, Vervi finally resigned, ”This is an Emmett Protozoa.”