Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 982: Chapter 88: Investigation 2

In the shelter, a dozen Corpse King Hunters were wide-eyed with shock at the alien named Lord Bao.

An alien arriving to help them fight zombies?

Which idiot came up with this godlike plot?

The leading ’Rakish Knight’ pondered for a moment and said, ”Lord Bao, how exactly do you propose collaborating?”

Across the screen, Baozi perked up and said:

”Whatever you need: mecha, constructs, radiation-enhanced cells, alien implanted lineage, implantation plugins, biological weapons, weapons of mass destruction, weapons of passion, profession books, bionic soldiers, robot soldier species, everything is here...”

Baozi showed off his inventory, revealing a list of equipment that was completely new to everyone present, making their hearts itch with desire.

”How do you plan to sell these?” the ’Ruins Chef’ asked tentatively.

”Anything that’s a planetary specialty is up for trade—high-level energy ore, local equipment weapons, corporate lineages, profession books, any other resources from your planet.”

Baozi said enthusiastically. He had managed to acquire a large stock from the Black Market and paid someone a hefty transportation fee, all to act as a planetary middleman, buying low and selling high to become rich in one go.

He believed that as part of the Cyber Test Field, there must be plenty of good stuff here.

The Corpse King Hunters present fell silent, making Baozi feel vaguely uneasy.

’Rakish Knight’ thought for a moment and said, ”The most valuable thing we have here should be the Tier 2 ’City Defense Cannon’, but I see you have a higher-level ’Shipborne Ion Cannon’ on your list, do you want to trade?”

”Damn, my shipborne cannon is a Tier 3 weapon, who would want your shabby second-hand cannon!” Lord Bao the alien replied angrily.

”Then there’s nothing we can do,” another Corpse King Hunter probed, ”Lord Bao, how about we borrow your equipment first and work on missions to pay you back?”

”Are you trying to freeload!?” Baozi nearly fainted from anger.

...

In the command center of the Star Destroyer

Data collected by numerous players started to upload, and various ecological models, geographical models, and corpse circle models began to be established. The biologists within the legion were also very interested in the Immortal Energy Star of the Cyber Test Field.

”The virus components in the air have been analyzed, and there’s one that can accelerate human evolution.”

”I need a few zombie specimens to analyze their differences from radiation corpses.”

”The defense system of this planet has been removed, I’m applying to lead an investigation.”

...

The biologists were engaged in heated discussions, and many even wanted to go down for field investigation.

The corpse circles on the Immortal Energy Star and the radiation circles on the Mechanical Split Star have very subtle similarities but are quite different when examined closely.

Gao Gong was focusing on the gaming forums.

He noticed an interesting point. Previously, the game sections were not interconnected, meaning if you were a player from ’Mechanical Split Star’, you could only post in the ’Mechanical Split Star’ game section, and visiting other places wasn’t allowed.

However, since the small players from the Mechanical Split Star entered the Immortal Energy Star, the two sections became interconnected. Many players from the Mechanical Split Star, out of some secretive mentality, began posting fishing threads.

”Shocked: Level 2 corpse circle appears Birdman, suspected zombie variant Flying Yaksha”

The main page also had a photo of a blurred human figure with wings, presumably a selfie from a mutant player.

”Especially shocked: Is it moral decline or species imbalance, a player’s passionate movement video with a certain zombie”

Gao Gong eagerly clicked on it, only to find a player and a zombie dancing awkwardly and passionately.

”The galaxy position of Mechanical Split Star, its trade value, species classification, and moral research in the interstellar society”

This was written by a player showing off their interstellar society knowledge in a pretentious post.

Although none of these posts identified themselves, their mix of excitement and ignorance was a giveaway that they were outsiders.

”This planet’s technology is a bit primitive.”

This statement made Gao Gong look up and notice it was an expert in mechanical development.

”According to the data, we can infer that this planet once had traces of a Level 2 Mechanical Civilization, but now nothing remains.”

Gao Gong pondered for a moment, called in ’Lord Celestis’, and said, ”Even though this planet’s host has left, there should still be some traces left behind. Go investigate.”

”As you command,” Lord Celestis nodded, and in a moment, a massive Spark Mechanism disappeared under the traction beam.

As a former underling of ’General Cybertron’, Lord Celestis had a keen perception of the planet host, and as a Mechanical Life, he was immune to the pervasive virus on this planet.

”This planet doesn’t have the look of a Cyber Test Field at all, what’s it trying to experiment on?”

Every Cyber Test Field includes the exploration of a certain civilization’s ecology or a type of cutting-edge technology by an Advanced Civilization.

Gao Gong originally wasn’t interested in this planet’s experiments, but the Zombie Planet was too normal, which made him suspect something was amiss. The style seemed off.

He decided to wait a little longer.

After another two days, as players from the investigation team gradually returned, they brought back the most important biological specimens—from Tier 1 to Tier 2 zombies.

...

In glass cabinets, zombies unique to the Immortal Energy Star were brought in, from the most ordinary Level 1 Corpse Circle zombies to the highest Level 7 Corpse Circle Corpse King that could be captured, all were captured alive.

Theoretically, for a Planet-level Civilization, the monster level cap is 30. As part of the Cyber Test Field, experiment products generally don’t exceed Level 60. With the current strength of the faction players, capturing such planet monsters alive was already possible.

”The physical decay of an ordinary zombie is up to 95%. For a Level 2 Corpse Circle zombie, the decay is reduced by 15%, and the internal organs show initial activation. For a Level 3 Corpse Circle zombie, decay reaches 65%, and the heart is functioning normally...”

Dr. Yuu seldom put down his project to personally conduct dissections on these dozens of zombies.

Gao Gong stood with arms crossed opposite, his eyes flashing red continuously. In terms of data recording, ’Biological Computer’ had more advantages.

He quickly noticed something wrong.

The higher the zombie level, the more active the body organs, and superficially, they looked more and more like living people.

The Corpse King, captured by a dozen high-end players working together, was indistinguishable from a living person on the surface—a middle-aged, slightly balding man in his forties or fifties—showing signs of fear and apprehension, especially when seeing his fellow zombies being dissected.

Then it spoke:

”Why are you capturing me?”

”It can talk?” Gao Gong exclaimed.

Could the Cyber Experiment here be focusing on zombie civilization?

”Its intelligence level is on par with conventional intelligent species,” Dr. Yuu responded without looking up.

”Then isn’t it kind of wrong for us to treat him this way?” Xiao Yu asked compassionately.

”According to investigations, zombies have a high tendency for bloodthirst and cannibalism. To reach its level as a zombie, it’s consumed at least hundreds of thousands of its kind and others. If you’re evaluating it with your moral standards, it should be executed ten thousand times.”

”Oh, then forget it,” Xiao Yu’s sympathy quickly vanished.

”Boss, what’s for dinner tonight?” she asked Gao Gong seriously.

Gao Gong didn’t respond to her but instead rubbed his chin, examining this Corpse King—a man resembling a middle-aged, balding and troubled man—showing none of the Corpse King’s might.

”Who wants to test its combat strength?”