Chapter 169: The Machine Clan (Batch 4)

"Large-scale exploration..."

Jiang Chen hesitated slightly.

The mission data provided by the Virtual Universe Company was not comprehensive regarding the origin and description of the "Death Star."

However, a technological weapon of this scale, coupled with the Death Star's powerful internal signal-jamming capabilities, various grade-F alloys, and other features, made it clear that if the Death Star were truly a technologically advanced weapon of immense power as Jiang Chen suspected, the specifications of this "planetary fortress" would be exceptionally high.

Even if it did not reach the level of a "Universe尊者" (Universe Superior / Universe尊者), it was at least capable of dealing with beings at the level of a "King-class Invincible."

A planetary fortress of this caliber would inevitably possess terrifying internal defensive power.

Even though the Death Star had been severely battered, as long as its internal systems were still operational, the existence of an immensely powerful intelligent entity was entirely possible.

Although the probability of this was low, it was a factor that could not be ignored.

What Jiang Chen feared most was not the combat strength within the Death Star, but rather the possibility that this powerful intelligence might directly hack into Jarvis's database and seize control of the mechanical legion from his hands.

If his own military force were to be turned against him by an enemy and used to attack him, that would be utterly laughable.

Digitizing his spiritual will and directly controlling the mechanical units could avoid this trouble.

However, due to the Death Star's unique environment, maintaining this kind of control meant Jiang Chen would have to move alongside the mechanical legion.

Unable to split his forces and forced to follow a single path while navigating the labyrinth-like Death Star, heaven only knows how long it would take to find the correct route deep into the core area.

And this assumed that the internal structure of the Death Star would remain static.

If the internal structure were constantly shifting, one might never hope to penetrate the core area of the Death Star in a lifetime and discover the most valuable "secret" of this mission world.

"Unless..."

Jiang Chen looked at the surrounding walls, and a thought flashed through his mind: "Tear the Death Star apart! The perception and signal jamming within this planet are entirely built upon these special alloys. As long as these alloys are dismantled, they naturally won't be able to trap me!"

Grade-F alloys were extremely hard, with defensive capabilities sufficient to withstand a full-strength blow from an immortal god.

If it were the highest grade-F9, it could even block attacks from a King-class Invincible.

Yet, as long as one employed specialized methods to segment and dismantle them, it was not an insurmountable task.

Everything between heaven and earth had its counter, let alone inanimate, non-resisting metallic materials.

Moreover, these metallic materials held considerable value.

Grade-F metals, even as alloys, were priced by the "gram" in the normal markets of the universe.

If he could acquire a batch of them to take back, even given the wealth Jiang Chen currently possessed, it would represent a massive increase, potentially multiplying his assets several times over.

The only thing that caused Jiang Chen hesitation was that such behavior would undoubtedly cause considerable destruction to the "Death Star" itself, and whether it might provoke the dissatisfaction of the higher-ups among the Five Great Giants.

One had to remember that, at the behest of the Primal Chaos City Leader (or Original Ancestor / Giant Axe Founding Father), Jiang Chen was required to maintain a constant "synchronous transmission" with the virtual universe throughout his adventure in the mission world, meaning all his actions could not be concealed from the virtual universe system.

Among the Five Great Giants, those high-ranking individuals with sufficient authority could also review Jiang Chen's records within the mission world at any time.

After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Chen's consciousness entered the virtual universe and sent out an email.

It had to be said that the virtual universe was truly miraculous.

Even the grade-F alloys with their powerful isolation effects could not prevent Jiang Chen from logging into the virtual universe.

It was said that throughout the entire universe, places capable of blocking virtual universe signals were extremely rare.

Yet, considering the origin of the virtual universe, Jiang Chen felt a sense of relief.

The most powerful method of the Universe Sea's strongest "Tier-10 True God," used against the product of the "Original Universe's Origin Will," would be strange indeed if it were not powerful enough.

Although the Original Ancestor ultimately failed and was suppressed by the origin will, the virtual universe remained an immensely precious legacy left behind for the human race.

After waiting for a moment, Jiang Chen received an email in the virtual universe.

However, it was not sent by the "administrator" of the Virtual Universe Company's Primordial Secret Region, but rather by the Giant Axe Founding Father.

The email Jiang Chen had sent was an inquiry as to whether he could "moderately" harvest the grade-F alloys of the Death Star to directly carve out a passage deep into its interior.

And the reply email from the Giant Axe Founding Father contained only a single sentence: "Do as your heart guides you, do not worry about the rest!"

Upon receiving the email from the Giant Axe Founding Father, Jiang Chen immediately set his mind at ease.

With those words from the Giant Axe Founding Father, even if he were to dismantle the entire Death Star, he would be covered.

"Jarvis, prepare the engineering machinery and dig a path straight through!" Jiang Chen immediately issued the order.

Jarvis, however, did not act immediately, but instead asked: "Master, are we simply digging a path, or should we simultaneously recover these alloy materials? According to the information in the database, the value of grade-F9 alloys is exceptionally high."

Simply digging a path was much lower in difficulty; as long as special materials were used to disrupt the alloy's structure, it offered the highest efficiency, simpler preparation, and work could begin very quickly.

Yet, doing so would also render these alloys scrap, causing them to lose their value.

On the other hand, if they wished to preserve the value of these alloy materials while clearing the passage and collecting them, although achievable, the complexity would increase significantly, and efficiency would drop.

"Of course we collect the materials, but making a passageway takes priority. As long as it's passable, there's no need to intentionally waste time solely for the sake of collecting materials," Jiang Chen said.

Although Jiang Chen was wealthy, he was not yet rich enough to ignore grade-F9 alloy materials.

Such precious "treasures" naturally could not be wasted wantonly.

Bringing these alloys back later to reinforce the armor of his mechanical units would also greatly enhance the defensive power of his mechanical legion.

The materials used for the defensive armor of the immortal puppets and Void Dragon mechs in Jiang Chen's possession were only grade-F1, falling far short of grade-F9.

From grade-F1 to grade-F9, while seemingly within the same major tier, the actual gap in both strength and manufacturing cost was astronomical.

"Understood, Master." Receiving the command, Jarvis rapidly began mobilizing engineering machinery units.

Cutting and collecting grade-F9 metal was still troublesome and required considerable preparation.

Fortunately, Jiang Chen had enough materials on hand; even manufacturing them on the spot was feasible.

First, a testing instrument was brought out to carefully analyze the structure of the grade-F9 alloy on the wall.

Once the analysis was complete and thorough calculations were made, the optimal plan was designed.

Within the world ring, a portion of the factories began production, manufacturing several strange devices that appeared alongside the "miners" within the hall.

The newly manufactured device resembled a laser gun, with a metal wire at the tip and rows of mirrors surrounding it, tilted toward the front.

An engineering mechanical unit picked up the "laser gun" and pressed the start button.

A dazzling light erupted, and countless particle streams, reflected by the mirrors, converged on the wall ahead.

Simultaneously, the metal wire emitted a bolt of lightning that struck the exact center where the particle streams converged.

A tiny hole appeared under the bombardment of the lightning.

Whether it was the particle ray stream or the lightning, neither possessed overwhelming power individually, reaching at most grade-E level.

Yet, combined, they easily pierced through the grade-F9 alloy.

This was the power of technology—achieving maximum effect with minimal cost.

"The thickness of this wall is 80 centimeters. It is estimated to take 12 hours to cut a passageway 100 meters wide and high," Jarvis reported to Jiang Chen while manipulating the engineering machinery to continuously cut into the wall.

"Twelve hours for just a single wall. To carve out a path deep into the interior of the Death Star will likely take dozens or even hundreds of years."

Jiang Chen shook his head slightly, feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

However, he also knew that this matter could not be rushed.

This was refined grade-F9 alloy, not raw natural ore materials, so the difficulty of cutting it was naturally vastly different.

Taking a bit longer was entirely normal.

"Let's hope the value of the Death Star is worth the time I'm investing."

A thought flashed through Jiang Chen's mind as he handed over the guard duty to Jarvis and his clone, sinking his main consciousness directly into the system library.

---

Deep within the Death Star, inside the core area.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

Piercing alarm klaxons blared incessantly, repeatedly broadcasting a special language that bore no resemblance whatsoever to the human common tongue.

If there were any powerful beings present who were familiar with alien races, they would immediately recognize this as the internal common language of the Mechanical Race.

In reality, communication among the Mechanical Race required no spoken language; data exchange alone completed communication instantly.

However, among the numerous vassal races of the Mechanical Race, quite a few depended on spoken language and written text for communication.

To facilitate communication, the Mechanical Race created the "Mechanical Race Common Language" and implanted it into the core logical programming of every Mechanical Race member.

Translated into human speech, this Mechanical Race common language roughly meant: "Warning, warning! Outer compartment breached! Defensive armor damaged! 5,4217 patrol units destroyed!"

Yet, apart from the piercing alarms, no special movement occurred.

This place had long since been abandoned for an unknown length of time.

A battle in the infinitely ancient past had resulted in the destruction of this powerful "planetary fortress."

The master of the Death Star, a powerful entity of the Mechanical Race, had also been slain.

The Mechanical Race itself possessed the ultimate intelligence, so naturally, no additional artificial intelligence was created to operate technological weapons.

Following the fall of that powerful Mechanical Race entity, the Death Star had remained in a state of unoperated dormancy.

Only a few pre-set programs that had not yet shut down allowed the Death Star to barely maintain operation.

To call it operation was a stretch; in truth, a mere two modules remained active.

First was the internal defense system. This included the Death Star's own internal weapons and patrolling mechanical soldiers.

However, constrained by the severing of communication with the outside world, the Death Star had been forced, throughout endless years, to rely solely on scavenging useless internal materials to manufacture mechanical soldiers and repair its defense system.

Lacking materials, even the most brilliant technology could not display its might.

The soldiers produced varied wildly in strength, falling completely short of the Death Star in its prime.

The defense system was equally dilapidated, and those parts that were barely repaired lacked formidable lethality, at most barely posing a threat to beings at the level of immortal gods.

Lacking intelligent control, both the defensive weapons and mechanical soldiers could only execute rigid, pre-set programs to continuously inspect the interior, launching attacks upon encountering enemies, completely devoid of independent consciousness or cognitive capability.

This greatly reduced the threat posed by the Death Star.

Of course, for universe-level core geniuses from the Five Great Secret Regions, such an environment was already perilously dangerous.

A universe-knight-level combat force alone was enough to pose a fatal threat to most normal universe-level geniuses. Kuang-class? No, domain/sector-lord level.

Even top-tier geniuses from the Primordial Secret Region and Honor Secret Region would find it difficult to escape alive upon encountering an immortal god.

Yet within the "Death Star"—which was not much larger than Jupiter—in such a compact space, thousands upon thousands of immortal-level mechanical puppets and technological weapons were densely packed to a horrifying degree.

When it came to the casualty rate of geniuses, even the top-ranked "Purgatory Abyss" could not rival the terrifying mortality rate of the Death Star.

Throughout endless years, only extremely rare, "out-of-spec" geniuses like Jiang Chen could move through the Death Star as if in water, adventuring with ease.

As for the other module that was barely functional, following its pre-set programming, it had remained "dormant" for an unknown duration.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the Death Star and began violently dismantling the defensive layers composed of grade-F9 alloys in an attempt to break through into the Death Star's inner core area, it finally began to "awaken."

"Intruder detected breaching the first layer of defense, Alpha-class anti-intrusion system activated!"

"Anti-intrusion system activation error, evolution core severely damaged, retrying..."

"Reboot failed, initiating self-diagnostic procedure."

"Self-diagnosis complete, Alpha-class anti-intrusion system module damage degree 89.12%, unrepairable."

"Executing next directive."

"Intruder approaching core area."

"Anti-intrusion system inoperable, executing self-destruct sequence."

"Core components missing, self-destruct sequence activation failed."

"Determining..."

A string of voice prompts sounded, sometimes consecutively, and sometimes separated by vast spans of time measured in decades.

Finally, a synthesized electronic voice rang out: "Core logic conflict, unauthorized by higher-level directives, unable to determine. According to regulation XXXX, a new Mechanical Race intelligent lifeform will be spawned to complete the logical determination!"

Inside a core cabin, numerous parts rapidly spliced and assembled together, and a large optical computer was constructed in a matter of minutes.

Within the database, a massive program was replicated into the optical computer, giving birth to a brand-new intelligence within.

The cabin door opened, and a mechanical soldier holding a strange, sphere-like apparatus walked into the cabin, pointing one end of the instrument toward itself and pressing the start button.

A beam of light shone upon the mechanical soldier, and an extremely unique energy rapidly restructured its physical form.

During this process, within the adjacent large optical computer, the newborn intelligence directly transferred its core data into the body of the mechanical soldier.

A moment later, the modification process concluded, and the mechanical soldier opened its eyes, resembling a living, breathing entity.

"The 'Death Star' planetary fortress? The Mechanical Race? Intruders?"

A vast amount of information surfaced within the database of the newly born Mechanical Race entity, and utilizing the formidable computational power of the Mechanical Race, it rapidly analyzed the current situation, arriving at a series of judgments.

(End of this chapter)