The Legendary Mechanic

After sacrificing sixty percent of his Luck attribute for fourteen days, which amounted to roughly zero points, the [Bold Explorer] skill was activated, and the world in front of Han Xiao's eyes changed.

His sight panned out into outer space, and below him was a huge planet where its silvery gray earth extended all the way as far as his vision allowed. Blue and white dazzling lights covered the horizon, and the bright light from the photon energy tower stood out from the backdrop of the dark universe.

Han Xiao glanced downward. On the surface was a steel forest without any green vegetation, and numerous strange-shaped mechanical buildings occupied the area. The high mechanical towers shot into the sky, giving the planet a look like a mutated sea urchin wearing steel armor. The cold, heavy style brought with it an evil vibe.

At this time, the scene zoomed in, falling to the ground and focusing on the mechanical city at a low altitude. Han Xiao saw that the inhabitants of the planet were a group of mechanical bodies with varied appearances. There were almost no two identical individuals, their structures all complicated and exquisite. Their decals were all gorgeous, giving them a very advanced look.

"They're all mechanical life forms. Could this be a Mechanical Life Civilization?"

As a bystander, Han Xiao could not help but think of Psionic Prime's civilization under his banner. The two were very similar, with the difference that this machinery civilization revealed by [Bold Explorer] was far more advanced, already reaching its matured state.

Did the Virtual Mutiny Virus originate from this unknown mechanical civilization? Han Xiao thought while looking at the scene in front of him.

Right at this moment, something happened!

A piercing white glare that seemed to cover the entire sky swept past, and the giant planet was dead in the center of its blast radius.

A large shield covering the entire planet appeared in outer space, but the moment it came into contact with the light ray, the large shield disintegrated, breaking into countless energy particles.

The planet lost all its protection and was peeled off layer by later, annihilated and decomposed in a short moment. The entire planet's existence was easily erased in the universe by this light ray.

By the time the attack was over, the illusion disappeared, and Han Xiao's vision returned to the room. He frowned.

The attack just now seemed to be an advanced energy rank directional gamma-ray burst. It might not have been a natural disaster but rather an attack from a weapon.

Gamma ray bursts were a common universal disaster, and evaporating a planet was like child's play to them. But with the shields that most civilizations had, they would be able to shield themselves against it. However, the ray burst in the illusion Han Xiao experienced was strange in that it directly disintegrated the planet's shield the moment it touched it, even though the machinery civilization in it was at an advanced level.

Most people would not be able to observe many details, but the senses of the Beyond Grade As were different. Han Xiao found that there was an additional material added to the Gamma Ray, which might make it a galactic weapon utilized by another advanced civilization.

The universe was full of radiation, and it was actually very lively and bright. However, ordinary people would only see a patch of darkness. As a person's life level changed, so did the world they saw around them. It was like everyone was looking at the world through keyholes, but those of a higher life level would have larger keyholes.

The information obtained through the skill this time is not enough. There's no clear direction…

Han Xiao stroked his chin with his thumb, summing up the information he obtained in the short illusion.

Firstly, there was an advanced civilization that was suspected of being a Mechanical Life Civilization. They had a large colonial planet that was extremely advanced in technology, but it was blown up by a Planetary Annihilation Weapon, proving that they had another advanced civilization as their enemy. The hostile civilization would at least be at the Star Cluster level, even possibly at the quasi-Universal Civilization level.

The creator of the Virtual Mutiny Virus should be one of these two civilizations. There was too little information about the other civilization, so Han Xiao ignored it. He mainly analyzed this unknown Machinery civilization.

There are many possibilities for the origin of the Machinery civilization. The most common is for a Beyond Grade A to bestow Mechanical Life, but there are other factors. For example, a biological civilization could also undergo Mechanical Ascension, placing the consciousness of their entire race into mechanical minds and replacing their physical bodies with machinery carriers to obtain immortality. It's also possible that this civilization is in the form of an AI civilization, a world dominated by artificial intelligence, and the machines are just carriers for them to walk around in…

What piqued Han Xiao's curiosity most was whether this happened during the era of the modern Galaxy Calendar. He did not know whether it was a lost civilization that had existed during the exploration era or an unknown advanced civilization in an unexplored region of the universe.

He needed to continue using [Bold Explorer] to obtain intelligence or maybe use more relevant items for his ability…

Han Xiao suddenly recalled something.

There was still the safe in which the virus had been stored, which was in the custody of the three Universal Civilizations. That might be a better goal!

Along the way, he could also visit Harrison and the others. These guys had been temporarily imprisoned due to the release of the Virtual Mutiny Virus. In the face of such a disaster, the inspector did not have the last say, so whatever promises he gave to Harrison and this team would definitely be blown away like farts in the wind.

The three Universal Civilizations were quite considerate to this group of prisoners as well, fearing that their bodies would rust due to the long prison life. Thus, they were interrogated daily at a high intensity to help them work their brains and stay healthy.

Han Xiao left his subordinates and Phillip in the room to continue analyzing the virus code. He left the R&D department by himself and strode over to the headquarters on the dynasty's side.

The three Universal Civilizations had appointed their senior officials to take charge of the affairs of the Ancient Star Desert. With Han Xiao's position in the dynasty, he met with the supervisor without much hindrance.

The other party stood up to greet him, exchanging some niceties before they got down to business.

"Your Excellency Black Star, what can I do for you?" the inspector asked.

"I've read the information you've given and hope to study the device that was used to store the virus."

"That's easy." The dynasty inspector immediately agreed, giving him a lot of respect.

"In addition, I wish to contact the group of scavengers that unearthed this virus, and if possible, release them temporarily."

"You can see them at any time, but releasing them… is a little inappropriate."

"I know, you guys have been interrogating them, but this has yielded no results. They should just be unlucky fools that got trapped in this. There's no point continuing to imprison them."

The Inspector furrowed his brows as he insisted, "But the virus has caused such a big impact. This is a severe crime. Even if it was an accident, they have to take responsibility for it."

Han Xiao shook his head as he pointed out, "They might be of help actually. Let them stay by my side to obtain some merits. If they really manage to make some contributions, then we will have benefitted from it."

The inspector hesitated for a long while before finally agreeing. "… Since you wish for it, alright then. However, their identities will remain as prisoners, and they cannot have freedom of movement."

He only did so out of respect for Black Star's position. If it was some other person suggesting this, he would not even bother.

"Thanks." Han Xiao smiled. "I would also like to request to be allowed to go out on field work."

"You wish to perform field work as well?" The inspector was surprised.

Han Xiao nodded. "That's right. The research work here has Manison and the rest at the helm, so there's no need for me to devote myself to it. I'm wasting resources here, and in my opinion, there are two tasks that are both as equally important as developing an antivirus."

"Please do tell."

"The first would be the search for the virus' core. If the core can be located, most of the triggering mechanisms of the Virtual Mutiny Virus will be invalidated, which will be equivalent to destroying the opponent's brain. The threat of the disaster will also be reduced."

"This point is indeed important." The dynasty's inspector praised.

If the virus core could be controlled, the difficulty of solving this disaster would be reduced by more than fifty percent. However, the virus core had hidden itself too deeply. No one had any idea what sort of abnormal data it was, and the three Universal Civilizations were also unable to find it.

Han Xiao then raised two fingers and continued. "Secondly, in my opinion, it will be a matter of time before the virus is cracked, with the current abilities of the three Universal Civilizations and the Beyond Grade A mechanics. The real difficulty lies in those with unsavory plans."

Hearing this, the inspector also frowned.

"Countless lessons in history have taught us that the greed and suspicion of the human heart is always a catalyst for disaster. If it's not controlled, the small problems will eventually evolve into bigger problems that cannot be handled," Han Xiao slowly said. "Presumably, the dynasty also understands that the virus is not difficult to solve, but the real problem is in those people with ulterior motives. Having the Virtual Mutiny Virus is akin to them having a switch of disaster. Now that they have such a good opportunity, who does not wish to have a strategic weapon as a deterrent?"

He could clearly see that this was an opportunity for anyone to easily obtain nuclear-level weapons at an extremely low cost. Which ambitious organization would not want to give it a try?

The inspector stood up, suddenly packing around, before solemnly speaking.

"You're right. The three Universal Civilizations have been concerned about this. We're all from the same team here, so there's no need to cover it up. The Super Star Cluster Alliance has been at odds with us since long ago and will not sit quietly and obey our commands. The dynasty's main Artificial intelligence, Heroic Soul, has already calculated the probabilities. Not only the advanced civilization within the Ancient Star Desert but even organizations from the outside world will hire countless black market mercenaries and wanted criminals to help them smuggle the virus out. This is also one of the main reasons the blockade was imposed.

"While we require the Ancient Star Desert to cooperate with us to destroy the virus, at the same time, we cannot be too harsh on them. This is especially so for the Super Star Clusters; they can reopen their own external quantum networks at any time. It actually is not up to us to control if the virus will be leaked or not… Of course, they do not dare make any rash moves. Thus, the three Universal Civilizations are attempting to control the situation by being careful and closing one eye so as not to make them anxious. This is also why we are in such a hurry to develop the antivirus. As long as the threat of the virus technology is fundamentally resolved, the small actions made by the advanced civilization will not affect us."

The inspector then stopped and emphasized, "Your Excellency Black Star, since you're willing to go out into the field, I will hand over three dynasty fleets for you to command. I hope you can try to catch as many of these b*stards who are eager for profit and disregard the safety of the universe."

"Okay." Han Xiao stood up as well, shaking his head.

The other Beyond Grade As concentrated on research, wanting to understand this virus technology. No one wished to waste energy by going out to arrest people. In their opinion, this was hard work that they should not be responsible for.

But our Great Mechanic Han was different. He had the [Intelligent Plague] mission, so in order to raise his Mission Rating, he could not simply rely on research. After all, the credit for that would be shared by a large number of people.

In his opinion, the most direct way to improve the rating would be to catch the fish that slipped through the net with malicious intent.

Furthermore, the special mission requirement was for him to destroy the virus core. He naturally wanted the reward and would not just stay in the command center to do research.

As for research, the more that everyone searched, the more they would share. He could wait till Old Man Manison had completely analyzed the structure of the virus to obtain the ready-made secondary research. Not only would this save a lot of his time, he could also relax for the time being.

After reaching a consensus with the person in charge, Han Xiao left the dynasty's office and went to the prison to visit Harrison.

Upon learning of Han Xiao's intentions, the Chief Warden immediately welcomed him in with enthusiasm, respectfully leading the way.

…

In the single cell, Harrison lay on the bed with his hands on his head, staring absentmindedly at the ceiling.

"Is this how I'm going to spend the next half of my life?"

He sighed.

In this month that he had spent squatting in jail, not one day had passed when he had not expressed regret. His initial judgment was correct—digging out that triangular device would bring them huge trouble. If he had known that was the case, he would have not taken it out even if he had to risk his life.

The serious consequences brought about by this artifact gave him cold hands and feet. While this was an unintentional mistake, to have caused such trouble left him with a guilty conscience.

Not only did he bring about a disaster, he even threw his entire life away. His interrogators had let slip that this group of 'culprits' would be spending the rest of their lives in prison.

"If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have come out to do archaeology. I knew it. Curiosity kills the cat. If I had stayed at home and inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from my family fortune, god knows how comfortable I would be now."

Harrison was disheartened.

Swoosh!

At this moment, the cell door opened, and two people walked in.

"Is it time for interrogation again?" Harrison sat up with a resigned expression.

Han Xiao glanced at him, piecing his young look with the old man in his memories before nodding. "You're indeed Harrison."

"Eh? You're not a jailer? Who are you…" Harrison raised his head, and taking in Black Star's features, he gaped in shock. "Black… Black… Black… Black Star‽"

Right now, Han Xiao's face was well known in every household within the universe, his reputation frightening. However, there were a few that had heard about him through the movie [Black Star: Origins] and thus mistakenly thought Feidin was Black Star himself.

But Han Xiao was very magnanimous regarding this. After all, both of them looked equally handsome and alike, so it was a common mistake to mix up both of them.

He had heard that the movie was released whilst he was rushing over here, and the response was excellent. Not only had his reputation skyrocketed, he had also made a fortune. His returns were hundreds of times his initial investment and were still rising. From this, the huge profits within the entertainment industry in the interstellar era could be seen.

Putting aside the distracting thoughts, Han Xiao patted Harrison firmly on his shoulder while saying, "The virus was dug up by you guys?"

Harrison was patted so hard he almost screamed in pain but quickly recovered. In front of a universally known figure like Black Star, he was a little cautious and nervous, nodding repeatedly.

"Good, then your teammates and you will follow me temporarily."

"This… what do you mean?" Harrison had an expression of confusion.

Seeing his lost look, the prison warden snapped, "You'd better thank His Excellency Black Star. If not for him speaking up for you guys, you'd be sitting here for the rest of your miserable lives."

Harrison was stunned, an incredulous look on his face.

"Your Excellency Black Star, you… why did you save us?"

"Who said I was saving you? I just felt that you guys are good diggers and might come in handy… The warden will let you guys off later. I'm just here to meet you guys beforehand."

"I can be of help?"

Harrison was lost, not knowing what he could possibly help with.

However, this did not prevent him from understanding that his own destiny was saved by Black Star. His eyes were filled with gratitude, and he wished to hold Black Star's hand to thank him, but due to their gap in status, he did not dare to act.

In his eyes, Black Star was an angel sent by the heavens to save him, shining with a holy light.

Just as he was about to fall into the abyss, a stranger came and gave him a hand. Harrison's emotions were surging, and he had the urge to slam his head on the floor in gratitude toward Black Star.

While it was the first time they had met, Harrison's favorability toward him was almost filled up.

Han Xiao smiled at him before turning to walk out of the jail cell. The moment his back faced him, he could not help breaking into a smile as he looked at the combat information on his interface. Harrison's attribute table was displayed there.

Just by standing by my side, you're already helping me…

In the attribute column, there was the skill [Advanced Luck Glow] in golden lettering!

The third golden leek has fallen into my hands…

Han Xiao took a deep breath of joy.

That's right. This should be the smell of luck condensing on him!