The Legendary Mechanic

In the dedicated factory for the Army Commander in Black Star Palace, Han Xiao walked in with a suitcase, placing it on the table. He opened the lid with a click, taking out the two cylindrical containers containing the Primal Esper Ability Entities, and held them in his hands.

The emerald green Primal Ability was sticky in texture like a liquid, whereas the sky blue Primal Ability was like a cloud of light mist with icy debris.

The emerald green one was known as 'Natural Spirit Power', which could control various plants and greatly accelerated their growth. It could also call on beasts and possessed various powers of nature, just like a druid. Its frontal combat capability was slightly weaker, but it could extract and synthesize toxins from a variety of plants, which was good for research. The Holy Accord had utilized this ability to cultivate various magical plants and toxins.

The sky-blue entity was named 'Frost Authority', which not only allowed it to manipulate the cold but could also temporarily turn ice and snow into ice golem warriors like a Magic Colossus. It could also produce ice armors and weapons, move with the frigid winds, spreading death through the lack of heat… It was said that a sufficiently powerful host could even allow it to freeze molecular motion for a short amount of time, creating the effect of freezing time and space.

These two abilities are actually pretty good. After all, they're composite Primal Esper Abilities, but their effect is second. The main thing is to activate my milestone, Han Xiao thought to himself.

The [Primal Esper Ability Collector] milestone allowed him to be strengthened when facing an Esper, allowing him to gain innate advantages. The effect was impressive.

As for [The Third Sanctum] fragments rewarded by the mission. While it seemed useless at the moment, Han Xiao felt that they would come into handy after he obtained the method to open the sanctum from the Holy Accord.

Who should I hand these abilities to?

Han Xiao searched his mind for candidates.

The first choice should be to give it to Evans, as with his talent, he should be able to ignore the issue of adaptability like EsGod and easily master the Esper Abilities.

However, thinking about it, Han Xiao rejected this idea. Right now, Evans' first mission would be to level himself up and develop his own combat style through absorbing various abilities. If he gave Evans the two Primal Esper Abilities, he would not have any energy to concentrate on his research.

Moreover, with Evans' current level, he had no chance to fight, and the Primal Esper Ability would only be used for display.

I should first look for a suitable host among the officers of the army. The last resort should be Evans.

Putting away the two Primal Abilities, Han Xiao opened the data storage and took out the two Gold Grade blueprints that the Holy Accord had given him to look through.

The blueprints provided by the Holy Accord were all relatively old technology, which were likely to have been preserved from the exploration era and not improved on much. One of the blueprints was called 'Psionic Obelisk', which had the effect of energy conversion and formation of energy barriers. What separated it from general psionic shields was that it had an extraordinary resistance to energy attacks and could absorb a portion of damage to restore its shield durability.

But this was only its basic function. The core function of the Psionic Obelisk was to provide a large field of energy that could be borrowed at will without a transmission pipeline. In simple terms, this item could increase the energy concentration of an area to become denser and more active.

Thus, this Psionic Obelisk was equivalent to a magic weapon which could increase the aura concentration of a place, similar to man-made blessings.

Because the Obelisk provided free energy that could be borrowed without any restrictions, it would be no different from what the surface civilization deemed as sacred objects or wonders. The extremely active energy factor would allow individuals to have more ways to utilize energy and also a higher probability of giving rise to other super systems. At the same time, obtaining a large-scale infusion from the obelisk could result in temporary transformations, allowing an ordinary person to possess combat power.

The effect of the Psionic Obelisk could be said to be somewhat similar to the Evolutionary Totem, but their focus was different. The former focuses on increasing the overall energy concentration within the area, while the latter focused on optimizing the genes of the individual. Comparing the two, the Evolutionary Totem was rarer.

But this little toy still had its uses. Putting it in each base of the army could improve the training efficiency of the members, spawning more powerful players and at the same time allowing him to sell it for his business. Even if the sales volume might not match up to the Evolutionary Totem, it would still be a good cornucopia.

Because the Holy Accord paid attention to its secrecy, they did not sell their Psionic Obelisks. All of these blueprints were merely accumulating dust in the warehouse. They were not good at mechanical technology, and since they made most of their money through their Esper Ability technology, they chose to provide Black Star with a path to fortune.

In actual fact, the blueprint that the Holy Accord wanted to take out was not this one. Oathkeeper, however, felt that Black Star was an unfathomable person, so he changed it to a better blueprint in hopes that it would serve as a 'protection fee' of some sort.

The other blueprint was named Getta Hadoken. While it sounded like a pugilist technique, it was actually a sort of compounded attack device.

This device required a combination of the Armed and Energy Branches. It had a complete set of complex equipment, but it was not assembled together like a firearm, scattered instead like an external carrier. Through special methods of energy gathering, compression, and transformation, this would launch a powerful attack, and the issued attack was known as 'Getta Hadoken'.

This equipment was also not a one-trick pony. According to the different operating routes of the device, the Getta Hadoken had many variations, including close, medium, and long ranged combat. Dozens of supporting operation routes were recorded in the blueprint, each operation route representing a method of attack. Each of them had their own unique names with the same prefix of 'Getta'.

"Rather than calling it a blueprint, this thing seems more like a pugilist manual for Mechanics. It seems like this is best suited for Mechanical Pugilists."

Han Xiao scratched his head.

With the Psionic Obelisk and Getta Hadoken being added to the other Gold grade blueprints Titan Spinal Center and Mechanical Territory obtained from the Federation, he finally obtained everything he was owed.

With the blueprints in hand, the next thing to do was to turn them into real objects.

"The public commendation ceremony for the three Universal Civilizations is about two months away. It's a good time to seclude myself and produce the four finished products, obtaining more God's Trait Transformation points… I've been in the limelight too much recently. It's better for me to stay low-key for a short period of time, to digest my influence and stabilize the reputation."

Han Xiao made up his mind, gearing up and hurriedly entering his manufacturing state.

…

In one of the secret training bases in the Crimson Dynasty, a group of officers were operating equipment in a room full of instruments. One of the walls of the room was a huge transparent viewing window. Two of the senior officers were standing in front of the viewing window; one of them was the supervisor of the base, and the other was the drill sergeant.

The two of them looked down the window, to see an inverted pyramid-like space below. A man was seated at the deepest point hundreds of meters down, releasing strong energy fluctuations and glowing energy particles. It spread around the walls before gathering back on top and falling back down, forming a cycle.

This was a special training facility for Supers that could improve the efficiency of their cultivation. At this time, the person within the facility was Gaud, and the instrument room was actually the monitoring room. The operators present were all paying attention to the energy fluctuations readings of Gaud.

"His progress is fast. This is a good seed." The drill sergeant stared down at the silhouette below as he nodded in satisfaction.

"That's right. He's the most likely talent to reach Beyond Grade A in his class. Not only does he have potential, but his own abilities are extremely powerful. Maybe one day he'll take on the position of Lord Clotti," the base supervisor praised.

"Black Star is still in line. It won't be his turn that soon."

"I'm just guessing, and besides, Black Star is not of direct descent."

The two of them conversed softly.

Gaud had already been training for many years, and he was making rapid progress. All sorts of barriers were easily passed, as though he had no bottlenecks. This sublimation in his life level in such a radical way was obviously dangerous, but he gave people the feeling that he was extremely familiar with this path.

In the eyes of both of them, even if Gaud's talent was not as good as Black Star, who had broken all records, he was not too far off.

The drill sergeant gazed at the instrument's readings, before exclaiming in amazement, "At this rate, I estimate he'll enter the Beyond Grade A realm in two to eight years. This is the most efficient person I've seen… if we exclude Black Star."

"It seems like we're witnessing yet another rise of a Beyond Grade A." The supervisor laughed, "The upper echelons have already sent down people twice. It seems like they're very concerned with the progress of Gaud."

It was a feat to be able to cultivate a Beyond Grade A of direct descent, so as long as Gaud completed his promotion, the supervisor would also experience a 'promotion'

After idly chatting a bit more, both men went back to work topics.

"Has the list of new trainees this semester been compiled?" the drill sergeant asked.

"It's been completed. I was preparing to hand it to you." The base supervisor called up a virtual screen to show a list.

This secret training base would select talents from the dynasty for a targeted training every once in a while. If there was potential, the dynasty did not mind raising even an infant all the way to the Calamity Grade, branding them a direct descent of the dynasty. Thus, they not only recruited Calamity Grades but also divided them based on different ranks and classes according to their Grade.

The lower their grade, the more intense the competition. In Grades below the Calamity Grade, there existed an implementation system. Either one passed the assessment, or they would pack up and return to the army.

If you cannot make it, then leave. Don't continue to occupy the pit even if you cannot sh*t.

The name list was quite long, and every one of them was accompanied by a resume and record. There were countless people with varying honors; they were the elites of each fleet.

The drill sergeant looked carefully, and when he came toward the end, he was taken aback. He saw that among the group of elites with gorgeous resumes, there was a person with almost no merits on his resume, and his bearing in his photos gave off a silly air without any class.

"Karlot? Where did this guy come from? Why would the top pick a completely ordinary fellow to come in?"

The drill sergeant had an expression of befuddlement, even scrutinizing Karlot's resume, but the whole thing basically screamed 'ordinary'.

While this secret training base did not only recruit elite students, they had to have some characteristics. How did such a guy who was indistinguishable from a grunt get in?

Could it be through connections?

Don't tell me that even the dynasty's upper echelons are also corrupted now!

The drill sergeant was heartbroken.

"I didn't understand as well, so I specifically went to inquire." The supervisor hesitated. "It seems that Black Star publicly expressed optimism about this person many years ago, but so far, there has not been any outstanding performance from him. The upper echelons plan to give him a chance to see if you can train him."

"So, it turns out it's like this…" The drill sergeant frowned. "I feel that this is a waste of space. So many years have passed. If he had the potential, then he would have shown it already. What's the point of cultivating him with the mentality of a gambler now?"

"If you strongly object to this, I'll help you pass him on." The supervisor could not care less. It was not him who was going to teach the students any way.

The drill sergeant frowned as he pondered, finally shaking his head. "Forget it. Since they've decided from above, I'll follow the orders and give him a chance… but I won't deliberately give him any slack. If he cannot pass the assessment, he'll still be eliminated."

There was no such thing as fairness in education here. The drill sergeant only liked the top students and was too lazy to spend energy on the poorer students. He even thought that it was a waste of time to look at them. Concentrating the resources on those top students with outstanding talents was the solution to maximizing resource efficiency.

"That's not bad." The supervisor glanced at the list before saying, "Then I'll put him in the most elite class and give him the most powerful opponent, so he won't stay long. I estimate that he'll leave in the first quarter."

The supervisor had the same mentality. It would not help his political performance to train a poor student into an elite. Only when an elite was trained into a top-tier combatant would they then gain merit.

Thus, he did not mind using his power within the rules to eliminate those poor students with insufficient talents to the greatest extent, in order to free up more places to recruit better potential stocks.

In his eyes, this was the proper use of limited resources, and the survival of the fittest was a natural law.

…

Within the Crimson Dynasty's Science Institute was the Wormhole Position Project Office.

The Science Institute was divided into many teams with different complex projects. The wormhole positioning was a large project, and any suspicious wormhole data collected by the dynasty was analyzed here.

The wormhole data left behind by EsGod was just one of the goals of the research team of this project, and it was a sample that was not so important.

As the research team leader was calculating the wormhole model in the laboratory, his secretary hurried in.

"Leader, the approval from above has been sent over. They rejected our batch of applications for the wormhole test."

"Rejected?" The team leader was surprised. "Isn't it just a procedure? Why did they stop us this time?"

After deducing part of the coordinates for a wormhole data, a directional shuttle test would usually be performed, and several multifunctional detectors would then be thrown through the wormhole for an on-site inspection and position to establish a more accurate coordinate system. This would allow them to test if there was any deviation in their data deduction, which was a conventional method of experimenting.

The team leader was quite interested in this batch of test samples, which included the wormhole data left by EsGod.

He did not care much about what was on the other side of the wormhole, and the reason was mainly because the sample was extremely difficult to calculate. After finally determining the scope, he was eager to know if his calculation was right.

The secretary pushed up his glasses, hesitantly replying, "I don't know the details, but it seems like this was a suggestion from His Excellency Black Star. The upper echelons thought his words made sense, so the review standards for most scientific projects have temporarily been tightened."

"What is this about Black Star again?"

"He seems to have mentioned something about the Super Star Cluster Alliance being ready to move. Once a conflict breaks out, the three Universal Civilizations will not have any time to take care of anything else, so it is best to reduce the possibility of any random risks. The management accepted his proposal about our wormhole project."

The team leader could not help but grumble, "Black Star is only a half-baked scientist. Isn't he just causing us more trouble?"

At this moment, one of the researchers carefully asked, "Team leader, then… do we still do the shuttle test?"

Hearing this, the leader huffed in annoyance.

"What do you want to do? Without approval from the upper echelons, do you dare study in private? You're really good, not even respecting your superiors. I must correct your teaching. Come here, take this uncalculated wormhole data and do the calculations! If you can't figure this out, then your holiday this year is cancelled!"

"… Eh, so we actually have holidays?" The researcher in question scratched his head in confusion. Then, where have all my past holidays gone?