The Legendary Mechanic

The Void Racial Talents were an important part of Kasuyi's strength, and now that most of these talents were frozen, his combat power was far from the peak, and his damage had declined, so he gave it his all in that one strike.

The killing move that Kasuyi had been brewing for the last few days was an explosive skill, and the mechanism was a little similar to [Charge—Endless Potential]. During the accumulation period, Kasuyi could not utilize any of his Psychic power, instead compressing it in his brain area while continuously replenishing the energy gone into compression through his cells. He would then use his Psychic power to dam up the compressed area before releasing the floor when he faced an enemy. It was akin to constipating for a few days before releasing everything in one go, and it boasted a high attack coefficient bonus.

This single blow not only brought high damage but also various forms of negative statuses, which could induce a state of [Soul Weakness] in the opponent, reducing their attributes by a percentage. Depending on the target's strength, it would last for several hours to several years.

Because Milton was ambushed and hit hard, his aura weakened in an instant, and could only show a part of his strength. Kasuyi came prepared, and under his calculation, he weakened the opponent's overall combat power.

As this violent Kasuyi hit the opponent's leader, the other eight were furious, immediately counterattacking. Various forms of Beyond Grade A attacks smashed toward Kasuyi's head and face, including Pugilist flames, Magic, Energy Cannons, and Esper Abilities.

Seeing this, Han Xiao sighed, and his body flashed as he stood in front of Kasuyi.

When the duo was first sighted, the natives had already come to the conclusion that Han Xiao was basically there as a meat shield.

How could Kasuyi's delicate body be able to withstand the ravages of eight strong men? He still had to rely on Han Xiao's unplowed field to be the tank.

All sorts of weird thoughts flashed by, and in the next instant, the tyrannical attacks of the eight fell on him.

Boom!

The various energies exploded, instantly swelling up into a giant ball of light. The earth collapsed, and matter was annihilated and evaporated. The entire planet now resembled a fruit that had been bitten.

A huge pit appeared in the field, extremely deep and wide, and the underground base they had created naturally collapsed.

However, Han Xiao had already relocated his troops when he was spouting his excuses, so what was destroyed at this time was only a shell.

As the smoke and dust quickly settled, Han Xiao was seen hovering in the same place. He patted the dust on his body casually. "This strength won't do. You've all got to practice more."

The eight who were preparing to pursue their advantage stood stunned with incredulous expressions.

They had witnessed their opponent taking the firepower of eight people and felt that even if they were not dead, they would still probably be seriously injured. At the very least, they would be injured and embarrassed. However, they never expected this guy called Black Star to be able to casually take on such a round and still appear unscathed!

How was this possible? The information showed that this guy was a Mechanic!

This could not be blamed on them. The explored universe was aware of Han Xiao's ability, but this was the first time they had encountered the 'Indestructible Body'.

Even while they were shocked silly, Kasuyi's actions did not stop in the slightest. After using Black Star as a shield to block out the firepower, Kasuyi's Psychic power was like wave after wave of floods, exerting an AOE effect as it smashed into the eight of them. It infiltrated their mental realms, outputting tons of damage and blasting out three of the slightly weaker Saint experts.

He was long accustomed to Black Star's fleshiness and did not take it to heart. He naturally would focus all his attention on this window of opportunity, immediately reversing the attack onto his enemies.

At this moment, Han Xiao also controlled his mechanical soldiers through Mechanical Force. The overwhelming number of soldiers wandered around the horizon like a swarm of locusts continuously providing covering firepower. The huge lethality continuously bound the enemies' hands and feet, putting them in a dangerous spot.

Furthermore, there was even a milestone that Han Xiao did not expect would come in handy at this time…

Lothaire's [Civilization Leader Slayer]!

The defenses and various resistance of all enemies would be reduced by three to seven percent, making them weaker.

"I never expected that I would become a wanted criminal. This ability will come in handy now though…" Han Xiao felt helpless.

While the process of fighting between both sides seemed to be quite long, with the speed of a Beyond Grade A, from negotiation to war was merely the span of a few seconds.

A fierce battle broke out in an instant. While the nine led by Milton had the advantage in numbers and overall combat power, they lost the initiative from the beginning and failed to obtain any benefits in the hands of Han Xiao and Kasuyi. However, they still had their Gold Grade equipment, so the two sides were quite evened out, unable to distinguish a winning party early.

"I feel that the strength of these people seems to be a little weaker…"

Han Xiao multitasked, gazing at the combat information shown in his interface.

The three Supreme powerhouses were supposed to be equivalent to the pinnacle Beyond Grade A in their universe, but it did not mean that these three had the same number of God's Trait Transformation layers. In fact, out of all of them, only Milton had activated the God's Trait Transformation route.

Earlier on, when Han Xiao had advanced to level 300, he had already entered the pinnacle Beyond Grade A level. When his Energy Rank exceeded the 78,000 threshold, achieving an Energy Level of twenty-one, he had activated the God's Trait Transformation route. There was a barrier to entry, so not all pinnacle Beyond Grade A would be able to activate this God's Trait Transformation.

While Han Xiao did not know what Kasuyi's Energy Rank was, he conservatively estimated it to be above 90,000, with his God's Trait Transformation at least being at the tenth layer. Milton, the strongest party in the enemy team, probably only had an Energy Rank of close to 80,000. Thus, even with their extra Beyond Grade As, the combat power advantage they held was not as high as imagined.

As for the other six Saint class powerhouses, Han Xiao only saw two people who were Grade S+ with Energy Rank above 52,000, while the rest were little kids with Energy Ranks below 50,000.

"The quantity is quite ridiculous, but as for the quality…" Han Xiao shook his head.

Thinking about it, it made sense. He and Kasuyi were people who were standing at the peak of the strongest in the explored universe, among even those pinnacle Beyond Grade As. There was no need to belittle themselves.

Of course, the Celestial Star Alliance had nearly ten thousand Beyond Grade As, and there would naturally be people who were comparable to them. However, whether such people would be willing to work in the Superpower Security Department was questionable, and even if they were, they would not easily be deployed. After all, the two of them did not show much strength previously, so the other party imagined that sending out nine Beyond Grade As would be overkill.

Hu!

One of the Saint Pugilists suddenly rushed in, coming right in front of Han Xiao before lifting up a Gold Grade blood-red halberd and piercing it toward his eyes.

Han Xiao was calm, slightly tilting his head to avoid it, and the light reflecting off the blade illuminated his eyes, filling him with nostalgia.

It had been so many years since someone tried to smash his face. He had almost forgotten what it felt like…

He even had the chance to spare a glance toward his opponent. The next moment, he brought up his arm so quickly it left an afterimage, counterattacking the Pugilist. His Strength and Dexterity made this attack even surpass the speed of the Pugilist.

Boom!

This powerful fist slammed into his opponent's head, and the person felt as though a symphony had gone off in his mind. He shot off as though he was a baseball that had been hit hard by the batter, flying out of Han Xiao's sight in the blink of an eye.

Seeing this, Han Xiao lightly nodded.

"It seems like even in this place, the life of a Pugilist is still pretty difficult…"

They had only exchanged blows for a short period of time, but Han Xiao had already concluded that this pursuer team could not pose a substantive threat. Thus, he leisurely observed the opponent to collect intelligence.

The opponent's team consisted of two Espers, three Pugilists, two Mages, a Mechanic, and a Psychic. This team configuration was quite complete, with all five Systems present.

The bulk of Han Xiao's attention was focused on the only Mechanic of his opponent, a Supreme expert.

Because there was no secondary dimension present, the Class abilities and skills of the five major Superpower systems changed accordingly. While there were some alternative abilities as a result, their strength in general was not as strong as that of the main universe, such as the utilization of certain special energies only found within the secondary dimensions.

Because there were no secondary dimensional army boxes, Han Xiao was wondering what sort of method the Mechanics would use to summon their machinery on a large scale.

After careful observation, and with the information given by the combat information, he quickly came to a conclusion.

Their compression technology has undergone some innovation, giving out some special Mechanical Force Vigor Resonance. After which, an ability similar to Machinery Apostilization is carried out, giving the Mechanical Force new characteristics to alter a portion of one's cells and transform it into an empty space akin to the army boxes. The Mechanical Force blessing allows the compressed orbs to be further compressed and stored in the body, providing an effect similar to that of the secondary dimensional army box… However, this ability has a limitation, which is the same drawback as the Machinery Apostilization. The more the machinery stored, the higher one's load, which will reduce the upper limit of one's life span and Energy…

This was a feasible method. The idea could not be said to be novel, but there were also merits. The main problem was that the Mechanical Force conversion skills were complicated, most likely automatically obtained through Promotion or Class Advancement. Due to the difference between the systems of their universes, the abilities generated during Class Advancement would be different. This could be described as a situation where they existed as different branches of the same system.

However, the secondary dimensional army boxes and Dimension Factories were better for usage, as there was no need to bear any load as well as a lack of limit on the troops stored, which made it far superior. However, this method of storing troops in one's body also had an advantage, which was not being affected by any sort of spatial interference devices.

Understanding the opponent's method did not mean that Han Xiao had cracked the principles; he had yet to be able to learn this technique.

Both sides fought fiercely, not caring about the aftermath. The planet was soon crushing into a stream of dust within the universe, and their battlefield moved toward outer space.

Just as Han Xiao was busy observing the rest, Kasuyi's voice rang out in his mind.

"Black Star, why are you not activating your Mechanical Deity? Quickly, we need to get rid of one of two more!"

"What are you anxious about? Aren't we maintaining the stalemate well. Let me gather more intelligence first."

"I'm out of energy," Kasuyi replied.

Are you kidding me‽

This thought subconsciously floated past Han Xiao's mind.

But he quickly reacted… This time, Kasuyi might really be out of MP.

Of course, because this battle only lasted for a short time, it was an exaggeration to be out of MP. But from a long-term view, Kasuyi had limited skills to allow him to recover his MP, and his current MP reserves would not allow him to fight against nine opponents. If they fought a war of attrition, they would fall into a disadvantage soon, so he did not want Han Xiao to continue wasting time. He decided to get some results whilst he was still able to fight, shaving off the enemy's strength.

"Fine, since you've asked…"

Han Xiao did not think much. Just as he was about to activate his Mechanical Deity…

Everything changed.

The nine of them suddenly stopped attacking, retreating quickly with complex and exquisite blue magic patterns illuminating on their mechanical suits.

Whoosh!

The next instant, the figures of the nine disappeared without a trace.

"Hmm?"

Han Xiao's movements stalled. He swept the surroundings with his senses, but he did not find a trace of their targets.

With the disappearance of their opponents, Kasuyi also paused and scanned the area with his Psychic powers, but his search yielded no results.

The nine experts that came to hunt them down suddenly seemed to have activated some teleportation magic runes to run away.

Both of them shared a glance in confusion.

What‽

"They couldn't have… run away, right?"

The Great Mechanic Han was dumbfounded.

Wait, I haven't even tried!

The opponents had no casualties, basically retaining their complete combat strength. It was just a slight disadvantage, so how could they run away so decisively?

Could it be that the Beyond Grade As there were the people only heard of in stories, that would only fight if they were guaranteed victory?

Kasuyi also left his mouth agape, totally speechless.

This group of pursuers had come in an aggressive manner, letting them think that they would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. They did not expect them to escape so skillfully. They did not even leave any final words.

"Black Star, do we chase them?"

"… I'm a Mechanic, not a Mage. Locating people isn't one of my strengths. Besides, theirs is a strategic retreat; it's too arrogant of us to chase after them."

"So, what do we do now?"

"Forget it. Since they've run away, I'll test out this Cloaking Device."

Han Xiao shook his head in resignation, taking out the alloy pieces. He carefully inspected the device as he inputted his energy, but he did not feel any change through his senses. So, he just kept them on himself in this activated state.

He had collected all the intelligence he needed and also confirmed that any cooperation between himself and the Superpower Security Department was impossible. Thus, he could only choose the option of the mysterious man.

The two of them quickly tidied up the battlefield and did not dally, leaving the scene quickly. They headed for the location given by the mysterious man.

…

Somewhere far from the battlefield, nine rays of light flashed as Milton and his party teleported over.

With a sigh of relief, Milton endured the splitting pain in his head and spoke in a deep tone through the team communication channel.

"There's a slight error in the judgement made by the department. The targets' combat strength is frightening, likely at the forefront even among Supreme experts. This is especially so for the person called Black Star, who commands an unbelievable recovery speed and resilience. Our attacks could hardly threaten his life. With just the nine of us alone, the success rate of arrest is too low. Requesting the headquarters for reinforcements."

The others nodded. "Understood."

While they could still continue to fight, they felt it unnecessary.

After a few clashes, they had already sensed that their manpower alone would not be able to allow them to capture the target. Thus, they retreated decisively and prepared to call for reinforcements.

The Superpower Security Department's modus operandi did not advocate aggressiveness. Since they were evenly matched, it would be settled if they got more people. Clashing head on was not only a waste of time but also carried the danger of sacrificing someone.

So what if the enemy is powerful? We have so many people. We can simply overwhelm you!

Nine people isn't enough? Then double it! Still not enough? Double that! I do not believe you can last forever!

Since they were a law enforcement department, there was no need to speak about morality with wanted criminals!

The staff of the Superpower Security Department had always operated in this manner, and the reason behind this was because of the existence of the Positioning Star Map.

No matter where the target went, the Positioning Star Map would be able to relocate them. Thus, there was no fear of them running away.

However, at this moment, an emergency communication was sent by the headquarters before they could contact the other party.

Milton received the communication only to see the face of their department leader appear, solemn with a trace of irritation.

"What have you two done to the fugitives‽" the leader bellowed.

Milton did not know how the leader got angry and could only reply honestly.

"We fought with them, but our team agreed that they were too strong. Thus, we made a strategic retreat and decided to call for reinforcements… What happened?"

"I want to know that too!" The leader's expression was ashen. "Just a moment ago, their coordinates disappeared from the Positioning Star Map!"

Milton's eyes widened, his expression shocked.

The moment we retreated, their coordinates vanished?

Impossible!

What did those two do!

His confidence was instantly shattered.