The Legendary Mechanic

[Emperor Mechanic] was the next stage of [Apostle Mechanic], which had a maximum level of 35. As the name suggested, an Emperor Mechanic could rule countless mechanical soldiers. Its abilities and talents provided huge bonuses to the Army Style while also having the ability to gather much more power into the Mechanic themself.

The introduction of the [Machinery Emperor] talent was 'Machinery obeys you like your people.' Its effect was a 150% increase in Virtual Intrusion efficiency and a 200% increase in Machinery Affinity, as well as an increase of one level to all machinery related abilities. This bonus could exceed the maximum level.

This talent also had another core effect. Just like the [Apostle Mechanic]'s talent, [Mechanical Force Ascension—Apostle Body], [Machinery Emperor] also caused his Mechanical Force attribute to ascend once again, acquiring the ability to gift machinery stronger powers. This was the prerequisite of many of the Emperor Mechanic's abilities.

Of course, the new Machinery Affinity ability, [Emperor Machinery Affinity] was stronger than [Apostle Machinery Affinity], which gave 150% Machinery Affinity at the max level.

[Emperor's Gift] was one of the core abilities. Its effect was to use Mechanical Force to enhance a single machine permanently, giving it extremely powerful additional attributes. It could only be used three times on the same target and had a very long cooldown. The extent of the enhancement depended on Han Xiao's own attributes, and the target had a random chance of receiving an extra special ability.

To put it simply, this ability could enhance common mobs into elites or even mini-bosses!

Mechanics had the ability to enhance machinery from the start, but this ability only started to ascend to another level at this stage.

As for the other 'Unactivated' abilities, they could only be used once the corresponding Cutting-Edge Knowledges or even Ultimate Knowledges were learned, which Han Xiao had yet to do.

[Quantum Infinite Distance Transmission Channel] required a few Cutting-Edge Knowledges including [Advanced Space Application]. It was an enhanced method of transmitting Mechanical Force through the Void.

Due to his race, Han Xiao could transmit Mechanical Force across long distances, but this was only achievable because he was a Void Race. [Quantum Infinite Distance Transmission Channel], however, was technology that could be used widely, not just on himself and not just on Mechanical Force, but any kind of energy. It was a much more advanced method of transmitting energy over long distances. This was also the technology that Manison used to make an AI civilization into his 'Indestructible Mechanic Empire'.

[Secondary Dimension Army] could hide his army in a secondary dimension. He would maintain the connection to this secondary dimension and could then open it anytime to summon the army. This was a more advanced portable technology than the compressed orbs.

[Mechanical Force—Emperor's Power] was an ability that could gather great forces onto himself, like an advanced version of Machinery Apostilization.

At the same time, once the mechanical army receiving Mechanical Force bonuses reached a certain size, they would provide attribute bonuses to himself through the Mechanical Force link. This bonus depended on the size of the army.

The larger his army was, the more bonuses [Mechanical Force—Emperor's Power] would provide, which meant that the Army Style benefitted from this the most.

Once he activated this ability and provided bonuses to the mechanical army through his Mechanical Force, he would receive a huge amount of bonuses. Of course, the energy consumption of this ability was enormous. Normal Mechanics would not be able to activate [Mechanical Force—Emperor's Power] for a long time if they did not have the ability to recover energy quickly.

[King's Mentor] and [Emperor's Gift] were similar; they were both abilities to enhance machinery. The difference was, [King's Mentor] was an AOE ability. Its effect was also rather special. It could store the special Mechanical Force enhanced by [Machinery Emperor] in machinery over long periods of time. With the machinery's energy furnace, that Mechanical Force would be kept within the machinery's body, giving the machinery self-growth capabilities.

This meant that the machinery would level up on their own without Han Xiao improving them manually.

As long as the enhanced mechanical soldiers were not destroyed in battle, their attributes would slowly increase, and they would turn into elites. Blue grade mechanical soldiers might slowly become purple grade; level 100 mechanical soldiers might slowly acquire the attributes on par with level 120 mechanical soldiers.

This was like turning the mechanical soldiers into real living soldiers that would become experienced war veteran as long as they survived.

The ability introduction was 'A king is one who has survived hundreds of battles.'

These abilities had already showcased the specialty of [Emperor Mechanic]—a ruler of countless mechanical soldiers that were treated as living soldiers. This was where the machinery started to ascend into becoming mechanical lives.

The upgraded Mechanical Force could turn into a special form of energy that could become the machinery's own energy source, like the 'energy' of the mechanical lives.

[Apostle Mechanic] was the watershed of the late stages of the Mechanic class. The later the stages, the closer the Mechanic's abilities would resemble acts of God. The word 'emperor' was the perfect word to describe the Mechanic's ability at this stage—the absolute ruler of machinery.

…

In the training room, Han Xiao's eyes were overflowing with electric sparks as he endured the pain brought by the changes of his Class Advancement.

This was not a Race Evolution, so Han Xiao's body did not change, but the energy in his body became violent as if his Mechanical Force was boiling. At a microscopic level, it was as if every one of his cells turned into a supernova, absorbing Mechanical Force continuously then compressing themselves time after time.

Through this process, his Mechanical Force slowly changed and ascended.

Enormous Mechanical Force surged within his body. Han Xiao could almost hear the tide.

After a short while, it was as if the cells in his body finally became exhausted, and the energy in his body started to calm.

Whoosh!

Han Xiao took a deep breath. His senses felt refreshed once again.

Energy was fundamental to Supers. It was not just the fuel of great power—it was also the catalyst of the evolution of Super-Genes. This Class Advancement caused his Mechanical Force to evolve to another level. Although his race was still the same, Han Xiao could feel his genes become stronger.

At the later stages, every Class Advancement required even more levels than the twenty level Promotion requirement, along with the increased benefits of the Class Advancement.

This Class Advancement improved his Mechanic abilities tremendously. Although his attributes did not change much, all these new abilities and talents were extremely powerful.

While browsing the new abilities, Han Xiao was quite joyous.

"Four unactivated abilities that need the corresponding Knowledges to activate. Tsk, I will only be able to test their effects after activating them…" Han Xiao pondered. "As of now, only [Machinery Emperor], [Emperor Machinery Affinity], and [Emperor's Gift] can be used. Also, the abilities and talents related to Virtual Technology are enhanced by thirty-five percent, so hacking into Sardeem's floating city is more likely to be successful."

After contemplating for a while, Han Xiao decided not to level up any of his abilities. Level 240 was right around the corner, so he did not want to spend his experience anywhere else.

He then spent the rest of his Experience in leveling up to see how much more he needed exactly to reach level 240.

The remaining Experience only filled up three-quarters of his Experience gauge and was not enough to level up.

He should be just two levels away from Beyond Grade A.

"Hmm, about the same as my estimates. In just a few days, the Experience provided by the players should be able to fill this gap." Han Xiao nodded.

He would have more than enough time to study his new abilities in the future, but he had another goal that night. He immediately connected himself to the quantum network.

His vision turned dark. The next moment, the nodes in the quantum network lit up one after another like fireworks. The size and brightness of these nodes varied. Beams created by information transmission connected those nodes with one another, forming a network illustrating the shape of the city.

Han Xiao looked up. Above the main city, the quantum network nodes of the floating city were as bright as stars, shrouded in countless silk shaped defense measures like a crystal covered in runes.

With one thought, Han Xiao headed directly to the floating city's quantum network nodes. The floating city node expanded in his vision as he entered right into this node.

A thick wall formed by data streams entered his eyes, and many data dots patrolled around like an army.

This was the most outside layer of the floating city's control center firewall.

"Phillip, get him."

Of course, Sardeem understood the threat of Virtual Mechanics. As a Grade A+ Mechanic, he had deployed many defense measures for his base. The virtual defense of the floating city's control center was many levels above that of the Cornerstone Summit Corporation. Usual Calamity Grade Virtual Mechanics would not have been able to penetrate it at all.

However, Han Xiao's Virtual Technology had just been enhanced after his Class Advancement, so it was rather easy for him to deal with the floating city's virtual defense.

After all, Armed Branch Mechanics were not strong in this field. Furthermore, Han Xiao's raw strength was already above Sardeem to quite an extent.

Hacking without living a trace and without being noticed was harder than directly demolishing the opponent's artificial intelligence. Even Han Xiao did not dare act too hastily. He worked together with Phillip and slowly hacked through the defenses of the floating city's control panel to avoid triggering the alarm.

While his base was quietly being violated by Han Xiao and Phillip, Sardeem had no idea that this was happening.

After spending quite some time, Han Xiao finally went around the defense of the floating city's control center and entered the control center, gaining temporary access.

"Got it." Han Xiao was content. "Phillip, search his database for the Eternal Light blueprint."

"Searching, hum… Found it, hum!" Phillip's tone was very cheerful.

Han Xiao's eyes sparkled as he could not hold back his laughter any longer. "As expected, this guy did not put the blueprint in the database of any of his businesses but his own base."

Sardeem most likely exchanged this blueprint from the Mechanic Empire with contributions. Mechanic Empire's home was so far from the Shattered Star Ring, so there was no way the physical copy of the blueprint would be transported there. Hence, the initial way he received the blueprint was definitely through data transmission. It was highly likely that Sardeem still had the complete blueprint stored in the data form.

As the defense of the floating city was on a completely different level compared to the Cornerstone Summit Corporation, most Virtual Mechanics were not able to hack it. That was why Sardeem felt safer storing it in the database of his base.

Because of that, Han Xiao did not have to steal the physical copy of the blueprint; he just had to copy the floating city's database which was much easier.

Han Xiao chuckled. "Phillip, copy all the blueprints in his database."

Since the complete blueprint of Eternal Light was in the database, all the blueprints that Sardeem had obtained from the Mechanic Empire were likely in it as well.

Since he had gone through so much trouble to hack into it, Han Xiao did not mind taking everything that Sardeem had in his storage.

While doing so, Han Xiao took a look at what Sardeem was doing, which made him feel rather strange.

Sardeem happened to be browsing his database as well. As the alarm had not been triggered, even though they were using the database at the same time, he did not notice Han Xiao. He had no idea that Han Xiao had entered his control center and that his home was basically being robbed right now.

As Phillip was copying the blueprints, he had nothing else to do, so he opened the command log of the control center to see what Sardeem had been doing lately.

The log recorded all of Sardeem's commands. Han Xiao was initially just scanning through casually, but when he noticed the history of Sardeem manually operating the control center today, his eyes stopped on that line of the log.

"Deploying a large number of mechanical law reinforcement troops to Sub-City No.2 to monitor a group of people? Interesting, isn't Sardeem neutral? Why is he suddenly surveilling people? It must be at least a Calamity Grade, like Barne, to attract his attention… Hmm, I got it, this guy is probably going to recruit someone else under the Mechanic Empire's name once again. If it really is a Calamity Grade, I might be able to snatch a talent away from him before leaving Planet Macipher."

Han Xiao could not help but giggle. He casually brought up the image of the target of the surveillance. When he saw the image clearly, his smile froze on his face.

It was Colin and his gang in the image. Han Xiao has never seen these people before, but he recognized one of them.

Orozen!

A wanted criminal of the Tyla Civilization, the killer of Harrofal, and a possible subordinate of EsGod!

This man was the mission target of the Grade A Bounty Mission [Harrofal's Revenge]!

This was completely unexpected to Han Xiao. He was stunned as guesses flashed through his mind.

"It's these people‽ They've been missing for many months, so why are they suddenly here‽"

Han Xiao started to feel alarmed.

Harrofal's last words said that these people were very likely EsGod's subordinates whom he had sent to avenge him. Harrofal was already dead, and now these people had suddenly appeared on Planet Macipher after a few months…

Could they have finally found him?

Han Xiao did not feel that was the case. He had kept his whereabouts hidden and disguised his identity; there was no way EsGod's subordinates would have been able to find him.

"This is Planet Macipher, the edge of the Shattered Star Ring. Now that they're here after a few months… Hmm, could it be that they're planning to leave the Shattered Star Ring and escape from the Tyla Civilization, not coming for me anymore?"

Han Xiao frowned, deep in thought. From his perspective, what had happened regarding Harrofal was their only link. With such limited clues, he could only make very little speculations.

He did not expect to meet EsGod's subordinates there. Was this their plan, or was it a pure coincidence?

After pondering for a while, Han Xiao had made up his mind.

"No matter what, since these people are here, be it to avenge Harrofal or to complete the Bounty Mission, there's no reason to let them get away!"

Harrofal was his friend that had fought alongside him. Though Han Xiao did not have the time to search for the culprit, he would not let them go since they had appeared right before his eyes.

Han Xiao looked at the surveillance footage again, and he thought that he had guessed Sardeem's goal.

"Humph, it seems this guy wants the bounty as well. I have to strike first!"

This was not difficult for him at all. Since he had already hacked into the floating city's control center, he just had to make the mechanical law reinforcement troops not trigger the alarm, and he would be able to get to these people before Sardeem.

The only problem was, Han Xiao felt that these people might have EsGod's doppelgangers.

Han Xiao clenched his fists. Due to that possibility, the threat of Orozen and his gang was very close to Beyond Grade A to him, so he remained cautious.

"Currently, I'm hidden, and they're not. My only choice is to kill them before they can summon the EsGod doppelganger!"

Han Xiao clenched his teeth.

He did not know how strong these people were except that Orozen was Calamity Grade, but he could easily beat a group of normal Calamity Grades.

He should have a fifty percent chance of killing them before they could use the EsGod doppelganger!