First Clash

They didn't catch Tolon's self-deprecating humor at all, or rather, they simply ignored it.

Ailan has now begun indiscriminate attacks.

This made Lister stop speculating and pondering.

So it turns out the other party wasn't targeting me personally, but everyone.

This style of making enemies... it's really unimaginable that he could become a member of parliament and still be alive today.

"What do you mean? Are you really questioning me as the person in charge of this task?"

At this moment, Tolon could no longer contain himself; even the best patience had been completely worn away.

His face darkened, and a powerful aura erupted from him. Fortunately, the major general beside him patted him on the shoulder, helping him to calm down as much as possible.

I'm questioning you.

"It was Hoffman who brought Kavin out of the Merrick Civilization. I've heard that quite a few people in the Leviathan Civilization know that you have a good relationship with Hoffman."

"I think you are far less capable of leading Route One than Lister, including being in charge of this encirclement and suppression mission."

Okay! It's a real group buy!

Like a mad dog, it didn't even spare Tolon.

This is, in fact, the Seventh Army Group's own mission.

I only invited Ailan to help; who knew the meeting would turn out like this?

However, Tolon, who had been completely impatient and seemed ready to fight, sighed softly at this moment.

As if he had figured something out, his attitude softened considerably.

"I honestly didn't know that Kavin was handpicked by Hoffman."

"However, a mission is a mission. Don't let your personal emotions or past grudges against Hoffman lead you to make unfounded accusations."

"I'm warning you one last time. This is the mission I'm in charge of. Since you agreed and are here today, you must abide by the decisions and regulations of the Federation Military District."

His tone grew increasingly serious, and his gaze returned to the other officers.

"Alright! Besides Representative Ailan, does anyone else have a different opinion?"

"Alright! The war council is now adjourned."

"Return to your ships and prepare for battle. Operations will commence in three days!"

Inside Ship A73.

"I never expected to run into you here."

Roland looked somewhat pleased; this kind of emergency conscription mission was no easy task.

His strength was not respected much by the Central Army this time.

Rather than completing the mission with others, it's better to follow Lister, especially since the two are aligned on Kavin's position.

"Did Hoffman have a grudge against Ailan?"

"Yes, it's an old, unresolved issue."

"Lord Hoffman and Ailan were the twin stars among the Quasi-Hegemon in the day."

"Lord Hoffman is more famous."

"You've seen Ailan's temper today; he's the kind of person who shows no mercy and won't let go."

"He offended quite a few people. Later on, Hoffman was promoted faster, and everyone was more willing to praise Lord Hoffman. That's where the conflicts started."

Roland was quite familiar with Hoffman's exploits.

The conflict between the two has existed since the very beginning and continues to this day.

No wonder he acted strangely towards him today; it turns out he was influenced by Hoffman.

Lister didn't care about this; having already benefited from the other person's status, he couldn't blame them for the negative consequences.

"And then what happened? Why did Hoffman leave the First Central Army Group?"

"I'm not quite sure about that."

"It seems the Central Army has too many internal tasks and doesn't have much free time to improve its capabilities."

"I heard that there was even an internal war within the First Army at that time."

"Anyway, since then, there has been very little news about Lord Hoffman, and Ailan has become the representative of the Galactic Federation."

It's obvious that little of this information regarding the reasons for leaving is true.

However, this happened a thousand years ago, so it's indeed very difficult to find anything about it.

At the moment, the two are not focused on that point, but rather on the attitude related to Kavin.

"I'll arrange the tasks to be carried out under these conditions; just try to make it look like a formality."

"I'm not worried about those things. What I'm worried about is what Tolon hinted at today: the Seventh Central Army might have other tricks up its sleeve."

"We should remind Kavin to prepare, but unfortunately we can't reach him right now."

Roland unsurprisingly chose Kavin as his opponent.

This can be seen from the fact that he knew about Kavin's business early on, but did not report it or take any other action.

It wasn't so much out of affection for Kavin, but more likely due to Hoffman's influence.

Lister could sense from Roland that he had a strong sense of trust in Hoffman, and could even be described as Hoffmann's follower.

"Don't worry, leave it to me, I have a way."

Three days later, A73 had entered the designated coordinate area.

The entire fleet, led by CR-01 and with A73 in the center, slowly approached the inner target point.

The journey was incredibly smooth; thanks to prior communication with Lister, they encountered virtually no obstacles and captured the first coordinate point.

It's not surprising that they didn't resist since they were still in the outer area of the route.

"Order to rest and resupply on that planet."

"Lister, shall we go any further?"

"Wouldn't it be too obvious to rest at the very first spot?"

Captain Boren immediately stepped forward to discuss the matter with Lister.

He had also participated in the operational meeting three days prior, so he was well aware of the difficulty of this mission.

He said that, but in his heart he wholeheartedly agreed with Lister's approach.

Such a dangerous mission is beyond the capabilities of both the Central Army and the Quasi-Hegemon; he has no interest in getting involved.

That is, fearing that Lister might not be able to withstand the pressure from Tolon, they thought of letting more people in on the first day, pretending to be inside.

"No need, don't worry."

"We agreed that we'll arrange our own combat missions, and I'll be taking a frigate to conduct a more in-depth reconnaissance later."

"So this counts as carrying out a mission?"

"Cohen, we'll be counting on you for the battle reports later."

"No problem."

The entire docking process was very fast.

Not only them, but the warships of the Glimmer Civilization also supported Lister's arrangements.

They're just Civilization Armies; even the Central Army was completely wiped out. There's no need to fight tooth and nail on this kind of mission. Just get by.

Soon, Lister followed Gwent into a frigate.

"Let's take this one. No need to choose anymore."

"Okay! I'll go arrange the supplies right away."

Do you need a driver arranged for you?

"No need, it's just me."

"If I really run into problems, I'll just abandon this ship and come back myself."

That's right! Lister's decision to send a frigate to investigate was not just talk.

Only after everyone had left did he open the control panel, input the route according to the instructions given by Kavin, and let the frigate operate automatically.

Frigates are indeed much slower than warships.

Moreover, the riding experience is mediocre, and it is subject to interference and fluctuations from various celestial energies.

Fortunately, Lister's route was good, and the flight proceeded safely inland.

After about a day's flight, Lister had already fully penetrated the core area of Church of Mechanical Truth created by Kavin.

The entire core area is roughly half the size of the Merrick Civilization's star field.

Mechanical life forms are found on every planet in this star system.

Unlike ordinary civilizations in the Galactic Federation, which have the concept of "life-bearing planets," these are planets suitable for large-scale life forms to inhabit.

The Church of Mechanical Truth Cult is different; all planets can be habitable.

On this planet, the mechanical lifeforms are completely unaware of the impending war; they are more focused on the construction of the final project.

The silver-gray metal dome gleamed coldly under the dark matter light strips, and countless suspended data streams darted between the building's gaps like swarms of fireflies.

The central processing unit tower, like a drawn sword, pierces the starry sky, its flowing quantum patterns occasionally rippling with a deep blue light.

A high-level robot stands on a stargazing platform, its optical lenses reflecting the nearest twilight-colored star.

With the final finishing touches complete, the entire building immediately began operation, its precisely meshing gears, guided by the central processing tower, seemingly in sync with the star.

The next moment, energy was continuously supplied to the building's pipelines.

Not far from this energy tower, a massive statue also catches the eye.

The statue is none other than Kavin himself.

No wonder the Church of Mechanical Truth was eventually widely referred to as the Mechanical God Cult or Mechanical Evil Cult, not only because of Kavin's later madness, but also because the Mechanical Civilization it created had a cult-like feel to it.

"Lord Lister, at Kavin's request, the Stellar Energy Tower has been built for you. Please inspect it."

The robot on the stargazing platform had already arrived in front of Lister.

Perhaps it was from what he learned in the Alchemy Ruined City, but he found that the facial expressions of the robots in front of him, including the engineering robots, were very rich.

Moreover, the expression of emotions is very real, much richer than Kavin's own perpetually expressionless face.

"Okay! Thank you for your hard work."

Looking up at this tall tower, its efficiency is truly remarkable.

[Leviathan Civilization's Stellar Energy Tower (Class S): Targets stars within a certain range for energy extraction, with an energy conversion rate of 77.8%. It is somewhat polluting, and the star from which it extracts energy will accelerate its release.]

Seeing him nod, the leading senior robot said no more.

He turned and led his engineering team away on a frigate.

Lister now the only person left on the entire planet.

Quietly, the sealed box was taken out, Jiji flew out of the box, circling continuously above Lister's head.

After a long while, he seemed to have had enough fun and stood back on Lister's shoulder.

Go!

With a soft signal, Jiji took flight again and began circling in the vicinity.

As Symbiosis Contract, communication between the two parties is far easier than imagined.

A tacit understanding between souls can be conveyed through a single glance.

A few minutes later, Jiji finally landed next to the Stellar Energy Tower.

"Jiji ~!"

"Okay! This will do."

Unexpectedly, after exploring the area, this location was still the best. No wonder the Church of Mechanical Truth built its energy tower here.

Connecting the energy tower to Jiji instantly sent a surge of high energy.

The surrounding materials, such as scrap metal, dust, and gravel, all unconsciously converged towards the Jiji sound.

Subsequently, a massive gray metal fortress was built at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Only after seeing the breeding chamber completed did Lister board the escort ship again and leave.

It was three days later when they returned to the Ship A73.

I first checked the progress of the overall mission and found that the progress of the six routes varied.

The fastest route, led by Ailan, has already crossed the outer area and entered the middle section, and its speed in the middle section is not slow either.

As if competing with Tolon's fleet, their progress on the route far surpassed that of the others.

The attitude of the remaining four routes was inexplicable.

The fleet, led by two major generals from the Seventh Central Army, was progressing slightly slower and was also about to enter the middle section.

Meanwhile, the fleets led by the other two Quasi-Hegemon were also slacking off.

Clearly, not everyone is willing to risk their lives. Even though the other two lines are clearly the Sixth and Fourteenth Central Army Group, they are not willing to put in much effort in the mission led by the Seventh Army Group.

Like Lister's choice, only their progress will be somewhat faster than that of their bottom-ranked fleet.

"Order: All troops, launch an attack!"

"Target: Planet RT203."

With Lister's order, the entire fleet finally resumed its advance.

Of course, the actual coordinates are still in the outer area; it's just a waste of time.

Meanwhile, Ailan's fleet encountered trouble.

"Sir, an alarm has been raised at the front lines. A large group of avian mechanical beings has been discovered, resulting in heavy casualties among the soldiers."

What level?

"They range from rank 13 to 16, but rank 13 is the most common; they are very powerful."

The speaker was Captain Jiake of the Ship DW-332, which belonged to the Miyang Civilization Army.

Unfortunately, the Miyang Civilization Army itself did not have Quasi-Hegemon in charge, and in the end, the command of the entire ship fell into the hands of Councilor Ailan.

"How strong could they be? They couldn't even handle a level 13 opponent? And they suffered heavy casualties?"

"Heh~!"

Ailan, who had shown no kindness to Lister and Tolon, was even more ruthless on this medium-sized ship.

The contempt on his face and in his words was undisguised, and one could even faintly sense a hint of disgust.

After the last meeting and these past few days, Captain Jiake clearly understood this man's personality.

While feeling resentful, he became increasingly cautious on the surface.

"Councilor Ailan, the individual strength of this mechanical bird is above B-level combat power."

"Moreover, the number is far too large; the officers and sergeants sent by our Ship 332 have already suffered a mortality rate approaching 70%."

"If this continues, our fleet might be wiped out before we even reach the core area..."

Captain Jiake's face showed genuine heartache when he said this.

These are all his men, many of whom are reserve talents he has painstakingly cultivated.

Now he's not only dying in this draft, but he's also not even recognized by Senator Ailan.

Fortunately, his statement that everyone had been beaten to a pulp moved Senator Ailan.

She couldn't possibly compete with Tolon on her own.

The encirclement and suppression mission is not just about offense; it also requires stationing troops at key points to prevent a counterattack.

To some extent, even cannon fodder should not be wasted.

"Where are the coordinates?"

"Fine, you lead the way, I'll go."

As he spoke, Ailan chanted a prayer towards the mechanical lifeform rushing towards him.

Immediately, countless mechanical lifeforms were lifted into control.

As if in a special space, the space suddenly contracted and compressed inward as Ailan clenched her fists while chanting.

In the end, all the mechanical life forms died, turning into a pile of gathered scrap metal.