Heading Out to Help

On the outskirts of the Milky Way Galaxy, a small warship, clearly belonging to the Federation Military District, has already departed the galactic region.

In principle, small ships are restricted from leaving the star system without authorization from the military region.

But in the face of "principles" themselves, all restrictions lose their foundation.

"We're finally out!"

Inside the ship, Lister sighed softly.

That's right, this small ship is the one he launched into the Milky Way Galaxy.

He authorized himself to grant the authorization.

"Notification: The warship has left the Milky Way Galaxy region. There is currently no star map of its current travel area. It is currently recording its movement."

Please reset your destination.

Notification: External resources have been integrated, the new map is loading... Loading successful.

"Target region set: Babylon Galaxy, BN Star Region"

"Autopilot has been activated; estimated arrival time is 137 days."

It is indeed a vast universe, with a much larger map.

The Babylon Galaxy where Kavin and his team were located was not far away, and the time frame was relatively short.

In fact, once it reaches the Overlord Tier, Lister's own speed will be faster than that of warships, even large ships.

However, this kind of travel is too tedious, and besides, the problems Kavin is currently facing aren't that urgent.

Lister naturally chose the more comfortable route.

Notification: The warship has entered the Babylon Galaxy.

A magnificent star field spectacle appeared in the holographic imagery outside the ship.

The Babylon Galaxy's nebula floats like shattered glass against the dark sky.

Billions of stars burn within a hazy, purplish-red cloud of gas, bathing the entire galaxy in flowing molten gold.

The enormous ring of stars resembles a necklace casually tossed aside by an indescribable creator.

Rotating slowly in the gravitational tides, occasionally a comet streaks across the sky with an icy blue tail, like a sharp blade cleaving through the stagnant light mist.

Compared to the Milky Way Galaxy, the Babylon Galaxy is indeed more magnificent.

However, due to the shared nature of the star system, the fighting and disturbances were extremely intense.

Even if Lister's small ship flew at full speed as much as possible, it would not cause any trouble.

However, they were still intercepted by other passing warships.

Looking at the interceptor ship through the projection, the lead ship was a somewhat damaged warship.

Based on his assessment, it should be classified as a medium-sized ship.

The ship's hull was painted with menacing red claw marks, clearly the symbol of a space pirate crew.

With a tap of the fingertip three times on the control panel, the warship's defense system immediately went into silence.

"BN Star Region, Church of Mechanical Truth."

He impatiently shouted out the name the other party gave, but his voice was already shrouded in electronic noise when it came through the communication channel, as if the signal had been interfered with by a strong magnetic field.

The next instant, the other party's communications directly invaded his small ship.

Although the overall development level of warships in the universe is relatively backward, it seems that the enemy's warships are quite advanced.

The original star map on the control room projection screen was immediately erased, and a few seconds later a face covered with a metal mask appeared.

"A madman from the Church of Mechanical Truth?"

The voice behind the mask carried obvious apprehension.

"Why aren't you building that ridiculous ideal society in the BN Star Region? What are you doing in the outer star system?"

As expected of Kavin!

The Church of Mechanical Truth has grown to this extent in this public sector so quickly.

At least the name given can be immediately known, and the other party clearly shows fear of that name.

In the public star system, this is already considered the behavior of a major power.

"It's all because of the Yatke Hegemon incident. I was sent to the Blue Cluster Galaxy to gather intelligence on the war mobilization."

Is the news about the Blue Skirt Galaxy true?

The man in the metal mask opposite him lowered his posture a bit, and his voice softened considerably.

Despite their respective strengths, when two sides meet, their strength is still the deciding factor.

Lister publicly displayed a level 15 strength, while the pirate captain he faced was level 16. Their combat power, measured by their Killing Intent Wave, was equivalent to an A-level strength.

This is why the other party was so confident and dared to stop him.

I'm currently paying close attention to the news brought by Lister.

"You're a pirate, and you're still willing to listen to this?"

"If something happens, can't you just run away?"

"It's not that simple, and besides, it can be done..."

The man in the metal visor had only spoken halfway when a crimson light suddenly flashed in front of the warship—it was an attack from a plasma cannon beam.

As if they had seen through the structure of the Lister warship, they aimed at and bombarded its engine start-up area.

Lister's small ships came to a standstill for a moment.

"Are you crazy? You dare to rob our Church of Mechanical Truth?"

"Heh~! The Church of Mechanical Truth?"

"You think I haven't seen those machine-crazy people before?"

"The Milky Way Galaxy, the Merrick Civilization... Lister?"

As the man spoke, he gave a mocking, sneer with a slight raise of his eyebrows.

"Don't rush to deny it; I've already read all your warship data."

"I didn't expect him to be a general..."

"If you hand over your valuable resources now, I'll spare your life."

"Otherwise... hehe..."

The man in the metal mask was completely unaware that something was wrong.

He knew nothing about the Milky Way Galaxy, let alone the Merrick Civilization within it.

The information inside the warship mostly concerned Lister's identity and access to the star system, but lacked specific information such as his strength.

This made the other side completely underestimate Lister's strength, and even the general didn't take him seriously.

He had seen many military ranks in the public star system; they were all just titles bestowed by their respective factions.

Little did they know that Lister was different from others, and far more than he appeared.

"I'd like to know what will happen if I don't pay."

Seeing that the warship was damaged, Lister didn't take it to heart.

He was now watching the pirate in the metal mask with great interest, a defiant look on his face.

"Open fire! Blast him to smithereens!"

The man in the metal visor, acting as the ship's captain, issued a stern order.

In an instant, several crimson plasma beams tore through the nebula and blasted at Lister's small ship once again.

The warship was immediately pierced, and the violent impact still caused the hull to tremble violently, with piercing alarms constantly echoing inside the cabins.

The massive energy surge in a short period of time completely riddled the small ships with holes.

"Boom!"

Until an explosion rang out, sparks flew, and smoke billowed.

"Hmph! You mere trash from a garbage civilization dare to try and scare me?"

The man in the metal mask spoke with disdain, but the next moment his brows furrowed involuntarily.

He stared wide-eyed at the scene before him, as if he had seen a ghost.

As the smoke from the warship's explosion Destruction dissipated, Lister stood unharmed in the same spot.

She gazed at him calmly, a faint smile on her face.

Instantly, cold sweat broke out on the man's forehead, and his pupils contracted sharply within his facial armor.

The swallowing sounds as the Adam's apple bobbed were amplified into piercing static by the communication channel.

He saw Lister begin to step forward, landing precisely on the energy ripples that had opened up the void, each step causing his warship's gravity stabilizers to hum under the strain.

"Impossible! How could this be?"

"Only the fifteenth level..."

His voice abruptly stopped as an extreme killing intent emanated from the warship, pressing down on him and then permeating his very soul.

The overwhelming, suffocating feeling of impending death terrified him.

At the same time, alarms sounded inside the warship.

The high-powered testing device, purchased at a premium from the black market, is currently triggering alarms rapidly.

The numbers from above also skyrocketed without warning.

The energy level of Lister instantly jumped from level 15 to level 18.

And the instrument readings are still climbing...

Eventually, the individual life form's rank stabilized at rank 20, but its energy intensity had already exceeded the limit and could no longer be observed.

The masked man completely lost his focus, his expression changed drastically, and he kept muttering to himself.

"This energy intensity—how is this possible!"

After all, it's a public star system, so even the black market's strength detectors are just so-so.

Once the order exceeds 18, it becomes impossible to observe energy intensities above the S-class.

This means that it's impossible to observe Overlord Tier units, a feature that is indeed useless to most factions.

Not to mention that the Lister before us actually possesses World-Ending Level power.

The masked man stood there speechless, stunned.

The next instant, a silver-black blade of light appeared before their eyes.

The extreme sharpness and unparalleled pressure he faced since birth represented the greatest pressure he had ever experienced.

Finally, the blade's edge flashed past his eyes.

Unexpectedly, he did not die, and the warship he was on was also undamaged.

But when he turned around, the three auxiliary warships behind him had already been annihilated in the blade's edge.

Not a single person survived!

In the blink of an eye, Lister had unknowingly passed through the energy shield of his warship and was already in front of him.

"Who... who are you?!"

An uneasy and uncertain voice questioned Lister.

Do you want to live?

A calm voice rang out, as if grasping at a lifeline at a moment when the masked man was on the verge of despair.

"Think!"

The menacing red-clawed pirate ship is the native inhabitant of this star system.

On their way to the headquarters of the Church of Mechanical Truth, the major powers were too lazy to deal with them and looked down on them, while the smaller powers dared not speak out against them.

Even when he encountered fellow pirates, none of them stopped him from going.

Efficiency increased dramatically, and in just three days, they arrived at their destination BN Star Region.

"Lord Lister, please come in!"

Several mechanical lifeforms from the Church of Mechanical Truth had also piloted warships and surrounded the pirate warship.

It wasn't that they were wary of him; on the contrary, they were simply leading the way.

All the planets in this region are different from those in the outer star systems.

Each planet appears to have been specially terraformed, with little natural composition.

The scan by the pirate ship revealed that the planets were entirely composed of high-density metallic elements.

In addition to specialized structures, the planet's surface is covered with ancient and mysterious runes.

The central planet in the core region is even more different; its volume is thousands of times larger than that of ordinary planets, and it is comparable to that of ordinary stars.

Also constructed of high-density metallic elements, the planet is surrounded by twelve layers of precisely meshed star rings, like mechanical gears, each composed of tens of thousands of rhomboid metals.

As the planet slowly rotates, ethereal blue quantum sparks burst forth from the gaps in its rings.

"Sir, are you truly a follower of the Church of Mechanical Truth?"

Even now, the masked man was still guessing Lister's identity.

The next moment, Kavin and Hoffman appeared as if they had been waiting for this moment.

The moment the spaceship appeared, the two of them broke through its defenses and arrived in front of Lister.

There was little small talk; instead, there was a constant process of perception and exploration.

It wasn't until quite a while later that Hoffman exclaimed with considerable surprise.

"I never expected this!"

"Compared to you, Kavin, you actually reached the Hegemon level much faster."

"Overlord... Hegemon?"

The man in the golden mask who was standing nearby was taken aback at first.

Then it dawned on me: no wonder the detector couldn't measure it; the other party had indeed exceeded the detection limit.

"Lister."

Kavin didn't say much, just a greeting and a silent nod.

"Let's not stay here, show me around first?"

Kavin nodded, and in the next instant, the three of them disappeared from the warship.

The man in the golden mask was overjoyed, thinking that Lister had kept his promise and spared his life.

However, before he could even get excited, the warship suddenly sounded an alarm.

"The core repository has been compromised, the control center has been taken over, core data is being modified, modification successful."

The masked man's authority was ruthlessly revoked, and he was subsequently expelled by the warship itself.

Upon exiting the warship, he was greeted by Kavin's Quasi-Hegemon bodyguards.

"I've already arranged for people to modify the warship."

"What do you think of my place? Wouldn't you call it a true community of Mechanical Civilization?"

The number of mechanical lifeforms is naturally higher in the core area.

The various mechanical life forms that come and go are no longer limited to humanoid shapes; they come in all sorts of forms.

There are also specialized machinery markets where one can upgrade and modify their equipment.

Of course, in a true civilization, not all individuals pursue power.

Under the Killing Intent Wave, Lister had already discovered several mechanical lifeforms who were studying music, painting, and other arts.

The bet made back then seems to have truly come true on this planet densely populated with mechanical life forms.

"Congratulations."

Lister nodded in agreement.

"What the Church of Mechanical Truth lacks most right now is its own territory, isn't it?"

"I haven't discovered any life forms in the Blue Cluster Galaxy during my journey here."

The Blue Cluster Galaxy is the private star system of the Yatke Hegemon.

The other side had already set their sights on Kavin when he first settled in this public Babylon star system.

I heard that this time they have actually mobilized an army, intending to occupy this entire Babylon Galaxy in one fell swoop.

It's such a shame that the Church of Mechanical Truth, which has worked so hard to develop to its current state, has to relocate and rebuild because of the mere ambitions of a mere Hegemon.

As long as Kavin doesn't reach the Hegemon, it will be difficult for him to have a truly stable territory.

This is also why Lister came.

Using his strength and relying on the power of the Church of Mechanical Truth, he took the lead in occupying the Babylon Star Domain.

They also established a real base outside the Galactic Federation.

"I have a clone in the Blue Cluster Galaxy; there are still three months until the official announcement and attack."

"Lister... you've only just entered the Hegemon, can you handle Yatke?"

As expected of Hoffman, with countless puppets and decoys, he naturally possessed a vast amount of intelligence.

At this moment, he is quite worried about Lister, who has come to help.

The Yatke have been the Hegemon for over 8,000 years, even longer Boren Leviathans.

Lister had only been a Hegemon force for a year.

Just comparing them like this seems a bit far-fetched!