071 Goes to Space
The visitor from Sky Ring conveniently helped Li Aoz out of a tight spot, allowing him to fool N4. After receiving the invitation, he took the opportunity to tell N4 that he had important business to attend to, thus dismissing the visitor.
Li Aoz exchanged a few polite words with the warriors from Sky Ring, accepted the admission ticket to the Nine Dragons Gathering, and after a brief chat, immediately flew out of Triangle Town. In the sand dunes Outland, he stripped naked and, amidst the cold wind and sandstorm, placed his hand on his chest.
[Natural Ignition]
Bear—! The blinding flames instantly incinerated Li Aoz, Li Aoz immediately entered a 'near-death state,' his body charred and gradually turning to ashes.
Li Aoz coldly watched as the life force of his implanted body gradually decreased to zero, while a series of messages slowly appeared in the status bar: [MZ-009 Virus - Cleared]
[Wolf Kiss Bacteria - eliminated]
[Nethermark Type-7 Monitoring Cell - Cleared]
[Zell Modulation Gu Worm - eliminated]
Under temperatures of several thousand degrees, a total of 29 lurking biochemical parasites were purified. Even with Li Aoz's extensive experience and knowledge, he couldn't help but feel a chill.
After confirming that there was no more information about bio-parasites, he activated [Blood of Immortality]. Li Aoz's health was instantly restored to full. To ensure safety, he even burned the junk collector's outfit several times before he was completely at ease.
"Keeping my distance from N4 is the right thing to do, but I do need their help."
After changing his clothes, Li Aoz began to worry about this problem again.
N4, a machine devoid of any sense of good or evil, cannot be understood or criticized using a human Worldview. She doesn't even consider herself human, making her even more absurd than the professor.
At least the professor's case can be deduced using human standards, but N4 is much more complicated.
She didn't even need a name, referring to herself only by a coded code, and she truly treated herself like a machine.
If used properly, it can benefit the whole world; if used improperly, it can bring catastrophe to all mankind.
Just like nuclear energy—one of the cleanest energy sources—without nuclear energy, most people would live in polluted air, and lung disease and exhaust fumes would cause unbearable suffering and be extremely damaging to people's physical and mental health.
However, nuclear weapons also possess extremely terrifying destructive power, and could even lead to World War.
To be honest, N4's potential is also extremely terrifying. Compared to Archduke Gamos, who is a half-crippled Gamma Rank, N4 clearly demonstrated its potential to step into the universe in its previous version 2.5.
Moreover, N4, as the former mentor of the [Biochemist] profession, not only helped many players, but she herself was also the key figure who saved the Great Famine on Azure Planet in version 1.8.
After much deliberation, Li Aoz had no choice but to choose the most direct and brutal method. "Use my charm and extraordinary knowledge to directly seduce her and make her my tool."
Having figured this out, Li Aoz was no longer ambiguous.
N4 is someone we must win over. If we can't make her our tool, we must at least eliminate her completely before Entropy awakens.
Li Aoz cannot join Nethermark Heavy Industries for the time being, otherwise the persona he had previously cultivated would collapse.
Therefore, he decided to follow through on his previous idea—to go to Sky Ring and obtain the two "Timeless Masterpiece" of weapons.
Then, without further delay, he took some of the players he had his eye on and went straight to space.
Alexia was on his side, and the affairs of Grand and Triangle Town could be temporarily entrusted to her.
Du Mouldy Crotch has also laid his own trap. Players are currently very hostile towards Medvi's faction. Frostplate's defeat on the Grand battlefield, coupled with the scandals in diplomacy and the Nethermark Humanity, as well as the inflation crisis, these deadly factors combined will inevitably cause Medvi's authority to be swept away.
Originally, Li Aoz planned to personally cultivate Dai Weilin's favor, but now it seems that if he directly tells Mouldy Crotch the location of Elf Island, the players might even help him break out of prison.
With most things arranged— Li Aoz thought to himself—going to space now isn't so bad.
With those two "Timeless Masterpiece" weapons, plus his near -Gamma Rank strength, he could easily thrive in the first layer of the Star Abyss [Layer Abyss].
Then, when we return to address the current issues, whether it's N4, the Imitation Society, or Entropy, things will be significantly easier.
"It's settled then."
After making up his mind, Li Aoz immediately flew back to the laboratory.
He's about to head to Sky Ring, and it's necessary to bring some surprises to the players and the Heavenly Ring Nation.
After taking stock of the number of [DM-101 Mutation Inducing Agent] in the Biochemical Pool, he found that a total of 2,907 doses of the agent had been produced in the ten days he was away. The production was sufficient, and Li Aoz was not in a hurry to increase production, since further improvements would be needed in the future.
He injected himself first, and the halogen-colored drug, which was like bromine, was quickly injected into his deltoid muscle. Li Aoz's body had gradually adapted to it, and his genes were induced, causing the originally fragmented sequences to quickly transform and combine.
"This stuff even has the characteristic of taking effect faster the more you use it—but that's normal, since it's a trigger and needs more of the same ingredients to resonate with it."
Li Aoz suddenly had a bad idea: why not hold off on launching the new generation of drugs and use up the current generation's inventory first?
Players are well aware of the Osborn effect—announcing a new product too early and being unable to deliver it ahead of time can severely impact the sales of older products.
The saying "those who wait will never lose out" is actually an application of this principle.
Once someone announces in advance that they will have a new iteration of the drug, they're doomed. Everyone will be waiting for their new batch of drugs to be released, and then no one will buy DM-101 anymore. They won't be able to recover the cost of this batch of drugs.
"Speaking of which, I sold a batch of Gland beer and grain through live streaming before, and my profit share should be coming in soon. Why don't I save up some money... and just rent a laboratory at the Red Arrow Royal Medical Academy?"
The Biochemical Pool in Li Aoz's possession is, after all, a simplified version; it's passable for creating a few small dogs and cats. But if he wants to produce large-scale bio-armored weapons—such as bio-armor, Bio-Kongou, or Chimera Synthetic Beasts, those are the signature weapons of a [Bio-Master], and that's a long shot.
In the environment of Azure Planet, either the Nethermark Heavy Industries or the Royal Medical Academy of the Red Arrow Empire are needed, as only these two institutions have sufficient experimental facilities for Li Aoz to produce [products].
As for Sky Ring... Sky Ring should probably stop trying to get involved in high-tech; their specialty is martial arts.
Li Aoz flew back to Grand with the Biochemical Pool. Along the way, Frostplate Air Force detected Li Aoz's signal, but dared not take off to engage the enemy.
Seeing this, Li Aoz had an idea and decided to do something even more fun.
He flew straight into the radar reconnaissance airspace, enjoying the flight and deliberately letting himself be detected by the Frostplate Air Force.
"Commander, that guy deliberately crossed our airspace..."
The radar operator of Frostplate Air Force asked Alan Macdonald, the Frostplate Air Force Commander-in-Chief, with trepidation. The middle-aged man in his fifties chewed his pipe loudly and could only say inwardly with resentment, "Launch the White Bird-11 hypersonic air defense missile. If we can catch up, great. If not—oh well."
They watched helplessly as Li Aoz flew overhead with Biochemical Pool weighing over ten tons, only able to symbolically drop two missiles, just to justify the taxes paid by the taxpayers.