I Said I Was Just Here for the Soy Sauce, Would You Believe Me?
The greatest characteristic of the Empire is its inclusiveness: there are no restrictions on race, religion, or identity. You can freely change your identity and place of residence in any civilization you join. As long as you identify with the Empire and swear allegiance to the Emperor, you can enjoy this freedom indefinitely.
In his previous life Li Aoz was a Starcaller belonging to the "Heroes Empire." He had changed at least 34 civilizations and 28 nationalities. This system is based on Justification by Faith. If you say you believe and pass the test, the Empire will issue you an ID card.
It was through this means that the Empire became incredibly attractive to immigrants, gradually eroding the core strength of the "Temple of Annihilation" and the "United Company".
Although Li Aoz's ultimate destination is the "Heroes Empire," he's not going to the Empire now—even though the Empire welcomes all, a cosmic wanderer without a civilized origin is out of the question. He'll just face discrimination and be looked down upon everywhere, unable to use public facilities.
However, since they possessed Spirit Maggot, and the Spirit Maggot Temple of Annihilation was so eager to acquire them that they would stop at nothing to get their hands on them, Li Aoz planned to head straight for the nearest planet under the Temple of Annihilation's jurisdiction.
Of course, if he kept flying like this, it would take him more than ten years to reach his destination. In order to save time and avoid unnecessary trouble, Li Aoz decided to fly to a certain distance and then take a stargate to teleport there.
—Even the tiny Azure Planet has attracted the two hidden geniuses, the Hidden Society and the Imitation Society. Li Aoz afraid that some other society in the universe will be attracted by these two.
Space travel is too dangerous, let's get some exercise! After his first trip into space, Li Aoz also unlocked a title called "Pioneer of the Future," which guarantees a 20% increase in "Intelligence." This title's effect is a guaranteed hit, directly overshadowing the effect of "Autocratic."
Aside from increasing Li Aoz's Intelligence stat from 7 to a terrifying 8.4, it's not very useful to Li Aoz.
By the standards of Azure Planet, this is equivalent to upgrading from undergraduate to graduate level, but it's still a super-low-quality master's degree with a 40% plagiarism rate.
The [Intelligence] attribute is practically useless to Li Aoz. On one hand, he has the [Autocratic] attribute, which increases his risk of being corrupted by society. On the other hand, if the [Intelligence] attribute is below 15 points, it provides almost no help in combat.
If one desires profound wisdom and agile thinking, there's no need to directly increase [Intelligence]. Sequence 59 [Erudition] and Sequence 40 [Sage] are two Aoneng that perfectly fulfill Li Aoz's needs.
The former can use keyword searches to transcend time and space and directly view the memories of their own bloodline, clan, or even the entire civilization's past.
The latter is simpler, allowing you to make the right decision immediately in any situation.
For Li Aoz, with the "Autocratic" skill in hand, he basically doesn't need to consider intelligence until he becomes the "Pope".
Space travel is incredibly tedious, monotonous, and dangerous. Li Aoz's body accelerated continuously, and before he knew it, more than ten days had passed. For the players in the Biochemical Pool, that would probably be the time it takes to finish a hamburger.
During this time, Li Aoz had increased his speed to 40% of the speed of light. He used the gravity of two huge stars to increase his speed to 80%, but in any case, with his current body, he certainly could not reach more than 90%.
Fortunately, this speed is sufficient.
Li Aoz was on high alert. Flying at near-light speed was no easy feat. He had just escaped Earth's gravity and immediately entered 'abstinence' mode, allowing himself to slowly accumulate experience.
His Main Class level is now 60. Since the secondary profession of [Biochemist] is overlaid by Persona Deduction, it has no effect on his actual Total Level.
Therefore, no matter what, he must level up the [Mutant] to the maximum level each time in order to advance.
"Looks like I'll have to find a proper side job as an architect to pass on to."
Having a secondary profession can significantly reduce the pressure of advancement, at least providing a considerable attribute boost. And with the [Decisiveness] feat, most of the attribute boosts will ultimately be converted into [Charisma].
He's on the verge of advancing to the Gamma-rank, but now he faces a major problem—he can't complete his Gamma-rank mission.
The Gamma-rank quest for the [Mutant] is simple: complete the class change.
It looks simple, but Li Aoz still flying in the air. He knows where to find the [Echo] legacy—turn back to the Fiennes Federation and go through that extremely long procedure.
But Li Aoz simply couldn't afford to waste that much time. The lifespan of the races in the Fiennes Federation was often three or four hundred years, and handling government affairs was slower than a snail's pace. They also often suffered from paranoia and would always come up with some outrageous and unbelievable combinations of things.
For example, there was once a great injustice who returned to Fernand from the Heroes Empire, but was denied entry—the reason being that customs suspected him of being a murder suspect in the Heroes Empire and that he was trying to escape capture by returning from the prosperous Empire. Therefore, they refused him entry and detained him for a whole week.
At first glance, it seems like there's no problem, right?
—This person is the president of the Fenes Federation. Because his spaceship broke down, he returned on a civilian flight.
The Fiennes Federation often does all sorts of outrageous things, Li Aoz estimates that given their situation, they can hold out for two or three years.
By then, Dai Weilin will probably be able to take the stage at Frostplate.
Moreover, given the current situation, since I've been in [Overlord Form] the whole time, I won't be able to transform for a long time, which will greatly weaken my strength and make the job change quest very risky.
After studying for several days, Li Aoz made up his mind—to first use the stargate to resolve the identity issues of himself and the players. Unregistered individuals receive no protection in the Star Abyss, and regardless of which planet the stargate will teleport them to, they should settle down first.
Li Aoz had long since memorized the star map of the Abyss. After leaving the Morey Star System where Azure Planet was located, Li Aoz immediately found a familiar route. Now he didn't have to worry about the danger of collision. He could just clear his mind and fly as fast as he could towards his target planet.
Li Aoz was very lucky; he wasn't discovered by Fiennes Federation along the way. This route was usually a popular trade route, and it was often blocked off.
But after flying for so long, no one dared to compete with him for airspace. Li Aoz was overjoyed and had a blast speeding through space, treating civilian air routes like highways and recklessly crashing into them. The Interstellar Traffic Control Association didn't even bother to regulate him.
Unfortunately, Li Aoz soon discovered that his good fortune had run out.
After flying for three months, Li Aoz discovered a problem: he was too far ahead of the version.
At this point in time, that route may not have actually undergone any trial runs yet.
"Li Aoz, Li Aoz, guess why no one is regulating this?"
Li Aoz stared silently at the crisscrossing laser network before him. Neutron Torpedo silently unleashed deadly plumes, and fusion rays brutally tore through the starry sky, vaporizing asteroids along the way, until they broke through several uninhabited planets before being deflected by the force field shields of the enemy fleet.
Amidst thousands of missiles, small assault ships mingled, carrying superhumans who rapidly advanced towards the fleet's flagship. Equipped with Nuclear Rifle and Magic Sword Blade, the superhumans forcefully boarded the flagship's deck, unleashing immense power. Even from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, Li Aoz could clearly see a massive silhouette.
Clearly, the probing attack spanning several light-years had ended. The cold debris indicated that the war had entered its final, intense phase, with both sides engaging in close combat at a distance of no more than 3 million kilometers—almost face-to-face battles in space.
Everything here indicates that Li Aoz is on the battlefield of an Interstellar Civilization conflict.