#Mr. Jiang, I'm back. The two mech soldier components are too large. Have A Ling secretly transport them through the black market?#
The message was from Xiao Guang.
Jiang Xiao smiled faintly and typed:
#Just come straight in. They won't dare stop them.#
#Okay.#
Jiang Xiao turned and left the rooftop.
It was time to speed things up. First, he needed to find a suitable place for the Apocalyptic Mech Core. The datafied state would prevent the spaceport from noticing anything.
Then he had to find a way to invade the Star Rail Defense Ship!
Before that, however, it would be best to raise his spirit energy to Tier 2 Elite. Stability came first.
Previously, Jiang Xiao had only been thirty percent confident of invading the Star Rail Defense Ship. Now, with his wealth of Geometric Code knowledge and the assistance of the Apocalyptic Mech Core's AI, he was eighty percent certain he could infiltrate it without anyone noticing!
Infiltrating the Star Rail Defense Ship alone would not be enough.
Unless something unusual happened, the Star Rail Defense Ship's descent to the planet's surface would definitely provoke wariness and an attack!
The largest Defense Ship had remained on the outskirts of the star system where Prison Star was located. The moment anything abnormal happened, it would immediately return to provide aid.
Therefore, he had to ensure that the Star Rail Defense Ship's descent seemed reasonable.
Having the insect swarm attack Sin Capital would be a good choice. He did not know how far along the Sin City Council's plans were, so he would have to handle the matter himself just in case.
As for how to attract a massive insect swarm to attack Sin Capital, the three biological records in the Apocalyptic Mech Core's Database all pointed toward a special Signal Band based on deep-space transmission technology.
Jiang Xiao could completely extract the technology for generating this Signal Band from the deep-space transmission technology.
The Apocalyptic Mech Core could transmit deep-space signals, but its range was insufficient. Thus, he still needed to obtain a conventional large-scale Signal Amplifier.
However, that meant relocating Starfire Camp to Sin Capital.
The defenses of Wicked Soul Tower also needed to be strengthened further.
There was a lot to do. He would take it one step at a time.
Jiang Xiao suddenly thought of the increasingly intense clashes between the Black Mech Gang and the Sin City Council over the past few days.
"I wonder when those two will launch an all-out war. If I take advantage of the chaos and bring Xiao Guang along to wipe out all the Viper Gang's higher-ups, breaking through to Tier 2 Elite shouldn't be difficult."
He would wait until the Black Mech Gang drew most of the Sin City Council's forces away, then take the opportunity to deal with the core gang in the council faction and weaken the council's upper-level combat strength as quickly as possible.
I would gain experience, while the higher-level combat strength of the alien race would be weakened.
A win-win!
Otherwise, if the Sin City Council panicked and launched an all-out attack on Wicked Soul Tower regardless of the cost, Jiang Xiao feared he might not be able to hold out.
Who knew whether the council chairman was as insane as Kliffen?
"Speaking of which, the Black Mech Gang should be coming to contact me in the next few days, right?"
Jiang Xiao sank into thought.
More than an hour passed.
The Mechanical Workshop's doors opened, and a petite figure walked inside.
She removed her hood, revealing a head of dazzling, silky silver-white hair. The girl's exquisite face was utterly expressionless, but barely perceptible ripples stirred in her jewel-like red eyes.
"Mr. Jiang, I'm back."
Jiang Xiao came down from the second floor with a radiant smile. "I missed you so much, Xiao Guang. If you're tired, go rest at Wicked Soul Tower. Qian Ling saved you a room with a pretty good environment."
"This place is fine."
Xiao Guang raised her head and looked at Jiang Xiao as he approached, her tone calm.
Seeing this, Jiang Xiao did not hurry to inspect the mech soldiers. He found a clean spot, took the initiative to start a conversation, and then listened with a smile as Xiao Guang recounted her experiences over the past eleven days.
Chapter 54: Central Control AI
A short while later, in the Mechanical Workshop.
After their chat, Xiao Guang seemed to be in a good mood. She glanced at the time and knew Jiang Xiao had been busy recently, so she pointed toward the second floor.
"I'm going to meditate. Call me if you need me."
"Okay."
Jiang Xiao smiled and ruffled Xiao Guang's little head. He watched her scamper upstairs before leaving the workshop to inspect the types of mech soldiers she had brought back.
By now, the entire Yuanjin Black Market had completely become Jiang Xiao's work area. All kinds of metal and mechanical parts were everywhere, sorted by function and packed into boxes stacked as high as mountains.
There was more discarded metal than anything else, piled into several small mountains standing ten to twenty meters high.
The two mech soldiers Xiao Guang had brought back had already been carried to an open area.
Jiang Xiao approached and examined them carefully from all sides.
The two mech soldiers were almost completely intact, with few signs of damage.
However, a close inspection revealed a slender palm print beneath the lower edge of each mech soldier's outer armor, deeply embedded in the plating!
This was Xiao Guang's handiwork.
The instant her Particle Destruction struck the mech soldiers, it directly severed their energy circuits, bringing them to a halt!
Jiang Xiao was not surprised. Origin Data could do it even faster.
After all, these were merely mech soldiers from a Primary Civilization. They could not possibly be equipped with Spirit Energy Resistance devices. Spirit Energy suppression technology was something only Intermediate Civilizations possessed.
In any case, when facing Combat Side Espers, mech soldiers of the same tier would struggle to fight them head-on unless they won through numbers.
Jiang Xiao looked at the System Retrieval information.
Two mech soldiers.
The first had a slender build and stood about three meters tall. Its primary weapons were four high-temperature Cutting Blade arms resembling mantis blades. Combined with the material in the blades that could obstruct Source Energy, they were powerful enough to breach the defenses of a Tier 2 Regular Martial Artist in one strike!
Its primary ranged weapon was the laser device in its chest. After charging at full power, it could heavily injure a slightly weaker Tier 2 Elite.
With its extremely tough armor and highly efficient combat methods, its actual combat strength was roughly at the upper-middle level among Tier 2 Elites, equivalent to a Viper Clan powerhouse with 85 to 90 points.
The other mech soldier was considerably bulkier, resembling a giant ape. It stood over five meters tall, and its armor was thicker and more finely crafted than that of the first mech soldier.
What delighted Jiang Xiao was that it carried numerous mid- and long-range weapons!
Two Laser Floating Cannons embedded in its rear shoulders—not Source Energy Equipment—a shoulder-mounted triple-barrel electromagnetic machine gun, and a palm-mounted Plasma Cannon!
Its overall strength was not weak even among Tier 2 Peaks. According to the information, its strength alone was even somewhat greater than Gulab's.
Of course, its strongest weapon was undoubtedly the Plasma Cannon!
Its terrifying temperature of tens of thousands of degrees and material-destructive power meant that even the Source Energy Aura of a Tier 2 Peak could only barely defend against it. A direct hit would very likely result in severe injury.
A weaponized Plasma Cannon's attack efficiency was far beyond what a crudely modified battery could match.
The battery pack that had killed Gulab back then contained enough energy for this Plasma Cannon to fire twenty or thirty times.
Jiang Xiao casually tossed the two mech soldiers into the Research Slot!
Now that he possessed the Mechanical Core, Jiang Xiao was not worried about materials at all. He only needed to throw the collected mech soldier wreckage, useless equipment, and alien corpses into the Mechanical Core's furnace, and they would be converted into raw materials for manufacturing machines.
An efficiency of resource utilization infinitely close to one hundred percent!
Did they understand what it meant to strip the land bare at the level of an insect swarm?
Moreover, the Mechanical Core's ability to consume inorganic matter was a function that only Intermediate Insect Nests could evolve—the kind of insect swarm hub capable of threatening an Intermediate Civilization.
There was no doubt about the strength of the Apocalyptic Mech Core.
Research Slot (2/2)-- 1. Blade Mantis Type K2 Mech Soldier, current research progress: 0.0% (estimated time required: seven days) 2. Raging Ape Type Area Annihilation Mech Soldier, current research progress: 0.0% (estimated time required: nineteen days)
"Not bad. It's a little faster than expected."
After closing the panel, Jiang Xiao returned to the Mechanical Workshop.
He began thinking about where to place the Apocalyptic Mech Core. Suddenly, he spotted the entrance to the underground passage in the corner of the first floor, and his eyes lit up.
When Jiang Xiao reached the second floor, Xiao Guang opened her eyes and looked over before he could even speak.
"Do you need help?"
Jiang Xiao was briefly stunned, then said seriously, "I need to dig out an underground space about forty meters long and wide, and roughly ten meters high."
According to the information, the Mechanical Core's base was twenty meters long, it was nine meters tall, and its shape resembled a pyramid.
Xiao Guang pondered for a moment.
"One day."
"One day? Isn't that too much of a stretch?" Jiang Xiao frowned.
"No. Strictly speaking, I only need two hours to disintegrate mountain rock of the same volume into sand-sized fragments. The rest of the time will be spent carrying the sand and soil outside."
Xiao Guang explained, her tone seemingly eager to give it a try.
For some inexplicable reason, Xiao Guang wanted Jiang Xiao to see the power she had possessed at her peak.
Only then did Jiang Xiao relax. "All right. I'll ask Chief Li to arrange people to transport the sand and soil. The excavation site will be beneath the black market. The foundation of Wicked Soul Tower is very deep, so we won't have to worry about a collapse for at least several months."
"Mm, all right."
With Xiao Guang having no problem handling it, everything that followed became much simpler.
After Jiang Xiao said he needed to borrow manpower to help build the underground space, the Starfire Warriors who had nothing to do at Wicked Soul Tower signed up enthusiastically, as if they had been injected with stimulants.
More than a hundred people had gathered in no time.
With everything ready, construction of the underground space began at once.
Jiang Xiao had no intention of concealing it. He openly started the excavation.
Of course, to put on a show for the spaceport, he deliberately had the Spark Gang stack one piece of Industrial Equipment after another from the Black Mech Gang's shops outside the Mechanical Workshop.
He pretended that he was going to build his own mechanical factory.
Before you continue