Who's the Hunter, and Who's the Prey? / 85% of Your Body Is Mechanized? That's Practically a Free Kill

Research Slot: FT Alloy Shuriken Bullet (1/1), Research Progress: 0% (Estimated time required: seventy-one days)

Hint: Continuously researching an item occupies 20% of the player's brainpower. Spirit Energy (Current Spirit Energy: far too weak)

As expected, the Profession System had very high requirements for both Source Energy and Spirit Energy. Neither could be lacking.

"Looks like I'll have to make the aliens suffer first."

Chapter 7: Who Is the Hunter, and Who Is the Prey

Sin Capital, outer region.

A sprawling complex of low buildings several kilometers long blazed with lights. The pungent smell of machine oil filled the air, while billowing black smoke shrouded half the sky over Sin Capital's outskirts in gloom.

The gates had been casually built from armored vehicles and the wreckage of mechanical armor. Aliens constantly went in and out, some overjoyed to be carrying brand-new equipment, others frowning as they lugged mechanical wreckage...

This was one of the strongest gangs in Sin Capital—the Black Mech Gang's Main Base!

It controlled nearly eighty percent of Sin Capital's equipment modification, machinery, and repair and maintenance businesses, as well as forty percent of the weapons trade!

One-third of the weapons on the Frontier Prison Star had basically been painstakingly built piece by piece by the Black Mech Gang's mechanists. Thus, its status in Sin Capital was extraordinary.

Yet this local tyrant's atmosphere was unusually oppressive today.

In the underground chamber beneath the Black Mech Gang's Main Base, three figures sat facing one another in silence. More than a hundred alien mechanists stood there, too frightened to make a sound. From time to time, they exchanged glances, then slightly shook their heads and remained silent.

"The Three-Phase Square Box is missing. Speak up—how do we handle this?"

At last, one of the three figures broke the silence. He was a humanoid alien with a pointed head and three pairs of twelve-fingered arms.

"The Three-Phase Square Box is crucial to the plan. Without it, the completion date will be delayed by at least thirty years. Every day of delay adds another risk."

"A bunch of good-for-nothings! Three Martial Artists equipped with our most advanced individual weapons actually got toyed with by a Pan-Human!"

Another figure, a spider alien carrying a mechanical arm on his back, spoke furiously.

"We have to recover the box. At the very least, we must destroy it. If the garrison and the other gangs learn that this thing was in the high-level airdrop, matters may spiral beyond our control!"

"During the battle royale, we can't send anyone into the Old Capital. We can only entrust it to..."

Before either of them could finish, the last figure, who had not spoken at all, raised his tentacles and interrupted them. He was a Jellyfish Mechanist standing about a meter tall.

The room fell silent again.

It was not merely because he was the Black Mech Gang's leader. More importantly, the Three-Phase Square Box had also been obtained by him.

"We can't entrust this to outsiders. I spent over a decade planning and leveraging my connections beyond the Prison Star before finally bribing the airdrop-supply inspection team and getting the box into the Prison Star under the identity of a 'Precision Mechanical Arm.'

"If we outsource this or make too much noise, it might arouse the other gangs' curiosity. If it brings an inspection by the Garrison Fleet, we'll all die."

"The Pan-Human can't possibly recognize the box. Its exterior was specially customized. He'll most likely abandon it or hide it somewhere. Notify the Black Mech Gang's Hunters in the Old Capital Ruins and have them take a look," the Jellyfish Mechanist said coldly.

"If they don't find it, then have every Black Mech Gang Hunter capture the human Martial Artist alive on the grounds that he 'provoked the Black Mech Gang' and interrogate him about the box's whereabouts!"

Throughout the discussion, no one mentioned the possibility that the box had been destroyed. It was an advanced product of an Intermediate Civilization, after all, and its shell was made of reinforced alloy from an Intermediate Civilization. Let alone a Tier 1 Martial Artist—even a Tier 3 Martial Artist couldn't damage it.

At the same time.

Sin Capital was also thrown into an uproar once more because of Jiang Xiao's high-intensity hunting.

Without weapons or intelligence, instead of trying to flee the Old Capital and avoid the Hunters, he had taken the initiative to attack the Hunters, prisoners, and even Zerg. So far, every living thing that appeared before him had been attacked without exception!

It looked as though he was pursuing slaughter itself.

In a certain bar, a group of low-level prisoners cheered excitedly.

"Good, good, good! This is great! Hahaha, even those profiteers from the Black Mech Gang took such a huge loss. An entire operation team was wiped out. His crime for entering the Prison Star couldn't have been mass slaughter, could it?"

"Mass slaughter? Intelligent life is the cheapest thing in the stars. A murder charge is too low-class. It would be better to steal the underwear of a major corporation executive's daughter."

"??"

"Exactly. Most people sent to the Prison Star stole classified intelligence from Mid-to-High Level Civilizations, robbed official starships, plotted or participated in rebellions, and so on. To enter the Prison Star through mass slaughter alone, you'd at least have to charge into an important Life Planet of a Primary Civilization and wipe out an entire city, right?"

"Why not an extreme racist?"

In the corner of the bar, a figure shrouded in a black robe paused slightly. He stared at the image on the big-backed television, his expression unreadable.

He muttered to himself, "A Pan-Human, one of his own kind? If I could invite him to join the gang, he should at least ease some of our manpower shortage..."

After killing the last Basic Zergling, Jiang Xiao exhaled deeply. He tested his fleshly strength, which had surged by several more levels, and smiled.

Then he looked at the panel, and his expression froze.

Player: Jiang Xiao (Mechanist)

Level: Tier 1 · Elite

Talent Ability: Origin Data

Source Energy Affinity: Good (Idle cultivation speed: 5 experience/h)

Source Energy Intensity: 30 (0/200)

Spirit Energy Intensity: 5 (31/45)

Research Slot: FT Alloy Shuriken Bullet (1/1), Research Progress: 0.23% (Estimated time required: fifty days)

Fusion Slot: Empty (0/1)

Item Slot: Precision Industrial Box (1/1)

With 30 points of Source Energy Intensity, he had officially entered the ranks of Tier 1 Elite Martial Artists. The boost from 29 to 30 was comparable to the enhancement brought by the previous six or seven points of Source Energy Intensity!

On the Doran, he would have counted as an elite guard. The only gap lay in his Source Energy battle techniques.

"I didn't expect the Experience Points needed to differ even within the same tier..."

His Evolution Progress had to reach 90% to become a Tier 1 Peak—in other words, 46 points of intensity—for a total of 3,200 Experience Points.

The Experience Points shortfall was greater than he had expected.

After returning to the alien position, Jiang Xiao loaded more than a dozen firearms and their ammunition, along with the supplies, onto an Armored Jeep. He then stripped the precision components from several other vehicles and removed their drive batteries for backup.

Once everything was ready, the Armored Jeep's magnetic engine roared. It suddenly accelerated and burst out of the first-floor hall.

The surveillance satellite immediately split off a monitoring unit and calibrated it on Jiang Xiao.

The performance displayed by the two Source Energy Battle Blades in his hands attracted the attention of quite a few purchasing agents from Primary Civilizations.

The Alliance Military Starport immediately increased its level of attention. Those were all additional profits for the Prison Star's Garrison Fleet!

Jiang Xiao also knew that the Old Capital was certainly under close surveillance at that moment. He had no intention of using Origin Data outside, planning at most to maintain his own Datafication state.

The Armored Jeep raced along the main road. Unless his Personal Terminal issued a warning, Jiang Xiao did not stop.

Along the way, he encountered four alien prisoners, none of them Martial Artists.

It was not until near dusk that Jiang Xiao slowly drove the Jeep into a secluded corner and climbed onto a high-rise building with his sniper rifle and other main weapons.

It was not for rest. A Tier 1 Martial Artist would not feel tired even after going seven or eight days without sleep.

After setting up the sniper rifle, Jiang Xiao revealed a meaningful smile and toyed with a wristband.

It was a communications device he had found at that small alien position. It was so crude that the detection panel had only given him its name. After inspecting it with Origin Data, Jiang Xiao sensed that a small component inside was continuously transmitting signals outward.

A tracker!

As long as he carried it, certain Hunters would most likely know his location—and that was exactly what Jiang Xiao wanted!

Actively hunting them was far too troublesome. It would be more convenient to find terrain favorable to him and wait for them to walk into his trap.

Jiang Xiao waited quietly, humming an unknown little tune.

After an unknown amount of time passed, his Personal Terminal trembled faintly.

#Electronic signal detected approaching#

He glanced at the radar map in the upper-right corner of his vision, then raised his head toward the nearby sky. His mask's goggles rapidly magnified the image.

Two hundred meters away, a quadcopter drone hovered beneath the night sky, its camera aimed in Jiang Xiao's direction.

"Hm? They locked onto my location so quickly?" Jiang Xiao raised his brows slightly.

He stopped hiding. He stood up, raised a middle finger toward the drone, and flashed a smile.

"Ciallo~(∠?ω<)⌒★"

Chapter 8: 85% Body Mechanization? Isn't This Just Sending a Gift?

Crack!

Watching that infuriating smile on the screen, the burly alien in a coat nearly crushed the control tablet in his hand. He took a deep breath.

"That two-legged monkey is on the roof of a building 1.4 kilometers away. Get ready to move. Remember, we want him alive!"

"Seven Tier 1 Martial Artists capturing a lone Tier 1 Ordinary Martial Artist? There's no way we could fail. This job is too easy."

"Move, move! Finish the task from above quickly. Maybe I'll be able to buy a set of mechanical armor to wear this time."

Three Jeeps started simultaneously and charged out of the ruins, rapidly closing in on the building where Jiang Xiao was.

The clash between multiple Martial Artists immediately attracted the attention of the surveillance satellites and Sin Capital's high-altitude monitors.

Countless betting pools appeared in Sin Capital's nightscape.

"Open the bets, open the bets! Can the Pan-Human Killing God survive the encirclement of seven Martial Artists of the same tier?"

"Woohoo, this is exactly what I came to see!"

"Awesome! A fight! Awesome!"

"I bet on the Martial Artist squad—three thousand Sin Coins!"

"I'll bet on the Martial Artist squad too!"

"Hmph, a bunch of spineless cowards. I bet on that human Martial Artist—three Sin Coins!"

"Damn, trying to ruin the show? Take him down!"

Unlike the lively Sin Capital, in an underground space somewhere on the outskirts of Sin Capital, more than a dozen figures sat together watching an old television mounted on the ceiling.

A weathered middle-aged man was silent for a moment, then took two puffs of his cigarette. "A Ling, you wouldn't happen to mean that the human Martial Artist you want to recruit into the gang is him, would you?"