Synergistic Evolution

The senior engineer did indeed have the idea of leaving. After his series of shady moves, it seemed that the battle for Hydra was unlikely to take place, and under the effect of the "radiation annihilation agent," the urban areas would be eliminated one after another.

Without a large number of low-level radiated beasts as a base, high-level radiated beasts would starve to death.

If there are no quests and no monsters, what am I still doing on this map?

He's thinking of going to the City That Never Sleeps to explore new areas: corporate branches, mechanical mainframes, street gangs, technology associations, cybernetic black markets, and secret systems. It's a different kind of world, not the kind of world of fighting and killing.

One year later, the corporate war; two years later, the cyber wave; three years later, the Big Bang of the Machine-Splittered Star.

The senior engineer was already quite impatient.

However, the excited thought only flashed through his mind for a moment. He smiled calmly and said, "Not now. No matter what, I will make sure you are all taken care of."

In his vision, the new oasis would become his production base, and the research blueprints he obtained from the new map would be transformed into concrete objects in this rear area.

He couldn't possibly just pack up and leave, knowing the secrets of the research institute and the inner workings of the security force.

After confirming the engineer's thoughts, Aunt Xiang secretly breathed a sigh of relief and threatened, "With things going so well now, you can't just abandon your responsibilities and leave, or I'll have someone kill you."

"Don't worry, as long as you don't let me be Pang Xiang's father, I will never run away."

He wanted to experience the effects of the faction system beforehand.

The senior engineer lit a cigarette and walked back into the crowd as if nothing had happened.

Professor Han glanced at him thoughtfully. Director Du frowned, then made up his mind to manage this new oasis well. If he didn't make enough money, his man might be snatched away by someone else.

Only with money can you raise a man to be plump and healthy – that's Director Du's life experience.

After paying their respects to the old folks, the group arrived at the temporary base in New Hope City. Professor Han specially called the senior engineer to a temporary medical point, which was formerly an abandoned hospital. Although most of the equipment was unusable, there were enough beds.

Resisting the beast tide inevitably results in casualties, but compared to failing to resist the beast tide and having all the living people devoured, the current situation is much better.

As the senior engineer walked along, the mechanical hunters were a given, but everyone else, including the security forces soldiers, colonists, and officials, all showed respect and made way for him.

With the beast tide over, his career as a special advisor has theoretically come to an end.

But as things stand, no one dares to cause trouble; the senior engineer's prestige has suppressed everything.

Speaking of reputation, the senior engineer opened the system panel, and sure enough, his reputation had increased again.

[Your regional reputation has exceeded 15,000 points, earning you the new title, Beast Tide Defender]

Beast Tide Defenders: A truly great victory that ushered in a new era for humanity, shifting from defense to offense. From that moment on, the balance of power shifted dramatically, and as the one who orchestrated all of this, your fame will spread far beyond the battlefield.

The maximum regional reputation is 20,000 points, and it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain higher levels. Unless the senior engineer overthrows the security forces and destroys the factories, this "Beast Tide Defender" title is pretty much the limit.

It's worth noting that regional reputation is not interchangeable; you'll have to start building up your reputation in other regions from scratch.

Once you raise your reputation in the five regions to over 10,000 points, you can unlock planetary reputation. At that point, your fame will reach the ears of the planet's supreme ruler, and some of your words will influence the planet's future.

Reputation doesn't necessarily have to be gained by defeating monsters; scientific inventions, building influence, market dominance, and cultural invasion can all increase a region's reputation.

Regional reputation also has many hidden benefits. You will gain the attention of local forces, have a higher chance of getting high-level missions, some hidden NPCs will be more inclined to cooperate with you, and you may even be able to get some corporate endorsements.

However, if your reputation is negative, it will lead to a series of serious consequences, the simplest example being being wanted by the authorities.

However, this negative reputation also has some advantages, such as access to the dark web and black market, missions from some villainous NPCs, and resistance forces and terrorists are more inclined to recruit "righteous people" like you.

Grind reputation in five regions to unlock planetary reputation. It's not necessary for the reputation in these five regions to be positive.

Even if you side with the rebels, as long as you can advance your technology, you can still gain the favor of the mother city. This is the black-red route.

Planetary Reputation is a prerequisite for operating a Planetary Enterprise.

Professor Han pulled the senior engineer into a testing room.

"I noticed before that your physical condition is not right," Professor Han said with a serious expression.

"That's right, I'm currently in the postpartum recovery period."

Professor Han twitched his lips. "Stop being silly, take off your clothes, I'll give you a checkup."

Professor Han's expression turned very serious after receiving the test results.

"Your body contains a large number of Crimson Queen cells, which have invaded half of your body's systems. There is also a metal cell aggregate that resembles proliferating cells and mechanical bodies, occupying a quarter of your human system."

Professor Han opened the virtual projection and saw that under the X-ray, the inside of the engineer's body was in a state of chaos. Most of it was writhing bright red, and a small part was gloomy black. The two sides were fighting each other, and the engineer's physical strength could barely keep the human body system from collapsing.

"In this situation, anyone would die instantly, but only a freak like you can still move around normally."

The senior engineer narrowed his eyes, then suddenly chuckled, "Didn't you notice anything else amiss?"

"Something's not right?" Professor Han was taken aback, turned to look at the examination report, and fell into thought.

The senior engineer remained calm.

In Cyberworld, leveling up is relatively easy, but human modification is very difficult.

The higher the level, the more directional the modifications need to be, in order to improve the efficiency of the modifications.

This involves a concept—the main plugin.

After level 10, each stage of modification requires a main plugin, and all prosthetic modifications must be carried out around this main plugin in order to maximize modification efficiency.

The Advanced Biological Plugin - Colony can be used as the main biological plugin for level 20.

The top-tier creature addon, Crimson Queen, can be used as the primary creature addon for level 30.

This directly saves senior engineers a lot of time.

Because sometimes, even on an entire planet, it may not be possible to find a suitable plugin.

Compared to this, the temporary loss of strength is nothing.

In fact, the biggest problem within Gao Gong's body is not this.

Professor Han finally raised his head, looking somewhat puzzled and uncertain.

"I sense that there is a special biomimetic structure in your body."

"You noticed," the senior engineer said, glancing sideways.

Co-evolution Seed: Under the influence of this seed, your mechanical and biological entities will cooperate more seamlessly, but as the seed takes root and sprouts, it will gradually trap you in a special evolutionary system.

This special system is 100% the brain of the war. Once the seed and the body are completely combined, the "senior engineer" becomes a child body clone of the AI, and the account will have been trained in vain.

This is exactly what it means to "carry a knife but not an umbrella on a rainy night".

"You've been targeted by the Knights' mastermind!?"

As expected, Professor Han was very surprised when he heard the news.

As a terrorist organization with operations spanning the globe, the Knights are infamous. The Knights of Vengeance, Souls of the Fallen Kingdom, Purebred Mechanical Destroyers, Key to Evolution, and War Cataclysm are just some of the many factions within the resistance that pursue "reform" and "innovation." Only the Knights of Vengeance remain steadfast on the path of rebellion.

"I can't understand it."

The senior engineer muttered to himself.

Artificial life evolves towards greater intelligence, not towards humanity; this is common sense in the mechanical world. Therefore, even if the entity behind this "war" is an S-class mechanical beast, the senior engineer wouldn't be too surprised.

The key is this "co-evolution".

The senior engineer naturally knew what this was. It was a sign of a slave-based biological civilization. The main race of this type of civilization would enslave other interstellar races, perform genetic fusion and upgrades, and then manage planetary ranches and galactic biospheres. The more advanced ones would directly enslave other carbon-based civilizations.

Why has this AI switched to a carbon-based approach?

This is quite a leap across industries.

The senior engineer did have a few conjectures, but none of them applied to planetary-level AI.

Artificial intelligence has no parents and no ancestors to pass down its skills.

Unless this AI is just a front-end player, and there's a mastermind behind the mastermind, such as a super-being that devoured the AI's original code and reassembled the biological computer.

That's somewhat possible.

But doesn't this make it like a nested doll?

The senior engineer wasn't too worried about this "co-evolution".

Those who take the integration route are least afraid of being manipulated.

The so-called level 10 transformation, level 20 metamorphosis, and level 30 perversion.

If I can successfully transform, I can suppress this 'seed of evolution'.

Once the level 30 monstrous transformation is achieved, it may even be able to devour this 'seed', follow the trail, and turn the tables on the original source.

That's why the senior engineer managed to get a year's time.

If he can't reach level 30 in a year, he might as well just slit his throat and hang himself.

"Never mind, that's not the point. I came here mainly to suppress the rejection."

The reduced attributes and doubled skill consumption are fine, but the key issue is the skyrocketing rejection rate, which makes it impossible for me to fight others.

Although the main enemy is gone and we are relatively safe, we should at least have a way to save our lives.

Plant-based detoxification, protein heavy metal ion precipitation, and phantom limb removal.

The three surgeries were completed quickly.

Seeing the rejection rate, which had been reduced through surgery, rise sharply again due to a small activity, the two fell silent.

Professor Han sighed, "With your level of rejection, you should prepare to go to a research institute."

The senior engineer's heart skipped a beat. "What, does that place have equipment to reduce rejection?"

"You'll know when you get there."