Death Run (Part 1)

In a sense, what the original host thought wasn't entirely wrong.

In the universe, civilizations are as numerous as stars, and nearly half of them are mechanical civilizations. Among the top six Level 9 civilizations, three belong to the mechanical system.

Besides the inherent strength of mechanical civilizations, Mechanical Ascension is also the easiest to trigger compared to the other three ascension methods.

However, the most numerous isn't necessarily the strongest.

Gao Gong glanced at his personal system on his attribute panel and breathed a sigh of relief.

Exercise System 9% Nervous System 5% Endocrine System 1% Circulatory System 5% Respiratory System 1% Digestive System 1% Urinary System 1% Reproductive System 1%

The difference between the highest and lowest modification rates of the eight major systems did not exceed 10%.

This means there's still a chance!

Human body modification is irreversible. If it exceeds 10%, one can only follow the pure mechanical route the original host envisioned. If it hasn't exceeded 10%, there's still hope for salvation.

As far as he knew, the strongest civilization in the observable universe was indeed a mechanical civilization, but it wasn't solely a mechanical civilization.

Returning to the pre-open beta stage of the Cyber World, the mechanical riots had not yet begun, the world of infinite powerhouses had not appeared, Old Days Ruin, Ancient Corpse Disaster, and Quantum Crisis were all in the distant late game, and those despair-inducing three great natural disasters showed no signs at all at this moment.

This is such a good opportunity, and it's only once.

Only the strongest can control their own destiny.

As the power came on, a tingling sensation spread throughout his body. Under the adjustment of the interface, the current intensity was controlled within the range the human body could accept.

And within the modified circulatory system, cells would transmit impulses due to the stimulation, piercing the cell membrane, generating a potential difference, and exciting bioelectricity, thereby improving his mental state.

The essence of flesh mechanicalization is to gradually replace the life functions in the human system with bionic systems through continuous human modification.

As the modification rate increases, the body can even secrete a day's worth of nutrients by simply charging a certain amount of electricity each day.

Miraculous!

It is said that some biological enterprises in the Sleepless City have already developed Human Body Flash Charge technology—five minutes of charging, a whole day of energy. Human circulatory technology, you deserve to have it.

However, only pure robots with a 100% modification rate can completely get rid of the consumption of food and water. Gao Gong's charging is more about stimulating his mental state, preventing him from passing out during the return journey.

In this perilous Iron Sand Desert, natives, mutated species, and semi-mechanical organisms pose threats everywhere. Fainting is no different from waiting for death.

However, the other end of the walkie-talkie showed no signs of anger. Instead, it said with interest:

"You alone managed to eliminate my entire Knight Order squad. Not bad, very good. Are you interested in joining our Knight Order? I can grant you higher-level modifications, allowing you to bypass the threshold of artificial soldiers and become our combatants directly."

"How high can higher-level modifications go? Higher than yours?"

"Compare with me? My status is probably beyond your imagination," the person on the other side chuckled.

"To be honest, my imagination is definitely beyond yours."

Gao Gong climbed onto the hood of the off-road vehicle, squinting into the distance. His already badly damaged tight t-shirt had long been torn off, revealing his strong upper body. Three thick electric cables were still plugged into him. The unique hot wind of the desert blew against him, and the iron pendant on his neck clanged, revealing a "G" with a rough pattern.

"Young man, don't be too arrogant. This world is much bigger than you imagine!" The other party finally showed impatience.

Gao Gong grinned, shook his head, flicked out the last cigarette, tossed the pack out of the car, jumped in, and slammed the accelerator.

"Since the world is so big, how can I just be a slave to artificial intelligence?"

"What do you say, former Military AI, War!"

The Iron Sand Desert was originally a cluster of cities from the old civilization era. In a certain mechanical war, it was first plowed by a nuclear explosion and then swept by some large-scale energy weapon. As far as the eye could see, there were only ruins and wreckage.

The sky was filled with thick and dim nuclear dust. The remaining plants and animals, under the dual effects of nuclear and energy pollution, underwent some kind of mutation. This mutation caused their bodies to emit a large amount of radiant heat.

In other places, nuclear winter causes smoke and dust to inject into the planet's atmosphere, blocking sunlight from reaching the surface, causing a sharp drop in temperature, and leaving everything desolate and barren.

But here, large numbers of radiation organisms and mutated plants combined to form a unique post-disaster environment. The temperature not only did not decrease but rose crazily. Let alone ordinary people, even mechanically augmented individuals would find it difficult to survive in the radiation zones of this desert.

The habitable areas are those modified by corporations, which the locals call oases.

The off-road vehicle accelerated, kicking up a sky full of sand. Its target was one of these oases.

In the car, Gao Gong observed his surroundings while studying the NPC template he had stolen.

Gao Gong did not take the recruitment offer from the Knight Order executive to heart.

Although the Knight Order was a powerful underground force on this planet, and Flesh-Machine Technology was the object of imitation for countless corporations; some players had also flaunted their acquisition of the Knight Order's hidden quest chains on forums, which indeed yielded generous rewards.

And in the late stage of the planet's main storyline, it wasn't unheard of for players to persist until the end, spending countless efforts to build reputation and gain favor, eventually becoming high-ranking members of the Knight Order.

Then he fell into a trap.

All knight ranks in the Knight Order would be modified into sub-entities, or rather, clones, of that military artificial intelligence.

Although Knights could retain their own personality templates and memory banks, once the 'War' required it, they could directly control the consciousness of all high-level individuals—including player accounts.

It was like letting NPCs level up for free.

With this kind of greed, they weren't even as good as the monopolistic corporations in Sleepless City.

While those large corporations also controlled their employees through various means, including but not limited to storing employee thoughts in read-only mode in corporate databases, or injecting employees with artificial adrenaline during overtime under the guise of free healthcare, or implanting high-frequency chips directly into their access pods, and blasting high-frequency electronic noise during holidays—at least they paid money.

Compared to the Knight Order, the large corporations actually seemed like decent people.

Even though this salary would eventually return to the pockets of the large corporations after passing through one, two, or three hands.

"Tsk, tsk, a Cyber Experiment Field. Since it's an experiment field, it naturally needs experimental materials. After the war, aren't humans the best consumables?"

Not only Ji Lie Star, but all players' starting locations, their newbie villages, were all types of Cyber Experiment Fields.

The definition of a Cyber Experiment Field was the exploration, research, and development of different types of civilized ecosystems and the technology trees within those social ecosystems by advanced civilizations.

It could be a super corporation monopolizing everything, or artificial intelligence controlling the future, or a powerful invasion by alien species, or even a survival environment akin to the apocalypse, as well as clone cultures, biological crises, or a chaotic grand party among intelligent species from different planets.

In the gray areas of the Civilization Council, diverse civilized technology trees were taking root and sprouting in anti-civilizational ways.

As players would later summarize—

In this game, two things would hinder technological development: peace and ethics. Peace was resolved through war, and ethics were resolved here.

This was the Cyber Experiment Field.

However, for players, this was not a bad thing.

Because it possessed a large amount of experimental, forbidden advanced technology, players could achieve cross-civilizational strength improvement with the help of this technology.

Planetary-level civilizations were all Tier 1 civilizations. On this civilizational scale, the level cap for the main profession was level 30, which was Tier 1. But in the Cyber Experiment Field, there was scientific research knowledge and experimental results that could achieve Tier 2, and even Tier 3.

"They've finally come!"

Gao Gong suddenly looked up. He saw three small black dots in the sky approaching him at a visible speed.

'The Knight Order's drones!'

Gao Gong knew from the moment he made his move that with the Knight Order's ruthless style, they would never let him off so easily.

There was also more direct evidence: on the game panel, the mission [Death Run] was in the [Unfinished] state.

'Beep beep beep—'

Name: Military Tech: Falcon No. 3

Category: Drone

Quality: Fine

Weight: 38kg

Flight Altitude: 5000 meters

Control System: Low-grade Military Chip

Energy Source: No. 3 Energy Battery (Endurance: 6 hours)

Flight Module: Supercharger Thrusters * 4

Attack Module: Mini Machine Gun * 100 (Bullets) Small Anti-Armor Missile * 2 Micro Rocket * 1

Attack Range: 2000 meters

Shield: 200

Attached Template: Destruction Mode (Causes an explosive shockwave to objects within a 5*5 meter area)

Remarks: Although it's military technology from the old era, it has undergone multiple real combat experiences and remains practical.

In the game 'Cyber World', equipment was divided into: Whiteboard (mass-produced products), Fine (custom templates), Excellent (weapons of war), Rare (strategic weapons), Epic (black technology), and Epoch-making (cross-civilizational).

Among these, Whiteboard was the most common weapon and equipment, Fine was equivalent to faction specialties, and the Knight Order's old-era military technology undoubtedly belonged to the latter.

Gao Gong sharply turned the steering wheel. The next moment, a fierce stream of fire kicked up a large amount of dust, narrowly missing the rear carriage.

At the same time, Gao Gong heard faint 'whooshing' sounds, followed by intense explosions accompanied by mud waves that surged towards the roof, almost instantly turning the windows yellow.

Chasing and being chased, the scenery outside the car changed dazzlingly.

Gao Gong almost twisted the steering wheel into a pretzel, the wipers 'swish-swish-swish' making noise, his foot tapping the accelerator pedal at high frequency, changing the rhythm to disrupt the drone's tracking system.

If it were the most advanced model of drone in Sleepless City, it would definitely be equipped with tracking weapons and pinpoint strike systems, which were sharp tools for dealing with super-augmented individuals and cyber-psychos within the city.

If it were even more violent, the electronic signals would directly connect to the 'Armed Space Station' in orbit, carrying out large-scale physical cleansing, the so-called 'Justice from the Heavens.'

If it were this level of strike, it could easily deal with Gao Gong.

However, if that were the case, the difficulty of this mission would not simply be 'Normal.' After all, above Normal, there were also Difficult, Nightmare, Hell, and even cross-civilizational missions.

In fact, the firepower of the three drones already surpassed the 'Normal' level to some extent.

An increase in difficulty in one aspect would inevitably lead to a decrease in difficulty in another.

Gao Gong knew why. In fact, after the first wave of attacks did not hit him particularly unluckily, he knew he was safe.

The car turned its head, the engine roared, and the off-road vehicle plunged into the concrete jungle.