No Soul

Skull and Bones is a special organization.

What makes them special is that they fully embrace the cyber-experimental worldview: experimentation, evolution, control, and loss of control.

Most corporate executives merely use and test others, while Skull and Bones members often test and transform themselves first.

Life is dispensable to them.

Humanity, almost nonexistent.

So, despite being suppressed by a group of mega-corporations, they not only thrived but also formed the Skull and Bones Society, plotting to overthrow this world ruled by mega-corporations.

Later in the planet's storyline, they did indeed achieve this, albeit with the help of the Memory Mother.

The members of Skull and Bones don't recognize whether you're a planetary host or a cosmic monster; they only acknowledge whoever makes them evolve faster.

In a way, Mother City also shot itself in the foot. It created a group of corporate monsters, but in the end, it could not control them.

At this point in time, the Skull and Bones members were not yet as bloated as they would become later; however, they had already begun to show their strength, for example, "Soul Recognition Technology" had already entered the second phase of the corporate war.

This Skull and Bones meeting was convened by "Skull," the founder of "Soul Recognition Technology."

The founders of Mas Edge, Deep-Sea Biotechnology, Dark Kingdom, Metal Slug, and Fairy Tale Paradise all appeared on screen via projection.

"Haha, I never thought you, skeleton, would ever need our help. Promise me one thing: become my toy, and I'll help you, how about it?"

"The founder of Fairy Tale Paradise, Bandai, said with a smile."

He appears to be a kind-looking, overweight man, but his body is covered in various stitches.

"You already have enough toys," 'Skull' said coldly. "For example, the teddy bear you sold to Ms. Ye was a foreshadowing of something, wasn't it?"

"Mr. Ma, what do you say? After all, your Mas Edge is a partner of Dugo Technologies. If I remember correctly, you once tried to bring 'Dugo Technologies' into our Skull and Bones Society, right?" A dark figure turned his head and looked at 'Mr. Ma'.

"Hehe, how could I forget that? But I've already withdrawn my application. I've dealt with those two bosses before, and they're not the same kind of people as us," 'Boss Ma' said with a smile.

"But they've developed much better than us," Metal Slug's 'General' said calmly.

When this is mentioned, members of Skull and Bones all have somewhat inexplicable emotions.

They have made rapid progress, even resorting to all sorts of taboo modifications in order to achieve this progress, such as severing their self-awareness, absorbing the brains of "scientists," and engaging in unlimited self-biomorphism.

The "founders" here include those whose "transformation consciousness" has been passed down for countless generations, those who have forgotten their original names, and those who have even lost their original forms, becoming one with the "corporation's will."

It can be said that they have no taboos when it comes to the evolution of the company.

Even so, they still can't compare to "Dugo Technologies".

This is a company even younger than them, yet it has already become the most dazzling jewel in the military supplies market.

The "General" felt this most deeply because his Metal Slug was also a military contractor, but in terms of both reputation and strength, it was far surpassed by the other party.

"If Zhou Yu was born, why was Zhuge Liang born?"

Most of the people present had this thought to some extent.

If senior engineers knew that these "corporate monsters" thought this way, they would surely feel a sense of honor.

After all, not everyone is familiar with the plot, and not everyone has a faction panel.

More importantly, the senior engineer's vision and experience from his previous life played a crucial role.

Without him, who would have known that ancient military aircraft could be modified into the mecha tactics that sweep across the battlefield today?

As for the super transformation of the fusion route, it was a technique that G secretly learned from the strongest level nine civilization in the universe, which is far beyond the scope of the original.

"Do they know that your Mas Edge is secretly conducting human weapons experiments, including those of their biological hunters?" The shadowy figure continued to target 'Boss Ma'.

"There's no need to inform our partners of everything," 'Boss Ma' said with a chuckle. "After all, they haven't told me their trade secrets either."

The "Skull" tapped the table, its voice grim:

"I don't remember the Skull and Bones Society becoming so bureaucratic and inefficient. My purpose is clear: I need help."

"How much are you planning to give us?" the shadowy figure asked.

"Ten thousand souls for every person!"

"That's not enough," said the "general."

"Yeah, it's not even enough to fill a tooth gap." In the holographic projection of the deep-sea biotechnology, it seemed that it was not in a room, but in the deep sea, where there was a huge shadow.

"I remember you need a huge amount of 'information food' to maintain your size, fat man?" the 'Skull' said coldly.

"That was how it used to be, but recently, I found an excellent ingredient supplier," a huge scarlet eyeball filled the projection and quickly disappeared.

"Twelve thousand souls—that's my limit. You should know that a living person can't create even one soul."

The other Skull and Bones members began to ponder, for they knew the value of the 'soul'.

"Can."

"No problem."

"I'll participate."

I'm quitting.

Everyone else turned to look at 'Boss Ma,' who didn't bother to explain, but simply chuckled and said:

"I won't participate in this deal. See you next time."

The next moment, his holographic projection disappeared.

"He's not a coward," the general stated calmly, "So I think he's planning something bigger."

The "Skull" looked at the founder of Fairy Tale Paradise, who was the only one who hadn't spoken.

"I have some very bad news for you," Bandai said softly. "My toys have just informed me that the mercenary armies of the Research Association, Secret Electronics, and Planet Energy are already attacking your Mechanical City."

"Wow, so fast!"

This is a shared idea among Skull and Bones members.

The next moment, the projection of the 'skull' disappeared.

"Secret Electronics and Planet Energy are both giants in their respective fields. How could they surrender so quickly?"

Both of these companies are super-corporations, and were even considered as potential winners in the electronic brain war. Not only did they surrender, but they surrendered so quickly, becoming vassals of the Research Association less than three days after the "splendid scene" occurred. This is indeed puzzling.

In their view, the probability of these two organizations uniting to resist the Research Association was higher than what is happening now.

The shadowy figure didn't speak, but instead flicked its finger, revealing a series of surveillance images.

In the scene, the sky darkened, filled with all sorts of flying machines—sky fortresses, sky carriers, drones, mechanical bees, and mechanical octopuses—densely covering the entire sky, making it even darker than the radiation layer.

"We have been overlooking one point: the Research Association not a single company, but a consortium of 30 companies. It's just that Mr. G was too domineering, which caused others to ignore these companies. While the weapons and ammunition were reduced to only 30% or 40%, these 'ordinary companies' were still at their peak."

"General," the general analyzed objectively.

In the scene, countless points of light suddenly shot into the dark sky, but almost at the same time, more 'stars' emerged from the sky and the ground, and soon the points of light disappeared.

"I remember your 'Killer 4' can penetrate ten missile defense mechanisms at the same time?" the shadowy figure asked.

"But this isn't ten types, it's at least a hundred," the 'General' said coldly. "Furthermore, the number of missiles the enemy retaliated with was a hundred times that of 'Skull.'"

After the first counterattack failed, a large number of virtual illusions soon appeared on various continents, and many flying vehicles crashed and fell to the ground.

"Ten thousand 'advanced local area networks'—'Skull' has really gone all out this time."

Soon, two fleets appeared in the sky.

The first one was truly outrageous, consisting of 20 sky carriers and 20 mechanical fortresses. After they appeared, the light once again merged into one; these lights were like mist, and wherever the mist passed, all material existence was destroyed, including the hardware hidden in various places by the 'soul recognition technology'.

In the early stages of cyberspace's integration into reality, before the Electronic Brain Project was fully implemented, any attack on the virtual level required hardware support. However, they even witnessed a massive "military base" disappear after only three seconds in the fog of light.

Gaseous laser fog is a type of Tier 3 civilization building and also a method of attacking interstellar fortresses in interstellar wars.

Even an interstellar fortress might not be able to stop it, let alone a mere military base.

Seeing Planet Energy's outburst, another company, Confidential Electronics, was not to be outdone. Their aircraft were quite unique, with their surfaces covered in graphics cards, making them rather flashy. Their attacks were also unusual, firing powerful searchlights from their aircraft. These lights were not laser weapons, or even weapons, but rather streams of high-density data.

Wherever there was resistance, the lights were shone. Whether it was weapon systems or virtual skeletons, anything that was touched exploded after a few hits. Some of the exploding parts were chips in the weapon systems, while others were virtual monsters created by soul recognition technology.

It's unclear what the lights shone on, but the Skull and Bones meeting corridor suddenly exploded, and for a short time, everyone was unable to contact each other.

From a senior engineer's perspective, this thing already shows signs of being an "information weapon," although it is still quite crude. It only uses "high-intensity information flow" to overwhelm all hardware, and no other applications have been developed yet.

But when it comes to creating "high-intensity information flow," at least on this planet, no one has mastered it as well.

"Well, Mr. G, wasn't our little trick interesting?"

A bald man covered in graphics cards chuckled.

Beside him, Manhattan snorted coldly, clearly not wanting to acknowledge the other party.

As the saying goes, speed is of the essence in war. The senior engineer even temporarily suspended the hellish missions in order to kill this Skull and Bones Society member first and then finish this corporate war.

Giant corporations can compromise, but Skull and Bones members will never compromise; if they did, they wouldn't be those monsters anymore.

The reason why "Secret Electronics" and "Planet Energy" invested so quickly was because the senior engineer leaked a secret to them.

That is, someone is about to become the "Chief of the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division".

As a department specifically targeting large corporations, the senior engineer kindly stated, "If you don't cooperate with me, once someone becomes the minister, I'll conduct three inspections a day, big and small, and even a fire prevention inspection late at night. I'll investigate you to death!"

Every major player has connections in the home city. After a little inquiry, they readily agreed to cooperate without any pressure.

This is why the three companies acted so quickly.

When you have enough troops and are fast enough, the benefits are enormous. The dozen or so mechanical cities controlled by "Soul Recognition Technology" were wiped out in an instant, and some forbidden technologies were wiped out on a large scale before they could even be used.

The current members of Skull and Bones are not the real monsters that emerged after the cyber tide began; compared to the seasoned giants, they even seem somewhat green.

"That's about enough. It's time to finish them off completely."