Facing fully armed Clone Troopers with a full complement of heavy and light equipment, the Pirate Base's defenders quickly collapsed. Large areas were soon occupied.
By then, Lin Zhichen had already taken down five NPC Psionicists, including the pirate chief, and was charging toward the control room.
Inside the base, the three Transformers received Wei Peng's orders and broke through toward the control room at the same time. Their Electromagnetic Cannons fired. No defensive equipment could withstand the attack of their ship cannons. Bursts of flame exploded, and the pirate NPCs defending the base cried out and fell in heaps.
He moved like lightning, like the extraordinary Superman from a superhero movie. His whole body became a streak of lightning as he flew toward the depths of the base.
Breaking the sound barrier, he was wrapped in Psionics like a missile, weaving nimbly through the base. With a casual wave of his hand, powerful Psionics gathered into lightning bolts that destroyed the hidden Firepower Points one by one.
Having already come to regard the base as his own, Lin Zhichen didn't even hurt the pirate guards. He only destroyed their weapons and equipment, leaving them unable to fight.
This large Pirate Base was divided into five levels, each two kilometers tall. The levels varied in size, and the main control center was on the fifth level, right beside the underground magma layer.
Between the levels above and below, a huge light barrier in the central area served as a defensive shield.
At high speed, it didn't take long for Lin Zhichen to break through to the second level.
Just then, beams of laser light wove into a net and swept rapidly across the central area. Under the scorching high-energy beams, even alloy could be easily sliced into pieces.
But being able to cut alloy didn't necessarily mean they could sever Psionics. Powerful Psionics surged, deflecting the high-temperature rays and leaving a series of searing grooves in the base's armor.
The dense laser net was immediately torn open. Lin Zhichen darted clear of danger, then casually sent out several high-energy bolts of lightning, raking the nearby laser turrets.
With a thought, his powerful Psionics destroyed the defenders' weapons. Lin Zhichen didn't linger, charging toward the entrance to the third level.
An hour later, the main control room on the fifth level came into view in the distance. But his speed slowed, and he stared solemnly ahead.
"Psionic Warriors?!" Lin Zhichen drew a breath, sensing one Psionic reaction after another in his Psionic perception, each like a torch. He was quite astonished.
"How can there be so many NPC Psionicists in one large base?"
On the way here, he had subdued a total of seventeen NPC Psionicists. He had already been surprised by the unusually dense Psionic reactions, but he hadn't expected to find another fifteen Psionicists in the deepest part of the base, including five full-fledged Psionic Warriors!
Suddenly, a message that had been treated as an oddity on StarNet surfaced in his mind, and he immediately understood.
"Years of research suggest that certain Dark Galaxies contain special Monster Bases, where Psionicists and other types of Awakened Ones gather.
"What makes these bases unique is that the density of evolved individuals inside them far exceeds normal levels, and their Psionic ranks are above average.
"We have reason to suspect that exceptionally unusual NPC leaders born in Dark Galaxies, such as the Pirate King or a Rebel Army Marshal, don't appear directly through the respawn mechanism as we once imagined. Instead, they rise from the bottom.
"These groups of evolved individuals provide support for the Pirate King or Rebel Army Marshal who is about to emerge.
"At present, there is no direct evidence to prove this theory. However, long-term research has found that these special bases are not isolated within Dark Galaxies where unusual circumstances arise. There are at least two of them. This may be an important clue to solving the mystery of how Pirate Kings and Rebel Army Marshals come into being."
"Interesting." Lin Zhichen's gaze grew feverish as he watched the surging Psionic energy in the distance.
NPCs varied greatly in talent. Even among NPC Psionicists, there was a huge gap in aptitude. Anyone with a chance to become a Pirate King was bound to have exceptional talent.
In other words, this pirate chief, who had advanced to Psionic Warrior, most likely had high aptitude, and might even be no less intelligent than a Natural Person.
In fact, the major powers of the Federation had long discovered that some unusual NPCs possessed intelligence on par with, or even far exceeding, that of humans. Compared with the complex thoughts of humans, however, these NPCs seemed "simpler."
"Boom!"
An earthquake-like rumble came from behind him, but Lin Zhichen wasn't surprised in the least.
He was moving at high speed, and the three Transformers weren't far behind. Using the communications network to lock onto Lin Zhichen's position, they had followed close on his heels and had finally reached the fifth level.
"There are five Psionic Warriors in total, and one of them has already reached the peak of Warrior Tier!" He made the assessment after a brief scan. The three Transformers strode forward and charged at three of the Psionic Warriors.
With defenses comparable to a Battleship's, the Psionic Warriors' attacks couldn't shake the Transformers at all.
The air cracked with a sonic boom as Lin Zhichen shot forward like lightning, his high-temperature ion sword launching a deadly attack on the pirate chief.
"Zzz!"
The two Lightsabers collided, and a Psionic wave burst out in a violent flare. The alloy-armored floor was immediately ripped apart by the rampaging Psionics, leaving a series of clear cracks.
One look at a master in action was all it took to tell whether they were any good.
As their Lightsabers clashed, Lin Zhichen's gaze sharpened. The pirate chief's command of the Lightsaber had reached a high level—Expert-level at the very least.
Within a sturdy Psionic field, matter was continuously fused and ignited in the confined, high-temperature, high-pressure space. The extreme heat of hundreds of millions of degrees was constrained into a sword. Wherever it passed, the alloy floor melted and vaporized, leaving clear furrows.
Lin Zhichen had already raised his Lightsaber technique to the Master-level. At that moment, he seemed to have become an eight-armed warrior monk, his Lightsabers flashing as he thrust a hundred times in an instant.
To onlookers, the two combatants seemed to have become a gust of wind. The air boomed continuously as their illusory figures swept through the base, carrying a gale that roared like a gigantic wave.
The Psionics they unleashed recklessly hit with the force of cannon shells, exploding in the sky and across the ground. Metal buildings rumbled and collapsed. NPCs caught in the crossfire fled in terror, though some unlucky ones were torn apart by the rampaging Psionics.
When high-level Psionicists fought, Apprentices had no chance to intervene. Led by four Psionic Warriors, more than a dozen Psionicists attacked the Transformers together.
A Psionic Shockwave roared toward them. Metal machinery caught in its path was torn apart like cloth, shrieking as it hurtled toward the towering Transformers.
Sparks sprayed across the Transformers' bodies, but they weren't damaged in the slightest. Completely ignoring the Psionicists' feeble attacks, they fired Alloy Projectiles from the three Electromagnetic Cannons mounted on their shoulders and held in their hands.
The ground shook violently. Under the bombardment of the ship cannons, sturdy buildings were as fragile as paper, and vast swaths were destroyed.
But no matter how fierce the cannon fire, it couldn't hit the nimble Psionicists. They had already dodged far away before the cannons could even aim at them.
Unwilling to cause widespread destruction, Lin Zhichen carefully restrained his power and matched Lightsaber techniques with the pirate chief. His skills improved rapidly in actual combat. Their Lightsabers clashed dozens of times per second, and every thrust contained more than a dozen variations.
As Psionicists, their thoughts sped up to match computers when empowered by Psionics. In a split second, they could consider hundreds or thousands of attack routes, predict thousands or tens of thousands of possible counterattacks from their opponent, and think through more than a thousand defensive methods.
This was a contest of combat wisdom, a clash of Psionics and strength, and, more than anything, a battle of processing power. The Lightsaber in Lin Zhichen's hand had become an extension of his body. His Psionic field alternately tightened and opened a gap, turning the Lightsaber, whose range was normally limited, into a weapon that could strike an area and keep the pirate chief firmly in its sights.
Master-level Lightsaber skill meant that his understanding of swordsmanship had reached an entirely new level. A thrust could even work in tandem with Psionic foresight, probing the opponent's possible responses.
At first, Lin Zhichen, who hadn't seen actual combat in a long time, couldn't grasp the essence of the swordplay. But amid the fierce battle, he gradually digested the skills he had initially raised through talent alone.
By then, his swordsmanship had become simpler and more direct. A single thrust sent his Light Blade flashing, seemingly containing endless variations. It covered every possible path the pirate chief could take to evade, forcing him to parry.
Psionics trembled. The pirate chief suddenly retreated, and his smooth movement came to an abrupt halt. That brief hesitation immediately triggered a chain reaction. Lin Zhichen's Lightsaber attacks never let up; thrust after thrust completely broke the pirate chief's rhythm.
When masters fought, victory or defeat could be decided in an instant.
A moment ago, the two had been evenly matched. In the next, the pirate chief plummeted like a weight in a balance scale, slamming heavily into the floor as his violent Psionics tore through the alloy plating.
"Urgh!"
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, the badly injured pirate chief turned as pale as paper. His internal organs had suffered severe damage, and for the moment he couldn't exert himself.
Lin Zhichen didn't pause. He swept down with overwhelming Psionics, suppressing the counterattack the pirate chief was preparing. With a thought, he knocked him unconscious.
Only then did Lin Zhichen have time to survey the battlefield. The Transformers were fighting the Psionicists fiercely, the battlefield filled with constant booms as buildings were demolished in droves.
"What a bunch of spendthrifts!" His heart ached. Once the pirate chief was defeated, half the base was already his; all the damage now was being done to his own property.
He still didn't intervene in the battle. Instead, he swept up the pirate chief with Psionics and, moving like lightning, reached the control room in an instant. His Psionic wave expanded in a ring. The pirate NPCs under attack didn't even have time to react before pain shot through their heads and they collapsed unconscious.
Looking at the operators sprawled across the central control room, and feeling the ever-present sense of danger that had clung to him since entering the base finally disappear, Lin Zhichen at last relaxed.
Every base had a self-destruct mechanism. If driven to the brink, the enemy could take everyone down with them. But now, that danger was gone.
Moving like lightning, he swept around the battlefield. His Lightsaber technique had reached the peak of Master-level, allowing him to spot flaws in his opponents' swordsmanship as he fought. It usually took only a few exchanges to rout a Psionic Warrior of the same rank, and he could take one down in a second.
From the moment he appeared to the end of the fight, four Psionic Warriors and ten Psionic Apprentices lasted less than half a minute. They all fell in a heap, and Lin Zhichen carried them to the central control room to await what came next.
With the control room fallen, the Pirate Base's defense forces had lost their command center. Each unit fought on its own, further diminishing their combat effectiveness. Meanwhile, morale, already low because the base had been invaded, plummeted to rock bottom.
Watching the Transformers rampage and the invading forces advance rapidly, pirate NPCs defending positions across the base began surrendering one after another.
At first, resistance still occurred from time to time. But as Transport Ships delivered more and more ground troops into the base, the desperate pirates finally began surrendering on a large scale.
From the first level to the fifth, the Meteor Mercenary Group's ground troops swept through the base again and again. By the time they captured the last pirate NPC hiding in the base, five days had passed.
Only then did Lin Zhichen announce that he had secured control of the underground base. The long-planned, hidden stronghold had finally been captured.
"Big brother." Several people gathered in the control room on the fifth level.
After several days of fighting, Wei Peng and the others had personally led troops on sweeps to guard against hidden enemies. Only now did they have a chance to reunite.
"Big brother, we've taken the base. Can we start putting our plan into action?"
Wei Peng seemed quite excited. This time they had captured more than thirty thousand pirate NPCs in the base, including at least five thousand pirate guards. With some training, they could double the size of their ground forces.
"Of course. What plan?" Lin Zhichen studied the base's holographic surveillance images, which clearly showed the interior of all five levels.
"Big brother, I've done an initial survey over the last few days. The first level is mainly barracks and training centers, used to train NPC soldiers and engineering technicians, while also serving as the base's defenses.
"This level has the base's strongest defensive line. Every building and every street is part of it.
"Honestly, if the Transformers hadn't led the way and those unbreakable giants hadn't disrupted the pirate base's defense plan, our ground troops would probably have had to face a fully fortified military fortress. According to information on StarNet, medium-sized and larger NPC bases have considerable defensive capabilities. Even after destroying their turrets, fighting your way into the base is no easy task.
"There was once a private army that met fierce resistance while attacking a large ground base. It committed more than two hundred thousand ground troops, fully equipped with heavy and light gear, and even had support from space-based ship cannons. The troops attacked the base in formation.
"But the ubiquitous bunkers and automated turrets inside the base made every step difficult. After several days of fighting, the force had suffered twenty or thirty thousand casualties and still hadn't captured a third of the base.
"Then the army got furious and bombarded the base with ship cannons, leveling it completely.
"Generally speaking, underground bases are more concealed and occupy far less space than Space Bases or ground bases, but they have the best defenses of the three. In fact, even orbital bombardment can't take them out.
"From that perspective, we really got lucky!" Wu Tianyi's words made Wei Peng nod again and again. As an army commander, he knew exactly how well-defended this base was. If the Transformers hadn't drawn the heavy weapons' fire, the attacking ground forces would have suffered devastating losses.
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