Moon Eclipse Clan

Beneath Emperor's Tomb Village.

After passing through the energy barrier, Qi Sheng appeared in a room filled with lush greenery. The faint scent of fruit wine wafted into his nose.

Looking up toward the corner, he saw a girl of about sixteen sitting among the plants. She wore pale green clothes, and although her eyes were clear, they were devoid of focus. Her presence blended into the surrounding environment, while a faint smile curved her lips, giving her an unadorned, natural beauty.

"Boss, you're here."

The girl turned toward Qi Sheng, but her scattered pupils did not focus on him.

The girl was called Hyperdimension, and she was one of his four attendant servants.

The All Things Extraction system in the Challenger Recruitment Plan had been completed by her. It assisted players in extracting the life energy of monsters after killing them and incorporating it into their bodies to gain Evolution Points—the experience players spoke of.

Back then, to resist the Black Tide's erosion of Emperor's Tomb Village, Hyperdimension and the other three attendant servants had poured their remaining power into the village, causing something to go wrong with their divine bodies.

Guidance had lost its fleshly body and could exist only as an elemental body. Yan Ming had lost his emotional-control function and always wore an icy, expressionless look. Nine Yin's functions had deteriorated, leaving him extremely old. Hyperdimension, meanwhile, had lost her vision and consciousness-perception functions and could sense the world only through hearing.

"How's your body?"

"Same as always. I'm just waiting for the day you reconstruct Di Zhao's body and pull me along." A gentle smile appeared on Hyperdimension's face as she slowly stood and continued, "Did you call me here to give me an assignment, Boss?"

"The players' levels have been rising quickly lately. I think we need a matching equipment system—the armed-vehicle function I mentioned to you before."

The armed-vehicle function Qi Sheng spoke of was based on the equipment systems in games.

In his vision, this system could help players improve their strength. Its principle was to use Hyperdimension's extraction power to extract energy from various ores and create equipment that could change along with the system.

For example, a player's armor in human form might be battle armor. After switching to monster form, the armor would expand and change along with the body, but its overall defensive power would decrease after being extended.

Under the design, the armaments were divided into weapons and armor, which could significantly increase a player's overall strength.

More importantly, introducing this system would also increase the speed at which players consumed Sacrificial Power, allowing him to obtain more Sacrificial Power output.

After listening to Qi Sheng's explanation, Hyperdimension immediately nodded.

"I'll need some time. I'll also need you to allocate an additional amount of Sacrificial Power to cover the costs of creating the armament system."

"No problem. I've already given you access to the Sacrificial Power Pool. You can draw on the remaining Sacrificial Power whenever you need it."

After discussing the content of the next update with Hyperdimension, Qi Sheng turned and left.

After returning to the Origin Altar, he switched to the player's perspective.

The moon.

The Moon Eclipse Clan's settlement.

Beneath the tranquil silver radiance stood a magnificent city, exceptionally bright against the dark backdrop of space.

The buildings here were made from composite rock-and-metal materials. The city contained staggered aerial gardens, while a transparent dome covered the sky. The interior environment could not only adjust itself automatically but also purify air pollution on its own.

All kinds of flying vehicles hovered above the city. From private aircraft to high-speed aerial trains, the futuristic vehicles moved in orderly streams under the control of Artificial Intelligence.

On the streets, traditional vehicles like those on Earth were almost nowhere to be seen. In their place were smart walkways and magnetic-hovering boards.

Members of the Moon Eclipse Clan only needed to step onto the convenient walkways to quickly travel through the streets. Countless robots could also be seen moving about, handling cleaning and city-maintenance work.

Five hundred meters beneath the center of the city, a room spanning more than a thousand square meters housed the Artificial Intelligence that represented the pinnacle of Moon Eclipse technology.

It was not a machine or electronic device in the traditional sense. Its form was that of a huge, semitransparent sphere radiating a gentle blue glow.

Its surface was composed of countless faintly glowing particles, forming a complex and beautiful pattern resembling a living neural network. The pattern shifted rapidly, as though living thoughts were pulsing within it.

Dozens of slender, transparent tentacles also encircled the sphere. They were like the Artificial Intelligence's nerve fibers, serving as feelers that sensed information from the outside world.

Nodes that flashed with strange radiance were embedded at the ends of the tentacles. Each node was a highly advanced information-processing unit, capable of rapidly analyzing, storing, and applying information and data from the network.

The Star Network used by humanity and the other alien races had been constructed by this Artificial Intelligence.

Many small biological intelligent entities were scattered around the Artificial Intelligence. Like satellites, they revolved around the main body, responsible for security and environmental monitoring while constantly adjusting the Artificial Intelligence's operating environment to keep it as comfortable as possible.

At that moment, a figure stood before the Artificial Intelligence.

He had a handsome appearance and slender ears, like an elf from a fairy tale. He fit human aesthetic standards perfectly.

"Star Network, do you have the results?"

Facing the handsome man's question, the semitransparent sphere projected a beam of light from its center. A short distance in front of the man, it gathered into a little boy with the Moon Eclipse Clan's distinctive features.

The boy shook his head solemnly.

"What I can confirm is that my information has been altered. More accurately, new content has been implanted into my fundamental laws. Although the Star Network was created by me, the person who implanted this information possesses Star Network permissions above my level. I cannot alter my fundamental laws, so I have no authority to read the specific content of this information."

Hearing this, Yue Dong's brows drew tightly together, but he had no idea how to deal with it.

Several days earlier, the upper echelons of the Moon Eclipse Clan had received an official message from the Human Federation. They had learned that an unauthenticated network account had appeared on the Human Federation's Star Network, and that no valid information about the account could be found. The message asked whether it was connected to the Moon Eclipse Clan.

After receiving the news, the Moon Eclipse Clan's upper echelons had formed an investigation group led by him to investigate the mysterious account.

But the preliminary results left Yue Dong incredulous.

He discovered that even his own permissions could not access the mysterious account's specific information.

Faced with a problem he could not solve, he decisively sought the assistance of a Level 1 Artificial Intelligence. The result was unexpected.

The Level 1 Artificial Intelligence likewise had no authority to investigate, nor could it open the content behind the download link.

After reporting upward through several levels, he ultimately received approval and met the super Artificial Intelligence that represented the pinnacle of Moon Eclipse technology—the "Star Network."

He had thought the investigation would finally produce results this time, but he had never expected the Star Network's answer to be that it, too, lacked the authority to investigate the information behind the mysterious account.

This made Yue Dong realize that the situation had already slipped beyond their control.

The owner of this mysterious account had silently altered the Star Network's fundamental laws.

The Star Network's fundamental laws were the underlying operating logic that ensured the "Star Network" would remain loyal to the Moon Eclipse Clan.

For example, one of the laws stated: Always take the safety of the Moon Eclipse Clan as the highest priority.

This law was the first string of information processed when the Star Network operated. It ensured that, whenever the Star Network handled anything, the safety of the Moon Eclipse Clan as a species would be its foremost consideration, overriding requirements such as efficiency and profit.

The fundamental laws had been implanted when the Star Network was first created. They could not be changed or deleted by any means. Even the current upper echelons of the Moon Eclipse Clan could not modify them.

This ensured that, whether from within or without, the Star Network would always remain loyal to the Moon Eclipse Clan as a collective rather than to any individual ruler.

Yet now, Star Network was saying that its fundamental laws had been modified and that an additional piece of information had been added.

This meant that the mysterious hacker possessed permissions above those of the Artificial Intelligence. At best, he could paralyze the Star Network's world at will; at worst, he could instantly halt the Moon Eclipse Clan's cities and destroy Moon Eclipse City.

"This is bad!"