As time went on, the interstellar society, seeing that the Three Universal Civilizations had not taken any substantial action, became increasingly aware of the shady dealings involved. Since they could not defeat the Black Star Army, the public outcry gradually subsided.
Meanwhile, the Super Star Cluster Alliance, which had been observing the situation, received an anonymous intelligence report one day, which revealed the inside story of the Feni Civilization's cover-up. Without hesitation, they released the report, and a wave of propaganda quickly swayed public opinion.
After much maneuvering, the mastermind behind the incident basically got what they wanted and backed down. Without the guidance of public opinion from behind the scenes, only scattered voices remained online. The interstellar community is never short of news, and a new hot topic has drawn the attention of interstellar citizens, opening up new debates.
However, the impact of this incident has already subsided, awakening many people from their dormant ignorance, and causing them to quiet down considerably.
Civilizations across the land have adjusted their strategies, no longer willing to delve too deeply into the conflict between the Three Universal Civilizations and the association. They have also ceased some of their private interference, which has significantly reduced the resistance faced by various Beyond Grade A forces in integrating the black market in their respective regions.
With the local civilizations no longer able to work for free, the Three Universal Civilizations dispatched their Immortals to intervene in the black market battles across the land, in order to deal with the Immortals of the Black Star Army.
The battles between players became even more unrestrained. For the next month or so, the two sides fought fiercely, and several planets where black markets were located became secret battlefields. With the technical assistance of the Legion, the major guilds successively eliminated several Calamity Grade superhumans who were enemies of the Legion, and the name "Cancer of the Universe" became more and more deeply rooted in people's minds.
Han Xiao didn't pay much attention to the outside world's commotion. While the two sides were secretly locked in a fierce battle, he spent most of the past month in the research institute, constantly reverse engineering SWY-001, creating new Universal Treasure, and advancing his Divine Transformation.
On this day, the reverse engineering of SWY-001 finally made a breakthrough.
In the brightly lit research institute, the massive body of SWY-001 was fixed in the center, with countless multi-functional robotic arms covering various parts, resembling scaffolding from the outside. All of them were humming and operating, performing all kinds of reverse analysis.
A series of mechanical assistants flew in the air, circling around SWY-001, transporting parts from time to time, like a swarm of Bee Swarm in the sky.
Han Xiao hovered in the air, Tu Shu height level with the head of SWY-001. Beside him was a synchronously suspended circular anti-gravity workbench, with a large number of neatly arranged virtual screens surrounding his body, constantly displaying various parameters. He coordinated the research plans of different teams through this workbench.
"The decryption is finally complete..."
Han Xiao let out a breath.
After more than a month of analysis, multiple modules of SWY-001 have been successfully analyzed. The most important of these is the memory file, which has been transcoded and exported into readable data.
On the virtual screen, a large amount of information was displayed, with useless and redundant data removed, leaving only the essence of SWY-001.
Han Xiao browsed through the information, which could be divided into three main parts: the various technologies used by the machine, the technical blueprints from the memories of the sacrificial mechanics, and their memories of that unknown civilization.
This cosmic-level civilization, destroyed by the World Tree, was called the "Kama Republic Alliance" in the interstellar common language.
Unlike the three-way balance of power in the Explored Universe, the Kama Republic Alliance is the only cosmic-level civilization in its region, dominating the entire area and annexing all other races, turning them all into its subordinate civilizations. It has absolute control, and even its territory is uniformly allocated by the Kama Republic Alliance.
They established a monitoring system, set civilization levels, and stipulated that all civilizations' scientific research achievements must be reported and a copy sent to the Kama Republic Alliance. If there was a major breakthrough, "civilization points" could be increased. If enough points were accumulated, the civilization would be approved for promotion, receive better treatment, and expand with their approval.
If a civilization fails to achieve scientific breakthroughs and meet the points standard for a given cycle, it will be downgraded, and the Kama Republic Alliance will reclaim all benefits, including its territory.
The interstellar society of the Kama Republic Alliance is strictly hierarchical. Although the mechanism of civilization competition ensures a certain level of vitality, the overall social atmosphere is quite stagnant. After all, all development is under the supervision and control of the Kama Republic Alliance, and the ceiling is clearly visible. In order to maintain their level or advance, most civilizations have no choice but to invest most of their resources in scientific research, and their attitude towards livelihood issues is simply to get by.
Most people just drift along, with the high cost of breaking the law under the strict control of the Kama Republic Alliance, leaving little hope. Superpower knowledge is also strictly restricted by the Kama Republic Alliance and cannot be freely disseminated. The only way to learn it is through the official channels, and after graduation, one is assigned to serve different civilizations.
If nothing unexpected had happened, the Kama Republic Alliance would have continued to grow stronger by absorbing nutrients from so many subordinate civilizations. Unfortunately, they encountered the World Tree Civilization and were ultimately wiped out.
Because superpower knowledge is not disseminated to the general public, the Kama Kingdom and its allies have managed to maintain good control over the scale of individual civilizations. However, this very fact has led to a scarcity of high-level combat power among them. There are fewer than twenty Beyond Grade A experts, and due to a lack of competition, there are only two Peak Beyond Grade A.
Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Although the Three Universal Civilizations worry about the loss of control over individual powers every day, they have accumulated several times more advanced combat power as a result. Chaos can breed more powerful individuals. The Kama Republic Alliance does not have this concern, but it lacks sufficient reserves of advanced combat power when facing external enemies.
Faced with the overwhelming offensive of the World Tree Civilization, the advanced combat forces of the Kama Republic Alliance were almost defeated at the first touch, and were ultimately forced to use a technology called "Fusion Mechanical Ascension", which is only applicable to Mechanic Class superhumans.
By concentrating the power of a Peak Beyond Grade A mechanic and a large number of Grade A and Grade B mechanics, they aimed to help this mechanic break through the limits and transform into a true "Mechanical Deity," entering a higher level. However, they ultimately failed. Although they obtained a more powerful individual, they did not undergo a transformation and were defeated by the powerful beings of the World Tree Civilization in battle.
Han Xiao glanced at the technical data. The panel displayed the blueprint as "[Fusion Mechanical Ascension]". In addition to the known fusion effects, the side effect was personality change, turning him into a aggregated consciousness.
"This technology didn't achieve the initial design goals, but it did represent a breakthrough. It's not very useful to me in itself, but the fused mecha template is amazing. Perhaps it can be reverse-engineered and its structure imitated to create a new form of Mechanical Deity descending?"
Han Xiao's mind stirred slightly.
Although SWY-001 is a fusion of flesh and machine, the purpose of the flesh is to provide a large number of super cells to supply Mechanical Force to the huge body, and it possesses [Extreme Path Style: Blood Berserk]. If operated properly, it may achieve a similar effect.
If he successfully replicates the form of SWY-001, he believes the Mechanical Deity will likely undergo a significant transformation.
Besides [Fusion Mechanical Ascension], Han Xiao also obtained a large number of blueprints from the mecha's memory files, but only the memories of the Peak Beyond Grade A contained a few gold blueprints.
Han Xiao recorded all these techniques, then glanced at the decryption interface of the memory chip program.
Now that he has deciphered the quantum network code of the Kama Republic Alliance, the firewall has been cracked, and he can rewrite the intelligent program of SWY-001.
Han Xiao hesitated for a moment, then closed the interface... He didn't want to make any changes before figuring out the connection between SWY-001's biological consciousness and intelligent consciousness.
"Speaking of which, I wonder if researching SWY-001 provides any special bonuses; the trigger efficiency of its exclusive perks seems a bit high."
Han Xiao opened the panel and glanced at it. In this month's research, he had triggered another progress update for his exclusive specialty, which had now reached 75.8%.
Based on past data, the exclusive perk will be fully formed after just two more triggers.
However, it's unclear when these two attempts will take. Currently, there's only a quarter of the progress left. Han Xiao is now inclined to use Awakening Points to fill it up. He didn't do this before because the progress was too low, but now the gap to the maximum value is very small, and the cost is not high.
The player has been online for a while now and has accumulated a considerable amount of experience. Although he's still far from reaching level 360, leveling up a few times shouldn't be a problem. Moreover, when he uses random rewards to draw Mission Settlement Card, he occasionally gets lucky and randomly rolls out awakening points.
"Give it a try; I feel like there's a chance."
Han Xiao had an idea and invested his existing experience into leveling up, but reaching level 344 was not enough to continue.
He took out one Awakening Point, threw it into his Exclusive Specialization, and a notification popped up.
[Use 1 Awakening Point to increase Exclusive Specialization Progress? [Confirm/Cancel]]
[Confirmation complete]
[Depending on the level of this exclusive skill, 1 Awakening Point can increase progress by 2.8%~3.2%]
[Exclusive Expertise Research Progress +3.02%]
[Current progress: 78.82%]
"On average, can each point lead to a 3% improvement...?"
Han Xiao's eyes lit up; this was much better than expected.
In that case, you only need 7 or 8 more Awakening Points to obtain the exclusive skill.
According to the rules of Awakening Points, 100 points can activate the prototype of an exclusive feat, and only after that can progress be accumulated. Assuming that each Awakening Point equals 3% of the progress on average, the total cost of obtaining an exclusive feat from scratch is at least 134 Awakening Points.
I naturally activated the prototype of my exclusive skill and gradually accumulated the progress to about 75%, which is equivalent to saving 125 awakening points... Thinking about it this way, it seems like I made a huge profit.
"At most, you only need 8 awakening points, which I already have. I don't even need to level up skills; the cost is within my budget, so I can get it."
Han Xiao rubbed his hands together, his heart pounding with excitement, as he used each Awakening Point as fuel to gradually increase the progress of his exclusive specialty research.
Soon, after spending enough Awakening Points, the progress finally reached 100%!
The panel vibrated, and a prompt immediately appeared.
[Exclusive talent has been awakened]
[Please determine the main inclination of this expertise from the following three options.]
[1. Basic Attributes]
[2. Specific resistance]
[3. Main profession increase]
"Oh? So that's the format..."
Han Xiao raised an eyebrow. He had thought that the abilities of exclusive specialties were completely random, but it turned out that there was a certain degree of customization freedom when they were formed. This reminded him of the situation when he was advancing to the Beyond Grade A and creating his racial talent.
The options available at the moment are not many, which suggests that the established specialized expertise has already set a tone.
Perhaps the most complete customization experience comes from creating a prototype from scratch using Awakening Points.
Han Xiao hesitated for a moment, then chose to focus on amplification as his main profession.
[The main trend has been determined]
[Please determine the secondary inclination of this specialty from the following three options.]
[1. Mechanical Manufacturing]
[2. Virtual Technology]
[3. Mechanized warfare]
"With the two exclusive expertise contributed by Old Manison, I should be more than capable in manufacturing and virtual technology..."
Han Xiao thought for a moment and then chose the third option.
[Secondary tendencies have been identified]
[Please replace one of the following three bonus effects.]
[1. Long-range artillery strikes]
[2. Mechanical Force Strength Bonus]
[3. Increase in mechanical efficiency]
"So, the third choice is to replace an effect? Does that mean these three options represent the types of bonuses provided after the feat is fully developed?"
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, pondered for a few seconds, and chose the first option. Of the three, only the first option was slightly worse.
[Replacement complete]
[[Rapid Artillery Strike] is randomly converted into [Class Main Attribute Bonus]]
[All inclinations have been determined; developing unique specializations...]
[Generation complete]
[You have acquired a new specialization [(Unnamed) Han Xiao]!]
[(Unnamed) Han Xiao: Intelligence +10%, in combat, your Mechanical Force strength gains a 1.2x bonus, and the efficiency of your mechanical creations gains a 1.3x bonus (other percentage increases are multiplicative with the bonus coefficients)]
[Note: (To be filled in)]
[You have acquired your first exclusive talent]
[The difficulty of activating the next prototype of a unique ability increases, and the initial level of the next unique ability increases (the bonus increases, and it can accommodate more tendencies)]