For Confidential Intelligence in Ancient Star Desert, Look No Further Than the Mechanic Emperor
In the quiet corridor of the government palace on the Three Kings Planet, two people walked side by side.
One is Madi, a high-ranking intelligence officer, and the other is a high-ranking official of the Modo Civilization, who is Madi's superior.
The two walked and chatted casually.
"You'll be in charge of the project utilizing the natives, reporting directly to the Three Kings. This is a rare opportunity." The high-ranking official walked with his hands behind his back and said slowly, "Madi, I've always believed in your abilities. But can you really guarantee the Empire won't discover the truth? If something goes wrong, the Three Kings will remember you, and your future will be over."
"Heh, I've said it many times, the Empire will never find out it was us."
Madi shook his head and sneered:
"I disposed of all traces years ago. The production number of that deployed spaceship was completely erased, and it was also repeatedly refined with magic to interfere with prophetic abilities. The Empire couldn't find a single piece of information on that spaceship. What clues could they possibly have?"
"Even assuming the Empire did discover the ship's origin, I had my intelligence agents erase all of the manufacturer's production and transaction records long ago, so the Empire wouldn't find anything. And that agent was disguised; his resume was perfectly legitimate. Outsiders would only assume he's dead. I temporarily removed his confidential personal file from the database, and I relocated him; nobody can find him."
"Moreover, we weren't the ones who bought this spaceship; it was purchased by a private consortium. It changed hands several times, was even stolen by space pirates, crashed unexpectedly with no survivors, and became a missing ship. It was only secretly seized by us more than ten years ago, leaving no record. So if the Empire traces this transaction, they won't be able to reach us at all."
"Several years is plenty of time. I've also arranged some additional measures. If the Empire investigates step by step, it will only lead them to suspect another supercluster-level civilization. In any case, the Empire will not be able to produce any evidence that we did it."
Madi spoke with confidence and self-assurance.
The deployment of ships to the Kunde Race was several years ago, and he had begun erasing all traces of it years earlier, confident that the Empire would not find any clues.
Upon hearing this, the high-ranking official slowly nodded:
"Now that you say that, I'm relieved."
The silver-blue planet slowly rotated in the space before them, like a gem rolling on black velvet. Starlight reflected on the smooth silver outer armor of the Dominion's avatar, while a line of jet-black mechanical soldiers silently followed behind, blending into the darkness as if invisible.
This is a comprehensive industrial planet in the Ancient Star Desert, where numerous conglomerates have built factories.
[The Bold Explorer] reveals that it is a branch factory of a shipbuilding company located on this planet, the very place where the crashed spaceship was manufactured.
This shipbuilding company is the most ordinary kind of shipyard, which only mass-produces various basic models of low-level spaceships, without conducting any research and development or improvement, and only earns production costs.
Shipyards like these still have a certain market in space, mainly accepting orders from the private sector. After all, basic spaceships are cheap and in high demand, while other advanced shipyards will not invest large-scale resources in producing basic and "book" spaceships that lack core competitiveness.
Before Han Xiao Faction the mechanized troops, he had already checked the shipyard's background in the database. It was just a small private enterprise with no powerful backing.
"If I'm not mistaken, the masterminds chose this shipyard, and they've already erased all traces of it."
Han Xiao pondered.
Although I had a general idea, I still needed to check and confirm it to verify the result.
Entering the Quantum Network Vision, the world before me transformed once again into a virtual, network-like world. The outline of the planet blurred, leaving only countless luminous quantum network nodes, forming a mottled and dazzling sea of light.
By locking onto the shipyard's quantum network node, Han Xiao directly penetrated it. The data firewall of a small private enterprise was practically useless to him, allowing him to proceed smoothly and directly into the deepest part, releasing a massive data flow.
In just a moment, Han Xiao Han Xiao had his inventory blown up at the shipyard, and all the data was leaked into his hands.
He glanced at the production logs and transaction records and found that the earliest record only went back three years, while the shipyard's history was far longer than that.
"As expected, the guy behind it all did something," Han Xiao thought to himself.
He checked other records and found that the shipyard had experienced an accidental explosion three years ago.
During the production of the spaceship, a sudden power failure caused the entire shipyard to explode, destroying the main engine, losing all previous data and paper records, and nearly affecting surrounding businesses.
The post-incident investigation concluded that it was a natural malfunction with an extremely low probability, which Han Xiao certainly didn't believe. He was certain that it was a deliberately created disaster to destroy evidence.
If I were the mastermind behind it all, I would not only erase the records of the place of origin, but also change hands several times to turn the spaceship into a ghost ship with no records for a long time, so that the clues would be cleared even more thoroughly.
"There are no records, and the spaceship's serial number is still unknown. This lead has largely gone cold..."
The eyes of Han Xiao's Dominion clone flashed with lightning.
"However, it wasn't without its gains."
At least, this clue reveals that the place of origin is in the Ancient Star Desert.
Therefore, the most likely suspects in the Ancient Star Desert are the four supercluster-level civilizations in power, narrowing the scope from the entire universe to a single star field.
Of course, it's also possible that civilizations from other star systems deliberately purchased spaceships manufactured elsewhere with the intention of framing the enemy, but he is currently prioritizing the more probable scenario.
Although there are no leads at present, in the previous life, the Empire encountered similar incidents to the Kunde Race during subsequent explorations. The natives were enhanced and sent to their deaths. After the Kunde Race incident, the Empire was better prepared and discovered suspects in some of the incidents.
Among the suspects in the Ancient Star Desert, the one mentioned most often is the Modo Civilization, one of the four superclusters!
They're always causing trouble; if you walk by the river long enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet. The empire isn't one to be trifled with either.
The mastermind behind it all can erase clues from the past, but he can't change the clues about the "future" in Han Xiao's memories!
It's like saying, "You haven't committed a crime yet, but I foresee that you will commit a crime in the future."
He didn't know if the Kunde Race incident was caused by the Modo Civilization, but since they had a "previous record," they were the prime suspects.
With the trail gone cold, Han Xiao had two ideas for the time being.
If the shipyard accident was man-made, then we could try to find the entry and exit records and surveillance footage of this planet from three years ago to see if we can identify who caused the accident and follow the clues.
It's easy for the mastermind to tamper with the data of a small private company, but manipulating the planet's overall monitoring system is several levels more difficult. If the other party has tampered with that, Han Xiao will accept it, assuming that this approach is unfeasible.
The second method is the brute-force approach: elimination. There are only a few civilizations in the Ancient Star Desert that could be suspected of causing trouble. We need to investigate them one by one and look for clues. If we do this, the first civilization Han Xiao needs to investigate is the most suspicious Modo Civilization.
He always preferred a two-pronged approach, immediately screening entry and exit records from the past three years and matching them with satellite surveillance footage from the day the incident occurred.
The powerful computing power worked at high speed and quickly produced the result: no suspicious persons approached the shipyard that day.
"Not an outsider? Hmm, two possibilities: either the mastermind tampered with the planet's surveillance system to conceal any outsider activity, or it was an employee's doing."
The former had no other options and could just give up and go to sleep, while Han Xiao could only try to follow the employee's work plan.
Assuming it wasn't done by an outsider, then it could only have been done by an insider.
"Suppose I were the perpetrator, ordered by my superior to carry out this undercover operation. After causing the disaster and completing my mission, there would be no need for me to remain in the shipyard. Therefore, I would need an excuse to escape. In that case..."
Han Xiao's heart stirred, and he opened the obituary of the fallen employees published by the shipyard three years ago, which listed the employees who died in the accident.
Three years after the accident, all the surviving boatmen were subjected to strict investigations, and many left the company. However, based on Han Xiao's understanding of intelligence personnel, it was more likely that the other party had faked their death and disappeared, because that would be "cleaner"—excellent intelligence personnel would definitely prepare multiple identities for themselves, and death would destroy those identities, clear their hands of ties, and greatly reduce any worries about the future.
Therefore, the perpetrator may be on the list of the dead.
The life stories of interstellar citizens can be found through other means. It was not difficult for Han Xiao to find these people's resumes. Their professional experience and entry and exit records were clear and there was nothing wrong with them.
What he needs to confirm now is whether anyone's resume is suspected of being falsified.
It's easy to tamper with information, but it's not difficult to verify it either. The process is rather tedious, which involves Earth Movement the companies and relatives listed on the resume to inquire if such a person exists.
If someone is found to have falsified their resume, they can be listed as a suspect. The next step is the process of elimination that he just thought of... compare the suspect's information with the classified personnel files of the Modo Civilization and other supercluster civilizations to determine whether the other party is the perpetrator and their affiliated faction.
If the perpetrator infiltrated the shipyard, they must have used a false identity and possibly disguised their appearance, but this is not without a solution.
The shipyard's data is gone, but the planet's satellite surveillance remains, storing satellite footage of their daily activities. With Han Xiao's virtual technology, he can set model parameters, import these videos and the confidential personnel files of those forces, and conduct a large-scale comprehensive analysis to determine the similarity, which can expose the disguise to a certain extent.
This allows for comparison with the files of personnel in the civilization's confidential records.
So the question is... how can I obtain the classified personnel files of these supercluster-level civilizations?
The Black Star Army had virtually no influence in the Ancient Star Desert.
Han Xiao patted his metal head.
He didn't know about others, but a guy like Manison, with his extremely strong desire for control, must have a lot of classified information about these supercluster-level civilizations.
Even the Federation of Light has to guard against the Mechanic Emperor's virtual intrusion, so it probably has a history of such attacks. How could these supercluster-level civilizations possibly escape it? -- With the world's number one virtual technology, it would be a shame not to be the neighbor next door.
"Alright, it seems I really need to go find the Mechanic Emperor."