Chapter 1297: Change
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless cannons roared, launching attacks toward Mornisa. The silver giant Manison thrashed Mornisa’s Virtual Soul.
In the Virtual Paramount territory, Mornisa was completely powerless and could do nothing but take Manison’s thunderous attacks. Agony rushed into her mind like a tsunami, wave after wave. Her mind almost stopped working. Her Virtual Soul was buzzing with white noise and looked extremely unstable.
“Argh!” Mornisa screamed and wailed. Although she was mentally prepared to get a beating from Manison, when her consciousness felt such intense pain, she could hardly endure it. She could feel the murderous intent from Manison’s attacks.
This pain reminded her of the lesson Manison gave her when she failed to steal his technology for the first time.
Back then, Mornisa had just become a Beyond Grade A. It was a time when she was arrogant and overconfident, and she did not know much about how strong the senior Beyond Grade As were. After she failed, she got absolutely crushed by Manison; all attempts to fight back were meaningless. She was just as helpless as she was now, being tortured like a powerless doll.
At that time, Manison adjusted her perception of reality, and the deep fear pushed Mornisa to join the Federation of Light.
This humiliating memory had been suppressed at the bottom of her heart. At this time, this mental scar of hers was reopened. Mornisa could almost feel her soul shivering intuitively. She clenched her teeth and endured the torture, hoping Manison would soon stop.
After an unknown period of time, Mornisa, who was doing her best to endure the pain, suddenly felt refreshed and left the Virtual Paramount territory, returning to the Virtual Intrusion battlefield where an intense battle was still carried out.
Mornisa’s mind almost collapsed. Although the actual amount of time she was controlled was very short, she felt like she had been tortured nonstop for more than a decade. It felt like countless mixers were stirring up her brain, turning her brain tissues into a mess.
Furthermore, in order to keep hacking, she could not stop working her mind and had no choice but to remain conscious, making the pain even worse.
In the moment right after she left the Virtual Paramount territory, her mind still remained stunned for a second. Her computing power plummeted, and the attacks on the area she was in charge of suddenly slowed down.
In this short instant, Manison who was prepared for it suddenly released a sea of data streams, attempting to break through the communication lock and send a message to the outside world.
Buzz!
Suddenly, layers of light curtains rose at the edge of this virtual battlefield. The data lock barrier formed by the main artificial intelligences of the three Universal Civilizations cut off the data sent to the outside world. These enormous streams of data bumped into the barrier and exploded like countless mosquitoes rushing onto an electric net, instantly vanishing.
“Ahem, don’t think you can easily send a message out while I’m wounded. I expected this…” Mornisa was still in a weakened state, but she still snickered when she saw this.
Maintaining the same poker face, Manison waited for Virtual Paramount to cool down while fighting against the invasion as well as trying to send a message to the outside world by any means necessary.
With his Virtual Technology, it was almost impossible for them to lock him down completely, but he still needed some time to break through.
Mornisa endured the pain in her mind and intercepted a message sent to the outside world. It was a distress signal sent to the Beyond Grade A Association.
Seeing this, though wounded, she still sneered. “That egotistical Mechanic Emperor finally learned to ask people for help? Where did your pride go?”
Manison glanced at her and did not respond.
He knew that after this distress signal was sent, Black Star would most likely be the one to come. God only knew how he would ridicule him.
If possible, he did not want to have any connections with Han Xiao, mostly to prevent Han Xiao from seeing his database. After all, (Virtual Purification-Restore) was his nemesis. However, in this situation, it was tough for him to hold on, so he had no choice but to call for help.
One side was resisting and trying to seek help, while the other side was invading and locking down the information. The situation remained in a stalemate for quite some time.
Despite Manison’s efforts to continuously mend his firewall, his line of defense kept shrinking in the face of the Beyond Grade A enemies and the main artificial intelligences of the three Universal Civilizations. More and more needles stabbed into his databases one after another, stealing the data he had accumulated over many years.
Virtual Paramount went off cooldown many times, and Manison used it every time on Mornisa and gave her a heavy beating.
It was not like Mornisa could suggest that Manison target her other teammates, so she had no choice but to endure all of it. Her injuries got worse and worse. If not for her teammates who were helping her, her consciousness would have been very close to being unable to maintain the intrusion.
Suddenly, an invading data stream finally penetrated the firewall and infiltrated the secret database. It only lasted for a short instant before being wiped out by Manison.
However, in that short time, this data stream absorbed a ton of nutrients and transmitted part of Manison’s secret data back.
A Mechanic sent a message to his teammates. “We got his key technology data!”
“Keep going!” Mornisa’s heavily damaged consciousness suddenly became energetic like she was on steroids.
It was like suddenly finding gold after mining for a very long time; all the torture she had gone through felt worth it!
However, Manison, who had remained calm, found a gap in the barrier and finally sent out a distress signal.
“Sh*t, he managed to send out a signal!”
Mornisa’s joy only lasted for a few seconds before her heart sank.
Her tone was arrogant, but she was actually quite worried inside. If the association’s Mechanics came to help, this mission would definitely fail.
That was especially so if the unfathomable Black Star came. That was a man who kicked her teacher who she once admired more than anything down from the top. Just thinking about it made her feel fearful.
If Black Star came, Mornisa would flee instantly… She dared to backstab Manison, who was no longer at his peak, but she did not dare touch Black Star, who was right at his peak.
“Don’t panic, we still have some time,” a teammate said with a deep voice.
Mornisa focused her mind, clenched her teeth, and tried her best to steal as much information as possible before reinforcements arrived. At the same time, she removed a large portion of the three Universal Civilizations’ main artificial intelligences’ computing power from the message blocking barrier and moved them to focus on invading.
Since Manison’s distress signal was out, there was no point spending so much effort to block his communications. The others also all focused on invading.
With no time to spare, their invading strength increased again. Data stream needles stabbed into one key database after another. Manison could only frown and resist with all he had.
After some time, a direct Mechanic who was calculating the time suddenly said, “That’s about time. If we remain here, reinforcements are going to arrive.”
“Retreat!”
Mornisa clenched her teeth. They were far from turning Manison’s database upside down, but she did not dare continue.
Glancing at Manison’s hole-filled firewall, they retrieved their computing power and retreated the way they came. At this time, Manison’s Virtual Paramount went off cooldown again. Before the invaders left, he dealt Mornisa another heavy blow.
Mornisa shivered. Her Virtual Soul became even more faint as she retreated and disappeared with her last shred of consciousness.
In the Virtual Mind Wave Enhancer somewhere in the Primeval Star River, their consciousnesses returned to their bodies.
“Go, quickly…”
Mornisa only had time to say two words before her avatar collapsed onto the floor and her Lord’s Descent got deactivated.
She had been Manison’s focus and was already at her limits at this point. As soon as the mission was over, her consciousness returned to her main body right away, and she almost fainted… It would take her at least a year to recover from the injuries she had suffered.
Judith glanced at her avatar on the floor, shook his head, and said, “Leave her alone and retreat with the data we stole. The Mechanic Emperor might come any time.”
The others nodded and activated the Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device right away.
The two rings around the Virtual Mind Wave Enhancer started spinning and accelerating, and their afterimages formed a sphere.
The next moment, with a flash of blinding light, the entire Virtual Mind Wave Enhancer left through teleportation while the Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device self-destructed and shattered into ash.
Inside the Virtual Domain, Manison looked at the mess the enemies made in his territory and slowly said, “Count the losses and give me a report.”
“…Understood.”
The main artificial intelligence responded and started checking the status of the various databases.
Very soon, a list was given to Manison.
He looked at the enormous losses on the list, closed his eyes with resignation, and sighed. His expression looked like he was laughing at himself.
Karma finally came…
About eighty percent of the information of the various large organizations he stored in his databases was stolen. He had obtained this information through monitoring these organizations for many years. Quite a big portion of the information was secret, especially the information of the few Super Star Cluster civilizations of the Primeval Star River.
A ton of the blueprints he accumulated through research over all these years were also stolen. The only good news was that core technology such as the Felon and the Indestructible Mechanic Empire were all memorized in his mind and had never existed in the database, or his loss would have been even bigger.
Buzz!
At this time, a data stream appeared out of nowhere and turned into a man. He looked at the wreckages, tutted and said, “Yo, what a refreshing scene. The Mechanic Emperor, who once invaded the databases of people everywhere, got invaded today. How the tables turn.”
Manison looked up, and who else could it be but Black Star?
He was not in the mood to respond to Han Xiao’s teasing and said, “You’re late.”
“I’m not telepathic. I came fast enough. You should say the enemies fled in time.”
Han Xiao landed before Manison, looked around, rubbed his chin, and said curiously, “How many of them came to be able to do this to you?”
“Several direct Mechanics and the main artificial intelligences of the three Universal Civilizations.” Manison gave a simple description.
“Wow, they really think of you quite highly.”
Han Xiao raised his brows.
Even he was not confident he could deal with this if he was in the same position as Manison. After all, his Indestructible Body was not very useful in the Virtual Technology field. It was no surprise Manison lost so much.
Manison frowned and said, “I would’ve crushed them if this was in the real world.”
Although he was strong in battles in the Virtual Domain, it was nothing compared to his full combat capability. After all, Virtual Technology was an independent ability, and mechanical armies were useless in the Virtual Domain. With the inventory he had, he would have completely trashed these invaders in a few minutes in the real world.
In the real world, he and Black Star could fight ten enemies at once, but no one possessed this amount of overwhelming strength in the Virtual Domain.
Han Xiao shook his head and asked, “What have you decided to do next? Eat this up or retaliate?”
Manison glanced at him and said, “Depends on you.”
“Depends me on?” Han Xiao was stunned.
“Aren’t you the Beyond Grade A Association president? I’m a member of the association too, so you’ll make the call.”
“… Who are you? Release the real Manison!”
Han Xiao was taken aback.
What the hell? You made such a big loss, but not only are you not suggesting fighting back, but you’re even respecting my opinion as the president? This isn’t like you, Old Manison!
It’s over, either this b*stard’s soul got swapped, or his heart was too heavily damaged, so his personality became twisted! Looking at Han Xiao’s expression that was filled with disbelief, Manison said impatiently, “What look is that? What’s so hard to believe? Anyway, this matter will be dealt with depending on your suggestion.”
Of course, Manison was not happy about his database being invaded, but he was not so enraged that he had to take revenge.
One reason was that the loss was not unrecoverable. His core technology was all stored in his mind and was not leaked. Another reason was that it was now a sensitive time. With concern for the big picture, he did not want to disrupt the tempo of the fight between the association and the three Universal Civilizations.
Although he had made a loss this time, the three Universal Civilizations had worked together on this mission against him. They committed so much effort and so many resources to it that Manison had to admit his defeat. Plus, after his position in the Machinery Faith was snatched by Black Star, he gradually had lower and lower requirements for his reputation. He felt he had become calmer inside, no longer concerned about the title of the strongest Mechanic in the Galaxy. It had not belonged to him for a very long time anyway.
Manison sighed in his mind. Maybe because I’m really getting old, my temper keeps getting smaller…
“Your personality has really changed…” Han Xiao said before turning serious. “Don’t worry, this is a matter of the three Universal Civilizations robbing an association member’s private assets. They won’t get away with it easily.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Hmm, condemn them first and see how they respond.”
“They’ll just say I stole the Federation of Light’s secrets before and claim this is just punishing me for it.”
Manison shook his head.
“Oh, this is indeed a good reason. They have the moral high ground, after all. If that’s the case, the question will be thrown back to the association… Doing this to you at this time, the three Universal Civilizations are testing us.”
Han Xiao pondered and said, “The three Universal Civilizations’ so-called ‘punishment’ is simply cover. They’re testing to see if the association will retaliate for you and see how confident we are. If we only condemn them and don’t act, it’ll look like we don’t have any confidence. If we retaliate, the extent of it will reflect how confident we are.
“This was also to continue damaging the association. They have the moral high ground, so if the association retaliates for you, we’ll look tyrannical, and they’ll be closer to ‘justice’. If the association doesn’t do anything, the association members would be worried and unhappy, which is not good for unity.”
Hearing this, Manison nodded in agreement.
The three Universal Civilizations had made a move on a core member of the association at such a sensitive time; their intentions were clear, but the association had to deal with it.
However, at this time, Han Xiao suddenly said, “However… We have not considered a colossal change that might occur. If this change occurs, the three Universal Civilizations will not react as I just said.”
“What change?” Manison frowned.
Han Xiao looked at him and calmly said, “Let me ask you a question, and you must tell me the truth… The data you lost this time, did it include the Virtual Mutiny Virus you secretly faked?”
Absolutely not mentally prepared, Manison froze.
Then, his expression suddenly changed drastically, and he stared at Han Xiao in confusion.
When the f*ck did you find out my secret?
