Counterfeit Hero

On June 2nd, during the Absolute Kill Sect’s surprise attack on an important bridge in the Western Third Section of the Fifth Ring Road of Central City controlled by the Tai Sect, an entire armored company dispatched for defense was wiped out. Among this armored company, half were core disciples who had just been sent by the Tai Sect to establish a grassroots command system!

What made Kubo feel powerless was that the supply materials transported to the Demon’s Eye Base by the Tai Sect were robbed in the nearby PT-8911 star system!

Whenever he thought of this, Kubo wished he could tear Steelman’s skin off.

The energy, food, ship parts, and weapon ammunition loaded on those two large transport ships were supplies to maintain the main base of the Demon’s Eye for six months! This also accounted for one-third of the current material reserves of the Tai Sect!

Due to the Mars Sect war, transport ships daring to dock at Mars Port have disappeared. Now, all the major sects could only rely on their armed fleets to seek supplies at freedom docks several jump points away. Only there could they still see trading transport fleets coming and going.

Therefore, ports and armed fleets are the lifelines of all the major sects. To ensure the combat power of the Demon’s Eye and avoid losing control of the channels due to lack of supplies, thereby cutting off material sources, Kubo had gritted his teeth to squeeze out this batch of materials to maintain the normal operation of the Demon’s Eye Base.

Who would have thought that this batch of materials would be robbed! If sufficient materials cannot be obtained in a short time, given the current reserve and consumption levels, the Tai Sect will soon be out of ammunition and food!

If this was the first heavy blow the Tai Sect encountered, what made Kubo pace back and forth in panic was that his long-time backbone, the Western Alliance, had cut off communications!

For many years, Kubo had been in close contact with the intelligence agencies of the Binart Empire.

The intelligence agencies of the Binart Empire are spread throughout human society, a vast web. For the Mars Free Channel adjacent to the Leray Channel, they naturally wouldn’t miss it. After contact, both sides began partial cooperation. In terms of trade and scarce materials, Binart supported the Tai Sect, while the Tai Sect cooperated in one of Binart’s research projects.

That was a new mecha research project!

The research wasn’t just about new types of mecha, but also the operators of this new type of mecha!

Over the years, the Tai Sect secretly provided nearly two hundred experimental subjects to the Binart Empire—all were mecha knights who had lost their ability to operate due to various reasons after long-term mechanical control training!

Among them, there were ten mechanical knights and six mechanical commanders! The last batch sent was Monroe!

After piecing together years of clues, Kubo had roughly figured out the secret—Binart was following the old path of the spiritual control system!

The control system of mecha has always been the focus of mecha development research.

As early as the Ancient Earth era, there were auxiliary control systems that could capture the operator’s viewpoints and brainwave signals. However, the human brain is not a machine. The different brainwave signals and psychological states of each person limited the development of these auxiliary control systems as the primary control systems.

Moreover, mechas and ancient tanks as armored weapons have fundamental differences. The increase in speed and changes in combat methods and environments demanded higher precision in control. The technology level at that time couldn’t achieve such a requirement for the spiritual control system.

Thus, the classic control mode combining the universal control stick and auxiliary keyboard was continued, much like the steering wheel of a flying car.

And human research into mecha control systems was divided into two paths. One path focused mainly on manual control systems, supplemented by computer and biological control systems that captured viewpoints and brainwaves. The other path was the spiritual control system, which countless scientists pursued incessantly.

Two thousand years ago, with the development of technology and a deeper understanding of the human brain, a spiritual control system suitable for mecha applications was finally developed. This system powerfully captured brain signals through special instruments, eliminating all interference, with an accuracy nearing 100%. Furthermore, its instant response had almost no delay. The mecha became entirely like another body of the person!

The appearance of this system was hailed as the greatest invention of humankind at the time. It could not only be applied to mechas but also to aircraft, ships, manufacturing, and countless other fields. However, problems soon followed—this system inflicted fatal damage to the human brain! The human brain couldn’t support spiritual control systems for long periods. Thousands of early test subjects suffered brain damage, resulting in death or becoming vegetative.

The problem of brain damage remained unresolved for two thousand years. Mecha took another route, eventually evolving into the current situation and giving birth to the mechanical sects.

Binart’s secret research was centered on the spiritual control system. Once successful, the instantaneous response of the spiritual system could turn an ordinary sixth-level mecha warrior into a twelfth-level or even thirteenth-level mecha warrior! Speed of hand would no longer be an insurmountable chasm! An armored division equipped with the spiritual control system could sweep across the entire universe!

Many countries and independent research labs are working on this kind of spiritual control technology, so it’s not an absolute taboo or forbidden plan. However, Kubo knew that the focus of Binart Empire’s spiritual control system research was not on the system itself.