Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 735: Chapter 260: Civilization Poison Core, Cosmic Treasure

”Punk... Group?”

Gao Gong, now with an exceptional memory, could recall vast amounts with ease. Just a slight recollection, and he remembered where this unfamiliar term came from.

It was during the Destruction Form conflict, when No. 13 deliberately drew Elder Wanwei and Waters away to create a diversion. The phenomenon he orchestrated was the ’revival of the Punk Group.’

If the three Electronic Ascenders had stayed together, the old Xuanyuan X wouldn’t have been punched to death, and the other two wouldn’t have been tricked into self-destructing.

So, just how troublesome was this ’Punk Group’ to cause such panic among these relics of the Civilization Era, making them lose their composure?

Paradise Bird was not one to keep people in suspense and directly spoke:

”100 years ago, during the Civilization Era, the Northern Federation experienced a very dangerous survival crisis. This ancient civilization was nearly destroyed, and it took forming a joint effort with the Empire and the Oudik Union—three civilizations—to suppress this threat. This process was called the Cold War, and the object of this Cold War was the ’Punk Group.’

’Cold War,’ Gao Gong’s eyes showed a flicker of confusion, but this wasn’t his past life after all. Gao Gong quickly snapped back to reality; this was undoubtedly a completely different historical event.

”So, what exactly is this Punk Group?”

Paradise Bird thought for a moment and said:

”According to the unsealed data, you may understand it as a special human-form virus carrier.”

Corresponding to the ’Cold War’ is the ’Hot War,’ and it’s well-known that the ’Hot War’ battles in industrial systems. In this regard, the Great Xia Empire was the strongest. Even when the Oudik Union and Northern Federation joined forces, they could not rival it.

At that time, the Great Xia Empire’s leader was ambitious, with aspirations of controlling the stars, and border conflicts were frequent. The Alliance was defending very strenuously. Calling it a ’crisis of governance’ wouldn’t be an exaggeration. That’s the historical context.

”...So, to ensure its governance wasn’t dismantled, the loose technology continents of the Federation united. Even the internally conflicted ’Research Associations’ opened all technical data, and with the entire nation’s strength, developed the ’Punk Plan.’ Their objective was to develop a ’killer virus’ capable of instantly destroying the Empire’s industrial core.”

”This killer virus wasn’t considered a failure; in fact, it could be said to have been quite successful, but it was just too ’successful.’ The created ’killer virus’ became completely uncontrollable, randomly infecting and killing, causing severe harm to the three major nations.”

”Eventually, the leaders of the three nations abandoned the hot war and focused their efforts on dealing with the ’Cold War,’ spending a full 30 years to suppress the last ’Punk Killer.’

Paradise Bird exhaled a long breath,

”And such major events of the Civilization Era, even after its destruction, continue to have a significant impact on us.”

”How so?”

Paradise Bird raised three fingers,

”First, the prototype of the Electronic Defense Wall was developed during the Cold War to counter the Punk Killers.

Second, it is rumored that today’s Cyber Killers were created by the Deep Net intercepting a portion of the Punk Killers’ ’source code.’

Third, the 0-virus database of Cyber Space originates from the earliest Punk Killers; it’s their database.”

Gao Gong revealed an expression of enlightenment:

”With you explaining it this way, I can roughly understand why those three old guys turned pale at the mention of it.”

Paradise Bird lamented,

”It’s a pity there’s so little data from the Civilization Era; the information on the ’Punk Killers’ was all dug out by hackers from ancient databases.”

”Actually, that’s already quite a lot.”

Gao Gong said softly.

Setting aside all conspiracies and calculations in history, analyzing from a ’civilization’ perspective, many things are not too hard to guess.

The Northern Alliance follows the ’Brain Domain Civilization’ route.

So-called ’Brain Domain Civilization’ is a civilization that develops brain computational power, with the ultimate goal of turning everyone within the civilization into an ’Einstein.’

At that point, technologies and weapons are readily at hand.

This civilization system has a total of six ’Professional Knowledge Chains.’

’Virtual Personality,’ ’Neuro-Editing Technology,’ ’Electronic Doctrine (Turing Mechanism),’ ’Life Technology,’ ’Electronic Life Chip,’ ’Mechanical Brain’

Each seems to have some connection with ’developing the brain.’

For example, the currently implemented ’Electronic Brain Plan,’ the foundational theory is ’Mechanical Brain.’

And the Northern Federation’s situation back then was likely preparing for something big.

And this big thing is similar to Gao Gong gambling ’Tier 3 Civilization Architecture’ with ’Professional Knowledge Chains,’ but even on a larger scale.

After all, given the circumstances at the time, creating one or two ’Tier 3 Civilization Architectures’ was inadequate to alleviate the Empire’s military pressure.

They were likely preparing to gamble on a ’Civilization Core.’

Every civilization has its ’Civilization Core.’

However, even for a Level 2 Civilization, or even a Level 3 Civilization, few can develop a ’Civilization Core.’

Because it is related to ’Civilization Ascension.’

Civilizations wanting ’Civilization Ascension’ must have a ’Civilization Core.’

For a civilization on the fusion route, the requirements are even harsher. It needs two ’Civilization Cores’: one for the Carbon-Based Civilization and one for the Mechanical Civilization.

That’s also why Gao Gong is interested in ’basic knowledge.’

He must at least ensure that before leaving the Cyber Test Field, he collects ’all knowledge’ of the two types of civilizations.

One is the Transformer Civilization.

The other is precisely the Brain Domain Civilization.

And how to develop a ’Civilization Core,’ from Gao Gong’s perspective, is actually quite simple.

Just collect all the ’Professional Knowledge Chains’ of the civilization and feed them into the Alliance Panel for synthesis.

However, for a planet civilization without an ’Alliance Panel,’ it would be very, very difficult.

On the technology tree, there aren’t just apples, but also poison apples.

It’s different from a failed blueprint synthesis.

A failed blueprint synthesis just means failure; only the experience is wasted.

However, if the synthesis of the ’Civilization Core’ fails, you will inevitably suffer a ’backlash’.

This backlash is known in the cosmos as a ’Civilization Poison Core’.

It’s something that can destroy a civilization in reverse.

There is over a 50% chance that the ’Punk Group’ is a ’Civilization Poison Core’.

He even thought further.

The ’Cosmic Relic’ that is about to be synthesized is intricately related to three types of civilizations.

Avalanche, Destruction—do these two have a connection?

Getting more conspiratorial, was it intentional or accidental that this thing could be brought about...

Paradise Bird carefully observed Gao Gong’s face, finding that he wasn’t as surprised as imagined, which was somewhat disappointing.

Gao Gong also recovered from his thoughts, pondered, and said:

”No. 13 is the Rewind System. It’s not surprising it can fetch some ’Punk Group’ stuff, but how did ’Avalanche’ connect with this thing?”

”The source code of ’Avalanche’ overlaps with ’Database 0’, and ’Database 0’ originally stored the data of the first Punk Killer.”

”Are the two ’Avalanches’ related?”

The first Avalanche was developed by No. 13 and War, while the second Avalanche was the ’Memory Erasure Software’.

”There’s a slight vague connection; the ’Avalanche Software’ contains a piece of the true ’Avalanche’ application program, discovered by one of our hackers.”

”Which hacker?”

”The one ranked twelfth, the ’Personality Simulator’.”

Gao Gong was stunned; that name sounded familiar. Isn’t it the one who betrayed Scorpion, causing Scorpion to flee to Puppet City, create the second personality Du Mei, and be forced into slumber himself?

Du Mei and her husband Black Python (formerly the underground world’s king Black Dragon) both work at ’Du Gao Technology’ now.

Their daughter, the little Bionic Man’s serious illness, was treated by Sister Rose upon his request.

”Did Du Mei recommend him?”

Due to the complexity, Gao Gong couldn’t help but ask again.

”Yes.”

”Hmm, bring him to see me.”

Watching Paradise Bird’s disappearing figure, Gao Gong pondered a question: could it be that the abundance of male secretaries recently made even women with Paradise Bird’s unremarkable figure seem much more pleasant to the eye, but soon after, Gao Gong’s brow raised.

’Ding——’ ’Ding——’

[Ding Ding, you triggered a Tier 2 ’Hell-level’ task chain—’The First Avalanche’]

[Ding Ding, you triggered a Tier 2 ’Hell-level’ time-limited task—’Civilization Core of the Fusion Route’]

[’The First Avalanche’ Task First Ring: ’Avalanche’ of the Virtual Personality]

Difficulty: Difficult+

Task Brief: ’Avalanche’ is a form of data decomposition and an alternative form of data encryption. If virtual reality is an electronic hallucination, then ’Avalanche’ is a sobering agent. So perhaps, start by awakening the ’personality’.

Task Objective: Under the guidance of the ’Personality Simulator’, go to the ’Place of Illusion’ and seek the next stage clues of ’Avalanche’.

Task Rewards: Experience +1 million, Skill Point *10, Specialization Points *10, random upgrade of a virtual-side skill.

Hmm, worthy of being a ’Hell-level’ chain task, the first ring is already ’Difficult+’.

Gao Gong looked at the second hell task.

This is also a time-limited task.

[Civilization Totem: Knowledge Graph]

Difficulty: Hell

Task Brief: The fusion of individual martial power is only the first step of civilization fusion. Now, it’s time to take the second step.

Task Objective: Complete the collection of all professional knowledge under the Transformer Civilization, Artificial Data Space, and Brain Domain Civilization systems.

Time Limit: 3 months

Task Rewards: One Cosmic Treasure

Note: You should know what a Cosmic Treasure is, right?

Cosmic, Cosmic Treasure!?

Compared to various ’task rewards’, ’extra rewards’, and ’supplementary rewards’ from previous tasks.

This time, the hell task rewards are pitifully small.

But Gao Gong was extremely delighted!

Let’s put it this way.

If a gauntlet with three or more gems is equivalent to a tier of Cosmic Relics.

Then, a gemless gauntlet is a Cosmic Treasure.