Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 824: Chapter 348: Cosmic Treasure

Very soon, Gao Gong saw on the other side of the horizon, a golden radiance flashed by, as if it traversed space, rushing straight ahead, leaving in its wake surges that seemed to dye the entire world in a layer of gold.

Then, it stopped abruptly right in front of Gao Gong.

Like an invisible wall, blocking Gao Gong’s path, the golden mountains and seas shattered loudly, and the air still resonated with the roar of ’Namshabu’.

”Just as I thought...”

It was as if a program function was about to be realized when some piece of source code was suddenly deleted.

The mountain of code that countless programmers had sweated over then collapsed like a domino.

Not only do these brain viruses act this way, but the ’Golden Ark’ will be the same.

Gao Gong squinted, and the biological magnetic field that overflowed stirred the cloud layers into a heavy vortex, as if the sky and earth were about to collapse.

And, with the aid of global surveillance, the higher-ups in the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division witnessing the scene were equally amazed.

”Minister, this is too intense!”

Forest Leopard, who prided himself as the top tough guy in the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division, exclaimed.

”Artificially creating celestial weapons?”

Xiaoi Hudie’s hand shook slightly, spilling a bit of coffee, as she muttered to herself.

”The legendary continental annihilation level of force, legion level; could life on this planet really achieve such power?”

The Mechanical Mountain that seemed like a massive hill raised its head to gaze at the sky, through the top-tier energy sensing system, it could sense a subtle change in the spatial energy distribution across the entire planet.

Upon hearing Miss Ke’s report, Yagami Suuji fell into silence.

Overlapping planetary spaces, it sounded like pure fantasy.

Even counting the past ministers of the Six Ministries, none, at least in her heart, could achieve this.

No, only this one right in front of her.

”Miss Ke.”

”Captain Suzi.”

”Where did the previous minister find this monster?”

”My internal stored data cannot answer your question, Captain Suzi.”

Yagami Suuji was silent for a moment, and suddenly a question arose in her mind.

With the current strength of this being, if it charged directly with its physical body towards the Mother City, could the Mother City withstand it?

The sheer power was terrifying enough.

More importantly, this guy could instant teleport.

Thankfully, at least on Cybertron, that planet annihilation weapon should be able to suppress the opponent.

Yagami Suuji comforted herself with such thoughts.

Then conversely, if his support was present, would the United Squad’s actions proceed more smoothly?

Suddenly, in Yagami Suuji’s implanted earphone, a ’buzz buzz’ came from an encrypted channel, a noticeably altered voice chimed in, uttered just one sentence, and then the channel was cut.

”Captain Suzi?”

”Looks like we’ve finally caught a big fish.” Yagami Suuji murmured.

...

”You look pretty fierce.”

Gao Gong’s shadow floating on the water suddenly let out a strange laugh, saying thus.

Gao Gong lowered his head, looked at the water, and sometime amidst the swaying shadow, a Joker mask had appeared on his face.

Without a word wasted, the next instant, a massive depression appeared on the water surface, still with countless cracks, directly making the seawater unable to overflow for a short period.

And opposite of him, that shadow trembled, precariously maintaining its form on the waves.

”Whoa, that was close, so close, nearly gone.”

Gao Gong remarked with relish:

”Minister of Humanity Experiment Department, turns out you’re a traitor of the Six Ministries.”

”A traitor is an exaggeration, I’ve just shifted my position a bit, and I’m here to make a trade with you.”

The Minister Clown continued.

”You better hurry, if you talk too slow, Turing’s golden ship might crash and collapse when it reaches me.”

”Simple, we might as well not discuss this in reality.”

The Minister Clown suddenly had a magic hat in hand, and then the hat flipped nimbly, bringing Gao Gong’s vision across reality, into virtual space.

”Are you trying to take me down on the virtual level?” Rich Lady Love Prototype raised an eyebrow, with a flick of her hand, a Civilized Stick appeared.

”That’s quite difficult.”

”Haha, why would it be? The new Punk Group, the world’s top hacker, and your enigmatic sister, everyone knows your prowess on the virtual level.”

”You seem to know me well.”

”To put it accurately, I know everyone well.”

”Oh, then go on, I’m listening.”

Gao Gong casually opened the system panel, unsurprisingly—

[Hell Task: Civilization Core of the Fusion Route completed, reward: a ’Cosmic Treasure’]

Most task icons were golden, but only Hell Task, was black.

It was a key-shaped icon.

’Cosmic Treasure’!

Compared to Giant Structures, Relics, Marvels, Cosmic Treasures rank a level lower in prestige, but even measured by all civilizations in the cosmos, Cosmic Treasures rank as second tier.

In his last life, Gao Gong had only two Cosmic Treasures, one of which was used to suppress ’Fantasy Land’, and couldn’t be easily deployed.

Even though the difficulty of the Newbie Village is hell-level, it must be admitted that the benefits it provides are also ’hell’ level.

Gao Gong clicked open the ’key’.

The next moment, an indescribable collapse emerged from Gao Gong’s body, the sensation akin to moving from three-dimensional, to four-dimensional, into five-dimensional space, ascending all the way, until consciousness itself collapsed, then with the final bit of vision, Gao Gong saw dimensional fluctuations transforming into a point, and this point opened infinitely, instantly bringing Gao Gong back to reality.

”Quantum Collapse State?”

Gao Gong murmured.

”What are you talking about?” The Minister Clown tilted his head.

”Have you heard of Schrodinger’s cat?”

”Cat, an animal from the Civilization Era?”

”Clearly, you’re illiterate.”

Gao Gong looked down on the other, closed his eyes, and sure enough, that feeling of collapse appeared again. However, this time, Gao Gong sensed it; at the moment consciousness collapsed to the limit, an indescribable key appeared.

And when Gao Gong opened his eyes, the key disappeared once more.

This isn’t Schrodinger’s cat, it’s Schrodinger’s key.

Name: Quantum Key

Category: Cosmic Treasure

Quality: ▆▆▆

Weight: ▆▆▆

Basic Attributes: ▆▆▆

Additional Attributes: ▆▆▆

Function 1: ???

Function 2: ▆▆▆

”...”

The last time Gao Gong saw such an awesome piece of equipment, well... sorry, he actually hadn’t seen anything like it.

You’re quite the tease.

Needless to say, activate Divine Knowledge.

Quality: Tier 1 - Whiteboard

Huh?

Quality: Tier 9 - Era-defining

Huh??

Basic Attributes: Attack Power: 100 million points

Whoa!

Basic Attributes: Attack Power: 1 point

”...”

It turns out ’Divine Knowledge’ isn’t infallible. It can indeed detect certain attributes, but whether that attribute is reliable is another matter.

Quantum Key, it’s in a Quantum State, you know, it’s anyone’s guess.

Thankfully, there is at least one normal attribute.

Function 1: Quantum Key: Quantum entangles all things, everything in the world is evolved by quantum; in the Information Ocean, this is the only buoy, able to transform any virtual defense facility into a Quantum State for collapse. Duration: Depends on the Information Energy of the virtual barrier, the stronger the Information Energy, the longer the collapse.

Interesting.

This thing is a key, specialized in the information level.

Its main feature is getting stronger the stronger the opponent.

Seems like it might, probably, be able to breach the firewalls of a Planet Host?

”Now this is interesting.”

”You seem to enjoy talking to yourself,” Joker curiously noted.

”Many personalities, can’t help it.”

Gao Gong scanned around, it was a white corridor with many doors.

”Huh? This is—”

”This is a fragment of my memory, regarding the Fortress core.”

”I was wondering why the data fluctuations in this place felt unusual.”

Soon, the two reached the end of the corridor, where there was a door burning with transparent flames. Joker went straight through it and then poked half his head back out.

”Don’t worry, it’s my memory, not the real Fortress lair.”

Gao Gong nodded with a smile and went through the door. With this key, what’s there to fear?

Beyond the entrance was a massive white space, where countless floating human figures, perhaps a thousand, had no facial features, no hair, yet exuded an immensely powerful aura, almost on par with Super AI.

”These are the Sub-Bodies of the Fortress.”

Then, time seemed to accelerate by tens of thousands of times, Gao Gong ’saw’ these human figures grow facial features, entered different domains, and some became executives of Super Corporations, others became leaders of mercenaries, and some became hackers in the underground world... A final portion joined the Six Ministries.

Some, who developed slowly, gradually disappeared from this room.

While those who developed rapidly, either died in battle, got involved in some Cyber Experiment, or underwent personality splits.

After all, this is the Cyber Test Field, nothing is truly unexpected.

And eventually, there was only one person standing in the space, tall, valiant, with unwavering eyes.

This person was called Aramaki.

Looking at the young Aramaki with a head full of thick hair, Gao Gong blinked and suddenly smiled:

”You don’t expect me to believe that Aramaki is actually a split of the Fortress, do you?”

Joker tilted his head and said:

”But you’re not surprised, are you.”

”Knowing it’s fake, why be surprised?”

”Oh, do you really trust someone you’ve met less than three times that much?”

Joker slowly took off the mask, revealing a surprising face.

”If that’s the case, then why not trust me?”

...

”Captain Suzi, may I ask you a question?” Miss Ke suddenly asked.

”Please, go ahead.”

”As an AI that has accompanied you since childhood, for nearly 30 years, I’m 99.5% confident that I’ve not been contaminated by any cracking software or electronic virus. Every so often, I perform large-scale self-examinations, and the firewalls of Mother City also regularly cleanse my data. So theoretically, I’m safer than any AI on the market.”

”I trust you very much, Miss Ke.”

”But over the past six months, in 44.4% of external missions, you’ve blocked our link, and in 12.5% of conversations, you cut off our connection. I think this isn’t a good sign. Could you tell me why?”

Yagami Suuji fell into silence.