Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 1015: Chapter 121: News 2

The Planet Cannon, a perfectly standard Tier 4 Ascension Architecture, uses the continental frame as its gun base, the Star Core as its power source, the Mantle as its gun hoop, and planetary thermal energy as its ”shell.” Usually it takes a hundred years of accumulated planetary heat to fire just one shot—and when that one shot is unleashed, it’s enough to destroy heaven and earth, even blow apart vacuum in the Cosmos.

On a large-scale interstellar battlefield, Advanced Civilizations will refit one planet after another into Planet Cannons, powered by Fixed Stars, working in tandem with Interstellar Fortresses. Whether the invasion comes from the material world or from dimensional rifts, they can annihilate the enemy through large-scale Annihilation effects—this is the famous Anglemar Defense Line, a classic Star Wars tactic recorded by the Civilization Council.

But a defense line of this level can only be built by the very top-tier Level 3 Civilizations. Gao Gong does not believe the Robert Star System currently possesses a civilization that badass.

Moreover—

”If it really is a Planet Cannon, is the Mirta Federation really that generous, not worrying at all about their technology leaking out?”

Gao Gong found it hard to believe.

After all, technology like the ’Planet Cannon’ is already at the standard strategic tier, and they just casually handed it over to a Star Thief Leader?

Even for a Resource Planet, is it really worth that kind of price?

”That’s the most interesting part. According to my sources, even the Deputy Federation Speaker himself doesn’t seem aware that Old Walter has mastered the ’Planet Cannon.’ Once this came out, he practically got roasted by several Legislators backed by major conglomerates. They all suspect he leaked this kind of Advanced military technology.”

Unlike the Galen Republic’s militaristic strong rule, the Mirta Federation’s regime is relatively loose. Ever since the last Telekinesis Royal Family stepped down, the Federation has been ruled by ten mega-corporate groups.

Originally, a Resource Planet in such a sensitive location was only under focused watch by a few super-groups. Now that the Planet Cannon has appeared, you could say it’s become hot news across every level of Mirta’s society.

After all, in social news cycles, the ’Planet Cannon’ has always been the Mirta Federation’s go-to military weapon to counter the Galen Republic’s Planet Giant Ships. Calling it a Stabilizing Needle wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

In the eyes of Mirta Federation’s keyboard warriors of military science, once the Galen Republic leverages its Starship advantage to launch a large-scale invasion, then the ’Mecha Frenzy’ and ’Planet Cannon’ will become the two most critical lines of defense.

And now you’re telling me the ’Planet Cannon’ tech has been mastered by some Star Thief Leader? And it’s highly likely their own people handed it over!!

This kind of bombshell news simply can’t be contained. Once it spreads, it blows everything up!

After all, although the Deputy Federation Speaker is high-ranking and powerful, he has political enemies. More importantly, several super-groups involved in developing ’Planet Cannon’ tech suspect that during delivery to the military, it was leaked by someone on the military side.

The federal system is nothing like Galen’s militaristic strong rule; the military’s status isn’t high. Even though the Council controls the few military assets there are, it has always been infiltrated and suppressed.

This incident is just a trigger, suddenly igniting internal political strife within the Mirta Federation. Rumor has it quite a few people have already been internally purged.

’Pai Daxing’ did not gloat; instead a hint of seriousness flashed in his eyes.

”To give the public an explanation, the Deputy Federation Speaker has already issued a public statement: he will definitely investigate thoroughly, and personally organize a task force to investigate the leak of the Planet Cannon technology.”

’Pai Daxing’ paused, then said:

”This means the Mirta Federation has already locked onto this Resource Planet. It’s no longer an ’out-of-Star-Domain minefield,’ but a political proposition. If that Deputy Federation Speaker wants to keep his political life, he must take this planet. Conversely, the Galen Republic doesn’t have that strong a resolve—or rather, instead of clashing head-on, they’d prefer to use this planet to sabotage the Mirta Federation, ideally bogging down some of their attention.”

”Which means that even if someone seizes this planet from the Walter Group, it’ll still be a hot potato.”

”Exactly.”

Gao Gong mulled it over, then looked up and stared at him for a while before suddenly smiling:

”You’ve said all this, yet you don’t seem worried at all about failing to find Long-horned Whale Alpha. Have you already pinned down its coordinates?”

”Even without Dyson Sphere power, and even though the planet’s body hasn’t been fitted with a Star Fixing System, the ’Energy Tide’ generated by a Planet Cannon still has limits. This planet can’t run very far. The two Star Zone Dominators have long since dispatched search parties for the new planetary coordinates.”

”And just a single Planet Cannon shot isn’t enough to gravely injure the planet itself. At most it devolves from a habitable planet into a non-habitable planet—its surface environment will be devastated, but there’s still some way to go before the Star Body breaks apart.”

Pai Daxing spoke with easy confidence.

Hearing this, Gao Gong also let out a slight sigh of relief.

Theoretically, firing a Planet Cannon without safeguards carries a certain probability of shattering the planet; missing that probability just means good luck.

Whether that’s Old Walter’s luck or Gao Gong’s luck.

Gao Gong probed for some more specific details, and whether it was about the Galen Republic or the Mirta Federation, Pai Daxing answered everything freely, seemingly unconcerned that Gao Gong had refused to cooperate with him.

Only after Gao Gong left did a voice echo faintly through the empty, quiet hall:

”Are you perhaps a bit too concerned about this Mechanical General of the Purple Giant Star?”

”Yes and no,” Pai Daxing replied with a squinting smile.

”The Purple Giant Star did indeed ask me to look after him before leaving. After all, without that death-defying warning of his, both the Purple Giant Star and the one behind her might have suffered a huge loss, maybe even jeopardizing this ancient civilization’s Ascension.”

”The Ancient Mechanical Elder is going to undergo Civilization Ascension?” The voice was clearly startled.

”That shouldn’t surprise you. The Ancient Mechanical Civilization is, after all, an ancient civilization; its founding AI can be traced back to the Cosmos’s origin. When that Old Machine rose to fame, at least half of the Level 9 Civilizations hadn’t yet completed cosmic-scale transformation. After brooding for so many years and building so many Giant Structures—and having recently snatched a good batch of Relic data from you guys—naturally it feels its accumulation is sufficient, that it’s ready.”

The owner of the voice remained deeply shocked. After all, the Ancient Mechanical Civilization is a Level 7 Civilization, already an Advanced Civilization at Supercluster Level, with territorial reach spanning tens of thousands of Star Systems. If it advances further, the impact won’t be as simple as 1+1=2.

Once a Level 7 Civilization Ascends, it steps up into a Supercluster Complex, able to touch the grandest existence in the Observable Cosmos—the edge of the Cosmic Great Wall.

For a civilization of that tier, time, Space, Physical Law, high-level Dark Matter, cosmic voids—none of the existences within the Observable Cosmos pose any threat to it.

Its only difference from a Level 9 Civilization may be that it hasn’t yet grasped that supreme cosmic Authority.

Because seats at the top are limited.

”You don’t need to worry too much. That Old Machine is notorious for dragging its feet. Just reconfiguring all those mechanical Giant Structures into Ascension Mode will probably take a hundred years. As long as you don’t provoke Him again, chances are He won’t trouble you in the short term.”

The voice fell silent for a moment, then suddenly said:

”You’re changing the subject. I just asked you why you’re treating this Virus Infection–ridden Planet Host so well, and you still haven’t answered.”

”You and I can both Sense that strange fluctuation; there must be massive secrets on him.”

’Pai Daxing’ stretched lazily, his body slumping onto the throne like mud, and finally drawled:

”I’m a Collector, not an explorer. When it comes to dangerous secrets others might be carrying, I’ve never had much curiosity—just as I haven’t asked you how far the ’Entropy Increase Plan’ has progressed. I have no particular desire to fully uncover the secrets on this Planet Host.”

”As long as it increases the odds of cooperating in the future—or even of dealing with you—I don’t mind adopting a better attitude for now.”

”The Ancient Mechanical Elder once said: for the Mechanical Civilization to reach its limit, it must have a cosmic-scale plan and undertake Giant Structure projects measured in hundreds of millions of years. You only see that this Old Machine still can’t match those Level 9 Civilizations that emerged after Him—but you fail to notice how many peer civilizations from His era are living as comfortably as He is.”