This is not mechanical ascension...

Chapter 474: Mechanical Seed
"It's about to open..." Li Ming looked at the cracks on the metal block, and ripples in space began to surge.

Li Ming felt it carefully and was terrified. "It's compressed so thoroughly, I'm afraid I can't suppress it."

Realizing that there was no possibility of stealing the chicken, Li Ming couldn't help but feel regretful.

"It seems that Qinglong has really made sufficient preparations."

In the outside world, Gonzalez said indifferently.

Everyone looked at the metal fortress in the center of the field. Given the defensive capabilities of these mechanical bodies, it was difficult for them to directly observe the internal conditions.

No one would think that this was Li Ming's own method, it was obviously prepared by Qinglong.

The relevant information should have been obtained from Reynolds and Mikhail.

"I don't know what his tricks are, but this Lord Qinglong is indeed worthy of his reputation." Lancaster couldn't help but shake his head, "It's a pity that I didn't get to see him this time."

"If Deus could open it, Qinglong might have used a similar method." Claude said calmly, "Don't be so surprised. In fact, it may not be able to open it."

Dius glanced at him coldly. He was already in a bad mood, and he became even more unhappy after hearing these words.

Reynolds glanced at them and was too lazy to argue. Is the value of opening it in a day the same as opening it in a year?

These guys all have the same way of thinking. Only bigger and harder fists can hit them in the heart.

As for the second half of Crow's words, everyone present automatically ignored it.

There is no point in discussing whether it can be opened now, and we can’t wait long.

Everyone was thinking about it, except Kostat, who was staring suspiciously at the black and white mist in the distance.

"What's wrong?" Cedric noticed his abnormality and asked.

"It just feels a little off." Costat frowned, "Master Maker, are you sure there are no other dangers in this area?"

Mikhail said calmly: "The total number of explorations we and Forge Hammer have conducted is more than twenty. If you don't believe me, you can go explore on your own."

Costat glanced at the fog in the distance. He would be a fool if he really wanted to leave the main force. He shook his head and said, "No need. I believe in you, sir."

"What happened?" Cedric demanded.

"Nothing." Costat did not explain. It was difficult for others to empathize with and believe his own feelings.

After waiting for a while, everyone's eyes moved slightly, and the mechanical fortress in front of them opened. Everyone shrank into mechanical bodies, and Li Ming also quickly exited it.

"Huh?" Mikhail was quite surprised when he took a look at it. He saw that only a tiny piece of silver metal was left, and the surface was covered with cracks.

boom!
The next moment, the block of metal exploded with a loud bang, followed by an extremely violent force erupting instantly, as if it had been suppressed for a long time.

Metal fragments shot out in all directions. The space was rippled, clearly visible to the naked eye, like a calm lake with ripples after a huge rock was thrown into it.

It was like a piece of trembling silk, twisted and deformed.

Immediately afterwards, a huge fortress-like box appeared without warning, and the strong wind squeezed out of it raged wildly and fell down with a loud bang.

The reaction of everyone present was so quick that they evacuated immediately.

The ground rumbled continuously, and the rolling dust in the field just began to stir when it was suddenly suppressed by an invisible force.

"Is this their warehouse?" Deus looked at it. The box was rectangular, with a black surface and a matte texture. It was quite large and almost covered the entire area.

"The gaps between the molecules have become very large. The material's strength has been severely degraded..." Mikhail held a piece of metal fragment in his hand and observed it carefully. He was surprised: "It can even be said that it is no longer the same material as the original one."

"How is this done?" He looked at Li Ming in confusion. He had never seen such a method to downgrade metal materials.

"Let's go in and have a look."

Compared to Mikhail, others were more concerned about what was inside and rushed to the box as soon as possible.

The material of the box is not that strong, it just serves as a support, and it is easy to open a hole in it.

Everyone filed in and entered a huge space. Surprisingly, there were no weapon racks in it, only a few giant metal cans placed in the center.

The body of the can is covered with complex and mysterious patterns. Occasionally, a weak electric current flows through the patterns, making a crackling sound.

"Is this... nanomaterial?" Cedric walked to one of the metal cans, tore open the outer shell with his palm, and a large amount of black liquid flowed out, fluctuating irregularly.

"This should be a programmable unified material." Mikhail walked over, sucked up a ball of black liquid, and kept changing it into various shapes in his hands.

"Low- to medium-level weapons and even various infrastructures should all be constructed uniformly with this material, which can save a lot of production lines. We have found similar shaped objects before, but this is the first time we have found this kind of raw material."

Mikhail's eyes changed: "In the Holy Spirit Civilization, only some high-strength mechanical bodies and weapons use high-end solid metals."

"Isn't this still nanomaterial?" Cedric was speechless.

Reynolds said disdainfully: "I remember that the Empire has made many breakthroughs in nanomaterials. Why haven't they come up with this kind of unified material?"

“If all low-end and mid-range machines and equipment can be made of uniform materials, wouldn’t that save a lot of effort?”

Cedric choked. Mikhail didn't bother to say more. He opened the other metal cans one by one, took out all the remaining black liquid inside, and then divided it into four equal parts.

It was divided into three major civilizations, and then the share he kept for himself was cut into three parts.

Li Ming took out a jar, put it away, and was secretly shocked.

The benefits of this unified material are self-evident. The number of production lines saved is not as simple as one hundred or two hundred, but may be tens of thousands or even more.

However, the difficulty is self-evident. The fundamental reason why nanomaterials cannot achieve this kind of unified material is that their characteristics are far from being all-encompassing.

Even for extremely simple smart terminals, the various accessories require different material properties, and the properties required for data calculation, memory storage, and energy conduction are very different.

Although the others did not quite understand, seeing that the two master craftsmen attached so much importance to it, they also carefully put it away.

At the same time, Li Ming has quietly activated the [Intelligent Assistance] capability to help him check every detail without blind spots.

"Is that all you have?" Gonzalez frowned. It was not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.

"There is an area at the back..." Mikhail had already calculated that the area of ​​this space did not quite match the entire box, and there was another area.

After simply punching through the metal wall, everyone became quite familiar with the small area in front of them, with layers of metal racks arranged in order.

However, the base of the metal rack was empty, with nothing left.

"It's empty." Dius frowned, and everyone else's faces looked unhappy.

Given the brutal battle outside, it was unrealistic to expect that the warehouse was still full, but it was disappointing to only find a few cans of black liquid. "A mechanical body?" Gonzalez noticed something unusual. In the corner, there was a half-piece of metal debris, which had decayed and was leaning against the wall.

"Guards?" Everyone came over, Mikhail's eyes flickered, but Reynolds said, "I'm afraid he's a deserter. There's no need for guards here."

A careful inspection of the body revealed nothing of value, and after passing through the area, everyone's expressions softened.

There were rows of slender glass columns, most of which were empty, with only a few still having something left in them.

But unlike the various powerful weapons that everyone expected, they were instead almost identical blocks of purple metal.

"What the hell? This warehouse provides raw materials?" Cedric frowned, staring at the glass column in front of him. The purple metal block was as big as an adult's head, rotating slowly, and surrounded by faint particle flows.

"For us, it's raw materials..." Mikhail shook his head, his eyes slightly fiery: "But you have to look at it in light of the specific situation of the Holy Spirit Civilization. Most of them are mechanical evolutions."

"This kind of metal material is basically specially made to match their evolutionary path. If it is used, it should be able to form a variety of weapons according to their own characteristics."

"It's amazing..." Reynolds couldn't help but come closer, his excitement was even more uncontrollable: "Advanced prototype materials, if we can figure it out..."

Before he could finish his words, Mikhail pressed him down.

Reynolds's expression paused.

Civilizations at this level have extremely strong technological barriers. Although the various mechanical bodies they had found before can be repaired and used, they have no way of knowing the most fundamental mechanical evolution route of the Holy Spirit Civilization.

This prototype material is of extraordinary value. If it can be studied thoroughly, it will be a great improvement for them, and perhaps they can get a glimpse of the mechanical evolution route or two.

click-
A shattering sound was heard, and everyone looked in the direction of the sound, only to see that Li Ming had already pierced through the glass column and took out a piece of purple metal.

"I'm sorry, everyone. As we agreed, I have the first right of choice." He shook it in his hand. The purple metal block was really heavy.

Everyone's faces changed. The harvest before them was not what they wanted, but it was better than nothing, so they had no choice but to accept it.

As a result, after searching the entire area, two pieces of purple metal were finally found.

"Only two pieces..." Gonzalez looked unhappy. Apart from Li Ming, Reynolds and Mikhail still scored points.

These two pieces still need to be divided into four equal parts, which is too confusing.

"The Hammer Master spent so much effort, and you guys haven't been able to open the warehouse despite many attempts, and this is all there is in it?" Klaue said in a bad tone.

Mikhail glanced at Li Ming and said, "I have already reminded you that I never said how precious the things inside are. It's just that I can't open it for various reasons."

"It's just a ruin. What do you expect to find?"

Even Costat frowned. If Mikhail and Reynolds hadn't made it seem so difficult, they wouldn't have had such expectations.

The most important thing is that they really don’t need these things.

They saw clearly how excited Reynolds was just now, and these raw materials would probably bring extraordinary improvement to them.

But they can only take it back and hand it over to the research institute. It will probably take a long time to truly turn it into visible value.

Li Ming tried to absorb the purple metal block, but the speed was much slower than the silver metal block outside.

His expression was a little strange, which means that the most valuable thing in this warehouse is actually the lumps of metal from the outside world.

But no one seemed to care, only Mikhail kept looking at him.

He looked around silently, ignoring the people's division, wandering around the area and checking every area.

Suddenly, he paused and stretched out his hand. Something stuck in the gap in the corner fell quietly into his hand.

Huh? Li Ming's heart skipped a beat. Before he had time to think about it, a voice suddenly came from behind, "What is that?"

As soon as Li Ming turned around, everyone was already standing behind him. It was Crow who was speaking, his eyes lingering on Li Ming's hand.

"Fuck, it's such a hassle trying to hide it from these bastards." Li Ming cursed in his heart and stretched out his hand. A black thumb-shaped object appeared in front of everyone.

For a moment, Mikhail's eyes trembled, but as a mechanical body, he could perfectly control his emotions.

It seemed to be that thing... His heart trembled slightly. This thing actually had a prototype.

"I don't know, maybe it's a part that broke off from somewhere." Li Ming said frankly.

"Really?" Everyone looked suspicious, as they had already experienced Li Ming's cunningness.

"Let me see it..." Klaue stretched out his hand expressionlessly.

Li Ming shrugged and didn't care, and threw it over casually, but then said: "Be careful, if it is damaged, you have to pay for it, and I will charge a sky-high price."

Crow snorted coldly, took it in his hand and examined it carefully for a while. Naturally, he could not see any clues. He pinched it with his palm and easily made a dent.

Is this really not a good thing?

They always believe that things of a higher level will naturally be harder.

After thinking for a while, he threw it to Dius, "Take a look..."

Dius glanced at Li Ming, who was obviously still upset about Li Ming's interception. He unceremoniously opened a series of rune arrays to study them carefully, but in the end he found nothing.

"It seems to be some kind of object with a sophisticated structure..." Dius threw it to Costat again. Costat just took a quick look at it and put it in Mikhail's hand.

Mikhail's mechanical pupils condensed, and he just looked at it for a moment, his heart couldn't help but be excited. This thing really has a prototype.

Something that even the forging hammer couldn’t find was actually here: the foundation of the mechanical evolution system of the Holy Spirit Civilization!
Although he was extremely excited, he pretended nothing had happened and threw it to Li Ming.

"I haven't seen it yet." Reynolds said dissatisfiedly.

"It's just a small component. It might be the shock caused by the release of space just now." Mikhail said indifferently.

"How can there be so many good things..." Li Ming seemed helpless and just put them in his pocket, but he was quite surprised in his heart.

No wonder it’s called the Mechanical Evolution System, it turns out it’s because of this thing.

[Mechanical Seed - Consumable (Damaged): The root of the path of mechanical evolution.

Control conditions: 100,000 metal energy

Control ability - Mechanical root: Consume the controlled object, and the seed can be planted into the body, gradually soaking into the flesh and blood, and finally turning into an evolvable mechanical body. Note (physical strength must not exceed F level). 】

(End of this chapter)