This is not mechanical ascension...

Chapter 498 Career Advancement
Back at the main base, Li Ming went straight to the warehouse, and Suzaku had already been connected to the management system.

As soon as people arrived at the warehouse door, the alloy door in front of them opened automatically.

What comes into view are rows of metal racks with pieces of mother ore of various shapes neatly arranged.

The mother ore can shorten the switching time of the controlled objects, and the current interval is fifteen minutes.

In the early stages of the development of the Mechanical Court, in order to avoid wasting power, he did not allow Ulrich to collect the mother ore.

Only after it had taken shape did he let Ulrich take charge of the matter.

Back then, Ulrich inherited a large portion of Monroe’s wealth in the Land of the Stars, and it took him decades to collect more than a thousand pieces.

The Mechanical Royal Court collected 10,000 pieces in just three or four years, which was a huge difference in efficiency.

He absorbed it with great familiarity. With his current level of life, his efficiency in absorbing various special energies was already extremely high.

In just two or three hours, almost all the 10,000 pieces of mother ore were absorbed.

When the energy of the mother ore reached 10,000, as expected, a special reminder was triggered, asking him whether to consume 10,000 pieces of mother ore energy to shorten the cooling time of the controlled object.

Natural selection determined that the dense mother ore energy turned into streams of light and dissipated from the control page.

The switching time of the control objects was shortened by half again, reaching 7.5 minutes.

The difference between 7.5 minutes and 15 minutes is not that big at present. Now there is [Heart of Talos].
Under normal circumstances, he rarely switched the objects he controlled during battle, but it would not hurt to reduce it further, and the resources consumed were not much for the Mechanical King's Court.

It took a little more time to absorb the remaining mother ore.

Li Mingcai focused on the neatly arranged pieces of metal materials, all of which were various cutting-edge alloys. This was the accumulation of the Mechanical Royal Court over the past six months.

He could no longer wait and immediately began to absorb it piece by piece. It took him another three hours to completely absorb all the metal materials.

On the control page, the metal energy balance has reached 3.3 billion, which is almost the same as he estimated.

While simultaneously carrying out his various needs and tasks, the Mechanical Royal Court can also provide a stable supply of 500 million metal energies every month.

It feels so good to sweep with one click.

Li Ming couldn't help rubbing his hands. He really wished there was a progress bar in front of him so he could just pull it and go to ten years later.

Various thoughts drifted away in his mind, and he had already walked through the corridor and returned to the room.

Sitting cross-legged in his exclusive seat, a mechanical heart appeared in his hand, emitting a soft glow of gold and silver - [Heart of the Holy Spirit].

Even though this thing requires 2 billion metal energies to control, it is more than enough for him now.

Take control immediately and then consume.

On the control page, rays of light gathered and gradually penetrated into [Mechanical Lord]. The words kept trembling and finally froze -
[Mechanical Son of God: Possesses the abilities of [Power of the Son of God] and [Guard Squad].]

[Power of the Son of God: Can use metal energy to carry out large-scale transformation, repair, strengthening and construction of controlled objects. There is a certain probability of [mutation] during the construction process, and it has the [glory] characteristic.]

[Guard Squad: You can construct eight mechanical bodies with [Guard] characteristics.]

There are not many changes in other descriptions, and the number of guards has naturally increased by two.

Then, he specifically clicked on [Mutation] to take a look.

He could only undergo the highest level of mutation, level two, on his original basis, and was still unable to surpass his own life level.

The extra ability is this [Glory] characteristic.

"Twenty billion metal energies. In addition to increasing the number of guards, this ability should be quite strong." Li Ming muttered to himself and clicked on the ability description.

[Glory: The mechanical body you construct will enjoy the exclusive sequence of the control object data bonus, and the bonus sharing is 1%. ]

! !
Li Ming was shocked, and then checked it carefully word by word.

Can all mechanical bodies enjoy the bonus?
He let out a breath. Even though 1% was small, the total amount of blessing was high. The power blessing of the main combat system was more than three hundred and fifty times the normal amount.

1% is 3.5 times, which is already very considerable.

However, this blessing does not change with the object he controls, and requires the construction of an exclusive sequence for engraving.

This means that this blessing can play a role in the birth of the Mechanical Holy Spirit.

"Tsk..." Li Ming immediately couldn't wait to build his own control sequence.

It mainly starts from the five major blessings of strength, defense, speed and physical strength.

He has a total of eight control slots, and he plans to allocate two specialized types of control objects to each of them.

"If abilities are not shared, the Heart of Talos is useless, the Gauntlets of Justice, the Life Power Core, the Vortex Swift Shadow..."

He muttered to himself and spent several hours before he came up with the best combination.

To this end, he also spent 300 to 400 million metal energies to upgrade several defensive control objects.

Finally, the bonuses enjoyed by ordinary mechanical bodies have become 1x strength, 2x defense, 1x speed, and 1x stamina.

All in all, each of his mechanical bodies is at least twice as powerful as its original level, with the cost remaining the same and the quality greatly improved.

"What a pity that we can't share our abilities..." Li Ming couldn't help but think again.

Otherwise, once the [Life Power Core] is installed, each person is equivalent to having two lives, which is abnormal.

I don’t know if we can share capabilities if we upgrade in the future.

Fantasizing in his mind, he expended nearly 300 million metal energies to construct two mechanical guards, which were only A-grade for the time being.

After waiting for another three or four months, you can be promoted. After reaching S-level, the strength will be slightly improved again. With the guards' armed forces, it is almost approaching 1000X.

After finishing everything here, he left the core base and prepared to enlighten the mechanical body.

The purpose of upgrading occupations first is to avoid the embarrassing situation where new abilities appear but the mechanical body has already been enlightened.

……

On the capital star of the Empire, Heckler had just finished a secret meeting and got off the aircraft with a serious look on his face. The servants had already opened the palace door.

"The corpse of a Dominant-class Terrax..." he murmured in his mind, the shock still lingering in his heart.

Only the core of the empire attended the secret meeting this time, and he thought that the Star of Eternal Silence had been found.

As a result, I accepted such a big news without any psychological expectations.

"I'm afraid this corpse will bring about a huge change..." His face was gloomy and uncertain. In the empty corridor, only his footsteps echoed, and the guards on both sides lowered their heads.

If he really develops a method to evolve into the ultimate life form, in terms of status and strength, he will not be the first one.

The previous generation of evolutionaries had all taken the wrong path, and it was even more impossible for them to advance. The one with the greatest chance of advancement was Adam.

"The ultimate life form..." Heckler couldn't help but get a headache at the thought of it. This was a force that was enough to reverse everything.

If Adam succeeds, then there's no point in playing this game. They'll just have to surrender. No... by then, Adam will really dare to kill them.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks. John was already waiting in front of the study door, looking a little anxious.

"What's wrong?" He pushed the door open and entered the room, followed closely by John.

It was not until the door of the room was completely closed, the patterns on both sides closed, and a flash of light appeared that John whispered, "Sir Ivan, we have lost contact."

"Hmm?" Heckler's eyes narrowed slightly. "Something happened in the Mechanical Royal Court?"

"According to intelligence, the person we sent over was exposed from the beginning, and the target he brought back was just a fake body." John explained as briefly as possible: "And Lord Ivan believed that the undercover was intact, which showed the weakness of the Mechanical King's Court, so he simply charged in directly."

"You were still in a closed-door meeting at that time. Lord Ivan acted on his own initiative and has not received any response so far. The Mechanical Royal Court is intact and no battle has taken place so far."

When he finished his last sentence, Heckler was already sitting behind the table, brows furrowed, but he didn't respond.

Jon gritted his teeth and said, "I guess they have fallen into the hands of Qinglong, but Qinglong has not contacted the Empire yet to propose a deal to redeem the captives."

"The undercover is alive, but he thinks the Mechanical Court is weak?" Heckler finally said, obviously a little annoyed, "What a fool."

John remained silent. Ivan's guess was, of course, more than just this short sentence. It was actually quite reasonable, but he obviously couldn't say it out loud at this time.

"If it falls into Qinglong's hands, this matter... will be troublesome." Heckler was angry. There were already enough troubles, and his subordinates were so stupid.

"Trouble?" John was confused. "Does Qinglong dare to do anything to Lord Ivan? He is a member of the Empire."

"So what if he's from the Empire?" Heckler asked coldly, "Do you really think no one dares to kill him?"

"Kill him?" John was shocked, but then he pondered: "If we really kill him, it would be a good thing. If Qinglong becomes an enemy of the empire, it will be easier for us to take action."

Jon paused, glanced cautiously at He He's gloomy face, and whispered, "Yes, that's an idea. Should we contact Qing Long and put pressure on him to take action against Lord Ivan?"

"The Empire will not attack Qinglong." Heckler glanced at him. "The latest news is that the Empire and the Federation will adjust their thinking on the Mechanics Association and merge it into the Interstellar Alliance."

“What?” John was stunned. “You’re not going to tear it down? You just said you won’t tear it down?”

As Heckler's confidant, he understood the value of this news. He also realized Heckler's reaction just now, and he understood it instantly: "Is this Qinglong's work?"

Heckler remained silent. He would definitely not tell John about the body.

But Adam did not tell him the specific reason why the Machinists Association decided not to dismantle it.

He just vaguely guessed that Qinglong might also know about the corpse, which was why he was able to make the Empire and the Federation retreat at the same time.

In this way, the Empire or Adam will not be able to do anything to Qinglong because of Ivan.

This is the big picture.

"This..." John swallowed hard. Seeing that Heckler didn't respond, he realized that there must be some big secret involved.

Even Ivan's death, if it were real, would seem insignificant.

"Don't be obsessed with Robin for now, let's catch the others on the list first." Heckler rubbed his brows and asked, "How many people have been caught so far?"

“Your Highness…” John hesitated and said, “Ninety percent of the other people we sent to capture the list have died.”

Heckler looked at him suddenly, his eyes grim, "Ninety percent!? Those civilizations really don't take the Empire seriously?"

John said hurriedly, "We are still investigating. This death rate is even more exaggerated than a year ago. Something is wrong."

"The Holy Castle is right before our eyes. We can't get stuck here." Heckler's face was uncertain, and he caught nothing with his big net, but Robin was clear-headed.

His eyes flickered as he stared at Jon. “You said before that you wanted to force Qinglong to kill Ivan and come up with a feasible plan.”

John was startled and nodded quickly: "Yes."

.........

After leaving the base, Ulrich was still waiting and asked, "Are we going to deal with those mechanical bodies?"

Seeing Li Ming nod, he continued: "Sending those mechanical bodies out can basically fill our current manpower gap."

"However, our expansion in the chaotic interstellar space has reached its limit. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to expand further."

Thanks to the efforts of many parties, the Mechanical King's Court has reached the upper limit of the Chaos Star Gap in just five or six years, of course, within this industry.

He was quite helpless: "We have almost monopolized the arms industry. The market for mechanical employment is not that big, and other industries have already been taken."

The Chaos Star Gap is basically inhabited by groups of plunderers, and there is no good trading environment like that of the Orderly Civilization.

Only arms are the biggest piece of fat meat. There are many related markets that have no soil for growth, such as prosthetics, spacecraft and warship manufacturing, and various daily necessities.

Ulrich shook his head and said, "Besides, the Mechanic Association is on the verge of disbanding. We have tried to advance into several civilizations, which has consumed a lot of energy, but has achieved little results. We can only take it step by step."

What he meant by the shallow effect was compared to the expansion speed of the chaotic star gap.

"Don't worry." Li Ming said calmly, "It won't be long before things turn around."

Ulrich was stunned, but didn't ask any more questions, but he felt quite excited.

I used to think that the Chaos Star Gap was big enough, but now I feel differently. Looking at the interstellar space, I realize how small the market of Chaos Star Gap is.

"One more thing..."

Li Ming flew out, and Ulrich followed closely behind him. With a little hesitation, he said: "Theo is ready to be promoted to an S-level life form."

"Oh, this is a good thing..." Li Ming was stunned for a moment, and then felt a little emotional.

When he first met Theo, he was already preparing to become an S-class life form, but it took another seven or eight years before he was ready.

Even if the gene seeds are developed to 100%, they cannot evolve immediately. Most life forms require a period of sedimentation.

Looking at Ulrich who lowered his head and looked submissive, he knew what this guy was thinking.

In the early days of the Mechanical King's Court, Theo and his men made great efforts. Li Ming would not forget that. He nodded and said, "I will contact Yeyue Biological Company and ask them to give us a discount. You can allocate a sum of money to buy S-level gene seeds for him."

"Yes." Ulrich couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

As the Mechanical Royal Court continues to expand, machines have become the mainstream.

Ulrich had to admit that these machines were really useful.

The number of S-class mechanical bodies has also been increased.

(End of this chapter)