This is not mechanical ascension...

Chapter 644 The Second Batch of Ransom Arrives for Repair
The meeting ended and the surrounding projection lights gradually faded away. In the empty conference hall, only Li Ming was sitting in the main seat.

He lowered his head slightly and stared blankly at the table in front of him.

This incident happened so suddenly that almost no one could figure it out, and he was no exception.

Generally speaking, life forms at this level will not easily get into trouble, but will cause great trouble, especially after the united organizations of higher life forms become increasingly powerful.

After thinking about it, several figures kept flashing through my mind, but I could hardly find any suspects.

For now, we can only wait for Anatoly and others to investigate. He shook his head, stood up, left the conference hall, and returned to the Heavenly Palace.

On the next day, new news came that the second batch of captive ransom had already departed from the three major civilizations and was expected to arrive at the Mechanical King's Court in more than a month.

"It's faster than I expected. I thought I would have to wait more than half a month." Li Ming looked at the virtual screen with some surprise.

It is estimated that the release of the Seed of Machinery has led to a steady rise in the metal material market. The sooner the three major civilizations can settle the ransom issue, the less losses they will suffer.

After agreeing on the handover time, Li Ming sent a message to Reynolds and Mikhail, asking them to bring a group of people over.

The three X-level life forms previously captured from the Holy Castle were also added to the redemption list. As for the group of people captured from the laboratory, Li Ming was not going to take them out for the time being.

.........

At the same time, in the virtual summit meeting room, Malcolm was questioning Gutierrez with a grim expression.
"Are you mentally ill? I've already said it was definitely not the Federation that did this, but you still want to provoke me. Do you really want to start a war?"

The last time Gutierrez failed in blackmail, he did not stop there after returning. He directly attacked the Federation and the Empire, launching all means except for attacks.

For example, cutting off shipping routes, seizing goods, raising trade tariffs, and inciting unrest within allied civilizations. In short, it is constant provocation.

Gutierrez's expression was indifferent. "If President Malcolm has decided, we can declare war after we go offline."

A barefoot man is not afraid of someone wearing shoes. The reason why he is still in this position is not because of his cleverness, but because other decision-making civilizations are forcing him to give an explanation for this matter.

Otherwise, it would not be as simple as just stepping down. His civilization and family would all be affected.

Gutierrez was determined to get a piece of fat meat out of these two guys' mouths at all costs.

Adam's face didn't look good either. The Covenant also attacked the Empire. He was currently cleaning out the people in the House of Commons and just wanted to stabilize the situation.

But Gutierrez doesn't care. Several bigwigs in the House of Commons have fled to the Star Alliance with huge sums of money, and have been granted political asylum, living a very comfortable life.

The Covenant would definitely not be able to defeat them in a one-on-two situation, but Gutierrez was certain that these two guys would not start a war with him. They still wanted to study the corpse in peace.

Gutierrez glanced at the two of them and said in a deep voice: "I only have one request, to return a part of the Overmind's flesh and blood to the Star Alliance!"

Until now, the word he uses is still "still".

"Why... don't you attack Qinglong!" Malcolm was almost mad with anger. It was obvious that Gutierrez was just being a rogue.

He and Adam secretly checked the accounts and estimated that it was most likely Qinglong who did it.

Gutierrez glanced at him and was too lazy to respond. Isn't this just nonsense? If he could do it, why would he hold it back?

"In addition..." He also mentioned another matter, "Not long ago, four X-level life forms died in the Sea of ​​Stars. The Higher Life Forms United Organization has already responded. I'm afraid you were also responsible for this."

Malcolm's pupils narrowed slightly. Of course he knew about this matter, and his men were also analyzing who did it.

At this moment, he seemed to react, staring at Gutierrez, and said in a cold voice:
"You are paying the price of interstellar unrest!"

He now suspected that the four dead guys were killed by the Covenant, and there might even be some clues left at the scene that pointed to the Empire and the Federation, and brought in the joint organization of higher life forms.

Gutierrez is crazy.

Gutierrez frowned slightly. Malcolm seemed to have misunderstood and he didn't know who did it.

But there are only a few capable people or forces, and this time it is just a trick.

"Do you really want to start a war?" Adam's voice was calm, as if he was issuing an ultimatum.

Gutierrez couldn't help feeling a little insecure because Malcolm's power was still restricted and he couldn't decide alone whether to fight or not.

But Adam, now he really has the final say.

However, although he felt timid, Gutierrez had no intention of backing down and said firmly: "If I can't get the result I want, then I will fight at all costs."

Adam stared at him, Malcolm's face was livid, and Gutierrez had a blank expression.

It was not until a long time later that Adam uttered two words: "Very good."

There was no follow-up to these two words, and Adam went offline directly, leaving Malcolm a little confused.

What does this “very good” mean, to fight or not to fight?
Finally, he had no choice but to say, "Gutierrez, you'd better think carefully about whether you can afford this price."

Without waiting for Gutierrez to respond, he also went offline.

Gutierrez had a sneer on his face, with almost no emotion. He was the one who would do anything at all costs, and these two guys still had too many concerns.

……

Anatoly and others have already set off and will share the real-time progress with Li Ming. The first stop is Hoffman’s lair.

He is the most powerful and also the place most likely to leave clues.

Li Mingze has been developing gene seeds in the royal court, making steady progress, and in the blink of an eye, more than a month has passed.

This day was the day to hand over the ransom, and Li Ming simply entertained the carriers of Reynolds and Mikhail.

We chatted about the current situation of the Mechanical Seed. Many related disputes in the interstellar space have basically come to an end. The general public in the interstellar space has accepted the existence of the Mechanical Seed and has entered a stable period.

Funds are also being recovered rapidly, but the production capacity of Mechanical Seed cannot keep up.

Part of Li Ming's share was used to repay the loan, and part was used to support the expansion of the Mechanical Royal Court.

"…I heard that something big happened in the Sea of ​​Stars…" Mikhail asked indirectly.

"Yeah." Li Ming nodded, and his eyes flashed under the mask.

When Anatoly and the others met up and went to investigate, two more X-level life forms disappeared.

This matter has gradually spread, causing many X-level life forms to feel insecure. They dare not stay in their own nests and run away to other places.

There was also news at the interstellar level, but there was no mention of the death of X-class life forms. It only said that there was a large-scale massacre. Because the specific circumstances were vague, it did not attract much attention.

"what's the situation?"

Seeing that Qinglong did not hide anything, Mikhail asked further. "Not sure." Li Ming shook his head, "Anatole and the others are still investigating."

"Where did this powerful person come from who attacked six level X life forms in a row..." Reynolds couldn't help but sigh, "And they don't have anything in common with each other."

It is precisely because of this that the suspect could not be identified.

"If you need any help from us, just let us know," Mikhail said.

Li Ming nodded. On the surface, this matter actually had little to do with him.

The dead X-level lifeforms were in the Sea of ​​Stars, and had no connection with him, but if the attacks continued to expand, it would be hard to say what would happen.

"By the way, I heard that the relationship between the Star Alliance, the Empire and the Federation has been bad recently, and there have been a lot of frictions in secret. Could this be the reason?" Reynolds suddenly said, "This is an act of revenge by the Empire and the Federation."

"Not likely." Li Ming shook his head. He had also heard about this incident. It was probably because of the attack on the Overmind Laboratory.

It was somewhat beyond his expectations that Gutierrez would keep pestering the Empire and the Federation.

He explained: "Among the six X-level life forms that disappeared, three did not belong to the Star Alliance, but were private armed forces. One of them even had a good relationship with the Federation."

The three major civilizations rarely attack higher life forms head-on because they are so powerful and influential that if some of their diehard fans retaliate, they will suffer a lot of losses instead.

But once they take action, they will definitely wipe out the roots. The attacks in the past few times were too crude. These X-level life forms have many loyal followers. They have united and will wait for an opportunity to retaliate once they find the attackers.

Reynolds nodded thoughtfully.

Li Ming glanced at the virtual screen inside the tank guard and said, "Okay, let's not talk about these heavy things. The people from the three major civilizations are already here, so let's go."

The two people's carriers then stood up and followed Qinglong.

It was the same handover location and the same people from last time, and the handover process this time seemed familiar.

However, Li Ming could clearly feel the subtle atmosphere between the three people. It was not like the last time when they shared a common hatred for a common enemy.

Costat and Deus were very indifferent to the representatives of the Covenant and had almost no communication.

"Are you guys having a conflict?"

In the intervals between testing each other, Li Ming was still in the mood to joke, but the three of them just forced a smile and did not respond.

The test was completed quickly and there were still no problems. After the two sides exchanged information, they returned to their respective destinations.

After sending Reynolds and Mikhail away, Li Ming absorbed the metal material this time and obtained 46 billion metal energies, which was not much different from the last time.

And he also consumed a lot when attacking the Domination Laboratory and created two X-level control objects. He currently has about 8 billion left.

All added up, it’s a huge amount of 54 billion.

He was ready to go. The metal energy was sufficient, so the first thing he did was to repair the object he controlled.

The first is the Gun of Kashmir, which is still in a damaged state. It requires 30 billion metal energies to repair it.

He stretched out his hand, and the original body of the Spear of Kashmir appeared in his hand.

However, he was a little hesitant, as the Kashmir Spear's [temporary repair] ability was extremely critical.

It is the key that allows him to enjoy both the strength of the entity brought by materialization and the blessing of the controlled object.

This ability is obviously created to temporarily fill the damage to the gun and try to achieve its full lethality.

If the repair is completed and this ability disappears, the loss will be great.

"Hmm...how about leaving only the last bit of damage..." He pondered in his mind, and then he had a brilliant idea and no longer hesitated.

Metal energy continuously poured into the spear in his hand. The cracks in the gun body suddenly appeared with a liquid metal luster, and metal particles multiplied wildly along the cracks.

Neural network-like circuits grew inside each crack, flashing a pale golden glow and gradually closing the cracks.

At the position of the gun handle where the energy flow is most concentrated, the outer patterns curl and reorganize like living scales, revealing the new plating underneath.

Under Li Ming's gaze, the cracks on the surface of the gun became fewer and fewer, until they disappeared completely, leaving it as smooth as new.

No...if you look closely, there is a tiny crack at the end of the gun body that is invisible to the naked eye.

He left this on purpose. Repairing this crack would only cost 100,000 metal energies.

The repair of metal energy is not a progress bar, it must reach 100% before a qualitative change can occur.

Spend a little metal energy and gain a little metal energy. The overall strength of the gun has basically been restored.

[Spear of Kashmir - Ultimate (Damaged): This weapon was forged with all the strength of the Titan race, and has the power to tear apart everything.

Control Effect: [Kashmir Armed Forces]

Control Ability - Temporary Repair: Can temporarily absorb other controlled objects and gain all their abilities.

Control ability - Piercing Spear: Every attack you make will ignore all obstacles and "hit the target" with 100% armor penetration, and will leave irreparable injuries. 】

The integrity of the gun is relatively high, and it only requires 30 billion metal energies to repair it. It has not undergone a huge transformation in capabilities like the Star of Eternal Silence, it has only been strengthened.

The enhanced data of [Kashmir Armed Forces] increased from 200 times to 300 times in terms of strength, speed, stamina and defense.

The [Temporary Repair] ability still exists, which makes Li Ming nod with satisfaction.

[Piercing Spear] has another characteristic that the wound cannot be repaired, it is purely born for combat.

Trying to absorb the infinite hammer again, Li Ming found that the completeness consumed each time was reduced sharply from 10% to 1%, and the metal energy required for later repairs was also greatly reduced.

"I guess, after it is completely repaired, it will really be unable to devour external controlled objects." Li Ming muttered.

Based on the fragmentary information in the Holy Castle, Li Ming learned that the material used to make the gun was called "Hengyuan Cast Iron" by the Titans, and it had self-repair properties.

After casually shaking it twice in his hand, it almost caused a riot in the void, and Li Ming reluctantly put it away.

There were still 24 billion metal energies left, and he took out the Holy Spirit Core the size of a football. This diamond-shaped core emitting golden light had been in a damaged state since he got it.

This state of damage was not caused by acquired factors, but was due to certain materials used by the hammer forger.

From the moment it was born, it was inherently flawed, or in other words, it was considered damaged by the control system.

This thing has great potential and the metal energy is sufficient, so Li Ming naturally won't let it go.

(End of this chapter)