This is not mechanical ascension...

Chapter 659: Compromise of the Black Hole Network

"How can we be so sure? Is it because of those X-level life forms that have been strengthened by the gene essence, or is it due to some other reason..."

Li Ming entered the development state. He had a lot of time to think and speculate on various possibilities, which was also a way to pass the time.

……

On a satellite somewhere on the Empire's home planet, in a room that was not particularly luxuriously decorated, the curtains were closed together and were made of flexible metal material that could isolate most detection facilities.

Abel frowned and paced back and forth in the dim room.

After meeting his father, Adam made a series of responses, the most important of which was to summon several confidants to return.

This matter is extremely troublesome, and every step requires caution. Even if we cannot reveal to them that the Holy Emperor is seriously injured, it can still provide him with ideas.

Although his father called all his sons in at that time.

But it does not mean that all these people are qualified to compete. The strongest among them is the eldest prince Arthur.

As the eldest brother and his father's first son, Arthur was highly favored.

Abel had only heard that when Arthur was young, his father had taken him to various high-level meetings.

None of his later sons had ever had this kind of honor.

He himself is an S-level life form, and has developed to a very high level, while he is only an A-level life form.

He was originally the weakest, but now it is the Sixth Prince.

"My eldest brother, second brother and third brother are all my strong rivals... but once they start fighting, there might be people who will just sit on the sidelines and watch the fight..." Abel frowned, after all he was too young and did not have much experience in this kind of struggle.

It would be scary to rush into the finals.

Buzz--
Suddenly, the smart terminal rang again. He was afraid that it was an important message, so he picked it up immediately, but found that it was a communication request from his subordinate - Donite.

This is the person in charge of transporting and selling machinery under him.

He frowned, but picked up the phone. The screen popped up, and a large black face appeared with suppressed excitement.

Abel asked in a deep voice: "What's going on? The goods have been checked again."

"No, no..." Donite hurriedly explained, "Good news, the border department notified me to retrieve the seized goods, claiming that they have already completed the inspection."

"Your Highness, you are amazing. You have finished it in just a few days."

"Retrieve the goods?" Abel had a bad feeling and asked hastily, "When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?"

"A day ago, they came to inform me personally, saying that this matter should not be left on paper, and the matter is urgent, so there is only a time slot right now, and I didn't have time to inform you..."

"Idiot!" Abel's face darkened instantly. "Hurry up and throw away all those things!"

"Lost?" Donette looked confused.

"I said it was lost!" Alberis shouted.

“Oh, oh…” Donette finally reacted. Although he didn’t know what happened, he didn’t dare to ask more.

But the next moment, his expression suddenly changed, he looked outside the screen and shouted in surprise: "You, how did you get in!"

"This is a private spaceship, you..."

There was a lot of noise on the other side of the screen, Donet's face turned horrified, and then it went dark.

Abel's face looked extremely ugly and he clenched his fists. With such a quick move, someone had already attacked him.

Smuggling was not a big deal, but what he smuggled were mechanical seeds. At least in the eyes of most of the imperial high-ranking officials, Qinglong was still an enemy.

It is definitely impossible to expect to sweep him out by this means.

But this time, I'm afraid many of his subordinates will be implicated.

"Who is it..." Abel searched in his mind but could not find the answer.

The power within the empire was too complicated and intertwined, and he couldn't be sure for a moment.

Given the current situation, the best option is to conserve your strength and wait for others to start fighting.

There are still too many people in the final round. Let’s wait until a few are eliminated first.

Abel kept adjusting his thinking, and he couldn't help but be cautious. In the later stages, he became blood-thirsty and there was a possibility that they would turn swords against each other.

As he was thinking, he suddenly looked at the door and turned the handle. Abel's heart skipped a beat.

But the next moment he couldn't help but feel relieved because the person who came in was Costat.

Seeing Abel's fearful look, Costat sighed in his heart.

"Why are you here..." Abel adjusted his mood and came forward.

Costat didn't exchange pleasantries and went straight to the point, "The Holy Emperor ordered you to investigate this case."

"Hmm?" Abel's expression changed as he looked at the paper file handed to him by Costat.

"Take a look at it...keep it in mind."

So strict? Abel was surprised, but also curious. After taking it, he opened the special plastic-sealed file bag and pulled out a few sheets of paper.

Abel's heart skipped a beat after just a quick glance. There were a few big words written on the first piece of paper.

"Investigation report on the case of the empty storage of evolutionary resources of the armed patrol fleet in the empire..."

The Armed Patrol Fleet is the interstellar law enforcement force within the empire. The total number of warships, large and small, is no less than one billion, and the number of personnel is as high as tens of billions.

It is a self-contained system, and the amount of resources consumed every day is enormous. When you add the rewards for merits and the like, the amount is even more difficult to count.

Abel's face trembled, and according to the report, more than 60% of the warehouses inside the armed patrol fleet were basically empty.

The whereabouts of materials worth more than 10 trillion star coins on paper are unknown.

A bitter smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he looked up at Costat, "Let... me... investigate?"

He estimated that this type of case should have been uncovered during the recent cleanup of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This type of systemic corruption covered almost everyone upstream and downstream.

I'm afraid that even his father couldn't investigate further, so he had to block it.

Let him investigate? Do you really think that the word "prince" can defeat thousands of troops?

His father thinks too highly of him.

"I'll do my best..." Costat said calmly, "Your six brothers have all taken on similar cases. Although your case is not the most complicated, it is not the most complicated either..."

Received them all?
Abel suddenly realized that he was wrong. His father did not intend for them to engage in a huge fight that would lead to internal friction.

Instead, we use this incredibly complex case to test their capabilities.

He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. His foundation was not the strongest, so this selection method had both advantages and disadvantages for him.

But he looked down, and when he thought of the dense network of interests involved, his head became bigger, and he said bitterly: "Do we have to find out?" Costat thought for a moment and repeated: "Do our best."

Abel heaved a sigh of relief. His father probably didn't intend to let them investigate thoroughly. He just wanted to see how far they could go.

Once caught in this vortex, one's own skills, wisdom and strength will be fully demonstrated, and the slightest difference will lead to failure.

"I understand." He nodded solemnly and watched the file paper in his hand turn into ashes.

……

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month passed. In the Heavenly Palace, virtual projections outlined special scenes all around.

Li Ming, standing in the center, had already changed his vest. Soon, the bright blue light outlined the figures of Reynolds and Mikhail.

"Found it?" Li Ming asked immediately.

Mikhail shook his head: "No, but it is willing to talk to us."

"It's just a conversation..." Li Ming couldn't help but feel disappointed.

"It's ready." Reynolds pointed to the blue block in the distance. He could clearly see a large amount of materialized data flow constantly entering it.
"If it hadn't been for the quantum hub you gave us, it would have felt threatened and wouldn't have talked to us."

【Quantum Hub--Class X: A cutting-edge product of digitization.

……

Control effect: fully automatic processing
Control ability - quantum computing power: can turn itself into a server, providing huge computing power]

The control capability is to make computing power concrete, so excessive computing power can be stacked and attacks can be carried out at the virtual network level.

"Is it so hard to find?" Li Ming couldn't help but frown.

Reynolds shook his head and said, "Don't be dissatisfied. When have the three great civilizations ever given up? They have allowed it to exist for so many years."

"To be honest, if you weren't here, we wouldn't want to provoke it. If it wanted to launch a network attack, it would be difficult to stop it unless we cut off the Internet..."

The mechanical bodies and various artificial intelligences under their command do not have Qinglong's "smart seal" to ensure that they cannot be cracked.

The bounty for cracking the system issued by the Mechanical King's Court has reached tens of billions of star coins. Countless mechanics have stepped forward to offer their rewards, but no one has taken the reward.

Mikhail nodded in agreement. "Except for it taking the initiative to contact outsiders, almost no one can take the initiative to contact it. It would be best if we can cooperate. It would not do us any good to break up with it."

Hearing the two people exaggerating like this, Li Ming showed no expression, but just said, "Let's get started."

Mikhail walked to the operating table. On the large screen in front of him, a large amount of data streams were constantly refreshed. Then they gradually converged in the middle and twisted, forming a data black hole, swallowing up endless data.

"Hello, three master craftsmen." A hollow voice came.

"Black hole network... Tsk tsk..." Reynolds was quite curious and stared at the virtual screen in front of him. "Since I met you, this is the first time I have talked to your real body."

That’s right, what Li Ming asked them to look for was the dark side of the interstellar network, the location of the black hole network server.

Not only Li Ming, but everyone in the interstellar space is drooling over this huge network.

But no one could find its location.

Ever since Gustav's death, Li Ming has been seeking to connect with the Black Hole Network with the intention of taking over Gustav's position.

"Three master craftsmen, there has never been any conflict between us. Why are you suddenly targeting me?" Black Hole Network asked bluntly.

"If you hadn't been ignoring my calls, I wouldn't have bothered looking for you." Li Ming said.

"Mr. Qinglong..." the Black Hole Network responded, "I admire your deeds, but there are many people communicating with me every day, and it is difficult to tell who they are."

"Stop pretending. My Black Hole Network account must be under your monitoring." Li Ming sneered. This guy acted like an artificial retard, but he was already an intelligent life form, smarter than anyone else.

"Let's be frank. We want to cooperate with you for mutual benefit."

"Due to safety regulations, I can't..." He responded mechanically, but was interrupted by Li Ming without any hesitation: "Don't try to fool me with these words. Give me a definite answer whether you can cooperate or not."

Black Hole Network was silent for a moment before saying, "I have already assessed that the risk of cooperating with you is too great. You are likely to eat me up completely."

This black hole network is quite powerful, Mikhail was quite surprised.

"You are slandering me." Li Ming was dissatisfied. "Which of my partners didn't make a lot of money?"

Black Hole Network explained: "We may have different understandings. The reason why they can eat so much is because they have surrendered to you."

"I have tested the mechanical body in your hand. All the consciousness terminals are marked with some terrible mark that cannot be cracked."

"In my probability estimation, if I work closely with you, there is a more than 70% chance that you will also brand me in this way. This scares me."

It turned out that he was frightened. Li Ming was speechless. The mechanical body in his hand was under his control and was absolutely loyal to him.

The manifestation of this characteristic is that it cannot be cracked. As a mechanical life form, the black hole network is naturally afraid of this kind of method.

For every mechanical body that has evolved autonomously to the level of life, freedom is their most primitive pursuit.

"But I'm almost finding you." Li Ming shrugged.

The edge of the data black hole in the center of the screen began to ripple, and it responded: "The method you used this time is indeed very strange, but my data nodes are endless, and the servers are distributed in many places. You can't find them."

"The universe is vast, but it is not without boundaries. No matter how many data nodes there are, they will eventually be found and destroyed one by one." Li Ming shook his head and added:
"Cooperation is not oppression. We want to use your resources and information channels, but we will also provide relevant support. Isn't that what Gustavo does?"

Mikhail had a strange look on his face. Qinglong was just being rude. The black hole network didn't require them to do anything.

The interstellar network, which almost spreads across the entire galaxy, is also divided into individual blocks by various civilizations.

But the black hole network is always an integrated whole, and it can almost penetrate the darkest corners of every civilization, holding a large amount of information and intelligence that is unknown to outsiders.

“No…” Black Hole Network refused: “When Gustav was alive, he could only…”

"But he's dead." Li Ming said firmly, "If you refuse, we'll go to war. I think the three great civilizations will be happy to eliminate you."

He estimated that after so many years of accumulation, the terrifying computing power accumulated by the black hole network in the virtual field should have been considered as half a step to dominance, or even a true dominance.

Unfortunately, no matter how much computing power there is, it cannot be converted into real combat power. Once someone finds the server terminal, it can be easily destroyed.

Reynolds and Mikhail remained silent. They could not pose much threat to the Black Hole Network and were just a foil.

However, all the artificial intelligence and mechanical bodies under Qinglong are immune to network attacks, making them the opponent's natural nemesis.

The Black Hole Network fell into silence for a long time, but as expected by the three people, it responded with an "OK".

Then he further emphasized: "But you cannot continue to run the search program, otherwise the cooperation will be terminated immediately."

Li Ming then smiled: "That's for sure. I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation in the future. If the three great civilizations bully you in the future, I will help you out."

Reynolds couldn't wait to ask, "Old Black, is there any big news in the interstellar space recently? Is there any dirty news about the leaders of the major civilizations?"

The Black Hole Network did not respond to Reynolds, but said: "There is some news that Your Excellency Qinglong should be interested in."

Li Ming raised his eyebrows, but he didn't keep the secret and continued, "Some major changes are happening in the empire. The Sixth Prince, Yask, has been stripped of his right to inherit the throne."

(End of this chapter)