Helping each other with countless me.

Chapter 528 Long Night and Many Dreams
In the small courtyard at the top of the hillside.

Rohafer, without any airs, assisted Li Zhongren in preparing various ingredients.

Moreover, it's clear that the old man is extremely skilled with melee weapons like knives.

It's no exaggeration to say that it's like the story of "Butcher Ding dissecting an ox."

Li Zhongren could have any kind of meat, vegetables, and other ingredients he wanted cut into whatever shape he wanted.

Not far away, Lanboer was tending a fire.

Flames scorched the earthen stove, inside which crouched a large fish. This fish did not appear to be native to Kara Star, but rather came from another planet. Its flesh was delicious and sweet, without any fishy smell. In fact, this kind of fish was best eaten as sashimi.

However, ever since Li Zhongren mentioned the iron pot stew.

The old man wanted to try it.

Fortunately, after testing, Li Zhongren determined that this fish was different from salmon and would not become unpalatable after being cooked.

"Ten dishes, then we're done."

Busy all the way.

Thanks to Li Zhongren's dedicated efforts, the meal was finally completed when the sun was high in the sky.

"Hu~~"

Next to the table.

Rohav took a deep breath.

"Not bad, really good."

"You flatter me, Grandpa Rohav, please enjoy your meal."

Upon hearing this, Rohafer raised an eyebrow. In his eyes, Li Zhongren's personality had nothing to do with Kara Star. He had a unique, arrogant humility in his bones, but most people didn't notice it. He had mentioned it a few times, implying to Li Zhongren that in a place like this, being too humble would make him easy to be bullied.

"Unfortunately, it's not very useful."

He just stopped caring; everyone has their own life.

He dropped everything and went to Kara Star, all for a peaceful life.

"You guys eat too."

"Ok."

This time, Lan Bo'er and Li Zhongren didn't stand on ceremony and sat down to the side, because they knew that Rohafer wanted someone to eat with him.

The aircraft slowly rose, and with a jet of exhaust, it disappeared into the horizon in an instant.

In the courtyard, Rohafer lay in a rocking chair, one hand holding a fan to ward off the heat, his gaze fixed on the vanished spaceship. Then, he slowly closed his eyes.
"Sister, aren't we going to pick up trash?"

Seeing that the aircraft didn't go to the junkyard but instead flew towards some more secluded place, Li Zhongren asked.

"You should fuse with that star core first. No one can pick up everything in the junkyard in a short time, but even this kind of abandoned star core will definitely cause a fight. After all, people have a sense of luck. What if it's not completely broken?"

"Ah."

"Tsk~~"

After flying for nearly half an hour, almost traversing the distance of what was once an Eastern country, the spaceship finally landed.

This was one of the many safe spots the siblings had searched for. It was easy to defend and difficult to attack, convenient for escape, and highly concealed. Because it was a tropical rainforest, and the tallest trees here could be over a hundred meters high, it was almost impossible to find any traces without a thorough search.

"Let's begin, little brother."

On the test bench, Li Zhongren lay shirtless, while Lan Bo'er took out the discarded star core. The light shone on the star core, allowing the siblings to see it clearly. Compared to the previous holy and mysterious feeling, the melted star core was ugly, like a monster.

The surface was covered with a layer of an unknown substance.

However, she dared not act rashly, such as removing this layer of matter that did not belong to the star core.

Because the Star Core can be considered one of the most outstanding jewels in the crown of the Empire's many technologies.

This fist-sized star core has over 100,000 etched layers, and each etched layer has hundreds of millions of etched patterns.
To be honest, in Li Zhongren's eyes, the technological pinnacle of Blue Star in his previous life, the CPU, was as complex as a newborn compared to Tyson, no, Tyro.

Therefore, if it weren't for his unique physical characteristics, and if it weren't for his sister's special abilities, it would be impossible.

They would absolutely never dare to have such a thought: repair a star core?
"Are you ready, little brother?"

"Ah."

Li Zhongren nodded, reached out, grabbed a tube from the side, and stuffed it into his mouth. Inside the tube was a high-density, high-calorie liquid food, roughly the sugar and oil compounds of things like syrup or chocolate, and it had been compressed. An ordinary person would probably get diabetes immediately after taking a bite.

However, for Li Zhongren, this is a necessary condition for him to integrate with external things. That is, his body will consume a lot of energy and nutrients. If the external energy cannot be replenished, then he will suffer the tragic result of devouring himself.
let's start.

Lanboer took a deep breath and placed the discarded star core on Li Zhongren's chest.

After a few seconds.

The skin on Li Zhongren's chest began to soften and wriggle, as if it had an independent life. It stretched and climbed, little by little, up to the star core. If the people of Earth in his previous life saw this scene, they might exclaim, "Isn't this Venom?"

Actually, it's pretty much the same. With the help of the sharing space plugin, Li Zhongren's flesh and blood have certain unique characteristics, but it's not so-called symbiosis, but complete assimilation.

"Guji~"

"Gurgle~~"

Above, Li Zhongren's mouth was gulping down a high-density, high-calorie food solution; below, his body cells were beginning a full-scale erosion of the star core.
The whole process was as if some unknown monster was devouring everything.

Beside her, Lanbo took a deep breath.

No matter how many times she saw this scene, she would feel a little creeped out, even though it was her own brother.

This has nothing to do with anything else; it's simply the terror that the ability itself evoked in her.

Time passed by minute by minute.

Visibly, his younger brother's somatic cells were continuously seeping into the star core. In the past, other machines might have completed the erosion in a few minutes, but this time, seven hours had passed and the devouring was still continuing.

Fortunately, his brother had taken precautions and prepared two tons of high-density syrup; otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Even so, seeing that only about one-fifth of the syrup remained, Lanboer couldn't help but show some worry.

"Don't worry, sister."

Seemingly sensing his sister's worry, Li Zhongren gave her a look, conveying confidence without saying a word.

Yes, as a devourer, he could sense that his absorption of this abandoned star core was nearing its end.
Half an hour later, there were still ten kilograms of syrup left.

The entire star core seemed to come alive, pulsating a few times before being pulled into Li Zhongren's body by his somatic cells. Then, his skin became smooth again, as if nothing had happened.

"Hu~~"

Finally, Li Zhongren and Lan Bo'er both breathed a sigh of relief.

"How are you feeling, little brother?"

Lanbo asked, after her brother assimilated a certain machine, his ability to perceive a single machine surpassed her own.

"Two pieces of news, one bad and one good. Which do you want to hear first, sis?"

With Lan Bo'er's help, Li Zhongren slowly sat up. "It's bad, isn't it?"

"Hehe, the bad news is, it's blocked, completely blocked."

Li Zhongren squinted slightly and began to speak.

"This is a third-class star core, which is of civilian grade."

"It has 125,000 etched layers, each with one trillion etched patterns."

"Now, all the lines have been completely sealed off, leaving not a single gap."

"Okay. Wait, little brother, are you talking about a blockage?"

"Yes."

Li Zhongren nodded.

"That's the principle; that's what circuit breaking means."

Lanbo suddenly understood.

"The so-called 'melting' is to block all the etched lines with a special substance. Faced with such a blockage, it is impossible to clean it with any external force, unless you encounter someone like me, little brother."

"But, sis, why not just blow it up?"

"Pfft, it explodes."

Lan Bo'er reached out and poked Li Zhongren's forehead.

"The most important thing in the design of the star core is stability. How could it have such a backdoor? Once the operating star core explodes, the power is... tsk tsk."

"understood."

Li Zhongren nodded with a smile.

"It's like a secret base in a movie, complete with some kind of self-destruct device, but in reality, the only thing this thing does is sabotage itself."

"Therefore, the problem becomes much simpler."

A hint of relief appeared on Lanbo'er's face.

“Since it’s just blocking the patterns, not destroying them, then, little brother, you just need to use your abilities to clear away the blockages to restore the integrity of the star core, right?”

"Yes, the process is not difficult."

Li Zhongren replied.

“In fact, those blockages are also part of me. If I wanted, those blockages could slowly leave the star core, or even be expelled from my body. But, sister, that’s the problem.”

"Once I do this, the star core will be reactivated, and its internal communication patterns will most likely be activated as well. At that point, the Empire will know that a star core that was supposed to be destroyed has been reactivated."

"Unless we find out which part of the pattern it is and completely destroy it."

Lanbo'er continued, sighing as her eyes filled with hope. Don't forget her ability; she can directly communicate with the star core and higher dimensions. Although she can't directly pinpoint the location, she can eliminate possibilities through a process of elimination.

This process won't be fast, but it won't be slow either; in fact, it won't take much time. After all, once the patient can professionally describe the lesion themselves, the doctor's job becomes much simpler.

On the contrary, what she cared about more was whether her younger brother could control the powerful force unleashed by the star core.

"Optical computer."

“We must win!”

The bad news is that the price of a quantum computer is not much different from that of a star core.

The good news is that this thing is not as strictly regulated as a star core.

You can get it from Kara Star.

In fact, it doesn't even require spending money.

That's right, it's picking up trash.
As mentioned earlier, the Empire would dump all sorts of garbage on Kara Star, and even various warships would automatically sink and disintegrate upon approaching Kara Star.

Although most of the valuable items on the warship, including the warship's command computer, will be removed, destroyed, or recycled in advance.

However, some smaller quantum computers do not do this.

Because each warship has a main optical computer and countless smaller optical computers working together, disassembling them would be too much of a hassle.

And that is the goal of the siblings: to find a suitable one among these abandoned miniature quantum computers.

It was devoured by his younger brother and implanted into his current body.

Perhaps the computing power isn't strong enough, but it's sufficient to maintain the operation of a cyborg body.

Of course, the most important point.

No one knew the horror of her brother's body better than she did.

Its ability to absorb machinery is cumulative; through its special internal neural network, it can even superimpose several quantum computers. To put it bluntly, it's like the ancient Chinese concept of "great force achieving miracles." In essence, the so-called quantum computer is nothing more than a special chip.
A week has passed in the blink of an eye.

In the past week, Li Zhongren has almost completely expelled the excess material inside the star core, and with the help of her sister, she has located two locations using her sister's abilities.

At one location, where the star core itself was damaged, Li Zhongren manipulated the cells to repair it.

One location. No, to be precise, seventy-three locations, all of which resonate with the Empire's Star Core Network.

It can only be said that the Empire is indeed somewhat ruthless in protecting the star core.

However, when facing the siblings, these special melting points were completely filled in by Li Zhongren with his own cells, erasing those etched patterns.

To be honest, this is why Li Zhongren treats his body like an emperor. As long as he gives an order, his cells can carry out his will and work like nanorobots. If he were to actively fill in these hundreds of thousands of etched layers and hundreds of millions of etched lines, he probably couldn't do it even if he worked himself to death.

And this was largely due to her sister's command.
"Sister, I have already sensed the entire etching pattern, and there are no problems. Theoretically, I can activate the star core and activate my body at any time."

"Let's go, we're going to the landfill right now!"

After a moment's hesitation, Lanboer made this decision.

"Many things can happen in the long night; there are no secrets that stay hidden forever."

The sooner the siblings obtained the optical computer chip, the sooner they would have the ability to protect themselves.

To be honest, if their spaceship didn't have only one optical computer chip, it would be useless once it was removed.

She now wants to remove this only optical computer chip so that her younger brother can use it.

This could even be considered her last trump card.

After the spaceship took off, she scanned the surrounding environment with radar while manipulating buttons to move the only optical computer chip to a visible location.

"Little brother, remember, if anything unexpected happens, you must immediately fuse with this optical computer chip."

"Ah."

Li Zhongren nodded.

He knew that this was his sister's style: always dreaming of the best and preparing for the worst.

(End of this chapter)