Chapter 1722: Skirmish
The female cyborg snorted derisively as she stared at Lu Yin. "I don"t care who he is now; the things from back then have to be returned. Your Sixth Mainland doesn"t research any technologies, so give the data to us, and we can provide you with what you need."
"We need hundreds of thousands of androids," Lu Yin instantly replied.
The woman snapped back, "I"m not exaggerating; the Technocracy has completed a tremendous amount of research in that field, and another android is nothing more than an extra vessel most of the time, which means they’re not worth as much as you believe. Trading something worthless for a good relationship is a good deal, and it also works out for you. We’ll even help you in your negotiations with the vice city master."
Lu Yin shook his head. "You"re a cyborg, so why would you speak up for us?"
"Hey, cyborg, don’t you see Little R1O standing here? I"m the genius Little R1O! Move back now!" Little R1O shouted and moved in front of Lu Yin.
The woman turned around and left in a very decisive manner. "The Sophic Rift is a very cruel place. I don’t know what you plan to do there, but I hope you make it back alive."
With that, she left.
Little R1O was truly furious. "Ignoring me, Little R1O? That’s too much! They need to be punished! Those cyborgs are getting more and more unruly."
Lu Yin patted Little R1O on the shoulder. "Just forget it. It really doesn"t matter. Don’t let her ruin your mood."
"Ah Qi, I"m sorry. Not only did I fail to accomplish what I promised you, I also caused you to suffer such an insult; you were threatened by a cyborg! Don"t worry, I won"t forget about this matter."
Lu Yin smiled. "Little R1O, I hope you’ll remember that our friendship is pure and has been untainted by any ulterior motives, so please just let this matter drop. If you defend me, outsiders will see it as a blessing in disguise. If I allow you to do this, it actually won’t help me out. For my sake, and for our friendship, just drop it. Cheer up, as only when you’re happy will you be inspired to do further research.
"That woman’s just a bystander in our lives, and we’ll forget her before you know it."
Little R1O stared at Lu Yin for a moment, emotion clouding his eyes. "Ah Qi, you are too- too… Right, open-minded. The term you humans use is open-minded. Ah Qi, you’re too open-minded. Only your boldness and magnanimity can stop this war. You know what, I take back what I thought before: Ah Qi, you can definitely do this!
"There’s a certain fearless spirit among some humans, and you have it, Ah Qi."
Lu Yin patted Little R1O on the shoulder again. "I just don"t want our friendship to get polluted by other interests. Of course, if something happens to me and I can"t deal with it by myself, I’ll definitely ask my friends for help."
"Of course! Don"t try to be polite." Little R1O was very happy.
Emperor Luo quietly watched as Lu Yin spoke with Little R1O, until he finally could not listen any longer. He stared off into the distance. The cyborg woman was still staring at Emperor Luo from the distant s.p.a.ceship, and her eyes were incredibly cold.
After they parted with Little R1O, Lu Yin"s expression fell away. "Who is that woman?"
"One of the district managers for First Edition City. There’s a region beneath First Edition City, and it’s completely inhabited by cyborgs. I used to live there."
"Is she the one who was in that recording you shared with me?" Lu Yin asked.
Emperor Luo nodded. "She may not be one of the most powerful cyborgs, but she is definitely the most conniving. She’s the only cyborg who’s able to meet with the city master."
Lu Yin was taken aback. "And yet you were able to escape from someone like her back then?"
"She wasn’t as powerful then as she is now. She’s improved, just like me."
"Then how do you know she can meet with the city master?"
Emperor Luo’s voice dropped low, "Her entire district knows her, and she’s basically a saintess to all the cyborgs. That’s because she’s the one who managed to get the cyborgs to be allowed to live in First Edition City."
The term saintess was one that spurred people’s imaginations. Anyone who was able to be referred to as a saintess was someone who was treated as a spiritual pillar of a community. That woman was the cyborgs’ spiritual pillar.
"Why does she care so much about getting the technology to develop androids with the strength of Envoys?" Lu Yin asked.
Emperor Luo explained, "So that she can work with a research team, though I don"t know specific what for. There’s more than just one research team in First Edition City that has the means to design androids with the power of Envoys, but they can’t actually make them due to a lack of resources. Humans need to survive a stellular tribulation in order to be able to break through and become Envoys, while there are harsh requirements for the materials needed to produce androids at that level.
"Materials form the very foundation of an android’s strength, which is precisely why there aren’t very many androids in the entire Technocracy that have the strength of an Envoy, as the materials that are required for those are simply too rare."
Lu Yin had heard mentions of materials more since coming to the Technocracy than ever before, and he was gaining more and more confidence in his earlier guesses.
With Emperor Luo being targeted, and their close proximity to the Sophic Rift, Lu Yin was no longer in any mood to simply hang out.
Soon, there was a brilliant flash from far away, and it was quickly followed by a shockwave that was powerful enough to distort s.p.a.ce. A violent force shook the s.p.a.cecraft Lu Yin was in, and an alarm went off. They had arrived at the Sophic Rift.
Before seeing it with his own eyes, Lu Yin had been unable to even imagine the scene of hundreds of millions of androids and mechanical creatures fighting each other in s.p.a.ce. Battleships clashed with each other, and machines tore each other apart. There were even odd attacks that appeared from nowhere.
The Third Fleet was given no time to prepare at all, as the moment they arrived at the Sophic Rift, there was a battle. Countless of the giant mechanical claws suddenly appeared to grab at the s.p.a.ceships, and countless beams of light shot out from the Third Fleet’s battleships. All of the nearby s.p.a.ce was lit up for a great distance in all directions.
There was a ma.s.sive shadow and a terrible roar. It was an enormous mechanical giant that was charging at the Third Fleet with a hand held high. The mechanical arm continued into a ma.s.sive sword that slashed down, slicing through the void. This was a strength that was beyond the scope of an Enlighter, and an entire line of the Third Fleet’s vessels was destroyed.
The ruined ships were not completely destroyed, and they merged together to form a giant cannon that aimed at the mechanical giant. There was a boom, and the mechanical giant"s sword was struck by the cannon blast. The giant was sent tumbling backwards, the edge of its sword cracked.
Waves of terror swept the entire fleet.
This was merely what Lu Yin saw in the first instant on the battlefield. The Sophic Rift was far more intense than he imagined it would be.
He suddenly felt that First Edition City had held back their firepower when facing the Human Domain, nothing more than a minor skirmish on the side. It was clear from seeing the Sophic Rift that First Edition City’s primary concern was Sky Creation Academy.
The mechanical giants were Sky Creation Academy’s androids. Each of the giants was tens of thousands of meters tall, and each one was incomparably ma.s.sive. There were also countless writhing mechanical creatures within the Third Fleet that looked similar to an octopus, and they suddenly took action and shot towards the giants.
Countless s.p.a.ceships appeared in the distance, and the Third Fleet’s battleships turned to launch a volley of attacks at the same time that the distant ships attacked.
Boom
Boom
Boom
s.p.a.ce everywhere was churning. There were no planets on the battlefield, though if there ever had been, they had long since been completely destroyed.
Little R1O and Lu Yin were situated in the middle of the Third Fleet, and they were not far from Admiral Chong. Even though they were able to clearly see the battlefield and were witnessing its fierce cruelty, they were a vast distance away from the fighting.
Little R1O became nervous, and his face grew pale. He watched for himself as battleships were destroyed. Each of those vessels held hundreds of androids, and even though their strength fell far short of the androids he had designed and made, they were still androids. All of them had disappeared without any sign of resistance, and the debris from their pa.s.sing filled the area.
If the ship that Little R1O had been a.s.signed to was similarly attacked, he believed he would be done for.
Lu Yin, the First Protector, and the others stared into the distance at the bright lights that continuously flickered. Each flash represented the end of some s.p.a.ceship or mechanical creature. All they could see was war and the endless destruction of machinery.
"This is the battlefield where First Edition City and Sky Creation Academy fight each other," the First Protector commented in an emotional tone. "The fighting between the Human Domain and First Edition City has never been this intense. This fighting seems to be completely devoid of all tactics; it closer resembles a desperate fight for mutual destruction."
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. If his Lu Elite Troops entered this battlefield, they would struggle to gain any sort of advantage. While the average soldiers in that army was stronger than the average android on this battlefield and possessed protective measures far beyond anything Lu Yin had seen any other army possess, their numbers were too few, and they lacked top-tier powerhouses with true strength.
Attacks as powerful as what Enlighters were capable of, or even what Envoys could unleash, would occasionally appear in all different direction. This was even disregarding that Lu Yin had already seen several androids within the Third Fleet that had the strength of an Envoy. When he had accompanied Little R1O in exploring the Third Fleet, Lu Yin had seen some truly bizarre androids, such as walking cube, a heat source that had eyes, and much more.
It was impossible to guess what sort of power such bizarre things could release, and Lu Yin knew for absolute certainty that his Lu Elite Troops would suffer if they faced such an army.
Additionally, Lu Yin and the others were only seeing the first minor bit of combat on the battlefield, and things were settled within less than a day. Seeing the unfathomable amount of debris filling s.p.a.ce, Lu Yin turned to ask Little R1O, "Is all of this trash still useful?"
Little R1O replied, "Some of it can be recycled, and some can"t, but we just leave it for the scavengers."
"I"ve always been curious, who do the scavengers belong to?" Lu Yin asked.
Little R1O thought for a moment. "Both First Edition City and Sky Creation Academy work to produce scavengers, and they work together to clean the battlefield. If they didn’t, the armies wouldn’t be able to move a single inch into the Sophic Rift."
"Where do the scavengers take the trash?" Lu Yin asked.
Little R1O shook his head. "I don"t know."
After a while, Little R1O told Lu Yin, "Ah Qi, we’re about to reach the center of the battlefield. The Fourth Fleet is pulling back to return to First Edition City and replenish their resources. After that, the Third Fleet will need to take over, and then the real battle will start. Is there anything you can do to stop this war?"
Lu Yin"s expression grew solemn. "I want to find Sky Creation Academy’s commander here in the Sophic Rift and talk to him."
Little R1O nodded. "Best of luck, my friend. The fighting here isn’t ceaseless, and there are moments of peace. You can act as a special envoy at that time, and I hope you succeed."
Lu Yin smiled. "Little R1O, if I pull this off, could you visit my home? I, Ah Qi, would like to invite you."
Little R1O was thrilled to receive an invitation. "That would be great! I"ve wanted to see the human regions for a long time, so that would be perfect. Oh, also, I’ll send some of my androids over to keep you safe."
Lu Yin shook his head. "No need. We can protect ourselves."
…
Off in the distance, a bright light approached from far away, and it quickly shot past. The next moment, the ship that Little R1O had been a.s.signed to was split in two. More than just that s.p.a.cecraft, dozens of ships behind had been severed as well.
This had been an overwhelming attack, and it had not come from a sharp blade like a sword or knife, but from a blunt object.
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