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 a suspect.

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

The next day, new news came that the second batch of captive ransoms had already departed from the three major civilizations and was expected to arrive at the Mechanical Royal 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 Mechanical Seed has led to a continuous 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 planning to take them out for the time being.

………

At the same time, in the summit virtual conference room, Malcolm was questioning Gutierrez with a grim expression.

"Are you mentally ill? I've already told you it wasn't the Federation who did this, yet you're still provoking me? Do you really want to start a war?"

Last time, Gutierrez failed in blackmail, but he did not stop there after returning. He directly attacked the Federation and the Empire, launching all means except 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 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 stepping down. His civilization and family would all be affected.

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

Adam's face didn't look good either. The Star Alliance 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 didn't care. Several bigwigs in the House of Commons had already fled to the Star Alliance with huge sums of money, and obtained political asylum, living a very comfortable life.

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

Gutierrez glanced at the two of them and said in a deep voice, "I have only one request: to return a portion 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. Gutierrez was clearly acting like 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 nonsense? If he could do it, why would he hold it in?

"Also..." He mentioned another incident, "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 responsible for this as well."

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, his voice cold:

"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 pointing to the Empire and the Federation, and bringing 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 had done 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 uneasy. 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 uneasy, Gutierrez showed no sign of backing down. He said firmly, "If I don't get the result I want, then I will fight at all costs."

Adam stared at him, Malcolm's face was livid, and Gutierrez's face was expressionless.

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 something harsh, "Gutierrez, you'd better think carefully about whether you can afford this price."

Without waiting for Gutierrez's response, he also logged off.

Gutierrez had a sneer on his face, with almost no emotion. He was the one who would do anything at all costs, while 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. Their first stop is Hoffman's lair.

He is the most powerful and is 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 recent situation of the Mechanical Seed. Many related disputes in the interstellar space have basically come to an end. The interstellar public has accepted the existence of the Mechanical Seed and entered a stable period.

Funds are also being recovered rapidly, but the production capacity of mechanical seeds 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 reunited 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 Class X 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 going on?"

Seeing that Qinglong did not hide it, Mikhail asked further questions.

"Not sure." Li Ming shook his head. "Anatole and the others are still investigating."

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

It is precisely because of this that the suspect has never been identified.

"If you need any help, 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 they 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 very bad recently, and there has been a lot of friction behind the scenes. Could this be the reason?" Reynolds suddenly said, "This is an act of retaliation by the Empire and the Federation."

"Unlikely." Li Ming shook his head. He had also heard about this incident. It was probably because of the attack on the Overlord Laboratory.

Gutierrez's persistence in pestering the Empire and the Federation was somewhat beyond his expectations.

He explained, "Of the six X-level life forms that disappeared, three did not belong to the Covenant. They were private armed forces, and 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 diehards retaliate, they will suffer a lot of losses.

But once they take action, they will definitely wipe out the entire enemy. These attacks have been too crude. These X-level life forms have many loyal followers who have united and are ready to take revenge once they find the attackers.

Reynolds nodded thoughtfully.

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

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

Costat and Deus were 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 didn't respond.

The inspection was completed quickly and there was still no problem. After the two sides exchanged, they returned home.

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.

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

All together, it is a huge amount of 54 billion.

Ready to go, the metal energy is sufficient, the first thing to do is naturally to repair the controlled object.

The first is the Kashmir Gun, which is still in a damaged state, and 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 for him to enjoy both the strength of the entity brought by materialization and the blessing of the controlled object.

This ability was 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 huge.

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

Metal energy continuously poured into the spear in his hand, and 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 with a pale golden glow and gradually closing the cracks.

At the position of the gun handle where the energy flow is most dense, 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, which 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 occurs.

A little metal energy is consumed and a little metal energy is gained. The overall strength of the gun has basically been restored.

[Spear of Kashmir - Ultimate (Damaged): A weapon forged with all the strength of the Titan race, it 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 of yours will ignore all obstacles and "hit the target" with 100% armor penetration, leaving irreparable damage.

The integrity of the gun is relatively high, and it only requires 30 billion metal energies to repair it. Unlike the Eternal Star, its capabilities have not undergone a huge transformation, but have only been strengthened.

The enhanced data of [Kashmir Armed Forces] increased from 200 times to 300 times in 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, and it is purely born for combat.

Trying to absorb the infinite heavy hammer again, Li Ming found that the completeness consumed each time was sharply reduced 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.

According to 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 has self-repair properties.

After casually shaking it twice in his hand, which almost caused a riot in the void, 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 hammersmith.

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 sufficient metal energy, so Li Ming naturally won't let it go.

(End of this chapter)