Chapter 1 The Inception

Su Mo tried several times to ask the Counterfeit Lord · Devourer, but unfortunately, each inquiry received no response.

Although there was always a knot in his heart, he could only give up in the end.

He'd have to wait until this great master was in a good mood before asking more questions.

As for General Mai Han, Su Mo couldn't just go and expose him because the optical computer said he was problematic. First of all, he didn't have any evidence. Most importantly, Su Mo himself didn't know what General Mai Han's problem was.

He'd be lucky if people just thought he was crazy; if he got slapped with a charge of intentional slander, he'd be in real trouble.

After all, the man's status was what it was.

Just then, Mo Boke's voice rang in Su Mo's communication channel.

"The first round of operations is over. Everyone returns to the transport ship immediately for loot statistics. Move quickly, or you'll miss dinner."

"Yes!"

The voices of the crowd echoed in the communication channel.

Su Mo was also slightly stunned. He had miscalculated; the return time had been moved up, and it seemed he wouldn't have time to scavenge anything casually. Oh well, he should head back first.

After a long while, Su Mo piloted the Black Steel back to the ship, skillfully controlling the mecha into the cargo hold of a medium-sized transport ship.

In the cargo hold, Zhao Bo and the others had already returned.

Next to each mecha was a metal net filled with various spoils of war.

Su Mo also saw Mo Boke, wearing mechanical armor, angrily scolding the returning crowd.

"Were your brains kicked by donkeys? I told you to choose valuable things. Look at what you brought back: metal wreckage? Are you planning to sell scrap iron? Use your heads, okay? What's the most valuable? The complete equipment and energy devices inside the wreckage are the most valuable! Even if you bring back the main gun barrel or missiles..."

Su Mo couldn't help but look at Mo Boke in a new light. This guy wasn't good at fighting, but he was definitely good at scavenging, hitting the nail on the head with one sentence.

At this moment, Mo Boke heard the sound of the mecha walking over, turned his head, and when he saw it was Su Mo returning, the expression on his face immediately changed a hundred and eighty degrees.

"Oh, Su Mo, you're back. How's the harvest?"

"Cough, sorry, I went out for a spin but didn't find anything."

Su Mo pointed awkwardly at his empty metal net.

The smile on Mo Boke's face stiffened a little, but he immediately praised, "Everyone, open your eyes and take a look, and learn from him. It's one thing that you can't compare to Su Mo in combat skills. But you can't compare to him in vision either. Su Mo knows not to bring garbage onto the ship. That's the attitude, better to have nothing than something worthless."

Su Mo's face twitched non-stop, and he secretly gave a thumbs up. He suddenly felt that Mo Boke being able to climb to this position wasn't entirely without merit.

He was being praised to the point where he couldn't even refute it.

Ah...

...

Three days later, in the Blacksun's ship command center.

Li Ruiqi frowned as he looked at the summary reports returned by the various operation teams.

Pu Temi asked, "The situation isn't optimistic?"

"See for yourself."

Li Ruiqi handed the summary report to Pu Temi.

"The overall profit isn't good, and some of the operators were injured. It's not very cost-effective."

Pu Temi looked carefully at the summary report and said with a headache.

"It's normal for the profit to be low, because all of our operators are exploring the periphery. I don't know how many people have scavenged this outer area."

"Then what should we do? Give up on this established operational mission?"

"How could we give up so easily? It looks like we need to plan a deeper exploration."

Li Ruiqi replied calmly.

Pu Temi looked at Li Ruiqi in shock and said after a long while, "Really going to go deeper? Isn't that too dangerous?"

"Fortune favors the bold. As for the risk, don't worry too much. The Blacksun won't get too close. If the situation really becomes uncontrollable, the Blacksun will not hesitate to cut off its arm to survive, abandoning all operators to leave. Of course, that's in the worst-case scenario."

Li Ruiqi's tone was very calm, but it made Pu Temi fall silent.

"Then let's do that."

"Notify the operation teams below to voluntarily sign up for deep exploration and sign the electronic risk pre-knowledge form."

Li Ruiqi calmly issued the order.

"Yes."

"At the same time, notify Spade to have the GT department organize an elite exploration team to go in and explore."

........

Deep in the Dunkeye Graveyard Starfield.

A giant fortress pieced together from oddly shaped shipwrecks and all sorts of discarded garbage emerged. Its uneven shell was embedded with various giant cannons and launch ports. On the front surface hung dried monster and human corpses like trophies.

At the same time, a large number of operating mechanical spacecraft were dragging all kinds of garbage wreckage and flying towards the fortress non-stop.

The entire fortress was like a demon's open maw, chilling to the bone.

And this fortress was the Twilight Fortress, entrenched in the Dunkeye Graveyard Starfield.

Inside the Twilight Fortress, a robot made entirely of Troy Secret Silver metal sat in a command chair, its eyes staring at a huge virtual screen.

The virtual image screen presented different images in a grid pattern.

There was monitoring of the operating areas recovering garbage, as well as images of the smelting area inside the fortress. And the image in the very center was of the outer periphery of the Graveyard Starfield, with the Blacksun among them.

The robot in the command chair's eyes glowed redder and brighter.

......

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At this time, inside a broken spaceship.

Su Mo was piloting the Black Steel mecha, looking around helplessly. In these three days, besides finding a small amount of garbage, he hadn't found anything of value at all.

It seemed that this treasure hunt was more difficult than he had imagined.

Su Mo had originally thought about getting more energy-rich stuff to recharge the Counterfeit Lord · Devourer,刷一波自己的存在感, and ask about Mai Han's affairs.

Now, looking at the garbage he had scavenged, Su Mo was too embarrassed to call the optical computer out for dinner.

If it misunderstood and thought he really regarded it as a garbage recycling station, it would be troublesome.

As for those Type I creatures, Su Mo didn't dare to give them to it to absorb. That was because Su Mo felt that it was no different from feeding it shit.

Just then, a new prompt popped up on Su Mo's console screen.

"Operation Rules Changed: Exploration areas are now unsealed. Any operation team can apply to superiors for deep operations and needs to sign a risk pre-knowledge form!"

"Prompt 1: All loot points harvested by deep operation teams and personnel will be calculated at 2x."

"Prompt 2: If irresistible factors occur, when the Blacksun faces danger, the operation mission may be temporarily terminated, and support and assistance may not be provided."

.......

Su Mo was also secretly surprised to see this prompt; the Blacksun had actually lifted the restrictions.

Just then, Ke Liefu's voice rang in the communication channel. He said very seriously, "Everyone, listen up, you should have seen the latest mission rule changes issued by the superiors. I won't stop you from deep exploration, but I hope you consider it carefully."

In the communication channel, everyone fell silent.

In fact, Ke Liefu's words also contained a hidden warning: the risk is extremely high!

After a long while, Zhao Bo and the others replied in the communication channel, "Okay, Captain, we will consider it carefully."

Su Mo thought for a while and eventually performed a series of operations to apply for deep operations.

Although deep operations were risky, at least it wasn't a direct assault on the monster's lair, and the risk was still within acceptable limits.

This periphery was like a bone that had been gnawed clean by a dog, with not a shred of meat left.

Soon, a risk pre-knowledge form popped up.

Su Mo didn't hesitate to sign his name and choose to submit!

Soon, a prompt box popped up.

"Congratulations, Lieutenant Su Mo, your application has been approved. Good luck!"

Su Mo didn't hesitate any longer. He pushed the operating lever and piloted the Black Steel alone into the depths.

To be honest, at this moment, Su Mo didn't know why, but he didn't feel any fear or dread at all, but rather, he felt very excited.

Time passed little by little.

Su Mo, piloting the Black Steel, had already penetrated to a certain extent. The garbage floating in the surrounding star space was much more abundant than in the periphery, and the wreckage was experiencing a qualitative leap in both size and quality.

Su Mo even saw the wreckage of a medium-sized battleship, the entire ship broken in two.

Su Mo couldn't help but swallow, as if he had seen a big cake.

However, Su Mo restrained his greed and vigilantly looked at the surrounding wreckage. Soon, he noticed something was wrong. Not to mention whether there were any monsters hiding inside that battleship wreckage.

Behind those large pieces of wreckage floating nearby, he sensed that there were several pairs of eyes staring at him.

However, the lurking monsters here seemed to be different from normal monsters. Each monster seemed to have its own hunting range. If you didn't approach it, it wouldn't come out.

In addition, because there was too much mechanical garbage and pollution left here, and the monsters were very good at hiding, the scanning device seemed to be interfered with here, and the effect was very poor.

Su Mo calculated that these monsters wouldn't pose too much of a threat to him. However, once he entered the battleship to explore, and encountered any monsters, if these monsters suddenly popped out from somewhere and tripped him up when he tried to escape, it would be fatal.

Therefore, Su Mo controlled the Black Steel mecha, raised the alloy spear in his hand, and flew silently towards a monster hiding in the wreckage.

The clearing began!

......

Inside the Blacksun's command center, an operator was reporting.

"Report: A total of more than 122 formal combat personnel have applied for deep exploration. According to the positioning display, they have currently penetrated into the third layer area."

In order to better visualize the Dunkeye Graveyard Starfield, Li Ruiqi boldly divided the entire starfield into seven layers.

The seventh layer was the central area. It was said that it was once a meat grinder battlefield, where a large number of battleships and monsters had fallen. Rumor had it that due to the influence of negative energy, even more terrifying monsters were born from the dead wreckage, and no one who entered had ever come out alive.

Li Ruiqi sat in his chair, tapping the armrest with his fingers, listening quietly to the report. He asked, "What about those who aren't formal members?"

"Four thousand three hundred and twenty non-formal personnel have gone deep."

The operator looked at the data in his hand, paused slightly, and then reported.

"It really is true that people die for wealth, and birds die for food."

Li Ruiqi said with a hint of sarcasm.

Pu Temi coughed and quickly smoothed things over, saying to Li Ruiqi, "Don't worry about those small matters. How can amateurs compare with professionals?"

"You're right, but when the amateur is built on the guidance of the regular personnel's exploration, the situation is different."

Li Ruiqi turned his head and glanced at Pu Temi.

Pu Temi's expression immediately became a little unnatural. He was secretly cursing in his heart, "These idiots, even if you're in a hurry, don't be so ugly about it."

Only three hundred regular exploration team members had gone in, and then more than four thousand people had followed.

What was the difference between that and locusts?

However, Pu Temi still had to protect the interests of these idiots, after all, his rise to power was inseparable from their strong support.

"These things are not important, this ruined star space is so big. Let them act as pathfinders, it can be considered as contributing a force."

Pu Temi persuaded.

Li Ruiqi didn't say anything more.

It wasn't that he was so easy to talk to, tolerating these guys.

It was because he was also forced to do so. Each of these guys was extremely powerful. Don't look at them being so obedient and gathering together to form the Federation.

In fact, each of them had their own plans. The Federation had just been formed, and what was needed was unity, not division.

If he didn't turn a blind eye and let them eat some, they would turn their faces one by one.

He might as well fail internally first.

This result was not what Li Ruiqi wanted to see. Of course, there were disadvantages and benefits.

If one day, the Federation could truly integrate internally, then its terrifying side would be revealed.

In addition, it didn't matter if they jumped around.

At the beginning, Long Ming had his side carry out the expedition plan, making such a grand show of force. On the one hand, he was very confident in this expedition.

In fact, behind the scenes, there was another most important reason, which was to make all the consortia and oligarchs feel that this side was the main force of the exploration, and they would follow suit.

On the other side, Long Ming gathered most of the special forces and formed a pure expeditionary force to explore another star field. Although that force was not as large as this one, it was much purer.

He believed that there would also be very rich gains.

As long as the Federation was stronger than these guys, it could suppress them, slowly flatten them, and finally gradually integrate them into the Federation.

......

------------------------------------------

In the star space, Su Mo controlled the Black Steel mecha and slowly approached the wreckage of the warship in front of him. The alloy spear in his hand was covered with black blood, and the lurking monsters around him had been mercilessly strangled by him.

At this time, Su Mo's attention was all concentrated on the wreckage of the warship. The wreckage of this medium-sized battleship was very large, and the Black Steel mecha was very small compared to the warship.

Soon, Su Mo controlled the mecha to drill into the warship from the fracture.

Inside the warship, there was damaged equipment everywhere, and on the ground of these equipment, there were some dry and viscous liquids, but no corpses were seen.

Su Mo narrowed his eyes. Just looking at these traces, he was sure that there were many monsters entrenched on this ship.

Of course, this was not entirely a bad thing. In a sense, it proved that this ship's wreckage had not been developed, and its value should be very high.

Su Mo controlled the Black Steel mecha and walked inside step by step.

When he walked to the internal passage of the ship, pairs of green eyes opened on the top, and then an ugly head drilled down, splitting its mouth and revealing sharp teeth.

Su Mo drove the Black Steel mecha to a halt, his eyes squinting upward.

The next second Su Mo yanked on the control lever.

Immediately, Type I and Type II Pollution Beasts · Mandible Beasts pounced down, their bloody mouths gaping to bite down.

Su Mo steered the heavy Black Steel mecha to dodge the attack, while simultaneously backhanding a spear that pierced the mouth of a Type I Mandible Beast, then swinging the spear horizontally, sweeping away a leading Type II Mandible Beast. The entire Black Steel mecha was like a super agile fat man.

In a matter of minutes, all the Mandible Beasts that ambushed him were killed.

But Su Mo did not relax in the slightest, he remained vigilant at all times and continued to explore forward.

After a long while, Su Mo searched the entire ship.

His expression was a little helpless, he didn't find anything of much value, but fortunately, the main body of the ship was still well preserved.

If it were to be dismantled, it should be possible to extract a lot of good things.

But such a large ship was not something that Su Mo could dismantle alone; it would require a group of professional operators to come and dismantle it.

Just as Su Mo was about to drive the mecha away.

Su Mo suddenly stopped. He turned his head to look at the metal wall next to him, and he carefully observed it.

Suddenly, Su Mo controlled the Black Steel mecha and swung the alloy spear towards the metal wall.

Bang!

A metal hidden door was smashed open, exposing an entrance.

Su Mo was also a little thankful that he had almost missed it; he didn't expect this ship to have a hidden door.

So Su Mo drove the Black Steel mecha inside, and inside was a storage warehouse, which was filled with metal sealed boxes.

Was he so lucky? Su Mo was a little incredulous.

Although he didn't know what was inside these boxes yet. But even ammunition was quite valuable, after all, they were so well sealed, and there were quite a few of them.

Su Mo was not an indecisive person, he went up and started to dismantle these boxes.

Soon the box was dismantled, and the contents of the box made Su Mo's eyelids twitch.

What was sealed inside were bottles of biological extract.

Su Mo carefully checked the extract. These extracts were bio-processed products extracted from mutated monsters, and were used to synthesize gene potions.

This stuff was extremely valuable.

Don't look at how cheap the I-type gene potions from the Star Ring City are, that's because the Star Ring City deliberately sells them so cheaply for promotion.

The federal government only realized how expensive the raw materials were when it tried to synthesize them itself.

The most crucial of which was this biological extract.

These extracts had to be extracted from mutated monsters, and not all monsters were suitable for extraction. Only certain monsters were suitable for extraction.

Therefore, its value was comparable to that of star stones, and it could be completely called soft star stones.

Su Mo quickly dismantled the other boxes, only to find that they were all biological extracts. Especially when he dismantled the innermost box, Su Mo's breathing became a little heavier.

That box was a II-type biological extract, which was used to make II-type gene potions, and its value was very high.

Su Mo took a deep breath, it seemed that his luck had really turned around.

He counted slightly, there were about 100 boxes of I-type biological extract here, with 5 bottles in each box, and 10 boxes of II-type biological extract, with 5 bottles in each box.

He picked up the communicator and was about to send the coordinates when he suddenly hesitated.

In the end, he did not send the coordinates, he remembered what Sun Duoxiang had said, and his expression changed.

Finally, Su Mo began to act, he carried the boxes of biological extracts out of the ship. He hid them in the nearby space floating garbage wreckage. These garbage wreckage all looked worthless at a glance.

Su Mo had thought about it, he would hide these things here, and then notify Sun Duoxiang to come and take them.

In return, he could buy some things he needed in exchange for star coins, or if that failed, he could exchange them for some star stones and energy stones.

This thing was a hard currency, unlike federal currency, no matter how much money you had, no one would be willing to exchange it for star stones and energy stones.

It wasn't that Su Mo had no principles and was unwilling to hand it over.

But everyone was doing this now, everyone was prioritizing strengthening themselves.

At least half of the combat personnel who had come in to explore had deliberately leaked information to the people who followed in.

Another point was that Su Mo knew very well what his capabilities were. He had never been arrogant, even when he held so many gold points in his hands and was comparable to the Federation, he had never been inflated.

Because Su Mo was very clear about one thing, compared to the Federation, he was like a grain of rice compared to a pearl.

The Federation was not as weak as imagined, on the contrary, in Su Mo's eyes, the Federation was an incredibly terrifying existence.

Even when compared with those other civilizations, Su Mo didn't think much of them at all.

The gold points that the Federation took out at the beginning were, in a way, only their surface assets. How many organizations, consortia, capital, and oligarchs were secretly collecting them in the Star Ring World.

Moreover, the federal government was also secretly collecting them. As for how much, no one knew!

You had to know that they were the previous participants in the Land of Cup, how could they not have prepared?

The reason why the current Federation looked a little weak was only because the people inside had their own thoughts and were not united at all.

The entire system was like a sleeping beast, and when it truly woke up, it would be terrifying.

And he was just a lucky guy with better luck. To put it bluntly, he had already been amazed by the number of gold points he had obtained. But no matter how many more times he got, it wouldn't help. The Federation had so many people, they could work hard to develop for a few months, and they could surpass him in minutes.

It wasn't in the same magnitude at all. This was why Su Mo had to hold on to this big tree tightly, and didn't choose to go it alone.

After all, it was good to have shade under a big tree.

A good talent must also know how to choose a tree to perch on.

......

-----------------------------------------

In the star space, Sun Duoxiang was exploring with a private team from the Lin family, looking very nervous.

Li Duhai respectfully said to Sun Duoxiang, "Brother Sun, is it this area?"

"It should be right. Lu Qi (a member of the GT department's reserve team) sent us the coordinates, which is here."

Sun Duoxiang looked left and right, and replied uncertainly.

"I tried to contact Lu Qi just now, but I can't get through at all. Could something have happened to him?"

Li Duhai said worriedly.

"Don't talk nonsense, maybe he's nearby, just the communication is interfered with."

Sun Duoxiang said so, but he was also muttering in his heart.

Just then, a team member shouted in surprise, "Look, isn't that the target we're looking for."

Sun Duoxiang followed and looked, in the distant ruined star space, there was a medium-sized transport ship that had been damaged and was here, with ship fragments all around.

"That's the location, such a big ship, there must be a stock inside, Brother Sun, let's go up and explore it."

The people below said excitedly.

Sun Duoxiang's eyelids were twitching, and he cautiously said, "Wait a minute, let me try to contact Lu Qi again."