by <unknown>
Xiaoming and Wenwen looked at each other and hesitated. "Yesterday, we talked about it with Master Fist King and realized that there were a lot of things that we needed to learn from Master Fist King. Also, if the battle network of a super fleet is to be established, it seems that our database will have to open more accesses and interfaces. All-All in all, there are a lot of technical details and problems that need addressing. You wouldn't know what they meant even if we tell you, Dad. So, we really don't have the time."
"That's right."
The Fist King said calmly, "My database is more condensed and professional, storing solely the information about battles, but Xiaoming and Wenwen's database includes a lot more information about the civilization of mankind. Our communication will significantly increase our logic abilities and mental activities. So, I have improved the issue to be the top priority. So, I cannot go with you, Li Yao. But don't misunderstand, I truly want to go with you. Trust me, I'm a machine. Well, a machine doesn't lie."
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao looked at Boss Bai.
Boss Bai had already activated more than ten light beams. He was so focused on the construction of the fleet that he did not notice Li Yao's scorching eyes at all.
The meeting room fell silent in a subtle, awkward atmosphere.
Li Yao looked at everyone, and everyone looked at their fingers.
"… Fine."
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao gnashed his teeth and said, "Let's discuss the specific arrangements later. All in all, the first meeting of our 'partnership of pyromaniacs' is very successful—"
"Wait, what?"
Boss Bai was suddenly refreshed, and his head craned out of a light beam. "What the heck is the 'partnership of pyromaniacs'? Was this one of the motions? Why didn't I know anything?"
"It's… the name of our team!"
Li Yao said matter-of-factly, "So many sophisticated eccentrics of the Pangu universe have been gathered for the future of mankind. This is such a thrilling and significant issue, and such a luxury and top combination. Naturally, it needs a great name!"
Boss Bai bashed the table and glared. "The most important thing is why this combination is named as 'partnership of pyromaniacs'? Can't it be called 'coalition of kleptomaniacs'?"
"Yes, of course it can, but the name 'partnership of pyromaniacs' is more meaningful and awe-inspiring, because our goal is to bring light and warmth to all the civilizations in the whole universe!"
Li Yao scratched his head hard. Seeing that Boss Bai was apparently not in a good mood, he said in a hurry, "Don't be upset, Boss Bai. How about this, let's both take a step back and meet halfway. The name of the team is still 'partnership of pyromaniacs', but we can use your battle robe as the suit of our team! When the unparalleled experts of 'partnership of pyromaniacs' show up, you, I, the Fist King, Long Yangjun, Xiaoming, Wenwen, and even Li Jialing, Han Te, Liu Li, and the rest of them will all be wearing colorful shirts, beach pants, and blue-and-white flip-flops. Wouldn't that be glamorous and astounding?"
Boss Bai: "…"
Xiaoming: "So, has Dad entered the low operation speed mode again, preserving all his intelligence?"
The Fist King: "I think so. Hehe, those idiotic human beings. Can 'partnership of pyromaniacs' or 'coalition of kleptomaniacs' even count as a name? In my opinion, it should be called the 'invincible alliance of iron dominators'!"
"Huh?"
Wenwen was astounded. "M-Master Fist King, are you serious?"
"Of course."
The Fist King said, "I'm a machine. A machine never jokes. I'm always serious. Is there a problem?"
"… I do have a minor question."
Xiaoming couldn't help but ask, "Master Fist King, how do you feel about the name 'Super Awesome Heavenly Crystal Second Generation'?"
"It's not half bad."
The Fist King analyzed carefully for a moment and said, "It's simple yet intimidating, the suffix 'second generation' points out its model and version, leaving room for future upgrades. The following models can be named as the third generation, fourth generation, fifth generation, and so on without causing any confusion. It's a rarely-seen good name. What's wrong?"
Xiaoming and Wenwen said at the same time, "N-Nothing. Just forget it."
Chapter 2493: Super Cyberwar Cruiser! |
While a friendly and joyful discussion was going on inside the meeting room, allowing the participants of the meeting to gain a profound understanding about each other's stance, two fledging, vigorous young men—perhaps the new generation of the partnership of pyromaniacs—were confronting each other coldly.
They were exactly Han Te and Li Jialing.
Appointed as guards of the meeting, they stayed at the door to prevent anybody else from barging in.
However, the two young men were like magnets on the same pole, finding each other utterly intolerable even though it was the first time they met.
Han Te leaned against the wall like a hippie, his lips pouted, while he squinted at the golden hair on Li Jialing's body with disdain all over his face. He was also mumbling something nonstop.
Li Jialing, on the other hand, was holding his arms and almost half asleep, his head lowered, not even looking back at Han Te.
His arrogance completely irritated the disobedient young man from the Land of Sins. Han Te walked around Li Jialing for a few laps and provoked him, "Hey, golden-haired boy, has anybody ever told you that you look very arrogant?"
"Then, has anybody ever told you that—"
Li Jialing replied casually, "—you look very unmannered?"
"Hehe, the worms that gnawed our way out of the Land of Sins like us were all raised by nature. Of course, we are unmannered!"
Han Te gnashed his teeth. "We are certainly not half as unmannered as the sons of the great houses who always enjoy an extravagant life!"
"Extravagant life? Great houses?"
Li Jialing was amused. He shook his head and said unconcernedly, "I know you, Han Te. You are very famous in the Big Bai Pirate Gang—the stud from Stainless Mouse! However, a piece of advice: if you suffer cerebral ischemia for a long time, your brain tissues tend to necrotize, and your IQ will be lowered, although I don't think you have much to lose right now."
It took Han Te a long time before he finally realized what was going on. He immediately burst into a fury with his eyes bloodshot, like a bull whose eyes were covered by a piece of red cloth. He demanded angrily, "Li boy, I know you too. You're from 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', aren't you? You once received the most rigorous training there, and the 'materials' for your training were all captured from the Land of Sins, weren't they? Every muscle and every bone on your body is saturated with the blood of the people of the Land of Sins. One day, one day—"
"'One day' is unnecessary—"
Golden flames seemed to be surging in the middle of Li Jialing's golden hair. The last thing he would like to be reminded of was the miserable life when he was in "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky". He couldn't help but burst into a real fury too. "Let's just make it here and today. Although I do not believe I'm the one responsible for the miseries of the Land of Sins, if you have nothing better to do than to vent your fury on me, just bring it on! I'm right here!"
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Han Te's arms that were made of iron unleashed purple electric arcs too, with the sword balls carved with rune arrays swirling rapidly among them. Staring at Li Jialing, he announced, "Had it not been for Grandpa Yao, I would've taught you a lesson a long time ago!"
"Same for me."
Li Jialing narrowed his eyes and said, "Had it not been for Brother Yao, I assure you that I would've turned you from a stud into a mule. Do you know their difference?"
"A*shole!"
Han Te burst into fury. Then he realized that something was not right. "You are tricking me! I call him 'Grandpa Yao', and yet you call him 'Brother Yao'. Doesn't that mean I'm multiple generations lower than you? Golden-haired boy, it's too cunning of you!"
; Li Jialing: "… Idiot."
"You—"
Han Te was about to go on a rampage when he saw a petite person running to the place. Delighted, he retreated his spiritual energy and put on a smile. "Liu Li, are you here for Grandpa Yao or Master Fist King?"
It was exactly Liu Li, the girl who grew up and escaped from the Land of Sins together with him.
Liu Li was still mad at Han Te. Seeing that he was guarding the door, she sniffed and became gloomy, looking at the other direction.
However, she was greatly shocked when she saw the other young man who was guarding the door and couldn't help but look back in Han Te's direction as she exclaimed, "A cat demon!"
Li Jialing finally had enough of it. The golden hair all over his body stood up, making his head twice as large as usual, while he roared, "Who's a cat demon? Are the people from the Land of Sins all as ignorant as you? This is a lion, a magnificent golden lion!"
"Aya!"
Scared, Liu Li hurried to hide behind Han Te, while Han Te shouted and waved his iron arms at Li Jialing. The three young people became a mess.
Of course, it was a rather unharmonious episode of the meeting of the establishment of the partnership of pyromaniacs.
Eventually, a common understanding was achieved inside and outside of the meeting room.
The small team made of the most bizarre-looking, unbelievable, and strong eccentrics of the Pangu universe was eventually named as "Partnership of Pyromaniacs", on the condition that Li Yao would no longer wear Boss Bai's same-type robe in the future, at least not right in front of Boss Bai.
After the team was set up, the construction of the "Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs", co-founded by the Big Bai Pirate Gang and the Cultivators' fleet, was finally set on the correct and high-speed track.
The first to come was the maintenance, modification, and upgrade of the starships.
Having captured tremendous starships of the twenty-eight pirate gangs, Li Wuji's fleet, and the Flying Rainbow Fleet, the "Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs" almost had infinite possibilities of modification.
As if he were a disloyal son who was selling his father's properties without cherishing, Boss Bai dismantled the power units of abundant starships in the most extravagant way and installed all of them on the few starships that he intended to retain.
In the end, the power units of those starships were mostly three times more than the power units on the starships of the same type, and in extreme cases, they were six times more powerful. It meant that they would have the unparalleled acceleration and the agility that would almost, no, absolutely lacerate the shell and the internal structure of the starships.
Nobody had ever done such a thing before.
Because starships were not the faster, the better. Even if they were pursuing the maximal speed, the goal could not be achieved by simply installing a few more power units.
It also required the redesign of the shape of the starship, perfection of the structure, the most well-trained and fearless crew, and the ancillary artificial intelligence system that could accurately control every rune array in the power units.
As it happened, most of the conditions could be satisfied in the Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs.
For the conditions that could not be met, it was Boss Bai's opinion that they could be made up with courage and luck.
"Trust me. Having walked to where we are today, we are definitely the luckiest people in the Pangu universe. So, those starships will absolutely have no faults even if they are twice as fast as their maximal speed, as long as you are not on our starships. Absolutely!"
Boss Bai patted his chest and promised Li Yao.
Next, it was the modification of the Fist King's starship "Iron Fist" and the preparation for Xiaoming and Wenwen's own starships.
While Xiaoming and Wenwen were capable of hacking the Spiritual Nexus freely, this was a material world after all. Their brains were still undeveloped, which meant that their overly powerful abilities were restricted, and if they were to use such abilities, it might cause irreversible brain injuries.
Li Yao, Boss Bai, and the Fist King discussed for a long time. Eventually, they prepared two "Swirl"-level cyberwar cruisers of the Imperium as their special starships.
The starships of such a model did not have fierce firepower, but they carried a very powerful crystal processor system and cyberwarfare system. It was their responsibility to disrupt the enemy's Spiritual Nexus, fabricate signals, and camouflage the network of their own side in wartime. They were the best carriers for information lives.
"Swirl" was not the most advanced model of cyberwar cruisers of the Imperium. As a matter of fact, there were quite a few better ones in Li Wuji's fleet that was newly captured.
However, "Swirl" had the greatest advantage in that the starships of such a model were relatively large in size because of the underdeveloped technologies, which meant that there was great potential for modification. After the abundant useless facilities were removed, there would be room for more mainframe crystal processors.
Eventually, the two Swirl-level cyberwar cruisers were respectively installed with eight mainframe crystal processors that were dismantled from other starships.
According to the general rule of starship upgrade and modification, it was an absurd approach that would result in the redundancy of computational ability and excessive energy consumption. The mainframe crystal processors were the greatest energy consumers on starships. The main guns only consumed spiritual energy when they were fired, but the mainframe crystal processors could consume astronomical spiritual energy every second.
For a normal commander, piling eight mainframe crystal processors on one starship was like installing a hundred cannons on one tower. It was utterly stupid.
But for Xiaoming and Wenwen, there could never be enough crystal processors.
In their words, they were trapped in the flesh and blood like fish living in a small pond previously. By connecting to the eight mainframe crystal processors via the nerval interaction liquids, they felt that they had leaped from a pond into a giant river, and they were now able to swim and soar.
However, eight mainframe crystal processors were also the limits of what their tiny bodies could bear.
For the information lives, every new connected crystal processor was like one more piece of bread for a human being.
One's body could only be nourished and built on by eating bread in a good time so that more bread could be swallowed and digested later. The process of adaptation was necessary.
It was the same for information lives. Connecting hundreds of mainframe crystal processors to Xiaoming and Wenwen's brains and asking them to power the equipment would wear them out.
Li Yao and the Fist King, one being the kids' father and the other being their own kind, had devoted all their knowledge to the modification of the two kids' starships and were very satisfied with the final result.
Looking at the newly-crafted "Super Swirl"-level cyberwar cruisers, Li Yao and the Fist King were almost shedding hot tears as lubricants. The two of them almost couldn't wait to name the new starships.
Xiaoming and Wenwen stopped them without any hesitation, claiming that they should keep a low profile until the conditions matured. So, the two starships were simply named as "Xiaoming" and "Wenwen", and it was unnecessary for Li Yao and the Fist King to waste their time on thinking of more awe-inspiring names.
Chapter 2494: New World, New Dominator! |
Besides the most advanced crystal processors and cyberwarfare units, the two "Super Swirl"-level warships naturally still needed crews.
While Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King could reduce half of the posts on board through the fully-automatic operation system, the agility, independence, and creativity of human beings in the key posts could not be replaced by piles of data.
Li Yao chose the reliable soldiers in the Big Bai Pirate Gang who knew the truth of the federation and who still had family in the federation, as well as those in the Cul
tivators' fleet who held bloody grudges against the Immortal Cultivators, as the crews of "Xiaoming" and "Wenwen".
Those people either considered the federation as their homeland or had the deepest hatred against the Imperium. Their loyalty was certainly not a problem.
The question was how to explain what Xiaoming and Wenwen were to them.
Li Yao had made up his mind that he would not keep the truth a secret for too long.
Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King had also run careful deductions. If they did not intend to have full conflicts with the civilization of mankind, resulting in heavy losses on both sides, the sooner they revealed the truth, the better.
If they had mastered a dozen fleets and millions of aggressive battle puppets, only to be exposed by somebody else, it was impossible for the paranoid and sensitive human beings not to overreact.
While they were still fledging, they could offer to publicize the truth and grow up under the watch and guidance of mankind. That was perhaps the fastest way of growth for a "child civilization".
Of course, the situation at the center of the cosmos was still too chaotic. The reformists, Blackstar the Great who was hiding among the reformists, the four Kurfürst families, the Covenant Alliance that was coveting from the darkness, the mysterious mausoleum of the Supreme Emperor, as well as the Supreme Emperor and the Blood God whose life statuses were unknown… There were too many variables.
The troops in the Blue Sky Market were far from united too. Since the battle of the Seven Seas Grand Market was about to begin, all the crew members would only be baffled if the truth was completely revealed. Therefore, after discussing with the Fist King and Boss Bai, Li Yao decided to go one step at a time and reveal part of the truth in order to see the crew's reaction.
Regarding the two unbelievably automatic cyberwarfare cruisers, Li Yao's explanation was that they had applied the most up-to-date super artificial intelligence technology from the federation, or to wit, the "Hyper Spirits" technology left by Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan.
Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan created countless artificial intelligence and strengthened eighteen of them into "Hyper Spirits", planning to use them to control the entire federation. That was true.
