Chapter 1101 - Accumulation (1/2)

Mission Introduction: An exploration team has dug out taboo antiques in the Ancient Star Desert, accidentally releasing a virtual virus aimed at artificial intelligences. The source of this virus is unknown, but it has an extremely high infectivity and permeability. It has spread rapidly through the domain of the quantum network, and once it breaks out, the underlying logic of countless artificial intelligences and machines will be rewritten to initiate a mechanical rebellion.

Mission Requirements: Clear the unknown virtual virus and remove the Intelligent Plague crisis.

Reward: Based on the Mission Rating, different rewards will be given.

Special Mission Requirement: Personally destroy the core data of the virus.

Special Mission Reward: Generate a Specialty related to yourself (Exclusive to the Mechanic Class)

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An S-rank Mission… well, as expected.

Han Xiao was not surprised at all.

With the three Universal Civilizations barricading the entire Star Field, such a large move would naturally not be a small task. Given the spread of the virus, it was indeed worthy of the highest level of difficulty needed to completely eliminate it.

The majority of S-ranked mission requirements were usually ambiguous, with only a few prompts for the steps needed. One had to discover the method to solve the problem themselves. Generally, there would be more than one method to solve the mission, and one had to be easily adaptable to changes.

This was what had happened with Godora’s [Bloodline] mission, so Han Xiao was already used to it.

What he was curious about was regarding the special mission requirements. It actually revealed a lot of information.

I originally thought that every individual virus was the same because that’s how a virus usually transmits. I didn’t expect that there would be a core. In this manner, the virus is more like a controllable Virtual Domain bioweapon…

If the core of the virus was an intelligent life form, it would definitely be hidden within the quantum network and not show itself. The threat of the virtual viruses would thus greatly increase as opponents with a self-consciousness were more terrifying than the objects that moved based on their instincts.

But there was another possibility, and that was that the core data of the virus was not an intelligent life form but rather an algorithm that was responsible for the coordination of the overall infection. It would command all its virus progeny according to its program structure without any self-awareness.

Hmm… why do I have a feeling this is like operating a plague company? Han Xiao scratched his head.

The special mission reward was the ability to generate a Mechanic class related expertise, not one extracted from a target. This made him feel that the virus core was more likely to be an algorithm. The generated expertise would not be any weaker than the huge movements from this mission and would also likely be related to Virtual Technology expertise.

“Phillip, prepare the spaceship and ask Reynold to choose a few mechanics to follow me.”

Han Xiao did not hesitate, putting on his coat and opening the door, striding toward the dock of the base.

This intelligent plague was an emergency, able to threaten the entire universe and disrupt his plans. He had to end his ‘vacation’ early, temporarily leaving the matters at hand and take his people to the Ancient Star Desert to complete the mission.

As someone who was in a high position, he could not remain uninvolved when faced with problems of this level.

Not long after, a fleet full of Mechanics from the army set off from Black Star Palace, shuttling like a group of meteors through the universe in the direction of the Ancient Star Desert.

At the same time, countless well-known mechanics throughout the universe also received the invitation of the three Universal Civilizations to move toward the Ancient Star Desert.

This matter concerned the safety of the entire universe, and the three Universal Civilizations were in a race against time, so they acted quickly. The Civilization Conference was urgently convened, and all the civilizations at the Star System level and above in the Ancient Star Desert were quickly identified.

In the conference hall that was full of remote projections of various civilization representatives, the leaders of the three Universal Civilizations appeared at the same time to announce their decision.

“Yesterday, the Federation of Light, the Crimson Dynasty, and the Arcane Church received reliable information that a special virtual virus has appeared in the Ancient Star Desert. This virus is extremely permeable and has inflected many areas. According to the judgement of experts, the goal of the virus is to rewrite the underlying logic for all infected machines, taking the killing of living organisms as their primary task.

“After much discussion, the three Universal Civilizations have rated this disaster as ‘World-Destroying Level’ and are activating the unified command to seal off all quantum network nodes connecting the Ancient Star Desert to the outside world. Troops will be sent to block the Star Field, and all civilizations of the Ancient Star Desert must cooperate with the actions of the three Universal Civilizations. These procedures are to be implemented immediately.”

Extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures. Without any long-winded talk, the three Universal Civilizations read out the notices rather than bills, requiring all civilizations within the Ancient Star Desert to comply without fail, with no room for negotiation.

Just as they finished speaking, the civilizations’ representatives, who were initially wondering why an emergency meeting was convened, turned pale.

The three Universal Civilizations were responsible for the exploration of the universe and had also set up a disaster rating system. According to the relevant laws and regulations, when the threat level of a disaster rose to a certain level, the three Universal Civilizations would have the high veto power and be qualified to coordinate all the civilizations within the universe.

It was just that such incidents were few and far between even throughout the long history.

As soon as the announcement from the three Universal Civilizations was issued, the galactic residents went into an uproar. No one had thought that a disaster of this magnitude would happen all of a sudden. The world was truly full of surprises.

For those ordinary citizens, this was just like any other normal day. The disaster happened silently, and if not for the early warning measures of the three Universal Civilizations, most people would only have reacted when the virus broke out.

Regardless of what the various civilizations within the Ancient Star Desert were planning in secret, they were extremely cooperative on the surface, cutting off all external links and blocking their own Star Field network in accordance with the requirements of the three Universal Civilizations.

With the three Universal Civilizations and the civilizations within the Star Field collectively acting, the scale of resources mobilized was beyond imagination. Things that were believed impossible in the eyes of normal people were easily achieved.

The Ancient Star Desert was quickly isolated from the entire galactic society and became akin to a quarantined city in darkness. All contact with it was forbidden, and the outside world did not know what was happening inside.

While the situation was temporarily under control, panic still spread throughout the universe. The sudden disaster robbed the Flickering World of its limelight, and countless people turned their attention away from the competition in the new Star Field to focus on progression of the situation within the Ancient Star Desert.

Compared to the calm and poise with which the civilizations handled the situation, the galactic residents of the Ancient Star Desert seemed to be chaotic and flustered. Even though the civilizations continued to appease the residents, there were still varying degrees of people fleeing to other planets to take refuge.

Due to the target of the virus being artificial intelligences, countless residents no longer placed their trust in their machines, thinking that they might possibly be a threat. They would rather regress back to the level of a surface civilization than continue to utilize the intelligent machinery. Some even destroyed their machines to eliminate any hidden threats.

A trend of machinery rejection was created in the Ancient Star Desert… but such chaos was long within the predicted scope of the advanced civilizations.

With the severity of the situation, the three Universal Civilizations did not choose to block the news but rather let everyone know the seriousness of such a situation. In this manner, the self-examination and supervision of the galactic residents could be strengthened. Besides, there would be no way to hide any movement of this scale.

The stargates were rapidly closed, the army moving into the Star Field to set up barricades. Countless people who wished to escape from the Ancient Star Desert were completely blocked.

This scene was something that also occurred during the era of the intelligent plague in his previous life. Now that this was pushed forward to the Version 4.0 era, a stormy undercurrent started brewing.

“The Ancient Star Desert has been sealed? Black Star has gone to aid them‽”

In the free competition zone, the leaders of the Super Star Cluster met in secret within the Flickering World, their expressions gleeful.