001. Escaped, but Not Completely
After entering Tianhuan's territory, Li Aozi quickly ditched the train engine at the old Jiangzhitian station, then changed into his shabby old clothes and started walking.
In reality, even though he stepped into Tianhuan's territory, those familiar with Tianhuan knew that this country's borders were never fixed.
Besides the ambitious Tianhuan army, the private militias were also extremely rampant. In Tianhuan's company registration categories, there were even terms like 'Armed Joint-Stock Company' and 'Pioneer Colonization Group'.
These private militias would invade native settlements in the outer world under the guise of pioneering.
Unlike the assassination and infiltration tactics of Frost-Plated's Law III, Tianhuan didn't care about these civilian militias, allowing them to burn, kill, and loot as much as they could, as long as they paid taxes to the country.
These civilian self-governing groups were essentially Tianhuan's mobile borders.
In Tianhuan, it was common for a village to contribute a knife, another a gun, and then form a 'pioneer group' to plunder land and resources.
Therefore, Li Aozi wasn't worried about being checked for illegal entry—there were too many illegal entrants. Outside was the vast snowfield of the outer world, and refugees had no other way to survive. Their only hope was to run to the invaders' homeland, usually heading to the fringe cities of Tianhuan.
After a few decades, the descendants of these people would become new Tianhuan warriors or laborers on the assembly line, serving those who initially invaded them.
For Li Aozi, it didn't matter: a player not passing through checkpoints three or four times couldn't really claim to have been to Tianhuan.
Li Aozi estimated his location: he was 450 kilometers from the nearest city in Tianhuan. He decided to head to a settlement to rest and recover while working on his two side jobs.
The secondary profession [Biochemist] required a lot of specialized knowledge to enhance his mimicry health.
The [Craft] series [Biochemist] was the most versatile early on among the 'Magical Machinery' kings. Later on, everyone was on par, but few were as versatile as a [Biochemist] early on.
Need a healer in the team?
—[Biochemist] could make potions on the spot, even in flavors like hot sauce, yogurt, or milk tea, full of tech and hard work.
Need a scout?
—[Biochemist] could send out biochemical beasts that could either kill or subdue enemies with little noise, much better than drones.
Need a tank?
—[Biochemist] had high mimicry health, even more than some [Warriors], and with combat engineer armor and ceramic steel plates, could force the enemy to bring out mortars.
Need a main damage dealer?
—[Biochemist] with poisons and viruses would show why these weapons were restricted by international treaties. After a fight, there might not even be leaves left in the forest.
Of course, this required the [Biochemist] to have extensive knowledge.
The core attribute of this profession was [Intelligence], but Li Aozi had the [Perpetual•Decisive Action] specialization, using [Charisma] for all attribute checks. Learning [Biochemist] knowledge was not difficult for him.
As for the life profession [Artisan]... it was still inactive, but its prerequisite skills and knowledge were not rare, easy to find.
After continuous battles, Li Aozi felt tired. He found a hidden spot in the subway station, crawled in, pulled up his hood, blocked the entrance, stuffed a few compressed biscuits into his mouth, and fell asleep.
[Immortal Blood] and [Spontaneous Combustion] were the only Omega Energies left in his pod.
[Immortal Blood] was upgraded from absorbing over nine hundred Omega Energies from Bio-Titan, recalculated in the pod, and like [Spontaneous Combustion], could still be used.
The appearance of [Spontaneous Combustion] also completed the 'Blood Demon Flow' he envisioned, needing sustained damage Omega Energy.
Next, only one crucial Omega Energy remained—[Death Link].
Once this style was perfected, Li Aozi had absolute confidence to claim that "Masterpiece" weapon.
Li Aozi stood and slept, [Immortal Blood] would automatically wake him in a crisis.
During the break, Li Aozi carefully reviewed the situation so far, and his shortcomings.
"First, check my tasks."
He opened the task list:
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[Main Quest]:
1."Remember It"
[Difficulty]: scary
Progress: Settlement condition c."Uproot"—Eliminate all sponsors and project parties of Abyss Humanitarian Relief, and expose their actions.
.........….
2."Frost-Plated Bone"
[Difficulty]: splendidstory
a."Historical Progress"—Destroy the current government of the Frost-Plated Republic.
b."Desire for Change"—Reconstruct Frost-Plated's national culture and social structure, restoring normal life for its people.
c."End the Evil"—Permanently solve the problems of Frost-Plated and the outer world, ensuring the people do not overcorrect.
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"Whether it's the settlement condition c of "Remember It" or the three conditions of "Frost-Plated Bone"—the main quests are tough. I can't solve them alone."
Li Aozi shook his head; these weren't problems individual power could solve.
Each involved Frost-Plated's discourse power, and in Frost-Plated, he had none.
"I have no chance until David Lin comes to power."
Li Aozi thought.
This was why he didn't take Yavanna along.
Although Yavanna's favorability was high enough to share the [Objective Resonance] talent... Li Aozi discovered after secretly redeeming the [White Wax Fantasy Crystal] that it was 'effective only when teamed up'.
"Damn merchant!"
He came to Tianhuan mainly to kill, cultivate forces, and poach talent. Such dangerous work, with Yavanna's current combat power, she'd be a burden. Better to send her back, where she could help during Du Zexin's prison break.
Besides the main quests and his personal collection, Li Aozi had two major goals.
First: Exterminate the fake society • Filolis.
Second: Go to space.
These two seemed unrelated, but they were actually interconnected.
In fact, for Li Aozi, this was his greatest advantage.
All his actions so far, accumulating combat power, expanding the [Domination] player group, were for this purpose.
—To go to the universe.
If possible, Li Aozi had a crazy idea: to dive into the Star Abyss before players' level cap reached 60.
Layer Abyss, Realm Abyss, Surrounding Abyss, Group Abyss, Underworld Abyss, Source Abyss.
Six layers of Star Abyss, each dive liberating individual limits, elevating personal power, and granting a blessing, but the tempting Star Abyss also cursed you.
Repeated ascensions led to increasingly severe curses. So most strong individuals didn't dare to sacrifice their power to ascend, usually settling on one layer.
But with only one or two dives, Li Aozi had ways to avoid it.
From Layer Abyss to Realm Abyss and back, only the [Starlight Master]'s prerequisite profession, [Archbishop], could avoid the curse.
When people were still trapped by gravity, they never thought the solution to all problems lay in space.
Li Aozi firmly believed this, as one of those who destroyed Blue Star, he knew more than ordinary players about its destruction.
The fake society • Filolis and its counterfeit invasion were just part of it.
More importantly, there was a more severe danger brewing on this planet. Currently just an infant, once released, it could rapidly spread throughout the star region within a century.
Social invasion only disgusted narrative-level civilizations, unable to kill or catch up, just annoying.
But Li Aozi knew: once that thing was born, it would utterly harm sub-narrative-level civilizations.
That was Filolis's purpose here.
Social hierarchies existed, and as a living civilization, society was an evil predator, feeding on civilizations without needing resources. What drove their growth was an abstract 'concept'.
The strongest society Li Aozi had seen was the apex of hundreds of top societies, the Outer Domain Society • Pergerla. Official data showed Pergerla's outer winds could corrupt all material worlds, its bottomless abyss hosting at least 666 Omega-level (equivalent to level 480) abyss lords.
Pergerla was also the most powerful character in "Star Abyss" players knew.
Such powerful foes were usually just background. Li Aozi had only killed ten great demons in his previous life, the weakest being level 290.
The universe's resource richness was beyond human understanding, only in such environments could masses of strong beings be born.
In comparison, the level 270 fake society • Filolis seemed like a baby.
In the Star Abyss, there were far stronger combat forces.
Conversely, if eliminated at the budding stage, Filolis would give up invading Blue Star, and the Galactic civilization wouldn't need to destroy the planet.
What made Filolis drool and the Galactic civilization fearful, risking breaking interstellar ethics to blow up Blue Star, in the future would be players' eternal enemy.
This being belonged to a noble ancient race: Yintopheia.
This obscure pronunciation was hard to remember and carried an indescribable magical power, so people referred to it by its title:
—Entropy Lord.