Chapter 749 - 233: Prodigy Hunt List! Advent of the Mechanical Race, Iron Man Rebellion
Chapter 749: Chapter 233: Prodigy Hunt List! Advent of the Mechanical Race, Iron Man Rebellion
It was a difficult choice.
Star System Level Resources were the steady path to improvement, determining whether they could pull ahead of the others in terms of power.
Hunting the Mechanical Race, on the other hand, was a high-risk, high-reward gamble. Win, and the path to the "Eternal Singularity" would be wide open.
Lose, and it meant utter annihilation and immediate elimination from the contest.
’Which one to choose?’
A confident smile had just graced Caesar’s lips, as if he had already found his answer.
However, in the next second, the smile on his face completely froze.
His eyes were glued to the virtual screen in front of him, which was constantly updating with the latest battle reports. His expression visibly darkened.
"Now..."
He took a deep breath, his voice heavier than ever. "We don’t have to choose anymore."
"Quick, look at the private forum for the greater war zone!"
Hearing this, Qin Feng immediately turned his attention to the public forum.
On the forum, countless Martial Artists from different alliances and star systems were frantically posting updates, their tone bordering on hysteria.
[ALERT! Mechanical Race warp signatures detected across the entirety of Star System 1213! Numbers are inestimable!]
[Our patrol team encountered a Mechanical Race outpost and was wiped out in a single engagement! The enemy units are at least Planet-level Peak combatants!]
[HELP! Star System 2301 is surrounded! Red dots everywhere! We’re trapped!]
Urgent reports, colored blood-red, flooded the screen like an avalanche of snowflakes.
Caesar’s voice was strained. "The number of Mechanical Race lifeforms... is far beyond anything we could have imagined!"
"This isn’t a targeted deployment or a regional invasion... According to the latest compiled intelligence, armies of the Mechanical Race of varying sizes are appearing in nearly every star system occupied by a participant!"
Qin Feng’s pupils contracted. He instantly understood the chilling implication behind those words.
"You mean, the more territory an alliance holds, the greater the pressure from the Mechanical Race they’ll have to face?"
"Yes."
Caesar nodded heavily.
In an instant, both of them fell silent.
The Six Great Star Systems Alliance...
The name sounded grand and imposing, but in essence, it was merely a coalition formed by the Martial Artists from the original Star System 99 and Star Systems 115 through 119—just six star systems in total.
And yet, the Martial Artists from these mere six star systems had occupied a vast territory spanning three hundred star systems!
A short while ago, this number was a source of great pride and a significant asset.
But now, it had become a shackle, heavy enough to crush them.
Among all the super-alliances in the entire war zone, their "Six Great Star Systems Alliance" was the perfect example of being "spread thin over a vast territory."
This situation pointed to a terrifying reality—they would have to face the endless armies of the Mechanical Race from three hundred star systems simultaneously, with the strength of only six!
The pressure was immense.
"We could choose to temporarily turtle up, pulling all our forces back to our original six star systems to defend," Qin Feng analyzed calmly. "But that would also mean we’d have to abandon the resource-producing territories in the three hundred star systems we fought so hard to conquer."
This choice was just as deadly.
If they abandoned their territory, the entire system built within the alliance—exchanging Battle Merits for resources—would instantly collapse.
The Battle Merits held by the alliance members who had bled and fought for them would become a pile of worthless numbers. A great number of Martial Artists would find this unacceptable, and their loyalty would shatter.
At that point, the Mechanical Race wouldn’t even need to act; the alliance would disintegrate from within.
Qin Feng and Caesar might even become public enemies for making such a decision.
Before, if the alliance fell apart, it fell apart. The worst-case scenario was the two of them becoming Lone Rangers.
But now, the situation was completely different.
There were those ten members of the Ten Thousand Races’ Celestial Pride, their strength unfathomable and their identities a mystery, lurking like vipers in the shadows, watching with covetous eyes.
Once they lost the protection of the alliance and found themselves deserted by their followers, those celestial prides of the Alien Races would definitely seize the opportunity to launch a fatal sneak attack.
Qin Feng knew this from bitter experience. He would never forget how, back when he was still weak and being hunted by Lang Qi, the allies of the Martial Artists he had killed had sabotaged him from the shadows.
They spread his location and delayed his escape, nearly leading Qin Feng to his doom.
"So, we have to fight the Mechanical Race. And we can only win."
Caesar’s voice was resolute, filled with unquestionable determination.
"However, the alliance’s Battle Merit System doesn’t need to be linked to this Mechanical Race invasion."
Caesar made a swift decision. "The ’Machine Souls’ of the Mechanical Race will be treated as pure spoils of war. Whoever has the skill to make the kill gets to keep the prize. This will maximize everyone’s motivation to fight."
At this, he let out a rare sigh, a trace of regret on his face.
"To be honest, I’m starting to regret not having subjugated some of the surrendered forces before."
"We killed our way through here, and in the pursuit of efficiency and ’clearing the board,’ we eliminated all the Martial Artists from the star systems we conquered."
"If we had kept some of them as vassals back then, the pressure from the Mechanical Race would be much less severe now."
"It’s useless to think about that now."
Qin Feng cut off his train of thought. "What’s past is past. For now, it looks like the plan to compete for Star System Level Resources will have to be put on hold."
"Exactly."