# Chapter 2: Eight-Star Title
Northern Region, Empire Occupied Zone.
Because the Empire's Third Fleet had only landed for a relatively short time, just over three months, the environmental damage to the northern region wasn't too severe yet. But that was only a matter of time.
The trees and vegetation in the military garrison area had been completely clear-cut. Looking down from above, one could see that the lush green land had been torn open like an ugly scar by human hands. Spaceships and living pods were parked on it, while sports fields and landing pads had been built in the open spaces.
Around this large garrison area were dense vegetation, with many muddy roads pressed out by passing heavy transport vehicles. Some transport vehicles still showed bite marks on them. On the thick alloy layers, one could clearly see the marks left by sharp teeth, as well as claw marks several centimeters deep and finger-width wide.
The heavy transport vehicles pressed deep ruts into the ground. Despite the terrible road conditions, these behemoths moved as if on flat ground.
Several supersonic fighter jets streaked across the sky above. On the landing pad below, several soldiers bent over, covering their ears from the sonic boom. After recovering, they began cursing at the sky. A bearded man driving a single-soldier mech suit, who was loading ammunition onto a battleship, raised his middle finger toward the sky from within the mech's cockpit. The logistics medium mech connected to his neural link made the same gesture.
The entire Third Fleet garrison area could rival a city. At its center, a main flagship was docked.
Inside the flagship's command area, an old man wearing slightly gray camouflage military uniform, with graying hair, sat before a holographic sand table. He held a cup of steaming coffee in his hand. The coffee was already at his lips, but he hadn't drunk it. Instead, he stared absentmindedly at the 3D sand table ahead, as if something troubled him. But as the highest commander of the Third Fleet, he couldn't show even a second of weakness.
Yes, General Sanders was indeed old, but he was a strong old man. The energy and spirit he displayed would make even a young man fall short by a fraction.
"General, the M952 laboratory has sent back new data."
A woman wearing glasses and an OL-style secretary walked over, holding a file in one hand. Although she was one of General Sanders' deputies, she wasn't part of the Empire's military system. Instead, she existed between the military, political circles, and corporate powers. She had people she could use in every faction. Wherever she went, she could get things done. General Sanders needed someone like that.
"New data? Is it the soil analysis of this planet, or the plant life?"
Although General Sanders was a high-ranking military officer, he differed from many commanders. As someone who had crushed the natives on three colony planets, he was covered in blood. But he knew that when arriving at an unfamiliar place, one must first understand it as much as possible.
"I'm sorry, but it's that the M952 laboratory has been destroyed. Kukulin Bai Ye, who was originally planned to be consumed as an experimental subject, has escaped. He killed almost everyone in that laboratory. Only one doctor and her male assistant survived."
"Eh? Someone survived?"
Hearing that the M952 laboratory had been destroyed by Su Xiao, General Sanders showed no surprise at all. But when he heard that someone in the laboratory had actually survived, General Sanders was somewhat surprised.
"Yes, it seems because that doctor and her assistant helped him find the way during his escape. Should these two be punished, General?"
"..."
General Sanders took a sip of coffee and said nothing. He was puzzled as to why Su Xiao would leave such witnesses that could potentially expose his whereabouts.
"Have those two survivors been brought back?"
"Yes, General."
"Bring them to me..."
Sss~
Static came from the wireless earpiece. In the jungle near the garrison area, Su Xiao, sitting on a tree branch, pulled the wireless earpiece from his ear. The technological level of this world was indeed high. The nanoscale listening device had been intercepted and destroyed as soon as it got near the Third Fleet's highest commander.
This was why Su Xiao had left survivors. After escaping from the M952 laboratory and killing all the experimenters and guards there, he had placed tracking devices on that female doctor and her assistant. His goal was to find the Third Fleet's main base.
Currently, the strongest force on Pandora was undoubtedly the Third Fleet, followed by the Zerg, then the corporate forces. As for the remaining small fry, like those illegal smugglers, there was no need to bother with them.
The Zerg were weaker than the Third Fleet. One reason was that right after the Zerg awakened, they were met with a heavy blow from the Empire faction. Three months had passed, and although the Zerg had been developing, the Third Fleet had been applying constant pressure.
To develop in this world, one must first understand the general situation of the Third Fleet. Besides this, Su Xiao had another very important matter.
The main mission's content was to obtain a "Zerg Mother Embryo." But where to find this thing gave no information at all. One could only say that this mission's information was very Reincarnation Paradise.
Su Xiao recalled the last time he had disguised himself as a contractor from Apocalypse Paradise. The mission information there was almost like pinpoint coordinates. It was almost as if it would add auto-navigation to his retina. This also let Su Xiao know why, even at the eighth rank, there were still contractors from Apocalypse Paradise and Holy Light Paradise who would do confusing things.
Su Xiao was long accustomed to having little mission information. Logically speaking, to find a "Zerg Mother Embryo," one should head straight for the Zerg's territory, to the south or west.
But in Su Xiao's view, the probability of finding a "Zerg Mother Embryo" that way was too low. The Empire had already been stationed on Pandora for over three months and had been continuously fighting the Zerg. Under these circumstances, the Empire would definitely try to obtain a "Zerg Mother Embryo" for research, to see if they could gain biological technology from it.
Many people thought that the Zerg's technology was backward, relying entirely on evolution or mutation. This was actually wrong.
The Zerg developed biological technology. They weren't based on steel but on chitin and cells. Once biological systems developed, weapons like living missiles, plasma, and molten acid were no less powerful than technological ones.
Thinking the Zerg were backward was just a subjective impression of humans. From another perspective, the Zerg might think humans were backward, unable even to split off exoskeleton armor.
Su Xiao speculated that the northern region he was currently in should have some laboratories responsible for researching and storing "Zerg Mother Embryos." He had to act quickly. He estimated that quite a few contractors had already made moves against the Third Fleet's research institutes. It wouldn't be long before the Third Fleet, specifically General Sanders' side, would respond.
Su Xiao activated his terminal and looked at the images on it. Bubu was already approaching the enemy's main flagship. Various reconnaissance methods were completely useless against Bubu Wang. Before long, Bubu Wang had infiltrated the main ship's rear compartment and connected to the Third Fleet's internal network.
Among the densely arranged servers, Bubu, blending into the environment, wagged his tail while trying to write a virus into the Third Fleet's internal network. In the team, Bubu clearly understood his position. In combat, he could only assist. Besides reconnaissance and infiltration, he had been heavily investing in the tech tree for a long time. Although he was a dog and a bit silly, that didn't stop him from mastering this ability.
With Bubu Wang's wagging big tail, the Third Fleet's power went out with a click. Everyone in the military camp was dumbfounded because, in their era, there was no concept of a power outage. Electrical energy was an energy source they had long since fully mastered.
The power outage lasted three seconds. When power was restored, urgent alarm sounds spread. Bubu Wang scrambled out in a panic, barely making it three seconds before things went wrong. That described him perfectly. The Third Fleet was harder to deal with than expected.
Su Xiao had achieved his goal. In the dense forest, he jumped down from the tree branch and flipped through dozens of emails on his terminal. These were research reports sent from various laboratories to the main ship, all about the possibility of cultivating Zerg and analyzing Zerg mothers.
Reasoning backward, being able to submit such reports indicated that these laboratories most likely had "Zerg Mother Embryos" stored there.
The nearest such laboratory was about 17 kilometers from the garrison area. Su Xiao brought Bubu and rushed there at full speed.
As for Amu, Baha, and Beini, they were still on their way to rendezvous. Now it was different. Each of them would go to one laboratory to seize a "Zerg Mother Embryo."
When Su Xiao arrived near the S826 laboratory, he saw yellow-brown smoke rising from a large mound of earth in the distance. This made him feel uneasy. Because of the numerous supernatural creatures on Pandora, the ground here was unsafe. All laboratories were built underground.
Following the yellow-brown smoke, Su Xiao found the entrance. Walking inside, he saw many guards who had been knocked down. Most of the guards were knocked unconscious, with only a few fatally injured.
This looked like infiltration, but it actually wasn't. All the guards along the way had been attracted and then taken down. Based on the traces along the way, Su Xiao could fully imagine three sneaky but somewhat clumsy infiltrators trying to sneak in here. They were discovered as soon as they infiltrated, and alarms went off everywhere.
Then these three beat down the guards, turned off the alarms, and continued infiltrating. Besides the idiots from Apocalypse, Su Xiao couldn't think of anyone else who would do this.
Following the traces, Su Xiao arrived at the experimental material storage room. Cold air drifted from the damaged cold storage. One cold storage unit marked US-03 was empty. What was stored there before was most likely a "Zerg Mother Embryo."
"US."
Su Xiao opened his terminal and looked at the dozens of emails Bubu Wang had hacked. After entering the keyword US, only a few emails remained. He hadn't guessed wrong. US was the experimental sequence prefix label for "Zerg Mother Embryos."
With the search range narrowed, Su Xiao sent the locations of these several laboratories to Amu, Baha, and Beini, letting each of them go to one.
Now was a race against time. Starting in a prison-like situation had put Su Xiao at a disadvantage. It could be said that now was the time to compete for the qualification to develop Zerg. Whoever grabbed a "Zerg Mother Embryo" at this stage would most likely receive certification from the Void Tree, allowing them to openly develop a swarm-style army.
No, there might even be a "War Store" corresponding to the swarm style, selling items that could be Zerg combat unit genomes or Zerg evolution/enhancement genomes.
If this speculation was correct, then failing to get a "Zerg Mother Embryo" early on would mean being useless in this world. The battles between contractors in this world would no longer be one-on-one duels but wars between two Zerg groups.
Su Xiao exited the underground laboratory. Before he had taken a few steps, Bubu Wang beside him barked. Someone was approaching, probably a contractor.
Bubu's early warnings rarely included the word "probably." Su Xiao pressed his hand on the sword hilt at his waist and looked toward the direction the person was coming from.
The bushes rustled, and a figure emerged. This was a slightly chubby young man wearing motorcycle gear with a pineapple-shaped hairstyle. His hands were in his pockets, he wore spiked shoes, and a small metal scissors hung from his right ear. The expression on his face was neither a smile nor a frown.
Su Xiao pressed harder on his sword hilt. He had unexpectedly encountered the Black Demon. He wasn't sure if this time it was the Black Demon's consciousness or the chubby young man.
The Black Demon chubby young man stopped about ten meters from Su Xiao. His aura was like countless black, sticky threads, or like pitch-black mud.
After a moment of confrontation, the Black Demon felt that Su Xiao wasn't easy to deal with, and the cost of fighting wouldn't match the gain. It turned and walked into the dense forest.
"Woof~"
Bubu Wang, hiding behind Su Xiao's legs, had an expression like "that scared me to death." He was always somewhat afraid of the Black Demon.
Bringing Bubu Wang, Su Xiao headed toward a laboratory to the west. He had just discovered a piece of bad news. This round, the Black Demon's consciousness had won, and the chubby young man was suppressed.
The relationship between the Black Demon and the chubby young man could be understood as a monster and a monster that parasitized it. The chubby young man himself wasn't easy to deal with. When the Black Demon parasitized him, he originally wanted to devour the Black Demon. Neither side was good. The devouring didn't succeed, and the two ended up coexisting.
To this day, the Black Demon and the chubby young man still refused to submit to each other. They would periodically fight each other. Whoever won would suppress the other's consciousness, putting it to sleep.
During the period of consciousness sleep, the suppressed side would gradually recover its strength, then become the winner of the next round of confrontation.
This destined the Black Demon chubby young man to be terrifying. The two of them shared one body, constantly competing with each other. The weaker one had a chance of being devoured, causing both sides to unleash their full growth potential. This wasn't 1+1=2, but 1+1=200.
The Black Demon's situation confirmed to Su Xiao that in this world, the Black Demon posed a threat to him. If the "awake" one was the chubby young man, things would be much easier. The reason was that Su Xiao had often helped the chubby young man come up with ideas to deal with the Black Demon's consciousness. If the Black Demon's consciousness knew about this, it would have fought Su Xiao to the death just now, and it would have been an unending grudge.
Two hours later.
S851 Laboratory, experimental material storage room. Su Xiao looked at the experimenter squatting on the ground with his head in his hands and asked, "Are you sure there's no 'Zerg Mother Embryo' here?"
"No... no."
"Then you're useless."
Su Xiao tightened the Realm Severing Thread. The strangled experimenter died on the spot. None of these people could be left alive. They all had to be silenced.
This was the second underground laboratory Su Xiao had rushed to. He didn't know how wealthy the Empire was. They had only been stationed here for three months and had already built so many laboratories.
The terminal in his pocket beeped. Opening it, Su Xiao found it was a photo sent back by Beini.
It was an emptied cold storage cabinet. All the guards on the ground had their various weapons and equipment taken. Being looted to this extent made one wonder if Solomon had come. Thinking that the Undead Girl was in this world, everything made sense.
Su Xiao didn't think the Undead Girl would develop Zerg. After obtaining a "Zerg Mother Embryo," she could sell it at a high price. Then, to prevent future trouble, a few hours later, when the buyer started developing Zerg, the Undead Girl would destroy them.
Please don't doubt it. The Undead Girl was a contractor of Reincarnation Paradise and a former Hunter. She could do this.
Getting a "Zerg Mother Embryo" from the Undead Girl was also a backup plan. Su Xiao wasn't worried about being tracked by her.
For some reason, many Undead System big shots were former Hunters but voluntarily demoted themselves to contractors.
Soon after, Baha called. Su Xiao answered.
"Boss, I got a 'Zerg Mother Embryo,' but it's a dead embryo. I'm heading to the next research institute. I... I damn it! Boss, I ran into Shenfu."
Hearing this, Su Xiao and Bubu Wang rushed straight toward Baha's location. Since the distance wasn't too far, they arrived before long.
"Over here, I'm here."
Baha poked his head out from the bushes. He had just encountered Shenfu, but there was no conflict. At the time, Shenfu saw Baha and knew that Su Xiao had also come to this world. This caused the smile on Shenfu's face to change somewhat.
Su Xiao, Bubu, Baha, and Beini had all found nothing. Either they arrived too late, or what they got was a dead embryo. As for the other laboratories, according to Beini's investigation, those places had already been beaten to the punch. In other words, Amu was now the hope of the whole village.
...
Number 1291 Underground Laboratory. The metal corridor flickered on and off. Several ice sculptures were distributed throughout the corridor. The pneumatic door at the end had been forcibly torn open, and exposed cables sparked.
Puff~
Cold air rose. The thick metal cold storage opened. The faint light from inside illuminated a glass column about 10 centimeters thick and half a meter tall. Inside, an egg-sized semi-transparent embryo was in a state of cold sleep, maintaining full activity.
Amu's big hand grabbed the glass column and put it into a constant-temperature cold storage box. His thick, long fingers clumsily adjusted the temperature. Finding that he couldn't put it into the team storage space, he picked it up.
Amu was a bit simple, but he wasn't stupid. As long as it was a task Su Xiao assigned, he could complete it well.
Throwing a liquid bomb into the cold storage, Amu turned and walked out. As he passed through the corridor, three figures blocked the other end of the corridor.
"Friend, leave the thing, and you can go."
"This is just a permanent summon. Its master isn't nearby. Why are you wasting words with it?"
"Right, then I'll finish this quickly."
A man with a mohawk hairstyle, dressed like a boxer, walked toward Amu. The next moment, he suddenly appeared in front of Amu. His right fist broke through a sonic boom and slammed into Amu's abdomen. The spreading impact caused the surrounding metal corridor to show wave-like depressions.
Bang! Bang! Bang...
A storm of fists rained down on all parts of Amu's body, forcing him back step by step. The boxer ended with a stylish uppercut and said:
"Goodbye."
As soon as he spoke, the boxer detonated all the force he had just driven into Amu's body. An explosion occurred inside Amu's chest cavity, causing his torso to suddenly swell by a circle before gradually returning to normal.
It could be said that the boxer's entire combo was stylish and cool to the extreme. As for the damage intensity...
Amu used his thumb to press his left nostril and blew the nosebleed out of his right nostril. He rubbed his nose, looking confused at the enemy's puzzling behavior.
Actually, it wasn't strange for Amu to be confused. The boxer's entire combo, for Amu, wasn't even as severe as the injuries he suffered from taking one sword strike from the Old Knight.
Crack~
Ice suddenly appeared on the boxer's arm. His expression changed drastically. A dark shadow had already pressed down from the front, grabbing his left arm.
This surprised the boxer. He had been ready to meet the enemy's counterattack. But instead of attacking him, the enemy had grabbed his left arm with full force. This opening was too obvious.
On the other side of the corridor, the boxer's two teammates, a magic-type mature woman and a close-combat type holding a rapier, both knew something was wrong. The dead-eyed young man holding the rapier stepped forward a few paces, while the magic-type mature woman aimed her staff at Amu and began bombarding him with magic.
Amidst the impact of magic abilities, the boxer, with one arm, punched Amu again and again.
Amu held the boxer's left arm, and the Dragonheart Axe appeared in his right hand. Ignoring all attacks, he swung the axe straight at the boxer's head.
The long-handled battle axe cut through the air. The boxer let out a scream that was almost a moan. Just as he was about to use an escape method to get away, he felt a cold current spreading throughout his body.
Puff!
The Dragonheart Axe cleaved into the boxer's shoulder. The boxer's eyes turned red, and he continued attacking Amu fiercely. The magic-type mature woman and the rapier young man behind him did the same.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Amu just kept swinging the axe down. On the third swing, the boxer began to wail in agony. On the fourth swing, the boxer was almost on his knees begging for mercy. On the fifth swing, the rapier young man, who had jumped back mid-range with a sword aura, turned and fled.
As for the magic-type mature woman further back, she had already run away. When she saw Amu grabbing the boxer and swinging the third axe, she felt something was wrong.
"Bro... Brother Bull, I, I have no ill intentions. Just now..."
Puff, puff...
Amu didn't care what the boxer said. After chopping him into minced meat, he pulled a piece of ice from the side, stuffed it into his mouth, and bit down. He chewed it to rinse his mouth, then spat out the crushed ice and bloody water.
With the battle over, Amu's health points had fully recovered. Three scraping-skilled technicians, without even collecting payment, had two of them run away.
As long as it wasn't a contractor above the upper level of the eighth rank, engaging Amu in close combat was completely suicidal. Don't look at how Amu, when following Su Xiao, was either being beaten up or on his way to being beaten up. That was a special situation.
Ordinary enemies were handled by Baha. Baha was a speed type. When it was Amu's turn to step up, the enemies were strong ones like the Black King, Rogesh, and the Old Knight. Being beaten by these people was nothing to be ashamed of.
An hour later, Amu successfully rendezvoused with Su Xiao.
Opening the cold storage box, Su Xiao's index finger touched the test tube containing the "Zerg Mother Embryo."
[Prompt (Void Tree): You have obtained a "Zerg Mother Embryo."]
[You have obtained the authority to expand your faction. You may freely develop your own Zerg nest and Zerg units in this world (the number of Zerg units will not be limited).]
...
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao was in a very good mood. Such a good thing was worth his participation in the competition for the "Zerg Mother Embryo."
[Prompt: When the Hunter establishes a Zerg nest (faction), or joins one of the three factions—Empire, Company, or Zerg—you will unlock the Reputation Ranking.]
[Reputation points cannot be consumed or exchanged for any items. They serve only as the standard for the Reputation Ranking.]
[Ways to gain reputation points are not limited to killing enemies or completing faction missions. Anything you do that can increase your fame will increase your reputation. All your actions will affect your reputation gain to a certain extent.]
[If you perform good deeds, your reputation will be a positive number. If you are in an evil faction and engage in destruction, killing, etc., your reputation will be a negative number.]
[Conversely, if you currently have 100 reputation points but a certain event spreads your infamy, your reputation will decrease. After reaching a negative number, if your infamy continues to spread, your already negative reputation points will accumulate.]
[If you choose to join a faction, the higher your current reputation, the easier it will be to gain promotion in status.]
[Due to the Hunter's Charm attribute being -12 points, you have an inherent -50 reputation points.]
[The ranking of the Reputation Ranking will ignore positive and negative values and will be ranked according to the size of the number (for example, -50 reputation points ranks higher than 40 reputation points).]
[Every 2 natural days, the Reputation Ranking will give certain rewards to the top five. The final first place in the Reputation Ranking will receive an eight-star title: Legendary Hero/Dusk Monarch (determined by whether the reputation is positive or negative). This title can be traded.]
...
Seeing these prompts, Su Xiao was quite surprised. He had received rewards from the Void Tree's rankings more than once, but this time was particularly special.
From the literal meaning, doing good deeds would make reputation points positive, while killing and doing evil would make them negative, and they would become more and more negative.
Interestingly, the Reputation Ranking was sorted by the size of the number, ignoring positive and negative values. The situation at that time would certainly be very wonderful and strange.
More importantly, although reputation, unlike the previous Kill Rankings or Merits, had value in itself, the Reputation Ranking was judged every two days. The top five would receive rewards according to their ranking. This meant that the competition for the Reputation Ranking would be intense throughout.
Su Xiao closed the prompts, brought Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Beini, and headed south. He was going to the southernmost part to develop there. The most urgent thing now was to find a way to summon Jila over.