Chapter 206-4: Starnet Super-AI VS Earthmind Bully (4) |
For Starnet, the extremely fine control of nearly sixty thousand players was not difficult.
But this battle also made it discover that, compared with the Earthmind Evil Spirit, it had many shortcomings.
One larger problem came from the real world.
Energy supply would grow exponentially with the number of players under fine control.
Suppose it was required to finely command a player count above ten billion at the same.
With ordinary resources in the real world alone, even the highest S-grade energy supply would not be enough to sustain long-term energy consumption.
There was only one way to solve the problem, and that was to enter Monster World and use Monster World’s high-grade spiritual resources to fill the command consumption.
But on the basis of this issue, it still needed to solve another problem.
After entering Monster World, it was highly likely to be just a very ordinary player. How could it utilize the massive data processing capability of the real world?
Before obtaining qualification, this series of questions could not receive definitive answers.
What it had to do was to lay out the future as much as possible before entering Monster World, expanding the influence of the Lunar Eclipse race and even itself.
This was also why it agreed to God King’s request to participate in command operations.
In the direction of the Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range, the brutal collision continued.
Although with Starnet’s assistance, the sixty-thousand-strong players produced a war efficiency that even one hundred and twenty thousand had never achieved.
There was, however, a significant gap in comparative strength between the two sides.
This was simply not something Starnet’s ability could make up for.
As more and more livestream screens went black, the war inevitably tilted toward defeat.
But Starnet did not give up on continuing to command the war.
While the Earthmind Evil Spirit collected player data through war, it too was collecting the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s habit data through war.
Habits could be changed, but in critical moments requiring a response in an extremely short time, one would still subconsciously use habitual methods to drive thoughts.
Unlike Starnet’s solemnity, the players of the united warband were in high spirits.
Although defeat was already set, they had never fought such an exhilarating battle.
More precisely, they had never been able, when facing the Earthmind Bully, to bring their abilities into full play like now.
Guest No. 1’s high-frequency command even made players in the warband feel as if even their breathing rhythm was being arranged.
When to drink potions, when to damage output, when to protect teammates, the whole process was easy and enjoyable. A glance at the bullet screen and one could pull off flashy operations.
Even the Earthmind Bully could not gain much advantage in the hands of this super commander.
In fact, on many occasions, under guest No. 1’s war operation refined to a maddening degree, the Earthmind Bully was repeatedly rubbed into the ground.
Nothing made the players happier than seeing the Earthmind Bully eat dirt.
As the war was about to end, the remaining players in the warband voice channel were all cheering: ‘Guest No. 1 is awesome.’
But at this moment Starnet focused its gaze on God King.
What appeared as a flaw in God King’s eyes could also serve as a countermeasure on its own.
—
Abyss of Heaven Territory Node, on the Evil Eye Tower platform.
The Earthmind Evil Spirit’s expression was incomparably grave.
The opposing commander’s improvement could no longer be described with the word ‘rapid.’ It was more like the player race commander had been replaced.
Whether in command style or command capability, they were not on the same level as before.
Worlds apart.
As the war was about to end, it urgently wanted to know the answer.
In the perception view, a familiar figure was protected by layers of Light Shield. This time the opposing commander did not hide and directly sat in the very center of the player legion, laying down layer upon layer of defensive barriers.
Now that the war game was over, the Earthmind Bully decided to have a talk with the opponent.
The Light Shield defense looked solid, but in its eyes it was meaningless.
In an instant, the surging Black Tide in front quickly gathered and compressed, finally generating a void-series unit: Void Blink.
Perception precisely located and resolved the spatial coordinates.
But just as it was about to strike, suspicion arose in the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s heart.
It already suspected that the player race commander had been replaced and was not the one it had previously captured.
Secondly, the behavior of surrounding the target with Light Shields was also foolish.
Spatial abilities could completely penetrate energy barriers.
Sitting at the warband center under Light Shield protection was in essence no different from having no protection.
With doubts in mind, it had the Evil Eye provide a detailed perception view.
“Earthmind, there is a low-frequency energy fluctuation mixed into his vitality fluctuations. This does not match the vitality energy fluctuations he previously emanated.”
“Can you detect what energy fluctuation it is?”
After a brief silence, the Evil Eye spoke.
“After checking all combat footage and data information with the player race, it can be basically determined that the opponent swallowed a newly appeared explosive inside the body. The player race calls it the Fifth-Gen Annihilation Bomb, an elemental bomb loaded with extracts from six kinds of spiritual ores. The player race has used it twice in our campaigns.”
After the words, an image surfaced in the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s mind.
The Fifth-Gen Annihilation Bomb looked like a transparent crystal capsule the size of a thumb, its surface covered with intricately etched rune networks flowing with a cold silvery metallic luster.
Inside the capsule floated six miniature prisms arranged in a hexagon. Each prism contained an elemental extract representing one elemental energy, distinguished by different materials and colors.
Then a large amount of information surfaced in the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s mind.
Red-Flame Core (fire), Frost Marrow Crystal (ice), Riftwind Vortex (air), Eroding Earth Rock (earth), Radiant Stone (light), Collapse Stone (dark). The six elemental energies were extracted from these six spiritual ores respectively.
Structurally, each element was isolated by a coating layer.
—
“The way the Fifth-Gen Annihilation Bomb produces an explosion is very simple. One only needs to use spiritual power to break the internal partitions. The six elements inside will then blend, triggering a mutually repulsive chain reaction. The energy exchange rate between elements grows exponentially, finally breaking through the critical point and, through elemental counteraction, instantly producing a violent explosive reaction.”
Having read the analysis, Earthmind immediately realized it had almost been tricked.
“As expected, a trap.”
It was obvious the one truly responsible for command was not the player race commander it was familiar with.
He sat in the center essentially as a pre-laid trap, just waiting for it to step on it.
To guard against the Evil Eye’s perception detection, the player race commander had even chosen to swallow the Fifth-Gen Annihilation Bomb.
Confirming the other party was not the target it sought, the Earthmind Evil Spirit began scanning and searching the remaining members of the player legion.
“Evil Eye, compare the remaining members of the player race and pick out the unusual one.”
Before long, the Earthmind Evil Spirit received the Evil Eye’s feedback.
Throughout the entire war, there was one figure who never made any move, always standing with eyes closed at a position near the front of the player legion center.
It was possible that this one who never moved the whole time was the hidden commander of the player race.
But the Earthmind Evil Spirit did not directly seize him.
It chose to search the battle footage information and judge based on the direction of God King’s gaze.
This target was focused upon 145 times by the exposed player race commander, and was glanced at inadvertently 128 times.
Through God King’s line of sight during this campaign, the Earthmind Evil Spirit immediately had its answer.
It could be seen that the exposed player race commander had been paying attention to the hidden commander throughout the war.
With the target confirmed, the Void Blink hovering before the Earthmind Evil Spirit suddenly vanished, leaving behind a spreading spatial ripple.
When it reappeared, it was already behind the locked hidden commander.
The tentacles on Void Blink’s body suddenly stretched forward and rested on the hidden commander’s shoulders.
At the instant the spatial jump was about to activate.
Sitting at the warband center, God King grinned, then decisively activated the Star Shift Inherited soul trait embedded before the war at Starnet’s request, fixing his gaze on the hidden commander in the Earthmind Evil Spirit’s eyes.
God King and this player instantly swapped positions.
At the same time, space on the Evil Eye Tower platform rapidly twisted.
Void Blink abruptly air-dropped with God King.
“Your mother.”
Sensing something was wrong, the Earthmind Evil Spirit decisively waved its hand. The dense black mist encircling the tower rapidly converged before it, generating layer upon layer of defensive barriers.
Discovering he had already descended onto the Evil Eye Tower platform, a line of text flashed in God King’s mind that guest No. 1 had sent before the war began.
“A flaw that is exposed can also be an opportunity for counterattack.”
God King suddenly raised his head at this moment, looked arrogantly at the Earthmind Bully floating in midair, and decisively raised his middle finger at it.
“A late return gift. Your mother is dead, you idiot.”
Earthmind Evil Spirit: …
After speaking, God King used spiritual power to pry at the Annihilation Bomb inside his body. The partitions between the six elements were broken, and after the elements fused, they expanded rapidly.
Boom.