Chapter 322: Mantis Stalks Cicada, Unaware of Oriole

Olena had a worried look on her face, watching Stanley who continuously let out low wails, not knowing exactly what kind of non-human torture he was undergoing.

With the influx of the Force, the aura on Stanley's body also grew stronger and stronger, and various items in the room were torn apart by an invisible force.

The strength of his physical body was increasing, and he could clearly feel an invisible force surging out from within his body.

Thirty minutes passed quickly. Stanley's wailing sounds gradually disappeared. He slowly fell onto the metal floor, panting heavily, sweat dripping from his forehead.

Yet he could clearly feel that he had become stronger. Li Yu breathed a long sigh of relief; modifying a Jedi Knight consumed no small amount of Force.

And the Force essentially originated from his mental power, so he was somewhat exhausted right now.

"How do you feel?" Li Yu's voice entered Stanley's ears. Although it was just a plain inquiry, it gave Stanley an indescribable feeling.

He raised his head and looked at Li Yu. A trembling sensation transmitted from his body, as if facing a supreme Divine Spirit.

It wasn't a feeling transmitting from his psychology, but rather his Force submitting to Li Yu.

"I feel..." Stanley didn't resist this feeling, or perhaps he had long prepared himself for this.

"Unprecedentedly good!"

He slowly stood up. A powerful force erupted from his body, pushing Olena against the wall. Her eyes widened; she could clearly feel that the captain had indeed become stronger.

Stanley raised his hand, and the bedside table involuntarily floated up. This was the power of the Force, which he now equally possessed.

Stanley could clearly feel that his previous strength was only B-Minus Class, but now he had been directly enhanced to B+, only a single step away from A-rank.

However, it was exactly this single step away that obstructed countless B-Tier Lifeforms.

"It looks like the effect is not bad..." Li Yu nodded in satisfaction. Stanley, paired with his own Force, was far more powerful than ordinary B-Tier Lifeforms.

"Select the nine strongest people in your team. I will modify them first," Li Yu instructed.

"Yes!" Stanley said excitedly. Although the modification process was extremely painful, the amplification to strength was tangible.

Although it seemed he was controlled by Li Yu because of this, this wasn't an unacceptable price. If this spread out, many people would probably eagerly flock to it.

Soon, nine people were selected, including Olena, and all were elevated to the level of B-Tier Lifeforms by Li Yu, becoming Jedi Knights.

Subsequently, Li Yu had ten Nano-Cores attach to the ten people, once again raising their combat power by a tier.

"Not bad..." Li Yu rubbed his chin. Like this, this group of talented people could barely be considered usable.

"Almost forgot..." Li Yu suddenly remembered something and threw out another ten blue pills—Compound V.

Only this could be considered perfect... While waiting for the few of them to awaken their superpowers, Li Yu pondered. After returning, he would also carry out the Jedi Knight modification on his Esper Legion.

In this way, the available personnel under him would directly leap by a large margin.

Modifying this group of people took approximately half a day, and every minute and every second after the Golden Wall Bank attack incident occurred, this city was undergoing subtle changes.

………

Above the city, the Guard Captain of the Commercial Alliance—Theodore—was dispatching all mechanical security forces to gather clues and look for the culprits who attacked the Golden Wall Bank.

From the start of the attack until now, he hadn't stopped for a single moment. If they could find the attackers as soon as possible, they wouldn't need to continue locking down the port and affecting the planet's business.

Because it involved interests, he was pressured by the commercial organizations behind him to be "full of drive".

Unfortunately, there were no gains. This group of attackers seemed to have vanished out of thin air, and all monitoring equipment found no signs whatsoever.

"Could they have an ability similar to teleportation?" Theodore couldn't help but scratch his head. "Or could it be that my monitoring equipment has all malfunctioned?"

Theodore couldn't help but call up the operation logs of the Control Hub, and found no signs of being hacked at all.

"Or is there an inside job receiving the other party..."

Ring ring...

Just when Theodore was troubled, the smart terminal rang again.

"Lord Sereves, what's wrong again?" Theodore suppressed his irritability and made his tone sound natural.

He wasn't someone from a certain commercial alliance, but was hired. For the sake of Star Coins, he had done quite a few things.

Now those commercial supervisors seemed to really be ordering him around like a subordinate, which made Theodore a bit unhappy.

"Still haven't found any clues? What exactly are you doing?" The other party's tone appeared extremely grave, having quite the intention of demanding an explanation.

"That group of people is well-trained, and there are probably insiders receiving them. All the surveillance cameras can't find any traces." Theodore was also displeased and said in a bad mood.

"The matter is of great importance, please pay attention to it, Lord Theodore!" Sereves said in a deep voice.

"Who's not paying attention!?" Theodore couldn't hold it back anymore: "From the moment the attack incident occurred, I have been continuously tracking it down, without relaxing for a single moment."

"Instead, it's you guys who have been covering things up with me, not even saying exactly what the item is. Under these circumstances, how the hell do you want me to investigate?"

"Mind your tone, Lord Theodore," Sereves said dissatisfiedly.

Theodore took a deep breath. Whoever has money is the boss. There was no helping it; who told him to take their salary.

"What exactly are you guys still hiding from me? It's said to be an extremely important item of the Amethyst Civilization. What exactly is it?"

Sereves hesitated for a moment, but still spoke up: "We weren't deliberately hiding it from you previously, it's just that this matter is of great importance,"

"The item is the Gene Optimization Device..."

"What!?" Theodore couldn't help but exclaim in shock: "No wonder those commercial alliance supervisors acted like they went crazy, so it was that thing."

Subsequently, his expression became eager: "After retrieving it, can you let me use it too?"

Sereves was somewhat speechless, "Lord Theodore, there aren't even any clues, where does 'after retrieving it' come from?"

"Hehe..." Theodore purposely gave two simple-minded laughs, "It's not like there are absolutely no clues either. Not long ago news came from Gray Street, and I'm just preparing to head over to take a look."

Sereves snorted coldly, knowing he was teased by this guy. Clearly, he just wanted to know exactly what item was lost.

"Then hurry up and head over!" Sereves hung up the communication directly.

Theodore rubbed his hands, an eager light emerging in his eyes. The Gene Optimization Device, it really is a good item...

Having motivation, his actions also became swift. He tallied his men and horses and headed towards Gray Street.

………

In the hotel, Stanley abruptly raised his head and said urgently: "Lord, the Commercial Alliance has dispatched a large number of men and horses heading towards Gray Street."

He had always sent people to keep an eye on the Commercial Alliance. The moment the other party's men and horses moved,

"Acting this fast?" Li Yu was somewhat surprised, not expecting the other party to lock onto the Reformers' location so quickly.

"Let's go, we'll head over to take a look," he pondered.

………

On the other side, in a certain room in Gray Street, Oaks stood in front of a corpse with a complex expression, muttering in a low voice: "I guessed you might waver, but I didn't expect you to be so decisive."

"Lord Oaks, it's time to evacuate..." The skinny Shawa appeared from the corner just now, urging in a low voice.

He restrained the complex emotions in his heart, his expression grave: "Our position has already been exposed. Next will probably be a bitter battle. I hope everyone is prepared; it's very likely there will be life-threatening danger."

He looked around. The others merely gave a contemptuous smile. The person wearing the torn leather jacket even spat his cigar onto the ground, subconsciously wanting to lift his jacket to pull out his gun.

However, he only touched an empty holster. He involuntarily lowered his rough large hands and shook his head saying:

"Lord Oaks, you saying this is looking down on people a bit too much, right."

"Although we are not A-Tier Lifeforms, we are also not some cowardly people. It's nothing more than death; many of us have already died long ago."

His words resonated with many people, who laughed loudly and chimed in.

"Yeah, being able to join the Reformers is already our honor."

"If we can die in battle, it would be an even more worthy death."

"..."

For a moment, Oaks was somewhat speechless. Looking around, this group of people were all B-Tier Lifeforms, originally holding lofty status in their own civilizations.

They had all joined the Reformers due to various events, and those various events all inevitably had the same tragic overtones.

"I understand..." Oaks nodded slowly: "However, this battle is not entirely without hope of survival. Although they have locked down the external ports."

"But this group of profit-seeking commercial organizations didn't stop those coming in."

"As long as we can return to the spaceport, we can hijack a spaceship and leave here!"

………

Theodore hurriedly brought people to Gray Street, directly ordering the entire street to be locked down to prevent anyone from escaping.

It was already night now, and artificial light sources sprinkled silver-white light over the entire city.

However, when Theodore arrived at the intelligence location and kicked open the door, what he saw was merely an empty room.

"Relocated?" Theodore, wearing heavy armor, furrowed his brows tightly, and subsequently shouted loudly: "A few people come over, inspect the traces here."

Outside Gray Street, quite a few travelers gathered, watching the commotion here, still not knowing what had happened.

"Why is Gray Street sealed off? I was still thinking of going inside to find some fun," someone asked in confusion.

"Who knows, it might be related to the daytime attack incident."

"..."

Within the crowd, Li Yu's trio was also present. Li Yu clearly knew that group of Reformers hadn't left Gray Street yet.

Time was too rushed; no matter what plan it was, there wasn't enough time to unfold it. Developing to the current situation, they could only fight head-on.

Through the Transformers, he learned of Oaks's plan. His eyes flickered, not knowing what he was considering.

Boom! Boom!

On the street not far away, intense energy fluctuations erupted, simultaneously accompanied by bursts of maniacal laughter, and a large number of flying missiles shot out indiscriminately.

Explosions occurred in the surrounding buildings. A large number of bewildered interstellar travelers wailed and fled out; there were even some who didn't even have time to put on their clothes.

"What happened!?"

"Did a fight break out?"

Even the spectating travelers were extremely shocked, not expecting a battle to occur right before their eyes.

Theodore was scratching his head, not knowing what to do next, when he heard the sounds of explosions coming from the distance, and his eyes instantly lit up.

Bang!

The thick heavy armor directly stomped out web-like cracks on the metal street. The thrusters spewed blazing flames, and he rushed towards the incident location at extreme speed.

Before he even got close, he heard a burst of maniacal laughter transmitting over. "Trash, hurry up and come catch your grandpa!?"

"Truly a bunch of idiots!"

Hearing this, Theodore couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. "Arrogant enough..."

He saw a large number of escort soldiers surrounding a building. A continuous stream of energy beams and micro-missiles shot out from within, making the surrounding soldiers hesitate to advance for a long time.

Theodore had no intention of stopping at all. The massive crimson armor crashed directly into the building.

The maniacal laughter instantly stopped, and the continuously shooting energy beams and micro-missiles also ceased.

As the smoke and dust dispersed, the escort soldiers looked at each other in dismay. Accompanied by muffled footsteps, Theodore walked out carrying a person.

That person had already lost their vital signs, their head crushed.

"He was the only one here!" Theodore's expression was gloomy. Very obviously, he fell into a trap.

"Luring the tiger away from the mountain..." Li Yu quietly observed everything happening, and subsequently looked in another direction.

The next moment, a large number of figures soared into the sky from there, heading straight for the spaceport.

A very simple plan: one person attracts the attention of others, while the rest take the opportunity to act.

"You guys can't escape!" Theodore abruptly looked up, and then the street beneath his feet cracked, as he also soared into the sky.

"Stop him..." Li Yu said in a low voice. It was unknown who he was talking to; beside him... Stanley and Olena had unknowingly disappeared.

He wasn't doing it to help the Reformers, but because the Reformers remaining in the Tabli Star System meant he couldn't take action either.

If the Reformers could escape, it would be advantageous to him as well.

A silver-white figure abruptly blocked in front of Theodore. Theodore fundamentally didn't think much about it. The heavy armor on both his arms expanded, and he abruptly swung his hand, sending the opponent flying.

Right now, in his eyes, there was only that group of attackers...

However, his movements paused, and he abruptly stopped in mid-air, looking at not far away in shock and uncertainty.

He saw that silver-white figure slowly flying over, the nano-armor on his body currently self-repairing.

"Actually... not dead?" Theodore furrowed his brows tightly. He could clearly perceive that the opponent was not an A-Tier Lifeform.

Even if he just struck casually just now, it still wasn't something an ordinary B-Tier Lifeform could withstand.

Subsequently, his pupils shrank. He saw nine identical silver-white armored figures appear from all directions, surrounding him in the center.

(End of this chapter)