Chapter 502: Wooden Intelligent Machine

(sobbing sound)

Seven times.... exactly seven times!

I never managed to save him....

Just a little bit.... why.... always a little bit...

..... sigh.

Qiong looked at Xiao Jiu, who kept sobbing beside her, and let out a sigh.

After Zhang Jie's last body was destroyed, Xiao Jie started sobbing like this ever since she came back, not communicating with the outside world, as if she had gone mad.

Guilt and regret kept washing over her heart, Xiao Jie only felt as if she were constantly falling... endlessly falling....

But that's also understandable.... if she herself had gone through this, she probably wouldn't be much better off.

I really don't know if it's my own jinx or if words become law, but right after I finished telling Xiao Jie that sad, regrettable story, it actually happened right beside her.

During the time Zhang Jie was exiled, the outside world was in an uproar; perhaps Zhang Jie didn't know, but he actually had extraordinary influence, and the most intense reaction came from the residents of the Iron Law Star Alliance.

It was unanimous condemnation, plus pressure from Yuan and the human female, and the Star Alliance Council finally took action.

But immediately after, that madman spread the news that he had already executed Zhang Jie, like dropping a missile into the sea, and public opinion exploded in an instant.

The soldiers of the Iron Law Front fought desperately against the entropy disaster, but internally they kept self-destructing, which was undoubtedly a huge blow to morale.

But even more outrageous than this was the Gene Star Alliance openly supporting Chen, declaring him the legitimate ruler, and openly backing the Star Sea Leader.

As expected, conflict likewise erupted between the two major star alliances, and the chief culprit was none other than the madman named Chen.

The situation instantly became extremely chaotic, just like the universe's law of entropy increase, where everything eventually trends toward chaos.

Taking advantage of the internal chaos in the Iron Law Star Alliance, and with the Gene Star Alliance meddling recklessly, the trend toward full-scale war also kept rising.

"Regret it? If only you had seized that position back then, none of this would have happened."

The human female clenched her fists, her eyes fixed dead-on on the report before her.

After a while, she relaxed completely, and looked toward the speaking Yuan.

"Regret? How could I not regret it? If only I had tried a little harder.... a little harder...."

"Perhaps everything would have been different."

Back then, the human female had the chance to become the Star Sea Leader, but... she voluntarily gave it up.

The responsibility of bearing the Star Sea Leader's role was too heavy, and she was unwilling to take on such a burden.

What she wanted was a stable life, and the power to protect her own people.

But she never expected that the Star Sea Leader she had high hopes for would do such a thing; back then, Chen met all the qualifications for Star Sea Leader—brave and strategic, steady in temperament, with ideals and a sense of responsibility.

Yet this very person she considered the perfect successor was turned into a madman by the Gene Star Alliance's nonsense scheme.

"So.... Xiao Jie.... is there still a chance he's alive?"

Yuan listened, raised his forehead, then shook his head.

"He's already a madman; a madman's behavior logic is something you can't predict at all."

"So.... I can't confirm whether the other side is still alive."

"......."

"The little one got into trouble.... I bear a great responsibility."

"Alive, I want to see the person; dead, I want to see the corpse—I will personally bring Chen before you."

"Hopefully."

"Nowadays, the Spiritual Energy Star Alliance is fighting the entropy disaster with all its might, the Intelligent Machine Star Alliance is playing dead on the side, and the remaining two major alliances are pulling each other's hair—but none of this concerns you; right now, you're researching how to find iron ore."

"As a scavenger, although your handcrafting ability is very strong, it's still difficult to jump from the Stone Age to the Iron Age all at once."

"It has to be said, the beasts here are extremely ferocious; relying on primitive stone-throwing, you've managed to barely survive, but when you look up at the night sky, you realize something very serious."

"The starlight above the sky is so dim you can barely see it; it's obvious this is a supervoid in the universe."

"This actually fits the situation of being exiled: the planets in the universe are not evenly distributed, but have varying densities, and planets are affected by gravity, leading to the formation of various galaxy clusters and galaxy webs."

"And between these galaxy systems, huge planetary voids inevitably appear; you are very likely currently in such a place."

"If a civilization were to arise here, the only way would be to desperately develop technology on the homeworld until a jump drive is produced—but that is the fact you must face."

"Originally, you had plenty of life-saving tech, like stance arcs and space survival mechs, etc., but they were all taken away, and now you're just holding a stone axe, a living primitive."

"But surely this won't last long, because you, who work day and night, have already found iron ore—this will be the start of your return to the world!"

"Your plan is to handcraft a machine, let the Nightmare act as its intelligent AI, then gradually develop and expand—this is an exponential process; to get out sooner, you must use this method."

"On the third day, you obtained iron!"

"On the fifth day, under the Nightmare's perception, you obtained copper!"

"On the seventh day...."

"On the tenth day! You produced an extremely simple intelligent machine!"

"........"

"You're practically a god—you didn't even look at me all night and you whipped up some contraption?"

"Just tell me if it's usable or not."

Using wood as the carrier and a simple crystal core as the core, a strangely shaped intelligent machine was thus born, although the intelligent machine's core is the Nightmare.

"....."

"6, tell me, what do you want me to do?"

"Help me find iron ore, plenty of it!"

"Done."

The strangely shaped wooden intelligent machine began its work, while Zhang Jie, meanwhile, lit a fire in his prepared earthen furnace to melt glass.

Chemical reaction is a necessary condition for obtaining high-purity metal!

Wanting to hand‑craft a jump drive, merely having this level is far from enough!

"Here you're working feverishly, but outside the stars it's already fallen into utter chaos."

"A faction led by Yuan, which is originally a faction of the Iron Law Star Alliance, has begun suppression and the work of hunting Chen, and under the meddling of the Gene Star Alliance, the remaining Star Alliances under the Iron Law Star Alliance have faintly shown intentions to break away from the Alliance."

"Under the watchful eyes of all, the Iron Law Star Alliance began to disintegrate...."

(Tonight Renshen is going to watch fireworks and celebrate the New Year with Lin Ran, so Renshen here first wishes all you foster fathers a happy New Year!)

(This chapter was supposed to be posted early this morning, but since it's not New Year's yet, Renshen slacked off a while; I can't possibly have Big Renshen also typing on New Year's, can I? No way!)