Golden Cicada
The shape-shifter and the lady each had a spatial ring, which Xia Fei unceremoniously took. They were already dead, so what was the point of keeping their belongings? Besides, it was only right and proper for warriors to take their spoils of war. The assessment rules did not state that they could not take the belongings of other candidates. They could even kill people, let alone items.
After cleaning up the three corpses, Xia Fei and Xiao Yu returned to the bushes where they were hiding.
Xia Fei took out a bottle of mineral water from his spatial ring and handed it to Xiao Yu. He then took out a Hongtashan cigarette and lit it up. He took a deep puff and let the smoke stay in his lungs for about thirty seconds before he exhaled.
Xia Fei emptied the contents of the two spatial rings in one go, and the yellow soil was instantly filled with all sorts of things.
Xiao Yu blinked her eyes, looking surprised. Big brother Xia Fei, are you going to perform magic again?
Xia Fei patted Xiao Yu on the head. Come, help your big brother find the token for the second stage.
"En!" Xiao Yu very seriously began to rummage through the pile of items. Xia Fei's eyes lit up, for he suddenly discovered a golden egg among the pile of items, which was very similar to the Killer Machine from before.
Xia Fei hurriedly picked up the egg from the ground and examined it in his hand.
The golden egg was flawless, and its surface was smooth and clean. When he touched it, it felt cold as if he was touching an ice cube.
This egg was much smaller, only the size of a goose egg, but it was very heavy. Xia Fei weighed it in his hand and found that it weighed at least thirty kilograms.
"Phantom Shadow? What is this? Xia Fei asked.
Phantom squinted his eyes and looked at the golden egg with admiration. "This thing is called the Golden Cicada. It's also a killing robot left behind by the ancient civilization. However, it's of a higher grade than the Killer Machine."
The combat prowess displayed by the Killer Mech had left a lingering fear in Xia Fei's heart, especially its cruelty. If not for the fact that the shape-shifter had decent defense, the Killer Mech would surely have turned him into minced meat, and it would not have been as simple as just chopping off his head. Yet, this thing was even more powerful than the Killer Mech!
It looks like a cicada, so people call it the Golden Cicada. Not only does the Golden Cicada have strong attack power, it's also extremely fast. It can reach a speed of about a kilometer per second. As long as it's within this speed range, it's basically impossible for an opponent to escape its attack, Phantom continued.
The Killer Machine from before had a serious flaw, and that was its speed. From the few steps it had taken, it could at most reach a speed of fifty meters per second. In other words, as long as an ability user could exceed fifty meters per second, they would be able to escape from the pursuit of the Killer Machine.
On the other hand, the Golden Cicada's speed was a thousand meters per second. This speed was sufficient to catch up to the majority of metahumans and just happened to make up for the Killer Machine's flaw.
Xia Fei pondered for a moment. The robot bee is also very fast. Isn't the Golden Cicada about the same?
Phantom guffawed. The robot bee is just a child's toy. How can it compare to this thing? You should know that the biggest difference between robots and machines is artificial intelligence. All robots are equipped with AI systems, and the higher the grade of the robot, the more intelligent it is. I've heard that the highest grade robots can even think like humans, but unfortunately, the number of high-grade robots in existence is far too few. I've only heard of it and have never seen it with my own eyes.
Xia Fei took the silver Killer Mech for a closer look and realized that its body had already turned somewhat soft. With a casual tug, he actually managed to tear off an arm from the Killer Mech's body.
This was truly a strange thing. Just a few minutes ago, the lancets on the Killer Mech's arms were able to break through the sturdy defense of a shape-shifter, yet now, they had become so weak. Xia Fei could not understand the contrast between before and after.
The Golden Cicada and the Killer Mech are made from a special kind of metal. This metal is hard and sharp, but the moment it is exposed to the air, it will very quickly become soft. That's why these small robots are protected in an egg-shaped device to isolate the corrosion of the air. It's also because of this that a large number of these egg-shaped robots were able to survive the destruction of the ancient civilization. As for those high-grade robots, they are extremely rare.
"There's another theory. The ancient civilization didn't rebel against all the robots. Instead, they rebelled against the robots that had high artificial intelligence. After those highly intelligent robots destroyed the ancient human civilization, they disappeared into the vast sea of stars. The robots that were left behind were all low-level artificial intelligence."
Phantom explained many things about the ancient civilization in one breath. Xia Fei could not help but feel a yearning for the mysterious ancient civilization. He suddenly recalled a legend regarding Atlantis.
Legend had it that the Atlantean civilization once used a large number of robots. Could it be that the Atlanteans were hiding from the robot rebels? Could it be that Atlantis was a remnant of the ancient civilization?
Xia Fei shook his head, trying his best to clear these messy speculations from his mind. Right now, the most important thing was to pass this assessment. As for the other things, he could think about them later.
Phantom, how do I use this thing? Xia Fei pointed to the Golden Cicada in his hand and asked.
The top of this egg can be opened. If you look closely, you will discover that there's an indistinct line there.
Xia Fei used his eyes to observe it carefully. Indeed, there was a thin line on the top of the eggshell. If he did not look carefully, he would not have noticed it.
This is a safety device. It protects the activation mechanism from accidentally opening due to carelessly touching it. To activate the Golden Cicada, you will first need to open this safety.
This was like the safety switch on a weapon, preventing the gun from accidentally firing. Xia Fei followed Phantom's instructions and opened the safety clockwise, revealing a circular groove inside.
This was the second safety. He needed to insert his finger into the groove and press the button inside to activate the Golden Cicada. It seemed that the ancient people were very afraid of the Golden Cicada's power, which was why they made the activation mechanism so complicated. After all, this little thing was going to take someone's life the moment it was released.
After Xia Fei learned how to activate the egg-shaped robot, he stored the Golden Cicada in his spatial ring. At this time, Xiao Yu had finished sorting out the spoils of war.
She separated the different types of items together and arranged them in piles. Right in the middle was a metal plate with words engraved on it.
This plate was round and dark red in color. The word 'adjudicator' was engraved on it. Needless to say, this was the token for the second round.
The remaining items were a dozen bottles of water and two bags of Snake Eye Berries. These were food that could replenish his stamina and water, and they were what Xia Fei needed right now.
The rest were medical and survival tools, as well as clothes, which were not worth much.
Those three sure are poor. They don't have anything good aside from the Golden Cicada. Phantom shook his head and said.
Xia Fei chuckled. Of the two spatial rings, one was one cubic meter, while the other was around 0.5 cubic meters. Added together, they would be worth more than 100 million. Adding the Golden Cicada, this was already quite a lot for Xia Fei.
After putting away these items, Xia Fei gave Xiao Yu a Snake Eye Berry and ate one himself.
Xiao Yu curiously imitated Xia Fei and stuffed the Snake Eye Berry into her mouth. The moment she bit into it, Xiao Yu revealed a bitter expression. Big brother Xia Fei, this fruit doesn't taste good at all.
Xia Fei could not help but smile. He reached out and pinched Xiao Yu's pink cheeks. This thing may not taste good, but it's very good for your body. Eating it will help Xiao Yu grow up faster.
Xiao Yu nodded obediently and forcefully swallowed the Snake Eye Berry. She tilted her head and asked, Does this fruit have a chocolate flavor?
Outside Earth's orbit, there was a fleet of warships escorting the Crisis grade assessment in the pitch-black space. This was the Endaro Adjudicator Union's Fifth Fleet.
When the Adjudicator Union decided to send the powerful Fifth Fleet to Earth, there was quite a bit of debate within the Union. Many people could not understand why the assessment's security was so tight.
It was worth noting that the Fifth Fleet consisted of four Raven-class battleships and twenty-four Tolex-class cruisers. There were also over a hundred other smaller ships. The cost of a fleet of such scale traveling in space was unimaginable to the average person. It would account for more than eighty percent of the total cost of the assessment.
However, President Robert ignored all suggestions to reduce the assessment's cost. He stood his ground and sent the most elite fleet under his command. His resolute attitude was very puzzling.
The Fifth Fleet set up layers of defense with Earth as its core, like an impenetrable fortress.
However, the Fifth Fleet did not notice that less than a lightyear away from Earth, there was a Helios class stealth special service ship sailing in the pitch-black space.
The stealth special service ship was modified from a small frigate. Most of its weaponry had been removed and replaced with many advanced electronic systems.
Not only could it conduct covert reconnaissance on specific targets, but it could also intercept their communication signals. It could even turn invisible in the vast space, making it impossible for anyone to detect it.
This Helios class stealth special service ship did not have a serial number or a name. It did not have any information that a spaceship should have. There was not even any information about this ship in the Alliance's database.
It sailed through the vast and deep space like a ghost, stealthily flying toward Earth.
Countless electronic devices were busy working in the surveillance room. Not a single piece of information was missed from Earth to the Adjudicator Union, and all of it was intercepted by this ship.
In the universe, intercepting information was not a difficult task. The key was how to crack it.
Any organization or country would have their own unique encryption system, and an encryption system with hundreds of millions of digits was not something that could be easily cracked. Even the most powerful computer would have to calculate it for ten thousand years!
Very few people would try to crack an encryption system, because before you could figure out what the other party's encryption program was, the other party would have already switched to another system.
However, the screen in the surveillance room of this ship was filled with the information transmitted by the Adjudicator Union. From the information of the candidates to the orders from the upper echelons, nothing was missed.
It had to be mentioned that this 12.8 billion-bit encryption system was only used by the Adjudicator Union this year!
The largest screen was showing the images of more than ten candidates at the same time. Among them, there was a short-haired girl who looked about eleven or twelve years old. She was very cute. She had a delicate little nose and a pair of bright eyes.
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