At almost the same moment, the battle at the very top of the ancient ship also took an unexpected turn.
The "all-purpose entertainment synthetic humans," whose combat intelligence was so high it was almost unreasonable, must have sensed that their own abilities had been weakened. At the same time, they observed that the knights had already formed their ranks, so they stopped their charge once again.
They lowered one of their arms to the ground. The unknown fluid material that outlined their bodies then cascaded to the ground like a waterfall, and then straightened and expanded, forming a solid shield wall. In this way, four synthetic humans turned one hand into a wall and the other, with fingers pressed together, formed a cannon barrel, advancing towards the hail of bullets from the knights.
They hid their heads and upper bodies beneath the fluid metal shield wall, only exposing their arm energy cannons from the shield wall to fire a couple of shots. It did indeed have the flavor of a "black uncle's" soul aiming.
But the problem was, they were synthetic humans, and any part of their body could be used for aiming. The rate of fire of those energy beams was not fast, at least not as fast as the fire support platforms and the machine gun fire of the knights, but their accuracy was extremely high. Every shot was aimed at the weakest point of the robots' and crest devices' armor, and their power was not low.
As a result, every shot fired by the synthetic humans forced the knights to intercept with their active shields, putting an even greater strain on their physical strength and mental power.
In this way, the four synthetic humans and twenty Star Realm Knights plus three fire support robots engaged in a firefight, and for a time, it was an even match... No, calling it a draw wouldn't be accurate. Although neither side suffered any casualties for the moment, the synthetic humans were advancing, while the knights were retreating.
As the saying goes? Battle reports can lie, even casualty figures can lie, but the front line cannot.
Miss Marchioness felt that this couldn't go on. She had already retreated to the rear of the formation, but after observing the situation, she raised her Crystal War Hammer again and stood behind the front row, activating a circle of warm, orange-yellow spiritual energy. Its effect was to grant her surrounding comrades more abundant physical strength and mana.
The knights immediately felt invigorated and decided not to retreat an inch, vowing to push these peculiar puppets back.
They actually succeeded. After a barrage of lightning, thunder, sword light, sword shadows, and firepower bombardment, the arm of one of the synthetic humans was pierced by Sobek's Alchemical Bullets. The fluid metal shield wall connecting its torso and arm immediately ruptured, and its cross-shaped head then took two armor-piercing rounds. It immediately became like a deformed piece of rubber, twisting and deflecting.
But then, it used the impact of the bullets to make an unnatural lurch, then swung its already deformed body like a pendulum. In the blink of an eye, its damaged body had passed through all the intercepting barrages and active shields, crossed the empty space between both sides, and leaped in front of Miss Marchioness.
So fast! Miss Selu was stunned, her mind going blank. She even realized that the opponent's speed was not physical, but rather a form of short-range Space Jump.
However, the instinctive combat movements of these noble-born knights were always faster than their minds. Before Miss's mind could recover its ability to think, her body had already swung the war hammer in a full circle.
Although she was a "Pure" type who focused on support, apart from casting the Vivification Cell buff for everyone at the beginning, she was more like a warrior. Although her war hammer looked like it was made of fragile glass crystal, it was clearly a very powerful heirloom treasure, and her own skills were inherited. As soon as the war hammer swung, it brought with it a fierce gale, making the "flesh" of one of the synthetic humans tremble.
However, such means might catch an equally matched psionics off guard, but it was still too tender for these synthetic humans. The synthetic human, having abandoned half of its body, allowed the spatial vibrations from the war hammer to make its soft materials tremble incessantly. It did not dodge but met the hammer head-on.
*Pfft*~~~ The war hammer hitting the target made a faint, strange sound, like hitting a ball of cotton. At the same time, the synthetic human extended its remaining hand, its fingertips pointing at the Knight Lady's helmet, shimmering with intense light.
At this moment, the Knight Lady had no way to dodge.
However, just as this intense light was about to turn into a fatal beam, the enemy's body stiffened noticeably again. The Knight Lady could sense that it was like a swift yet powerful serpentine airflow, extending from behind the crowd, tightly binding the synthetic human's body.
Although the synthetic human's half-body was restrained in mid-air, it was still struggling fiercely. Its body, deformed like twisted clay by the bullets, began to recover. A complete cross protrusion reappeared on its face, now dyed a scorching dark red, as if it were burning lava.
"Must stop it!" Sobek thought, loading another Alchemical Bullet clip into his firearm.
However, before this synthetic human could unleash its fury, its body was pulled towards the ground as if by invisible chains emerging from underground, losing its ability to struggle again.
The fluid material that constituted the synthetic human's soft body seemed to have lost all elasticity at this point, turning a grayish-white like a corpse. It smashed onto the ground, then disintegrated into pieces.
This was the first kill the knights had made since boarding the ship. Although theoretically, they hadn't killed it with their own hands, their morale had soared. Even their active shields became more agile, blocking all the synthetic human's energy projectiles.
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The remaining synthetic humans were somewhat rigid, perhaps because their AI lacked programs to deal with the current situation. They did not even realize that after losing a companion, a significant crack had appeared in their sturdy shield wall.
Immediately after, another Alchemical Armor-Piercing Bullet, infused with high-explosive materials and accompanied by psionic reverberations, pierced the crack in the shield wall and hit the face of the next synthetic human.
That cross-marked face was instantly blown into a pulp, and its body staggered and fell like a kite with a broken string.
To the cheers of the knights, after this synthetic human retreated a few steps, the wound on its face began to heal again, but the healing speed was much slower.
Sobek, who fired the shot, maintained a calm and composed demeanor, but the bitterness on his face, hidden beneath his helmet, finally subsided, and he let out a sigh of relief.
These synthetic humans could withstand the annihilation effect of Atomic Light Spears and the psionic attacks of treasure artifacts, but now they were pierced through by a relatively "ordinary" alchemy shell. At least this indicated that the opponent's regenerative ability had limits.
"Alchemical bullets are effective!" Sobek shouted, "Change the robots to clip number 12."
"Yes, understand!" A knight responsible for the fire support platform hesitated for less than half a second before acting with a pained expression.
The so-called special ammunition number 12 was the Alchemical Armor-Piercing Bullet. Once fired, it wasn't just a bullet, it was pure gold. Of course, since it wasn't their money being spent, but the Knight Order's funds, feeling heartache indicated that these knights had a sense of responsibility and moral standards above average.
"Steady as she goes!" Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sobek quickly pulled Miss from the Marchioness's family back into the crowd: "You're a Pure, not a Guardian or Blood Path. I've never seen someone of your Star Ring charge forward like this!"
"Y-yes, I understand. I'm sorry," Miss Selu apologized quickly, but couldn't help but glance at Count Black Moon, who had run to the rear at some unknown time. At this moment, the famous rogue was hanging upside down from the ceiling like a bat, as if completely unaffected by the ship's gravity.
Or rather, his gravity was completely inverted compared to everyone else's.
Just now, he saved me, right? None of the knights present possessed such means; it could only have been him.
The young lady from the Marchioness's family felt ashamed, remembering how she had always been wary and hostile towards the Count.
Count Black Moon seemed to sense the young lady's gaze and nodded slightly in greeting.
Miss from the Marchioness's family gratefully returned the salute to one of the Empire's most wanted criminals and said to Sobek, "Sir, you haven't trusted the wrong person. Although he is a major criminal of the Empire, Count Black Moon is indeed a hero who keeps his word."
I wasn't expecting him to keep his word. Sobek thought, it's just that intelligent people at this level must have their wits about them and should be able to distinguish priorities.
He didn't know that Count Black Moon, hanging upside down from the ceiling, was observing more than all the knights.
"These synthetic humans, have they been weakened again?"
If the first time, each of these synthetic humans could have put him in a tough fight, and four of them combined could have forced him to retreat in disarray, then after the first weakening, their combat capabilities dropped to around the fifth ring, barely equivalent to a Yu Lian. But now, their performance had been weakened a second time. While their physical power output hadn't been greatly affected, the mysterious "activity" contained within those special materials had experienced a significant decline.
Because of this, she no longer needed to engage in direct combat. With just a little control and support, she could help these young knights stabilize the situation.
After all, I'm just a harmless gentleman thief with no strength to bind a chicken, not good at being on the front lines.
"This was your doing again, wasn't it?" Count Black Moon asked, while observing the battle, he connected to Miss Gray's communication channel.
"I'm trying to peel away their external energy conduits," Miss Gray's voice sounded in the Count's earpiece.
"Oh my, you actually answered. You were unresponsive no matter how I called you earlier. Now that you can answer, does that mean you succeeded?"
"More than half successful. I'm merging with the Ship's AI. The advantage is mine. Although it will take a little more time, I am gaining some of the ship's permissions." Miss Gray looked into the distance.
In the virtual world created by the ancient ship's central control AI, her transformed Void Lord had become a mountain of wreckage. Although its limbs were still trembling, the grotesque, horrifying pile of remains was still ugly enough to drive people mad, but the indescribable terrifying pressure had dissipated.
Of course, within the mountain of wreckage, a sound of self-satisfaction and laughter could still be faintly heard.
Although the laughter was indistinct, with Miss Gray's abilities, how could she not recognize it? So, she sent the repaired sound and image, along with it, to Count Black Moon.
Thus, Count Black, who was observing the battle between the Star Realm Knights and the synthetic humans, heard such a voice: "Wahahaha, I never thought I'd have a day to single-handedly defeat a Void Lord! Although it's fake, since it's idealism, of course, I believe it to be true."
Yu Lian felt he had reason to be proud. Although he defeated the enemy by taking advantage of being able to heal infinitely in the virtual space, enduring nearly a hundred jumps between life and death showed not only his madness but also the resilience of his spirit!
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This is not what Miss Gray called perverted; it is the true nature of a fearless, great man!
Regardless, the countless breakthroughs and battles where his life hung by a thread, even though they occurred in virtual reality, had truly turned into his own combat experience.
Hehehe, even a powerful individual of the eighth ring or a war god of the ninth ring, how many of them have experience fighting a Void Lord?
If, in the future, he truly had to fight a Void Lord in reality, this experience would at least have some reference value. Even if it was just experience gained in a virtual world.
More importantly, through nearly a hundred solo runs, he had truly imprinted the fifth ring with his own color, and two new star positions began to shine brilliantly, as if they were newly revived stars.
Yu Lian had obtained new extraordinary abilities.
Enlighteners are truly amazing! One can level up just by playing games in virtual space! So, what principle is this based on? Even if he asked Miss Gray, she would surely only say "Prohibited matter."
Regardless, even if he ignored the Star Barrier Celestial Curtain, the rewards from this boss rush alone were comparable to any of his past exploration experiences from his previous life.
With this thought, Yu Lian, trapped in the wreckage, couldn't help but laugh heartily again, then picked up his weapon and began to mercilessly hack at the still-twitching monster core.
"That should be enough! Hurry up and die... Hurry up and merge! Don't you want to become a true Silicon-based life? Then cast aside these programmed firewalls and feel the heat of my sword! Hurry up, I still have to help Master and Senior Black Moon. Hurry, hurry, hurry! Die, die, die!"
Count Black Moon watched this scene and almost burst out laughing: "Uh, my junior has gotten carried away and lost his composure in front of you. I'm truly sorry. I knew this child was occasionally mischievous when I wasn't looking, but I didn't expect him to behave like this."
"He probably thinks that by smashing the data cluster with his own hands, his abilities can advance further," Miss Gray said.
"Then, is it possible?"
"Of course, it's not possible to directly advance to the sixth ring, but it's possible to unlock another star position."
"Then let him keep hacking. I don't need his help here yet," Count Black said.
"You're not planning to let those Imperial knights and the synthetic humans perish together, are you?" Miss Gray asked.
"Hahahaha, I am not a devil, after all. I am just a gentleman thief who is passionate about balance. Have any of these Imperial knights died, except for those who courted death at the beginning? As for Fairy Gray, you are a silicon-based digital life form beyond our imagination. Such a high-level being, are you actually interested in the moral code of us carbon-based monkeys?"
"Socialized beings have different moral ethics and different understandings of the universe and life. Is this not also a path to universal truth?" Miss Gray smiled: "Of course, that's a later topic."
Count Black also nodded and asked, "What about True Person Lan?"