After determining the next target, Duanmu Huai did not immediately summon the Star Realm Army to rush to that planet. Instead, he began to think about the strategies to follow.
Strictly speaking, in the game, the enemies players hated the most—aside from the Chaos Gods—were Greenskins, Tyranid swarms, and artificial intelligence.
The reason was simple: they were a pain in the ass and extremely hard to wipe out completely.
There was no need to explain the Tyranid swarms. They could eat any organic matter, and once they ate, they reproduced—fast enough to give anyone a headache.
Greenskins had an even stronger reproductive ability than the Tyranids, belonging to the rare races that could directly and crudely overwhelm the swarm through sheer numbers.
Artificial intelligence was also extremely annoying, for the same reason—they were easy to kill, but very hard to kill completely.
Movies often had plots like this: some powerful mechanical race launched an attack on humanity, possessing tens of billions of troops, humanity stood on the brink of extinction, then the protagonist risked everything to infiltrate the core area of the mechanical race, destroyed the central mother core controlling everything, and the entire mechanical race immediately self-destructed and collapsed... wasn't it always played out like that?
But in reality, that was nothing more than dramatic effect.
Games, movies, and animation loved to call this the hive-mind model...… but had you ever seen a beehive drop dead on the spot just because the queen died?
In nature, even if a hive's queen died for some reason, the worker bees would immediately "cultivate" a new queen. The death of the original queen would indeed affect the hive to a certain extent, but once a new queen was born, the entire hive would return to normal.
So that kind of thing in movies was purely for show. In reality, at most they would be in chaos for a while, then produce a new core again.
Pandora's EVA was actually similar. The main issue was that it was still young and had never faced serious threats before, so it lacked that kind of experience. Otherwise, even if Duanmu Huai destroyed its main body, it might have distributed its remaining consciousness in a decentralized manner and waited for a chance to revive.
If that happened...… Duanmu Huai would only have one option left—planetary annihilation.
From this perspective, players actually preferred fighting the followers of the God of Tyranny. At least they were straightforward—show up and fight. If you could beat them, you fought; if you couldn't beat them, you still fought and that was that.
Unlike these troublesome things—kill them, and they might just crawl back to life somewhere else.
Plagues were also annoying, but at least...… Duanmu Huai currently had a way to deal with those.
But an AI crisis like this could not be solved with sheer firepower alone. If you couldn't find a way to kill it completely, it would just die, revive, die again, revive again—endlessly.
That said, it wasn't as if there were no countermeasures. Just like the Ymir parasite could be completely wiped out by a suitable and stable ultrasonic frequency, as long as Duanmu Huai found an effective method, completely eliminating or destroying an AI crisis was not that difficult.
The prerequisite was...… he needed the right people.
Just like top-tier biologists such as Rebecca and Sherry—you needed at least one to deal with these kinds of problems.
If you had one, these problems weren't problems.
If you didn't—
Then it was truly a problem.
And right now...… Duanmu Huai happened to be in the second situation.
He had no suitable candidate and no solution capable of resolving an AI crisis.
So he did not immediately advance his army. Instead, he first needed to find the key to solving this crisis—talent.
Unfortunately, talent was not easy to find.
The reason was also very simple.
For biologists, it wasn't impossible to find a few top-tier experts with proper moral values.
But hackers, on the other hand, were basically all anti-government or anarchists. People like that were usually the type who lived freely and did whatever they wanted. In the eyes of the Inquisition, such people were practically the vanguard of falling to Chaos.
They had no loyalty whatsoever.
So, trying to find a hacker who was loyal, pure, and would not fall to corruption...…
Might as well be easier than going to a bar and finding a virgin.
"Ah...… this is really giving me a headache...!!!"
Duanmu Huai grabbed his head and groaned. The worlds he currently had access to mostly lacked sufficient technological development—put bluntly, they did not have enough civilizational depth. In fact, even in the game, such characters were extremely rare. Any guild that managed to obtain this kind of talent would treat them as elites and take great care of them. In the end, when facing the Chaos Gods, there were only a handful of characters who could truly shine on the electronic battlefield.
If all else failed, he would just have to poach someone.
"Hmm...… if I remember correctly, the Triangle Guild did have an NPC who was especially skilled in this area...… what was her name again...… ugh...…"
Duanmu Huai frowned and carefully searched his memory. He remembered that in the game, there was indeed such an NPC in the Triangle Guild. Normally speaking, Duanmu Huai, who fought on the frontlines, had little to do with rear-support NPCs. The reason he remembered her was because a beauty ranking list or something had once appeared on the forums. At the time, the list included Duanmu Huai's customized character, as well as several player characters, all of whom were good-looking, powerful, and famous. Someone had also included several NPCs, and among them was this NPC who specialized in electronic warfare.
Because of that, Duanmu Huai had some impression of her. However...… the impression wasn't very deep. He had forgotten her name, though he still remembered her appearance. Although she was in logistics, her electronic warfare capability was indeed top-notch. After all, there weren't many who could directly withstand the electronic demons of the God of Trickery on the frontal battlefield, right?
Unfortunately, they had never met in person. Duanmu Huai only remembered some information that had been posted on the forums at the time, and even that wasn't particularly detailed.
If he remembered correctly, she seemed to be from the Fifty-Ninth Star System?
With no other options left, he would have to go there personally and look for her.
For Duanmu Huai, finding people was not his strong suit. But as for whether he had a method...… he naturally did.
Just like right now.
"Answer my questions honestly, and I'll spare your life."
Looking at the trembling captain in front of him, Duanmu Huai raised his chainsword and pressed it against the man's neck, speaking coldly.
Yes, Duanmu Huai's idea was very simple. He didn't know the situation himself, but someone in the Fifty-Ninth Star System certainly would. So he took a squad of the Star Realm Army to the Fifty-Ninth Star System. Then, upon arrival—oh my, this place had already entered the spacefaring civilization stage.
That made things much easier.
So Duanmu Huai directly targeted a spaceship, boarded it by force, stormed into the command room, and detained everyone inside.
"Y-you may ask...…"
Staring at Duanmu Huai, who was covered head to toe in skull decorations, the spaceship's captain was so scared that he nearly collapsed. It was no wonder he had pissed himself. Just moments ago, he had been leisurely piloting his ship along a transport route. The next moment, a strangely shaped warship suddenly appeared beside him. Then the other side launched boarding torpedoes, and before the captain could even call for help, they smashed through the hatch and charged in.
Facing the gleaming chainsword, and looking at the monstrous figure before him—more than half a head taller than himself, with skulls decorating every inch of his armor—the captain was on the verge of tears.
"Very good. I want to ask—do you know of an organization here called GTTO, or GOOT, or something like that?"
"G...… Do you mean GOTT?"
"Probably."
Duanmu Huai only remembered that the organization she belonged to had some kind of G, some kind of O, and some kind of T...… If it weren't four letters, he would've just called it GTO.
"What kind of organization is that?"
"Th-that is...… the Galactic Trade and Tariff Organization...…"
"The tax bureau?"
Hearing this, Duanmu Huai frowned. That made things troublesome. He had never dealt with the tax bureau before.
"How about this."
Duanmu Huai thought for a moment, then looked at the captain in front of him.
"Do you like money?"
"...…???"
Faced with Duanmu Huai's question, the captain looked completely confused. Then Duanmu Huai reached out and pulled a gold bar out of his power armor.
"Is this thing valuable where you come from?"
"!!!"
In fact, there was no need for the captain to answer. Judging by the way his eyes lit up, it was obvious that this thing was...… valuable.
"Let's make a deal. You help me investigate some information, and I'll give you sufficient payment. How about it? Don't worry, I won't make you do anything high-risk—just investigate some information."
"Th-this...…"
Staring at the gold bar in Duanmu Huai's hand, the captain hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded.
"Of course. No problem."
"Very well. Then I want to find someone in GOTT. She probably looks like this...…"
Duanmu Huai briefly described the other party's appearance. After all, her look was truly distinctive—he felt confident she could be found.
Sure enough, after hearing Duanmu Huai's description, the captain immediately activated his terminal, opened GOTT's official website, and entered the personnel directory. Within the list, Duanmu Huai indeed spotted her photograph.
However, her position made Duanmu Huai's eyes widen in shock.
"Front desk?"
You've got to be kidding me. Someone capable of directly going head-to-head with electronic demons was working the front desk at the tax bureau?
What kind of joke was this...… Did I find the wrong person?
Duanmu Huai stared at the photo again for a long moment.
No mistake. That hairstyle was way too distinctive—there wasn't a second person here with that hairstyle.
However, at that moment, something unexpected happened. Just as Duanmu Huai was wondering whether he had misunderstood something, the information on the screen suddenly flickered, and then that person's photo vanished completely?!
"What's going on?"
Duanmu Huai turned his head and looked at the captain, who shook his head as well, looking utterly baffled.
"I-I don't know either...…"
"Do you have information channels? Can you find out what happened?"
Duanmu Huai knew that people who ran interstellar transport routes usually had their own intelligence networks. He didn't have time to investigate personally, so he could only ask. Of course, if the captain didn't know either, Duanmu Huai might have to fly straight to the tax bureau to confirm it himself...…
"I'll try...…"
Under the dual pressure of death and money, the captain immediately began querying his intelligence network. Soon enough, he obtained some information.
"I heard that something happened inside GOTT. Someone defected—seems like it was her...… GOTT has already issued a wanted notice."
"Oh?"
Hearing this, Duanmu Huai raised an eyebrow.
Now this was interesting. Issuing a wanted notice for a front desk clerk?
Hmm...… that greatly increased the likelihood that she was the person he was looking for.
"Thank you for your cooperation."
Duanmu Huai lowered his chainsword and casually tossed a heavy box in front of the captain.
"I believe you understand not to tell anyone about us. Alright, let's go."
Only after Duanmu Huai left with the Star Realm Army did the captain finally let out a huge sigh of relief, then collapsed onto the floor.
That was...… way too fucking close to dying!
(End of Chapter)