Star Rank Hunter
chapter-256

Chapter 256: The Long Lost Ring Resonates, Gen Liao

When the robot eagle said subordinates, it was referring to the robots that had just extricated themselves from the sand dunes. Cillin could sense that these robots were tougher than the ones he had been fighting until now. Even if their offensive power was still a mystery right now, their ability to disguise themselves as sand dunes spoke volumes about their superiority already.

There was also another method to detect how good a robot was, one that Wheeze had told him itself. It told him that the better a robot, the clearer, more complete and ordered its machine language was. Of course, not anyone could employ this method, such as those who didn’t understand machine language.

The first robot lizard charged towards Pistura, the vanguard of the group. It had incredible movement speed, running so fast that only a trail of sand could be seen.

The robot lizard had reached Pistura by the time he jumped down from the airship, but his senior brother didn’t pull the trigger of his gun. Instead, he landed solidly on the ground, grabbed the robot lizard by its throat and crushed it in one go.

Pistura tossed the headless robot lizard away before he stared at the robot eagle standing above a giant robot. After shooting a glance at the two scholars who were sealed inside translucent pods, he slowly walked towards them.

Fu Qingqing and Goryeo trailed behind Pistura in a triangular formation.

Pistura’s was unaware of the robot eagle’s question, but his unconscious action was the best answer nonetheless. Cillin smiled. “The result seems pretty clear to me.”

The robot eagle’s eyes turned serious before it let out a distorted cry. All the humanoids and the animalistic robots — except the giant robots that were guarding the two pods — that had emerged from the sand dunes moved to surround Cillin and his seniors.

The robot eagle flapped its wings, and the battle began as if the war bugle was blown.

These enemy robots had much tougher bodies than the ones they fought before, and they engaged with their transformation abilities more flexibly. They were even smart enough to transform into other animals behind smoke cover so that they could perform better against the humans.

Cillin ignored the hostages inside the pods and fought alongside his senior brothers and sisters with his blade. There was a chance these humanoids and animalistic robots might come back to life if their heads weren’t completely crushed, so it was a waste of energy to strike at any body part that wasn’t the head. Moreover, they had to ensure that every attack was one hit one kill because the enemies were too numerous. Failure to kill an enemy in one hit would result in greater stress, and as human beings their physical endurance was always going to be inferior to robots.

Cillin swung his blade again and again, but didn’t use his gun. He was able to identify the best possible angle of attack in an incredibly short amount of time, and take off the enemy’s head with just the right amount of strength every time he swung.

Cillin could sense the robots’ ability to learn and adapt very clearly. They weren’t just fast and skillful, they could even use combat techniques the humans employed against them just a moment ago. Their computation abilities were also incredibly scary.

Goryeo and the others had fired their guns since a while ago. At the beginning, their hit rate was 100%, but that number slowly diminished over time. Some of the robots were starting to learn how to avoid bullets or use parts of their shields to cancel out some knockback. The longer the fight went on, the more it ground into a stalemate.

Guan Feng didn’t allow his disciples to go below 99.9% hit rate in training. But right now, all their hit rates had gone below that value.

These robots were capable of analysing bullet trajectory and discovering the best way to block or dodge the attack. The could calculate the bullet’s final destination the second the human pulled the trigger.

Although Pistura, Goryeo and Fu Qingqing were aware of this problem, they had no way of dealing with it effectively. The fastest bullet PTS E could fire was a half-bullet, and this type of bullet didn’t contain explosive charges. But if they tried to use an explosive round, the slight difference in weight and speed was all the robots needed to dodge out of the way.

As Cillin’s senior brothers and sisters started to struggle more and more, three robot lizards and two robot snakes made a charge towards them. Goryeo opened fire at them, but only one robot lizard was struck in the head and disabled.

Goryeo kept running and gunning the enemies down one by one. Although he ultimately managed to take out the two robot snakes and robot lizards, new animalistic robots had joined the fray while he was occupied. Goryeo’s experience was ultimately lacking compared to Pistura or Fu Qingqing. At the very least, his mental fortitude was weaker than theirs in a desperate situation like this one. He was able to dodge out of the way of a robot snake’s venom spit and a robot lizard’s laser shot by a hair’s breadth, but he had nothing left to defend himself against the curved blade of a robot scorpion’s tail coming his way.

Bang!

The robot’s scorpion’s head exploded, and its tail slowed by a fraction. Thanks to the assist fire, Goryeo was able to dodge the attack safely.

Bang bang bang!

The animalistic robots surrounding Goryeo behind that robot scorpion were also headshotted one after another.

“Thanks!” Goryeo seized the opening to thank Cillin for his help.

Cillin fired his gun again and again, popping heads with every shot without stopping even once. Cillin’s intervention caused the humanoids and animalistic robots to switch their attention to him, but that also meant that Pistura, Fu Qingqing and Goryeo were free to shoot at them without worry. The robots were good enough to dodge one shooter’s bullets, but not three shooters at once — at least, not in such a short period of time.

The robot army numbered almost a hundred at the beginning. Now, their numbers had diminished to less than thirty, and they were still decreasing.

The robot eagle glanced towards the far distance. The army was steadily making way towards them, meaning that it had to make a choice now or never. Since it didn’t look like these people were going to give it the formulas, the robot eagle flapped its wings and sent a command. The two giant robots gripped the translucent pods.

“Your answer is duly noted. Say...”

The robot eagle was going to enjoy the humans’ faces after it crushed the two old scholars into meat paste right before their eyes, but before it could finish, two cutting noises suddenly came from below. When it looked down at the robots, it noticed that the giant robots were missing their arms. Electric occasionally sparked from their elbows.

Wheeze dashed towards Cillin and sent a couple of animalistic robots flying because they happened to be in its way. Finally, it landed on Cillin’s shoulder and licked its paws calmly.

Not even Pistura, Fu Qingqing and Goryeo managed to see what happened clearly. Pistura’s secret order was to keep the formulas a secret and capture the culprit dead or alive, even if he had to sacrifice the two scholars’ lives. It was why he was mentally prepared to be greeted by the sight of gory death. He didn’t expect to find the giant robots missing their arms when he turned around to look, however.

Goryeo and Fu Qingqing’s reactions were about the same as Pistura’s. They all looked a little absent minded.

There were only seven to eight animalistic robots left now. Cillin seized the opportunity to kill all of them with his gun.

The robot eagle’s gaze was completely fixed on the gray cat that was licking its paws on top of Cillin’s shoulder. It had no idea how the cat had suddenly entered its range without warning at all. Technically speaking, it should be able to detect any biological lifeform that had entered its range, but somehow that cat had managed to defy this logic. Even better, the robots’ arms and the translucent pods had suddenly vanished into thin air, an occurrence that it wasn’t able to puzzle out even now.

Is it another robot? No, my spectral analysis identifies it as different from us descendants. But why do I feel like I’m missing something?

Bang!

The robot eagle came back to itself when Cillin’s bullet struck its protective shield. It had to acknowledge the threat Cillin’s gun represented: if the shield wasn’t there, it would’ve been blasted into a pile of metal scraps already.

The feather beneath the robot eagle’s wings turned into propellers as the eagle then took off to the sky. The two giant robots also transformed into fighters slowly before attempting to fly away.

Boom! Boom!

Two particle beams struck the giant robots and brought them down, the sheer impact of their fall causing a small sandstorm.

The eagle managed to dodge a particle beam that was meant for him, but not the five consecutive bullets Cillin fired from his hoverboard. None of them were a direct hit because the protective shield was in the way, but the vibration of the impact slowed the robot eagle just enough for Pistura to fire an electric net at it. The net slowly ate away at the protective shield.

The robot eagle let out a shrill cry, and both Cillin and Pistura immediately moved away from it. As expected, the robot eagle self destructed and exploded into a ball of fire, the shockwave pushing Cillin far, far away from ground zero. Lucky for him, he had a tough physique. A different person might’ve walked away with some deep bruises and broken bones at least.

Cillin turned around to check if Pistura was okay, but as it turned out his concern was entirely unnecessary. Would you look at those defensive equipment.

When Cillin landed his how wobbly hoverboard on the ground, Pistura walked up to him and advised, “You should probably use something else in the future. It’s not safe.”

To Pistura, hoverboards were only good for kids and cool poses. He advised Cillin against using one in the future because their terrible lack of stability made them a dissatisfactory mode of transport at best on a battlefield.

Cillin nodded and agreed verbally, but he had a different thought in his mind. He was more used to flying hoverboards, and the hoverboard he was riding was modified by him. It might look like a normal flying toy suited for entertainment purposes only, but Cillin still preferred it over other tools because it was convenient, and it provided a great degree of freedom.

Pui! Suddenly, the gray cat spat out something. The items it spat out suddenly grew in size rapidly until they were restored to their original state.

To Pistura and the others, the translucent pods and the arms holding them had appeared suddenly after a gray blur. They were also covered in bits of undigested sea beast flesh. The sight was so disgusting that Goryeo and Fu Qingqing had contorted expressions on their faces. Pistura managed to maintain a serious look on his face, but even he couldn’t stop his eyes from twitching a little at the sight.

So disgusting...

The two old scholars trapped inside the translucent pods were still unconscious. Pistura opened the pods and checked their condition for a bit.

“They’re not in danger. They should be fine after an injection when we we get back.” Pistura said. Then, he started examining his surroundings. As he stared at the buzzing, dead robots lying all over the sand, Pistura’s felt like returning to Guan Feng and apply for the rights to use a PTS K. Every time he saw a PTS K at work, he couldn’t help but recall how slow a PTS E was. This fight especially made him realize that the weapon he wielded could no longer keep up with the pace of his enemies, not to mention that Guan Feng was already starting to develop PTS S. It would suck still to be stuck with a PTS E when PTS S finally came into existence.

It didn’t take long for Gen Xingchen to show up. In fact, he was the one who ordered the firing of the particle beam shots. The young prince let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Cillin was safe and sound. The two old scholars’ wellbeing was of no particular concern to him.

Suddenly, Pistura’s communicator came to life. The fact that his communicator was working meant that communications had almost been fully restored.

“We’ve been played, captain!” Both Fu Qingqing and Goryeo were receiving the same news when Pistura accepted the call. They were all being told that Stappen’s side had been attacked.

Cillin was without a doubt the crux of this entire incident, but a lot of people had forgotten that Stappen was a key person himself. Although he was staying under the same roof as RAS’ personnel, and he was protected by both the Imperial Army and Royal Army, something still happened to the scientist in the end. They might be the enemy, but their prowess had to be commended all the same.

By the time someone realized that the RAS scholars, academicians and Stappen in the neighboring room had been attacked by Black Viper, they were all in a coma. It was soon discovered that they were hypnotized and forced to reveal many secrets. Strictly speaking none of the secrets they divulged were of paramount importance, but it wasn’t an incident they could ignore all the same.

Cillin could understand why the robots had targeted Stappen.He might not be the only one here who knew about the latest sea blue gold formulas, but Stappen was the first discoverer. If they couldn’t get what they wanted from Cillin, then Stappen was an acceptable alternative.

Cillin believed that Black Viper was smart enough to figure out several new sea blue gold formulas on their own based on Stappen’s research methods. It was a coin flip whether they would figure out that the best sea blue gold formulas came from the sea king’s eggs, but one thing was certain, the RAS was going to be very busy after today’s incident. They couldn’t allow Black Viper to exceed them in terms of sea blue gold research, or it would be embarrassing to say the least.

Meanwhile, a robot that looked very similar to the robot eagle Cillin had fought earlier decloaked itself not far away from a military starship garrisoned outside the planet. Then, a spaceplane revealed itself as well. The robot eagle flew into the spaceplane before the military starship could mount a response, and the spaceplane escaped at top speed after reactivating its invisibility cloak.

A room was assigned to Cillin after after the officials ran him through a couple of standard questions. Of course, he was now in a different building — the building he stayed in had turned into a pile of debris after the military and the robots had fought a battle there.

The return trip to the capital was pushed back two days, so Cillin was currently lying on his bed and resting right now. Fighting the robots was an exceedingly exhausting task for the mind because he had to predict and counter-predict their movements, so heavy fatigue quickly settled in his mind after he relaxed, just like he had expected it would.

Wheeze opened its mouth and spat out an egg after it circled around the room once. It was the sea beast egg that it used as a toy back when they were locked inside a room. Originally, Wheeze had spat it out as part of Cillin’s plan, but after the battle began it re-swallowed the egg because it seemed such a waste to leave it behind. If it was digested then so be it, was what Wheeze thought at the time. To its surprise though, the egg remained intact — although it was a lot smoother because the attachments on its shell had all been digested.

“It really is quite hard to digest!” Wheeze pushed the egg once with its paws, and the smooth egg rolled again and again on the floor.

After playing with the egg for a little while, Wheeze jumped back up to Cillin’s shoulder and closed its eyes as if it was falling asleep. In reality, it was communicating with Cillin through an invisible method that none of their observers were able to detect at all.

When the robots first appeared, Cillin had been struck by a sense of familiarity. Most of these robots — especially the leader — had displayed the ability to think independently for themselves. Despite sporting a metallic body, their psyche was very close to that of a human’s. They had expressions and emotions, they knew anger. Their emotions were so rich that it reminded Cillin of Sigma, who was currently on the other side of the galaxy.

His guesses were quickly confirmed by Wheeze.

A machine’s type could be distinguished from its machine language. Using the human’s evolutionary tree as an example, the enemy humanoids and animalistic robots were descendants of the same root even though they technically belonged to different branches. Their roots also happened to be the exact same as Sigma’s.

This meant that Sigma’s master was definitely a denizen of this galaxy. Of course, Sigma’s master was long gone already, but his legacy had apparently survived to this day. Could the descendant of Sigma’s master really be working for Black Viper right now?

At first, Cillin wasn’t able to find anything regarding Sigma’s master, not even after he went through some historical records. At one point, Cillin even thought that he wasn’t in Sigma’s galaxy. Now though, there couldn’t be any mistake.

Also, the robot eagle’s final cry was actually an inquiry to verify if the operation at Stappen’s was going smoothly. It self-destructed only after it had obtained a confirmation reply.

“Cillin, do we really have to fight Sigma’s master?” Wheeze asked. Frankly speaking, it couldn’t feel a shred of goodwill towards those humanoids and animalistic robots at all. Its feelings were the complete opposite from when it first encountered Sigma. Sigma made Wheeze want to get acquainted with it, but these robots just disgusted it a lot.

“I’m not sure. But we’ll definitely learn about the truth in the future.” Cillin said.

Wheeze let out a long sigh. If they really turned out to be hostile forces, what happens if it couldn’t stop itself from killing the Sigma’s master’s descendant?

Cillin petted the gray cat comfortingly. “Enough, there’s no need to think too much. We don’t even know the full truth right now, so there’s no point troubling ourselves over it.”

The next two days went by peacefully, and Cillin didn’t have much to worry about. Right now, the RAS were the busiest people of them all. Black Viper’s attack was a real wake up call that prompted them to treat the research of new materials and information technology as their top priority. If they couldn’t achieve a breakthrough, those robots could slip right under their noses again the next time they appeared.

The senior level of the RAS, the scholars who thought themselves to be the magnates of the academic circle, held an emergency meeting after this incident. However, Cillin didn’t — or care to — know what exactly what discussed during the meeting because he was flying back to the capital while accompanied by three armies. Three armies, because the Gen Family counted as an army themselves besides the Royal Army and Imperial Army.

A lot of people started wondering why the Gen Family followed Cillin every step of the way.

Guan Feng didn’t contact Cillin, and it was strange thing because it wasn’t like him at all. In fact, Cillin himself wasn’t able to get in touch with Guan Feng.

When Cillin reached AF1, he finally learned the reason he failed to contact Guan Feng.

There were certain things Gen Xingchen and his subordinates couldn’t do while they were at AF1, so the young prince only brought a few men with him into the school. The rest of his subordinates stood by at their designated spots.

The first thing Cillin did after returning to AF1 was to seek out Guan Feng as a matter of course. However, he suddenly sensed an oppressive coldness before he even entered Guan Feng’s house.

Cillin shot a glance at Gen Xingchen. The young prince was looking down at his feet and feigning ignorance. In the end, Cillin pushed open the gate and entered the courtyard, and then his ring started vibrating around his thumb. It was a numbing pain that felt like electrocution, but at the same time he didn’t sense any danger from it. On the contrary, it almost felt like the ring was getting impatient about something.

This was the first time the ring ever reacted like this ever since it came into his possession.

There was a loud bang, and Guan Feng’s electronic house door was kicked open from the inside. In fact, the entire slab of wood was ripped off its hinges and sent flying through the air.

“THIS IS MY HOUSE, GEN LIAO! HOW DARE YOU KICK MY DOOR IN MY PLACE!” Guan Feng’s roar erupted from inside the house.

When there were outsiders, Guan Feng was a smiling gentlemen. His roar though just shattered that impression into many tiny pieces.

An old man with white hair stepped out of the entrance. His back was straight, and he showed no signs of aging whatsoever. The first impression he gave Cillin that he was like a second Genya. However, his presence — a kind of hidden sharpness that was honed by many years — was far more dominant compared to his master’s. Genya’s presence was very gentle; so gentle that it felt like a sunny breeze.

A similar appearance, a different presence.

Gen Liao was drinking tea and trading barbs with Guan Feng in the living room when his finger suddenly shook with activity. Just how many years had in been since he last felt this?

When they were younger, their father had shown them three rings. The sensation had happened when they put on the rings, and the rings turned into a leaf pattern around their fingers.

There was a time Gen Liao thought that he would never feel this sensation again. After their elder sister had passed away, he would often stare at the leafy ring around his finger and blank out, engulfed in waves of sorrow like never before. At the time, he had already retired from the throne.

Every time the wheels of time spun, it was like its gear had left a mark in his heart, a mark that he could recall as clear as yesterday. It was time, and it was memories he could never forget.

Gen Liao had felt like crying when the ring finally vibrated once more. However, the person who triggered the reaction didn’t look like the man in his memories at all. Gen Liao had investigated Cillin’s blood and genes before the meeting, but the contradiction hurt him deeply all the same.

Is he gone? He’s gone, isn’t he... It’s been so many years. Even the ring has a new owner.

Gen Liao strode towards Cillin while trying his best to suppress his uneven breathing. After shooting a glance at the leaf pattern around Cillin’s thumb, Gen Liao grabbed his shoulder and dragged him towards the direction of the house.

Gen Xingchen and the others were going to follow them, until a “GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!” sent them scurrying back to their original spots. Guan Feng watched as Gen Liao dragged his student into a room and slammed the door close. Swearing under his breath, the teacher walked over to Gen Xingchen and began demanding compensation for house damages and mental anguish.

Cillin didn’t retaliate when Gen Liao hauled him physically into a room. He thought to himself: he’s so different from Genya, Genya would never drag a person like this.

When Gen Liao looked at his surroundings, he abruptly realized that he had dragged Cillin into Guan Feng’s spare kitchen. Finding his antagonist’s kitchen utensils an eyesore, he crushed them into one giant ball, opened the window and threw them right out.

Once he was done cleaning up the room, Gen Liao activated a force shield and made the space they were in invisible and unhearable.

“You... you... you...” The old man was so excited he couldn’t form a coherent word except “you”. Finally, he gave Cillin’s collar a pull and said, “You speak!”

Cillin: “...”

Come on, elder, what on earth do you want me to say? I know nothing about the Gen Family!

Cillin chose his words carefully before starting, “Cough, my master left me this ring after he passed away.”

“Is your master’s name Genya?” Gen Liao’s voice was shaking and raspy when he asked this. He looked very depressed.

Cillin nodded in response.

Although he was mentally prepared for the bad news from the beginning, Gen Liao still couldn’t stop the heat from surging into his eyes. It took a couple of deep breaths before he finally managed to force his tears back into his tear ducts. “Did — did he leave anything behind?”

“Yeah. It was his wish to return to his roots.”

Cillin waved his hand, and a wooden coffin abruptly winked into existence. Although the coffin was sealed as tight as it was many years ago, Gen Liao could still sense that the person lying inside the coffin was Genya. He could sense that the man lying inside the coffin made of Fuji Tree wood shared his own blood...

Hmm?

Suddenly, Gen Liao’s face contorted the moment he touched the coffin. Then, he stuffed the coffin into his subspace container, grabbed Cillin’s collar again, kicked open the door and ran out. Distracted by the commotion, the group negotiating compensation at the courtyard turned around to look and found Gen Liao hopping into Gen Xingchen’s flying car and driving away like the wind. They stared dazedly at the back of the rapidly vanishing car.