Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 324 Personality Core
Baiquan said that some people questioned Chen Ming.

But Chen Ming's first reaction was not the question itself, but the reason that led to the question: "How could the news be spread so quickly?"

Logically speaking, the only people who know about this matter are the people in the conference room just now, Qiu Bowen, Bai Quan and two other lieutenant generals.

As a result, before the matter was even over, some people had already known the news and even began to question him.

This made Chen Ming at a loss for words for a moment.

Bai Quan also knew why Chen Ming asked this, and explained: "Because the result of this matter is good. Your fleet was attacked, and eventually a base of the Mechanical Clan was destroyed. It is a good thing no matter how you look at it."

"If the results are not good then it won't be so fast."

Now Chen Ming understood the reason. It turned out that the people sitting in the meeting room were all adding fuel to the fire.

That’s exactly what we should do.

Before the war between the Empire and the Machines begins, proactively announcing some examples of successful battles will be of great benefit to improving overall morale.

Chen Ming could understand it, but he just didn't react at first.

After understanding the whole story, Chen Ming stopped worrying and asked Bai Quan, "So what do those people who question me mean? Are they questioning me for getting robbed on purpose? Being robbed by the mechanical tribe is not a good thing."

"But it's normal for some people to doubt. To be honest, if I were someone else and heard that I was kidnapped by the mechanical people, I wouldn't believe it."

Baiquan smiled.

Many people know that Chen Ming's psychic power can control all machines, including the mechanical family.

So this led to the fact that Chen Ming was kidnapped by the mechanical clan, which seemed outrageous no matter how you looked at it, but that was the fact.

"Some people think you did this to defraud the Legion of supplies and funds."

"...Could it be someone from Qiu Bowen's side?"

Originally, Chen Ming thought it was normal for someone to question him, but when he heard Bai Quan say that other people questioned him, Chen Ming subconsciously had this new idea.

Bai Quan said repeatedly: "Not at all. A general really won't find someone to scold you just because you took something from him."

"In fact, some people in our faction also said so, but what they meant was that you learned how to defraud funds so quickly, and they suspected that I was the one who led you astray."

"This……"

Chen Ming spread his hands, indicating that he had nothing to say.

Bai Quan suddenly moved closer to Chen Ming and asked in a low voice: "Did you do this on purpose?"

Chen Ming subconsciously wanted to answer no, but after careful consideration, he replied: "I don't know either."

Baiquan returned to his normal sitting position after hearing this: "Then I would rather believe that you really made a mistake."

"Although it may have been an accident at first, I feel that once you discovered the Mechanical Clan's base, you were planning to take advantage of their strategy."

"Use this opportunity to seize the things of the Mechanical Clan and gain some extra benefits from the Legion."

"It's not that it's not possible. It's good to cheat the funds occasionally. The Corps can't spend all the funds every year. Every year we have to find ways to make the funds overspend."

"why is that?"

"Because if the army's funds are not used up, there will be less to get next year, so it's okay to cheat for funds occasionally."

"But you could have told me all your plans in advance."

"..."

Chen Ming remained silent and nodded slowly.

He really wanted to ask: "I didn't know I had this idea, how did you know?"

But now that he looks back, it seems that his subconscious actions were indeed directed towards this purpose, so there is nothing wrong with it.

Maybe after being attacked, he subconsciously felt that he could gain benefits in the Mechanical Clan's base and get support from the Legion, so he did this.

He just needs to agree, there is no need to say anything more.

So Chen Ming thought about it and simply responded to Bai Quan's first sentence.

"Actually, this shouldn't be considered a mistake, because I have already made all the subsequent preparations, but the mechanical tribe is more prepared than me."

"And next time I continue to transport cargo, I may still use only one cruiser,"

"Unless it is truly the most important thing, I will use psychic energy to jump directly."

Baiquan asked in confusion: "Is your mental strength enough to support the jump?"

"Of course it's enough."

Chen Ming said: "But I can't transport everything I have. I want to build a reasonable transportation network, not a transportation network that depends on me."

"Just like that batch of energy crystal crabs, even though they were attacked by the mechanical tribe once, they are still walking slowly on the road. I won't touch them with psychic power."

Bai Quan did not ask Chen Ming what to do if the fleet was attacked again. Chen Ming must have been prepared.

What he cares more about now is the hidden meaning in Chen Ming's words.

"You're still thinking about going outside."

Chen Ming did not deny Bai Quan and said, "You know the reason."

"..."

Baiquan was speechless.

Because he knew that Chen Ming had really seen too many troublesome things within the empire.

Some of them made him feel disgusted even when he came here most of the time, let alone Chen Ming.

There was no way he could persuade her.

We can only hope that Chen Ming has his own considerations and does not abandon Cheng Xinghai.

"so be it."

Bai Quan didn't say anything that Chen Ming didn't like to hear, and simply left.

Not long after, Chen Ming also left the military base in a shuttle.

The rest of the things here will be handled by others, and he just needs to wait for the results to be accepted.

He has something else to do now.

For example, confirm the status of the two mechanical cruisers he captured.

After all the weapons of the two captured mechanical cruisers were removed, they were now connected to the data cable of the Afterglow Core and controlled by Chen Ming.

After several rounds of jumps, it was sent back to Chen Ming's development base.

One was the cruiser that had previously seized the cargo, and the other was a cruiser protected by other cruisers. They were now quietly floating in the planetary orbit of Chen Ming's development base, waiting for Chen Ming's inspection.

Because the purpose of Chen Ming's visit this time was to get the cruiser that had seized his cargo.

So now, he also focused his attention directly on this cruiser.

This cruiser belonging to the mechanical family is somewhat different from the standard-level cruisers of the mechanical family. It has undergone some modifications and has an additional device for capturing objects drifting in the space environment.

Inside this device, all the cargo holds that Chen Ming had lost were lying there intact.

The interiors of these cargo holds also remain intact, and a large number of energy crystal crabs in a frozen dormant state are also quietly placed in them, awaiting subsequent disposal.

It looks like there is no need to worry about the mechanical race obtaining energy crystallization technology.

Even though they had discovered the special features of the energy crystals through scanning the cargo hold, they had no way of getting the energy crystal crab species in such a short time.

After all, the only remaining energy crystal crabs are either with Yu Hui or in Chen Ming's hands.

Chen Ming just dropped them.

In Yuhui's hand... As long as the mechanical race is not stupid, they will not fight with Yuhui on the eve of the war with the empire.

The mechanical race in this star field cannot be compared with the Empire in terms of war potential.

Fighting on two or more fronts would definitely kill them.

So Chen Ming should not have to worry about these problems in the short term.

As for how to deal with this batch of energy crystal crabs...

Chen Ming's Colossus-class was still on its way to the Empire.

He planned to use psychic energy to send it directly to the Colossus class, and then say that the spaceship behind would catch up and put the stolen goods back.

No one saw it anyway.

Chen Ming thought so and did it immediately.

Several cargo holds containing frozen energy crystal crabs instantly disappeared in front of Chen Ming.

Appeared in the empty cargo hold of the Colossus-class ship.

Even at this moment, thousands of creatures were transmitted through the scarlet dimension, which still made Chen Ming's mental power feel a certain pressure.

Fortunately, when Chen Ming just discovered that the creatures were in a frozen state, the need for protection of consciousness was not great, so he would not exhaust his mental energy by sending a batch.

And after delivering the energy crystal crab.

Chen Ming specifically observed the capture device on the cruiser that was snatching the energy crystal crab.

It’s not about the structure of the thing, but about the time when it was installed.

By comparing this device with other devices on these mechanical cruisers that are prone to wear and tear, the specific wear conditions can be seen.

Chen Ming can be sure that this device must have been added later.

And the modification time is very close, within a month.

This couldn't be a modification used by the Mechanoids to salvage space junk.

After all, using a combat-model cruiser for salvage is as ridiculous as spearing fish in the water with an anti-tank rocket launcher equipped with a front bayonet.

Therefore, Chen Ming always believed that this must be something the mechanical clan had prepared in advance to target him.

But he still didn't know how the mechanical race determined the location of his warship and how they found his fleet.

Just rely on that stronghold?
And why is this stronghold so far away from the mechanical race’s star field?
The last time the mechanical race expanded outward, it was only less than half a star field in common sense. This time, they actually extended outward directly to an entire star field?
This strange sign made Chen Ming suspect that the mechanical race had other actions, and was this action directed at him?
Chen Ming's fleet was exploring, and occasionally he could find scattered mechanical tribes on some planets.

Chen Mingke had no way of confirming whether these mechanical races were in contact with the mechanical races in the mechanical star field.

Did he transmit the information about his fleet's development to the mechanical race in the mechanical star field?

The inability to confirm also means that it cannot be denied, and things that cannot be completely denied have the possibility of happening.

Therefore, Chen Ming suspected that the Mechanical Clan had discovered his fleet, and were then looking for an opportunity to destroy the fleet, and even wanted to kill Chen Ming himself in the fleet.

After all, they are not Yuhui, they will not have greedy thoughts and want to use the Qi Ling Nerve Extractor to extract his Qi Ling Nerve.

To the mechanical race, anything that hinders their existence will inevitably be completely destroyed.

Combined with the various preparations made by the Mechanical Clan this time.

Chen Ming felt that there was a great possibility that the mechanical race was planning to take action against him.

As for the reason.

Chen Ming just talked to Bai Quan about the issue of morale.

It is good for the morale of soldiers to achieve results behind enemy lines before the war begins.

Although the mechanical race has extreme hatred towards humans, they are not completely ignorant of humans. They also understand the significance of human morale.

Therefore, they also know what negative impact it will have on humanity if a human fleet is destroyed by the mechanical race before the war begins.

Although only a few people knew about Chen Ming's fleet, and even if it was wiped out, only a few people would know about it. But from the perspective of the mechanical race, Chen Ming was a psychic candidate who received the order of the empire to expand abroad.

The loss of such people would definitely be a heavy blow to the empire, so their actions would make sense.

This can fully explain why the mechanical race does this.

This should not be considered as Chen Ming's self-indulgent behavior. After all, the mechanical race does know of Chen Ming's existence.

But this statement also has problems.

Because even if Chen Ming captured a cruiser and found the complete database, he would not be able to completely confirm whether this situation would happen.

There is no way to be sure, which means that this incident may really just be Chen Ming’s random guess and will never happen.

Chen Ming can only go gambling now.

When gambling, Chen Ming would only bet on one outcome, which was that he would lose.

Therefore, Chen Ming had to consider whether to temporarily give up the close-range area development and exploration and directly send the fleet to the next jump location.

But there is no rush to come up with a result right away.

The Mechanicals' plan had just been thwarted, and they were put on fire by the Phase Beast.

Before the fire was put out, the mechanical race would not risk being infiltrated by the Empire and come to find Chen Ming.

He still has time.

So now, Chen Ming dismantled the useless capture device from this mechanical cruiser and stuffed it into his cruiser inventory.

Speaking of which, Chen Ming actually has three mechanical cruisers on hand that he can use, making a total of four including this one.

The interior of the mechanical cruisers is equipped with a core chip exclusive to the mechanical ships, which has a similar effect to the afterglow core but worse effect.

Chen Ming does not need to consume the upper limit of the ships he can control to control these cruisers.

However, when facing the mechanical clan, Chen Ming didn't want to use the mechanical clan's cruiser to fight the enemy.

After all, the other firepower is already enough, and if the mechanical cruiser is taken out, it may increase the threat level he poses to the mechanical clan.

Chen Ming didn't want the mechanical clan to be thinking about him day and night, so it would be better for him to be a little more restrained.

Even though he had these two hundred armor-piercing ships, he wasn't much better off.

But it's not a big problem.

After Chen Ming threw a mechanical cruiser into his fleet's reserve list.

His attention was on the other cruiser.

This is an ordinary mechanical standard combat model cruiser.

Just like the previous one, basically every part of it was ordinary, except for the most core part, where the chip of the mechanical cruiser should be installed, where there was one more thing.

A one-meter square, spherical overall, but with a mechanical structure extending in the six directions of up, down, left, right, front and back.

The level of sophistication of this creation is completely on a different level than the surrounding mechanical warships, and it can even be said that they are not from the same era.

By observing its internal structure through psychic power, one can see its peculiarity with the naked eye.

And this mechanical creation is called [Personality Core].

Chen Ming's psychic power instantly mastered how to use the personality core.

At the same time, I also understood why the mechanical fleet risked being killed by the phase beast and took it off the planet and sent it away.

Because it is the basis for the manufacture of the mechanical race's mothership.

It is the core of a mechanical fleet.

The Mechanical Mothership is a battleship-class spacecraft. However, compared to the battleships of the Empire or Afterglow, the Mothership is not a pure battleship, but a giant mechanical factory and war fortress.

It possesses more comprehensive abilities, and wherever it appears is where the mechanical race takes root.

And the psychic energy fluctuations contained within it are telling Chen Ming that it is also the basis of the mechanical race's hive thinking network.

The basis of the Queen's hive mind network is pheromones.

Chen Ming's hive mind network is a connection between his own psychic power and the Queen's mind, which is equivalent to using his psychic power and the scarlet dimension, which can transcend space.

The application method of the Mechanoids' hive mind network is currently unknown, but it can be blocked with Silent Alloy, which means it is also related to psychic power.

Now, the answer is in front of Chen Ming.

It can be said that the mechanical clan has invested a lot of money.

The importance attached to this place cannot be overstated.

Chen Ming even felt that this place might have been newly built by the mechanical clan after he destroyed their colony last time.

Finally, they managed to develop the planet to a certain extent and were able to expand into other galaxies.

He encountered a phase monster and happened to provoke Chen Ming at this time, causing Chen Ming to come over and knock out his personality core with a club.

It’s a pity that Chen Ming’s psychic power can only figure out how to use the personality core, but not how it works.

Even if Chen Ming used his spiritual power to observe in depth, he could not see any specific effects.

It can only be seen that there is a special structure made of psychic material inside this thing.

Just like... other relics of the Shining Civilization.

But the psychic structure in the personality core is not as easy to figure out as the structure in the purgatory core by Chen Ming.

In Chen Ming's view, the difference in complexity between them is like the difference between himself two years ago and himself now.

And there is a part within this personality core that is truly something that even Chen Ming now cannot understand at all.

An electronic device structure that is extremely complex.

The electrical signals running inside it made Chen Ming dizzy even when he used his psychic powers to observe it, and he was unable to distinguish the meaning of each structure.

It was like a brain was placed in front of Chen Ming. Chen Ming knew that he was using this brain, but he could not understand the working principles of the brain.

No... this analogy seems a bit inappropriate.

Because Chen Ming realized that he no longer needed a brain.

But the meaning is pretty much the same.

Inside the core of the personality, what lies before Chen Ming is an extremely complex electronic brain.

Chen Ming was simply unable to conduct any in-depth research on it.

It does not belong to the same era as anything Chen Ming has come into contact with so far.

It’s okay for Chen Ming to stay away if he can’t figure it out now. He will always have the time and ability to study it slowly in the future.

And it doesn’t mean that it’s useless if we don’t study the core of personality.

The functions of the personality core itself are also quite valuable.

It can serve as the core of the mothership, and of course it can also serve as the central control core in the early stages of the mechanical development.

This core is the key that the Mechanical Clan uses to manage this stronghold and begin construction around it.

Therefore, the value of this thing is actually similar to that of the Queen of Insects.

The Queen needs to coordinate the expansion of individual Zergs.

The personality core of the mechanical race needs to be expanded by coordinating the subordinate individuals of the mechanical race.

After all, both the Zerg and the Mechs have the same hive mindset, and the hive mindset requires a main consciousness of the cluster, a queen.

Chen Ming now has two hive mind networks connected to his consciousness, the Zerg, and the Mechanical.

The Zerg now have a Queen to coordinate.

Chen Ming is responsible for all the mechanical people.

Especially in the early stages of the development of the mechanical race after they moved to a nearby planet some time ago, Chen Ming had to handle the construction of the new city by himself, which was quite troublesome.

Now that the war against the mechanical race is about to break out, he needs to devote more energy to ensuring the safety of these mechanical races.

If there could be something similar to a Queen of Worms, a "Mechanical Queen", many things would be much more convenient.

Although this does not change the probability that Chen Ming's mechanical stronghold will be attacked by the mechanical clan.

But having someone to help with things is better than having to take care of all these trivial things himself.

In addition, when Chen Ming was thinking about the core purpose of personality, he suddenly thought of a question.

That is, his psychic power can give the most standard name to anything, even if Chen Ming has never understood it.

But isn’t the name of this [Personality Core] a bit problematic?

What is personality?

This is one of the concepts related to "people".

As relics of the Shining Civilization, why do the mechanical race have the concept of "human" at their core?

Chen Ming didn't understand, but he could feel it.

This question definitely involves the most critical point of the Shining Civilization.

But this is not Chen Ming’s research direction, nor is it the scope of his knowledge.

To figure this out, he had to go to the Shining Civilization Research Institute.

But this was not in his plan, and he had no time to study the Shining Civilization.

Therefore, he could only add this matter to the plan for the time being and wait for a suitable time to confirm it.

And after figuring out the purpose of the personality core.

Chen Ming decisively threw it to the place where his mechanical tribe now lived.

It is different from the Queen of Insects
The Queen has her own consciousness, and it is just a program

Although this program is very flexible, it is still just a program and can only do things according to Chen Ming's orders.

Of course, for the convenience of calling it, Chen Ming still gave it a name.

It was the "Emperor of the Machine" that he had just thought of.

Let it help him integrate everything of the mechanical clan.

After the personality core was sent away.

Chen Ming has figured out the purpose of his action this time.

So next...

Chen Ming turned his attention back to the information from the Mechanical Clan.

There, a cruiser left by Chen Ming was still wandering in the galaxy.

Although Chen Ming has handed over the command of the small fleet to the legion.

Several Alpha cores were also withdrawn.

But it is certainly impossible for him to completely ignore the situation in this galaxy.

Just as Qiu Bowen said before, there are many things in this galaxy that are of great value to the Legion.

Of course, these things have the same value to Chen Ming.

(End of this chapter)