Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 344 - 147. Do you believe me if I say I’m just here to buy soy sauce?

Chapter 344: 147. Do you believe me if I say I’m just here to buy soy sauce?

The most significant feature of the Empire of Heralds was its inclusiveness: no racial restrictions, no faith restrictions, no identity restrictions. You could freely change your identity and residence among the affiliated civilizations. As long as you identified with the Empire of Heralds and swore allegiance to the Emperor, you could always enjoy this freedom.

In his past life, Li Aozi had served the Empire of Heralds as a Meteor Fall Master, changing at least 34 civilizations and 28 nationalities. This was truly a matter of justification by faith; if you professed belief and passed the examination, the Empire of Heralds would issue you an ID card.

It was through this means that the Empire of Heralds attracted immigrants irresistibly, steadily eroding the basic strength of the Obliteration Sanctum and the Union Group.

Although Li Aozi’s final destination was the Empire of Heralds, he did not intend to go there now. Even though the Empire of Heralds welcomed everyone, wandering cosmos drifters without a civilization of origin would still face discrimination. They would be despised everywhere and unable to use public facilities.

However, with the Spirit Maggot in his possession, the Obliteration Sanctum’s insatiable desire for it made him plan to head directly to the nearest planet under the Obliteration Sanctum’s jurisdiction.

Of course, traveling continuously for over a decade to reach his destination wouldn’t work. To save time and avoid unnecessary trouble, Li Aozi decided to fly a certain distance first and then use a Star Gate to teleport.

—Even a small Azure Star attracted the attention of both the Secret Society and the Forged Society. Li Aozi feared that the cosmos might have yet another society attracted by these two forces.

Cosmic travel was too dangerous, better to run quickly!

Upon his first venture into the cosmos, Li Aozi unlocked the Pioneering the Future title, which guaranteed a 20% increase in Intelligence gains. This title’s Guaranteed Hit effect directly overshadowed the Unilateral Action effect.

Aside from raising his Intelligence from a high 7 to a terrifying 8.4, this title had no particular use for Li Aozi.

By Azure Star’s standards, this increase was equivalent to advancing from an undergraduate level to a graduate level, albeit a thesis with a 40% plagiarism rate.

The Intelligence attribute was essentially useless for Li Aozi. On one hand, he had the Unilateral Action specialty, which only increased his risk of being corrupted by society; on the other hand, without 15 points in the Intelligence attribute, it wouldn’t help in battles.

If he sought profound wisdom and agile thinking, raising his Intelligence directly was unnecessary. Sequence 59: Profound Knowledge and Sequence 40: Sage perfectly met his needs with Arcane Energy.

The former allowed keyword search, transcending spacetime, to directly view the memories of his bloodline, species, and even the entire civilization.

The latter was simpler, enabling him to make the right decision instantly in any situation.

For Li Aozi, with Unilateral Action in hand, he basically did not need to consider Intelligence until transitioning to Pope.

Cosmic travel was extremely tedious, monotonous, and dangerous. Li Aozi’s body continued accelerating, and in the blink of an eye, several days had passed. For players in the Biological Pool, it might have just been the time to finish a burger.

During this period, Li Aozi had increased his speed to 40% of the speed of light. He exploited the gravitational pull of two massive stars to further boost his speed to 80%. However, no matter what, relying on his current body, he couldn’t achieve more than 90%.

Luckily, this speed was sufficient.

Li Aozi’s spirit was highly tense; subluminal travel wasn’t easy. Just after escaping the Earth’s Core gravity, he switched to Asceticism mode to slowly gather experience.

His Main Profession level was now 60, and because his Secondary Profession Biochemist was overlaid with Personality Deduction, his actual Total Level was unaffected.

Thus, he had to max out Mutant each time before advancing.

"Looks like I need to find a proper Secondary Profession inheritance from an Architect," he mused.

Having a Secondary Profession could greatly reduce the promotion pressure, at least providing considerable attribute bonuses, most of which would convert into Charm with the Unilateral Action specialty.

He was just one step away from advancing to Gamma Rank, but a frustrating problem arose—he couldn’t complete his Gamma Rank task.

The Gamma Rank task for Mutant was simple: complete the job change.

It seemed easy, but Li Aozi was still flying through space. He knew where to find the Echoer inheritance: turning back to the Fenesis Federation and going through the long procedures.

But Li Aozi couldn’t afford that time. With Fenesis Federation species having three to four hundred years of lifespan, their administrative processes were as slow as a snail race, plagued with paranoia, always concocting absurdly implausible scenarios.

For instance, once, a major case led to someone being denied entry into the Fenesis Federation because customs suspected them of being a murder suspect from the Empire of Heralds trying to escape capture, leading to a week-long detention.

It seemed reasonable, right?

—That person was the President of Fenesis Federation, returning on a civilian flight because his spaceship broke down.

The Fenesis Federation often engaged in such absurd operations. Li Aozi estimated that in his case, they could drag things out for two or three years.

By then, the Frost Plated candidate David Lyn might already be in power.

Moreover, given the current situation, constantly using the Overseer Form would make transformation impossible for a long time, significantly weakening his strength, making that job transition task risky.

After researching for several days, Li Aozi made up his mind—use the Star Gate first, resolving his and the players’ identity issues. Black households in Starry Abyss received no protection. Regardless of which planet the Star Gate teleport transported him to, settling down was the priority.

Li Aozi had long memorized the Star Map of Layer Abyss. After departing the Morey Star System where Azure Star was located, he immediately found a familiar route, thus eliminating collision worries, freeing his mind as he flew toward his target planet.

Li Aozi’s luck was strong; he wasn’t detected by a Fenesis Federation ship. This trade route was usually busy, frequently congested.

Yet he had flown for a long time without anyone contesting his airspace. Li Aozi was thrilled, speeding in the cosmos like a joy ride, treating the civilian route as a highway, and the Interstellar Traffic Management Association didn’t interfere.

Sadly, he soon realized his luck had run out.

After three months of continuous flight, Li Aozi identified a problem: he was ahead of his time by several versions.

This route might not have been trialed yet.

"Li Aozi, Li Aozi, guess why no one’s monitoring?" he pondered.

Li Aozi silently stared at the crisscrossing laser network ahead. Neutron Torpedoes exploded with deadly plumes, fusion rays violently tearing through space, vaporizing asteroids along the path until several uninhabited planets were impacted, only to be deflected by the enemy fleet’s Force Field Shield.

Among countless missiles, small strike ships carried Transcendents, rapidly advancing towards the fleet’s flagship. These Transcendents, wielding nuclear rifles and magic blades, forcibly boarded the flagship’s deck, unleashing immense qi energy. Even across hundreds of thousands of kilometers, Li Aozi could distinctly see a massive silhouette.

Clearly, the probing attacks spanning several light-years had ended. The cold wreckage indicated the war had reached the final fevered phase, with close-range combat under 3 million kilometers, practically face-to-face in cosmic terms.

Everything here indicated that Li Aozi was standing on a battlefield of interstellar civilizations in conflict.