Infinite Job Transfers Starting from Mechanic Chapter 6 Products of the Great Expedition Era, Giant God Soldiers Legion
Previously on Infinite Job Transfers Starting from Mechanic...
Three days had elapsed, and dusk was settling in.
[You have completed an overhaul of a Basic Mechanical Weapon. The difficulty of this task is rated as: Simple. You have gained 30 points of Professional Experience (Mechanic LV4), and 50 points of Skill Experience (Basic Mechanical Repair LV6)]
[You have completed maintenance of an Intermediate Mechanical Weapon. The difficulty of this task is rated as: Simple. You have gained 10 points of Professional Experience, and 15 points of Skill Experience]
[You have completed a repair on an Intermediate Mechanical Weapon. The difficulty of this task is rated as: Moderate. You have gained 50 points of Professional Experience and 100 points of Skill Experience...]
Every mechanical weapon that underwent repairs and upkeep under Su Yu's skilled hands.
System alerts about experience gains kept appearing nonstop on Su Yu's display interface.
In the last three days, Su Yu had processed the three crates of weapons and components obtained from Yang Lie, performing fixes, upkeep, and disassembly where required.
The rewards in experience proved to be remarkably plentiful.
Yet, with the rise in Su Yu's professional and skill levels,
although his fixing speed got better, the experience from working on just these elementary and mid-tier mechanical weapons started to drop off.
The pace of leveling up naturally decelerated too.
Luckily, right after Su Yu wrapped up the final mechanical weapon he held,
that eagerly awaited leveling sound finally rang out.
[You have accumulated enough experience points. Your professional level has increased. Current Professional Level: Mechanic (LV5)]
[Your Professional Core Ability, Mechanical Affinity, has been synchronized for an upgrade...]
As the notification tone concluded,
following a full day of intensive work, Su Yu's weary mind abruptly refreshed, and his gaze sharpened with renewed vigor.
He shook his head lightly, drew in a steadying breath, and eyed the vintage rifle in his grasp—the one that had propelled this advancement—with clear delight shining in his expression.
This vintage rifle could have been seen as obsolete back in the Grand Expedition days,
yet on this Ruins Star, its internal tech sophistication was impressively advanced, qualifying it as an Intermediate Mechanical Weapon.
Moreover, in terms of its condition, after Su Yu's meticulous fixes, it earned the system's rare rating of [Reliable Quality].
Su Yu resolved to hold onto this weapon as the centerpiece for his repair shop, refusing to part with it lightly.
Within the Sanctuary, multiple mechanics run their individual shops. Beyond fulfilling the Sanctuary's assigned repair jobs, they partner with diverse hunting squads and even the Scavengers clustered nearby.
Through aiding in weapon fixes and upkeep, they secure additional earnings. At times, they buy up worn-out guns, restore them, and flip them for steep profits, making it a lucrative venture.
Back when Su Yu's master was alive, they had observed their master's dealings of this sort, which brought in sufficient funds for the pair to savor a daily meal featuring Anger Scorpion Meat for an entire half-month.
However, after the master's death, with Su Yu alone managing the shop, merely handling the Sanctuary's quotas stretched him to his limits.
Obviously, Su Yu lacked any extra moments, and even if he had them, scant few would choose to work with him.
To add to that, for the Sanctuary's other inhabitants, the repair shop inherited from his master represented a valuable holding for Su Yu, and the fact that no one schemed to seize it from him already marked decent protection in the Sanctuary.
Yet now, circumstances had shifted dramatically.
Filled with eagerness, Su Yu set the vintage rifle down next to the shop's counter.
He rubbed his palms expectantly, his eyes shifting to the peculiar disc perched atop the box in the corner of the repair shop, brimming with intrigue and hope!
A strong intuition told him.
Thanks to his fresh ascent to LV5 and the enhancement from Mechanical Affinity, he ought to now unravel the secrets housed inside this disc!
Inhaling deeply, Su Yu approached, cautiously lifted the disc, examined it closely for an instant, then softly activated a latch on its rear.
"Click!"
Along with the mechanism snapping into position,
the disc before Su Yu suddenly vibrated, its elaborate dark-golden etchings splitting apart to unleash a cascade of blue light that wove together, forming a holographic screen in front of him.
"Recruit, congratulations on passing the final test and becoming a proud member of the Giant God Soldiers! I am your intelligent Navigation Device. Next, please follow the instructions to install me into your vehicle system. I will guide you to report to the legion!"
As a fervent electronic tone echoed,
a navigational chart materialized in Su Yu's view.
But Su Yu merely appeared baffled.
Vehicle system? Giant God Soldiers?
From where could he possibly obtain those?
Nevertheless...
"Year 30068? A relic from the Grand Expedition period?"
Gazing at the timestamp in the lower right of the navigational chart, aligned with the Imperial Era calendar, Su Yu's face twisted into a highly peculiar look.
Though hunting squads and Scavengers on Ruins Star occasionally unearthed artifacts from the ancient times,
the notion of "ruins" didn't form in an instant.
The splendor of the Grand Expedition might have concluded ten thousand years prior, but it didn't vanish abruptly; rather, it eroded gradually across endless epochs.
The world once known as [Azure], now degraded into today's Ruins Star, didn't undergo this "monumental change" in a single night either.
The artifacts dug up by Scavengers and hunting teams typically dated back mere centuries or a millennium.
Stumbling upon something aged two or three thousand years was an uncommon find.
Among the three crates of rewards delivered by Uncle Yang Lie, discovering a true [Grand Expedition-era] artifact genuinely astonished Su Yu.
"Had Azure Star not devolved into Ruins Star, this piece could have drawn bids from collectors across the globe, fetching sky-high sums..."
Su Yu pondered indifferently, chin in hand.
He couldn't help it.
The Sanctuary's records of Grand Expedition history were virtually blank.
The Sanctuary itself wasn't erected during the Grand Expedition age, boasting only a millennium-plus of building history. Feats from prior eras—of imperial might and human triumph—had long been interred in oblivion.
From the scraps of information available, the Empire's origins likely traced to forty thousand years back, when humankind first encountered Subspace and harnessed its Spiritual Energy, embarking on the road to godly ascension.
Centered on Spiritual Energy.
The Transcendents emerging among humans arose from this.
Individuals pursuing Spiritual Evolution, honing psychic might, commanding mental forces, weaving illusion spells, subduing beasts, and even forging colossal mechanical marvels were dubbed Spiritual Transcendents.
Those pursuing Physical Body Evolution, infusing Spiritual Energy into their very tissues, via bodily drills, combat arts practice, and even gene alterations to elevate corporeal strength to unfathomable peaks, were known as Extraordinary of Physical Body.
Beyond the transcendence framework rooted in Spiritual Energy evolution,
the Empire's magnificence owed much to another Subspace innovation—Subspace Transmission.
Via this breakthrough, spanning cosmos and galaxies over billions of light-years, the Empire's vessels could traverse with haste.
During its zenith, the Empire's forces bragged: "Assemble a Star Destroyer Cannon at dawn, and by dusk its neutron radiation gun will strike the insurgents hunkered at the frontier."
Through Subspace Transmission, the Empire's prosperous phase endured for thirty thousand years, its galactic domain ever-widening, erasing one extraterrestrial race after another under the Empire's armadas.
Still, this unchecked growth caused the Empire's elite to overlook Subspace studies.
Subspace resembled a vast sea, serene and undisturbed for thirty thousand years, but as the grandest, most triumphant crusade in the Empire's annals commenced after that span,
Subspace at last unleashed a colossal surge.
[Spiritual Energy Tides].
The Sanctuary's historical fragments offered hazy accounts of this catastrophe.
Su Yu managed to piece together just two key insights.
First, the Spiritual Energy Tides' eruption rendered Subspace travel a fantasy. Fleets daring Subspace jumps risked being hurled into bizarre realms by the turbulent Spiritual Energy Sea. The lucky survivors, post-jump, might still lie within Empire territory. The unlucky could end up in zones beyond the Empire's enlightened reach.
Certainly, they fared better than the direst cases.
The gravest fates befell those flung straight into black holes. When Empire salvage crews arrived, all they picked up were faint, desperate pleas from the voids, dwindling to utter quiet.
Thus crumbled the bedrock of the Empire's majestic dominion.
The other insight,
amid the Spiritual Energy Tides' sway, countless mighty Spiritual Transcendents underwent savage shifts, growing savage, vicious, and craving carnage.
And the few Transcendents who clung to reason,
upon grasping that the Empire's heart was severed, and no more could the Empire's Star Destroyer Cannons materialize via Subspace leaps,
their desires inevitably ballooned. Actively or otherwise, petty realms lording over single or few Life Stars sprang up successively.
Subjugated or quashed alien peoples rose in revolt too, plunging the Empire into chaos that persisted to this day, ten millennia on.
The Sanctuary's chronicles halt at year 30100,
yet scanning Ruins Star's timeline, Su Yu could readily envision the Empire's plight—cut off from the core for ten thousand years, this fringe world once dubbed [Azure] witnessed nine successive overlords.
And each of these nine dominions saw technology backslide progressively.
At the outset, [Azure Second Empire]'s denizens still ventured to dispatch scouting starships to distant worlds.
But each such Starship Venture inexplicably aborted, prompting subsequent regimes to abandon these efforts.
By the ninth dominion's reign, the Ghost Empire, this planet's tech prowess, in Su Yu's view, had slipped to just marginally surpassing his prior life's Blue Planet.
To Su Yu, it felt odd: conflicts ought to spur tech advances, but Ruins Star's former rulers instead saw tech decline.
As though some hidden force orchestrated it.
Still, this failed to halt the authorities from waging desperate clashes against insurgent chiefs across the globe, until Azure Star's full conversion to Ruins Star was sealed.
From minutiae, glimpse the grand.
"Be it the Giant God Soldiers or the resplendent Empire, the infighting and strife of the bygone ten millennia have doubtless reduced them to wreckage as well!"
Su Yu shook his head, ready to shut down the disc and dismiss it.
However, as Su Yu extended his hand, he accidentally spotted the halted navigational chart on the display.
The chart depicted a vast trek of thousands of kilometers.
And along the path, two prominent messages stood out.
[No vehicle system detected, unable to estimate vehicle speed, re-evaluating...]
[Based on the new recruits' march speed of the Giant God Soldiers, departing from the current position, it's estimated to cover 13,762 kilometers, taking about eleven days and seven hours, please press the confirm button to start navigation—]
"The muster point for this Giant God Soldiers..."
"...lies on this very Ruins Star!?"