Stars, Players and Immortals

Chapter 18: Mission Completed, Advanced Knowledge Acquired!

[You have successfully defeated the target "Grigory Makarov," who was significantly stronger than you!]

[You have gained 16240 experience points!]

[Task [Clean House] Completed!]

[Task reward to be claimed]

Zhang Qiming glanced at the system notification that popped up in front of him, casually shook off the residual heat from the gun barrel, and then turned his gaze back to the corpse on the ground.

Makarov is completely dead and has no chance of winning the repechage.

His face, still bearing the lingering fear and astonishment, remained frozen, the last vestiges of chaotic electricity flickering intermittently in his eyes, like a broken light about to go out.

"Chiseiro, clean up the traces. Also, leave me a message on his personal terminal."

[Received, please provide details]

As Zhang Qiming cleaned his gun, he calmly said:

"Tell the church that the Skyward Brigade was in charge of this assassination attempt."

"At the same time, this is also the first time that Skydrive has conveyed its own ideology to the outside world. Our ideology is very simple: we want to overthrow the current cyber oligarchy theocracy on Mars. The four major factions of the church are essentially oligarchy groups disguised as the God of All Machines, and the Holy Cardinals are the big oligarchy that rides on the head of the entire planet and acts like a tyrant."

"What the Skywards need to do is strike them, destroy them, and get the Church and Mars back on track."

[All recorded]

After finishing all this, Zhang Qiming didn't linger. He turned and left, retreating layer by layer along the blind spots, passages, and access gaps that Zhi Shilang had cleared in advance, disappearing into the cold and silent lights of the main city of Tharsis Plateau in the dead of night.

Makarov's death wasn't discovered by security for a full hour.

By the time security actually stormed into the room, it was already too late.

The lights in the room were still on, the incense burner was overturned on the floor, ash was scattered everywhere, half a glass of wine was spilled on the corner of the table, slowly dripping down the edge to the floor, and Makarov was lying there stiffly on the floor.

His eyes were wide open, his face frozen in the terror of his final moment, his chest, neck and shoulders riddled with bullet holes, his whole body almost riddled with bullets.

Makarov's personal terminal was still lit up.

The screen, its edges stained with blood, was slightly white, with a brand-new logo floating in the center—a golden double-headed eagle with outstretched wings against a dark red background, a radiating star above its head, surrounded by golden olive branches, and a scythe and warhammer intertwined below it.

Below that emblem was the public message that Chiseiro left for the church.

The Skyward Organization is responsible for this elimination operation.

The current order on Mars has long been distorted into a ruling machine where a small number of theocratic oligarchs monopolize knowledge, technology, and even life and death in the name of God. The so-called four major sects and the College of Cardinals are no longer guardians of the mechanical age, but rather vested interest groups hindering its true arrival.

[What Skyward opposes is never the Mechanical Church itself, but the cybernetic theocracy parasitizing Mars; what Skyward seeks to eliminate is the Holy Cardinals, who, cloaked in holy garb, keep all beings under chains—these decaying old fogies have hindered the development of Mars for far too long!]

Tonight is just the beginning—

The room was deathly silent.

The security guards, military officers, court clergy, and church representatives who rushed in all stared intently at the message, and none of them looked pleased.

Some clenched their fists, some tensed their jaws, and others stared at the double-headed eagle emblem holding a sickle and hammer, their eyes twitching slightly.

Their faces were all grim.

……

……

The following day, at the Sailor Valley Manufacturing Corridor.

Inside his living quarters, Zhang Qiming chewed on an energy bar that tasted bland, like compressed powder, and casually turned on the morning's public news channel.

The wall-mounted terminal lights up, and the familiar Mars Joint Broadcast logo unfolds on the light screen. After a short and solemn announcement, the announcer's impeccably upright face appears in the center of the screen.

[Mars Joint Morning Special Broadcast.]

[Last night, Grigory Makarov, a key officer in the orbital fleet and captain of the high-altitude orbital ship Isgaryo, was attacked within the military's temporary reception area in the main city of the Tharsis Plateau and has been confirmed dead.]

According to a joint statement issued by the Covenant Army, the Inquisition, and the Joint Council, Skydrive organization insignia and publicly available information have been confirmed at the scene. Preliminary assessments by relevant departments indicate that this incident represents another serious violent attack planned and carried out by the Skydrive organization against the Martian order system.

The scene then switched to the area outside the accident site.

The reception area had been completely sealed off, with layers of red warning tape erected. Armored security vehicles were parked outside the building, and several squads of Covenant soldiers and Inquisition personnel were moving back and forth. The air was thick with the oppressive and hurried atmosphere that only comes after a major incident.

The announcer continued reading:

The College of Cardinals issued a joint statement this morning, strongly condemning the Skydrive organization's continued actions of destabilizing Mars, inciting social panic, and attacking church and military/political figures. The statement also indicated that the organization will further expand its crackdown efforts…

The statement also pointed out that the Skydrive organization, under the guise of so-called "change," has been engaging in violent terrorism, and its continuous actions have posed a substantial threat to the current industrial order, public safety, and religious structure on Mars...

This concludes our special morning news report. May the god of machines bless Mars!

After the news broadcast ended, the screen switched back to the carousel interface.

Zhang Qiming swallowed the last bite of the energy bar, pondering the church's reaction.

Their reaction was pretty much what I expected; they shouted loudly, but aside from impotent rage, they didn't actually have any more decent means to use right now.

As for whether the church leadership would suspect Hagia Sophia, that's unlikely.

The reason is simple: in the minds of those old Dengs, no matter how restless or ambitious Saint Sophia may be, she shouldn't know that Makarov has betrayed her.

In other words, from the Church's perspective, Saint Sophia is now the "victim," after all, it was the Skyward Organization that killed her people!

If Saint Sophia were any smarter, she would have played the part better than anyone else, feigning anger and vigilance while setting a trap based on their assumptions, pinning all the problems on the Skywards, and then offering a convincing explanation.

The Skywards possess Class III advanced artificial intelligence, which is why they have been able to bypass Mars' security, surveillance, and internal systems time and time again, keeping the Church from ever getting to their side.

In order to fight against the Skyward Organization, the church should give her more power so that she can find out the mastermind behind the Skyward Organization.

Therefore, if operated properly, Saint Sophia could further expand her power within the church through the Sky Drive and find ways to deploy her secret forces to key nodes in Mars' orbit, gradually gaining control of the Covenant Army's orbital naval forces.

And this is exactly the result Zhang Qiming wanted to see most—after all, without control of the military, especially the military power of the orbital naval forces, any coup would be suppressed instantly by the orbital naval forces.

Just as he was pondering the stakes of military power, his private terminal gave a slight jolt.

Zhang Qiming lowered his eyes, clicked on it, and a new encrypted message lay quietly on the screen. The sending node had gone through multiple redirects and disguises, and on the surface, it was impossible to tell where it came from. But he recognized it after just one glance.

The email from Saint Sophia contained exactly what I needed—advanced knowledge for the Myriad Machine Attendant!