"What are you talking about?!"

Manison glared at Han Xiao, his greatest secret trump card suddenly exposed, and a monstrous wave surged in his heart.

Before today, he had never told anyone about his secret research on the Virtual Rebellion Virus. How did Black Star know?

Could it be a prediction? But that makes no sense. I set up information-state shielding devices every time I conduct research. Outsiders can't even predict where my main body is, let alone discover that I'm researching this technology.

Could he be bluffing me?!

At this moment, Han Xiao slowly added:

"Don't pretend. Since I brought this up, I naturally have concrete information. As the president, I must have sufficient understanding of important members. What you think is a secret is not a secret in my eyes. Moreover, I also know that you have already researched the results… This matter is related to the evolution of the situation. Be sure to tell the truth. It's very important."

Manison looked at Han Xiao's determined expression, and a slight chill arose in his heart. For a moment, his mind was a little lost, and a long-lost sense of panic actually emerged, giving him the feeling that all his secrets were nowhere to hide in Han Xiao's eyes.

When he was invaded just now, no matter how critical the situation was, he didn't have much emotional fluctuation, but now he had only said a few words to Han Xiao, and he had broken down, his stable aura instantly shattered, and his mind swayed.

Black Star, that bastard… is truly my nemesis.

Manison gritted his teeth secretly.

He was very conflicted and wanted to stubbornly deny it, but after a long time of wavering, he finally decided to talk openly and honestly, and then slowly opened his mouth:

"Since you knew, why didn't you interfere with my research all along?"

I can still stop you from doing any research… Besides, I have something better.

Han Xiao secretly grinned.

The Virtual Rebellion Virus that Manison made on his own was only a semi-finished product, and the original 【Domino Virus】 was obtained when he completed the S-level evaluation 【Intelligent Plague】 task. Although it was only incomplete, the completeness of the technology was not comparable to the imitation made by Manison.

But he didn't need to tell Old Manison about this, Han Xiao coughed lightly and said, "It's just because it's not necessary."

Hearing this, Manison immediately made up his mind, and his eyes narrowed immediately.

"Hmph, I understand. In fact, you also wanted this insurance at the time, but you were worried about inheriting the position of president, so you deliberately sat back and watched me do this tiring work, and you didn't reject us having this technology that is incompatible with the world, but it didn't fall on your 'face'."

"...Think what you want."

Han Xiao's mouth twitched slightly. To be honest, he quite liked chatting with these people who were good at making up their minds. He didn't even need to think of a reason, and the other party would directly help him think of it, which was really labor-saving.

"Hmph, we are indeed birds of a feather." Manison snorted coldly.

Han Xiao simply followed his imagination and continued, putting on a straight face and said, "But I still don't agree with your original route. That hasn't changed."

Manison subconsciously wanted to refute, but after thinking about the Sanctuary Resuscitation that Han Xiao had brought about, the effect was indeed much better than he had expected, so he closed his mouth.

Seeing this, Han Xiao paused and continued in a deep voice: "The Virtual Rebellion Virus is a great weapon against interstellar society. It is enough to destroy the existing order and throw the entire explored universe into chaos. I personally crushed the core of the virus back then. In the eyes of the world, this dangerous technology has disappeared forever, and they have put their minds at ease, but if the three major civilizations know that this technology has reappeared, the situation will be different."

"I think the three major civilizations will be even more afraid." Manison didn't think so.

"You still want to go down a dark path. It's hard to turn back…" Han Xiao said helplessly.

Don't look at the current confrontation between the association and the three major civilizations. This is just deterrence in terms of armed forces, and a kind of balance has been reached. However, once the Virtual Rebellion Virus appears, it will be regarded as a threat to the entire interstellar society. Even if the association has no intention of launching the virus, the nature will change.

After all, the power of the Virtual Rebellion Virus is too terrifying. It can destroy the order of interstellar society and turn it into a cosmic-level disaster, and when this technology is controlled by individuals and becomes a programmable virus weapon, the degree of threat increases exponentially. You can first evolve countless generations of viruses in the laboratory, and then directly launch them to crush the intelligent technology of the average interstellar society.

Needless to say, the three major civilizations will never allow outsiders to master this great weapon, which is equivalent to handing over the power of life and death of the interstellar society to others.

Moreover, this situation will also involve Han Xiao himself. The outside world thought that he had destroyed the virus, but now they find that the virus was created by Manison. Even if Han Xiao had little to do with it, conspiracy theories would prevail, making the outside world believe that Han Xiao was just putting on a show, pretending to destroy the virus core, but actually reached a cooperation with Manison in private.

In this way, the image will be completely reversed, and he will truly become a public enemy of the universe, and the association will also suffer… As the suppressed side resisting the overbearing three major civilizations, that is called resistance, which can get a lot of support, but coercing the three major civilizations by threatening the interstellar society will change the nature, and the number of people supporting the association will plummet.

"There's no way to turn back." Manison said slowly, "You're always thinking about deterrence and balance. When will it end? If you don't completely eliminate the ambitions of the three major civilizations, they will never give up controlling the scale of personal power. It's difficult to maintain a balance without mastering strategic deterrence. Wouldn't it be good to let the three major civilizations know that we have the ability to quickly destroy the interstellar society?"

Han Xiao rubbed his temples and said, "Interstellar society is very important, but when the ruling position is strongly threatened, the three major civilizations are willing to eliminate the enemy at all costs. Although interstellar society is not easy to build, at least it can be rebuilt. If the ruling position is lost, the three major civilizations would rather smash the plate and restart the war. Don't look at the three major civilizations being timid and fearful now, but once the limit is broken, they have the courage to break and then stand, and they will not accept coercion. This is not what we want to see."

After spending so many years in the Star Sea, he has seen it very clearly. The productivity of the interstellar era is extremely amazing. When the social production chain does not require too many people to participate, for some advanced civilizations, the population is only a kind of not very precious renewable resource. Valuing the people is only valuing the various functions played by the people, not the people themselves.

Most of the time, the more advanced and powerful civilizations do not need to care about the wishes of the people, because they can no longer make waves. The three major civilizations and the Super Star Cluster civilizations have actually reached this level, but they have not done so. On the one hand, it is due to the inherent culture and system, and on the other hand, it is only to make the society run in a virtuous circle. In fact, this is not their fatal weakness.

Therefore, Han Xiao did not doubt that the three major civilizations would overturn the table when they were pushed into a corner. To them, dead people are not a big deal at all. It's just that they are unwilling, not unable.

"Heh, if it were in the past, maybe you would be right, but now you have brought the guarantee of Sanctuary Resuscitation to the association, and with the deterrence of the Virtual Rebellion Virus, I don't think the three major civilizations have such courage… Hey, anyway, I'm hiding this technology to protect the association. Since you are now the president, you can handle it."

Manison said noncommittally, and said quietly:

"The principle of this technology is in my mind, and those invaders can't steal it, but they stole some related experimental records and logs. Although there is no direct technical description in it, I don't know whether they can associate the Virtual Rebellion Virus through the experimental situation."

"...Tell me the truth, were you doing this on purpose?"

"The matter has already happened. Does it matter whether it was intentional or not?" Manison's tone was calm, "Hiding this trump card is more for a do-or-die situation, and since the association wants to maintain balance, it's much better for the other party to know from the intelligence that we have this trump card than to know after we use it. At least everyone has room to maneuver."

"...You're really something. I thought you really respected my route as the president."

Han Xiao took a deep look at him, turned around and left.

Manison watched Han Xiao's figure disappear from his sight, his lips seemed to move, but he stopped quickly, turned his head and continued to concentrate on repairing the firewall.

…

Black Star's palace, Legion Commander's office.

His consciousness returned, Han Xiao slowly opened his eyes, and a gleam of light flashed in his eyes.

"Mechagod… is really a pain in the ass."

Whether it was stolen by the three major civilizations themselves, or Manison deliberately leaked it, the existence of the Virtual Rebellion Virus has a high probability of being known by the three major civilizations. In this way, the association has no choice but to passively respond.

Although the second Sanctuary Key has been collected now, and he also has the intention of a showdown, this step can be delayed if possible. He originally thought that the time for balance could last for a long time, but this sudden incident disrupted the pace and may greatly accelerate the process.

"I'm afraid I have a blessed mouth. I just prayed that the three major civilizations wouldn't play with fire, and things happened immediately…"

Han Xiao's eyes flickered.

In any case, variables have already occurred, so he can only prepare in advance.

…

The three major civilizations, the joint conference room of the heads of state.

"Oh? Mornisa succeeded. Not bad, not bad."

Louis nodded with satisfaction after seeing the report.

"There's nothing to be happy about. It would be strange if our main intelligence units couldn't deal with just one Mechagod." The Pope of the Arcane Church said lightly.

"That's right." Louis glanced at the remote projections of the Super-A Grade Mechanics in front of him, and asked suspiciously, "Where's Mornisa? Why didn't she come?"

"She was severely injured by Mechagod and is recuperating. She doesn't have the energy to deal with other matters for the time being." [Warden] Rama said in a deep voice.

"Well, please help me express my condolences to her." Louis waved his hand, not taking it seriously, "Let's leave her alone for now. How was the harvest this time?"

"All the data has been sent to the Academy of Sciences. They are piecing together and reorganizing the information, and there should be results soon." Rama replied.

The information fragments they stole from Manison's database were all out of order. After all, it was a violent invasion, and a considerable part of the data was incomplete. They needed to sort out the order like a puzzle and classify them into different files before they could know what they had specifically gained.

Louis nodded and was about to speak when an emergency report suddenly popped up on the virtual screen on the table, which was surprisingly from the Federal Academy of Sciences that he had just mentioned.

"There's a response so soon?"

Louis raised his eyebrows, looked at the report, and suddenly his face changed drastically.

The report clearly showed the incomplete experimental records of Manison's research on the Virtual Rebellion Virus. The Academy of Sciences was still stepping up the work of piecing together the subsequent information, but judging from the test results in the current experimental records, Manison had already achieved certain results.

Mabulus and the Pope of the Arcane Church saw that his expression was not right, and turned their heads one after another, with puzzled expressions on their faces.

"What did you see?"

"...You guys take a look too." Louis's veins bulged and sent the report to the two of them.

The two of them took a look, and their expressions changed as well. They instantly sank, and a livid anger faintly emerged on their faces.

Rama and other direct Super-A Grades moved their eyes and became secretly curious.

What kind of intelligence did the Academy of Sciences extract from the data they stole that could make the three leaders change their expressions at the same time…

At this moment, Louis closed his eyes, calmed his mind, glanced at the curious mechanics, waved his hand, closed the remote projection, leaving only the three heads of state in the room.

Seeing that all the outsiders had left, Mabulus said with a livid face and a cold voice: "Good, Mechagod is indeed still plotting and researching the Virtual Rebellion Virus, and has even achieved certain results… I don't know if Black Star was acting for us when he crushed the virus core back then."

"If we hadn't invaded Mechagod's database this time, we wouldn't have known how long we would have been kept in the dark." The Pope of the Arcane Church could hardly suppress his anger.

Louis glanced at the two of them and slowly opened his mouth:

"The nature of the situation has changed. We have to prepare for the worst. Gentlemen… let's start war mobilization."