Chapter 1 The Hunter Squad

The interstellar fleet passed through the jump point and headed towards Kepler, its combat systems ready for battle. Li Hao had led the Hunter Squad in more than a month of training. They were all top warriors with golden zones, some old friends, some new. Whether they were from the starship or mech branches, in the army, in a closed environment, strength was the ultimate truth, and there weren't so many complications. It took Li Hao only a few days to get everyone in line.

The Hunter Squad was divided into four major squadrons, led by Maxis, Chao Qinglong, Anluo Dan, and Basta, and twelve medium squadrons, including elites from both the mech S-competition and the starship S-competition, such as Robbie, Tita, Leica, and Dumeira. Anluo Dan was very straightforward. On the first day of joining the squad, he took the initiative to challenge Li Hao. Losing was inevitable, but it was also an attitude. Too many elites from different fields had come here, and this battle also helped Li Hao establish his authority. At least on the surface, there wouldn't be too many disagreements. Li Hao gave him face, and he returned the favor.

This saved Li Hao a lot of trouble in integrating the team, and the subsequent training left everyone with little energy for internal strife.

The focus of Li Hao's training throughout the process was Overlord Body. He understood Mak姆's meaning and knew what they would face. Overlord Body would be a key for super warriors, allowing them to maintain high-intensity combat for extended periods. It would be invaluable in difficult missions. Of course, he hoped he was overthinking things and that they wouldn't need to use it.

His Overlord Body formation was a bit unconventional, driven by the constant strengthening of his soul, leading to changes in his body. This was a long process, especially in dreams. The movement of cells and the movement of the soul weren't calculated in conventional time. Conventional time was just a unit of measurement for conventional movement. Moreover, his Overlord Body was just a facade, because his soul's condition was such that a mere Overlord Body wasn't enough to bear that kind of power. However, in the perception of others, they all used Overlord Body to describe it.

In fact, after the end of the S-competition, he had a detailed understanding of the overall combat power and state of the current mech pilots and had been pondering how to help Chao Qinglong, Robbie, and the others take it a step further. Given the condition of their souls, even if they had body refining methods, the time required would be too long, and not everyone would be able to break through. The battle at the Nemeiel ruins gave Li Hao inspiration. The nine-headed statue was clearly a testament to the Nemeiel civilization's understanding of the soul reaching a considerable height. The entire transformation and absorption process was extremely impressive, extracting souls of different wavelengths and transmitting them to one person. In this process, not only did the soul power have to enter, but it was also a body refining process, otherwise the body would collapse under the overwhelming soul power.

Li Hao found inspiration in it, and he reversed the output. He started by using Chao Qinglong as a guinea pig. His power was the strongest, and he also had experience in the Nemeiel ruins. Li Hao used his own soul power to help Chao Qinglong refine his body. Of course, external power was limited, but it could break through the most difficult initial hurdle. After that, Chao Qinglong only needed to follow the same method and continuously refine with his golden zone. How far he could go in the end depended on his own luck. In Musashi's words, it was somewhat like opening up the Ren and Du meridians in ancient martial arts.

Chao Qinglong was the first, and the effect was excellent, without any side effects. Then came Musashi, Zhou Naiyi, Malone, Zuo Xiaotang, Robbie, and others. He definitely started with his own brothers first.

It took a little more time for people like Chao Qinglong, Maxis, Basta, and Anluo Dan. The stronger the golden zone, the greater the difficulty, and of course, the higher the future achievement. For the other warriors who had just reached the Liuxin martial stage, Li Hao could handle five or six at a time. This process directly convinced everyone. Although it wasn't very intuitive, they all felt Li Hao's terrifying power. He had reached the point where he could help others improve, and more importantly, he was willing to help others improve their strength… This was something that Martians couldn't understand. The Lunarians knew it but wouldn't do it. Only Earthlings would do such a thing.

Anyone with a brain wasn't stupid. Those who could come here and reach this position were even smarter. Regardless of whether they were familiar with Li Hao or not, they all knew how much they had benefited. People like Anluo Dan, Ace, and Aptar could more clearly realize that Li Hao didn't regard them as opponents. This was an act that could only be done with absolute confidence in one's own strength.

Although Lunarians were arrogant, their core was similar to that of Martians. Martians needed to be beaten hard to get their brains working and be convinced, while Lunarians would be convinced as soon as they felt it.

To enter the Overlord Body state, the amount of training couldn't be reduced. Every day, the body needed to be exhausted to its limit, with ample nutrition and sleep to allow the body to recover quickly, so that it could maintain its state the next day. And a powerful soul force was another key to recovery. Li Hao paved the way for them first, making everything seem natural.

Mak姆 inquired about it during this time, a little worried that Li Hao wouldn't be able to control the situation. Mak姆 was from the army and later joined the air force, so he knew the situation. It was a whim, and he was worried that putting such a group of proud people together would cause an explosion. However, in reality, the group was unexpectedly hardworking and united, but the training method seemed a bit crude and incomprehensible. Every day, they exhausted themselves to the point of being half-dead, and then meditated motionlessly, as if they wanted to exhaust their golden zones as well. The prepared food was more than tripled. It looked boring, but the next day, everyone's focus and energy were better than ever, and they were all working hard. In Malone's words, these guys were all benefiting from it. If it weren't for this expedition, if they were only used in Tianjing Mech or on Earth, they would be able to repeatedly rub other federations on the ground this year. The direct effect of the Overlord Body was to raise the upper limit of human warriors. The intensity of the golden zone could be further improved, and the burden on the body would be reduced during use. Some people didn't even feel it at all. Everyone in the Hunter Squad had different feelings, but undoubtedly, they all felt a new world.

And all of this was brought about by their leader. After about half a month, basically everyone entered their own rhythm. Next was combat. For levels like Maxis, Chao Qinglong, and Basta, Li Hao usually fought two at a time. If he was happy, he would fight three or four. The more people there were, the harder he beat them. Li Hao also began to feel comfortable, feeling that children were raised to be beaten.

As for others like Tita, Li Hao could fight more than ten at a time. Once they were familiar, there was nothing to hide. Through the constant collision of various soul forces, everyone was rapidly improving, and Li Hao was like a fighting machine, never tiring. Imperceptibly, the Hunter Squad also came together. Of course, Robbie and others always claimed to be the core of the hunters. They were old hunters, exuding smugness in their bones.

In more than a month, Li Hao did everything he could, at least preparing the Hunter Squad warriors for this war.

It was a pity that there were too few opportunities to meet Ayouyou. She was involved in the fleet's war plans and was also one of the advisors. News from the solar system was constantly updated, but Kepler was very vague. As they entered the star field near Kepler, the entire fleet had entered a state of combat readiness, and part of the Hunter Squad had returned to their respective warships, including Anluo Dan and others. They were, after all, from the starship branch, and each was a future general. It was unlikely that they would participate in mech combat, but this month or so was a different experience for everyone.

As the battlefield approached, most people weren't afraid, but more excited, nervous, and even expectant. With superior strength, humanity was determined to fight a beautiful annihilation battle this time.

The fleet's reconnaissance planes had already approached Kepler. The sea of Kepler had been shrouded in mist at some point. Some giant insect nests floated in Kepler's near-Earth orbit. This number posed no threat to humans, but humans had fought against giant insects several times. Although the scale wasn't as large as this time, they knew that giant insect nests had unique cloaking abilities that were difficult for current human detection methods to discover from a distance. Plus, the ground base had fallen, and there were human traitors like Noah's Ark. This situation was problematic.

Mak姆 was still very cautious. Although it might alert the enemy, he sent USE's Fifth Legion to take the initiative. This was the vanguard of the entire expeditionary force. When the legion was five hours away from Kepler, the giant insects clearly discovered the traces of humans. The nests floating in the sky city exploded like fireworks, and then Kepler's sky began to rise like dandelions all over the sky. At this time, in the command room of the Cloud Top space fortress, everyone watched as dense red dots filled the screen. At the same time, the local magnification also saw many new varieties, which made everyone's hearts numb.

"The Fifth Fleet definitely won't be able to hold on. There are too many of them. Should we provide support?" Pang Pai said in a deep voice.

Mak姆 looked at the battle situation expressionlessly. This advance was too smooth, so smooth that he had a bad feeling. The Solar System Alliance's Kepler problem had always been his responsibility. He had been dealing with giant insects all these years, and he deeply felt the wisdom of the giant insects and their asymmetrical space capabilities. This time, the Nemeiel civilization was discovered. It was currently impossible to determine what secrets the Nemeiel civilization had, but the giant insects were likely under the control of the Nemeiel civilization. Damn Noah's Ark. If he had known these things earlier, the alliance could have reduced a lot of losses, and would not have caused five bases to be lost at the same time, leaving them with no knowledge of Kepler's interior.

"Based on our past experience, giant insects are very cunning and good at raiding. There should be more than this. The Fifth Fleet needs to hold on for a while," Wu Fa said.