by <unknown>
Han Xiao picked up the phone.
“I have completed your request. There were some small accidents along the way, but I was overall stable.”
“I knew you wouldn’t fail. I have something else for you,” Bennett said. “The enemy you met in the middle of the mission was actually my friend. You might have heard of them before, Hannes and Vernina. They are from my era, ”
Han Xiao acted surprised. “Oh, what a coincidence.”
“It’s surprising that you didn’t lose. You were much weaker when I first met you,” Bennett said in awe. “The speed you’re improving at has surpassed my knowledge.”
“Are you calling just to compliment me?” Han Xiao said. “Go on, don’t stop. I can still endure it.”
With twitching lips, Bennett took a deep breath and calmed his emotions. “Hannes has asked me to tell you that he wants your help. Regarding the conflict earlier, it was just a misunderstanding.”
“Wants my help?” Han Xiao’s eyes twinkled. He realized that this was a mission that came to him without him looking for it!
Or to put in in a more direct way, he had met the requirements of triggering this storyline—he had legendary points and sufficient relationship with the Dark Net, and he was friends with Bennett while his level was high enough. Therefore, the hidden storyline had come to him.
Legendary points and relationships with organizations had their benefits. Sometimes, NPCs would come looking for the player and task them with a mission. These missions were usually more difficult than usual, but they also rewarded generously.
Missions coming to the players and players looking to trigger missions everywhere were treated very differently, just like the difference between seeking help from others and others seeking help from you.
Therefore, players favored attributes like legendary points that could give them a very good gaming experience.
“I could help them, but I need to know the details.” Han Xiao thought for a second and added, “Since they are your friends, they are my friends too. Don’t worry about that small conflict.”
This sentence made Bennett feel very good. He laughed in a very ‘reserved’ way, but he could not hide the fact that he was feeling comfortable all over. Since Han Xiao had given him so much respect, he would return the favor. “Count it as me owing you a favor. Hehe. Seems like I owe you quite a few favors already.”
Chapter 191. Hidden Main Storyline (2) |
“There’s no rush to return the favor. Just don’t forget about it,” Han Xiao joked.
Every time Bennett owed him a favor, their relationship points would increase. Being in good relationship with one of the main characters on the planet would definitely be quite beneficial.
Triggering a hidden storyline without actively looking for it was clearly one of the benefits it had brought. Bennett’s relationship network was very wide, so one could go through Bennett to get in contact with many others, most of them being strong ones with missions that had a chance to be triggered.
After waiting for a while, Bennett transferred Hannes’ call.
Ka-chin.
They both kept silent after the call was connected. They could only hear the sound of each other breathing.
In the end, Hannes spoke first. “I’m Hannes, we have met last night.”
“Bennett had told me. Heard you need my help. What’s it about?” Han Xiao got straight to the point.
“It’s regarding a secret that was buried in history. We have found some traces of it, and I want to find out about this secret.
Han Xiao was very confused. He had no idea what secret he was talking about.
However, a notification showed up on the interface. Han Xiao could not move his eyes away from it the moment he saw it; he was completely shocked.
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You have triggered Planet Aquamarine’s Hidden Main Storyline Grade A Mission [New Era—Origin].
Remarks: This mission will cause unknown and irreversible effects to some events and organizations. Please consider carefully before choosing to accept or reject.
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Han Xiao’s eye immediately widened.
A main storyline mission that no one ever triggered!
There were three main storylines in Planet Aquamarine—two of them were the war between the Six Nations and Germinal Organization and the creation of the refugee camp, and another hidden main storyline was triggered by the players, but it was not it!
He had completely no recollection of it, which meant this mission had not been triggered by the players in his previous life!
Hidden main storylines were a special type of mission. They needed an opportunity to be triggered, and they would impact the other main storylines and change the plot in one way or another. Han Xiao had played through many versions in his previous life, and he had read about hidden main storylines on the forum before.
Without exception, they all impacted the main storyline missions of their civilization or planet in a profound way.
The first time Hannes and the guys appeared before the players they were already dead. No wonder no one triggered it.
Han Xiao suddenly realized how dangerous this mission was. Even two people at the maximum level for Planet Aquamarine had died. It would probably be much more difficult than he thought.
Han Xiao’s grade A mission against Germinal Organization [Fall of the Germinal] was a branch of the main storyline mission. Players in different organizations would receive different main storyline missions. For the Six Nations, it would of course be to destroy the Germinal Organization, but for Germinal Organization, it was the other way around.
However, Han Xiao’s mission was special because he did not belong to any organization but was Germinal Organization’s enemy. Thus, the requirements and details were different, but the main goal was the same.
However, he knew nothing about this hidden main storyline mission.
Origin? Does it mean to dig into the history of the planet? In that case, which event’s origin is this?
The unknown was feared, yet people were curious about it. Han Xiao felt an itch in his bones—it was the feeling of excitement and anticipation.
He was an extremely long-term player that loved to dig the important factors in ‘Galaxy’, and this was a secret that no player had found out about!
“Accept.”
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You have accepted [New Era—Origin].
+10 Relationship with Hannes, Vernina, Garian, and Jiang Yuan.
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Hmm? Han Xiao noticed something.
He knew that Jiang Yuan was the last person buried in the grave, but who was this Garian?
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Talk to Hannes. Listen to his introduction.
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The mission requirement at the moment was only this. Han Xiao was used to it; it was something like an opening cinematic.
“It has something to do with us attempting to kidnap Dorasi last night. He took part in a secret plan some years back, and this secret plan of Maple is one of the leads. There are many secrets in the nation of Maple.
“When you infiltrated the government officials’ mansions, did you feel weird that these officials were protected around the clock, but this doesn’t happen in other nations?”
Han Xiao nodded. “I know about this, the ‘Ulrich Assault’ from many years ago.”
“Yes, Ulrich Assault…”
Hannes described the event in detail.
Ulrich’s position in Maple at that time was similar to a prime minister. He had been attacked at home, not by a few people, but a large group of civilians who somehow had weapons from an unknown supplier. They used gunpowder weapons and burned Ulrich’s expensive mansion to the ground. Ulrich, his wife, and their three children aged around ten years old were brutally slaughtered by the attackers. The entire process was recorded and uploaded online. It shocked the nation and even the entire world.
The rea
son for this was that Ulrich approved a policy that was basically to remove power and citizen benefits from the civilians and to use it as an investment of a ridiculous project, which was actually a way for Ulrich to put money into his own pocket.
Corruption of the government officials in Maple was known throughout the world, but before the war of the old era had broken out, Maple had been known for their gentle government. They were normal and not a strong nation.
When the old era war broke out, the government implemented policies that were very pressurizing for the civilians. Most people showed understanding and accepted the policies under pressure, and some even actively contributed. The government officials of Maple had tasted the delicious fruit of evil. After the war ended, because of the pressure from the nation losing power after the war, they did not go back to the old easy-going policies. Instead, they continued to pressure the civilians with tax and labor, which was used to recover the nation’s power. Conflicts within the country became worse as time passed by, the gentle society environment disappeared and never returned.
People who were not living the life they wanted were like a spring that was pressed to its limit—the policy Ulrich approved was the last straw.
Then, half an hour after Ulrich was attacked, the special force received a command to kill everyone who took part in the attack. They showed no mercy. The nation was shocked, and this signified as the opening of the change of times in Maple.
If this had happened before the old era war, it would have a been a scandal that could cause the complete downfall of the government, but in the new era, where power was left unchecked, the other five nations had no intention of getting involved.
It was already difficult for everyone just to protect themselves after the war. Organizations that protected human rights and power alliances no longer existed.
The structure of the world changed. The balance was broken; economies were close to collapsing; resources and military power became the only standard to measure a nation’s power. Maple felt that the civilians’ feelings did not matter anymore, so they did not serve the citizens like before. In their eyes, it was time for the citizens to serve the nation.
The old era was over. With everything being destroyed and waiting to be rebuilt, it was a chance to reshape the country, so they chose a radical way of doing it.
The assault that shocked the nation also alerted the government officials of Maple. They decided to retrieve the ‘weapons’ from the civilians. The government officials had never been this united before—they approved twenty-four strict policies with high efficiencies within two days. The twenty-four-hour protection of the officials was the most basic policy, and there were even insane ones that graded civilians, which led to ‘rotten meat’ being evicted from the big cities every so often—rotten meat being citizens deemed worthless.
Thus, the effects of the assault went down a weird path. The Maple government announced that the attackers were not ordinary citizens—there was a reactionary group in the nation who planned the attack. Their weapons were the best evidence.
The Maple government listed dozens of lame pieces of evidence. With the justifying excuse of capturing the reactionary group, they started to use force to take back the power that they had given to the civilians, pressure the ‘reactionary group’, ‘deal’ with anyone who ‘might be a threat to the nation’, then lock the information down. They wanted to turn civilians into a completely controlled labor force.
Chapter 192. Hidden Main Storyline (3) |
The way Maple dealt with what came after the assault became the biggest scandal of that year, but with strong military power, they completed the reshaping of their country and built a nation with a completely different style. People were classified as a pyramid, except there were close to no ladders between classes. The citizens saw no hope in life; they were just waiting to die.
Those with power were not born with it. Under high pressure, a real reactionary group had formed, but it was not the cold weapon era anymore—the standard of weapons that the nation had was like a wall that could never be scaled. If there was no external interference, it was almost impossible for anyone to overturn and take over the government, and Maple regularly removed ‘people who posed threat to the nation’. Thus, the citizens had turned from being terrified to being numb.
The assaults were started by a few violent citizens venting their rage, and it ended in more citizens bearing with the consequences, which perfectly described the case of hitting a rock with an egg. It caused the society of Maple to be reconstructed. It became a dictatorship, and the ones on the top had complete control.
The root of a gentle government changing was war. The high pressure from the war caused the government to collapse under stress, and they had no choice but to direct the pressure to its citizens, which then got out of hand. This was just like how it was easy to go from being poor to being rich but difficult to go from being rich to being poor.[a][b]
Citizens were the cornerstone of a country. Just like the parts of a machine, when the national machine needed these parts to overload, they would wear out and break quicker than usual and sacrifice the best time of their lives. But as long as they changed the parts to new ones, the machine could still function. The broken parts were replaceable, and the parts that were thrown away became ‘vessels of an era’.
Han Xiao was interested. He quite liked the history and stories of civilizations. After Hannes finished, Han Xiao contemplated for a while and asked, “What does this have to do with the ‘secret’ you talked about?”
“What I wanted to say is that the war had changed a lot of things. I have been through that darkest and most chaotic age. Many were controlled by ideas, missions, and honor and turned into a tool for killing while still thinking they were doing an honorable thing. Only a few woke up from this, such as Bennett, he became a hero, but an era that needs a hero is never a good era. The end of the war was filled with dirty conspiracies that were buried as secrets, and we want these secrets to resurface.”
Han Xiao raised his eyebrows. “And what benefit does this bring you?”
“Nothing, but the people of this world have the right to know what they went through and not let these conspiracies stay hidden to become a secret that never gets unveiled. I don’t think the original construct of society would shatter within a night just because we got in touch with galactic civilizations, and I don’t believe a so-called internal conflict would cause wars. There has to be someone behind all of it.”
“Every country has its secrets. It’s nothing unusual,” Han Xiao said.
Hannes smiled and said, “Since we have come to the new era, the world should also look different, the rules are changing. Why follow the old logic? Also, I owed a favor to someone who has a very strong desire to gain knowledge. He suggested this mission, and I joined in.”
Hmm, from his tone, seems like they are anarchists. They died in my previous life. This mission seems rather complicated. Han Xiao stopped asking questions. He considered for a while and decided to join them. No matter what reason they were doing this for, this was a very rare hidden mission, so it would be a waste to reject it.
Hannes requested to meetup. They were both in the same city, so with Hannes leading the way, Han Xiao soon found their safehouse.
They met and started observing each other. Han Xiao looked past Hannes and Vernina, then stopped at Garian. He was most curious about this person.
As he was observing the trio, they were looking at him.
So, this was the legendary Black Phantom.
“You are pretty strong,” Vernina said with a calm tone.
“Although we just met today, I owe you a favor for coming to help,” Hannes said.
Plenty of people who owed me favors, welcome to the party.
“What do I need to do?” Han Xiao asked.
The three people looked at each other. Garian took out a deck of documents and said, “The evidence is within the intelligence of the past few years
. I spent a long time finding a lead. It is very cumbersome, so we need to divide our labor.”
As Han Xiao browsed the documents, his expression finally changed.
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[New Era—Origin]
This mission is a series of chain missions. You can complete the targets below.
Ending of the Survivor: In the Blade City of Raylen, find a guy called “Old Devin” and get the incomplete copy of [Sully No.485 Document].
The Key of Misplacement: In the capital ruins of the West Mountain nation within the Southern Continent (Coordinates——), find a misplaced important item [Attachment—Item Appearance]. this was the end result of West Mountain nation’s last research before they were destroyed.
Sealed Past: Control the warlord, Verna, of the Verna Colony on the Western Continent (Coordinates ——). His father was a high ranked military officer of a dead country. There are hidden clues—follow Verna and find the secret.
Mysterious Prisoner: Decades ago, an intelligence agent of Stardragon was imprisoned by a country. That country is already dead, but the intelligence agent was kept in a secret prison that had no guards. No one has found him. Find him or his relics (Coordinates of the ruin ——)
Same Type of Person: A loner who has secluded himself in the wilderness has some very important information. Intelligence shows that he appeared near the tribute valley in the Western Continent. Be careful, he is not a normal person. He was active on the battlefield of the old era. It is recommended you engage the contact with friendliness (Jiang Yuan).
This is the first round of the mission. As long as one of the missions are completed, the mission can be concluded. The amount and completion status of the missions will determine the mission requirements of the next round.
Reward(s) of the First Round: 350,000 Experience. Bonus rewards given as per evaluation of the missions.
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Han Xiao raised his brows. The freedom of this kind of mission was very high, similar to the series missions of an organization, but this main storyline was clearly more cumbersome, and it was a chain mission. The completion status of the previous round would affect the mission requirements of the next round.
