by <unknown>
On the city wall, Bennett had a solemn expression as he asked his assistant, “How are our losses?”
His assistant shook his head in response, indicating that they had not been calculated.
“‘The losses of the Sanctuary are the lowest,” Han Xiao interrupted. “The Six Nations are still trying to quell the chaos, and they are almost done.”
“At least it isn’t the worst-case scenario.” Bennett heaved a sigh of relief.
Han Xiao shook his head. “The Mutation Disaster has already grown, and we will be facing an even more perilous situation after this. Not to mention whether or not the suppressant will still be effective after this, just the ability of the Mutation Source to control the infected individuals will be the greatest danger. We have captured so many of its ‘sensory organs’, and it is very likely for it to control a bunch of animals to attack the Sanctuary or Six Nations. It may also choose to control the infected individuals to create destruction and attack our facilities from within.”
Hearing that, Bennett’s face turned dark, and he felt a lingering fear in his heart. He was not an unduly humble person, but he was clear that without Han Xiao being around, it would be impossible for the natives of Planet Aquamarine to cope with the disaster on their own.
“What are you getting ready to do?”
“Nothing.” Han Xiao raised his bows. “The mercenaries under my charge are extremely bored, and a beast tide won’t be a big issue. We shall observe the situation first for the other problems. You must try to adapt to the new situation quickly.”
“I understand.” Bennett nodded.
It was possible for the Mutation Source to be hiding underground or in the ocean. The radar database also did not have any records of the Mutation Source’s fluctuations, and it was difficult to locate it. Trying to search for it was no different from searching for a needle in a haystack. Because of the uniqueness of the Mutation Source, before having a cure for it, it would be extremely difficult to deal with it. The Mutation Source was capable of absorbing energy and was able to absorb most attacks as fertilizer for its growth, rendering ordinary attacks completely useless against it. Furthermore, it was able to split apart rapidly and was extremely difficult to catch.
Currently, Han Xiao did not wish to deal with the Mutation Source personally as it was far too disgusting and was not in his interest. Apart from giving Godora a headache so he could reap some benefits, there was another reason. The Mutation Disaster was a temporary protective charm. If the Mutation Disaster was quelled on Planet Aquamarine, he would not be able to predict what DarkStar’s next move was. The enemy might choose to destroy Planet Aquamarine directly.
While there was nothing for him to be afraid of since he could easily leave, it would be impossible for him to fit Planet Aquamarine into his pocket and take it along with him to escape. The only ones with such an ability were probably the three great Universal Civilizations or beyond Grade A Supers that had special abilities.
After putting aside his thoughts, Han Xiao gathered his subordinates, and his gaze swept over all of them. With a heavy voice, he said, “According to my estimations, there may be a large beast tide in the next few days. Take some men to patrol the area. The moment there are signs of beasts gathering together, destroy them early and don’t allow the beasts to approach the Sanctuary.”
Everyone’s face lit up. After being idle for so many days, they finally had something to do.
The happiest person was definitely Harmon. Carrying his large axe, he said in a gruff voice, “I like hunting.”
After thinking for a moment, Han Xiao added, “Right, take the Inhumans who have just joined for some training. Do not let them be too bored in the Sanctuary.”
The majority of the players were currently staying in the Sanctuary. While it was not because they were forced, the daily repetitive disaster relief missions would bore them as well. Apart from the daily selection trials, there was not much of an opportunity for them to fight. Those who were already in the Black Star Mercenary Group naturally were not able to join the selection trial and did not have a chance to do battle at all. Thus, it was likely that they were extremely bored as well.
During the second phase of the Mutation Disaster, the attacks of the beast waves would definitely be more frequent, and it was the best chance for the players to go out and hunt some beasts. They would be able to let off some steam while allowing the mercenary group, which was a few hundred times larger, to build some bonds.
Furthermore, if they did not fight monsters, the players would not be in urgent need of equipment.
…
In some location on Planet Aquamarine, a black figure was seated cross legged in a cave like a statue. After a long while, its pure white eyes spun around.
“Trapping… my… sensory organs… irritating…”
The simulated body began talking to itself. It had only gained this body a few days prior, and it still could not speak fluently.
After obtaining a body that belonged solely to itself, the Mutation Source felt a sense of freedom. While it could share the senses of the infected individuals and even control them to a certain extent, it was only able to have absolute control of the simulated body.
Just a while ago, the Mutation Source had evolved successfully, although it did not even know about its own evolution and only felt its senses toward the ‘sensory organs’ becoming much clearer.
Every infected individual was a ‘sensory organ’ in the eyes of the Mutation Source. The infected individuals were like the different body parts of a human, and the Mutation Source treated them like part of its body. When it could not move around in its infant stages, it could only understand the world through these ‘sensory organs’.
Right now, it could clearly feel many of its ‘sensory organs’ being trapped in a few different locations. Just when it wanted to order its ‘sensory organs’ to spread out and not gather together, it saw the refugees being suppressed by Han Xiao and the others. As such, it immediately understood the situation.
They are my enemies! They are harming my sensory organs!
In the original thoughts of the Mutation Source, there was no righteous or evil nor any sense of moral standards. It did not have much common sense either and only had the basic instinct of a living being. It could even be considered to be extremely pure.
To the Mutation Source, the act of suppressing the refugees was akin to controlling his ‘sensory organs’. It felt as though its limbs were being restricted without being able to move one bit. With these ‘sensory organs’ being gathered together, it was not able to understand the world around it.
Furthermore, some of the ‘sensory organs’ had been injected with some kind of substance, severing its connection with the ‘sensory organs’. It was akin to blinding it or making it deaf.
Thus, it was extremely displeased.
Its instincts told it that if it was attacked, it had to retaliate.
Chapter 546. DarkStar's Next Move |
The Colton Star Cluster consisted of many different Star Systems, and Godora’s territory was in the Gavin Star System. From the star map, Godora was located in the south-west of the Colton Star Cluster and shared borders with three other Star Systems. The Fawn Star System, which was controlled by Holy Stone and Black Raven; Hutt Civilization controlled by the Skywalker Star System; and the Hyde Star System, which did not have a dominant ruling party.
The Hyde Star System was in a state of conflict, and a local high-grade civilization had not appeared. Its development could not be compared to a Star System that was ruled over by a civilization, but the entire Star System had abundant resources. Be it mining planets or energy planets, there was sufficient resources to last them for thousands of years.
The geographical location of Hyde was pretty special as it was connected to the territories of six different high grade civilizations. In the eyes of those high-grade civilizations, Hyde was undeniably a fat piece of meat. Regardless of whether if it was becau
se of their resources or strategic location, this was a region that they had to fight for. The six high-grade civilizations expanded their territories, and each occupied a part of Hyde.
Hyde was not under the control of any civilization, and the six high-grade civilizations treated Hyde as new land for them to conquer. They divided Hyde up, but because they could not come to an agreement on the borders of the division, conflicts were extremely common between those six civilizations. Hyde was an important point among the foreign affairs department of the six civilizations, and none of them were willing to take a step back.
Of the six civilizations trying to slice up the Hyde Star System, Godora and the Hutt Civilization were included. Because these two civilizations shared a border, the conflict between the two civilizations was extremely intense.
Just when news of the Mutation Disaster in the Garton Star System was spreading rapidly, the Hutt Civilization welcomed a special visitor.
On an isolated planet without any inhabitants, a small spaceship landed in a black field. The hatch to the spaceship opened, and the leader of DarkStar drew a pattern on the ground with his finger casually while waiting for the individual whom he had contacted.
Xiu!
Not too long later, a loud shrill could be heard, and a spaceship landed from the sky. A man dressed elegantly walked down from the spaceship with dozens of guards following behind him.
The leader of DarkStar looked up, and dozens of lights were floating in the sky. Those lights were the protective fleet of the person whom he was about to meet. The person before him was an envoy who had been sent to communicate with him. The leader of DarkStar had contacted the Hutt Civilization and arranged this meeting.
The Hutt envoy waved his hands for his guards to retreat and walked forward alone. After sizing up the DarkStar leader, he said, “You truly are bold. You actually dare enter the Skywalker Star System without any men. Aren’t you afraid that I might catch you and hand you over to Godora?”
“I came alone to show my sincerity, and you definitely won’t deal with me,” the DarkStar leader replied without a trace of fear. “The presence of DarkStar is able to keep Godora busy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Alright, I also know that DarkStar’s reputation is poor, and Hutt definitely won’t be willing to have any relationship with us. However, no one will say no to benefits for sure.”
“A confident person usually dies because of his confidence,” the Hutt envoy said expressionlessly.
“Since you were willing to meet me, it means that you are interested in what I said. I shall just get straight to the point. The chaos that DarkStar has created will attract the main elites of Godora, and this is the best chance to seize territory in Hyde. As long as the two civilizations don’t break out in an all-out war, the peace treaty can go to hell…”
“You want to borrow our strength to give Godora pressure from the outside and in turn help you guys?” the Hutt envoy said coldly. “Humph, you are thinking too highly of the conditions that you raised. Face Godora in battle just for that little bit of territory? The risks are too large. The Star Cluster grade civilizations in the Shattered Star Ring will not allow us to break the rules as such. If we draw the attention of the three great civilizations, things will be even worse. The warring era is already over, and things aren’t as easy as you said.”
“A civilization without ambition does not have a future,” the DarkStar leader said calmly. “The situation in the galaxy is already fixed. If you do not think of a way to climb up, you will forever be a plaything for those above you in the food chain. Even if everyone hides their fangs, there isn’t a civilization that will truly accept their fate as such. The road ahead will get more and more narrow, and it is impossible to avoid competition. It is just that the lawful civilization will ensure that the loser won’t lose everything.
“Every minute, hundreds or thousands of battles are happening all over the universe, and you are clearer about this than me. To a certain extent, there is a silent consent toward war up to a certain level. Only an idiot would believe that a single piece of paper is able to wipe out all forms of conflict. Apart from submitting to the strength of the three great civilizations, the reason everyone chooses to follow this rule is because the rule ensures the safety of the loser. As long as the strength of a civilization reaches a certain level, the civilization will be able to avoid the fate of being wiped out, and this is beneficial to everyone.”
The Hutt envoy did not say a word. This was indeed something that was tacitly agreed upon. As long as creatures of intelligence were not wiped out, battles would never disappear. The only thing that would change was the way they chose to compete. The imagination of a living being brought with it endless possibilities, and since it was endless, it meant that it was impossible for all the different species to understand each other fully and coexist in peace.
While it was written on the peace treaty that the peace treaty protected all civilizations, when it was truly carried out, there would be an implicit understanding of the rules that only a civilization at the Star System grade would be qualified to receive this privilege. The universe was vast, and plenty of species disappeared every minute. Only civilizations that had a certain degree of strength and status had the right to be treated with importance. Being of the Star System grade was the minimum requirement.
Hutt and Godora were both at that level. Despite there being numerous conflicts between the two civilizations, their conflict would be controlled within a certain scale as they were clear that they could not do much to the other party. Thus, their focus was largely on the battle of benefits. Since they had a competitor whom they are unable to slaughter, they could only choose to scrap over benefits. In truth, the Hutt envoy had been extremely interested in the suggestion of the DarkStar leader from the start.
After a moment of silence, the Hutt envoy asked a question that caused the DarkStar leader to have a slight change in expression.
“DarkStar’s objective is to overturn the pureblood tradition of Godora and create a new Godora. However, the destruction that you’ve caused Godora has exceeded the bottom line, and you are recognized as a terrorist organization. Do you still think that you will have any chance of becoming a ruler?
“Your only chance will be a change in the regime, but not to mention the little possibility of that, the moment DarkStar comes into power, the punishment from the Star Cluster grade civilization will immediately come. Do you guys really think that you will be free of all sin after ruling over Godora? Unless you are able to stand shoulder to shoulder with a Star Cluster grade civilization, there will come a time when you will have to pay the price for your actions!
“I am truly curious what your DarkStar is thinking about.”
“This is none of your business,” the DarkStar leader said in a strange tone.
…
According to the degree of prosperity of the planet, Godora would allocate a different rank to the planet. The mother planet and a few other planets were Grade S. Below that was Grade A; Juberly Hub and Planet Golden Gate were examples. Another grade down was Grade B, and below that would be Grade C.
In the Garton Star System, an old looking spaceship descended onto a Grade B colony planet, and it seemed extremely insignificant in the busy space port.
Ember, who was in disguise, stepped out of the spaceship and looked around at the bustling crowd and troops not too far away.
The corner of his mouth then curled up coldly, and he raised his arms up to eye level.
“Reduce to dust.”
His voice was transmitted through a miniature communicator to a fleet not too far away from the colony planet awaiting their orders. There were three DarkStar motherships lying in wait.
The scale of this fleet was on a completely different level from the ambush that they had carried out on the calamity planets!
Chapter 547. The Time Has Arrived |
In the few days after the second outbreak of the Mutation Disaster, there was an
obvious increase in the number of beasts lurking around the Sanctuary. In order to prevent a beast tide from being formed, Herlous and the other officers finally had something to do. They led the players who had just joined the mercenary group to wipe out the beast nests and set up different defense strongholds in various locations around the wilderness.
The players were the main force in wiping out the beasts, and the strongholds quickly became locations for the players to form parties and sell items.
The majority of the beasts were much more easily controlled than humans. According to Han Xiao’s understanding of the Mutation Source, after entering into the second phase, the Mutation Source would consciously control the beast tide to attack the various Sanctuaries, resulting in the attack of the beasts becoming more organized.
This was a form of retaliation from the Mutation Source, but Han Xiao was not too bothered by it.
The Mutation Disaster was only a huge threat to Planet Aquamarine, but his own level had already exceeded the upper limit of Version 2.0, so the Mutation Disaster could only pose a limited threat to Han Xiao.
Han Xiao did not treat the Mutation Source as an important opponent. After all, he had the trump card to deal with the Mutation Source. His aim was to make use of this opportunity to complete his recruitment plan; any other matters such as dealing a blow to DarkStar and resolving the Mutation Disaster were not as important.
But from the players’ perspective, the Mutation Disaster was the first Main Storyline Mission after the launch of Version 2.0, and it was extremely challenging.
For the progress of the Main Storyline Mission, the players took on plenty of missions every day. The Sanctuary, Black Star Mercenary Group, and Godora did not lack missions and opportunities.
During Version 1.0, players developed a basic understanding toward Planet Aquamarine, and during the Mutation Disaster, they all worked together for the [Mutation Disaster] mission. For once, there was this strange feeling of a collective community. The players were usually in a competitive relationship with one another, but this time, they were required to work together as one. It was a strange feeling.
