by <unknown>
Heber and Klent were on the same side. They planned to split into twenty-three teams and enter one Star System of their choice from twenty-three different locations. The teams would not be far from each other and would advance together in a fan shape, gradually gathering at a certain point to build a large transit stronghold. They would then continue to split and explore, making sure the exploration range of every team would not be repeated as much as possible.
Han Xiao listened as the Klent commander described their plan and nodded in his mind.
Heber had made a good choice. The first area they were going to explain was called the Jeraton Star System, a rather rich Star System of the Renault Star Cluster in his previous life. It did indeed have rich resources.
If the Flickering World’s star map was 2D and linked with the known universe, the Dawn Star Cluster would be at the most west side of the Flickering World. As for the three Star Clusters right beside it, Garu was at its North, Renault was at its East, and Crown was at its South. The Jeraton Star System, which Heber and Klent were going to explore first, was the border Star System on the southwest side of Renault.
Tarrokov nodded, turned to look at Han Xiao, and asked, “What about you?”
Han Xiao pointed at the border Star System at the southernmost point of the Garu Star Cluster. He drew a route upward that penetrated more than ten Star Systems, connecting the southernmost part of the Garu Star Cluster to its easternmost part.
“What do you mean by this?” Tarrokov was surprised.
“Well…” Han Xiao smiled mysteriously. “I will have my main force explore from the border Star System at the southernmost side and send out a team carrying stargate devices. This team will only build stargates along the way and not make any other stops. I’m going to build a stargate route and connect these ten Star Systems together first.”
“You want to build the important long traffic route first?” Tarrokov raised his brows.
“Not only that, whenever this team connects to the next Star System, I will split up more men to explore other Star Systems.” Han Xiao shrugged.
Tarrokov frowned slightly. Heber and the Klent commander exchanged looks, too. They were a little speechless.
In their eyes, the problem with Black Star’s exploration plan was too obvious—insufficient manpower.
With only so many people, even exploring one Star System would take a lot of time, yet Black Star wanted to explore more than ten Star Systems at the same time. How would he have enough manpower? They all thought that his appetite was too large, and it had exceeded his capabilities.
Building an important long traffic route first was a good thing to the dynasty, so Tarrokov had no problem with that. However, this did not match the profit perspective of a dynasty ally, so Han Xiao’s decision surprised him.
This was not a horse race. There was no point in connecting all these Star Systems if he would not be able to finish exploring all of them. Since the exploration efficiency was limited, wasting manpower to build long-term stargate channels would only make traveling to other Star Systems much easier for the forces that would come later. This looked like it had many more cons than pros.
Klent and the Bloodshed Land wanted to finish exploring one Star System before going to the next. In comparison, they were exploring in areas while Han Xiao was exploring in lines.
To balance the profit between its allies, the dynasty’s plan was also to gradually move forward and slowly explore, not preparing to install complete stargate traffic networks in the unexplored areas immediately. The astronomical observations had already given them a semi-complete star map, so what they lacked was the completion of detailed information and field inspection. Therefore, the goal of the first stage of the exploration was just the three areas beside the Dawn Star Cluster.
During the slow process of exploration, the exploration team would always be building stargates. Therefore, the long-distance stargate channels would eventually appear, and there was no need to build it specifically.
This meant that the Black Star Army was wasting its own resources and time while reducing its results. This made Tarrokov, Heber, the Klent commander very confused.
“Do you want to reconsider?” Tarrokov asked out of good intentions.
Han Xiao waved and chuckled. “No need, I like to rely on my luck. Maybe I can discover some rich resource planets in advance.”
Seeing that Black Star remained stubborn, the Klent commander ridiculed him in his mind.
With such a poor exploration plan that clearly lacked consideration, their pioneering would definitely not go smoothly. This meant that they would most likely beat the Black Star Army this time.
“Okay then.” Tarrokov did not insist.
No matter what method its allies used to explore, the dynasty would not make any losses. After all, the entire Star Field belonged to them. The only one that would make losses was the Black Star Army itself, and since Black Star did not care, he did not care either.
Han Xiao had a smile on his face, and the others could not figure out what he was thinking.
This exploration plan that looked to be very desperate for merit suited his goals the most.
The reason that the fewest organizations decided to explore the Garu Star Cluster, as mentioned by Zoel, was that in the few Star Systems at the south of the Garu Star Cluster, there were obvious desolate universe belts. If he imitated Heber and the others and only explored one border Star System, he would definitely not produce many results.
He used this exploration plan to first develop those known rich planets in his memories.
On this traffic route stretching from the south of Garu to the east, there were a few Star Systems that were extremely prosperous areas with many renowned rich planets in the previous life, which only he knew about now.
Also, as he stretched the exploration line, the surveillance of the dynasty would likely be less intense, which would give him room to operate.
Han Xiao was not going to give up on such a good opportunity.
Another goal he had was to distract the others away from his true goal.
Han Xiao hoped to go to the south of the Garu Star Cluster as soon as possible without seeming too obvious.
This was because the ownerless Universal Treasure in his memories was located in the other Star Cluster connected to the south of the Garu Star Cluster!
He would only be able to obtain that Universal Treasure as soon as possible if he built this stargate route!
Tarrokov turned off the star map and said with a deep voice, “It’s all decided then. You guys, wait here for two days. I’ll dispatch teams to fuse into your teams as well as pass the stargate, buoys, and the other exploration devices to you. We shall depart officially in two days.”
“Okay,” the Klent commander replied.
Han Xiao and Heber nodded and did not speak.
They stood up and left the conference room.
Walking out of the door, Han Xiao and Heber glanced at each other at the same time, as if their clashing sights created flames in midair. They then turned around and left with their officers in opposite directions.
…
“Hey, what do you think Black Star is thinking?”
Heber and Klent’s men were walking together. On the way, a Vanguard Official could not help but ask the chief staff sergeant, Jorde, beside him.
“What are you trying to say?” Jorde glanced at him.
“Don’t you know what kind of person Black Star is? He’s never one to be willing to make losses. He clearly knows that there’s no benefit in building the long-distance stargate route in advance, so he definitely has other motives.”
Jorde’s eyes flickered. “Indeed, Black Star’s decision is strange…”
“Chief staff sergeant, what do you think his motive is?”
The people around all eavesdropped at the conversation.
“I’m not Black Star,” Jorde said with resignation. “The only reason I can think of is that Blac
k Star is not willing to explore the poor border Star Systems of the Garu Star Cluster. But still, there’s no need for him to waste time and cross more than ten Star Systems. I can’t think of any other reasons… Maybe his appetite is too large, or maybe he really wants to rely on his luck.”
“Maybe he wants to first take over the planets that will be traffic stations in the future.”
“No way, the dynasty won’t allow it.”
As the Flickering World was an undeveloped Star Field, everyone subconsciously had one assumption—no one knew the detailed information of the Flickering World. Therefore, there was no way anyone could guess Han Xiao’s motives.
The Klent commander quickly walked to Heber’s side and said softly, “Your Excellency Tyrant, what do you say we…”
“Finish your sentence if you have something to say. Don’t make me guess.” Heber looked straight forward.
“… what do you say we send people to secretly head to the Garu Star Cluster and monitor Black Star’s movements?”
“What’s the point of that?” Heber glanced at him. “Do you dare disrupt the exploration right under the dynasty’s nose?”
The Klent commander was stunned for a moment. He pondered carefully and came to a realization.
Exploring the Flickering World was the dynasty’s key strategic goal, so even if they did know what the Black Star Army was planning to do, they could not do anything about it. If they disrupted the exploration progress for their own interest, the dynasty would definitely not show mercy and make them an example, to show the other allied organizations who would participate in the exploration in the future what the consequences of daring to disrupt the dynasty’s plans were.
Having realized that, the Klent commander backed off and did not mention this matter anymore.
It seemed like the only way to be above the Black Star Army was to compete fairly through their pioneering results.
Luckily, not only did Black Star choose the Garu, but he also chose to use a horrible plan. The Bloodshed Land and their victory were certain.
Chapter 820. 820 The Star of the Main Storyline and Stowaways |
820 The Star of the Main Storyline and Stowaways
The fleet stayed on Planet Lighthouse for two days receiving all kinds of exploration devices from Tarrokov. Huge alloy containers were loaded into the transport ships of the Black Star Army and neatly arranged.
These were all exploration supplies provided by the dynasty. There were stargate devices, Foolproof Planet Base Expansion Packs, universe surveillance buoys, and so on. These were all military devices that were unavailable to the general public and only occasionally appeared on the black markets.
Han Xiao told Phillip to do a count. They had received about five hundred sets of stargate devices, six thousand Foolproof Planet Base Expansion Packs, and fifteen billion universe surveillance buoys. These were not given but lent to him as mission items.
Also, Tarrokov had dispatched a dynasty fleet that temporarily joined the Black Star Army’s teams to assist him in exploring the Garu Star Cluster. The commander of this fleet was a major under Tarrokov. His name was Senico.
Tarrokov would be stationed on Planet Lighthouse as the chief commander, and the dynasty fleets he sent out all had their own commanders. Senico was Tarrokov’s direct subordinate, as well as one of the dynasty officers stationed in the Flickering World according to Han Xiao’s memories. Han Xiao had a faint image of him.
As they would be working alongside each other during the exploration, Han Xiao met and spoke with Senico. They came to a simple consensus; Senico expressed that he would not interfere with Black Star’s exploration plan and would only be assisting them mainly.
After preparing for two days, the chief commander finally announced the start of the operation. The fleets of various forces went in their separate ways to the Star Clusters of their choices.
The Renault Star Cluster would be explored by the Bloodshed Land and Klent, Garu by the Black Star Army, and the Crown Star Cluster by the dynasty’s remaining fleet. Comparatively, the Crown Star Cluster had the most people, and the Garu Star Cluster had the fewest.
The Black Star Army and Senico’s fleet headed to the most South Star System of the Garu Star Cluster.
Before departing, Han Xiao had already announced the army’s exploration plan to all the members, including the millions of players.
He had put up all kinds of tasks on the faction mission list, such as exploring planets and deploying buoys, which were also classified into different areas. There were plenty of missions, but each one of them had a maximum participant limit.
The many kinds of exploration missions sparked discussion on the forums. Different exploration missions gave different Exploration Points, and the Exploration Points relied on the actual results of those missions. The players would only know how many Exploration Points they would get when they completed them, so the players could only speculate and analyze for the moment, but they were still enjoying it.
On the forums, the players generally agreed that exploring planets theoretically would lead to the most results. As discovering resources and lives, digging up the planet’s history, mining the resources, and the other activities that would possibly happen during exploring planets all gave Exploration Points as a reward. At the same time, the process of it was filled with the joy of discovering the unknown.
In comparison, those missions to deploy buoys, build stargates, and construct strongholds were considered hard labor tasks. They were the least popular missions among the players.
Han Xiao knew that once the players were more familiar with the process of the exploration, the guilds would start fighting each other as the large guilds would want to make planets with rich resources their guild resource point. Although they would only be able to obtain a small portion of the total resources mined, that would still be considered a large reward to the players.
In his previous life, there were two reasons for the players of different nations to fight each other—faction wars and planets with rich resources. Now, however, all the millions of the players were in his faction, so there would be no faction conflicts. The only reason they would fight each other now would be for the ownership of resource points.
Although things had yet to reach the stage of intense guild wars, he knew that there would definitely be competition since there were club guilds from different nations in the army.
One reason he encouraged socializing between players was to reduce the impact of the guild conflicts on normal players as much as possible. The conflict between players was unavoidable, but he wanted to prevent the players from having direct hostility toward each other.
As long as the players in his army were not divided to such an extent, the competition between guilds would not affect his profit. After all, the players would still have to repair their equipment in the army after they damaged it during battle.
…
After some days, the various fleets arrived at their respective locations and officially started their exploration tasks.
The Black Star Army’s exploration team came to the southernmost Star System of Garu and built the first transit station according to the plan, connecting with the Dawn Star Cluster.
The engineering team used a Foolproof Planet Base Expansion Pack on a desolate planet at the border of the Star System. The transport ship opened its cabin, and hundreds of thousands of gigantic mechanical bases that looked like needles flew out—they were all base nodes.
The base nodes formed a large net and shrouded the entire planet.
Then, the thrusters of these nodes shot out orange flames and penetrated the planet’s atmosphere. Like hundreds of thousands of missiles, these nodes landed and plugged deep into the planet surface, stirring up endless dust.
The next moment, all the base nodes were activated. A red light appeared on the top of these nodes as they started to modify the planet’s environment and terrain. Every node was vibrating and emitting impact
waves one after another, triggering earthquakes and tearing the ground open.
Gray and silver metal extended from these nodes and spread over the ground, turning the planet surface into a metal surface. According to the preset program, bases, fortresses, and warehouses would rise from the ground.
After dozens of hours, the initial modification was complete. The once desolate planet now looked completely different; it became a planet fortress in gray and silver. This was the first stronghold in the Garu Star Cluster.
The dynasty’s engineering ships were not just watching. They dragged along gigantic parts of the stargate and were assembling it beside this stronghold.
An unactivated stargate looked like a gigantic hollow mechanical ring. After it was activated, the inner circle of this mechanical ring emitted blue light and space energy, connecting to one of the stargates near Planet Lighthouse.
Then, the hollow part of the mechanical ring turned into a wormhole-like blue vortex, becoming a fully functional stargate.
Other than the team left behind to build the stronghold, the rest split up. Some went to deploy buoys nearby, and some went to explore the unknown planets nearby.
A Star System had about ten Star Zones. The main team of the Black Star Army was now exploring the first Star Zone.
According to the plan, Han Xiao sent out a special task force led by Hadavy to move alone with a hundred and fifty stargate devices. Its goal was to cross the many Star Systems and head to the east of the Garu Star Cluster, building a long distance stargate route on the way.
The spaceships given to this special task force were all high-grade transport ships that had a maximum speed of 14.1 warp speed. It would take about four months for them to reach the destination through nonstop hyperdrive.
After the special task force completed building the long distance stargate route, the four-month trip would be reduced to a mere few hours.
As countless army members were doing their part, Han Xiao led a group of army warriors and players to a planet at the center of this Star Zone on the main ship.
