by <unknown>
After chatting casually for a while, they ended the communication. This time, a notification popped up on Han Xiao’s interface.
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[Coordinate Marker of Unknown Origin] complete!
You have received 3,000,000 EXP and 70 Individual Exploration Points.
You have received 1 [Bold Explorer] Ability Shard. 2 Shards are needed to fuse.
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“With one shard, there’s at least a start. I’ll have to try to obtain the second shard.”
Han Xiao was joyous. This was a very pleasant surprise. Maple Moon was really quite lucky.
This time, more notifications popped up on the interface.
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You have triggered Faction Mission [Wipe Out the Great Cosmos Corps]!
Mission Introduction: The Great Cosmos Corps is a pillaging organization in the Garu Star Cluster, evil and lawless. I hereby request the Black Star Army to eliminate this organization—Dynasty Exploration Army Chief Commander Tarrokov.
Tip: This is a sub-mission of the [Flickering World]. Exploration Points will be rewarded.
Tip: This is a faction series mission. You can complete the following requirements during this mission.
Eliminate Enemies I: Kill 10 normal Great Cosmos Corps warriors. Rewards: 750,000 EXP and 3 Exploration Points.
Eliminate Enemies II: Kill 10 elite Great Cosmos Corps warriors. Rewards: 1,500,000 EXP and 6 Exploration Points.
Eliminate Enemies III: Kill 10 spaceship operators. Rewards: 2,000,000 EXP and 9 Exploration Points.
Destroy Ships I: Destroy 1 enemy guard battleship. Rewards: 3,600,000 EXP and 12 Exploration Points.
…
King Before Men I: Kill 1 high level combatant. Reward: 5,500,000 EXP and 25 Exploration Points.
King Before Men II: Kill 1 chieftain. Reward: 7,000,000 EXP and 30 Exploration Points.
King Before Men III: Kill ‘Great Emperor’ Atimo. Reward: 22,000,000 EXP and 60 Exploration Points.
When the mission ends, based on the number of targets completed, the rating and bonus rewards will be given.
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Han Xiao figured that this Faction Mission was given to the entire Black Star Army, which meant that the other army players would be able to accept it as well.
Han Xiao was initially planning to send out his machinery troops to eliminate the Great Cosmos Corps, but he changed his mind.
Since the players were able to accept this mission, he would leave it to the players. Spending a little bit more time was not an issue. This Great Cosmos Corps was not especially powerful, so it was suitable for the players to deal with.
The average strength of the players had been gradually growing, so he planned to let just the players eliminate the Great Cosmos Corps. Other than providing spaceships, he was not planning to let any NPC take part in this operation.
This would be the first military operation with only players!
This way, the players would have a better experience in exploring the Flickering World. After all, compared to purely exploring, most players preferred fighting.
The Great Cosmos Corps people were all walking experience, so Han Xiao basically considered letting the players eliminate them as watering his leeks. It was still the early stage of Version 3.0, so there were no max level players yet.
Furthermore, after a war, the players would have to replenish their ammunition and repair their equipment, which would all cost money.
Han Xiao never ignored the ammunition business of the army, and he was going to make a fortune from this war.
I’ll have to make the enemies gather and attack first so that it’ll take less time…
Han Xiao contacted Phillip and spoke a few words to Psionic Prime.
…
Central area of the Garu Star Cluster, Great Cosmos Corps headquarters.
A deputy hastily came before Atimo’s throne and said with a shivering voice, “Gr—Great Emperor, we’ve lost contact with Chieftain Kikiga’s team!”
A glow of coldness flashed past Atimo’s eyes. He said with a low voice, “What happened?”
“They were planning to invade the location of the marker but met the enemy’s team midway and were eliminated…” this deputy said cautiously. “Those enemies call themselves the Black Star Army, and they’ve sent a message.”
“Black Star Army…” Atimo frowned. “What did they say?”
The deputy played this message on the screen while shivering.
Psionic Prime appeared on the screen, and Kikiga was trembling on the ground beside his feet.
“I’m the leader of the mechanical army of the Black Star Army, Psionic Prime. Listen carefully, people of the Great Cosmos Corps. The Black Star Army will seize all your territory, kill all your warriors, and take away your everything. Tell your leader, Atimo, our army commander will drink wine from his skull.”
The moment the sentence ended, Psionic Prime’s arm turned into a blade flickering with psionic energy and slashed through Kikiga’s neck.
Puchi!
Blood gushed out, Kikiga’s head rolled on the floor, and his headless body fell on to the ground, still shivering.
Psionic Prime said with an emotionless tone, “Get ready for war!”
Then, the screen turned black, and the message came to an end.
Atimo was initially watching this recording with an indifferent face, but when Kikiga’s head was chopped off right before his eyes, his eyes flickered a little.
“Great Emperor, this is a provocation… What should we do?”
Atimo stood up slowly.
“Gather all the fleets, combatants, and chieftains…” Atimo’s tone was cold. “I will lead the charge this time!
“If they want war, I shall give them war!”
…
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[Coordinate Marker of Unknown Origin] complete!
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Maple Moon was farming dungeons with Bun-Hit-Dog and others and was fighting a boss when the mission completion notification suddenly popped up on her interface. She was shocked, and her movements stiffened for a moment.
“It’s only been a few days, and the mission is already completed. I’ve not even done anything yet!”
Maple Moon was shocked.
She had turned over the marker to the army as suggested by the mission. It was clear that this was thanks to the faction.
Giving things to the army was indeed the right choice.
“Don’t just stand there. Control the field!” Bun-Hit-Dog was being thrown around by the boss as he yelled.
Maple Moon completely ignored him, deep in thought.
She had been thinking for the past few days. The requirement of this mission was just to make contact with the unknown force, which meant that there would definitely be more to it. She immediately opened the faction mission list.
As she expected, there were indeed more missions and even large side missions distributed by the dynasty!
“Great Cosmos Corps, such a lame name… it’s a pillaging organization. The mission requirement is to eliminate this organization. It seems like it’s going to be a group mission. There will definitely be a lot of people participating.”
Maple Moon pondered.
“He… lp… me…” The boss pressed Bun-Hit-Dog onto the ground and punched his face again and again. Bun-Hit-Dog could only yell out one syllable at a time during the gap of the punches. His call for help had a constant rhythm.
Finally, as his last bit of health disappeared, Bun-Hit-Dog turned into a white light and died.
Maple Moon finally regained her focus and looked up. She threw out a ton of compressed orbs, and machinery filled up the field.
The large number of machines drowned this boss. Not long after, the boss who had half health was defeated by Maple Moon alone.
After playing for three versions, she had realized that she was quite talented in this aspect, and her PVP skills had been becoming
stronger and stronger. Furthermore, this version was the powerful period for the Mechanic class, so farming dungeons was much easier. Mechanics above level 100 were welcomed by most dungeon teams.
The group came out of the dungeon and returned to the army’s battleship.
“Why were you distracted?” Bun-Hit-Dog complained. “I didn’t actually have to use one revive count.”
“Look at the faction mission.”
Bun-Hit-Dog opened the faction interface and saw the [Wipe Out the Great Cosmos Corps] mission.
Surprised, he opened the forums and realized that the army’s players were already overjoyed.
Although the exploration of the main storyline mission was filled with uncertainties and was quite interesting, the players spent most of their time in spaceships and hardly had any opportunities to fight.
Most players were itching for a brawl and could only enter dungeons. Now that there was an opportunity to fight in the main storyline mission, all the army players were excited.
Wiping out an entire organization sounded like quite a large mission
Chapter 829. Black Star Army, Not Bad |
In the Jeraton Star System of the Renault Star Cluster, the alliance exploration team of the Bloodshed Land and the Klent Kingdom was executing their plan step by step, slowly painting the gray areas on the star map green. The internal stargate network of the first Star Zone was gradually being built. The exploration of planets was completed one after another. Detailed data was added to the database. Tons of space buoys were left wherever they passed.
The exploration of the Bloodshed Land was smooth and peaceful. There were quite many resource planets in the Jeraton Star System, but they had yet to meet any native civilizations.
Heber had been very free in the past ten days or so. The large fleet was operating according to plan and did not need his command. Therefore, he found a Fixed Star to train his energy.
At a hot red Fixed Star in this Star Zone, Heber walked on the Fixed Star’s surface. The energy of the Fixed Star within tens of miles from him formed a moving vortex, spinning around him. Under the stimulation of energy, his cells devoured the powerful radiation around him and turned it into his energy. White bright energy patches appeared on his skin.
“Hu…” Heber exhaled deeply.
He stomped the ground. The enormous strength turned into a rippling impact wave, and the energy vortex around him shattered instantly. Covered in thick energy flames, Heber broke away from the powerful gravitational pull of the Fixed Star and rocket up like a beam of light shooting into space. Very soon, he left the Fixed Star and returned to the waiting fleet.
Heber walked into the spaceship and casually wore his cape. He then took the communicator from his subordinate. It was a message from Klent.
“Your Excellency Tyrant, we have just received news that the chief commander has given an order to the Black Star Army to eliminate a native organization.”
“Attacking a native organization?” Heber’s footsteps paused. “The dynasty’s exploration laws forbid casual use of violence.”
“Our people on Planet Lighthouse have heard that the situation Black Star has met is special. That native organization is a pillager at the center of the Star Cluster. The Black Star Army’s men discovered them coincidentally. The dynasty wants the planetary information this native organization has, so the chief commander allowed the Black Star Army to eliminate them.”
Heber frowned slightly.
While they were progressing stably, the Black Star Army had already gone into the jungle‽
If the Black Star Army obtained the information the native organization had accumulated, it would be quite a significant achievement.
Initially, he had thought that the Star System they were exploring was richer and the results of their exploration would definitely exceed the Black Star Army’s. Sadly, Black Star was a very lucky person.
Heber shook his head.
He did not want to see the Black Star Army achieve that, yet there was nothing he could do but watch. He could not help but sigh.
This time, the person from Klent said, “Your Excellency Tyrant, our commander has a daring idea…”
“Attack Black Star again?”
“That’s right. We plan to…”
“Enough.” Heber interrupted before he could finish. “I have made a ceasefire agreement with the Black Star Army. I don’t want to mess with them now, and neither should you. This is meaningless.”
He then hung up the communication.
The Klent Kingdom had yet to give up; they did not want to see their enemy, the Black Star Army, successfully make such an achievement. Heber did not want to be dragged down by Klent.
The commander sent by Klent this time had once been a radical supporter of the secret war, so he harbored a lot of hatred for Han Xiao. What he wanted to do was basically snatch away the Black Star Army’s contributions and disrupt Black Star, which not only had a negligible chance of success in Heber’s eyes but would also bring the dissatisfaction of Black Star and the dynasty. Furthermore, it would not impact the Black Star Army much, if at all. It was not worth the risk.
In the Flickering World, Heber really was not willing to fight with Black Star. With such a huge cake, it would be best to just explore his own area. If he and the Black Star Army caused trouble for each other, it would only benefit the other dynasty allies who came to explore in the future.
…
In Han Xiao’s previous life, when the players entered the Flickering World in Version 4.0, the exploration was already complete for many Star Clusters. Tons of exterior forces entered and fought each other, so the players had plenty of opportunities to fight. The situation was different now.
It was now only Version 3.0. Because of Han Xiao, the players were able to get involved in the Flickering World storyline one version earlier, which also meant that the environment would be different. At the early stage of the exploration, there were only the dynasty and its allies, who were all on the same side. Therefore, the players lacked the fighting storyline and had few chances to battle.
Therefore, when the [Wipe Out the Great Cosmos Corps] appeared, all the players who were exploring the Flickering World with the Black Star Army took part in this group operation. This mission did not have a maximum participant limit, so most players decided to accept the mission.
Han Xiao was happy with this. As the players were currently in different exploration teams and were quite divided, he casually arranged thousands of spaceships to gather these players into an expedition fleet.
As it would take quite some time to reach the center area of the Garu Star Cluster, Han Xiao was not planning to have the players wait in the spaceships—that would be a waste of quality labor. He planned to let this expedition group explore the planets on the way to maximize efficiency.
To make the return of the players easier, they also had to build stargates on the way.
This way, the exploration plan of the Black Star Army shifted as well. The large team slowly explored the border Star System, the first Special Task Force led by Hadavy were building a route from the south of the Star Cluster to the east, and the expedition team were building the route from the south of the Star Cluster to the center.
As the army’s men were split into three groups, Han Xiao told Sylvia, who was in the Shattered Star Ring headquarters, to quickly dispatch the second fleet to make up for the manpower.
After growing for two versions, the players now had Grade B strength. Millions of army players were considered quite powerful. Han Xiao was not worried.
As versions updated, the players became stronger. They would gradually be noticed by the entire universe.
After sending out the player expedition team, Han Xiao left them alone. He explored resource planets one after another according to the plan while expanding his machinery while he had the time.
As two more Star Zones were completely explored, one month passed peacefully.
On this da
y, Han Xiao finally received Phillip’s report that the player expedition team had finally met with the Great Cosmos Corps’ reconnaissance troops.
…
The team that met the reconnaissance troops was a player team that was deploying space buoys. It was just a small recon ship with around three hundred players, while the opponent had three battleships.
The battle erupted instantly. The moment this reconnaissance team discovered these players, they rushed forward without a word, planning to capture the enemies and interrogate them for intel about the Black Star Army.
Shots landed on the shield of this mini recon ship, causing chain exploration, while the flickering shield was unaffected.
“Alert! The spaceship is being attacked. Remaining shield energy 97.1%… 99.7%… charge complete. Estimating threat level… estimation complete. the enemy’s firepower is unable to penetrate the shield. Threat level extremely low.”
The hundreds of players inside the spaceship exchanged looks.
The Black Star Army’s spaceships used the complete Star System technology, and some even had Star Cluster standards, such as the energy core, weapon, and shield. Comparatively, the Great Cosmos Corps’ spaceships were too behind. Without an enormous quantity difference, there was no way they would be of any threat to the Black Star Army’s spaceships.
Close range combat was exactly what the players wanted. As the three enemy recon ships approached and were about to connect their cabins, more than ten charge cabins shot out from the side of this mini recon ship, ‘biting’ into the three enemy spaceships.
The players inside the charge cabin swarmed out and started a slaughter inside the enemy ships. These players were mostly above level 100, while the people on the enemy ships were ordinary people.
Not long after, the hundreds of players wiped out the enemies inside these ships and seized the three spaceships.
On the other side, Atimo received this news as well.
However, he did not receive the video information that the recon group was supposed to send. The strength of the Black Star Army was still unknown to him.
