by <unknown>
Clearly, the foreign players did not care if he was really the Mechanic Emperor or Black Star. If he was the Mechanic Emperor, he would be alarmed, discover the mutiny in advance, and take action. If this was all a misunderstanding and he was still Black Star, reporting the mutiny to him would also be an act of loyalty. They thought they were killing two birds with one stone.
Without the forums, Han Xiao might have fallen for it. However, Han Xiao already knew everything about this through the forums, so he easily saw through these spies’ plan to use him.
Looking at these traitors’ satisfied expressions thinking their plan had worked, Han Xiao looked normal but was laughing inside.
I’ll let you guys laugh for a while and deal with you after the ceremony.
Han Xiao tapped the table and ordered, “Phillip, secretly dispatch the mechanical soldiers in the warehouse and put them around the venue, especially the VIP area, audience seats, and the news stand. The moment anyone attacks the guests tomorrow, arrest them immediately.”
This order was not targeted at Fly Free and the others. Their target was only him, and their motive was to protect the Black Star Army, so their plan did not consist of hurting the innocents.
However, there would most likely be some people who would use this opportunity to cause problems, damaging the army’s reputation by hurting the audience. Han Xiao was quite sure that only those foreign pro guilds would do something like this.
Han Xiao did not want to stop Fly Free and the others from ‘expressing their loyalty’, but he was not going to watch people with ulterior motives damage the army.
Speaking of which, Version 4.0 is in its middle stages now, about to step into the late stage. The national war will probably occur the same time as the Super Star Cluster Alliance battle, just like my previous life. I wonder if those alliances formed by player organizations will still be founded.
Three days passed very quickly. The competition planet had already been turned into an open stadium for the award ceremony.
The main stage was a large floating platform. Only the most important guests were sitting there. It was surrounded by many smaller platforms, where the audience, media, and the winners of various items were seated.
Spherical shields shrouded the venue, blocking the cold wind in the sky and unrelated people from disrupting the closing ceremony. The inside of the shield had a virtual screen that made the venue look like a closed theater.
All kinds of spaceships floated in the exterior atmosphere. The formally dressed spectators, guests, and contestants arrived at the venue on the carriers provided by the army, found their seats, and sat down. Very soon, the venue became crowded. It was a true festival.
Fly Free and his team sat in the contestant seats, looked around, and occasionally exchanged looks with the players on the same floating platform.
Fly Free’s shoulder was tapped. He turned around and realized it was the Rivervale team’s captain, Frenzied Sword.
“When do we move?” Frenzied Sword lowered his voice. As a real loyal follower of Black Star, he also took part in the operation.
“It’s still early. No hurry. Just like the plan, when it’s our turn to receive the reward, everyone just wait for my signal and move at the same time,” Fly Free said quietly. “How many people do you think will be with US?”
“Although a lot of people signed up on the forums, it’ll be amazing if even one tenth of them actually do carry out the plan.” Fly Free shook his head.
“Okay, we’ll be waiting for your signal.”
The players who were taking part in the Saving Black Star Operation communicated privately. On the other side, there was also another group of people planning for a different operation.
On a floating audience stand, a player with the ID of ‘Winter Wolf’ asked his friend beside him through a private channel, “Are our men scattered out yet?”
“Yeah, don’t worry. Our men are scattered throughout the platforms. Some are very close to the celebrity guest seats. When those Chinese make a move, we’ll be able to act in the midst of all the chaos. We’ll definitely cause quite a lot of destruction.”
“Good.” Winter Wolf nodded and said with a low voice, “The Black Star Army faction is too strong. We have to weaken it. This is the first field operation our Northern Battlefront has carried out since its secret founding. We have to make it count to open the path for our national war plans.”
“Understood.”
At the same time, Han Xiao was welcoming the Beyond Grade A remote projections at the VIP seats on the main stage.
With his position and reputation, almost seventy percent of all Beyond Grade A members of the development union came to watch the event. They all sat at the frontmost seats. Han Xiao casually chattered and laughed with them.
As the seats at the venue were fully occupied, all the lights gradually dimmed, only leaving the main stage brightly illuminated.
Seeing this, the noisy venue quietened down. Everyone’s eyes were on the main stage.
Sylvia walked up onto the stage. She was not in her uniform, instead wearing an expensive and elegant purple bare-back dress. She wore light makeup, making her face even more exquisite and beautiful than normal. Her hair was tied up, showing her long and snow-white neck. Her silver earrings swayed lightly, reflecting light from the venue. The bright but not blinding light colored her stunning and marvelous.
She took one look around and said, “Guests, contestants, and viewers behind screens, welcome to the closing ceremony of the first Black Star Cup. I’m the army’s Chief Administrative Official, Sylvia.”
Then, Sylvia paused as stated in the script. Han Xiao smiled and applauded her. The people around followed his lead. Very soon, the venue was filled with roaring applause.
Seeing this, Sylvia then said, “As the army expands, the number of members continues to grow. The initial purpose of the Black Star Cup was to select the elites of the various professions inside the army so that the new members who are capable but not senior enough can have an extra path to rise up. At the same time, it gives the older members a chance to improve themselves. Now, the Black Star Cup has come to a fulfilling end. To our pleasant surprise, we realized just how many elites the army has in various professions…”
Sylvia started reading the script. The image was broadcast to the entire universe through the media cameras present. Of course, the Black Star Cup closing ceremony did not consist of only giving out the reward. The detailed order of the ceremony went Sylvia’s speech; the Black Star Cup organizing committee’s speech; the winners of various items going up onto the stage to accept their reward and each giving a speech; then last but not least, the army commander’s concluding speech. There were also a lot of performances and shows in between.
The army had invited many galactic celebrities, such as singers, actors, and the like. All those invited were extremely famous.
Usually, normal events would be honored to be able to invite just one of those celebrities, given how famous they were. However, the Black Star Cup was way too high class. These celebrities were the ones feeling honored to take part in the closing ceremony. This was an entertainment event hosted by a universal-level warlord, so it was an extremely excellent opportunity to build connections with people at the highest level of the society. In order to obtain a spot in the performances, the companies behind many celebrities even had intense fights.
Han Xiao was invited to the stage very soon to give the awards to the winners personally along with some words of encouragement. The remote projections of the two Vice Commanders, Lagi and Hila, stood beside him. They did not speak and only nodded at the contestants to show encouragement.
However, the reasons behind the two of them not speaking were different. Hila did not like talking, so she did not speak, while Lagi’s voice communication function was cut off by Han Xiao so that he could not speak.
The award ceremony had breaks, which were filled by the celebrity performances. As the closing c
eremony was about halfway through, Han Xiao felt as if his face was twitching from smiling too much, and the spectators’ palms were also getting red from clapping too much. Finally, it was time to give the award to the outstanding contestants of the Immortals’ Square Scrimmage.
Here it is… Han Xiao focused.
The people walked onto the stage. Fly Free clenched his teeth and walked up. His back gave off a vibe as if he was walking up to an execution ground.
“Congratulations, you’re all talents of the army…”
Han Xiao read the script once more, gave Fly Free a glance, smiled in his brain, and took two steps back, giving the stage to the contestants to speak.
No one on the stage stepped forward; they all looked at Fly Free.
Fly Free nodded at everyone and walked to the lectern with heavy steps. The entire venue was extremely quiet. Everyone’s eyes were on him, waiting for his speech.
The players all subconsciously straightened their backs and became nervous, paying attention to every movement of Fly Free.
Fly Free took a deep breath, prepared himself mentally, and spoke. “I’m very proud to have achieved good results in the Black Star Cup, but that’s not what I’m going to talk about today… Just a few days ago, we discovered a shocking secret—the army commander who’s standing on this stage now is not Black Star! He’s someone else in disguise!”
Hu!
we
It was like bombs were being set off everywhere.
All the spectators, army officers, guests, celebrities, and even the Beyond Grade As present were completely startled by this sudden change. They looked at this guy and could not respond.
W-what’s going on?
“I’m a member of the Black Star Army. This is my home. I will only ever recognize Black Star as our army commander. I won’t allow anyone to disguise as our dear army commander to control the army!” Fly Free’s tone became firm as he yelled, “Today, right here, I’m going to use my life to expose this guy’s conspiracy to the entire universe! Save our leader!”
As soon as he said that, Fly Free turned around, flames erupted all over his body as he charged toward Han Xiao, screaming at the top of his lungs, “Mechanic Emperor! Die!”
At the same time, in a secret base at an unknown location, Manison’s hands trembled, and popcorn splashed all over the floor.
Chapter 1138. Players Not Causing Trouble Have No Soul |
“Go!”
A sudden change occurred. With a loud shout, the audience platforms erupted into chaos. About one fifth of the players suddenly moved. Silhouettes rose into the sky and headed right toward Han Xiao on the stage. They were all heroic players who had answered the call.
Like a taut string suddenly snapping, the rest of the players became excited about what was going to happen.
In the crowd, Winter Wolf’s eyes sparkled. He quickly ordered in the channel, “The chance is here! Let’s go!”
The next moment, several hundred players suddenly moved again and were about to attack the audience platform around them.
Winter Wolf flew up from his seat. Layers of frost condensed on his skin as he dashed right toward the celebrity seats.
Excitement appeared on Winter Wolf’s face as the reflection of many celebrities’ shocked faces entered his sights. Without hesitation, he raised his hand and was about to activate his Esper Ability and release an ice storm to turn these celebrities into ice sculptures.
At the same time, the heroes who were rushing toward the main stage also noticed this group of people who were using this opportunity to attack the innocents. Shock and rage appeared on their faces.
This was not in their plan at all, and subconsciously, some people were about to turn around and stop Winter Wolf and the others guild spies from hurting the innocents.
All these changes happened in an instant. As chaos was about to erupt, a bright electric light blasted in the middle of the venue!
Snap!
Countless bolts of Mechanical Force lightning shot out like a spider net. The mechanical soldiers that were hiding in the various audience platforms activated instantly and pounced at the players who were causing trouble around them.
These mechanical soldiers were all ‘Restrainer – Modified’ that could disassemble into advanced restraining suits and capture the target alive. Now that they had received Mechanical Force bonuses from Han Xiao, their attributes completely exceeded the players who were Grade B at best.
Buzz!
Black silhouettes crisscrossed everywhere, and electrical sparks flickered. All the players who were rushing toward Han Xiao from all over the place were suddenly controlled by the Restrainers’ electromagnetic chains and the restraining devices, unable to move like birds without wings. Fly Free and the rest of the contestants who were on the main stage were instantly blown away by the exploding energy, falling down at the edge of the stage. The group of them were just about to climb up and continue to charge when Han Xiao softly flipped his hand over. A powerful energy shockwave pressed onto them and slammed them all flat on the ground. The next moment, the metal floor turned into robes made of nanoparticles under the effect of Han Xiao’s Mechanical Force, tying Fly Free and the others up tightly.
Before the guests had time to react, the sudden danger was resolved by Han Xiao, who was prepared.
Whew, fortunately, I’m prepared.
Han Xiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The players were not even at the Calamity Grade, so they were no different from ordinary people to him. They would not be able to cause any threat to him with numbers, but if they were to attack others, the ordinary spectators would definitely be hurt.
Even if he could react quickly, he could not ensure there were no casualties. However, since he was prepared and the players did not know, he was able to restrain all the players the moment they started to move, and no guest was hurt.
This operation was caused by Fly Free leading the momentum; that was all. These people were no different from a group of brutes with no proper unity and plan. Furthermore, most of the participants only took part on impulse, which was a common occurrence among the players. Plus, the time to prepare was too short, so there was no way they would be able to come up with a detailed plan.
The entire operation felt like a suicide mission.
“His responses are way too quick!” Winter Wolf could only feel a flash before his eyes, and he was captured without being able to resist at all. He was shocked.
He struggled to turn around and take a look and saw that all his friends had been captured by mechanical soldiers and restrained, unable to move.
Sh*t, not even one person died… Still, what we did was enough to anger the army and reduce its trust in all the players, which will in turn make the players in this faction receive fewer benefits…
Winter Wolf was a little regretful that his plan had failed to reach the optimal results, but judging from their goal, this was not a total failure.
These changes happened quickly, and the danger was resolved even quicker. The guests present and the spectators from the various Star Fields were stunned for quite a while before realizing what had happened.
Wait a minute, did we just slip past the gate of death?
“What just happened?”
“Looks like the Black Star Army’s men started a rebellion?”
“They said Black Star isn’t Black Star. Why do I have no idea what that means?”
“That startled me. To think it wasn’t a performance!”
As the guests finally realized what had happened, they became surprised. It had all happened too quick; they did not even sense danger arriving, and it was already resolved. They did not feel scared at all, only surprised and confused.
All the people started discussing the incident while staring at Han Xiao with confusion.
Many army officers quickly came to Han Xiao and stood around him, staring at those players with extremely hostile looks.
Hila stepped f
orward, her face filled with murderous intent as she yelled, “Arrest all of these rebels. Escort them away and interrogate them thoroughly. I want to know who ordered them to do this!”
“Hey, don’t get all tensed up. I still have some questions I want to ask them. Plus, I think the guests would like an explanation too.”
Han Xiao pulled Hila back and signaled for the officers to step back.
Feeling the confused and curious looks of the people around, he calmly raised his finger. Nanoparticle robes then separated from the metal ground and slowly flew to before Han Xiao, holding Fly Free and the others.
Deliberately showing a somewhat confused expression, Han Xiao curiously asked, “What did you mean by what you just said? Why would you think I’m the Mechanic Emperor in disguise?”
Fly Free was quite frustrated. The sudden act of so many people had absolutely no impact, and they were instantly wiped out. They had become prisoners of the ‘Mechanic Emperor’.
However, at least he yelled what he wanted to say to the entire universe, so his goal was achieved. What was left in his heart was only self-sacrificial emotions, so he yelled, “Mechanic Emperor! No matter how good your disguise is, I know you’re fake!”
“Do you have any evidence?” Han Xiao raised his brows.
Only players could see the Character Summon Card screenshot, so this evidence would not work on NPCs. Furthermore, that particular Character Summon Card had already been used to prove what they said, so this reason was not convincing at all.
Fly Free had guessed he would face this question long ago, and he knew he would not be able to convince anyone but the players. He was prepared to insult the ‘Mechanic Emperor’, so he shouted, “Your vibe!”
“Huh?” Even Han Xiao was stunned for a moment.
“Humph, our Black Star army commander is a man of justice and honor. Just looking at him will make people uncontrollably admire him. But you, Mechanic Emperor, you ignored the safety of the universe for your own sake, attempting to keep the source of the Intelligent Plague for yourself! Your despicable vibe has exposed you!”
