Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In a military base in Stardragon, many players crowded around as if attending a mini fair on a bright, sunny day.
Stardragon’s approach toward the players was gentle. They held many internal meetings and tried to command the players. They realized that other than some Inhumans being mentally ill, they were capable of normal communication. They decided to put the players together as a special division and made them serve the military.
This military base was specially created for the players. Commanders from Stardragon gave out missions, and many players were opening stalls and grouping up—the whole area seemed to be prospering.
Impacted by Han Xiao, many players chose to join the Stardragon, including Maple Moon.
Fighting and killing was not Maple Moon’s style; she liked to collect materials and build machines then sell them to other players. Many players liked coming to her for supplies and repairs, so Maple Moon could easily find a team when doing her missions.
Maple Moon was just a casual player. The time that she spent online was less than other players. Plus, she preferred to enjoy the game more than doing missions all the time, so she wasted a lot of time by doing that.
Even so, with the prize pool rewards that she had received from Han Xiao, she still surpassed most of the players and became one of the players on the level leaderboard.
Maple Moon looked at her experience bar and excitement showed on her face.
Almost level 20. I will be able to find Black Phantom very soon.
…
A piercing cold wind blew across the wasteland with thin snow. Together with the ground, they created a view filled with gray and white.
In a wasteland on the Northern Continent, a player with an animal skin coat slowing trekked across in the cold wind. On the horizon behind him was the novice village that he had left from.
With blood scabs on his fists, seven dead Frost Wolf bodies lay one hundred meters behind him.
Frost Wolves were a common predator in the Northern Continent. Their level was around 10, so players at the time had less than a 20% chance of winning under the siege of seven Frost Wolves, but there were only a few shallow scratches on this player.
The ID above the player’s head was ‘Hao Tian’, which was clearly an old ID.
Hao Tian—a famous pro player, a pillar of the Long Sky club, and a veteran in the pro scene—had used this ID for many years.
There were many esports clubs in China, but only a few were considered top tier, such as Guild of Gods, Long Sky, Dynasty, Fried Eggplants with Fish… Yes, that club was called Fried Eggplants with Fish, and their mortal enemy was the Kimchi Club in Korea.
Hao Tian suddenly received a ranged communication request from Li Ge, so he stopped and accepted.
“Hmm?” This greeting clearly conveyed the fact that Hao Tian did not like to talk too much.
“Have you heard that the Esports Association has confirmed the creation of Galaxy Pro Competitions?” Li Ge asked.
“Oh.”
“What class did you change to.”
“Pugilist.”
“I’m an Esper,” Li Ge said. “Level up quickly. The situation of the Chinese players is not looking good. I need help from people to fight top clubs from other countries.”
“Speak for yourself.” Hao Tian did not give face at all, and he hung up.
Both were top players; their styles were very different.
Hao Tian had been in the pro scene for many years. He had steadily trained and climbed up to where he was. He did not like to talk, did not like to manage public image—all he did was shine in the competitions.
Li Ge was very passionate about managing his image. He often went to shows, so he had countless more fans than Hao Tian. Plus, he was handsome, so he had many female fans. Li Ge was the type of player that was talented enough to surpass other players without much hard work.
Every pro player had their own talent, and Li Ge was full of talents.
Some people are just that talented.
Many people admired Li Ge, and many envied him. Hao Tian was not one of those. He had known Li Ge for a very long time. Li Ge was just someone who succeeded in the same industry as him and nothing more; he did not care for other factors.
Li Ge was his old rival. Hao Tian lost to him many times, and in order to reach a higher place in Galaxy, he spent almost all of his time strengthening his in-game character. He did not want to miss any opportunity.
He opened the forum as was his habit, then saw the posts about Black Phantom giving out main storyline missions.
He suddenly stopped walking and turned back around toward the novice village.
With Hao Tian’s skill, a novice village was already useless to him, but for the missions of Black Phantom, he was willing to wait.
…
In the basement of the Dragon Horn building, the headquarters of Division 13…
The corridor toward the central computer room was dark and metallic, with infrared detectors in the walls all along the corridor. The ground was equipped with devices that recognized and recorded weight and footprints.
Gu Hui typed the password at the door, then had his eyeball, fingerprint, and voice scanned. Within a few seconds, the center computer recognized Gu Hui through the floor and infrared detectors.
“Identification authorized. Welcome, Deputy Director-general,” a robotic voice emotionlessly said.
All the security devices were turned off. The path was clear, and Gu Hui walked into the spacious center computer control room with a serious expression. He was carrying out the order of the highest ranked superiors—inquire about the Inhuman phenomenon from the galactic civilization far away in the universe, Godora.
It was an important issue. All the cameras in the center computer room faced him, and the leaders were watching through them.
Gu Hui knew that it was not only Stardragon—all the other countries were going to do this as well. The Inhuman phenomenon was too weird. They had absolutely no way of solving it and could only seek help from galactic civilizations. Godora was the only superior civilization that they were in contact with. It had a mostly neutral but slightly biased attitude toward them, and they did not interfere too much with Planet Aquamarine.
Gu Hui turned on the central terminal and typed a series of long passwords to unlock the encryption. He then opened the deepest layer of the program and typed another string of secret passwords, activating a secret program.
The screen turned entirely white, then a new simple window popped up. It was filled with countless options and links in weird Godoran symbols. All except one were gray, which meant they could not be selected.
The only one that could be selected was translated into Planet Aquamarine’s language.
_____________________
Godoran Communication Window with Star Zone 9, Planet Aquamarine.
_____________________
This was a star zone communication device model called [Feathers of Light—8]. All of the Six Nations on Planet Aquamarine had received it from the Godoran Civilization. It allowed them to connect with the galactical civilizations. This technology was yet to be obtained by Planet Aquamarine.
The Godoran Civilization locked many functions of the program and closed the hundreds of connections on the network; it was limited to only single-directional communication from Planet Aquamarine. Thus, Planet Aquamarine could only make use of less than 0.00000001% of the galactical communication device, and they could only get information about the universe from Godora.
But Planet Aquamarine did not have a choice.
Gu Hui calmed his mind and clicked the link. The ten-second wait felt like hours, but eventually, the screen flashed, and a dialog window appeared.
A sentence in the Godoran language appeared before it flashed into Planet Aquamarine’s language through the translation function from the device. “Human from Planet Aquamarine, why did you request communication?”
Gu Hui revised what he had planned to say before typing it out word by word. “My friend from Godora, I’m the person in charge of the intelligence organization of Stardragon on Planet Aquamarine. I have requested the communication due to an abnormal phenomenon on our planet. We call it the Inhuman Phenomenon. The details are as below…”
Gu Hui explained their research on the Inhumans briefly and sent the documents and records over. Then he ended his message with a brief plea for assistance. “As our technology is unable to find the reason behind this, we hoped you could help us to solve it. If you can provide assistance with this, we will give you our sincerest appreciation. Godora and Stardragon will forever be close friends.”
