As Han Xiao distributed the two new missions, notifications popped up on the interfaces of all the army players.
“Doing missions with new members gives bonus Faction Contribution Points? That sounds like a great deal.”
“Any mission? Does running errands count?”
“For sure, even using the army Dungeon Crystals counts.”
“These can be repeated? Awesome!”
“Must team up with players who have been in the faction for less than a year, so only the new players born on Planet Deirdre in Version 3.0?”
“The Constellation Corridor players count too, right? Didn’t they just join the army?”
The two faction missions became a faction event and stirred up a wave among the players.
Han Xiao’s missions were not compulsory. He used the reward to lure them instead. Most of the players would not miss such a rare opportunity to farm Contribution Points. It was just teaming up with new players; they had nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
Maybe some players could not be bothered, but most players were willing to grab this opportunity.
As long as most people were deliberately teaming up with new members and not just with their inner circle friends, they would have taken the first step to socializing with players from other Star Fields, and Han Xiao’s goal would be achieved.
When playing together, they would build some kind of relationship in one way or another. At the very least, adding each other to their friend lists would be common.
The two missions were a set targeted at different groups. [Teach a Recruit]’s purpose was to make the older members willing to team up with the new members, and [Consult a Veteran]’s aim was to make the new members look for old members to help them.
The Constellation Corridor players were not the only ones considered as ‘recruits’. The players from the Version 3.0 novice planet, Planet Deirdre, were also new members of the army. The Shattered Star Ring old members would, of course, be more willing to play with them, so [Consult a Veteran] ensured that those foreign players would look for the senior army members as well.
Compared to those senior members of the army, these new members needed the Contribution Points more and were more passionate about this mission.
Secretly guided by Han Xiao, the situation in the army headquarters changed very quickly. The areas where players gathered became boisterous, and groups of people asked to team up in the public channel.
“LF1M[1] new army member above level 100, no Pugilists. All old army members here. Let’s do missions together to farm Contribution Points.”
“Level 88 Cannon Master, newbie here, need an old member to team up with to farm Contribution Points!”
“Thirty-man team here, planning to enter the [Secret War—Protection Warfare] dungeon. LF4M high-level Constellation Corridor players above Grade C+. Tank and disables needed, no damage dealers! Again, no damage dealers! Come quick!”
The interactions between players immediately became frequent.
The foreign players entered different army player teams and quickly mixed in with the environment. As the players were waiting for the Flickering World main storyline, they were mainly farming dungeons, which indirectly increased the sales of Dungeon Crystals.
The players had no suspicion of these two missions—to the players, it was very normal for the army to encourage the old members to teach the new members since a group of new members had just arrived from another Star Field.
“Hey, Chinese pal, do you know when this event will end?”
“Who cares? Just farm it as much as possible.”
“You guys don’t seem surprised at all. In our Star Field, group activities like this are very rare.”
“Haha, this happens very frequently in our army. I’ve already taken part in many large missions that had hundreds of thousands of participants. You’ll get used to it soon. This is a specialty of the Shattered Star Ring.”
As the normal players were teaming up, so were the club guilds. The four biggest Chinese guilds were overjoyed.
They had just made the price difference agreement with the foreign guilds, and this mission popped up right after. The Russian and Australian guild players were all recruits, so these guild representatives came back right after they had just left.
Even the faction was helping them!
After monitoring for a while, Han Xiao nodded and was rather satisfied with the impact he had made. This was a good start to make the players from different Star Fields mix together.
This would largely increase the efficiency of communication between the players from two sides and was beneficial for the faction.
He planned to keep these two missions active for some time.
They would have to explore the Flickering World very soon, which would have countless missions, so this mission would encourage the players from two sides to work together.
Closing the forums, Han Xiao left the office and returned to his bedroom.
His bedroom in the army had a very minimalist layout. The walls were metallic, and there was a window on the ceiling that looked right into the vast universe. A large black bed sat in the middle of the room, with a bookshelf, fridge, automatic cooker, waste bin, and other simple items beside the wall. The one plant pot in the corner of the wall grown by Han Xiao personally gave this cold and boring looking room a sense of liveliness.
Han Xiao took off his clothes and took a shower. He then took out a hand full of special grade nutrition pastes of different flavors and casually gulped them down. This thing recovered stamina extremely quickly, and it was not cheap.
Beyond Grade As basically did not need to sleep or eat at all, but he decided to retain his habit as a human. The increase in strength and change in the race would make beings look at the world in a different way. He did not need to rest, but he wanted to remind himself he was still human.
Due to the astonishing control that Beyond Grade As had over their bodies, there was no way for Han Xiao to fall asleep naturally. He could only control his brain to enter a rest state.
Since travelling to the Central Galaxy, this was the first time he had slept.
Han Xiao lay on the bed. Before sleeping, his consciousness entered the quantum network and told Phillip, “I’m sleeping. Call me up if anything. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, master, hum…” Phillip replied.
…
After sleeping for a night, Han Xiao’s eyes opened exactly on time. He came out from under the blanket, washed up, took off his pajamas, and donned his black robe, once again recovering to the image of Black Star.
The first thing he did was open the forums. Due to the team-up missions, more and more new members of the army had become active on the Shattered Star Ring page and interacted with the Chinese players.
Han Xiao noticed a new pinned post—it was the new episode of Galaxy Times.
“They should mention the Star Field migration…”
Han Xiao opened it up.
After the familiar opening, the two hosts shared what interesting things were happening around the various Star Fields. They soon mentioned the first batch of players to travel to another Star Field.
“Not long ago, the renowned NPC faction of the Shattered Star Ring, the Black Star Army, provided the Constellation Corridor players a way to go to the Shattered Star Ring. Based on statistics, there are a total of 713,000 players who chose to leave with the Black Star Army, completing the first known event of any player traveling to another Star Field.
“In Version 2.0, the Black Star Army was the guiding faction to lead the Shattered Star Ring players to the galaxy. Now, they have once again guided the players of another Star Field to cross Star Fields. Maybe this is a signal—in the next version, the players might be able to cross Star Fields on a large scale and go to different areas freely!
“So far, this is how the activity areas of the players have developed: Version 1.0, novice planet; Version 2.0, entering the galaxy; Version 3.0, exploring the Star Cluster… The activity range of the players has been expanding every version. Initially, we thought that the players would be exploring their birth Star Field mainly in the next version, but the Black Star Army has given us new ideas. Due to the theme of Galaxy, the players of the various Star Fields will interact sooner or later. Therefore, according to this trend, we can speculate that the next version will be the stage where players can freely cross Star Fields.”
Han Xiao shook his head and smiled as he finished watching the show. This speculation was very logical, but Galaxy Times was only half right.
In the next version, the players would indeed be able to cross to another Star Fields on a large scale. However, unlike what Galaxy Times had speculated, the players would gather in the Flickering World instead of freely going to different areas.
Galaxy Times misguided the players, which was unavoidable. Other than Han Xiao, no players knew that the Flickering World would be the main stage of the next version.
…
“The players who are following me to the Flickering World still don’t know how much of an advantage they’ve gained.”
After looking at the forums for half an hour, only then did Han Xiao start to do other things. He patrolled around the army headquarters before heading to the Logistics Department.
When he entered Reynold’s office, he saw Nero, who was buried in the mountain of books.
“Godfather!” As soon as Nero looked up, his deep and dark eye bags were clearly visible. Realizing that it was Han Xiao, joy bloomed on his exhausted face. He immediately threw away the theory book in his hands and dashed into Han Xiao’s arms.
Looking at the terrifying amount of homework Reynold had given, Han Xiao’s mouth twitched.
This is almost on the level of child abuse…
Scolding Reynold in his mind, Han Xiao patted Nero’s head and said, “Come, I’m taking you out.”
“Really‽” Nero was so overjoyed and surprised that his tears almost gushed out.
When he left Planet Aquamarine, Nero thought that he had followed his godfather out to play. To his absolute shock, there was an infinite amount of homework that he could never finish waiting for him!
Given Reynold’s personality, the thing he was best at was forceful education. In the past two months, Nero felt like he was in living hell, and seeing Han Xiao was like seeing an angel who had come to save him—he could finally escape this endless misery!
“I promised you, right?” Han Xiao smiled. Actually, the main goal was not to take Nero sightseeing but to go to the Tyla Civilization, which Harrofal had been part of, and search for the set of wormhole travel data back from when EsGod’s doppelganger entered it.
Other than Nero, Han Xiao only took Hila, Aurora, and Feidin along. They took the extremely quick Blacklight Stealth, so it would not take long for a return trip and would not delay the Flickering World mission.
As Harrofal had been killed by EsGod’s subordinate long ago, the chances of finding the wormhole data were very slim, which was why Han Xiao brought his two lucky mascots—Feidin and Nero—to offset his luck.
After all, those who believed in luck were… the unluckiest ones.
…
The Blacklight Stealth flew through the stargate and did not make any stops along the way. Not many days later, Han Xiao and the others arrived at one of the Tyla Civilization’s governance planets to visit the high-level mechanic school that Harrofal had been part of.
With Han Xiao’s identity, as long as his intentions were not hostile, he was welcomed as a guest by all the civilizations in the Shattered Star Ring… except the Klent Kingdom, who had been cursing him every day, and the Star Pupil Holy Race, who had been secretly sticking needles into his voodoo doll.
This mechanic school was government-based and raised many Mechanic talents for the Tyla Civilization. The school was vast and magnificent.
The principal was already waiting at the entrance of the school with others. Han Xiao was met with a warm welcome the moment he arrived.
“Your Excellency Black Star, it’s our honor to have you.” The principal smiled brightly.
“You’re too kind.” Han Xiao nodded.
“Please, follow me.” Mechanical hoverboards arrived as the principal raised his arm. These were all public carriers inside the school.
Han Xiao stepped onto the hoverboard and followed the principal to head to the guest room, chatting and laughing along the way.
They passed through the school, and to Han Xiao’s surprise, they attracted a lot of attention.
It seemed like some students had recognized him and spread the message out, leading to groups of students following behind them on mechanical hoverboards and watching them from afar.
Han Xiao looked behind him and said with surprise, “These are all students of this school, right? Why are they following behind us?”
The principal said with resignation, “Your Excellency Black Star, as you know, this is a mechanic school. All the students here are Mechanic class Supers…”
“And?”
“Ahem, you don’t seem to know your significance in the hearts of the Mechanic class students…”
Han Xiao suddenly understood. He then looked back and realized that the students behind him were all filled with excitement, surprise, and admiration as they looked at him. It was almost worshipping.
He was the one and only Beyond Grade A Mechanic in the Shattered Star Ring, so his position was even more special in the eyes of the Mechanic Supers. He was basically the top authority of the Mechanics in the Shattered Star Ring. His visit to this school caused a sensation among the students.
The principal smiled and said, “Your Excellency Black Star, why don’t you host a lecture here and teach them a tiny bit of your infinite wisdom on the path of the machinery. What do you think?”
“Hmm…” Han Xiao thought about it and did not reject it. He waved his hand and said, “I’ll see to it, if this trip goes smoothly.”
“Is there a goal for this visit?” the principal asked. Han Xiao only requested to visit and had yet to tell him his goal.
“Harrofal was my friend. I’m here to look for a set of data he had left behind.”
The principal was stunned for a moment. “Oh, him… alas, some time ago, the school was attacked, and he was killed by a group of kidnappers. He was an amazing researcher, and regretfully, we lost a crucial talent.”
“Those killers were EsGod’s subordinates. I’ve already avenged him.”
After a moment’s silence, the principal suddenly asked, “Did those EsGod subordinates you spoke of kidnap him because of that set of data you mentioned?”
This was not difficult to deduce, so Han Xiao was not surprised. He glanced at him and nodded.
“Yes. When Harrofal was doing wormhole research, I visited him many times. One time, we were attacked by the DarkStar leader, and I was forced to fight an EsGod doppelganger. However, back then, I was no match for it. Only thanks to Harrofal’s help was I able to lure the EsGod doppelganger into a wormhole and banish it. What I want is that set of location data for that wormhole.”
The wormhole cluster of the Taralam Star Cluster was the center of the Shattered Star Ring. The teleportation location of every unstable wormhole was random, unlike stargates, which had a fixed destination. Also, the chance of those random destinations repeating was infinitely close to zero, so finding that same wormhole would do nothing. Only the recorded coordinates data would be useful.
The principal shook his head. “When Harrofal was kidnapped, all the wormhole detectors in his lab were taken away, every single one of them.”
“He should’ve recorded the data into the internal database of your school. I hope that you can give me the authority to search for it.”
“Er… the database consisting of the research data is highly confidential. I can only allow outsiders to browse it when it’s approved by the upper echelons of the civilization… I’m not even sure if Harrofal backed up that data. Also, there are too many sets of wormhole data he recorded. If you don’t recall the date and time, we won’t know which set of data you’re looking for…”
“Then please notify the upper echelons of the Tyla Civilization for me,” Han Xiao said with a deep voice.
Internal databases that had something to do with the government definitely had extremely strong virtual defense measures. As there were still hopes of obtaining the data through a just method, he did not want to use Virtual Intrusion and make a Star Cluster his enemy.
As a Beyond Grade A, he could not always do things sneakily. Furthermore, he still had no idea what was so important about the set of wormhole data that EsGod mentioned.
[1] LFxM is a common term in MMOs meaning Looking For x More player(s).
