The Legendary Mechanic, page 291
This Travel Agency had just signed a long-term loan contract for thirteen spaceships with the Black Star Mercenary Group a month ago. The rental fee was far lower than the selling price of the spaceship, but it still was not cheap.
At that moment, this spaceship, which temporarily belonged to the Black Star Mercenary Group, had a few dozen mercenaries on it and was flying toward Planet Golden Gate. They were the mercenaries who had recently been hired by the Black Star Mercenary Group a few months prior.
During his one year of preparation, after Han Xiao completed the construction of his assembly lines, he had made use of his fame to hire a few hundred freelance mercenaries to build up the strength of his mercenary group and increase the NPC resources of his mercenary group. The new members were then restructured into different teams to make it easier to command them.
Herlous and the others alone would not be enough to deal with the Mutation Disaster. Presently, Han Xiao no longer needed to restrict the size of his mercenary group, so the more the merrier. The Great Mechanic Han would never be stingy in investing in his mercenary group. With a large stack of bills in his pocket, Han Xiao would not feel good if he did not spend any money.
“Black Star suddenly gathered all of us. Are we going on a large mission?”
“We are Floating Dragon’s force in name. Could it be that the Dragon Emperor has an order for us?”
“I tried asking around, and nobody knows what Black Star wants. Even the officers aren’t sure.”
“All the others have arrived already, and we are the latest. I hope we didn’t delay anything.”
As the mercenaries were chatting, the spaceship landed at the port nearest to the base. Stepping out of the spaceship, dozens of mercenaries disembarked, and not too long later, they stopped in front of a gigantic base. The base was built on an octagonal plot of land and was surrounded by automatic cannon towers made from alloy walls.
The style of the base was like a gigantic metal castle with its shiny black exterior reflecting the sun’s rays. Numerous metal buildings were joint together with ten or so cone shaped rooftops pointing toward the sky, looking like they were fries in a box. The buildings were all angular, and they had the precision of a machine. Apart from the grayish metal color, white and red paint could be seen extending out along the edges of the buildings to add some color to the otherwise heavy base. Together with the blue indication lights that were scattered all over the base, the entire base had a high-tech feeling to anyone who walked in.
This was the result of one year of hard work. Black Star’s first base!
All the mercenaries came in front of the door, and a complicated identification panel popped out on the interface. After they were all verified that they belonged to the Black Star Mercenary Group, the door of the base began to slowly open, and a voice sounded from the interface.
“Identification complete, hum… Welcome back, hum…”
“Phillip, how’s your day?” a mercenary joked with the interface.
“Currently working, hum… Cannot chat casually, hum…”
All of them then walked into the base. The interior of the base was not complicated. The center of the base was a large empty space with bridges leading toward the different regions of the base. It was like a beehive, and this middle region was called the ‘mouthpiece’ by the mercenaries.
The base was truly too large. Even a million people would not be able to fill it up completely, and the mercenary group only had a few hundred people at the moment. Thus, the interior of the base was extremely spacious.
These mercenaries walked toward the main hall while chatting, their voices echoing in the large hall.
When they entered the main hall of the base, they saw that a few hundred people were already waiting there. They were all waiting silently with the atmosphere solemn. These merrily chatting mercenaries immediately stopped their laughter and chatter and gathered behind the other mercenaries.
The few hundred people in the main hall were the present members of the mercenary group. They were clad in different kinds of armor and had either melee or ranged weapons on their backs. They were tall, short, fat, skinny, human, and beast; however, they all had something in common. They were all emanating the sharpness of an elite warrior, and every single one of them had survived hundreds of battles.
In front of the crowd, Black Star’s officers were standing in a row with their backs facing the crowd. Herlous was clad in a light blue armor, Aroshia was glowing all over, the three Volga brothers looked as though they had been made from the same mold, and three other new officers who joined a few months ago. As for Feidin and Sylvia, they were standing further away.
At that moment, the metal ground that was in front of the crowd opened up, and a human figure rose up on an elevator. His black overcoat fluttered in the wind, and he had a necklace made from compressed orbs. Furthermore, he was still wearing a pure black mask that covered his face.
It was Han Xiao.
After a year, Han Xiao had changed his outfit into something more striking, and he had mimicked the Germinal Organization leader in wearing a mask. He felt that he was more handsome this way.
I am someone who owns his own property after all, and my coolness factor should go up a little at least. Furthermore, this black mask is actually equipment.
The moment that he appeared, everyone’s gaze was immediately fixed on him.
“Is everyone here?”
Han Xiao’s gaze swept over everyone present. He had hired these mercenaries personally, and Floating Dragon’s reputation was truly useful. The majority of those present were lone wolves with pretty impressive combat prowess. They were all extremely reliable. All of the mercenaries before him could be split into three different categories. The first category would be mercenaries who did not belong to any mercenary group before this. The second category would be those who belonged to the Sunil Division. The third category would be a ‘War League’, which one of the new officers had brought with him.
After the base was constructed, Han Xiao did not stay in the base but took the time to visit other planets and hired three new officers based on his memories. These were characters who had been famous in his previous life.
Sehrinde, a Sunil Grade B Pugilist. He was dressed in a white hood. While the material of the hood seemed soft, it had a defensive inscription inscribed in it. His face was hidden under the shadow of the hood, and two large blades could be seen hanging on his waist. He would be able to unsheathe those blades at any time, and when Han Xiao first met him, Han Xiao had almost thought that he had come out from a certain popular assassination game.
He was another Grade B Super who belonged to the Guardian Faction of the Sunil civilization. When Fernas left Sunil, Sehrinde did not leave together. Sehrinde had a quiet personality, and his personality was just like his swift and queer Pugilist subclass. He was like an assassin hidden in the darkness and a sharp contrast to Herlous’ open Pugilist style.
With Herlous making the introduction, Han Xiao had managed to find the lonesome Sehrinde and issued an invitation to him. As the reputation of the Black Star Mercenary Group grew, more and more Sunil Supers became willing to join Black Star. It was safe, and they could earn a lot of money. It could also be said that Han Xiao was offering them protection. Under Herlous’ persuasion, Sehrinde had accepted Han Xiao’s invitation and begun working together with him.
Presently, the Sunil Division was led by Herlous and Sehrinde.
The second new officer was Ginette Colin, a female space human. She was a Grade B Cannon Master and carried various kinds of heavy firearms all over her body. The thick layer of machinery covered her tall, sexy figure. It was her creed to worship firepower over anything else.
Ginette was a pretty famous lone wolf mercenary. In Han Xiao’s previous life, she had joined Sky Ring Army and become a famous leading figure of the army. Han Xiao had spotted her name when he was going through the list of freelance mercenaries and thus decided to pull Ginette into his mercenary group while she was still alone.
The process naturally had not been an easy one. Ginette had an explosive temper and cursed at both the heavens and the earth. She did not even place Floating Dragon in her sights. Han Xiao had thus come up with a small plan and purposely intervened in one of Ginette’s missions. With the both of them on opposing sides, they had naturally ended up fighting. After Han Xiao beat her terribly a couple of times, Ginette had finally submitted and joined the Black Star Mercenary Group.
Han Xiao had promised to provide her with heavy firearms at a low price. With Ginette’s hobby of collecting all different kinds of weapons, she had immediately accepted his proposal.
The third officer had an even greater origin. He was a main character class figure. Han Xiao had spent a great deal of effort before finally being able to con him into joining. Just like how he had conned Herlous back then.
Harmon Rockfall Sonodin. He was a Luhan Beastman and was more than three meters tall. His entire body was covered in hair, and he looked a little like a bear. His appearance was still pretty adorable, but he actually belonged to a clan of ferocious fighters. The Luhan Beastmen had their own civilization, and it was located in a different Star Cluster. Their governance method was an alliance system between all the different tribes. Harmon was one of the candidates for the next tribal chief of the Rockfall Tribe.
While the Luhan Beastman was a galactic civilization, they preserved their battle loving, boorish, and warlike tradition. When the tribe wanted to decide the next chief, they would not vote for the new chief peacefully but settle it with a battle. All the candidates would be chased out from their mother planet and sent to random planets. They would have to train themselves up in the galaxy and also build up their own ‘War League’. When the designated time arrived, they would then take all of their troops back to their mother planet to participate in the battle to determine the chief. In other words, it was similar to the fight between princes for authority.
Harmon was a main character, and his storyline was to aid him in snatching the position of tribal chief. When he was conning Harmon, Han Xiao had activated this mission. This mission was simple and violent. He had to fight from the start to the end. After the players completed this mission in his previous life, the process had become a dungeon, and they would be able to gain a Dungeon Crystal from doing daily missions at the Rockfall Tribe. Thus, Han Xiao could remember the mission clearly.
The way to hire Harmon was naturally to agree to an ancient ceremony and become part of his War League. Harmon was not alone, and he brought the subordinates in his War League, dozens of powerful Luhan Beastman, to join the mercenary group.
Harmon had the strength of a Grade B Super, and his Esper ability was very simply to strengthen his body and cause the muscles on his entire body to expand.
While his Esper ability was extremely singular, Harmon was proficient in many different weapons and was a warrior with exquisite battle techniques. Han Xiao had taken a look at Harmon’s attributes before, and Harmon had six rare subclass that belonged to the [Warrior] class.
The addition of the three new officers provided the mercenary group with fresh blood. Han Xiao had more and more capable subordinates under him, and the rewards that his faction could give out had also increased greatly.
Currently, the highest mission reward that Han Xiao could give out was 1,000,000 experience, and his Daily Reward Limit was over twenty times that. This meant that if he issued a faction mission, he could give out more than 20,000,000 experience to the players. Hiring NPC characters was all to better attract players.
Opening up his communicator, Han Xiao looked at his mercenary group’s introduction.
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Black Star Mercenary Group
Credibility Rating: 1,018 (High)
Scale: 417 members
Grade D: 47
Grade C: 359 members
Grade B: 11
Missions Completed: 82
Main Activity Area: Colton Star Cluster
History:
[Sunil Defense Battle]
[Silver Rescue Operation]
[Capture of Purple Gem Civilization’s Head Of Rebels “Pilipelapa Wasasa”]
[Battle of Noriosse]
[78 more missions… (Expand/Collapse)]
Creator: Black Star—Han Xiao
Creation date: Galaxy Calendar Year 688, 02 October
Summary: A medium sized mercenary group with a good name and very high credibility. Completed hiring missions with high ratings multiple times. Work together with many large-scale mercenary groups. Field Team under the Dragon Emperor. Base is located on Planet Golden Gate. Mercenary captain Black Star aided Godora in killing a Calamity Grade Super in Noriosse. Reliable.
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Today is the day of Version 2.0’s release. I have waited almost a year for this day. My manpower should be sufficient.
Han Xiao nodded in his head.
Over the past year, Han Xiao had done many things and made ample preparations. He had constructed a total of twenty-three assembly lines, and his 4,500,000 Enas had almost all been spent, with only about 1,100,000 Enas remaining. The majority of his money had been spent on materials, and his assembly line had been churning out equipment without stopping. His warehouse already had a mountain of equipment at the moment.
The loan had already exceeded the first interest free year. According to Rockfess’ requirement, he would have to start paying interest if his loan period was more than a year. Han Xiao was waiting to earn a huge sum of money from the players.
His experience on the interface had already fallen below 100,000,000 points, and Han Xiao was still level 116. He had spent all of his experience on gambling for blueprints and raising the level of his skills. He was currently in dire need of experience points. He still had a Mission Completion Card in his hands, and if he had sufficient experience points, he could even advance directly and charge to level 140. It would be a lie to say that he did not look forward to that.
Keeping his thoughts to himself, Han Xiao looked at the mercenaries present and said, “I have gathered everyone today for a large-scale mission. My home planet is undergoing a calamity, and their sights are only limited to that of their planet. They aren’t able to see what we can see, and we are their only hope.”
The mercenaries all began looking at each other.
Black Star’s home planet?
That backward planet called Planet Aquamarine?
“I will fight for you just like you will fight for me.” Harmon hammered his chest with his fist.
“I will be by your side just like before,” Herlous proclaimed.
All the mercenaries in the hall also began to express their support.
Looking at the time, it was about right.
Han Xiao opened the interface and waited quietly.
After a short wait, a new notification appeared.
_____________
Version 2.0 is now open.
Fetching data… Fetching data done!
Player Forum Open
Welcome to ‘Galaxy’ Version 2.0!
_____________
After preparing for such a long time, Version 2.0 is finally here!
Han Xiao’s eyes glowed as he walked toward the door.
A few hundred elites followed behind him majestically.
“Let’s go!”
Chapter 509. The Players Return, Eruption of the Mutation Disaster |
On Planet Aquamarine, the Southern Continent was experiencing intense summer heat. The scorching sun was high in the sky, and heatwaves could be seen rising from the ground.
The instant that Version 2.0 was released, the originally empty plaza of Sanctuary Three had suddenly been overwhelmed with people. In just a few seconds, that originally spacious plaza had become packed with people.
Before the new system patch, because of the [The Last Bastion] mission that Han Xiao had left behind and Galaxy Times’ analysis of Version 2.0, millions of players had gathered in Sanctuary Three and chosen to go offline there. The moment that Version 2.0 launched, the log-in point for those millions of players was naturally Sanctuary Three.
Millions of heads were bobbing up and down, looking around curiously.
“Is it Version 2.0 already?”
“There don’t seem to be many changes.”
“Eh, the upper level limit has increased, and our experience can be used to increase our levels. It seems like this is the new version indeed.”
“Aren’t there any other changes? I truly want to try taking a dump in the game.”
“Pants Taking Off Club, please have some self-respect.”
All the players began chatting among themselves and opened up the interface to check their stats. Apart from the raised level cap, there did not seem to be any other changes to their stats.
But very quickly, some players realized that the status of a certain mission had changed. The mission status of [The Last Bastion] had changed from ‘frozen’ to ‘active’.
This was the Prize-Pool Mission that Han Xiao had left behind before his departure. The mission requirement was to protect Sanctuary Three as preparation for the Mutation Disaster.
And now, this mission had actually been activated!
Does this mean that the ‘calamity’ in the mission hint has already begun?
All the players immediately became excited. Owing to Black Phantom’s ‘blessings’, they did not manage to participate much in the previous Main Storyline. This time, there was finally something big for them to do!
Right, the NPC who issued this mission was Black Phantom… oh, he’s now called Black Star. Is he still in the universe?
The moment they thought about Han Xiao, many of the players could not help but feel envious of the professional players who had been taken away by him. They had managed to enter the universe a step earlier and were miles away in terms of equipment and experience.
