The Legendary Mechanic, page 612
Sorokin wanted both the deal with his shareholders and the opportunity to invest in the Flickering World!
As long as he invested in the right target, things would go smoothly for him.
He wanted to compete with Black Star head on but also not anger the dynasty. Thus, there was a suitable investment partner in the Shattered Star Ring.
After all, the Black Star Army was not the only organization that had the right to begin construction in the Flickering World.
Chapter 921. Level 300 |
Less than five minutes after the players went offline, various reports were sent from all the Black Star Army bases to Han Xiao. This was not the first time such a situation had occurred for the various officers, and although there were still some who found the matter strange, there was not a huge commotion.
To the outsiders, the disappearance of the players did not have any pattern, and only Han Xiao, who also had the player interface, could accurately grasp the time.
Version 3.0 was the true uprising of the Black Star Army in terms of manpower, strength, and status. Before the end of Version 2.0, the Black Star Army only had twenty-three bases, a few thousand battleships, and almost two hundred million Enas in savings. But now, their scale was at least a thousand times larger!
This was sufficient to prove just how great the benefits he had during the current version. He had managed to grasp all the opportunities that presented themselves to him. Advancing into the Beyond Grade A was like a carp leaping through the dragon gate.
With the current scale of the Black Star Army, although the players going offline would affect the employment missions of the army, it would not stop the ordinary operations of the army from operating.
“The version update this time will take twenty-three years, and the Flickering World will be in the fourth phase of development by then…”
Han Xiao leaned back on his chair.
To a civilization, a few decades was a short amount of time, just one or two generations. Without any outside interference, this amount of time was not enough to cause a huge change.
When all their questions could be answered and they no longer needed to fumble around in the dark for research, the Black Spirit Race would definitely be able to go from a native civilization to a galactic civilization in a short few decades for sure.
Intervening in the development of low-grade civilizations went against the Treaty of Cosmic Civilizations. On the surface, this was to restrict the development of the low-grade civilizations, but in truth, it was to reduce the conflict between galactic civilizations.
However, it was still the same logic. Regardless of how good a rule was, the rules could be bent depending on the individual bending it. With Han Xiao’s current status, as long as he did not go too far, no one would care about such a small thing. Furthermore, the Black Spirit Race was a race that worshipped him, so no one would attack him because of this matter. As long as he had his own territory, no one would bother him about such matters.
Han Xiao then took out his communicator and called the dynasty.
“Your Excellency Black Star, do you need something?”
“Of course. If not, why would I bother calling you/” Han Xiao then went straight to the point. “How much longer will it take for the first exploration phase to end? You said that it would be finished very soon two years ago, and the star maps of the three Star Clusters have already been perfected. When will the upper echelons of the dynasty announce the completion of the first phase?”
“I am not too sure about the exact time, but it should be this year at the latest.”
“Inform me if you have any news.”
“Don’t worry, chief commander Tarrokov will definitely inform you beforehand.”
Right at this moment, the other party paused for a while, and his voice became solemn.
“Right, I also have something to tell you. The Blood Gold Organization ignored the dynasty’s warning and didn’t stop robbing the Evolutionary Totem. Our allies are grumbling because of this matter.”
Han Xiao was surprised and said, “It seems like they’ve found a backer.”
“Er, it is more accurate to say that a backer found them. The Federation of Light provided them with protection and got them to hide in the Abyss of Stars. They can then manage their subordinates remotely and continue accepting employment missions.”
Federation of Light? Indeed, they can’t help but target the Evolutionary Totem. Han Xiao’s eyes narrowed. The interference of a Universal Civilization was not out of his expectations. The Federation of Light would never allow the dynasty to monopolize an item of such strategic importance.
The Federation of Light’s plan was still unknown, and Han Xiao believed that the Federation of Light would not stop at conducting robberies. Such a small amount was not enough to satisfy their needs, and there must be a bigger scheme behind it all. They would most likely attempt to force the dynasty to open the rights to sell the Evolutionary Totem.
In this regard, the Federation of Light did not have any conflicts with him. Han Xiao also wished to expand his operations.
However, the method to craft the totems had been grasped by many organizations, and the other party might also attempt to seize his Evolution Cube. Still, the probability of this happening was small.
The memory of the Arcane Church failing miserably was still fresh, and now that the technological skill for the totem had been exposed, the dynasty would definitely place a larger importance on the Evolution Cube. If it was not necessary, no one would risk starting a war with the dynasty to snatch the Evolution Cube. The losses would exceed the gains. But despite all this, he still had to keep his guard up.
“What is the reaction of the dynasty?”
“The upper echelons guessed that something like this would happen and made plenty of preparations in secret. Although the dynasty will help you to endure most of the pressure, you will still face some risks yourself. The upper echelons recommend you stay in the dynasty’s territory and operate through your machines. Even if the Federation of Light has the Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device, they won’t dare teleport into the dynasty’s territory.”
“I would be safer indeed, but I cannot stay in the Central Galaxy forever. That would be no different from being imprisoned.” Han Xiao sighed helplessly.
As long as he did not hand over the Evolution Cube, he would always have to face such a dilemma. Profit would always come with risk, and if he wanted to settle this point thoroughly, he needed to let the entire universe recognize that the Evolution Cube belonged to him. His own strength was a factor, and the dynasty opening the rights to sell the totem was another factor.
Sigh, the Federation of Light is forcing me to be their spokesman…
“Thank you for your reminder. I will consider the matter.” Han Xiao shook his head and hung up.
After sitting down for a while more, he then went to the training room and opened up his interface.
With the players offline, the experience which he had stored up will be the basis for him to increase his strength. Han Xiao had accumulated a large amount of experience over the past two years, and it was enough for him to reach level three hundred.
Since he was not able to influence the dynasty, all he could do was increase his strength.
Han Xiao let out a deep breath and channeled his experience to leveling up.
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[Lord Mechanic] leveled up to Lv.21.
+360 Energy, +5 STR, +5DEX, +12 END, +15 INT.
You have received 12 Free Attribute Points and 1 Potential Point.
…
Lord Mechanic] leveled up to Lv.40 (max).
+360 Energy, +5 STR, +5DEX, +12 END, +15 INT.
You have received 12 Free Attribute Points and 1 Potential Point.
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Han Xiao’s level went from 280 to 300, and his body surged with energy.
At his current level, the amount of experience needed to level up would only snowball. Without a way to accumulate experience, choosing to level up further was not the best option.
Han Xiao placed all his Free Attribute Points into Intelligence to increase his damage and looked at the notifications on the interface.
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You have reached the upper limit of your Main Class. You have triggered Class Advancement Mission: [Erudite]
[Erudite]: Have 30 Class Knowledges reaching Lv.5 with at least 3 being Ultimate Knowledges. The strength of a Mechanic comes from their knowledge, and a Mechanic can only reach higher heights with a stable foundation.
You have reached Lv.300. You have triggered a Promotion Mission: [Abundant Energy]!
[Abundant Energy]: Reach Lv.19 in your energy level. Energy will always be required to support strength.
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“These two missions don’t seem too bad.” Han Xiao raised his brows.
Compared to the challenge-type missions, Han Xiao preferred the missions that had a requirement on his attributes. He was already planning to increase his Class Knowledge, and the [Erudite] mission came at the right time.
[Abundant Energy] required his energy level to be at Lv.19, which was 120,000 energy points. Han Xiao had always been training [Radiation Absorption], and together with his gains from leveling up twenty times, his energy level had just passed 100,000 points and had reached Lv.18. He was only about 20,000 points away from the requirement.
The energy points of most Beyond Grade As were above 100,000, so Han Xiao’s energy level was relatively low. If not for his special energy regeneration tactic, his energy level would definitely be lower.
Since he could not level up, he needed plenty of energy training manuals to fill this gap. Although the requirement was harsh, energy was an important attribute, and there would be no disadvantage for him to complete this mission.
However, despite thinking that way, Han Xiao still opened the Random Reward page.
During this period of time, Han Xiao had gotten his mechanical army to perform plenty of missions on the outside and accumulated a few Random Reward opportunities. There were more than twenty chances for him to use.
“I hope that a Mission Completion Card will come out…” Han Xiao prayed.
Even Feidin’s luck was not useful to help him this time. Luck would help him to increase the chance of a high value item appearing, but the Mission Completion Card was considered a worthless item to even the players, and high Luck would reduce his chance of drawing it.
Without any hesitation, Han Xiao immediately started drawing rewards.
After finishing all his Random Reward chances, over half were common items. Apart from that, there were three Potential Points, three low grade skills, one foundation talent, one empty Character Summon Card, one ability enhancement card, one double experience card… and two Mission Completion Cards.
He only got two of them in over twenty draws. Han Xiao truly did not know if this was his good or bad luck.
The two Mission Completion Cards would be able to allow him to complete the missions immediately, but after thinking for a while, Han Xiao did not plan on using the Mission Completion Cards now as he felt that it was not worth it.
“This thing is too damn difficult to get. Since these two missions aren’t that difficult, I should save these Mission Completion Cards for the future,” Han Xiao mumbled to himself.
[Erudite] was not difficult at all, and he had already planned to increase the level of his knowledge. Although the requirements for [Abundant Energy] was harsh, he only needed to put in some effort to complete it.
He could still afford to wait for a short while and kept the two Mission Completion Cards for a rainy day. It would truly be a loss if he wasted these two ‘precious’ Mission Completion Cards.
Han Xiao then looked through his attributes. Because he did not finish his Promotion and Class Advancement missions, his Attribute Points and Potential Points had only increased slightly.
Chapter 922. Meeting |
Han Xiao opened his Profession tree for a look. The current maxed Lv.5 knowledge did not reach the required thirty to give him the title of [Erudite], but he was close to it, just requiring him to raise a few lower-tiered knowledges. The problem was having an Ultimate Knowledge of each of the three branches maxed out.
Another important source for potential points would be to reach max level for his skills, but the upgrade cost would increase exponentially with the character level and sum of all skill levels. For a non-related branch Ultimate Knowledge, it would require roughly 120 Potential Points to upgrade from Lv.0 to Lv.5.
It was also impractical for Han Xiao to suppress his level. Even with all the experience he had saved up currently, it would not be enough to bring his Ultimate Knowledge to max level.
After thinking for a while, he decided to instead upgrade [Eternal Power Source], [Virtual Creator], and another from the Control Branch to the max level, as these three Ultimate Knowledges did not suffer from any experience penalties.
He directly opened the skills tab and invested some experience to upgrade his blueprint skills. After reaching the required amount of Potential Points, he immediately used them up, maxing out [Virtual Creator] and [Eternal Power Source].
His last required Ultimate Knowledge of the Control Branch had not been learned. While he had sufficient Contribution Points, in order to maintain the effect of his political assets, he needed to preserve at least six thousand points, keeping his relationship with the dynasty at [Reverence]. Thus, he could only wait until he reached twelve thousand Contribution Points to exchange for the Ultimate Knowledge. He was still lacking around three or four thousand.
After completing his operation of upgrading and learning skills, his reserve experience shrank greatly.
During Version 2.0, Han Xiao’s stored experience was only enough for him to increase from Level 170 to 207. In Version 3.0, due to the larger number of Black Star Army faction players, which allowed him to sell more of his products and grant higher rewards for missions, Han Xiao’s current experience reserve far outstripped Version 2.0.
But no matter how much he had, it was still finite. The cost of upgrading at this stage was much greater than that of the lower level, and he also needed to reserve a certain amount of experience to gamble on blueprints and improve strength training.
Han Xiao then entered the quantum network, ordering Phillip to purchase Energy Training Techniques in large quantities. With the current finances of the Army, this was a small matter and did not require him to worry about it himself.
Following this, Han Xiao collected his gains in the random reward. The two low-level skills drawn were relatively ineffective, but the foundation talent was not bad. It was called [Brain Enhancement], and the effect was an increased four percent Intelligence. At his current level, it would grant hundreds of Intelligence points, and since Intelligence was the core attribute for a Mechanic, there was some value in it.
Other than this, the more useful ones included a blank Character Summon Card as well as an ability enhancement card.
He had drawn one ability enhancement card long ago, and it had been sitting in his interface without him touching it. With this new card, he now had two.
Han Xiao scanned his skill bar as he muttered, “What should I enhance?”
Profession skills would not be able to trigger any skill mutations and could only be strengthened based on its basic values. At present, Han Xiao’s combat ability was quite well rounded, so it seemed like he could use it to strengthen any skill.
After thinking for a while, he decided to use it for the skill [Gene Liberation]. This explosive ability was still useful, and strengthening it would be no loss.
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Activating Ability Enhancement Card, target: [Gene Liberation Lv.10], undergoing enhancement…
Enhancement completed. [Gene Liberation Lv10]’s effect has been upgraded.
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There was no mutation, but Han Xiao was not surprised. [Gene Liberation] was already the mutated form of [Flaming Will], and in the past, there was a crazy guy who tried continuously enhancing only one skill, and he found out that the use of the enhancement card greatly dropped with each consecutive try. The success rate for the first time was twenty percent, followed by five percent, and a third time would be one percent.
The interface showed that [Gene Liberation]’s minimum damage bonus had increased from 220% to 240%, while the maximum increased from 480% to 520%. The continuous effect was upgraded from 2 to 2.4 seconds, while the cooldown reduced from seven minutes to six minutes and twenty seconds. The passive trigger was upped from 20% to 28%. Overall, it was an acceptable strengthening.
There was still one Ability Enhancement Card left over. After looking at it for a long time, Han Xiao decided that he had no other abilities worth increasing now and decided to leave it.
Players could also draw Ability Enhancement Cards, and the enhancement effect applied the same way. The more used, the higher the chance of transforming qualitatively. If one could increase the -90% Luck for the Luck Curse to -100%…
All card items such as the Character Summon Card or Ability Enhancement cards were character bound and could not be traded. Thus, the temporary character cards obtained through his juice extraction would be so sought after. If it was not for that, Han Xiao would have assigned a mission long ago to amass Character Summon Cards.
After finishing what he needed to do, Han Xiao closed the interface and left the training room. On the way, he took out his communicator and contacted Sylvia.
“How goes the preparation for the party?”
“The official time for the party has been set to be in a month, and it’s already arranged. By the way, I was paying attention to the trends of Bloodshed Land, and it seems like the Tyrant’s Party held this year has been adjusted to the same time as ours.”
Han Xiao let out a peal of laughter. “Little Ty-Ty is not very happy, I see.”
