Chapter 1 Fearless Heart

【Fearless Heart】was undoubtedly a half-template talent. For players, the bonuses above the second level were only something to look at but not touch. At most, only the 15% increase against Calamity grade would be of practical use.

The harvest of this ability extraction was a pleasant surprise. Han Xiao admired the changes in his stats for a while before closing the panel and thinking about future actions.

"Mordo is already out, and the second requirement of the Kunde Race mission is complete. As long as Mordo doesn't actively provoke me in the future, I won't need to tear them apart again... With their retreat, my excuse to participate in the Flickering World War is also gone. I have to temporarily withdraw from this stage, and the legion players may have opinions... But fortunately, it's at the end of the version, so the impact won't be too great."

Han Xiao thought to himself.

With the loss of the opponent Mordo, the Black Star Army had no reason to continue participating in the Flickering World War. If this was in the early or mid-term of the version, it would cause an uproar among the legion players, and a large portion of the new players would probably switch camps in order to participate in the first global server war.

However, Mordo's retreat was timed just right. Now was the end of the version, which meant that the players had little time to play. Most of their energy was focused on preparing for the fourth professional league and the upcoming global server war, which were the last two major events they could do at the end of Version 4.0.

In this situation, the backlash from losing the main storyline of the Flickering World War could be minimized. Moreover, Han Xiao had created a counterfeit main quest, which at least provided a reward, reducing the loss for legion players who couldn't participate in the real main quest to some extent.

Because of the existence of the Black Star Army, the current operational status and territory division of the various player guild alliances in the Flickering World were completely different from what Han Xiao remembered from his previous life, and this change would continue into future versions. Han Xiao also found it difficult to predict the future development of these guild alliances.

After thinking for a while, Han Xiao couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, as he had no major events to do at the end of the version.

"The things that need to be done have been done. Next, I will sit back and watch the tigers fight like the other Super-As, waiting for the Flickering World War to produce a result..."

Han Xiao was determined to keep a low profile for a while, retreat to study technology, and smoothly pass the final time of Version 4.0. Moreover, the legion had been in the limelight too much recently. Everything in excess was as bad as not enough. It was a good time to cool down and temporarily withdraw from the public eye.

"Just wait for the global server war and the professional league to squeeze out the players' savings, helping me save enough money for advancement."

Han Xiao smiled.

He didn't even need to launch promotional activities. These two events were like fully automated harvesters, convenient, fast, worry-free, and effortless.

...

The Mordo Civilization did not announce its retreat in a high-profile manner. On one hand, it loudly announced the crusade against foreign terrorist forces, and on the other hand, it silently withdrew batches of expeditionary forces.

After all, the Beyond Grade A Association was an organization based on common interests. Although Mordo had given up on the Flickering World War, it couldn't just leave. While the Mordo Expeditionary Force was withdrawing, other Beyond Grade A civilizations also dispatched some troops to form a mixed fleet to take over the defense line.

The Beyond Grade A Association was happy to see Mordo leave, as this would send away the plague god, Black Star, which they saw as a one-for-one exchange. Although the other Beyond Grade A civilizations were not polite on the surface, the name of the association was still there. Each faction reached some trade-offs with Mordo, signing some preferential agreements as compensation for Mordo's retreat.

With the main opponent beaten away, the Black Star Army's troops no longer continued to attack the Beyond Grade A Association's defense line. They left the Ferdinand battle zone in batches, and the counterfeit mission 【Black Star Army's Campaign Order】 was directly settled, bringing a wave of generous rewards to the legion players.

Although the rewards were set by Han Xiao himself and were slightly inferior to the real main quest, they were not without their advantages. The real Flickering World War main quest could only be settled after the battle ended, that is, the results could only be viewed when the next version was launched. However, the camp main quest that Han Xiao had counterfeited could be claimed directly by the players now.

This reward would allow legion players to have more resources to upgrade their skills, purchase equipment, and increase their strength. The most direct benefit was that it would help legion players participate in the upcoming global server war and professional league.

Just as Han Xiao had expected, the matter of leaving the main storyline in advance did not bother the legion players. If the war against Mordo was still going on, this event would make it difficult for the legion to command the players. Now, it was just right to give the players a holiday, allowing them to devote themselves to the global server war.

Milton Star was a barren planet located on the outer ring of the Emerald Star Cluster. In recent months, batches of fleets bearing the marks of different guild alliance forces had arrived here, establishing bases, fortresses, and defense lines on the planet.

Many of these guild alliances were hostile to each other, but they tacitly ignored each other, establishing their strongholds on their own without infringing on each other.

The reason for this situation was one of the rules stated in the Great War Invitation – before the start date, all professional guilds and player alliances that came to Milton Star could build their own strongholds and fortresses without any quantity restrictions. They could not launch formal attacks on each other. Those who violated the rules would be expelled from the battle.

This was similar to a "protection period", which was the preparation stage for all participating guild alliances and gave all players enough time to travel.

Therefore, in the past few months, these guilds had mobilized batches of spaceships, sending countless supplies and establishing a large number of temporary strongholds. The locations of the strongholds were not chosen randomly. Some guild alliances had established offensive and defensive alliance agreements, and the strongholds were basically next to each other, helping each other.

With the rule that they could not start the war in advance, seizing the locations of the strongholds was not allowed. It was first come, first served. Therefore, the preparation stage for building the strongholds in the early stage was already a battle of wits and courage. Arranging the strongholds was like playing chess. Not only did they have to connect the strongholds of their own allies, but they also had to make arrangements in advance, destroying the mutually supportive stronghold formations of the hostile guilds, constantly deploying troops and making moves.

Nowadays, about 70% of the players in the entire Star Sea had come, and the deserted and silent Milton Star had become bustling with activity.

...

In the No. 1 base of the Yan Huang Alliance, the top executives of the four major Chinese families and many first-line professional guilds gathered together.

In the center of the room was a three-dimensional virtual projection of Milton Star, and the surface was divided into areas of different colors, representing the territories of different guild alliances.

The Yan Huang Alliance was a guild alliance initiated by the professional clubs in China, basically including all the first-line guilds. It could be regarded as the representative of Chinese players, and basically all of them were legion players.

Legion players were a general term and not a formal guild alliance. It contained different factions. Some foreign players who joined the legion in Version 4.0 formed different guild alliances, and the same camp was the bond that made these guild alliances natural allies.

Under normal circumstances, these guild alliances could be regarded as a whole, collectively referred to as legion players, but they still needed to be distinguished in terms of guild wars.

At this time, the many guild alliances on Milton Star could be roughly divided into four major camps: the Black Star Army faction headed by the Yan Huang Alliance, the anti-Black Star front headed by the Pan-Starfield Alliance, the three major civilization camps headed by the September Conference, and scattered forces, mainly the guilds of other Super-A grade camps and neutral camps. They were like a plate of loose sand, fighting on their own without a unified commander.

"...As you can see, forces such as the Pan-Starfield Alliance, the Northern Front, and 5C have been targeting us, arranging their strongholds around each of our strongholds, preventing us from expanding our bases. They obviously want to immediately encircle us after the war starts, which is very bad."

Chao Xu Mu Shuang stood next to the three-dimensional projection of the planet, gesticulating with his fingers, his tone casual.

He was the president of the Dynasty Club's official guild and the first leader of the Yan Huang Alliance.

"Hey, these foreigners are playing Go here? Don't they know who is the ancestor of Go!" Jupiter, the president of the Temple Guild, crossed his legs and scoffed.

"Our allies are not to be trifled with either. Some have made arrangements in advance, preventing the enemy from encircling us, and some have nailed down strategic locations, which can relieve the siege of Zhao by attacking Wei, attacking what the enemy must save. It won't be easy for the enemy to deal with us." Bi Kong You You, the president of the Long Sky Guild, said in a deep voice.

The guild alliances of the Black Star Army faction reached an agreement to cooperate, led by the Yan Huang Alliance, which was the strongest. In addition to the people from the legion faction, the Yan Huang Alliance also had additional helpers, who were the enemies of the Pan-Starfield Alliance and other forces. The enemy of an enemy was not necessarily a friend, but at least there was room for cooperation.

"We have the advantage in terms of supplies, fleets, and weapons. The evolution badges purchased in batches have also been distributed, and nearly 200 assault camps have been formed, with a full complement of 800 people in each team. As long as they attack the strongholds, their destructive power is comparable to that of a husky demolishing a house. With the cooperation of warship air strikes, they can smash the enemy's heads." A guild president waved his fist, quite excited.

This battle allowed the use of warships and various war machines, but prohibited the use of planet-destroying weapons. Moreover, the weapons used must be purchased by the guild. This battle was purely a competition between players, and it was strictly forbidden for players to ask NPCs for help.

The major guild alliances took the lead in holding this war, which was actually actively creating exposure activities. Guild wars were in the interests of the major clubs. As long as they could play brightly in this war, or even become the final winner, the guild could attract more ordinary players to join, increase popularity, and earn traffic, which was in the interests of the professional clubs.

As for the victory conditions, they were also very simple and crude, mainly divided into two types. One was to remove all the enemy's strongholds on Milton Star. After the war started, guild alliances were still allowed to continue building strongholds, but at that time, it was not a "protection period", and others could attack at will.

The second was to kill all the enemy guild members' resurrection times within a cycle. The limit on the number of times a player could be resurrected was a maximum of ten times in six days, and in this super-high-intensity battle involving tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of players, deaths would become extremely rapid.

Chao Xu Mu Shuang nodded, turned to look at the many professional players who were listening in, and asked, "How is your trash-talking situation?"

Wang Hou Jiang Xiang, the leader, said lazily, "More wins than losses. I forgot the specific results."

At this time, Rou Bao, who was sitting next to him, immediately spoke, raised his thumb, and smiled,

"It's okay, I remember it. There are a total of 3488 wins and 1142 losses, with a win rate of about 75%, which is awesome!"

The rule of the battle was that guilds could not start wars in advance during the protection period. However, with so many players gathered here, many people were naturally restless. Individual duels were not restricted, and players could be seen PK-ing everywhere in the wild.

Therefore, the major guild alliances sent out a large number of PK masters to run out and challenge the masters of other guilds, like ancient pre-battle duels, winning could demoralize the other side.

These battle results needed to be publicized to increase the guild's reputation, which required professional reporters. Rou Bao, who had become a celebrity, was temporarily hired by the Yan Huang Alliance as the chief reporter, leading the entire war zone reporter team, specializing in writing the Yan Huang Alliance's battle reports.

This scale of national war allowed players in various fields to participate, and PK experts, logistics players, management personnel, reporters, and other identities all had things to do, each performing their duties, which was unprecedented.

...

As the start date approached, the atmosphere on Milton Star became more and more tense, and the storm was coming.

This battle was not only watched by the players themselves, but even the major camps were watching, paying attention to this war within the Undying.

The three major civilizations, Beyond Grade A civilizations, and other forces had learned some information from the players, and although they were surprised by the special hostility between different Undying groups, they tacitly did not disturb them, but just observed and silently recorded the characteristics of the Undying.

If the Black Star Army faction won this war, it would also be beneficial to Han Xiao, which could increase the camp's attractiveness to new players. However, he had no intention of intervening and did not want to disrupt this landmark event that would surely be recorded in the Star Sea Chronicles. He just wanted to sit at home and watch the show with popcorn.

Time passed day by day, and under the spotlight, the day of the national war finally arrived!