Chapter 1 A Barren Land

Frostwood Town was a poor novice gathering place. Poor meant numerous missions. Although the players here had rudimentary equipment, they had plenty of experience. The number of players buying skills was considerable, and people occasionally came to take photos. Han Xiao was the center; wherever he went, a dense crowd would gather.

After spending a day reaping experience, Han Xiao left Frostwood Town, returned to the aircraft, gathered his equipment, and headed to the Overmier family.

He naturally had no sense of belonging to the original owner's family, but he couldn't help being curious about the original owner. He might as well go and inquire. Moreover, the Overmier family was still pursuing his original identity, and Han Xiao was very interested in contacting them.

"The Overmier family is a warlord giant in North Continent, in cooperation with Tyleus. It has twenty-four settlements worldwide, including five large territories, and immense wealth. It is registered in Tyleus as a legal consortium enterprise, and is involved in commerce and politics. Various industries are managed by managers of different factions. Within Overmier, there are four main factions: the main family faction headed by De Luo Overmier, the Xiao faction headed by second leader Xiao Jin, the Chi Yu faction headed by third leader Se Qi, and the relatively loose local alliance, the Northern faction."

"The nature of Overmier is a warlord force jointly established by the forces of those who lost their countries. The main family faction presides over the overall situation, while other factions submit to it, annexing many loose small warlords, and becoming one of the top warlord forces in North Continent, with a large army. Later, it accepted the pacification of Tyleus, gained official backing, and has not made any major moves in recent years. It basically solves some tricky problems for Tyleus, especially Ruilan."

The situation in North Continent was different; unlike other countries' harmony, the conflict between Tyleus and Ruilan was very intense, and bloody incidents often broke out. Soldiers, agents, and Supers from both countries fought on secret fronts, and hatred was deeply rooted. Tyleus and Ruilan were both highly aggressive countries, and two tigers could not share a mountain. In the two or three decades from the beginning of the new era to the present, both countries wanted to eliminate each other at all times.

It wasn't until recently that they decided to join forces on an expedition to the Germinal Organization that both sides calmed down.

Han Xiao pondered, "Overmier headquarters is a den of tigers and wolves. Although Overmier is afraid of my identity and strength, this is based on their large family and business having concerns. Strictly speaking, I am now their enemy, and a fight may break out."

...

A large settlement was located on the mountainside of a snow-covered mountain range. This was the headquarters of Overmier, easy to defend and difficult to attack. There were only two roads into the settlement: the first was the heavily guarded mountain road with strict checkpoints, and the second was to climb up the cliff on the other side of the settlement, which was also guarded.

The mountain rocks were dark gray, the accumulated snow was white, and the cold wind was biting.

At the mountain pass, a sentry in thick cotton clothes looked around. He suddenly saw a figure slowly approaching in the wind and snow in the distance.

"Someone is approaching!" The sentry shouted to his companions to be on alert. Soon, the full appearance of the figure appeared in their sight. The sentries all had serious expressions. It was the Black Phantom that the leaders had told them to pay special attention to.

Looking at the tall and heavily guarded pass, Han Xiao's eyes flashed. As expected, the defense was very strict, just like the intelligence said.

He just didn't know what Overmier's attitude towards him was.

His question was quickly answered.

After waiting for a while, the pass opened, and a squad surrounded a man as they walked out and came to Han Xiao. The man had a fake smile on his face and said, "Mr. Black Phantom, welcome to Overmier. My name is Wu Mile. I am here to receive you. Please follow me up the mountain. The leaders have been waiting for a long time."

Well, it seems like they won't start fighting right away. This smirking face is probably a prelude to a Feast at Hongmen. Sigh, so troublesome. Can't anything be solved with the simplest means of violence? This isn't called crude; it's called returning to simplicity, omitting the process, and directly arriving at the final step, opening fire and fighting. Everyone saves effort.

"Time is money, ah, sigh, now that I'm here..."

Technician Han lifted his one-shoulder bag full of machinery and followed Wu Mile up the mountain road.

The mountain road was shrouded in clouds and mist, passing through one checkpoint after another. The two were also followed by guard troops.

Throughout the journey, Han Xiao maintained a calm face. Wu Mile wanted to test him several times, but was forced to swallow the words he was about to say by Han Xiao's expression. After thinking it over and over, he had to bite the bullet and say with a chuckle, "The leaders were very surprised to hear that you were coming to visit. After all, we had an unpleasant incident not long ago."

"You are curious about my intentions?"

"Indeed. Strictly speaking, we are not friends, but since you have come in person, I believe you are here with friendly intentions," Wu Mile said.

"I'm here to cause trouble. I haven't decided who to kill yet, so why don't I start with you," Han Xiao said.

"Hehe, with your strength, why would you need to visit us if you wanted to assassinate our middle-level cadres?" Wu Mile's expression remained unchanged. "This joke isn't funny."

"Is that so?" Han Xiao glanced at the guards beside him. The soldiers were expressionless, their fingers were always on the triggers, with a cold and rigid posture, and they didn't look sideways. However, the cold sweat flowing from their temples and the short breathing frequency betrayed that they weren't as calm as they seemed to be.

The guard captain secretly cast a glance, which was instantly caught by Han Xiao. The captain was shocked and hurriedly withdrew his gaze, focusing on his nose and minding his own business.

"But they seem to think it's very interesting." Han Xiao smiled meaningfully, patted the captain's shoulder, and clearly felt the captain's body tense up for a moment.

Wu Mile smiled on his face but cursed in his heart, thinking, "The visitor is unkind, relies on his strength, and is hard to gauge his intentions."

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and suddenly asked, "Wu Mile...is that your name? Which faction are you from, the main family faction, or the others?"

Wu Mile's expression became unnatural, and he coughed dryly, "I am a member of the Overmier family, nothing more."

Han Xiao smiled and stopped talking.

Afterwards, the two were silent all the way until the territory gate appeared in front of them.

Wu Mile breathed a sigh of relief and said, "We're here. The leaders are waiting for you in the hall."

The gate opened wide, and hundreds of soldiers filed out. The numerical advantage seemed to give them confidence, and they glared at Han Xiao fiercely.

Wu Mile led the way in front, deliberately walking very slowly, deliberately lingering in the middle of the armed forces for a longer time, harboring the small calculation of intimidating the Black Phantom.

Han Xiao knew it clearly and was indifferent. This trick was useless on him. Suddenly, his eyes moved, and he found some floating IDs outside the crowd. There were players here.

"That's right, Overmier is not far from Frostwood Town. Some players who leave the novice village have a chance to come here..."

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. "Since Overmier already has players, why are they still sending people to capture Inhumans..."

There are many possibilities. Han Xiao didn't think too much about it and left it behind. The purpose of this trip was Overmier, and whether or not there were players didn't matter.

...

"What are these soldiers gathering for?"

In the distance, a dozen players stared at the crowd and discussed in low voices. The prefix of their IDs was "Bamboo Rain". They were all members of the "Bamboo Rain" guild, a casual small guild with only dozens of members, all of whom were young people.

Guild leader Bamboo Rain Fragrance was a delicate-looking girl with long flowing hair. She said in surprise, "They seem to be welcoming someone. Is this a sudden event?"

"Let's go and see. Maybe we can trigger a mission." Bamboo Rain Little Fly looked a little handsome. After he finished speaking, he asked for the opinions of the team members with an inquiring look.

Naturally, no one objected. Now, the only players in this settlement were the Bamboo Rain guild. They also found this place by chance. It was not marked on the map sold in the novice village.

The player's panel map was a fog of war. Only by purchasing maps or personally walking through a place could more locations be lit up.

Approaching the crowd, Bamboo Rain Xuan Xuan exclaimed, "That's the Black Phantom!"

Everyone was shocked. After taking a closer look, they were indeed right, and they looked at each other in dismay.

"Why is the Black Phantom here? And the people here seem to be hostile to him." Bamboo Rain Fragrance frowned and thought, "He appeared in various novice villages a few days ago. There must be a reason why he suddenly came here."

Bamboo Rain Xuan Xuan's eyes lit up. "This is a sudden plot! Maybe there will be hidden missions!"

"I'm lucky. I haven't seen the Black Phantom yet. I don't need to go to the novice village to learn skills from him."

"I remember some video creators are collecting his material."

Seeing Han Xiao walk into the hall, everyone hurriedly stopped. The hall was a high-level area, which was not open to them. It required a high enough faction relationship to enter. The Black Phantom could go directly in, and they were immediately helpless.

Bamboo Rain Fragrance said, "Let's all wait outside. Maybe he will come out in a while."