“Take your time, just don’t forget.” Han Xiao joked.

Every favor Bennett owed him increased his goodwill. Building a good relationship with one of Planet Aquamarine’s protagonists would be a great help.

This time, the hidden quest that came knocking was obviously a type of implicit benefit. Bennett’s network was vast. Through Bennett alone, he could reach many characters, and all were powerful figures. These characters basically had some good quests to trigger.

After waiting for a while, Bennett transferred Hannes' call.

*Click.*

After connecting, both were silent, only able to hear each other's breathing.

Hannes spoke first, "I am Hannes. We met once, just last night."

"Bennett told me. I heard you need my help. What is it?" Han Xiao got straight to the point.

"It concerns a secret, buried by time in the dust of history. We found clues, and I want to dig out this secret."

Han Xiao was confused, not knowing what secret he was talking about.

Suddenly, a new notification appeared on the panel. Han Xiao glanced at it casually, but immediately couldn’t take his eyes off it, a look of shock on his face.

[You have triggered Planet Aquamarine Hidden Main Quest A-grade: 【New Era – Origin】]

[Note: This quest will cause irreversible unknown effects on certain events and factions. Please choose carefully whether to accept.]

Han Xiao's eyes suddenly widened.

"A main quest that no one has ever triggered!"

Planet Aquamarine had three main quests. Two overt ones were the war between the six nations and Germination, and the establishment of the shelters. One hidden main quest was discovered by players, but it wasn’t this quest that he triggered!

He had no memory of it at all, meaning no player had ever triggered it in his previous life!

Hidden main quests were a special quest type. They required an opportunity to trigger and would affect the overt main quests and faction environment, thus changing the plot. Han Xiao had seen big shots share hidden main quests on the forums in his previous life after playing so many versions.

Without exception, all had caused special effects on different civilizations and different planet main quests.

"Hannes and the others were already dead the first time they appeared in front of players, no wonder no one triggered it."

Han Xiao was alarmed. Even two level 60 peak Planet Aquamarine characters were dead. The difficulty of this quest was likely to be unexpected, and the water inside was unfathomable.

His A-grade quest 【Seeds Sleep in the Dust】 to deal with Germination was a branch of the main quest. The requirements of the main quest that players received in different factions were different. The six nations naturally had to destroy Germination, while Germination was the opposite.

Han Xiao's quest was specialized because his identity didn't belong to any faction, yet he was an enemy of Germination, so the requirements and details were different, but the general goal hadn't changed.

As for this hidden main quest, he knew nothing.

Origin? Did it mean he had to trace the history of the planet? But which event's origin was he tracing?

The unknown was frightening, but it was also curious. A kind of itchiness rose from Han Xiao's bones. It was a feeling of excitement, anticipation, and stimulation.

He was originally a *Galaxy* hardcore player who liked to explore hidden elements, and this was a secret that no player in his previous life had discovered!

"Accept."

[You have accepted 【New Era – Origin】]

[Hannes Favorability +10, Virulina Favorability +10, Greaon Favorability +10, Jiang Yuan Favorability +10]

"Huh?" Han Xiao was stunned.

He knew who Jiang Yuan was, one of the names on the three tombstones, but who was this Greaon?

[Converse with Hannes and listen to his introduction.]

The quest requirements were only this for the time being. Han Xiao wasn't surprised. This was similar to a "cutscene" to start the quest.

"We attempted to kidnap Dorasi last night. He was a personal participant in a secret plan that year, and this Crimson Maple's secret plan is one of the clues. The nation of Crimson Maple hides many secrets."

"When you infiltrated the official's residence, did you feel strange about why these officials were protected twenty-four hours a day, while other countries don't have this situation?"

Han Xiao hummed. "I know about that, the Ulrick attack many years ago."

"Yes, the Ulrick attack..."

Hannes slowly recounted the past.

Ulrick was a minister of Crimson Maple at the time, with powers similar to a prime minister. He was attacked in his own home. The attackers weren't one or two people, but a large number of civilians. They obtained weapons from unknown channels, and a large number of civilians used gunpowder weapons to raze Ulrick's expensive villa to the ground. Ulrick himself, his wife, and three children around the age of ten were brutally murdered by this group of enraged attackers. The entire process was filmed and posted online, shocking the entire country and even the world.

The cause was that Ulrick had passed a bill that roughly meant removing some of the original rights and benefits of civilians and using the funds on a very absurd project, which was actually Ulrick's means of enriching himself.

The corruption of Crimson Maple's bureaucracy was known all over the world, but before the Old Era War broke out, Crimson Maple was a famous moderate government, quite conventional, and not a powerful country.

When the Old Era War broke out, high-pressure austerity policies were implemented. Most people expressed understanding, enduring the high-pressure management for the sake of the country's continuation, and even actively contributing. However, Crimson Maple's bureaucrats tasted the sweetness of it. In addition to the pressure of the country's great loss of strength after the war, they didn’t restore the previous loose system after the war, and continued to squeeze civilians in various ways, such as taxes and labor, to replenish the country's strength. As a result, domestic conflicts gradually sharpened, and the once mild social environment was gone forever.

People whose lives were not satisfactory were like springs pressed to the bottom, their hearts accumulating thick clouds, brewing a thunderstorm. The bill passed by Ulrick became the fuse that ignited public grievances.

Thirty-one minutes after Ulrick was attacked, the special forces received orders to kill all participants without mercy, showing no mercy, which caused an uproar across the country, and this ushered in a sudden change in Crimson Maple.

If it had been before the Old Era War, this would even have been a huge scandal that could have brought down the government. However, in the New Era where power had lost supervision, the other five countries had no intention of interfering.

The world was in danger after the war, and there were no longer the various human rights protection organizations and joint decision-making power alliances of the past.

The world格局 (géjú) changed, the balance was broken, and the economic system almost collapsed. Resources and military strength became the only criteria for judging national strength. Crimson Maple felt that public opinion was no longer important, and it didn't need to serve the people like before. Now it was time for the people to serve the country. It just so happened that everything was waiting to be rebuilt after the Old Era War, which was an opportunity to change the national structure, so they chose a radical approach.

The shocking attack sounded an alarm for Crimson Maple's bureaucrats, who decided to take back the "weapons" in the hands of the civilians. Crimson Maple's bureaucrats had never been so united this time, and passed twenty-four harsh bills with extremely high efficiency within two days. Round-the-clock protection for officials was the lightest of these bills. There were even outrageous bills such as grading people and regularly cutting off "rotten meat" (expelling worthless lower-class people) in big cities.

As a result, the trial of the attack took a bizarre turn. The Crimson Maple government publicly stated that the attackers were not ordinary civilians, and that a secret reactionary organization in the country had planned the attack. Their source of gunpowder weapons was the best evidence.

Crimson Maple officials listed dozens of poor excuses and began to use the capture of reactionary organizations as a grandiose excuse to forcibly take back the powers they had given to the people, suppress unfounded "reactionary organizations," arrest people who "might threaten the country," imprison them, execute them, and block outside news, in order to turn civilians into captive labor.