Chapter 109 Unidentified Beacon

In the face of overwhelming force, no matter what the Pangurid giants thought or did, they couldn't interfere with the fleet's resource extraction.

The efficiency of interstellar mining equipment was extremely pleasing. Every resource point on the planet was continuously producing various raw materials, batch after batch of minerals filling the warehouses. The daily profits were quite considerable.

During the extraction process, some exploration teams discovered even more resources deep underground, further increasing the planet's estimated value.

Han Xiao looked at the report and felt comfortable.

Extracting resources from the resource planets of other civilizations in the Shattered Star Ring, while profitable, was ultimately sharing dividends on someone else's territory, making him feel somewhat constrained and not free enough. Mining the resource planets he discovered in the Flickering World, on the other hand, allowed him to operate on a grand scale, and as long as it wasn't destructive mining, the empire wouldn't interfere too much.

These rare materials could be sold to the empire or wholesale in the Shattered Star Ring. Han Xiao temporarily stockpiled them, letting professional marketing personnel handle the sales, striving to get high prices.

After the Star Gate was completed, a small imperial team arrived and greeted Han Xiao, then joined the ranks of resource gathering. The professionals they brought took over the education of the natives.

After a simple handover, Han Xiao recalled some of his personnel.

The preliminary exploration of Pangurid Star was complete. Next, it was just a matter of extraction. He decided to stay on this planet for two days, let the players have some activities, and then set off to explore the next planet.

Now, all the legion players had explored the first planet and had a certain understanding of the Flickering World mission mechanism. Players who encountered resource planets faced a choice: to stay and mine resources.

Ordinary players naturally refused. How could they abandon the entire forest for a single tree? However, the top-tier guilds in Huaxia were the opposite. Since most of the core members of the guilds followed Han Xiao's main fleet, they were reluctant to give up the rich resources of Pangurid Star.

For guilds, one bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush. They needed long-term resource points to provide revenue for the guild. The four major Huaxia consortiums and first-tier guild members were numerous, leaving behind a group of peripheral personnel to mine the resource points here.

Since the output of large-scale mining equipment belonged to the legion, these guilds purchased a batch of Worker Bee armor from the legion and distributed them to the personnel who remained behind, allowing them to mine independently. This part of the output was the guild's long-term income.

Han Xiao wouldn't stop players from creating their own income. This was just a small profit, not enough to make him hinder the players' initiative. The more these guilds earned, the more they would identify with the legion.

The old club guilds from the Star Cluster Corridor had developed a group of peripheral personnel during this time and, following suit, reluctantly sent some people to stay at the resource points, hoping to get a piece of the pie. Seeing this, the four major consortiums planned to wait until the main force left before asking other first-tier guilds to help cause trouble for these outsiders, preventing them from mining resources in peace. Once the main force left, the personnel left on this planet would be at their mercy.

In the previous version 4.0, guilds from various countries happily destroyed each other's resource points in the Flickering World. Now that the clubs of Lao E and Lao Ao were in the Huaxia guilds' base camp, the Huaxia guilds wouldn't sit idly by and watch their competitors develop in peace.

Because Han Xiao had allowed some players to cross star systems in advance, guild competition appeared earlier than in his previous life.

…

Pangurid Star, a certain sea area.

The wind and rain were torrential, and the waves were raging.

A mining base was located on the sea, remaining motionless in the churning sea. A semi-circular energy shield loomed, covering the entire base. Surging waves crashed on the shield, leaving patches of white foam.

At the edge of the base, warriors wearing underwater work armor carried detection equipment and went into the water one after another. Some of them were players. There was a vein of molten crystals below this base, and these people went into the water to detect the situation in this sea area.

Maple Moon also accepted this task. Wearing underwater armor, she cruised underwater and quickly descended several thousand meters.

The field of vision was filled with deep blue seawater, extending into the distance. The seawater turned pitch black, filled with unknown fear. The ears were silent, with only the beeping sound of radar detection, her own breathing, and the thumping of her heart in her chest.

This silent and terrifying atmosphere made Maple Moon shiver a little, almost wanting to curl up into a ball.

"Let's go back… at worst, I won't do this task…" Maple Moon was afraid. Although her combat power had reached B-grade, the character's attributes wouldn't give the player any mental bonus. She was still afraid of what she should be afraid of. She felt like she might have a slight fear of the deep sea.

Just as she was about to surface, the radar suddenly issued an alarm.

"Detecting a large life form! The target is approaching!"

The surrounding seawater churned, and Maple Moon's body was out of control, drifting with the current. She hurriedly turned on the stabilizer, and white light sprayed from the ribs of the armor, finally stabilizing her body.

Before she could observe the surroundings, the radar showed a light spot rushing towards her at missile-like speed.

Maple Moon turned her head in panic. Suddenly, a huge monster appeared in her field of vision, with countless claws and flippers. Its head was like a plesiosaur, opening its bloody mouth towards her.

Her vision went black, and she was swallowed in one gulp.

After completing the hunt, the monster slowed down, preparing to enjoy its meal. Its huge body suddenly convulsed, appearing extremely painful.

The next moment, a dazzling blue light exploded from the monster's body, tearing it into pieces.

Boom!!

Purple blood and minced meat splattered in the sea. Maple Moon's armor was covered in a sticky liquid, mixed with blood and gastric juices.

Looking at this bloody scene, Maple Moon quickly turned on the green, healthy, and refreshing mode, and then felt that the picture was much more harmonious.

She was just scared and forgot to resist for a while. After she came back to her senses, she exerted the combat power of a B-grade mechanic. It was very easy to kill an ordinary wild beast.

Maple Moon recovered the explosive bomb turrets around her. Unable to bear the atmosphere of the deep sea, she was about to surface when the radar suddenly prompted her to detect an abnormal metal object, right in the monster's broken body.

"What did I find?" Maple Moon's eyes moved. As a story-driven player, her curiosity had always been strong, and she intuitively felt that she might have discovered some hidden element.

Hesitating for half a second, she stopped surfacing, enduring the nausea to rummage through the monster's corpse, releasing magnetic force from her palm.

Clang! A metal creation about one meter long was attracted into her hand.

It looked like some kind of detection probe, tattered and full of corrosion marks, with several depressions on the surface, like bite marks from creatures.

[You have discovered an Unknown Probe]

[Unknown Probe: This seems to be the wreckage of some kind of space probe. It is severely damaged. Its technology is far beyond that of the natives of this planet. It seems to be from another civilization. Perhaps it contains some information. You can try to identify it, or you can give it to special characters in exchange for rewards… Or, you can try to repair it and activate it. This will lead to special consequences. Please choose carefully (requires mechanical ability)]

[You have gained 6 Personal Exploration Points]

"This is a hidden mission item!"

Maple Moon's eyes lit up, instantly throwing her deep-sea fear to the back of her mind. She repeatedly examined the unknown probe in her hand, full of interest. She liked to dig out this kind of unknown plot the most.

Without saying a word, she immediately took the item back to the base. Without even taking off her armor, she hurriedly began to identify the probe. Her mechanical ability met the requirements, and the panel quickly popped up the results.

[Identification completed! You have obtained [Damaged Positioning Beacon]. This object uses space beacon positioning, remote quantum connection, gravity space travel, and other technologies. Current status: severely damaged, system failure, all functions stopped.]

"The technological level is not low." Maple Moon was surprised. This had already reached the level of a galactic civilization. Did this mean that Pangurid Star had been discovered by some civilization?

It was also possible that the beacon might have broken down in the universe and lost its positioning ability. Finally, it was captured by Pangurid Star's gravity, fell into the deep sea, and was swallowed by marine life. Otherwise, Pangurid Star might have had visitors long ago.

Maple Moon fell into a dilemma. This beacon was valuable intelligence, and handing it over to the legion would definitely bring rewards.

However, she couldn't help but be (zuo) curious (si) and wanted to repair this beacon to see what the "special consequences" in the item description were and what kind of people it would attract.

After hesitating for a while, Maple Moon gritted her teeth, and curiosity prevailed.

[You have used [Intermediate Repair] on [Damaged Positioning Beacon]!]

[Performing judgment… Judgment passed. Your level, intelligence, professional knowledge, and skill level have met the prerequisites.]

[Repair progress 2%…14%…35%…]

[Repair completed, you have obtained [Barely Repaired Positioning Beacon]!]

Maple Moon was overjoyed. Without saying a word, she chose to activate the beacon.

Didi… The beacon's indicator light lit up, sending invisible quantum positioning data to the receiving end of an unknown force.

[You have triggered the hidden mission [Beacon of Unknown Origin]!]

[Mission Introduction: You have discovered a positioning beacon with high technological content on a native planet in the Flickering World. You don't know who placed this beacon, but you chose to repair and activate the beacon, sending out the location information. Perhaps this will attract unknown forces…]

[Mission Requirements: Contact the unknown force that placed the beacon]

[Mission Reward: 3 million experience, 70 Personal Exploration Points, [Bold Explorer] Skill Fragment x1 (2 fragments can be synthesized)]

[[Bold Explorer]: Special Skill. When exploring unknown locations, identifying unknown items, and other behaviors, you can use this skill to gain inspiration and forcibly obtain some information. Can be used repeatedly on one target, cooldown time 7 days. Each use will grant you the negative status [Reckless], Luck attribute reduced by 60%, lasts 14 days]

[Note: As long as you are bold enough, the universe is your home]

[This mission is linked to the main mission of the Flickering World. You can report the situation to the camp to which the main mission belongs and get help from the NPC camp (strongly recommended)]

"Reward skill fragments? This kind of mission reward is rare. You can even ask the camp for help… Does this mean the consequences of starting the beacon are serious…?" Maple Moon was surprised.

As soon as she thought about handing it over, the figure of the legion commander appeared in her mind.

…

"You found a beacon of advanced civilization on this planet?"

Looking at the beacon in Maple Moon's hand, Han Xiao's eyes showed a look of doubt.

Originally, he thought Maple Moon was just here to learn skills, but he didn't expect her to bring him a hidden item.

Currently, only the empire was developing this area, so this beacon could only come from an unknown native civilization in the Flickering World. Based on the technology contained within, the placer should have a galactic level of development.

And this beacon adopted conventional thrusters and gravity flight technology. Even if it flew for hundreds of years, the speed would be limited. Therefore, the civilization that placed the beacon should be in this star system.

But Han Xiao remembered that in his previous life, there were no native star system civilizations in the southern border star system of the Gorotan Star Cluster. The exploration data of the Crimson Empire didn't show that they had encountered a star system-level civilization here. He had never heard of similar events from the NPCs who explored during the version update in his previous life.

Could it be that the civilization that placed the beacon had already been destroyed, and now only ruins remained? This possibility was not impossible.

But Han Xiao took the beacon from Maple Moon's hand, and his panel also popped up a prompt, also triggering this hidden mission. The mission requirements indirectly indicated that this unknown force still existed.

Han Xiao's heart moved. In his previous life, the initial exploration of the Flickering World was during the version update. Players later restored the exploration situation through various data records and character narrations. Could this event be a hidden plot that even the empire didn't discover in his previous life?

Maple Moon didn't know that Han Xiao could also accept the mission and was thinking about how to explain that she knew the beacon was useful intelligence.

At this time, Han Xiao opened his mouth:

"Give me this thing to study for a while, maybe I can find some problems."

Hearing this, Maple Moon thought that she was handing over the mission item, so she didn't refuse.

Watching Maple Moon leave, Han Xiao carefully studied the beacon in his hand, his eyes flickering.

"I didn't expect to find such an unexpected discovery on Pangurid Star. These players are still reliable in finding hidden missions." Han Xiao smiled secretly.

The reward for this hidden mission made his heart move. [Bold Explorer] was an identification ability, reaching the scope of special prediction, and very few players possessed it in his previous life. Although it didn't help in combat, it could be called a divine skill in doing missions and discovering hidden plots.

He only knew that triggering a hidden mission had a chance to get skill fragments. Besides that, there were no fixed channels to obtain them.

Although the skill was very limited, it was also useful to him. Not to mention the distant, but the strange data left by the Heteromorph was still without a clue, and Isora couldn't predict any pictures. If he obtained this profession-related skill, he might be able to get some clues.

"It's a pity that it's not a complete skill, only a skill fragment." Han Xiao was slightly regretful.

Shaking his head, Han Xiao immediately entered the quantum network vision to study the beacon and decipher the other party's positioning data code – this beacon used quantum link technology, which meant that he could use the virtual mechanic's ability to reverse track it.

The mission requirement was to contact this unknown force, which seemed to only require waiting for the rabbit to appear, but there was actually another mystery.

The Flickering World was not like the explored universe. There was no order like the interstellar society here. The native civilizations here were still in the dark ages and didn't know of each other's existence. Therefore, once the beacon was found to be activated, it meant a war for the placer.

Contact meant facing the placer's attack.

Therefore, instead of being found by the placer, Han Xiao preferred to send someone over actively. Anyway, the requirement was just to contact, whoever found the other party first was fine.

Searching along the quantum link for a while, Han Xiao suddenly opened his eyes, opened the star map, looked for a while, and pointed his finger at a location several star regions away from Pangurid Star, also within this star system.

"Found you."

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. He remembered that there was no native civilization in this location in his previous life.

After thinking about it, Han Xiao snapped his fingers, and the Wraith Totem wrapped around him immediately combined and formed, standing in front of him.

"Master."

"I have a mission for you." Han Xiao said slowly, "You take some mechanical lives and some mechanical troops, follow the direction of the beacon's data transmission to find the guys who placed the beacon. If they attack, you subdue them."

"Understood, Master."

The Wraith Totem nodded, making a rustling metal friction sound. Then, he split into many floating sentries, flew out of the room, and immediately went to form a team.

Because it was a few star regions away, it would be too abrupt to go over rashly, and it would be a waste of time. Han Xiao didn't plan to go out in person.

Now he had mechanical lives that could stand alone, and the [Quantum Uninterrupted Transmission Channel] allowed mechanical soldiers who were not by his side to get mechanical force bonuses. His mechanical legion already had the ability to expedition, and it still had Super A-grade combat power even across countless light years.

Super A-grade mechanics were dreaded in the sea of stars, which was one of the reasons. The ability range and battlefield range were the most terrifying of all professions!