Chapter 1 An Unexpected Face

The first time Han Xiao saw Stephanie, she looked familiar. He sized her up, and his heart couldn't help but skip a beat.

He didn't recognize the other hunters, but this woman was a familiar face!

Many players in his previous life knew Stephanie. She was very active in the "Super Power Calamity" version. She was one of the subordinates of the Super-A grade [Ten Thousand Shadows] in the Star Arcane Domain star field. As a vanguard, she fought north and south for Ten Thousand Shadows, fought against countless superhumans, including players who formed teams to farm bosses. She finally died in a multi-party siege battle… or rather, she was liberated.

After that, a related instance crystal was born. Stephanie entered the instance as a hidden boss. Defeating her gave a chance to drop extremely rare rewards.

In the later versions of his previous life, she topped the list of top laborers with a player repeat rate of 87.6%, and won the honorary title "Shufen"! (a common female name)

It should be known that at that stage, the total number of players in Galaxy was dozens of times higher than version 2.0, with more than 10 million people online at the same time. More than 80% of the players had repeatedly farmed Stephanie's instance. The number of people represented by this proportion was extremely huge!

It was a little embarrassing to say, but Han Xiao had farmed Stephanie at least three hundred times with different accounts... He was so familiar with her that he knew her inside and out.

He didn't expect there to be someone he knew among the enemies. Han Xiao was pleasantly surprised.

He didn't know who was behind the scenes, but now that he saw Stephanie, everything suddenly became clear, and he immediately understood the truth.

It turned out to be Ten Thousand Shadows!

"No wonder, no wonder, everything is connected..." Han Xiao was excited. If the mastermind was Ten Thousand Shadows, then he knew why the hunters were capturing superhumans.

This was to provide "shadows" for Ten Thousand Shadows!

Ten Thousand Shadows' ability was very strange. He could absorb other independent individuals and turn them into a kind of dependent called "shadows". The shadows still retained most of their original personality, but they had an indelible loyalty and closeness to Ten Thousand Shadows, and their memories were somewhat distorted under this premise.

The shadows slept in Ten Thousand Shadows' body, and they were also his incarnations outside. The two became symbionts.

And the ability of the shadow itself was still retained, and it would be enhanced after merging with Ten Thousand Shadows. Ten Thousand Shadows had lived for too long, and no one knew how many shadows existed in his body. He was an extremely mysterious member of the Ancient Ones.

Han Xiao also remembered a secret that a player had explored in his previous life. In order to achieve immortality, Ten Thousand Shadows sought the help of special people to give his abilities vitality, and then abandoned his body and became a strange "ability life form". Conventional methods could not kill him. He had lived for thousands of years and was now a member of the Ancient Ones.

After glimpsing the truth behind the scenes, a heavy pressure weighed on his heart. Han Xiao's mood was solemn. Ten Thousand Shadows liked high-quality shadows. If he had set his sights on him, he would not give up easily. He absolutely did not want to become Ten Thousand Shadows' symbiont. That would completely lose his self and turn him into a puppet!

Stephanie was one of Ten Thousand Shadows' shadows. She was also a tragic character. Before her death, her ego had briefly returned and revealed her origins.

That was during the Exploration Era, before the Firstborn were born, and the great war between the three major civilizations that swept across the universe was in full swing.

She was born in an era of war. She was an Entartan. Her civilization's homeworld was caught in the flames of war. She showed amazing talent in her childhood and was selected as a warrior. She fought for her homeland and grew up quickly.

In just over ten years, in the most youthful stage of an ordinary cosmic human woman, she had become the guardian of her hometown. At a young age, she had become the first guardian of Entarta. Her strength was so strong that even the three major civilizations had heard of her.

However, the Crimson Dynasty and the Glorious Federation broke out in a super war with an entire star cluster as the main battlefield. The Entartans were affected. Their homeworld fell. Various colonies and governing stars were turned into ruins under the iron hooves of the Crimson Dynasty. Only a very few survivors boarded interstellar migration spaceships and became wandering civilizations. Stephanie was also one of the survivors.

People in war are pragmatic. The survivors had no time to miss their homeworld. They were eager to leave the battlefield and find a new home to make a comeback. However, an uninvited guest had already set his sights on Stephanie... It was Ten Thousand Shadows.

Ten Thousand Shadows himself was a long-lived race and had lived for many years. At that time, he had not abandoned his body and was not yet a Super-A. He coveted Stephanie's power and intercepted the Entartan survivors' spaceship.

In the end, the Entartan civilization became another extinguished civilization in the war, and Stephanie became one of Ten Thousand Shadows' shadows.

History only recorded what happened at the time. Cold historical facts do not record emotions. Everyone's motives, moods, and reactions at the time became a mystery. In his previous life, after Stephanie entered the instance, some players were curious and looked for historical records about her. From some rare descriptions in superhuman history books, they learned that some historians believed that if Stephanie had not "mysteriously disappeared," she might have become one of the [Firstborn].

However, in the war era of the Exploration Era, there were too many Calamity grades with potential. Most of them died in battle, like raising Gu, becoming nutrients for their opponents. The Firstborn were the first batch of Super-As who came out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Ten Thousand Shadows was not one of the Firstborn. He had always been very mysterious. He only appeared as a Super-A at the end of the Exploration Era.

In just a short glance, Han Xiao's mind flashed through the whole story. He took a deep breath. The real enemy had emerged. It was very stressful to be an enemy of Ten Thousand Shadows, but that was something for the future.

The biggest problem right now was to deal with the nine Calamity grades first.

Especially Stephanie.

Han Xiao pushed his hands forward, and a beam of Unyielding Energy Impact - Whale Wave went straight to Stephanie. The huge mechanical legion around him moved and killed all the enemies. The cannons roared continuously!

Bang bang bang bang—

Countless beams of unyielding energy crisscrossed. Mechanical soldiers held weapons and surrounded them with shields. Stephanie and the others also moved and counterattacked fiercely.

The battle broke out suddenly, and the scene instantly became chaotic!

Han Xiao never lacked self-awareness. The mechanical legion was much stronger than before, but facing nine veteran Calamity grades at the same time still exceeded the mechanical legion's capabilities. Among the nine enemies, there were two Mechanic types, one was a Gunner. The giant cannon with an extremely thick caliber shot out beams of light like destroying the world, blasting mechanical soldiers one after another.

The other was also a Mechanic, taking the route of interstellar fortresses. He raised his hand and unfolded a giant war fortress hundreds of meters high. It had strong firepower and was also equipped with a guard force, fighting with the mechanical legion like two groups of beasts colliding and tearing at each other.

Clang clang clang—

Metal collided endlessly. The sputtering sparks of electricity replaced the falling blood. Chaotic parts and wires fell like rain, as if they were pieces of meat torn from the opponent's body.

The other seven enemies were two Martial Artists, one Mage, and four Supers. Stephanie was one of the Supers!

Stephanie's ability was the most mysterious. She was like a swooping falcon, heading straight for Han Xiao in the center of the legion. Wherever she passed, the mechanical soldiers who approached her disintegrated one after another. The air around her showed high-temperature distortions. From a long distance away, she aimed her palm at Han Xiao.

With just this one action, Han Xiao's interface popped up a series of prompts.

[You are in a [Mild Slow] state, Agility reduced by 12% for 8 seconds!]

[You are in a [Mild Weakness] state, all attributes reduced by 6% for 8 seconds!]

[You are in a [Mild Confusion] state, there is a 10% chance of interrupting when using skills for 8 seconds!]

[You are in a [Abnormal Excitement] state, your attack power fluctuates between 80%~110% for 8 seconds!]

[You are in a [Slight Hallucination] state, Hit Rate and Perception reduced by 10% for 8 seconds!]

[You are in a [Mild Fatigue] state, your Stamina and Energy will have an additional 8% loss for 10 seconds!]

[Your Talent [Tough Body] is activated, you are immune to True Damage!]

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