Chapter 1 Hailan Star, Black Star City

Three years ago, the Mutant Disaster came to an end. Various interstellar consortia followed in Black Star's footsteps, investing in Hailan Star, nominally Longtan's territory. With the influx of a large amount of interstellar knowledge, long-standing technological bottlenecks were easily broken, and the stagnant progress of civilization ushered in a period of rapid development.

The Mutant Disaster was both a suffering and a turning point toward interstellar civilization. No one forgot the significance of Han Xiao's actions for this planet. To commemorate this life-changing event, Bennett took the lead and used the Black Specter Shelter as the original site to build a large metropolis, named after Han Xiao.

This was Black Star City.

The survivors once sheltered in the refuge became residents, and countless people from the Six Nations came to the city, drawn by its reputation. Today, the young Black Star City is already the largest metropolitan city on Hailan Star. The Black Star Army's base is located in the center of the city, with a towering obelisk pointing straight to the sky. The huge Black Star symbol is engraved on the tower. The building height decreases from the city center to the edge. Suspended electric rail bridges crisscross, and magnetic levitation city trains shuttle back and forth, with lights shining brightly day and night.

The interstellar consortia came for the sake of Black Star and Longtan's reputation. Black Star City received the greatest investment. The city's technology content is the highest on Hailan Star. Compared with Black Star City, the capitals of the Six Nations are like villages. Black Star City is undoubtedly the "future city" of Hailan Star.

Although the treaties formulated by the three major civilizations include regulations that prohibit interference in the progress of lower civilizations, they are mainly to protect lower civilizations from harm. If it is to support development, as long as the governing civilization of the region does not care, no one will pursue it. Godora will naturally not prevent Han Xiao from transforming his hometown.

Under Han Xiao's protection, the Six Nations recuperated, developed technology, supported people's livelihood, and restored the environment, showing a thriving scene. Compared with three years ago, Hailan Star has undergone tremendous changes. Under Han Xiao's instructions, Bennett also changed the characteristics of the organization and formed a new political system, with Black Star City as its capital, becoming the seventh country in the world, and is gradually developing towards interstellar civilization.

Stephanie and her ten companions landed in the wilderness outside Black Star City, looking at the distant city.

"This is Black Star's base camp. According to the information we have collected, he attaches great importance to his home planet and has put a lot of effort into it."

One of the members said.

Hearing this, Stephanie slowly nodded.

After arriving in the Shattered Star Ring, she did not rush to take action, but collected intelligence for a period of time, planning before acting, and understanding the mess left by Albert.

The experts caught by Albert were rescued by Black Star and established contact with each other. If she acted rashly, as long as she caught one of the escaped figures, it would startle the others, alerting them to the fact that someone had begun hunting them again. Albert's failure made Stephanie's actions more difficult.

Stephanie did not intend to imitate Albert by establishing a base. She decided to hide in the dark, catch one and send one away, never staying.

Although the efficiency was lower, the advantage was that her whereabouts were erratic, with the enemy in the open and her in the dark, and the risk was not high.

She also did not intend to seek further intelligence cooperation with Klent. Klent took the blame for them and was very likely to betray them to clear himself. Moreover, without establishing a base, intelligence channels were not that important to her.

In this case, Black Star, who was not easy to provoke, was the best first target. He killed Albert's six people, formed a feud, and rescued everyone, turning Albert's years of accumulation into nothing. Recently, he had also made a name for himself as a Super-A seed, with great potential. He was the best prey, and Lord Wan Ying would definitely like him very much.

"Black Star is participating in the war, and we don't have a good chance to attack, but as long as his home planet encounters an enemy that it cannot handle, he will definitely come back to deal with it. I am not as reckless as Albert, and I will not fail to take advantage of favorable conditions."

Stephanie did not want to attack Black Star's territory, nor did she want to risk randomly intruding into the secret war. She chose to set a trap to lure Black Star into an ambush. The battlefield was chosen on Hailan Star, which seemed to be Black Star's advantageous battlefield, but in reality, it would make him hesitant.

With herself included, ten Calamity Grade "Shadows" might not be able to kill Black Star, nicknamed "Unyielding Body," but subduing him was not a problem.

"Even if he has the potential of a Super-A Grade, he is not a Super-A Grade after all…" Stephanie's expression was indifferent.

Looking at the azure sky, Stephanie took a deep breath, feeling the coolness in her lungs, squinting her eyes in enjoyment, her expression half-smiling, "Hehe, I didn't expect that after sleeping, I missed the entire war era. This place is the same as my hometown, another thriving planet… I really want to smash it to pieces."

The other nine people looked at each other, without speaking.

They were not familiar with Stephanie, only knowing that this captain was a "Shadow" from a different era than them.

…

Chi—

The Black Light Stalker slowly landed on an uninhabited planet. Han Xiao and Desolam's group of four walked out of the hatch.

"Let's just do it here. The venue is big enough, so we don't have to worry about destruction." Han Xiao smiled.

He did not choose the base as the sparring location. When they, the Calamity Grades, fought, if they accidentally released the aftermath, the base would be gone. The walls of the training room might not be able to block it. He did not want unnecessary losses.

Desolam did not speak, expressing his attitude with action. With a wave of his hands, a black robe emerged, densely covered with brilliant golden magic circuits. A surging torrent of mana poured out, and the robe fluttered, as if a typhoon had been stirred up out of thin air. The pupils under the hood's shadow flickered with lightning and thunder, and the fighting spirit spread rapidly in the air.

Laki and the other two Forbidden Witches retreated far away, clearing the battlefield.

A sense of oppression swept over him. Han Xiao's eyes narrowed, and his mechanical force activated the necklace. A brand-new model of mecha instantly covered his entire body. More beautiful than the Mad Ape, the silver and black streamlined shell was covered with glowing ghostly blue cloud patterns, transforming him from an iron-headed baby to a psychedelic style.

But the degree of violence was far above the Mad Ape.

This was an upgraded version of the Mad Ape, also an Ape-series model of the "Super-Nano Metamorphic Mecha", named 【Mountain Ape】!

The equipment condition for the Mad Ape was Level 135, while the equipment condition for the Mountain Ape was Level 165, a full 30 levels higher. Han Xiao used a large number of rare raw materials and integrated new technologies to greatly increase the mecha's attributes.

The armor value exceeded 110,000, and the power level was close to 5,000, with extremely powerful performance.

The characteristic of the Mad Ape was its powerful strength, while the characteristic of the Mountain Ape was its majestic energy, giving full play to the advantages of the psionic reactor. The Mad Ape was inclined to close combat, while the Mountain Ape used psionic energy to fight, suitable for both long and short range, and more versatile.

"Come on!"

Desolam's tone rose, and a gemstone embedded in his collar that had solidified instant magic burst into light. The next moment, a brilliant magic array extended from his feet, turning into a huge black galaxy vortex, as if connecting to another plane.

A huge twelve-fingered palm stretched out from the vortex, its texture like obsidian, covered with glowing golden cracks. The palm alone was hundreds of meters long, and it slammed heavily on the ground.

Bang!!

The ground cracked, and the earth shook!

"Summoning-type mage? Super-order Magic Colossus?!" Han Xiao raised his eyebrows, intrigued.

The summoning type was a rogue playstyle comparable to the army stream. Forbidden Witches were all masters of secret arts, understanding multiple schools of magic. It seemed that Desolam majored in summoning.

Using large-scale summoning magic in front of me? Am I air? I won't sit idly by while you summon a giant pig trotter!

Han Xiao curled his lips, clasped his palms together, forming an elliptical area, and aimed at Desolam not far away. A blue light particle was born in his palm, suddenly expanding, blooming with dazzling light, and a majestic psionic blue beam shot out!

Desolam maintained the summoning magic array. The patterns on his robe lit up, and a high-energy magic shield stood in front of him. The psionic blue beam crashed into it. At that moment, Desolam's heart alarm rang loudly, his eyes suddenly contracted, and he immediately removed the summoning array, teleporting hundreds of meters away.

Boom!!

The psionic blue beam instantly swallowed the magic shield and shot into the ground. The ground quickly cracked, the cracks glowing with a faint blue light, spewing out a soaring blue energy.

Rumble—

A psionic blue beam that had expanded dozens of times suddenly spewed out from the ground, soaring into the sky like a fountain, the momentum like an earth dragon turning over, the land completely swallowed by energy!

Psionic Impact·Whale Surge!

One of the Mountain Ape's attached skills!

The energy column disappeared into the sky, and the original spot had become a circular pit with a diameter of hundreds of meters. Because the summoning array ended prematurely, only one golem arm was summoned, and it was almost shattered by this attack.

"You can use psionic energy?!"

Desolam's tone became extremely solemn.

A mechanic who could use psionic energy, and a mechanic who had not mastered psionic energy, were completely two different concepts!

"Isn't this…"

Han Xiao had only said half a sentence when his figure suddenly blurred. The psionic-infused thruster turned him into a lightning bolt dragging a blue afterimage. With a speed like teleportation, Han Xiao instantly approached Desolam, and the fist wrapped in a psionic energy shield, along with the second half of the sentence, slammed into Desolam's personal protective aura!

"Sooner or later, it was going to happen?!"

Bang!!

The two figures collided fiercely!

The psionic energy shield released huge kinetic energy, and the protective aura shattered inch by inch!

Desolam was heavily struck, his chest suffocated, and he flew out like a meteor. Han Xiao dragged a blue afterimage and caught up with his upside-down figure halfway, grabbed Desolam's neck with both hands, and threw him into the sky.

Mountain Ape Throw!

Compared to the Mad Ape's [Berserk Throw], the Mountain Ape version of the throw had an additional fifty points of strength attribute, but reduced the number of damage judgments. However, it added 0.5 seconds of hard control stun time. Overall, it was more inclined to control.

Skree!

Han Xiao stopped abruptly, and the mecha on both arms transformed into linked energy cannons, dozens of barrels aiming at Desolam in the sky.

Tong tong tong—

In the blink of an eye, psionic energy cannons rushed out of the barrels one after another, arriving first, catching up with Desolam, the light illuminating his horrified eyes.

Rumble—

A continuous stream of blue light clusters exploded in mid-air!

The flickering explosion lights repeatedly illuminated the Mountain Ape's mecha helmet, and the scorching heat surged and echoed.

Under the mask, Han Xiao's lips curled slightly.

The weakness of mages is also close combat!

Swoosh!

A flash of light in the sky, and Desolam teleported again to escape the attack range, scarred and quite embarrassed. Without saying a word, he began to cast spells. He was, after all, an elite mage under Austin, and although he had fallen into a passive state, he would not be defeated so easily.

But Desolam had to admit that although he did not underestimate Black Star, Black Star's combat power still exceeded his expectations.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh…

Summoning light shone, and strange summons rapidly descended. Desolam also cast dozens of instant buffs on himself, guarding against Han Xiao's re-entry, but found that Han Xiao did not continue to stop his summoning intentions.

Han Xiao smiled grimly, clapped his palms, and the surrounding space suddenly rippled, with humming sounds echoing.

"Calling for reinforcements? I can too!"

Buzz—

A series of teleportation lights flashed around, and twenty-two barracks boxes appeared out of thin air.

In order to improve the Legion's projection efficiency, Han Xiao did not care about the cost and equipped the barracks boxes with energy furnaces and warp engines. In this way, the mechanical Legion's support range and speed were greatly increased, and they no longer needed the Black Light Stalker to airdrop them.

Most importantly… the presence instantly rose!

Finding these people for sparring was both for the advancement mission and to test the combat power of the new Legion. Naturally, he used all means and everything he had.

Han Xiao pulled his fist, and the mechanical force lightning chain grabbed each barracks box.

Bang bang bang…

The barracks boxes shook one after another, and the doors opened one after another, spewing out countless compression balls, turning into a dark mechanical Legion.

In front of the huge mechanical Legion, Desolam's summons were like lambs surrounded by wolves, weak and helpless.

"Get him!" Han Xiao pointed at the flustered Desolam.

Boom—

The mechanical Legion acted fiercely, like a flood that covered the sky and the earth, swallowing Desolam's summoning army.

The battle instantly turned into a gang fight!

The scene instantly became chaotic.

As soon as the two legions exchanged blows, the outcome was immediately clear. Desolam's summons only resisted for a few seconds, and the situation evolved into a one-sided crush!