Chapter 168 Black Star's Reputation

Goddora paid close attention to this news. Nagokin had already reported Han Xiao's personal abilities, so the higher-ups were mainly concerned about another issue—Han Xiao had used the reporter to release the news to the interstellar society that Planet Aquamarine was tied to Longtan.

Although Longtan was a neutral force without political factors, its influence was extraordinary.

With Longtan's name behind them, even if Planet Aquamarine was located in the Garton Star System controlled by Goddora, it would be difficult for them to manage Planet Aquamarine. This planet might become a special area within their jurisdiction.

However, the value of winning over Longtan far exceeded that of Planet Aquamarine. Planet Aquamarine was just a low-level planet. As long as there was no political conflict, Goddora decided to turn a blind eye.

Of course, compared to DarkStar, Planet Aquamarine was just a small problem. After the news came out, Goddora's official spokesman also came out to join in the fun, vigorously promoting it and further increasing the heat of the news. Whoever defeated DarkStar, as long as they could strike at DarkStar's arrogance, they were willing to promote it.

...

Longtan Floating Island.

Jenny finished reading the news, her face livid. She immediately contacted Ames.

Ames was currently traveling in the interstellar space, and her virtual projection appeared above the communicator.

"What's wrong?"

"Look at the news! Black Star is making trouble outside again!" Jenny pressed the communicator and sent the news link over.

Ames watched for a while and smiled faintly.

"As expected of the person I value. He's quite capable."

"That's not the point. He didn't even get my consent before announcing to the public that Planet Aquamarine is a branch base of Longtan!" Jenny looked frantic.

"But I agreed." Ames blinked.

Jenny immediately swallowed the swear words that were about to come out.

"I recently took in two disciples. They are also from Planet Aquamarine. In a while, Black Star will bring them to Longtan. You can settle them down."

After she finished speaking, Ames hung up directly.

"Ah—Black Star—"

The office staff outside suddenly heard Jenny's angry scream coming from the office and were all startled.

...

Somewhere in the Shattered Star Ring, in the territory of a Super-A Grade powerhouse.

"Hard-carrying the main cannon… has my flair. Ames also has a powerful subordinate."

In the shadows, a strong giant as tall as seven or eight meters sat on the throne, looking at the news on the virtual screen in front of him, looking thoughtful.

"Longtan is starting to expand. Ames is finally interested in power. Hmm… I'll propose to her again when I have time. Maybe I'll succeed this time."

...

The DarkStar mothership that attacked Planet Aquamarine was drifting in the universe. Ashes, Degulish, and Tarro also saw the news.

"Bullshit, when did he beat us up?!"

Degulish was furious and said, "It was clear that Black Star didn't have the slightest ability to fight back. These reporters are just making things up!"

Tarro said helplessly, "In any case, we did fail to kill him."

Ashes snorted and did not comment, secretly thinking about what methods he could use to kill Han Xiao.

"He must have a weakness. Infiltrating his mercenary group with spies needs to be put on the agenda. Only by getting close to him can we discover his weakness."

"Then what should we do next?" Tarro asked.

Degulish frowned and slowly said,

"Black Star's ability is beyond our expectations. We failed to kill him. This operation failed. The leader said it wasn't our fault. No one knows how much ability Black Star has hidden. He wants us to gather with the main force and prepare for the next plan."

"Next plan?"

"I don't know the specific details yet, but since we're gathering the motherships, it must be a large-scale operation," Degulish said.

DarkStar was still planning the next round of attacks.

However, DarkStar did not know that Han Xiao had planted an eye in their fountain.

All the cloaked motherships were exposed to Rheudar's surveillance. DarkStar's reliance had become useless, and they were still in the dark.

...

The news spread and fermented. Many places in the Shattered Star Ring were discussing the name of Black Star. His reputation spread far and wide, bringing Han Xiao a lot of extra fame and benefits.

DarkStar had been repelled twice, and it seemed like they had finally calmed down.

However, this was just the calm before the storm. A storm being driven by Han Xiao was brewing in secret.

Rheudar monitored the location of DarkStar's motherships. Every once in a while, Han Xiao would reveal the coordinates to the higher-ups of the War Affairs Bureau through Nagokin. Goddora, with the intention of wiping them out in one fell swoop, was secretly dispatching troops and had not taken any rash actions for the time being.

Goddora continued to hire large mercenary groups as a guarantee, but did not reveal any specific actions, only ordering large mercenary groups such as Heavenly Ring, Purple Gold, and Blade Edge to stand by temporarily.

Han Xiao still stayed on Planet Aquamarine, focusing on the plan to recruit players, and the plan had reached a critical stage.

Taking advantage of this attack, Han Xiao changed the name of the faction through the Faction Panel and Mercenary Alliance user interface.

[Black Star Mercenary Group] was renamed…

[Black Star Army]!

Those who dared to use "Army" as a suffix were basically large mercenary groups.

Due to the large number of players joining, Han Xiao's faction size had expanded to hundreds of thousands of people. In terms of numbers alone, it had already entered this rank. No one in the mercenary world would have any objection to changing to this suffix.

Regarding this decision, Han Xiao gave a speech to all the players, emphasizing that it was precisely because of the players' participation that the faction changed its name, making the players feel that their actions had helped the faction grow.

Replacing a name for this reason made it easier to cultivate the players' collective sense of honor and belonging, making the players feel that this was their faction and cultivating feelings.

At the same time, this was also giving a signal, implying that they were about to leave Planet Aquamarine and would soon be opening the next stage, first letting the players have a psychological expectation.

In the players' eyes, this faction name change was the transition event to enter the interstellar space!

This kind of behavior similar to cultivating corporate culture could only play a better role when combined with substantial benefits. Han Xiao launched new products at the right time.

He purchased two new Martial Arts and Esper Ability advancement knowledges through the interstellar online exchange, spending more than 100,000 Enas, and put them in the faction store. What shocked the players was that these two new knowledges did not cost money like other knowledges, only experience!

At the same time, there was no prerequisite for purchasing faction favorability.

Regarding this matter, Han Xiao explained through Phillip:

——The Black Star Army will provide two advancement knowledges "free of charge" to cultivate and train the new recruits under its command.

This move immediately ignited the players' excitement!

Han Xiao sold his own Mechanic knowledge through the [Teach Skill] method, while the knowledge of the other two systems was sold through the [Faction Store], which meant that as long as players joined the Black Star Army, they could immediately learn these two free advancement knowledges!

This immediately became an exclusive beginner benefit for the faction, just like joining Goddora and accumulating enough merits to exchange for class knowledge, except that Han Xiao directly removed those restrictions. You don't need to spend money to buy it, you can directly consume experience to "learn".

Countless players were overjoyed and felt that they had made a fortune!

The high-level player team that entered the interstellar space in Version 1.0 shared the price of class knowledge in the interstellar space. If you don't join a faction and simply buy it with money, advancement knowledge costs tens of thousands of Enas.

In contrast, the treatment of the Black Star Army was simply a model of conscience!

In the players' eyes, this was their credit. It was precisely because they expanded the faction's scale and changed its name to [Black Star Army] that the faction store updated this new benefit. As expected of a growing faction!

Not charging money but only experience was exactly what Han Xiao did on purpose. The target customers were the players of the other two systems, in order to quickly accumulate the experience to reach level 140.

Master Han's account now had more than 10 million Enas, so he didn't care about burning more than 100,000 for this. He didn't even bother to charge a symbolic fee. Even if he only charged 1 point of Ena, the effect would be far less than free.

Advancement knowledge was a necessity, and the number of buyers basically covered all Planet Aquamarine players outside the Mechanic class!

After paying the cost of more than 100,000 Enas, if he didn't reap a wave of massive experience, he would be letting down his conscience!

Such cheap and affordable advancement knowledge was only available here. The players did not hesitate and actively purchased it. This move had a significant effect, and the experience on Han Xiao's panel soared at a frantic speed.

Three hundred million… six hundred million… one billion…

The influence of "free" was terrifying!

Looking at the speed at which experience was increasing, Han Xiao felt happy.

"The experience earned in this wave may not only be enough to reach level 140, but also last for a while."

...

In just one day, the panel had accumulated a massive amount of experience, enough to reach level 140.

In order to advance to Grade A first, Han Xiao didn't even have time to repair the mechanical army. This attack made him understand that when leeks matured, they should be harvested as soon as possible. If he was already at the Calamity Grade when facing the siege of Ashes and the other two, he would never have been so thrilling.

Han Xiao came to the training room of the Second Base, sealed the door, and opened the attribute interface.

He took a deep breath and invested experience in leveling up.

"I can finally advance to the Calamity Grade and officially enter the level of high-end combat power!"

Han Xiao was secretly excited.

————

(I wrote a little less today and need to sort out the follow-up plot)