Chapter 1 Black Star

Golden Gate Star, Black Star Army headquarters, combat training room. A battle was in progress.

Bang!

The streamlined, pitch-black mechanical soldier slammed into five blue-purple machine warriors. Enduring the lasers spewing from ten foundation turrets, it charged toward Reynold. The armor plating on its arm nano-shifted, transforming into eight high-speed rotating spiral spikes that impacted Reynold's shield, creating intense sparks.

Reynold, with a serious expression, retreated, leaving behind an electromagnetic trap that restrained the pitch-black mechanical soldier. At the same time, he unleashed blinding mechanical force lightning, using some kind of skill to amplify the turret's power, unleashing a continuous barrage.

Kacha, kacha, kacha…

In an instant, the pitch-black mechanical soldier suddenly disassembled, turning into several streams of pitch-black nano-particles that rapidly returned to a figure not far away. The nano-particles reassembled, transforming back into the humanoid mechanical soldier, silently guarding the person.

"Your abilities are getting stronger and stronger, breaking through to the Heavenly Disaster grade is just around the corner." The figure clapped, his tone full of praise. It was Han Xiao.

Compared to two years ago, Han Xiao was still young and handsome, a little taller, with an even more unfathomable aura. He was still wearing a low-key, luxurious, and understated black trench coat, without any mecha.

"This is all thanks to your guidance," Reynold said earnestly.

"It's your outstanding talent."

Han Xiao waved his hand, engaging in some polite, mutual flattery.

After two years of study, Reynold was gradually approaching A-grade energy levels. He often requested sparring sessions with Han Xiao. Both of them were mechanics, so there was no need for internal friction. Therefore, each sparring session was a small-scale attack and defense, testing the strength and precision control of individual mechs.

The pitch-black mechanical soldier beside Han Xiao was one of the new models of mechanical warriors he had researched in the past two years, enhancing the ability of nano-transformation. Its individual attributes were extremely outstanding, its performance surpassing that of the Oathkeeper. It was an elite mech, belonging to the Heavenly Disaster-grade arsenal in Han Xiao's equipment, with the model name [Shapeshifter].

Every time he fought Black Star, Reynold was astonished, because Black Star could always produce different powerful mechs. Each sparring session was a test of his weapons. Reynold could not imagine how many mech blueprints Black Star knew.

Even at Reynold's level, learning a blueprint was not easy, and researching a new mech was even more energy-consuming. But Reynold couldn't fathom Black Star's realm at all, and couldn't understand why Black Star's research efficiency was so terrifying, able to produce new blueprints every so often.

Moreover, Reynold could feel that Han Xiao was dealing with him more and more easily in each sparring session. Black Star was already among the Heavenly Disaster-grade powerhouses, but it seemed like he had no bottleneck, and was constantly getting stronger. This made Reynold extremely shocked, and he felt that Han Xiao was even more unfathomable.

Reynold had always prided himself on his talent and was full of confidence in himself. However, he was struck by Han Xiao, felt inferior, and became even more humble.

There were too many things he could learn from Black Star. Reynold became more and more fanatical, wishing he could spend every minute tracking Han Xiao and recording his every action.

After putting away the mechs, Han Xiao suddenly remembered something and casually asked, "How are the army's logistics reserves?"

At the mention of work, Reynold's expression became even more serious, and he said in an orderly manner, "All kinds of resources are sufficient in storage, and the overall situation is good. Only the material reserves in bases seventeen, twenty-one, and twenty-four are running low. The resources in short supply are mainly ammunition, fuel, and conventional mechanical materials. Four days ago, I have already transferred resources from the nearest five bases. According to the schedule, the first batch of material support is expected to arrive at the destination in two days…"

Hearing this, Han Xiao nodded, let Reynold leave, and stayed in the room to think.

In the past two years, the Black Star Army had developed vigorously. As predicted by people in the industry, it had gradually monopolized the business of the Garton Star System. It had established branch bases in dozens of civilized planets in the Garton Star System, and also built an office on Godora's mother planet.

Millions of players had brought huge profits to the Black Star Army. Han Xiao borrowed chickens to lay eggs, and constantly improved the reputation and prestige of the Black Star Army. With the expansion of business, more free mercenaries were attracted to join the Black Star Army.

Now, in addition to millions of cannon fodder… ahem, players, the army also had 100,000 official mercenaries, and the trainees in the training camp were three or four times that number. Based on the NPC mercenaries alone, the Black Star Army was a well-deserved large mercenary group.

The trainees in the training camp were no longer unqualified free mercenaries, but also many ordinary people without any foundation. On each planet where the branch bases were located, there were young people who yearned for a career in the starry sky or wanted to become superhumans, and signed contracts to become mercenaries.

The various positions in the army were also systematized and regularized, with a clear structure and more efficient management. The cadres had their respective responsibilities. Some became regional supervisors, coordinating hundreds of mercenary teams. Some became ace mercenaries, specializing in high-difficulty contracts. Some became fleet commanders, some were the chief instructors of the training camp, some continued to act as mascots, and some became the female secretary of the army commander.

The position of vice-commander was still vacant. This position required strong strength to convince the public. Han Xiao was the only Heavenly Disaster grade in the army. The vice-commander had to be at this level so as not to be devalued. Among all the cadres, only Reynold was closest to the Heavenly Disaster grade.

In the past two years, Han Xiao had recruited hundreds of B-grade superhumans. Some were normal mercenaries who took the initiative to join, and some were elites he found based on his memory, including a protagonist-type figure with a low-level halo, replenishing a wave of mid-level combat power.

After monopolizing the Garton Star System, Han Xiao expanded, and the scope of business radiated to several surrounding star systems with the Garton Star System as the core, each seizing a part of the market.

To forge iron, one must be strong. The larger the market occupied, the greater the demand for the ability of one's own camp.

As a socialist youth deeply influenced by the values of infrastructure maniacs, Han Xiao continuously invested the money he earned into base construction and fleet expansion, and strived to build a virtuous circle of interests.

Now, the Black Star Army had twenty-six organized fleets, responsible for different duties such as combat, logistics transportation, and rapid support. The total number of warships reached 1,600. Facts had proved that robbing space pirates… cough, eliminating violence and doing good deeds produced considerable income.

The number of bases had also reached thirty-four. In addition to Norios and Rossos, three new sponsors had been added. Two of them were serious commercial consortia, and one was actually the Godora government. They not only relaxed the strategic resources for Han Xiao, but also took out hot money to invest, and the py relationship between the two parties was even closer.

The influence of the camp radiated even further than the scope of the sphere of influence. The Black Star Army had become one of the iconic private forces in the Colton Star Cluster. This time, Longtan's status had risen with it. The strength of the foreign armed forces made Longtan's own deterrence no longer come from Ames alone.

But Han Xiao had already noticed the bottleneck in the development of the camp.

As a mercenary group, the Black Star Army had reached the top ranks. The efficiency of expanding business further would become slower and slower. Distance was an obvious limitation. The larger the scope of business, the exponential increase in the demand for the ability of the camp. Monopolizing the Garton Star System was already the current limit, and he did not have the ability to monopolize a second star system for the time being.

Another factor in the camp bottleneck was the nature of the camp. The mercenary group was a relatively loose type of organization. To enter a higher level, it was necessary to carry out industrial transformation. The mercenary business must be relegated to the second line, and the camp must be turned into a semi-private armed force, like the nature of the War Realm.

The difficulty was great, and the time was not ripe yet. The transformation was still too early, but Han Xiao had a long-term vision and knew that this was an inevitable path for camp upgrades, and it was something that would have to be done sooner or later.

"The only thing I don't need to worry about is my strength…"

Han Xiao's eyes flashed. He was currently level 170, only twenty levels higher than two years ago, and was stuck in the class advancement mission after the [Star Sea Mechanic] reached max level.

But this was because Han Xiao did not focus on leveling up. Most of the experience was stored up by him. The experience reserve reached a terrifying astronomical figure. Even if the experience cost of leveling up at this stage was extremely high, his experience reserve was enough to support him to level up dozens of levels.

However, Han Xiao did not do so. He had not encountered many strong enemies in the past two years, so there was no hurry to level up. Therefore, he invested a lot of experience in upgrading skills, used them to exchange for potential points, and gambled out a lot of blueprints.

More importantly, Han Xiao considered the version update issue.

The interval between this update was a full ten years in the game. For nearly ten years, he would not be able to harvest leeks. The experience reserve was like food for the winter. The more, the better.

"It's already late in version 2.0. After the professional league is over, the version update will be soon. Alas, ten years…"

Han Xiao imagined it for a while, and couldn't help but feel a little worried. He let out a breath, scratched his hair, opened the personal attribute panel, and browsed through it:

[Total Level: 170]

[Main Class: Mechanic]

[Race: Chaos Observer (Human Form)]

[Strength 254, Agility 634, Stamina 608, Intelligence 1956, Mystery 263, Charm 105, Luck 1]

[Free Attribute Points: 0]

[Potential Points: 31]

[Health Points: 93732]

[Stamina Points: 94180]

[Energy: 17580 (Lv11)]

[Lv11 Energy Total Bonus: Strength +111, Agility +158, Stamina +174, Intelligence +204, Mystery +129, Stamina Limit +21220, Mechanical Affinity +142%]

[Energy Level: 14780]

[Grade: A]

[A-grade Grade Bonus: Stamina Bonus Extra +10, All Resistances +8%, Highest Attribute +10%, Other Attributes +5%, Extra 30 Free Attribute Points, Extra 5 Potential Points]

[You are an experienced A-grade superhuman. Those who are your enemy will experience the taste of nightmares]

Compared with the development of the camp, his own strength had no bottlenecks. If he encountered a perverted class advancement mission, there was at least the mission settlement card as a way out—but there was no stock currently.

As long as the experience reserve could keep up, he could quickly become stronger. Han Xiao was not too worried about this.

Level was not the only combat power. In the past two years, he had also been collecting Specialties everywhere.

Although Reynold's Specialty had no clue yet, Han Xiao had traveled far and wide and brought back an ordinary Specialty of the same type, [Elementary Mech Sense], finally having a mech-related Specialty.

[Intermediate Tenacious Life] had also triggered several times of enhancement prompts. Han Xiao estimated that by taking some rare biological gene potions, he would be able to upgrade this Specialty.

Unfortunately, Template Specialties were very rare, and he had obtained ordinary Specialties in the past two years.

In addition to the changes in panel attributes, the changes in actual combat were even more obvious!

Han Xiao had expanded the mech legion many times, improved and strengthened various genre tactics, and added a variety of Heavenly Disaster-grade mech equipment. He had a wealth of wealth, and the combat mode was more comprehensive. It was completely different from two years ago. Han Xiao felt that he could simultaneously beat up five or six of himself from two years ago.

Chi—

At this moment, the door suddenly opened, and Sylvia stood outside.

"Teacher, I found you. There are a few mercenaries who want to see you, saying they have important information."

Two years ago, Sylvia was still a budding young girl, but now she had developed even better. She was tall, with a curvy figure. She was already a young and beautiful woman, radiant and charming, her eyes like bright stars, with a clear light flowing, lively and agile without losing her heroism.

Her position was Han Xiao's secretary, and her personal potential had finally been revealed after Han Xiao's continuous development.

The homework assigned by Han Xiao could make Sylvia two years ago overwhelmed, but it was easy for her now. The speed of growth was getting faster day by day. Although due to the short training time, the potential had not been transformed into strength, she could use the special mech battle suit created by Han Xiao to exert C+ combat power. She could also spar a few rounds against ordinary B-grade superhumans, and slowly had the style of the "Mechanical Knight" in his previous life.

Han Xiao looked Sylvia up and down, pleasing his eyes, and then spoke.

"Who wants to see me?"

"These few people."

Sylvia took out the information. Han Xiao took a look and was slightly stunned. It was Crazy Blade, Hao Tian and the others.