Chapter 1

Starlight sparkled, a river of light encircling and embellishing the pitch-black universe. The shining stars were infinitely distant, each one a race, a civilization, a thought, like looking down upon millions of lights from an airplane sailing in the night sky, vast and boundless, yet full of vitality.

Through the porthole, the outline of Golden Gate Star gradually became detailed. Ships of various shapes rose and fell on this Gedora colony planet, a prosperous aura seemingly capable of spreading through the vacuum, allowing those observing from afar to feel this prosperity.

This was a medium-sized long-distance travel ship, a common model, with a gray steel alloy shell, a conventional warp engine, and a secondary shipborne electromagnetic shield. The official price ranged from 750,000 to 900,000 Enas, with used models being about 30% cheaper. If one had connections at the shipyard, they could even buy it for a cost price of around 170,000. The ship had a bright yellow crown painted on its side, indicating that it belonged to the "Crown Interstellar Travel Group," a rental spaceship company.

This travel group had reached a long-term rental agreement with the Black Star Mercenary Group a month prior for thirteen spaceships, with rental fees far lower than the selling price, but still not cheap.

At this moment, this spaceship, temporarily belonging to the Black Star Mercenary Group, was carrying dozens of mercenaries towards Golden Gate Star—these mercenaries were new members recruited into the Black Star Mercenary Group in the past few months.

In the year of preparation, after completing the production line project, Han Xiao used the mercenary group's reputation to recruit hundreds of free mercenaries to expand his armed forces, thereby increasing the mercenary group's NPC resources. These new mercenaries were organized into different squads to facilitate command.

Dealing with the Mutant Disaster was clearly not enough with just Melos and the others. Now there was no need to control the scale anymore; the more manpower, the better. The Great Technician Han had never been stingy with early-stage investments. With a wad of cash in his pocket, he felt uncomfortable not spending it.

"Black Star suddenly summoned everyone; I wonder if there's some big operation."

"We are nominally Longtan's forces; could it be that Dragon Emperor has some instructions?"

"I asked, and no one knows what Black Star is going to do, not even the cadres."

"Everyone else has arrived; we're the last ones. Hopefully, we haven't delayed anything."

While these mercenaries were chatting, the spaceship landed at the airport closest to the base on Golden Gate Star. Stepping onto the surface, dozens of mercenaries of various appearances hurried along. Before long, the group stopped in front of a massive base. The base occupied an octagonal plane, surrounded by alloy walls filled with automated turrets, heavily guarded.

The architectural style was that of a huge metal castle, the shiny black shell reflecting the sunlight. The shape resembled countless steel towers pieced together, with a dozen towering metal obelisks pointing to the sky, like a dozen tall and short French fries. The architectural structure was angular and precise, with a sense of mechanical rigor. In addition to the large areas of iron gray, white and red paint extended along the edges, adding a bit of beauty to this heavy base. The blue indicator light points distributed on various facilities were full of technological气息.

This was Han Xiao's achievement over the past year—Black Star Base One!

The mercenaries arrived at the gate, and a complex verification interface popped up on the screen. After this group of people successively proved their identities as Black Star members, the door slowly opened, and the screen emitted a synthesized voice.

"Verification passed... Welcome back... Buzzz..."

"Phillip, how's it going today?" One mercenary joked at the screen.

"Working... Buzzz... No idle chatter... Buzzz..."

The group walked into the base. The internal terrain was not complex. In the middle was a huge hollow space, with crisscrossing, high and low metal bridges leading to different areas, clearly visible, like a honeycomb. This central area was called the "Throat" by the mercenaries.

The base was too large; even a million people couldn't fill it, and the mercenary group only had a few hundred people, so the interior of the base seemed very empty.

This group of mercenaries chatted as they walked towards the hall, their voices echoing in the large space, the echo ethereal.

Arriving at the base hall, they saw hundreds of people already waiting here, silent and solemn, creating a dignified atmosphere. The group's laughter came to an abrupt stop, and they hurriedly joined the rear of the crowd.

The hundreds of people present were all the current members of the mercenary group, wearing various styles of armor, carrying swords, axes, hammers, or long and short guns. Tall, short, fat, thin, human or beast, but the same thing was that each mercenary exuded an elite and powerful aura, making it clear at a glance that they were seasoned veterans, not to be trifled with.

At the very front of the crowd, the cadres under Black Star stood in a row, only leaving their backs to the hundreds of people behind them. Melos in blue and white battle armor, Aroshia shining with faint light, the Volga three brothers who looked like they were carved from the same mold, and the three new cadres who joined a few months ago, while Fording and Sylvia stood a little further away.

At this moment, the metal floor directly in front of everyone spiraled open, and a figure appeared in front of everyone on an elevator, a black cloak fluttering, wearing a compression orb necklace, bracelet, earrings, and a pure black mask covering his face.

It was Han Xiao.

After a year, Han Xiao changed into a more imposing outfit and learned to wear a mask like the Germinal Organization leader—he thought it looked cooler.

After all, he was someone with fixed assets. He had to be more impressive, and this pure black mask was itself a mechanical device.

As soon as he appeared, everyone's eyes focused on him, waiting for his instructions.

"Is everyone here?"

Han Xiao swept his gaze over everyone, his eyes glancing over each face. These mercenaries were recruited by him personally. Longtan's reputation and the mercenary group's reputation were indeed useful. Most of them were independent wolves with considerable strength, seasoned veterans, and very reliable. They could be divided into three factions: one faction was the former free mercenaries who hadn't grouped together, one faction was the Sunil squad, and the other faction was the "War Alliance" brought by one of the new cadres.

After the base was completed, he didn't stay in the base all the time. He took the time to go to different planets, following his memories and information, and recruited three new cadres, all of whom were famous figures in his previous life.

Shelind, a Sunil, a Grade B Martial Artist, wore a white armed hooded robe. The texture looked soft, but it was actually engraved with defensive enchantments. His face was hidden in the shadows of the hood, and two sword hilts hung on his waist, ready to pop out the blades at any time. When they first met, this outfit almost made Han Xiao think he had run out of "xx Creed."

This person was another Grade B Super from the Sunil Civilization who was still serving the race's Guardian faction. When Fagonah took people to leave the race, Shelind was not included. He was taciturn, just like his swift and strange martial arts style, like an assassin lurking in the shadows, the opposite of Melos' wide-open and wide-ranging martial arts style.

Melos acted as a go-between, and Han Xiao found the lone Shelind and extended an invitation to him. As the reputation of the Black Star Mercenary Group improved, more and more Sunil Supers joined Black Star in groups. It was both safe and lucrative, and it could also be said that Han Xiao gave them shelter. Under Melos' persuasion, Shelind accepted Han Xiao's invitation and acted together.

The Sunil squad was now headed by Melos and Shelind.

The second new cadre, Jin Dai Kanglin, a female Cosmopolitan Human, a Grade B Gunner, carried various heavy firearms all over her body. The heavy machinery covered her tall and hot figure, and she respected the creed of firepower above all else.

Jin Dai was a well-known lone wolf mercenary. In her previous life, she joined the Heavenly Ring Alliance Army and became one of the famous representative figures. Han Xiao saw her when he was collecting information on free mercenaries, so he became interested and quietly dug a corner of the Heavenly Ring Legion, bringing Jin Dai, who was still a free agent, into his mercenary group.

Of course, the process was not smooth sailing. Jin Dai had a fiery temper and criticized everything, not even taking Longtan seriously. Han Xiao formulated a small plan, deliberately intervening in one of Jin Dai's missions, creating a situation where the two clashed, and they naturally fought. Han Xiao beat her several times before Jin Dai softened and was recruited into the Black Star Mercenary Group.

Han Xiao promised to provide her with heavy weapons at a low price, and Jin Dai, who was enthusiastic about collecting various types of guns, immediately had no objections.

The third cadre was even more prominent, a protagonist-type figure, and Han Xiao spent a lot of effort to coax him into joining—just like he coaxed Melos back then.

Hamon Bengyan Sonodin, this was a Luhan Orc, more than three meters tall, covered in fur, looking a bit like a bear person, and quite cute in appearance, but it was a fierce combat race. The Luhan Orcs had their own civilization, located in other star clusters. The ruling method was a tribal alliance system, and Hamon was a candidate for chief of the Bengyan tribe.

Although the Luhan Orcs were an interstellar civilization, they retained the tradition of being warlike, barbaric, and martial. When a tribe needed to compete for the next chief, it was not a peaceful vote, but a decision made by combat. All candidates would be expelled from the mother planet and randomly placed on different planets, requiring them to hone themselves in the interstellar space and form their own "War Alliance." After the prescribed period, everyone would return to the mother planet with their teams to participate in the chief's battle, facing the War Alliances of other candidates. In other words, the princes were tearing each other apart to compete for inheritance rights.

Hamon was a protagonist-type character, and the plot on him was to help him win the position of chief of the Bengyan tribe. When Han Xiao coaxed Hamon, he triggered this mission. This mission was simple and crude, fighting from beginning to end. In the previous life, players who completed this side mission turned the process into a copy. They could get copy crystals by doing daily tasks in the Bengyan tribe, so Han Xiao remembered it very clearly.

The method of recruiting Hamon was naturally to agree to hold an ancient ritual to become his War Alliance, and to help him in the chief's battle in the future. Hamon was not alone; he also brought his War Alliance into the mercenary group, dozens of strong Luhan Orc warriors.

Hamon had a Grade B strength. His ability was just a simple body strengthening ability, which greatly expanded his muscles. Not that Han Xiao wanted to complain, but it really had a sense of the whole person's cockiness.

The ability effect was simple, but Hamon himself was proficient in various weapons and was a warrior with exquisite combat skills. Han Xiao had seen his attributes, with as many as six rare secondary jobs in the [Warrior] system. His brain was full of muscles, which was very猛. It was said that heaven was to the left and the warrior to the right. Hamon was afraid that he could smash the right side of the frame with one head.

The three new cadres supplemented fresh blood, and there were more capable helpers under him, which also greatly increased the amount of camp rewards.

Now, the maximum single amount has reached more than 1 million experience, and the daily total amount is more than twenty times, which means that he can give more than 20 million experience rewards to players through camp missions in one day. Recruiting NPC members is to better attract players.

Opening the communication terminal, Han Xiao glanced at the mercenary group interface.

——

Black Star Mercenary Group

Credit Points: 1018 (Credit Level-High)

Total Size: 417 people

D-Level: 47 people

C-Level: 359 people

B-Level: 11 people

Number of Completed Hires: 82

Main Activity Area: Colton Star Cluster

Resume: [Sunil Defense War]

[Silver Spirit Rescue Operation]

[Chasing and Arresting Purple Fungus Civilization Rebel Leader "Pili Pora Pata Vasasa"]

[Noriös Campaign]

[Remaining 78 Employment Missions...[Fold/Expand]]

Founder: Black Star-Han Xiao

Creation Time: October 2, 688

Evaluation: Medium-sized mercenary group, high credit, good reputation, completed many employments with high ratings, has cooperative relationships with many large mercenary groups, is an external armed force under the Dragon Emperor, the base is located on Golden Gate Star in the Gadon Galaxy, the leader Black Star assisted in killing a Calamity Grade Super in Noriös, has unfathomable strength, and is trustworthy.

——

'It's a bit of a scale. Today is the big day for the opening of version 2.0. After waiting for almost a year, I have finally reached this step. This manpower should be enough.'

Han Xiao nodded secretly.

In this year, he has done a lot of things and prepared sufficiently. There are as many as twenty-three production lines in the base. The 4.5 million funds now have about 1.1 million left, most of which are spent on materials, allowing the production line to manufacture machines day and night. The inventory in the warehouse is piled up like a mountain.

The loan is about to exceed the one-year interest-free period. According to Locke Fes's request, interest must be paid after one year. Han Xiao is waiting to earn it back from the players.

The panel experience has already fallen below the 100 million mark, and Han Xiao is still level 116. He spent the experience on gambling on blueprints and upgrading skills, and urgently needs to replenish a wave. He still has a task settlement card in his hand. If there is enough experience, he can even directly advance and rush to level 140. It is impossible not to look forward to it.

Putting away his thoughts, Han Xiao looked at everyone and said in a deep voice: "Today, I have gathered everyone here to carry out a large-scale operation. My hometown is suffering from a catastrophe. Their eyes are limited to the planet and cannot see the scenes I have seen. I am their only savior."

The mercenaries below looked at each other.

Black Star's hometown?

Is it that indigenous planet called Aquamarine Star?

"I will fight for you, just as you would fight for me."

Hamon raised his fist and hammered his chest, banging loudly.

"I am by your side, as always."

Melos nodded.

All the mercenaries in the hall responded.

Looking at the time, it was almost time.

Han Xiao opened the panel and waited silently.

Not long after, a new prompt appeared:

[Version 2.0 is open]

[Getting data... data acquisition completed!]

[Player forum is open]

[Welcome to Galaxy 2.0!]

After preparing for so long, 2.0 is finally here!

Han Xiao's eyes flashed, and he strode towards the door, the crowd automatically making way.

Hundreds of elite mercenaries followed behind him, step by step, mighty and vast.

"Set off!"