Chapter 107 From the Stars

It took two days to travel from Golden Gate Star to Hailan Star. Even when passing through the Jubely Hub, Han Xiao did not personally pick up Mad Knife and the others. Instead, he sent a ship under his command to pick them up, rushing back to Hailan Star in the shortest possible time.

The long-awaited forum reopened, and he was well aware of the players' movements. When the spaceship arrived in the outer space of Hailan Star, the players had just uploaded a video of a large-scale riot in the Third Shelter to the forum. While the players faced an unexpected predicament, it was good news for him. Grand Technician Han realized this was an opportunity. After being away from Hailan Star for several years, it was best to make a memorable entrance upon his return. So, he decisively led all the mercenaries to drop in...a standard mercenary landing.

During Version 1.0, he left the prestigious name of "Black Phantom" on Hailan Star, becoming globally renowned. Naturally, he couldn't return in plain clothes. It wasn't that he wanted to be high-profile, but doing so would greatly benefit his subsequent plans.

A stunning return not only fulfilled the "promise" he made when he left the planet but also demonstrated his close relationship with the 2.0 storyline, exciting the players. This was a way to shape his own image. To attract players to join his camp, besides being strong and providing benefits, image was also important, just like a corporate brand. After the accumulation of Version 1.0, he was clear about his inherent advantage of being familiar with the player base.

The most important point was...

—Anyway, showing off doesn't cost money!

Looking at Bennett and the surrounding players' shocked and ecstatic expressions, it was clear that his plan had succeeded. Han Xiao was very satisfied.

"You…" Bennett opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say for a moment.

"We'll talk later. Let's deal with the situation here first."

"Okay." Bennett could only temporarily hold back his full stomach of questions. He was very curious about what kind of encounters Han Xiao had in space—he couldn't see Meatbun's video.

"Don't worry, I've dealt with this kind of situation too many times. Just leave it to me." Han Xiao patted Bennett's shoulder and smiled, "I'm a professional now."

Beast swarms? He had handled similar incidents at least six or seven times. The one in Sunil was the most memorable, and he was very experienced.

Han Xiao had a clear understanding of the situation. As long as the beast swarm was resolved, there would be plenty of time to knock out these refugees. The problem was that the players couldn't stop the beast swarm, but for his mercenaries, it was just a piece of cake.

When he wasn't strong enough, he felt that the wilderness of Hailan Star was very dangerous. But after wandering the galaxy for so long, his vision had broadened. From his current perspective, the beasts of Hailan Star were nothing. His strength was enough to sweep the globe, ruthlessly refreshing the newbie village.

The Black Star mercenaries used all their skills. Hundreds of beams of light pierced through the beast swarm, and condensed fireballs bombarded the ground like missiles. Powerful slashes cut open one beast after another. The booming sound shook the earth, even suppressing the screams of the beast swarm.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

Melos wielded the ten-meter-long Ship-Slaying Blade, rotating it like the wind, entering a no-man's-land. Any beast that approached within dozens of meters was instantly cut in half without any hindrance, like a meat grinder.

Swish!

Sherlinder's legs moved at a frequency that created more than a dozen afterimages. His daggers were coated with a dim black, and he quickly swept past the beasts like a snake, leaving shallow wounds on their skin. However, his martial arts skills had long penetrated the cutting force into the beasts' hearts. Although it was just a shallow cut, the piercing blade wave had penetrated the flesh, leaving a transverse cut inside the beasts, causing internal bleeding that was not visible from the outside.

Any beast that he cut would fall to the ground in the next moment. His attacks were gentle without a trace of killing intent, yet extremely cruel.

Bang bang bang—

The cannons hummed. Jin Dai was like an unfolded fortress, with guns all over her body. Twenty or thirty gun barrels spat out dense cannon fire, smashing everything in front of her. She was excited, her face flushed.

Every time she fired a cannon, the pleasure for her was no less than mating.

"Roar!"

On the other side, Haimo roared, his body suddenly swelled up, and his muscles grew like blood-filled sponges. The originally dense hair was squeezed open by the muscles, and his whole body was covered with blue veins. Like a small giant wearing a beast fur battle robe, his size was even several times larger than these beasts. These elephant-like ferocious beasts were like large dogs in front of him.

He wielded a black horn stone battle ax the size of a door panel, using violent attacks in turn, chopping, ramming, hitting with the handle, and slapping repeatedly, fighting like a warrior, and was soon covered in blood.

Bang bang bang!

One beast after another was sent flying by him, landing heavily, like a truck running rampant in a crowd.

Haimo's combat skills were very skillful. His movements were both violent and barbaric, yet had a strange sense of beauty, a combination of strength and beauty. With a body enhancement ability and a warrior system sub-class, he could be considered an alternative martial artist, even more barbaric and cruel.

Many players had no room to intervene and hurriedly recorded the scene, watching with excitement. The combat power of these Grade B executives far exceeded the level of Hailan Star. It was like watching a blockbuster. Black Star's sudden arrival was a great surprise to them. The appearance of the orbital drop pod was too cool, like a sudden emergence, a justice delivered from the heavens!

Han Xiao took a closer look and confirmed that he didn't need to take action himself. With his current combat power, he could cause a stronger impact on the players' hearts, but after thinking about it, he finally gave up the idea. It was better to leave the players with room for imagination and maintain a sense of mystery, so that his *bige* (high-level aura) could break through the sky.

The originally tricky sudden incident was quickly resolved by the Black Star mercenaries. The beasts were killed completely and could be made into jerky to hoard, which alleviated the food problem. Without the frenzied beast swarm, hundreds of thousands of players quickly subdued all the sick refugees. After statistics, less than 100,000 people died, which was much better than the worst result...at least in terms of numbers.

But looking at the refugee corpses piled up like hills, Bennett couldn't feel good.

…

Outside the shelter, the ground was in a mess. Bennett temporarily left Han Xiao and directed the shelter soldiers to clean up the battlefield. Han Xiao quite appreciated this character of putting serious matters first.

The sudden mission was settled, and the rewarded progress exceeded 100,000, making up for the lost progress. Thousands of players swarmed up and surrounded Han Xiao and his party, full of interest. Since Han Xiao left, only those high-level players could enjoy his interaction, which was extremely enviable. Now, Black Star had finally returned to the embrace of their vast player base, and they couldn't wait to touch him.

The players were no strangers to the Black Star Mercenary Group. After all, Meatbun's series of videos had many viewers. But the mercenary group at this time was obviously different from Meatbun's last video before the update. No one knew what happened during the update, but the Black Star Mercenary Group had many unfamiliar new executives. Players only recognized a few people, such as Melos and Aroshia, and couldn't help but curiously sized up the other mercenaries.

"These people's armor is so handsome."

"There are so many Sunil people. Are they all working for Black Star now?"

"Wow, that girl is so young and beautiful. I give her a 9.5." Some players had discerning eyes and noticed Sylviea.

"There are so many furry monsters..." Some players wanted to complain about the Luhann beasts who were obviously much taller than the others, but Haimo looked over immediately, his eyes were very strange, as if there was a kind of desire and eagerness. The player immediately felt his chrysanthemum tighten and his scalp tingle, and hurriedly hid in the crowd.

In fact, the first thing Haimo thought of when he saw anyone was to pull them into his battle alliance, so it was normal to be thirsty when he saw people...well, no problem.

Many mercenaries were ugly and grotesque, so in contrast, handsome men and beautiful women had a very strong presence, such as Fording, who almost attracted the attention of most of the female players.

"That man is so handsome..."

Fording noticed the gazes of the female players, looked back, and politely gave them a sunny and warm smile. In the eyes of these female players, the world seemed to suddenly brighten up, and their hearts were instantly drunk.

"Oh my god, he's so handsome, it's inhumane!"

"I, I might be in love."

"This old lady's maiden heart is about to explode!"

Han Xiao glanced sideways. He always felt that these female players were bubbling with hearts above their heads. He didn't expect Fording to have this effect.

Most female players were more emotional and had different values than male players. Between practicality and appearance, they preferred the latter. The effeminate Fording was simply a female player harvester.

'Letting Fording attract female players is conducive to the attractiveness of the camp. Bringing him was indeed the right choice...' Han Xiao nodded, suddenly feeling like he had the sense of being a madam. Fording was the top stud under his command.

He didn't usually overthink things, but when he saw the players, he was also happy in his heart. These were all walking wallets!

Although the female players were all looking at Fording, Han Xiao had no opinion at all. As long as it was beneficial to the plan, it wouldn't cause any wavering in his own charm.

Because Meatbun's "Black Star" series of videos was made like a TV series, the Hailan Star players were very concerned about the development of the Black Star Mercenary Group and couldn't wait to know the stories of these new executives, their curiosity itching.

At the same time, the mercenaries were also observing the players.

Sylviea whispered, "Why do the people in Teacher's hometown look at us so strangely? Do you guys feel the same way?"

"No, isn't it normal?" Fording said.

The players who were surrounded water-tightly opened a path, and the group walked past hundreds of drop pods embedded in the ground and walked into the gate.

Entering the shelter, Han Xiao looked around and sighed, "Everything here is the same as before I left. It's really a bit nostalgic... Wait, why is there such an ugly statue here? Who is this statue of? Why is it placed in my shelter?! Huang Yu, Huang Yu! Come out and explain it to me!"

Not far from the shelter gate was a towering statue, which everyone who came in could see. Han Xiao noticed it at a glance and suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. This was his shelter. What did it mean to put someone else's statue here, and it was so ugly?

Huang Yu followed with sweat on his forehead. Although he was now the actual manager of the shelter, in front of Han Xiao, he subconsciously reverted to his attitude as an assistant, speaking cautiously.

"Your Excellency Black Phantom... that's your statue. You haven't been back for too long, so I had someone commemorate you."

"...Actually, it's quite beautiful." Han Xiao changed his words as fast as a Category 12 typhoon.

A group of mercenaries looked at the statue, then looked at Han Xiao, and shook their heads. What, it doesn't look like Black Star at all. This statue is clearly an ordinary human. Our leader doesn't even know what kind of species he is.

"Teacher, are you very famous in your hometown?" Sylviea asked curiously.

At this time, Bennett finally freed up time to walk over. Hearing this, he couldn't help shaking his head and said, "Black Phantom is not just famous, he is a legend of this planet."

The mercenaries looked at each other. A legend? They were a little curious about their leader's past deeds.

"Black Phantom?" Sylviea's eyes widened and she turned to look at Han Xiao. "So your nickname has always been so unpleasant. I thought it was an exception."

"...Do you think I've been too lenient with you recently? Just say if you want to copy the theoretical books. I can make you have a very fulfilling year."

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and pinched Sylviea's smooth face with one hand and pulled it hard, causing her to hiss and suck in cool air.

After chatting casually, he hadn't forgotten the serious matter and turned to ask Bennett, "How's the situation now?"

"The disaster you mentioned really happened. Alas, let's go to the conference room and talk in detail." Bennett couldn't stop looking at Han Xiao, hesitated to speak, and asked, "By the way, how did you come back?"

Han Xiao suddenly reacted, "You reminded me, I forgot one thing, wait for me for a while."

He took out his communicator and pressed it a few times.

Rumble—

The wind pressure suddenly descended, scattering dust and sand.

Shadows appeared on the ground, and then the shadows quickly expanded, covering most of the shelter.

More than a dozen spaceships floated in the sky above the shelter, their huge size covering the sky, which was extremely spectacular.

This was the fleet that Han Xiao brought. He didn't want to park in outer space, so he called the spaceship down and parked it over the shelter, covering the sky!

—This momentum was thousands of times greater than the drop pods!

Hundreds of thousands of players on the ground looked up, their mouths wide open, dumbfounded.

Holy crap, he's being smelled!