Chapter 1 The Conference Room

In the ship's main hall, numerous adjutants sat or stood, their eyes focused on the virtual screen in the center. The image showed Heber being slammed into the depths of a planet by the Mechanical Deity's palm. In the next moment, the planet exploded. This was a super-high-definition combat recording made by interstellar media present at the scene, and it was currently being replayed, complete with sound effects.

Even though it was the second time he'd seen the footage, Hadaway couldn't help but be shocked. He murmured, "When will I ever reach that level..."

"Maybe in your next life?" A nearby adjutant chuckled. This person was also a Calamity Grade who had joined early on and was a close friend of Hadaway.

"With your ability, even if you reach Beyond Grade A, you probably won't have such destructive power," Aurora said, shaking her head.

Someone else chimed in with a jest, "His ability is only good for getting beat up. Maybe when he reaches Beyond Grade A, he'll become everyone's favorite punching bag among Beyond Grade As."

"Hmph, you're just jealous," Hadaway grumbled, displeased.

"Hehe, seriously, even if you break through your ability's limits and reach Beyond Grade A, you might not be as durable as His Excellency Black Star. And you don't have as many versatile attack methods as His Excellency Black Star... I think you'd be the lamest Beyond Grade A in history."

Hadaway thought about it and realized it was true, so he suddenly felt gloomy about the future and couldn't muster any energy. He slumped on the sofa in a *Ge You* slouch, completely becoming a salted fish.

"Don't worry about that," Voding said with a gentle smile, reaching out to pat Hadaway's shoulder. "Maybe you won't even reach Beyond Grade A."

Hadaway rolled his eyes and said grumpily, "That's you, Morningstar. Don't imitate the vice-commander for no reason."

As they were chatting, the cabin door hissed open, and everyone turned to see Han Xiao striding in.

"Commander!"

Many people quickly stood up and saluted, their eyes fixed on Han Xiao.

Having watched the entire battle live, Black Star had become even more powerful and mysterious in everyone's eyes. As their strength grew, so did their reverence for Han Xiao.

"Everyone's here." Han Xiao nodded and glanced at the recording on the virtual screen. He couldn't help but chuckle, "Didn't you already watch it? Why are you still watching the replay?"

"It's all to admire your heroic bearing more!" Hadaway fawned, his face full of dog-like enthusiasm.

He had originally joined the Black Star Army for the sake of a transaction, but after witnessing Black Star's potential so many times, he now sincerely served Han Xiao.

After this battle, everyone knew that Black Star had officially become the strongest in the Shattered Star Ring. "The strongest in the Star Field" was not just an empty title; the reputation, influence, and aura it brought were incalculable.

A Beyond Grade A had to defeat all the strongmen in the same Star Field to earn this title. In the Shattered Star Ring, Black Star had been very strong, but to the public, he had the power without the recognition, as people always compared him to the Overlord.

Now that he had both the power and the recognition, most ordinary interstellar citizens acknowledged his status as "the strongest in the Star Field."

Seeing the bright future ahead, Hadaway couldn't wait to cling to Black Star's leg and never let go, accepting Han Xiao's loving beatings every day.

Seeing this, Han Xiao's expression turned strange.

He remembered that Hadaway had been quite dignified before joining him, but how had he become like this now…

Could it be that my personal charm is really that great?

Shaking his head and encouraging everyone with a few words, Han Xiao came to Voding. Just as he was about to reach out, Voding jumped back in alarm, like a frightened deer.

"W-wait a moment, I'm Morningstar right now!"

Han Xiao paused, lowered his hand, and chuckled, "It's okay, no rush. I'll wait for you to change back."

Morningstar quickly retreated into his mind, and Voding's consciousness came back online. His temperament became like a spring breeze, and his face was full of helplessness.

Voding had been a little resistant when he was touched before, but now he had resigned himself to it.

After so many things, even he himself wondered if he was really lucky…

Seeing this, Han Xiao happily stepped forward and rubbed him all over, then left with a satisfied expression, feeling like he had been blessed.

Back in his room, Han Xiao couldn't wait to open the panel and choose to complete the quest.

The reward was a Heber Character Summon Card. As if Voding's luck had exploded, the ability on the card was [Ultimate Style – Cellular Super-Unleashing]. Although there was only one use, there were no aftereffects due to the mechanism of the Character Summon Card.

The experience reward was the normal standard for a Beyond Grade A Boss quest. Two to three hundred billion experience points slightly replenished his increasingly depleted experience pool.

As for the two points of Legendary Points from the last quest, they didn't appear this time, indicating that the Legendary Points reward was a one-time thing. However, due to the impact of this event, he still received an additional point of new Legendary Points.

[Cosmic Legendary Point: Chief Strongest of the Shattered Star Ring – You have stood at the peak of a Star Field, and your reputation will be spread throughout the universe.]

This Legendary Point is something that players can't get… Han Xiao complained inwardly.

After settling these rewards, it was time for the final reward: drawing an ability!

[You have received the reward: Draw one of Heber's abilities (Skill/Talent).]

[Hint: Heber is a Martial Artist. Some of the available abilities have been automatically adjusted to suit your class.]

[Randomly drawing… Drawing complete.]

[Please choose one of the following five abilities as your reward:]

[1. [Berserk Qi Force] – Skill: Qi Force attack damage +110%, consumption +50%, lasts 10s, cooldown 75s]

[2. [Ultimate Style – Cellular Super-Unleashing] – Skill: Release cellular restrictions, squeeze your own potential. You will briefly burst out with a higher level of combat power, lasting for several hours to several days. After use, gain a "Weakened" state for one month, permanently increasing the cost of level and skill upgrades by 7%.]

[3. [Close-Range Assassin] – Talent: Melee attack, melee attack speed +40%, all melee skill levels +2]

[4. [Legendary Fixed Damage Reduction] – Talent: When receiving any type of attack, after calculating normal resistances, further reduce 7,500 points of actual damage. Remaining damage is then calculated using lower priority resistance talents – this talent is paired with "Low-Level Damage Immunity". If you have the "Low-Level Damage Immunity" series of talents, the fixed damage reduction value becomes the boundary of "Low-Level Damage Immunity".]

[5. [Combo Critical Strike] – Skill: When you perform a combo on a target, critical strike rate and critical strike damage increase with the number of hits in the combo, stacking up to 75% critical strike rate and 350% critical strike damage. The state lasts 5s, cooldown 80s]

Scanning through them, Han Xiao was slightly pleased. Touching Voding really made a difference; there were a lot of good items.

However, the more good things there were, the harder it was to choose.

Han Xiao thought for a moment and first eliminated [Berserk Qi Force]. This skill buffed pure Qi Force damage. Although his Machinery Force could also hurt people, the damage was too low, and he never used it that way. This skill was most suitable for the off-body fluctuations of Martial Artists, and its buff to him was minimal.

[Ultimate Style – Cellular Super-Unleashing] was a good skill for bursting out, but the aftereffects made people shrink back. This wasn't the kind of time-limited side effect of the Evolution Cube; permanently increasing experience costs just sounded painful. Although it was only 7% at a time, it could stack infinitely.

And as for the effect… Just look at Heber. Those who couldn't be defeated still couldn't be defeated. Maybe they would even be beaten for a longer time. Just thinking about it was heartbreaking.

This ability wasn't very useful for a Mechanic who didn't rely much on his body. Compared to temporarily bursting out, Han Xiao preferred to prepare more mechanical legions before battle. Besides, he had just obtained a Character Summon Card without any side effects, so he could just pass on this skill.

[Close-Range Assassin] was most suitable for Martial Artists and Melee Mechanics. Although it was also useful to him, it wasn't crucial.

As for [Legendary Fixed Damage Reduction], this was definitely a template talent. Although 7,500 points of fixed damage reduction didn't seem like much, that was judging from the perspective of a Beyond Grade A. If a Calamity Grade had this talent, reducing 7,500 points each time would add up, and their durability would increase by at least two or three levels.

If a Grade B or C got it… it would basically be equivalent to being unkillable in the same grade. Players encountering this type of Boss would simply be in despair.

This ability was paired with the "Low-Level Damage Immunity" series. Heber had a [Legendary Low-Level Damage Immunity] talent, which completely negated attacks with actual damage below 16,000, but that didn't mean that [Legendary Fixed Damage Reduction] had become useless.

The normal rule for low-damage immunity was that damage below the boundary was directly negated, while attacks above 16,000 were not affected… but with the addition of [Legendary Fixed Damage Reduction], the effect became that attacks above 16,000 would also have 16,000 points of actual damage reduced, and then lower priority resistance talents would be calculated… That was the result of pairing the two, increasing the boundary of reduction.

But now he could only draw one of them, so the effect was somewhat reduced. Actually, what Han Xiao wanted more was the [Super Toughness] talent on Heber's body. That was the secret to Heber's tankiness, and its priority was low, meaning that Heber's damage reduction order was:

— First, a layer of Beyond Grade A body Qi Force reduction, then a layer of normal physical resistance reduction to obtain the actual damage value, then subtract the 16,000 points of fixed damage reduction, and finally, the high reduction of [Super Toughness] would be calculated. According to a rough calculation, tens of thousands of theoretical damage would eventually be reduced to double or triple digits, making him rock-solid.

The last one, [Combo Critical Strike], was extremely suitable for him. The number of combo hits from the mechanical legion's focus fire was the kind of joy that Martial Artists couldn't even imagine. He could definitely max out the critical strike rate in the shortest amount of time, steadily increasing huge amounts of output.

"Tough choice…"

Han Xiao scratched his head and thought for a while before making a choice.

[You have obtained [Legendary Fixed Damage Reduction]!]

As Lu Xun said, every tank has the heart of a damage dealer. He really wanted to choose [Combo Critical Strike]…

But it was rare to draw a template talent, so it would be too wasteful to pass it up!

His own resistance was already not low, and he had a despairing healing rate, plus a fixed damage reduction…

The feeling was so good, it was scary just thinking about it.

I'm afraid I'm going to walk down the path of a tank to the end, but I really want to deal damage! Han Xiao was a little conflicted.

After sorting out the rewards, Han Xiao let out a breath, calmed himself, and closed the panel, pondering the impact of this battle.

His obtaining the title of the strongest in the Star Field would help the Black Star Army's business in the Shattered Star Ring recover and attract a new wave of talent.

The decline in the influence of the War Realm did not hinder the Infinite Consortium's investment. The other party was still his main competitor, but this incident would increase the difficulty of the War Realm's expansion, indirectly striking a blow to his opponent.

As for the Empire, since they hadn't interfered before, it meant that they had tacitly agreed… Little Overlord was probably hurt quite deeply by me this time.

"Now, the construction and development of the Flickering World are the top priority. It is estimated that the three great civilizations will not break out into overt conflicts for a long time. In this way, I have a sufficiently stable external environment to develop mechanical civilization and the Black Spirits, and begin to build a secondary dimension factory…"

Han Xiao pondered silently. He had already set the tone for these decades of version updates, which was to be steady and solid, making up for his own accumulation.

…

As Black Star and the War Realm left, the spectators present also dispersed. The scouts of the Guanghui and the Xu Ling uploaded the battle recordings as soon as possible. Before long, this recording was transmitted to the higher-ups, and the higher-ups of the two great civilizations held a temporary meeting specifically for this matter.

"Everyone has watched the recording. What are your thoughts?"

In the Guanghui Federation's high-level conference room, President Bader looked around at the elders and high-ranking officials present and asked slowly.

The Chief Elder of the Council paused his crutches and said in a hoarse voice, "No matter what the reason, the fact that Black Star possesses the strength of a peak Beyond Grade A has become a reality. The Scarlet Empire will usher in its fourth strongest pillar, which is very unfavorable to us."

"That's right." Another high-ranking official had a solemn expression and said in a deep voice, "Moreover, Black Star is too young and can serve the Empire for a long time. He is still the most difficult Virtual Mechanic. Given time, he may not be able to grow to the level of Manison. We are gradually losing our advantage at the Beyond Grade A combat power level."

"What I'm worried about is when Black Star will grow next."

Someone frowned. "We once thought that he would be silent for decades, but now it has been proven that this is a wrong judgment… Every time we think that he needs a long time to continue to improve his strength, the facts will prove that we are wrong."

Hearing this, everyone was silent.

Everyone felt pressure when they encountered an opponent like Han Xiao, who broke common sense time and time again.

"In that case, the strategy for the Evolver Totem needs to be adjusted to a certain extent," the Chief Elder of the Council said slowly.

"That's right." Bader pondered, "I have to negotiate with the Xu Ling Sect."

…

This highly publicized duel came to an end, but in the following half-month, the popularity of the event not only did not decrease, but continued to rise.

Countless interstellar media played combat recordings on channels in various star systems, especially emphasizing the process of the Overlord being beaten.

With the spread of the media, even interstellar citizens who were not interested in the duel could appreciate the Overlord's "heroic posture." Now, everyone who didn't know that the Overlord had been defeated knew.

It was so popular to see a Beyond Grade A being beaten, and this matter soon became a topic of conversation for countless interstellar citizens after dinner.

In the eyes of most people in other star systems, the Overlord was a relatively unfamiliar Beyond Grade A. Now, Heber had gained a wave of presence by being beaten, and he had become greatly famous.

There were rumors that after the battle, Heber went home and locked himself in his room, and even his subordinates could not see him.

The matter spread like wildfire, and a special group also noticed the Mechanical Deity displayed by Black Star.

The Church of the Mechanics!