Chapter 1 Dawn

From the star gate of the Chenxi Star Cluster, one spaceship after another sailed out, stepping into the territory of the Glimmering World.

The major forces had already been freely exploring the Glimmering World. Now, the newcomers were only tourists who came for the reputation, small organizations of little renown, and the subsequent troops of various forces supporting the front lines.

This batch of fleets was troops transferred from the headquarters by many forces on the edge of the Black Hole Boundary. The composition was complex, including regular troops of star cluster and star system level civilizations, armed mercenary organizations, consortia, and so on. More or less, these forces all had players.

The player camp composition of the Shattered Star Ring was the only exception in the entire universe, all members of the Black Star Army. The player camp distribution in other star fields was very scattered.

In the Black Hole Boundary, the most players joined a membership-based neutral organization called the Nineteen Towers Psionic Association. It could be understood as a regional association of mages and psychic masters, obtaining contribution points by providing various magic services, and then exchanging them for resources and knowledge, equivalent to a career exchange platform.

On a spaceship, a group of professional players from the Black Hole Boundary gathered together, representing several national professional clubs.

In international competitions, Southeast Asian clubs had always lacked presence, ranking behind each year. The only deep impression they left on the audience was that they were not good at tactical operations, preferring to be reckless, with unusually fierce tactics, basically unable to fight a war of attrition.

Relatively speaking, the more well-known professional teams in Southeast Asia were the Red Bay Club of Lao Yue, the Titan Club of Lao Thai, and the Archipelago Club of Indonesia. These three were regular participants in international competitions, perennial first-round exits, and fellow sufferers.

At this time, the topic of discussion was also related to this year's league.

"The league officials have not yet released any information, but the opening of the World Server may cause changes in the competition system, perhaps canceling the sub-region qualification model," said [Viper], the captain of the Red Bay team, in a deep voice.

"If there is no sub-region system, it will be difficult for us to qualify," [Sandcastle], the captain of the Archipelago team, shook his head, looking pessimistic.

The reason they qualified every year was due to the sub-region system, allowing them to peck at each other in the Black Hole Boundary. If there was no such system, even entering the international competition would be uncertain.

"Therefore, those of us from the same star field must unite, seize the opportunity of the World Server opening, and develop together in a group," Viper said.

"It's difficult. The Huaxia have too much advantage in the World Server. We can't compete with them on our own. We can only see if clubs from other countries will form alliances."

"It's a pity, we have invested too many resources in the current camp, it is impossible to defect, and even if we go to the Black Star Army, we can't compete with the local snakes of Huaxia, we have to find a way to create advantages."

At this time, Viper narrowed his eyes and said confidently: "Although we can't defect, we can still use the benefits of the Black Star Army. It's best to have some guild members join Black Star, brush up their qualifications, and then we pay them to purchase on our behalf, using discount treatment to purchase a large number of resources. At the same time, we can also find out the movements of the army's players, which is beneficial to us."

"Send spies?" Everyone looked at each other, "This is indeed a good way, but will it be targeted by the Black Star Army?"

"What does our players' affairs have to do with him?" Viper didn't care. "What we should pay attention to is the Huaxia players, be careful that they rob the supplies we purchased."

"Okay, let's do it!"

Everyone decided on a strategy and buried themselves in discussing the plan.

…

The Leiseck Legion was a large private mercenary organization in the Black Hole Boundary, but secretly had an official background, being a secret mercenary group of the Ursa Minor Civilization. The organization's name was named after the leader, the legion commander was called Leiseck, and he personally led the reinforcements, just arriving in the Glimmering World.

"Full acceleration, increase warp speed, get to the Free Competition Zone as soon as possible."

In the command room, Leiseck shouted loudly, his tone carrying a hint of excitement.

The Ursa Minor Civilization had many secret mercenary groups under its command, and there were many existences like him. The civilization rarely gave him tasks, and he usually had to pretend to be a normal mercenary, so he attached great importance to the opportunity to make contributions.

Originally, he only sent a vanguard force, while he himself was stationed at the base camp, maintaining the normal operation of the mercenary group. However, when the Glimmering World officially opened, the players who had disappeared from the Black Hole Boundary for twenty years went online again.

In each star field, the deeds of the players were different, and the impressions they left on the local forces were different. Because of the scattered camps, the players in the Black Hole Boundary were a mess, and their exposure in the universe was far less than that of the army players, making them less threatening.

However, a large number of local forces noticed the special existence of players, believing that they and the Undying troops of the Black Star Army might be the same species, with the ability to be resurrected. The problem was that, due to the scattered nature of the players, the local forces did not know how many Undying existed. Before the players showed this trait, they could behave like ordinary NPCs, making them difficult to identify, and having disappeared for twenty years, they were even harder to find.

But Leiseck noticed the reappearance of the players, and was deeply impressed by these daredevil thugs, so he took it upon himself to recruit a large number of people again.

Coincidentally, many players in the Black Hole Boundary also had the Glimmering World as their goal, so they hit it off, and he was able to recruit tens of thousands of players from the Black Hole Boundary, transporting them to the Glimmering World as support troops, and personally going out to try to take credit.

And just not long ago, he received good news on the way, the Ursa Minor Civilization happened to encounter trouble on the front line, a collection detachment was overthrown by the Undying of the Black Star Army, and it was exactly the time when reinforcements were needed. Leiseck found that he had suddenly become a timely help, and could not help but be overjoyed.

'The reinforcements I recruited can just help the civilization fight against the people of the Black Star Army, and not only that, but in the struggle with other forces, I can also use these Undying to gain an advantage, I have made a great contribution this time!'

Leiseck was secretly excited.

…

At the same time, in his fleet, batches of Black Hole Boundary players stood in front of the portholes, admiring the scenery of the Glimmering World while talking to each other in low voices.

"We're finally here, hurry up to the Free Competition Zone, I'm so suffocated!"

"Let's see what tasks this mercenary group has in the Glimmering World."

"Fool, why are you still following this mercenary group? There are so many advanced forces in the Glimmering World, you're stupid to hold on to this small camp?"

"That makes sense, once we get to the Free Competition Zone, we can kick this legion away."

Everyone whispered, and many people had the same idea.

Now that advanced forces were clustered in the Glimmering World, how could they still look up to a regional mercenary group like the Leiseck Legion? Only by switching to an advanced camp could they meet their increasing needs, especially professional knowledge.

Leiseck, who was full of expectations, did not know at this time that he had been regarded as a tool by these players from the beginning.

The consequences of betraying an advanced force were more serious, but for this kind of small camp, the players were not worried at all. They would betray as soon as they could, wishing to switch jobs as soon as possible.

The preferred job-hopping targets for ordinary players in the Black Hole Boundary were the Three Great Civilizations and the super-star cluster or Super-A Grade forces local to the Black Hole Boundary, followed by the Black Star Army.

Players from other star fields naturally had no sense of belonging to the Black Star Army. Only benefits and development prospects could move them, and in this regard, the Black Star Army was as outstanding as a firefly in the dark night.

After so many versions, the various benefits of the army's players had long made players from various countries envious. Now that they could finally cross star fields, the reputation and attractiveness accumulated by the army for several versions immediately had an effect, making a large number of ordinary players tend to Han Xiao in their job-hopping choices.

Among them, the most determined to join the Black Star Army were the Mechanic players in the Black Hole Boundary!

Due to the different novice planets in version 1.0, the composition of super-powered types in each star field was also very different. The most in the Black Hole Boundary were mages, followed by psychic masters, mainly on the magic side. Mechanics only accounted for about 12% of the total number of players in the Black Hole Boundary, with the smallest number and relatively barren soil for development.

In comparison, the Black Star Army was simply a treasure land for Mechanics, and Han Xiao was the top mentor for Mechanics, so there was no need to worry about professional knowledge at all.

In the eyes of these people, one sentence could summarize the meaning of Black Star to their Mechanic players:

—If the Great Black Star had not been born, the path of Mechanics would have been dark for eternity!

As for the Machinery Country… although they heard it was very powerful, the players were not familiar with it, and they preferred Han Xiao, after all, with Huaxia players leading the way, they at least knew that Han Xiao was a reliable person.

Everyone chatted noisily, and at the edge of the crowd, a player with the ID [Muay Thai Warning] stood alone, looking out the window, his eyes flickering uncertainly.

"That hidden mission told me that the Leiseck Legion is actually an affiliated force of the Ursa Minor Civilization, and I heard from a friend that Chang Kong has recently been fighting with the Ursa Minor Civilization for resources, resulting in conflict, so these people may be the civilization's reinforcements..."

The friend he mentioned was a peripheral member of the Chang Kong Guild, who had once sprayed each other on the forum, evenly matched, and felt that the other was a hero among trolls. Finally, they cherished each other and added each other as friends.

Thinking of this, a bold idea quickly took shape in Muay Thai Warning's heart, and the soul of a double agent burned fiercely.

If you want to switch jobs, you have to offer a gift!

…

At the same time, somewhere in the Emerald Star Cluster.

An exploration fleet of a small consortium was docked at a temporary transit station built by an advanced civilization for rest. Normal crew members went to relax, leaving only logistics personnel on board, who were busy cleaning and repairing equipment, and performing manual re-inspections.

Buzz——

Inside the ship's maintenance tunnel, two ground crew members in protective suits were working in front of a complex mechanical assembly with repair tools, sparks flying.

After working for a while, Evans finished his work and opened his helmet, wiping away sweat.

He opened the logistics task list on his wrist, took a look, and then opened the communication channel to report to his superior:

"Ground crew team 005 has completed the task. The hidden fault of component t1018 of the engine group has been eliminated, and we will be proceeding to area C0080 for cleaning."

"Received, continue working. You have three more tasks to complete."

"Understood."

After reporting, he closed the communication channel, and Evans patted his companion on the shoulder, "Let's go, let's go to the next place."

His companion waved his hand impatiently, "We just finished one, what's the hurry? Let's rest for a while first."

Evans advised, "The tasks are tight, try to get them done before get off work today. It's best not to rest during work hours, it's not in accordance with regulations, and you might not be able to finish today's tasks."

"Then postpone it until tomorrow, we're not only docked here for one day." The companion sat down directly, dissatisfied, "If you want to go, go first, I want to rest for a while anyway."

Evans frowned, shook his head and stopped persuading. He couldn't control others, but he had to do his job.

He proceeded along the maintenance tunnel on his own, heading to the cleaning location. His companion's figure, left in place, quickly disappeared from view, leaving him alone.

The maintenance tunnel was dimly lit, with light sources far apart. After walking for a while, Evans suddenly noticed a red light flashing briefly in front of him, causing him to stop.

"The light disappeared? Did I see it wrong?"

Evans was a little strange, and looked at the environmental detector, but there was no change, so he thought he was seeing things and took a few more steps forward.

Buzz!

At this moment, a red light suddenly lit up in his peripheral vision, the light source was beside him, less than a meter away!

Evans was shocked and quickly reacted, jumping to the side, rolling around on the ground, taking the welding gun in his hand, and getting up to face the light source, looking wary.

Soon he saw a strange sight. A red light orb of unknown origin was suspended in the air, moving back and forth in small amplitudes, like a lively and agile little elf. The light orb was surrounded by strands of light gauze like ribbons, possessing a hazy beauty.

"What is this thing?" Evans looked alert, quietly pressing the communication button, wanting to report the abnormality here.

However, in the next moment, Evans' eyes blurred, and he saw the red light orb shoot over at a speed far exceeding his reaction speed, passing directly through his body.

Evans was shocked and quickly looked down to check, but was stunned to find that he was unscathed, but instead became full of energy, the fatigue from work swept away, and his physical strength was restored.

At this time, the red light orb paused, suddenly spinning wildly around Evans.

Evans was stunned, as if feeling a happy emotion from this light orb.

Before he could recover, the red light orb suddenly stopped, as if pulled by some invisible existence, and suddenly disappeared without a trace, leaving Evans standing there dumbfounded.

After being stunned for a while, Evans suddenly patted his cheeks hard.

"It hurts, I'm not dreaming… then it seems I've finally gone crazy."