Chapter 1 Neutral Port

The neutral port's docks bustled with people and noise. As they made their way to the hangar, the two of them planned their escape route through mental communication.

"We have quite a few choices. The two most stable methods are either accepting help from the spies and using a stargate to escape, or concealing our identities and slowly traversing the Shattered Star Ring."

"Both have risks. If we want to traverse the starfield, the Klent's Sol Star Cluster and the Black Star Army's Colton Star Cluster are restricted areas that we must avoid."

"There's also a lucky method… the center of the Shattered Star Ring is a group of wormholes. We can use those unstable wormholes to leave this starfield."

As the two were discussing, they suddenly sensed someone following them. They paused in their steps, glanced back, and saw the Black Star Army members they had encountered earlier were following them, frequently eyeing them.

Taylor was startled. "Why are the Black Star Army people watching us?"

"Don't make a fuss. Let's see what they want. Maybe it's a misunderstanding…" Sagman frowned, pretending not to notice, and continued toward the hangar.

After turning a few corners, the surrounding crowds gradually thinned out. The army players were still following them, and the two confirmed that these Black Star Army members were indeed watching them, seemingly trying to figure out the location of their spaceship.

The two exchanged a look.

"What do we do? Did they recognize our identities?"

"Doesn't seem like it… but just in case, let's get rid of them. Don't let them follow us, and then immediately change our disguises."

"This is a neutral port. Don't make too much noise. Don't let anyone see us do it."

"Okay, I'll make them disappear silently."

On the other side, the army players were following behind, talking in their team channel.

"The threat level of these two red names is extremely deadly. Can we beat them?"

"It's okay. The army will give extra rewards for capturing star pirates. If we confirm that they are star pirates, we can request assistance from nearby army members."

These players had already used detection on Sagman and Taylor. They did not display their real names, but rather the names of their disguised identities. However, they were red names representing hostile forces. Their information was full of question marks, and only the danger level displayed "extremely deadly".

Red name monsters were common in space. Most of them were star pirates and scavengers, so when these players saw Sagman's red names, they thought they were star pirates. Red name characters were not unable to communicate, but were very likely to be attacked by the other party due to hostile relationships.

The Black Star Army and the Crimson Empire were on the same front. Recently, the Empire and the Void Cult openly confronted each other, so the Void Cult's characters all became hostile red names to the Black Star Army players.

The players were about to continue tracking, but the next moment, they suddenly turned into a soul perspective, watching their bodies disappear into white light and entering the resurrection state.

"Huh, why am I dead?"

"Me too. What the hell? I didn't even see any attacks?"

The players were a little dazed, and hurriedly opened the panel to check the battle prompts. Although they didn't see how the enemy attacked, the panel showed a damage reminder. The attacker's name was one of the two red names. It seemed to be a silent psychic attack technique that instantly killed the players.

If it was just like this, it would be fine. However, what shocked the players was the amount of damage they took… 84,000 damage?!

The players almost thought they had seen an extra zero. More than 80,000 damage… that's many times our health limit! This one hit is enough to kill us several times!

What kind of power is this?

What level are these two red name monsters? Calamity grade?!

A huge curiosity welled up in the players' hearts.

"We seem to have met some amazing people."

"Big fish! Contacting them will definitely trigger a hidden plot."

While discussing, one of the players pondered, then suddenly changed his expression and said,

"Easily dealing more than 80,000 damage to us… remember the Beacon Star battle dungeon we played yesterday?"

"… Wait, I think I understand something!"

The players were suddenly shocked. Their team had not participated in the exploration of the Shattered World, but had been working for the Mercenary Alliance in the Shattered Star Ring. So, when the Beacon Star battle dungeon was released, they immediately experienced it. And when they suffered in the dungeon, they once died from an unknown AoE from a Super-A grade, which was still fresh in their minds.

And this level of damage value… seemed to be the power standard of those Super-A grades in the dungeon?!

In other words… those two "extremely deadly" red name monsters might be more than Calamity grade, but Super-A grade?!

Thinking about the army's internal top-level task of hunting down the Void Cult's Super-A grade…

The players suddenly realized that they seemed to have encountered the mission target?

After using secret spells to kill the Black Star Army members who were following them without anyone noticing, Sagman and Taylor hurriedly found the hangar, detached from the embedded orbit, flew out of one of the dock gates of the spaceport, entered the cosmic starry sky, and slowly left the neutral port space station.

The two bought a common model of small spaceship, which was common everywhere and very inconspicuous.

As the neutral port receded into the distance, the two secretly breathed a sigh of relief when no Black Star Army warships chased after them.

Taylor felt relieved.

Killing a few Black Star warriors without anyone noticing, the strength gap was too far, and no one could see his methods, so it seemed that his identity would not be exposed.

As a safety measure, the two decided to change another disguised identity and buy a new spaceship at the next stop.

However, they still couldn't figure out why these Black Star Army members would target them. They had only met each other once, and they didn't reveal any flaws.

As expected, the Black Star's subordinates were full of weirdness.

…

Black Star Army headquarters, mechanical workshop.

Kaka kaka——

On the circular operating base, a dozen mechanical arms and several engineering welding guns were assembling a humanoid machine body under the traction of mechanical force. As the various mechanical parts were connected together, the product gradually took shape.

The newly baked robot was fiery red all over. The surrounding cooling guns spewed misty atomized coolant, making a chichi rapid cooling sound.

This step was quickly completed, followed by rapid painting according to the process. In a cold white mist, a silver-black-yellow robot was manufactured and stood quietly.

Han Xiao waved his hand, letting the various tools automatically return to the operating base, and then said, "Phillip, perform debugging and self-check."

"Understood, buzz. RX001 generation mechanical body, code-named 'Mammoth', starting the first debugging…"

Nanoparticle streams flowed on the surface of the robot, like scales opening and closing.

The self-check quickly produced results, analyzing various parameters and displaying them in front of Han Xiao.

Han Xiao browsed the performance parameters of this product and nodded in satisfaction.

What he manufactured this time was not a mechanical soldier, but a "carrier" used to carry the key skill [Lord's Descent].

Han Xiao had already tested the effect of [Lord's Descent]. In actual testing, he found that different models of mechanical soldiers as carriers also shared different abilities of his own, depending on the performance, parts, and materials of the mechanical soldiers themselves.

He found that those mechanical soldiers used for combat were not the best carriers, and using [Lord's Descent] on mechanical lifeforms was not ideal. Mechanical lifeforms had their own will, and two consciousnesses shared one body, which weakened the power he projected. If he forcibly projected too much power, it would also damage the mechanical lifeform's own thinking. In terms of acting as a carrier, it was not as good as mechanical soldiers.

Therefore, after various calculations, Han Xiao felt that customizing a mechanical body specifically as a carrier for [Lord's Descent] could maximize the effect of this skill.

Also, if [Lord's Descent] was performed on the same target multiple times, there was a chance to generate a soul connection, which was estimated to strengthen the effect of the descent. He did not intend to simply treat the mechanical body as a consumable, but rather as a long-term carrier.

This mechanical body used a variety of precious synthetic materials, including a new material he synthesized using [Endless Material Science], named "First Generation Black Star Alloy", which possessed strong energy, physical, high and low temperature, high pressure resistance, and nano-repair functions, and could absorb and convert various energies. The material was extremely tough, the atomic structure was tight, and it could withstand extremely high loads, making it very durable - this was an important condition for maximizing the effect of [Lord's Descent].

He bent his fingers and tapped on the outer armor of the "Mammoth" mechanical body, but there was no crisp tapping sound, as if the vibration had been absorbed by the alloy.

"Not bad, a material with energy absorption and nano-repair effects. During the Lord's Descent, there is a chance to share my energy conversion and cell regeneration template specializations," Han Xiao pondered.

He was about to test the actual effect when Phillip's voice suddenly sounded in his mind.

"Master, buzz, a member of the army has provided a clue about the whereabouts of a Super-A grade Void Cultist. According to the priority you set, I directly reported it to you, bypassing Sylvia."

Han Xiao's eyes lit up. "Oh? Someone actually got a clue. Let me see."

The next moment, the vision changed, and the information was displayed in front of him. It was the report from the players who were instantly killed.

Although they could not reveal player information such as red names, and could only explain in an uncertain tone that they were killed, Han Xiao knew the nature of the players and would not doubt the players' advantages in information. He quickly scanned the information and already had a clue in his mind.

"There is a high probability that they are Super-A grade Void Cultists. There are only two of them. They did split up… Hmm, these two guys disguised their identities. Their disguises are definitely not just this one. These players startled them, so they will definitely change another disguise… but this information is also a breakthrough."

Han Xiao was excited. The biggest problem with the Empire's search work now was that it could not lock on to the whereabouts of the four targets, and could only search everywhere like looking for a needle in a haystack.

And now, although these players startled the snake and failed to successfully track these two, they also confirmed what area the two Super-A grades were in. This was very helpful for the Empire's search work. They didn't need to look blindly, and the Empire's search range was greatly reduced.

"In this regard, the players' search ability seems to be more advantageous. Hmm, I have an idea…"

After thinking about it, Han Xiao opened the panel and quickly wrote a mission, which was released only to players through the camp panel.

[【Crimson Empire Search Operation - Area Investigation】]

[Mission Brief: The Black Star Army received a clue that a suspected Super-A grade figure from the Void Cult appeared in the Hearthstone Neutral Port in the Ninth Star Zone of the Three Wood Star System in the Fuller Star Cluster. We are now recruiting army members to search this area. If you find any new clues, please report them immediately and you will receive an internal reward - Army Commander Black Star]

[Mission Requirements: Search this area, find the whereabouts of the search target, and report the clues]

[Hint: The target has carried out a certain degree of disguise. Please pay more attention to the red name characters with a danger level of "extremely deadly". If they are accompanied by two people, there is a high probability that they are the mission target]

[This mission is a prize pool mission. Accepting the mission requires 200 points of experience. Those who discover clues can split the prize pool equally]

[Base pool: 10 million experience, 3 million Enas]

[Current accumulated reward: 0]

After checking it again and finding nothing wrong, Han Xiao sent the mission out.

He was now wealthy and generous. He used to risk his life for hundreds of thousands of Enas, but now he spent 3 million Enas without blinking an eye, and had completely become a corrupt capitalist landlord.

To date, the Black Star Army's assets were already very strong, and the development prospects were broad. Recently, countless consortiums had contacted Han Xiao, wanting to help the Black Star Army go public and carry out a real leek-cutting operation, but he had refused them all for the time being.

As for the players who provided the information, Han Xiao was not stingy and gave them a generous reward from the panel.

"By the way, copy this information and give it to Tarrokov."

"Understood, buzz."

After doing these things, Han Xiao asked, "Are the warships of those army members still parked in that neutral port?"

"Yes, buzz."

Han Xiao raised his eyebrows, twisted his neck, immersed himself in the quantum network vision, and looked eager to try.

"Okay, Phillip, invade the neutral port's database and open up the data link channel."

Every terminal controlled by Phillip could be used as the starting point for a virtual invasion, allowing Han Xiao to invade databases in different places.

Asking the players for help was just one aspect. Han Xiao was also prepared to use the direction of virtual invasion to thoroughly investigate the neutral port's entry and exit records, find the disguised identities used by the two, and then follow the clues to search out all the experiences of these two identities. Perhaps he could get more useful information.

In the era of the interstellar quantum network, basically every interstellar citizen would leave many traces on the Internet, where they were born, what jobs they had done, what places they had been to at what time, account consumption, etc., everything was recorded. In the eyes of ordinary hackers and virtual mechanics, the privacy of most people was transparent.

Although the four guys from the Void Cult were Super-A grades, they were specialized in different fields, and none of them were mechanics. Naturally, it was impossible for them to use virtual technology to clear the traces they had left in the quantum network.

This gave Han Xiao a chance.

"They may change their disguised identities, but during the voyage, they should not change their spaceship. By tracking the spaceship's stay records, there is a chance to lock on to their whereabouts."

Han Xiao nodded secretly.

This time the players had made a contribution. As long as the target exposed their whereabouts, it would not be so easy to escape from the hands of a virtual mechanic like him.

Thinking of Laki's persuasion not long ago, Han Xiao's expression was slightly strange.

What sharp poison milk…