Chapter 189 Shining World

Shining World, the central Goroo Star Cluster.

Since the player expedition team received the legacy of the Great Universe Corps and set up the long-distance stargate, Han Xiao led the fleet to the central area of the star cluster. The famous planets in the central star cluster were more numerous and of better quality than the frontier star systems.

Among them was Golden Brilliance Star, listed among the "Two Hundred Shining Main Stars," which was extremely prosperous in his previous life. It was a first-tier governing star of the empire in the Goroo Star Cluster, a characteristic landmark planet of the Shining World, attracting many visitors every year. There was also Reisende Star, the core transportation hub of the Goroo Star Cluster in his previous life, with more than five hundred stargate entrances at its peak. It was the transportation heart of the star cluster, connecting all directions, and a strategic location.

In addition, Han Xiao also occupied a large number of famous resource planets known in his previous life for producing various rare raw materials.

In his previous life, these famous planets had a considerable importance in the Goroo Star Cluster. Perhaps after the Shining World officially opened, the empire would reclaim these planets and reallocate territory. But during the exploration period, these planets were all under the Black Star Army's control, and the army had the right to share the planets' specialties, enough to accumulate massive amounts of rare resources.

The exploration had been going on for four months, and the progress of each exploration team was similar. The War Realm team was steady and making solid progress, about to finish exploring the Gelaton Star System. Although they had gained a lot, the results were within the empire's expectations, calm and uneventful. In comparison, although Han Xiao's exploration team was a bit slow in the first star system due to the scattered exploration plan, Han Xiao found a large number of famous planets from his previous life, giving the empire's high-level officials many surprises.

As a result, the empire favored him more and more, and the support given to him became greater and greater.

Han Xiao had heard rumors more than once that the Klent Exploration Team secretly imitated his method, sending out teams to explore the planets in other areas, but they had no idea about the specific situation of the planets, gained nothing, and wasted time.

Over the past four months, the benefits of the Shining World had gradually become apparent. The Black Star Army's revenue in the Shining World was almost equal to the total revenue of the army's other businesses, and batches of resources were piled up in various warehouses.

As more planets were explored by the army, the benefits continued to snowball.

Countless unowned planets were waiting to be exploited, which was why the Shining World was said to be a huge opportunity for development.

The army's revenue soared, and the Shining World exploration team was feeding back the Shattered Star Ring base camp. As funds became abundant, Sylvia, at Han Xiao's suggestion, continued to expand, recruiting more new members who were attracted, and the training camp also provided a large number of fresh recruits, sending more manpower to the exploration team.

As for the players, as more and more resource planets were discovered, the manpower of the guilds was also insufficient, and they began to selectively exploit resource points. The best resource planets were basically controlled by the Four Great Aristocrats, followed by the first-tier guilds. Lao E and Lao Ao's branch guilds were bullied badly, and they didn't want to play on the same planet with the Four Great Aristocrats and the first-tier Chinese guilds anymore, so they chose some inferior planets to establish resource points and compete with the second- and third-tier Chinese guilds.

In these four months, the average level of the players had increased a lot. Among them, Maple Moon, due to the generous rewards of hidden missions, had become the highest-level player, reaching level 113, only 7 levels away from being maxed out.

With Maple Moon's deeds as an example, other players were frantically looking for hidden missions, and some of them did find them and turned them in to the camp. Unfortunately, there was no second [Bold Explorer] skill fragment reward yet.

Han Xiao had also been busy for four months. The experience penalty period for the Evolutionary Cube would last for another seven or eight months, so he was not in a hurry to level up.

Every day, in addition to supervising the exploration progress and browsing the forums, he stayed in the mechanical workshop, constantly expanding the scale of the mechanical army.

Now the number of mechanical soldiers exceeded ten million, and their performance was very strong. With his current high-intensity mechanical force bonus, such a mechanical army had the ability to destroy some relatively weak Star System civilizations.

Among the five major superpower systems, the Mechanic class Super A grades had the greatest destructive power to civilizations. The other four systems paid more attention to personal power. Generally, only Super A grade Mechanics who controlled an army could single-handedly launch large-scale interstellar wars.

In the bridge command room, Han Xiao was standing in front of a three-dimensional star map, gazing at the communication channel, waiting for a special message.

Today was a special day. Hadawei's task force was about to complete the construction of the long-distance stargate channel, and he was waiting for Hadawei's message.

However, before Hadawei's message arrived, Tarrokov's message came first.

*Beep beep.*

Han Xiao glanced at it and reluctantly answered the phone.

"Commander, what's the matter?"

"I have something to inform you about. We have discovered traces of stowaways."

"Stowaways?" Han Xiao's heart stirred. "I guess they are those forces that ignored the empire's announcement and wanted to enter the sealed Shining World to get a piece of the pie."

In his previous life, this was an event during the version update. Players could only learn about it from the background introduction and did not experience it personally. When the players participated, the Shining World had already officially opened, and other forces had obtained permission to enter. Stowaways had basically become a thing of the past.

In the empire's records, they had engaged in a protracted battle with the stowaways during the exploration period, with various chases and escapes. The area of the star field was too large, and there were many unexplored areas, so even the empire could not eradicate the stowaways. After eliminating one batch, a new batch would emerge after a while.

Tarrokov nodded. "They should be some Star Cluster-level civilization forces. You should also pay attention to them usually. If you find any traces of stowaways, remember to report to me. We need to find their secret stargate, and we will also let your troops help if necessary."

"Okay."

As soon as he finished speaking, a new mission popped up on the panel. Han Xiao moved his eyes slightly and glanced at it.

[You have triggered the mission [Clues to the Stowaways] (Repeatable)!]

[Mission Introduction: The new star field is a treasure, and all forces capable of getting involved are unwilling to watch the Crimson Empire monopolize this benefit. Even if the Shining World is nominally the territory of the Crimson Empire, it cannot stop their ambition. As an ally of the empire, the stowaways are also infringing on your interests, and the empire needs your help.]

[Mission Requirements: Submit a valuable clue about the stowaways, kill a batch of stowaways, destroy the stowaways' secret stargate.]

[Mission Rewards: 2 million ~ 50 million experience, 50 points ~ 700 points of empire contribution.]

[Note: This mission belongs to the [Shining World] branch mission.]

This was a repeatable mission, and he could get rewards every time he dealt with the stowaways. The rewards were not bad, and Han Xiao valued the empire contribution points.

It was just that the stowaways were elusive and not so easy to find, so he could only try his luck. Moreover, these stowaways were not natives. If they established a secret stargate, they would face a counterattack from a powerful fleet if they wanted to eliminate them.

Han Xiao only planned to provide clues. He didn't want to fight with Star Cluster-level civilizations casually. The empire was not afraid of offending them, so it was suitable for doing such errands.

"There should also be the Arcane Church among these stowaways..." Han Xiao muttered secretly.

Izo had predicted that the Arcane Church would bring danger to him in the Shining World, and he was quite concerned about this.

"If the Arcane Church wants to deal with me, they will definitely send a lot of combat power. Because they need to hoard troops, they should not be able to do it in a short time, but I still have to be vigilant recently," Han Xiao thought to himself.

Since Sisko could locate him, the Arcane Church would definitely let him join, so paying attention to Sisko's whereabouts would indirectly reveal when the Arcane Church would act.

It was a pity that the observation mark he had left on Sisko had been removed, otherwise things would be much easier. Although Sisko could not eliminate the observation mark by himself, he could sense that he was being spied on. He knew that Black Star had done something to him when they fought, and it had been more than half a year. It was impossible for him to ignore it for so long. He had already asked the Arcane Church to help him erase the observation mark. There was more than just Austin who was a Super A grade mage.

Han Xiao told Tarrokov about his concerns. Tarrokov smiled slightly, as if he had expected it.

"The empire has also considered this possibility. The Arcane Church may take advantage of you being in the Shining World to seize your Evolutionary Cube, so the empire will closely monitor the movements of the Arcane Church's Super A grades... Moreover, His Excellency the Head of State is preparing to deploy the second batch of manpower to the Shining World, which includes many of the empire's allies. At the same time, an empire direct line Super A grade will be sent to follow you and act together, temporarily protecting you."

Han Xiao's eyes flashed. The second batch of allies... these competitors were finally coming.

For the sake of the Evolutionary Cube, the empire specially sent someone to protect him, but Han Xiao knew that the empire hoped that he would not run around with the Evolutionary Cube.

After getting that unowned cosmic treasure, I'll go back to the Lighthouse Star for a while... Han Xiao thought to himself.

Since he knew that the enemy was likely to deal with him, Han Xiao decided to restrain himself a little. After all, the Arcane Church was still very difficult to deal with.

For the sake of safety, staying at the empire's outpost, the Lighthouse Star, was much safer than running around. Moreover, this was also the Shining World, and it could still support the army and supervise the army's exploration.

"Thank you for Head of State Ulan Rier's attention." While thinking about other things, Han Xiao didn't forget to be polite.

"Haha, recently the Head of State reviewed our exploration progress, and she is very satisfied with your exploration results and specifically expressed her appreciation to you," Tarrokov said with a smile.

After patiently chatting for a while, Han Xiao hung up the communication.

Just then, Hadawei's message finally arrived.

After waiting for four months, the stargate channel was finally completed!

"Good job!"

Han Xiao was overjoyed. With the channel, he could finally take away the unowned cosmic treasure in the Shining World.

Hadawei's message also expressed his resentment. He hadn't sparred with Han Xiao for four months, which made him very unhappy. He wanted to return to Han Xiao's side immediately and get beaten. Han Xiao was in a good mood and decided to beat him three times a day after Hadawei returned, fulfilling his request excessively.

Han Xiao immediately ordered the main fleet to change direction and head towards the stargate channel.

This news soon reached Sènico. During this time, he had become accustomed to the Black Star's headquarters' irregular actions and was no longer surprised. He did not suspect anything else.