Chapter 1 The Cabin

The metal bulkhead was covered with scratches and holes. Exposed energy circuits were damaged, constantly sputtering with sparks. The ship's cabin had been through a fierce battle. Flames crackled and burned, and the floor was littered with the fragmented corpses of crew members.

A group of space marines in full-coverage armor checked the corpses, shooting any survivors with their energy rifles.

The deceased crew members were Rock Elves, an ancient mammalian race with rough, tan skin, averaging about three meters in height, with thick hair. Though flesh and blood, they were naturally as hard as rock, skilled at discovering rare ores and metal resources. They were a relatively powerful galactic civilization in the Starspirit Sea.

The uniforms of these crew members bore the civilization's symbol, proving that this ship belonged to the civilization's official regular forces, but it had been attacked and annihilated.

At the end of the cabin was a huge metal vault door, leading to the warehouse. At this moment, a figure who seemed to be the leader of the attackers stood in front of the closed warehouse door, took out a disc-shaped device specially used for cracking keys, and pressed it against the operating panel of the warehouse door, emitting a high-frequency beeping sound.

Buzz! The next moment, the warehouse door roared, unlocking and slowly opening.

The leader of the attackers strode in, seeing rows of Evolver Totems neatly arranged in the warehouse, hundreds in total.

"The goods are in hand. Count them and move them back to our ship."

The leader of the attackers nodded with satisfaction, waved his hand, and ordered his subordinates to work.

The Rock Elves had purchased a batch of Totem devices from the Black Star Army. The news had leaked, and these attackers had ambushed them in advance, their goal being to seize these Evolver Totems.

The escort fleet had been wiped out by these attackers… A group that could plunder a regular force of a galactic civilization was clearly not composed of small fry.

These attackers were also interstellar mercenaries, but of a different nature. Mercenaries were roughly divided into three types: the first were regular practitioners registered with the Mercenary Alliance, such as the Black Star Army; the second were freelancers who were not registered with the Interstellar Mercenary Alliance, independent mercenaries without business licenses; and the third were black market mercenaries who were active in the black market and willing to take on dark jobs.

"Dark jobs" referred to criminal work that violated interstellar common law and could not be seen in the light of day, generally posted on the black market network, such as robbery, kidnapping, assassinating civilization officials, slaughtering planets, espionage infiltration, inciting wars, and so on. These black mercenaries were actually criminals… In fact, most people engaged in this industry were wanted criminals themselves.

And this group of attackers were black market mercenaries specializing in dark jobs, from one of the leading black market mercenary forces in the universe—the Blood Gold Organization.

The Blood Gold Organization was a black mercenary force operating across star fields, mainly active in the Starspirit Sea, the Ancient Star Desert, and the Old Star River. The organization's members, spaceships, and base locations were quite secretive, and their behavior was low-key. The specific size of the Blood Gold Organization was a secret, but being able to conduct business in three star fields clearly made it a behemoth.

At the same time, the Blood Gold Organization was also one of the high-level figures in the interstellar black market.

Where there was trade control, there would be a black market. Black markets continued to breed, gradually forming a huge pattern.

Black markets also had different levels, distinguished by region and scope of business, from planets to galaxies, and then to star fields. As they went up level by level, black markets became more and more formal. At the highest level was the interstellar black market, which covered almost all star fields, nominally leading all black markets.

And this highest-level black market force understood the way to make a fortune in silence. They would not bother to give themselves an independent name, but simply called themselves the "Interstellar Black Market." Those who did not know the situation would think it was just a noun.

Of course, not all independent black markets obeyed the highest-level interstellar black market, just as some third-rate gangsters did not know the giants active in international society.

The Interstellar Black Market was extremely large, with business spanning the entire universe. There were always some civilizations that hoped to obtain technologies blocked by advanced civilizations, and they also had needs for the black market. Thus, they turned a blind eye, and even acted as a protective umbrella. On the other hand, the Interstellar Black Market was also a communication platform for interstellar criminals, a huge underground society.

Not all criminals existed to cause trouble. A large number of criminals were simply seeking benefits. They also needed order and credibility, and needed someone to make the rules. Therefore, the managers of the Interstellar Black Market emerged, coming from various gray industries such as black market mercenaries, intelligence organizations, smuggling trade, and contraband production. They were among the most powerful organizations.

The Blood Gold Organization was one of the managers of the Black Market, equivalent to a giant overlord in the underground criminal world.

The Fallen Ark was not a Black Market manager. Black Market managers were basically Lawful Evil, and equally disliked the Chaotic Evil Heterogeneous Gods. Although they were both criminal forces, the two sides were not on the same path. After the disintegration of the Fallen Ark, the Blood Gold Organization took in a large number of criminals, helping them achieve reemployment after being laid off.

A cadre came to the leader's side, watching his subordinates transport the Evolver Totems, and could not help but chuckle.

"The price of Evolver Totems on the black market is being hyped up very high right now. As far as I know, many civilizations are secretly purchasing them. If we swallow this batch of goods, how much do you think we can sell them for?"

"Don't think wildly. These are the employer's goods. Our job is to bring the goods back. Are you tired of living if you dare to swallow them privately?" the leader shook his head.

After a year and a half of operation, the Evolver Totem business had basically stabilized. Some civilizations that had joined Another Radiance and the Arcane Church could not possibly have relations with the Empire, and could only resort to crooked means. Some interstellar consortia, after watching for so long, had also begun to take action.

No one had forgotten Black Star's performance a year and a half ago. Operating against the Black Star Army was too difficult. These forces took a step back and chose to rob the fleets transporting Evolver Totems, eyeing every purchasing civilization.

Because this violated the common laws of the Star Sea, black market mercenaries represented by the Blood Gold Organization came into play. Now, Evolver Totems were priceless and in short supply on the black market.

After stealing the Rock Elves' Evolver Totems, the Blood Gold Organization members returned to their spaceship, blew up all the spaceship wreckage, and turned around to leave.

In recent months, similar scenes had been staged in various corners of the universe many times.

…

Shattered Star Ring, Black Star Army Headquarters.

"Another user who bought Evolver Totems was robbed halfway?"

In the legion commander's office, Han Xiao closed the player forum and looked at Sylvia's remote projection, frowning slightly.

"Yes, including the Rock Elves, thirteen galactic civilization clients have been plundered, and thousands of Evolver Totems are floating on the black market."

"Where were they robbed?"

"The Starspirit Sea. The identity of the robbers is unknown. The initial judgment is that they should be the same force that committed the previous crimes."

Han Xiao touched his chin. "Pay attention to the black market. If the Evolver Totems are not sold on the black market after a while, then it should still be done by black market mercenaries, and the goods have been handed over to the employer."

"Teacher, do we need to deal with this problem?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm not responsible for after-sales service. If you buy something and don't protect it well, it has nothing to do with me… Of course, if they hire my mechanical troops, that's another matter." Han Xiao waved his hand. "What did the Rock Elves say?"

"They said they hoped the legion would send them another batch."

"Send another batch? Not buy?"

"Yes, they said they knew the cost of Evolver Totems was very low, and they were unwilling to spend a high price to buy them again. They thought we should give them another set… You also know that the Rock Elves' personality is relatively straightforward." Sylvia shrugged helplessly.

"Tell them that I don't offer insurance services. If they want it, buy it again. Free compensation does not exist. This is a matter of principle."

Han Xiao shook his head. If he made this exception, maybe some civilizations would play the trick of self-theft to ask for compensation. He would not do a losing business.

However, this kind of thing could not be avoided. It was possible that some civilizations had privately reached an agreement with other forces, deliberately pretending to be stolen, so as to indirectly help other civilizations that were not close to the Empire purchase Evolver Totems.

However, Han Xiao didn't mind if the Evolver Totems that were sold were robbed. The more they were robbed, the more he sold, and the market was wider. It could even help him share the pressure. Anyway, Evolver Totems could only be used after being charged, so he would not lose out either way.

The one who needed to worry about this problem was the Empire, not him. As long as they didn't directly rob the Black Star Army, he could accept it.

"Understood, then I'll tell them that."

Sylvia turned off the remote projection.

Han Xiao let out a breath, leaned back, rested on the chair, and pondered.

In the past year and a half, the Black Star Army had been operating steadily, gradually digesting the results of its rapid expansion, consolidating its various businesses, and developing well. His style of doing things was finally like a mechanic—the main body stayed at home, focusing on building machinery, expanding the size of the legion, and the mechanical troops roamed around outside, doing tasks and hoarding random reward opportunities to draw task settlement cards.

His experience reserves had also accumulated. He took out some to upgrade blueprint skills, accumulating potential points to increase the level of Ultimate Knowledge. During this period, he used 6,000 points of Empire contribution to exchange for the fifth Ultimate Knowledge, the Mechanic branch's [Ultimate Mechanical Engineering].

This knowledge was related to manufacturing machinery, greatly improving manufacturing technology and production line power, and unlocking a large number of combinable blueprints, giving a specialization [Ultimate Manufacturer] and a skill [Inspiration Creation].

The effect of [Ultimate Manufacturer] was simple and practical. The basic performance of the produced mechanical creations was increased by 25%~30%, and the production speed was increased by 300%~500%. Obviously, this was a specialization for mass producing troops.

[Inspiration Creation] was an unactivated skill. The activation condition was [Ultimate Mechanical Engineering] reaching Lv5 max level. The effect was to randomly combine an unlimited number of blueprints to synthesize one or more improved or fused new blueprints. High-level settings could also be performed to select the tendency of the synthesized blueprints (attack, defense, etc.), required functions, etc. It was more stable than free creation, and could definitely produce results.

The skill consumed experience… massive experience.

For players who could not independently change blueprints, this skill was a god-level skill, but Han Xiao could improve blueprints himself, so this skill was not very useful… However, it was not useless, and had an irreplaceable function:

——[Inspiration Creation] had a small chance of synthesizing blueprints for Cosmic Treasure-level machinery, and was the only way for mechanics to independently create golden equipment!

Now that Han Xiao had two Cosmic Treasures, he didn't mind having another one, but synthesizing blueprints for Cosmic Treasure-level machinery was not that easy. This was not like gambling blueprints. There was no fixed combination. Even if the combination was the same, the synthesized blueprints would still have a high degree of randomness.

In his previous life, some players had happened to synthesize mechanical blueprints for Cosmic Treasures, but there were two problems. One was that only the information of the blueprints was released, and no one had publicly shared the combination. Secondly… even if there were blueprints, no mechanic player had actually manufactured golden-level machinery in his previous life.

The prerequisites for the blueprints were too harsh. Below Super A-grade, there was basically no possibility of manufacturing. Naturally, players could not meet the conditions.

[Inspiration Creation] was temporarily left behind by Han Xiao. First, he had to level up [Ultimate Mechanical Engineering] to the max level, which required too many potential points. Second, although he had massive experience to try to synthesize Cosmic Treasure-level blueprints, he lacked experience in other aspects. He had to leave a rich reserve during the version update, so he did not dare to waste it—for him, as long as he did not gamble out a Cosmic Treasure-level blueprint, the experience invested in this skill was wasted.

In the past year and a half, the Gular civil war was set, advancing step by step. The process was uneventful, and the Vanguard Party was about to reap the fruits of victory. However, the players' attention was focused on the upcoming third professional league.

Because the number of players had exploded, the popularity of this league had also risen, attracting much attention. The divisions were the same as the second league, with nine major divisions, and the schedule had been slightly adjusted.

For example, the secondary league and the preliminaries started earlier, half a year ago, which made the time for the preliminaries more spacious, fully mobilizing more players to participate, and also to determine the wildcard spots and regular season list before the official opening of the professional league.

Han Xiao was watching the videos of the preliminaries on the forum just now, appreciating some players' antics and harvesting today's sand sculpture happiness.

In the official competition, in addition to the arena battle, team battle, personal battle, and team survival battle, three new special battle formats would be added.

The first was the flag capture point race. Multiple teams participated in a melee, and each player could be resurrected infinitely. The final victory was based on points.

The second was the team dungeon race. Multiple teams entered the same dungeon and competed to complete the task objectives set by the event organizer to obtain points.

The third was the dungeon survival battle. As the name suggests, it was a competition of how long the two sides could survive (suffer) in the dungeon, which was also called the "pee-holding competition" by the players in his previous life.

The battle formats of this league were much richer. The event organizer's goal was to enhance competitiveness and fun, and to add two dungeon battle formats to attract more PVE players.

The preseason for team training was also brought forward. After the secondary league and the preliminaries were over, the regular season would be directly used as the opening of the league, followed by the divisional regular season, the international All-Star Game, the divisional finals, the international regular season, and the international finals. The gap between the international competition and the divisional competition was as short as the previous one, and the schedule was tight.

The rules of this league were also many times more detailed than the previous two, and also included a "prohibited item list." As Han Da Technican expected, the [Black Star Army Badge – Evolution] was directly ranked first!

The legion players did not feel anything, because everyone could use it, so they did not think it was special, but the clubs in other star fields were greatly relieved—this equipment was too strong. If everyone in the Shattered Star Ring had one, they would just admit defeat!

However, Han Xiao believed that the reason was not just this. It was probably because it was too bloody and ugly after the mutation, which easily frightened the flowers and plants, and did not meet the event organizer's original intention of attracting popularity…

Having an ugly appearance meant no human rights. It was indeed the truth.

—

(This is yesterday's. There will be more tonight)