The Legendary Mechanic

The records clearly stated the major events that the Black Star Army had been through during the twenty-year update. Frenzied Sword filtered it to be between the years 709 and 729, arranged from the earliest to the latest.

And this highlighted record was the first thing he saw.

'Galaxy Calendar Year 710, Black Star became a Mechanical Deity!'

This term blew Frenzied Sword's fragile mind. There was only one thought in his head.

Black Star has become a God!

This name was very intimidating, but Frenzied Sword calmed down and did some research. Only then did he understand that 'Mechanical Deity' had a different meaning to what he expected. It was the nickname of Divine Throne Mechanics, which meant that Black Star had become a peak Beyond Grade A.

"That startled me. I thought Old Black was going to ascend above."

Slightly relieved, Frenzied Sword continued to browse through, noticing another few major events in the same year.

Firstly, when the first exploration phase ended, the army received seven Star Systems as its territory and became the biggest armed organization in the Flickering World. Secondly, the Germinal Financial Group was formed, starting its fight with the Limitless Financial Group in the various commercial industries. Thirdly, the plan of building Super Academies was executed; the Black Star Army had already built tens of thousands of Super Academies in the Shattered Star Ring, raising countless Supers, some of which were chosen to become members of the army.

In the same period, after Black Star became a Mechanical Deity, he had fought the Tyrant once again, beating him with just an avatar. This confirmed his position as the strongest individual in the Shattered Star Ring. Not long after, the Mechanic Emperor invaded, and conflict erupted, which was ended by the dynasty interfering to force the Mechanic Emperor away.

Frenzied Sword could almost feel how intense things were back then from just the words.

After that, the army entered into a low-profile development period. Black Star no longer featured in the top news as often and quietly remained in the Flickering World. Then, in the year 716, the war with the Kunde Race erupted. This was the first sub-Star Cluster native civilization that was eliminated.

However, the records of this period of history were very sparse and vague. There was only a rough conclusion, and nothing could be found online. The only valuable clue that Frenzied Sword had was that the Black Star Army was now responsible for the transformation task of the Kunde Race, which had been going on for thirteen years.

After the Kunde Race war, the army remained low profile during the second and the third phases as well. Everything had been peaceful and calm until only recently, when the army revealed its second Beyond Grade A, someone they were familiar with.

"Hila has become a Beyond Grade A‽" Seeing the name, Frenzied Sword's eyes widened in shock.

No players born on Planet Aquamarine were unfamiliar with Hila. Be it when she was the villain 'Crimson Snake' in the Germinal Organization or when she fought on their side during the Mutation Disaster of Version 2.0, these impressions were all deeply rooted in each and every player of Planet Aquamarine… mainly because Hila's astonishing beaty made the deepest impression.

All the old players knew that Black Star and Hila went way back, from Planet Aquamarine to the universe. She was an old friend who appeared very long ago.

Frenzied Sword had worked hard for four versions in the army, so the army was his home faction. Now that his own faction had another person to rely on, no words could describe how pleasantly surprised Frenzied Sword was.

Suppressing his excitement, Frenzied Sword turned to the last bit of the records—the 'Meeting of the Gods' that Black Star had hosted just recently, where he summoned more than seventy Beyond Grade As to gather in one place.

Seeing the shocking influence Black Star had, even his heart skipped a beat. After twenty years, how had Black Star's position in the universe already achieved this standard‽

"My god…"

Before Frenzied Sword could pull himself out of the shock, loud laughter exploded from beside him, startling him.

"Hahaha! Nice!"

Bun-Hit-Dog guffawed into the sky with his hands on his hips. His mouth was opened so wide that it almost looked like it was going to crack. His smile was like the smile of an evil hound.

Frenzied Sword covered his ears. "What are you laughing about?"

"Look at this. During the twenty years of the version update, look at how much has happened to the Black Star Army. This is all material for videos. This is a treasure!"

Bun-Hit-Dog was exhilarated. With so much material, he would not have to worry about having nothing to make videos about for quite some time.

He planned to include all the things the army achieved during the update, to help the army players know about the army's history. Just thinking about it made him certain it would be popular, and he was sure he would probably go viral again!

With that in mind, Bun-Hit-Dog took a look around and realized that many people were looking at their communicators and browsing through the history of the army. He could not help but open the forums. He used his talent as the number one reporter and uploaded the army records. At the same time, he gave the post an attractive title—'Shock! The Army's Glorious Twenty Years!'

At the start of a new version, countless players were exchanging information on the forums with excitement. As soon as this post was uploaded, it attracted a lot of attention in the Shattered Star Ring panel.

Army Commander's Big PP: "Old Black is fierce as always!"

Fulliron Alchemist: "Old Black has been like this ever since the first version. He's undoubtedly a legend at starting from zero. Is there anyone in the entire universe more amazing than him?"

Stupid Cat: "The ID of the brother above…"

Magnet Link: "I didn't expect Hila to become a Beyond Grade A too. By the way, do you guys remember Black Star's origin? He started as a traitor of the Germinal Organization, and Hila was a member of the Germinal Organization too… Tsk, what an organization."

Mysterious Man: "Germinal doesn't die; it only hides!"

While Frenzied Sword was deeply drawn to the stupid comments, he was suddenly dragged by Maple Moon toward the dock.

"Stop reading, let's quickly go to the Flickering World, as soon as possible."

With someone taking the lead, the players of the entire Black Star Army headquarters started moving and swarmed toward the dock.

…

The forums, which had been quiet for quite some time, suddenly became extremely boisterous. After the army players scattered around various places understood what was going on in this version, they immediately headed to the nearest army base and boarded a fleet toward the Flickering World. No one wanted to miss out on the world server.

As members of the Black Star Army, since they had such a huge advantage, they were not going to waste it. Every second counted.

In the eyes of the foreign professional clubs, the exclusive faction advantage the Chinese players in the Shattered Star Ring had was just about the worst news they could receive. The guilds of the various countries hastily started private meetings to discuss the matter.

"Things are not looking good. The main storyline of this version is way too good for the Chinese players. The world server is right beside the Shattered Star Ring, and they've already been there. When our guilds enter the world server, it will be very difficult for us to compete with these top Chinese guilds such as Dynasty and Long Sky. We will certainly be at a disadvantage in Guild Wars, which will very likely affect the growth of our professional players."

"In the previous season, three teams out of the top four teams were from China. We can't keep letting them have such dominance over us no matter what this season."

"It's going to be tough. The Black Star Army is basically going to be the locals in the world server, and it's backing the Chinese players up. Are we going to join the Black Star Army?"

"It's very difficult for the professional players and the guild top players to join other factions on a completely different side, or all the effort spent in the previous versions will go to waste."

"That's right. Even if we do change factions, we can't compete with what the Chinese players have built up in the Black Star Army over several versions."

"Let's observe how things go for now, see how the Chinese guilds respond to this. If it's not ideal… we might have to unite the clubs from the other countries."

Although this was just the first day of the start of the new version, the situation had already made the clubs from various countries agitated.

After all, the faction advantage for the Chinese players was way too huge. While the Americans, Frenches, Koreans, and Japanese were feeling indignant, they all had thoughts of forming an alliance.

…

"So, all the players have moved…"

Han Xiao smiled after hearing Phillip's report.

With the opening of the Flickering World, the traffic of this Star Field would explode. There would be demanded businesses everywhere, bringing opportunities. It would be like the age of digging for gold. The advantages the Black Star Army had been building for so long would now finally show their effects.

To him, this was not the stage of exploration but the stage of harvest!

With the territory he had, it basically meant he could just sit and watch while others brought him profit.

Countless organizations would be competing there, so the players would have plenty of mission resources and countless ways to gain EXP, as well as no shortage of opportunities to fight.

However, it's not that easy to harvest EXP at the start of the new version, Han Xiao thought.

The players' current main goal was continuing to level up, so most of the EXP they earned would be spent on levels. It was not time to harvest yet.

In order to quickly level up, Han Xiao had to wait for the players for a period of time.

However, Han Xiao was in no hurry. Quite a number of new items had been added to the army's store. No matter how petty the players were, he could make the players open their wallets. The efficiency of getting EXP from this still far exceeded him doing missions himself.

His level, which had remained stagnant for so long, could now finally increase rapidly!

Players from various nations swarming into the world server was an opportunity to enlarge his farm. For the Black Star Army to attract outside players now, Han Xiao no longer had to do much. The advantages he had obtained over the versions and his positive name were the core appeals.

The bigger the advantage the army players had in the Flickering World, the more attractive the Black Star Army would be. However, due to exactly this reason, Han Xiao could guess that some foreign clubs might get together to fight the Chinese players. Therefore, helping the army players was a must.

In his previous life during Version 4.0, the clubs from the various nations kept forming alliances and betraying each other in all kinds of ways that made things almost look like they were in the 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' era.

His plan was to use the army's territory as a base to provide resources while helping the army players become stronger in Version 4.0. At the same time, he would use the players' power to create trouble, attacking the enemies while protecting their own forces, attracting more players, and satisfying his need to level up.

"Modo Civilization, Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy…" Han Xiao's eyes sparkled.

It would still take the players of the various Star Fields some time to arrive at the Flickering World. Other than the players, these two matters were what he needed to deal with the most.

The Kunde Race's mission required him to take revenge against the Modo Civilization. Back then, the dynasty told him to only fully execute the plan when the Flickering World was completely open. Now, the Modo Civilization's troops had also entered the Flickering World. On his turf, Han Xiao had a hundred ways to make life hell for the Modo Civilization.

The mission reward was the [Proof of Leadership] talent, which was extremely useful for the leader of a huge organization like him. Han Xiao had waited more than ten years, and he could finally make a move.

The moment when the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy appeared would also soon arrive, and there would probably be quite a number of organizations who would fight for it. Han Xiao had already sent troops off toward the location marked in EsGod's heritage.

He had also researched its owner in his previous life. If he remembered correctly, it should be an ordinary person called Evans. He already had the location of Evans, who was also in the Flickering World and under his surveillance.

If there was no one under his command that could control the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy, he would find the owner from his previous life, who would definitely be able to control it.

While pondering, Han Xiao told Phillip, "Search for the current location of the Modo Civilization's fleet… I shall send them a huge 'gift' to begin."