The Legendary Mechanic

Beep beep!

While Han Xiao had these not so righteous thoughts in his mind, his communicator suddenly rang. It was a call from Tarrokov.

As he picked it up, Brother Tar's old face appeared on the screen full of smiles. Without any formal greeting, he immediately started praising Han Xiao.

"Black Star, amazingly done. I love it when you're this decisive."

The external organizations were not sure who was really behind the organization that attacked the Modo Civilization. The dynasty, however, of course knew it was the Black Star Army.

"So, you don't love me otherwise?" Han Xiao looked calm but chuckled in his mind. "Don't forget to keep your promise and give me the resources we agreed on."

Taking revenge on the Modo Civilization was also the dynasty's request. The dynasty planned to make an example out of them.

Since the dynasty doing things themselves was not suitable, they borrowed Han Xiao's forces. Of course, they were not going to let the Black Star Army work for free and had signed a contract long ago. The Black Star Army would be responsible for educating the Modo Civilization with violence, and the Crimson Dynasty would compensate them with resources.

To the dynasty, they were hiring allies to strike enemies. To Han Xiao, he was taking the dynasty's money to do his own missions while also earning some favors, which really was pretty nice.

"Don't worry, we've never not kept our promise." Tarrokov smiled before asking, "What do you plan to do with those captives of the Modo Civilization?"

"I'll keep some of them in the army as secret manpower, and the rest will be thrown to the Kunde Race."

Old Tar nodded and reminded Han Xiao, "No matter what, make sure to take away all of their means of contacting the outside world."

"The chances of them breaking through the measures I put in place to block their communication is infinitely close to zero. You don't have to worry about that."

"You're right. You're a Virtual Mechanic after all. I'm overthinking it." Old Tar chuckled. "Actually, that was pretty much the only reason I called, just to remind you… Anyway, please go harder on the Modo Civilization. I shall hang up now."

He then ended the communication. Han Xiao tutted in his head.

To disturb him for something this trivial, it was most likely a form of hinting, saying that the dynasty knew the movements of the Black Star Army. This was basically to tell him not to mess with anyone other than the Modo Civilization. The Meeting of the Gods might also have been a factor that affected this.

"Tsk, making me read between the lines again."

Han Xiao put the communicator away and placed this matter at the back of his mind.

All the players were heading toward the Flickering World. The Shattered Star Ring was the closest Star Field, so it would not take long for the army players to arrive at the Flickering World.

As the version had just started, the players would need some time to get used to it before things got on track.

In his previous life, the players fought their own factions. Other than some famous national war incidents, the usual reasons behind fights were mission conflicts and resources. In an environment like this, the solo players' lives became tougher and tougher. Gathering in groups became a trend, and more and more players started to create guilds.

According to the official statistics, the number of player guilds increased exponentially during Version 4.0. The more time passed, the more guilds there were. There was one famous event that caused the number of guilds to increase explosively in a short term. With a few large American professional guilds in the lead such as the Devil club, they formed a formal organization that became recognized by the outside world. They then obtained an extremely rare opportunity that other players had been trying to obtain for a very long time, which led to them being officially recognized.

After that, guilds became even more important to the players. They started to gather in large groups, and guilds started to form alliances and official organizations recognized by the outside world. They then formed partnerships with other organizations in the universe through business and diplomatic means using their organization.

With that, the benefits of guilds were extremely clear, as they would be able to obtain plenty more resources compared to ordinary players.

This function had existed in the previous few versions too, but it only showed its true potential in Version 4.0, leading to a turning point in the players' careers. The main reason was the increase in the players' strength in Version 4.0. Their influence throughout the universe was on a completely different level, which was why the organizations they built were taken seriously.

"Now, because the faction benefits that I'm giving to the army players are too useful, the players of the other Star Fields might work together to suppress the army players' advantages. When everyone gets used to the new version, the army players are bound to suffer some losses. After all, there are too many who are against us."

Since the army players had the advantage, he did not mind pushing it further so that the army players would always be in the lead.

Initially, all the players would have to take some time to get used to the version before entering the stage of forming guilds and organizations on a large scale, so Han Xiao wanted to let the army players enter that stage in advance.

This needed some adjustments in the system that would encourage this behavior.

Han Xiao thought about it for a while before summoning Phillip. He thought of a new system that would only be targeted at the players, which meant the Immortals.

_____________________

Those who are promoted to high positions through making contributions, or farming Contribution Points, and have reached Grade B or above will be allowed to create a new type of combat team. The team shall consist of two or more members with no upper limit of number of members. The division name can be chosen freely. After forming such a team, they can report it in the army. Every month, according to the missions completed and total Contribution Points obtained by all the members, they will receive special Team Merit Points.

Team Merit Points can be used to purchase large amounts of resources, including equipment, knowledges, and abilities. They will also have a crucial use—to purchase the positions to manage the various businesses of the army on behalf of the army, as well as to bid for certain special projects, or exchange for the mining right of some resource rich planets.

Not only that, but with enough merit points, they can choose to become a subsidiary organization under the Black Star Army and be considered semi-independent. For those teams, the merit points can be used to request the army's reinforcements, use the army's name to execute legal strategic actions, or submit a request to have both sides work together for a certain matter. They will basically be semi-independent organizations that are partners of the Black Star Army.

_____________________

"This should be about it…"

Han Xiao then looked through the main structure of the new system a few times and nodded.

This system would 'legalize' the players' guilds.

Originally, guilds only existed between the players and were not recognized by the galactic society. For example, the NPC had no idea the Temple of Gods Guild existed, nor did they know who the members were. This system would make the players' guilds be recognized in the army's systems, so they would become official organizations with proper documentation.

This way, the players' guilds would become organizations that actually existed in the universe.

The use of the Team Merit Points would encourage the army players to create guilds without needing to get used to the version. There would no doubt be many who tried this out, especially those official guilds of large clubs.

During Version 4.0 in his previous life, there were always players who left NPC factions to create their own. With this new system, however, it would at the very least tremendously reduce the players' need to do so.

The price, of course, was that with the independence granted to the player guilds, the army would suffer a certain amount of unrest. Nevertheless, at times like this, giving the players more freedom was the path that had to be taken.

With more strength, the way to treat them had to be improved too. Han Xiao was no evil boss; he gave the players enough benefits even though he would also gain every benefit he could from them.

Version 4.0 was the turning point for the players. From here onward, the players would truly be difficult to control. They would start to spread the seed of anarchism everywhere. There was no way he could control the players as much as he did in the previous versions.

He planned to change that long ago, to give the players opportunities to grow their guilds and provide more resources to them. Only then would he be able to make the players continue to work for him willingly despite their growing strength.

At the same time, this system would also attract foreign players.

It was killing two birds with one stone.

"Master, hum… Are you sure about implementing this new system?"

Phillip, who was like a little fairy, sat on Han Xiao's collarbone with his big eyes sparkling and looking up at Han Xiao's cheek. His two tiny legs waved left and right in midair.

"Announce the preview first." Han Xiao planned to officially implement this system only after all the players arrived at the Flickering World.

Before that, he wanted to let the players have time to prepare and gather their friends.

"Okay, hum…"

Han Xiao paused, suddenly thought of something, and said, "Some time ago, I studied Risda's logic structure and had some new ideas. I'll give you some updates in a few days' time to increase your speed."

Hearing this, Phillip's eyes sparkled, and he flew up to Han Xiao's face, hugging onto Han Xiao's nose and staring into his eyes.

"Phillips loves my master the most, hum!"

"Stop acting cute." Han Xiao raised his brow and flicked Phillip away from his nose.

…

The news about the Modo Civilization's significant loss spread in the Flickering World. Many organizations talked about this privately. The other Super Star Cluster civilizations heard about this too.

Many Super Star Cluster civilizations had a meeting immediately.

"The dynasty is most likely the one who attacked Modo. We didn't expect the two of them to start fighting this soon."

"Could this be the first step of the dynasty's plan to target us Super Star Cluster civilizations?"

"Doesn't look like it. It seems to be a private matter between the dynasty and Modo."

"Hmm, after we pass the areas of the first and second phase, we should help Modo when we can. We can't let the dynasty beat them up too badly."

As they knew the three Universal Civilizations would not let them comfortably develop in the Flickering World, most of the Super Star Cluster civilization had already formed secret alliances to fight against the three Universal Civilizations' hostility together.

As Modo was attacked, according to their alliance terms, the other Super Star Cluster civilizations all decided to provide help when suitable.

Although this did not seem to have anything to do with them, the Super Star Cluster alliance did not want to give the dynasty the chance to break them one by one. Although the Modo Civilization was their competitor, fighting against the three Universal Civilizations' pressure was the top task in the eyes of the Super Star Cluster alliance. Therefore, they did not mind helping their competitor. Only then would they be able to break through the three Universal Civilizations' control of the new Star Field.

…

With assistance from the army and the dynasty, no witness discovered the attackers. After some days, the Black Star fleet that had attacked the Modo Civilization finally rendezvoused and returned to the Garu Star Cluster through a secret route. The selected captives were then sent to the Kunde Race's planet in the Odoran Star System.

With help from the Black Star Army, every colonial planet now had plenty of cities. They were not short of resources.

The Kunde Race had been peacefully resting for more than a decade. Although they had yet to recover from the wounds of the war, many chose to enjoy the peace and new life.

In the past, the communication from all these colonial planets toward the outside world was blocked. The residents of the planets could only log into their planet server network. Therefore, they had absolutely no idea what was happening in the outside world. It was like they were stranded on an island in the universe.

The army and the dynasty had control of all the media channels and did not allow the existence of civilian media corporations. The Kunde Race members could only accept the cultural transformation from the dynasty in the form of literature, music, and entertainment. The various entertainment sources would slowly change their ways of thinking.

Living so peacefully and not having any chance to resist, they could do absolutely nothing even if they were furious. Many people could only accept their fate with resignation.

Today, however, the official channel that had been playing cultural transformation shows every day suddenly announced a piece of news that made countless Kunde Race members thrilled.

His Excellency Black Star kept his promise back then to avenge the Kunde Race, and he had now captured the captives of some of the people behind their tragedy. These people would be sent to the Kunde Race colonial planets very soon.

This piece of news immediately caused a sensation!

The Kunde Race of this generation could not resist, but they did not forget their hatred. Compared to the dynasty, they hated the people who used the Kunde Race back then even more.

As the date approached, countless members of the Kunde Race arrived early at the designated dock and looked up at the sky, waiting for the arrival of these captives.

Whoosh!

More and more spaceships penetrated the atmosphere and quickly landed on the dock.

As the hatches opened one after another, batches of Black Star Army warriors escorted the unarmed captives out.

The captives that were sent there were all filtered, so no strong soldiers were present. They all wore the same prison uniform, and all their possessions were confiscated. They carried no threat at all.

The Kunde Race around them were innumerable. As the many captives saw so many ferocious looking creatures surrounding them, they became uncontrollably nervous, and their bodies started to stiffen.

"What planet is this? Why were we sent here?"

"What are these creatures? Beasts?"

"They're wearing clothes. They're intelligent."

"Why are they all staring at us? It's a little horrifying."

Using the Kunde Race was a secret only the upper echelons knew, of course, these normal soldiers had no idea. Many did not even recognize this species at all. They were lost and had no idea why these intelligent beings were staring at them.

At this time, a stone suddenly flew out from the crowd and landed on a captive's head.

Pa!

This captive grunted and quickly covered his head.

Before his other friends could respond, countless objects flew out from the crowd and were thrown at all these captives.

Whining and wailing sounded immediately. The captives were bleeding everywhere. The Black Star Army warriors watched coldly from the side. After they had been attacked for quite some time, they finally activated their shields to block all the flying objects. The floor was quickly covered in random objects.

Although no lives were lost, the captives were still frightened.

"Why are they hitting us‽"

"Why did the Black Star Army send us here?"

They were making a fuss. As they looked around with terror, they finally understood the look in the members of the Kunde Race's eyes around them—they were filled with hatred and rage.

At this time, an army warrior snorted and coldly said, "They're the Kunde Race, a native civilization of the Flickering World. During the second exploration phase, the Modo Civilization secretly used the Kunde Race and provoked them to fight the dynasty, causing the Kunde Race to be eliminated. All of you are their enemy. Stay here and pay for your sins."

After hearing this, the captives went silent with their eyes widened.

Sending us to the territory of the people who hate us… You're using us for them to vent their anger!

We were promised to live, but this is worse than dying!

W-we're done for!

The captives were filled with negative emotions. They did not dare look up as they were pushed forward onto the land transports toward the prisons.

The land transport slowly departed from the dock. From start to end, the Kunde Race around had always been staring at the captives.

The crowd did not dissipate. After some time, someone finally spoke.

"Black Star promised to bring us justice back then. It's actually true…"

"Black Star has been keeping his promise."

"I misunderstood him. Turns out he's someone so noble."

Many Kunde Race felt the same way.

In the past decade or so, the Black Star Army had managed the planet and provided them with countless resources. Together with the promotion in the media, the Kunde Race was already quite familiar with the army.

In terms of emotions, the Kunde Race did not have much hatred for the Black Star Army, but not many of them believed Han Xiao's promise back then.

After all, the Kunde Race was just a group of 'prisoners' who could not fight back; why should Black Star waste his energy to bring them justice? After more than ten years, they thought that he had already forgotten this.

However, Han Xiao had proved to them that he was not joking with results.

In the eyes of the Kunde Race, Black Star immediately became the only hope to bring justice for their race.

While shocked and surprised, a sense of appreciation grew in the hearts of the Kunde Race, together with more hope.

Black Star, what a good man!