The Legendary Mechanic

Han Xiao could not help but rub his temples.

Players were the incarnation of anarchy. Even though they were already members of his own faction, they could still not be fully controlled. Although their intentions were good, what they did would always end up causing all kinds of strange things to happen.

The atmosphere of the entire forums got carried away by this topic.

After being frustrated for a while, Han Xiao suddenly laughed.

"These guys really can't seem to stop causing problems… but this might not be a bad thing."

He pondered for a while and suddenly realized that he did not have to stop the players.

Not to mention that the players were communicating on the forums and there was no way he could use that as evidence to catch them, this was not a bad thing for building a sense of belonging for the army.

If not because the senior players loved and cared about him, they would not try to 'save' him.

He did not have to operate a universal armed force like a tinker, fixing any problems that appeared. Instead, letting the players cause some trouble during the closing ceremony would even bring the Black Star Cup more attention, and he did not even have to plan anything.

The players were led by Fly Free, who wanted to backstab him in the name of justice, but this was completely harmless in Han Xiao's eyes. He was happy to put on a show with them.

The Black Star Army's public image in the universe was basically an ally of justice recognized by everyone. The people were extremely forgiving toward the army, so even if something like this happened during the Black Star Cup closing ceremony, it would not affect the army's reputation. Instead, it would feel interesting to most people. The Black Star Army basically had the public opinion armor.

Actually, Han Xiao figured out easily that he did not have to explain any rumors spreading among the players to anyone, they were non-issues to him.

I'm the faction leader, a top warlord in the universe, and I didn't really get swapped. If I even have to explain myself in the face of such a weird accusation, it will be a joke.

The evidence of the players' doubts was the Character Summon Card, which actually seemed to make sense from their perspective. However, as long as they could see the big picture, this kind of suspicion would not be able to stand its ground at all. If the Mechanic Emperor really disguised himself as him, there would be way too many flaws in that theory that could not be explained. For example, why did none of the other Beyond Grade As sense it? Why did the three Universal Civilizations not notice it? How could the army's artificial intelligence, Phillip, not respond to it at all? And if he was the Mechanic Emperor, how could the Mechanic Emperor use his secondary dimension army box?

No one in the entire universe could disguise himself as another peak Beyond Grade A perfectly. Even a shapeshifter like 'Illusory Deity' Kant could not.

The players did not understand what seemed like common sense to anyone who could see the big picture, so maybe their accusation would be an interesting topic for galactic residents to discuss over meals. Only completely clueless people would believe it. Their evidence that was on the interface was something that did not exist to ordinary people.

Han Xiao knew very well that the main reason the players believed this theory was that it was still fresh. Once the blind passion faded and they saw that everything was continuing as usual, this kind of ridiculous rumor would collapse on itself.

All important people would be involved in strange and wild rumors. There was no need to explain himself, so he decided to give the players some room for imagination.

Han Xiao's eyes gleamed.

To the players who only cared about the benefits of the faction, it did not matter who owned the faction. Therefore, being willing to expose the Mechanic Emperor's 'conspiracy' while bearing the risk of being punished by the faction was basically a sacrificial act.

Then does it mean that the more people who take part in this mission, the more united the army is‽

Furthermore, since the players used this reason to cause trouble, the Mechanic Emperor will be the one getting the negative image here!

Having thought of that, Han Xiao smiled and summoned Phillip.

"Phillip, watch the Immortals of the army closely for some time. Report any and all situations to me."

"Okay, hum!"

"By the way, invite the Beyond Grade As to come and watch the ceremony in my name while you're at it. Send one to the Mechanic Emperor too."

"Hum… will the Mechanic Emperor come?" Phillip tilted his little head with confusion.

"How would I know? Just send it to him. It's best if he comes. I'll have a chance to provoke him again." Han Xiao giggled.

"Alright then, hum…"

Seeing Han Xiao's evil smile, Phillip obeyed him without asking anything.

…

"Black Star invited me to attend an event?"

At a secret base somewhere in Primeval Star River, Manison, who was trying to simulate the Virtual Mutiny Virus, stopped and looked at his artificial intelligence with confusion.

"Yes, he's invited you to attend the Black Star Cup closing ceremony."

What's wrong with this guy?

What makes Black Star think I will give him face after what happened?

Manison could not understand it at all.

Is he trying to fix our relationship?

Or make me lose face in public?

"I'm not going. Reject it," Manison replied and continued to reverse engineer the technology.

"Okay, message sent."

Manison replied with a soft grunt and then stopped what he was doing for a moment. "By the way, remind me to watch the stream on the day of the Black Star Cup closing ceremony."

Although he did not plan to give Han Xiao face, he still wanted to find out what Black Star was attempting to do. There was definitely a reason he had received an invitation.

…

While the discussion about whether Han Xiao was 'real or fake' raged on the forums, the last two finals of the Black Star Cup started as scheduled.

Countless audience platforms floated above the venue planet, covering the sky. They were all fully occupied by army members and spectators who had bought live tickets.

The audience platform specially made by the army was in the form of an oval shaped cabin. All the walls were transparent, so the spectators inside could see the outside from any angle. The walls also had the function to zoom in.

These audience platforms were also protected by transparent energy shields that could block all kinds of impacts and radiation so that there would not be any spectators lucky enough to get hurt. They could also fly at Mach speed twenty-four to ensure the spectators would be able to keep up with the Calamity Grade battles. With the advanced technology the platforms had, the spectators inside would also not feel any turbulence even when flying at such a high speed and always feel as if they were on the ground.

Today, Han Xiao personally came to watch the competition at the venue. He arrived at the extremely crowded venue and hovered in front of the various audience platforms.

As soon as he showed up, he felt like electricity was running through his skin, as if he was being stared at by countless people from behind.

Han Xiao was not surprised. He knew this was the countless players in the audience seats using 'Detect' on him.

In the eyes of the players, Han Xiao's detailed attributes were still all question marks, but the players' goal was to see the color of Han Xiao's name. The result of that was still green, which showed that Han Xiao was on their side, and they started chattering.

"Let's begin." Han Xiao was not concerned about the players' discussion. He turned and signaled the host to start the finals.

The host coughed and said with a loud voice, "Greetings, everyone. Today is the last day of the official Black Star Cup competitions. There will be a total of two finals, the duel finals of the Calamity Grade group and the Square Scrimmage final of the Immortals group. Without further ado, the first match today will be the fight between two Calamity Grades. Contestants, please enter the venue…"

As soon as he said that, Hadavy and Jotina appeared. After a brief introduction, the two of them went to their own positions and waited for the match to start. Their battlefield was the surface of the entire planet.

As time passed, the atmosphere became more and more tense. The moment the host announced the start of the match, two silhouettes left afterimages in their place and clashed.

Boom!

A shockwave expanded. The two of them instantly started attacking each other. Their movements were extremely quick as they moved across the planet's surface. Everywhere they passed, they would leave cracks and deep claw marks hundreds of meters long on the ground.

Boom!

Violent Pugilist flames continuously landed on Hadavy, shattering all the hills and forests around like a dragon crawling on the land. Disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis erupted.

Hadavy was a hardening-type Esper, while Jotina was a Pugilist. Both of them were good at melee combat. The battle between them was violent and savage, basically just the clashing of muscles and muscles, like two beasts fighting each other. To be more precise, Jotina was attacking, and Hadavy was enduring the attacks. The battle would only end when the one enduring the attacks could not take it anymore or when the one attacking got exhausted.

The impact of a Calamity Grade battle was exciting and beautiful for most of the spectators, but in Han Xiao's eyes, the movements of the two of them were like a slow-motion video. He could easily count how many times Hadavy's skin rippled after he got punched.

With Han Xiao's current level, battles of Calamity Grades had absolutely no suspense. Hence, he decided to look at the forums while occasionally glancing back.

Under the eyes of countless people, the result was finally decided after the two of them fought for a very long time. The surface of the planet looked like it had been hit by a meteor shower. It was tragic. In the end, Hadavy was victorious. Although he was covered in bruises and wounds, Jotina had collapsed from exhaustion first.

After decades of combat training, or rather, getting beat up, Hadavy's defense was now extremely high. In combination with his two Molding Talents, True Damage Immunity and Low Strength Attack Immunity, there was not a single person tankier than him in the Black Star Army other than Han Xiao.

"Haha, I'm the pillar of the army who His Excellency Black Star personally trained for decades. You're still too young."

Hadavy was very proud as he wagged his finger at Jotina, who was on the ground.

If not for his bruised face, this would have been quite convincing…

"Damn it!"

Jotina was not satisfied with the loss at all. She slammed the ground and created a crack dozens of meters wide.

She could not win the championship, which meant that Black Star would not notice her strength. Black Star not noticing her strength meant she would have less time to communicate with Black Star during the award ceremony. Less time to communicate with Black Star during the award ceremony meant it would be more difficult for her to build feelings. More difficulty building feelings meant the chances of her carrying out reproductive activities with Black Star would be lowered. As a new member of the army whose goal was to sleep with Black Star, she was extremely unhappy.

Han Xiao watched as the two of them were sent to have their injuries taken care of. He touched his chin and started pondering.

In my previous life, Hadavy did not reach the Beyond Grade A realm, and Jotina even died at the hands of Beast Ancestor, but now they're both under my command. I've trained Hadavy for decades. His chance of reaching Beyond Grade A, well, isn't zero. It's just that his ability is too monotonous. Even if he does become a Beyond Grade A, he'll probably be at the lowest level like Kohler and Beyoni…

As for Jotina, other than her wild and open personality, Han Xiao quite liked her.

In terms of just potential, the chance of Jotina becoming a Beyond Grade A was probably even higher than Hadavy. However, it would be basically impossible for her to reach Beast Ancestor's level. Han Xiao felt that the limit of Jotina's growth was probably somewhere around the level of 'Star Slasher' Viru, or 'Tyrant' Heber…

Not very strong but not among the weakest.

As Han Xiao was reminded of Heber, he started thinking of him.

Ever since Heber was defeated by him, he had been keeping a much lower profile and quietly growing in the Shattered Star Ring.

Speaking of low profile, Han Xiao was reminded of Psyker again. He felt that this guy's presence had gotten even lower in the universe. He might want to visit the Star Pupil Civilization some time. After all, he was now the Special Consultant of the three Universal Civilizations, so visiting Psyker would be totally within his duty.

While his thoughts ran wild, Black Star Cup's logistics department entered the venue and started using tons of industrial devices to operate on this almost destroyed planet.

After a new venue was built, the host announced the start of the last final. Rivervale, Dynasty, Thunder Storm, and Gold's teams entered one after another, greeting the spectators.

However, all the players' eyes were focused on Gold, even including the other three teams. Clearly, they were waiting for their proof.

"Captain, should I use the Character Summon Card now?"

Fly Free looked around the entire place and firmly said, "Use it! This is the perfect time to prove we were not lying."

The Mechanic player took a deep breath, opened the interface, and activated the Black Star Character Summon Card. Then, he enlarged his status bar and made it public.

Of course, as the interface was displayed, ordinary people would not be able to see it. Only the players could see the name of the effect given by this Character Summon Card.

Black Star Character Summon Card—[Billion Mechanic Empire—Manison]!

"It's true!"

The players became excited. Some even stood up and made the other spectators confused.

Han Xiao floated in midair with his arms crossed and listened to the discussions of the players from the feedback of the cameras inside the audience platforms. He smirked.

After a while, many players calmed down and looked up at Han Xiao's back view. All kinds of emotions appeared in their eyes.

Originally, since this was the last final, it should have been the center of attention. However, many players were in a state of shock and confusion and could not focus on the match. The NPC spectators were as excited as usual, cheering for the four teams, completely ignorant of the emotional rollercoaster the Immortals were going through.

Han Xiao did not focus much on the match either and was looking at the players' comments on the forums. The match ended very quickly. Dynasty was the winner, and Gold Team was the first to get eliminated.

Gold Team had exposed their trump card in advance, so as expected, they got focus fired. Furthermore, [Billion Mechanic Empire] was not very powerful in the hands of the players yet.

The players did not have those high-level Mechanic abilities and could not benefit from the specific bonuses. Furthermore, the duration was only a short hour, so the most powerful production and invention abilities of this ability were completely useless. The only things the player could benefit from were bonuses to their Intellect, Machinery Affinity, and Mechanic ability levels. These were just the basic bonuses. Though strong, it was not so powerful it would immediately turn the tide.

This ability was totally wasted in the hands of the players. Only peak Beyond Grade A Mechanics would be able to fully utilize the power of [Billion Mechanic Empire].

"… All the events of the Black Star Cup have now ended. Thank you for watching, and thank you, army commander, for attending the matches today. In three days, we're going to host the closing ceremony of the Black Star Cup. The army commander will be personally congratulating all those who've achieved great results in the Black Star Cup. Ladies and gentlemen, see you then!"

The host then left the venue and ended the broadcast.

The spectators also left the venue, including the players. They kept looking back at Han Xiao while leaving.

Han Xiao smiled and watched them leave. He saw the players' reactions clearly. He uncontrollably raised his brows and felt anticipation for some reason.

I would like to find out how important I am to the players and how many are willing to sacrifice themselves for me.