The Legendary Mechanic

[Fearless Heart] was undoubtedly a semi-Molding Talent level talent. This was a surprise for Han Xiao.

He turned off the interface and contemplated what to do next.

"Modo is already disqualified. The second requirement of the Kunde Race mission is complete. As long as Modo doesn't come to mess with me, I won't need to fight them in the future… Once they retreat, I won't have an excuse to take part in the Flickering War anymore. I'll have to temporarily exit this stage. The army players might have problems with that… but luckily, now is already the final stage of the version. The impact won't be too huge."

Without Modo as an opponent, the Black Star Army no longer had a reason to continue participating in the Flickering World. This way, the army players would have to exit this main storyline too. If this had happened in the middle or even early stage of the version, the army players would have been in an uproar. Some of the newbies would most likely have changed factions to join the first World Server war.

However, Modo retreated at just the right time. It was now near the end of the version, meaning there was not much time left for the players to do things. Most of their energy was focused on preparing for the fourth season of the Pro League and the World Server War that was about to happen. These were the last two big things they could do near the end of the Version 4.0.

Losing the Flickering War main storyline in this situation would minimize the players' dissatisfaction. Furthermore, Han Xiao had faked a main storyline mission, which the players would receive reward from, making up for the loss of the players not being able to participate in the real main storyline mission to a certain extent.

Due to the existence of the Black Star Army, the state and territory distribution of the various guild alliances in the Flickering World was completely different from Han Xiao's previous life. Furthermore, this difference would extend all the way to the versions in the future. Even Han Xiao could not really predict what would become of these guild alliances in the future.

Han Xiao pondered for a while. When he realized that there were no more big things he had to do at the end of the version, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"What needs to be done has been done. What's left is to watch things develop like the other Beyond Grade As and wait for the Flickering War to come to a result…"

Han Xiao decided to lie low for some time and develop his technology, spending the remaining time of Version 4.0 peacefully. Furthermore, the army had attracted way too much attention recently. Nothing was good in excess, so it was a good time to cool down and temporarily stay out of the public eye.

"Now I just have to wait for the World Server War and the Pro League to suck out the players' savings for me to have enough EXP for Promotion."

Han Xiao smiled. He did not even have to come up with any promotional events. These two events were like automatic harvesting machines, convenient and effortless.

…

The Modo Civilization did not openly announce their retreat. They focused on promoting their plan to attack the terrorist organizations while quietly withdrawing the expeditionary army bit by bit.

The Super Star Cluster Alliance was an organization with shared interests, after all. Although Modo gave up on the Flickering War, they could not just walk away. As the Modo expeditionary army retreated, the other Super Star Cluster civilizations sent out some of their troops to form mixed fleets and took over this line of defense.

The Super Star Cluster Alliance was glad to see Modo exit. This way, their nightmare Black Star would be gone too. This was a completely beneficial trade in their eyes. Although the other Super Star Cluster civilizations were harsh in the things they said, they were still in the same alliance. They achieved some kind of deal with Modo and signed some agreements as compensation for Modo's exit.

As the main enemy fled, the Black Star Army's troops stopped attacking the Super Star Cluster Alliance's line of defense and left the Ferdinand Battle Zone in batches. The forged mission [Black Star Army Expedition Order] concluded, giving the army players a wave of rich rewards.

Although the rewards were set by Han Xiao and slightly worse than the real main storyline, it had its pros. The players would only be able to conclude the real Flickering War main storyline mission after the war ended, meaning only in the next version. On the other hand, the fake main storyline mission Han Xiao had made could be concluded now, meaning the players would receive the reward before the version ended.

These rewards gave the army players more resources to level up abilities, purchase equipment, and so on to increase their strength. The most direct benefit was that this would help players in the World Server War and the Pro League that was about to come.

Just as Han Xiao expected, exiting the main storyline in advance did not trouble the players. If the war against Modo was still carrying on, this would cause ordering the players very difficult for the army. Now that he had basically given the players a holiday, they could fully focus on the World Server War.

Planet Milton was a desolate planet located in the exterior parts of the Emerald Star Cluster. Over the past few months, batches of fleets with symbols of different guild alliances had been arriving there, building bases, fortresses, and lines of defenses on this planet.

Many of these guild alliances were enemies with each other, but all of them silently agreed on ignoring each other and constructed their strongholds peacefully.

The reason that this happened was one of the rules stated inside the invitation letter that before the designated date to start the war arrived, all professional guilds and player alliances that had arrived on Planet Milton could construct as many strongholds as they wanted, but attacking each other was not allowed. Anyone who disobeyed the rules would be kicked out of this war.

This was like a 'protected period', basically the preparation stage for all the guild alliances that were participating, as well the time given to all the players to get there.

Therefore, in the past few months, these guilds had been sending one batch of spaceships there after another, transporting tons of resources and constructing many temporary strongholds. The locations they chose to build strongholds were anything but random; some guild alliances had teamed up with others, and their strongholds had to be built close to one another so that they could help each other.

Since fighting before the official date was not allowed, fighting for the locations to build their strongholds was also forbidden. It worked on a first come first served basis. Therefore, the invisible war started during the preparation stage when they were constructing the strongholds. Choosing the location of the strongholds was like playing chess; not only did they have to be close to their allies' strongholds, but they also had to disrupt the enemy guild alliances' stronghold formations.

As of now, about seventy percent of all the players in Galaxy had arrived. The unpopulated Planet Milton became exceptionally boisterous.

…

In Golden Alliance Base No.1, the upper echelons of the four biggest Chinese guilds and various top tier Chinese guilds gathered in one place.

In the middle of the room was a 3D projection of Planet Milton. The surface was divided into areas with different colors, representing the territories of different guild alliances.

The Golden Alliance was the guild alliance the Chinese profession clubs took the lead in founding. It basically included all the top tier Chinese guilds. The Golden Alliance could be seen as the representatives of the Chinese players; almost all the members were army players.

The term 'army players' was just a general term. It was not an official guild alliance and also had different factions. Some foreign players who only joined the army in Version 4.0 formed different guild alliances. Being in the same faction was a link that made these guild alliances natural allies.

Usually, these guild alliances could be seen as a whole, generally called the 'army players'. However, when it comes to the national war, they still need to be classified separately.

The various guild alliances that gathered on Planet Milton could be roughly split into four Factions—the Black Star Army Faction led by the Golden Alliance, the Anti-Black Star Faction led by the Galactic Business Alliance, the Three Universal Civilizations Faction led by the September Conference, and the remaining scattered forces mainly consisting of the guilds from other Beyond Grade A organizations and neutral organizations. They fought for their own and had no leader.

Morning Snow Twilight Frost stood beside the projection, gestured with his hands, and said casually, "… As everyone can see, the Galactic Business Alliance, Northern Battlefront, 5C Alliance, and so on have always targeted us. They've set up their strongholds around every one of our strongholds, preventing us from expanding the base, clearly planning to surround us as soon as the war starts."

He was the president of the Dynasty Club's official guild, also the first president of the Golden Alliance.

The president of the Temple of God, Jupiter, crossed his legs and said with disdain, "Ha, are these Europeans playing chess? Don't they know who invented chess?"

"Our allies are responding too. Some arrived at the locations in advance, so the enemies won't be able to surround us. Some built strongholds at important strategic locations. It won't be that easy for the enemies to mess with us," the president of the Jade Green Sky said slowly.

The guild alliances of the Black Star Army Faction had made an agreement to follow the lead of the Golden Alliance and fight together. Other than the guild alliances of the Black Star Army Faction, the Golden Alliance also received help from elsewhere, the enemies of their enemies. The enemy's enemy might not be their friend, but at least there was room for them to work together.

"In terms of supplies, fleets, and weapons, we have the upper hand. The bulk purchased Evolutionary Badges are also given out, forming close to two hundred demolition divisions of eight hundred members each. In attacking strongholds, they'll destroy the enemies with the aid of airstrikes very quickly," a guild president said excitedly.

Fleets and all kinds of war machines were allowed in this war, but no Planetary Obliteration level weapons were permitted. However, the weapons used had to be bought. This war was a pure battle between the players; getting help from NPCs was clearly forbidden.

The various large guild alliances hosted this battle mainly to create exposure. The national war aligned with the various clubs' interests. As long as they could achieve outstanding results in the war or even become the final winners, their guilds would be able to attract more ordinary players, gain more fame, and earn through traffic. This was the goal of professional clubs.

As for the winning condition, it was very simple. There were mainly two ways. One was to destroy all of the enemy's strongholds on Planet Milton. After the battle started, the guild alliances would still be able to continue building more strongholds, but the others would be allowed to attack them.

Another way was to deplete the opposing guild members' revival times in the week. The players could revive ten times in six days at most on one account, and in such a highly intense war with hundreds of millions of players participating, the frequency of the players dying would become strikingly high.

Morning Snow Twilight Frost nodded, turned to the many professional players who were listening on the side, and asked, "How's the challenge going?"

King Admiral said lazily, "More wins than losses. I forgot the exact numbers."

Bun-Hit-Dog instantly gave a thumbs up with a grin. "No worries, I remember. We're now at 3,488 wins, 1,142 losses. The win rate is about 75%. It's glorious!"

The rules stated that the guilds could not fight each other, but since so many players had gathered there, clearly some would get too bored. Duels were not forbidden, so PVP matches could be seen everywhere.

Due to this, the various large guild alliances sent out many PVP experts to challenge players of the other guilds. If they won, the other guild's morale would be affected.

The results of these duels needed to be promoted to increase the popularity of the guild, so professional reports were needed. Hence, Bun-Hit-Dog, who was a celebrity, was hired by the Golden Alliance as the chief reporter to lead the entire battlefield reporters group, personally in charge of writing the battle reports of the Golden Alliance.

Such a large-scale national war had players in all kinds of industries participating such as PVP experts, logistics players, management personnel, reporters, and so on. They all had their own job to do. It was a festival.

…

As the date for the start of the war approached, the atmosphere on Planet Milton became more and more heavy. A storm was coming.

The players were not the only ones who paid attention to this war. Even the other organizations paid attention to this war between the Immortals.

The three Universal Civilizations, Super Star Cluster civilizations, and the other organizations got some information from the players. Although they were surprised by the special hostility between the Immortals, they all did not disrupt them, only observed them, quietly recording the specialties of Immortals.

If the Black Star Army Faction won his war, Han Xiao would benefit from it too. His faction would be more appealing to the new players. However, he did not plan to interfere. He did not want to ruin this signature event that would certainly be written into the Galaxy Chronicles. He only wanted to stay at home and watch the show while eating some popcorn.

Time passed. Under the eyes of countless people, the day of the national war finally arrived!