The Legendary Mechanic

"Finally!" Han Xiao's eyes sparkled.

He had been eyeing these three abilities for a very long time. Now, he had finally acquired them after almost a full version.

Both [The Enemy] and [Kunde Rage] consumed health. The former was a passive talent, giving him more damage with health lost during the battle, up to twenty-five percent. The latter was an ability, increasing his Psychological Resistance tremendously for forty seconds at most, as well as immunity to almost all negative psychological states.

Among these three, the strongest was [Proof of Leadership].

This was considered a 'Semi-Molding Talent' to players, meaning even the players could obtain it. The way it worked was that when the user was the leader of a faction, they would receive comprehensive bonuses. The bonuses increased with the size and level of the faction. The most incredible trait of this talent was that it had no upper limit.

No matter how strong the players' organizations were, they could not reach the Beyond Grade A organization level and would not be able to gain enough bonuses from this talent. However, Han Xiao was different.

The Black Star Army's position was unique and irreplaceable in the universe. After an entire mission, it was already much stronger than when he triggered this mission. He could benefit a ton from this talent.

The bonuses of [Proof of Leadership] were very comprehensive. It included but was not limited to basic attributes, health, stamina, energy, ability strength, class affinity, all kinds of resistances, attack damage, ability level, and so on.

Han Xiao looked at the talent and realized that it did not only include one faction he was in. Other than the bonuses brought by the Black Star Army, the talent showed that the Beyond Grade A Association provided some bonuses too. His vice president identity was also considered in [Proof of Leadership], only it was not complete. He would only gain the complete bonuses if he was the president.

All in all, [Proof of Leadership] gave him a huge boost. This single talent increased his Energy Rank by an outrageous 5,400 Ona!

With the increase of Energy Rank, the strength difference between every point increased too. His Energy Rank was more than 100,000; 5400 Ona was an enormous boost to his combat capability at this level.

Feeling the overflowing energy in his body, Han Xiao took a deep breath and was delighted.

"This talent really suits me very well. I'm a huge step closer to the higher territory."

Han Xiao looked through the effects of [Proof of Leadership] several times with a huge grin on his face. He loved this talent.

Having finally achieved his dream of so many years, he was relieved.

The Kundes had to join the army of their own volition, and the dynasty freeing them in advance would decrease the number of Kundes willing to join the army, but it led to him acquiring the biggest benefit in advance.

As for the future developments of the Kunde Race, as long as nothing huge happened, Han Xiao did not plan to interfere frequently.

Anyway, the Kunde Race was now living in his territory. If they recovered to a normal civilization, they would even have to pay taxes to him instead, like a protection fee. If the Kunde Race wanted to expand in his territory, they would have to rent or purchase planets from the army.

Controlling one area was indeed an amazing way of making profit. By providing all kinds of services such as renting and selling land, he could harvest the labor of the Kunde Race as a whole and take a bite out of their produce. He had the right to decide the prices of the planets in his territory, so he dictated how quickly he wanted to harvest. He could choose to dry the pool for the fish in it, or he could choose to slowly fish over the long term. Of course, Han Xiao liked the latter more.

"Hmm, in this case, I can attract the Kunde Race Supers into the army using special benefits. For example, all Kunde Race members of the army with relatively high positions can purchase resources for the Kunde Race at a discount…"

The dynasty had definitely thought of this too and did not want to see it happen. Only, they could not easily tear away the agreement they had signed in the past.

Therefore, when the Kunde Race was freed to a certain stage, the dynasty would find a way to make the Kunde Race request to migrate. The fighting happening behind the curtains was complicated and troublesome. Han Xiao could already guest what methods the dynasty would use.

However, in his position, he did not have to attend to every little thing personally; people below him would deal with it. Furthermore, this would almost certainly not happen in the next few decades, so he did not have to worry yet.

…

A few days later, the Black Star Army announced a system to the Kunde Race, stating that in respect of the Kunde Race civilization, the army would not give them benefits for free out of pity but instead provide the Kunde Race tons of job opportunities.

The Black Star Army claimed that one reason for this was to guide the Kunde Race to blend into galactic society, and another was to give the Kunde Race a channel to acquire resources. Through working, all Kundes could earn contribution points that would be put under the entire race. The Kunde Race could then use this special currency to purchase all kinds of services to speed up the rebuilding of their civilization.

As soon as the system was announced, it received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the Kunde Race. Putting aside Han Xiao's reputation, although these trillions of Kundes gained freedom, they were also lost. Many of them did not know how to blend into the galactic society.

Now, the Black Star Army provided them with a clear direction, and the results of that were countless responses.

Han Xiao was already extremely experienced at harvesting leeks. This was the exact method he used to harvest the Planet Aquamarine players during Version 2.0 back then, turning his faction into the guiding faction. It was effective on the Kunde Race too.

Tons of quality Kunde Race laborers swarmed into the Black Star Army. The number of base-level Supers rocketed.

Currently, the Black Star Army was focusing on growing the subdivisions in other Star Fields, and the manpower from the Kunde Race came just at the right time.

The HR department arranged to have the Kundes travel far away from their home to different Star Fields to work in the subdivisions. They would work 'overseas' to accumulate contribution points for the race. This would prevent them from sticking only to other Kundes and not blending in with the galactic society well enough.

The Crimson Dynasty announced a similar policy too. However, the duration of the transformation was too short, so only an extremely few were willing to work for the dynasty, far fewer than the number of Kundes the army recruited.

However, more Kundes decided to stay among their race to rebuild the civilization and not work for other organizations, so the dynasty's plan worked to a certain extent.

While the Black Star Army was digesting the Kunde Race's laborers, Sorokin started to move.

…

"I'm finally done with the backup plans. I can act anytime…"

Inside the office at the Limitless Financial Group headquarters, Sorokin sensed the movements of his various manifestations and looked relieved.

In the past few months, he had returned to the Limitless Financial Group headquarters in the Sea of Star Spirits and prepared backup plans, placing secret warehouses in many Star Fields and some secondary dimensions that stored large amounts of resources.

Sorokin knew the strength of Virtual Mechanics, so he left no traces in the database. This was all done by his manifestations.

As for the movements of the funds, he disguised them as normal business transactions.

However, the consortium was his to begin with. Its business was growing better by the day and had no difficulties, so there was absolutely no need for the boss to take the money and run. This was like him stealing his own things, so not many people would realize the issue.

At the same time, using several methods, Sorokin left many hidden problems for the Limitless Financial Group's cash flow. If he was fine, he could easily solve them afterward.

If something happened to him, the credibility of the Limitless Financial Group would plummet. Once the partners came to tell the Limitless Financial Group to pay up, the Limitless Financial Group would be tremendously damaged. By then, the other large consortiums would definitely try to eat up the businesses of the Limitless Financial Group and dissect its corpse. This way, what was left to the shareholders of the group would be a huge mess. Even if they wanted to continue the Limitless Financial Group, they would have to pay a hefty price to fill up this hole.

This was one of Sorokin's backup plans—he would rather destroy his hard work over many years than give it to someone else, especially when Black Star was one of the shareholders.

"I can use those Universal Treasures I've collected anytime, but the most useful thing for this mission is still Soul Flame…"

Sorokin's eyes flickered.

He was once the master of Soul Flame; he knew the functions of this Esper Ability Entity extremely well. From his perspective, if he could regain this ability, the success rate of the plan would increase by another twenty percent.

Back when he gave up the identity of Soul Flame, he had no idea where Soul Flame went. In order to keep his identity hidden and not get discovered by anyone he knew, he used the specialty of his Esper Ability to change his soul frequency. Basically, he gave himself soul plastic surgery.

However, he did not completely cut off his senses to Soul Flame but split it up into Soul Seeds that had been sealed all this time. Once he opened the seal, he would be able to sense the rough location of Soul Flame.

All this time, Sorokin had disguised himself as a common Psychic Esper and had never shown all the special traits of his Esper Ability. Therefore, although he was also a soul-type Esper, his abilities looked quite different from 'Soul Emperor'.

To not attract any suspicion, he never dared retrieve Soul Flame. Anyway, he had a method to sense it. From the way he looked at it, no matter where Soul Flame went, he could totally retrieve it any time he wanted.

Sorokin narrowed his eyes, found that sealed Soul Seed in his Esper Ability senses, retrieved it ignoring the distance between him and the Soul Seed, and unsealed it.

The next moment, Sorokin's gaze changed subtly. It was a little bit colder.

Every Soul Seed was a fragment of his personality. The more he retrieved, the more whole his personality would become, and the more he would be like the real 'Soul Emperor' Rovell Sissock.

The moment the Soul Seed was unsealed, a reaction that was far away appeared in his senses, pointing him in a direction.

Sorokin turned toward that direction. He looked at the dark cosmic space through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Soul Flame is in that direction… the Ancient Star Desert."

…

In the Holy Accord organization, Oathkeeper, who was playing Wayne Cards with the others, suddenly felt something. He turned and looked outside the window. Confusion appeared in his eyes.

Why does it suddenly feel like I'm being watched?

Before he could think further, Beiger, who was opposite, slapped the table impatiently.

"Stop dozing off. Mechanic Emperor, do you want it or not?"

Oathkeeper regained focus and threw out a card.

"Black Star, bigger than you."

"Tsk, dog luck… pass, pass, go on."

Oathkeeper's focus returned to the game.

The Wayne Cards included almost all organizations and important people in the world, so it was an extremely efficient way to figure out the current structure of the universe and its history…

It's most certainly not because we like to play cards!