The Legendary Mechanic

In a certain part of the Flickering World, a spaceship with the Black Star Army emblem was slowly moving.

In the cabin, a group of players were busy with their own affairs. Some were playing cards, some browsing the forums, others browsing the army shop. The IDs above their heads showcased that they were all from the Rivervale Guild. Frenzied Sword and Maple Moon were among them. This spaceship held the core members of the guild as they were going toward a mission location.

At this moment, in a corner of the spaceship, Frenzied Sword was lecturing the team members.

"After coming online, we have not been training diligently. We've yet to get back to our peak state. While we're currently travelling, we should not waste time and engage in entertainment before we arrive at our destination. Let's all go through a dungeon copy and practice our tactical coordination."

As he spoke, Frenzied Sword pulled out a few Nightmare-level Dungeon Crystals from his inventory.

Seeing this, everyone could not help but sigh.

"Captain, how long has it been since the previous Pro League? We have yet to get a good rest, and you already want us to start practicing like that now? It's still early before the next league!" Maple Moon complained.

Frenzied Sword patiently explained, "With King Admiral from Dynasty and Sleepy Winter from Long Sky retiring, their teams will have new players and thus need to break in the coordination. Their strength will likely weaken, so our competitiveness will be even more obvious. This is a great chance for us to win the championship once again. We'll need to work harder."

"… I feel like you're becoming like Hao Tian, only knowing how to grill us daily." Maple Moon pursed her lips.

By the side, Bun-Hit-Dog snickered. "After all, he is the captain. Rivervale has lived up to its expectations to achieve good results, and credit is inseparable from his own serious responsibility. I still remember that in the first Pro League, Rivervale was a disgrace, but luckily, the superiors of Rivervale put Frenzied Sword as the cornerstone, allowing him to reform the team. Facts have proved that your club invested in the right people, with Rivervale now having the reputation of a top-five club in China."

Frenzied Sword felt comfortable hearing himself get praised. He raised his thumb up. "Nice words. I'll agree to an exclusive interview."

"Alright, I have some goods now. This trip was not waste." Bun-Hit-Dog laughed.

This group was still joking around when the President of Rivervale club, 'Moon of Thousand Rivers', walked in, approaching Frenzied Sword.

"Frenzied Sword, another NPC organization contacted me. They wish to poach us from the army."

"Again? Who is it this time?" Frenzied Sword was curious.

"It's people from the Federation of Light." Moon of Thousand Rivers was a little helpless.

Recently, they had received many such private solicitations. There were all kinds of organizations involved and they all were offering generous conditions, with the hope that their club would pull out their roots and leave the army. It was not just Rivervale; all the affiliated guilds to the Black Star Army were experiencing such things.

"The Federation of Light wants to rope us in? Since when did our ranking become so huge…" Federation of Light murmured. "Don't worry about it, we're not planning to switch factions anyways."

He was a hardcore supporter of the army, so even if the three Universal Civilizations wished to poach him, he was not interested in jumping ships. As far as he knew, most of the guilds in the army shared the same attitude, not liking such poaching tactics.

"Recently, all the major galactic organizations have been trying to poach players from the army. This intensity is greater than in previous versions. During this period, I've analyzed the current situation, and it is estimated that the war between the galactic civilizations and the association is inevitable. Thus, we 'Immortals' are the most suitable to be used for attacking, becoming the sweet pastry that all sides want to fight for. Otherwise, why would organizations on the level of the three Universal Civilizations specially send people to win us over?" Maple Moon thoughtfully said. While she had become a professional player, she still retained the same interest in analyzing the storyline.

At this moment, everyone's communicators rang with the notification tone reserved for the army's internal message.

"What's this new announcement from the army?"

Taking out their communicators, Frenzied Sword and the rest opened the intranet. An internal document titled 'Recent System Reform of the Army' came into their sights.

Everyone quickly browsed through it, and their expressions changed to joy.

According to the announcement, the army had expanded the type of available positions for the Immortals, opening up more middle-tier positions and long-term official positions such as in logistics, instructors, captains, intelligence officers, and more.

To put it simply, they just opened up more channels for the players to be promoted. Originally, the players were only assigned mercenary and combatant roles, but now they could become part of the middle-tier officers in various departments, gaining power and leading a group of subordinates or commanding a group as their player identities. This appealed toward the players that loved to role play.

At the same time, such a position also represented formally entering the organization, which allowed them to receive a fixed salary from the army. This was also in line with the preferences of the Chinese players.

The requirements for promotion were to have a sufficiently high level of Faction Authority, which depended on one's accumulation Contribution Points, as well as a purchase of a digital qualification certification named 'Army Officer Registration Application Form'. The purchase required only a few Enas and experience points, and they would then await the review of the various personnel in each department.

In addition, the army also released at the request of their members a new insurance service, named 'Army's Specialized Protection Scheme'. This gave them faction store discounts, free medical treatments, equipment repairs, enhancements, and free logistical services. Depending on their protection level, they could obtain various welfare guarantees such as loan qualifications, lower interest rates, lower renting costs, and so on.

Those members with a higher authority would be able to purchase more advance protections, but this was not a one-time cost. They required the player to renew it at regular intervals. However, the benefit of discounts was enough to stimulate the players to purchase this Specialized Protection. Not to mention the special services, one just had to look at it to know that they would make a killing!

This was especially so for the price of Dungeon Crystals, which had been reduced the most. They were currently the main source of experience for the players. It was akin to an inexhaustible vein of 'experience ore mineral', and the players were akin to the miners.

Adding on to this, the army also stated that they would increase the range of missions that Immortals could accept, as well as setting up special missions with rich rewards. The players would need to spend experience points and a certain amount of money as a 'mission deposit'. The money would be returned upon completion but not the experience.

However, players would not care about this paltry amount of experience when they were being given missions. With the huge size of the army, the daily amount of disposable experience earned would be astronomical. With his experience quota being allocated to players through quests, Han Xiao then harvested that experience from the players, maintaining this positive cycle.

Han Xiao also put in the announcement that the Evolution Cube was now eligible to be used, requiring players to spend money and experience to purchase usages.

Because the players would only be able to reach level 160 in this version, the extra Race Evolution chance offered by the Evolution Cube would be useful, and the demand would not be too low.

Han Xiao was not just aiming at earning experience; he also planned to utilize the side effects of the Evolution Cube to curb the players' speed of levelling so that the Calamity Grade players would appear at a later date.

During the side effect duration, many of them would feel that upgrading themselves would be a loss, so they would spend their experience elsewhere, so this could kill two birds with one stone, delaying plus conveniently letting him harvest them more.

After reading the announcement, Frenzied Sword and the others were stunned by this series of favorable policy changes.

"The army is probably sending out a response to the poaching of other organizations."

"Indeed, the factions must fight before we will get enough to eat."

"That's great. Blackie values us like always."

Frenzied Sword and company were overjoyed.

Most of the players had a close relationship with the army, akin to husband and wife. They did not wish to leave and did not expect any reaction from the army, but the latter actually responded with a series of benefits in response to the poaching, which made them feel wanted and happy.

The last part of the announcement was about a military exercise that would be held among the Immortals. The reward for this mission would be extremely rich, but quotas were limited, and the mission could only be undertaken by experience points.

This would be the only large-scale collective operation of the army in the near future. While this was only an exercise, the reward for this mission was extremely rich. Naturally, Frenzied Sword and the others did not hesitate to pay their experience to register.

In just five minutes, the hundreds of thousands of openings were cleanly robbed, which showed just how popular the army was.

The welfare announcement of the Black Star Army caused stomach ulcers in the players of other organizations. Their eyes were green with envy, and there were many complaints on the forums.

Han Xiao could guess the players' reaction to these benefits even without paying attention. He had long mastered the G spot for the players, and this kind of harvesting means could be done with his eyes closed.

According to his estimates, this wave of harvesting should allow him to make up the amount needed to reach level 360 a few months in advance.

…

"Your Excellency President, our plan to win over the Immortals has had little effect. Few of the immortals from the Black Star Army are willing to change factions."

"… What a bunch of troublesome guys."

Hearing the report in the President's Office, Louis frowned.

In order to study the Sanctum Revival phenomenon, the major galactic organizations were vigorously trying to attract Immortals to their cause. However, the movement of the Immortals showed that there was a higher tendency for them to gather around the Black Star Army than around them, which could not be explained.

They thought that using the name of the three Universal Civilizations as well as the large benefits would attract a lot of Immortals, but it turned out that there were not many people who bought into this.

He naturally did not know of the existence of the version name 'Black Star's Era', so he would not know how much this name had helped Han Xiao.

Louis frowned and pondered for a bit before replying in a deep voice.

"This could be the influence of the Scattered Stars Return event… It has been a year, but the effect of it has actually not dissipated. Just in this year, the number of Supers that have gone under the wings of the Beyond Grade As are too many…"

He could not help sighing, feeling that it was a pity.

If not for the Super Star Cluster Alliance, the interception and killing of hundreds of Beyond Grade A seeds would have been successful. If the Scattered Stars Return event did not occur, their method of killing the chickens to warn the monkeys would have been effective. The negativity as a result of the assassinations would have made Supers more likely to compromise with the three Universal Civilizations… but this could only remain a fantasy.

The Chief Elder paused on his crutches before slowly saying, "This situation needs to be dealt with further. After a year of preparation, it is almost time for sanctions to be issued. The Beyond Grade A organizations will no longer be so comfortable. If we're always trying to be scrupulous and openly creating contradictions, they will only continue developing."

Louis nodded as well. "I really have to curb their momentum of development… I'll talk to the church and the dynasty. I want to see how the Beyond Grade A Association can continue to grow when they are blocked by the entire galactic society!"