The Legendary Mechanic

"By the way, the report on the DarkStar leader is out today. Take a look," Reynold suddenly said.

Han Xiao took out his communicator.

After just one day, the news about the handover of the DarkStar leader was already spreading all over. The focus of the reports was on Klent being suspected of having connections with DarkStar and the Fallen Ark.

Klent had prepared for this long ago; they wanted to suppress it when the public discussion had just started. Hence, they immediately denied it publicly with a very strong attitude, absolutely refusing to admit to anything, and claimed that this was slander completely made up by Purple Crystal.

"Not admitting it is useless. Purple Crystal definitely have a way to make the DarkStar leader talk." Han Xiao smiled.

Klent's frequent assassination attempts really annoyed him. Now that he had gotten the opportunity, he was more than happy to cause trouble for Klent.

The secret war was at an impasse. Plus, it could not hurt Klent itself. This DarkStar leader matter, however, would be able to hurt Klent politically.

…

For the next month, Han Xiao waited for Serbia the Fifth's reply while paying attention to the DarkStar leader incident as it developed. Purple Crystal was determined to blow up this incident, to attract the attention of organizations from everywhere and cause a sensation in the Star Field.

There was no absolute definition on how serious the crime of funding DarkStar and working with Fallen Ark was. If it was not exposed, no one would even care. The development of things like this really depended on the environment at the time. However, it was now a sensitive period during the Crimson Tide, and Klent had shown a weakness. The other Star Cluster civilizations in the Shattered Star Ring were like sharks that had smelled blood, all wanting to make use of this opportunity to bite a piece of meat off Klent and damage their political power.

Klent's ambition to expand had always made many uninvolved Star Cluster civilizations feel alarmed. Not only did this b*stard join the Crimson Dynasty to target the Flickering World, Klent also did not want to give up their position in the Shattered Star Ring. They wanted to rule two entire Star Fields. Their appetite was outrageous.

Hence, these Star Cluster civilizations hoped to weaken Klent's political position in the Shattered Star Ring so that their plan would not go so smoothly.

They could not stop Klent from going to the Flickering World in the future, but they could weaken their reputation in the Shattered Star Ring.

You want to develop in two Star Fields at the same time? You don't look pretty, but you sure dream big!

As soon as the force of one of them was growing too large, the other civilizations would not mind targeting that civilization together. It was both to damage the competitors as well as to protect their own benefits.

Han Xiao's acts happened to hit Klent where it hurt, giving a great opportunity to the other Star Cluster civilizations. Suddenly, Klent was facing a situation where they were being targeted by everyone. This caused them a tremendous amount of trouble.

Klent absolutely hated Han Xiao's guts; this incident had affected their entire strategy.

Yet, after so many failed assassination attempts, Klent had no way to deal with Han Xiao. They had no choice but to solve this issue from a political perspective.

For the last half a month, Purple Crystal and Klent had constantly been fighting verbally. One side was strongly accusing, and the other side insisted on admitting nothing.

To put it simply, this was the situation.

"You're ruthless, you're cold-blooded, and you're unreasonable!" Klent exclaimed.

"No, you!" Purple Crystal retorted.

This kind of conversation kept repeating.

This incident even affected the Crimson Dynasty. The Crimson Dynasty sent an emissary to head to Klent and investigate this thoroughly.

The Crimson Dynasty was negotiating with the Federation of Light on the rights to the Flickering World. At such a crucial moment, Klent happened to get involved in a scandal of them being connected to the Fallen Ark.

That guy was a criminal wanted by all three Universal Civilizations; his identity was extremely sensitive. Klent was the Crimson Dynasty's new henchman, so the scandal affected the Crimson Dynasty and sent a free political negotiation chip to the Federation of Light.

This made the Crimson Dynasty very irritated. Their stance on this was very clear.

What's wrong with you, kid‽

Some of that intelligence reached Ralph. He shared the inside information about this incident with Han Xiao. On this day, he called Han Xiao once again to speak about this, telling him what had happened.

"The Crimson Dynasty has interfered. They've made an agreement with us on Klent's behalf. Klent will give up a part of their rights in the Shattered Star Ring. In exchange, we have to quickly suppress this incident."

"Did you agree to that?" Han Xiao was curious.

"After all, now that a Universal Civilization has interfered to negotiate, we can't keep pushing. There are some civilizations that contacted the Federation of Light in private though, hoping that the Federation of Light would speak for us. They probably thought that as the Federation of Light are now fighting for the Flickering World, they won't give up this chance to hurt the Crimson Dynasty. However, for some reason, the Federation of Light has not done anything. Thus, we can only stop here."

Han Xiao nodded. This was the drawback of being a henchman—the Crimson Dynasty gave up profit on Klent's behalf in order to reduce their own loss. Of course, the Crimson Dynasty was not yet willing to lose this chess piece, so they definitely promised Klent something in return.

Since Klent wanted to be involved in the Flickering World, they could only take the hit and not say anything.

"So, this incident has ended?"

"Yes, we can't continue anymore."

"What price did Klent pay?"

"That's confidential, and I don't know. The other Star Cluster civilizations will all split the profits that Klent has given up."

"Then, the secret war…" Han Xiao raised his brows.

Ralph sighed and said, "Alas, it has to continue. The Crimson Dynasty refuse to speak about anything regarding the secret war, and the other Star Cluster civilizations stopped caring after they got the profit that Klent gave up. Clearly, they hope that we will continue to fight and harm each other. It is more beneficial for them that way."

"No friends last forever; only profit does. How realistic." Han Xiao shook his head with resignation.

In the original storyline, the Crimson Dynasty would only represent Klent to negotiate at the end of the secret war. Now, however, they had no choice but to clean up the mess that Klent had made. This was because of him.

This was something that had not happened before. It would definitely change the direction of the entire storyline.

Han Xiao pondered. He felt that because Klent had bled quite badly, in order to heal up, they might put more focus in the secret war and fight more passionately.

He shared this thought with Ralph, who smiled strangely.

"Did you know that because of this, Heber has become unhappy with Klent?"

Han Xiao's eyes sparkled, and he started to speculate.

Originally, the Tyrant was Klent's only Beyond Grade A ally. Since Klent was flirting around with EsGod and was caught by Heber in the act, it was like a wife who discovered the mistress.

Looks like the secret war will be in even more of a stalemate. It should last till the start of Version 3.0.

Han Xiao was quite satisfied with this result. Creating both internal and external problems for Klent was his return gift for Klent's constant assassination attempts.

"One more thing, Serbia the Fifth told us that you want to borrow Rossellin's ability to help Godora clear their bloodline conflict."

"That's right." Han Xiao narrowed his eyes.

"This matter is a little bit sensitive, so he wanted to invite us to be the notary and carry out this plan under Purple Crystal's name. What do you think?"

Han Xiao was stunned. Then he figured it out. Serbia the Fifth had made a choice and decided to take his suggestion.

Serbia the Fifth had even found a better excuse of using Purple Crystal's name to carry out the plan, so it would look like it was a higher-level civilization helping Godora.

As a Star Cluster civilization was involved, the Godoran government would receive much less disapproval, and its people would accept it more easily. Many would feel that the higher-level civilization was more reliable than their own government.

Han Xiao thought about it, ended the call, and called Serbia the Fifth. It was picked up right after one ring. Clearly, Serbia the Fifth had been waiting.

"Your Excellency Black Star, I plan to use your method, but I hope that this can be done under the Purple Crystal Civilization's name. Maybe we won't be able to announce that this is your plan." Serbia the Fifth went straight to the point. "But I'm willing to pay a bigger price in private. What do you think?"

Han Xiao scratched his eyelid and said, "Alright then."

His main goal was to settle the [Bloodline] mission, so he did not really care about whether this relatively small achievement would be announced or not.

Serbia the Fifth was relieved. He explained, "That's great. It's not that I don't trust you, but this matter is too important. I have to find a gentler method so that the people of Godora will be more willing to accept it…"

Actually, this was just one of the factors. Serbia the Fifth was still not very assured as Han Xiao was not an official force after all, so he had pulled the Purple Crystal Civilization in as insurance. Of course, he would not voice this reason.

"Since you agreed, I shall bring Rossellin over to discuss the details."

"Okay, I'll have Nagakin fetch you. Come to our mother planet directly."

"… Nagakin again?" Han Xiao suddenly realized that every time he interacted with the Godoran Civilization, they seemed to send Nagakin to host him.

"Er… aren't you guys friends?" Serbia the Fifth wondered. He threw this unimportant issue aside and said, "Anyway, I'll be waiting for you on our mother planet."

Han Xiao nodded and hung up the communication before calling Rossellin.

"Pack up and get ready, I have a job for you."

…

A few days later, on the mother planet of Godora, a spaceship landed on the military dock. Han Xiao and Rossellin walked out of the hatch with Nagakin leading the way.

They took the hovering car and arrived at the government affairs building. Han Xiao and Rossellin went straight to Serbia the Fifth's office.

"You're finally here." Serbia the Fifth had been waiting for quite some time. He quickly stood up and welcomed Han Xiao.

After a few greetings, they sat down. Serbia the Fifth sized Rossellin up from time to time.

At this point, Rossellin showed the look of the pope that she had once been—noble and elegant with calm eyes. Serbia the Fifth could not figure her out. He only felt that this woman had a vibe of being someone very important and not simple.

The two sides had worked together for many years and were very familiar with each other, so Han Xiao directly asked, "Cut to the chase, what plan do you have?"

With his position now, a Star System civilization was not as important as before. He planned to quickly settle the [Bloodline] mission and get the Grade S mission reward.

He still had some time before his holiday ended. Plus, Klent was troubled by internal conflicts, so he was not needed in the war for the time being. He did not want to spend too much time on [Bloodline]. He planned to use the rest of the holiday to do missions and get more Random Rewards.

It was best to have more Mission Completion Cards in stock before Version 3.0 arrived.

"Hmm, according to Rossellin's ability, we have prepared a few plans to choose from…"

Serbia the Fifth took out a few files and gave them to Han Xiao.