The Legendary Mechanic

Heber and the Klent commander knew that the dynasty would send out surveillance teams, so they were not surprised either.

Tarrokov explained the details as he pointed at the locations on the star map. The others listened silently.

When Tarrokov was finished, the Klent commander suddenly said, "We know what you've just said. What I want to know is, us Shattered Star Ring allies are the first teams to take part in the exploration, and the dynasty will be sending its allies from other Star Fields here too, so when will the next batch of dynasty allies arrive?"

Star Fields were too huge. Even all of them combined were just a leaf within a forest compared to a Star Field; they were very tiny. With just them, God only knew when the Flickering World would be fully explored. Therefore, the dynasty would be sending more manpower there in the future. Those dynasty allies who arrived later would be both allies and new competitors.

What Klent cared about was when the next batch of competitors would arrive, basically how much time they had ahead of others.

Tarrokov smiled.

"That depends on the arrangements of the dynasty's upper echelons and the gathering speed of our allied forces, as well as the progress of our exploration. I have yet to receive any notification on the exact time. However, according to my estimation, the next batch of exploration teams will only arrive in half a year's time at the earliest. Before that, the dynasty will have to rely on you guys. If the progress of the exploration is outstanding, the dynasty will not be petty in terms of rewards."

The few of them nodded. If the exploration was smooth and the results were beyond expected, it would all become their contributions. The dynasty would take a large portion of the resources, so they would be given rewards based on the results of the pioneering. This was the key factor of their competition.

The one whose exploration went the smoothest and obtained the most profit would be merited the most.

Tarrokov paused and asked, "For the Star Clusters you've decided to explore, what direction are you guys planning to enter from?"

The Star Cluster could be divided into dozens of Star Systems. They were all exploring into the center from the edges of it.

The border line was extremely long, so the direction they were going to enter from was very important. If they started exploring from poor locations, they would make a huge loss since they would waste a lot of time not discovering many resources.

The only information they had to decide on this was the semi-complete star map drawn through astronomical observations. The most they could do was just avoid the obvious desolate universe belts, but the resources on the planets were still unknown.

Although Tarrokov had only just asked, the few of them had discussed and analyzed this privately long ago.

Heber and Klent were on the same side. They planned to split into twenty-three teams and enter one Star System of their choice from twenty-three different locations. The teams would not be far from each other and would advance together in a fan shape, gradually gathering at a certain point to build a large transit stronghold. They would then continue to split and explore, making sure the exploration range of every team would not be repeated as much as possible.

Han Xiao listened as the Klent commander described their plan and nodded in his mind.

Heber had made a good choice. The first area they were going to explain was called the Jeraton Star System, a rather rich Star System of the Renault Star Cluster in his previous life. It did indeed have rich resources.

If the Flickering World's star map was 2D and linked with the known universe, the Dawn Star Cluster would be at the most west side of the Flickering World. As for the three Star Clusters right beside it, Garu was at its North, Renault was at its East, and Crown was at its South. The Jeraton Star System, which Heber and Klent were going to explore first, was the border Star System on the southwest side of Renault.

Tarrokov nodded, turned to look at Han Xiao, and asked, "What about you?"

Han Xiao pointed at the border Star System at the southernmost point of the Garu Star Cluster. He drew a route upward that penetrated more than ten Star Systems, connecting the southernmost part of the Garu Star Cluster to its easternmost part.

"What do you mean by this?" Tarrokov was surprised.

"Well…" Han Xiao smiled mysteriously. "I will have my main force explore from the border Star System at the southernmost side and send out a team carrying stargate devices. This team will only build stargates along the way and not make any other stops. I'm going to build a stargate route and connect these ten Star Systems together first."

"You want to build the important long traffic route first?" Tarrokov raised his brows.

"Not only that, whenever this team connects to the next Star System, I will split up more men to explore other Star Systems." Han Xiao shrugged.

Tarrokov frowned slightly. Heber and the Klent commander exchanged looks, too. They were a little speechless.

In their eyes, the problem with Black Star's exploration plan was too obvious—insufficient manpower.

With only so many people, even exploring one Star System would take a lot of time, yet Black Star wanted to explore more than ten Star Systems at the same time. How would he have enough manpower? They all thought that his appetite was too large, and it had exceeded his capabilities.

Building an important long traffic route first was a good thing to the dynasty, so Tarrokov had no problem with that. However, this did not match the profit perspective of a dynasty ally, so Han Xiao's decision surprised him.

This was not a horse race. There was no point in connecting all these Star Systems if he would not be able to finish exploring all of them. Since the exploration efficiency was limited, wasting manpower to build long-term stargate channels would only make traveling to other Star Systems much easier for the forces that would come later. This looked like it had many more cons than pros.

Klent and the Bloodshed Land wanted to finish exploring one Star System before going to the next. In comparison, they were exploring in areas while Han Xiao was exploring in lines.

To balance the profit between its allies, the dynasty's plan was also to gradually move forward and slowly explore, not preparing to install complete stargate traffic networks in the unexplored areas immediately. The astronomical observations had already given them a semi-complete star map, so what they lacked was the completion of detailed information and field inspection. Therefore, the goal of the first stage of the exploration was just the three areas beside the Dawn Star Cluster.

During the slow process of exploration, the exploration team would always be building stargates. Therefore, the long-distance stargate channels would eventually appear, and there was no need to build it specifically.

This meant that the Black Star Army was wasting its own resources and time while reducing its results. This made Tarrokov, Heber, the Klent commander very confused.

"Do you want to reconsider?" Tarrokov asked out of good intentions.

Han Xiao waved and chuckled. "No need, I like to rely on my luck. Maybe I can discover some rich resource planets in advance."

Seeing that Black Star remained stubborn, the Klent commander ridiculed him in his mind.

With such a poor exploration plan that clearly lacked consideration, their pioneering would definitely not go smoothly. This meant that they would most likely beat the Black Star Army this time.

"Okay then." Tarrokov did not insist.

No matter what method its allies used to explore, the dynasty would not make any losses. After all, the entire Star Field belonged to them. The only one that would make losses was the Black Star Army itself, and since Black Star did not care, he did not care either.

Han Xiao had a smile on his face, and the others could not figure out what he was thinking.

This exploration plan that looked to be very desperate for merit suited his goals the most.

The reason that the fewest organizations decided to explore the Garu Star Cluster, as mentioned by Zoel, was that in the few Star Systems at the south of the Garu Star Cluster, there were obvious desolate universe belts. If he imitated Heber and the others and only explored one border Star System, he would definitely not produce many results.

He used this exploration plan to first develop those known rich planets in his memories.

On this traffic route stretching from the south of Garu to the east, there were a few Star Systems that were extremely prosperous areas with many renowned rich planets in the previous life, which only he knew about now.

Also, as he stretched the exploration line, the surveillance of the dynasty would likely be less intense, which would give him room to operate.

Han Xiao was not going to give up on such a good opportunity.

Another goal he had was to distract the others away from his true goal.

Han Xiao hoped to go to the south of the Garu Star Cluster as soon as possible without seeming too obvious.

This was because the ownerless Universal Treasure in his memories was located in the other Star Cluster connected to the south of the Garu Star Cluster!

He would only be able to obtain that Universal Treasure as soon as possible if he built this stargate route!

Tarrokov turned off the star map and said with a deep voice, "It's all decided then. You guys, wait here for two days. I'll dispatch teams to fuse into your teams as well as pass the stargate, buoys, and the other exploration devices to you. We shall depart officially in two days."

"Okay," the Klent commander replied.

Han Xiao and Heber nodded and did not speak.

They stood up and left the conference room.

Walking out of the door, Han Xiao and Heber glanced at each other at the same time, as if their clashing sights created flames in midair. They then turned around and left with their officers in opposite directions.

…

"Hey, what do you think Black Star is thinking?"

Heber and Klent's men were walking together. On the way, a Vanguard Official could not help but ask the chief staff sergeant, Jorde, beside him.

"What are you trying to say?" Jorde glanced at him.

"Don't you know what kind of person Black Star is? He's never one to be willing to make losses. He clearly knows that there's no benefit in building the long-distance stargate route in advance, so he definitely has other motives."

Jorde's eyes flickered. "Indeed, Black Star's decision is strange…"

"Chief staff sergeant, what do you think his motive is?"

The people around all eavesdropped at the conversation.

"I'm not Black Star," Jorde said with resignation. "The only reason I can think of is that Black Star is not willing to explore the poor border Star Systems of the Garu Star Cluster. But still, there's no need for him to waste time and cross more than ten Star Systems. I can't think of any other reasons… Maybe his appetite is too large, or maybe he really wants to rely on his luck."

"Maybe he wants to first take over the planets that will be traffic stations in the future."

"No way, the dynasty won't allow it."

As the Flickering World was an undeveloped Star Field, everyone subconsciously had one assumption—no one knew the detailed information of the Flickering World. Therefore, there was no way anyone could guess Han Xiao's motives.

The Klent commander quickly walked to Heber's side and said softly, "Your Excellency Tyrant, what do you say we…"

"Finish your sentence if you have something to say. Don't make me guess." Heber looked straight forward.

"… what do you say we send people to secretly head to the Garu Star Cluster and monitor Black Star's movements?"

"What's the point of that?" Heber glanced at him. "Do you dare disrupt the exploration right under the dynasty's nose?"

The Klent commander was stunned for a moment. He pondered carefully and came to a realization.

Exploring the Flickering World was the dynasty's key strategic goal, so even if they did know what the Black Star Army was planning to do, they could not do anything about it. If they disrupted the exploration progress for their own interest, the dynasty would definitely not show mercy and make them an example, to show the other allied organizations who would participate in the exploration in the future what the consequences of daring to disrupt the dynasty's plans were.

Having realized that, the Klent commander backed off and did not mention this matter anymore.

It seemed like the only way to be above the Black Star Army was to compete fairly through their pioneering results.

Luckily, not only did Black Star choose the Garu, but he also chose to use a horrible plan. The Bloodshed Land and their victory were certain.