The Legendary Mechanic

In the Black Star Army headquarters, the fleet returned victorious. The players received tons of rewards, and most of them were looking forward to spending them.

This large-scale operation had made quite an impact among the players. It was the first large-scale war for the players in the army in Version 3.0. After this battle, most players had gotten used to Version 3.0 and figured out the goal of the main storyline and the current situation of the galaxy.

There were countless discussions about this war on the forums. The Black Star Army's first galactic war after the ten years period was rather commemorative, and it was recorded in the Galaxy Chronicles.

"Galaxy Calendar Year 704, August 4th, the Black Star Army and Section Zero attacked the Bloodshed Land troops in the Kant Star System and returned with an overwhelming victory."

The Galaxy Chronicles consisted of important events that every player took part in writing; it recorded what countless players had witnessed and formed the storyline of the various areas in Galaxy.

Although it was now just Version 3.0, the Galaxy Chronicles had already recorded a lot of information, categorized by Star Field, organization, and characters.

As for the Shattered Star Ring area, the Black Star Army was the organization and storyline that the players were most familiar with. Han Xiao and the army had their own categories. The players recorded the stages of the Black Star Army's development according to time, even including the various things that happened during the ten years of the update. It was extremely detailed.

A spaceship left the dock of the Black Star Army headquarters; the hundred or so people on the spaceship were players heading to Klent. They had contacted each other on the forums and decided to leave together. Hate the Heavens and his friends were on-board. They had just enjoyed the last benefits of the Black Star Army and spent most of what they had received in the war.

"After spending so long in the Black Star Army, I have to say, I do feel kind of sad for leaving."

At the corner of the cabin, Hate the Heavens felt down for some strange reason while browsing through the Black Star Army records in the Chronicles. He turned around and looked out the porthole as the enormous Black Star Army headquarters became ever smaller in his eyes.

The players had witnessed the Black Star Army's growth ever since Version 1.0. They were responsible for how much the Black Star Army had grown. The Chronicles recorded the memories of these players fighting together, and Hate the Heavens felt reluctant.

Hate the Heavens looked at the people around him. Most of the players on the spaceship were gamblers—they did not change faction to experience never experienced before storylines but to be a step ahead of others in grabbing the possible hidden benefits of joining Klent. Hence, they were not as sentimental as someone like him who did it for the storyline.

"Don't overthink it. My judgment won't be wrong." A person saw that Hate the Heavens looked nervous and patted his shoulder.

Hate the Heavens turned to him; the ID above this person's head was 'Summer Night Flower'.

Summer Night Flower was the initiator of this team. He trusted himself, so he was going to change factions as well. He had contacted these players who intended to join Klent and invited them to move together. As he was the one that had come up with the analysis, which suggested that Klent would be more beneficial, the players on the spaceship saw him as their leader somewhat.

"I'm not nervous." Hate the Heavens shook his head.

Summer Night Flower smiled. He then clapped and attracted the eyes of all the players on the ship. "The target of this trip is the West Wind Star System. The Bloodshed Land has many strongholds there, and their forces are the steadiest in that area. They are currently recruiting on a large scale. This is our chance to join Klent. Only then will our main storyline mission become the Klent faction's."

The others replied disorderly.

"Trust me, guys, you won't regret this."

Summer Night Flower smiled as he looked at the hundred or so players in front of him. He was excited; he felt like he was a pioneer.

After several stops and galactic flight changes, they finally arrived in the West Wind Star System after traveling a long distance. They went to the recruitment office and handed over their documents. They then followed the officers onto the ship to head toward a stronghold.

The Bloodshed Land was recruiting locally. With the Tyrant and Klent's name, there would always be people who were willing to join. Galactic residents were very free, especially in border areas like the West Wind Star System, where there were many foreigners who were not loyal to the Purple Crystal Civilization.

On the spaceship, about a thousand galactic warriors lined up neatly to accept the inspection of the officer. Summer Night Flower and the other players were among them.

The officer browsed through the resumes of the warriors one after another. Suddenly, he stopped before Summer Night Flower, frowned, and said with shock, "You guys are from the Black Star Army? Why join us?"

Summer Night Flower thought about it and answered, "We hope to develop ourselves in the Bloodshed Land better."

"Oh, you've made the right choice." Despite saying so, a tint of derision flashed within the officer's eyes.

The members of the Bloodshed Land were mostly tough people, and this officer was no exception. He had always looked down on people who joined the enemy because of mere profits.

"Okay, you're now a member of the Bloodshed Land. Missions will be given to you guys once you arrive at the stronghold."

The officer then walked away. He felt that he needed to report this to his higher-ups.

Summer Night Flower clenched his fists in excitement and softly said, "See that? I was right; the identity of being a member of the Black Star Army will give us special treatment from Klent. The earlier we join Klent, the more important we will be to them."

The other players saw that this was a good start and were all joyous.

At this time, a notification popped up on the interfaces of these people.

_____________________

You have activated a new faction—Bloodshed Land. Current Relationship: Indifferent (0/300)

You have activated a new faction—Klent Kingdom. Current Relationship: Indifferent (0/300)

_____________________

Summer Night Flower and the others were just about to feel cheerful when more notifications came, stunning them.

_____________________

Your Grade S Main Storyline Mission [Secret War: Section Zero] has failed. You have received a new mission [Secret War: Bloodshed Land]. Accumulated Mission Rating has been reset.

You have joined the opposing faction of the Purple Crystal Civilization.

Relationship with the Purple Crystal Civilization is now [Hostile].

Some of the Colton Star Cluster Star System civilization Relationships have been reset to zero and are now [Indifferent].

You have joined the opposing faction of Section Zero.

Relationship with Section Zero is now [Hostile].

You have joined the opposing faction of the Black Star Army.

Relationship with the Black Star Army is now [Hostile].

You have lost the identity as a Black Star Army member. Faction interface and faction store are shut down. You will no longer receive services from the Black Star Army.

Relationship with the Black Star Army characters has been reset to zero. Contribution Points have been reset to zero.

_____________________

Summer Night Flower and the others were stunned. Although they did guess that they would lose many things when switching factions, they still felt quite heartbroken when it actually happened.

Suddenly, everyone's communicator rang. Phillip's sub-program jumped out. His original cute and child-like voice became cold and robotic.

"You have betrayed the Black Star Army and decided to join the enemy. You will no longer receive services from the Black Star Army in any form. This program will automatically uninstall… Uninstallation complete, hum…"

The next second, the sub-program of Phillip disappeared. It looked like it had uninstalled, but it was actually hidden for background monitoring purposes.

Something like this would not happen if they had just joined a neutral faction. However, joining the enemy meant betraying their former faction, so it was inevitable they would be punished and lose the Favorability of their original faction, thus becoming enemies.

Summer Night Flower felt heartache. Suddenly, he felt the furious looks of the players around him and was forced to the corner.

"You have to give us an explanation!"

Such a colossal loss hurt their weak nerves. They had built up those faction Relationship Points and Favorability through the course of two entire versions, but now they were all completely gone. The hundred or so players were furious.

"Let me explain!" Summer Night Flower said hastily. "I said this long ago. There will definitely be risks in changing factions. The benefits of Klent are more long term. There's a higher chance of winning the secret war, and there are fewer people to fight for resources with. Most importantly, there is a chance to be affiliated with a Universal Civilization. These are all future potentials. We have to give up the short-term benefits in exchange for long term profits. This is an investment! An investment! Do you get it?"

The others were indeed there because of the future potential of Klent; it was just that the tremendous loss made them lose their senses. After hearing Summer Night Flower's explanation, they calmed down a little.

Summer Night Flower smiled and said, "Guys, don't panic. The damage of losing the Favorability of the various factions in Colton is actually not that huge. This is because we will be developing in Klent's territory in the future, where there's less competition and more resources. Even though we must start climbing up from the bottom, there will be more benefits in the future. Just wait and see, there will be more people joining Klent because of the Universal Civilization sooner or later, and we will be one step ahead."

The other players had different looks on their faces. These people only wanted to make profits, not losses, but since they were already there, there was no way of turning back. They could only trust Summer Night Flower and keep walking down this path.

Seeing that everyone had calmed down, Summer Night Flower breathed a sigh of relief.

Among the players, Hate the Heavens was the calmest. His goal was to experience a different storyline, so he could totally accept the losses. Seeing that the gamblers around him were so anxious, he thought that it was quite funny.

At the same time, Summer Night Flower and the others did not know that the moment they betrayed the Black Star Army, a new mission was suddenly pinned at the top of the mission list of the army. It was a wanted notice for Summer Night Flower and the rest.

_____________________

Bounty Mission: [Army Wanted Order]

Mission Introduction: The Black Star Army shows no mercy for traitors. All members will receive a reward for killing the traitors.

Mission Requirements: Kill or capture the traitor alive.

Reward: Based on the target's strength.

This is a Repeatable Mission.

_____________________

The players were not the only ones that received this; the hundred million Black Star Army members could all accept this task.

Issuing a bounty was a definite outcome; this was the standard procedure for how most organizations dealt with traitors. Although the players were important to Han Xiao and he gave them enough freedom and benefits, he was certainly not going to miss out on the necessary punishments. Otherwise, his faction would be a joke where the players could join the enemies whenever they wanted.

If the army did not draw a distinguishable line, he would be the one to suffer losses in the end, which would be even more troublesome.

"Someone betrayed the Black Star Army?"

"It's actually a group of players? I thought they were NPCs."

"Summer Night Flower? Isn't this the guy that said the Klent faction is better? So, he's making an example of himself? Not bad."

"This means that these players have joined the opposing faction and will become red names, so will we be rewarded every time we kill them?"

The players in the army were thrilled. It had been a very long time since there were players in the opposing faction; the earliest ones were those unlucky people that joined the Germinal Organization in Version 1.0. After so long, there were finally players who they could PVP in the open.

If the traitors were NPCs, they would be gone after being killed once, but if they were players, they could kill them as many times as they wanted. It was a reusable resource!

…

On the other side, shortly after Summer Night Flower and the rest calmed down, their friends contacted them privately.

"What? We're all wanted‽"

Summer Night Flower's mouth opened wide with shock.

Doesn't that mean that the millions of players and hundreds of millions of NPCs of the Black Star Army will all be chasing after us?

This was a much more severe consequence than he had expected!

Summer Night Flower gulped uncomfortably. He suddenly felt a sharp sense of coldness from behind him. He turned stiffly like a robot and saw the enraged looks of the hundred players.

"I—I can still explain…"

Summer Night Flower forced a smile. After a thorough explanation and convincing, he finally put out the flames of rage of the people around him.

Such a severe consequence was something that he did not expect. Summer Night Flower carefully observed the faces of the others still lingering with anger and was scared.

If he had guessed wrong, the people of the army would not even have to chase him; these people beside him would all be waiting at his revive point to kill him countless times over and over again.

…

In a certain Star System in the Colton Star Cluster, four spaceships surrounded a dark red spaceship. Energy chains and beams locked the dark red spaceship in its place.

The leader of this group of small galactic pirates stared at his prey through the porthole; greed appeared on his malnourished face. The galactic pirate subordinates behind him were also delighted.

Due to the rise of the Black Star Army, the lives of the galactic pirates in the Colton Star Cluster had become much worse. The name of Black Star struck fear into the hearts of even the big galactic pirates. A small galactic pirate group like them could only act in an extremely low-profile manner, like mice.

Finally, they met a lone spaceship, and they quickly came to rob it.

"I found it. This is a Crimson Coated Grade spaceship. It's very expensive!" A subordinate found the model of the dark red spaceship online and was overjoyed.

The galactic pirate leader clenched his fists in excitement. Intending to seize this dark red spaceship, he hastily threatened them through the communication channel. "Don't run away, and don't fight back, or we will destroy your spaceship!"

It seemed like the people inside the dark red spaceship were scared. The spaceship stayed stationary and did not show any signs of fighting back. The galactic pirate leader felt relieved. He controlled the spaceship and slowly moved closer. Mechanical arms extended out of his spaceship and were about to connect with the dark red spaceship.

At this time, a high energy reaction suddenly exploded from this dark red spaceship. A red energy wave expanded in a sphere and passed through the four other spaceships in the blink of an eye, penetrating them like they had no physical form.

The smiles of the galactic pirate leader and his subordinates were fixed on their faces.

Flop, flop!

The next moment, all the galactic pirates on the four spaceships collapsed. The smiles were still on their faces, but their eyes had lost their color. Their minds were shattered in an instant, and they became corpses.

Gray shadows were dragged out of the corpses by an invisible force, turning into a rolling cluster of fog and flying toward the dark red spaceship, gathering on a white palm.

With no expression on her face, Hila absorbed that soul energy. Her Esper ability became stronger by a negligible amount.

She could absorb the remaining mind energy of dead beings to strengthen her own Esper ability. She did not have an opportunity to do so on Floating Dragon, but now that she had entered the galaxy after finally becoming Grade A through intense training, she would have plenty of opportunities to kill people. Hence, she discovered this method of becoming stronger.

In terms of growth potential, Hila was not below the average player.

However, she would not be so mad about becoming stronger and slaughter planets for it like in Han Xiao's previous life.

"Sis, what should we do with these four spaceships?" Aurora asked while controlling the spaceship.

On Floating Dragon Island, other than training her Esper ability, Aurora had also gained other knowledge and knew how to operate a spaceship.

"Bring them along. Maybe Han Xiao will want to modify them."

Hila was not very interested in the loot. She reflected on the battle. Since she had always been training with Ames, she did not know how strong she was exactly.

I seem to be… quite strong?

…

After a long trip, Han Xiao and the other two finally arrived at Austin's Hidden Red Robe Abbey after more than half a month.