The metallic cabin walls were full of scratches and holes, and the exposed energy circuits were damaged. Sparks were constantly sputtering. The cabin of this ship had experienced a fierce battle. The flames were crackling and crackling, and the floor was full of the shattered corpses of the crew.
A group of galactic warriors in full armor were checking the corpses with their blasters, and they would shoot any survivors they found.
The dead crew were all Rock Elves, an ancient mammal-type race. They had rough yellowish-brown skin and an average height of three meters. Although they were made of flesh and blood, they were born as hard as rocks. They were good at finding rare ores and metals, and they were one of the stronger galactic civilizations in the Sea of Star Spirits.
The uniforms of these crew members had the symbol of this civilization, proving that this spaceship belonged to the official forces of this civilization. However, they were attacked and annihilated.
At the end of the cabin was a huge metal door, and inside was a warehouse. At this moment, a guy who looked like the leader of the attackers was standing in front of the tightly shut door of the warehouse. He took out a disk device that was specially used to crack keys and pressed it on the operation panel of the warehouse door. A high-frequency beeping sound rang out.
Hum! The next moment, the door of the warehouse was unlocked and opened slowly.
The leader of the attackers walked in and saw hundreds of Evolutionary Totems neatly placed in the warehouse.
"We have the items. Go count them and move them back to our spaceship."
The leader of the attackers nodded with satisfaction and waved his hand, ordering his subordinates to do the job.
The Rock Elves had purchased a batch of totems from the Black Star Corps, and the news was leaked. This group of attackers had set up an ambush in advance with the goal of snatching the Evolutionary Totems.
Even the accompanying fleet was wiped out by this group of attackers. To be able to rob the official forces of a galactic civilization, they were clearly not small characters.
These attackers were also galactic mercenaries, but they were of a different nature. Mercenaries could be roughly divided into three types. The first type was those who were registered in the Mercenary Alliance, such as the Black Star Army. The second type was those who were not registered in the Mercenary Alliance and were independent mercenaries without a business license. The third type was those who were active in the black market and were willing to take on illegal jobs.
'Illegal jobs' referred to those that violated the laws of the galaxy and were not allowed to see the light of day. They were usually posted on the black market, such as robbing, kidnapping, assassinating civilization officials, massacring planets, spying, starting wars, and so on. These mercenaries were actually criminals as well. In fact, most of the people in this industry were wanted criminals.
This group of attackers was a mercenary from the black market that specialized in illegal jobs. They came from one of the top black market mercenary organizations in the universe — the Blood Gold Organization.
The Blood Gold Organization was a black market mercenary organization that operated across Star Fields. Their main areas of activity were the Sea of Star Spirits, the Ancient Star Desert, and the Primeval Star River. The whereabouts of their members, spaceships, and bases were all rather secretive. The exact size of the Blood Gold Organization was a secret, but to be able to operate in three Star Fields, it was clearly a huge organization.
At the same time, the Blood Gold Organization was also one of the upper echelons of the galactic black market.
Where there were trade restrictions, there would be black markets. The black markets would continue to grow and gradually form a huge structure.
There were also different levels of black markets. They were differentiated by region and business scope. From planets to Star Systems to Star Fields, the higher the level, the more formal the black market became. At the highest level, it would be the galactic black market that covered almost all the Star Fields. It was nominally the leader of all the black markets.
This highest level black market organization knew how to make money silently. They would not give themselves an independent name, such as the 'galactic black market'. Those who did not know would think that it was just a name.
Of course, not all independent black markets listened to the orders of the highest level galactic black market. It was just like how some small gangsters did not know that they were giants in the international society.
The galactic black market was extremely huge, and its business covered the entire universe. There would always be some civilizations that wished to obtain the technology that the higher civilizations had locked down. Thus, they would turn a blind eye and even act as a protective umbrella. On the other hand, the galactic black market was also a communication platform for galactic criminals. It was a huge underground society.
Not all criminals existed for the sake of causing trouble. A large portion of them only existed for benefits. They also needed order and credibility, and they needed someone to set the rules. Thus, the managers of the galactic black market were born. Mercenaries from the black market, intelligence organizations, smugglers, contraband production, and various other gray industries were the strongest organizations.
The Blood Gold Organization was one of the managers of the black market. It was equivalent to the overlord of the underground criminal world.
The Fallen Ark was not the manager of the black market. The managers of the black market were basically lawful evil. They also did not like the chaotic evil EsGod. Although they were both criminal organizations, they were not on the same side. After the Fallen Ark fell apart, the Blood Gold Organization took in a large number of criminals and helped them find jobs.
An officer came to the leader's side and looked at his subordinate carrying the Evolutionary Totem. He could not help but chuckle.
"The price of the Evolutionary Totem on the black market is extremely high. According to what I know, many civilizations are secretly purchasing it. If we swallow this batch of goods, how much do you think we can sell it for?"
"Don't think too much. This is something that the employer wants. Our job is to bring the goods back. Do you want to die if you dare to swallow it?" The leader shook his head.
After a year and a half of operation, the business of the Evolutionary Totem had basically stabilized. Some of the civilizations that had joined the Radiance and Ethereal civilizations could not have anything to do with the dynasty and could only have evil thoughts. Some of the galactic financial groups had also started to take action after observing for a long time.
No one had forgotten the battle results of the Black Star a year and a half ago. The difficulty of robbing the Black Star Corps was too high, and these organizations could only choose to rob the fleet that transported the Evolutionary Totem. They eyed every civilization that purchased the Evolutionary Totem covetously.
Because this was against the Galaxy's laws, the Blood Gold Organization, which represented the black market, was put to good use. Right now, the Evolutionary Totem was a priceless item in the black market, and the demand could not meet the demand.
After robbing the Evolutionary Totem of the Rock Sprite, this group of Blood Gold Organization members returned to the spaceship, blew up all the wreckage of the spaceship, and left.
In the past few months, similar scenes had played out many times in various corners of the universe.
…
Shattered Star Ring, Black Star Corps Headquarters.
"Another customer who wanted to buy the Evolutionary Totem was robbed halfway through?"
In the Army Commander's office, Han Xiao closed the player forums and looked at Sylvia's remote projection with a frown.
"Yes, including the Rock Sprite, there are already thirteen Star System civilizations that have been robbed. Thousands of Evolutionary Totems are on the black market."
"Where were they robbed?"
"The Sea of Star Spirits. The identity of the robber is unknown, but it should be the same organization that committed the previous crimes."
Han Xiao stroked his chin and said, "Pay attention to the black market. If the Evolutionary Totem is no longer sold on the black market, it should be the work of the black market mercenaries."
"Teacher, do we need to deal with this problem?"
"Don't worry about it. I'm not in charge of the after-sales service. It has nothing to do with me if they can't protect the items themselves. Of course, if they hire my mechanical army, it will be a different story." Han Xiao waved his hands and asked, "What did the Rock Sprite say?"
"They said that they hope that the army will give them another batch."
"Give them another batch? Not buy them? "
"Yes, they said that they know that the cost of the Evolutionary Totem is very low, so they are not willing to buy it at a high price. They think that we should give them another set. You know that the Rock Sprite is more straightforward." Sylvia shrugged helplessly.
"Tell them that I don't open an insurance business. If they want it, they can buy it again. There is no such thing as free compensation. This is a matter of principle."
Han Xiao shook his head. If he opened this loophole, there might be civilizations that want compensation. He would not do such a loss-making business.
However, this kind of thing was unavoidable. There might be civilizations that came to an agreement with other organizations and pretended that the Evolutionary Totem was stolen, indirectly helping other civilizations that were not close to the dynasty to purchase the Evolutionary Totem.
However, Han Xiao did not mind if the Evolutionary Totems he sold were snatched away. The more they were snatched away, the more he would sell. The market would be larger, and it could even help him share some of the pressure. After all, the Evolutionary Totems could only be used after being charged, so he would not lose out.
The one that had to worry about this problem was the dynasty, not him. As long as they did not steal from the Black Star Corps, he could still accept it.
"Understood. I'll tell them as such."
Sylvia turned off the remote projection.
Han Xiao sighed, leaned back on the chair, and fell into deep thought.
Over the past year and a half, the Black Star Corps had been operating steadily and had gradually digested the fruits of their rapid expansion. They had consolidated their various businesses and developed well. He finally acted like a Mechanic. His main body stayed at home and focused on building machinery, expanding the size of the army, while his mechanical army roamed outside, doing missions to accumulate Random Rewards and use them to draw Mission Completion Cards.
His EXP reserves had also been accumulated. He took out a portion of his Potential Points to upgrade blueprints and skills and used them to upgrade the level of his Ultimate Knowledges. During this period, he used 6,000 Empire Contribution Points to exchange for his fifth Ultimate Knowledge, [Ultimate Mechanical Engineering] of the Armed Forces.
This Ultimate Knowledge was related to building machinery, and it greatly increased the efficiency of the production line. It also unlocked a large number of blueprints that could be combined, giving him the talent [Ultimate Maker] and the ability [Inspiration Creation].
The effect of [Ultimate Maker] was simple but practical. The basic performance of the machinery he produced would increase by twenty-five to thirty percent, and the production speed would increase by three hundred to five hundred percent. Obviously, this was a talent that could be used to increase the number of soldiers.
[Inspiration Creation] was an inactive ability, and the activation condition was [Ultimate Mechanical Engineering] reaching the maximum level of Lv.5. Its effect was to combine unlimited blueprints and randomly combine one or more new blueprints. It could also be set at a higher level, such as the orientation of the combined blueprints (attack, defense, etc.), the required functions, and so on. It was more stable than [Inspiration Creation], so it could definitely be used.
What this ability consumed was experience … an ocean of experience.
To the players who could not change their blueprints, this ability was a godly ability. However, Han Xiao could improve his blueprints, so this ability was not very useful. However, it was not useless and had an irreplaceable effect.
[Inspiration Creation] had a small chance of combining blueprints of Universal Treasures. It was the only way for Mechanics to create Gold Equipment!
Now that Han Xiao had two Universal Treasures, he did not mind having one more. However, it was not so easy to combine blueprints of Universal Treasures. This was not like gambling blueprints; there was no fixed combination. Even if the combination was the same, the synthesized blueprints would still be very random.
In his previous life, there were players who happened to combine blueprints of Universal Treasures, but there were two problems. First, they only released information about the blueprints, but no one publicly announced the combination. Second … even if there were blueprints, no Mechanic player in his previous life could really create a Gold Grade machine.
The prerequisite for the blueprints was too harsh. It was basically impossible for anyone below Beyond Grade A to create one, so the players naturally could not meet the requirements.
[Inspiration Creation] was temporarily thrown to the back of Han Xiao's mind. First, it required too many Potential Points to max out [Ultimate Mechanical Engineering]. Second, although he had an ocean of experience to try to combine blueprints of Universal Treasures, he lacked experience in other areas. He had to save a lot of experience for the version update, so he did not dare waste it. To him, as long as he did not get a Universal Treasure blueprint, the experience he invested in this ability would be a waste.
In the past year and a half, the Gulal Civil War had been settled, and there were no surprises in the process. The Pioneer Party was about to reap the fruits of victory. However, the attention of the players was currently on the third Pro League.
Because of the sudden increase in the number of players, the popularity of this Pro League also increased. The divisions were the same as the second Pro League. There were nine divisions, and the schedule had been slightly adjusted.
For example, the secondary Pro League and the qualifiers had started half a year earlier. This allowed more time for the qualifiers to be held. This allowed more players to participate in the Pro League. At the same time, this allowed them to decide on the wildcard slots and the regular season roster before the official start of the Pro League.
Han Xiao had just watched a video of the qualifiers on the forums, admiring the playstyle of some of the players.
During the official competition, other than the Arena, Team, Individual, and Team Survival Battles, there would be three new special battle formats.
The first was the Capture the Flag Competition. Multiple teams would participate in a chaotic battle. Every player could revive infinitely, and the final victory would be based on points.
The second was the Team Dungeon Competition. Multiple teams would enter the same dungeon and compete to complete the mission set by the organizers to obtain points.
The third was the Dungeon Survival Battle. As the name suggested, it was a competition of how long both sides could survive in the dungeon. In his previous life, it was also known as the "Piss Holding Competition".
This year's Pro League had a lot more variety of battle formats. The goal of the organizers was to increase the competitiveness and fun of the competition. They added two dungeon battle formats to attract more PVE players.
The pre-season matches for the teams to get used to each other had also been brought forward. After the secondary Pro League and the qualifiers, the Pro League would start with the regular season. Next would be the Division Regular Season, the International All-Star Competition, the Division Finals, the International Regular Season, and the International Finals. The gap between the International Competition and the Division Finals was as short as the previous one.
The rules of this Pro League were also many times more detailed than the previous two seasons. There was even a 'prohibited item list'. As Han Technician expected, [Black Star Corps Badge: Evolution] was at the top of the list!
The army players did not feel anything because everyone could use it. However, the clubs in the other Star Fields heaved a huge sigh of relief. This piece of equipment was too strong. If every player in the Shattered Star Ring had one, they might as well just admit defeat!
However, Han Xiao felt that this was not the only reason. It was probably because the mutated equipment was too bloody and ugly. It was easy to scare the flowers and plants, which was not in line with the organizers' original intention of attracting popularity …
Ugly people had no rights. This was indeed the truth.
—
(This is from yesterday. There are more at night.)
。 m.
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