Blood Cloud Chaos Sector

Feng Xiao returned to the docking platform with Ilde and paused, staring at the gear-covered mechanical creation before them in confusion.

"What... is this thing?" His Divine Sense detected no energy fluctuations. He turned and looked at Wang Hao, who was just as bewildered.

"I have no idea either. I just entered a game competition, and they said the first-place prize was an antique with some collector's value..."

Wang Hao spread his hands helplessly, making it clear he knew nothing about it.

They'd even delivered it to the specified address. How considerate.

Just as he was about to toss it into storage as a keepsake, the Heart of Dawn suddenly began to tremble.

[An Earth-grade cosmic wonder has been detected. Absorb it to repair the Heart of Dawn?]

A cosmic wonder?

Repair the Heart of Dawn?!

His Divine Sense swept over the mysterious mechanical creation, but no matter how thoroughly he examined it, he couldn't detect anything unusual. In the end, he could only ask the Heart of Dawn.

He was definitely giving it to the Heart of Dawn. No matter how valuable some so-called Star Sea treasure was, it couldn't possibly be more powerful than the Heart of Dawn.

Still, he at least needed to know what this supposed Star Sea treasure was.

[Shattered Body: Earth-grade wonder

Origin: A fragment of the main body of the God of Fragmentation—a shed fragment from a higher-dimensional life-form.

Effect: Integrate it into your starship core to gain individual power directly exceeding your current level by 40. Your starship will also receive a massive boost to its combat strength.

This includes, but is not limited to, various high-level enhancements and powerful skills. It may even strengthen your hull.

Side effect: The greater the degree of fusion between your starship and the Shattered Body, the more easily the God of Fragmentation can sense and control it. Complete fusion will turn it directly into a vessel for Mechanical God Descent.

Note: The God of Fragmentation has been classified by the Star Sea Human Alliance as a four-star higher-dimensional life-form. Mechanical God Descent is a three-star disaster.]

Feng Xiao found the information a little overwhelming. Higher-dimensional life-forms... gods... star-rated disasters... Wasn't this supposed to be a sci-fi universe with a touch of mysterious, rule-based elements?

How had higher-dimensional beings entered the picture?

He didn't know what the star ratings were based on, but he could tell they were no joke.

"Heart of Dawn, use it to repair yourself."

Feng Xiao came back to his senses, lavished praise on Wang Hao, and gave him a generous bonus before immediately issuing the order.

The Shattered Body's effects certainly seemed incredibly powerful, but he had to think long-term. Its terrifying side effect was more than enough to put him off.

As soon as he finished speaking, the enormous, mysterious mechanical structure before him rapidly faded, then vanished from sight as if erased.

[This repair will take two hours.]

He nodded and boarded the Star Origin. Seeing the hidden red Star Weapon in the storage bay, he smacked his lips in delight.

The Star Origin currently had three blue Star Weapons, each taking up one Star Weapon slot: the Fierce Star, Titanium Steel Armor, and Star Matrix.

The Tianyi Medical Chamber, Storm Piercer, and other purple Star Weapons took up two slots apiece. Add the Eternal Sun Wall, which occupied four slots by itself...

Only one of its twelve Star Weapon slots remained—not nearly enough to equip any other blue-quality or higher Star Weapons. That would change once it reached Elite rank.

At Elite rank (lv41–lv60), a starship had ten standard Star Weapon slots. With the boost from a Legendary-grade hull, that could rise to forty.

From then on, the Star Origin wouldn't have to worry about running out of slots. Besides, it already had an absurd number for its current rank.

Tengshe would stay in storage for now. He wouldn't get that purple main cannon until the supercar race ended twenty days later.

As for upgrades...

He had enough Star Points, and Titanium wasn't in short supply. There was no rush; he could upgrade to counter a specific threat if one arose.

If he was killed before he had the chance to upgrade, there was no point regretting it. A few levels gained in advance wouldn't have helped against that kind of danger anyway.

[Local Star Net notice: A large-scale mercenary mission has been posted in your area. Minimum level requirement: Advanced starship.

The mission offers generous rewards, but may take a long time. Would you like to accept?]

The notification immediately caught Feng Xiao's attention. He curiously opened the mission link.

[X27 Large-scale Mercenary Mission

Mission type: Reclamation, bandit suppression

Description: A treasure belonging to the chairman of the Mude Consortium, intended to save his wife, was recently seized by a large star pirate group from the Blood Cloud Chaos Sector.

After negotiations failed, the chairman of the Mude Consortium decided to dispatch his own starship fleet and hire a large number of starships to reclaim it.

Important notes:

1. The Blood Cloud Chaos Sector is an ungoverned area on the Alliance's border. It is home to dozens, even hundreds, of criminal factions from star systems and nebulae.

2. For various internal reasons, a small number of first-generation starships have ended up there. The Blood Cloud Chaos Sector is currently extremely dangerous. It is an area where Star-Land-class and higher starships can earn military merit and gain experience.

3. The target is a large joint star pirate group whose strength is close to that of a super-large pirate group.

Its armed forces include:

Star Vault (lv91–lv120) starships ×1

Star-Land (lv61–lv90) starships ×3

Elite (lv41–lv60) starships ×59

Low- to Advanced-level starships ×358

(Most of the starships from Low to Elite rank are second- or third-generation models and have limited combat strength.)

Approximately 4,600 conventional warships in total, including armed cruisers, light carriers, heavy battleships, medium battleships, and light battleships.

(The enemy's numbers are based on known intelligence. Unknown enemy forces may also be present.)

4. The Mude Consortium and the Violet Fifth Fleet will handle the enemy's Star Vault-class starship and all starships below Elite rank, including conventional warships.

The mercenary forces will handle Star-Land-class and Elite starships.

5. The mission will begin in twelve days. You may enter the Blood Cloud Chaos Sector in advance. The Mude Consortium will fully reimburse all losses incurred during this mission.

Mission reward: Based on battlefield performance

Minimum reward:

Star-Land-class starship: 2,000,000 Star Points

Elite starship: 150,000 Star Points

Advanced starship: 20,000 Star Points

Accept?

The minimum reward will be paid immediately upon acceptance, and the mercenary contract will take effect at once. Those who shirk the mission or flee will be dealt with according to Alliance mercenary law.]

The Blood Cloud Chaos Sector?

Sounds like a great place!

For some reason, Feng Xiao was reminded of his past-life adventures in war zones. His blood immediately began to boil.

Wang Hao felt the same way. It had been a long time since they'd fought a fierce battle, and things were starting to feel dull.

As for Ilde, he would follow Feng Xiao's lead.

"What do you think? Should we take it?"

Feng Xiao looked up to ask. Seeing their expressions, he immediately grinned.

He clicked Accept.

[Mission accepted. Uploading your basic public information...]

[Accepted personnel—

Star-Land-class starships ×2

Elite starships ×44

Advanced...]

"So many people have signed up?" Feng Xiao stared at the list in surprise, then grew even more excited.

He had never seen a spectacle like this before. A battle between nearly a thousand starships would be an unforgettable highlight of his adventuring career!

Most rewards would be based on how many enemy forces they destroyed. The Star Ring would connect to the starship's adjudication system to tally their battle records, but the most important criterion for a reclamation mission was probably their overall contribution.

The three of them quickly checked the Star Origin's supplies, then set off for the outskirts of Red Mountain City.

Before long, the Star Origin reached a massive, cube-shaped starport unlike any other.

Red Mountain No. 5 Military Starport.

The Violet Fifth Fleet's base.

[Please state your point of origin...]

[Mercenary mission accepted]

[Wait for the fleet to assemble, or proceed to the Blood Cloud Sector in advance?]

[Proceed in advance]

[Assemble at the designated coordinates in twelve days. In addition, Advanced starships traveling alone into the Blood Cloud Sector face extreme danger. Please take this seriously.]

[Understood]

After thanking them for the official warning, the Star Origin continued onward, passing through a massive military Stargate on the starport's left.

It led directly to an Alliance starport on the outskirts of the Blood Cloud Chaos Sector!

Blood Guard Starport!

Although it was called a starport, it was as large as an entire planet. In reality, it was a standard war planet.

Three small Battle Stars, each eight thousand kilometers in diameter, orbited it, together forming Blood Guard Starport.

The entire starport was equipped with three medium-sized planet-destroying cannons and hundreds of dark matter orbital cannons. It also had countless other weapons, including all kinds of high-powered energy cannons and advanced energy missile bases.

The planet-destroying cannons here could blast through more than a dozen planets with a single shot...

The starport was home to as many as eighty thousand warships, including powerful conventional vessels such as supercarriers and space carriers, along with a full two thousand Alliance Military starships.

The lowest-ranked Alliance starships stationed here were Elite!

Some were even stronger than Star Vault-class vessels.

Together with three other starports of similar size, it kept the entire Blood Cloud Chaos Sector in check, ensuring no war-scale raids could take place.

Small-scale raids were unavoidable. They only had to make sure the criminal factions couldn't band together and wipe out large numbers of law-abiding nations.

The nearby countries and major powers could handle the rest. That let them train their troops while giving independent starships a chance to gain experience—a win-win.

Looking at Blood Guard Starport, made up of a main battle planet, three affiliated Battle Stars, and hundreds of five-hundred-kilometer military bases, Feng Xiao and the others were awestruck. Could anyone imagine an artificial structure the size of a planet?

And it was a weapon of war!

After marveling at it for a while, Feng Xiao and the others quickly continued on without lingering. According to Alliance rules, destroying illegal criminal starships in the Main Universe earned Star Points, and any Star Points stored aboard the criminal starships became yours as well.

No matter where they kept their Star Points, they would all belong to you.

They'd heard the reason was the passive effect of a mysterious Star Weapon belonging to a big shot in the Police Department. It was meant to inspire independent starships to crack down on criminal factions.

Feng Xiao had to admit that he was feeling very motivated. Criminals were all loaded, no matter what world you were in.

Inside the Alliance colonel's office at Blood Guard Starport.

As the Alliance officer in charge of the entire Blood Guard Starport, the colonel was extremely busy. Yet at that moment, he was staring blankly at the departing Star Origin.

"Titanium Steel Armor... the Fierce Star Main Cannon... If it has the Mystic Azure Armor shield too, then there's no mistake..."

After a moment's thought, the colonel shook his head and returned to work. Quite a few mercenary forces had entered the Blood Cloud Chaos Sector recently, and they needed to be assigned.

"Those bastards in the Blood Cloud Sector have been causing trouble lately. We should launch a suppression campaign when we get the chance. The Star Sea Festival is almost here, and they're still acting up."

The Star Origin quickly reached sublight speed. About ten minutes later, a standard notification came through.

[You have entered the Blood Cloud danger zone.]

Looking at the oppressive starry sky ahead, Feng Xiao accelerated and went straight into faster-than-light travel through Subspace, completely disregarding the danger.

"We're still on the outskirts, anyway..."

[Warning! This ship has entered a Li-style Particle coverage zone!]

[Warning! High-energy reaction detected!]

"..."