Mission Complete, Potential Revealed

The instant he reached level five, the sudden surge of energy from leveling up allowed the jump drive to activate almost as soon as the enemy's attacks left their guns.

In the blink of an eye, Star Origin flashed a million kilometers away. A barrage of powerful beams streaked past the spot where it had just been!

The terrifying energy directly caught several Crescent Warships in its reach and annihilated them.

The shields of one Alliance starship frantically dodging the attacks nearly shattered.

[Shield value decreased: 15,000]

[Armor value decreased: 1,000]

[Hull damage: 17%]

"???"

Feng Xiao stared at the damage Star Origin had suffered, beginning to wonder if its shields were fake. His face was pale with lingering fear.

Even a glancing hit from just part of the attack had been this terrifying. If they hadn't dodged, Star Origin would probably have been done for.

"We'll have to be careful around veteran Star-Land Class starships from now on..." Wang Hao and Ilde said, their hearts still pounding.

Feng Xiao didn't know that the two Star-Land Class starships weren't veterans at all. They had simply overdrawn the potential of their main guns—and even that of their entire ships.

They had launched an overloaded attack.

Not just Star Origin—even those three Star-Land Class starships would have had their shields and armor completely destroyed if they'd faced an attack like that.

An overloaded attack multiplied its firepower several times over, but the price was a high chance of getting stuck at the starship's current level.

However, because the two traitor starships had focused all their fire on Star Origin, their ability to fight back had dropped sharply for a short time.

The military starships soon seized the opportunity to break through their shields and began wearing down their hull armor.

After returning to the battlefield, Star Origin made no attempt to steal the credit for any kills. After all, earning Star Points was a slow and grueling process for ordinary starships, unlike for him.

But once a starship reached Star-Land Class, it could join the fighting on the front lines. Killing enemy civilization forces could earn Star Points, and military merit was valuable too.

Ordinary Elite-Class starships had it the worst.

He quietly spent Star Points to speed up the starship's self-repair while taking stock of their gains.

"Counting the Star Points provided by the enemy ships themselves, the kill rewards, and the guaranteed rewards... then subtracting the percentage of damage we'd already dealt while focusing fire on them.

"That comes to about 1.7 million Star Points and eight pieces of Titanium."

Wang Hao continued his report. "And with the Star Weapons you sold earlier, plus the Star Points we had left over, Star Origin now has 2.7 million Star Points and 64 pieces of Titanium."

"That's pretty good."

Feng Xiao smiled with satisfaction. Many veteran Elite-Class starships only earned about that much in a year.

"Once we've replaced most of the Star Weapons, we'll start a large-scale overhaul and upgrade. As soon as we reach Elite Class, we can explore restricted danger zones."

Feng Xiao laughed. Many danger zones had been explored less than five percent, making them incredibly tempting.

With the destruction of the two starships, the Alliance fleet quickly gained the upper hand. After the first few enemy warships were destroyed, the rest soon lost their combat capability as well.

The battle was completely over half an hour later.

The Alliance side had been comfortably in control. Damaged starships were quickly pulled back for protection, and less damaged ships were sent forward to take their place and absorb the enemy fire.

As a result, they suffered no losses.

However, the huge numbers of crab-shaped mechs deployed by the enemy to hold back the fleet wiped out the unmanned mechs and fighters carried by many of the starships.

The losses amounted to at least tens of millions of Alliance Coins.

[Mission complete. Rewards will be issued through the Star Net. Prepare to return immediately.]

As soon as the announcement ended, Star Origin was sent back to the other universe.

They didn't have to wait the full five days?

Feng Xiao was rather disappointed. He'd been planning to see whether the increased range of his level-five Storm Piercer's jump ability could earn him some extra money.

[Storm Piercer

Quality: Purple (Level cap: 25)

Level: 5

Speed: Up to 5 times the speed of light

Jump range: 100 light-years (2 light-years/h)

(↑ +20% per level)

Purple Enhancement: Storm Cruise

When traveling at full speed, speed increases by 25% every 4 hours, up to a maximum of 100%. The effect ends when the ship stops.]

Satisfied, Feng Xiao closed the data screen and looked around before continuing on to hunt magical beasts.

Resources for the individual combat system were rare. He couldn't miss this opportunity. The Alliance's wool was endless—was there anything wrong with legally shearing a little off?

Not at all!

[Star Origin's captain is under 25 years old.]

[The results of this hunting mission have been sent to the Star Net—]

[Record: While commanding a high-level starship, destroyed two enemy civilization warships comparable to Elite-Class starships. Successfully performed a precise evasive maneuver against the overloaded attacks of two traitor Star-Land Class starships.]

[Potential (under 25): ★★]

[Note: Potential can be changed through external factors. This record only reflects the potential demonstrated by your current results.]

Feng Xiao was utterly bewildered. Only after opening the official explanation did he understand what had happened.

It turned out that the authorities were currently collecting information on the potential of new-generation captains under the age of 25. Those who met the potential requirements could sign up for the upcoming Alliance Youth League.

This wasn't a ranking, though, just a basic profile. Clicking on it took you straight to your Second World homepage. The higher your potential, the more exposure you got and the more followers you attracted.

Besides benefiting the new-generation captains, it also gave their vanity a huge boost.

The idea was to motivate the new-generation captains.

For young people, vanity was almost as important as material gain.

He'd heard that people over 25 who qualified could have their profiles listed in the Genius Section, with an age limit of 25 to 40.

All in all, it was a brilliant piece of management.

It boosted the motivation of the new-generation captains in every way.

People were paying attention because they thought you had great potential and because you were a captain. If you didn't work hard to improve and instead tried to use that attention for something else, you'd be left with nothing. Alliance citizens weren't stupid.

In short, there was no other way to keep your reputation and resources than to improve your potential and combat strength.

By the time you grew to the point where you no longer cared about vanity, you'd probably have become powerful already.

Feng Xiao didn't care about vanity. In fact, posting videos and pictures of his danger-zone explorations on his Second World homepage in the future would get him more exposure than this.

But he did care about Star Weapon resources!

Once your potential reached a certain level, you could receive support from the Alliance Special Fund.

"The signup requirement is one star... How does that work?"

Feng Xiao was curious and opened the intelligent assistant.

[★: Fifth-rate genius in the Alliance. The ratings follow the same system. Third-rate and above may receive support.]

Feng Xiao looked at his own rating and immediately lost interest.

Even top-tier geniuses were nothing special. Every ten years, countless top talents emerged from all over the Alliance, but probably fewer than one in ten thousand grew to Star Dome Class or above.

Only people who managed to grow into capable figures were truly talented.

Everyone else was treated as ordinary.

"I'll sign up first and worry about the rest later. The Alliance's records shouldn't be wrong." Feng Xiao smiled helplessly at Wang Hao and the other man as they gathered around him.

"Once we reach Star-Land Class, every battle will be recorded. Maybe you two will even make the Elite Crew Ranking."

"Hahaha, we'll take your word for it, boss."

AI Military Starport.

Three Star Dome Class officers, all starship captains, had gathered to discuss something.

"How many Military Star Ports have been completed so far?"

"Thirty-six. Several border military districts and Blood Guard Starport have also sent reinforcements. They're planning to convert ten Small Battle Stars and some Planetary Fortresses to garrison this place."

"Sixty Military Star Ports, ten Battle Stars, and two or three fortresses... That's something."

"How many starships have applied to enter K180 Continent?"

"A lot. In a few days, we'll send them in with the military fleet to gather resources. But first, we need to deal with the native humans..."

"Captain Feng seems quite capable. Send a regular fleet and have him handle it."

"Agreed."

And so Feng Xiao, far away on the continent, received a lucrative strategic mission...