The fourth phase of exploration targets four star clusters, geographically located in the heart of the Shattered World.
Opening up new star clusters to the outside world is a means for the Empire to reduce construction costs. The first three phases of territory were basically divided properly and under high control, belonging to the high-security zone. However, these four star clusters are Free Competition Zone among all forces. The Empire does not restrict external forces from competing for territory, and they are low-security zones.
Foreign forces choose one or several star clusters to explore, opening up maps and vying for territory. In the early stages of exploration, each force focuses on occupying territory, with a generally consistent goal: to seize a bridgehead before slowly exploring the unknown areas to come.
Now, countless external forces have only been in the fourth phase for a short time, and their exploration area is still limited to the edges of four star clusters. However, the situation is already showing signs of becoming increasingly complex. If one were to meticulously divide the territories currently occupied by each force on a star map, it would certainly be the most complex map in the entire universe.
Most factions had anticipated the intensity of the competition and formed alliances to varying degrees. Generally speaking, the main camps active in the Free Competition Zone at this time can be divided into several categories.
The first are the local strongmen, referring to the Empire and its allies. They occupy a piece of territory on the edge of each of the four star systems, giving them a somewhat superior status. After all, most outside forces do not want to confront the local strongmen head-on, and the forces belonging to the Empire have not explored much and have not joined the fierce competition.
Secondly, there are alliances of different civilizations. The Super Star Cluster Alliance is the best among them, while the rest are star cluster-level civilization alliances divided by star regions. They have been exploring and expanding extensively, occupying bridgeheads. The territories of allies are adjacent to each other, appearing as blocks on the power map with relatively conspicuous areas. This type of power is the mainstream in the Free Competition Zone.
Third are conglomerate forces, mainly composed of various mercenaries, primarily seeking wealth, and occupying relatively scattered territories. Fourth are external Beyond Grade A forces, which are also highly competitive, but few in number. Fifth are various civilian organizations, which are the most complex in composition, have the most scattered territories, and frequently changed hands in the previous life, making them the main areas of conflict.
As for Glory and Arcane, both have kept a low profile, content with their own corner of the world, and have no intention of expanding aggressively. They simply allow their allies to participate in the competition freely.
The Three Universal Civilizations have tacitly agreed to cede the stage to other forces for competition and battle, much like raising a venomous insect.
However, at present, there are occasional frictions in the Free Competition Zone of the four star clusters, but no large-scale armed conflict has broken out. The exploration has just begun, there are still many unknown territories, and everyone is busy exploring the inner areas of the star clusters. The power structure is far from saturated.
Currently, these forces are mainly wary of the Empire's attitude, but a war is inevitable. With the Black Star Army firing the first shot in the Shattered World, this process will be greatly accelerated.
One of the fourth phase of the Free Competition Zone, the Emerald Star Cluster.
The massive Black Star Army exploration fleet sailed out of the Empire's military stargate and arrived at the star cluster's border.
In the command center, Hila stood expressionless in front of the control panel, carefully examining the holographic virtual star map in front of her.
Now she was dressed in a new outfit, a nanomaterial battle suit specially made for her by Han Xiao. It was a double-breasted black uniform, a deluxe version of the Legion officer's uniform, clinging to her skin and outlining her alluring figure. The collar bore the Legion's insignia, while a wide, high-necked cape draped over her back. The cape was black and gold with ornate patterns, while the inner lining was red. This outfit, combined with her unique temperament, made Hila exude a powerful aura.
The battle suit is model "Red Snake - First Generation", Beyond Grade A equipment containing a large amount of cutting-edge technology. In normal mode, it looks like ordinary clothes, but when entering combat mode, it will show the powerful performance of Beyond Grade A mecha equipment.
This suit wasn't made on the spot; Han Xiao had prepared it well before Hila's return. Although Hila didn't say anything on the surface, she wore it constantly and clearly liked it very much.
"Deputy Commander, where are we going now?" the female adjutant beside him asked.
Hila stretched out his finger and tapped on the holographic star map, zooming in on a region. This was a planet on the edge of the Emerald Star Cluster, named Planet Ferry. It was located in a slightly off-center position and had not yet been occupied.
"Go here and establish a bridgehead," Hila said.
She is now the commander of the exploration fleet. Han Xiao has given her a high degree of autonomy in decision-making, only limiting the legion's exploration target to the Emerald Star Cluster. The specific actions are to be commanded by Hila.
The reason he chose the Emerald Star Cluster was because it was also the home ground for the exploration of the Modo Civilization, and a rather prosperous area in his previous life. He remembered that there were some hidden elements here. The remains of an old civilization were unearthed in this cluster. The civilization was of a very high level and preserved a lot of technological data. It had caused countless forces to fight over it in his previous life, but its exact location was unknown.
Most importantly, the Emerald Star Cluster is one of the coordinates where the Chaos Mysterious Energy was born.
In the legacy of the Sorokin, there are several coordinates predicting the emergence of Chaos Mysterious Energy. Han Xiao couldn't determine which one was the real one. Because the Sorokin Sorokin hadn't perished in his previous life and the data hadn't been leaked, they quietly managed to obtain Chaos Mysterious Energy without attracting much attention from the outside world, and the players were unaware of it.
However, Han Xiao had been secretly monitoring Evans's whereabouts. After being released from prison, the former host of the Chaos Mysterious Energy found a job as an ordinary ground crew member in a conglomerate's exploration fleet, responsible for cleaning and maintaining the spaceships. His fleet had just arrived in the Emerald Star Cluster.
Therefore, Han Xiao was quite certain that the Emerald Star Cluster was the place where the Chaos Secret and the Book could have been born. After all, after the Chaos Mysterious Energy its penis torn off by the Sorokin, it must have found a host nearby, so the area where Evans was located was the most likely.
Of course, Hila was unaware of these things at the moment. She casually gave the order to direct the fleet to Planet Ferry.
However, some player guilds did not follow the main group but instead broke away and acted separately.
These registered guilds have the right to act freely. In order to establish their own strongholds, they do not want to follow the main force, which Han Xiao tacitly approves of. In addition, he has prepared many special tasks for players in the legion interface, with generous rewards, to encourage guilds to act independently and expand their leading advantage.
Somewhere in the Emerald Cluster, the fleet of the Beast Ancestor Grutan is stationed on a planet, busily constructing this bridgehead.
Although he is the behind-the-scenes protector of the Interstellar Black Market, Gorutan also has his own forces. If there is anything special about him, it is that most of his members are his descendants.
Gorutan stood on a towering, solitary peak, overlooking the land that was gradually being covered by a metallic surface. Above him was a deep, dark starry sky, with auroras from atmospheric ionization flowing across the horizon.
He was completely naked, his majestic body exposed to the world. His lion-mane-like fur fluttered in the corrosive wind, and specks of Glory swirled around his body, each one a highly concentrated burst of martial arts energy.
Peak Beyond Grade A martial artists have elevated their training methods beyond simply honing their bodies to a higher level. They use every inch of their bodies to feel the workings of the universe, which is extremely profound. Gorutan no longer practices training methods like Heber's, which involve soaking in stars.
At that moment, meteors flew down from the sky and landed behind Gorutan. They were all Calamity Grade cadres, more than forty in total.
"Father!"
Everyone lowered their heads and spoke in unison, their tone respectful.
These cadres were all descendants of the Beast Ancestor, and they all had different appearances, as if they belonged to different species.
Gorutan truly lived up to the "ancestor" in his nickname; he also had a popular nickname. "The Starry Sky Seeder."
After evolving into Beyond Grade A species, he gained powerful reproductive capabilities and his genes possessed extraordinary adaptability. There was almost no issue of reproductive isolation in his presence, and he could produce offspring with the vast majority of species. His method of expanding his population was crude and simple: he captured females of different races to mate with, thus producing all sorts of hybrid species.
If any of his offspring are exceptional mutants, he will turn them into breeding machines, creating even more powerful offspring. This practice clashes with the ethics of some races, so Gorutan has been rejected by many civilizations, who consider him a savage beast. However, many races don't care about this, since the ethics of each species are different.
Gorutan turned around, seemingly unconcerned about being naked in front of his descendants, and asked in a deep voice, "What is it?"
One of the descendants stepped forward; his appearance resembled a spider-like insect, but his face had humanoid features. Six arthropod-like arms held a communicator in a show of respect. "Father, Sorokin is looking for you."
Gorutan grunted through his nose, picked up the communicator, and Sorokin's virtual image appeared before him.
What do you want with me?
Sorokin smiled faintly. "Remember my plan for the Black Star Army? Now is the time. Once the Infinite Financial Group has established itself, it will begin targeting the Black Star Army's territories. Until then, we can curb the Legion's exploration."
Do you need my help?
"Good. The Black Star Army's exploration team is currently heading to Planet Ferry, which isn't far from you. I hope you can seize Planet Ferry first. They are led by Hila. Test her, and ideally, force the Black Star fleet to retreat, delaying their exploration progress and damaging their prestige."
Why don't you do it yourself?
"My true form isn't in the Emerald Star Cluster, and I can't defeat Hila," Sorokin smiled.
"Hmph, we made a deal with you because we didn't want to deal with the Black Star Army ourselves. And you're asking me, your employer, for help? What's going on here?" Gorutan sneered. As a fellow Peak Beyond Grade A, he wasn't afraid of provoking Black Star, but he didn't want to work for free.
Sorokin said slowly, "My abilities are limited; I'm only good at business. If you don't help me, I can't restrict the Black Star Army's exploration, and the results will be less effective. Don't blame me for not putting enough pressure on Black Star then... Besides, I can give you some information: the Glory and the Arcane are planning to take down Hila."
"Oh? Aren't they afraid of angering the Empire and suffering another Tragedy of the Pinnacle?"
"You don't know this, Hila belongs to the Black Star Army, but she hasn't agreed to join the Empire. Killing her will only anger the Black Star. Hila becoming Beyond Grade A was an accident, but it also gave us a new direction to strike at the Black Star Army."
Gorutan squinted. "Have you forgotten what Black Star said at the Meeting of the Gods? There are too few Beyond Grade A. Even the death of one is detrimental to us."
"Haha, is that really the case?" Sorokin smiled faintly. "The Mechanic Emperor has great ambitions. It hopes to gather all the Beyond Grade A forces to gain more... But thinking about it the other way around, isn't this just being used by them? My thoughts are exactly the opposite of his. If the number of Beyond Grade A decreases, the remaining people will actually be safer and more relied upon by advanced civilizations."
Gorutan frowned. "Are you betraying the Beyond Grade A united front?"
"There's never been such a thing as betrayal. What do other people have to do with us? Aren't we Beyond Grade A in a good enough position right now?" Sorokin said dismissively. "Trying to take what doesn't belong to us—such ambition will only lead us to destruction."
"Don't say things like that to me again, I'll pretend I didn't hear it." Gorutan waved his hand impatiently. "For the sake of our old friendship, I'll help you this once. I'll go to Planet Ferry, and double my next share of the profits, otherwise forget it."
"Okay." Sorokin smiled.
After hanging up the communication, Gorutan glanced back at his many descendants and said in a deep voice, "Prepare the spaceship, follow me."
At this moment, one of the descendants couldn't help but say, "Father, isn't it a bit of a loss for us to provoke the Black Star Army in the Shattered World...?"
"You think Sorokin is the first person to ask me to do this?" Gorutan scoffed. "Ha, in today's Shattered World, there are plenty of organizations that want to deal with the Black Star Army... Black Star is too big a target!"
The Black Star Army's exploration fleet was en route when it suddenly received a message.
"Your Excellency, Deputy Commander, there's a situation." The female adjutant rushed into the room.
Hila, who was meditating, opened her eyes and frowned, asking, "What is it?"
"Philippiana has been seized by someone else, namely the fleet of the Beast Ancestor Gorutan. Should we... should we find another planet to use as our base?"
"Gorutan?" Hila's eyes flashed with coldness. "We haven't concealed our whereabouts; the outside world knows our objective. Yet he deliberately seized Planet Ferry, a provocation against the Legion! If we take a detour, it will undermine the Legion Commander's hard-earned prestige."
"But Gorutan is Peak Beyond Grade A, you, you..." The adjutant hesitated, not daring to continue.
"Your legion commander is also Peak Beyond Grade A, there's no reason for us to back down!" Hila stood up and said in a deep voice, "Flight unchanged, full speed ahead!"
So what if I'm Peak Beyond Grade A? It's not like I haven't been beaten before!
She wasn't like Garoze, someone whose potential had run out. You could call her a fearless newborn calf, but she was never afraid to challenge the strong.
Hila's belief is that only by fighting against the strong can one unleash their potential.
Meanwhile, Han Xiao, who was happily counting his experience points at the Black Star Palace every day, also received a message from Phillip and was slightly taken aback.
"Gorutan? When did I offend him?"
Han Xiao scratched his head, somewhat helplessly.
Although I don't know the reason, I'm not a nobody now, so there's no reason for me to back down and let them take advantage of me.
This is your own doing, shortening your own lifespan; it has nothing to do with me.