Maple Moon answered the call, and a man who looked like a mercenary appeared on the screen, his eyes filled with wariness and curiosity.
"This is the Crescent Financial Group's armed escort fleet. I am Commander Facoman. Who are you?"
Upon hearing this, Maple Moon was overjoyed.
Players from guilds like Long Sky, Jiangcheng, and Rainstorm had investigated the current situation on Planet Hake beforehand. Seven factions occupied the planet, competing with each other and guarding its outer space from different locations, forcing back other external forces and preventing more people from sharing its resources. If they encountered armed forces or star system-level civilizations' resource-gathering teams, the negotiation would be much more difficult.
If you encounter a powerful conglomerate, things will go very smoothly.
Of course, with players' current capabilities, they cannot investigate these situations on their own. The source of intelligence is naturally the Black Star Army, which allows players to check real-time intelligence about the Shattered World. This is a privilege enjoyed by Legion players.
Maple Moon composed herself and said, "This is a joint armed force of organizations such as Sky Domain, Rainstorm Guild, Jiangcheng Guild, etc."
Facoman looked puzzled.
He had never heard of any of these organizations, nor did he recognize their symbols.
I don't know where this little organization came from...
Facoman shook his head and said in a deep voice, "Planet Hake does not currently welcome any outside forces. Please leave immediately, or we will take necessary measures."
"You've misunderstood. We're not here to occupy Planet Hake. You can think of us as mercenaries," Maple Moon said, reciting her prepared explanation. "Didn't you post a recruitment ad on the Shattered World regional channel? We plan to cooperate with your consortium and accept armed mercenaries."
Facoman was taken aback, somewhat surprised.
The Shattered World is currently overflowing with job openings; almost every faction is recruiting soldiers, with the higher-level factions being the most attractive. Small conglomerates like theirs have an extremely low chance of finding workers in the Free Competition Zone. He never imagined that this group of people were actually mercenaries applying for jobs.
But why didn't they contact us beforehand? What's the point of coming here directly...? They must be some low-level organization that doesn't understand the rules of this industry.
Facoman thought he had guessed correctly and shook his head secretly.
He estimated that such an organization couldn't be that powerful, and didn't hold out much hope. However, at least they were a fighting force, so they might be somewhat useful.
He paused for a moment, then casually asked, "Sure, tell us about your organization first, and we'll consider whether you're worth hiring."
Maple Moon excitedly clenched her fingers, feigning composure as she said, "Alright, our joint armed force has a total of 7,000 super-powered soldiers, including 5,800 Grade B members..."
"Wait, what's that?!"
Facoman thought there was something wrong with his ears.
The number of 7,000 superhumans isn't that big, but the problem is that 5,800 of them are Grade B superhumans?!
Even on Planet Hake, there aren't this many Grade B characters!
From Han Xiao's current perspective, Grade B beings are practically cannon fodder, but in the eyes of ordinary interstellar forces, Grade B superhumans are undoubtedly the backbone of large mercenary legions and key combat members.
When Han Xiao was in the mercenary world in his early years, he was already considered a master at the Grade B, and a big shot in the eyes of ordinary people.
Before Han Xiao led them to victory, even renowned regional mercenary groups like Sky Ring and Purple Gold only had a few dozen to a hundred Grade B members. If it weren't for the two Calamity Grade mercenaries guarding the area, their combat strength would be only a fraction of theirs!
"Could you be kidding me?!" Facoman thought suspiciously, this was the only thought on his mind.
Official guilds like Long Sky and Jiangcheng have a large number of peripheral members, so it's not difficult for them to gather several thousand people. Most players have already reached Grade B by the time patch 4.0 opens. Those who haven't are mainly newcomers who haven't been playing for long or those leveling up alt characters.
Maple Moon deliberately ignored him and continued speaking, "At the same time, we are an affiliated organization of the Black Star Army, formerly known as the Immortal Troops under Black Star..."
"Wait a minute!! You said you're an affiliated force of the Black Star Army, and Immortal Troops at that?!"
Facoman was stunned, speechless.
Aren't they just a small, unknown organization? How come they have such a powerful background? Are they from Black Star?!
His first reaction was disbelief!
In his eyes, Black Star was an unparalleled cosmic behemoth. The Crescent Financial Group he served was nothing compared to the Black Star Army. Moreover, the Immortal Troops was the Black Star Army's renowned ace unit, so why would they come to accept their employment?!
Facoman hurriedly logged onto the Black Star Army's public website to check the information on these forces, but the results shocked him!
Sky Domain, Rainstorm, and Jiangcheng are actually semi-independent affiliated organizations of the Legion, with members who are all Immortals, and they only registered recently!
Beside Maple Moon, the professional players like Frenzied Saber and several core members of the guilds secretly rejoiced at Facoman's astonished and bewildered expression, feeling a sense of satisfaction.
Just the fact that he was known as Black Star was enough to shock this guy.
Having someone to rely on makes things so comfortable!
Because of its unparalleled realism, the game offers a wealth of entertainment for players, who find great satisfaction in watching NPCs react to their actions.
The reason everyone came directly to apply for the job was to use the Black Star Army's prestige to enhance their own influence. In a normal employment relationship, they wouldn't be able to share the planet's resources, but with the Black Star's name, the terms became negotiable—the Legion's benefits were unbelievably good, and many guild leaders almost wanted to keep Han Xiao as a pampered pet at home.
Instead of monopolizing the planet, they seek cooperation with other forces, mainly due to funding constraints. Mining equipment costs money, and mining also requires manpower. By cooperating with NPC organizations, they avoid bearing these costs themselves. Although individual players are strong, their fleets are far inferior to those of NPC forces, so they are genuinely sincere in their intention to cooperate.
Seeing that the other party hadn't responded for a while, Maple Moon couldn't help but cough and remind them, "So, do you think we're suitable? If you don't need to hire us, we'll be leaving."
Facoman snapped out of his daze and cried out in alarm, "No, no, no! It's our honor to hire you all! Please follow me to land, and I'll notify the conglomerate's higher-ups immediately!"
As soon as he finished speaking, all the players' control panels chimed. Upon opening them, they were all invigorated and cheered quietly.
"Here it comes, the quest has been triggered!"
"Gandhi was beautiful!"
"Haha, I told you the plan would work, and it really did!"
The panel doesn't show a mercenary mission, but rather a faction mission called "[Planet Hark Power Struggle]". It prompts you to choose one faction and help them drive out forces on other planets. It's a triggered story mission.
Soon, the players' fleet followed Facoman to a base on the surface of Planet Hake. As soon as they disembarked, they saw a group of executives in Crescent Financial Group uniforms waiting at the dock, looking eager, excited and nervous.
As the players stepped onto the dock, the Crescent Financial Group members greeted them warmly. The leader walked towards Maple Moon, extended his hand, and was very enthusiastic.
"Hello, I am the person in charge of the exploration of Planet Hake from the Crescent Financial Group. You can call me Smodick. On behalf of Planet Hake, I welcome you all."
"Your name... is quite unique."
Maple Moon's lips twitched, but she suppressed a laugh, kept a straight face, and shook hands with him.
Smodick didn't understand, but he didn't mind. He said warmly, "You've come at the perfect time. We desperately need mercenaries' help. I just have a question... Did the Black Star Army decide to hire you, or was it your own decision?"
"Both are available." Maple Moon's answer was ambiguous. This question was not on her prepared list, but it seemed to be more advantageous to her.
"Then let's talk about the compensation. What are your terms?" Smodick asked.
Maple Moon and Frenzied Saber exchanged glances, nodded, and said, "We hope it's not just a simple employment arrangement. In addition to payment, we also want to cooperate in developing Planet Hake."
"Cooperative development?" Smodick's heart skipped a beat, and a series of thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.
If the Black Star Army wants to take over Planet Hake, and this group is the vanguard, then the Crescent Financial Group has no chance of competing.
The reason why Planet Hake can accommodate seven factions is because they are all relatively small and evenly matched. If a behemoth were to arrive, they would have no reason to fight anymore. They would simply pack their things, leave, and obediently hand over the planet to another power.
But Smodick thought again, this might not be a bad thing, it seems like he could latch onto Black Star's coattails... uh, his leg hair.
Currently, the two most powerful entities on Planet Hake are two star system-level civilizations, but the ones on the planet are only their gathering teams, so they can hold out for a while. If the main force of the civilization arrives, their consortium will have no choice but to leave... However, if they could obtain the protection of these Immortals, it would be equivalent to using the Black Star Army as a talisman.
Moreover, as competition intensifies, other forces may come to Planet Hake in the future, so having another backer seems very advantageous.
With this in mind, Smodick made a decision and nodded emphatically, "No problem. We'll draft the specific terms and show them to you when they're ready, okay?"
"OK."
Maple Moon nodded. She was only responsible for negotiations; she didn't understand these kinds of terms and conditions. But that didn't matter. The official guild of the professional club had people with expertise in this area. The guild leader was considered a mid-level manager in the club and had some knowledge. He could check the terms and conditions without any problems. If all else failed, he could search for a template on the quantum network for comparison, or simply pay Phillip to check it for him.
That's the good thing about being in the Legion: as long as you spend money, you can get almost any service. Paying to win is definitely the strongest superpower.
The Crescent Financial Group vacated an area to serve as a base for guilds such as Long Sky and Jiangcheng, allowing everyone to rest and recuperate. The next day, both sides reached a consensus and signed a formal cooperation agreement.
After signing the contract, many players immediately triggered the corresponding mercenary missions. Currently, there are a lot of missions related to Planet Hake in their mission list. Some were triggered by themselves, some were issued by the Crescent Financial Group, and others were incentive missions specially issued by Han Xiao, such as "find a planet to establish a resource collection point", etc., which are intended to encourage players to expand like dandelions.
The same task has so many parts; if you complete them all, you can get extremely generous rewards, achieving twice the result with half the effort.
Having finalized the contract, Maple Moon and the others approached Smodick and offered their suggestions:
"We are now partners. You haven't publicized our background yet, so other forces are unaware of our strength and identity. This is precisely our advantage. Therefore, I hope to take immediate action and launch an armed raid to seize our resource and library base."
Smodick thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "That's right. Where do you want to attack?"
Maple Moon opened the holographic map of Planet Hake and pointed to several locations, which were large resource bases of other forces on Planet Hake.
"You... you're going to seize so many resource gathering bases at the same time?" Smodick stammered.
"Don't worry, we're confident," Hao Tian interjected.
In interstellar warfare, fleets are important, while capturing resource bases is the ground battlefield, where superhuman forces are the key. Right now, all the Grade B superhumans on the entire Planet Hake combined don't even number as many as they do, so multi-front warfare is no problem at all.
"... Then let's do as you say. My troops will cooperate to the best of their ability." Smodick secretly decided to cling to this leg hair.
The Ursa Minor Civilization is a galaxy-level civilization on the Black Hole Edge, participating in the free competition of the Shattered World. One of its resource-gathering teams is one of the seven most powerful forces on Planet Hake, and has established several resource-gathering bases on the planet.
On the edge of a canyon, there is a base where floating mining equipment rises and falls, extracting the unique minerals of the place. Transport vehicles constantly transport resources to the warehouse. The base is staffed with a large number of Ursa Minor soldiers, patrolled by tanks, and surrounded by various artillery positions and traps. Small warships hover in the sky, making it heavily fortified.
Somewhere on the base, two men in officer uniforms walked slowly, inspecting the base.
"I heard a small fleet arrived on Planet Hake yesterday, and the Crescent Financial Group let them in?"
One of the burly figures asked in a deep voice; he was the person in charge of this base, a mid-level officer in the Ursa Minor, Handgabu.
The other person was the captain of the superhuman unit stationed at the base, a Grade B superhuman who was supposedly specially recruited for the Shattered World project. Upon hearing this, he curled his lip and casually said, "They're probably reinforcements recruited by the Crescent Financial Group. The defense fleet photographed their fleet markings. I checked, and there are no files for those organizations in the Mercenary Alliance. They're probably just some small fry."
The player guilds are affiliated forces of the legion. Han Xiao didn't register them with the Mercenary Alliance, his implicit intention being to turn the legion into a platform of the same nature as the Mercenary Alliance. Therefore, their records can currently only be found on the legion's website. The player guilds are currently not well-known, and the Ursa Minor gathering team doesn't know their origins, so they naturally don't understand the correct way to search for them.
Handgabu coldly replied, "The Crescent Financial Group has reinforcements; they'll likely make a move."
Do you think they're targeting us?
"Impossible," Handgabu said decisively. "The Crescent Financial Group doesn't have that kind of guts."
Are you so sure?
Handgabu said with absolute certainty, "Of course! This is the most heavily guarded base I have. Not only are there numerous defensive measures, but there are also over seventy Grade B superhumans stationed here. If the Crescent Financial Group had any brains, they wouldn't dare attack my base..."
Boom!!
Before the words were finished, an explosion resounded around the base, shaking the ground. The two of them stumbled a step in unison.
"What's going on!" Handgabu exclaimed in surprise, quickly boarding an airship and taking off to observe the direction of the explosion from afar.
Over there was the outer minefield, and at that moment, a large number of anti-gravity ground vehicles bearing the Crescent Financial Group's insignia sped towards them. The vehicles were equipped with shields and electromagnetic kinetic energy weapons, and they charged towards the base gate, repeatedly exchanging fire with the outer artillery positions. The air was filled with the sounds of gunfire.
"Enemy attack! All personnel back to their posts!" The base's alarm immediately sounded.
Handgabu was filled with shock and rage, his face turning ashen. "The Crescent Financial Group dares to attack me?!"
He had just made his judgment a second ago, and the enemy was already there. His face was grim. Seeing this, the superhuman captain next to him knew not to provoke his superior and said, "I'll lead the superhuman force to meet the enemy."
"Good!" Handgabu nodded emphatically.
The superhuman captain went to organize the manpower, leaving only Handgabu in the vehicle. He stared coldly at the enemy forces that were getting closer and closer to the base, his confident expression returning.
"They dared to target me? Looks like I have to teach them a painful lesson!"
Soon, the Crescent Financial Group's ground forces stormed through the base's outer defenses, and the base's ground forces also launched a counterattack, with the superhuman forces following suit to intercept the enemy.
As the two sides exchanged fire, they rapidly closed the distance, seemingly on the verge of colliding, when suddenly, an unexpected change occurred!
Suddenly, the doors of the first batch of ground vehicles belonging to the Crescent Financial Group opened, and one after another, about a hundred people jumped out. They landed and tumbled forward due to inertia. However, during the tumble, the bodies of these hundred people suddenly swelled up and turned into bio-mutants several times their original size. Their speed increased dramatically, and they charged into the base's ground forces.
Rumble!
These bio-engineered monsters charged forward under heavy fire. They were thick-skinned and incredibly strong, their enormous hands sweeping across the battlefield, scattering any vehicles in their path as if they were nothing.
The "Black Star Army Emblem - Evolution," an improved version of the Ovitan Badge, was also discounted by 30%, with the guild purchasing large quantities and distributing them to players.
One hundred players who have entered the [Limited Evolution - Aberration] state are a powerful weapon for attacking enemy positions, instantly tearing the base's ground forces to shreds!
Handgabu's face darkened, and he immediately ordered, "Send out the superhuman forces and eliminate these monsters!"
The order was given, and on the front lines, the superhuman captain led thousands of superhumans into battle, most of them Grade C- or Grade D. At the very front of the force were dozens of Grade B superhumans, serving as the spearhead of the charge.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the Crescent Financial Group also deployed thousands of players, launching their own attack.
A medium-sized war among superhumans is about to break out. Seeing that the players are outnumbered, Handgabu smiled.
"They only have about a quarter of our number of superhumans, only a thousand. They're finished!"
The thought had barely crossed his mind when the two superhuman teams clashed fiercely. However, the result was completely opposite to his expectations, so shocking that his eyes almost popped out of their sockets, and he was filled with disbelief!
Thousands of players unleashed their Grade B combat power, instantly gaining an absolute advantage and decimating enemies several times their number!
Upon seeing this, Handgabu's expression changed drastically; he was utterly horrified!
"How could there be so many Grade B superhumans?!"