Free Competition Zone, Emerald Star Cluster, Rosende Planet.
This is a resource planet located in the inner ring region of a star cluster. It was occupied long ago by a star cluster-level civilization called "Thunderhorn" and transformed into a temporary base for its exploration army. It is heavily defended and stockpiles a large amount of supplies and troops.
At this very moment, the leadership of the Thunder Horn Civilization Exploration Army gathered in the headquarters fortress conference room.
"Two outpost planets located in the central region have been subjected to a series of invasions and breached by different organizations hired by the Super Star Cluster Alliance. What are your thoughts on this?"
The Commander-in-Chief placed his hands on the conference table, his sharp gaze sweeping over the high-ranking officials present.
Bang!
A high-ranking commander with a full beard of steel needles slammed his fist on the table and roared, "Is there any need for discussion? Immediately organize a force for the annihilation! My troops, guarding one of the strongholds, have been completely wiped out. We must counterattack!"
Another tall, slender officer, with a calm demeanor, stroked the long, blue, lightning-shaped horn on his head (a gesture similar to an alien stroking their beard) and slowly said, "I think we should wait for now. First, the Super Star Cluster Alliance's actions are premeditated and have strategic intentions. Even if we take it back, we will be attacked again. Second, the Central Ring region is currently in chaos due to the Super Star Cluster Alliance Super Star Cluster Alliance's attack and is being turned into their own territory. It's too dangerous and not suitable for rash action."
The fourth phase of exploration has now been completed, and the four star clusters in the Free Competition Zone have each been given a unified regional division. Each star cluster contains dozens or even hundreds of star systems, which are divided into four layers from the outside in: the outer edge region, the inner ring region, the middle ring region, and the core region, depending on their location.
Currently, the main strategic goal of the Super Star Cluster Alliance is to completely control the core and central ring areas, have a stable rear base, and maintain supply lines using space teleportation methods such as stargates.
Although this would lead to them being surrounded, the Super Star Cluster Alliance had no other choice. Their main objective was to conquer and seize territory; guerrilla warfare was not suitable for them, as they would be besieged no matter which territory they occupied.
"Then what do you suggest we do? Are we just going to obediently hand over the stronghold and let my men die in vain?!" the hot-tempered officer with the steel needle beard roared.
"Commander-in-Chief?" The tall, thin, calm officer turned his head. "I think I have the same idea as you."
Upon hearing this, the Commander-in-Chief nodded slowly and said, "I also agree with waiting; the situation is still unclear."
"They've already started fighting, what's still unclear?!" the hot-tempered officer shouted.
The Commander-in-Chief patiently said:
"In this turmoil, we are not the main characters. The Three Universal Civilizations and the Super Star Cluster Alliance are the main characters and the players. Although the fourth phase is called the Free Competition Zone, we, the forces that have come to seek our fortune and occupy land, are merely pieces that have voluntarily entered the chessboard. We are far from being able to determine the overall outcome. Therefore, we must wait for the Three Universal Civilizations to react."
"So we're hoping that the Three Universal Civilizations will step in for us, the suffering forces, and wage war against the Super Star Cluster Alliance?"
"Of course not. The Three Universal Civilizations will not easily intervene directly. After all, the principles of the Free Competition Zone have not yet been broken. The Super Star Cluster Alliance has recruited so many proxy forces, partly to strengthen itself, and partly to hint at the rules of the game. Everyone is using proxies to compete... When their two armies begin to fight formally, the situation will enter a more intense phase. Now is not the time."
The calm, tall, thin officer nodded. "That's right. So, we pawns are now waiting for the commander's orders. When the Three Universal Civilizations react, that's when we'll choose sides. At that time, we'll no longer be fighting alone; we'll immediately have a large number of allies."
The high-ranking officers of the Thunder Horn Civilization Exploration Army present all nodded in agreement.
Although unwilling to be a pawn, choosing to enter the Free Competition Zone is tantamount to voluntarily entering the game. These are the rules set by the Three Universal Civilizations; if you don't agree, don't play. No one is forcing you. Of course, there are considerable benefits, but only those willing to be pawns can reap the rewards of the Shattered World. How much you get depends entirely on your own abilities.
Beep beep beep!
Just then, a virtual screen popped up in the center of the conference table, displaying a notice from the Three Universal Civilizations to the entire universe. The prominent title immediately caught everyone's eye:
Supplementary Regulations to the Anti-Monopoly Plan in the Fourth Phase of Shattered World Exploration!
"They're here!"
The commander-in-chief's eyes flashed, and he and the others read through the announcement, all showing expressions of "I knew it."
The announcement can be summarized into several points: First, it characterizes the Eve Incident as the beginning of malicious competition and monopoly, arguing that the Super Star Cluster Alliance violated the "Free Exploration Regulations"; second, it orders the Super Star Cluster Alliance to immediately cease its malicious expansion, representing strong condemnation from all civilizations in the universe; third, if the Super Star Cluster Alliance remains unrepentant and persists in its wrongdoings, it will begin imposing sanctions and redistributing the territory occupied by the Super Star Cluster Alliance.
The appendix to the announcement outlines a plan for implementing sanctions and redistribution. The Crimson Dynasty, along with two other major civilizations, stated that they were unwilling to personally intervene and undermine the "Free Exploration Regulations." Therefore, they encouraged all forces in the Free Competition Zone to launch a siege against the Super Star Cluster Alliance, offering special support based on their contributions.
Meanwhile, the territory allocation plan stated that it would not reclaim the planets that various forces had seized from the Super Star Cluster Alliance. As for those who helped the Super Star Cluster Alliance, their territories would be reclaimed at the discretion of the authorities afterward. In short, it was a scheme to use incentives and other means to draw up an empty promise and ask various forces to attack the Super Star Cluster Alliance, while also increasing the difficulty for the Super Star Cluster Alliance to win over its proxies.
Ordinary forces have no choice but to either choose Three Universal Civilizations or the Super Star Cluster Alliance. If everyone tries to remain neutral and stay away from trouble, the result will be that their territory will be gradually eroded by the Super Star Cluster Alliance. This is also the confidence behind the Three Universal Civilizations in implementing this decision - no one wants their hard-won achievements to be stolen, and no one wants to be left out.
If there were truly a one in ten million chance that everyone would rather relinquish their territory than get involved in the conflict, then the Three Universal Civilizations would send their regular armies to the scene. After defeating the supercluster, they would not offer their territory up for distribution to other forces, but would rightfully occupy it, thus completing a "redistribution."
As for the third-party Beyond Grade A forces, they are an outlier in this turmoil. They are the only ones who have the capital to remain neutral. The Three Universal Civilizations and the Super Star Cluster Alliance will also avoid the territory occupied by the Beyond Grade A forces to a certain extent.
This is the impact of the establishment of the Development Federation, which has diverged from the course of the previous life, and the butterfly effect has begun to emerge!
Of course, this is on the premise that the majority of Beyond Grade A remain on the sidelines as much as possible. Their subordinate forces can take the opportunity to expand, but they cannot go too far in taking advantage of the chaos; there must be a limit.
"A treacherous strategy."
The Commander-in-Chief rolled his fingers, snorted coldly, and suddenly raised his voice, shouting, "The time is ripe to organize the fleet to advance towards the Central Ring area. We now have enough indirect allies!"
Everyone stood up abruptly and gave a military salute in unison.
"Clear!"
On the other side, the Black Star Army's exploration front outpost in the Emerald Star Cluster.
The Eve Incident caused an uproar among the Legion players. A large number of players gathered to explore the front line. The lobby was packed with Legion players of various equipment, discussing and making a lot of noise.
"What's going on? I was away on a business trip the other day and didn't have time to log on. How come the world has changed so much when I came back? Are these guilds and alliances playing games?"
"The Super Star Cluster Alliance is trying to unify the Free Competition Zone. How did they even get involved with the Northern Front and the Pan-Commercial Union?"
"I checked the forums; it seems they got the main war missions from the Supercluster."
"But we don't have any related missions. Does this main storyline only unlock by choosing the Super Star Cluster Alliance?"
"That's not necessarily true. Didn't some experts analyze the current situation? The Three Universal Civilizations certainly won't let this go easily. As for us in the Black Star Army, we should naturally be on the side of the Three Universal Civilizations, right?"
As everyone was chattering away, a notice from the Three Universal Civilizations popped up on the floating screen in the hall, attracting everyone's attention.
After the entire event was completed, the atmosphere became lively again.
"Haha, I knew a situation this big couldn't be a one-sided storyline."
"So this is a factional war, with the Three Universal Civilizations and the Supercluster as opposing sides?"
"We're about to have a national war!"
Countless players were incredibly excited.
But after a while, the panel still didn't respond, and people started to get confused.
"Wait a minute, wasn't this supposed to be a faction war? Why haven't we received any related main quests?"
"Does it require me to trigger it manually? But who should I ask to trigger it?"
"We're part of the Legion, so perhaps we'll have to wait for the Legion to issue an official announcement before we get any missions?"
Just as everyone was filled with doubt and uncertainty, the Phillip subroutine on each person's communicator suddenly popped up and issued a notice:
[Black Star Army War Order]
[In light of the outbreak of conflict between the Three Universal Civilizations and the Super Star Cluster Alliance, the Legion has decided to launch an armed campaign against the exploration forces of the Modo Civilization. For details, please refer to the appendix "Kunde Civilization" [fold/expand]. When conducting targeted strikes against the areas occupied by the Modo Civilization, there is no need to worry about affecting other Supercluster civilizations. If other forces obstruct our actions, we may attack them as well. Expelling and killing the Modo Civilization is our primary strategic objective. Legion-affiliated organizations may act independently as long as they do not deviate from the strategy.]
As soon as the announcement was released, a mission popped up on the panels of all Legion players at the same time: to wage a faction war against the Modo Civilization.
Apart from the specific requirements, the format is no different from the main quests obtained by the Super Star Cluster Alliance players.
Seeing this, many people finally smiled with delight.
"That's right, that's right, as expected, we only get the main quest after the legion issues an announcement."
"So the Modo Civilization has a grudge against us?"
"Hey, it's obvious you didn't read the version update's backstory carefully. The Modo Civilization conspired to use the Kunde Civilization, a Shattered World, and almost wiped them out. They're despicable and deserve to be beaten up."
Countless Legion players were excited and couldn't wait to storm into the Central Ring area.
However, what they didn't know was that the mission they triggered was actually problematic and not part of the main storyline of the war between the Three Universal Civilizations and the Super Star Cluster Alliance.
Normal mercenaries of the Three Universal Civilizations or Super Star Cluster Alliance are not assigned missions to attack any particular civilization. Instead, they can improve their mission rating by helping their own faction expand and killing any members of the opposing faction.
While the missions for Legion players follow the same pattern, their objective is singularly focused on the Modo Civilization.
Because of their united front stance, Beyond Grade A forces like the Black Star Army cannot respond to the Crimson Dynasty's call and cannot actively get involved in the conflict. Therefore, normally, Legion players do not have main storyline missions involving the struggle between the two factions!
"Luckily, I was quick-witted..."
Seeing the uniformly excited reactions from the Legion players on the forum, Han Xiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief in the room.
As early as when the Development Federation demanded that all members remain neutral, Han Xiao realized that the Black Star Army would probably not be able to join the main storyline of the struggle between the Three Universal Civilizations and the Super Star Cluster Alliance. As the vice president, if he wanted to maintain his position and voice, he had to obey the collective decision of the united front.
He had anticipated this repercussions, so he deliberately left the Modo Civilization as a target, making the Three Universal Civilizations and the Development Federation think it was a personal vendetta.
In this way, he could legitimately create a fake war mission, misleading legion players into believing it was the main storyline. Although the mission objective was simpler than the real main storyline, players had no choice but to accept it.
Without this imitated main storyline, many newly joined legion players would inevitably be disappointed. In order to participate in the first global server nation war, some would definitely switch factions, which is beyond doubt. However, through my actions, the negative impact has been minimized. Although the specific tasks are different, at least we can enter the nation war, which is enough to satisfy the needs of the vast majority of legion players.
At the same time, this also creates a contrast with other Beyond Grade A forces. Most Beyond Grade A factions cannot participate in the main storyline, but the Black Star Army has a replica of it. This can attract some players from other factions to switch to the Legion.
On the other hand, players in the previous era of national wars had a lot of freedom to play their cards right. To put it nicely, they were strategic and maneuvering; to put it bluntly, they were fighting each other and engaging in chaotic battles. In contrast, the main storyline that I created was highly targeted. The ultimate result was to unite the power of tens of millions of players in the legion, concentrate resources on targeting Modo, and have a greater chance of completing the [Kunde Leader's Last Wish] quest!
In this way, this potential problem can be considered basically resolved.
"United front, united front..."
Han Xiao muttered a couple of times, somewhat helplessly.
The united front has now become a new constraint. It can be maintained for now, but as this clause affects the interests of more members, problems will inevitably arise. It is estimated that the Three Universal Civilizations also intend to undermine the unity of the Beyond Grade A group.
To be honest, as things stand, he thinks the chances of the Development Federation reaching an agreement with the Three Universal Civilizations are extremely low, as there is a strong conflict of interest between the two sides.
Speaking only of the association, because of the different needs, the collective resolution reached so far is naturally not the best solution; it can only be described as a solution that no one strongly opposes.
The Development Federation's demand that the Three Universal Civilizations unconditionally break their knowledge monopoly before discussing other collaborations is a reasonable request in the eyes of the Beyond Grade A civilizations, because their Ultimate Knowledge was earned through meritorious service, and their years of dedication have been more than enough. They have already gathered Ultimate Knowledge, but have been ordered not to pass it on.
Only by breaking the monopoly of the Three Universal Civilizations can the shackles of factions be removed. In this way, the association itself can spread knowledge, allowing current and future Beyond Grade A individuals to obtain Ultimate Knowledge without having to risk their lives for the Three Universal Civilizations. After all, most people are not citizens of the Three Universal Civilizations and have no responsibility to contribute. In this way, if someone wants to join the Three Universal Civilizations in the future, it will simply be to find a backer, and there will be no longer any real need for them.
However, even Han Xiao could tell that the chances of the Three Universal Civilizations agreeing were extremely slim.
Unconditional? Even he himself thought that was wishful thinking!
As the vice president, I have an obligation to convey the collective resolution, but I cannot act on behalf of so many people. Therefore, I can only truthfully convey the association's message.
According to Han Xiao's own thinking, agreeing to the deal proposed by the Three Universal Civilizations wouldn't be bad—using the fight against the Supercluster in exchange for them lifting their knowledge monopoly. However, most people disagreed, firstly because they didn't want to break their original intentions, secondly because they didn't want to risk getting involved in such a storm, and thirdly because of their differing stances... If the two sides remained deadlocked, Han Xiao could basically conclude that the final result would be that the Beyond Grade A Association would reach its limit and begin to secretly impart knowledge, while the Three Universal Civilizations would take the opportunity to launch an attack.
"It's tough, really tough... but thankfully it's not a big deal for me."
Han Xiao shook his head.
Firstly, he has already obtained all the Ultimate Knowledge, so he is not that concerned about the issue of knowledge monopoly.
Secondly, he knew where the turning point lay, so he didn't care about the problems that were currently being exposed.
"Once Super Calamity or the first signs of the World Tree appear, the current situation can be broken. Now is far from the right time... Speaking of which, I wonder if the Sanctum has succeeded yet."
Han Xiao curled his lip.
He temporarily set aside the idea, pondered for a while, picked up his communicator, and dialed a number.
In the Super Star Cluster Alliance turmoil, the Beyond Grade A beings outside of the direct line of both sides did not openly intervene in the turmoil, but there were definitely a very small number of people causing trouble in private, and Sorokin, who had sided with the Three Universal Civilizations, was certainly one of them.
Since their interests align, they might be able to secretly collaborate this time and beat Modo to a pulp.
Moreover, Han Xiao already had a bold guess about Sorokin's identity.
"This is a good opportunity to verify..." Han Xiao thought to himself.