Somewhere in the Shattered World, a spaceship bearing the insignia of the Black Star Army is slowly moving along.
In the ship's main hall, a group of players were busy with their own things. Some were playing cards, some were browsing the forums, and some were browsing the guild shop. The IDs above their heads showed that everyone present was a member of the Jiangcheng Guild, including Frenzied Saber and Maple Moon. The ship was full of the guild's core members, and they were heading to the mission location.
At that moment, in a corner of the cabin, Frenzied Saber was giving a pep talk to his team members.
"We haven't had any proper training since going live, and everyone's form hasn't gotten back to normal. Even though we're on the move, we can't waste time. No entertainment until we reach our destination. Everyone, follow me and run dungeons to practice our tactics and teamwork."
As he spoke, Frenzied Saber pulled out several Nightmare-level Dungeon Crystal from his pocket.
Seeing this, everyone couldn't help but sigh.
"Captain, the last league just ended, and we haven't even had a proper break yet. The new version has just started, and the next league is still a long way off. Do we really need to start pushing ourselves so hard right now?" Maple Moon complained.
Frenzied Saber explained, "The Kings and Generals of the Dynasty and the Long Sky of the Long Sky are all retiring. Their teams need to bring in new players and need time to gel, so their strength will likely decrease. That would make our competitiveness even more obvious. This is a great opportunity. We have a high chance of winning the league this year, so we must work twice as hard."
"... I feel like you're becoming more and more like Hao Tian, all you do is train us." Maple Moon pouted.
At this moment, Meat Bun, who was hitching a ride on the boat, chuckled and said, "After all, he's the captain. Jiangcheng has lived up to expectations and achieved good results in recent years, which is inseparable from his dedication and responsibility. I still remember how badly Jiangcheng performed in the first league. Fortunately, your club's management took Frenzied Saber as the cornerstone and rebuilt the team. Facts have proved that your club made the right choice, which is why Jiangcheng has the reputation of being the fifth strongest team in Huaxia."
Frenzied Saber felt completely relaxed and gave a thumbs up. "Good job! I agree to do an exclusive interview with you."
"Great, we got something good from that licking. This is a good deal." Meat Bun laughed heartily.
As the group was joking around, the Jiangcheng Guild leader, "Thousand River Moon," walked in, went straight to Frenzied Saber, and said:
"Frenzied Saber, another NPC faction just contacted me, trying to recruit us and get us to leave the legion and join them."
"Here we go again? Who is it this time?" Frenzied Saber asked curiously.
"They're from the Federation of Light." Thousand River Moon said helplessly.
Recently, they have received numerous private offers of this kind from various factions, all offering generous terms in hopes that their entire affiliated organization would defect to the legion. This is not limited to Jiangcheng; all the affiliated guilds and forces under the Black Star Army have been frequently encountering this situation recently.
"The Federation of Light is trying to win us over? When did we become so powerful..." Frenzied Saber muttered. "Ignore them, we're not switching sides anyway."
He was a staunch supporter of the Legion, and even with the Three Universal Civilizations trying to win him over, he had no interest in switching sides. As far as he knew, most Legion guilds shared the same attitude and basically ignored any offers of recruitment.
"Recently, all the major interstellar powers have been vying for Legion players, and the effort is even greater than in the last version. I've been analyzing the current situation, and I estimate that a major war between civilizations and associations is inevitable. Therefore, we ' Immortals,' who are best suited to be on the front lines, have become highly sought-after by both sides. Otherwise, why would a power of the level of the Three Universal Civilizations specifically send people to win us over?" Maple Moon said thoughtfully. Although she had become a professional player, she still retained her interest in analyzing the storyline.
Just then, the communicators of everyone present suddenly emitted the notification tone of the Legion's internal program.
What new announcement has the Legion made?
Frenzied Saber and the others took out their communicators, opened the internal program, and an internal document titled "Recent System Reforms of the Legion" immediately came into view.
Everyone quickly glanced through it, and their faces lit up with surprise.
The document states that the Legion has expanded the roles of the Immortals, opening up more mid-level positions. They can take on various new long-term positions within the Legion, including logistics, instructors, captains, intelligence personnel, and more.
In short, it opens up new avenues for advancement for players. Previously, the vast majority of players were mercenaries or combatants, but now they can become mid-level managers in departments, gain power, lead a group of subordinates, and command a group of grassroots staff as players. This is quite attractive to players who enjoy role-playing.
At the same time, this position also represents a more formal establishment, and one can receive a fixed salary from the legion, which perfectly suits the preferences of Huaxia players.
Promotion requires a sufficiently high legion authority level, which depends on the player's accumulated faction contribution. It also requires purchasing a digital certificate called "Cadre Registration Application Form," which costs a small amount of Enas and a tiny amount of experience. Only then can the player wait for the personnel department's review.
In addition, the Legion announced that, in response to the requests of its members, it has launched a new insurance service called "Army Main Force Special Coverage". This service includes benefits such as Legion Shop discounts, free medical visits, free equipment repair and enhancement visits, Legion Logistics fee discounts, access to loans, lower loan interest rates, reduced spaceship rental fees, and discounts on purchasing Legion territory properties. These benefits are categorized into different levels based on their severity.
Only legion members with higher privileges can purchase higher-level protections. The cost is not a one-time payment; it needs to be renewed and paid periodically. Players not only need to pay money but also pay a small amount of experience. The faction shop discount alone is enough to incentivize players to buy this special protection, not to mention the various additional services. Just looking at it makes it seem like a steal!
The price of Dungeon Crystal has dropped the most, as this is currently the main source of experience for players, much like an inexhaustible "experience point mine." This move is also to make it easier for players to "mine" experience points.
In addition to these favorable systems, the Legion also announced that it will soon expand the range of missions acceptable to the Immortals, and set up some special missions with generous rewards. Players will need to spend experience points and a certain amount of money as a "mission deposit". After completion, the money will be refunded, but the experience will not be refunded.
However, players don't care about the experience points they receive as rewards for completing tasks... The legion is now so large that the daily amount of experience they can access is astronomical. The experience is distributed to players through tasks, and then Han Xiao reaps the rewards from them. This positive cycle has been in place for many years.
Meanwhile, Han Xiao stated in the document that the use of Evolution Cube would be fully open, requiring players to spend money and experience to purchase them.
Since players can only advance to level 160 in this version, the extra racial ascensions from the Evolution Cube are only useful before that, so players' desire to purchase them won't be too low.
Han Xiao's move was not only to reap experience, but also to use the side effects of the Evolution Cube to curb the players' leveling speed and postpone the appearance of Calamity Grade players.
During the side effects period, players will likely feel that leveling up is a waste, and will therefore tend to spend their experience on other things, thus killing two birds with one stone and making it easier for them to reap the rewards.
After reading the document, Frenzied Saber and the others were overwhelmed by the series of favorable policies, and were pleasantly surprised.
"Is this Legion's response to other factions poaching their personnel?"
"As expected, competition between factions is essential for us to have enough to eat."
"That's great, Old Black still values us as much as ever."
Frenzied Saber, Maple Moon, and their group felt nothing but excitement.
The group and the legion were like an old married couple; they never intended to separate and didn't expect any reaction from the legion. However, the legion responded to the forces trying to poach them with a series of benefits, which made them feel valued and happy.
At the end of the announcement, the Legion also announced that it would soon hold a military exercise among the Immortals, with extremely generous rewards, limited spots, and the ability to accept the mission by spending experience points.
This was the legion's only large-scale collective operation recently. Although it was just an exercise, the rewards were substantial, so Frenzied Saber and the others naturally did not hesitate and directly paid their experience points to register.
In just five minutes, all the millions of slots were snapped up, demonstrating the legion's current immense popularity.
The Black Star Army's welfare announcement once again made many players from other factions feel nauseous and their eyes red with envy, causing another uproar on the forums.
Han Xiao didn't need to pay special attention to guess the players' reactions to these benefits. He had already figured out the players' triggers, and he could use these methods of harvesting players' labor output in various ways with his eyes closed.
According to his calculations, this wave of sword skills should allow him to accumulate enough experience to advance to level 360 several months ahead of schedule.
"Your Excellency, our efforts to win over the Immortals have yielded little result; almost none of the Black Star Army's Immortals are willing to defect."
"... What a troublesome bunch."
In his office at the Grand Presidential Palace of the Federation of Light, Louis listened to his subordinate's report with a slight frown.
In order to study the Sanctuary Revival, major interstellar powers are making great efforts to win over the Immortals. However, looking at the movements of the Immortals across the universe, there is a trend of them gathering towards the Black Star Army. Many powers find it difficult to understand the Black Star Army's strange attraction to the Immortals.
Louis had assumed that recruiting the Immortals by offering the names of the Three Universal Civilizations and numerous benefits would be a piece of cake, but surprisingly, not many people were buying it, which puzzled him.
He naturally had no way of knowing the version name of "Black Star Era," nor did he know how much this version name had helped Han Xiao.
Louis frowned and pondered for a moment, then said in a deep voice:
"It's probably still the influence of the Return of the Scattered Stars incident... It's been a year, but the repercussions haven't subsided. Too many small superhuman factions have joined the ranks of Beyond Grade A individuals in the past year... sigh..."
He couldn't help but sigh, secretly feeling a pang of regret.
If it weren't for the Super Star Cluster Alliance's meddling, the interception of hundreds of Beyond Grade A Seed might have succeeded. The Return of the Scattered Stars event wouldn't have happened, and the example set against them would have been effective. Nowadays, superhumans are more likely to compromise with the Three Universal Civilizations due to fear and apprehension... Unfortunately, such a good thing can only be dreamed of now.
The chief council elder tapped his cane and said slowly:
"This situation needs further attention. After a year of preparation, the prepared sanctions policies are almost ready to be implemented. We can no longer allow these Beyond Grade A forces to be so comfortable. If we continue to hesitate to openly confront them, they will only seize the opportunity to continue their rapid development."
Louis nodded and said in a low voice, "We really have to curb their momentum... I'll go and speak with the Arcane and the Empire, and have them jointly issue the prepared decrees. I want to see how the Beyond Grade A Association can continue to grow stronger when it's blocked by most of the interstellar society."