Lothaire's return was just a minor incident; Han Xiao handed it over to his trusted confidants for arrangements and temporarily put the matter out of his mind.
Back in his office, Han Xiao activated the program monitoring the legion players' advance into the black market, then opened the forum to check the players' reactions.
The forum is very active now, with posts about taking over the black market occupying a lot of space. The situation is different on each planet, with huge differences in environment, people, and events, resulting in different situations for most people.
Some players, like Crispy Chicken Wings, rescued their targets in time, gaining a group of professional assistants and able to continue developing through existing black market channels. Others, however, arrived too late, failing to connect with black market personnel and potentially having to rebuild their channels from scratch, leaving them bewildered. Many legion players are sharing their experiences, including numerous bewildered posts seeking help.
A small number of players who started to get involved in the black market operations also shared their experiences and insights on the forums—because when Han Xiao issued this task, he set it up as a collective task with an overall completion rate, depending on the overall trend of taking over the black market.
Each player's task achievements are factored into the overall completion score, so doing a good job on your own isn't enough. If a player wants higher rewards, others need to contribute as well. That's why many pioneers are happy to share and help other legion players take over the black market. Everyone benefiting is truly beneficial.
"The current trend seems more optimistic than expected. With the current model, players might inject new vitality into the Interstellar Black Market and help connect black markets in different regions."
Han Xiao's eyes flickered.
Because of their clandestine nature, large-scale black market forces spanning galaxies and star clusters are rare, and leaders like the Secret Master, who manage black market operations, are even rarer. The vast majority are small black market forces whose operations are limited to one or two planets or one or two star sectors, and they are all local bullies.
Even with a nominally organized black market entity managing the black market, the overall structure of the Interstellar Black Market remains quite loose.
Local black market forces typically have long-term, fixed partners. Most of them only know their own small territory and find it difficult to expand outwards. There are many reasons for this, one of which is the limited flow of intelligence and information gaps between small black market forces in different regions.
In Han Xiao's view, if players take over black markets in various regions on a large scale, the convenience of information through forums and private chat channels could become a catalyst, turning into a glue that binds together many black market forces.
With the incentive of overall mission progress, most players should be happy to cooperate with other players. Therefore, regional black markets dominated by legion players may have the opportunity to build cooperative bridges, which is much less effort than the normal method.
In this way, the goal of "integrating the Interstellar Black Market" that I proposed at the association can be quickly advanced.
"That was a good move, maximizing the player's strengths and hitting several birds with one stone..."
Han Xiao's lips curled into a smile. Now, he had advanced to become a behind-the-scenes player, and the chessboard was getting bigger and bigger. It was now a true starry sky where pieces were being placed.
The players still needed time to develop the situation, so Han Xiao closed the forum, took out an encrypted communicator, and made a call to the Oathkeeper.
A few seconds later, the communication was connected, and the figure of the Oathkeeper appeared on the screen.
"Black Star, what's the matter?"
"You're aware of the recent sanctions, aren't you?"
"Yes, we make sure they watch the news every day." The Oathkeeper nodded. "You're only contacting me now, is there anything I can help you with?"
"I suppose so. Since the Three Universal Civilizations have adopted a punitive stance, as the only one currently in control of the Sanctuary Revival, I have to retaliate. What they fear most is an excessive number of Beyond Grade A beings, so it would be best to revive some more to put pressure on them and address their specific needs."
"But we haven't collected all the keys yet, so we can't start a new round of revival..." The Oathkeeper was a little troubled.
"No, the Sanctuary Key are so precious. Even if I collected them all, I wouldn't use them for that reason... What I mean is to recruit more Sanctum members. After all, your side has a reserve of top -A Tier talent in this struggle, and now is precisely the time when the Sanctum needs to contribute."
Before the Oathkeeper could answer, Han Xiao paused and continued:
"Furthermore, I think this move by the Three Universal Civilizations might have been a test, to see if I could revive historical Beyond Grade A beings at will. So it's best to give them a response. The more Beyond Grade A beings there are, the more uncomfortable the Three Universal Civilizations will feel. Making them feel that the cost of trial and error is too high will force them to become more and more cautious, and similar tests will decrease in the future."
"That's certainly a possibility..." The Oathkeeper hesitated for a moment, "I don't object in principle, but you'll have to talk to them about who should take the lead. Among the second Revived, there are probably still quite a few unreliable ones, so it's best to be cautious."
"I know."
Han Xiao nodded, already having someone in mind. Among the second Revived, those unlucky neutral souls who died at the Tragedy of the Pinnacle were good candidates. He could also show them to the Super Star Cluster Alliance to boost their confidence in the deal.
It's been quite a few days already, and the resource list for exchanging revival slots with the Super Star Cluster Alliance still hasn't arrived...
The thought had barely formed when the communicator beeped with a message notification.
"Ding--"
Han Xiao opened the split-screen interface and saw that it was the Super Star Cluster Alliance's list of offers for the Sanctuary Revival.
'Hey, speak of the devil, and he appears! What perfect timing!'
Han Xiao muttered to himself, then nodded to the Oathkeeper oath:
"That's roughly the situation. I'll talk to the Revived in a while. In the next few days, please convey my message to them so they're aware of the situation. Also, based on their performance over the past year, please provide me with a reliable list."
"... All right."
The Oathkeeper had a strange feeling.
Despite being business partners, he felt like someone else's subordinate.
After giving a few instructions, Han Xiao ended the communication and turned to browse the list of the Super Star Cluster.
He only gave out ten exchange slots in the first batch, but the Super Star Cluster Alliance was generous this time, bringing out a lot of good things, mostly stockpiled Universal Treasure and golden blueprints.
All supercluster civilizations were victors in the Exploration Era War, having taken advantage of many other civilizations. While their resources may not match those of the Three Universal Civilizations, they are still quite substantial, possessing Universal Treasure and golden blueprints.
However, Han Xiao kept his possession of the Jiebach and the remnants of the Sanctuary a closely guarded secret. Outsiders were unaware of his current strength, and many of the demands made by the Super Star Cluster Alliance with such confidence were beneath his notice.
Han Xiao selected three offers that he found somewhat appealing, offered three places to them, and rejected the rest, asking the Super Star Group to submit new offers.
Shortly after the message was sent, the contact person from the Super Star Cluster Alliance replied.
"Black Star, you're asking for too much! Don't push your luck; we've already been very sincere!"
Upon hearing this, Han Xiao secretly curled his lip.
Who are you talking to? Don't you know who's in control right now?
"Whether you're sincere or not is up to me. There are still seven spots left. If you don't want them, then forget it. If you're so capable, then don't buy them."
"... We buy."
"By the way, payment is required before delivery."
"... You win!"
The Super Star Cluster Alliance's liaison went offline in frustration.
There's nothing he can do; that's how domineering a monopolistic market is. All he can do is complain; he still has to buy what he needs to buy.
After seeing the contact off, Han Xiao turned off the virtual screen and prepared to go to the machine workshop to continue studying the gold blueprints.
But just then, the private communicator suddenly received a message from Aurora, brief and to the point:
"Major discovery! Come immediately!"
Han Xiao was taken aback for a moment, then became curious.
Aurora is still traveling with Fording and they haven't been in touch for a while. She usually doesn't contact him for ordinary matters, so I don't know why she's suddenly calling him.
However, since Fording possessed an external Lucky Halo, Han Xiao felt he wouldn't be surprised no matter what happened...
Meanwhile, somewhere at the Black Hole Edge.
"By the way... where did you take me?"
Inside the spaceship, Aurora hard, staring wide-eyed out the porthole.
"I don't know either, it just suddenly became like this outside..."
Fording also looked in the same direction, his face filled with astonishment.
The two were leisurely sailing through space when, just now, the environment outside suddenly changed. The starry sky disappeared, turning into a pitch-black space where not a single star could be seen. It was as if they had broken through some barrier and suddenly entered an unknown realm.
The spacecraft's alarm system did not react at all, and the monitoring instruments did not show any abnormalities.
Surprised, the two immediately steered the spaceship backward. However, this pitch-black space seemed to have no concept of distance. Even when the spaceship accelerated to warp mode, it remained stationary and could not escape this area.
The reason they discovered this was because there was a single coordinate system in this pitch-black space, which was the source of their surprise.
Following their gaze out the window, they saw a towering, wrecked machine silently suspended in the dark space. Its size was terrifying, many times larger than any Mechanical Deity they had ever seen.
Compared to this, a spaceship is like a speck of dust on a normal person.
The body structure of this machine is similar to that of an upright creature, with flesh and machinery intertwined, skeleton and metal interwoven, severely damaged, and riddled with holes.
What shocked Aurora the most was that her supernatural abilities allowed her to sense a faint pulse of life within this machine.
This thing... seems to be alive?!