Today, the Black Star Army is a well-known organization in the Shattered Star Ring, and the sudden arrival of a satellite base has caused a sensation on Planet Dield.
The Goron Star Cluster has nothing to do with the Secret War. Both the various conglomerates on Planet Dield and the more than one million new players here are wondering about the Black Star Army's intentions.
Escort warships sailed out of the airport to meet the Black Star Army's satellite base, demonstrating the necessary vigilance.
The heads of various conglomerates eagerly sent out communication invitations, wanting to speak with the commander of this Black Star fleet.
Their request was quickly answered, and all the consortium leaders were pulled into a video conference channel, where Sylvia's face appeared on their communication screens.
It's her, Black Star's Chief Affairs Officer!
As an important member of the Black Star Army, Sylvia was quite famous, and many conglomerate leaders knew her. Seeing such an important figure leading the team, the group felt uneasy, suspecting that the Black Star Army had ulterior motives.
"I am Sylvia, the commander of this fleet." Sylvia nodded, making her opening remarks.
"Why did you arrive so suddenly without warning? Are you trying to violate interstellar business rules and seize business from Planet Dield?" A conglomerate leader, who was clearly the head of the group, spoke up, his tone unfriendly and aggressive.
The Odegon Financial Group is the largest financial power on Planet Dield, and the person speaking at this moment is its head Carver.
The others shared similar thoughts with Carver; Planet Dield was a treasure trove for them, and they didn't want anyone else to touch it.
Sylvia smiled faintly, "Please don't misunderstand. Although our Black Star Army is an armed organization, we will not use force to coerce legitimate corporations... Moreover, business on Planet Dield is not attractive to us, so you can rest assured."
Upon hearing this, Carver and the others looked somewhat awkward. What they considered a treasure trove Planet Dield, was nothing more than a trivial profit in the eyes of the powerful Black Star Army. Sylvia's implication was clear: she didn't care about such a small amount of profit, which made Carver feel embarrassed.
"Then what are you doing here, and why did you bring a satellite fortress? If I remember correctly, the Goron Star Cluster isn't the battlefield for the Secret War," Carver asked, puzzled.
Sylvia cleared her throat and announced loudly, "As an important member of the Mercenary Alliance, the Mercenary Division of our Black Star Army has decided to expand its operations to the Goron Star Cluster. Planet Dield is the location of our branch. We will contract the employment in this area. You can also consider us as an office of the Mercenary Alliance. If you need manpower, you can apply to us."
Carver and the others' eyes lit up. If the Black Star Army didn't interfere with the management of Planet Dield, and it was just the expansion of their mercenary business, it would be beneficial to them.
If a reliable mercenary organization were stationed on Planet Dield, the security situation would improve significantly, attracting more people.
Moreover, with the Black Star Army, they no longer needed to hire those incompetent mercenaries, making them safe and secure.
The Mercenary Alliance is now trending towards monopolizing the mercenary business across the entire star system. Carver believes that since the Black Star Army is a member of the Mercenary Alliance, it is currently expanding in order to expand the Mercenary Alliance's business.
"Understood, we have no objections." Carver lowered his guard somewhat, and the others echoed his sentiment.
Sylvia: "Very good. I have a favor to ask of you all. I hope you can use your influence to publicly announce on Planet Dield that our Black Star Army will be stationed here. With your help, we can open up the market very quickly."
As an outsider, even with the Black Star Army's vast resources, Sylvia would try to improve relations with local powers, which would be more effective.
Upon hearing this, Carver hesitated.
At this point, Sylvia added, "Of course, in return, we will offer a discount if you need mercenaries in the future..."
"Don't worry, we'll take care of promoting it for you." Carver was delighted and agreed without hesitation.
Whether on the surface of Planet Dield or in the airport terminal, one can look up and see the massive satellite fortress suspended in outer space orbit.
Just when everyone was in a state of panic, several forces, led by the Odegon Financial Group, jointly issued a statement claiming that they had reached a cooperation agreement with the Black Star Army. The Black Star Army came with goodwill and would establish a branch on Planet Dield to undertake mercenary business.
Upon hearing the announcement, the vast majority of people breathed a sigh of relief and were even happy.
Security at interstellar transit stations has always been a problem, and the presence of the Black Star Army there may improve the situation.
Of course, not everyone welcomes the Black Star Army. For example, small mercenary groups making a living on Planet Dield felt the pressure.
They could all see that their lives would definitely be difficult in the future, and their business would probably be taken away by the Black Star Army.
However, the Black Star Army quickly issued a recruitment notice, seeking to recruit a large number of people, with local mercenaries given priority.
In no time, there was a huge influx of people eager to participate, especially players from Planet Dield.
The topic of the Black Star Army frequently dominates the forums, and even newbies have some understanding of the Black Star Army's benefits, storyline, and deeds.
The Black Star Army has accompanied players through two versions of the main storyline. Countless players have contributed to the Black Star Army, and their deeds are recorded in the Galaxy Chronicles. The current size of the Black Star Army is thanks to the players, which gives some new players a natural sense of belonging to the faction.
To many newbies, the Black Star Army is simply the main force of players in the Shattered Star Ring.
Due to the regional nature of the area, many people were unwilling to travel all the way to Colton. However, with the Legion's operations expanding to the Goron Star Cluster, the distance restrictions were lifted, and many players no longer hesitated and joined decisively.
Some hesitant players are mainly struggling with the choice of storyline. In their view, joining the Black Star Army is equivalent to participating in the Secret War main storyline, and they do not want to give up the freedom to explore other storylines.
However, after hearing the explanation from players who had joined the legion, they realized that it wasn't quite like that. To join the Secret War, one needed to submit a participation application. If they didn't want to join, the legion wouldn't force them, and they could choose not to trigger this main storyline.
If you don't participate in the war, you're a normal mercenary in the Black Star Army. You can choose missions and explore on your own, and you'll still enjoy the same faction benefits.
Moreover, they were surprised to discover that the Black Star Army was a high-ranking member of the Mercenary Alliance, and that the Mercenary Alliance's storyline could be triggered here as well, meaning that joining the Black Star Army allowed them to choose between two main storylines.
Some players also want to complete the local main storyline on Planet Dield —helping the Odegon Financial Group drive away nearby space pirate groups.
However, they were shocked to discover that the Odegon Financial Group had cancelled the mission, and the local main storyline of Planet Dield had vanished!
After making careful inquiries, many players learned that the space pirate gang entrenched near Planet Dield had abandoned their stronghold and fled upon hearing of the Black Star Army's arrival.
These space pirates were all scared away by the Black Star Army!
There's no need to hesitate anymore.
Within three days, over 90% of the players on Planet Dield chose to join the Black Star Army.
Han Xiao has been running the Black Star Army for so long, and its benefits are incredibly attractive to new players. Not only are there plenty of equipment and items, but there is also complete basic and advanced class knowledge, so you don't have to grind for favor with NPCs everywhere to learn.
The newbie's current level and needs are equivalent to those of a player in version 1.0, while his Black Star Army offers benefits comparable to those in version 3.0, which is an extremely luxurious temptation for the newbie, making it impossible for him to refuse.
Sylvia is recruiting players on Planet Dield, and Han Xiao's interface is receiving real-time feedback.
The first thing these new players do after joining a legion is basically to learn the basics.
He had the "Political Asset" rewarded by the [Bloodline] quest, which granted an extra 30% experience, quickly replenishing his depleted experience pool until he had enough experience to level up again.
Having cultivated a second field of chives, his experience-harvesting speed has significantly improved; at this rate, level 240 is just around the corner.
Legion players are now divided into two groups: one is veteran players who have basically reached Grade B, and the other is new players who are around level 30 on average, with each group numbering over one million.
New players can't match the spending power of veteran players, but their potential demand is the greatest. Han Xiao decided to let the newbies on Planet Dield run wild and not force them to participate in the Secret War —given their combat strength, the benefits of participating in the war are not as good as those of being mercenaries.
The Mercenary Alliance storyline is more suitable for these newcomers.
Han Xiao pondered to himself, "The player market has doubled compared to before. These newcomers need to learn knowledge and skills from scratch, but their levels are still very low, so we need to nurture them slowly."
Professional knowledge is a basic necessity, and newcomers will have to learn it sooner or later, so he's not in a hurry.
Beep beep...
The communicator suddenly rang. Han Xiao glanced at it and saw that it was Laifer from the Amethyst Civilization calling.
"Black Star, I heard you've established a branch in the Goron Star Cluster?" Laifer asked.
"You're very well-informed. Do you have any objections?" Han Xiao raised an eyebrow.
"Ahem, I was just asking out of curiosity." Laifer coughed lightly.
In reality, the Amethyst Civilization hoped to keep the Black Star Army bound within Colton's territory and did not want to see Han Xiao expand outwards, but now was not the time to discuss this matter.
Han Xiao: "What brings you here today?"
Laifer's expression turned serious, and he said in a deep voice, "It's like this, we've learned that the Crimson Dynasty and the Federation of Light have reached a preliminary consensus. We don't have much time left, and we must accelerate our counterattack."
Is the negotiation about to end?
Han Xiao's heart skipped a beat. The completion of negotiations between the Crimson Dynasty and the Federation of Light would mark the end of the Secret War. No wonder Amethyst was in such a hurry.
What's the reaction from the War Realm?
Laifer: "They've become active, deploying a large number of high-level combatants. Without your suppression, we've suffered quite a few losses."
Han Xiao understood; there must be a reason why Jorde was misled by him and acted recklessly.
"We urgently need you back on the front lines. Perfect timing, we're preparing for our next large-scale military operation, Black Star, we need you..."
At this moment, Han Xiao interrupted him, "I'm sorry, I don't want to participate in this operation."
Laifer was stunned. Black Star was a crucial part of the tactics, but now that Han Xiao wasn't coming, wouldn't that disrupt the entire plan?
"... Why?"
Han Xiao thought for a moment and said, "You should know that no matter the outcome of the war, the Tyrant is unlikely to let me go."
Laifer fell silent. Amethyst did know about this, but she never intended to tell him. It wasn't that she didn't care about his life or death; the higher-ups were very pragmatic and just wanted to make the best use of him.
Seven years ago, Amethyst saw Han Xiao's potential and made an initial investment. However, now that seven years have passed, Amethyst's senior management has seen that he has lost his rapid growth momentum and is no longer as optimistic about his potential as they were before.
Although he is still highly regarded, the higher-ups have changed their mind and no longer expect him to become Beyond Grade A.
Amethyst wouldn't allow the Tyrant to retaliate against their heroes afterward, but the higher-ups had their own considerations. Although Black Star's chances of becoming Beyond Grade A had decreased, he was still a peak- Calamity Grade superhuman and was still worth recruiting. The Tyrant' intervention would prompt Black Star to seek protection from Amethyst, further strengthening their relationship. For the higher-ups, this was more beneficial than harmful.
As for Black Star's safety, Amethyst wasn't worried. After all, Black Star had the Dragon Emperor behind him. It was better to offer help in times of need than to add to Black Star's glory... and she might even be able to build a relationship with Ames because of it.
Han Xiao didn't seem to mind. The cooperation between the two parties was essentially a mutually beneficial arrangement, Amethyst didn't owe him anything. He slowly said, "So I need to think of a way to try and break through the bottleneck of the Calamity Grade in the remaining time."
"Understood."
Seeing that Han Xiao had made his point clear, Laifer stopped pressing the matter.
Laifer was already quite clear about the situation of the Secret War. The Amethyst leadership knew they couldn't drive away all the enemies and would likely lose some of the border star systems in the end. They were mentally prepared for this. Their current counterattack was to reclaim as much territory as possible and minimize their losses.
Under these circumstances, Han Xiao's unwillingness to participate in the war was not something that Amethyst could not accept.
Black Star must know this too, which is why he made this request... Laifer thought to himself, feeling that Han Xiao's claim of trying to break through to Beyond Grade A was just an excuse.
After seven long years of silence, he didn't think Han Xiao could make any breakthroughs in the short term.
However, there's no need to spell these things out.
Laifer: "I will submit your opinion to the higher-ups. However, you don't have to come, but the Black Star Army must attend."
"That's natural."
Han Xiao breathed a sigh of relief after hanging up the call.
In this way, neither the Amethyst nor the War Realm will bother him for the time being. He can extricate himself from the Secret War and should learn some special skills to prepare for Beyond Grade A.