After Han Xiao's fleet left Planet Pangurid, the peripheral players of various guilds who remained on the planet couldn't wait to take action.
The four major guilds pretended to be uninvolved, but secretly took the lead in gathering the remaining members of other top-tier guilds, including the Drizzle Jianghu Guild of the Rainstorm Club, the God's Forbidden Zone Guild of the Madman Club, the Spirit Immortal Pool Guild of the Heavenly Palace, and the Jiangcheng Guild of Jiangcheng, among others.
These top-tier guilds each have around 60 to 70 members remaining on Planet Pangurid, who are essentially players operating as studios. The peripheral members of the guilds fall into two categories: the first is ordinary players attracted by the guild's reputation and resources, who make up the vast majority; the second is various studios of different sizes that take on all sorts of arduous tasks for the guild in exchange for a fee, making them more organized.
Hundreds of guild players gathered to discuss the matter.
"The Russian and Australian clubs are short-handed; each club has fewer than twenty people left here, while both sides have over a hundred."
"However, they didn't scatter; hundreds of them gathered together to mine."
Although the Russian and Australian guilds had allied with the four major guilds, they were secretly taking precautions. The Russian guild was led by the Strength and Glory Guild, and the Australian guild by the Kangaroo Boxing Guild. Players from each guild gathered at two different locations to mine. Each country had over a hundred players, nearly the size of two top-tier Huaxia guilds. This seemed to be a safer approach, preventing attacks.
However, they did not expect that the top guilds in Huaxia would join forces to deal with them.
After discussing for a while, the group finalized their plan. With a significant manpower advantage, they decided to split into two groups to attack the resource points of the Russians and Australians. They quickly assigned groups and set off separately.
A mining base for a certain mineral vein, a resource point for the Kangaroo Boxing Guild.
Dozens of veteran Australian players, clad in Worker Bee Armor, diligently mined in the mine, storing resources inside their armor and transporting them back to the guild's small warehouse on the surface in batches.
There are several warehouses, belonging to different guilds in Old Australia. There are players from bot farms patrolling and guarding them. Although they act collectively for safety, it does not mean that they share resources. These warehouses are portable warehouses that each guild purchased from the legion with funds. They are quite valuable and are equivalent to their bases at resource points.
Just then, the patrolling players' expressions suddenly changed. They saw groups of well-equipped players from top-tier guilds appear in their line of sight, rushing towards them from a distance, their thrusters leaving trails of flame.
"Gather quickly! Someone's attacking our resource point!"
These old Australian clubs and guilds hurriedly recalled their resource-gathering personnel, but it was too late. Two or three hundred players from top-tier guilds rushed into the resource point and utterly destroyed the player guards protecting the warehouse.
The old Australian player who rushed back from the mine immediately clashed with players from top-tier guilds.
A team battle erupted, and the two sides immediately engaged in a chaotic melee!
Bang bang bang!
Martial artists charge in, cutting through the backline with a barrage of attacks, their auras blazing. Superpowered individuals unleash a variety of bizarre abilities, filling the battlefield with multicolored energy. Mages continuously cast spells, unleashing one after another. Telekinetic practitioners frantically unleash mental attacks for area-of-effect damage, only to be simultaneously eliminated themselves as backline targets...
The Mechanic Class caused the most commotion, unleashing a barrage of attacks with various weapons. Blue energy rays crisscrossed, causing thunderous energy explosions upon impact with targets. Armor-piercing bullets swept through the air like a steel torrent, splashing dirt, snapping trees, and leaving fine pinholes on various objects with electromagnetic kinetic energy bullets.
Version 3.0 was precisely the version where the Mechanic shone brightly, because at this time, the Mechanic Class finally learned a skill that elevated their fighting style— the Compression Ball Technology.
Compressed spheres unfolded on the field, transforming into turrets, small mechanical soldiers, and mechanical traps. Various mechanical equipment emerged one after another, resulting in a wide variety of ways to control the field.
Whether in terms of financial resources, combat strength, or numbers, the top-tier guilds held an absolute advantage, quickly overwhelming the remaining members of Lao Ao and sending people to block the resurrection point for a brutal massacre. On the other hand, they began attacking several of Lao Ao's guild warehouses, quickly destroying them and stealing all the resources Lao Ao had collected during this period as spoils of war.
The resource point was left in ruins. After killing all the old Australian players' daily resurrection attempts, the top guilds immediately retreated with their loot.
Hundreds of souls floating above the resurrection point watched the crowd depart with grief and indignation.
On the other side, the Russian resource points also received the same treatment and were completely looted.
"Our resource point has been destroyed?!"
On one of the transport ships in the fleet, the Strong Vodka, who had received a message from the personnel left behind, was shocked.
After hearing that it was done by a top-tier guild in Huaxia, he immediately became angry and sent messages to the guild leaders of Long Sky and Dynasty to question them.
Why are you attacking our resource points?!
Azure Sky feigned confusion, "What are you talking about? When did we do such a thing? Everything needs evidence, otherwise I'll sue you for defamation."
"Just now, our resource point on this planet was destroyed by your Huaxia members. The players who stayed behind were blocked at the respawn point and killed until they ran out of respawns. They can't respawn in the game for six days. Why did those Huaxia Guild members attack us?!"
"Go ask them, it wasn't us who did it." Azure Sky suppressed a laugh.
The Strong Vodka roared, "We bought our equipment from you, and you promised to provide us with shelter. You've broken your promise!"
Azure Sky scoffed. He was well aware of the tricks these foreign guilds played. On the surface, they bought some equipment through their channels, but in private, they had already found other Huaxia players to cooperate with, enjoying a full 10% discount, and kept it a secret from them.
Morning Snow and Evening Frost chuckled, "We weren't aware of this beforehand. After all, those top-tier guilds have their own ideas and aren't our subordinates. We also need to find out the situation. Don't worry, we'll do our best to persuade those guilds."
"That would be perfect." Strong Vodka nodded.
After hanging up the call, Strong Vodka felt displeased. He found it strange that these top-tier guilds were joining forces against them, which seemed to be related to the four major powerful families. He wondered if this would happen again in the future.
Thinking it over, he contacted the team leader of the remaining personnel and gave him instructions:
"Once you're resurrected, I'll transfer some funds to you. Use them to buy some surveillance equipment for the legion, such as automatic turrets, traps, and laser arrays. Deploy them near the new resource points. Buy as many as you can, don't worry about spending money... Oh, and abandon your current locations. Find a more dangerous spot to mine resources."
On the other side, Azure Sky and Morning Snow and Evening Frost were also discussing things.
"This attack will make them hesitant to act rashly, spending more money on unnecessary defenses. Those top-tier guilds weren't planning on frequent attacks anyway; we can say we persuaded them and kept our word. Once they establish new resource points and recover for a while, we'll organize another attack. By then, their resource points will have a new stockpile, which we can easily steal. Continuing to harass them like this will only limit their resource point gains. As long as we push them to their breaking point, we can instigate a large-scale guild war and use our manpower advantage to wipe out all their guild core members."
"You're the most insidious one yet." Azure Sky gave a thumbs-up.
Morning Snow and Evening Frost shook her head, "It's a pity they didn't send any professional players, otherwise our guilds could have helped the club eliminate some of their rivals."
Professional players are the backbone of the club, so the club values their safety and naturally wouldn't dare send them to other clubs' territories. The reason why Huaxia clubs target foreign guilds is to protect their own professional players. If foreign guilds were allowed to establish a foothold in their territory, the possibility of them secretly causing trouble for Huaxia professional players would not be low.
Others can cross star systems to come, but they cannot. The Huaxia is actually at a disadvantage, which is why they decided to join forces to compete with foreign guilds and protect their own interests.
Several days later, in another star sector.
The Great Cosmos Corps fleet led by Qiqijia is slowly sailing towards the beacon. In addition to the main ship, which is tens of kilometers long, there are more than thirty escort warships. All the awakened warriors are training, totaling over a million people.
Inside the flagship, Qiqijia was clenching his fists, his face beaming with excitement. He loved plundering and was eagerly anticipating the arrival of war.
"How much longer until we reach the beacon?" Qiqijia asked several times a day.
"Reporting, Boss, the beacon's location has been shifting these past few days. I think this is a smokescreen to confuse us, so we're currently heading towards the location where the beacon was first activated. It's not too far away." The squad leader of the operations team looked helpless; he had to repeat this answer several times a day.
"The sooner the better, I can't wait." Qiqijia said gruffly.
Just then, another operator exclaimed in surprise.
"Chief, three unknown targets are approaching us!"
"Could it be a meteorite?" Qiqijia was taken aback.
In his mind, very few people could travel in space like they could, so his first thought was of meteorites or comets.
"They don't look like meteors; they're heading straight for us! Chief, I request to go on alert!"
"Making a fuss over nothing," Qiqijia muttered, waving his hand. "Then let's be on guard."
The fleet quickly activated all its weapons and stood ready for battle.
Before long, the three spaceships carrying Dark Emperor and the others appeared and slowly came to a stop, facing off against Qiqijia and the others from a distance.
"Is it really a spaceship?" Qiqijia exclaimed in surprise.
The operator hurriedly replied, "I knew it! They can track our beacon; their technology is extremely advanced, and they can even travel in space."
Qiqijia looked at the three spaceships for a while, then suddenly burst into laughter.
"What are you afraid of! Look at those three spaceships, they're so small, how much combat power could they possibly have?"
Indeed, compared to Qiqijia's main ship, which was tens of kilometers long, Dark Emperor and the others' spaceships appeared very small.
In the world of Qiqijia, the size of a spaceship equals its combat power.
"And look at them, they only have three ships, less than a tenth of ours. We could easily take them down. What's the panic? You're just embarrassing me." Qiqijia clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Upon hearing this, everyone suddenly realized it made sense and felt much more at ease.
"Chief, what should we do now?"
Qiqijia said nonchalantly, "Just look at their spaceships, and you can tell they're just a small civilization that's just starting to explore space travel. They don't know what awe is yet, which is why they dare to recklessly track our signals. Hmph, as their seniors, we have to teach them a lesson and let them know what fear tastes like."
Just then, another operator nearby laughed and said, "Boss, they sent us a message, wanting to communicate with us."
Upon hearing this, everyone laughed, agreeing that Qiqijia was right. Only a civilization just beginning to explore the universe would be so naive as to think they could communicate effectively in space.
What did they say?
"Let me see... They say they are from the Black Star Army and that we should immediately put away our weapons and surrender..." Before he could finish reading, the man burst out laughing.
As if infected by his laughter, almost everyone in the driver's cab couldn't help but burst into laughter, and the room was instantly filled with a joyful atmosphere.
"Gagaga..." Qiqijia laughed so hard she almost fell over. "Quick, reply to my message!"
"What should I reply to?"
"Ask them in return, have they even heard of our Great Cosmos Corps? Hahaha..." Qiqijia laughed until tears streamed down his face.
The Black Star Army? What the hell? Never even heard of them. Do they think they're so famous?
Don't they know that their Great Cosmos Corps is the overlord of this universe? They actually think they can just surrender... He had never heard such a ridiculous joke before.
Qiqijia almost laughed himself to death, and it took him a while to catch his breath before he could finally say, "These arrogant natives are such a source of joy, they always make me happy..." Before he could finish, he was about to laugh again.
"Chief, should we attack?"
"Hmm, kill them... no, don't kill them, capture them and hand them over to the Great Emperor. The Great Emperor will definitely be amused by these guys." Qiqijia laughed heartily.
Just as everyone was laughing, the team leader of the operators suddenly felt a chill and realized a chilling blind spot:
When I first encountered the indigenous people, we couldn't communicate because we couldn't understand each other's languages.
But these natives, even though it was their first time meeting us... why did they understand our language? Why were they able to communicate with us?!
He shuddered, about to report the anomaly, when suddenly the three spaceships exhibited strange phenomena.
The hulls of the three spaceships opened, and a dark mass of machinery surged out. Suddenly, blue-gold lightning appeared out of nowhere, striking each machine and bursting forth with blinding light.
What are these things?
The smiles on Qiqijia and the others vanished, and they stared at the scene with surprise and uncertainty.
The next moment, a silver beam shot out, instantly piercing through the main ship's shields and its tens of kilometers-long hull, leaving a huge hole through it!
The "tough" spaceship armor was as fragile as paper in the face of this energy beam!
Everyone was stunned and hadn't even reacted when the violent shaking knocked them to the ground.
A piercing alarm suddenly sounded, and the lights inside the spaceship turned bright red.
Waaaaah--
"Warning! Warning! Shield broken, hull damage is increasing: 7.8%...8.6%...10.3%... Please take immediate action! Please take immediate action!!"
With a single strike, the flagship's defenses were breached!
Qiqijia didn't get up. She sat blankly on the ground, her eyes filled with confusion and disbelief, her expression one of utter horror. There was no trace of the ease she had shown just moments before.
What just happened?!