This new information caused a commotion within the players.

“I’ve never seen any main NPCs that are over LV 60.”

“But he’s still ‘Extremely Dangerous’ like the last time I inspected him. Was he already this strong back then? It didn’t feel like that.”

“Based on his story, Black Phantom didn’t start out strong. He suddenly became strong later on, eventually becoming the one to topple the Germinal Organization. I guess this is what sets him apart as the main character in the storyline.”

“Black Phantom’s combat strength is definitely on the level of bosses. I wonder how he ranks on the entire planet.”

The players’ first impression of Han Xiao was that he was very strong. However, his actual strength was still a myth. Most of them had watched the recordings of Han Xiao’s fights out of curiosity ever since they started playing the game. Now that they realized that they still could not inspect his character information even after maxing out their levels, they could not wait to see Han Xiao go up against these pro players and demonstrate his strength.

“Thirty seconds doesn’t sound too difficult, right?”

Most of the players, including the mission participants, thought this. Although they could not inspect his stats, they made the assumption based on his previous battle recordings as well as the fact that he was only a Version 1.0 character.

Although he was definitely strong, how much stronger than them could he be? The difference between them and Han Xiao’s strength had to have decreased significantly since the start of the game. They were players! They leveled up super-fast!

The first player who was selected for the test had the ID ‘Falling Leaf’, and he took a big step out of the crowd.

The surrounding players immediately backed up to clear a space. Although fighting in Players’ Main City would usually worsen their reputations with the city’s NPCs, it should be fine with Han Xiao there.

Countless pairs of eyes stared unblinkingly, as if waiting for something.

“Start.” Han Xiao said a single word.

Falling Leaf immediately got into a defensive stance while waiting for the incoming blow.

Hum—

Four Sonic Spheres flew out while crisscrossing in the air. Attached to the spheres were detection devices that both increased the weapons’ range and accuracy.

An ear-piercing explosion suddenly bloomed on the stage!

Falling Leaf’s health dropped instantly, and he was rooted where he was by a stunned effect.

Boom boom boom!

Six pre-planted turrets suddenly sprang out of the ground and simultaneously opened fire on Falling Leaf. The combined firing rate was so fast that it was as if a miniature hailstorm was occurring where Falling Leaf was standing. Within a few moments, Falling Leaf collapsed onto the ground after being blasted to bits by the turret.

Although Falling Leaf had activated multiple energy skills to surround himself with a thin layer of energy, he was pinned to the ground as bullets rained down on him. The Sonic Spheres were also constantly applying various kinds of crowd control debuffs on him, locking him on the ground.

His health dropped to a dangerously low level within the blink of an eye, but the hurricane-like assault suddenly stopped, and the ground cleared up as if nothing had happened.

“You didn’t pass,” said Han Xiao with a flat voice.

Falling Leaf was stunned. It was all over before he even realized what had happened.

The surrounding players all had their mouths hanging wide open as they could not believe what had just happened.

A max level pro player could not even resist for five seconds before almost being wiped out!

There was no need to even talk about skills or controls. Han Xiao might as well have just hung him up and whipped his backside.

The player had been completely suppressed!

What surprised the players even more was that Han Xiao had remained in the same position throughout the whole thing. Even his pose was the same!

“Are Mechanics supposed to be this overpowered? Do we really have the same class‽”

“He didn’t even move. How did he control those weapons?”

“Isn’t he too overpowered for Version 1.0? Could it be that Planet Aquamarine can no longer limit him and that’s why he has decided to go into space?”

“Based on his past battle recordings, Black Phantom still has a lot of cards up his sleeves. This means that he didn’t even go all out!”

“Wasn’t that DPS a bit too ridiculous? Even a fifty-man raiding party would be turned into mincemeat if they had to fight a Boss like that…”

The same question once again surfaced in the players’ minds, albeit with them feeling completely different emotions this time around—just how high was Black Phantom’s level‽

The players had been in contact with Han Xiao ever since the open beta. They had thought that they had already closed the level gap between each other after farming so much experience. But never would they have expected to be so wrong… as expected of the Great Mechanic Han!

When Han Xiao turned around and saw the dumb expressions on the players’ faces, he knew that he had achieved the intended effects. He had once again refreshed his position in the players’ hearts, and they once again worshipped him.

Although the players were at max level, they were still too lacking in terms of talents, attributes, and skills. Their characters were still, after all, built around player templates. Han Xiao had now reached LV 70, and he was only stuck here due to the class change requirements, unable to choose a new sub-class. However, the difference between him and the players was the difference between one whole Version. On top of that, with Han Xiao’s Boss templates, his countless talents, skills, energy capacity, and weapons, the damage that he was able to output was unimaginable for the players.

LV 60 players only had around 3,000 health and some meager defense. They were still too weak in front of him.

Moreover, his Sonic Spheres had been upgraded to the purple grade and had very high damage. Sonic Spheres were a very unique type of weapon in Version 1.0. They operated on an entirely different set of tactics, dealt very high damage, and required high-level control skills.

The pro players’ expressions were all frozen on their faces.

Li Ge realized how wrong he had been when he ran his mouth off earlier, saying that this would take a long time. Han Xiao had basically one-shot the previous challenger!

None of the participating players dared to be careless anymore, and they all listened carefully for when they got picked. Everyone was starting to feel nervous in front of this monstrous foe.

The battles continued. The following players were much more careful, and they all tried their best to kite around Han Xiao. None dared go head on. The moment a player was hit by Han Xiao’s attacks, they would go down within ten seconds. Everyone tried everything that they could to survive for thirty seconds.

The surrounding audience grew in size, and some started to post recordings of the ‘fights’ onto the forums.

The people who watched the recordings were flabbergasted. It had only been a few days ago that these pro players had been showing off their skills in the tournament. However, watching them getting butchered like pigs by this NPC aroused their curiosity.

It was not an everyday occurrence for them to be able to watch pro players get bullied like that. More and more people got interested in this event as they got to watch the pros get shredded one after another.

Han Xiao’s strength was also recognized once again. Many posts were discussing this topic intensely. The happy bunch, of course, consisted of the Mechanics. Mechanics, on average, had the worst performance during the tournaments, causing many of them to be unhappy about the status quo. Watching Han Xiao pop off was like a breath of fresh air!

So, we can become that strong! Please show us the way!

Han Xiao’s mission had exploded among all players, and many tried to come up with jokes about the situation. What was originally a serious topic quickly turned into a source of memes. Only someone as famous as Han Xiao could get this kind of treatment.

“Black Phantom: Hold on for thirty seconds if you are a man!”

“Shocking! Pro players can’t even do it for thirty seconds!”

“Guide by pro players: How to hold on for thirty seconds!”

Making fun out of everything was what these players were best at.

‘Thirty seconds’ soon became a well-known term, while ‘seconds’ became something that people used to quantify a pro player’s strength. Those are players who were able to make it to the end of the thirty-second test all became the legendary ‘Thirty Seconds Warriors’.

…

The selection continued into the night. The crowd only started to disperse after Han Xiao had returned to his quarters to rest. The mission period was five days, and the remaining pro players went away with heavy feelings in their hearts, stressing about coming up with a strategy for the next day.

Han Xiao was just about to enter his house when he thought about something and suddenly stopped. He then turned and walked toward the room with Frenzied Sword and the others.

When Han Xiao pushed opened the door to their room, he saw that the four were chilling in the room. They immediately stood up when they saw Han Xiao walk in, curious as to what was about to happen.

Black Phantom would not look for them on normal occasions. He would only find them when he had missions or benefits to distribute.

When the four thought about the commotion earlier in the morning, they were able to make some faint guesses, and the anticipation started to show on their faces.

As Black Phantom’s followers, they had always been receiving special treatment. So, maybe this time as well…

Han Xiao chuckled before saying, “You’re all my friends. I am about to leave this planet for the boundless world above. Are you guys willing to come with me?”

Look at this!

Everyone had only been able to find out about Han Xiao’s plans through the mission that he gave out earlier. Yet, he had come to invite them in person. They could even directly skip the selection. What a caring boss!

“I’m willing!” Frenzied Sword answered without a second’s hesitation with a face full of excitement.