As Han Xiao was undergoing a trade with Rockfess, dozens of spaceships carrying 200,000 mercenaries sailed toward Planet Sunil.

The star map in the cockpit flickered. As it showed Planet Sunil nearing them, Herlous’ mood grew all the more excited. The same rang true for the other Sunil mercenaries.

They themselves were too aware of their civilization’s plight. Because of the catastrophe, the casualty rate of their young and middle aged had always remained high, and their partners lived in constant danger. Now, they finally had a ray of hope to solving this problem!

This group of warriors who would sacrifice their lives for their civilization were all extremely touched, grateful to Han Xiao to the point of wanting to cry.

“The day has finally arrived.”

Herlous took a deep breath, regaining a calm mood.

Outside the porthole, Planet Sunil seemed to be beckoning them, and the fleet landed quickly on it, as though both sides had collided with each other.

The main city of Planet Sunil was still Forest City, and all the upper echelons there had long received the news, rushing out to welcome them. From all around, army troops wearing the Sunil armor stood in their formations in welcome, filling a huge patch of open space.

As the spaceships landed one after another, and the players stepped out, they saw the armored troops at a glance. The sunlight reflected off the steel from the Sunil armor, exuding an aura of silence and slaughter.

“We thank the Black Star Army for reaching out to aid us. Welcome, I am…”

One of the upper echelons of the Sunils stepped forward, preparing to give a speech, but before he could finish half of it, he saw the 200,000 mercenaries scatter. The majority of the players ran over to the aggressive armored soldiers with dumb expressions.

“Oh, this is Sunil. Indeed, the same as in the video channels!”

“Come brothers, let’s take a group photo!”

Having arrived on the new planet, the players immediately started to party.

“This…”

The upper echelon of the Sunil felt his face twitch incessantly, but he did not know what to do. Turning over, he saw Herlous walk out of the spaceship. He regained his composure, rushing forward respectfully.

“It’s all thanks to you, or else we would not have been able to hire the Black Star Army.” The superior of the Sunils had an expression of gratitude.

“You should thank Black Star actually. If it wasn’t for the fact that he asked me to follow him, Sunil would not have had this opportunity.”

Herlous had a solemn expression. In this regard, he felt that he had taken too much of an advantage, and he should not claim credit for this matter.

Right now, Black Star had already been promoted to a Calamity Grade Super, with no shortage of Grade B Supers under him. Instead of saying that he was selling his life for the Black Star Army in exchange for them helping him, it was more accurate to say that it was Black Star that offered his help voluntarily to the Sunils!

After the incident with DarkStar, Herlous had gained a deeper understanding of Han Xiao. To go head on against a terrifying interstellar terrorist organization just for his hometown, this courage was simply too great. Black Star was a righteous partner, with a good character and a nice personality, and his wanting to help Sunil was also purely because he wished to save them, without asking for benefits.

The favorability of Herlous toward Han Xiao had long exploded through the roof, to the point that he would sacrifice his life if asked to or use himself as a shield if needed.

Hearing this, the Sunil superior solemnly nodded. They really owed too much to Black Star. The other party had allowed the Sunil mercenaries to accept better employment, reducing the casualties of their race, and now he had even sent a large number of people over to help, only charging a nominal fee in return.

What a good person!

After arranging the 200,000 ‘mercenaries’, the Sunil upper echelons spread the news of the Black Star Army coming to provide reinforcements to the entire race so that the countless Sunils would know that their opportunity had arrived.

Within the streets, countless people burst into tears as they lowered their heads in prayer.

The name ‘Black Star’ experienced a rapid increase in prestige in the area.

As Herlous took the Sunil mercenaries to walk down the street, accepting the gratitude of the civilians, he suddenly felt that the fire of hope in this city had been rekindled and felt a lot more hopeful in his heart.

Herlous had also witnessed the specialty of the players and believed that this catastrophe would be resolved sooner or later. However, therein lay a problem for him.

“When the problem of my race has been solved, where should I go?”

As though hit by a bullet in his heart, his body froze in confusion.

That’s right, my purpose of becoming a mercenary was to help the race fight on. Once our danger has passed, do I still need to be a mercenary?

Herlous’ footsteps slowed down as he entered a dilemma.

Thinking of how Black Star had provided him with help but he would leave right after his objective had been accomplished gave him a sort of feeling as though he was betraying Black Star’s trust. His conscience could not ignore this fact.

Then… do I continue staying with Black Star to repay his gratitude?

Upon thinking of his noisy babbling mercenary partners, thinking of the various unknown planets he had seen, the unique lifeforms, and Black Star’s ever reliable back facing them…

Herlous’ tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed.

Other than his civilization, it seemed as though he had found another home.

“Heh, without the burdens of my race weighing me down, I can probably obtain a sizable sum and find a pretty lady to get married.”

Herlous felt the weight in his heart get removed and suddenly looked forward to the infinite possibilities in the future.

…

On the other side, the players had been warmly welcomed into the Forest City by the Sunils.

“I didn’t expect the name of the Black Star Army to be this good.”

The crowd of players murmured in surprise. After experiencing it personally, they only belatedly realized how much influence their faction possessed. The name of the Black Star Army seemed to be extremely prestigious.

The 200,000 players split up wandered around Forest City. Right now, the upper echelons of the Sunils were still working out a concrete strategy, so their mission had not yet officially started. At this time, no one would stop the players from moving around freely.

Many of the players utilized the same old method, attempting to trigger additional missions with the various Sunils or searching for equipment stores, skill mentors, general stores, and other functional locations. As a civilization, the Sunils of course had an NPC resource area, with most of the functions being able to serve the players.

Not long after, the players were mass recruited, with a whole list of missions to complete, including exploring the wild, collecting information on the beasts, clearing the beast colonies, regaining abandoned resource points as well as digging mineral veins. All sorts of work were available.

After accepting the various missions, the interfaces of the players would then display the respective tasks, which allowed the players to obtain more experience rewards from these sub-missions.

The popular missions were quickly swept clean, and the crowd’s favorite was naturally the mission of robbing resource areas. Because most of the resources were materials, one could get some during the process.

The resource area missions were basically divided among the guild players, but because Sunil wanted to completely resolve the catastrophe, there were many other missions to be completed as well. This ensured that all 200,000 mercenaries had some missions to attempt.

After accepting the missions, players also triggered a series of mission requirements for the faction. The objective was to help the Sunils resolve the catastrophe but had nothing to do with their employment task. Even if one was not a mercenary, they could still trigger this series of missions by helping the Sunils.

In fact, the mercenary mission received by the players back then was the real bonus, which was given as a benefit of the Black Star Army.

With the mission acting like a carrot dangling above the players’ heads, the 200,000 players could not wait to get started.

…

A couple of days later, countless robotic arms were busy assembling mechanical warriors in Base No.1’s workshop. Han Xiao had his head buried in front of a lathe, focusing on rebuilding his Mechanic Army. Suddenly, his communicator rang.

“Hmm? Who is it?”

Han Xiao put down the items in his hands, taking out his communicator. Lots of possibilities flashed through his mind, be it a mission from Ames or some tasks that the Noriosse Consortium required him to do. It could also be some players having botched their missions and having the employer calling to complain.

All sorts of thoughts flashed by, but after glancing at the communicator, he found out that it was an unknown caller, which left him surprised.

After establishing a connection, an unfamiliar figure appeared in his screen, and he questioned Han Xiao fiercely.

“Black Star, what have you done to my men‽”

“Your men?” Han Xiao replied.

“Befuli! Don’t tell me you forgot!” The other party’s tone was sinister.

Now where had he heard this name…

Han Xiao stroked his chin before belatedly realizing. Isn’t he that guy with the fiery golden eyes? Oh no, that guy with the Esper ability of shooting fire from his eyes.

That idiot had attempted to steal his spaceship and ended up being held captive, with his Esper ability being drawn every day, allowing him to obtain over 100 bottles of the Genetic Medicine. He was probably only left with skin and bones, a foot away from death.

That was to say… the other party should be the ‘Purple Snake’ Sykes, Befuli’s leader and the Captain of the Purple Snake Space Pirates.

“Turns out, it’s you.” Han Xiao raised his brows. “Your subordinate tried to steal my spaceship, and you still dare to look for me?”

“Where has Befuli gone? Have you killed him?”

“Oh, the answer to that would be… you guess?”

Sykes had a vicious expression on. “Black Star, hand over my people, and I can pretend that this incident never happened.”

“Urgh…” Han Xiao exaggeratedly exclaimed before saying, “Your subordinate attempted to steal my spaceship and was captured by me. Now, you want me to release the person and pretend that nothing ever happened? You don’t look too pretty, but your thinking is indeed worlds apart from your looks. I’m not sure if I should even thank you for this!”

“Humph, Black Star, you indeed talk as much as the rumors say. However, did you think that I would look for you if I was unprepared?”

Sykes revealed a cold smile, with an inexplicable tone of confidence.

I talk a lot? Which b*stard spread that rumor… no, that’s not the main point. Han Xiao regained his wits and immediately understood what Sykes was hinting at. A sense of helplessness spread across his face as he commented, “Who have you captured?”

The corners of Sykes’ mouths curled up, and he pressed a button. The screen revealed a jail cell with a group of people tied up together.

Taking a closer look, this bunch was probably the players, no doubt about that. It should be a group of players that were headed for another mission and were ambushed halfway by Sykes’ people. In that case, the other party definitely had people that had successfully infiltrated the Garton Star System.

“Black Star, hand over Befuli, or you can forget about seeing the mercenaries under you ever again.”

The screen disappeared, and Sykes reappeared on the screen.

“Oh, we can discuss this…” Han Xiao deeply sighed before saying, “How about you just kill all the hostages?”

“News regarding you is being spread all over the galaxy, do you treat me as a fool! You have tens of thousands of immortal warriors under your flag, completely unkillable! However, I believe there will be many organizations that wish to experiment on such immortals and will be willing to fork out the cash. So, you’d better listen to me. I’ll only give you five days to escort Befuli to the coordinates of a barren planet. If I do not see him, or if you play some tricks, my Space Pirates will specifically target your mercenaries and sell them to the other Star Clusters.”

Sykes’ tone carried some threat, immediately cutting off any possible thoughts of rebellion from Han Xiao.

“… Fine.” Han Xiao’s mouth twitched.

“Remember, five days’ time!”

After stressing that once more, Sykes immediately cut off the communication.

If it was not for the fact that his right-hand man had been captured, Sykes would not have antagonized Black Star. Luckily, he did not need to hand over the hostages in person. Sykes was not prepared to go in person, getting someone to go over to the Garton Star System to handle everything whilst he stayed in the Gavin Star System. After all, safety was paramount.

Han Xiao rubbed between his brows, looking helpless. The players were still not strong enough. To allow them to explore and complete missions, he had been expecting such a matter to occur, but he did not think that it would come this quickly.

To have the players be killed because of being unable to repay the ransom, this was considered their own personal encounter. He was no nanny, and by rights, he should not care about this kind of matter. However, Sykes was a Calamity Grade, and for him to target the Black Star Army was a hidden danger. It seemed as though he would have to move out this time.

“F*ck, I can’t even take a few god-damned days to rest! Right now, even the time taken to build my little cuties has been deprived!”

With an expression full of grievances, Han Xiao came to the cell where Befuli was being held at. Looking at the unconscious person, he threw an [Observer’s Mark] on him.

“Isn’t it good to be alive? I had almost forgotten about looking for trouble with you guys.”

…

In the Garton Star System, a spaceship that the Purple Snake Space Pirates had taken over was floating quietly in the Universe.

In the dim spaceship cell, a bunch of players were tied there with space pirates on guard at the door.

“President, it seems that we’ve been down on our luck recently.”

Poseidon, one of the core members of the Guild of Gods, turned his head to address Jupiter, who was beside him.

Recently? F*ck that, our luck has been bad the whole time. Who are you looking down upon right now? Jupiter had a dark expression, not even bothering to reply.

He had originally chosen a mission that was quite good and had prepared to bring his core members of the guild to complete the job. However, he had not even reached the place of employment when he was suddenly captured.

The universe was actually this dangerous?

The law and order there could not even be compared to Planet Aquamarine!

The vice president Shiva had an indifferent expression on. “It seems that we have encountered an emergency. Maybe it’s a hidden mission.”

“The last time we got into trouble, you said the same thing.” Poseidon was not polite in his rebuttal.

At this time, a guard outside bellowed, “Who allowed you to talk? Shut your mouths!”

Everyone only turned to look at him before ignoring him, continuing to chatter on.

The guard could only spit out a sigh of resignation. He wished that he could pull out his guns to shoot the hostages into smithereens, but his leader’s orders were to not kill even one of them. Killing them would be equivalent to setting them free. Since they were not afraid of death, what could they use to threaten them?

The guards were helpless and could only silently watch on as this group of people behaved more arrogantly than the pirates themselves.

Bang!

At this point, the spaceship suddenly shook, and screams of misery could be heard.

“What happened?”

The guarding pirate lost some color in his expression, hurriedly running over to check it out. However, upon turning his head, he found a majestic figure blocking his way, covering all the light from outside. The pirate’s height only reached the figure’s belly…

“I’m taking over this ship,” the figure stated indifferently, his voice like thunder.

Before waiting for the pirate to respond, a strong blow shot to his side, the speed too fast for him to avoid.

The burly tall figure slapped the guard out of the way, splattering him into meat paste on the side of the wall.

Jupiter and the rest stared at this figure.

With his back to the light, no one could see his looks. They could only see what seemed to be a pair of curved horns on his head, one of which was broken in half.