In the Jeraton Star System of the Renault Star Cluster, the alliance exploration team of the Bloodshed Land and the Klent Kingdom was executing their plan step by step, slowly painting the gray areas on the star map green. The internal stargate network of the first Star Zone was gradually being built. The exploration of planets was completed one after another. Detailed data was added to the database. Tons of space buoys were left wherever they passed.

The exploration of the Bloodshed Land was smooth and peaceful. There were quite many resource planets in the Jeraton Star System, but they had yet to meet any native civilizations.

Heber had been very free in the past ten days or so. The large fleet was operating according to plan and did not need his command. Therefore, he found a Fixed Star to train his energy.

At a hot red Fixed Star in this Star Zone, Heber walked on the Fixed Star’s surface. The energy of the Fixed Star within tens of miles from him formed a moving vortex, spinning around him. Under the stimulation of energy, his cells devoured the powerful radiation around him and turned it into his energy. White bright energy patches appeared on his skin.

“Hu…” Heber exhaled deeply.

He stomped the ground. The enormous strength turned into a rippling impact wave, and the energy vortex around him shattered instantly. Covered in thick energy flames, Heber broke away from the powerful gravitational pull of the Fixed Star and rocket up like a beam of light shooting into space. Very soon, he left the Fixed Star and returned to the waiting fleet.

Heber walked into the spaceship and casually wore his cape. He then took the communicator from his subordinate. It was a message from Klent.

“Your Excellency Tyrant, we have just received news that the chief commander has given an order to the Black Star Army to eliminate a native organization.”

“Attacking a native organization?” Heber’s footsteps paused. “The dynasty’s exploration laws forbid casual use of violence.”

“Our people on Planet Lighthouse have heard that the situation Black Star has met is special. That native organization is a pillager at the center of the Star Cluster. The Black Star Army’s men discovered them coincidentally. The dynasty wants the planetary information this native organization has, so the chief commander allowed the Black Star Army to eliminate them.”

Heber frowned slightly.

While they were progressing stably, the Black Star Army had already gone into the jungle‽

If the Black Star Army obtained the information the native organization had accumulated, it would be quite a significant achievement.

Initially, he had thought that the Star System they were exploring was richer and the results of their exploration would definitely exceed the Black Star Army’s. Sadly, Black Star was a very lucky person.

Heber shook his head.

He did not want to see the Black Star Army achieve that, yet there was nothing he could do but watch. He could not help but sigh.

This time, the person from Klent said, “Your Excellency Tyrant, our commander has a daring idea…”

“Attack Black Star again?”

“That’s right. We plan to…”

“Enough.” Heber interrupted before he could finish. “I have made a ceasefire agreement with the Black Star Army. I don’t want to mess with them now, and neither should you. This is meaningless.”

He then hung up the communication.

The Klent Kingdom had yet to give up; they did not want to see their enemy, the Black Star Army, successfully make such an achievement. Heber did not want to be dragged down by Klent.

The commander sent by Klent this time had once been a radical supporter of the secret war, so he harbored a lot of hatred for Han Xiao. What he wanted to do was basically snatch away the Black Star Army’s contributions and disrupt Black Star, which not only had a negligible chance of success in Heber’s eyes but would also bring the dissatisfaction of Black Star and the dynasty. Furthermore, it would not impact the Black Star Army much, if at all. It was not worth the risk.

In the Flickering World, Heber really was not willing to fight with Black Star. With such a huge cake, it would be best to just explore his own area. If he and the Black Star Army caused trouble for each other, it would only benefit the other dynasty allies who came to explore in the future.

…

In Han Xiao’s previous life, when the players entered the Flickering World in Version 4.0, the exploration was already complete for many Star Clusters. Tons of exterior forces entered and fought each other, so the players had plenty of opportunities to fight. The situation was different now.

It was now only Version 3.0. Because of Han Xiao, the players were able to get involved in the Flickering World storyline one version earlier, which also meant that the environment would be different. At the early stage of the exploration, there were only the dynasty and its allies, who were all on the same side. Therefore, the players lacked the fighting storyline and had few chances to battle.

Therefore, when the [Wipe Out the Great Cosmos Corps] appeared, all the players who were exploring the Flickering World with the Black Star Army took part in this group operation. This mission did not have a maximum participant limit, so most players decided to accept the mission.

Han Xiao was happy with this. As the players were currently in different exploration teams and were quite divided, he casually arranged thousands of spaceships to gather these players into an expedition fleet.

As it would take quite some time to reach the center area of the Garu Star Cluster, Han Xiao was not planning to have the players wait in the spaceships—that would be a waste of quality labor. He planned to let this expedition group explore the planets on the way to maximize efficiency.

To make the return of the players easier, they also had to build stargates on the way.

This way, the exploration plan of the Black Star Army shifted as well. The large team slowly explored the border Star System, the first Special Task Force led by Hadavy were building a route from the south of the Star Cluster to the east, and the expedition team were building the route from the south of the Star Cluster to the center.

As the army’s men were split into three groups, Han Xiao told Sylvia, who was in the Shattered Star Ring headquarters, to quickly dispatch the second fleet to make up for the manpower.

After growing for two versions, the players now had Grade B strength. Millions of army players were considered quite powerful. Han Xiao was not worried.

As versions updated, the players became stronger. They would gradually be noticed by the entire universe.

After sending out the player expedition team, Han Xiao left them alone. He explored resource planets one after another according to the plan while expanding his machinery while he had the time.

As two more Star Zones were completely explored, one month passed peacefully.

On this day, Han Xiao finally received Phillip’s report that the player expedition team had finally met with the Great Cosmos Corps’ reconnaissance troops.

…

The team that met the reconnaissance troops was a player team that was deploying space buoys. It was just a small recon ship with around three hundred players, while the opponent had three battleships.

The battle erupted instantly. The moment this reconnaissance team discovered these players, they rushed forward without a word, planning to capture the enemies and interrogate them for intel about the Black Star Army.

Shots landed on the shield of this mini recon ship, causing chain exploration, while the flickering shield was unaffected.

“Alert! The spaceship is being attacked. Remaining shield energy 97.1%… 99.7%… charge complete. Estimating threat level… estimation complete. the enemy’s firepower is unable to penetrate the shield. Threat level extremely low.”

The hundreds of players inside the spaceship exchanged looks.

The Black Star Army’s spaceships used the complete Star System technology, and some even had Star Cluster standards, such as the energy core, weapon, and shield. Comparatively, the Great Cosmos Corps’ spaceships were too behind. Without an enormous quantity difference, there was no way they would be of any threat to the Black Star Army’s spaceships.

Close range combat was exactly what the players wanted. As the three enemy recon ships approached and were about to connect their cabins, more than ten charge cabins shot out from the side of this mini recon ship, ‘biting’ into the three enemy spaceships.

The players inside the charge cabin swarmed out and started a slaughter inside the enemy ships. These players were mostly above level 100, while the people on the enemy ships were ordinary people.

Not long after, the hundreds of players wiped out the enemies inside these ships and seized the three spaceships.

On the other side, Atimo received this news as well.

However, he did not receive the video information that the recon group was supposed to send. The strength of the Black Star Army was still unknown to him.

“Before losing contact, the reconnaissance group only sent back the fact that they had met enemies, and the link was broken right after. We don’t know the process of them fighting their enemies,” the deputy said with confusion.

“Like with Kikiga…” Atimo narrowed his eyes, and a rare tint of concern flashed past his eyes. “The enemy’s quantum technology might far exceed ours.”

Before the battle erupted, Phillip had invaded the enemy’s artificial intelligence and forcefully blocked the opponent’s communication, like when Kikiga met Psionic Prime. Therefore, Atimo still did not know how many spaceships and men the Black Star Army had.

On the other hand, Phillip knew where the Atimo’s troops were and was ordering the expedition team to head directly toward that direction.

No matter the war, the importance of intelligence could never be ignored. The virtual technology of the army was far superior, and the Great Cosmos Corps was basically blind in comparison.

Ever since he began ruling the ‘universe’, Atimo had never met an enemy that had made him feel any sense of pressure. However, this Black Star Army that appeared out of nowhere had shaken his confidence.

This might be the strongest opponent he had ever met.

“Black Star Army, not bad,” Atimo said with a firm tone. “I can call you the strongest opponent. However, facing my fleet, your end will be no different from the others!”

Atimo was extremely confident. He had brought all his spaceships, a total of a hundred thousand battleships!

This was the fleet he had accumulated throughout the years, and this was what gave him confidence to rule over the ‘universe’.

From his perspective, such an enormous fleet could wipe out any enemy.