Roddick’s eyes flashed, and he asked, “What’s your idea?”

“What do you think Black Star’s weakness is?” Lagos beat around the bush.

Hearing this, everyone fell into deep thought.

“Black Star has amazing strength. His fleshy body is tough, his foundation is huge, and his influence is at the peak…” Roddick’s expression was unsightly. “I can’t think of any weakness.”

“I’ll rephrase, what does Black Star care about?”

“His troops? But we can’t shake his foundation at all… His mother planet? It’s heavily protected. There’s no way to strike, and this sort of small problem is not enough to make Black Star feel overwhelmed… His officers? As far as I know, all important members of the Black Star Army are equipped with the transmission device similar to a Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device, which cannot be blocked. It’s impossible to threaten Black Star with this…”

The more Roddick spoke, the more he despaired. In his opinion, unless the upper echelons intended to encircle and suppress Black Star without considering the casualties, there was nothing that they could do to the opponent.

Lagos shook his head.

“Black Star is indeed powerful, but we’re overthinking it. Get rid of your inner doubts and re-examine him. There are still some ways to achieve our goal, which could be divided into direct and indirect routes.”

Hope welled up back in Roddick. Over the past few years within the free competition zone, Black Star had become a tumor to him. “Hurry and explain.” “The direct route is simple. Start with Black Star himself. While you cannot destroy his body, his soul is definitely not as tough as his Indestructible Body.”

After hearing this, Roddick was immediately discouraged. “So what? Even if Black Star’s soul is relatively weak, it’s not something we can target. You should at least be at the level of a pinnacle Beyond Grade A to affect him.”

“No, no, no, look at this file.”

Lagos swiped his finger on the virtual screen, releasing a confidential file.

Glancing over, Roddick muttered to himself, “Marwell Project File, Number 023, Project name: [Soul Swap Twins)… What’s this?” “This is a confidential file sent to me by the superiors not long ago. I don’t know much about this Marwell Project, but according to the description, this plan is one of the civilization’s secrets to cultivate special Espers.

Everyone nodded, not finding it surprising.

Because they coveted the position of hegemons that were held by the three Universal Civilizations, the Super Star Cluster Alliance had always known to hide its trump cards, and they had formulated many secret special talent training plans. After the Tragedy of the Pinnacles, there were even more plans. Some of the Beyond Grade As of their direct line that were hidden in the secondary dimensions were the products of their training plans.

This matter was considered a semi-open secret among the advanced civilizations, and the three Universal Civilizations also knew something about it, but they were unaware of the details behind each plan.

“You’re saying these two can deal with Black Star?” Roddick expressed his doubt. “Impossible. These twins are not even at the Beyond Grade A level. Can they even hurt him?”

“You also subconsciously fell into a misunderstanding. It’s not just another Beyond Grade A that can hurt one! While the twins are weak, they are the only qualified ones to be able to utilize a Universal Treasure that is classified as a Space Wonder. It possesses a miraculous effect toward the Soul and has never appeared before. It might work on Black Star.”

Roddick hesitated a while before gritting his teeth. “Since there’s no other way, apply to the upper echelons for them to dispatch the twins to help… What’s the indirect route?” “For the indirect route, we start from the people around Black Star. Throughout his life so far, the people he has acknowledged are few. Among them, his relationship with the Dragon Emperor is more subtle. If something goes wrong with the Dragon Emperor, he might temporarily throw everything aside and restrain the Black Star Army.”

Roddick was taken aback. “Why use the Dragon Emperor as a target?”

“An officer like Hila will definitely be heavily protected. Compared to her, the chances of targeting the Dragon Emperor are higher.”

“Didn’t you say that he will have equipped the people he values with the teleporters. The Dragon Emperor can’t be defenseless, so how do we deal with her?”

“What I’m talking about is not a siege. She’s a Beyond Grade A and cannot be easily attacked…” Lagos took a deep breath. “But imagine, the Dragon Emperor’s temper suddenly changes, and she begins to commit heinous crimes. It’s impossible for Black Star to turn a blind eye toward her actions.”

“You mean…”

“I have two plans. One is to let the Soul Swap Twins go to Dragon Emperor and distort her thoughts, so the success rate is more straightforward. The second is to find a way to get the Dragon Emperor trapped into a vortex of anger, causing her to perform heinous crimes such as randomly killing innocents and breaking the peace treaty. Black Star will have no choice but to divert his attention.”

“The first one can be thrown aside. How do we go about the second plan?”

“It can be blaming her or causing her to go crazy. According to the data, she has a very obvious weakness…” Lagos’ eyes flickered. “As for specifics, some consideration is needed.”

Hearing this, Roddick’s eyes lit up. It seems like this is pretty reliable!

Among the battle zones of the four Star Clusters, the Ferdinand Star System of the Emerald Star Cluster was the most eye-catching. The reason was the Black Star Army being so powerful that it tore through the outer line of defense formed by the agent forces, pointing directly to Modo Civilization, which was located in the central area.

While the Black Star Army only stated that it would target the Modo Civilization, this would inevitably affect the whole scenario. The current behavior of the army had a profound impact on the overall battle situation of the Emerald Star Cluster, and the outer defense circle that was constructed by the Super Star Cluster Alliance now showed a gap.

Using the attacking direction of the Black Star Army as a breakthrough point, a large number of organizations in the faction of the three Universal Civilizations chose to follow them, trying to enter the Modo Civilization territory through this gap, which was in the hinterlands of the Super Star Cluster Alliance.

The Super Star Cluster Alliance could only plug up the gap with their reinforcements. Even if the agents’ forces were not willing, they had to come to curb the advancement of the three Universal Civilizations’ forces headed by the Black Star Army.

The Modo Civilization also had to supplement a part of their armies to cooperate with the Northern Battlefront to block the Black Star Army, barely restraining them around the fifth to seventh Star Zones on the frontline.

This front has also turned into a war vortex of the Emerald Star Cluster, attracting a large number of armed fleets to gather and turn it into a meat grinder. The Ferdinand Star System had become the most intense area of this current battle.

The war in the Flickering World was in full swing, and the three Universal Civilizations were not idle either. They promulgated measures to impose multi-domain sanctions on all the Super Star Cluster Civilizations, eroding the national power of each Super Star Cluster on the political and economic level, so they could not concentrate on this war.

Thus, there were also a large number of business personnel from the Germinal Financial Group that had joined the fleet returning to the explored universe and travelling to the various Star Fields.

In the spaceship, the current vice president of the Germinal Financial Group, Iapetus, looked out of the porthole, the brilliant tail flame reflected in his eyes as he muttered to himself, “In the blink of an eye, over twenty years have passed…”

Touching his little moustache, a complicated look flashed past his eyes. The image of him being taken away by Black Star was still vivid. In a flash, Iapetus had turned from a youngster with a slight talent in business to a strong, experienced businessman. He had even risen to the position of vice president.

At first, he was reluctant, but he felt more at ease as time passed. In order to get promoted, he had worked hard to showcase his value. Right now, he was already accustomed to working for the army, helping them to seek more benefits.

Every time he thought back to his past, Iapetus felt as though it was all a dream.

Originally, he was just the head of a small financial group. He had never expected to become an important civilian officer under the Black Star Army, boarding the top stage of the universe.

By obtaining the opportunity created by turbulent times, they would shake the economic stability of an advanced civilization, not only earning huge profits but also affecting the state of the universe. This was one of the top achievements of the galactic merchants!

Those who could do this were definitely hegemons in the universe.

Without Black Star as the guide, he might only have made his name in the small pond of a Star System. It would be difficult to imagine doing things he had done in his current life.

If asked whether he felt gratitude to Black Star, there was indeed some, but Iapetus sighed more at how much his destiny had changed after meeting up with Black Star.

At this moment, the secretary walked in, holding a digital document in his hands. “Vice President, the Limitless Financial Group has drawn up a cooperation agreement and needs your signature.”

“Oh, bring it over.” Collecting his thoughts, Iapetus glanced through the document once before signing his name.

He was clear that this was a trip with a mission.

Cooperating with the Limitless Financial Group to take a share of the economic sanctions was only a superficial reason. He had two underlying missions to perform. The first was to focus on combating the Modo Civilization in the economic field, and the other was to help the intelligence personnel monitor the material and military movements of the Super Star Clusters.

The lifeline of the Super Star Cluster Alliance in maintaining this war lay in their logistics and transportation. The moment their backend assistance stopped, the troops in the free competition zone would just become a lone army looking to be defeated. Thus, the Army Commander privately gave him a task to allow him to pass through the Super Star Cluster and detect the transportation lines of these civilizations.

As long as they could control or cut off the transportation lines, the troops in the free competition zone would just be a group of turtles within an urn.

After more than twenty years of contact, Iapetus was aware that Han Xiao was farsighted. He knew well that his Army Commander was already making arrangements and that he was just one of the chess pieces that needed to be placed in a suitable position.

Meanwhile, in an exploration base of the Black Star Army, a group of players gathered in a private room, making a hubbub of noise.

“It’s been almost twenty minutes. Why were we called over?”

“You guys were also notified by Phillip?”

“That’s right. I don’t know why we’re here.”

Everyone there had just arrived at the exploration base, ready to join the next fleet to attack the Modo Civilization, but they had suddenly received a notice from Phillip, asking them to come to this room to standby.

This situation was generally a sign of a mission trigger. Only a few would refuse, so there were about two thousand people within the room. They were basically part of the group that had joined the Black Star Army since its inception, and some were even members of the Chinese clubs.

Suddenly, a strange noise sounded in the room.

Buzz!

A virtual projection appeared, which immediately attracted everyone’s attention. Many of them gasped. “Black Star!”

The projection that appeared was Han Xiao.

Looking around at the curious faces, Han Xiao nodded in greeting.

“Everyone, it was I who asked you to come here. You are all veterans who have been fighting with the army for many years, which makes you trustworthy. I have picked the best out of all of you, and there’s a secret mission I hope to entrust to you.” Upon hearing this, everyone present widened their eyes.

We’re players specially selected by the Army Commander?

Ah, a hidden mission!

“What would you need us to do?” some of the bolder players shouted.

Han Xiao smiled.

“I require you all… to act as spies!”

He then released the ‘Secret Mission’ he had prepared earlier to the players present. All those on scene lost focus in their eyes as they turned their attention to the interface.

Since many of the foreign clubs had planted their spies there, Han Xiao was prepared to give them a taste of their own medicine. He was going to send some players to pretend to join those guild alliances to inquire about news. He had also conveniently planted a few spies in the Modo Civilization to investigate the transportation lines as well.

For this reason, he would conceal the files of these players in the army, ‘washing out’ their identities and creating a scenario not unlike that of Infernal Affairs[1]. This was nothing difficult for a Beyond Grade A.

He did not wish to discover the Modo transportation line to completely ruin the hope of the Modo Civilization but to better encircle and fight their reinforcements. He realized that the Modo Civilization would not give up on their desire in the Flickering World that easily. As long as they could survive, the Modo Civilization would insist on sending in troops and continuously throwing soldiers into this meat grinder.

Not only would it allow him to complete his own mission, it would also keep the Black Star Army in a state of intervention. After all, once Modo was gone, the Black Star Army would no longer have an excuse to intervene in the war.

This was just one corner of the strategy. Han Xiao was secretly laying out many traps, preparing to weave a large web to cover the Modo Civilization, turning it into a prey in the web with nowhere to escape. For this reason, he even secretly contacted a person he had not talked to in a long time, a dangerous antisocialist and a powerful demagogue, a person who was perfectly useful for such situations in his mind…

Rossellin!

It was not difficult for him to imagine what sort of changes would take place within the Modo Civilization…

(1) Infernal Affairs, or Tlač, is a 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller film.