Chapter 725 Hidden Scheme
Because Sylvia had managed to seize the enemy’s Hyperdrive Base Station, Han Xiao quickly utilized the wormhole of the enemy side to attack the last two planetary strongholds.
With the fall of their Hyperdrive Base Station, the remaining two strongholds knew that their troops were not a match and wanted to retreat. However, Han Xiao was too fast for them, and the enemy did not even have the time to move their supplies before they were attacked. The second planet’s fleet was completely annihilated, while the fleet for the third planet left their troops on the surface, choosing to turn tail and run instead.
Having lost their means of transportation, the ground troops of the two strongholds turned into trapped beasts and could only watch as the airdrop capsules rained down on them, as the screaming immortal players rushed out like a tsunami, bringing with them blood and slaughter.
Small and new strongholds like these would not have many strong Supers, which was suitable for the players’ standards. Once in a while, there would be a Grade B Super, which could be regarded as a Boss monster. In general, clearing the stronghold went smoothly.
It did not take Han Xiao very long to wash the three strongholds with blood, using the 300,000 players. No one from the enemy side lived, the players taking all their heads. In addition to the reward provided by the battle war mission as well as the faction reward, the players obtained a huge sum of experience, leaving them satisfied.
The rest of the personnel in the Hyperdrive Base Station were also cleaned up by Han Xiao, and only the logistics department were left behind to take the supplies left behind on the battlefield.
This base station could be considered to have been successfully thrashed. Han Xiao then contacted Herlous, enquiring about the status of the Black Star Army with the objective of checking on the status of the players there.
The Black Star Army, under the leadership of Herlous and Lagi, had attacked a stronger base station. The millions of players were scattered around, attacking the six planet strongholds as they conducted ground battles through airdrops. The team with the most people was led by Harmon.
Han Xiao brought up the battlefield imagery, revealing an expanse of a desolate battlefield. Harmon was rushing at the front, full of energy and his fur bristling around his burly body as he concentrated fire on one of the enemy’s ground vehicles. He wielded his war hammer, killing one enemy after another. At his position, the tens of thousands of beast soldiers hung around him, weaving in and out with affecting his battle.
A large number of players were also cooperating with him to fight, but because Harmon’s burning spirit always resulted in him running to the area where gunfire was the most concentrated, the players behind him also received the most damage.
While Harmon’s behavior frazzled the players, following behind him was a good way to get kills. This was enjoyable yet mind numbing.
However, the treatment of the majority of these players was not as good as how Han Xiao treated his 300,000. After all, they did not have that many people reserved to kill, so their final gains would not be as lucrative. However, based on the current level of all the players, the reward could still be counted as generous.
“There are a few more battles coming up. It should be enough to allow everyone to level up a few times.”
Han Xiao stroked his chin.
Version 3.0 had begun less than half a month earlier, and excluding those who progressed quickly to reach Grade B, the average players’ level was around 93. The moment they reached level 100 and underwent their promotion to Grade B, the combat capability of the player teams would change qualitatively.
In the beginning of the Version, due to the increase in mission rewards, the players would be able to progress swifter as well. It should not be too difficult to reach level 100 in the short term.
Sylvia and Marian returned after accomplishing their task, and Han Xiao praised them for their efficiency.
It went without saying for Marian, who was always hardworking and reliable. As for Sylvia, after ten grueling years of training, she had finally turned into a powerful assistant that Han Xiao was looking for, able to hold her own.
“This is all thanks to the hard work put in by you, Teacher.” In the cockpit, Sylvia let out a happy smile upon hearing Han Xiao’s praise.
She could still remember herself being blinded from the truth ten over years ago, and she had even tried to attack Han Xiao. But in the end, Han Xiao had led her down the correct path.
Sylvia was full of gratitude toward Han Xiao. While the ten-year child labor contract had long ended, she did not mention it at all. If it was not for Han Xiao’s guidance in those ten or so years, she did not know which galaxy she would still be lingering in, and she could not imagine how bad her life might have been.
Rather than saying that it was a slavery contract, Sylvia now felt that it was more of Han Xiao using it as an excuse to lead her down the right path. After being around him for over ten years, she looked up to Han Xiao like her adoptive father, and she did not wish to leave him right after being groomed properly.
“Continue working hard. You still have room for growth.” Han Xiao nodded.
Because Sylvia had just broken through to the Calamity Grade, her strength was still on the weak side. However, with a full set of orange equipment from Han Xiao, she could unleash a higher level of strength. She herself also had the potential to grow even stronger.
Han Xiao let the entire team rest for a while before setting out to find the rest of the army to convene. Because there were a lot of people on Lagi’s side, he was reassured and did not rush to meet up with them.
When everyone rejoined, the battle had already ended, and they had also succeeded in destroying the base station. Everyone was now busy cleaning up the battlefield.
Intelligence reports continuously flowed in. The six stronghold bases of the Bloodshed Land within the Kant Star System had been completely cleared, and only some fish had managed to escape the net, falling back to the four base stations in their second layer.
Section Zero consolidated the entire team before aggressively advancing.
The next ten days showed that the speed of advancement for the team had slowed down. The base station systems of the enemy’s second layer were far more defensive compared to those in the periphery, and from time to time, they even received reinforcements from the rear, holding back the progress of Section Zero, albeit barely.
The fighting had continued unabated for the past half month, and players had gotten plenty of opportunities. They had adapted to the battle mission modes and rushed to the dangerous front lines, gaining a lot.
Cold-blooded, this was the impression that the player army left on the other members of Section Zero.
They did not accept surrender. Even enemies that showed no resistance would be killed, without a single one left alive.
All parties knew that Black Star commanded a unit of immortals, and they had finally resurfaced after a decade. Their role in this war was very obvious, making many of the forces quite envious.
Because the Black Star Army was growing ever stronger, many of the organizations had also gone to study the data of the immortals unit. According to their performance, it was projected by most organizations that these groups were a sort of Space Wonder derived from the Universe. While they were immortals, they would require a certain amount of energy to resurrect each time, and the number of resurrections was also finite in a certain time span.
While having hundreds of thousands of low-levelled Supers was not considered a lot in an interstellar war, the good point was that they would be continuously recycled. Every enemy died was one enemy less, but they would forever have a zero casualty rate, which was even better than the well-known special forces troops of the Universe, the Demon Lake, and Mechanic Empires.
In the eyes of the other organization, this group of immortals was the true trump card of the Black Star Army. Their abilities could be considered above the Thousand Beast Soldiers on the battlefield.
With the current status of the Black Star Army, they were naturally entitled to have their own special forces. Although many of the organizations were envious, they did not plan to provoke Black Star just for the immortals. Besides, apart from Han Xiao, no one else was aware that the players could still grow.
Han Xiao continued to lead his side, but he did not launch any more attacks personally for the next half a month. However, he alone could cause a thousand soldiers to retreat, causing the high-level combatants of the enemy to turtle up and not show themselves. This was all caused by Han Xiao’s fierce reputation of the many people he had killed in the past ten years. There were just too many Grade A Supers, and his name was a deterrence, causing ordinary Calamity Grades to not dare to face him.
In this battle, the only opponent worthy of him was Hadavy.
This Beyond Grade A seed was too difficult to fight against. Han Xiao had clashed against Hadavy thirteen times in the seven years, and while the battle results were all victories, Hadavy had good brains and was always able to run faster than anyone when the situation turned bad. Han Xiao had been unable to capture him up till this point and finally understood the feelings of his enemies.
Han Xiao estimated that he would only have an eighty percent chance of causing Hadavy to retreat this time. However, he did not mind that at all and was instead quite relaxed.
With the return of the players, his own level was already skyrocketing. When the time came, it would be easier for him to get rid of Hadavy. Thus, he was not worried at all.
Since the leader was lazing around, Lagi, as the high-level combatant, was sent out to lead the Black Star Army instead. Right now, Lagi was already firmly seated in the position of Vice Leader and was also a first-rate character in the eyes of the public. He could be considered the Captain of all the Mages in the Army.
While his pessimism was truly whack, Lagi’s battle prowess could not be denied. This former Forbidden Sorcerer commander lived up to his name, with vast mana and throwing around Forbidden spells like hurling garbage. His actual combat power placed him in the top ten of Section Zero.
After spending more than ten days breaking through the two base stations at the second layer, the personnel in the last two base stations took the initiative to retreat, all of them returning to their final base station at the core.
Originally, Bloodshed Land wanted to use the other base stations to stall for time and take advantage of the opportunity to arrange defense facilities. However, the offensive of Section Zero was too fierce, causing them to be unable to delay at all. They simply decided to save their fleet and assemble their forces, preparing for a final fight against Section Zero.
The last enemy base station on the Kant Star System was where all the retreating fleets had assembled. Together with a large amount of reinforcements, their military strength looked extremely robust. Section Zero formulated the corresponding tactics to deal with them, passing over the command to Han Xiao to contain the enemy’s advanced combatants, as well as to repel Hadavy.
The moment they started fighting, Han Xiao would not have time to care about the players any longer and thus arranged for his officers to brief the players properly.
At the same time, the officers of the last base station in the Kant Star System all gathered for a meeting, discussing on how to deal with the attack of Section Zero.
As a relay commander, Jorde also participated in the meeting through a virtual projection.
“We have a total of fourteen planetary bases as well as a transition base station. Whether the enemy sends a division or launches a total attack, there is a way to deal with it. While our fleets are much weaker, as long as we can endure for three days, the next batch of reinforcements will be able to arrive, and they will bring a teleportation gate with them.”
“It is impossible for Section Zero to keep such a huge number of troops assembled all the time. Furthermore, our comrades in the other galaxies can also use this opportunity to further expand. The longer this is delayed, the more beneficial it is for us.”
“There’s no need to fight to the death. We can always return to Kaya and wait for the Section Zero troops to disperse before we break through their blockade once again and return to Kant.”
Everyone present expressed their opinions and their recommendations toward Jorde, as he was the final decision maker.
After listening to everyone, Jorde nodded and replied, “We have a plan for the general direction, but it is inevitable that we will have to fight. Now that the enemy has seized the initiative, the countermeasures we are laying out might be useless, but the tactics will still need to be adapted to the movement of the enemies. What we need to consider the most right now is how to resist the enemy’s attack. Let’s not talk about Section Zero’s soldiers, since they far outstrip you all in quantity. In terms of advanced combatants, no one can fight against Black Star, so we’re at a great disadvantage.”
Hearing that, Hadavy spoke in a deep voice. “I’ll hold him back.”
“He has already pushed you back tens of times, proving that you are unable to handle him yourself. There have been many cases of you retreating early, leaving those combatants that were helping you up sh*t creek. At least fifteen Grade A Supers have died because of you,” Jorde replied rudely. Sometimes, he even wondered if Hadavy was sent by the other side. Every time that he moved, the casualty rate would definitely be higher.
Hadavy was speechless and could not refute his unscrupulous betrayal of teammates, so he could only snort in dissatisfaction.
Jorde had a solemn expression as he continued. “This time, I’ll hand the rights to the weapon specially designed to curb Black Star over to you. This can only be used once, so you’d better make use of the opportunity.”
Touching the contents of his pocket, Hadavy looked a little hesitant.
A few days earlier, a squad belonging to Jorde had been sent over, delivering a weird object to him. They had said that this was a special one-time consumable weapon created to deal with Black Star, which could damage him severely. They had told him to utilize it when facing Black Star.
While Hadavy did not understand the specific function of the weapon, it was definitely used as a hidden scheme. Hadavy had gone to work for the Bloodshed Land specially to fight against Han Xiao. He wished to use a proper confrontation to stimulate his potential, so he was reluctant to utilize underhanded methods against Black Star.
“Do you understand? If there’s an opportunity, you must use it immediately!” Jorde stressed.
“This is not the style of the Tyrant.” Hadavy was a little dissatisfied.
“But this is my order!” Jorde snapped. He respected the demeanor of the Tyrant, but there had to be someone to deal with the dirty work. This special weapon had taken him much effort to obtain, and he did not even tell Heber about it.
Hadavy deliberated for a time before finally reluctantly agreeing to use it. However, he secretly planned to never take it out.
Anyway, he was only there to fight. Whoever won the war was not of any concern to him. He was not a subordinate under Bloodshed Land, and Jorde could not punish him even if he failed. At worst, he could just stop working for them.