Chapter 275: Let’s go to Zuyuan Star to fight!
Bai Fu did not rush to call for reinforcements immediately.
Although she had a good relationship with Whitney, to summon a Transcendent over for a raid still meant she had to pay a hefty price.
She decided to observe a little longer, to see whether Zephyr was truly heading to Origin Star and exactly how many people he had brought along.
After closing the map, Bai Fu opened the quest reward she had obtained from Cypriss.
The three skill cards were all mental attack-type skill cards.
Their effects were quite good, but only for the Calamity-class tier.
After thinking it over, she put the skill cards up in the faction shop.
Next, Bai Fu opened the random skill draw.
Ding!
【You have obtained a new skill [Psychic Doppelgänger]】
As the name suggested, the skill created a near-perfect psychic double to deceive enemies, preventing herself from being hit by an enemy’s psychic attack.
However, this move could only counter single-target attacks and was rather powerless when facing area attacks.
“Not bad, finally some proactive psychic defense.”
Bai Fu was very satisfied with this reward.
Then she invested the XP into her Apostle of Truth class, leveling it up by 2 levels.
At present, she needed hundreds of millions of XP just to level up once.
Relying on quests alone would mean working until she was dizzy and exhausted before she could advance to Transcendent.
So she pinned her hopes for fast leveling on the players from other factions.
“Subjects of mine, I shall ruthlessly squeeze your XP dry!”
Bai Fu waved her small hand, and after meeting up with Yuan Yi and Oathmaster, piloted her mobile palace towards the Dark Zone.
The journey was peaceful, but beneath the still waters, waves were already gathering.
Origin Star, a few years ago, was just an unremarkable Dark Zone planet.
But as Bai Fu’s strength grew, Origin Star’s fame also increased.
Now, in the entire Edge Worlds, its reputation was no less than that of the Taim Civilization’s homeworld, Taim Star.
What kind of planet could produce a super-genius like Bai Fu?
Many people were curious about this question.
If the route to Origin Star wasn’t currently under the Rebirth Empire’s highest-level security alert, countless media would have already gone to interview local residents and film documentaries.
Yuan Yi and Oathmaster, who traveled with Bai Fu, were equally curious about Origin Star.
In Yuan Yi’s view, as the Rebirth location most sought after by Seekers of the Way, Origin Star must be extraordinary.
Oathmaster didn’t think that deeply.
She simply felt a slight kinship with Bai Fu, who like herself, came from a rural backwater, and wanted to see what Bai Fu’s hometown looked like.
…
“What, Bai Fu brought two Transcendents back with her?”
Origin Star.
In the United Government Building.
Everyone who received the news stood up in shock.
A few days ago, the mass return of the Undying Ones who had left was already startling enough.
They said Bai Fu had become a collaborator of the Rebirth Empire and would use Origin Star as the starting point for a large-scale Dark Zone exploration campaign.
But now, they had received even more astonishing news.
Two Transcendents had come to Origin Star at Bai Fu’s invitation — for tourism!
That’s two Transcendents!
The United Government immediately mobilized, terrified that poor hospitality might earn the displeasure of the two.
Origin Star had been connected to the Star Sea for almost a decade now, and they were no strangers to the word “Transcendent.”
On the day the mobile palace landed on Origin Star, an extremely grand welcoming ceremony was held.
To everyone’s surprise, Bai Fu stepped out together with Yuan Yi and Oathmaster, chatting and laughing as if they were old friends.
Since when could a Dominator get along so well with Transcendents?
The United Government staff of Origin Star were dumbfounded.
Had Bai Fu really become this incredible already?
They felt a strong sense of unreality.
“I told you Bai Fu would have great achievements one day, do you believe it now?”
On the roadside, the Wildfire Gang Boss, freshly released from prison and now part of the “Civil Works Gang,” said with a grin to his former cellmate.
The cellmate nearly dropped his jaw in shock.
In truth, it wasn’t just the people of Origin Star who were astonished.
Those in the Star Sea who received the intel immediately were equally baffled.
Oathmaster was understandable — Bai Fu had always gotten along well with the Star Pact.
But what about Yuan Yi?
It was one thing for him to accept Bai Fu’s invitation to visit Origin Star, but how did they suddenly get along so well?
Could it be that he had also defected to the Rebirth Empire like Bai Fu?
If not, then the answer was worth pondering.
While some who bore ill will toward Bai Fu were feeling uneasy, Bai Fu herself was not as relaxed as she appeared.
She was now 100% certain that Zephyr was coming for her, because the map showed he was in the same galaxy cluster as Origin Star!
What was strange was that Zephyr’s location was on the edge of the cluster, over a million light-years from Origin Star, and he had stayed there for three days.
“This setup… doesn’t look like an invasion plan.
If they drag on until the Empire’s transit station is built on Origin Star, attacking then would mean direct conflict with the Empire.”
Bai Fu couldn’t figure it out.
She could only deploy large numbers of deep-hole probes while ordering players to begin exploration first.
Dark Zone exploration was also one of her XP sources.
And if they discovered a planet with rare ores, she could make a tidy profit from it.
For more than ten consecutive days, Bai Fu stayed busy with Dark Zone exploration.
Under her command, players split into more than a dozen small corps, advancing in all directions.
Each corps was responsible for a small sector.
They piloted ships equipped with the latest planetary scanners.
When they found a new planet, they scanned it first.
If no valuable mineral veins were detected, they moved on to the next planet.
If valuable minerals were found, they marked it on the map and then landed to build a signal station in preparation for future mining.
It was a brand-new gameplay experience never before seen since the players entered the game, and many became deeply absorbed in it.
Because Bai Fu had assigned the major guilds to different regions in advance, there had been no fights over resource points for the time being.
Ten-plus days later, the Empire’s engineering corps arrived on Origin Star to begin building the transit station.
The station was set in Origin Star’s outer orbital space, a massive ringworld.
Construction ships traced its outline in the starry sky, then released prefabricated modules from space boxes.
The modules, drawn by energy fields, automatically aligned and locked into place, finally forming the complete station.
The whole process resembled blueprint construction in some games — fast, silent, and pollution-free.
Once the transit station was complete, the engineering corps began installing a massive star gate capable of long-distance jumps.
Bai Fu: “？”
Seriously, what exactly were Zephyr’s people trying to do?
The star gate was already up, yet they were still squatting in one place.
Were they… incubating eggs?
Bai Fu was almost speechless.
Could it be that Zephyr and his people wanted to stall until Yuan Yi and Oathmaster left?
Heh.
Then they were probably overthinking it.
Before breaking through their bottlenecks and completing a new round of divine metamorphosis, Yuan Yi and Oathmaster would not leave.
“Drag it out then.
Unless you can gather a massive force, the longer you delay, the more it will work in my favor.”
Apart from periodically checking Zephyr’s location, Bai Fu no longer paid him attention, focusing instead on operating the transit station and attracting players from other factions to spend there.
This was a job that required heavy early investment.
As the number of small supply stations she built increased, and as she opened more trade routes, more and more players would come to “enjoy” her facilities of their own accord.
When that time came, her strength would see another leap forward.
……
Two months later.
In the star system named 【Da Tang】, several ships were heading toward a newly discovered mature star.
Inside one of the ships, a group of players were “denouncing” a player named 【Da Tang】.
Not for any wrongdoing, but because Da Tang’s luck was incredible — he had stumbled upon a planet rich in rare ores.
Not only had he earned a massive amount of exploration points, but he was also allowed to name the discovered star system after himself.
Now, both the NPC maps and player maps displayed this as the Da Tang Star System.
This way of leaving one’s name forever in the game sparked envy from countless players, especially those traveling with him.
While they were still joking around, the mining ship’s small probe suddenly sent back an alarm.
“Alert, alert! Unknown vessel approaching!”
Huh?
All the players in the ship immediately stopped fooling around and rushed to the control console.
An unknown vessel meant that the ship was not registered in the Empire’s Radiance Mainframe, and therefore was not part of their faction — possibly even an enemy.
After years of navigating the Star Sea, the players were no longer naive rookies.
They immediately activated the weapons system, then sent out identification signals via electromagnetic transmission, broadcasting in Interstellar Common Language: “We are a mining ship under the Edge Worlds’ Dark Moon Tide Corporation, you…”
The message wasn’t even halfway through when dozens of thick beams of light suddenly shot from ahead.
Sure enough, enemies!
The players fought back fiercely, and although their reaction was swift and fearless, the huge gap in ship performance meant that in the end, they still met the fate of ship destroyed, crew killed.
“F*** you!”
“We’ll be back!”
……
Bai Fu received news of the mining ship’s attack immediately.
Star pirates?
Or had they run into a Dark Zone civilization?
When she learned that the location was in the Da Tang Star System, her expression turned serious — because the light-dot representing Zephyr was also in the Da Tang Star System.
“So you’ve finally made a move?
Not attacking Origin Star, but targeting my mining ships… could it be you found something there and are secretly harvesting it?”
Bai Fu did not rush to respond.
It wasn’t until she repeatedly received reports of mining ships being attacked that she acted.
In half a month, more than twenty mining ships were destroyed.
Not all of them in the Da Tang Star System — some were near it — but in half those cases, Zephyr was in the vicinity when the ships went down.
The last attacked ship was “lucky” enough to escape, and on the way, the players aboard received a vicious message from the attackers:
“Those who trespass upon the Blood Hunt Civilization’s territory without cause, prepare to suffer our tidal wave of vengeance!”
“？”
Blood Hunt Civilization?
Blood Hunt my ass!
Zephyr, you dog from the Supernova Battle Group, what the hell are you pretending for?
At this point, Bai Fu had more or less figured out one of the Supernova Battle Group’s little schemes.
After she brought Yuan Yi and Oathmaster to stand guard and established a close cooperative relationship with the Rebirth Empire, it seemed the Supernova Battle Group really didn’t dare to attack Origin Star directly anymore.
Right now, with Titan Industries’ stance still unclear and the Holy City of the Apostles lurking in the shadows, the Supernova Battle Group absolutely did not dare to tear its face completely with the Rebirth Empire.
Bai Fu guessed that Zephyr and his people deliberately disguised themselves as some so-called Blood Hunt Civilization to lure her over, and then use that disguise as a cover to kill her.
That way, even if the Rebirth Empire investigated later and found something suspicious, it wouldn’t lead to a fight-to-the-death with the Supernova Battle Group.
“Good thing I was one step ahead and tossed a Locator Card on Zephyr beforehand, otherwise I really would have fallen for it.”
Bai Fu let out half a sigh of relief.
The other half stayed stuck in her chest because, even though she had seen through the Supernova Battle Group’s trick, the situation she faced was still far from good.
The position Zephyr and his people occupied blocked the Silent Court’s route deeper into the Dark Zone.
Go around?
She could.
But going the long way would be even more dangerous — Zephyr’s group could launch a surprise attack from the rear at any time, or simply cut off her supply lines.
“If I can’t find a way to drive the Supernova Battle Group away, then the Silent Court will have to abandon that entire sector.
That loss would be huge, like getting up at dawn only to miss the market.
Players’ gameplay experience wouldn’t be guaranteed, and my advancement to Transcendent would be greatly delayed.
If the Holy City of the Apostles starts fighting the Three Major Interstellar Civilizations before then, the Spiritual Sanctuary might fall into someone else’s hands.”
Bai Fu frowned tightly, pacing back and forth in the room.
Since Zephyr and his people were hiding so deeply, she couldn’t easily call for reinforcements right now.
How many people should she call?
What level of strength did they need to have?
She had no idea.
If the reinforcements weren’t strong enough, taking the initiative to attack would just be delivering fresh meat to the enemy.
If she called in Annihilation, Chong Xiao, and Curse Lord Olsen all at once, victory was guaranteed — but she couldn’t afford that price.
“Feels like I’m stuck in a stalemate… could it be I can only compete with the Supernova Battle Group to see who can endure longer?”
Just as Bai Fu was tangled in thought, a new surprise appeared.
On the map, the dot representing Head of State Kaide was also rapidly approaching Origin Star!
Bai Fu couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
She had already made it public that Yuan Yi and Oathmaster were on Origin Star, yet Kaide still dared to come — meaning he was surely prepared, and perhaps Saint, Rufas, and Korona were right by his side.
Counting her side, plus the Supernova Battle Group, Origin Star might soon be gathering more than ten Transcendent-tier and higher psionicists.
Such a scene…
Good grief, was everyone here for a battle royale?
Bai Fu felt a wave of pressure.
Once chaos broke out, the Supernova Battle Group would have the perfect chance to take advantage.
However, the Ten Saints Council and the Supernova Battle Group clashing was also an opportunity for her.
After all, the Ten Saints Council and the Supernova Battle Group were not allies.
If she played her cards right, she might be able to use this chance to infiltrate Rufas’ secret research base, uncover his true capabilities, and complete that special hidden quest.