In ten days, the qualifiers finally came to an end, and the season roster of each division was released.
The lists released in the other regions were not much different compared to the previous season, but in the Shattered Star Ring, the season roster had undergone a significant change. While the strong teams were still in the running as with the previous season, there were large changes seen in the lower rungs, with many new teams and players surfacing.
One of them that made Han Xiao feel a little surprised was Maple Moon, who was only supposed to take part from the Third Pro League onward. Not only did she participate in this season, she had even entered the roster of Top 64 places in the Singles tournament, making her one of the dark horses.
Han Xiao had watched the video channel of Maple Moon. She was usually grouped together with Frenzied Sword and Hao Tian, and their standards rose extremely quickly as a result. Whatever Enas they earned would be spent immediately. She had possessed the potential to go Pro from the beginning, or else she could not have become so famous in his past life.
However, compared to his previous life, Maple Moon’s standard was still a distance from her peak. The main reason she had managed to enter the Singles ranking was because she had bought the blueprint of the Void Dragon Mechanical suit from Han Xiao and created her own poorer version of it. Only in the Third Pro League would the Mechanic profession begin to display its version advantages and rise to power. Right now, the Mechanic class was neither strong nor weak, and equipped with a mechanical suit that was considered god-like in this Version, while she could not crush everyone, Maple Moon could afford to make more mistakes.
As the saying went, every version would have a generation of gods. The Mechanic profession in Version 2.0 was not strong enough, but with the great tutor Han Xiao, the players who chose the Mechanic profession had cut off a lot of dead ends. At least within the Shattered Star Ring, the disadvantages of a Mechanic were not so obvious.
Within the Singles list, there were at least ten more players in the Mechanic class than in his past life. In the area of team battles, the Mechanic class was also an important team member required for every team.
Han Xiao had made quite the killing in the qualifiers. The machinery went without saying, as most of the players were using Black Star’s equipment. The sales for the Genetic Medicine also increased, with the clubs buying them in large quantities since they could provide a sudden edge in battle. If not for the abundance of stock, it was likely that the clubs would have bought all the Genetic Medicine that Han Xiao had in stock.
Taking advantage of the Pro League to earn a quick buck, the sum of Han Xiao’s bank deposit broke through his short-term goal.
With the qualifiers over, the main course was about to arrive.
The impact of Han Xiao’s recent large-scale operation still lingered, with the various organizations observing the every move of the Black Star Army.
The scene of large numbers of ‘Black Star Mercenaries’ gathering on a random planet for a competition gathered the attention of many of the organizations, which made them start to guess the intentions of Han Xiao.
When a few of the Mercenary Groups learned of this news, envy filled their expressions. This incident indirectly demonstrated the control that Black Star had over his Mercenary Group. Most mercenaries had no loyalty or bonds to speak of, but Black Star had thousands of these ‘comrades’. Not only were they cohesive, they were also willing to follow Black Star’s orders to act in unison without him having to spend a single cent. This was more reliable than those freelance mercenaries that most groups hired.
Many of the organizations believed that Black Star had what it took to transform from a mercenary group into a proper armed organization in the future.
Because the incident had added a lot of helpers to Section Zero, the Black Star Army’s name had entered the sight of the upper echelons in the Purple Crystal Civilization, and they looked favorably upon the Black Star Army.
Currently, Han Xiao only required a few hundred more faction favorability points to reach the Respect tier.
This time’s situation also attracted the attention of the Purple Crystal Civilization.
“Black Star has gathered more than eighty percent of his mercenaries on the planet to battle with each other. What is he doing?”
In the office of Section Zero, many of the foreign affairs officers were discussing this matter.
Ralph rapped on the table as he confidently smiled.
“There’s only one explanation. Training. Black Star’s training his soldiers!”
The eyes of everyone present lit up as they began to nod and praise him.
Ralph was full of smiles. In his mind, the Black Star Army was undergoing mock battles to simulate an actual battlefield.
“What a reliable ally.” Ralph could not help but sigh.
Chapter 647 - Advanced Strengthened Life
The Regulars were exciting as expected, and the competition was intense.
Han Xiao’s fleet remained on the host planet. In his free time, he watched the broadcast on the forums. Other than that, he sold all sorts of potions and built some machines.
Among the nine divisions, the Shattered Star Ring Division was the most exciting. The Black Star Army’s diverse range of machines provided the Chinese teams with many creative strategies such as group self-detonation with the nuclear flying backpacks. Those who used this strategy were clearly aware that they would not be able to qualify for the next round, so they decided to have some fun.
Compared to the competitions in the other divisions, the fights between the Chinese teams were more suspenseful. The Genetic Medicine that Han Xiao was selling added more uncertainties to these fights. Comebacks had already happened many times.
Near the end of the Regulars, the qualified teams for the finals in the various divisions were basically decided. To Han Xiao’s surprise, Frenzied Sword’s Rivervale team climbed as high as second on the point-based scoreboard, right below Dynasty, which almost won every single fight.
For Frenzied Sword, who was leading a team for the first time, this was outstanding. In fact, Rivervale was not very strong in direct battles, but it was like God was helping them in the new mode, Survival. They were able to be the last team standing many times. This gave them a lot of points. Hence, they rocketed to second place in the later stages.
The eight teams that qualified for the Shattered Star Ring Division Finals arranged in descending order were Dynasty, Rivervale, Long Sky, Thunder Storm, Thunder Storm, Fried Eggplants With Fish, Fanatics, and Nine Gates.
As for the Singles, King Admiral, Frenzied Sword, Hao Tian, Li Ge, and the other strong players all got into the top 16. Maple Moon was 38th place.
Despite not being able to qualify, her performance was quite good and attracted some fans. Although she did not achieve the results that she obtained in the third season in Han Xiao’s previous life, she gained some fame in advance. Quite a number of teams wanted to sign her into their training program.
The Division Regulars ended. The Division Finals would start after some resting time. As the schedule was tighter than the previous season, it would not be a long rest.
During that, the top teams from the nine divisions and the champions in the Singles took part in the International All-Stars and put on a show for the audience.
On the forums, the Chinese players commented that they could not wait to see Dynasty’s battle with strong teams with other countries. The champion of the previous season, Tulips, was the champion in their division. As the first runner up in the previous season, Dynasty had the opportunity to fight with the previous champion. Although it was just a performance, countless Chinese players still hoped that Dynasty could win.
Before the International All-Stars started, Han Xiao received some good news.
During this time of the Pro League for the players, the Star Beast Organization finally gathered all the rare materials Han Xiao had requested and sent them to Han Xiao from far away.
“Okay, thank him for me. We will have many opportunities to work together in the future.”
Han Xiao nodded and sent him away. He then took the box to his training room.
After closing the door, Han Xiao opened the box. Cold air flew out and obstructed his view. After it slightly dissipated, Han Xiao saw ten tubes of liquids inside with various colors. Some had multiple colors, some were transparent, and some were deep blue. These were all potions extracted from the essence of rare galactical creatures related to the Void Race in some way.
Injecting biological medicines had the risks of causing mutation. The most direct effect of it would be a decrease in attributes. The lower the compatibility, the higher the chances for a mutation to occur. To lower the risks, the creatures Han Xiao listed all had the Void bloodline. Han Xiao was one of the Void Race himself, so the high compatibility would hardly lead to any mutation.
Void creatures were difficult to find. It had taken the Star Beast Organization quite a lot of effort to obtain all of that.
Han Xiao took out the Injector and injected them into his body one after another. He always rested a while in between each tube to ensure that everything was fine before injecting the next tube.
The first few tubes gave him a few more points in attributes, but the effect was getting weaker. When he was at the sixth tube, it did not give him any attributes anymore. The last time his talent leveled up also happened when he continued injecting after he stopped getting bonus attributes.
As Han Xiao injected the last tube, a notification finally popped up on the interface.
Your talent (Intermediate Strengthened Life) has upgraded.
Upgrade complete, original talent changed to [Advanced Strengthened Life).
Advanced Strengthened Life: Provides extra health based on END on a scale of 1:60, +25 Resistance, +10% all attributes temporarily for every 40% health lost.
“Finally, this talent is upgraded.”
Han Xiao had a joyful expression on his face.
Before the upgrade, the ratio of Endurance to health was 1:30, but it was now 1:60. There was also the effect of getting a ten percent bonus in all attributes temporarily for every forty percent health lost.
“I have two talents that can exchange between mana and health, which makes my health recovery extremely fast. If every forty percent of my health lost triggers a new effect, this means that the longer the battle is, the stronger I will become.”
Harmon had a similar ability, and he had seen its power with his own eyes.
“The only problem is… I’m too tanky. It will take too long to reduce my health by forty percent.”
Han Xiao opened the interface and looked at his health.
(Health: 117,910)
“Hehe, finally, my health is more than a hundred thousand. Even if the Vanguard Officials of the Bloodshed Land fight me all at once, I will be able to tire them out easily. When the secret war starts, I’ve got to find them to have some fun.”
Han Xiao chuckled.
He was so tanky that instead of being called a Mechanic, he might as well be called a Musclechanic.
At the center of the known universe was the base Star Fields of the three Universal Civilizations, which formed a triangle. These were the most advanced and bustling Star Fields in the entire galaxy. This place was called the Central Galaxy. It was the universe center of the strong, the powerful, and the rich.
The Abyss of Stars was one of the three Star Fields in the Central Galaxy, the core territory of the Federation of Light.
In this Star Field, there were some known forbidden areas.
The Shadow Realm was one of them.
This was a manually modified planet, and beside it was an eerie black satellite. There was no land, no seas-it was as if this was a gaseous planet formed by some sort of black gas.
The Shadow Realm was a forbidden place in the Abyss of Stars because this was the territory of a Beyond Grade A [Thousand Shadows).
Just like the Shattered Star Ring, there were also Beyond Grade As in the Abyss Of Stars. In fact, there were more than four of them. Between the Beyond Grade As in the Abyss of Stars, Thousand Shadows was known to be an outcast.
No one knew his name; no one had seen his real face. Every traveler who stepped into the Shadow Realm had disappeared without a trace. This gave Thousand Shadows an aura of mystery and danger. People could only know about him through parts of legends.
These legends could be traced back to as early as the end of the exploration era, meaning there were records of Thousand Shadows dating back to thousands of years ago.
There was a city in the Shadow Realm, comprising many buildings and a lot of bases. Countless spaceships were docked there. However, strangely, there was almost no one there. It was deadly silent.
A man sprinted down the completely empty street. His footsteps and the sound of wind were among the only sounds in this city.
There was a tall tower-shaped palace in the middle of the city. This man ran into the open door of the palace, through the deadly silent corridor, past the spiral staircase, and arrived at the top of the palace.
This was a room, a very wide and spacious room. At the end of the room was a wall embedded with a circular black mirror. The man came before the mirror, and the pitch black and smooth mirror reflected the man’s face. He had an ordinary look, except his eyes were pure white like two white crystals.
The man stared at the mirror and softly spoke.
“Your Excellency Thousand Shadows, I did not intend to disturb your rest. Some things have happened; Albert has failed. The team in the Shattered Star Ring was wiped out. Their prey was rescued. We need your guidance.”
Then, the man patiently waited for a reply. After a while, the mirror suddenly started rippling. An indescribably eerie voice appeared. It was ethereal and husky, like the murmur of a higher dimensional being.
“The others?”
“The teams capturing prey in other Star Fields have not met any trouble. Everything is normal.”
“The new shadows… Will convey my message…”
The next second, the black satellite in outer space suddenly launched a thin, long beam, heading right to the Shadow Realm and accurately landing at the top of the palace. It was like a bridge that connected them.
Swoosh!
A rippling sound came from the black mirror. The next moment, ten black shadows walked out of the mirror one after another like walking into reality from the world inside the mirror. These shadows were all completely pitch black. Tiny black dust made from an unknown material was dissipating from them and vaporizing in the air. The shapes of these shadows were gradually changing. New limbs kept growing out and disappearing.
Within a few seconds, the ten shadows finally stopped changing shapes. The black color on their bodies rapidly disappeared, and they turned into ten beings of different races. There were some that looked like humans and some that did not. Their faces and body shapes were all different, too. It was like they were all individual beings.
The leader was a beautiful, naked woman. Her eyes were closed. She took a deep breath. As if the air she inhaled had awoken her bodily functions, only then did she slowly open her eyes. Her blank, lifeless eyes started to look lively and intelligent. She did a stretch and moaned.
“How long was I asleep? I seem to have forgotten many things…” The woman raised her eyebrows and seemed to be trying to recall something. “My name is… Stephanie?”
The man at the side was used to this. He bowed and said, “Hello Stephanie, what orders does His Excellency Thousand Shadows have?”
Thousand Shadows? Stephanie felt a sense of belonging to this name, and a lot of memories started appearing in her head. Without hesitation, she said, “He told us to continue Albert’s
mission and capture the targets on the list, bringing the escaped prey back.”
The man nodded and said, “Okay, the ten of you will be the new team in the Shattered Star Ring. Follow me to get your equipment. Rest for a while and get going. Remember what happened to Albert. You have to be stealthier when carrying out the mission.”
“I’ll do my best,” Stephanie replied.
Chapter 648 - Divisions
The schedule for the International All-Stars was released. The first match was already very excitingthe fight between the champion and the first runner-up of the previous season-Tulips vs. Dynasty.
The event organizers clearly knew that this would bring more attention to the All-Stars event, so they heavily promoted this match. In all the pro competitions, inviting the champion and the first runner-up of the previous season as the opening match of the All-Stars was a kind of tradition.
This was highly effective. This opening match was extremely popular, especially among the Chinese viewers. Being first runners-up was an achievement, but it was also regretful. They hoped to see Dynasty’s victory over Tulips and start off this season with a blast.
Not just the spectators, but all the teams that intended to enter the Internationals were paying attention to this opening match, wanting to learn more about Dynasty and Tulips. When the time came for them to face one of these strong teams, they could at least be somewhat prepared.
Han Xiao was paying attention to this match as well. After all, Dynasty’s guild had bulk purchased hundreds of Ability Potions from him. He had to observe the effects they would bring and think about after-sales services.
Like the previous season, the store would sell a specific Gathering Crystal to bring the attending players into the same virtual environment for the match. It would be broadcast officially as well as by the Galaxy Times.
A few days before the match, the Galaxy Times interviewed both the Tulips team and the Dynasty team, asking about what they thought of this match.
Tulips’ captain, Lost Angel, was extremely confident and said that they would definitely win this match, protect their honor as the champions of the previous season, and so on. As they were the previous season champions, most of the spectators naturally had higher hopes for Tulips.
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