Hearing this, the crowd got excited. The higher the level of the lost civilization they discovered, the more valuable their discoveries would be on the black market.
However, this also represented more unknown risks.
“Any energy responses from inside?” the captain asked.
“Let me see, er… totally absent. I think the energy source has been drained dry. Even if there are traps or defensive measures, they should be frozen.”
“Then let’s go in and take a look,” the captain said. “Later on, take precautions. Without my command, no one is to remove their own protective shield.”
A group of personnel cut open the door using a laser cutting, before tiptoeing inside and fumbling their way. The route within resembled that of a large underground military base.
Harrison walked to a sign, wiping the dust off it, and let the translator read the text. However, there was no result.
“There’s no record of this kind of text in the database. We can determine that this is a relic of a civilization that has not been discovered thus far.” Harrison spoke through the channel.
“Today is really my lucky day. No wonder Ah Xiang finally responded to my daily greeting even though I’ve been sending signals to her for months,” the short detector guy replied in excitement.
“What did she say?” Harrison was curious.
“She said ok.”
“… Keep it up.”
Everyone chatted idly as they searched. They were carefully all the way but found out that there was no danger within. Searching the rooms, they only found living facilities, with no special equipment nor text documents present. Even the energy and network facilities were absent along with any sort of defense facilities. It seemed as though this base had been long abandoned and everything within emptied.
The flames of excitement in everyone’s hearts seemed to have been extinguished by a basin of cold water.
“This can’t be it, right? I found an unknown ruin, but there’s nothing valuable here. Isn’t it a wasted trip then?” the detector guy complained.
“It’s not in vain. At least we managed to discover a new language, which means an unknown civilization that once existed.” Harrison raised the translator in his hand. He had recorded all the signs on the path that they had walked down so far.
“What does this bullsh*t archaeological result mean for us? We’re not even historians!” someone among the team complained. “If it weren’t for getting valuable stuff, who would want to come to such a weird place?”
Scavengers did not have much patience, and their searching speed got faster along the way. It did not take long before only the last room was left, located at the core position at the bottom of the base.
The group cut open the door and walked in, collectively taking a gasp.
There was a triangular body about three to four meters high, embedded in the ground in the center of the room. The whole body was pitch black and as smooth as a mirror. It resembled obsidian somewhat, but the detector revealed it as a metallic material. On one side, a display screen was embedded.
Only this thing existed in the room, nothing else, as though this was an exclusive warehouse.
“Haha, there’s finally something.”
“What is that?”
Everyone surrounded it, brimming with curiosity, feeling here and there and knocking around. Although they did not know what this was, just looking at its appearance, there was no worry that it could not be sold on the black market.
The detector guy came over to the screen on the triangle and pressed a few times, but there was no response. He fumbled around and finally found that there was a movable board beside the screen, which revealed a socket seemingly for charging it.
“Uh… this is the first time I’ve seen a socket of this shape, but there should be no problem.” The guy groaned but quickly took out an energy storage device, transforming its transmission line to fit with the socket.
Just as he was about to charge the triangular block, Harrison was frowning and suddenly spoke.
“Wait a moment!”
Everyone turned to look at him.
“What’s wrong now?”
“I… I feel that it’s still better to be cautious. No one knows what this device is for. What happens if it’s a weapon that has run out of energy?”
Harrison had an expression of hesitation. The moment he set eyes on this triangle, he had felt an inexplicable palpitation, as though there was a voice in his heart warning him that this thing was dangerous. The instinct that he had been born with had never been so strong.
The short detector guy did not even look back as he explained, “Relax, I probed it just now, and this is actually a sophisticated disposable safe device that will be destroyed when opened. It’s just that the innermost layer contains a material that isolates any detection, so I don’t know what’s stored within.”
With that, he directly plugged into the socket, releasing a weak energy charge. The triangle device’s display lit up, and a password input interface popped up.
The captain scooted over for a look. “Can the code be cracked?”
The short detector guy took out another device to fiddle around, and spoke with certainty, “The code of this device changes in real time, so it has to be connected to the quantum network and then use Virtual Technology to decipher the code… The tools I currently have are not good enough, but so long as I use a deciphering device with a higher computing power, it can definitely be opened.”
“If this is the case…” The captain hesitated for a while before saying, “In that case, let’s not open it. Like you said, this thing is a one-off thing. If the items stored inside are not valuable, we’ll lose money. It’s better to just put this safe on the black market for auction and let others draw the prize. Anyway, stuff like this is very common on the black market as well…”
“Can we discuss these things later?” Harrison was feeling nervous for no reason. “Let’s get out of here now. I have a bad feeling…”
“Since when has your intuition been good?”
The captain glared at him but did not reject his proposal. He got everyone to transport the device to the rig.
This was the only valuable thing in this ruin, so this entire group took the device and left, not even bothering to look back at the ruins.
Suddenly, one of the team members noted in a thoughtful manner, “This is strange. By logic, since this planet has traces of an unknown civilization, there should be others, but the detection result only showed this one… That’s impossible. Did that unknown civilization only dig this one underground facility on this planet?”
“That’s right. I thought it was strange too,” another worker added.
At this moment, the shortie took a glance at the radar and exclaimed, “Captain, the ruins seem to have collapsed!”
Everyone turned over to look and saw that the cavity had indeed mysteriously filled up and disappeared. They could no longer return even if they wished to.
“How strange…” the captain mumbled, shaking his head. He ordered, “Forget about it, let’s just mark down the coordinates of this planet, and go to the nearest black market to reap our rewards for today.”
Hearing that, everyone immediately put away any distracting thoughts and started to move, operating their spaceship to leave the planet.
Harrison was the only one who remained standing at the porthole, looking at the shrinking planet. He suddenly felt a little chill run down his spine.
He had a hunch, as though the goal of those ruins was specifically just to store this triangular device.
The ruins had collapsed immediately after they left, as though they had only been waiting for someone to take this thing away.
Harrison could not help but turn his head back for a look.
In the corner of his eyes, the triangular device lay silently at the back, as though it was a Pandora’s box that was waiting to be opened.
…
The
opening ceremony of the Black Star Cup was wonderfully opened, and its qualifiers were in full swing the next day. The army had become very lively, and hundreds of millions of members were actively participating on the field, which also improved the enthusiasm of the universe audiences.
Because there were so many events, each media group provided live broadcasts and video review functions throughout the day. Viewers could freely adjust their channels and choose to watch any event, venue, or even the players, which caused countless people to hold up their communicators and stare at them all day long.
The ratings of the Black Star Cup were maintained at a very high level throughout the universe. At present, the average ratings in each region were second only to the news broadcasts of the three Universal Civilizations.
The Black Star Cup tournament organization department, which was only established little more than two months prior, counted the programs with the highest ratings. Other than the battle events, the best were the entertainment programs. Especially in the talent audition category such as singing and dancing, there were countless galactic residents happy to see the Supers appear on alternative programs rather than just in battles.
Some of the talented people had even attracted a large number of admirers, and there were even audiences on the net arguing about the pros and cons of each person… As it turned out, no matter which age it was, such a program would also garner views.
As for the lowest ratings, it was as Han Xiao expected. They were those technological and skill-based competitions, such as the machinery maintenance that Reynold had asked for, waste modification for machinery, and even blueprint crafting competitions…
While there were people willing to look at such programs, they were few and between.
However, Han Xiao did not mind it. Such technical programs were treated more as auditions, to explore potential talents in the various fields and add more fresh blood to the army.
The way to rise in the army had always been clear, and one’s rank and position were linked to meritorious service and their qualifications. The Black Star Cup was just another shortcut for its members to ascend in the rankings. Those who were more capable at their level would move toward the upper ranks. This made the members enthusiastic as this model allowed many people to obtain more opportunities within the army.
While the players had their own competition brackets, they were keener to participate in the normal competition brackets, running over to play with the NPCs.
Because the Evolution badge shone in such low-level team events, more and more players had also begun to purchase this item, causing the sales of it to soar drastically.
Using the Evolution badges in events below Grade B gave players a huge boost in strength, but this did not necessarily mean they would win. The biological aberrations were strong in close combat, but their weaknesses were also obvious; their resistance to magic and psychic attacks plummeted, and their range also decreased to melee attacks. They were extremely easy to kite. Plus, they lost HP constantly.
When facing Psychics or Mages, the aberrations usually failed quite badly.
In the Grade B and above ranks, the role of the Evolution Limit: Aberration was not so strong. Grade Bs could directly contend against the aberrations themselves.
Meanwhile, the players from the other countries could only watch with envious and reddened eyes at the festivities in full swing within the Black Star Army.
Let alone attending, they did not even have the qualifications to bet on the winning players!
If one were to split apart the characters of ‘following the crowd’ (), they would get five ‘people’ characters (). The majority of people understood the meaning of ‘the more the merrier’, and seeing this group of Black Star players having fun, the sense of loss was even more intense.
Everyone is playing so happily, and all without me!
Compared to the faction war event more than half a year ago, there were more players that were being moved by the Black Star Army this time. Most likely, the army would indirectly poach a lot of players once more.
Even the Limitless Financial Group experienced a huge outflow of players, but Sorokin was acting extremely low-key, which meant he could not react.
The most painful ones were the foreign clubs in the other factions. They obviously did not do anything this time, but they still had to watch on as the ordinary players left their factions. They could no longer find any reason to stay and just felt like crying.
Why are you forcing us to join this party?
Black Star Army! You’re too much!
A man can only take so much anger. If you have the guts, you can anger me again!
If you force me again, I’ll really join your organization!
Chapter 1095 - Fifth stage of the God’s Trait Transformation and the butterfly effect
Over ten days later, in the central area of Black Star Palace, a war halberd was situated against a backdrop of the starry sky. It looked like a folded mechanical blade that was magnified countless times, painted black and gold. Its patterns and structures were also complicated, and it looked both luxurious and exquisite.
Mechanical rings were currently situated in different areas of his mechanical war halberd. Numerous flexible mechanical arms extended from the inner part of each ring, which were molded into different tools to work on parts of the halberd. These rings were manufacturing auxiliary tools that were dedicated to the manufacturing and assembly of mega machines, known as ‘Mega-Assembly Rings’. Right now, they were all connected through Mechanical Force and operated fully under its control.
On the other end of the Mechanical Force linking the assembly rings together, a black robed figure stood there. It was precisely Han Xiao, and this mega war halberd was the exclusive Universal Treasure for the Mechanical Deity’s usage, named ‘Celestial Punishment Edge’.
Han Xiao kept his Perfect Mechanical Sense active, closely watching the subtle energy flows in every place during the construction of the Celestial Punishment Edge, doing minute adjustments now and then just like a chef watching his signature dish.
As the mechanical arm of the mega assembly ring inserted the last bolt in, a notification sounded from Han Xiao’s interface.
_____________________
You have built a Gold Grade item (Universal Treasure).
You have benefitted from [Spirit Instrument].
You have received 1 God’s Trait Transformation Point (Cannot be obtained again through the same blueprint).
One of your random attributes has been decreased by 425…
Randomizing…
Randomizing complete.
-425 CHA.
You have received 425 Free Attribute Points.
You have been awarded the third layer bonus of [Spirit Instrument]: +2.5% success rate for the manufacture of Gold Grade blueprints, +1.2% success rate for the research and development of a Gold Grade Blueprint, +0.4% chance to obtain a Space Wonder mutation.
_____________________
“It’s finally done…” Seeing the notification of success, Han Xiao’s taut nerves finally relaxed.
This was the third Universal Treasure he had personally manufactured. Its difficulty was way higher compared to the Emperor’s Cape, and it had cost him quite a tidy sum before he finally succeeded in creating it.
However, when compared to the terrifying profits brought in by the sale of the Evolutionary Totems as well as the Black Star Cup, this amount was nothing.
Han Xiao retrieved all the mega assembly rings before storing the Celestial Punishment Edge into his Dimension Factory. Opening his attribute list, he threw the God’s Trait Transformation point into his main class route, so [God’s Trait Transformation—Machinery] unlocked its fifth stage.
_____________________
Stage 5: +3 to all skills from [Lord Mechanic] and [Divine Throne Mechanic]. You have received a 1.1x boost to Machinery Affinity, +28% boost to abilities, 1.2x boost to Attack Power Output, 1.2x boost to Shield Du
rability, +40% Mechanical Energy Core Power Output, and +20% to all types of Energy Power Output.
_____________________
“Whoa, this wave allows me to increase my strength!” Han Xiao got excited.
In the first few stages, the God’s Trait mainly focused on improving his production and Ru0026D capabilities. For the fifth stage, it finally ushered in a wave of substantial combat strength enhancement. A boost of 1.1x to his Machinery Affinity already meant more than a 2,000% increase to his original Machinery Affinity, not to mention that there was even a boost to abilities, which was the best option to obtain. All its other effects were also biased toward combat.
Furthermore, the skills of his [Lord Mechanic] and [Divine Throne Mechanic] class were also his main combat skills, thus breaking the upper cap by three levels, which represented a great increase in his combat power, at least translating to three more Apostle Weapons.
“In this case, the focus of the fifth stage is to enhance my own efficiency with machinery… eh?” Han Xiao mumbled to himself, but he suddenly discovered that the notifications had not stopped.
_____________________
[God’s Trait Transformation—Machinery] has achieved the Fifth Stage.
There are now unknown changes in your Life Hierarchy.
You have obtained a new understanding of Machinery. +15% chance of forming a new exclusive expertise. The skill [Universal Simulation] has obtained a sublimation.
You have begun to perceive part of the power of the transformation route – [Talent Unknown].
You have received 1 [The First Sanctum] Ability Fragment.
_____________________
Seeing this, Han Xiao started guessing once more.
“It seems like the fifth stage of God’s Trait Transformation should be a threshold, just like how there’s a bottleneck in the Energy Rank for Beyond Grade As… If this applies to all God’s Trait Transformation skills, then what’s the upper limit? Ten? Fifteen?”
Han Xiao deeply pondered. Right now, he had an interface that allowed him to directly add points into it, but the normal Beyond Grade A’s method of increasing their number of God’s Trait Transformation stages would not be as convenient as his. In fact, it would take many years for them to even upgrade each level.
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