by <unknown>
Unlike other civilizations that focused on accuracy and simplicity, the interior of the space station was rather complicated. One might even get lost without looking at the map on the devices along the corridors. Han Xiao and the others were outsiders, so the restricted areas were not open to them. They could only move around the dock, lounge, and guest hall.
The space station chief was the one who came to welcome them. Despite the Great Mechanic Han not being good at differentiating one Godoran from another, he could tell that this station chief was a very serious person. Standard Observer compressed orbs hung from his Godoran-style hair knot, and his movements and clothes were neat and tidy, classic military style.
Godora Observers came from many backgrounds—some were selected from the military, some were recruited from the society or the security forces then trained, and some took exams to become one. This station chief had clearly once been a military officer; he did things strictly according to the rules and regulations.
The spaceship was sent into the shipyard for repairs and refueling. Han Xiao and the others were resting in the hall. Han Xiao did not tell his friends about the goal of this trip, so the others thought this was just the usual refueling and resting process. Herlous and the three Volga brothers were playing a casual card game at the side. It was a strategic battle style card game—these cards were all renowned individuals and civilizations across the galaxies. Different Star Fields had their own set of cards. For example, in the Shattered Star Ring card set, there were the four Beyond Grade A bosses including Ames.
The battle could be carried out between two or more people. The players would play as a Star Field, pick out a certain number of cards from that Star Field as their card combination, then start the battle. These cards were also classified into different functions—civilization card, strong individual card, exploration card, organization card, ability card, history card, mercenary card, fortune card, treasure card, spaceship card, monster card, and so on. It was very popular across the universe. It was like poker for galactic residents. Other than the standard playing method of acting as a Star Field, there were also many other ways to play it.
In Han Xiao’s previous life, quite a number of casual players liked to play this game. They could even find out about the organizations and the force structure of different Star Fields. This card game was made by a galactic commercial organization, and they would update the cards every once in a while, adding new famous people as cards or placing the deceased ones into the ‘abandoned card set’. This could almost be considered as the fame leaderboard of the various areas.
Recently, Herlous and the others had become addicted to this card game. This was because in the last update, a few new cards had been added to the Shattered Star Ring card set and the Black Star Mercenary Group was one of them, acting as a new mercenary card.
Mercenary cards were neutral troops, available to recruit any time by spending money, entering the table directly from the card set. It could be used for many purposes including fast attacks and turning around the situation. In the Shattered Star Ring card set, most of the mercenary cards were large mercenary groups consisting of tens of thousands of people such as Sky Ring and Blades. The Black Star Mercenary Group was a new special card. As the Black Star Mercenary Group’s size was small and not very strong, the producers gave the card the lowest attribute among the mercenary cards, but it had a special effect.
Since the Black Star Mercenary Group card had the identity of Floating Dragon Field Team, it could be infused with the organization card ‘Floating Dragon Island’. If certain requirements were met, the player would be able to draw [Dragon Emperor] Ames directly from the card set.
Han Xiao did not even have to guess where the idea for this card came from—the top news last year about him summoning Ames and Ames destroying the DarkStar mothership with one hit.
In his previous life, the Great Mechanic Han had rarely played this card game as his luck was too bad, but he knew how popular this card game was. He did not expect to now have become a member of the card set, and it was a very pleasant surprise to him. When the players entered space, this would become another way for him to increase his fame.
Since they had been added in as a new card, they could more or less be considered famous. Herlous and the others were having a blast playing it. Of course, they would definitely put something on the line when they played cards.
Beside these gamblers, Sylvia was holding onto a book and memorizing it, immersing herself in the abyss of education. Not far away, Aroshia was resting with her eyes closed. Ever since she entered Grade B, different images had flashed through her mind regularly, causing her to frequently lose her focus. Feidin was sitting in the corner, training his Psychic powers.
The station chief had told them about the rules and regulation in a very serious tone before leaving the hall. Another slightly chubby Godoran with a friendly smile had stayed to take care of them. He had introduced himself as the deputy station chief.
Unlike the station chief, the deputy station chief was very good at chatting and kept a consistent smile on his face. The clue for the mission was with him. Han Xiao vaguely mentioned the topic, and the deputy station chief exposed the clue in a casual chatting tone.
“One of our research spaceships lost contact in a nearby planet. The search team that we sent ended up the same. We saw signs of a spaceship crashing and exploding, so the station chief reported the situation to the superiors. The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation planned this mission into their schedule, assuming no one survived… but there’s a possibility that those people are still alive waiting for us to send people over. We might have already missed the rescue timing… Sigh, Nereja’s wife is in the research team—he has been very anxious recently…”
Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled as he asked, “Where can I find this Nereja?”
Deputy station chief shook his head. “This matter has been given to the superiors. According to the rules and regulations, we are not allowed to privately request help from mercenaries.”
“I just want to have a talk with him.”
“Alright then, he should be at the porthole corridor.”
Han Xiao stood up and took his leave, heading toward the location that the deputy station chief told him. Nereja was the person that would trigger the mission.
The deputy station chief looked at Han Xiao’s back, and a strange emotion flashed in his eyes.
Han Xiao came to the porthole corridor, and from far away, he could already see a Godoran Observer staring out the window in a daze with a worried expression. Han Xiao quickly walked up to him and asked, “Are you Nereja?”
“You’re the mercenaries parked here?” Nereja turned his head to Han Xiao. He was a little on edge.
“Yes. I heard two of your research ships lost contact on a planet. My intuition tells me that there is a job here that needs help.”
“This is an internal matter of us Godorans; there is no need for an outsider’s help.” Nereja frowned. His expression was noticeably irritated when mentioning this matter, and this emotion was clearly not toward Han Xiao, whom he had just met for the first time.
“I heard your wife is in the team. I’m sure you’re worried. Maybe she’s still alive. For just a small reward, I can help you to find the targets,” Han Xiao said.
Hesitation flashed past Nereja’s face. He became silent. Han Xiao thought that he would agree, but to Han Xiao’s surprise, he shook his head and said, “This is none of your business.”
Then, he continued staring outside the window and dazing.
Han Xiao froze. According to the steps in his memories, as long as he mentioned this clue, Nereja’s mission would be triggered.
Could it be that I missed something?
He tried convincing Nereja again, but no matter what, Nereja was unwilling to request help from mercenaries. Han Xiao was out of ideas. He pondered hard, and suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration.
Could it actual
ly be because of that?
Han Xiao went back to the hall and dragged Feidin along. On the way, he explained the situation to Feidin, who was still confused. After seeing Nereja, Feidin adjusted his collar and approached him with a gentle smile. Only a few sentences in, Nereja’s eyes were filled with tears, and he turned around to look at Han Xiao.
“He’s right, I can’t let myself regret because of hesitation. Mercenaries, I want to request you to find my wife. This is an act against the regulations, so please don’t tell the others.”
A notification popped up on Han Xiao’s interface immediately.
_____________
You have triggered mission [Interstellar Beast]
Mission Introduction: You accepted Nereja’s request and are planning to head to a desolate planet to look for the research team that has lost contact.
Mission Requirements: Head toward the target planet and investigate the reasons for them losing contact. Search for the missing research team.
Remarks: Your investigation results affect the final rating of the mission.
Basic Reward: 1,358 Enas (In gray), 85,000 experience, Kenorn Diamond Ring (Purple equipment)
_____________
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, his feelings indescribable.
It really is because my Charm has yet to reach the standard of triggering the mission…
Chapter 460. Interstellar Beast (1) |
The Great Mechanic Han had evolved his race once; his genes were optimized, so his looks were naturally good. Even he was sometimes shocked by how handsome he was when he looked in the mirror. However, Charm was more like affinity—it influenced the default Favorability and hidden options when communicating with others. The effect of some abilities also depended on Charm, such as the summoning abilities and beast controlling abilities.
When affinity was insufficient, others might refuse to communicate further.
The player that triggered this mission in the previous life definitely had enough Charm, so they did not meet any obstacles. According to Han Xiao’s rich experience, if the missions could not be triggered even after following the process that he remembered, it would most likely be because a certain hidden prerequisite was not achieved. In those cases, Charm not being high enough was a common one.
However, Han Xiao was definitely not going to put points into his Charm attribute as he was not short of missions. Plus, what on earth was the use of affinity? Being strong was much more useful!
Feidin lived up to his role as an attractiveness focused main character; he convinced Nereja straight away. This mission was not difficult—they just had to investigate the target planet. The mission could be completed even if they only investigated the remains of the spaceships. However, getting a high rating as not that easy. They had to find the majority of the truth about why the research teams had lost contact and find the missing Observers. The mission was called [Interstellar Beast], which was a clue for the players.
Of course, finding Nereja’s wife was one way to increase the rating, dead or alive.
In the mission reward, the monetary reward was grayed out, which meant that it was locked, and no matter how high the rating was, there would not be any extra monetary reward. Nereja only had so much money.
I triggered this mission many years before the players did before, so the process should be somewhat different. There are many uncertain factors in this, but the key point should be the same…
When the previous players accepted the mission, the background was different. At that time, the Godora superiors had already sent more than one research teams in, but they had all gone missing. However, they did send back some new intel before going missing, stating that the planet was shrouded in a strange magnetic field that could disrupt most common communications, hence causing all the research teams that landed on that planet to lose contact with the outside world. The crash marks of the spaceships could only be seen by the observation equipment in the space station, which meant that there was definitely something else that had happened to the research team between the time of them losing contact and landing.
Due to it being a natural cause, this did not attract a lot of attention from the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation. They were responsible for the investigations of an entire Star System, so there were countless missions for them to do every day, and only the extremely important matters would be passed by the smart system to real people to handle. The smart system ranked the missions according to how important they were, so this mission was placed into a regular mission. After another research team completely lost contact once again, it assumed that all the Observers were dead and stopped investigating that planet. They then told the astronomical observatory to research the environment of this planet first before making further decisions.
Hence, the investigation was put aside for the time being. When the players arrived, only then did this problem get solved—no one was more suitable in exploring unknown dangers than the undying players.
The deputy station chief beside Han Xiao at this time had already become the station chief in his previous life, but he was still the one who gave the mission clue.
Now, these clues had yet to be exposed. Luckily, Han Xiao remembered them, or they would meet dangers if they went there without any information. Han Xiao guessed that if he brought these clues back, it should be calculated into the mission rating.
Nereja took out his communicator, sent over many files, and solemnly said, “Here are the coordinates of that planet and the location of the spaceship’s crash site. My wife’s name is Lenny. This is her photo, please find her.”
“Got it.”
Han Xiao nodded and pulled Feidin back to the hall.
As the spaceship had completed its refueling, the station chief appeared again to express his intentions of sending them away. Han Xiao had gotten the mission that he wanted, so he did not stay any longer. He boarded the ship with the others and told them about this operation.
“You actually accepted a private hire? This is Godora’s internal matter, and we are sticking our nose in it without their permission—won’t Godora have a problem with that?” Herlous was hesitant.
“It’s not like that planet belongs to Godora. Nobody said we can’t go there.”
Han Xiao shrugged and entered the planet’s coordinates. It was shown as an unnamed planet. This planet had not yet been fully investigated, so there was no official name for it in the database. This was one of the differences as compared to the situation in his previous life as well.
In the enormous universe, there were still quite a few undiscovered planets. These resource planets with serial numbers were all recorded into the database after field investigations. The planet this time was clearly an unexplored mysterious planet.
In the dark universe, the spaceship tail was producing a dark blue light as the spaceship headed toward the destination. As the spaceship’s speed reached its maximum, it turned into a stream of light and entered the jump state, disappearing among the fabulous river of stars.
…
A few days later, outside the porthole was a small, gray planet. There was no vegetation and no Fixed Stars nearby; it was desolate. No sun could be seen on the planet, and the surface temperature was extremely chilly. There were some markings of volcanoes, so it should not be as cold as absolute zero.
Clearly, the environment of the planet was not suitable for most life forms to survive.
“Wear the protection suit properly. Once your skin is exposed to the air, your body will be damaged.”
As Han Xiao was speaking, he activated his Void Dragon mechanical suit, adjusted the inner temperature, and maintained it at a stable level. This slight energy cost was not even worth mentioning for the Mini Portable Nuclear Reactor. Although the suit was powered by nuclear energy, the radiation was blocked by the reactor’s special shell. Of course, even if he was exposed to it, Han Xiao would definitely not be damaged with his current Endurance. It would at most give
him a negligible damage reduction debuff.
As Herlous was putting on Amphiptere, which Han Xiao lent him, he sighed and said, “If only the Commander Class armor that my brother gave me was still here.”
Han Xiao extended his hand with an expressionless face and said, “Give it back if you’re not wearing it.”
“Come on, don’t be so petty.” Herlous cracked a joke and hastily put the mechanical suit on.
Aroshia did not need the mechanical suit to protect her. As long as she turned into her energy form, she would be able to ignore the harsh environments.
For this mission, Han Xiao had only brought Herlous and Aroshia along—the rest had all stayed in the spaceship. They were not strong enough, so bringing them along would only burden Han Xiao.
As the magnetic field of the planet could block communications, Han Xiao parked the spaceship outside the atmosphere and set a time to pick them up. The three of them used the mini aircraft to land on the planet.
The spaceship entered the edge of the atmosphere. The cabin under it opened, and a mini aircraft flew out. This was the ‘Dragon Butterfly’ scout aircraft, a model used by the Floating Dragon Guards. Han Xiao had learned this blueprint long ago.
After the aircraft took off, the spaceship instantly rose higher and left the atmosphere.
Inside the aircraft, Han Xiao sat at the pilot seat and operated the control planet with ease and familiarity. The other two sat in the passenger seats behind him.
“Let’s go, the research team’s crash site is below.”
The magnetic field affected radars too, but Han Xiao adjusted the location when they were on the spaceship. Their destination was right below.
With a tug of the gear lever, the anti-gravity pipes under the aircraft illuminated slightly as they landed quickly.
It was dark around them, and it was very difficult to see. Such planets that did not have light from a Fixed Star existed in many parts of the universe. Han Xiao switched on the aircraft’s light perception, and their vision became clearer. They could now see the nearby environment.