by <unknown>
A simpler conclusion for this would be…
The Modo Civilization was now disqualified by Black Star!
Chapter 1184: A Wise Assassin Is Not a Good Assassin |
In the army commander’s office of Black Star Palace, Lothaire’s remote projection stood in the middle of the room. Han Xiao circled him, sized him up, and sighed from time to time.
“Kid, although you’ve successfully escaped this time, don’t feel glad. I need to properly talk to you about this.”
“What orders do you have?” Lothaire calmly accepted the scolding.
“Although the plan worked, you made the decision on yourself, and I had to clean up for you. I’m your boss, not the other way around. For something as big as this, you should ask me before you carry the plan out, got it?” Han Xiao stood in front of Lothaire with arms behind his back and reprimanded him.
“Won’t happen again.” Lothaire’s response was short and simple.
Han Xiao grunted, paused, and said, “The impact of this assassination was extremely severe. The Modo Civilization has given up on the Flickering War and is focusing on internal affairs. They definitely will not let this go easily. Therefore, all activities of the Assassin’s Society will cease for the time being. Hide and wait for this to be over. Only then will I allow you guys to be active again.”
“How long?”
“A few decades. You have to make use of this time properly to train,” Han Xiao said.
“Okay.” Lothaire did not complain and calmly obeyed.
He had acquired some new experience from this assassination. He was just thinking about digesting them too. Assassinating the leader of an advanced civilization was undoubtedly a legendary accomplishment. It had brought him subtle changes. It was like some kind of ability that increased his possibility of reaching Beyond Grade A. However, since Lothaire did not have the interface, he could not fully understand all that. He only got a blurry feel of it.
After giving him advice for a bit longer, Han Xiao ended the communication. His deliberately serious expression relaxed, and a smile appeared on his face. This assassination that Lothaire had never informed him till it was done really startled him, but the results turned out to be extremely good. As the Modo Civilization had withdrawn its army, the second requirement of [Kunde Race Leader’s Last Wish] was now complete.
If not for Lothaire’s assassination, the Modo upper echelons would not have shifted this drastically. In that case, he would have had to spend more time and pay a heftier price in order to force Modo to retreat. Furthermore, the chain of chaotic reactions caused by Modo’s leader being assassinated were also counted in the mission progress. Although Lothaire made this decision without consulting him, the results turned out to be reliable. Han Xiao always had high hopes for Lothaire. In his eyes, Lothaire had the potential to become a Beyond Grade A. His potential was much higher than lazy Beyond Grade A seeds like Hadavy.
One reason he froze the activity of the Assassin’s Society was to wait till this was over, but another was to give Lothaire more time to find the opportunity for Promotion.
Han Xiao put these things in the back of his mind, opened the mission list on the interface, and looked at the two bright gold missions.
Both (Escape) and (Kunde Race Leader’s Last Wish]’s rewards could now be obtained. One of the two requirements of the latter was already complete. He could acquire (The Enemy), (Proof of Leadership), and (Kunde Rage] if he wanted.
Han Xiao thought about it and suppressed his temptation to complete [Kunde Race Leader’s Last Wish), as the first mission requirement was to ‘provide protection when the Kunde Race is being culturally modified’, which was not complete yet.
This Grade S mission was a single mission, not a chain mission. Therefore, once he clicked on completing it and accepted the reward, it would mean that he would not be able to obtain the reward for the first requirement. He wanted the four Political Assets rewarded by the first requirement. Anyway, he could decide when to conclude the mission. He could obtain the three abilities anytime he wanted, so he was in no hurry.
“I shall conclude Lothaire’s mission and get the reward first.”
Han Xiao headed out, turned left into the officer lounge to get some luck, returned, and quickly opened the interface.
[Escape] Completed! -3,000 Modo Civilization Favorability.
Current Relationship: (Archenemy)
You have received 8 Billion EXP, 2 Random Rewards, and the (Civilization Leader Slayer] milestone.
(Civilization Leader Slayer]: All civilization leader Favorability -10. Your words will be more heeded by the various civilizations. At the same time, when you, your organization, or your allies fight any fleets or Supers of your opposing civilization, their defense and various resistances will be reduced by 3% – 7%.
“This Milestone is definitely for the wanted criminals of the evil factions.” Han Xiao’s eyes twitched.
To wanted criminals, the Favorability of civilization leaders is complete trash, but since I’m someone with a high position and identity, the Favorability of civilization leaders is not useless.
However, he did not care about it too much. The only advanced civilization leader who had a good relationship with him was Urranrell. His Favorability with the federation’s president and the church’s pope were both negative, yet they were still working together. As long as there were enough profits, the personal Favorability of the leaders was barely impactful.
Furthermore, the value of that -10 Favorability of the civilization leaders was completely meaningless compared to the other effects of the milestone. Although the numbers were not high, the influence it had was extremely absurd. It worked against entire civilizations, reducing the various resistance and defense of all members of the opposing civilization.
Han Xiao instantly knew that when fighting the World Tree Civilization, this ability would give the entire explored universe a natural edge!
Comparatively, that slight reduction in Favorability was negligible.
“I sacrificed my Favorability for the entire universe. What a great man I am.”
Han Xiao was almost touched by himself.
He focused and continued looking at the ability/talent drawing interface.
You have received the reward: draw one of Lothaire’s skills (Ability/Talent).
Note: Lothaire is a Pugilist. Parts of the abilities/talents are adjusted according to your class.
Randomizing… Complete! Please select one from the five options below as the reward:
(Stealth Master] Talent: Drastically reduce your presence to others, drastically reduce the chance of the enemies discovering you, and drastically reduce the clues you leave behind. You can easily find all the factors in a certain area that might lead to you being discovered, including but not limited to all kinds of surveillance devices and detection spells. 2. (Assassination Mark] Ability: Mark a target, increase the damage of your next attack to the target by 75%-100%, Critical Rate by 45%, and Critical Damage by 100%. Energy Cost: 150. Cooldown: 48s.
[One-Hit KO] Ability: When your next attack hits the target successfully, instantly carry out Lethal Judgement once. The base of the Judgement is the target’s Health, END, Lethal Resistance, LUK, and the level difference between you and the target. If the Judgement succeeds, the target will die instantly. If the Judgement fails, the attack will deal an extra 280% damage. Energy Cost: 500. Cooldown: 1,2005.
[The Way of an Assassin) Ability: Charge energy into the next attack, accumulating extra damage bonuses. Energy to damage bonus Conversion Rate: 10:1%. Maximum damage bonus: 300%. Cooldown: 150s.
(Fearless Heart] Talent: When fighting a strong enemy, you will receive extra attack bonuses. When the enemy is below Grade B, this ability will not be triggered; when the enemy is Grade B, you will receive a 5% base attack bonus; when the enemy is Grade A, you will receive a 15% base attack bonus; when the enemy is Grade S, you will receive a 25% base attack bonus; when the enemy is Grade S+, you will
receive a 35% base attack bonus; when the enemy is Grade SS, you will receive a 45% base attack bonus.
Woah! This kid! Han Xiao’s eyes gleamed. What’s a master assassin? This is a master assassin!
Lothaire had not been around for many years. It had been a very long time since Han Xiao last looked at his interface. He could recall that of these five options, other than the second option, Lothaire did not have any others back then.
Looks like this kid has been busy the past twenty years, he’s got many new skills. Han Xiao was overjoyed.
Such an excellent learning ability could almost match up to Nero. He had found a treasure.
He browsed through the options. No way he was going to pick the second or the third options. Although the Lethal Judgement of (One-Hit KO] was quite tempting, as soon as Han Xiao saw that Luck was one of the things considered for the Judgement, he instantly eliminated this option. The fourth option, (The Way of an Assassin), was quite powerful, but Han Xiao also eliminated it after some pondering. This ability could only provide bonuses for one attack, but attack frequency was what Mechanics focused on. Although the (Charge-Endless Potential] he had obtained from Silver Shadow could work together with this ability, it was too situational. There would not be many chances to use it. Han Xiao mainly hesitated between the first and the fifth option. (Stealth Master) was a functional talent that would dramatically enhance his stealth ability. It would be tremendously useful for spy operations, infiltration, stealing intelligence, and so on. Although it would not directly increase his strength, it would provide him with other forms of support. However, [Fearless Heart]’s bonuses were way too good!
This did not just enhance one attack, but it was a passive bonus. Every single attack from him and his mechanical army could enjoy the bonus!
Furthermore, the bonus was on top of base attacks, meaning the percentage increase could be seen as the increase in the actual damage dealt!
“The only ones who are qualified to fight me now are all peak Beyond Grade As. This talent is perfect for people like me!”
Han Xiao felt exhilarated.
To Lothaire, the bonuses of (Fearless Heart] beyond the third level were all useless, since there was no way he could defeat a Beyond Grade A now. Only Beyond Grade As could fully utilize the power of this talent.
After pondering for about ten seconds, the desire to deal more damage won in the end. Han Xiao had made his choice.
You have received the talent (Fearless Heart]!
“Nice.” Han Xiao took a deep breath. He felt a wave of heat that released from his brain that quickly flowed through his body.
After sensing it for a while, his expression became strange. He suddenly connected all the dots.
This talent was faithful to its name, it gave him a strong sense of confidence. Han Xiao noticed that more than half of his fear toward the strong had disappeared, replaced by disdain.
Manison? Fragile little sh*t, fight him!
The three Universal Civilizations? Piece of cake, fight them!
The World Tree Civilization? What is that? Fight them!
Anyone that appeared in his mind, he wanted to fight. His heart was filled with an indomitable sense of fearlessness, an illusion as if he could just beat up everything in the world.
He hastily suppressed this emotion, took a few deep breaths, and finally calmed himself down. It all made sense now.
“No wonder Lothaire dared assassinate the Modo Three Kings. Turns out it’s the side effect of this talent. The mystery is now solved…”
Han Xiao rolled his eyes.
What Fearless Heart? Bullsh*t, this is clearly Reckless Heart!
Chapter 1185: National War |
(Fearless Heart] was undoubtedly a semi-Molding Talent level talent. This was a surprise for Han Xiao.
He turned off the interface and contemplated what to do next. “Modo is already disqualified. The second requirement of the Kunde Race mission is complete. As long as Modo doesn’t come to mess with me, I won’t need to fight them in the future… Once they retreat, I won’t have an excuse to take part in the Flickering War anymore. I’ll have to temporarily exit this stage. The army players might have problems with that… but luckily, now is already the final stage of the version. The impact won’t be too
huge.”
Without Modo as an opponent, the Black Star Army no longer had a reason to continue participating in the Flickering World. This way, the army players would have to exit this main storyline too. If this had happened in the middle or even early stage of the version, the army players would have been in an uproar. Some of the newbies would most likely have changed factions to join the first World Server war.
However, Modo retreated at just the right time. It was now near the end of the version, meaning there was not much time left for the players to do things. Most of their energy was focused on preparing for the fourth season of the Pro League and the World Server War that was about to happen. These were the last two big things they could do near the end of the Version 4.0. Losing the Flickering War main storyline in this situation would minimize the players’ dissatisfaction. Furthermore, Han Xiao had faked a main storyline mission, which the players would receive reward from, making up for the loss of the players not being able to participate in the real main storyline mission to a certain extent.
Due to the existence of the Black Star Army, the state and territory distribution of the various guild alliances in the Flickering World was completely different from Han Xiao’s previous life. Furthermore, this difference would extend all the way to the versions in the future. Even Han Xiao could not really predict what would become of these guild alliances in the future.
Han Xiao pondered for a while. When he realized that there were no more big things he had to do at the end of the version, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“What needs to be done has been done. What’s left is to watch things develop like the other Beyond Grade As and wait for the Flickering War to come to a result…”
Han Xiao decided to lie low for some time and develop his technology, spending the remaining time of Version 4.0 peacefully. Furthermore, the army had attracted way too much attention recently. Nothing was good in excess, so it was a good time to cool down and temporarily stay out of the public eye.
“Now I just have to wait for the World Server War and the Pro League to suck out the players’ savings for me to have enough EXP for Promotion.”
Han Xiao smiled. He did not even have to come up with any promotional events. These two events were like automatic harvesting machines, convenient and effortless.
The Modo Civilization did not openly announce their retreat. They focused on promoting their plan to attack the terrorist organizations while quietly withdrawing the expeditionary army bit by bit.
The Super Star Cluster Alliance was an organization with shared interests, after all. Although Modo gave up on the Flickering War, they could not just walk away. As the Modo expeditionary army retreated, the other Super Star Cluster civilizations sent out some of their troops to form mixed fleets and took over this line of defense.
The Super Star Cluster Alliance was glad to see Modo exit. This way, their nightmare Black Star would be gone too. This was a completely beneficial trade in their eyes. Although the other Super Star Cluster civilizations were harsh in the things they said, they were still in the same alliance. They achieved some kind of deal with Modo and signed some agreements as compensation for Modo’s exit.
As the main enemy fled, the Black Star Army’s troops stopped attacking the Super Star Cluster Alliance’s line of defense and left the Ferdinand Battle Zone in batches. The forged mission (Black Star Army Expedition Order] concluded, giving the army players a wave of rich rewards.
Although the rewards were set by Han Xiao and slightly worse than the real main storyline, it had its pros. The players would only be able to conclude the real Flickering War main storyline mission after the war ended, meaning only in the next version. On the other hand
, the fake main storyline mission Han Xiao had made could be concluded now, meaning the players would receive the reward before the version ended.
These rewards gave the army players more resources to level up abilities, purchase equipment, and so on to increase their strength. The most direct benefit was that this would help players in the World Server War and the Pro League that was about to come.
Just as Han Xiao expected, exiting the main storyline in advance did not trouble the players. If the war against Modo was still carrying on, this would cause ordering the players very difficult for the army. Now that he had basically given the players a holiday, they could fully focus on the World Server War.
Planet Milton was a desolate planet located in the exterior parts of the Emerald Star Cluster. Over the past few months, batches of fleets with symbols of different guild alliances had been arriving there, building bases, fortresses, and lines of defenses on this planet.
Many of these guild alliances were enemies with each other, but all of them silently agreed on ignoring each other and constructed their strongholds peacefully.
The reason that this happened was one of the rules stated inside the invitation letter that before the designated date to start the war arrived, all professional guilds and player alliances that had arrived on Planet Milton could construct as many strongholds as they wanted, but attacking each other was not allowed. Anyone who disobeyed the rules would be kicked out of this war.
This was like a ‘protected period’, basically the preparation stage for all the guild alliances that were participating, as well the time given to all the players to get there.
Therefore, in the past few months, these guilds had been sending one batch of spaceships there after another, transporting tons of resources and constructing many temporary strongholds. The locations they chose to build strongholds were anything but random; some guild alliances had teamed up with others, and their strongholds had to be built close to one another so that they could help each other.