Chapter 737 - Changes

On Aquamarine Federation Mother Planet, inside a classroom of the Basic School of the Federation, many seven to eight year old students were reading the textbook out loud with the teacher.

“… Galaxy Calendar Year 694, the movement that would then be called ‘The Great Government Unification’ occurred. Under Black Star’s influence, the structure of society changed drastically. The governments formally known as the Six Nations were replaced by the current Aquamarine Federation. This was the turning point of Planet Aquamarine’s civilization progress…

“Black Star, original name Han Xiao, born on Planet Aquamarine, former member of the Germinal Organization who later stepped onto the righteous path. He is now the protector of the Planet Aquamarine Civilization and has the highest veto power in the Federation Council. He guided the drastic civilization changes in the last twenty years, giving us the entrance ticket to galactic societies. Up till now, the Black Star Army is still working closely with the federation…”

A boy with freckles on his face raised his hand and asked, “Is Black Star still alive?”

The classroom burst into laughter.

“Of course, Nero. Black Star has a very long life span. Even after we all die of old age, he will still be alive.” The teacher smiled and nodded.

“I—I thought only those who passed away would be known as great men…” The student called Nero’s face blushed.

The teacher shook his head and said, “Black Star is a close confidant to the federation chairman, Bennett. That statue in the Central Garden was built by Bennett for Black Star. If you’re curious, you can log into the galactic internet and search for Black Star. There’s information accessible to the public there. He’s the strongest person that stepped out of Planet Aquamarine. He’s the pride of our entire planet.”

The lessons in the afternoon quickly ended, and the students headed back home. Nero followed the crowd and came to the school gate.

The school was located in the middle of a tall building. When looking around the wide square from the school gate, the entire city could be seen. Tall buildings stood next to each other like a fictional forest of metal, and anti-gravity suspended vehicles traveled along the planned routes.

In the past ten years, Planet Aquamarine had always been in continuous contact with galactic technology. Some common devices in the universe were gradually being integrated into the daily lives of the people. Planet Aquamarine had now built many cities with advanced technology. The styles of the cities were also gradually changing under the influence of galactic financial groups.

It was prospering.

Various private anti-gravity suspended vehicles waited outside the school for their children. Nero boarded one with no license, crossed the city, and entered the government building of the Aquamarine Federation.

Nero followed a secretary-looking man into an office, where Bennett was reading documents. Compared to ten years ago, he had more wrinkles and was gradually showing signs of aging. As he heard the sound and looked up to see Nero, he smiled.

“School ended? Sit down first. After I’m done with these, I’ll take you to eat.”

“Yes, Dad.” Nero put down his small school bag and sat on the sofa obediently. He shook his legs and looked around.

Ten years ago, with Han Xiao’s permission, Bennett had become the Aquamarine Federation Chairman and completed the unification of the governments on the planet. After the initial turbulent stages, Planet Aquamarine had begun its stable development while recovering from the damage suffered before.

As peace was perfectly achieved on his mother planet, Bennett’s goal was accomplished. As the federation chairman, he needed to form a family. Thus, he got married and had a child. He was a Pugilist, after all, so his physique was more than good enough to carry out the process of creating a human. Nero was his son.

“Dad, the teacher told us about Black Star’s story today,” Nero said excitedly.

“Oh? What did he say?” Bennett was rather interested.

Nero repeated what he could remember with his innocent voice and then asked curiously, “Dad, is Black Star your friend?”

Yes, I’ve known him for close to twenty years.” Bennett was feeling a little nostalgic.

“Is he really that amazing? More amazing than you, Dad?”

Nero’s eyes opened wide. In his mind, his father, the federation chairman, was the most amazing person in the world. “He’s much more amazing than me.” Bennett laughed.

Beep beep!

This time, the communicator rang.

As Bennett saw who was calling, he was a little surprised. He waved at Nero.

“Come here. Aren’t you very curious about Black Star? Come and look at him.”

After placing Nero on his knees, Bennett then picked up the video call. Han Xiao’s face appeared on the screen.

“It’s been a long time, almost ten years.” Bennett smiled.

“It sure has.” Han Xiao nodded. As he saw Nero, his eyes sparkled. “This child is…”

“Hmm, this is my kid, Nero.”

Bennett smiled and rubbed Nero’s head. “Come on, that’s your uncle.”

“Hello, Uncle,” Nero greeted obediently.

Han Xiao was surprised. “When did you get married? Why didn’t you tell me?”

You’re so busy. I didn’t want to disturb you for something so small.”

“What are you talking about? We go way back. How could you not even tell me about such good news? I’m very disappointed.” Han Xiao showed a dissatisfied expression.

Bennett chuckled and did not mind it.

Although he did not say anything, he knew that Han Xiao was on a different level compared to him now.

The daily matters of Planet Aquamarine were undoubtedly small matters to Han Xiao. Bennett did not want to disturb him for these trivial matters, so they contacted each other less and less.

“You’re the person in the textbooks…” Nero stared at Han Xiao with curiosity.

“Textbooks?” Han Xiao wondered.

Bennett smiled and explained.

Han Xiao laughed. He did not expect to be written about in history textbooks.

This feeling of being remembered by people… actually felt quite good.

After chatting for a while, Bennett suddenly said, “I’m thinking about letting Nero be your godson. What do you think?” Han Xiao was a little surprised. He nodded. With his relationship with Bennett, he was willing to be this kid’s godfather. Bennett patted Nero and said, “Quick, greet your godfather.”

“God… father.” Nero’s tone was a little stiff. To him, Han Xiao was a stranger whom he had never met before, so addressing him as ‘Godfather’ was rather difficult.

Bennett smiled and let go of Nero, telling him to go aside to play.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to ask about the situation on Planet Aquamarine,” Han Xiao replied.

Planet Aquamarine was one of the birthplaces of players that sent manpower to the Black Star Army continuously. It was equivalent to his logistics base and was very important to him.

Before opening new leek fields, he wanted to check the situation of the old one.

Bennett nodded and explained the current situation of Planet Aquamarine in detail.

Thanks to the Black Star Army, Planet Aquamarine was now shifting from a planet surface civilization to a galactic civilization and had been trying to colonize the nearby uninhabited planets.

A large number of new players had started in Version 3.0 on Planet Aquamarine and were recruited by the Black Star Army subdivision.

Overall, the situation was great.

Han Xiao was quite satisfied. “You’ve done a great job. You don’t have to worry about Planet Aquamarine anymore. Do you want to come to the galaxy?”

If he remembered correctly, Bennett had some longing for the universe, so Han Xiao proposed to invite him.

However, to his surprise, Bennett shook his head and rejected him.

“I have decided to stay in the Aquamarine Federation. The galaxy… I don’t want to go there anymore.”

“Why? I remember you were…”

“I have new wishes now. The Aquamarine Federation is still small. I hope to help it grow and devote the rest of my life to it.” Bennett smiled with deep wrinkles. “I’m old and have a family and a kid now. I don’t want to fight and kill anymore. I’m very satisfied with my current life.”

Upon hearing what Bennett said, Han Xiao did not want to persuade him anymore.

Everyone had different goals. Bennett had spent the first half of his life in wars and chaos, so now that he had found somewhere he belonged, he had a home where he could feel at peace. Han Xiao chose to respect that.

“Understood.”

“Actually, I have one more thing to ask from you,” Bennett said.

“What is it?”

“I’m still very worried about Nero. He has a very bright future and shouldn’t be staying here with me. After I pass away, I hope you can bring him along your side, take care of him, and raise him.” Bennett’s eyes were filled with fatherly love.

“What? Why are you planning these things out of nowhere?” Han Xiao felt numbness on his scalp.

“After all, I’m different from you. My life span is finite, and I don’t know when I will die. So, I wanted to tell you this as early as possible.” Bennett smiled wholeheartedly. “Can you promise me that?”

“No problem, I have enough money to raise one person.” Han Xiao raised his brows and made a joke to ease the atmosphere. “After you die, do you want me to ‘take care’ of your widow as well?”

Bennett’s mouth twitched. “No need to trouble you for that.”

After chatting casually for more than half an hour, only then did Han Xiao end the call. His smile dissipated, and he sighed.

Not everyone had a long life span like him.

Getting old and dying was the common fate of normal people.

Bennett was getting older. Sooner or later, he would pass away.

No matter what, he did feel quite sorrowful.

Nonetheless, even if he passed away one day, the cause that he loved and had devoted his life to would remain.

“The Aquamarine Federation…”

Han Xiao nodded.

With his protection, the Planet Aquamarine Civilization would go much, much farther than it did in his previous life…

With the popularity of the previous two versions, Version 3.0 became an exploding period for new players. According to statistics, there were more than ten million new players entering the game currently, and it was still growing.

Due to the fact that China had won the championship of the previous Pro League, the Shattered Star Ring attracted the most players. In just three months after Version 3.0 was released, there were already close to two million new players.

Half a month later, in the Gelock Star Cluster, Planet Deirdre…

The public airport hall had become a square for the players. Some opened stores, some asked to team up, and some provided boosting services. All sorts of players were gathered there.

It was noisy and crowded. The wall was transparent. The entire Planet Deirdre surface could be seen from there as well as the beautiful sky filled with stars.

As a galactic transit station, there were a lot of job opportunities on Planet Deirdre. Over the three months, the million or so new players had leveled up extremely quickly because of the Version 3.0 mission reward standard. Their level average was now above level 30, and some had already reached more than level 40.

Unlike the Version 1.0 Planet Aquamarine players, the players on Planet Deirdre became galactic residents as soon as they were born. Their information channels were rich, and they could search for galactic information easily.

After exploring for three months, the Planet Deirdre players found many ways to develop themselves.

At this time, among the boisterous public airport hall, there was one team that was discussing their future direction.

“We should join the Odegen Financial Group and help them fight the nearby galactic pirate groups. This is a planet’s main storyline. It’s definitely the best choice.”

“What kind of future can joining a financial group give? It’s better to become freelance mercenaries. Those senior player guides on the forums all say that becoming a mercenary is the best.”

“I’ve done the research. The biggest mercenary group in the Shattered Star Ring now is the Mercenary League. I heard some people triggered new main storylines there. If we’re going to be mercenaries, we have to join this organization.”

“Then we might as well go to Colton and join the Black Star Army to participate in the secret war main storyline.”

“The Black Star Army is good indeed, but flights between Star Clusters are rather expensive.”

“I don’t think we should go there. We have new main storyline missions here. There’s no reason to travel there.”

“How about we do something challenging? Killing and crimes are always profitable. Let’s become galactic pirates…”

“Hehe, you think we can afford a spaceship?”

“Are you stupid? Since we’re going to become galactic pirates, we can rob one if we can’t afford it.”

This player team discussed the matter for some time when they suddenly realized that the noisy environment around them had suddenly become quiet.

They turned around with shock.

In the entire hall, be it players or NPCs, everyone was looking up with their mouths wide open and their faces filled with shock.

What’s going on?

This player team looked up as well. When they saw what was outside the transparent ceiling, their eyes widened immediately.

An enormous armed satellite fortress appeared out of nowhere and filled the entire field outside the transparent ceiling. The size of this public airport was not even one twentieth of this armed satellite fortress!

Thousands of battleships guarded the satellite as it slowly approached, stopping in the outer orbit of Planet Deirdre.

The armor of these battleships all had the same symbol. For those players that often visited the forums, they recognized the symbol immediately.

It was the insignia of the Black Star Army!

The Black Star Army had moved an entire satellite subdivision there!

The million or so new players in the airport were in disbelief and at a loss.

Isn’t the Black Star Army fighting a war in another Star Cluster? Why are they here?