Chapter 1024 - Jumping Ship

As the fleet passed by the Black Star Army’s territory, the aspiring Lesykes was quickly dealt a harsh blow.

When he arrived at Planet Black Gate, the Immortals that he had painstakingly recruited from the Blackhole Edge suddenly broke out in a massive rebellion!

Not only did these players leave the faction, they even took over the spaceships carrying them!

Players in any area were accustomed to maximizing their benefits. Since they had already decided to leave, they would take advantage of the other party. Plus, it would be troublesome to travel without a spaceship. Many players seized control of the spaceships carrying them, leaving the designated fleet route and turning toward the Black Star Army.

Even those few players who were not planning to jump ship immediately were also forced to join in. After all, they were on the same ship, and if they fought and blew up the spaceship, there was no good end for either side.

With so many players in each spaceship, it was impossible to determine the ownership. Most people would only follow the spaceship to the transit station, where they would then scatter and act independently. This was the disadvantage of a lack of a huge faction to rally everyone.

Due to the large number of players rebelling, the total size of Lesykes’ army shrank by half, and the loss of the spaceships and supplies within were significant to Lesykes, making him feel as though he was bleeding out.

“Crazy, those guys are crazy! They have no morals at all!”

Within the command room, Lesykes was jumping around in anger.

This sudden incident was completely out of his expectations. He was immersed in his dream of achieving his meritorious service and did not expect this group of players to suddenly stab him in the back.

When they were still in the Blackhole Edge, these Immortals were still pretty law abiding, so why was it that they went all crazy the moment they arrived at the Flickering World?

He found it difficult to understand, and subconsciously, he felt as though this whole thing was a conspiracy, that some organizations had secretly meddled with them. He did not even consider their personal motivations.

After all, Lesykes did not understand the players. In his view, some foul play had to be going on, otherwise there would be no reason for all these players to riot together.

The stolen spaceships quickly dispersed and disappeared off their radar. Thus, Lesykes gave up on the symbolic chase. The strength of the Immortals also gave him some reservations, and with the spaceships having a similar speed, it would be hard to catch up to them. With this area being the territory of the Black Star Army, he dared not draw too much attention.

“*ssholes!”

Lesykes was hurt and angry, and he left a black mark on the files of this group of rebellious players, reducing their credit rating on their resumes.

After completing this matter, he managed to quell his anger somewhat. Upon seeing that half of the Immortals had stayed, he felt a little thankful.

“At least half of them are here. Even if I get less credit, there’s still some merit. I didn’t make the trip for nothing.”

Lesykes, however, no longer dared relax around the players, commanding, “Separate the rest of the Immortals and increase the defenses of each spaceship…”

After this experience, he had his guard up against the players.

However, even with his vigilance, another round of betrayals took place once again when he arrived at the free competition zone. The majority of Lesykes’ armed force consisted of the players. Thus, no matter how guarded the rest of the crew were, they were useless in the face of overwhelming numbers. The players had remained up till now just to obtain a free ride to the free competition zone.

The players that he brought from the Blackhole Edge had almost completely gone, and Lesykes almost went mad with anger.

Well done, this daddy here personally ran all the way to escort you guys to the Flickering World, thinking of achieving some merit, but ended up gaining nothing. It’s like fetching water using a rattan basket[1]!

The bad news poured in one after another. Lesykes quickly discovered from his intelligence that even with the black marks he left on the players’ resumes, there were still top-tier factions that took in these Immortals, the most prestigious being the Black Star Army.

Lesykes found this whole thing a little hard to accept, as though he had been bullied, and his heart was full of grievances!

Dammit, why!

This life is too hard!

What he did not know was that, in a tiny batch of players left behind, there existed people like Muay Thai as Warning, serving as spies and tracking the movements of the fleet, constantly reporting back to the army.

In terms of the attractive force of the factions, the gap between him and the Black Star Army was too large. Even if he could temporarily obtain the players’ bodies, he could never obtain their hearts.

…

There was naturally more than one organization that suffered from this massive wave of dissention. After entering the Flickering World, these Blackhole Edge organizations mostly experienced the phenomenon of a large number of players leaving, and the Black Star Army was the main place to go for these players.

The attractiveness of his faction had accumulated and matured over several versions, resulting in this surge in players wanting to join the army. There was no need for Han Xiao to do anything; the manual leek collection job had evolved into a fully automated process.

Within Black Star Palace, Han Xiao glanced at the EXP gauge of his attributes panel, his eyes gleaming.

“This wave of experience has shot up real quick.”

His plan to expand the leek plantation had finally begun to take effect, with this first batch of ‘foreign leeks’ pulling themselves out from the roots to transplant themselves in his plantation.

The players from foreign countries all had their own choices, and only a portion of them would choose to join the army, but even this number was also considerable. Based on his estimation, around 17 – 24% of the total population of players from the Blackhole Edge would join his army, which amounted to millions. Most of them would be ordinary players.

“This is only the first batch. When the players from the other Star Fields come, the size of the army will swell to double or triple of what it is today.” Han Xiao was secretly pleased.

There were many newcomers from the newly recruited Southeast Asian players, and they had a high demand for Class Knowledge. It was this new wave of consumption that made Han Xiao’s efficiency in harvesting experience soar.

Every time a new batch of newcomers arrived, it was followed by a huge wave of experience.

“I estimate that the Southeast Asian clubs will also infiltrate the army.”

Han Xiao secretly smiled. He did not intend to stop them.

He could sell more equipment and supplies, so why not? He could gain quite a bit of income from there, and re-equipping the different countries to allow them to fight against each other was akin to him being a weapons dealer, capitalizing on this business opportunity.

Furthermore, if they wished to enjoy the discount, they would need to have the corresponding rank, which meant that they had to contribute to the army. This could not be achieved in a short amount of time.

“Judging by this speed, I only need a few more waves of players to obtain enough experience to rise straight to level 320.” Han Xiao was secretly excited. This was much quicker than his expectations.

As for the large number of players jumping ship from the Blackhole Edge, he had long expected this. The continuous decline in the players’ credibility was one of the important factors in establishing their title as the Cancer of the Universe. They never had a good reputation, and this also included the fear and vigilance the outside world felt toward them.

One of the important signs for players to enter the stage of the universe was for the World Server to be launched. Their sense of existence had now greatly increased, which would attract the attention of many organizations, regarding them as a whole entity.

In his previous life, as the players spread chaos, leading to a decline in their overall reputation, it got to the point where some small organizations did not even dare recruit players. The consequence was that the players instead gathered toward the top organizations, switching factions to continue upgrading themselves.

These were all things that Han Xiao had witnessed, and he understood that there was no way he could force the players to remain obedient merely through means of faction welfare. As the players got stronger, they would have more thoughts, and they would become harder to control.

The players would only have attachments toward characters that they were familiar with, and for their own personal development and national war advantages, they would need to plunder for benefits and resources, starting wars.

With the growth of their strength, chaos was inevitable. Thus, Han Xiao had always been committed to developing his own organization. One of those objectives was to deal with this situation.

He also understood that, since the army was now an important target for the players to jump ship to, this situation would soon be discovered by the organizations that were monitoring him, and they would eventually form some speculations of their own.

For the time being, this had little impact on him. Firstly, his position was high enough, as was his strength. Secondly, there were also many players joining the other organizations, so the situation was not too exaggerated as of now. The various organizations would at most feel surprise. However, as more foreign players joined, the special features of the army would become more noticeable, and then the trouble would begin.

As Han Xiao shook his head to clear his thoughts, he inadvertently thought of something else.

“I didn’t expect Evans to already come into contact with the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy…”

Not long ago, Phillip, who had been constantly monitoring Evans, had sent back a report, and Han Xiao was able to see the process and confirm for himself that the cluster of red light was likely related to the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy. However, this appeared much earlier than the time stated by EsGod’s inheritance.

He hypothesized that this was likely just one of the sub-bodies that separated from the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy, returning to the universe ahead of time. It could be sent earlier as well as a coordinate marker. Whichever was the case, it was soon dragged back to the Secondary Dimension by the main body, and the Primal Esper Ability Entity had yet to descend.

This also solved one of Han Xiao’s doubts. There was no wonder that the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy finally chose Evans as a host, as it turned out that he had come into contact with it well in advance.

The moment the red light passes through a person, a mismatch would cause the person to explode and die. Not only was Evans unscathed, he even got rejuvenated. Thus, the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy could confirm that he had the qualification to become a host. He was prepared as backup.

“The date of the birth of the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy is getting closer as well. Judging from my current rate of acquiring experience, I should be able to achieve the Promotion to level 320 before it is born.”

[1] Rattan baskets are usually woven with strips of wood, meaning there are a lot of gaps for water to flow out from.