1089 Black Star Cup

Inside the exclusive training room in Black Star Palace, Mysterious Energy Host stood by the door and complained furiously to the two people in the room nonstop.

Han Xiao raised his hand and shattered a holy light shockwave from Aurora. He then scratched his ear, feeling like he was almost going deaf.

Ever since Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy found out that Han Xiao had found the Holy Light Particle a master, he instantly went mad.

Initially, he wanted to drag his old friend down so that they could happily be locked inside machines together. He did not want to feel lonely anymore. However, to his shock, although he was the one who led the way to the Holy Light Particle, the Holy Light Particle received much better treatment.

Why do you have a master by I have to be locked inside this metal‽

I want a master too!

Lately, as long as Han Xiao called him out, the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy would nag nonstop around him.

“Master! Master! Master!” Han Xiao said with resignation. “Can you stop complaining?”

“No!”

A vein appeared on Han Xiao’s forehead. His patience had reached the limit. “Are you forcing me to turn on silent mode for the Mysterious Energy Host? You won’t even be able to speak at all then!”

Hearing this, Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy finally shut up.

Being trapped in a tool was bad enough. He could only speak because Black Star was kind enough to let it. If he was not even able to speak, he would have zero means of entertainment.

However, Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy was still frustrated. After less than a minute, he uncontrollably spoke again with a soft tone like a wronged wife. “But I really want a master…”

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and said, “How old are you? Can you have some pride? Are all Primal Esper Abilities as shameless as you?”

Holy Light Particle who was watching the show from the side heard that and said, “Bullsh*t, most Primal Esper Abilities have cla.s.s. It’s the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy who spoiled our name!”

Furious, the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy yelled, “Shut up! You’re not much better than me!”

“Alas, it’s so comfortable to be inside my master, so much warmer than being in a metal tin,” the Holy Light Particle said with a lazy tone.

Staying in Aurora’s body and being nurtured by her Vital Energy was as comfortable as enjoying hot springs. No matter how the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy yelled at him, he always used this response to make the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy even more frustrated and irritated.

Listening to the two Esper Abilities fight, Han Xiao could not help but ma.s.sage his temples.

These two must be the floor of virtue among the Primal Esper Abilities…

“Alright, alright, that’s it for today.” Han Xiao waved.

Hearing this, Aurora obediently deactivated her ability. Like a duck that got suffocated, the annoying Holy Light Particle suddenly shut up and went silent.

“Erm… uncle, how did I do?”

Aurora looked a little anxious.

She had not been a combatant in the past, so she rarely accepted combat training from Han Xiao at all. The only times she did was as Hila’s support, and that was many years ago.

During the combat training, Han Xiao was not as kind and gentle as usual. He was quite strict.

Aurora did not have many opportunities to take part in direct combat, so her combat experience was limited. Therefore, she was worried she might not have done well.

“Not too bad. You need to make smarter choices…” Han Xiao called Aurora close and guided her step by step.

After Aurora learned to control the Holy Light Particle, she had the ability to take on direct battles. Although she would still not really have the chance to fight, Han Xiao still trained her personally to help her master the combat techniques of the Holy Light Particle.

While doing so, Han Xiao also tested the Holy Light Particle’s special ability to ‘punish evil’. This ability was completely subjective. Whether something was evil or not completely depended on the feelings of its master and the target.

The punishment effect Han Xiao received was very weak. According to the Holy Light Particle, in Aurora’s heart, he was a great man, and she had never once felt he was evil. The weak damage mainly came from how Han Xiao felt about himself. He had never felt he was a righteous man.

After a bit more guidance, Han Xiao sent Aurora away, summoned Phillip, and looked at the changes that had occurred in the army after the Holy Light Seed system was announced.

Quite a few days had already pa.s.sed after the Holy Light Seed announcement. The impact was enormous. Many people had applied to join from every Star Field. Therefore, the army had to, of course, filter the applicants. Also, the cost of recruiting and paying salaries to those people was not a small amount.

The good news was, most ordinary people came for the chance of acquiring extraordinary power, so their goal was clear and straightforward, meaning they were resilient to pressure.

Therefore, without any internal moral conflict, Han Xiao told Sylvia to lower the basic salary of these newcomers to cut costs. This way, the army would be able to recruit more people at a lower cost. Anyway, these people were not here for the money, so it was a great opportunity to let the army acquire a large amount of cheap labor. Furthermore, in order to gain merits, these people would definitely work hard.

What? This is oppression?

No, no, no, this is called fighting to make their dreams come true.

Showing them what they could obtain by working hard was a must-learn for leaders.

Seeing the rocketing business performance across all industries, Han Xiao nodded with satisfaction and asked about another matter.

“How’s the Army Tournament plan I told Sylvia to come up with? Let me take a look.”

The virtual screen before him turned into a plan drafted by Sylvia.

Han Xiao looked through it in detail. Sylvia basically followed the structure he gave. Sparring was just one of the many programs. There were also all kinds of technical, sports, and entertainment compet.i.tions. Of them, the sports and entertainment compet.i.tions were the highest in number.

Furthermore, the army members could also request certain compet.i.tions. As long as they were not nonsense, there was a chance these requests would be approved. Han Xiao had no doubts the players would request soccer and play some ‘Shaolin Soccer’.

Based on the strength of army members, each Grade was cla.s.sified into a group, ensuring that the partic.i.p.ants would only meet compet.i.tors of the same Grade. At the same time, he also gave the players the freedom to choose either to join their own groups or the NPC groups.

Of course, encouragement measures could not be left out. No matter what group or program, as long as the partic.i.p.ant’s placement was high, the army would give out a grand reward. This would ensure that most army warriors would be interested in taking part.

In order to let members who did not take part or were eliminated early still partic.i.p.ate in some way, Sylvia suggested opening up bets for all the programs and compet.i.tions.

This way, it would receive attention from the entire army. As an armed force, there were tons of gambling addicts. Even those who did not gamble normally would also be influenced by the atmosphere to place some bets.

At the same time, this would also earn back the cost of hosting the event. Sylvia even planned to sell tickets, broadcast it across the entire universe, and charge for it. She had a way of making money.

Han Xiao thought this was a good idea. He could use this opportunity to start a compet.i.tion league, like the sports compet.i.tions in his previous life, building a platform where Supers could display their prowess. This might be quite popular.

In the future, perhaps other Beyond Grade A organizations could take part. Since the development union prevented physical conflicts, this might be one way for the Beyond Grade As to display their strength, by letting their subordinates earn some honor for their organizations.

“According to this plan, this is going to be a festival the entire army will take part in, which will affect business operations. However, the sense of unity brought by this kind of large faction event is quite impressive. Not only the players but the normal army members also need ways to relax outside of work,” Han Xiao murmured.

To the players, the focus of the Flickering World version was to ride the tide of the era and fight each other, carrying out the first round of national wars on this grand stage. The clubs’ final goal was to be placed high in the International League.

Hence, if he, an NPC, hosted an even larger compet.i.tion in the early- to mid-stage of the version, it would definitely be loved by the players as a warmup for the Pro League. This way, the appeal of his faction would evolve from a powerful organization with a lot of benefits to the host of a compet.i.tion in the players’ eyes.

In order to take part in the Army Tournament, one naturally had to be in the army. No players from other factions would be able to take part in it. Therefore, once the players recognized the importance of the Army Tournament, the army would become a faction many players had to join like when it was the guiding faction in Version 2.0.

“This kind of large-scale faction event is not suitable to be hosted too often. Once every five to ten years should be best. Also, it needs a better name. ‘Army Tournament’ lacks personality.”

Thinking of his pitiful talent for naming things, Han Xiao was not confident and called Phillip out.

“Give me a name.”

Phillip tilted his head and said, “How about… Army Gala, hum?”

Han Xiao’s face trembled. Why not just call it the Spring Festival Gala?

“Too boring, give me a cool and flashy one.”

“Then… Galaxy Super Clas.h.!.+ Top of the Universe, Black Star Army Peak Tournament! Hum!”

What the h.e.l.l? What stupid information did those players share with Phillip?

“Let’s not make it too flashy…”

Phillip gave another few names. In the end, Han Xiao officially decided to call it the Black Star Cup Army Tournament, or Black Star Cup in short. Simple and easily understood, it even included his name.

Han Xiao then made some adjustments to the plan and sent it to Sylvia. He decided to make an announcement about the first Black Star Cup another day. A lot of time was required to prepare for such a large event, so he decided to announce it first to preheat it like the players’ Pro League.

The scale of the Black Star Cup was so much bigger than the Pro League. The Pro League only included the players, while the entire army could take part in this. Although there were more than eight million army players, this was still a small number compared to the total members of the army.

However, most players had reached Grade B. Their importance was completely different compared to before. They could already be considered a very important force in the army.

In the universe, Grade Bs were considered the backbones of their forces. They were powerful in any non-Beyond Grade A organization. Even many Beyond Grade A organizations did not have as many Grade Bs as there were army players.

In the past few months, he had attracted a lot of attention, so he needed time to digest the influence it had brought. This was a good opportunity to direct all the attention to the army, so it was the best time to host the Black Star Cup.

Furthermore, Han Xiao had another more important goal.

The period of time when the players had the strongest desire to spend was before the Pro Leagues of every version. The players would only spend without hesitation to turn their money into strength before a large event.

Currently, the Flickering World was going from the early stage to the middle stage. Although no player had reached the maximum level yet, after acc.u.mulating for close to a year, many players had quite thick wallets.

“Some leeks… are ripe.”

Han Xiao sighed.

His scythe was ready.