Chapter 721 The World Doesn’t Lack ‘Smart People’

Through the forums and internal message system within the army, the players who were in the other bases also received news about the discount they could get if they partic.i.p.ated in the war.

Around ten days later, more than a million players gathered at the headquarters of the army and chose to partic.i.p.ate in the war.

A portion of the players fell for Han Xiao’s marketing strategy and surrendered their entire wallet to him. In just half a month, they provided the Black Star Army with a few hundred million in pure profit.

However, most of the players still placed their focus on leveling up. For example, all the professional players focused fully on leveling up during the start of the version, and the number of players who chose to learn new knowledge were the minority.

Han Xiao did not feel discouraged. When the players became fat with experience and had some extra experience points, they would definitely purchase the various knowledge from the army; it was only a matter of time before their experience became his. Just the profit from this half a month was more than the total that he had earned over the past seven years.

The players happily enjoyed their new equipment while Han Xiao happily counted his money.

In just half a month, Han Xiao increased his level to 217, and he was only three levels away from level 220.

After this round of harvesting, he had pretty much emptied all the savings of the players, and they needed some time to recover.

The players’ savings are still too little. At the end of the previous version, many of the players went to partic.i.p.ate in the preliminary round of the Pro League for fun and used all their experience points leveling up their skills. It is best I feed them until they are fat first.

In the lounge of the conference room, a group of officers were playing cards and creating a loud commotion. Han Xiao sat on the sofa alone and began thinking of his future plans.

After this battle, I should be able to gather enough experience to reach the next promotion mission. The gap to becoming a Beyond Grade A Super is becoming narrower.

While it would not be that easy for him to become a Beyond Grade A Super, Han Xiao was satisfied with his current progress. The other Beyond Grade A seeds still could not find a way to break into the Beyond Grade A realm and were stuck at a bottleneck. On the contrary, his growth was only reliant on his leveling speed, and he did not have any real bottlenecks.

Furthermore, he still had a stash of Mission Completion Cards. As long as he had sufficient experience, his growth would be smooth.

Just as Han Xiao was thinking, a loud cheer could be heard from the side.

Lagi had a look of resignation on his face as he made his cla.s.sic pessimistic remark. He then stood up to leave his seat. On the other side of the table, Reynold sat down with his back straight and a calm expression on his face. He nodded slightly as though to say, Thank you for letting me win.

“Not bad, our Logistics Manager won five games in a row.”

“Tsk, I lost 50,000 Enas. I should’ve bet on Reynold instead.”

“Our vice commander was completely thrashed. His skills are just too lousy.”

“The logical thinking process of a Mechanic is truly amazing… but why is His Excellency Black Star so terrible at playing cards?”

Sylvia turned around and said to Han Xiao, “Teacher! Someone is talking bad about you!”

Han Xiao snapped back to reality and walked toward Sylvia with his hands behind his back. Standing behind Sylvia, he bent down slightly and placed his chin on Sylvia’s head. His gaze then swept past all the officers with an expression that said, Let me see who is talking bad about me.

Because the majority of the officers had partic.i.p.ated in the battle a few days ago, almost all the core members of the army were present in headquarters. Han Xiao had held a short meeting before this, and after the meeting, everyone had gone to the lounge to play cards and opened a betting station.

Han Xiao was not interested in partic.i.p.ating in any activity that relied on luck.

Reynold was originally studying a blueprint by the side, but after Sylvia lost a few games in a row, she insisted on dragging Reynold into the game to vent some anger for her.

While Reynold did not like wasting time on entertainment activities such as Wayne Cards, he would occasionally be invited to join a game or two and thus had his own deck.

Playing Wayne Cards seemed to be a part of all the officers’ resumes.

While all the officers had powerful combat capabilities, they usually did not manage administrative matters. When they were not deployed, they also had hobbies like an ordinary individual.

Since he had decided to play, Reynold naturally treated every game seriously. He had a powerful logical reasoning skill, and he had always been good at playing cards. He won five games in a row and did not even show his sister Rossellin any mercy.

Reynold collected his cards and looked around expressionlessly. “Who else?”

“Teacher, why not you play a round too,” Sylvia then said with a cheeky smile.

“I bet that Black Star will lose,” Harmon said honestly. “It is a sure win bet.”

“Not bad.” Han Xiao snorted. “I will beat whoever dares to win against me to death. Who wants to play?”

“No no no.”

Everyone waved their hands immediately. You’re the boss. You’re the strongest. Of course, we won’t dare to play.

Reynold knocked on the table lightly and said, “If no one is playing with me, I shall take my leave.”

Right at this moment, Herlous stepped forward and sat opposite Reynold. Let me take you on.

“I shall let you understand the true meaning of skill.”

“It should be the true meaning of luck, right?” Reynold replied expressionlessly.

Herlous snorted. “Humph, luck is a type of skill too.”

“It’s over. Reynold’s victory streak shall end here.”

“Reynold, take care of this b*stard.”

Everyone cheered on excitedly.

After seven years of hard work, Herlous had finally stepped into the doors of a Calamity Grade Super. His talent was truly higher than his peers, and he lived up to the name of being a protagonist character. It was as though he had become a Grade A Super just by playing cards.

Among all the officers, Herlous enjoyed playing Wayne Cards the most. Because all his victories usually come from a lucky draw, together with the fact that Feidin did not like to play cards, Herlous had some prestige in the Wayne Card world of the Black Star Army.

Even the players knew that he would never reject an opponent, and even they could find Herlous to play cards against. There were even corresponding missions, and they could obtain experience points if they beat Herlous, even getting the chance to obtain a rare card from him.

After a few lines of trash talk, Herlous started his game with Reynold. Both of them were using a Black Star Army deck.

Five years ago, the Wayne Cards had been refreshed, and despite being a subsidiary of Floating Dragon, the Black Star Army had more Wayne Cards than Floating Dragon. Han Xiao’s card was strengthened greatly with plenty of special effects and high HP. His card had already become a rare card.

Not too long later, Herlous got a few lucky draws in a row. Despite Reynold’s skills being superior, he was still on the losing end.

A thought suddenly sprung up in Han Xiao’s head, and he gave Herlous a (Luck Curse).

“Humph, you are dead.” Herlous drew with confidence, but after glancing at his card, his face froze up.

Wayne Cards were pretty much determined by luck, and Herlous’ Luck attribute was still higher than his after being reduced by ninety percent. But in front of Reynold, he could only lose miserably after a few terrible draws, and Reynold easily turned the tables.

“Eh? Your luck finally isn’t working?”

“Haha, you can also have such a day.”

Herlous’ face darkened, and he quibbled, “What do you lot know? This is a strategic retreat. I will turn the tables in a while.”

Everyone around burst into laughter, and the entire room was filled with energy.

Han Xiao did not join in the fun and returned to the sofa to check the forums.

It had been less than half a month since the release of Version 3.0, and the players from the other Star Fields were still in the exploratory phase. The news that had been released by Han Xiao had become a clue for the other players who were searching for the Main Storyline Missions in the various Star Fields.

This time, the Main Storyline Mission in the Shattered Star Ring was the first to appear again, and the players from the other Star Fields were all extremely jealous. As such, the forum of the Shattered Star Ring was the liveliest, with players from many other Star Fields coming to leave their comments.

Coincidentally, Bun-Hit-Dog’s new video was also released, and it discussed how the Black Star Army was a hidden Main Storyline Mission that spanned across three different versions. A huge wave of discussion was created, and both Han Xiao and the Black Star Army became the hottest topic in the past half a month.

Han Xiao briefly looked through the post, and it was mainly describing his importance and past events. Bun-Hit-Dog helped to boost his fame, which was never a bad thing.

The event that made Han Xiao the happiest was that Galaxy Times introduced the benefits of the Black Star Army according to the players’ information.

Version 3.0 would bring about a new wave of players joining the game, and the introduction from Galaxy Times would sway many into choosing the Shattered Star Ring as their starting point. This would directly result in a large increase in the number of players.

Knowledge can only be learned once, and these new players represent a new market. Apart from Planet Aquamarine, there are a few other novice planets in the Shattered Star Ring. I need to find some time to construct a Black Star Army base on those planets and bring those players into the army.

Apart from the players who started off with him from Version 1.0, it was time for Han Xiao to increase the size of his crops.

The players from the other Star Fields also represent a huge market. It is a pity that the distance between Star Fields is too large. The Black Star Army still isn’t able to leave the Shattered Star Ring, and there isn’t any hope of capturing those markets for now.

Han Xiao shook his head silently. He had always been eyeing the players from the other Star Fields, but because of the distance, he had not been able to include them in his plans.

While casually glancing at the posts, one of the posts caught his eye.

The t.i.tle of the post was ‘The True Strategy of the Secret War’.

What is this true strategy? Why don’t I know about it?

Han Xiao clicked on the post, and the owner of the post was someone called Summer Night Flower. The content of the post made Han Xiao raise his brows in response.

“… there are actually two factions that we can choose from in the secret war, and everyone should already know about this. However, we all belong to the Black Star Army and automatically belong to the Purple Crystal faction. Since that’s the case, why can we still choose the Klent faction? I think that a hint is hidden behind this.

“This hint is: Joining Klent will bring us more benefits than staying in the Black Star Army!

“This is the true strategy of the Main Storyline Mission!

“I am not spouting nonsense. Firstly, I’ve investigated the events that have happened over the past ten years. Bloodshed Land have had the upper hand from the beginning of the war, and they still have the advantage. They are invading more and more territories, and it seems like Klent has a much larger chance of victory.

“By looking back at the example of the Germinal Organization and Mutation Disaster, I have concluded that the Main Storyline Missions are out of our league, and players aren’t able to affect the direction of the storyline.

“The secret war is fought between two Star Cl.u.s.ter Civilizations, and I don’t think that we will be able to affect the outcome of the war.

“In other words, Klent will be the final victor of the war!

“While we will be able to receive benefits from staying in the Black Star Army, we will fail the Main Storyline Mission, which will result in a lower Mission Rating. If we join Klent, even if we skip the missions, our Mission Rating will be increased.

“Second, there aren’t many players joining Klent at the moment, and the compet.i.tion is low. This means that we will have a greater chance of obtaining more resources. The Black Star Army has over a million players, and with so many people fighting for resources and missions, we will have to expend more energy to receive reward.

“Third, the connection to future versions. Klent’s backer is the Crimson Dynasty, which is one of the three great Universal Civilizations. The future versions will probably revolve around the Universal Civilizations, and joining Klent will open a door for us that leads to the Universal Civilizations.

“Regardless of how powerful the Black Star Army becomes, it will be impossible for them to exceed a Universal Civilization.

“Thus, we will only be able to enjoy short-term benefits if we join the Black Star Army and will end up losing more opportunities. Perhaps the benefits of the Black Star Army are no more than a trap. Only an intelligent individual will be able to see through it and join Klent!”

After reading the post, Han Xiao had a strange feeling

He recognized this player called Summer Night Flower. In his previous life, Summer Night Flower was a famous player who triggered a hidden storyline. He enjoyed a.n.a.lyzing storylines, and he had some fame.

If Han Xiao was being honest with himself, Summer Night Flower’s a.n.a.lysis truly seemed extremely logical.

However, Summer Night Flower was wrong from the very beginning. This was something that Han Xiao had purposely created, and there was no hidden hint or anything.

If someone really believed this post and chose to join Klent, the outcome would truly be terrible for them.

Han Xiao had a look of resignation on his face.

Even if you wanted to come up with a hypothesis, you should at least get your facts straight.

Hopefully no one ends up being fooled…