Chapter 646: Training Soldiers
With the day of the Pro League drawing ever closer, practically all the players began to gather on the host planet. Even if they were not competing, they could still participate in the arena as spectators. This would be a large-scale event involving the entire playerbase, and for players who loved lively events, this was something that they could not miss.
The uninhabited planet that served as the competition grounds started to be filled with life. Spaceships flew in and out, and the entire planet served as the battlefield, a vast area. The players officiating and volunteers had constructed many platforms and viewing stands. Continuing the style of the previous season, they had allowed the players to participate in the construction of the venue, to enhance their sense of being part of the event. Since there were also many players that were idling away, they were happy to help out.
The casual players prepared the venue in full swing on the planet, while the participating players took advantage of the time to do their final preparations, strengthen their equipment, and upgrade their skills.
Han Xiao had brought a fleet, with a flagship serving as the core. They carried various stocks from the warehouse as they came toward the game planet. When the Black Star fleet appeared, the players on the planet were surprised as they did not know why the Army’s fleet had appeared.
After the fleet arrived, it remained floating in outer space. The players were curious; thus, they entered the flagship, only to find Han Xiao inside.
When the players asked, Han Xiao’s reply was concise.
“My intelligence showed that a large portion of our mercenaries had gathered on this uninhabited planet. This puzzled me, and I thought that you guys would be in trouble, so I came over to take a look.”
This reason was both acceptable yet unexpected to the players. Many of them found it interesting.
The players had long gotten used to actual feedback from the NPCs. Their every action would determine the judgment of the NPC as well as the change in Galaxy itself. This sort of strong interactive feedback mechanism often left the players in full immersion.
As a member of the Black Star Army, to have tens of thousands of their people gathered in one place such that the leader of the faction actually got alarmed and came to inspect was a refreshing experience to the visitors.
In terms of character interaction, some players enjoyed role-playing, conversing with the NPCs in accordance with the game to make it as realistic as possible, while others liked to directly admit to Han Xiao that they were having a tournament.
“If that’s the case, I would like to assess my mercenaries’ growth. Just nice, I don’t have anything on at the moment,” Han Xiao replied in a natural tone, pretending to ignore the words such as ‘Pro League’ and other game related terms. He instead implied that they were doing this as a large-scale friendly spar.
The majority of players did not doubt him. They did not expect an NPC to appear to observe their Pro League, but this only made it more interesting.
In addition, upon finding out that the ship was stocked with various services for supply and maintenance as well as equipment and potions, the players were even more pleased. This meant that there was now a convenience store right beside them.
The happiest group was actually the club players. Because they were filthy rich, the services that Black Star provided could allow them to flexibly adjust their tactics without the need to run to other planets to prepare their supplies. This saved them a lot of time.
Having Han Xiao spectate the event would naturally not be suspicious to the players. As long as he did not move toward that topic, nobody would think about the strangeness of this whole affair.
No matter how low the possibility of a player suspecting him as an NPC, even if someone really found out, it was useless. For him to have gone through so much from the start, if there were problems, they would have popped up long ago. As long as he did not interfere in the Pro League, maintaining his distance, there was no need to panic.
Three days later, the highly anticipated Second Pro League officially began!
The first stage was naturally the qualifiers. This could be considered a side dish before the main course. Directed by the league staff, the numerous contestants formed teams to undergo an elimination process and obtain the qualifications to enter the formal round.
Because the venue was much larger compared to the First Pro League, the time taken for the qualifiers had been greatly shortened.
On the forums, the officials released the highlights of the qualifiers for each division. Any Second Pro League content was thoroughly analyzed, and anything not related to the Pro League was lost in the sea of posts.
The players of every country were discussing the giants, seeded players as well as potential dark horses.
On the Chinese board, the main teams of the four giants had direct team entry for the regular season and did not need to participate in the qualifiers. The teams that received the most attention were the front-line teams such as Thunder Storm, Fanatics, and so on.
Frenzied Sword’s Rivervale also caught the eyes of many. Eliminating team after team, they blazed through the qualifiers.
In the Singles, King Admiral, Frenzied Sword, and the others who had fought and entered the International competition also had the right to skip the qualifiers, sparing themselves from the intense competition.
Unlike the team qualifiers, because the Singles was open to all, the majority of players wanted to have a go at it. Thus, the number of players in that event was the highest, practically the entire gaming community.
Compared to Version 1.0, the strength of the players was now much stronger, giving rise to various genres and fighting styles, as well as tricks. The scenes were more intense, full of lights and stars as different abilities were used, making everyone who looked at it dizzy.
Since entering the galaxy, the players had also begun to come into contact with the Mage and Psychic classes. A number of newcomers, as well as old players who were playing on new accounts, had chosen those two classes. All the competition divisions had the same five professions for Supers, but the ratio was different. For the Professions that had only popped out in Version 2.0, the proportion of players were naturally the least.
However, compared to his previous lifetime, the situation had changed. Originally, the proportion of players in the Mechanic class had been the second lowest, ranked even behind the Mage class. However, the number of players with the Mechanic profession was the second highest, only losing out to the Pugilist class.
This was because Han Xiao had swayed a lot of players to the class advancement of a Mechanic back in Version 1.0.
The other point that Han Xiao noted was that the players in China had a stronger average strength, surpassing that of his past life. Because he had allowed Planet Aquamarine to enter the galaxy a couple of years earlier than the rest, be it experience, money, or combat capability, the region of Shattered Star Ring had more advantages compared to his past life. Rich resources had allowed for better support for various combat capability and tactics, and any half-decent battle teams had standards that were well above the norm.
The Second Pro League event was unprecedented, as the entire planet was used as a battlefield. The qualifiers and divisional battles proceeded quickly, and with the schedule being shorter than the first Pro League, the feeling was more intense.
In ten days, the qualifiers finally came to an end, and the season roster of each division was released.
The lists released in the other regions were not much different compared to the previous season, but in the Shattered Star Ring, the season roster had undergone a significant change. While the strong teams were still in the running as with the previous season, there were large changes seen in the lower rungs, with many new teams and players surfacing.
One of them that made Han Xiao feel a little surprised was Maple Moon, who was only supposed to take part from the Third Pro League onward. Not only did she participate in this season, she had even entered the roster of Top 64 places in the Singles tournament, making her one of the dark horses.
Han Xiao had watched the video channel of Maple Moon. She was usually grouped together with Frenzied Sword and Hao Tian, and their standards rose extremely quickly as a result. Whatever Enas they earned would be spent immediately. She had possessed the potential to go Pro from the beginning, or else she could not have become so famous in his past life.
However, compared to his previous life, Maple Moon’s standard was still a distance from her peak. The main reason she had managed to enter the Singles ranking was because she had bought the blueprint of the Void Dragon Mechanical suit from Han Xiao and created her own poorer version of it. Only in the Third Pro League would the Mechanic profession begin to display its version advantages and rise to power. Right now, the Mechanic class was neither strong nor weak, and equipped with a mechanical suit that was considered god-like in this Version, while she could not crush everyone, Maple Moon could afford to make more mistakes.
As the saying went, every version would have a generation of gods. The Mechanic profession in Version 2.0 was not strong enough, but with the great tutor Han Xiao, the players who chose the Mechanic profession had cut off a lot of dead ends. At least within the Shattered Star Ring, the disadvantages of a Mechanic were not so obvious.
Within the Singles list, there were at least ten more players in the Mechanic class than in his past life. In the area of team battles, the Mechanic class was also an important team member required for every team.
Han Xiao had made quite the killing in the qualifiers. The machinery went without saying, as most of the players were using Black Star’s equipment. The sales for the Genetic Medicine also increased, with the clubs buying them in large quantities since they could provide a sudden edge in battle. If not for the abundance of stock, it was likely that the clubs would have bought all the Genetic Medicine that Han Xiao had in stock.
Taking advantage of the Pro League to earn a quick buck, the sum of Han Xiao’s bank deposit broke through his short-term goal.
With the qualifiers over, the main course was about to arrive.
The impact of Han Xiao’s recent large-scale operation still lingered, with the various organizations observing the every move of the Black Star Army.
The scene of large numbers of ‘Black Star Mercenaries’ gathering on a random planet for a competition gathered the attention of many of the organizations, which made them start to guess the intentions of Han Xiao.
When a few of the Mercenary Groups learned of this news, envy filled their expressions. This incident indirectly demonstrated the control that Black Star had over his Mercenary Group. Most mercenaries had no loyalty or bonds to speak of, but Black Star had thousands of these ‘comrades’. Not only were they cohesive, they were also willing to follow Black Star’s orders to act in unison without him having to spend a single cent. This was more reliable than those freelance mercenaries that most groups hired.
Many of the organizations believed that Black Star had what it took to transform from a mercenary group into a proper armed organization in the future.
Because the incident had added a lot of helpers to Section Zero, the Black Star Army’s name had entered the sight of the upper echelons in the Purple Crystal Civilization, and they looked favorably upon the Black Star Army.
Currently, Han Xiao only required a few hundred more faction favorability points to reach the Respect tier.
This time’s situation also attracted the attention of the Purple Crystal Civilization.
“Black Star has gathered more than eighty percent of his mercenaries on the planet to battle with each other. What is he doing?”
In the office of Section Zero, many of the foreign affairs officers were discussing this matter.
Ralph rapped on the table as he confidently smiled.
“There’s only one explanation. Training. Black Star’s training his soldiers!”
The eyes of everyone present lit up as they began to nod and praise him.
Ralph was full of smiles. In his mind, the Black Star Army was undergoing mock battles to simulate an actual battlefield.
“What a reliable ally.” Ralph could not help but sigh.
