Chapter 171 Roselyn's Return

Roselyn's return was just a minor interlude. Han Xiao instructed his trusted aides to handle it and temporarily put the matter behind him.

Back in his office, Han Xiao activated the program to monitor the legion players' advance into the black market. Then, he opened the forums to check the players' reactions.

The forums were bustling right now. Topics about taking over the black market occupied a large portion of the page. Since the situation on each planet was different, with huge differences in environment, characters, and events, most people encountered different scenarios.

Some, like Xiang Suji Chi, had rescued their targets in time and obtained a group of professional assistants to continue developing based on the existing black market channels. However, some players were a step late, failed to connect with the black market personnel, and might have to start from scratch to rebuild a black market channel, causing them to be at a loss. Many legion players were sharing their experiences, mixed with quite a few confused posts seeking help.

Meanwhile, a small number of players who had begun to engage in black market operations were also sharing their experiences and insights on the forum—because when Han Xiao issued this mission, he set it as a collective mission with overall completion, depending on the overall trend of taking over the black market.

Each player's mission results would be included in the overall completion score, so it wasn't enough to just do the mission well individually. Players who wanted higher rewards needed others to also contribute, so many pioneers were happy to share and help other legion players take over the black market. It was truly "everyone benefits."

"The current trend seems to be more optimistic than expected. With the current model, players might inject new vitality into the interstellar black market and help connect black markets in various places."

Han Xiao's eyes flickered.

Due to the shady nature of the business, large-scale black market forces spanning star systems and star clusters were rare, and leading figures like the Secret Master, who managed black markets, were even rarer. The vast majority were small-scale black market forces with operating scopes limited to one or two planets or star areas, belonging to the local tyrant type.

Even if there were black market organizations nominally managing the black market, the overall structure of the interstellar black market was still very loose.

The cooperation partners of local tyrant-type black market forces were basically long-term and fixed. Most people only knew their own turf and found it difficult to expand outwards. There were many reasons for this, one of which was the limited flow of information and information asymmetry between small black market forces in different regions.

In Han Xiao's view, if players were to take over black markets in various places on a large scale, the convenience of information through forums and private chat channels might become a catalyst, transforming into an adhesive for many black market forces.

With the incentive of the overall mission progress, most players should be very willing to cooperate with other players. Then, the regional black markets led by legion players might have the opportunity to establish cooperative bridges with each other, which would be much easier than normal methods.

In this way, the goal of "integrating the interstellar black market" that he had proposed at the association could be rapidly advanced.

"This move is not bad, maximizing the use of player characteristics, hitting several birds with one stone..."

Han Xiao's lips curled into a smile. Having developed to this point, he had advanced to become a behind-the-scenes chess player, with the chessboard growing larger and larger. Now, he was truly making moves in the starry sky.

The players still needed time to ferment. Han Xiao closed the forums, took out an encrypted communicator, and made a call to Oathkeeper.

A few seconds later, the communication connected, and Oathkeeper's figure appeared on the screen.

"Black Star, what's the matter?"

"You guys know about the recent sanctions, right?"

"Yes, we monitor them reading the news every day." Oathkeeper nodded. "You're only contacting me now, do you need any help?"

"Sort of. Since the three Universal Civilizations are adopting a sanctioning attitude, as the only person currently in control of the Sanctuary Revival, I have to fight back as well. What they fear most is an excessive number of Beyond Grade As, so it's best to revive some more people to put pressure on them, a targeted approach."

"But the keys haven't been collected yet, so we can't carry out a new round of revival..." Oathkeeper was a little embarrassed.

"No, the Sanctuary keys are so valuable that even if they were collected, I wouldn't use them for this reason... I mean, let's bring some more Sanctuary members out of seclusion. After all, your side is the talent reserve of Beyond Grade As in this struggle, and now is the time when Sanctuary needs to contribute."

Without waiting for Oathkeeper to reply, Han Xiao paused and continued:

"And I think there's a good chance that this wave from the three Universal Civilizations is a test, just to see if I can revive historical Beyond Grade As at will. So it's best to give them a response. The more Beyond Grade As there are, the more uncomfortable the three Universal Civilizations will be, making them feel that the cost of trial and error is too high, so they will be forced to become more and more cautious, and similar tests will be reduced in the future."

"There is indeed such a possibility..." Oathkeeper hesitated for a moment. "I don't object in principle, but you have to talk to them yourself about who will come out of seclusion. Among the second batch of revived, there should still be a considerable number who are unreliable, so it's best to be cautious."

"I know."

Han Xiao nodded, already having people in mind. Among the second batch of revived, those neutral unlucky ghosts who died in the Twilight of the Gods were good candidates, and he could also show the Super Star Cluster Alliance to increase their confidence in the transaction.

Speaking of which, it's been many days, and the Super Star Cluster Alliance hasn't sent the list of resources for exchanging revival slots...

As soon as this thought arose, the communicator rang with a message notification.

"Ding ding—"

Han Xiao opened the split-screen interface and saw that it was the Super Star Cluster Alliance's quotation list for Sanctuary Revival.

'Hey, speak of the devil, and he appears, timely arrival.'

Han Xiao muttered secretly and nodded to Oathkeeper, saying:

"That's roughly the situation. I'll go talk to the revived in a while. In the meantime, please convey my meaning to them these few days and let them be prepared. By the way, give me a reliable list based on their performance over the past year or so."

"...Okay."

Oathkeeper felt strange.

Even though they were partners, he felt like he was someone's subordinate.

After giving a few instructions, Han Xiao ended the communication and turned to browse the Super Star Cluster's list.

For the first batch of exchange slots, he only gave ten. The Super Star Cluster Alliance was generous this time and took out a lot of good things, mostly stock of Universe Treasures and Golden Grade blueprints.

All the Super Star Cluster Civilizations were winners in the Exploration Era War and had raided many civilizations. Although their wealth couldn't compare to the three Universal Civilizations, it was also substantial. They didn't lack Universe Treasures and Golden Grade blueprints either.

However, Han Xiao had kept the matters of the Jebaul Relics and the Sanctuary Legacy very secret. Outsiders didn't understand his current foundation, so the requirements proposed by the Super Star Cluster Alliance with full confidence were, in his view, mostly unremarkable.

Han Xiao picked out three quotations that were somewhat tempting, gave three slots, and sent the rest back, asking the Super Star Cluster to re-quote.

Not long after the message was sent, the Super Star Cluster Alliance's contact came online.

"Black Star, your appetite is too big, don't push your luck. We've already been very sincere!"

Hearing this, Han Xiao secretly curled his lips.

Who are you talking to? Who is in the dominant position now? Don't you know?

"Whether you're sincere is up to me. There are still seven slots, don't want them? Fine, don't buy them."

"...We'll buy them."

"By the way, pay first, then deliver."

"...You're ruthless!"

The Super Star Cluster Alliance's contact went offline depressed.

There was no way around it, monopolizing the market was just that arrogant. He could only complain, but he still had to buy them.

After sending away the contact, Han Xiao closed the virtual screen and was about to go to the mechanical workshop to continue researching the Golden Grade blueprints.

But at this moment, his personal communicator suddenly received a message from Aurora, concise and to the point:

"Major discovery, come quickly!"

Han Xiao was stunned for a moment, and immediately became curious.

Aurora was still traveling outside with Fording. He hadn't been in contact for a while. She basically wouldn't look for him for ordinary things. Now that she suddenly called, he didn't know what the situation was.

However, with her carrying the external lucky halo Fording, no matter what happened, Han Xiao felt that he wouldn't be surprised...

...

At the same time, somewhere in the Black Hole Edge.

"Speaking of which... where did you bring me?"

Inside the spaceship, Aurora swallowed her saliva and stared wide-eyed outside the porthole.

"I don't know either, the outside suddenly became like this..."

Fording also looked in the same direction, his face full of surprise.

The two were originally driving the ship, leisurely traveling in the universe. But just now, the outside environment suddenly changed. The starry sky disappeared, turning into a pitch-black space with not a single starlight visible. It was as if they had passed through some kind of barrier and suddenly entered an unknown realm.

The ship's alarm didn't react at all, and the monitoring instruments didn't show any anomalies.

Shocked, the two immediately manipulated the ship to retreat. However, this pitch-black space seemed to have no concept of distance. Even when the ship accelerated to warp speed, it still remained in place, unable to escape this realm.

The reason they discovered this was because in this pitch-black space, there was a single coordinate reference, and this was precisely the source of their surprise.

Following the two's gaze out of the window, a damaged machine body that reached the sky and earth was quietly suspended in this pitch-black space. Its size was extremely terrifying, many times larger than the Mechanical Deity they had seen.

Compared to it, the spaceship was like a speck of dust on a normal person.

The body structure of this machine body was similar to that of an upright creature, with flesh and blood intertwined with machinery, bones and metal intersecting. It was severely damaged, with holes everywhere.

What shocked Aurora the most was that her ability actually felt a faint vitality pulsating from this machine body.

This thing... seemed to be alive?!