Counting his assets, he had 1.5 billion experience points and about 900,000 Enas. Without players for a year, he could only rely on quests for experience, greatly reducing the speed of acquiring rewards. When there were players, it was like eating delicacies every day, but now it was the hard life of plain buns and salted vegetables.

"Black Star?" Sylvia finally stuttered through an entire passage of mechanical theory, only to see that Han Xiao didn't respond, as if he was in a daze. She couldn't help but call out to him.

"I'm listening." Han Xiao looked up, thought for a moment, put down the book, and said, "We're leaving Juberly Hub in two days. You're coming with us. Tomorrow, I'll help you awaken your Qi. That's it for today. You can go back."

After Sylvia left, Han Xiao locked the mechanical modification room and took out paper and pen to record some thoughts.

"Now that the players are gone, the only power I can use is the cadres around me and the Sunils. They aren't immortal, so I have to be cautious. This year is the preparation stage for version 2.0. I need to establish an advantage. I have a lot of work to do."

"First and foremost, the most important thing is naturally my advancement quest. The stronger I am, the safer I am and the better I can handle things. I must find a relatively weak A grade opponent. Even so, the risk is still great... But it also comes with benefits. Completing the level 100 advancement gives me another chance for racial sublimation, greatly increasing my overall combat power."

Han Xiao tapped the table with the tip of his pen, frowning in thought. He searched his memory for suitable candidates, names flashing through his mind, but he quickly eliminated them. Some were too strong, some were too far away, and some suitable ones hadn't appeared yet.

In his heart, the best target was of course Ember, whom he had fought before. He could restrain the opponent's abilities, but that guy hadn't reached A grade yet, and seemed to have died under the fleet's bombardment. He could only regretfully pass.

"Ugh, no suitable target. What should I do..." Han Xiao scratched his head in annoyance.

The main difficulty was the huge gap between his own people and A grade characters. Moreover, the restriction was that he couldn't let companions above his own tier intervene, meaning he couldn't seek outside help from Dragon Emperor. Relying on a group of B grades to kill an A grade was many times more difficult than Sylvia's assassination attempt on him. The resistance and HP of A grade powerhouses meant that many tricks wouldn't work on them, and anyone who could become an A grade character was cautious and would not easily fall into traps.

If he wanted to kill them head-on at his level, he could only use high-tech, high-power weapons or traps, such as a Destroyer-class battleship's quantum annihilation cannon, or a Doom Ring forbidden spell scroll. However, there was no channel to buy them.

Moreover, his cadres weren't players. If they learned that they were going to deal with an A grade, they would definitely have opinions and might not be willing to risk doing such a meaningless thing, unless the target had a deep-seated hatred for them. Only by choosing an A grade powerhouse from DarkStar as the target would Melos not object.

Although Han Xiao knew the abilities and details of DarkStar's A grade powerhouses, such as "Wind Demon" Anul, "Mind Burst" Vimila, and "Mountain Hammer" Rogo, he couldn't afford to provoke any of them. Moreover, DarkStar's power was vast and its movements were elusive, making it too unfeasible.

Although Han Xiao could wait until the opening of version 2.0 to instruct the players to deal with powerful enemies, first of all, wasting a year without progress would make facing DarkStar in version 2.0 very dangerous. Second, even if a thousand C grade players came, they would be instantly killed by an A grade, and even if they could be resurrected, they would only be cannon fodder and wouldn't be of any use.

Not to mention A grades, the great mechanic Han himself could take on a group of players.

Han Xiao felt a headache, like a rat pulling a turtle, unable to start with his level 100 advancement quest.

Difficult!

So freaking difficult!

If he could resurrect like the players, he could use his life to grind and wouldn't be so conflicted. He could just charge forward like an iron-headed baby. However, he only had one chance. Once he failed, he would be done for. Various factors made this advancement quest almost impossible to complete.

"Then I can only take a roundabout approach..." Han Xiao sighed, supporting his forehead.

The chances of completing the advancement quest through normal means were too slim. Fortunately, he still had a risky method.

Quest Completion Card!

The effect was to obtain the quest reward with the lowest evaluation, which was considered passing the quest.

It was perfect for the advancement quest. There were no quest evaluation rewards, but as long as he passed, he could advance.

In the eyes of players, the effect of the Quest Completion Card was relatively ordinary. It was generally used in extremely difficult quests, but the minimum reward was not much, and it was better to try the quest himself. Therefore, although this item was rare, it was not precious. After completing the Germination main quest, Han Xiao had a chance for a random reward. The Quest Completion Card had appeared before, but he had chosen another Ability Potential Enhancement Fluid at the time. Although he needed the Quest Completion Card now, it was undoubtedly more rare than the Ability Potential Enhancement Fluid at that time.

"There are two ways to obtain the Quest Completion Card. First, it will appear in random rewards. Only by passing difficult quests with a high evaluation will there be a chance for random rewards. Second, certain quests have this reward. Third, recharge, purchase in the store, limited to 5 per month..."

The third was directly excluded, and the second was not feasible, because the triggers of specific tasks were in other star systems and were too far away. After thinking about it, only the first option had a chance.

"The good thing is that it avoids the risk of dealing with A grades. The bad thing is that it's full of uncertainty."

Han Xiao shook his head.

Let the young people do adventurous things. We old bones should be steady and reliable.

...

The next day, Sylvia arrived on time. Han Xiao had promised to teach her how to awaken her Qi today. She hadn't slept well all night, full of anticipation, nervousness, and trepidation.

"Sit down." Han Xiao pointed to the chair beside him. The armrests, backrest, and legs all had restraints, similar to an electric chair.

"Wh-what is this..."

Sylvia couldn't help but swallow, forcing a smile. "I remember that awakening Machina Force seems to only require simple training..."

The magic system could generate mana through meditation. Although the mechanical system mainly used mechanical objects, there was also a similar way to awaken their unique Machina Force to increase their affinity with machines.

"What you're talking about is the conventional method. It's too slow. I said, you have supergene and mechanical talent. I have a shortcut."

Han Xiao's tone was calm. If it was confirmed that a person had mechanical potential, there was a quick way to awaken Machina Force, which was to have another mechanical system use Machina Force to stimulate the other person's body, which would speed up the awakening. This was what he saw in the mechanical literature... Of course, if the target had no potential, it wouldn't be much different from electrocution...

Although players had different growth methods and didn't need to go through these stages, many documents recorded the training methods of different classes. In the eyes of players, these "details" enhanced the sense of immersion.

Without saying a word, Han Xiao tied Sylvia to the chair, spread out his palm, and electric snakes shot out, gathering into a ball of irregular light, flashing with frightening electric light. He glanced at Sylvia, whose body was tense and face was terrified.

"Relax, don't be nervous."

Sylvia was terrified, twisting non-stop. "D-don't come... Ah!!"

Before she could finish, Han Xiao grabbed Sylvia's forehead with his big hand, and the electric light poured back, flowing along her body, flickering uncertainly.

Zzzzzz!!

Sylvia trembled violently, like an electrocuted fish. The chair rattled and her whole body was penetrated by electricity, her muscles contracting wildly, feeling numb and tingling, as if her body was no longer her own.

"That's enough, don't electrocute her to death..."

Han Xiao counted the time, his eyes flashed, and he withdrew his hand and retreated.

Sylvia collapsed in the chair, her head hanging low, her body emitting white smoke. She hadn't recovered from the pain yet. She wanted to speak, but her whole body was numb and her tongue wouldn't obey.

A special sense was born in her body, very weak, but definitely existed. Sylvia barely mustered her energy and tried to control it. A faint trace of electricity flashed through her skin a few times.

"I've activated your supergene. You already have Magnetic Force. With regular training, you can grow stronger. I'll teach you how to train your Qi in a few days. Go back and memorize another book of mechanical theory." Han Xiao untied the restraints, expressionless. "Go change your clothes now."

Sylvia barely stood up straight, looked down, her expression twitching. In the end, she couldn't help it and burst into tears, rushing out of the room crying.

Just then, Melos came to the door and almost got bumped into. He asked in surprise, "What did you do to her... Wait, what's that smell in the room?"

The next moment, Melos' expression suddenly became strange, suspicious and uncertain, looking Han Xiao up and down, hesitating to speak.

"I know what you want to say. Shut up." Han Xiao rolled his eyes. "Get to the point. What do you want?"

"Oh, right, all your subordinates have disappeared. They haven't come back for a day," Melos said.

Players often logged in and out, and Han Xiao explained it as a side effect of immortality, which was perfunctory. The other cadres were used to it, but they had never seen all the players disappear together, and they hadn't appeared for a day, so Melos came to ask.

Han Xiao thought about it and made an excuse, roughly meaning that the price of immortality was that they had to sleep every once in a while, and that they had been active for too long and needed a long, one-time sleep. They wouldn't appear for a long time. Melos was dubious, but he couldn't help it and could only convince himself to believe it.

"They're not here for the time being. I'm preparing to temporarily suspend the mercenary group's business... Oh, not including your compatriots. I'm talking about our main force."

"Then what are we going to do?"

Han Xiao pointed to his eyes, pretending to be mysterious. "It saw something again. Remember my promise to you? I can feel it, the time is almost here."

Melos' eyes lit up.

"But..." Han Xiao changed the subject. "I need to make some preparations. We're going to the Terarium Star Cluster next."

"That's the star cluster closest to the central wormhole群 of the Shattered Star Ring, the area with the largest Scavenger势力. It's very dangerous. What are we going there for?"

"To find something."

Han Xiao said in a deep voice.

Only completing quests with a high evaluation could give him a chance for random rewards. Based on this, Han Xiao decided on his course of action. He was going to do the quests that he knew the process of. The quests he chose wouldn't be very difficult, but they would definitely be complex quests that were normally complicated, so that he could take advantage of his familiarity with the quest to get a high evaluation!

The thing he was going to find this time was a prop that triggered a quest. In his previous life, players had to get this prop by chance (the prop description hinted that the item contained a quest), and then find the triggerer (or be approached by the triggerer) to get the quest. Han Xiao was familiar with the process, so he didn't need chance. He could go straight to the point.

Han Xiao had calculated that the quests he had also had a chance for random rewards, but either they hadn't been opened, or they needed time. All he wanted was the chance for random rewards. The quest rewards themselves were secondary. He remembered many quests, and these were all opportunities to get random rewards.

Although drawing the 【Quest Completion Card】 was full of uncertainty, it was at least safer than facing A grade enemies head-on.