Chapter 193 Tasks

Han Xiao could issue various types of tasks. Challenge tasks generally had a higher difficulty and were usually used for large-scale missions. Every player's actions would affect the final outcome of the task. All players were making small contributions to the task, requiring cooperation and mutual assistance to complete it.

He had seen challenge tasks that could affect version updates before, where millions of players fought for the same goal, each action generating single-digit contribution points, while the task required tens of millions of contribution points to succeed. Once successful, it would have a crucial turning point in the storyline; that was roughly the idea.

[The Last Stronghold] was Han Xiao's way of making sure the Aquamarine Star players would continue to value the Third Sanctuary after he left. In the task introduction, he hinted at a future cataclysm without explicitly explaining it, but the information revealed was enough to let the players' imaginations run wild and trigger their speculation about the future storyline.

Han Xiao himself didn't explain it openly, letting the players think that this news was revealed from the task and had authority.

The small tricks used when releasing the test tasks before were for warming up.

Freezing the task was a special measure, temporarily preventing the task from starting. When the disaster actually arrived, Han Xiao would remotely activate the task. This was like bait, constantly dangling the players' curiosity, revealing glimpses of future destiny, making them eager to know the truth.

The prerequisite for issuing tasks was that the two parties were not too far apart. This was a hidden condition that Han Xiao had tested after using it multiple times. After leaving the planet, he wouldn't be able to continue issuing tasks to Aquamarine Star players, but remotely controlling the already-released tasks was not a problem.

"I have a few more days to stay in the sanctuary, enough time to walk through the entire sanctuary and let these hundreds of thousands of players accept the task," Han Xiao thought to himself.

In this way, he could ensure that these hundreds of thousands of players would remember the Third Sanctuary and consolidate the impression of the main city. At the beginning of Version 2.0, he could let these players protect the sanctuary and get through the most dangerous period.

…

For the players, these few days were simply one wave after another.

Originally, the Germination storyline had passed for a long time. Han Xiao had been very low-key, and the players began to believe the *Galaxy Times*'s judgment that this storyline protagonist's role was over and he had become a purely functional NPC.

However, Black Star, who had been silent for more than half a year, had recently become active again, and his movements were shocking.

He was actually going to select players to go to the interstellar space with him!

That wasn't all. Black Star had also left an unactivated jackpot task, and the few words in the introduction seemed to reveal that a huge cataclysm would sweep through Aquamarine Star in the future.

This "outdated" NPC returned to the forefront, once again causing a new round of uproar. Many old players felt a sense of familiarity from the bottom of their hearts. They remembered the scene when Black Star was leading the trend from the beginning of the closed beta. This scene reappeared, and it was even a little heartwarming.

On the forum, countless players were discussing what the "cataclysm" that Aquamarine Star was about to encounter was.

"Alien invasion? The Six Nations go to war again, completely destroying the planet's environment? Or a natural disaster?"

"I think this may be a new round of main storyline. Look, the main storylines on other planets are in full swing, but our Aquamarine Star is so idle. It's time for a new storm to appear!"

"As the saying goes, anything long divided will unite, and anything long united will divide. Could it be that the Romance of the Six Kingdoms is about to begin?"

The discussion was buzzing, and some players suddenly had a whim and connected Han Xiao's recent two events together.

"Black Star is in a hurry to leave the planet, could it be related to this disaster? He wants to escape the disaster!"

"Impossible, I remember ‘Cai Bao Hits Himself’ had an episode about Black Star's mobilization speech, saying that he wanted to protect life, isn't he very great?"

"If that's the case, then it must be hopeless, so Black Star gave up his hometown and decided to run away. How big is the scale of the cataclysm... The next main storyline won't be so intense, right."

"Not necessarily, maybe Black Star is just timid. Didn't you see that he also took helpers to escape with him?"

"Just kidding, he is the protagonist of the storyline, Germination was blown up by him, would he run away?"

"You can't say that. A large part of his deeds in the Germination storyline was behind-the-scenes operation. He has historical reasons for being enemies with Germination. The two sides are fighting to the death, so he must fight Germination desperately, but the disaster is different, he can seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, of course he would choose that."

"I thought he wouldn't have any other roles after defeating Germination."

A topic will not only have one kind of statement. Some people support Han Xiao, and some people maliciously speculate.

Han Xiao naturally didn't care. It was a good thing to have opposing voices. Conflict could attract more people's attention. On the contrary, if everyone praised him, it would easily make people feel bored.

However, Rou Bao couldn't help it. He didn't want to see players belittling the reason for Han Xiao's departure. This was selfish. He had already decided to make a series of future interstellar adventure programs. If the audience held the mentality that they were escapees, it would have a negative impact on the program's appeal. On the contrary, if Han Xiao's reason for going to the stars was noble, then their adventure could affect the hearts of the Aquamarine Star audience. Coincidentally, Rou Bao had such material on hand.

So, in the new episode, Rou Bao released Han Xiao's private speech to the four of them that night. This passage could show the reason for Han Xiao's departure, which was to go to the stars to find a solution to the disaster, and immediately elevated Han Xiao's image.

At the end of the program, Rou Bao released a preview, "Looking up at the mysterious starry sky, my heart yearns for it. I will follow Black Star to the vast starry sky. For this, I will make a new series of programs to record the bits and pieces of interstellar adventures and show the star world in front of you. Please look forward to it."

Because the topic was very popular, Rou Bao's program was widely spread. The players suddenly realized that Han Xiao was going to the stars to solve the disaster, and they were immediately in awe. Of course, a small number of people were skeptical.

Regardless of their attitude, they were all paying attention to this event, curious about what method Han Xiao used to go to the interstellar space and stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun, and they had expectations for Rou Bao's future programs.

This series of news only circulated in the player community, and some local forces were still kept in the dark.

…

Snowflakes filled the sky, and the north wind howled.

This was a continuous white snow mountain range, located in the territory of Raylen. There were many wild beasts in the mountains, and people rarely visited. There were no cities within dozens of miles nearby. From time to time, loud or low roars of wild beasts echoed in the mountains.

A secret research institute in Raylen was hidden in the mountains.

Inside the research institute, Kerlodd's spaceship was supported in the air, surrounded by countless instrument pipelines, detecting various parameters of the spaceship, displayed on the large screen, countless researchers came and went, debugging the instruments.

After obtaining the spaceship for more than ten days, Raylen secretly organized manpower to study it. These researchers were the top talents in the military and intelligence agencies, pure scientific researchers, most of them were ordinary people, and some were Mechanic Supers.

With so many top talents cooperating, the progress was very slow. The technological content of the spaceship exceeded Aquamarine Star too much. Moreover, the technology of Godora contained magic. Many functions could be realized with magic inscriptions, which was completely different from the technological system of Aquamarine Star.

Researchers who had not been exposed to magic had no way to start. From their point of view, this spaceship seemed to be missing many necessary modules. They couldn't even find where the energy source was, and only found a few things suspected to be related to energy—a few strange parts, and a pool of dark liquid similar to engine oil, stored in a transparent container on the side for various experimental observations.