Han Xiao raised an eyebrow. "What's the problem? My credit score meets the requirements."

Marding said disdainfully, "I need warrior bodyguards. Your resumes are all from routine tasks in the Juberly Hub. You're just a bunch of janitors. Are you really mercenaries?"

Han Xiao frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"It means you don't meet my recruitment requirements." Marding waved his hand impatiently. Although he was stingy and unwilling to offer high salaries, it didn't stop him from being picky. He wanted to find a general among dwarfs, hiring the most cost-effective mercenaries with the least amount of money. The Nilandese character has always been like this—stingy and fond of taking advantage. Although the Black Star Mercenary Group's strength rating was C-grade on average, this resume made him doubt their actual combat effectiveness. If he recruited unreliable mercenaries, they would be useless if the survey team encountered danger.

The surrounding mercenaries chattered, mocking Marding and supporting their colleagues.

"Only 400 Enas, and you're still being picky."

"Haven't you heard, you get what you pay for?"

"Heh, Nilander."

Han Xiao's teeth ached. Why were these gawking mercenaries joining in? It felt like they weren't helping him but adding insult to injury!

Marding's eyes darted around, taking the opportunity to lower the price. He pretended to be troubled and said, "With resumes like yours, I can only offer 200 Enas per person."

"Goodbye."

Han Xiao turned around and left, too lazy to haggle. Marding's attitude made him complain inwardly. Being exploited was never the style of the great technician Han. He could do without this side hustle, anyway, there were so many opportunities, no need to hang himself on a crooked tree.

Opening the mercenary interface, he directly found the Sunils' application list. There were several employment missions, all related to the same event.

The Sunils' homeland had been destroyed by DarkStar, and with the help of Godora, they had moved to another forest planet with a rich natural atmosphere, renamed Sunil Star.

Sunil Star was home to a large number of native beasts, most of which were very docile. However, the depths of Sunil Star contained mind-polluting ore, and every few years the beasts across the planet would enter a strange period of mania, impacting the Sunils' new home. At this time, the Sunil warriors who were working outside would return to their clan to defend their home, and recruit a large number of mercenaries to help.

This was a very tragic race. Originally, they were only a planet-level civilization, living in peace and striving to develop, but they were suddenly attacked by DarkStar and suffered a devastating disaster, with almost no ability to fight back. DarkStar's warships carried out comprehensive strikes on the ground, and countless cities were bombed by lasers and missiles, turning into soaring flames that swallowed screams and wails, and even despair fell into nothingness. It was a completely one-sided massacre.

DarkStar and Godora were mortal enemies and were very active in the Garton Star System, seizing Godora's weakness as an Order camp, repeatedly attacking planets in Godora's jurisdiction, forcing Godora to rescue and fund distressed low-level civilizations, thereby consuming Godora's resources. If Godora turned a blind eye, its jurisdiction over the Garton Star System would be on shaky ground.

DarkStar was an Evil camp, and attacking low-level civilizations had long violated the *Pan-Universal Civilization Contact Treaty*. However, the Shattered Star Ring was a marginal area, and after each job, DarkStar would disappear for a long time, always able to avoid the crusade of other civilizations, like a terrifying shadow, constantly looming over the Garton Star System.

When the Godora fleet warped to the scene, the surface of the Sunils' home planet had become scorched earth with lava flowing and the ground splitting, the ecosystem had collapsed, and less than ten percent of the clansmen had survived. They were protected by Godora, and the survivors' technology was cut off, and they had not yet recovered all their technologies. The refugees were resettled on Sunil Star, and even the initial cities were built with Godora's help. They had settled there for several years before discovering the beast tide.

At this point, it was very troublesome to migrate again. Last time, Godora's rescue was out of humanitarianism. If they asked Godora for help with interstellar migration again, many Sunils felt that this meant that the race had completely become dependent on Godora, which they could not accept psychologically. So they held on to the status quo, resisted the beast disaster, and barely lived on.

Recently, it was the period of the beast tide, and the goal of these missions was to recruit manpower to defend their home, but the danger of the missions was progressively increasing. The most dangerous missions had no applicants, and the easiest missions required a standard of 120 credit points.

Han Xiao could only choose the easiest mission, submit a team application, and soon received a reply, successfully passing.

[Mercenary Mission—[Guarding Senyuan City]]

[Mission Introduction: The Sunil race is suffering a new round of "calamity". You have accepted the employment, and your responsibility is to protect Senyuan City.]

[Mission Requirement: Guard Senyuan City]

[Failure Condition: Senyuan City is lost]

[Failure Penalty: Credit Points -60]

[Reward: 500,000 Experience, 1,800 Enas, Credit Points +34, Regional Reputation +3]

[Mission Start Time: 12 days later]

The Sunils called the beast disaster "calamity", and Senyuan City was the Sunils' current main city.

This was just an ordinary employment mission, not Han Xiao's entire goal. He accepted the employment in order to have a reasonable identity to contact the Sunil race. The Sunil race's plot missions needed to be triggered by himself.

As a member, the players also received the mercenary group's employment mission. Han Xiao also released a camp mission that rewarded camp contribution points after the employment was completed, seemingly a double reward, giving the players a sense of earning.

The Black Star Mercenary Group's first combat employment, everyone was eager to try.

Han Xiao waved his hand.

"Let's go."

…

Three days later, the group took a direct flight and arrived at Sunil Star. From a cosmic perspective, it was a lush green forest planet, surrounded by white clouds.

A jolt came suddenly as the spaceship entered the atmosphere. The surface gradually magnified in the field of vision. The spaceship traversed according to the route instructions, and the sea of forests receded in sight. Han Xiao looked out from the porthole. A plain appeared in the continuous forest, and a city stood on the plain. This was the Sunils' new home, Senyuan City.

The spaceship released a drop pod, and Han Xiao and his party felt a slight sense of weightlessness, followed by a shock under their feet as they landed smoothly.

*Chi—*

The hatch slid open, revealing a continuous military base. Han Xiao stepped out of the hatch and saw teams of Sunil soldiers in heavy single-soldier armor patrolling and standing guard.

[Sunil - Defense-Type Soldier Armor]: As the name suggests, the single-soldier combat armor worn by Sunil soldiers with ordinary qualities, presented in silver-gray. The armor plates were extremely thick and could withstand the strafing of rapid-fire cannons. After wearing it, the whole person seemed to swell a few sizes. The soldier armor weighed nearly one ton and had a separate power unit, equipped with a large-caliber depleted uranium defense machine gun, shoulder-mounted honeycomb rockets, close combat wrist saws, and other weapons.

The Sunil race was a pure technology civilization, and when technology civilizations developed to a certain point, they would inevitably develop single-soldier armor branches. Different technology civilizations had their own armor styles. The Sunil race's single-soldier armor was divided into soldier-level and officer-level, and further divided into defense-type, assault-type, reconnaissance-type, and other models.

In fact, Han Xiao knew that the Sunil race's single-soldier armor also had a more powerful "general-level", but the manufacturing technology was lost with the destruction of their homeland.

In addition to the armor technology, there were also mechanical weapons, combat vehicles, and several small interstellar warships parked in the distance.

The dazzling array of machines gave Han Xiao's vision great enjoyment, and he felt invigorated. A civilization leaning toward technology was the best breeding ground for the Mechanic class. This was also why he tried every means to contact the Sunil race. The Sunil race's mechanical level could give him a lot of help now, with too many benefits.

The Sunil race's secondary class that Han Xiao had his eye on was related to machinery, a rare secondary class that could interact with his main class! For Han Xiao, this was one of the best choices to complete the class advancement requirements.

The players were amazed by this scene. Han Xiao had introduced the Sunil race's tragic history on the ship. They originally thought that a distressed civilization would have a very dilapidated and backward style, but they did not expect it to be this steel-filled scene.

*Deng deng deng—*

Heavy metallic footsteps sounded, and an armored warrior approached. His armor was obviously more sophisticated than that of ordinary soldiers and was also painted with a war totem of bright red and white. This was an officer-level armor. The approaching Sunil was obviously an officer, with a face as cold and hard as stone, with a pure military temperament.

"I am Nivil, the captain of the B12 Defense Force. I have received your information. Black Star, you are the one thousand four hundred and thirty-second mercenary to arrive. On behalf of the Sunil race, I welcome your Black Star Mercenary Group. The calamity has not yet begun. Please follow me. I will take you to the mercenary rest area, and the mission will be assigned to you at that time."