<h4>Chapter 599: Stepping onto the Right Path and Expanding Blueprints</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>As Studios <strong>Editor: </strong>As Studios
Back on Golden Gate...
The round trip had taken him close to a month. The twenty-four spaceships that Han Xiao had taken returned to Base No. 1. The piging ships were smaller in size, and after modifying the messy coating on their exteriors, these were absorbed into the assault fleet.
The Crow Grade ship was on the same grade as a Violent Falcon Grade battleship, so it was stored in the hangar. After it was repaired, it could be put into use.
Including those spaceships, Han Xiao had close to a hundred spaceships under his fleet. It was divided into four divisions. One was the strategic core division that was made of the Fortress Grade gship alone. The second was the battleship division formed by Violent Falcon Grade and Crow Grade ships, in charge of guarding and directbat. The third was the assault fleet formed by the seized DarkStar assault ships and the gctic pirate piging ships, with speed superiority. The fourth was the rented carrier spaceship division used to transport manpower.
As for the ckLight Stealth, it was for Han Xiao and Han Xiao only. Made by the Federation of Light, its grade and performance were way ahead of all other spaceships in the ck Star Army. Also, Risda was not willing to let too many people use his body.
Watching thest spaceship being parked in the hangar, Han Xiao had Phillip close its gate and locked Sykes and the other captives in the secret cell of Base No.1.
This cell had been built from an extremely strong alloy, covered with many automatic weapons such as cannons, nerve gas, sedative injectors,rge vacuum gravity field, and many others. Inside the walls were many mini cameras monitored by Phillip at all times. The security was extremely tight to prevent the captives from escaping.
Because he had extracted the Super-Gene of those captives every day on the way back, they all were weak, including Sykes.
Since Cmity Grades were able to recover much faster, Sykes received special treatment. His production rate was more than five times that of the others.
Han Xiao had stored hundreds of Ability Potions that were categorized. Some were for his own use; some were sold in the faction store.
The interior of Base No.1 was filled with bridges like a beehive. As Han Xiao walked on the streets, yers could be seen everywhere, getting used to the new Main City.
Many people looked at Han Xiao. He was a renowned NPC in the eyes of the yers, and he was the leader of the faction. When the yers saw him, they all felt a sense of closeness to him, and quite a number greeted him, to which Han Xiao nodded back in reply.
There were many issues in the faction waiting to be resolved. Han Xiao checked through Sylvia’s homework then returned to his room. He took out a concentrated nutrition bar and started chewing while settling these issues.
The first issue was to clean up after the missions carried out by the many yers.
Other than Sunil, most of the yers carrying out missions around the Garton Star System hadpleted and returned. This was the firstrge scale hiring event for ck Star Army, so Han Xiao took it quite seriously. He told Phillip to filter out the problematic records in it and browsed through them one by one.
Of course, not all yers were doing well. Some of the yers had a rather low missionpletion percentage. Furthermore, there was even a small group of people that messed around andpletely messed up the mission, sullying the name of the ck Star Army. For the former, Han Xiao told Phillip to send a sincere apology to the employer on behalf of the ck Star Army. As for thetter, the Credibility Rating of their mercenary profile was deducted, and the grade of the missions that they could ept was lowered.
Since Han Xiao wanted to expand the ck Star Army with the help of the yers, he was prepared for the problems that came with it. The issues now were all small problems. The effect brought by the yers was much more beneficial than detrimental.
The firstrge scale hire event stabilized the name brought by the Godora award ceremony.
When looking for mercenaries, the employers in the Garton Star System all chose the local ck Star Army as their first choice. The Mercenary Alliance recognized the ck Star Army’s position in the Garton Star System as the top of the industry and provided them with a continuous supply of high-quality employment missions.
The result of this was that the business of the Garton Star System mercenary industry was practically monopolized by the ck Star Army. Although the poption of a Star System was very high, not many people needed mercenaries. The frence mercenaries in the Garton Star System suddenly started to notice that they could hardly find high-quality hires anymore. The list given to them by the Mercenary Alliance consisted of most low reward jobs.
The frence mercenaries were very jealous of the business enjoyed by the ck Star Army. Many people had realized that if the ck Star Army continued to grow at this pace, the avable jobs in the Garton Star System would all be finished sooner orter, and the new jobs would then be taken by the ck Star Army as well. Then, the frence mercenaries could very likely end up with no job, which was a very horrible future to think about.
The rise of the ck Star Army could not be stopped. The frence mercenaries had to choose one of three paths. First was to not care about future developments and continue doing what they were doing; second was to leave the Garton Star System and find jobs in another ce; third was to request to join the ck Star Army.
Quite a few frence mercenaries took the third path. The ck Star Army was increasing in size and had an extremely good name, and since ck Star Army was on its way to monopolize the entire mercenary industry of the Garton Star System, joining them did not seem like a bad choice after all. From the victims of the ck Star Army’s rise, there could be some who benefitted from it and enjoyed the ck Star Army’s businesses.
In Han Xiao’s n, there was a part of it that included increasing their name with the yers in order to attract frence mercenaries. After the yers joined, their size exploded to hundreds of thousands of members. The facilities of their base were mostlyplete, and they had ample funds, so he was not nning to control the ck Star Army’s number of members. He told Phillip to filter the background of the frence mercenaries that requested to join, who then deleted some that were clearly ipetent and were there just for the easy missions, leaving those who were skilled and had good records.
About 7,000 frence mercenaries were left after the first selection.
However, this number was still not decided yet. Han Xiao told Phillip to send a notice to those mercenaries toe to Base No.1 for an interview fifteen dayster. Some would be disqualified again, and only the ones who remained after that would be recruited by the ck Star Army.
Recruiting more frence mercenaries was a very important step of the ck Star Army’s expansion.
The second issue waiting to be resolved was also rted to the yers.
After the first independent hiring event, these yers were more familiar with the gctic environment and mission flow. Many yers shared the difficulties that they met during the hires on the forums.
Han Xiao paid attention to these problems. In his previous life, he had also experienced the stage of not being used to the new environment after first entering the universe, so he had expected this. He knew about most of the difficulties the yers faced.
As early as one year before Version 2.0 started, a part of his machinery production line had been building support items, which were intended to help with the yers’ ability to carry out missions.
Now that there was finally a demand for this, Han Xiao nned to put these mechanical items into the faction store as well. The timing was perfect—the yers were just done with their first hire, and most of them had to return to Base No.1. The sales were definitely going to rocket.
...
In the store area of Base No.1, many people were going in and out. This was the ce with the highest yer density.
Although they could shop online through Phillip, they could only see the physical item at the store, which was also the collection point.
Many yers used theirtest earnings to buy equipment.
At this time, the faction store suddenly refreshed. A number of new items were ced at the top of the list with a very visible ‘NEW’ sign in their top right corner.
“New items so soon?”
“Let’s see what they are.”
Every update to the store would attract attention from arge number of yers, and this time was no exception.
Di di di...
The sound ofmunicators rang continuously in the crowd. Many people took out theirmunicators to take a look. It was Phillip’s supporting program that announced the update of the store, which could be browsed through the pre-order list.
Very soon, yers realized that the new items were surprisingly notbat equipment.
They looked at the introduction of the new items.
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[Mini Land ttening Core]—Quickly changes the terrain of a small area into t ground suitable for a temporary stronghold. The specific measurements are...
[Multi-functional Airdrop Bag]—Includes many machines needed for airdrop, suitable for various situations urring during airdrop...
[Portable Mini Folded Fortress]—Can be expanded on unupiednd, forming a temporary alloy fortress to be used as a stronghold, equipped with stronghold weapon slots and basic security functions...
[Automatic Guarding Cannon Turret]—Large caliber cannon, includes 1,000 Iron Core Shots, 300 Armor Piercing Shots. Provides firepower support...
[Patrolling Sentry]—Mini scouting robot, able to scout, patrol, and alert, can be used as a sentry for a stronghold...
[Interference Resistant Electromaic Bracelet]—Resists electromaic interference and data hacking to a certain extent...
[Portable Strong Electromaic Interference Device]—Interfere with the functions of the machines within a certain range...
[Nuclear Flying Backpack]—Provides long duration flying ability, includes self-destruction option...
[Force Resonator]—Adjustable vibration frequency, able to shatter metal and concrete buildings within arge distance...
[Worker Bee Armor]—Single Unit Mining Armor, used to gather minerals and fuel. Equipped with multi-functional digging tools and mineral firearms. High weight, suitable for handling ores...
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The yers facedplex environments while carrying out the missions. The mission requirements varied, including but not limited to infiltration, pursuit, mining, scouting, assassination,bat, and others. Sudden developments often urred.
Although these mercenaries added by Han Xiao were not equipment that heightened one’sbat capability, they could allow one to adapt to many situations. These were tactical items that could efficiently increase the yers’ ability to deal with idents, enhancing their performance as mercenaries.
The technology used in these machines was not advanced, but they were things the yers needed very much. They were cheap, useful support items.
For machines such as the turret, they were something that Han Xiao had created long ago. He had been using the turrets, but only now did he sell them to the yers inrge quantities. He was not yet selling the more advanced electromaic turrets and energy turrets but gunpowder turrets. The average level of the yers now was around seventy, so the gunpowder turrets were still quite useful.
Some Mechanic yers at the time could also build some of these products, but in terms of quality, cost, and price, their products were grossly inferiorpared to those on the ck Star Army store.
These functional items were just right for the new needs of the yers.
“These seem very useful.”
“I was just about to ept a job. These new items came right on time.”
The yers were pleasantly surprised.
Not only the yers in Base No.1, but the yers who were on Sunil or doing missions on others also received Phillip’s notification. They were all very tempted.
Especially the 200,000 yers in Sunil. They were dealing with the Catastrophe, so they had to deal with theplicated wilderness situations and even clear out the underground Prophecy Stone Mine. The addition of [Worker Bee Armor] was absolutely perfect.
Stock was limited, and the yers hastily bought what they needed. The prices of these new products were very low, so their demand was high. Within twenty minutes, the inventory was cleared out, and many who could not buy them pre-ordered the next batch.
The yers were used to the special ‘Growing Faction’ attribute of the ck Star Army. They felt that the reason that these new items appeared was because the yers of the ck Star Army had worked together to develop the faction. Looking at the new items of the faction store, many yers felt a sense of achievement.
...
After adding these support items, Han Xiao observed the sales. Since they were functional items, their price was low and affordable. Nheless, the entire inventory was sold out within half an hour. His funds rose nonstop as the yers’ money flew into his personal ount.
This sale had made him an astonishing total of 6,600,000 Enas!
Including Noriosse’s investment and the ie from thest sales, Han Xiao had a total of 44,000,000 Enas!
This was a lot of money.
“Funds are abundant. With this money, I can build my Mechanic Army any way I want.” Han Xiao was very content.
With so much money, if he was the only one using it, it couldst him a very long time. However, of course, these funds had to be used to operate the ck Star Army and support the ck Star Army’s expansion.
The blueprint that Han Xiao had set for the ck Star Army’s development was gigantic. He nned to use the Garton Star System as a foundation, choose dozens of important NPC resources, and keep building sub-bases. He would turn the Garton Star System into the ck Star Army’s headquarters, controlling the mercenary business there tightly or even monopolizing it.
Then, he would expand the business to other Star Systems and build sub-bases in other Star Systems, expanding step by step. Many parts of this n required a lot of money, such as adding arge number of spaceships, recruiting, building partnerships with more organizations, and so on.
The identity of a mercenary group was just a stepping stone; Han Xiao’s real target was to develop enormous military power, like Bloodshed Land.
The funds required for this blueprint was a number that he could not calcte or imagine.
The only thing he knew was that the money that he had now was far, far from enough.
His mission was heavy, and the road was long.
“This won’t bepleted within a short time. The sales route is already built anyway, so profit will keeping. There’s no need for me to be too tight on spending.”
Han Xiao smiled. He took out hismunicator and ordered arge number of materials from the raw material provider that he had been working with.
Finally, he had some free time to strengthen all hisbat equipment to the Cmity Grade standard!
“Let’s hope something like the Purple Snake Space Pirates incident doesn’t happen again...”