<h4>Chapter 600: DarkStar Remnants</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>As Studios <strong>Editor: </strong>As Studios
In Star Zone 4 of the Garton Star System was a Godoran public space station containing a certain erotic clubhouse.
Colorful and lively lights flickered, and the energetic, exciting music elevated the atmosphere. Ladies of different races with minimal clothing danced seductively on the round, rectangr shaped booths all around the ce. Under them was a screen introducing, or making up, eachdy’s background, age, and so on, filling them with all sorts of terrible and erotic stories, stimting the audiences’ lustful thoughts.
Every booth was surrounded by arge group of males not taking their eyes off the dancer for a second. Theirughter was rough, and some even reached out to touch the dancer from time to time. Not far away was the bar with semi-private seats. Most of the people in them were males too, hugging and moving their hands around the alluring-eyeddies apanying them to drink.
Waitresses in revealing clothes carried drinks around, and the male customers from all sorts of races asionally groped them.
The sound ofughter, mumbling, and teasing filled the extravagant atmosphere. It was like the air was painted with ayer of seductive pink.
At a luxurious table, a few males were chatting loudly and gulping down one drink after another. They were clearly mercenaries.
These people all haddies in their arms. Their groping was rough and aggressive, such that pain could be seen in many of thedies’ eyes, but they did not dare to say anything. They could only smile.
Thesedies knew who these mercenaries were; they were from a rtively well known mercenary group and were all Grade B Supers. In the eyes of these regr people, Grade B Supers were someone they absolutely could not mess with.
However, among these mercenaries looking for fun, there was an outcast.
At the side of the table, there was a tall and skinny man without anydy beside him. The drink in front of him was untouched, too. He was sitting up straight with his hands on his thighs. He was the odd one out in this environment; the others were having a whale of a time, but his expression was so serious as if he was doing scientific research. Even the passion of the other mercenaries was brought down.
“Come on Reynold, don’t be so serious, drink some booze. It’s on me anyway. Have as much fun as you like,” the captain of this mercenary group said as he looked at his oddrade. His tone did not sound like superior but instead was almost fawning.
Reynold’s body did not move—only his neck turned as he looked over. His eyes were bright and sharp, like an owl in the night. Monotonously, he said, “Alcohol slows down my brain, makes me think slower. I need to keep myself sober.”
“Er, then you can find a woman...”
Before the captain finished, Reynold said, “Women distract me and break my thoughts. Biological desire also affects my rity.”
“Alright then...” The mercenary captain giggled. He could not do anything about Reynold. Reynold’s position in his mercenary group was very high and irreceable.
That was because Reynold was a Grade B Mechanic.
In the universe, the number of Mechanics was rtively low. They were rare, especially high-level Mechanics. Unlike Pugilists, Espers, and Psychics, Mechanics needed tons of knowledge. Only Mages could bepared with the amount of knowledge Mechanics needed. To Mechanics, knowledge was fundamental to bing stronger.
His team had worked together with Reynold for quite a long time. Reynold had been providing them with weapons, devices, and repairing their spaceship and machines; he basically took care of the logistics of the entire group. Plus, he had Grade Bbat ability. Reynold’s position was even slightly higher than his, the captain.
If not because Reynold was so important, the mercenary captain would have been done with his strange personality long ago.
“Have you heard? Many frence mercenaries want to join the ck Star Army. They say ck Star will monopolize the Garton Star System’s mercenary business. What do we do?” a mercenary asked.
“Ignore them. It’s still a long way to go for ck Star to monopolize Garton Star System even if he wants to. By then we will just go to another Star System to find work.” The mercenary captain curled his lips and did not care.
Then, Reynold spoke with an expressionless face. “Let’s join ck Star.”
It was silent.
The mercenaries looked at Reynold in shock.
“What do you mean? I’m the captain, don’t make decisions for me,” the mercenary captain said with a displeased tone.
“Okay.” Reynold nodded. He instantly took out hismunicator, pressed it a few times, then stood up and walked away immediately after.
“Wait, where are you going?” The mercenary captain suddenly felt something was not right.
“I’ve left the group.” Reynold walked further and further.
The mercenaries were stunned. Did he just quit the group without any hesitation because of a single disagreement? So decisive?
The mercenary captain panicked. He quickly stood up and yelled, “Are you out of your mind? No matter what, we’ve fought alongside each other for so long. We all took you as a friend, and you’re just leaving like this?”
“Me and you, we were cooperating equally. I did not sell myself to you, so why can’t I leave?”
Without even turning his head around, Reynold walked out without stopping at all. Every step felt like it was measured precisely with a ruler. His back disappeared at the door.
The group of mercenaries exchanged looks with confusion.
“What the hell is Reynold thinking? Does he think there’s no future working with us?” one of them said frustratedly.
The mercenary captain’s face was gloomy. He threw thedy in his arms onto the floor without looking and heavily bashed the table.
nk!
Cracks spread out on the table, startling everyone.
“That asshole!”
Without Reynold, the strength of his group was hugely reduced. Knowing that, the mercenary captain was furious, but there was nothing he could do.
...
Inside a passenger room on a gctic traveling spaceship in the Garton Star System, Brock looked at the interview notification from the ck Star Army on hismunicator, and his eyes flickered.
He was a hybrid Godoran, a frence mercenary. His resume had passed the first round of selection, and he had been notified by Phillip to go to the interview.
However, being a mercenary was just part of his fake identity. Brock’s real identity was a hidden member that DarkStar had left in the outside world. Before he became a mercenary, he had been an elite member trained by DarkStar.
DarkStar’s fleet had been wiped out, and almost all his superiors had been captured, but there was a group of DarkStar members who did not follow the fleet and hid in the outside world, keeping up their fake identities. These people had once been DarkStar’s intelligencework, and now they were DarkStar remnants. Since the leader had gone bankrupt and bolted, they now had no leader and could only be concerned with their own safety.
Recently, Godora had been cleaning up the remaining DarkStar forces, and it was quite effective. Many of DarkStar’s hidden intelligence channels were torn down.
For safety, the DarkStar remnants had stopped contacting each other. Some wanted to escape, some wanted to clean their background, and some wanted to change sides.
Brock was one of the people who hid very well. Not long after DarkStar was destroyed, he had actively broken away contact with the other remnants. His mercenary resume had nothing suspicious. On the surface, he had no connection to DarkStar—his identity was well hidden.
However, he did not n to clean up his background.
Before DarkStar was attacked, Brock had epted a mission to infiltrate ck Star, and he had decided to continue carrying out this mission.
With the help of his clean identity, he nned to pass the interview, be a member of ck Star, and stay hidden.
The first reason was that Godora was very close to ck Star, so with the identity as a ck Star mercenary, he could protect his secrets better.
The second reason was Brock’s main motive. He was loyal to DarkStar and loathed ck Star; he strongly believed that the DarkStar leader would one day return!
With a gloomy expression, Brock thought, <i>The ck Star Army is an obstacle. If I infiltrate it, maybe I can climb up to be a team leader or even an officer. I can split the ck Star Army from inside. Once the leader returns, it will be time for me to fulfill my duty. I will be a nail in the heart of the enemy...</i>
...
The yers bought the new equipment and excitedly started new missions.
While doing the missions, they were also exploring the universe. They were still at the first stage of familiarizing themselves with the universe, and it would probably take two to three more missions for them to fully get used to the gxy.
On the other side, the hundreds of thousands of yers on Aquamarine were passing the test one after another. Every so often, tens of thousands of yers would join the ck Star Army. These yers were considered newbies, but they at least knew how to start a mission with the help of the forums, so they did not start with nothing. If there was anything they did not understand, they could even ask the first group of yers that joined the ck Star Army.
Hence, Han Xiao did not have to worry about the yers for some time. It was going in the right direction; he just had to leave them be and let them have fun.
Fifteen days passed by quickly, and it was finally the day to interview the neers.
Over the past two weeks, Han Xiao had ced himself in solitude and built many new machines. However, updating all his equipment was a very demanding task, so he had yet toplete it. He had no choice but to pause for a moment and take the time to interview these mercenaries.
In the base’s vast hall, thousands of mercenaries waiting to be interviewed had gathered. There were humans, beasts, and insects, women, men, or sexless. They sized each other up.
“So, this is ck Star’s headquarters.”
“Looks quite grand, not bad.”
Brock looked around. When he followed the big group in, he had kept observing the structure of the base, looking for weak spots and memorizing them, forming a map in his mind.
After waiting for a while, the alloy floor in front of the thousands of people opened up in a spiral manner, showing a circr hole. Dressed in his windbreaker, Han Xiao slowly flew up andnded in front of everyone.
The eyes of the thousands of people concentrated on Han Xiao. Some were curious, some were passionate, and some were filled with admiration.
With Han Xiao’s current fame, strength, and position, he was indeed an important person in the Garton Star System.
“So, he’s ck Star...” Brock narrowed his eyes slightly. He had seen a recording of Han Xiao before, but this was the first time seeing the real person. He sized Han Xiao up secretly.
Han Xiao nced over the people, turned around to look at Sylvia, and nodded.
Sylvia nodded in return, then walked forward, cleared her throat, and spoke in her crisp voice.
“Wee, everyone. You are all experienced senior mercenaries, anyone that passes the interview will be a member of us ck Star Army. You will need to sign the Mercenary Alliance’s contract; all the benefits and privileges are stated inside. Of course, so are the rules and regtions of the ck Star Army, as well as your responsibilities.”
Then, Sylvia stepped aside. Herlous was not there, so Han Xiao was using her as an assistant.
Han Xiao nced over the crowd again and loudly said, “You all know the rules. If you have any problems, you can leave now.”
The thousands of mercenaries murmured, but none left.
“Okay, we shall not waste any more time. Let’s start the test.” Han Xiao raised his hand. “It’s simple. Every one of you will walk in front of me and let me tap you. Through the tap, I can roughly sense your Energy Rank. Those who pass will wait to the side.”
The mercenaries had no problem with that. No one there questioned the ability of a Cmity Grade.
However, many were unconfident. This kind of test depended purely on ck Star’s judgment. If he said that someone passed, they passed; if he said someone failed, they failed. There was no physical standard.
This time, Han Xiao said again, “Don’t worry, for those who do not pass, I won’t allow you to have wasted your timeing here. You will have two choices. One is, of course, to leave. The other is to ept training from the ck Star Army and increase your strength through high-intensity training. During that time, you won’t be allowed to ept missions until you pass the test. Only then will you be allowed to use the ck Star Army’s name to ept missions.”
He took talents seriously. Clearly, the more strong frence mercenaries, the better, but he knew that not every skilled mercenary would be willing to be under hismand. Talents needed to be cultivated.
Therefore, Han Xiao had decided to create the Mercenary Training Camp.
The Great Mechanic Han had thought of this long ago; it was an important part of his expansion n. In his n, the sub-bases were not only strongholds but could also recruit and train people.
His recruitment target was not limited to mercenaries; he was going to recruit people from differents. Aquamarine was one example. Other than the yers, there were also the’s natives that wanted to enter the gxy. Sunil was the next target for that.
Upon hearing this, many mercenaries’ eyes gleamed. The fact that they could still join ck Star even if they did not pass wiped away their worries.
They queued up properly to be tested by Han Xiao.
This interview method was to look at their attributes through thebat information triggered on the interface through touching.
While these mercenaries were clueless, Han Xiao knew their every ability back and forth, even their trump cards.
Testing one person took two seconds. There were six to seven thousand people there, so it would take many hours. This method was very troublesome, but the origins of frence mercenaries were extremelyplicated. Many of them were not citizens of the Garton Star System, so God only knew what their background was. Hence, Han Xiao felt he had to be careful. Plus, it had been peaceful recently, so he was able to squeeze out the time.
After some time, it was finally Brock’s turn.
Without panic or worry, he walked forward and let Han Xiao tap him.
There was no risk of being exposed through testing his Energy Rank. After all, it was absolutely impossible for ck Star to know that he belonged to DarkStar just by touching him.
Brock was confident.
An opportunity to observe ck Star so closely was very rare. This was even an amazing chance for assassination. However, Brock suppressed those dangerous thoughts and prepared to wait by the side like the person in front of him.
The moment he turned around, Han Xiao’s voice came behind him.
“You... wait!”