In Emerald Star Cluster, on a certain planet was a desolate desert filled with strangely shaped rocks. Hundreds of shuttle-shaped, low-altitude battle carriers were fighting intensely, crisscrossing between mountains and cliffs, using them as cover.

Light beams crossed each other, landing on the cliffs around, causing landslides and rocks rolling down the slopes.

There were four different symbols on these low altitude carriers. One was the guild symbol of the Rivervale guild, and the other three were all symbols of different foreign clubs.

Rivervale was not in a good position right now. They were being attacked by three foreign clubs together. They had no choice but to flee while fighting back, or they would be surrounded.

Maple Moon was piloting one carrier. Her hands grabbed onto the sphere-shaped control devices on two sides specially made for Mechanics. Sparkling Mechanical Force connected the device to the spaceship, making the spaceship her extended body and allowing her to control it with ease. The spaceship swiftly made a turn, avoiding a round of fire while shooting a Main Cannon, which blew up one of the enemy spaceships.

However, a few visible black silhouettes flew out from the flames of the carrier’s explosion. They were the players on the ship. Among them, a Mechanic player threw out compressed orbs that turned into a new carrier, and they continued the chase.

Seeing this, Maple Moon spoke in the team channel with resignation. “Sword, there are too many enemies. Our inventory will run out sooner or later if we continue like this. Should we just die? We can leave these resources.”

“Hold on for just a while longer. Our allies are rushing here.”

Frenzied Sword focused on dealing with the enemies. He was quite frustrated.

This planet was originally controlled by a small mining organization. Rivervale, Long Sky, and other guilds partnered with it by providing armed defense in exchange for part of the mining profit. This was a common scheme for the player guilds in the free competition zone.

However, a few middle-level officers of this mining organization were bought by a few Southeast Asian clubs. They helped them hide on this planet. When Frenzied Sword brought his men and came to collect this batch of resources as usual, the three clubs who had set up an ambush jumped out and surprised Frenzied Sword and the others.

The mode of conflict between players had been becoming more and more complicated as they learned to make use of smaller organizations more effectively. They acquired skills such as bribing and threatening the NPCs. This incident was just a small one; the bigger guilds were already involved in infiltrating, backstabbing, and many other things.

The carriers of Rivervale were being destroyed one after another; the players had no choice but to land on the ground. Maple Moon led the Mechanics to build a fortress to attack the enemies in the sky. The enemies then also sent a group of players down. The two sides started slaughtering each other on the desolate land. As Rivervale was at a numerical disadvantage, their situation was quite worrying.

After fighting for a while, a few battleships suddenly appeared deep in the starry sky and quickly approached. They were the Long Sky and the other allied guilds. Seeing this, these three foreign clubs instantly took off and returned to the spaceships that were on standby in the outer atmosphere. Before reinforcements arrived, they escaped with hyperdrive in a very well-practiced manner. It was clear they were prepared.

“Are you guys okay?”

Hao Tian and the other Long Sky members landed beside Frenzied Sword’s side. They looked around at the mess around.

“Alas, they got me. We’ve lost quite a lot this time. Some died multiple times and lost EXP too,” Frenzied Sword said with resignation. There was a limit to the number of times the players could die each day, and the punishment increased gradually after every death. The players were not afraid of death, but they had to die for a reason. Clearly, dying like this without getting anything in return was a huge loss.

“These foreign clubs have their eyes on us Chinese clubs now. They’ve been working together to attack us,” Maple Moon complained.

“Well, it is what it is. We’re making the most profit, after all, and our faction is the strongest.” Sleepy Winter shrugged.

Currently, thanks to the Black Star Army, the Chinese clubs were having the best time in the free competition zone. Naturally, along with the benefits they received, they were also targeted by the foreign clubs. These clubs’ plan to stir up hatred between nations failed, so they could no longer use the players in the Black Star Army. Hence, they had no choice but to do it themselves. They had been harassing the Chinese clubs frequently over the past few months, attempting to slow down their growth.

Frenzied Sword was a little worried. “It wouldn’t matter if it was just during normal times, but if we get harassed even during the Pro League, it’s going to be very tough for us to achieve something this season.”

“If we get a champion this season too, China will have acquired the champion three times in a row. The clubs from the other countries definitely won’t want to see that,” Rainy Kim said calmly.

Participating in the competitions was a way to acquire fame. Fame meant traffic, and traffic meant profit. The ultimate goal of all clubs was to make profit.

The International League was the only large-scale open competition for the pro teams to increase their fame. There were no other platforms that had as large an audience.

Therefore, if the Chinese had it all, it meant that they had obstructed the others’ way of making money. No clubs from the other countries were content with just participating, so some of them were causing problems for their opponents by any means necessary. They were all competitors, and when one side became too strong, the others would definitely come together to be against it. It was unavoidable.

Beep beep beep!

At this time, the communicators of everyone present suddenly rang simultaneously.

They exchanged looks of surprise and looked at their communicator. When they saw what it was, they were all slightly stunned.

“Black Star Cup?”

On the communicators was a new army announcement.

_____________________

Army Announcement—The Black Star Cup Army Tournament

To the entire army, the Black Star Army has been walking the path of high-speed growth. As our business expands, so does the number of members. In order to let the members of the various departments get to know each other more, increase our unity, and select talented people from the various trades, the army has decided to host an event with the nature of a military parade. The preparation for the first season of Black Star Cup Army Tournament starts today. For details, refer to the Competition Rules and Regulations (Expand/Collapse).

All members of the army are able to take part. If you can achieve excellent results, the army will not be petty about the rewards. You’re welcome to participate.

Army Commander, Black Star.

_____________________

The people did not feel much by just looking at the content of the announcement. However, when they expanded the competition’s rules and read the contents, their eyes became brighter and brighter as they were shocked by the scale of the Black Star Cup.

“My god, the scale of this faction event is way too big!” Maple Moon covered her mouth in shock.

“We can even request certain activities‽” Twinkle Fried Rice’s eyes widened.

The players present were overjoyed just by reading the introduction. They could not wait for it.

Compared to the scale of the Black Star Cup, the International League was tiny.

Frenzied Sword and Hao Tian exchanged looks. Both of them thought of the meaning of this event beyond the surface.

“This is an amazing opportunity to increase our fame!” Frenzied Sword’s tone was excited. “Events like this definitely don’t lack spectators, and there are close to ten million army players as the default audience.”

“That’s right. Although this is an event hosted by an NPC, as long as it’s popular, it’ll also bring traffic. It might be an even better replacement for the International League!” Hao Tian expressed his agreement.

Hearing this, the look in everyone’s eyes changed. The way they looked at this announcement was as if they were looking at a mountain of gold.

Everyone had noticed that this was probably the new platform for professional players to shine. Furthermore, it had way more activities than the International League, which would bring an extremely high amount of exposure.

Although the clubs in the other factions could not participate, which meant that the Chinese clubs had no competitors and it was not as competitive as the International League, was this not an exclusive exposure opportunity to the army players?

Also, it was now the early to middle stage of the version, so the Pro League was still far away. This was the exact time the players needed an entertainment show, and the Black Star Cup filled this void!

If it was popular enough, they were even willing to bring out as much passion as during the International League to prepare for the Black Star Cup, turning their accumulated EXP and wealth into strength.

Why do we make money? To spend it when needed of course!

Such an amazing opportunity has landed on us Chinese players again…

Thinking of this, they could feel the blood flowing in their body turn warm. They were touched.

Black Star might be a member of the Communist Party!

…

“Black Star Cup‽”

Seeing the army’s public announcement, the many foreign clubs were filled with jealousy.

Every club knew that this was an excellent opportunity to gain exposure. This was exactly the stage they needed.

However, only the Black Star Army members could participate in the Black Star Cup. These clubs belonging to other factions could do nothing but watch this opportunity slip by.

The foreign clubs could still put up with the mission benefits the Black Star Army was already getting, but now such an amazing exposure opportunity had appeared, the determination of many clubs not to change factions was shaken.

Why can the Black Star Army hit our soft spots so easily‽

Should we just… give in?

…

“What is Black Star doing?’

On the other hand, some Beyond Grade As were confused about this.

To some of them, not only did events like this damage profit and affect efficiency, it would also eat into a lot of time that could be used for work.

However, after some thinking, quite a number of Beyond Grade As felt they understood Black Star’s intentions.

With the development union, the chances for us to take part in battles in the future will probably decrease, which is not beneficial to maintaining our individual image. Black Star might be searching for a new way for us to display our strength to the outside world.

Quite a number of Beyond Grade As were touched.

The Vice President is thinking so far into the future. Now this is what it means to help us obtain more benefits!