Chapter 302 The Hidden Main Storyline (1/2)

Galaxy Times made an objective analysis for each group in the tournament. Group A was the most competitive. The fan-favorite team since the start of the tournament, Long Sky, might even be eliminated there. Although Hao Tian was still overpowering all his opposition, many of the other teams that had survived thus far had been conserving their strength. Most of the teams had not revealed their trump cards yet. Under such conditions, even strong teams like Long Sky would have hard fights ahead.

The fans of the teams who were placed into Group A were not having any of it. The fans of the three big guilds, especially, were flaming and spamming in the forums about how the tournament was rigged and why all those strong teams were placed in the same group.

But their arguments were not at all convincing. Most of the neutral audience believed that if each of the four big guilds had been placed into different battle groups, then that would really have meant that the tournament was rigged.

Of course, what was logic in the face of the crazed fans? The discussions on the forums were getting more and more heated as the tournament entered its pre-seasons.

The pre-season matches did not count toward a team's score and served as more of a warm up for the teams to gauge each other's strengths or even misguide one another.

Compared to formal matches, these warm-up matches were much less pressuring on the players. The audience loved watching these matches as players often played without restraint and used whatever tactics and plays they wanted.

Each team's mistakes and insane outplays were soon turned into memes and analyzed on the forums. Bun-hit-dog also made a few videos on these warm up matches.

After the pre-season matches would be a cooling period where teams would be given time to rest up and regroup. This was also when the clubs would amp up their advertising to hype up the next stage, which was the regionals. The waves of advertisements would be used to further excite the audience.

Once the official matches began, it was already the sixth month of the Galaxy Calendar.

Han Xiao had stayed in the shelter this whole time to farm experience points from the players. Other than that, there was not much else for him to do. He had already met the requirements for the third part of the hidden main storyline mission, but he could not get in contact with Hannes and thus could not turn in the mission.

This was the first time that Han Xiao had heard about this mission, and he was not sure how things were supposed to go. When he still could not find Hannes despite going through the Dark Net's intelligence network, Han Xiao realized that something was wrong. If even the Dark Net, the largest intelligence hoarder on the planet, could not find him, then Hannes was really missing.

After some more digging, Han Xiao found out that Hannes had last been seen at a barren wasteland called the Somar Desert.

This kind of sound familiar… Han Xiao frowned. Oh right, I once visited this desert for a bounty mission. [Basic Strengthened Life] was also obtained from this place. It was the ruins of a nation, and there were also wanderers trying to find traces of magic or the like there.

Although Han Xiao was not very close with Hannes, since he was the NPC who gave out the hidden main storyline mission, Han Xiao was not just going to sit still as he went missing. Bennett had a similar thought.

Just as the official matches were about to start, Han Xiao left the shelter and arrived at the Somar Desert with Bennett.

…

Under the sun's glare, heat waves constantly rolled across the desert floor. All one could see past the barbed wires of the Dark Net checkpoint was an endless sea of sand.

”Hannes was last seen a month ago. He resupplied at this checkpoint before entering the Somar Desert, but he never returned.”

The man in charge of the checkpoint reported the details to Han Xiao and Bennett while showing the two the supply reports proving his words.

”I have already sent out search parties to look for his tracks, but… the sands in the Somar Desert constantly shift and reform, and there haven't been any concrete results yet,” said Bennett.

Han Xiao glanced and asked, ”Can't you come up with a better idea than that?”

Bennett was helpless about this. ”Telecommunications and any other kind of communication all met a dead end. There's no other way.”

Searching this way was like trying to look for a needle in a haystack. Han Xiao shook his head. ”This is too much of a waste of time… but there really does seem to be no other way. Let's hope something comes up soon.”

The Somar Desert buried countless secrets, and Hannes may have run into a tricky situation this time. When Han Xiao started thinking about the ruins of Felonia and the remnants of a 'magic' civilization, a thought started to form at the back of his mind.

”I'm afraid that Hannes may have already died.” Bennett sighed.

Han Xiao was not too sure about that. In the past, Bennett had raised tombstones for Hannes and the others, but Han Xiao felt like things were different this time. First of all, the hidden main storyline had not failed yet and was only stuck at the third stage. Han Xiao felt that Hannes should still be alive, as he was the mission NPC. Maybe this was all part of the storyline.