Chapter 1094 - Pandoras Box (2/2)
Harrison had an expression of hesitation. The moment he set eyes on this triangle, he had felt an inexplicable palpitation, as though there was a voice in his heart warning him that this thing was dangerous. The instinct that he had been born with had never been so strong.
The short detector guy did not even look back as he explained, “Relax, I probed it just now, and this is actually a sophisticated disposable safe device that will be destroyed when opened. It’s just that the innermost layer contains a material that isolates any detection, so I don’t know what’s stored within.”
With that, he directly plugged into the socket, releasing a weak energy charge. The triangle device’s display lit up, and a password input interface popped up.
The captain scooted over for a look. “Can the code be cracked?”
The short detector guy took out another device to fiddle around, and spoke with certainty, “The code of this device changes in real time, so it has to be connected to the quantum network and then use Virtual Technology to decipher the code… The tools I currently have are not good enough, but so long as I use a deciphering device with a higher computing power, it can definitely be opened.”
“If this is the case…” The captain hesitated for a while before saying, “In that case, let’s not open it. Like you said, this thing is a one-off thing. If the items stored inside are not valuable, we’ll lose money. It’s better to just put this safe on the black market for auction and let others draw the prize. Anyway, stuff like this is very common on the black market as well…”
“Can we discuss these things later?” Harrison was feeling nervous for no reason. “Let’s get out of here now. I have a bad feeling…”
“Since when has your intuition been good?”
The captain glared at him but did not reject his proposal. He got everyone to transport the device to the rig.
This was the only valuable thing in this ruin, so this entire group took the device and left, not even bothering to look back at the ruins.
Suddenly, one of the team members noted in a thoughtful manner, “This is strange. By logic, since this planet has traces of an unknown civilization, there should be others, but the detection result only showed this one… That’s impossible. Did that unknown civilization only dig this one underground facility on this planet?”
“That’s right. I thought it was strange too,” another worker added.
At this moment, the shortie took a glance at the radar and exclaimed, “Captain, the ruins seem to have collapsed!”
Everyone turned over to look and saw that the cavity had indeed mysteriously filled up and disappeared. They could no longer return even if they wished to.
“How strange…” the captain mumbled, shaking his head. He ordered, “Forget about it, let’s just mark down the coordinates of this planet, and go to the nearest black market to reap our rewards for today.”
Hearing that, everyone immediately put away any distracting thoughts and started to move, operating their spaceship to leave the planet.
Harrison was the only one who remained standing at the porthole, looking at the shrinking planet. He suddenly felt a little chill run down his spine.
He had a hunch, as though the goal of those ruins was specifically just to store this triangular device.
The ruins had collapsed immediately after they left, as though they had only been waiting for someone to take this thing away.
Harrison could not help but turn his head back for a look.
In the corner of his eyes, the triangular device lay silently at the back, as though it was a Pandora’s box that was waiting to be opened.
…
The opening ceremony of the Black Star Cup was wonderfully opened, and its qualifiers were in full swing the next day. The army had become very lively, and hundreds of millions of members were actively participating on the field, which also improved the enthusiasm of the universe audiences.
Because there were so many events, each media group provided live broadcasts and video review functions throughout the day. Viewers could freely adjust their channels and choose to watch any event, venue, or even the players, which caused countless people to hold up their communicators and stare at them all day long.
The ratings of the Black Star Cup were maintained at a very high level throughout the universe. At present, the average ratings in each region were second only to the news broadcasts of the three Universal Civilizations.
The Black Star Cup tournament organization department, which was only established little more than two months prior, counted the programs with the highest ratings. Other than the battle events, the best were the entertainment programs. Especially in the talent audition category such as singing and dancing, there were countless galactic residents happy to see the Supers appear on alternative programs rather than just in battles.
Some of the talented people had even attracted a large number of admirers, and there were even audiences on the net arguing about the pros and cons of each person… As it turned out, no matter which age it was, such a program would also garner views.
As for the lowest ratings, it was as Han Xiao expected. They were those technological and skill-based competitions, such as the machinery maintenance that Reynold had asked for, waste modification for machinery, and even blueprint crafting competitions…
While there were people willing to look at such programs, they were few and between.
However, Han Xiao did not mind it. Such technical programs were treated more as auditions, to explore potential talents in the various fields and add more fresh blood to the army.
The way to rise in the army had always been clear, and one’s rank and position were linked to meritorious service and their qualifications. The Black Star Cup was just another shortcut for its members to ascend in the rankings. Those who were more capable at their level would move toward the upper ranks. This made the members enthusiastic as this model allowed many people to obtain more opportunities within the army.
While the players had their own competition brackets, they were keener to participate in the normal competition brackets, running over to play with the NPCs.
Because the Evolution badge shone in such low-level team events, more and more players had also begun to purchase this item, causing the sales of it to soar drastically.
Using the Evolution badges in events below Grade B gave players a huge boost in strength, but this did not necessarily mean they would win. The biological aberrations were strong in close combat, but their weaknesses were also obvious; their resistance to magic and psychic attacks plummeted, and their range also decreased to melee attacks. They were extremely easy to kite. Plus, they lost HP constantly.
When facing Psychics or Mages, the aberrations usually failed quite badly.
In the Grade B and above ranks, the role of the Evolution Limit: Aberration was not so strong. Grade Bs could directly contend against the aberrations themselves.
Meanwhile, the players from the other countries could only watch with envious and reddened eyes at the festivities in full swing within the Black Star Army.
Let alone attending, they did not even have the qualifications to bet on the winning players!
If one were to split apart the characters of ‘following the crowd’ (从众), they would get five ‘people’ characters (人). The majority of people understood the meaning of ‘the more the merrier’, and seeing this group of Black Star players having fun, the sense of loss was even more intense.
Everyone is playing so happily, and all without me!
Compared to the faction war event more than half a year ago, there were more players that were being moved by the Black Star Army this time. Most likely, the army would indirectly poach a lot of players once more.
Even the Limitless Financial Group experienced a huge outflow of players, but Sorokin was acting extremely low-key, which meant he could not react.
The most painful ones were the foreign clubs in the other factions. They obviously did not do anything this time, but they still had to watch on as the ordinary players left their factions. They could no longer find any reason to stay and just felt like crying.
Why are you forcing us to join this party?
Black Star Army! You’re too much!
A man can only take so much anger. If you have the guts, you can anger me again!
If you force me again, I’ll really join your organization!