Swallowing the Stars: The Rise of Emperor Wei

Virtual Universe, Jiuxingwan Community.

At the teleportation point, Luo Feng, Hong, and Lei Shen arrived first.

"Lord Mist!" Nansi exclaimed in surprise, looking at the white-bearded old man on Thor's shoulder.

Old Man Wu laughed heartily, pointing at Gao Sheng and Nan Si: "I knew you two were up to something."

Thor and Babata both exclaimed, "What ghost?!"

The old man shook his head. "It can't be said, it can't be said. You should ask them yourselves or ask Xiao Ai."

"You haven't been to the Black Dragon Island branch of the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance yet?" Gao Sheng asked.

Luo Feng laughed and said, "No, wasn't I waiting for you guys? We're all becoming trainee mercenaries together, of course we should go together."

"Okay, let's go."

"The Black Dragon Mountain branch of the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance is up there." Luo Feng looked up at the sky, gazing at the faintly visible floating island above Black Dragon Mountain Island.

Five people teleporting at the same time!

Above Black Dragon Mountain Island in the virtual universe, there is a floating city. There are many special planes there that can only be reached by teleportation, as well as some manors and villas that can only be reached at the cosmic level.

One of the planes resembled a city, with a plaza in the center containing many pillars of light. At that moment, one of the pillars of light flashed, and several people appeared.

"So many people." Five people walked in the square.

They were supposed to be here as apprentice mercenaries, but it was only because Gao Sheng and the other two were being mentored by Pero that it was delayed until now.

The square wasn't very big, only about ten kilometers long and wide, and it was packed with people.

"Look down!" Nansi exclaimed.

The four looked down at the ground of the square, which was like a semi-transparent glass, with Black Dragon Mountain Island appearing and disappearing in the clouds below.

"There are at least tens of thousands of people here." Gao Sheng looked around.

In the center of the square, within a one-kilometer radius, are rows of tables and chairs, seemingly an open-air bar. At this moment, thousands of people are gathered in small groups, enjoying drinks and fruit platters, chatting casually, and relaxing in comfort.

Around the plaza stand three enormous buildings, each inlaid with a huge universal script.

Tasks, exchanges, and cultivation.

On the other side is a large archway with three large characters above the lintel: Residential Area.

The five people walked along while looking at the information projected onto the screen by the smart assistant.

The mission area is naturally where missions are handed over.

In the exchange area, completing tasks will earn you Apprentice Mercenary Merit Points. You can spend these points to exchange for arcane arts, items, or even Cosmic Coins.

"This training area is almost like a killing field," Thor said.

Luo Feng looked at the light screen and said, "It's not quite the same. It also has a killing space and the fees are the same, but this battle space is different."

"Yes, this is the battle space, where two people agree to fight each other," Gao Sheng said. "It's charged per match, cheaper than the final battle space, and watching is free."

"For battles between different ranks, all opponents will be set up with the higher-ranking body type for fair competition," Hong Zan said. "That's good."

Thor nodded. "That's much better."

In the battle arena, people of different ranks can fight each other, but once they enter, they are still in bodies of different ranks. If they want to fight fairly, one side has to suppress their power, which is really inconvenient.

Actually, the purpose of setting up this battle space is mainly to facilitate the Space Mercenary Alliance in observing space mercenaries and discovering talent among trainee mercenaries.

After all, the Killing Space is a private space, and the virtual universe system will not reveal any personal information.

As they walked, Luo Feng remarked, "Why isn't there a single mercenary from a Universe One-Star level here?"

The group looked closely and indeed, there wasn't a single star-level mercenary in the square, whereas one-star mercenaries were frequently seen in the Killing Arena.

"This is just a star-level branch of the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance. The official mercenaries all go to the Qianwu Cosmic Kingdom branch," Babata said. "How many cosmic-level mercenaries are there in the entire Black Dragon Mountain Empire? Most of them are not even one-star mercenaries. The number of official mercenaries is at most twenty or thirty thousand. They won't come here."

The old man in the mist said, "You can't go now. Trainee mercenaries can only be teleported to a star-domain-level branch."

"Behind this residential area are mostly apartment buildings, and some restaurants and entertainment venues," Luo Feng said. "Buying one unit means you can log in directly here without needing to teleport. Want to buy?"

"Buy it, it's not expensive, much cheaper than apartments in the virtual universe," Thor said.

Gao Sheng laughed and said, "This apartment can't be tied to anyone else, so of course it's cheap."

The group entered the mission lobby.

Upon entering, it felt like stepping into a wet market.

"Missile Planet 7088 Cleanup Mission in the Tritus Galaxy. Those who have accepted, please don't leave yet. Come this way, let's get to know each other first!"

"Team is hiring! Experienced trainee mercenaries are welcome to apply. No less than Rank 9, please."

"This way! Gather here!"

"The Black Cloud Society is recruiting officers of all ranks!"

……

Some were shouting loudly, some were whispering, and many were holding up signs.

After squeezing past the group of people, the space behind them became much more open, with a large number of seats where trainee mercenaries found places to sit and check their mission lists.

After entering the mission hall, Gao Sheng and his team's intelligent assistant automatically obtained the current mission list and found a seat to look at it.

"Discover Task"

Combat Mission

"Protection Mission"

"Work Tasks"

……

The first item, the first line, is displayed in a special font, making it particularly eye-catching.

"A planet discovery mission?" Gao Sheng, Luo Feng, and the others noticed.

"This task doesn't even have any requirements or time limits."

"Discovering a new planet with life, reporting it to the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance, and receiving 30-300 merit points? Discovering a planet with valuable minerals, and receiving merit points based on its assessed value?"

Luo Feng and the others were puzzled.

Seeing their expressions, Babata suddenly said, "Luo Feng, and you guys, do you think that because humanity in the universe is so powerful, there's nothing to discover on any planet in this universe, and that Earth is just an exception?"

Luo Feng and the other two nodded in confusion.

"Alright, Luo Feng, let me ask you, how many stars are there in your Milky Way galaxy?"

Luo Feng said, "It should be two or three hundred billion."

How long is the lifespan of a star?

"The length varies, some are only a few hundred million or even tens of millions of years, while others are tens of billions of years."

"Okay, let's assume an average of 50 billion years. How many stars in the Milky Way die or explode each year, and how many new stars are formed each year?"

Luo Feng and the other two suddenly realized what was going on.

Babata said, "In the Milky Way alone, dozens of stars disappear and are born every year, while the Black Dragon Mountain Star Region has more than 8,000 star systems!"

Hundreds of thousands of new stars are born every year!

This is only one year! With the lifespan of a star system, what about ten thousand years? Billions of them!

Therefore, the special mission for trainee mercenaries, which has no time limit or mission requirements, is planet discovery, and every trainee mercenary will accept it.

The star itself is not very significant, and you don't need to discover it. The main thing is whether the accompanying planets have any minerals or whether life has arisen. These things can only be known through close investigation.

"Especially life-bearing planets! Of course, life-bearing planets are very rare. On average, only one in tens of millions of planets is suitable for human habitation. Therefore, this mission is mainly about discovering and examining mineral-bearing planets."

"But there aren't as few life-bearing planets as you might imagine. Planetary systems themselves go through a process of birth and decay. During this process, some life-bearing planets become unsuitable for life, while others that were originally just mineral planets become life-bearing planets."