253. Would You Like a Planet?
Clang!
The pitch-black tachi pierced through the opponent's chest. At the same time, the tip of the staff's magical blade stabbed into Caramel Snail's chest.
"You're quite the remarkable junior…"
Reno sighed as his figure gradually turned to particles.
"Ha…ha…ugh…"
Caramel Snail was mentally overloaded. As his body turned to particles, he could no longer speak.
"Haha…you really fought me in earnest. I could feel it."
Seeing him in this state, Reno smiled knowingly:
"I'll pay you a visit on White Candle Star someday. Make sure you welcome me."
Clatter.
The staff and tachi fell to the ground, and thunderous applause roared across the arena.
"Competitor Jiao Ziniu goes 2-1, successfully advancing to the Top 16!"
Jiao Ziniu stared at the ceiling, slowly recovering from his dizziness.
"Advancing." He clenched his fist, brimming with confidence. "This is just the beginning!"
Whish!
Gravity yanked the opponent out of the maglev train and slammed him into the blade.
"Competitor Jiao Ziniu completes a three-win streak, shutting out [GCR]'s core marksman Luoxi Hun (Spiral Soul)!"
Splish-splish-splish-splish!
Caramel Snail launched a sudden attack from the space station's shelving, firing his colonial blood-pressure cannon in a fierce volley that dissolved the opponent into a pile of bones and flesh.
"Competitor Jiao Ziniu is tearing through the competition! Is there anyone who can stop him?"
Clang!
Drawing his tachi, Caramel Snail and the massive demonic samurai behind him raised their blades. He threw a punch to parry the spirit bull summoned by the [Sorcerer], then unleashed dozens of rapid radiation slashes from his long blade. The opponent, unable to slip into the spirit realm in time, was flamboyantly shredded into fragments.
"No mercy for the fair flower! Jiao Ziniu destroys star female competitor Violet's dreams of making the Top 4!"
["Star Abyss"S1 Singles News]:
"One of [Qiongyu]'s 'Two Dragons,' Long Yuqiong, emerges and cuts down three veteran Professional players in a row."
"Independent competitor Caramel Snail becomes this year's biggest dark horse—wielding a longsword and Omega Energy, growing fiercer with every slash!"
"Two Yanxia Region competitors break into the Top 4, high chance of an all-Yanxia final in singles!"
......
Closing the forum livestream, Li Aozi, far away on White Candle Star, nodded in satisfaction.
"Great, great—Caramel Snail's finally grown up. He hasn't let me down."
To guide Caramel Snail onto the [Futile Creation] path, Li Aozi had poured in quite some effort.
Originally, [Sword Master] wasn't something that [Martial Artist] First-Shift on White Candle Star could obtain. Through connections, Li Aozi hired a legendary mercenary to teach and steer Caramel Snail onto the right road.
To get Caramel Snail a [Domination] secondary class, Li Aozi scrapped hundreds of colonial bodies, and even had Isaac gather a wealth of data and Biochemist knowledge from N4 before succeeding.
He even provided large amounts of premium Omega Energy mutation potions practically free, just to get only positive mutation outcomes for Caramel Snail.
Now, Caramel Snail was fully developed, both in skill level and mindset.
More importantly, thanks to Li Aozi's tireless encouragement and accumulated investment, he couldn't possibly leave Li Aozi's nurturing—he was a loyal "little piggy."
"Yanxia's performance this time is quite good, but as for the team event…"
Li Aozi shook his head.
The [Mechanical Society] campaign cost them many core players, meaning they'd have to rebuild their power. There was no chance this season; they'd have to wait for the next.
"The 'Slight Derision Proverb' version is nearing its end. Once we hit 2.0...the decisive battle with the Entropy Sovereign begins."
Fortunately, he wasn't unprepared.
What felt brief to the players was a full five years in Star Abyss.
During these five years, he'd stayed on White Candle Star, discreetly building his forces. He expanded Faithkeep Village into a city. After Trivira City was destroyed, the Crystal Tower civilization chose to abandon this planet and never rebuilt.
A large number of workshops lost their mages and scholars. They became piles of scrap metal, instantly regressing from a magical interstellar era back to a lagging magical industrial era.
Beyond rundown workshops, the biggest issue was population loss.
When the White Candle Star government withdrew, Li Aozi was stunned to learn that out of the planet's 3 billion residents, fewer than 200 million had official citizenship under the Crystal Tower.
Those were the middle class, the elite, the academic aristocracy. All of them were taken away by the Crystal Tower civilization—not a single one was left behind.
The remaining Tanas people, though of the same race and ethnicity as the Crystal Tower, either had low-level magic skills or insufficient intelligence to grasp advanced magical concepts, or were disabled, impoverished, or bottom-tier laborers.
These folks held no value for magical civilization.
They'd essentially lived industrial city lives all along. Subtracting magic, their standard of living was only slightly better than Azure Star. Many hadn't advanced beyond a rudimentary atomic-era level of life and knowledge.
When word spread of the evacuation, quite a few people rushed to the teleportation array or to the ships, desperate to flee a planet that no longer showed any promise. Yet they were either kicked out or punched away from the hatch.
Thousands of Tanas likely died trying to escape.
They were no longer needed.
Due to relocating the Identification Eye fragment, the new planet had to be built in secrecy, which naturally came at some cost.
These 2.8 billion abandoned souls were that cost.
The revelation deeply shook Li Aozi, but he soon began taking over the mess.
In reality, he couldn't fully reboot those high-tech magical industries.
Especially cutting-edge fields like precision rune work, magical material synthesis, synthetic magic blood, magical artery implants, and arcane surgeries—even in the Layered Abyss, not just anyone dared play with those.
So he adopted another approach.
When the media from a Narrative-level civilization came to interview him, Li Aozi paid a hefty sum, hoping that after reporting on his story, they'd help him find a company to open stargates and travel routes.
Luck favored him; the Narrative that showed up was the "Empire of Heroes," famous for its warmth and inclusiveness.
Learning of his needs, the Empire of Heroes readily agreed—but offered no discount.
After pouring in a full 60 million Anjin, a stargate from the Andromeda planet belt where Azure Star was located to White Candle Star was completed two years ago. Over several hundred trips, Li Aozi transported some players from Azure Star by posting various recruitment quests.
Not many.
Probably…just 400,000 or so.
400,000 undying, formidable warriors who clawed their way out of Azure Star's unending darkness, corpses piled high, and endless cold. All of them Gamma-tier players.
After selection, the group included large guilds, gaming studios, hardcore top-tier player accounts, random experts, plus thousands of streamers and their powerful viewer communities…
These 400,000 players were unlike the "Azure 25 novices" on their first login. Though their equipment was weaker, they had the numbers, their own organizations, and most importantly, they had reached the peak of Azure Star. Staying there any longer, the planet couldn't support them.
Gamma-tier on Azure Star was basically the threshold where going any higher risked self-destruction.
Yet on White Candle Star, that was merely the standard of a newly matured mortal.
When this group of battle-hardened, fearless mad dogs poured into White Candle Star, the jaded local Tanas instantly snapped awake.
Everyone had languished in a slump, regressing from the space age back to an industrial era, convinced their golden age was over.
Suddenly, these unstoppable overachievers arrived, refusing to sleep as they raced through quests, jobs, and monster hunts.
What was that like?
With only 400,000, they couldn't reshape everything, but they lit a spark in the region. Ultimately, Li Aozi aimed to bring in 5 million players to White Candle Star.
After all, just the believers of the [White Obelisk] alone had surpassed 700,000. Azure Star's peak concurrent count in recent months reached 120 million.
Nearly 900,000 players had advanced to Gamma-tier, and a terrifying 59.3 million reached Beta-tier!
What worried Li Aozi was that Azure Star had seen a 90,000-fold increase in Gamma-tiers without any change, and players could still gradually climb to Gamma-tier.
He found that concerning.
He wasn't sure if it signaled Azure Star's consciousness weakening, gradually unable to resist the Entropy Sovereign,
Or if Azure Star's will had grown stronger, able to accommodate more Gamma-tiers.
Li Aozi guessed it was probably the former.
Still, limited by the planet's own resources, the Apostles of Entropy likely wouldn't become too powerful.
As long as he transported 5 million, bringing the Beta-tiers too, it wouldn't disrupt Azure Star's balance.
Next was the route to Agincourt, which had its first test run last month. If all went smoothly, it would soon open as well.
At that point, Agincourt's server players would become Li Aozi's second pig-raising farm.
Thanks to the close ties between the two countries in reality, Agincourt players got along well with Yanxia players. Since their birthplace was inherently cosmic, Li Aozi believed they'd adapt easily to White Candle Star.
The apex of the "run away" philosophy was turning immigration into colonization.
Local White Candle Star residents only felt slightly more pressured for now, but soon, the players would unite with them, reviving their longing for the starfields.
Yet those were merely his outward achievements.
For five years, he kept a low profile, silently disposing of countless pirates, fallen mercenaries, and even a few members of [Society] eyeing the so-called "Identification Eye fragment." His points soared back to 120,000.
On the surface, he seemed to remain in place at the peak of Zeta-tier, not advancing further.
In reality…
Li Aozi opened his Omega Energy list:
[Sequence Nine • Gravity]—Development Stage: Proficiency
[Sequence thirteen • Darklight]—Development Stage: Mastery
[Sequence Fifty-Six • Remaining Moon]—Development Stage: Mastery
[Sequence Seventy-Seven • Calamity]—Development Stage: Contact
[Sequence Eighty-Two • Bloodline]—Development Stage: Considered Complete
[Soul Engraving Sword Saint]—Development Stage: Control
[Sever Life]—Development Stage: Domination
[Death Link]—Development Stage: Domination
He'd lent these Omega Energies to over a million people, and thanks to their patronage, his proficiency soared.
A full five Sequence Omega Energies had advanced at least to Contact. Even the least-known [Calamity] reached Contact because 80% of players didn't get it. Meanwhile, the widely promoted [Gravity] hit Proficiency.
[Soul Engraving Sword Saint] skyrocketed to Control status within days after Caramel Snail became famous, pursued by countless fans.
His accumulation now surpassed what a normal player could obtain by grinding through multiple expansions.
"I've reached the pinnacle of Zeta-tier."
If Remaining Moon tried to come again—no, he wouldn't dare.
Just [Calamity] alone could kill him in more ways than he could imagine.
Li Aozi nodded, satisfied:
"It's about time to complete my second class change—[Moonstring Bishop]."
But first, there were a few matters to handle.
He glanced at the documents on his desk, flashing an amused smile.
"White Candle Star Ownership Auction"
"Hunter Assembly Invitation"
"Teraiki Exhibition Hall Admission Ticket"
"It seems I'm no small fry these days."
First, he picked up the White Candle Star auction file:
"A planet truly belonging to me—my path to dominate the universe begins with you."