Chapter 211: The Terrifying Fourth Calamity, the Much-Awaited Bai Fu

Counting the players previously brought from Ancestral Source Star, Indigo Star, and Jingu Star, Bai Fu now commanded over fifty thousand players.

Deploying these players in an interstellar war was somewhat insufficient—after all, a standard-sized assault carrier alone could transport tens of thousands of people, and any typical galaxy-level civilization would have at least several dozen assault carriers.

However, sending over fifty thousand players, each as powerful as a B-rank Esper and utterly unafraid of death, to eliminate some minor faction huddled on a small planet—that was a guaranteed, crushing success.

"Move out!"

Bai Fu issued the command to strike. Not long after, over a dozen ships departed from the Star Agreement’s Gateway Cluster branch.

At this moment, public discourse in the Gateway Cluster was still focused on the conflict between Secret Tower and Starweb and other civilizations. No one paid attention to those freighters Bai Fu had leased from Green Mud Sect, nor did anyone know what kind of monstrous force those freighters had brought to the Starsea!

...

Nivil Star.

It was midnight. Vic was explaining the specifics of the mission target to the players beside him with a serious expression.

"Our target this time is an interstellar logistics company named ‘Between Two Points.’ On the surface, this company appears to be just a normal logistics business, but behind the scenes, it has murky ties with interstellar pirates and Secret Tower. Their boss is named Reeves—an A-rank peak Esper. He’s not to be underestimated. His subordinates also... Considering the complex terrain of the company’s warehouse, my plan is..."

"Mr. Vic."

Just as Vic continued to drone on, Sword Qi Soaring into the Sky stepped forward and interrupted him.

"Any questions?" Vic asked.

Sword Qi Soaring into the Sky said, "Your plan is very meticulous and will effectively reduce casualties during the assault. But you’ve forgotten that we are undying. Casualty rates mean nothing to us. The only thing that matters is whether the mission is completed. If it succeeds, even with one hundred percent casualties, that’s fine. If it fails, even with zero casualties, it’s unacceptable."

Vic was momentarily stunned. "Then what’s your plan?"

"My plan is—" Sword Qi Soaring into the Sky paused, "—no plan!"

Yes, he hadn’t thought of any plan at all!

Not because he couldn’t think of one, nor due to a lack of time, but simply because he hadn’t bothered.

There was no need.

This mission’s target was merely a force whose strongest fighter was an A-rank Esper. Against something of that scale, charging in head-on would be more than enough—why waste time with convoluted strategies?

So what if you’re an A-rank Esper?

You might beat one or two, even ten B-rank Espers. But what if I deploy a hundred B-rank Espers, each wielding weapons capable of harming you?

Just charge in and be done with it!

If they dragged this out, the enemy might realize their goal and destroy the Dissociative Agent Base Sample.

Sword Qi Soaring into the Sky’s blood boiled. At this moment, he felt possessed by Black Tiger Afu—his mind filled only with one thing: battle, battle, and more battle!

He wasn’t really a war fanatic—it was just that he had been holding back for too long. Ever since the Tianshu Star Campaign, it had been over a year since he had engaged in a proper combat mission in-game.

He had no choice—Bai Fu's level was too high, and her enemies were of similarly high caliber. That kind of combat wasn’t something he could participate in.

Sure, even just following behind Bai Fu and watching the story unfold could earn him massive experience points. But compared to this easy mode of leveling, Sword Qi Soaring into the Sky still preferred leveling up by fighting monsters.

As a guild leader, speedrunning high-difficulty raids, strategizing world bosses—this was what he truly pursued!

"You haven’t forgotten the coordination we honed on Ancestral Source Star, right?"

Sword Qi Soaring into the Sky turned to his guild members.

Among the more than forty thousand players transported by freighter from Ancestral Source Star, several hundred were members of the Iron Rain Guild. Within these hundreds were many elite players with top rankings—this was the confidence behind Sword Qi Soaring into the Sky’s daring.

"How could we forget? Boss Sword, let’s start—I’ve been itching to swing my big gun!"

"Exactly! It’s time to remind Miss Foxtail of how awesome we are!"

"Let this battle announce our arrival to the stars!"

One cheesy line after another flew out.

Besides the Iron Rain Guild, the other players were also eager to fight, buzzing with excitement.

Seeing this scene, the corner of Vic’s mouth twitched. He felt a bit concerned—could this really work? Perhaps he should consult Bai Fu first.

Thinking this, he quickly contacted Bai Fu and relayed everything that had happened.

Bai Fu’s response was just five words—

"Let them charge in!"

She had brought players from the starter planets to the Starsea precisely so they could charge—and by that, she meant charging for her, not at her.

Vic took a deep breath. If that’s the case, then let’s charge!

With his command, tens of thousands of players stormed toward the Between Two Points logistics company from all directions.

Even a charge of a hundred people was already spectacular. A charge of ten thousand? There were only two words that could describe such a sight—

A flood.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Everyone inside and outside the logistics company was dumbfounded by the scene.

Because it had happened so suddenly, many even thought the warehouse wall of Between Two Points had collapsed, and that these players were charging in to snatch zero-cost goods.

What? Zero-cost?

For a moment, many onlookers joined the charge, only to soon realize something was off.

Wait a minute, weren’t those walls intact? Then what are we zero-cost shopping?

Oh.

They were intact. But not anymore.

At the front of the charge, a player hoisted a portable launcher and blasted away at the walls. Despite the sturdy construction, the walls were shredded under such relentless bombardment.

"Who the hell is causing trouble?!"

Reeves, who had been doing accounting, threw his ledger aside upon receiving the alert and rushed out of his office.

By the time he mobilized defenses, players were already rampaging through the warehouse zone.

"Lay down your arms and you won’t be killed!"

"Surrender and you won’t be killed!"

Reeves laughed out of anger. Zero-cost shopping? At his expense? This was absurd! Just because he hadn’t shown his teeth, did they really think he was a pushover? A joke! He might appear genteel now, but he used to be an interstellar pirate. During those years, he had committed every atrocity—murder, arson, dismemberment—you name it. These people trying to rob him clearly had no concept of death.

"Fine. I haven’t had a proper fight in years. Since you’ve come to die, I’ll show you what a true killer looks like!"

Reeves slapped a button on his belt. In the next second, a box the size of a cigarette pack expanded into a massive, two-meter-long circular chainsaw.

When this giant chainsaw revved up and carved through flesh, blood and meat splattered everywhere—a truly shocking spectacle.

Under normal circumstances, Reeves wouldn’t have reacted so strongly. But recently, the war between Secret Tower and Starweb had left him, as a Secret Tower associate, under immense pressure—terrified of being exposed.

When under pressure, he needed an outlet. And now, someone was attacking his logistics company. How could he not indulge in a little bloodshed?

"Let’s give these bastards a taste of pain!"

Reeves quickly issued orders to his partners and the gang of thugs he kept.

Let the slaughter begin!

The smell of blood sent Reeves into a frenzy of excitement.

In his mind, the battle would unfold like this—

Under his men’s suppressive fire, these foolish, reckless invaders would be disoriented and panic. Then, he would descend from above with his giant chainsaw. Amidst the sound of his landing and the deafening roar of the chainsaw, he would transform into a spinning battle demon, cutting down enemies left and right. Blood would rain, flesh would fly, and he would become a god of slaughter—instilling terror into all who dared covet his territory!

It had to be said—Reeves’s fantasy was vivid. However, his plan failed right at the first step.

Suppressive fire? Disoriented enemies?

Those things did happen—but it was his own men who were suppressed and panicked.

It wasn’t their fault. The players were simply too terrifying.

Faced with a hail of bullets, the players neither dodged nor flinched. They charged forward with portable laser cannons, blasting as they ran, screaming all the while. Occasionally, one would be blown apart—limbs flying, eyeballs popping from sockets—yet the others didn’t flinch. Instead, they laughed heartily, trampling over the fallen remains while mocking the dead as noobs and unluckiest of the bunch. The scene was...

Reeves’s men didn’t know what others might think—but they themselves were about to faint from fright.

What the hell were these things? Had they accidentally wandered into some horror abyss, surrounded by death-defying Dark Domain Insects?

Wait, no.

Being surrounded by the Dark Domain Insects was not nearly as terrifying as being surrounded by this group of people.

The Dark Domain Insects never dodged when attacked and could step over their comrades’ corpses without a twitch—that was because they had no brains, only a killing instinct. But this group clearly had brains and yet effortlessly committed acts even more terrifying than the Dark Domain Insects. If this wasn’t horrifying, then what was?

"Fight? We can't fight this! You want me to trade my life one-for-one with a bunch of lunatics like them? Don’t joke with me!"

"Mom, I was wrong. I’ll never do bad things again. From today, I’ll turn over a new leaf and be a good person. Please protect me and let me live."

"Shit, even the most infamous star-level fugitives aren't half as ruthless as this group! Who the hell gathered these hidden dragons and phoenix chicks together?"

No matter how much Reeves urged them, his subordinates absolutely refused to show their faces.

Urge, urge, urge—urge your damn head! If you've got the guts, go fight them yourself. Or better yet, just chop us all down and be done with it!

Not even in his worst nightmares had Reeves imagined the situation would devolve to this point—but the real horror was yet to come.

Once the players had successfully breached the firepower points inside Between Two Points Logistics Company, only traps, high walls, and B-rank and A-rank Espers remained standing in their path.

In other games, players faced with traps would have to spend time slowly solving them. Faced with high walls, they’d curse at the message "This door cannot be opened from this side" before going to find another way.

But in Among the Stars, players didn’t need to bother with any of that.

Traps?

Charge straight through!

Dying didn’t matter. As long as the trap got trampled and destroyed, it wasn’t a loss. The respawn point wasn’t far—just run back again.

High walls?

Tear them down!

If this wall couldn't be taken down, then break the one beside it. Eventually, one wall was bound to fall.

This was the very definition of scorched earth.

Forget Reeves’s people—even Vic, who was on the same side as the players, was stunned.

Holy hell, was this even real?

Before, when he saw players fighting the Dark Domain Insects in a fierce struggle, he had only thought they were brave. But now, watching the players fight Between Two Points Logistics Company, he felt nothing but relief that he was on their side—who could possibly withstand such a charge?

"Ten thousand undying together is already this terrifying... if the two million undying from Ancestral Source Star and other planets all get shipped over..."

Vic couldn’t help but take a sharp breath.

"Perhaps... I’m witnessing the birth of a legend!"

Watching the players’ steady advance, Vic couldn’t help but feel emotional.

As the players pushed into the depths of the warehouse, Reeves could no longer sit still. He leapt out with his most loyal followers.

He couldn’t let the players keep this up. Otherwise, the secrets he had hidden would surely be exposed. Even if he managed to fend off this attack, he would be finished.

Before jumping into battle, Reeves did one small thing—

He called the police!

"Officer, I’m under attack by a group of unknown assailants!"

Reeves’s reasoning was simple.

No matter how ferocious these people were, they wouldn’t dare kill Starweb police, right?

If they dared attack the police, the next force to arrive would be the planetary anti-terror task force. And after that? A full fleet. This was the real deal—beat the little ones, and the big ones would come.

"As long as the Nivil Star police launch an assault, everything will be fine!"

With that hopeful thought, Reeves charged into the horde of players.

A peak A-rank Esper was still a peak A-rank Esper. Wielding his giant chainsaw, Reeves cut through the player ranks seven times in and out. To instill fear, he deliberately minced every player he struck into pulp with the chainsaw.

In just a few minutes, the battlefield was blanketed in flesh. It was a hellish tableau.

Even Reeves, the one who had created it, felt sick. But what terrified him was that the players showed no reaction at all—they were still joking and laughing.

"What the hell?"

Reeves was dumbfounded.

Players: Bet you didn’t expect this—we activated Censorship Mode!

In fact, even if players didn’t manually activate Censorship Mode, the game would automatically apply basic visual filters to such grotesque scenes to protect players averse to gore.

This was absolutely necessary. In the early game, blood and violence were relatively mild. But in the late game, it became far more extreme.

Imagine: hundreds of thousands of players charging a powerful boss, and that boss unleashing a sweeping skill that instantly sliced every single player in half. Their upper halves would collapse to the ground, while their blood-spurting lower halves remained standing...

That wasn’t just gore—it bordered on grindhouse horror.

The more Reeves fought, the more uneasy he became.

How many people were actually attacking? He had slaughtered so many, and yet the numbers outside hadn’t diminished at all.

No one knew how long it had been when he suddenly heard sirens. He looked up to see a dozen police hovercars flying in from the sky.

Reeves was overjoyed and shouted, "Here! Over here, I’m right here!"

He raised his chainsaw high. The chainsaw roared. The next second, the police vehicles spun 180 degrees in midair and flew away.

Drip, drip, drip—

The sirens faded into the distance until they were gone.

"???"

Reeves was utterly bewildered.

Wait, bros, where are you going? You’re scared off?

This time, it truly wasn’t the Nivil Star police being cowardly. While the sheer number of players was terrifying enough, the real reason they turned away was because they saw Vic—and Vic informed them that this was a special operation ordered by the Savior Saintess Bai Fu against Secret Tower.

After the Jingu Star operation, Bai Fu’s reputation within Starweb had already surpassed 2000.

How high was that? Well, some Starweb citizens didn’t even know the current rotating chairman of the Starweb Joint Council—Claville—but they knew Bai Fu by name.

Hearing that it was Bai Fu causing this scene, the police didn’t ask a single question. They just left.

Reeves was about to explode with anger.

But what could he do? No matter how furious he was, it made no difference now—or rather, he didn’t even have the energy to be mad anymore.

Once Vic confirmed that local law enforcement had been informed, the players were completely free of any concerns. They unleashed everything they had on the A-rank Espers of Between Two Points Logistics Company. On average, each A-rank Esper had to face over a thousand players.

Reeves’s response to this was, "Screw this!" He tried to run, but surrounded by more than a thousand players, there was nowhere to go.

After over ten minutes of continuous battle, he suddenly recognized several familiar faces.

Wait a minute, hadn’t he just chopped those people into pieces? Why were they back...?

In that instant, Reeves finally understood.

His attackers were the undying!

No wonder they weren’t afraid of death or gore. Now, everything made sense.

But this realization only deepened Reeves’s despair. Ha! So he had just spent all that effort putting on a show for the undying?

If his enemies were ordinary "mortals" who would die when killed, he could still go out with a bang—take a few down with him. But against "undying" who wouldn’t die no matter what, what was the point? He might as well just drop dead now.

The moment his will broke, Reeves’s combat strength plummeted.

"10% left!"

"8.4%!"

"1%... crap, I crit! Hahaha, the boss kill is mine!"

Amid cheers and groans, Reeves collapsed to the ground with a thud. His body was covered in countless wounds, eyes hollow, devoid of fear or confusion—just a wrecked expression.

Truly pitiful.

Vic walked over from a distance and shook his head at the fallen Reeves.

Then, he laughed.

Being an enemy of the undying was miserable—but being an ally of the undying? That was the best.

Now, he had only one concern: once word spread about the undying's terrifying combat power, many would covet their abilities. And that would lead to fear toward Bai Fu, who commanded them. Some of those people might even try to harm Bai Fu in secret. He needed to give her a warning—Bai Fu was too kindhearted. She might suffer for it.

Vic ordered the players to drag Reeves’s body to the Nivil police. Then, he personally interrogated Reeves’s terrified subordinates—so shaken they could barely stand. Very soon, he got exactly the intel he needed.

Vic's confidant admitted their collusion with the Secret Tower and confessed that they were also safeguarding the Dissociative Agent Base Sample for them.

With their testimony, Vic had no trouble locating the base sample. He quickly reported the situation to Bai Fu and kindly reminded her.

Bai Fu nodded. “I know. Don’t worry.”

What worried Vic was also what she had been concerned about. However, she had already come up with a countermeasure. All she needed to do was “send” a portion of the Players to other factions as undercover agents.

The only issue was that this “sending” must not appear too deliberate. Otherwise, the other side might become suspicious of her true intentions. If not for this concern, she would have forced tens of thousands of Players into the Secret Tower as spies long ago.

“How should I send them?”

Bai Fu began to think seriously.

At the same time that Vic smoothly completed his mission, things were going equally well on the side of Scarlet Leaf, Anya, and Yulia.

Especially on Anya’s side. As Bai Fu’s loyal little follower, Anya was recognized by the locals the moment she appeared.

“Isn’t that the Saintess’s little follower, Anya?”

Unfazed by the attention, Anya faced the journalists’ cameras with her hands on her hips, confidently advertising Bai Fu’s Dark Moon Tide Private Armed Company.

“Got a problem? Contact Dark Moon Tide. Boss Fu-fu is trustworthy, and the Undying Ones guarantee results!”

“From chasing interstellar pirates to finding your lost cat, Dark Moon Tide serves you with utmost dedication. Fair prices, honesty for all!”

“Forget the ad, look at the results. Want to know how efficient the Undying Ones are at getting things done…”

Please watch the VCR!

Through the news broadcast, the people of the Initial Gate Galaxy Cluster witnessed the terror of the Players for the first time.

In fact, compared to Vic’s team, the Players accompanying Anya were much gentler. At least they hadn’t gone so far as to laugh and chat while stepping on their teammate’s eyeballs—a scene terrifying enough to knock someone out. Even so, those who were beaten up by them were driven to the edge of madness. The expressions of fear, pain, and despair on their faces were deeply etched into every viewer’s memory.

Wasn’t this just Evil Dead?

…

Bang!

In the Secret Tower, the Chief Steward slammed his fist on the table in fury after receiving the news.

Others thought Bai Fu was just using her attack on the Secret Tower to advertise her Dark Moon Tide, but he knew very well that Bai Fu’s true goal was far more than that.

“The base sample—she’s collecting the Dissociative Agent Base Samples!”

Considering that Bai Fu might already have two base samples in her possession yet was still collecting more, an overwhelming sense of unease arose in his heart. Could it be that Bai Fu knew the true origin of the base samples?

If that were the case, the Secret Tower might not have much time left.

“Damn it, just who the hell is Bai Fu?”

The Chief Steward urgently contacted Scalpel to inquire about the progress of the parasite experiment.

“The good news is that the parasite works on the Undying Ones. The bad news is that once these Undying Ones die, the parasite disappears when they revive. So, using parasites to control the Undying Ones around Bai Fu is a one-time tactic. Once they realize something is wrong, they can just commit suicide before we activate the parasite to break free of our control.”

“I see. Then this move will have to be our last resort,” the Chief Steward said, frowning. “What’s the progress on brainwashing the Undying Ones?”

At this, Scalpel grew excited. “Everything’s going smoothly. Tests show that brainwashing methods effective on ordinary people also work on the Undying Ones—if not more effectively. The brainwashed Undying Ones have already become the most loyal Secret Tower warriors. Chief Steward, you won’t believe it—they even come to me voluntarily, asking if I have any tasks for them. That level of zeal—I’ve only ever seen it in the diehards we raised from childhood!”

“Seriously?”

The Chief Steward’s eyes lit up suddenly.

He recalled the news broadcast he had just watched. The terror of the Undying Ones had left a deep impression on him. He had been wondering how to deal with the Undying Ones under Bai Fu’s command, but now it was clear—brainwashing worked wonders. Why think so hard? Just use Undying Ones to fight Undying Ones!

“Our current number of captured Undying Ones is still too small. We must find a way to catch more of them.”

His mind raced, and soon he came up with a method to capture Players.

“Got it! Dark Moon Tide!”

Wasn’t Bai Fu advertising her Dark Moon Tide Company? He could simply have a few seemingly clean people pose as clients and contact Dark Moon Tide. Then, lure the Undying Ones working for Dark Moon Tide into a trap set by the Secret Tower for capture.

While the Chief Steward was scheming against the Players, other factions that had seen Anya’s “advertisement” were also holding internal meetings.

“I heard there are hundreds of thousands of Undying Ones on Jingu Star. If you count Bai Fu’s hometown, she probably commands over a million Undying Ones now. That’s over a million undying B-rank Psionicists.”

“Good thing they’re just B-rank. If there were a million undying A-rank Psionicists, every faction in the Initial Gate Galaxy Cluster would be forced to detour whenever they saw Bai Fu.”

“The Undying Ones from Jingu Star don’t seem very close to Bai Fu. Maybe we can poach some of them.”

“Poach them? Absolutely!”

“If we can raise them into A-rank or even S-rank Psionicists, things will get very interesting.”

From major galaxy-scale civilizations to renowned mercenary corps and interstellar pirate gangs, everyone had their eyes on the Players.

They hadn’t thought much about the Players when Bai Fu had only a few around her. But now that they learned there were millions of them, how could they not be tempted?

The uses for Undying Ones were endless.

They could be organized into armies, forming Undying Legions. They could be used in experiments, drastically cutting costs. They could explore dangerous areas with minimal risk.

But all this relied on one premise—that the Undying Ones could revive even after leaving Bai Fu. If their resurrection came from Bai Fu, then all the effort to acquire them would be wasted.

Of course, if it turned out the Undying Ones’ resurrection was tied to Bai Fu, there’d be no need to poach the Undying Ones at all. They’d just need to find a way to poach Bai Fu herself.

“Savior Saint, millions of Undying Ones… Interesting. Could this be the handiwork of the Oathmaster?”

Among the many watchers, one figure stood apart—the President of the All-Spirit Fellowship, Rufas, one of the three Transcendents of the Edge Worlds.

“Have those close to Bai Fu investigate whether the Undying Ones’ resurrection ability is linked to her.”

…

While the outside world was roiling with undercurrents due to the Players, Bai Fu was basking in the joy of her harvest.

Anya’s team had succeeded, and she herself had made no mistakes. When the final tally came in, she had breached five strongholds and recovered four base samples. Counting the two she had obtained earlier, she now had six base samples. Once Anya’s group delivered theirs, she could complete the special mission called [Convergence · Dispersal].

“What happens after collecting five base samples?”

Bai Fu’s heart brimmed with anticipation.

Beyond the mission, her greatest gain was the reputation her Dark Moon Tide earned from this operation.

She had just checked the backend of her account on the Pan-Galactic Commission Platform. In less than thirty minutes since the news broadcast aired, her messages had already hit 99+.

What did that mean?

It meant she was about to get rich!

Send Players on missions—the majority of the reward went to the Players, but even if she took just a 0.1% commission, it would still allow her to amass a huge fortune quickly.

This was different from making ads. Ads were one-time deals. Commissions, on the other hand, were long-term business—they could generate wealth for her endlessly.

“It’s finally happening!”

Bai Fu beamed with delight.

With money, she could bulk purchase Psionic Crystals to strengthen herself and Yulia.

With money, she could construct a Player Capital to further bind the Players to her.

With money, she could acquire advanced knowledge from various schools to better extract experience from the Players.

Dreaming about the future, Bai Fu checked the progress of her Class Transfer Quest.

After this operation, her score for Sub-path 1 [Warrior’s Glory] had reached 371 points. She estimated that two or three more large commissions would complete the Class Transfer Quest.

And just two or three commissions—she had already received a pile of them.

“Back to HQ. Let’s have a meeting to discuss Dark Moon Tide’s future development plans.”

Bai Fu sent a message to Anya and the others.