Zhao Chen, having laid out all the preparations for this campaign, sat in the captain's chair with his eyes closed, "resting." Seeing this, the crew of the bridge deliberately kept themselves as quiet as they could, so as to avoid disturbing the Lord Commander.
Though, in truth, there was already a degree of soundproofing built in around the captain's chair itself — the crew would still deliberately do so.
In fact, at this moment Zhao Chen was reviewing his own system missions.
It was already the end of June now; in another hour it would be July, and by then the quarterly mission would refresh.
This year's first quarter — exchange for one T4-grade interstellar-warship technology — had been completed the moment Zhao Chen exchanged out the T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship.
And at present, the one in progress was the second quarterly mission.
Quarterly Mission
Content: Possess fifteen T4-grade interstellar warships.
Complete; the reward may be claimed.
Because of this great expansion of the fleet, the T4-grade interstellar warships had, too, been expanded by several.
Apart from the original one T4 Reviver-class Clone Starship, two T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships, and one T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser — over this half year's time, the T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ships had increased by four, their number reaching six, enough to form three squads.
The T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser's number had reached 10.
And there was, besides, one T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship.
This brought the number of T4 interstellar warships in Zhao Chen's hands straight to 18!
Zhao Chen's thought stirred: claim the mission reward.
Quarterly Mission
Content: Possess fifteen T4-grade interstellar warships.
Complete; the reward may be claimed.
Mission reward claimed: obtained 300,000 system points and 60 task points.
Before — System points: 280,000
Before — task points: 370
Gained — System points: 300,000
Gained — task points: 60
After — System points: 580,000
After — task points: 430
This time's quarterly mission reward was, as before, only plain system points and task points.
Zhao Chen drew the mission tab downward.
What showed was the earlier annual mission.
This year had, in the blink of an eye, passed the halfway mark — but the state of this annual mission's completion was, rather, not quite cause for optimism.
Annual Mission:
Requirement One: The Owl Dragon Legion's directly subordinate industries' monthly income reaches "20 billion / 30 billion / 40 billion / 50 billion / 60 billion" star coins. Progress, 43 billion: (three stars)
Requirement Two: Possess "3,000 / 6,000 / 9,000 / 12,000 / 15,000" interstellar warships of the T2 grade or above. Progress: 5,000-odd (one star)
Note: the interstellar warships counted toward the completion of this mission may not be hawked off within half a year after the mission's completion; otherwise the system will mete out punishment — the consequences on your own head!
Requirement Three: Possess "1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5" T4 combat-type interstellar warships. Progress: 1 (one star)
Requirement Four: The count of active-service T4 interstellar warships reaches "10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50." Progress: 18 (one star)
Requirement Five: The star regions under the host's direct and indirect control reach "1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5." Progress: 1 (one star)
Note: the standards for dividing star regions, and the standards for judging mission completion, are determined by the system.
Mission reward: for the above five mission requirements, the completion of each runs from one star to five stars, for a maximum of twenty-five stars. A completion reaching twenty stars counts as a "pass," and gains the base reward; twenty-three stars counts as "good," and gains one further extra reward on top; twenty-five stars counts as "excellent," and gains one further mystery reward on top.
Requirement One — in this matter of the yearly income, by the look of the system's data, it should be counting in, too, the income of those subsidiary forces under Zhao Chen's banner, the portion the Northern Goose Group remitted included.
This set Zhao Chen's mind at ease; otherwise, the difficulty of meeting this mission requirement would have been no small thing.
As things now stood, with a monthly income of 43 billion, he could be counted to have taken three stars.
Requirement Two called for a count of interstellar warships; Zhao Chen studied the data closely, and at last confirmed that this "T2 grade or above" took in the existing T2-grade interstellar warships.
Only, regrettably, the system had patched that bug — which was to say, if Zhao Chen truly built T2-grade interstellar warships to make good the shortfall, that was allowed, but those T2-grade interstellar warships would, for a good while, be left weighing down his hands.
The T2-grade interstellar warships of now were, for the Owl Dragon Legion, already something of little use.
"Take it a step at a time; if, when the time comes, I truly can't meet the target, then there'll be no choice but to make up the number with T2-grade interstellar warships. And if there's no other way, then afterward I'll just assign them to the security-and-order work of the Owl Dragon Star System, the Lion King Star System, and the other star-system territories," Zhao Chen muttered within.
He read on further down.
Requirement Three — this one had all along seen no progress, for the only T4-grade combat-type interstellar warship in Zhao Chen's hands was the T4 Vermilion Bird-class Medium Interstellar Cruiser.
Requirement Four — by virtue of the 18-ship count of T4 interstellar warships, it had likewise taken only one star.
Requirement Five — as before, without the least progress; only the Reef Star Region was in Zhao Chen's hands.
And so, this annual mission of Zhao Chen's had a completion of only seven stars.
From the minimum requirement of 20 stars, there was still a very long way indeed to go.
"Looking at it now, the difficulty's no small thing." Zhao Chen grumbled within.
Never mind all this for the moment; the pressing matter of the hour was still this campaign before him.
Once he'd settled this campaign, he could go about completing these mission targets little by little.
And just as Zhao Chen was turning these matters over in his mind—
July had stepped in, and over on Zhao Chen's side, too, a new quarterly mission was received.
Quarterly Mission
Content: Slay the Third Prince Qin Hu; annihilate ten of the Prince Faction's T4 interstellar warships; wholly annihilate this Third-Prince expeditionary fleet; kill three imperial nobles of the rank of Count or above.
Note: Complete the above four mission conditions to complete this quarterly mission.
Reward: one T4-grade interstellar-warship technical blueprint.
Zhao Chen's heart gave a jump; this time the system could be said to be keeping close pace with current events — and, most crucial of all, had directly passed a death-sentence upon that poor Third Prince.
Within, Zhao Chen couldn't help but observe a few seconds' silent mourning for this Third Prince.
*I did snatch your betrothed — but I never meant to kill you.
If there's blame to be laid, blame your own ill luck; the system's decreed you dead at the third watch, and there's no way for me to keep you on to the fifth.[1] For, after all… the system reward is right there, big brother.
Isn't that so.*
"Three imperial nobles of the rank of Count or above." Zhao Chen turned this mission requirement over, and called up that name-list Lilith had reported up to him a moment ago.
He ran his eyes over it a full round.
And at the last, his gaze came to rest upon three names.
Marquis North Wolf of the North Wind Star Region; Count Red Forest of the North Wind Star Region; Marquis Kevins of the Azure Star Region.
Zhao Chen drew a red circle around these three names.
It would be them.