The risk was too great to bear for him. He would adopt a wait-and-see approach; if he gained the chance to select an ability at the B Rank and something like Quantum Bestowment or Quantum Healing came up, he would then give it to them.
Like this, 25 days passed.
(A/N: Rechecked the dates and found that the Monitoring Log 2 chapters ago was made up of erroneous dates, so it had to be rewritten. Please check it out if you are a stickler for detail.)
Dante was finally awoken from his near-month-long seclusion. Today was the 15th of August, and it was time for the students of the virtual worlds to come out, and their progress tabulated.
After that was 7 days in the Black Land before another 30-day session. Dante was sure that many students had learned a lot during this run, even those who were eliminated early, and they couldn't wait to go and merge their insights in the Black Land.
Dante rose from the energy pool which was as sparkling and jittery as ever as the supply was constant and near infinite. Dante noticed that his skin was not wrinkly nor weird, which he attributed to his different constitution compared to others.
After stretching slightly, he tabulated his progress towards the B Rank and was pleased to see that he had climbed 55% of the way using 25 days. That meant that he made around 0.0917% progress per hour, or just about 0.1%.
This meant that he would need around 21 days to fill it up and breakthrough. That was fine with Dante since he would not participate with his real body in the Black Land cultivation for 7 days nor the mock exam against his peers for 30 days.
His Quantum Clone was more than enough to handle such trivialities.
Like, really bro, looking at Dante's current SDI alone, he could easily bitch-slap all his classmates and the monsters in the virtual Zero Gate world.
Rather than that, it was time to do what he had been postponing all this time, which was to consummate his relationship with Beatrice. Not only that, while his quantum clone was handling trivial matters, he would enter the Magus World to deal with Jameson and then gather the reagents to resurrect his mother-in-law.
Dante was now confident enough in his power to make a move. He had the same intelligence as a 9th Rank mage and while he did not have as many spiritual cores nor spells of the same rank, he made up for it with something called Bionics and Psionics, which could make him break the power ceiling of their world with ease.
First things first, Dante teleported to the observation deck and sat in the chair while taking a report from his AI about the progress of everything so far.
In terms of Earth, everyone had settled down and accepted their situation, actively working towards reproducing and fulfilling the various tasks of the Racial Advancement System to better their lives.
In terms of the Milky Way Galaxy, it was not even 0.000001% of the entire universe, but it had been completely subjugated by Dante's troops during this period. There were currently over 5 billion resource planets, 400 million habitable planets that were possessed by species below level 1, and 100,000 planets with level 1 civilizations.
Every planet in the Milky Way under his control had been established with a base. All dead planets and valueless pieces of rock had been obliterated to keep the galaxy clean and with enough space for new developments.
After they were like mosquitoes, they served no purpose. No gravity well, no resources, just masses of death that had outlived their lifespan.
The quantum network within the Milky Way had been established between all level 1 civilizations while those below that did not have the qualifications to access such a thing.
According to Dante's protocol, these lesser civilizations would be given an inferior version of the Racial Advancement System that would force them to work 200% harder for 50% of the reward compared to what humans had.
Not to mention that there was no welfare whatsoever. One could starkly say this was discrimination and nepotism, and that was exactly what it was. Too bad for non-human aliens, next time be born as a part of the human race and you'd get Dante's favor.
The budding quantum network Dante established only featured basic social services and virtual hosting. So it had VR worlds and various messaging boards for the civilizations under him to communicate and bond under his leadership.
Just like humans, these level 1 civilizations were marveled by this level of development and quickly began to explore it. Currently, Dante's Ai was working on the governance and financial system through his quantum network, planning to mimic the Bank of the Eternity as well as the Etraverse Corp and the Prime Human Council in terms of structure.
So a galactic currency was being calculated and created, as well as a galactic political structure. This would not be able to be done in seconds like on Earth because this involved zillions of beings and existences, so it required his powerful AIs to work nonstop all this while.
However, a conclusion should be reached soon.
Back to the report, the situation around the Zero Gate had stabilized. Despite it all, there had been some resistance from actual superpower wielders who felt that they could take Dante on, but their level of development and skill was subpar.
With the database Dante's armada had, they had the catalog of known superpowers and the ways they worked, so his android soldiers could quickly identify the powers as well as how to deal with them.
Most of the species had been carted away except those Dante kept because they were unique. They were collected into various ships and kept in relative comfort, though they were undeniably captives.
Among these were a species detected to be 89% similar to elves with extreme humanoid beauty, knife ears, and slender bodies, as well as one that was 91% similar to demons, with boiling blood, reddish pockmarked skin, and bat-like wings.
They were all basically species similar to those in fantasy and mythology, and Dante's AI inquired upon their history and home location in exchange for information and certain minor benefits.
Not daring to disagree, they could only acquiesce and reveal what they knew in order to secure their lives. As for the meager benefits Dante offered, they took it silently as a consolation for betraying their race and people.
Of course, once this information was secured, ships were dispatched to the locations and the races subjugated. Though they were at different locations in the universe and not within the Milky Way as Dante planned, it was fine.
These races were special to Dante and the humans of Earth, so they were to be protected and developed. Later when it was time for humans to connect with the universal network, they would be a perfect entry point.
Interestingly, in this time, the faction that provided equipment and seemed to control the slots behind the Zero Gate's black land in this universe had not shown up nor made a retaliation.
This was something that puzzled the AI so it made an investigation into the entire system and network here as well as the layout of the universe that had been developed so far. In doing so, it had found out many interesting things that made Dante's eyes narrow.
The information was taken from multiple different aliens and species, especially those who had superpowers or were closer to the center because they likely had bigger backings than the others.
Most of Dante's initial speculations were true. Based on the information, there was not a single species that could be qualified to call itself a level 4 civilization, which meant that it had at least colonized its native galaxy.
At best, there was a level 3.5 civilization that was well known throughout the universe called the Cosmos Union. That's right, this civilization was basically an oligarchy made up of the most powerful level 2 civilizations in the universe that chose to take control using economic power.
The Cosmos Union monopolized everything tech-related, supplying spaceships, spacesuits, and the like to all known civilizations in the universe across galaxies. This monopoly was not because their technology was ahead, but because they simply did not allow people to compete with them fairly.
Given their modus operandi, they should have long jumped out of the crowd to rebuke and challenge Dante, then suppress him. However, their potent silence did not puzzle not only Dante's AI after finding this out, but the very aliens who shared the information with it as well.
Could it be that this powerful and arrogant merchant civilization had given up on the Zero Gate after seeing Dante's armada? That wouldn't be surprising seeing how potent and dangerous the civilization looked from over here.
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