Chapter 46: Access, Elite Project, Facilities
"I am Neli Joark, the Vice Chief of External Civilization Management." The blue-haired woman introduced herself. "We’ll start this meeting by giving you a suggestion for the better development of your civilization."
"First, there should be fewer than 50 Legendary-rank powerhouses on this planet. One more, and it will increase the planet’s field, allowing Legendary-rank Terror Tears or Terrorized Dimensions to appear at a high rate, and also start the appearance of Divine-rank Tears and Dimensions at a low rate."
"Eh?" Corwin Aldrech, the Grand Warden of the Hunter Association, exclaimed. "Isn’t that a good thing for us? We can acquire better resources and produce more Legendaries."
"But reaching the number of 50 Legendaries is already a steep task. It will take time," Baruch Volent, the leader of the 2nd-ranked guild Iron Halo, said.
"That would be foolish." Neli shook her head. "If you want to protect your civilization and not lose your population, make sure the number of Legendaries doesn’t exceed fifty. You all should move to another planet in this star system and attract Terror Tears and Terrorized Dimensions there instead of here. We have such planets under us that are inhabited only by Hunters of all ranks, which ensures that the normal populations of their planets aren’t annihilated, and continue to produce children that would become hunters to drive away Terrors."
Neli looked to the side as if seeing this planet, and nodded. "You have plenty of Epic-rank Hunters at the peak stage. More than three hundred. All they need is a chance to enter a Legendary-rank Terrorized Dimension to acquire resources so they can achieve a breakthrough."
She turned back to the group and continued speaking. "For starters, we’ll give you access to one such planet. You will have ownership of one Legendary-rank Terrorized Dimension and a chance to compete for more dimensions. On the same planet, you can also compete to enter Epic-rank and lower-ranked Terrorized Dimensions. However, getting access to that planet also means enlisting in the force. That is, when you are called to enter a Terror Tear or defend against Terror Tears that have started spewing out Terrors, you must answer and contribute."
Everyone nodded.
"And compete as in... without laws or with rules?" Torin Bael asked, the guild leader of the 4th-ranked guild Furyforge.
"With rules, which are very simple." Neli smiled. "Each Terrorized Dimension will be competed for in tournament format, and all forces from various external civilizations can participate. The rank limit of participants will be determined by what’s at stake. If it’s a Legendary-rank Terrorized Dimension, then Legendary-rank powerhouses will compete."
The eyes of the guild leaders and Association members lit up.
This was huge!
"Moving to the next point. We will create a space station and transport system with two River-class spaceships for you and ten Corvette-class spaceships for general transport to visit the cities and places under the alliance. You can first travel to the nearest Alliance Hub, which is 7.6 light-years away. We usually don’t do this for free, but since your planet has a Divine-rank senior, and that too in the upper stage of Divine-rank, we’d like to provide some facilities for free, just to earn some goodwill."
Everyone looked at Aidan, who nodded with a smile. "Naturally, my Master is watching this meeting. That’s all I can say."
Neli’s eyes glinted as she nodded and continued. "More regarding the facilities will be handled by Delmort. Cooperate with him for some days, and things will be ready."
A man with a military-cut hairstyle, dark blond hair, and brown skin, looking like a terminator, stood up.
"I’ll start surveying right away to choose the proper vectors for the facilities."
After saying that, he vanished.
"Now, moving on to the next and final point." Neli’s eyes flickered with eagerness. "Cloud Whirl Galactic Alliance runs an Elite Project that unearths and trains talented individuals with powerful combat talents, providing them with resources as well as training. Your planet has little to no advanced spells or techniques, as far as we know from the fights we had yesterday, nor any Spirit Arts. These things are created by both modern and ancient prodigies and powerhouses. We provide them to those who earn them through their efforts."
Everyone’s ears perked up.
"The requirement to join this program must be steep," Seraphine Vale, the beauty who led the third-ranked guild Silvercrest, said.
"It’s a tournament that we hold every month. Epic- and Legendary-rank Hunters have to participate in this tournament to earn a spot in the Elite Project. Divine-rank powerhouses can enter as long as they abide by some conditions. We have six Origin Tombs under us, each one filled with undiscovered manuals, myriad knowledge, and power. We have only properly explored one of them. The people in the Elite Project are also allowed to enter them every month."
"That’s rather tempting," said Isolde Marr, the leader of Blazeworth Guild. She then added a question. "So what is the requirement to enter this tournament? And when is the next one?"
"The next batch of tournaments is after eleven days. If thirteen of you can hit the peak of Legendary rank during these eleven days, one of you might have a chance to earn a spot, but don’t get your hopes up. Across the entire Cloud Whirl Alliance territory, consisting of forty-eight star systems, we hold fifty tournaments for Epic-rank Hunters and thirty tournaments for Legendary-rank Hunters. That’s a total of eighty people chosen among millions of Epic- and Legendary-rank powerhouses."
Everyone’s eyes flickered with shock.
The competition was intense, all right.
[Side Quest: Enter an Origin Tomb]
[Reward: 1000 × Transcendent Points, Mystery Weapon Box.]
"Hmmm, I like that. Where can I register for an Epic-rank tournament?" Aidan asked.
Neli answered with a flat smile. "Mister Garen, and everyone, to keep up with the news and updates of the alliance, the first thing you must do is register as an alliance citizen and acquire a Digicard. It can be used for almost all general things like calling, chatting, surfing the network for news, and accessing the virtual reality hub, where distance loses meaning for certain activities like emergency meetings, verifications, trading, and so on. Of course, everything is fully private. No messages or calls will be monitored because the technology we are using is a hybrid of spirit-based and digital-based systems."
"Fortunately, we brought the device for this here and will establish an office here to grant citizenship to anyone for free."
Neli stood up. "Let’s start with that right away and give you all your Digicards first."
...
The day was long.
The people of the Cloud Whirl Galactic Alliance left seven hours later, and before they left, some things were already done.
For example, a floating island was created where they established the Cloud Whirl Galactic Alliance Citizenship Center, as well as several other buildings.
Delmort was working with his team, some elves, humans, and dwarves, and was already constructing a space station in an open area below. It was about to be finished, and they were going to launch it into orbit around Earth in a few hours.
They had also deployed the twelve spaceships they talked about, two River-class and ten Corvette-class, from the massive city-sized spaceship they had brought here and stationed them on an open field. Once the space station launched, the spaceships would be parked there.
All the people of Earth were reeling with a strange excitement mixed with worry.
Citizenship was being granted to people. But there was only one office for it, so priority was given to Hunters first.
Legendary-rank Hunters first, who had already received theirs.
Then came Epic-rank Hunters, then SSS-rank Hunters, then SS-rank Hunters, then S-rank Hunters, and so on.
"Phew, it was a tiring day. I had to act and smile so much that my facial muscles are hurting." Aidan plopped onto the couch back at the mansion.
Jovan appeared like black mist and sat on the other sofa. "But it was worth it, right?"
Tom snickered. "Of course it was. Master, since you registered for the tournament already, let’s leave Earth and go to that planet. We don’t need spaceships to travel with me here."
"Well, I can also teleport if I utilize Colored King Black’s powers." Jovan smiled. Then he remembered something, and his smile turned awkward. "But I wouldn’t recommend that. There’s a chance it fails, and we land in some major trouble. I can’t trust my Star of Miss Fortune talent."
Solenne arrived with freshly made tea.
Aidan got up upon smelling the tea. "Thanks, Solenne."
"And no," Aidan answered after taking a sip. "Not yet. I only got one daily quest today, and it’s about clearing an Epic-rank Terror Tear. Let’s do that first."
"And I will leave as Garen, so we will leave with the others tomorrow morning."
"Tsk."
...
Fening Family Estate, City L.
"DAMN IT! WHY CAN’T ANYONE FIND THE GODDAMN PERPETRATOR?! WHO KILLED MY SON?!"
"Please calm down, Patriarch Fening. Our people are doing their utmost."
The one who had just spoken was an old man in service to the Fening family for years. He rose from an A-rank Hunter to an SSS-rank Hunter over the years and was in charge of the team that took care of the family’s people.
A second later, his head burst like a watermelon. Some of the blood splattered onto another Hunter who was standing next to the old man.
Patriarch Fening’s green hair flared with green flames as he coldly snorted. "Calm down? Incompetent morons, it’s been two days! All I got was some blood from my son! His body is nowhere to be found!"
Because Aidan had stored all the bodies for Arthur to eat.
"We even informed some of the top ten guilds for help, but they also couldn’t find him. We only have one option now, my lord."
The other Hunter standing in front of Patriarch Fening hesitated briefly before adding, "Soulflare Society’s Devil Prince. He has the power to find anyone and stay hidden from everyone. We can just put a word out in the underground, and a meeting will be arranged."
Patriarch Fening narrowed his eyes. "Some of the people I know have used his service, and the result was 100%. It seems we have no other choice."
"I’ll get on it right away, my lord."
"Fast!" Patriarch Fening pressed. "I want to leave tomorrow for that planet we have access to and enter the Legendary-rank Terrorized Dimension. It’s finally time to become a Legendary-rank Hunter, so I want this resolved before tomorrow morning."
The man wanted to say, ’That’s up to the Devil Prince, not me, you fucking green gobshit.’
But he unwillingly refrained and just nodded. "Understood, my lord."
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