SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 494: Departure—2

Leon thought for a moment before answering James.

"Don’t worry about the farmland and poultry situation," he said. "If people don’t want to do that work, let them not do it. If soup is what they want, let them have it — unlimited, no rationing. If someone enjoys farming as a hobby, let them keep at it. It doesn’t need to be a requirement anymore."

He’d already purchased the seed cultivator item from the cosmic shop, the one that compressed months of crop growth into weeks, enhancing the soil. Infrastructure was the actual priority right now with the population growing this fast — if the spoon could handle hunger reliably on its own, that was genuinely good news. The only reason he’d originally pushed for farms and other food sources in the first place was the fear that eating the same single soup every day for months or years, however delicious, would eventually become its own quiet form of torture.

But now there were five options.

That detail genuinely excited him. It seemed the spoon scaled with usage — feeding hundreds of people consistently over time had apparently upgraded its function on its own, and now with roughly ten thousand people drawing from it, there was a real possibility it would upgrade again. He didn’t know for certain, but the thought of it kept a small, anticipatory pull at the corner of his mouth.

After James’s questions were answered and the man looked considerably lighter for having unburdened himself, Leon teleported again — Seraphine and Ira with him.

They arrived in the middle of an area resembling a small coliseum. Crude by any grand architectural standard — no ancient carvings, no statues, nothing decorative — but clearly a functioning training arena. People sat scattered across roughly two hundred seats, close to two-fifths of the entire human population gathered here.

Inside the ring itself, Leon recognized two figures immediately. Rudy has grown into a young man now. And Max, also grown, though something darker clung to him — a simmering quality in his eyes that suggested the anger from what had happened back in the kingdom had never fully burned out.

Both dropped to one knee the moment they registered Leon’s arrival, the spectators following suit in a wave. They greeted Seraphine and Ira as well, though the reverence directed at Leon was on an entirely different scale — and what little extended to Ira seemed to exist purely because she stood beside him.

Leon waved a hand. "Get up."

He walked toward the spectator section, Seraphine and Ira trailing behind. Seraphine’s expression carried the knowing look of someone who understood exactly why they’d come here. Ira had no idea, but she followed along curiously, eyes flicking across the structure of the arena — it reminded her faintly of the training grounds back in her own realm, just considerably smaller in scale.

He found who he was actually looking for.

Lisa, the poison-affinity girl, sat near Sylphia and Bunbun — the three of them he’d stored here as official citizens of his world. The thought of citizenship made him pause briefly on an unrelated tangent: with the population about to balloon dramatically, he’d need some kind of formal identification system soon. Track people properly from the start rather than scrambling to organize it later.

Lisa rose from her kneeling position at his gesture without issue. But Leon’s attention had already shifted to Bunbun, who was doing the same, and to Sylphia — the wolf girl — who caught his glance and immediately looked away, her face flushing a deep, visible red.

If she’s that embarrassed, Leon thought, slightly amused, why bother with the formal kneeling in the first place? They’re not even staying here permanently.

Bunbun, meanwhile, seemed completely natural in the gesture — her form practically textbook, like she’d rehearsed it.

For a brief, inexplicable second, the image of James flashed through Leon’s mind.

He had no idea why. He dismissed it as overthinking and moved on, focusing back on the practical matter at hand.

"You’re both heading back," Leon told Sylphia and Bunbun. "I’ve kept you here longer than I meant to."

His eyes sharpened slightly as he added, "Nothing about what you’ve seen here gets shared outside."

Both of them shivered, swallowed audibly, and nodded with rapid, repeated agreement, the kind of nervous compliance that suggested they fully understood the weight behind his casual tone.

He glanced briefly at Lisa as well, making sure she’d absorbed the same instruction, before turning his attention back to organizing their departure. Seraphine watched the whole exchange with quiet amusement, clearly enjoying the way Leon’s careful authority figure persona occasionally cracked at the edges when something unexpected happened.

He was about to teleport the group when a voice cut in — and the words that followed nearly made him choke on air entirely.

"My humble, virtuous, gracious, and most supreme God, this lowly servant Bunbun would like to stay here. She has no wish to separate from God’s paradise."

It was Bunbun. Her eyes were almost glistening with what looked like genuine, unfiltered devotion, her voice carrying the exact same fervent cadence Leon had heard from James not twenty minutes earlier — the same rehearsed cadence, the same theatrical reverence, down to the smallest inflection.

Leon stared at her for a long moment.

Shit, he thought, the realization landing with full and uncomfortable clarity now.

That was exactly why James’s face had popped into his head a moment ago. Somewhere along the way, during whatever time she’d spent here as a stored citizen, Bunbun had clearly crossed paths with James — and James, predictably, had not missed the opportunity to recruit a new and enthusiastic convert to his particular brand of worship.

Sylphia’s face went from embarrassed red to something closer to horrified as she registered what her old friend had just said in front of everyone. She opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to physically drag Bunbun away by the ears, but no words came out fast enough.

Leon felt the beginning of a headache forming.

One pope was already more than enough, he thought grimly. I do not need a second disciple.