ã€ŠNumber One Commanderã€‹


 Chapter 1 - Luon Fate

    Time is an ambiguous thing.

    Luon stared blankly at the night sky from his room, watching the stars that were the only sources of light in this near pitch black cityscape. In the distance, this youth appeared with an enigmatic expression, deep in thought and at a loss.

    As if he was dislocated from the world, everything around him appeared entirely foreign.

    Luon''s appearance is similar to a typical Asian man, thin, slightly robust with lightly tanned skin, and a bit handsome. His raven black hair although short defied gravity to some extent giving it a somewhat spiky look. What made Luon stand out the most, however, were his eyes, a rare sight never before seen in normal humans. His eyes had a bluish golden hue which seems to emit a soul-piercing gaze.

    ¡°Status,¡± Luon muttered as he peers over to his wrist as a holographic window is displayed from a slim metallic wrist-watch.

    [Luon Fate]

    [Race: Half-Human/Half-Elf]

    [Federation ID: NEX-6854BP]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 31]

    [Racial Skills: Quickness, Night Vision, Mana Affinity]

    [Active Skills: Wind Magic Lv2, Reinforcement Magic Lv2, Mana Manipulation Lv2]

    [Passive Skills: Swordsmanship Lv3, Parallel Thoughts Lv3, Eye of Insight Lv4]

    [Species Knowledge Evaluation: 287/1000]

    [Technical Knowledge Evaluation: 540/1000]

    [Monthly Salary Evaluation: 1597 Galaxia Coins]

    [Recommended Job Paths: Engineer, Soldier, Commander]

    Biometric Magicite Processing Unit, also known as BMPU. This device is the equivalent of an advanced version of a cellphone, a miniature computer, and government identification in an all-purpose device created by the Novera Corporation.

    Luon turned off the device and closed his eyes. Today was his first day in this world. Luon began to ruminate over the events that had happened only moments before his memory amalgamated.

    ...

    Luon Fate was an outstanding engineer with a strange obsession with knowledge and books.

    Earth during the era he was in had entered the earliest stages of space development and economic reorganization. Many countries around the world had ceased open hostilities against one another due to the rate of depleting available resources around the globe.

    North America, in particular, had a huge advantage in the study of Aerospace with the sudden emergence of a certain particular company, Novera Corporation.

    No one knew of the origin of the Novera Corporation, from how they manage to get numerous amounts of investors to the foundation of their technology, people didn''t notice its existence until they declared their first major project to the world.

    The colonization of Mars and the development of Space Colonies.

    With the press release held with an assembly of major news companies, the world was overwhelmed by the presentation. Novera Corporation CEO, Yuji Ichihara had claimed that they have already migrated a portion of their staff to Mars.

    The colonization project had gone underway without anyone knowing it, the current population on Mars was merely a few hundred people, but that alone surprised people since no other competitor had even safely traveled to Mars yet.

    Yuji declared that their state of the art space shuttle used to travel to Mars was safe and allowed humans to travel in space freely within two months of distance. He also declared that within the next ten years that the time it would take will be shortened in half and the number of people it harbored would substantially increase.

    After the conference the stocks for the Novera Corporation went up and like the flames in a bonfire consistently fueled with oil, it was unstoppable.

    Numerous applicants requested to partake in this venture and among these people were Luon Fate''s parents.

    Rina Fate and Kane Hung were engineers from a development firm that was heavily under-budget. When the firm closed down, they immediately applied upon seeing the news of Novera Corporations uprising. They luckily managed to get a position in the research and development department.

    When Luon was around 6 years old, his parents had brought him to watch the departure of Novera Corporation''s third-generation space shuttle, ¡°The Canaris¡± ferrying over 10 000 people to Mars.

    ¡°Wow! Mom, Dad, look at its soooo big! Bigger than when it was on TV!¡± Luon exclaims as he jumps and points at the colossal spaceship like a restless overhyped child on concentrated sugar.

    ¡°Now, now Luon calm down, the space shuttle isn''t going anywhere yet,¡± Rina says as she blushes at how childish her son was being, especially when the surrounding people are smiling wryly at the sight of him monkeying around.

    ¡°Luon, what do you think of the space shuttle your Mother and I help built?¡± Kane asks curiously.

    Although Kane felt proud as one of the developers of the space shuttle, this task had consumed numerous amount of hours, and he and his wife had neglected the poor lad for quite some time.

    Luon stopped and gave it some thought, he then turned to face his Father and said with a refreshingly sweet smile, ¡°Hmm... I think it''s cool and it helps a lot of people, so it''s amazing!¡±

    Kane and Rina looked at each other and smiled, making them feel accomplished in their work. Kane then turned to face Luon again and asked, ¡°Then do you want to grow up and come work with your Mother and me to make big, cool spaceships at Novera Corporation?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I want to work there too! Novera Corporation is super cool, they make awesome things and, and...¡± Luon quickly replied and then began to think of other good things to say.

    ¡®Novera Corporation is super cool, that also means I must be the coolest dad for working there,¡¯ Kane thought.

    But Kane''s thoughts were quickly interrupted with what Luon said next with an energetic eureka face, ¡°And... They have tons of money. They have sooo much money that they can buy tons and tons of books! They can have so many books, that if I were to work there, I could read all I want for the rest of my life!¡±

    ¡°...¡± Rina and Kane had no idea how to reply to that ignorant compliment. More importantly, they began to worry about their child''s education.

    ¡®Why would they spend all their funds on books for you? They¡¯re a space development company, and why should they let you waltz right in and read them if you were to work there? Do some work if you work there.¡¯ thought Kane.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Kane then coughed in an attempt to get rid of the awkward silence, he smiled and said, ¡°Well, work hard then and remember to read a lot of educational books to become really smart. That way you can make any of your dreams come true.¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡± Luon and his parents then glance at the space shuttle as it began to take to off.

    ''I''m going to work hard on my dreams.'' Luon thought as he watched the shuttle take off in the distance with a determined gaze.

    But what was Luon''s dream? His parents didn''t know what Luon does at home alone, little did they know that this act of negligence led to him developing a weird thinking process.

    Luon loved books when he was young. His parents introduced to him to a various amount of genres hoping that he wouldn''t feel too lonely and that he would grow smart on his own.

    Because of this Luon read any genre of books, from picture books to biographies, but his favorite type of book were novels, especially informal web novels and light novels. Maybe because it was simple to read, or it was interesting, or perhaps because some had pictures - he dove into a wild world of nonsense.

    Giant robots wars, human cultivators harnessing qi energy to topple mountains, stories based on mythologies, holy wars between angels and demons, humans reincarnating or transported to another world doing either extreme acts of terrorism or nothing at all.

    All of this gibberish had utterly influenced his mind. Of course, he also enjoyed the anime adaptations of his favorite novels, as for drama adaptations he couldn''t get in the mood to watch them as they were too realistic for him and didn''t seem appealing.

    As for his school life, there''s nothing much to say, because of these influences he made friends with a small number of people. And as for his grades due to his fast reading pace that he has trained over the years, his already superior memory, and also because of his wisdom he gained from seeing plot holes in books, he graduated top of his class and managed to get a position in Novera Corporation as an engineer.

    Not just anyone can get a job in Novera Corporation by being smart, however, in Luon''s case he wasn''t just smart, he had an abnormal obsession of reading books and applying theoretical knowledge to practical appliances - this made him even more valuable than the others.

    Even after Luon joined Novera Corporation, he continued to create a various amount of random gadgets. To make these random gadgets he did many strange things making everyone think that he¡¯s a weirdo.

    Like creating a device in the shape of a monocle to determine the statistics and properties of random animals or humans so he can help his friends discover the opposite genders 3 sizes.

    While he was researching about the fictional Qi energy from martial art novels, he trained at a Buddhist temple and managed discovered a new type of energy particle.

    He also made random 1/100 scale models of cool robots that can battle each other on a tabletop simulator for kids to play with and a rechargeable plasma rifle that can shoot through walls, so he didn¡¯t have to walk around it.

    Despite his accomplishments he never had any intimate relationship with the opposite gender, his antics and taste were too strange for any of them to be interested in him, and he didn''t really care too much about others as well - the existence of books comforted him instead.

    Everyday Luon spent it joyfully. He would spend half the day reading books and the other half either sleeping or creating something at his workplace. Norvera Corporation happily took several of his inventions and developed more practical and marketable versions of them, of course with his permission.

    Norvera Corporation had ventured into space for several decades with the advancement of many new technologies. Luon''s parents had retired after making many contributions. They¡¯re now traveling around the world spending their time sight-seeing and being lovey-dovey.

    However, when Luon turned 27 years old, his joyful life came to an end.

    Luon was sitting on a chair on his break day drinking some coffee and reading a book. While casually listening to the news on the TV, a very critical news report appeared.

    ¡°Breaking news, This is *** speaking, and we have reports of an unidentified insect-like alien race approaching our Solar System, a group of convoys from Mars had attempted to make communication with this race and were openly slaughtered. The government had just announced their intentions of developing a military space division...¡±

    Beep Beep Beep

    Luon looked at his phone and saw it was his department supervisor at Novera Corporation calling him, and he picked up the phone.

    ¡°Hello?¡±

    ¡°Hello Luon, it''s me, Mason, did you see the news report on channel **?¡± Mason replied in a slightly timid tone.

    ¡°Yeah, the news about an unidentified insect right? Is it something significant enough to call for on my day off?¡± Luon says in a monotone voice and frowns as he started to think that the upcoming news wasn''t going to be good. He began to consider handing in a resignation letter as soon as possible.

    Mason is a very outgoing man with a loud voice. For him to speak so timidly on the phone - this began to increase Luon''s worries with every passing second.

    But before Luon can begin to doubt him any further, Mason replied, ¡°The government calls them Inzektors, but don''t worry about that.¡±

    Mason continued in a more serious tone, ¡°So it''s like this, the corporation has been requested by the government to provide assistance. They want us to develop weaponry and perform maintenance and to do so the corporation also wants us to go to frontlines.¡±

    ¡°What? Why couldn''t we develop weapons on Earth where it''s much safer?¡± And where there are books, although he didn''t mention it the thought itself made Luon frown - Going to Mars is almost the same as traveling to a desolate area without internet.

    Mason powerlessly laughed at Luon''s remark. ¡°Are you an idiot? Earth''s resources are on the brim of extinction, and if we were to develop more weapons, we would need to ship it from Mars, manufacture it and then ship it back, the round trip itself will already take a week. Do you really think we have that time to do so during the war with an unknown species? Also, don''t think about quitting. The government just made it mandatory for engineers to participate if they were under the age of 35.¡±

    Luon''s plan to quit has already been burned to dust before he can even apply it. Luon then thought about what Mason said last and asked. ¡°Why would the government want Engineers under the age of 35? Shouldn''t they recruit some more experienced engineers?¡±

    ¡°They want some young engineers. The government isn''t sure how long this war is going to take, and there is the risk of attacks when going to the frontline. They want every engineer to experience combat training to fend for themselves while they''re on Mars. The old folks wouldn''t be able to handle such training at that age.¡± Mason replied after giving it some thought.

    ¡°Anyways I told you all you need to know, so pack up and say your goodbyes, the situation is urgent so we will be leaving in 3 days¡± Mason hangs up the call on that remark.

    Luon slowly moves the phone from his ear and stares blankly at it. A desolate life with only combat-related manuals, forced training, and slavery manufacturing.

    After the war had officially started, Luon was thrust into many different battlefronts and on numerous occasions nearly died. These occurrences, as if God wanted him dead, added up to seven times.

    The Inzektors were intelligent and attacked the many manufacturing facilities situated around Mars, despite humanities efforts they were still unable to communicate with the intelligent species, and a heavy blood grudge was forged between these two races.

    Although cats are said to have nine lives, Luon wasn''t a cat and faced death on the eighth attack when he was repairing a plasma turret. An Inzektor had flown in at high speeds and ram itself into it.

    The impact had knocked Luon off his feet, and the back of his body landed vigorously on the floor.

    A shard from the same plasma turret flew upwards in the sky, and then it began to descend due to gravity. And as if some mysterious force willed it, impaled his stomach.

    Luon puked blood upon the impact, and within moments he was on the brink of death.

    He began to recall his loving family, and then he started to regret being an unfilial son. Luon wrote very few letters to his family during the war with the Inzektors, but his worse sin is that he didn¡¯t leave any descendants for his parents. They never got to see their grandchildren.

    The war lasted so long. Luon recalled the joy of crafting, making things he dreamed of, loved and sought for peacefully. It was indeed a blessing in disguise.

    ¡°I guess I''ll never get to finish those novels¡± mutters on his last breath as he recalls the fact that during the war numerous of authors had neglected, been axed or personally dropped their stories due to circumstances.

    Although a few of them were already were going to halt naturally, the majority of them were stopped because of the war. Luon only wishes that those authors get more time in writing them, as he also wished he had more time reading them.

    Luon Fate, 68, Chief Engineer and Leader of the Wings of Freedom Division passed away because of blood loss.

    ...

    [Simulation Test 1 complete, ID ¨C NEX-6854BP, now entering next phase.]

 Chapter 2 - Awakening

    [Simulation Test 1 complete, ID ¨C NEX-6854BP, now entering the next phase.]

    [Simulation Test 2 complete, ID ¨C NEX-6854BP, now entering the next phase.]

    [Simulation Test 3 complete... ]

    [Simulation Test 6 complete, ID ¨C NEX-6854BP, now awakening the participant.]

    ...

    Within the darkness, Luon heard a sound. The sound began to get more evident by the second, and at some point, he had recognized what the distinct sound was.

    Luon convinced himself that he was dead, however, after hearing this sound he began to doubt himself.

    ¡°Seriously, is this heaven? Why does it sound like a urinal, do souls get flushed into the River of the Underworld?¡±

    Slowly Luon was able to regain his bodily functions, and his vision was no longer dark, the sound of water being drained was from the transparent container that he found himself in.

    The cylindrical shape of the container and the transparency of it, as if one can testify in the distance was very similar, if not exactly like those test-tube capsules often seen in sci-fi movies that he watched during his free time.

    As for why he can get a clear view of the shape and structure of it, beyond this seemingly fragile, transparent material of the container were rows of capsules aligned and organized akin to capsule hotels featured in Japan, only everything looked more high-tech.

    Attached to each capsule were pipes, more than likely used to drain the liquid outside of the container as well as an electronic display panel with something written on it. For some reason there was a conveyer belt in the middle of this small hallway, so instead of being a cute and comfy capsule hotel, it was like a factory.

    ¡°Where am I? The last thing I recalled was dying on Mars¡­ Did someone save me and preserve my body? No way! Our technology wasn¡¯t advanced enough in the medical field. Then is this the Inzektors base?¡±

    As various thoughts and conjectures began to run within his mind, he noticed his bodies condition from the small reflection of the container.

    ¡°No way is that me? I look similar to my teenage years, but what¡¯s with those eyes? Did those bastards do something to me?¡± Luon exclaimed.

    ¡°Hehe, I don¡¯t know whom you''re talking about, but I have just completed the procedure of your release, Mister Luon Fate.¡± Luon¡¯s thought process immediately halted upon hearing those words as a small floating display panel, descended and hovered right in front of him.

    ¡®Wow, she¡¯s so beautiful... there¡¯s no way she can be human. I mean look at that hair color and that facial structure, unless plastic surgery became more advanced, she must be one of those virtual idols that people spend lots of money on.¡¯ Luon thought as he began to evaluate the beauty before him inwardly.

    She had a pleasing smile and very flamboyant pink hair. Although her chest area is a tad modest, her facial structure was practically aligned to the golden ratio of beauty.

    With a voice that can bring even auto-tuned singers to shame she politely said, ¡°Good morning Luon Fate, I am glad to see that your awakening has been relatively peaceful. Before we have a productively long conversation on the current situation, I am going to align your Vortex Container to my designated assembly line. After several minutes, we can happily have a face to face discussion with some biscuits and tea.¡±

    After those words, Luon¡¯s capsule was soon placed on a track and began to move at the speed equivalent of 10km/hr. The floating monitor with the beauty in it led the way as if it was anchored to the container.

    ¡°Seeing how we have some free time before we can meet face to face. I can answer your most urgent concerns right away.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Luon gave it some thought on what kind of questions he should ask. He then decided to go with the standard procedure of who, what, when, where, and why. Who was she? What is this place? When was he here and for how long? Where is this place? And why was he here?

    The beauty with a professional smile, steadily answered each every single one of his concerns as if she¡¯s experienced this situation almost a million times.

    First off, she introduced herself as Isabella McFlair and her job was to make sure that the awakened do not become panicked, and rampage in the facilities and to introduce them to the world. She also mentions that her face and hair are all natural and that if Luon was asking these questions to garner her attention, then he should get better pick up lines because it wouldn¡¯t work.

    ¡®I¡¯ve never had that much contact with the opposite gender, how am I supposed to know any pickup lines?¡¯ Luon thought as he smiled wryly at the latter''s narcissistic remark.

    She then continued her explanation. This building is used to nurture, develop and facilitate a child''s growth by utilizing various life simulations based on reality to accelerate their learning process. She also mentioned that Luon is currently 17 years old, which had shocked him because the last thing he can recall was dying at the age of 68.

    As for a reason for why they were incubated.

    There are many powerful beings in the universe and to be up to par with them, lifeforms from the Nexus solar system that Luon was in had to develop abilities beyond their age limitations.

    The Alliance, the league of various powers consists of 4 different factions, they are:

    The Intergalactic Federation, The Ark Judgement Empire, The Aqua Kingdom, and Avalon.

    Although they are allied on the surface to face a more significant threat, they are very wary of each other and only maintain the balance due to trading resources and technology.

    The more significant threat is named, Inzektors. No one knows where these humanoid insect beings came from or how many there are. Experts estimate that the Inzektors are in control of over 90% of the whole universe but there was no proof based on their speculation as it was only an estimate based on their numbers, and although many wild explorers claim to have traveled throughout the whole universe, no one believed their claims.

    The remaining 10% of the universe, if the expert''s guesses were correct, was divided equally by these superpowers, each of them dominated 4 solar systems.

    Although vague because of lack of time to explain things adequately, Isabella briefly describes what each factions specialization.

    The Nexus solar system that Luon was in was 1 of the 4 solar systems managed by the Intergalactic Federation. The Intergalactic Federation was known for the diversity of races and freedom of its citizens making each solar system unique in their way.

    The Aqua Kingdom like in the name it has lorded over water-based solar systems specializing in sea creatures, serpents, and fish-like people. Many of which are believed to be descendants of the original Sea Emperor.

    The Ark Judgement Kingdom was composed of 2 allied monarchs to make a higher power. On one side we have Demon King who ruled over the demonic creatures hosted within 2 solar systems. On the other side, we have the Angelic Lord who commands the angelic race owning the other 2 solar systems. Due to the long-lasting equilibrium between the two, they agreed to settle their differences creating an all-new force.

    Last but not least Avalon. Filled with fantasy creatures and ruled by the Dragonic Lord, although every single faction is equal in resources and strength, this particular one if it had tried to, could have dominated the others.

    The wise ruler, the Dragonic Lord, decided to opt to do so to prevent needless deaths before the threat of the Inzektor race, initiating the founding of the Alliance.

    However even with the Alliance made the war with the Inzektors rages on. These rulers contemplated ways to advance onwards in hopes that one day they can create a new era.

    With this in mind, the Demon King suggested that it was because of the lack of proper management over resources that the battle continued and pushed the notion of having only the best of the best make use of the biggest share of it.

    Every superpower agreed with that idea, to give food and weapons to the powerless and useless folk? Not necessary - only with true power, determination and will can advancements in this war be made.

    The Alliance Tournament, an annual battle between each solar system.

    With the limitation on resources, each solar system is obligated to bet half of their resources produced that year as a prize for winners of the tournament.

    There are only 16 group entries based on each solar system, and each solar system trains the majority of their youths through a militaristic structure otherwise known as, Battle Academies.

    These candidates from the academies for the tournament must be less than 22 years old and have never participated before.

    The competition is then fought and is divided into two different categories: Virtual Battles and Creative Engineering.

    By the time Isabella finished answering Luon¡¯s questions the pathway ahead was radiating with bright light.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll stop around here, in the next minute or so we will be meeting each other. Welcome to the world.¡± The display monitor floated upwards and left.

    The Vortex Container entered the bright tunnel, and a new world appeared within Luon¡¯s eyes.

 Chapter 3 - Meeting

    Luon was inwardly shocked at the sight of the world he had woken up into.

    His Vortex Container left the assembly line and entered a transparent tunnel. Luon couldn¡¯t tell what magical forces were moving his Vortex Container, but his eyes shined brightly. New things are great!

    Beyond the transparent tunnel was an astounding sight.

    Luon looked in all directions, all he saw was clear blue skies and many cylindrical, white skyscrapers with various transparent tubes attached. They seem to be head towards what looks like to be the center of the city.

    Luon turned his head in an attempt to look at the ground. Although he didn¡¯t know the altitude he was currently at, it was very high up.

    At first, he was expecting people to have flying cars but other than blue skies, circular tubes and buildings, there wasn¡¯t much else up there.

    ¡®There must have been some kind of flying regulations around here, to prevent the circular tubes from breaking and causing accidents.¡¯ Luon thought.

    The building at the end of the tube was a massive, black building with a large number of tubes attached to it. The building seemed to function similar to a terminal as all the skyscrapers interconnect with this structure.

    After arriving at the building through the transparent tube, he reached an area which seems to be a platform station.

    Before Luon was able to evaluate the station, Luon¡¯s Vortex Container did several turns around the platform entering and exiting many different tubes. It then elevated and went above the platform, within moments he had experienced over a hundred twists and turns.

    Luon had finally reached the end of the tube, and his Vortex Container slid into the room.

    The Vortex Container made a series of random noises symbolizing its opening, the transparent lid lifted upwards like the scissor doors found on an expensive Lamborghini.

    Luon slowly stood up and like a newborn fawn, wobbled his way as he began to evaluate the room.

    The room was an office space, there were several bookshelves, a coffee table, a metal door which led to another room, 2 sofas facing each other and a chair with an armrest in between, a very regular miniature meeting set up.

    Behind that was an office desk which consists of a table filled with paperwork, and a very familiar beauty smiling and sitting on a black leather chair while lightly tapping her finger on the table as if waiting to see if Luon was done with his evaluation.

    ¡°How was the view of the city? Did you like it?¡± Isabella asks in a dignified and proud voice.

    ¡°It¡¯s amazing, it¡¯s almost like I¡¯m dreaming,¡± Luon said steadily after being stunned of the different world he had just experienced.

    ¡°Have a seat over there, it may take several days to adapt to your body, but there should be no problems.¡± Isabella points towards one of the sofas, she then stands up and moved into a corner that held an assortment of treats and drinks. She walked over and placed them on top of the coffee table, then she sat down on the chair in the center.

    Luon motioned his body and placed himself on top of a sofa, he then moved his hand over to one of the cookies on the table and took a bite out of it. ¡°Delicious!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you liked it. Although I would like to have a few minutes to do some chit-chat, I have to follow the standard procedures first. We, operators, are very busy as hundreds of people wake up each day. You might not notice, but our population standards are limited and scale to the number of resources we have available.¡± Isabella talked in a very professional manner as if these words can be recited off by memory.

    Isabella faced towards Luon and continued ¡°Before we start do you have any questions about your hibernation experiences and your life simulations?¡±

    Luon gave it some thought for a moment then he carefully and with some uncertainty looked into her eyes and asked ¡°Was it really just a simulation? Everything in the simulation seemed so real. From the feelings of joy, sorrow, pain, and torment to the single detail of a blade of grass. The world was so well detailed its kind of unbelievable.¡±

    Luon eyes revealed the feeling of yearning at the same time carried a minor sadness. Luon looked old despite his young age as if he had seen the world passing by and everything was left behind.

    Isabella looked at him sighed ¡°There is a lot of people like you who felt the same way, time and life is a really precious thing. As I explained, earlier this process had to be done to maintain our status quo within the universe. If you were born in another Solar System you might not have these feelings, sadly you were born in the Nexus System.¡±

    ¡°Do you regret doing the simulation?¡± Isabella stared at Luon observing his expression.

    Luon shook his head, ¡°No I don¡¯t regret it, although it may not be real, those experiences make me who I am now.¡±

    Isabella smiled, ¡°Great because there are still 5 more experiences to account for!¡±

    ¡°5 more experiences?!? How come I can¡¯t recall any of it?¡± Luon body shooked and as his brain began to process to its best abilities, although he still wasn¡¯t able to recall not a thing.Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°That¡¯s because the most dominant simulation, the longest life you spent in hibernation becomes your main memories, the other experiences are to be re-integrated later on.¡±

    Isabella then handed Luon a box which she pulled out of nowhere, on top of it is a wrist-watch. ¡°First, take this. This is your BMPU wrist-watch.¡±

    ¡°BMPU wrist-watch?¡± Luon questions her filled with curiosity.

    ¡°Biometric Magicite Processing Unit, it¡¯s your government ID, personal computer, and the container of memories of your simulated lives. It shows you how much value you are to the Federation. The device for new users, allows you to sync into your simulated memories, although once your memories are sync, you may feel a tad bit sick. There is also a tutorial on how to use it when you first start it up. To start it up simply press on the display and hold it for 10 seconds, you could do it later tonight.¡± Isabella explained.

    Luon received the wrist-watch and attached it to himself.

    ¡°Good, now that your major concerns have been answered and I gave the watch, half of my work is practically done. Next on the agenda is arranging your schooling. Based on the annual report the system has judged you eligible to attend the Nexus University to further your studies and career.¡±

    ¡°Annual report? Is there anything needed to report every year?¡± Luon asked slightly confused. To do a report for each person incubated must require a massive amount of human resources.

    Isabella showed an exhausted expression and said in a flat voice. ¡°There are tons of things to report for every year. Honestly, there is simply too much writing to do, luckily candidates who are evaluated not eligible to go to Nexus University attend to some minor schooling for logistics, otherwise we operators would be swamped with work. On this solar system only about a maximum of 12,000 people, every year are allowed into Nexus University to educate themselves in combat and technical jobs, the rest of the candidates would work at standard jobs such as tending stores, office positions, or some agricultural jobs.¡±

    Isabella continued as if venting her feelings into words, ¡°Every day we would write reports about hundreds of people and their life experiences. Every year in real life is equal to 10 years of simulation, and there are a total of 6 simulations. So for the system attempts to average the life expectancy of candidates simulations to 27 years old by instituting a series of events which we call ¡°Death Flags¡± to pressure them into unlocking their real abilities. Because of this, we are then able to have the candidates wake up at an eligible age to attend the Alliance Tournament.¡±

    ¡°As for your reports its relatively funny, we will talk about it last though. Sadly you woke up a month before the new year otherwise you would have more time to adapt to the world. One month from now you have to move to the student dormitories before that though is your will. Do you have any questions or concerns about anything else?¡± Isabella said as she looked at Luon.

    Luon pondered. A new world that Luon had never dreamed of. A brand new life, living in the skies. A brand new school with tons of new things to learn and read. Luon smiled at the pure thought of how great life was going to be.

    Isabella smiled seeing how Luon was lost in his own thoughts, she knew what he was thinking and said before he was no longer aware of her. ¡°Even though you''re now a new citizen of the Nexus System, it''s not guaranteed that you get to live in the upper levels of these buildings nor would you get a good job, or become super rich. Everything is determined by your ability, your will, and your parents status.¡±

    Luon¡¯s delusions shatter on the spot as he began to give Isabella a stare of a man who is deeply concerned, he said, ¡°My parents? How are they? Are they healthy?¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask them yourself?¡± Isabella gave a joyful laugh as if she just played a mischievous trick on Luon. She then pressed a button on her chair, the doors to the room opened, and Luon saw 2 familiar figures standing there.

    They were Rina Fate and Kane Hung. They looked really similar to the simulated version of them, and Luon couldn¡¯t help but start crying.

    Luon had faced separation from them for what he can recall about 40 years in the simulation, and this was the first time meeting them in reality.

    Luon¡¯s image of Kane had changed from an engineer to a veteran soldier. One of his eyes appeared to be blind as there was a scar mark right on top of it. His body was extremely muscular and robust, and one of his arms wasn¡¯t even human anymore, it was robotic. He wore a dark green military uniform with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. And he no longer had any hair on his head to admire, it was cleanly shaved bald.

    Rina Fate, on the other hand, was even more different than the simulated version. She appears to be a beautiful and mature blonde beauty with very delicate white skin. She wore a simple white t-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans that revealed the elegant and modest curvature of her body. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, and her blue eyes gave off a sharp gaze, making her look very domineering. The most notable feature was that her ears were long and pointy, she wasn¡¯t human but an elf.

    Even though they didn¡¯t share the same experiences and feelings as Luon did when they met, the moment they saw Luon begin to cry Rina and Kane couldn''t help to be moved. This was their first time seeing their son after 17 years, even without any knowledge about what happened to Luon the joyful feeling of reuniting can still be shared, they approached Luon to give him a hug.

    After Luon and his parents calmed down and recovered from the reunion, Isabella motioned for them to sit down on the sofa. Luon sat on the opposite couch from his parents and Isabella was still calmly sitting down in between. ¡°Now that your parents are here it¡¯s time to explain your simulation to them, although they got the annual report every year on paper it¡¯s much better to reconfirm everything at once. As you may or may not notice, but these simulations are based on the Alliance¡¯s superpowers history and culture. The system recalculates and bases your simulations to refit it based on your racial attribute, so in your case, you should have experienced the life with human and elven attributes.¡±

    ¡°Human and elven attributes? I know I was born human, but I can¡¯t possibly recall meeting any elves in my lifetime.¡± Luon tried his best to recall any meeting with elves but didn¡¯t manage to remember anything.

    ¡°Each simulation would have a portion of your genetic attributes inside of them depending on each simulations background setting. Let me just check the record for your most dominant lifetime then. Hmm, let''s see¡­ Oh, your Elven attribute only started to appear on the 2nd annual report onwards.¡± Isabella said as she used her wrist-watch to pull up a holographic document.

    ¡°When I was more than 10 years old? Maybe I must have read some fantasy novels, but can that really be considered having expert level knowledge about elves?¡± questioned Luon.

    ¡°The record says you have a tremendous amount of knowledge about elves, especially in your later teenage to young adult years and the materials you studied about elves can be classified as obscene materials.¡± Isabella blushed and said.

    ¡°...¡± The mood turns awkward. The only thought Luon had remaining was that if he knew his perverted lifestyle was being recorded that he shouldn¡¯t have bothered telling his friend to destroy his hard drive after death. If his life weren¡¯t a simulation, maybe the guys in the afterlife would also be able to check his life records.

 Chapter 4 - Life Simulations 1

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Luon, having a good understanding of elves is an excellent thing. Although your study method may be a tad bit unique, there¡¯s nothing wrong with it.¡± Rina said full of understanding and wisdom.

    Although Rina said that, Luon inwardly thought that she may actually be secretly laughing at him inside because the little curls of her mouth were up.

    ¡°She¡¯s right Luon, everyone who participates in the simulations goes through the same things you do. Participants have their whole lives is recorded in the system and under confidential privacy law, other than us no one else would know about your preferences.¡± Isabella confirmed as she attempts to make Luon felt more secure about himself.

    Isabella then continued, ¡°And having an outstanding understanding about elves would greatly help you on your evaluation when you''re at Nexus University.¡±

    ¡°Evaluation?¡± Luon appeared confused.

    ¡°As I explained earlier the amount of resources available in the universe is limited and only through the contribution value towards the federation would you be able to access a portion of it. If two soldiers wanted to ride a spaceship and there was only one spaceship who would we prioritize? The one with several lifetimes worth of piloting experience or the other soldier who had never touched a ship before?¡± Isabella said.

    Isabella had explained before that the number of resources in the universe was limited. Due to these limitations, the Nexus Solar System had incorporated all corporations and small business into government-supported facilities. Although each company is supported by the government, they are only the supplier of resources. The government has no matters in regards to the direction of the company is going but can ultimately determine its fate.

    The average monthly salary of an ordinary citizen would be about 2500 Galaxia Coins if one wanted a better career to make more Galaxia Coins they would have to take government supported evaluation examinations to get better jobs.

    These evaluations are divided into 3 different categories: Knowledge, Combat, and Logistics. When citizens apply for jobs, the employer will check these evaluations, similar to job experiences in resumes the employer is more than likely to hire the employee with the better track record. Of course one could get the job if they had connections.

    ¡°During your third year at Nexus University, it is mandatory to take the government examinations to determine your career path. I also heard that in your third year there - dependant on your performance and career, you may also receive 2 free assistant droids. As for what model these droids are, you can apply to have either a humanoid or a beast type.¡± Isabella said.

    Luon pondered and asked, ¡°Is the model type of the droids determined by my evaluation then? For example, if I wanted 2 dragon type droids and everyone else wanted the same ones, the government will only provide for the most compatible ones then, correct?¡±

    ¡°Precisely. In your case, since you have a good evaluation of elves, you can apply to get a higher priority elven based droids¡± Isabella smiled.

    Isabella then continued, ¡°Of course most of these evaluations are determined on how much experience and knowledge you know of. Which is why we do these simulations in the first place.¡±

    ¡°Your future may seem predetermined, that¡¯s only on this solar system. If you want to, you can always move back to my parent''s place in the Plana solar system.¡± Rina happily exclaimed.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, each solar system has their own rules and regulations on employment if you¡¯re not satisfied with one just simply do the paperwork and migrate to another as your mother has done.¡± Kane nodded.

    ¡°Nevermind about migrating solar systems, let''s talk about your simulated lives and the performance evaluation.¡± Isabella quickly exclaimed.

    Isabella thought, ¡®If every person migrated after awakening how would the Nexus System remain in power? Of course, we can¡¯t restrain people, we can only hope that by emphasizing freedom and inducing pride, we can retain citizens.¡¯

    ¡°If there were something notable in the simulations that I would have to point out it would be your obsessions with knowledge and books and your determination to live.¡±

    ¡°According to the annual reports on your first life simulations, it seemed a bit hectic and unusual. However, the system judged the performance to be ¡®Good.¡¯ Normally you should have died much earlier, but the amount of pressure helped you unleash a lot of your potential.¡± Isabella began to evaluate Luon¡¯s first simulations reports.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    The first simulation purpose was to introduce Luon to the basic history and foundations of the humans born from the Nexus Solar System. The system offers a lot of freedom in the initial stages of life to save on its processing ability and allow candidates to pave their future freely.

    When the system began to interfere with Luon¡¯s life by instituting death flags, Luon¡¯s will and determination to survive to read books helped him overcome numerous amount of challenges, causing the systems basic estimates to be off the mark.

    By the time the first simulation ended, it had to recalculate and rebalance itself for the future simulations. Thus lowering the initial ages of future death flags occurrences.

    ¡°Problems where the initial estimates are quite a rare case. It is estimated that out of 10,000 people at most only 20, would at most experience a recalculation. This could either be a good or bad thing. Good due to the fact the amount of pressure causes the candidate to fare better in fast-paced and complex scenarios. Bad because the candidate would have less time experiencing other simulations.¡±

    ¡°Now about your second life, the performance was very similar to the first one. In fact, the results may even be better. It even got to the point the system began to consider seriously evaluating your ability to handle pressure.¡±

    Isabella then began to explain the second simulation for Luon since his dormant memories have yet to be realigned.

    The second simulation took place in a fantasy based war period.

    Luon was raised by his parents in an elven village where he learned how to manipulate magic which was a critical racial attribute of elves.

    In this simulation Kane was an elven hunter from dawn to dusk he would traverse the woods to hunt wild animals and creatures for a living. He taught Luon wind magic at a young age to effectively hunt prey, basic biological traits to look for in animals, and how to use a bow. Well, at least he tried to teach Luon how to use a bow, but for some reason, Luon would always miss without the use of wind magic.

    Rina, on the other hand, was an elven swordsmanship instructor. Although she wasn¡¯t the greatest swordsman her passion for swords was overwhelming. Whenever possible she trained Luon to the point where he was dead tired.

    For elves it was difficult to obtain an incredibly muscular body like orcs have, so to top it off; she also taught Luon how to use reinforcement magic. Because of this she reduced the amount of time spent training the body and focused more on actual combat experience, she beat him to the ground daily.

    Luon in this simulation attempted to avoid his mother as if she were a plague, and for some reason as if it was natural instincts wanted to read books. Whenever he was not hunting with his father, he would always try to sneak off somewhere to read, that is until his mother caught him.

    Fortunately for Luon at the age of 14, he was able to attend a school where he devoured and deprived the library of its knowledge. The books he read improved his magic, his sword skills, and he obtained the basic foundations of military tactics and magical crafting. He was an excellent student - knowledgeable and skilled with the sword, although he wasn¡¯t a master at anything at least he isn¡¯t a beginner.

    After graduating from school at 18, he was forced to go into mandatory military discipline for 4 years. This period was the worse time for Luon as he was deprived of any source of educational literature and was made to train for the majority of his days. And even worse right before his services were completed his country began to engage in a war with a neighboring state.

    As a soldier, Luon had fought in several battles, and in the midst of a particular battle during the war, the commander of Luon unit had died from a stray projectile. At that moment a slight panic spread throughout his squad and fear began to grow within his heart. He knew he had to do something, so he courageously rallied his brethren, repelled the enemy and miraculously survived the battle.

    After this battle, he was assigned the position of commander for his unit as well as a noble rank, and from that point on he learned the about the inner greed of nobility, or at least for him it was.

    In the midst of the spoils of each battle were books and after spending years without them, his desire for them burst. There were sword manuals, a series of tactics rolls, methods on how to train your body, and the most commonly found books to keep the morale and sanity of soldiers which is often used at night.

    For the sake of books, he slaughtered a path towards the upper ranks of nobility without even realizing it.

    He ultimately reached his end when he was receiving a gift from one of his vassals. Everyone who had heard of the heroic Luon knew he loved books and this trait was used against him.

    Blinded by his greed for books the trusted vassal presenting the book as a gift had assassinated Luon before he came to his senses. He was killed at the age of 52.

    ¡°Your death was a little unexpected, but because of your astounding performance, the system evaluated you as an excellent candidate for Nexus University. The system once again had to recalculate its evaluations, this is something that had never happened before.¡± Isabella proclaimed.

    The words Isabella said made Luon feel a sense of accomplishment. His first two simulations had made him into a fantastic person.

    Unprecedented, unique, the one and only person to be reevaluated twice!

    Isabella then continued, ¡°After the second calculation, the system began to take your next few performances seriously as the age range was getting close and results were earth-shattering. We thought you would give us some more valuable data, however... you died too fast. And for the dumbest reasons on top of that!¡±

 Chapter 5 - Life Simulations 2

    Isabella continued ¡°Because of your astounding performance during the first and second simulation, the initial stages of death flags was greatly lowered. During your teenage years, you should have begun to experience life-threatening experiences, and we would have gotten some valuable data on your ability to cope with it.¡±

    ¡°However, before the system could begin instituting these death flags you personally took the opportunity to kill yourself without having the system intervene that much.¡± Isabella smiled showing slight traces of ridicule.

    The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth simulations were filled with a series of unfortunate events.

    Out of the 17 years, the system averages the age to be even, Luon had spent 12 of those years in the first 2 simulations.

    Because of this the next few were relatively time constricted.

    The third simulation was during a peaceful fantasy period.

    Luon was born as a half-elf, half-human in an elven village where he was ridiculed. Only his mother cared about him in this village, and he didn¡¯t live with his father, he was often neglected by others. Due to this he often spent the majority of the time studying in the library rather than play with other children.

    Eventually, as Luon aged, his peers did as well. Time was constant and always changing because of this the dark feelings the villagers had for Luon grew to the point where nobody in the village liked him.

    So they secretly conspired against him and banished him from the village. His mother was hopeless about the situation and couldn¡¯t do a thing to protest against this decision.

    After Luon left the village the system implemented the first death flag during this simulation and pitted an evil necromancer to attack Luon.

    At this point Luon was expected to die, he had no combat abilities, military discipline or courage, only a bundle of knowledge he obtained from reading. However, he shamelessly used a technique he learned from a book called ¡®The Powerless Submission Guide,¡¯ it taught him how to compliment superior individuals or others with higher standings to not anger them and kill him straight away.

    The evil necromancer was amused and took Luon as experimental material for his dark magic and devices.

    For 3 years Luon had experienced many pains and sufferings caused by the experiments done to him.

    For Luon to survive the pain and suffering he endured, he gained the ability to split his thought process into segments and mitigate the injury by thinking of happy things.

    During this period the evil necromancer was kind enough to allow Luon to read his research materials and experimental logs as long as he didn¡¯t plan on running away, and dim-witted as he was, he agreed.

    He died at the age of 18, and the third simulation had only taught him the skill - Parallel Thoughts.

    The fourth simulation that Luon had experienced was during the war between Angels and Demons.

    This simulation purpose was to teach Luon the basic foundations of what made the Ark Judgement Empire and was very disadvantageous to him as he was born as an Angel, not sharing any of his natural traits and inhibiting his ability to adapt to the environment.

    Fortunately the setting that system forced Luon to study the biological properties of Angelic and Demonic beings.

    Luon from a young age was a student during this time, this was probably one of his most favorable settings.

    As Luon continued to study at around the age of 15 an unfortunate natural event occurred. Although Luon was an angel, he wasn¡¯t able to use their abilities correctly, and since the school for Angels was in the sky¡­ if the wind blew away a piece of paper and if it were to fall downwards Luon wouldn¡¯t be able to retrieve it let alone return himself.

    So when Luon was carrying a stack of books not looking where he was walking he fell in a construction zone in the sky city, it was a long drop, and then he died.

    The system initially planned to institute death flags a few years later, but Luon had already killed himself, like a human it secretly swore in its calculated mind to consider developing preventive measures for future potential candidates/idiots to die from killing themselves.

    Of course, since this was a new thought for the system, it had yet to produce any measures, and Luon¡¯s next few simulations were practically the same as this one.

    Isabella then briefly describe the last few simulations as they were the most unproductive ones.

    The fifth simulation was in the world of human cultivators.

    A world where you fight each other for more natural resources and becoming the strongest in the universe, such a world didn¡¯t suit Luon very well.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    The magical properties of qi energy and mana are relatively similar, because of this Luon was quickly able to learn to manipulate his mana like qi energy and joined his local cultivation sect with ease.

    After joining the sect, he came to the sect library to find a cultivation method suited for him. However, blinded by his ingrained obsession to read all he did was scan through all the cultivation techniques in the library and never put them into practice.

    This caused some of the sect elders, especially the library keeper to be a little mad.

    The sect library was divided into 3 sets of floors, the first 2 was open to the public. As for the last floor it was strictly monitored as it contained secrets and anybody who had attempted to enter floor is to be sent and judged.

    Being the newcomer, Luon neglected to study the rulings of the library as it wasn''t written down on paper and only verbally told. He was sent to trial after accidentally attempting to enter the upper floor.

    Normally the sect would try their best to give a fair judgment, but since most of the elders didn¡¯t like him, they sent him on a mission outside of the sect and entrapped him to his death.

    He died without actually trying out any of the sect techniques he read.

    The system had begun to think that it should maybe have intervened to prevent such meaningless deaths. However, after glancing at the first two simulations data decided against it.

    His first two experiences should be enough to have a meaning in life. The system began to neglect Luon slightly, and its calculated choice was correct.

    The sixth simulation was based on the Sea Kingdom Empire, just like the fourth simulation, he was supposed to study the biology of aquatic lifeforms found in the Sea Kingdom.

    That is until he died at the age of 9 from having a fishbone stuck inside of his throat while eating and reading at the same time.

    Isabella then turned off the holographic projection after explaining all the simulations.

    She cleared her throat and said, ¡°Although his simulations had some pros and cons the biggest benefit was that his understanding for knowledge is very diverse to the point where he developed the rare Eye of Insight skill.¡±

    ¡°This skill aids the user to accelerate his analyzation process and recognize most objects and beings based on his foundations and estimates,¡± Isabella said.

    ¡°You mention skills quite often, but what are skills? Are they just like the ones found in games?¡° Luon thought and said.

    ¡°The meaning of skills can be quite vague as well as the origin. The first time skills came to light was from fantasy-based worlds, and we could only obtain very few details about them after researching the appraisal skill, and afterward, we applied it into the modern BMPU wristwatch.¡° Isabella said.

    She then continued ¡°Your skill Eye of Insight is very similar to appraisal although it can''t accurately analyze like appraisal, it provides better real-time updates allowing you to predict actions. If you needed more accurate details about certain things, your BMPU wristwatch should suffice.¡±

    Apparently, skills according to Isabella were akin to a gift from God, nobody knew where it came from or who created the functionality. The concept of skills has appeared in numerous occasions, special powers that espers are believed to have, video games, even daily regular tasks are being done better than others is actually influenced by skills.

    But nobody had noticed this until the study of the appraisal skill bear fruit. Everyone thought that through large amounts of effort their abilities will naturally grow and those geniuses spent a significant amount of effort. In reality, it was thanks to a skill that helped them be better than others.

    Luon sat there pondering over what skills are, why do skill ratings and levels enhance their performances, and all the other details covered so far.

    Isabella clapped her hands waking Luon up from his thoughts.

    ¡°Well that''s it for all the basic explanations, it''s getting a little late so let''s end it here. If you have any more questions, you can contact me under the support department on your BMPU wristwatch.¡° Isabella said as she stood up.

    Rina and Kane followed suit, and the three shook hands.

    Luon stood up as well, after resting his body a bit he was able to regain the majority of his bodily functions.

    ¡°Thank you very much,¡± said Luon as Kane went to support him a bit.

    ¡°No problem, I wish you the best.¡± Isabella smiled and bowed.

    After exchanging their goodbyes Luon and his parents left the room from the door Kane and Rina came in from.

    ¡­

    Isabella sat back on her office chair and pushed a particular red button on her desk.

    A holographic projection appeared, and a 3D model of a black obelisk appeared.

    ¡°Doctor, how do you evaluate this candidate?¡° Isabella said as she began to close her eyes and recall the meeting with Luon.

    Luon¡¯s every action within the room was recorded. All candidates simulations were randomized and optimized by the system making a few unique individuals. Some candidates end up being very troublesome and potentially cause problems upon awakening. Luon¡¯s profile was actually on that borderline.

    ¡°Who would have expected that The Black Harbinger overall personality to be so neutral because of the first simulation.¡± The black obelisk sighed and said.

    The reports were indeed accurate, every action the candidates take written and evaluated. What the report doesn¡¯t reveal is the emotional stability and demeanor.

    ¡°Hmph, Doctor your just disappointed that you couldn¡¯t have any more fun during the second simulation.¡± Isabella opened her eyes and smiled.

    The system, in the end, was a machine, to properly evaluate candidates some human interference was allowed. The man talking behind the obelisk had done so during the second simulation for Luon.

    Like a real-time strategy game, he positioned his troops against Luon and lost every time. Sometimes he had more soldiers sometimes he had less. But no matter what he did he never had accomplished killing him during the battle. Like heroic figures and champions found in games Luon¡¯s tenacity, firepower and abilities were just too strong.

    ¡°Doctor, do you think that after his memory sync would he still be humane?¡± Isabella slightly frighteningly said.

    ¡°With how the majority of the other lives went I think personally think he would be fine.¡± the black obelisk said.

    ¡°Never mind that the evaluation has already been set, let¡¯s start with the next person,¡± said the black obelisk and with that statement the call ended.

    ¡°Another long day...¡± Isabella tirelessly sighed as she began the procedure for the next person.

 Chapter 6 - A place to call home

    After leaving Isabella¡¯s office Luon and his parents walked down the hallway before exiting the area through a series of tubes.

    At the end of the tubes he arrived at the terminal that he saw before entering Isabella¡¯s office, many different races were walking on the platform many of which Luon believed to be only legends or stories he had read before.

    As Luon began to examine the people on the platform, Kane urged him onwards causing him almost to stumble.

    ¡°Keep going, others may not like it when strangers stare at them intently,¡± replied Kane in a solemn manner.

    Kane explains that even though everyone may seem friendly on the surface, some minor discrimination still exists. Different races take specific actions differently, and Kane told Luon that unless he knows more about them, that he shouldn''t bother talking to them as it might offend a few aggressive types.

    Kane and Rina led Luon into a large platform with many kinds of people loitering around.

    After moments of standing on the platform, a loud horn sound was emitted out of nowhere, and the platform began to descend.

    Kane and Rina began to explain a little about themselves.

    When he was young, Kane just as he looks was previously a soldier in the front lines against the Inzektors. He specialized in the usage of mechanized soldiers although he may not have been the best he was very proficient in the field.

    Mechanized soldiers are about 2 time the size of normal humans, attached with the standard kit consisting of a flight mechanism, a laser sword and a rifle they brought havoc among the battlefield.

    This position is slightly above the standard soldier without any specialized training but still an ordinary soldier nonetheless. No matter how good Kane was at being a mechanized soldier he cannot hold a candle towards those who come from the combat division of Nexus University, those people are monstrous.

    In a particular mission, he was sent to prevent Inzektors from raiding planets in the Plana solar system.

    Kane was designated to the cleanup crew, as the superior individuals were tasked to prevent any more invaders from entering the solar system while the squad he led had to fight and save towns from the onslaught of the Inzektors.

    As Kane led his small squad to fight the Inzektors on the surface of a particular planet, he noticed an elven village being desecrated by an Inzektor upon arrival.

    The majority of the village has already collapsed, and the Inzektor was merely hunting the survivors, his squad angrily charged at the Inzektors realizing the possibility of saving the remaining people.

    In the midst of this, he noticed a woman being dealt the coup de grace by an Inzektor and motioned his mech to block the attack.

    Kane raised his arms in a block position in the shape of an X, the armor of the mechanized unit wasn¡¯t powerful enough to completely mitigate the blow. He had lost one of his arms from the exchange, however, taking this opportunity Kane maniacally grabbed the lost limb, tossed it at the Inzektor and quickly drew his rifle and fired blowing it up along with the Inzektor.

    Tired as he was after evaluating the death of the Inzektor, he began to patch up his injury as Kane turns around to see if the elven person he saved was safe. There he had met Rina, to her this moment made him look devastatingly handsome.

    Eventually, Kane and his crew swept the village of their enemies and created a safe zone. When things had calmed down Rina approached the one-armed Kane and thanked him, she then asked if she can join them in the hunt of Inzektors.

    She wasn¡¯t a weak elven citizen but a warrior, however, because she had fought for a long duration, her stamina couldn¡¯t keep up almost ending her life during that fight.

    Kane and Rina kept reminiscing about their life experiences on the battlefield, but that eventually swayed into romantic stories between the two, Luon at some point led thoughts his astray.

    Fortunately, the platform had reached the bottom and stopped a loud horn sound was once again was emitted, and everyone began to leave.

    Kane and Rina stopped their story-telling and escorted Luon off the platform saying that they will talk about the rest later on.

    After exiting the platform, Luon had reached ground level and out into an open and wholly filled plaza.

    Many things were going on, there were booths selling products with hawkers yelling around in an attempt to attract attention, some people enjoying meals in small cafes, street performers doing some fancy tricks, and a giant televised display displaying some kind of battle.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    The battle was intense, and it took place within a region with humongous trees and wildlife. Soldiers gallantly charged at the Inzektor which were several times larger than themselves. Using beam swords and rifles, they fought bitterly as the pace of the battle kept going and forth.

    All of a sudden a gigantic beetle like Inzektor appeared and started rampaging like a wild buffalo tossing all of the small humanoid soldiers around.

    Flying from the sky a group of mechanized soldiers appeared and began to whittle it away using laser rifles.

    The colossal Inzektor angrily stopped rampaging at the soldiers on the ground, turned and faced the flying pests, opened its jaws wide and its body greatly expanded. Emitting an eerie sound, it shot a massive energy beam at the airborne unit.

    The crew having predicted this dodged as fast as they could, however, one of them lost their ability to fly and began to crash downwards towards the person taking the footage.

    The screen began to shake as the person taking the video started to panic. Suddenly the mech stopped and began to float just right above the cameraman mysteriously slowly, and then it gently landed on the ground.

    Up on top of the damaged mechanized unit was a devastatingly beautiful woman with a slightly mechanized armament covering only several of her limbs.

    Her white hair flew gallantly backward as she faces towards the beetle Inzektor, she took a pose and with hand on the sheath of her sword slashed outwards.

    A huge beam in the form of her slash came from the aftermath of her action and in one slice took the monster down.

    The colossal Inzektor released a pitiful cry as its blood began gushing out of its body gruesomely cause it to appear to be raining green fluids on the camera.

    The beauty looked at the camera and smiled, her eyes were covered with a really stylish visor making one imagine what kind of face she had underneath. As she smiled in a small corner of the plaza, a group of people began to make a huge fuss praising how beautiful and amazing she was, adding honorifics to her name or calling her my lady master.

    Kane and Rina tapped on Luon shoulder waking him up from his blank state of staring at the screen and motioned onwards towards the direction to their house, the only thing he can recall at that moment was the name of the woman on the screen said by those cheerleading men.

    Felia Nightwalker.

    ...

    Leading Luon away from the plaza Kane and Rina lead him to many twists, and turns s. Eventually, they reached a small, modest-looking 2 story house with a very barren but clean atmosphere.

    Luon and his parents walked towards the house and Kane opened the door by hovering his BMPU wristwatch over the display panel next to it. With a click, the door slid left, and they entered inside.

    After entering the house, Luon felt a slight nostalgia despite this being his first time inside. The simulations were very accurate to the point it grabbed the very essence of the Feng shui of a house and replicated it with many different layouts.

    Apparently, after giving birth to Luon, the house was evaluated by a crew of engineers who recorded the structure of the house and inputted it into the system allowing the candidates feel more welcome when going to their home for the first time.

    As Luon stood there stupefied, his parents began to guide him inside instead of letting him block the doorway staring blankly.

    The first thing Luon¡¯s parents did was guide Luon around the premises.

    It was a simple 2 story house with the sleeping quarters on the second floor, and the first had the standard living room, dining room, kitchen except for the bathroom which is on both stories.

    After taking a look around the house, Rina told Luon to wash up before having some dinner as the smell from the liquid used for the hibernation period was still lingering around him. She merely grabbed him and tossed him into the bathroom and a few seconds later tossed a few garments to wear after he finished his bath on top of him.

    Luon exited the bath feeling refreshed, the experience wasn¡¯t like your standard bath in a typical household found in the modern times he experienced, it was quite unique. It felt more like spending the day at spa or salon rather than a bathtub.

    What was more surprising was his appearance in the mirror when he was observing himself in his birthday suit. Luon couldn¡¯t really tell from the clothes he was wearing when he was being incubated, but now he can see a very slender youth with a minor outline of some muscular structure in the mirror.

    Apparently, despite being incubated, he somehow obtained muscles without any exercise at all. Surprised at his physical fitness he had swung his hands around like a martial artist while not wearing any clothes, embarrassed at his actions after looking himself in the mirror he silently took a bath.

    His actions couldn¡¯t be helped, after all being the bookworm that he was in his first life simulation he didn¡¯t have any experience of having real muscles.

    After the bath Luon walked towards to dining room where his parents had just set up the meal and sat down with them to enjoy their first meal together.

    Luon and his parents had many things to catch up with, and every single action was very similar to Luon as he had experienced it many times in simulation.

    Kanes hearty laugh as he drank wine and alcoholic beverages wildly, his mother Rina smiling slightly and pouring him drinks in harmony. Luon quietly sat aside listening while drinking some carbonated soda and happily spent his time with his loving family.

    After the dinner with his parents, Luon went to his room, it was already night and today had truly been a shock to him.

    There were so many things that happen to him today, he had awoken from a deep sleep, he met his parents for the first time, an epic battle between Inzektors and members from the Alliance was on a floating television, and many new and exciting technologies that evolved from their previous counterpart.

    For example, a public transit system is now based on tubes and large elevators removing the need for cars, wasting materials for private transportation, or floating displays being moved by magical forces instead of being physically anchored to a wall, energy rifles and swords as well as mechanized units replacing the slow-paced tanks of the past.

    And the despite all of this the day was still not over, he recalled what the beauty Isabella had told him to do once he had arrived home safely.

    He turned and stared at his BMPU wristwatch - and dead in the middle of the night initiated the startup sequence.

 Chapter 7 - Biometric Magicite Processing Unit

    After a few seconds, the device emitted a unique sequence of noises.

    [Initialization Sequence Starting - User ID - NEX-6854B]

    [Loading user data...]

    [Loading life simulations...]

    [Charging beam¡­]

    All the sudden Luon began to grimace as the BMPU shot a beam of light into his eyes. A flash of information surged through his head.

    He went into a state of minor hibernation - the feelings, experiences, and information about all of Luon¡¯s simulated lives appeared before him in a matter of seconds.

    Luon¡¯s brain churned to process a large amount of information stimulating every single cell possible. The feelings of joy, satisfaction, pain, and sorrow shook his heart considerably. The nerves on his body tingled his senses, and he started to breathe slowly.

    To ease the process of his memories syncing together the BMPU watch had compiled it with the smaller packets of information first.

    He began to recall his simple life in the six simulations, then his fifth and so on.

    Then on the third simulation, his body convulsed as he re-experienced the pain and suffering he had received from the evil necromancer.

    This was his second time having this feeling, only it was incredibly compressed lasted merely a second. The pain he felt in that second was like someone had slowly stabbed him at the start just to later smash and crush him into the shape of mince-meat used in hamburgers.

    Luon felt like his heart could stop at any moment, but he still managed to brace himself pass it.

    Then his second simulation appeared.

    There was no suffering nor was there any trace of joy. Eternal darkness, the negative feelings during this simulation spew out.

    Luon at first was a soldier in this simulation, life was straightforward back then, and all he had to think about ways to survive.

    However, as he burst through and rapidly climb the upper echelon of society he had experience the darkness of the world. The corruption and unfairness of society, many betrayals, and more importantly the sad loss of his friends and his loved ones.

    The information transfer had ended, and Luon appeared within a large, empty gray room all of a sudden.

    Luon looked at himself to verify his condition. He appeared like his old self from the first simulation, aged and wise except with an overall tint and glow of white.

    All of a sudden, several shadows emerged in this room, and they erupted in a glow radiating in many different colors. As the light that shone around them grew brighter, the appearance of the shadows became more evident. They were the simulated versions of Luon¡¯s lives sitting in a profound looking chair - they were all dyed one color representing the complexity of their lives and overall personality about themselves.

    Luon looked at the six, and the tidbits of information appeared in his head detailing who they were and represent.

    The young blue version was from the six simulations, he looked like a cheerful and energetic child.

    The green version was from the fifth simulation after he made his appearance he fell asleep immediately without a care in the world.

    The yellow one¡¯s appearance was akin to young and studious bookworm. This version of Luon was from the fourth simulation.

    The dark red Luon was like an abomination from hell. His appearance was the hardest one to look at. He was largest one in size due to the weird mutations that were done to his body, this made him appear intimidating as he gazes about filled with anger and hatred.

    And as for the black Luon, he was the simulated version of Luon''s second life - he was the second oldest in the room but looked nonchalant and empty.

    At this moment after Luon finished evaluating them, a single thought appeared in his head, and he knew what going to happen right now.

    The amalgamation of experiences, this is the most crucial phase to dictate the overall personality after receiving the simulated memories.

    To do so, they must determine how much of their personality is divided to make the new Luon, after they decide in between themselves they would then fuse naturally.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    The first to propose equal shares of personality was the yellow one. It appeared very fair; however, the blue one interjected and wanted to have a more of a fun personality.

    The laid-back green one without a care in world slept through the children''s argument, and the black one sat emotionlessly still.

    Immediately the dark red Luon emitted a loud howl of a beast determined to take the majority of the personality, with the shackles released from his painful life with the necromancer it was determined if it had to chance to - it would slaughter everything in sight.

    The yellow and blue one were instantly scared and immediately quieted down, and they felt aggrieved and discontent as they look at the dark red one with disgust. The two signal each other silently, such an evil being must not take the majority of the new personality, and the two looked at the most dominant Luon, the original for help.

    The old white Luon was stupefied - to argue with a nonsensical beast how can he bring himself to do so? He was merely an engineer for his first life.

    With a loud grunt, everything went silent and dark red one with a fearful look became silent as if afraid of the black Luon which intervened with the unproductive discussion.

    The black one stared at the original Luon and said: ¡°You can decide.¡±

    Afterward, the black one once again closed his eyes and rested as the previous atmosphere in room returned to normal.

    The original Luon came to his senses and appearing very wise propose that the newly created personality should be divided into percentages based on age - having experience is better than having an ignorant amount of knowledge.

    Especially with how the oldest of the bunch was the white and black version of Luon.

    The rest of the personalities agreed, although the dark red was one dissatisfied the original promised that he would reign most of the anger emotion to bring about slaughter within reason.

    They began to fuse but just before they merged the black one gave more than half of its personality portion to the original Luon.

    The original Luon wanted to know the black one''s intentions were but before he can ask the fusion commenced.

    ¡­

    Luon woke up from his quiescent state.

    His overall personality had hardly changed at all if there was something to mention his eyes seem to exert a mysterious force.

    With another ring on his BMPU wristwatch, Luon turned to look at the holographic projection that appeared with the words ¡®Step 1 complete please press to verify¡¯.

    He noticed that only a minute had passed since he started this procedure despite the fact he had just experienced over a century¡¯s worth of life experiences.

    Luon pressed on the verification panel, and a cutesy loading screen appeared.

    Luon waited as the words loading were shining with a white hue, and above this was a miniature robot in the shape of a box like a tank that was dancing.

    After another minute the loading screen finished, and the robot began to enlarge himself on the holographic project.

    ¡°Hello, I am CITA, I am AI created to help. I can connect to the Federation database, or be some emotional support, but for now, I¡¯ll be finishing your tutorial.¡± The strange robot said as it was driving around in a circle for some reason.

    It stopped wildly moving and turned to face the screen.

    ¡°The BMPU wristwatch has a multitude of features...¡± And CITA began to cite every possible thing it can do.

    As long as Luon had access to the Alliance server he was able to access the internet, unlimited text and call abilities and 24/7 technical support with CITA as well as emergency help access.

    But ignoring those standard features, the most crucial one would be the magical appraisal feature and the status one which can be used even when not connected to the server.

    CITA then finished explaining all of the possible features of the device. It then said to the bored Luon, ¡°Well that is all for the tutorial if you need something give me a call. Good luck to you young lad.¡±

    CITA gave a wink and closed himself on Luon.

    Luon felt extremely tired as if he ran a marathon, the process of amalgamation was mentally taxing.

    He did a quick check on his status and then went to bed.

    And this marks the end of Luon¡¯s first day in this world.

    [Luon Fate]

    [Race: Half-Human/Half-Elf]

    [Federation ID: NEX-6854BP]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 31]

    [Racial Skills: Quickness, Night Vision, Mana Affinity]

    [Active Skills: Wind Magic Lv2, Reinforcement Magic Lv2, Mana Manipulation Lv2]

    [Passive Skills: Swordsmanship Lv3, Parallel Thoughts Lv3, Eye of Insight Lv4]

    [Species Knowledge Evaluation: 287/1000]

    [Technical Knowledge Evaluation: 540/1000]

    [Monthly Salary Evaluation: 1597 Galaxia Coins]

    [Recommended Job Paths: Engineer, Soldier, Commander]

    ...

    Luon woke up slightly drowsy after hearing the voice of his mother shouting at him to wake up for breakfast from downstairs.

    He slowly acknowledges the reality he woke up to.

    Luon dragged his body out of his bed. He then did the standard procedure to make him appear more tidy and appealing to people before heading down to see his parents.

    At the dining table was another excellent meal of fried eggs with tomatoes, pancakes, and milk. Luon''s father appeared very hungover and ate very slowly and silently, and his mother was happily on the side feeling very energetic. As Luon and his family ate and satiated their stomachs, his parents asked what his plans for the day were.

    Luon stopped eating for a second and thought about it. What do people do before school starts?

    He sat there and thought blankly, seeing this Rina said ¡°Luon, you should probably take the time and learn more about this new era you have woken into. You could ask CITA on your BMPU or go visit the library, or at least that''s what my friends tell me what their kids do.¡±

    The library, a place of longing and desire. Luon had the sudden urge to get up and dash out the door. Just as he began to take action, his mother reprimanded him, ¡°Luon, don¡¯t forget to finish your breakfast and check with CITA about the direction of the library, there is no entrance fee as long as you have your BMPU on you.¡±

    Luon thanked Rina for the meal and information before dashing out the door after finishing his meal. Rina smiled and shook as Luon left the house she thought ¡®Idiot, among family members there is no need for appreciation.¡¯

    Upon arrival at the building with CITA guidance, he went inside and noticed the reception desk used to sign in as well as a pair of doors leading to his goal. Luon walked up to personnel at the counter to hurry inside.

    The receptionist gave a quick overview of how to use the building and made Luon sign in using his BMPU. Luon didn¡¯t pay too much attention to the receptionist words as he was too excited.

    After signing in, he rushed passed the doors and into the actual library.

    ¡°What is this!¡± yelled Luon shocked stupefied.

 Chapter 8 - Another Freshman

    The library was much different than what he expected it to be, rather than a library he found it to be more like internet cafes with many private booths. And even worse there was most crucial factor is still missing the in the equation.

    There were no books in the library.

    Luon quickly asked CITA on the details to which the latter replied: ¡°Due to the cost of paper goods all the world knowledge is stored digitally in the database which everyone has free access to.¡±

    The government in support of preserving the environment protects and maintains trees removing books and other paper copies from any publically run facilities and only using paper for necessary documentation.

    Luon was shocked, the old rustic smell, as well as the newly printed ink that he missed, is practically non-existent in this world.

    Luon then thought and said, ¡°CITA if books don¡¯t exist, what''s the point of going to the library then if all the information is stored digitally in which you can access?¡±

    CITA replied blatantly, ¡°Some people prefer to sit at a desk and read. Computers are also restricted material as well.¡±

    To preserve metals and the likes for more war-ready applications against the Inzektors - computer production and model upgrading was very restricted so there was no more excess waste from mass-production from large corporations producing similar models every year.

    All new computers have the same Logo on it, Novera Corporation. Although one can still find custom-made units in smaller shops there is no more mass-production development on computers, merely an upgrade per year by Novera Corporation was good enough as many parts afterward are heavily recycled and reused for more practical applications.

    After doing his questioning he noticed a message on his BMPU, it seemed like his private booth was labeled 206 after registering in which he forgot to ask before.

    After walking around a bit, Luon found room 206 relatively close to the entrance. Luon entered the room and saw inside a chair, a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse.

    Luon sat down and began to operate the system to fill his lacking knowledge of the world he has risen in.

    The startup sequence was simple and straightforward like how operating systems in the past used to work. In a matter of seconds, the computer had turned itself on and was already on the search engine by default.

    The search engine looked just like it was back several centuries ago, a simple search bar and a logo. The simplicity and practical application of this design seemed to last throughout the ages of humanity.

    Before searching anything up Luon pondered on what to search to start with, there are so many things to do on the computer. Luon could try to read the current news or read some encyclopedia data, or maybe even read up on the history of the past few decades or centuries from the period he had simulated before.

    Clueless as he was a sudden flash of inspiration occurred. If he didn¡¯t know what to do why not ask someone who can? Luon quickly turned on his BMPU and asked CITA, ¡°CITA, what do people search for after waking up from being incubated, I am clueless what to start with.¡±

    CITA being the most helpful, practical AI ever answered with a list of things to look for to help Luon integrate into society more easily.

    There was quite a hefty amount of things to look at in which if he were to spend his time doing so it would quickly take the whole month before school even starts. Luon then began prioritizing and organizing the more critical information first.

    Luon looked into topics such as social studies that cover the culture, history, and political background of the many different races in the current society.

    He was also interested in technological breakthroughs in the last few centuries, financing and resource management by the governmental system, and more important information about the Nexus University in which he would be attending in the next month.

    Employment for many different occupations was allocated on the government¡¯s website as well as there supplied monthly salary. However, what was notable was the four featured job listing on the site which stood out on its own.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    The amount of Galaxia Coins listed for these featured jobs was to be determined and graded, and these job names felt more like factions. They were: Nightwalker family member, Mythos clan member, Novera Corporation subordinate and Nexus Military Division cadet.

    It seemed like these factions were the most significant enterprises in the Nexus solar system, looking into it further Luon found they all have a massive role in the military.

    Novera Corporation specialized in technology, the Mythos clan specialized in training soldiers, the Nightwalker family were very famous in commanding and strategy, and the Nexus Military Division was a government operated facility having traits of all three of them.

    After reading up on a few job postings and details of large groups in his solar system, Luon paused and spent a few moments thinking what he should do in the future.

    Breaking out of his thoughts he decided to think more of the present situation - his BMPU had recommended a few careers already, but it was more important to look into Nexus University as Luon didn''t need to work yet as students get a student salary.

    Luon operated the computer to find some information about his schooling.

    The program and courses offered at Nexus University were majority made up of 2 different types, combat and logistics. The number of careers available was practically endless.

    Even though the school had various amounts of programs and courses, Luon had to take the mandatory ones depending on the recommended career paths. Since Luon¡¯s BMPU had recommended Luon to be an engineer, a soldier or a commander his course load would be a militaristic training structure. Luon¡¯s body shook at the thought of it as he recalls the simulated military training he had experienced for several lifetimes, quietly asked himself why couldn¡¯t he be an average citizen in his simulations and read during his free time until death comes for him.

    In the end, his determination to read the next chapter of his favorite books during each simulation drove him further away from a casual bookworm life.

    After reading a variety of documentation, manuals, and even some fictional stories, Luon grew peckish after a few hours had passed. Luon began to recall that before coming into this room there was a small cafe inside the library.

    ¡­

    After exiting the room, Luon found the cafe as mentioned earlier in the library and using his Galaxia coins got a quick meal to eat.

    Luon sat down at a table, and his meal consists of instant ready ramen, apple juice and some fresh vegetable sticks on the side.

    After he started to eat he instinctively sense someone had approached from behind, he turned and faced a relatively young girl similar to age and smiling towards him while holding a plate of fish sticks.

    The girl body structure was a little smaller than Luon, she had blonde-twin tails, creamy white skin and more importantly, she wore a unique lolita fashion. Her clothes which had many frills was dyed purple and black, and a very stylish eye-patch blocked one of her eyes. If a commoner had to say something about her appearance, they would either think that it looks cool or she has a mental problem.

    Luon stopped slurping his noodles and with a gulp asked questioningly, ¡°Can I help you?¡±

    The girl giggled, she sat down at the table Luon was at and smiled at him.

    ¡°Were you the idiot yelling ¡®What is this!¡¯ making a huge fuss at the entrance?¡± said the girl with traces of ridicule.

    Luon blushed at the question and said: ¡°So what?¡±

    ¡°Oh nothing, I am just killing some time, and I found that scene of you struggling at the front to be interesting. It seems to me you just have woken up recently. My name is Belle Mirande. What¡¯s your name?¡± Belle said with an angelic-like smile.

    Luon attempted to regain his composure after hearing that she saw him at the front entrance. He coughed and said, ¡°My name is Luon Fate, it is a pleasure the meet you.¡±

    Belle then laughed and said ¡°There is no need for formalities, what are you, an old gramps in a young body? Since you have just woken up, you must be attending school soon, which school did your operator assigned an idiot like you?¡±

    Luon didn¡¯t like how she called him an idiot but seeing embarrassing actions before he couldn¡¯t retort at all. With pride, he said ¡°I¡¯ll have you know I am going to attend Nexus University in a month,¡± as he brings up a holographic projection displaying the label of which school he is going to attend.

    ¡°No way! Someone like you also got into the school? The standards must be low this year.¡± Belle shockingly said.

    ¡°Also? Does that mean you''re also attending Nexus University?¡± Luon said.

    ¡°Yes, I am, however, seeing how you just have woken up how about I teach you some basic things you need to know before attending Nexus University?¡± Belle with an expression full of excitement said.

    Luon after seeing her excited nodded silently and after finishing his meal followed Belle as they exited the library. Although he doesn¡¯t know what her intentions were, he needed to catch up on many different things and Luon thought maybe following this girl would help him considerably, especially in regards to Nexus University.

    After a few minutes of walking, Luon couldn¡¯t help but ask ¡°Where are we going?¡±

    ¡°Somewhere fun and very important,¡± Belle replied smugly without looking at Luon.

    ¡°If it''s a game center or arcade then count me out I still have things to do,¡± replied Luon very bluntly.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry it''s kind of like a game but at the same time the most crucial and important factor the whole Alliance. Ah, we¡¯re here.¡± Belle said boastingly and energetically.

    In front of Luon and Belle was a massive facility labeled - Varz, the world famous Virtual War Simulator.

 Chapter 9 - Tutorial

    Luon frowned at the sight of the building. It looked like a huge gaming facility with its fancy sign, or convention with the hustle and bustle of the people around it, or maybe even a sports field from its structural shape. He turned at Belle confused and asked, ¡°So what is this building.¡±

    Belle smiled as she knew how ignorant Luon was, she loved to instruct and tease, and she said ¡°I don¡¯t know what do you think? Ahhh don¡¯t leave, this place is very important, like how sports games used to be, this facility is the core foundations of all combat-related classes in Nexus University.¡±

    Belle quickly stopped Luon from leaving after teasing him a little. The last few words she said piqued his interest as she directed him towards the building.

    After passing by a crowd of people, the two arrived at the front desk.

    ¡°Welcome to Varz, the number one virtual reality simulation, and entertainment facility.¡± said the clerk at the front desk.

    Belle then shows signs of experience by quickly got herself and Luon a room, and as they walked towards it, she explained many various details and tidbits about the facility.

    Varz was a complete war building and training simulation facility to train soldiers and commanders how to battle spread throughout the whole alliance.

    Based on the technology used for the incubated simulations this VR system arranges people into teams to wage war against each other.

    In this war simulation, one can have a team of up to 5 people, and you start off with resource generating base known as Crypt of Heroes. The name is used in remembrance of the great people that existed in the past.

    As the base generate resources over time, the commander of the squad was able to determine its usage of them. They can choose to make weapons, supplies or materials for handcrafting equipment or the very commonly made units. The Crypt of Heroes can create warriors who follow the commands of the commander, and they share all the unique traits of the people they resembled like the legendary warriors of the past.

    Elves were fast and very skilled with the bow, orcs were mighty and overbearing, human cultivators were able to emit energy slashes, all of these things, as well as combat methods and strategies, were wholly replicated inside the AI system.

    Of course, the stronger units were, the more resources were required to make them, and ultimately the battle is determined by the tactician.

    Once the commander develops an army, he would strategically arrange his comrades and robot army into battle with the goal of destroying the enemies Crypt of Heroes.

    After the basic explanation, Luon and Belle arrived at the room. Belle said she would explain the rest of the simulation and they entered together to find inside this empty white room 2 Vortex containers facing towards each other.

    Seeing the Vortex container Luon begun to take a severe look around it, he grew edgy and asked, ¡°We wouldn¡¯t be sleeping here for a long time right?¡±

    ¡°Would you like to sleep for a long time? I can do that for you instead,¡± as she attempts to do an intimidating pose, it was very cute.

    Belle saw how Luon began to evaluate the Vortex container, she shook her head, then commenced a small lesson on how to use it. Luon after hearing her talk about it grew excited, other than the BMPU wristwatch he has yet to experience any other new technology. He took her lecture seriously.

    But this didn¡¯t last long as Belle wanted only to teach the basics and quickly get into the game, she motioned him inside and told Luon to look it up later.

    Luon quietly sat inside the Vortex Container and begun to operate it based on her instructions.

    Luon¡¯s surroundings suddenly changed. Apparently, after starting the machine, the transition was swift, and he was most likely asleep without noticing it.

    He appeared in a small waiting room with a monitor and a couple of benches. Belle was already inside operating some machine next to the monitor. She turned and said happily ¡°Well aren¡¯t you a little slow, well let''s start!¡±

    Words started appearing on the screen as she pressed a button on the terminal.

    [Starting sequence initiated]

    [Mode - War Tutorial]

    [Commander - Belle Mirande]

    [Loading Tutorial Map]

    Before Luon could ask about anything, the war had already started.

    ¡­

    Inside the game, Luon and Belle appeared in a completely flat field. Full of green grass it shows traces of a modern soccer field layout except for the goal posts swapped with a building that looked like a cathedral, and the field is about 50 times larger.

    Luon found Belle next to the cathedral and started walking towards her. Beside Belle, Luon found there laid a little tabletop map of the war.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Belle seeing Luon come over explained that this was the map commanders use, however, the map was covered with fog as the range of sight is limited to what the units can see on the map.

    She also explained that scouting is essential to expand the available vision used in the map, the most common unit for this was robotic drones to provide excellent and cheap vision. Although they had no combat abilities, these drones were quick making it very useful.

    ¡°So when does the match start? This is the tutorial right?¡± Luon asked as he noticed nothing is happening.

    ¡°Oh, I turned off the tutorial explanations on the settings screen, hearing that robotic voice ruins my fun and creativity,¡± Belle said.

    ''But I need the basic explanation thought'' Luon and even worse Belle next words almost made him trip, ¡°And the match starts now!¡±

    Before Luon can ask about anything, Belle presses a button on the table top signaling that her team is ready for combat.

    [War Tutorial Start] replied the system as a holographic projection quickly appeared in front of Luon from his BMPU.

    The Crypt of Heroes on their side began to make a standard factory like noise symbolizing the generation of materials.

    ¡°Seeing how you are going to attend Nexus University do you know how to fight?¡± Belle suddenly asked.

    ¡°Of course I can fight, I am also an engineer. Or at least I can proudly claim to be one.¡± Said Luon with vigor.

    ¡°Oh? But I bet you haven¡¯t taken the engineering examination yet, right? Well, that doesn¡¯t matter that much since you claim to be an engineer so why not make your weapon.¡± Belle said as she smiled and thought of something perfect.

    Belle then pressed on the table top desk to summon a bunch of randomized scrap from the Crypt of Heroes. Unknown to Luon this scrap was the cheapest option and most of the time they didn¡¯t have anything good or useful.

    Luon seeing the scrap got excited, this was the first time he gets to make something after awakening in this world. He dove into the scraps to make a weapon for himself.

    Another man¡¯s trash is another man¡¯s treasure, from the scrap he managed to find a slightly damaged sword, a mana generator, a few switches, and wires.

    As for why he knew what they were, most of it was based on his knowledge while the BMPU scanned and gave more details.

    The mana generator absorbs mana from its surroundings, condenses and emits it outwards for many practical uses.

    Luon with these scraps managed to make the mana generator coat the damaged sword with energy at rapid speeds, which makes it cut more efficiently, the only downside was that the generator was damaged. Otherwise, it would be able to last for a few days more before burning out.

    Armed with his newly created makeshift sword, Luon felt like he could handle anything.

    After a few moments later a group of humanoid Inzektors arrived at the base, Luon turned and asked Belle, ¡°Still not summoning anything? The Inzektors are here.¡±

    ¡°Nope, by the way, I¡¯m just going to keep saving resources, I want to summon a new type of unit, so it''s going to take a while,¡± said Belle as she lazily sat on a chair she summoned from the Crypt.

    ¡°Then how are we going to prevent them from destroying our cathedral?¡± Luon asked confused.

    Belle stared at the newly made sword and asked ¡°Is that sword just for show? Don¡¯t you have some sword skills? Why not show off for a bit?¡±

    With those words, Luon began to prepare for battle, and as he did, he asked: ¡°In your own terms, how long is a bit of time.¡±

    Belle next words made Luon question her deeply ¡°About 30 minutes, good luck!¡±

    And with those words 30 minutes of hellishly repelling waves of Inzektors with only Luon defending started.

    There are two types of Inzektors, humanoid and insect-based ones. The grand hierarchy of Inzektors was akin to how worker bees and soldiers serve the queen. It was basic knowledge in the federation that the workers were humanoid shaped Inzektors while the soldiers are monstrously large insect ones.

    To maintain and grow the massive army of Inzektors - humanoid Inzektors were created, as the production of food was too complex for ordinary insect-based Inzektors.

    Because of the number of humanoid Inzektors compared to soldiers, the size of the insect-shaped Inzektors grew massive creating monstrosities.

    Despite having large Inzektor soldiers, as long as they''re surrounded by an overwhelming number of people they can be quickly taken down. To not let their soldiers die in vain, the humanoid Inzektors are trained to be soldiers making them as strong as an orc and dexterous like an elf.

    The ones that appeared at the base were those combat type humanoid Inzektors. They had a dark green carapace armor covering most of their limbs and dark green mask similar to medieval knights. If one didn¡¯t know it was an Inzektor, it could be easily mistaken as a human with dark green armor.

    These humanoid Inzektors weren¡¯t like humans though, relying on weapons to empower themselves. Instead, they have a sharply bladed carapace protruding from above their hands.

    And with that, the fight commenced.

    Luon and the Inzektors clashed against each other. Out of Luon¡¯s simulations, only his second simulation had real combat experience.

    Typically he wouldn¡¯t be able to handle Inzektors in combat, but after the amalgamation, the sword skills from the simulation transferred over making him superior in combat.

    Luon smiled as dodged and sliced the group of Inzektors, within seconds they were all lying down dead with a single and accurate slice on each of them.

    Satisfied Luon turned to face Belle.

    ¡°Wow for a person without enhancements you''re pretty strong, well good luck for another 30 minutes. If you can maybe you could even try to attack the enemies Crypt of Heroes yourself.¡± Belle said surprised. She then laughed and started to relax on the chair spectating him in anticipation.

    Luon wanted to say something towards her but before he could he sense the next waves of enemies coming.

    He turned to face them, and after defeating them once again, another wave appeared.

    Wave after wave, they appeared every minute and quite frequent, Luon slightly tired asked ¡°Why is there so many of them? Is there no delay in between waves? And why are they slowly getting stronger!¡±

    Belle replied happily ¡°The tutorial was made for the group to lose! Unless you''re super strong, there is no way to win it as they give the enemies Crypt of Heroes double our production income. Luckily they started with weaker enemies first before sending in the big guys this way if I save and get a bigger guy we can easily win so good luck!¡±

    ...

    Luon fought and fought but the enemies were endless, and he grew exhausted. Even worse his mana generator on his weapon died out.

    Just when Luon¡¯s weapon had snapped after killing yet another Inzektor, he heard the Crypt of Heroes summoning something.

    ¡°Come out hero unit, Geno-enhanced Barbarian Berserker!¡± yelled Belle who was watching Luon struggle happily as she pressed a button on the panel.

 Chapter 10 - Geno-enhanced Barbarian Berserker

    The doors to the Crypt of Heroes shook open and from within the darkness inside a thunderous roar emerged halting and intimidated the Inzektors advance.

    Taking the opportunity while the Inzektors were stunned Luon quickly retreated towards the table Belle was located.

    Safe and secure he then took a glimpse towards the double doors of the Crypt of Heroes as the one who changed the flow of the battlefield appeared.

    There emerged a monster about two times larger than the average human being. With very unruly hair, well-defined body structure, and only with a pair of shorts - a half-naked man who can easily be mistaken for some gladiator made his entrance into the scene.

    ¡°Ivar, the greatest Barbarian Berserker in history, I command you to dispose of those Inzektors!¡± Belle bellowed.

    With low roar in reply to her words Ivar dashed towards the group of Inzektors and using his fist, he began to pummel the Inzektors to death.

    His muscles were not for show as for every punch lifted the Inzektors off of their feet while at the same time imprinting a large mark on their body.

    Luon took this time to evaluate the situation, seeing how as he now has free time. He noticed that 45 minutes had passed since the start of the tutorial. Luon then quickly recalled that Belle only said she needed just 30 minutes of time.

    ¡°How come you took so long to summon Ivar? I thought you said you only needed 30 minutes,¡± slightly angered Luon asked Belle.

    ¡°Hero units are particularly special. They are based on legendary figures in the past who were at the pinnacle of strength. They can only make their appearances in the simulations for a crazy amount of points.¡± Belle replied ignorant of Luon¡¯s feelings.

    Belle looked at Ivar who was massacring the waves of Inzektors, ¡°Also now you can see what kind of strength a person with the combat level of over 90 in just physical abilities is at.¡±

    Belle then started to explain the history of the wild man.

    With the invention of intergalactic space travel, many Solar Systems united to fight the Inzektor race. Numerous famous figures emerged from the shadows, Ivar being one of them.

    Ivar the legendary Barbarian Warrior, before space travel existed, was a very fearful existence.

    Ivar as a child had admired heroes. He came from the Plana solar system which inhabits many fantasy races, it was a time full of conflict, and from his parents, he heard of many warriors being able to mow people that with a single swing.

    Ivar was inspired - he and his childhood friend got together daily to play and trained to be heroes, to protect people they care for. Matador though had no talent or ability to be a hero. He admired Ivar greatly.

    At the age of 10, Ivar was able to hunt a giant forest bear himself.

    One day Ivar smilingly came back to his home while incredibly injured. Worried Matador mended his wounds after hearing another day of heroic tales. Matador thought ''what could he possibly do for Ivar?''

    Then he recalled that many heroes had weapons, while Ivar was still weaponless. With determination, he studied craftsmanship and around this time intergalactic exchanges began to occur.

    As Ivar hunted daily, Matador studied the new technology from the other solar systems as well as the basics of crafting. He created a magnificent sword and presented it to his friend Ivar.

    Ivar was amazed at his friends'' consideration and took the weapon happily. With sword in hand, Ivar traveled to many locations with the intention of growing even stronger.

    Matador continued to study how to make his friend even stronger. He began to research methods to improve the body creating genetically enhanced supplements making Ivar more superior than many humans.

    On his journey he met an imp in front of a cave who said that he who passes the trials in the cave would be given the opportunity to obtain the blood of a god, a single drop was enough to step into immortality or so the imp emphasized.

    Unfazed by the words the imp said, Ivar challenged the cave with the desire to grow even stronger than ever. With every trial would be a powerful foe. As tough as it was it took Ivar 30 years to complete the trials.

    After completing the 9000 trials he was awarded the blood of a god, or so he thought, but he was tricked by the imp to drink the blood of the greater demons of hell.

    After Ivar ingested the blood his sanity disappeared and what replaced it was a desire for power and slaughter. The first thing he killed was the imp that gave him the prize in the first place.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    He had a walked a path of no return, every person he met be it good to bad as long as they had some strength he would challenge them to a battle of life and death.

    Hearing news of his friends'' plight, although Matador wasn¡¯t a combatant, he challenged Ivar in hopes to revive his friend¡¯s mind. Matador didn¡¯t stand a chance and after a few blows he was defeated, his pleas never reached Ivar.

    With a swing of his sword - Ivar ended Matador''s life and while bathed in the blood of its creator the sword has awoken its own will. Using its powers, the sword removed Ivars negative state of mind from the enrapture of the demonic blood.

    Wide awake due to the sorrow and guilt of killing his friend Matador, Ivar decided to end his life in the most heroic way possible. He saved as many people as he had killed in the past and with the power of intergalactic space travel he charged through the vast emptiness of space in hopes of ending the Inzektors race only to be never heard of again.

    After she finished her story, Luon quickly realized that the Ivar is starting to take more and more time clearing the waves of Inzektors.

    ¡°If Ivar was as strong as you said he was how come we haven¡¯t won yet? He¡¯s still struggling to fight the endless waves of Inzektors.¡± Luon said as he looked at the giant warrior who fought without dropping his pace.

    ¡°That¡¯s what the extra time you saved was for,¡± replied Belle as she began to operate the panel on the table once again.

    The Crypt of Heroes showed signs of some activity as within the doors a dangerously broad and unrefined blunt weapon appeared. What made this weapon unique was that this large weapon revealed slight signs of tampering.

    Several wires and lights were unnaturally reflected in the design of the weapon. A higher level of technology that Luon had not been aware of was present inside. Luon had the sudden urge to walk up and dismantle it to figure the mechanisms inside.

    ¡°Ivar, catch!¡± Ignorant of Luon¡¯s feelings Belle walked up towards this heavy looking weapon - quickly picked it up and tossed it towards Ivar.

    With a short roar the Inzektors surrounding Ivar backed off several meters, and he took the brief second to jump and grab the weapon.

    What surprised Luon the most was how strong Belle was. She was able to pick up such a huge weapon and quickly tossed it aside like trash.

    Before Luon could consider what kind of trick she used to be able to lift the weapon Ivar shouted in joy as if reunited with his partner he began to slaughter the Inzektors.

    Slaughter! Kill! Destroy! Ivar with his new weapon began to crush the weak and pitiful Inzektors at a pace so fast the group was slaughtered before the reinforcements arrived.

    ¡°That sword which just came out of the Crypt of Heroes is called ¡®The Sword of 9000 Trials¡¯. It was the same one Ivar used when he was rising to power, after many different modifications, refining techniques, and with the blood of a significant amount of enemies the sword itself became a relic.¡± Lectured Belle.

    ¡°Now that I think of it, have you tried to use the BMPU to scan completed weapons? The appraisal skill developed on it displays how well made the weapon is.¡± Belle thought and said.

    Even without the BMPU, Luon¡¯s skill was able to evaluate the properties of the weapon, however, not wanting to expose it he operated his BMPU to scan the Ivar¡¯s sword.

    [The Sword of 9000 Trials]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 3333]

    [Durability - 776/777]

    [A sword who gained a will after 9000 trials. Ivar¡¯s friend Matador had refined, sharpen it using many different techniques incorporating even higher-level technology, thus creating a sword at the pinnacle of creation.]

    [Perk 1 - Energy Drain]

    [Perk 2 - Energy Resistance]

    [Perk 3...]

    As Luon read its properties, he secretly admired the abilities that Ivar¡¯s friend Matador has, compared to the makeshift creation he couldn¡¯t possibly compare.

    [Damaged Scrap Sword]

    [Rank - Unranked]

    [Attack - 100]

    [Durability - 5/200]

    [A piece of scrap made skillfully together with a mana generator, however, due to lack of any refining methods is still a piece of scrap.]

    After reading comparing the enormous difference in skill, Luon secretly decided that his next action was to study crafting.

    Belle who noticed his expression and his actions understood what he was thinking of, she kept quiet in consideration of Luon¡¯s feelings.

    With the overpowered Hero Unit with his exclusive weapon, the group managed to reach the enemies Crypt of Heroes and destroyed it - thus completing the tutorial.

    After completing the tutorial the two exited Varz, the sun was already setting, and Luon received a message from Rina to head home.

    After seeing the message, he turned to face Belle, gave a quick bow and said: ¡°I appreciate what you showed me today, it turned over my worldview.¡±

    With those words, Luon began to depart but before he could Belle next words halted him immediately, ¡°If you want to we can go to the engineering faculty and get you a license in engineering.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go right now!¡± yelled Luon as rapidly approached her, he was very concerned about his current abilities compared to his peers.

    A little shocked by his response, Belle giggled a bit and said, ¡°You idiot, its closed right now so how about we meet up and go tomorrow?¡±

    After arranging their next meeting the two departed, Luon today had a very fruitful harvest, a very productive day.

    ¡­

    ¡°He was super strong, he fought Inzektors around level 40 to 50 without any enhancements, and a poorly made weapon, from what I can tell his combat level should be around 30. Although his body was a bit slow, his reaction speed, as well as efficient combat techniques, made him last longer,¡± said Belle over the video chat.

    ¡°Hmm, so he¡¯s that good? And you plan on bringing him to my place tomorrow?¡± Replied the person Belle contacted.

    ¡°Yeah, can you also arrange the Engineering examination for him? I would appreciate it. Usually, there should be a five-day delay but he looked very interested, and I feel bad to get his hopes up like that.¡± replied Belle.

    ¡°That can easily be done, for my first friend something like that is too simple. I am also quite interested in this person as well. I wonder what kind of innovation he would make after his simulations... I¡¯ll arrange a room for us to spectate his examination,¡± said the other person.

    ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll see you tomorrow,¡± Belle said as she hung up the call.

    After the call ended Belle¡¯s friend quietly said: ¡°I wonder what kind of interesting man made you ditch our meeting, maybe I¡¯ll make it a tad bit harder for him.¡±

 Chapter 11 - Engineering Examination

    After a full night''s rest Luon was completely ready to meet Belle, or so he thought, but in reality, he had only slept for a few hours as he spent the entire night consistently fighting against his excitement.

    Luckily his mother is a very attentive woman. She had noticed Luon reveal minor signs of fatigue at breakfast and gave him an energy pill to help him last throughout the day.

    Energy, a difficult to determine form of power as it comes in many different forms. With more of it, living beings stay more proactive, become more powerful, less hungry and more or less omnipotent.

    There were many factors and different levels of energy, the most well-known ones were: Mana, Qi energy, and the type of energy which helps ordinary people go about the day.

    Sleep provides an effective method to fill the energy capacity that the people can have, like a battery charged with an adapter the living can function better near full.

    Brimming with energy from the pill Luon had eaten he thanked his mother, and left the house while constantly checking the meetup time he had arranged with Belle.

    Rina was watching Luon leave in such a fashion had her sixth sense activate, her intuition has led her to think that Luon may have already made some friends around the neighborhood, and it''s more than likely a girl.

    She wanted to tail him to find out more but ultimately decided against it so as she turned to face an untouched breakfast plate on the table.

    Rina sighed as she dealt with the other empty plates on the table and while doing so, she cast some magic to wake up her dead drunk husband who was nodding off at the breakfast table.

    ¡®I have to make sure Luon stays away from alcohol when he grows up, such a waste of money for a brief amount of relief from everyday stress, only to feel even more stress while hungover,¡¯ thought Rina as she began to think of how to manage her husband.

    ...

    After Luon left the house with CITA¡¯s instructions, he motioned himself towards meeting location.

    Unhurried by any external factors Luon was utterly bored, so he started to evaluate his neighborhood environment.

    It was a very clean street and not as busy as the plaza or terminal when he first arrived. This part of the city was more of a residential area, with a few people here and there it was almost empty.

    Looking left and right Luon stared at the surroundings until he arrived at a small plaza.

    In the middle of the plaza, underneath the post with a clock attached was Belle who was wearing something similar to what she wore yesterday.

    Luon after giving a few glances felt that the color was a little brighter than it was before, but didn¡¯t say a word about it.

    After all, he thought she looked cute no matter what she wore, and rather than openly lust over things he instead admires silently.

    Belle seeing Luon arrive smiled and waved at him, after giving a few minor greetings the two left the plaza.

    ¡®I thought he would at least compliment my clothing just a little bit after all it does take some time for a girl to decide which clothes to wear,¡¯ thought Belle as she felt a little disappointed at how insensitive Luon was.

    To get rid of her bad mood she began to explain their destination today.

    Belle had arranged Luon to take the Engineering License Lv 1 Examination at the Novera Corporation Engineering Association. The powerhouses under the Alliance that often trade their technology with each other. In the Intergalactic Federation that Luon was a part of, Novera Corporation was not only the founder of space technology but also the number one institution for engineers to be working at, or at least they used to be.

    To be openly fair of technological advances - the Alliance standardized and established the necessary evaluations of how good engineers should be by grading them from level 1 to 5. The level determines the authorized access level for the information the Alliance has stored.Stolen novel; please report.

    All aspiring engineers would register in their solar systems technological branch to access the research documents.

    Because how information was shared overall, the creativity of Novera Corporation over the years had deteriorated as other technological groups took advantage of their knowledge to close the gap.

    In fact, they not only replicated the technology that Novera Corporation offered, but they also fix the defects using the trial and error data, and with an unending passion they continued to develop many innovative things.

    After walking leisurely for an hour Belle and Luon were finally at the doors to the Novera Corporations Engineering Association building. They could have arrived much faster if Belle didn¡¯t stop every so often to do some minor window shopping.

    Although Luon was a little dissatisfied in his heart, he couldn¡¯t bear ruining her mood which he thought became gradually better just so that he can arrive faster.

    Without any hesitation at all, Belle urged Luon into the building giving him no time to evaluate and admire the structural design and defense mechanisms installed outside.

    Inside was a spacious lounge filled with many kinds of people moving around the place.

    Dragging Luon along Belle went to talk to the male receptionist at the front desk.

    At first, the receptionist indifferently spoke to the two giving a very unwelcoming mood.

    The receptionist was a trainee engineer who had spent five years trying to obtain a Level 1 Engineering license, but for the last few years, he had no luck at all. The receptionist took the job of operating the front desk to make a living while hoping that one day he might achieve it.

    And now seeing two younger and ignorant students he couldn¡¯t help but vent and lecture them, stating that they are too young and should study more.

    Looking at the age of Luon and Belle this could, in fact, be very true. However, this engineer had completely forgotten that in the Nexus solar system every single person had experienced around 170 extra years of life, and a select few of those people were completely abnormal.

    Belle dissatisfied with the receptionist secretly messaged someone, and after a few minutes during the receptionist''s lecture, a group of people came to escort him elsewhere replacing him with an aesthetically appealing female receptionist.

    Luon couldn¡¯t help but sigh in admiration, this world that he had woken up into had too many beauties caused by the proper nutrition and sleep from being incubated.

    Belle looked at Luon grudgingly as he was ogling at the new receptionist. After the examination test was arranged, she wished Luon good luck and left immediately.

    Unknown to them in a room somewhere in the building someone was laughing at the scene as they watched it over a camera.

    After Belle left Luon at the front desk, the new receptionist lady brought him down the halls and into an examination room.

    She guided Luon to an empty white room with a table in the center, several tools on one side and a couple of pieces of materials on the other.

    ¡°The rules for this examination are simple. You were selected to craft and refine a single object in which we randomly choose for you to do. The aforementioned object for this task is a hand-made energy generator from scratch. As for what type of energy you produce that choice is up to you.¡± The female receptionist said.

    She then continued ¡°You are only allocated two hours and time starts once you pick up a piece of material, you are free to arrange the tools on the side before you start as well as take some time to think about how to do the task. However, we prefer it if you take less time to do so and your grade may be effected on how long you take.¡±

    ¡°All actions in this room are monitored so there is no cheating allowed, if you need something or wish to give up please say so out loud, well then excuse me.¡± And with those words, the female receptionist left the room.

    Luon alone in the room looked around a bit, then turned to check the condition of his tools and workstation.

    After confirming everything was in order, he closed his eyes for a moment and mentally recreated the steps he would need to take to create such an object.

    A few minutes pass, and he opened his eyes, he turned to face the materials on the table, now it was the moment of truth. Time to take some action.

    ¡­

    In a room somewhere at Novera Corporation Engineering Association, two females were talking to each other.

    ¡°Was what happened at the front on purpose?¡± said Belle slightly mad.

    ¡°Well we were looking for a good opportunity to get rid of that trash wannabe anyways, him making such a scene was a perfect chance to do so,¡± replied Belle¡¯s friend.

    Her name was Shizuka Ichihara, a descendant of the developer of Novera Corporation. Her family for the longest time was all engineers who made many contributions to the Alliance.

    Shizuka, in particular, had the exclusive opportunity to learn and experience crafting at its finest in both simulation and real life, she is an unprecedented prodigy that appears every few hundred years in the family line.

    ¡°Then what about what happened next? Did you send that security group and the female receptionist to blow things up and slowly gloss it over,¡± replied Belle as her mood softens an inch. She didn¡¯t like that wannabe as well.

    ¡°Are you concerned about me blowing things out of proportions or are you mad because I sent a beautiful receptionist to please the public, including your little boyfriend,¡± teased Shizuka

    ¡°He¡¯s not my boyfriend. He¡¯s just a¡­ that''s right a fellow schoolmate who might be in the same class as me.¡± Belle flusteredly replied to Shizuka¡¯s teasing.

    And before Belle could get angrier at Shizuka for teasing her, Shizuka said, ¡°Come on now calm down, look he¡¯s about to start.¡±

    The two turned and started to watch the screen.

 Chapter 12 - Engineering License Lv1

    The ability to innovate is what makes sentient beings more different than others.

    With our minds, we can reshape the world.

    From the sky to the earth, all across the ocean and even on other planets - people have used numerous resources for their own benefits.

    Natural metals and chemical substances have many purposes, and one of the most common things that people use them for was as a source of energy, generators to be exact.

    We''re talking about the type used for fuel and power that eases the daily lives of many.

    And now Luon is tasked to make such a thing, only the guideline for his instructions was very vague.

    What kind of generator should he make? How is this test graded? Luon thought as he stared over the materials that he could use.

    Without a doubt amongst these materials were a few that feel like tricks, or so it seems. Otherwise, these particular items should feel slightly sorry for themselves to be called materials if they had feelings.

    Luon blatantly ignores the bowl of oranges and lemons occupying a part of the table as he contemplated on what type of generator he should make.

    Luon was not going to wire a light bulb with a couple of fruits and call it quits. This examination would probably evaluate the output and capabilities of the generator. He could try recreating the basic electrical generator found in the olden days back in the first simulation.

    But with the advancement of technology such an old relic will without a doubt fail him during this test.

    At a loss to where to start Luon decided to do the basic steps first and decide how to handle the source of energy later.

    To create a generator, one must have a source of energy, a container to store it, and a method to use it.

    With that being said Luon gazed over the table of materials and tools and using his BMPU he had the basic understanding of how to use them.

    Immediately he started doing the drudge work of creating the container. Instead of pondering what to do, it''s easier to take action!

    Sometimes once you get going the task is done before you even notice it, with such pure thoughts Luon worked on the container for the generator.

    As if a switch was turned on Luon concentration levels increased drastically as he picked up some metals and began to work with the furnace and anvil.

    ¡­

    With a frown, Shizuka watched Luon¡¯s initial actions with disappointment.

    Belle seeing Shizuka expression asked, ¡°Is he already doing something wrong?¡±

    ¡°Well, what do you think? Before he decided on what kind of energy he should use, he already started crafting the catalyst. Does he honestly think that every single material works well with every type of energy? Mana could only flow better in certain materials like Mythril or orichalcum ore, and qi energy can only be useful in very dense rare metals found later in the advanced version of the periodic table of elements. What he just did right now is picked up some normal copper, and other metals making something like motherboard found in those ancient systems and started crafting a miniature power bank,¡± said Shizuka as she severely criticized Luon¡¯s work method.

    Shizuka hoped that she could open her friend''s eyes by belittling Luon as much as possible. However, Belle wasn¡¯t able to comprehend her intentions as she quietly asked. ¡°But isn¡¯t the task is to make a simple generator? Doesn¡¯t this power bank serve its purpose? Couldn¡¯t he pass the test with just that?¡±

    ¡°The examination for the Engineering isn¡¯t hard for us to judge, the appraisal system and our judges dictate most of the work,¡± Shizuka said as she shook her head.

    Something called a product evaluation number dictates the examination scoring system.

    To pass the first examination one needed to score at least 5 points.

    To get these points, three judges could rate a score between 1 to 5, and the average number would be added to the appraisal score.

    The rarity given by the BMPU determines the appraisal score. If what Luon created ended up as a regular item than the score would be 1. If the product were a rare item, it would be 2, with a higher rarity, the candidates can obtain more points.

    Also if the judges find that the product does not meet the requirements set by the task, they are allowed to fail the candidate instantly as long as they all agree.

    ¡°If you say any more secrets it may make it more troublesome if any of this were to leak out, even if you''re my daughter you have to follow the rules.¡± A voice came out of nowhere interrupted Shizuka¡¯s explanation as a middle-aged man walked in.

    ¡°My apologies, father,¡± Shizuka said.

    The man and Belle did a light greeting as they already knew each other.

    This man was the current head of the Novera Corporation despite not being an engineer. His name was Dio Ichihara, and he married into the Ichihara family out of pure love with Shizuka¡¯s mother, he was formerly a commander on the battlefield, but after an injury, he retired to help lead projects with the intention of lowering the number of casualties on the front-lines.

    Dio looked at the screen with interest and asked the details on who was on display from the two of them.Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°Father, do you honestly think that he would be able to pass this examination?¡± Shizuka said as she questioned her father.

    ¡°I think that young man has what it takes, you should probably look at what he''s doing now. It just got a little more interesting.¡± Dio said as he smiled mysteriously.

    Shizuka and Belle after hearing Dio¡¯s words as they turned to face the screen only to be shocked at what they found on the screen.

    ¡­

    When Luon was crafting the container to hold and use the energy, he thought of the many types of energy he could use.

    Last night after Luon saw the Ivar swung his cool weapon around in the simulation he couldn¡¯t sleep a wink.

    Luon spent that night researching about this eras weapon systems in hopes in one day being able to craft something as amazing as them.

    As he searched, Luon came to an understanding that most of the equipment used either mana or qi energy for high energy products while using solar power for the lower end appliances.

    However, the study in understanding the usage of mana and qi energy was very vague. The way people talked about it online had no scientific explanations for them it was all just a feeling. Luon tried to recall that during his first simulation it was also the same. He didn¡¯t discover the new type of energy but misguided by the world to learn it.

    How could Luon bring himself to use something that seemed so unrealistic in his craftsmanship? Magic for combat was fine for Luon - but to use it in the scientific field without understanding it was a gigantic disgrace.

    But if he didn¡¯t use it, he felt that he would fail this test, and everyone seems to use it without understanding it.

    After he finished crafting the power bank, he began to think hard about how to develop the power source.

    Luon set his eyes over the materials once again, and his eyes fell on the bowl of oranges and lemons.

    ¡®Well, worse case scenario I would have to use these fruits after all energy does flow the same way¡­ wait for a second,¡¯ Luon thought but all the sudden he had a bright idea.

    Flow, all sources of energy when being used for many different purposes have a period where it gets transferred from the source to the tool.

    In the more electrical field, this could be measured in units known as ampere quite commonly known as Amps.

    What if this device was able to gather its own source of energy? Something along the lines of solar powered panels, however, there is no time for it to accumulate that much energy.

    And powering a device by injecting mana would be too generic and dull for this test.

    ¡®But with this idea, I might be on to something.¡¯ Thought Luon as he began to craft a sword to use the generator''s energy. He also took some time to reshape the generator to fit his new type of energy source.

    After a few moments what laid in front of him was a sword and a generator with no energy whatsoever attached to it.

    Immediately he used his privileges to request for some materials for his power source, and within moments a there was a sealed package place on the materials table.

    He immediately poured the material over his generator, and as if it was alive the generator greedily absorbed it.

    What laid in front of Luon was a broad red sword as the material he requested was, blood.

    Blood energy, all living things need it to operate, why couldn¡¯t weapons do the same thing? Was is it because of how inhumane it sounded? A weapon was made to kill in the first place, so Luon didn¡¯t overthink about it.

    Luon satisfied with his work placed his sword on the appraisal table and out of curiosity used him BMPU to evaluate it.

    [Unnamed Bloody Sword]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 900]

    [Durability - 500/500]

    [A sword fueled by the blood of its enemies sharpens and tempers itself.]

    [Perk 1 - Drain]

    [Perk 2 - Regenerate]

    A few minutes after Luon laid his new creation on top of the appraisal table the doors to the room opened up as the lady from before came in.

    ¡°Congratulations Luon Fate, I have received your results, and you have just passed the examination with a score of 5. This is your Engineering License Card, with it you can access any part of the faculty resources and website with the authority level of 1.¡± The lady receptionist said.

    The receptionist pulled him and formally gave Luon a silver card, and she then continued, ¡°Your friend is waiting for you outside waiting to hear how well you did.¡±

    Hearing that Belle was just outside although he didn¡¯t know how good a score of 5 was all he had in his mind was to celebrate his new accomplishment with someone.

    Luon after receiving his card thanked the receptionist and then asked if he can keep the sword. The receptionist nodded, and he quickly left the room with it to share his joy with his friend.

    When Luon found Belle, he met a new face beside her.

    She was another beautiful girl, with a short raven black hair with a little curl at the tips. She wore a simple black uniform worn by all the other members of the Novera Corporation members, and she had a black cap to top it off.

    Belle introduced her as Shizuka, one of her friends but for some reason all this girl did was stare at Luon without saying a word.

    Luon was a little creeped out by the girl who stared at him intensely which killed the joy he just built up. After a saying a few words to the two he left immediately.

    As Luon left the building, he stopped to look at his new weapon. Luon then remembers how powerful Ivar was as he swung his weapon around. With that thought, Luon felt a little dissatisfied with his latest creation.

    He then recalled his previous simulations experiences. His powerlessness had made him lose so many things that were close to him, and his foolishness causes him to die pathetically.

    Luon was determined to walk a bloody path if that could protect his loved ones and live a long life. With that ideal in his mind, he walked home with strength.

    Seeing Luon leave Shizuka had only one thought, ¡®How can father prefer an engineer like him over me? I am the genius of the generation, blood? How savage but I can¡¯t deny its effectiveness. It looks like there are some interesting people in my generation.¡¯

    She turned around and walked away with determination declared in her mind, ¡®The best engineer in this generation is me!¡¯

    ¡­

    ¡°Old man why did you let him pass? The task was a generator, not a weapon.¡± one of the judges said dissatisfied.

    ¡°Yeah, creating a blood-powered sword is a little too insane. How would people judge us if we let people like him in our organization?¡± said another.

    Out of the 5 points, Luon scored he received 3 points from the appraisal system by making a unique item, and 2 from the judges. The two dissatisfied judges gave Luon a score of 1, but the last judge gave him a 4.

    ¡°Well, why do you think we need generators? Obviously to kill, so why not give this kid the chance to make even more deadly weapons? He could have used mana or qi like everyone else, but he used blood, its power source is reusable and simple. If I had to point something out his craftsmanship is a little lacking, but if he gets well-trained the things he makes are going to be stellar.¡± said the last judge who was Shizuka¡¯s father, Dio.

    ¡°Ho, and whos going to train this madman? Nobody I know would be willing teaching this freak.¡± said the first judge.

    ¡°Well, who else can do it better than the Demonic Crafter? Although his shop is not that legal he still provides excellent tools to fight the damn Inzektors. I already sent him a video.¡± Dio said with a smile.

    ¡°You''re crazy, to train under that man? All he thinks about is killing.¡± said the second judge.

    ¡°Well maybe to change the future we need some more crazy people,¡± Dio said as he turned off the chat, he closed his eyes as recalled something good.

    ¡®The next few years are going to be a bit more interesting¡¯ thought Dio.

 Chapter 13 - The dorm

    After obtaining his engineering license, Luon spent the month before the start of his school researching all possible material that could be covered.

    Fortunately for him, CITA and his new friend Belle were very helpful in that aspect.

    What brought joy to Luon the most this period was learning many new things on a daily basis.

    Luon¡¯s ability to concentrate on the task he had to do was unbelievable. It was to the point where he was nearly blind to his surroundings.

    Belle sat directly behind Luon as they were studying in one of the private rooms at the library.

    She sighed as she stared at his back as he worked his brains out studying. Belle thought ¡®What am I doing helping him out? Well, I do learn a few new things once in awhile but I already covered most of what I needed to know so being here is pointless.¡¯

    Belle then recalled his expression when he called her his first friend. It brought her some joy seeing him smile saying so.

    ¡®Well helping a friend in need is indeed a good deed¡¯ Belle nodded and thought.

    But this day was their last day together she felt a little aggrieved that all they did was study.

    All the sudden Luon turned off the computer and faced Belle. She felt alarmed a bit to see his actions when he turned to face her, but she immediately calmed down thinking that he was probably just hungry at this time.

    ¡°Are you too hungry to study? Today''s the last day, so you better make it worth it, let''s go get a quick meal at the cafe and get back to it.¡± Belle calmly said assuming he was hungry.

    Luon shook his head and said, ¡°There is no need to, I have already finished reading what I need to know so instead let''s go out together I¡¯ll treat as thanks for your help this past month.¡±

    Luon had spent most of his time reading up on this new era, and he even killed sleep, using energy pills he was always reading.

    Hearing those words, Belle cried in joy and agreed, the last day they had together was a small, enjoyable rondevu.

    ¡­

    After Luon went home from his date, he brought his parents some gifts as thanks using the money he obtained from the government for being a student.

    He was a little sad to leave the two, and they felt the same. They spent their last night together in harmony with Kane retelling the stories in the past, his wife Rina pouring him drinks and Luon avidly listening to his heroic and romantic tales from dusk to dawn.

    It was now the morning that Luon had to move to the school dormitory. He had spent the last day with his family with joy, but now it was time for a minor farewell.

    ¡°It was a short time, and we didn¡¯t spend it much together but no matter what you will always be welcomed here,¡± Rina said as she and Kane started to hug Luon bidding him farewell.

    ¡°That¡¯s right whenever your free come by once in awhile.¡± Kane after those words he pulled out a small bag and handed it to Luon.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Luon looked at it questioningly.

    ¡°It¡¯s an intraspatial bag that I used to use in my time with the military. It only has a few meters of space, but with it, you can carry a lot more things around with you. Aren¡¯t you inspiring to be an engineer or a soldier? You can put your materials and weapons inside.¡± Kane said as he recalled the many times the bag had helped him before.

    ¡°Take some of these too,¡± Rina said as she started to pull more objects out of nowhere.

    After a few minutes, Luon¡¯s brand new bag had some random materials, potions and medicine and weaponry to the point where it was already half-filled.

    The time Luon spent with them was short, but with all these things he can feel their love for him. With determination, he bid his farewells and started to leave his house to walk his path in life.

    Just as Luon was about to leave his home, Kane next words made him came flying back.

    ¡°Well, I wasn¡¯t sure if I should give this to you since I know you love books so much. This right here was a small journal I used to write about the characteristics of Inzektors biology from my time at the military.¡± Kane coughed and mentioned with uncertainty.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Luon quickly grabbed it and held it with passion and joy as if these words can magically appear in his mind out of nowhere.

    [First book obtained]

    ...

    Luon after departing from his house in happiness followed CITA¡¯s instruction on how to arrive at school. It took about half the day going through many different terminals, and the distance traveled if he had to walk would have made him take several weeks to travel.

    With his efforts, he arrived at Nexus University, or so he thought, but the campus was so large that after reading the map at the entrance he was still quite a bit off from his dorm room.

    Fortunately for him, the transportation used at the school was the same system used in terminal station allowing him to arrive at his dorm with post-haste.

    A few minutes later Luon arrived at his stationed dormitory and checked in.

    There he met an old man who was the dormitory head stationed here and he taught Luon the basics of the life in the dormitory and sent Luon to his room.

    Following the old man''s instructions, Luon reached his room not tired at all because of the gift his father had given him reduced his load. Inside the intraspatial bag were all their love and his first creation in this lifetime his unnamed bloody sword.

    Then he thought, ¡®Oh wait, I should probably name it. Maybe after doing so the name property on the BMPU would change.¡¯

    Luon recalled his sword out of the bag and named it on the spot [X-Reaver], and within his expectations, the name did indeed change in the analysis.

    Luon satisfied walked to open the doors to his dorm room only to find a giant man-made tower in the middle of the room.

    For some reason, there were three men stacked on top of each other with the largest one at the bottom and smallest at the top doing some dexterous task.

    The largest of the three was a shirtless muscular Asian male who was emitting a significant amount of steam and sweat caused by the amount of effort used to lift the other two.

    In the middle of this tower was a somewhat expressionless dark skin man. If the muscular Asian was Atlas, the titan who was able to carry the world on his shoulders than this man would be Charon, the ferryman of the underworld. Only instead of ferrying people across water, he was lifting another man, and if it wasn¡¯t for the signs of sweat on his forehead, it was difficult to determine if he was tired or not.

    At the very top was a tanned smaller individual who seems to be wiring some device on the ceiling, well to be more accurate they were screwing in a lightbulb.

    What surprised Luon the most was that there was a tall ladder placed right next to them and he thought this superficial tower was entirely pointless.

    After Luon had opened the door the small man at the very top was startled, and the tower began to tilt showing signs of imbalance.

    Luon quickly closed the door to the room. After a few moments, he felt like a miniature earthquake had passed by.

    With some doubt, Luon inspected the room number only to realize that this was indeed his new room, and those men were his roommates.

    Recollecting his thoughts and emotions, he let out a sigh and reopened the door. Beyond it, there was no longer a giant tower nor a pile of collapsed men, but a scene of the three prepared for Luon as if they had expected him to come.

    The muscular and expressionless man were standing guard to the side of the smallest of the three who was posing in the center on top of a chair.

    ¡°Welcome classmate, are you perchance our new dorm mate? Hehe around here you got to follow the rules and listen to this boss, Gizmo Woemoes.¡±

    As the little man named Gizmo started to blabber about Luon took the opportunity to evaluate the design and architecture of the room.

    It was a small suite with four bedrooms in each corner and a small lobby in the middle. With Luon¡¯s understanding in the center of the room was the operation panel that rotates the necessary utilities to live like the kitchen or television set. The design and architecture of this rotation system were similar to how Japan handled car parking back in the old days. It used the parking garage elevator system to save space by using height as a factor...

    ¡°Hey, are you listening? You fool hurry up and pay attention to this boss.¡± Gizmos bellow woke up Luon from his analysis of the room.

    ¡°Ah sorry about that, by the way why are you the boss of the room? Aren¡¯t we fellow new schoolmates? There shouldn¡¯t be any hierarchy already.¡± Luon said after he thought about it.

    The previous few days Luon had read up on the rules and regulations of the school as well as some novels about people''s first experience in school.

    ¡°Hmph, if I said I am the boss then I am the boss! Right guys?¡± Gizmo said as he motioned the other two in agreeing.

    ¡°Hey Gizmo, shouldn¡¯t we hurry to the dining room? Isn¡¯t it about time for them to start distributing food? No matter how much you call yourself boss food is my number one priority,¡± The large Asian man named Bendan Chen said firmly as he rubs his stomach and his nose twitched.

    On the side, the expressionless black male named, Tyron shook his head and nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Hmph, can¡¯t listen to this boss for a moment? Fine as punishment you guys can stay here as I go get myself something good¡± Gizmo said as he ran right out of the room to eat.

    Tyron and Bendan looked at each other in shock. Then they quickly chase after Gizmo. For food, they ran at the fastest speed possible.

    Luon gazed at the door that they all left it, he sighed and shook his head. Three years with these people as roommates?

    ¡®Well it could be worse,¡¯ Luon thought when all the sudden his stomach was also starting rumbling in the desire for food as well.

    ¡°Ah, they better leave some for me,¡± Luon said as he suddenly remembered that in most of the school life stories he read made by fellow students that the slowest ones would only have the scrap leftovers.

    Luon quickly set his stuff on the side and madly followed suit.

    After dinner Luon laid himself on his bed, he was restless unable to sleep due to his excitement of starting his first day of school.

    ¡°What am I doing to myself? I¡¯m acting like a child too excited to go on a field trip that I can¡¯t fall asleep.¡± Luon muttered as he slowly rose himself off his bed.

    ¡®Maybe a night stroll to the library would help me sleep better. I still have quite some time before class starts¡¯ Luon thought as he began to exercise his body in preparations for a small outing in the middle of the night.

    Luon quietly left the dorm and with only CITA as his guide to light the path of the darkness of the night.

 Chapter 14 - Night Stroll

    The sound of steady footsteps echoes about in the dark streets of the night. One thing that hasn''t change even after centuries had passed would be this cycle of day and night.

    Luon who walked alone towards the library in the midst of this blanket of darkness recalls each of his roommate''s disposition.

    The large and muscular Chinese youth, Bendan Chen. His family originated from the Kien solar system, and they moved to the Nexus system after a particular affair with some rich young master. Tired of the constant schemes and fights they took refuge in the Nexus system.

    Although the number of natural resources found in the Nexus solar system was not as plentiful for cultivation, with advancements of technology and body tempering methods, there was still a way for cultivators in the Nexus solar system to compare with those found in the Kien solar system.

    Bendan was the 7th generation in his clan born in the Nexus solar system. He wore a dull black and very worn out training outfit with muscles bulging all around, and he was a head taller than Luon.

    If one paid a little more attention to his looks, he had a slightly orange hue on his pitch black hair, according to him his mother admired and liked Korean dramas and wanted to make her son''s hair a little more fashionable.

    Bendan didn¡¯t like the idea at all and refused her at first only to find out that his mother tried to dye it secretly at night. He had tossed her out of his room and reinforced his defensive systems using ancient qi array methods which were passed down his family for generations.

    After he moved to the dorm, he had finally escaped his mother clutches and is completely relieved and satisfied that he no longer had to worry about lack of sleep at night.

    Luon remembered his brief conversation between the two of them and found Bendan¡¯s personality to be very straightforward and simple.

    Luon also found that Bendan lacked a lot of basic knowledge because all he knew was body-tempering cultivation methods and magical arrays, he was a freak in a way since he couldn¡¯t use his own BMPU and other technical devices that well.

    After Bendan there was also the expressionless African archer, Tyron. His family was from one of the more tribal planets found in the Nexus system, they didn¡¯t have any surnames, and they specialize in their mastery with the bow.

    He may seem silent most of the time, but this didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t talk, it was just difficult to express himself since of his people ¡¯s teachings were to stay silent as possible to obtain a hunting mindset at all times. This is one of the primary reasons why his people were the scariest group of hunters found in the Nexus solar system.

    He just like Bendan had some communication problems as most of the time he would talk using the BMPU voice system. If he didn''t speak using the BMPU, he would only express himself with head shakes. Luckily Luon was able to grasp the meaning of most of the headshakes almost right away since he has some minor knowledge in hand signals and after studying ways people like to express themselves through motion.

    And then there was Gizmo, the hyperactive person out of the whole crew. He was a Mexican descendant who specialized in engineering. At first, Luon didn¡¯t like his personality as it was a bit overbearing but after finding out that he loved engineering as well, they hit off well.

    Gizmo also had an extensive network of people he knew to get some parts for development purposes using both legal and illegal methods.

    This point intrigued Luon since material handling was monitored and managed by the government. The trade of smuggling goods still exists as well as the black market, but Gizmo didn¡¯t go too far in describing it.

    After he had finished recalling his newly founded friends, he found himself a bit over a kilometer away from the library.

    But all the sudden his body went cold as if it dropped several degrees Celsius. Luon felt something akin to bloodlust, and this alerted his senses.

    Luon slowed down his pacing and carefully inspected his surroundings only to find nothing wrong at all.

    There were only several street lamps and trees on this pathway. It was deep into the night, and Luon found himself in the middle of the park, a typical scene to ambush people at.

    As Luon wiped away his alarmed state - an undetectable yet sweet resounding voice echoed and resonated towards Luon¡¯s ears.

    ¡°Oh, although you were only able to sense me for a moment to think you put your guard down so easily. If I were a murderer, you would already be dead.¡± The voice had said as if the person was right next to Luon.

    With a few twists and turns Luon seriously once again inspected his surroundings but still to no avail was able to find traces of the voice.

    Luon calmed down a bit seeing how the mysterious figure had yet made a move, unknown to the other''s intention while being wary of his surroundings he bellowed, ¡°Who''s there? Is there something you want from me?¡±

    But there was no vocal response at all from the voice, Luon started to use his wind magic to spread his mana outward to increase his detection range.

    This was one of the techniques Luon used to control the situation in the second simulation to analyze the surroundings. The only downside to this ability was it being extraordinarily exhausting, and prolonged use of it drained his mana. Another demerit would be quick enemies who moved too fast are hard to react to.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Fortunately, he didn¡¯t have to wait long as a figure approached Luon at rapid speeds offering him a quick and swift strike utilizing as what Luon could detect to be, a sword. Luon reacted quickly a pulled his newly crafted sword from his bag under his coat that he wore.

    He swung a parried it right away but found that his strength was slightly weaker than the opponent. Ever since he awoken, he never had the time to temper and trained his body yet. He slightly regretted not tempering his body before school started.

    Maybe his newly found friend Bendan can help him with that Luon thought, but since he was in the middle of combat, he refocused his attention to the battle on hand.

    After parrying the strike, his opponent took a few steps back, smiled and said ¡°Looks like you can put up a bit of a fight. Come, satisfy my desires.¡±

    Luon took a good long look at his opponent, not in preparation for battle but the admiration of beauty. From the moment he had awoken in this world Luon has yet to find an ugly person. The main factors for this were the genetic readjustment they do in Vortex containers, the nutrients they provide and deep beauty sleep. They said in the old days that people should sleep more often to maintain their beauty and considering this nowadays he found it to be very accurate.

    Luon¡¯s opponent had a long, white silky hair with skins as clean and smooth as freshly dispensed yogurt. One thing worth mentioning was that this person reminded Luon of something, but he couldn¡¯t recall anything right away.

    Her attire was one suited for the battle which completely outclassed what Luon was wearing. She wore a simple black student military uniform that all students in Nexus University were supposed to wear, but over that was something that surprised Luon the most. NG-Arms, what this lady wore was a military grade Next Generation Mechanized Armaments created by Novera Corporation.

    Compared to her all Luon had was a dull black coat he used to wear off the cold and the basic student uniform underneath.

    Luon looked at his opponent and asked questioningly, ¡°So why are you attacking me? Aren¡¯t we fellow students?¡±

    The girl looked at Luon awkwardly and said: ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it too much it''s just some nighttime exercise, and it looks like I found the perfect opponent tonight.¡±

    The girl then readied her posture for another skirmish, but before she could attack, Luon said ¡°Well the least you can do is introduce yourself. I¡¯ll go first.¡±

    Luon adjusts his posture for combat, and domineering said, ¡°My name is Luon Fate, an aspiringly new half-human, half-elf engineer, now come let us do battle!¡±

    Luon had always wanted to introduce himself like that after reading and watching many different series do the same.

    Amused the girl follows suit and proudly said, ¡°My name is Arisa Nightwalker, Vampire, here I come.¡±

    Luon finally recalled what the figure of this girl reminded him of. When he first arrived in this world, he remembers watching on the display television someone that looked similar to this girl only her face was covered up. Felia Nightwalker, Luon quietly concluded that they might be related and concluded that they have similar fighting abilities.

    The combat commenced and as Luon predicted this girl knew how to do long-range energy attacks using the sword.

    Luon already knew that his combat abilities were much weaker than Arisa¡¯s in the first trade of blows. He attempted to use his sword techniques to make up for the difference, but Arisa was just as skilled as him making it much harder.

    Not only that she had the power of Qi energy and every strike made her attack range longer than the before. During this battle, Luon attempted to do the same with mana but realizes that he has yet to study any combat methods utilizing energy. All he had in his arsenal was sword techniques and basic wind magic. Even his new sword couldn¡¯t help him out as it didn¡¯t taste any blood yet, the perks it had was only useful in group fights.

    After over about a hundred clashes Luon combat fitness wasn¡¯t able to keep up with Arisa. With a slash, the completely defenseless Luon received a scar to the face as he backed away from Arisa who felt completely satisfied with the strike.

    The two separated in several steps and stared at each other, however, in this situation Luon wasn¡¯t happy at all. He knew he had lost, the strike she threw at him was pulled back a bit in the last second, she could have reaped his life if she wanted to.

    After disarming herself, she gazed intently interested at Luon and walked up to him to offer a napkin to wipe the fresh blood off his face.

    Luon pushed away her hand and pulled a potion from his intraspatial bag which he stored under his coat. If one saw this from the outer perspective, it seemed like Luon likes to store potions in the inner pockets of his coat like a shady dealer.

    Luon after examining the potion effects with his eyes chugged it down, within a few seconds his wound had already regenerated, and he wiped the remnants of blood on the ground.

    Looking at the blood with some regrets she then turned to look at Luon straightly. She then smugly said, ¡°Hello, fellow student what a lovely day for some night time exercise, am I right? So what are you doing out in the night?¡±

    Luon remembered his objective and said, ¡°I am just like you, out on a night stroll to the library to satisfy my desires.¡±

    Arisa looked at him strangely and misinterpreted the sentence. She silently concluded that his desires were much more profound than hers and looked at him with disgust.

    Luon seeing her expression realized the way he phrased was too vague but before he can make excuses, Arisa started to demean him and said, ¡°Hmph, just another barbaric animal out to satisfy your desires.¡±

    Arisa removed her gaze from Luon as she said that and looked around the park as if she could see through trees. She then turned her attention to Luon again and said, ¡°Well then go satisfy your desires. Hopefully, you don¡¯t feel too tired before classes start.¡±

    Arisa suddenly disappeared and faded without a trace - it seemed like a skill of hers. She went away too fast before Luon had the chance to explain himself.

    After Arisa had left the vicinity entirely oblivious to Luon''s feelings, Luon now felt too embarrassed to go to the library.

    Afterall being misunderstood about going to partake in some night time affairs by an aesthetically appealing female member who gazed at him in disgust might be an attractive offer for some people, but not for Luon.

    But the temptation to sit down in a private room on a computer kept him hesitating for a moment.

    Ultimately, in the end, he decided to walk back towards the dorm, his goal for this outing was to satisfy his desire and excitement levels to sleep happily.

    But after having talked to Arisa just now had caused that feeling to dissipate.

    Luon began to walk back taking a different path when along the way he saw a golden hue in the middle of this darkness.

    It wasn''t a street light and curious as he was Luon started walking towards the light. Slowly he crept closer, but soon he began to speed up faster and faster as he recognizes what the light was.

    This eventful night stroll ended positively as a smile came Luon¡¯s face as he had entered into the light.

    Another thing that had never changed, something that he didn''t expect to last for centuries of ever-changing history, the 24/7 convenience store.

    After a tiring battle with Arisa and the dissatisfaction of not going to the library. Luon happily ate instant ramen there and thus ending his night stroll.

 Chapter 15 - First Class

    An unfamiliar ceiling like the atypical main character found in any generic story Luon awoke to the first day of Luon¡¯s new school life at Nexus University.

    Luon sluggishly motioned his body to start the preparations for his agenda today.

    According to the detailed schedule which was sent to his BMPU after checking in to the dorm he was supposed to attend a minor opening ceremony followed by his first class which would be assigned during the opening ceremony.

    After making himself neat and tidy, he left his dorm room meeting his fellow dorm mates along the way to the opening ceremony.

    Luon being slightly more proactive in the morning smiled to his roommates and greeted them while walking to the venue for the opening ceremony.

    Bendan also followed suit and energetically greeted Luon as well, if one were to look more closely it seemed like he spent the morning exercising as he still smelled like sweat.

    Tyron, on the other hand, was like Luon - neat and tidy as he bowed to Luon to express his morning greetings.

    The worse of the trio was Gizmo as he was very ruffled and unprepared for the day as he was still nodding off every few seconds. It seemed like he spent the night doing some activities just like Luon.

    Compared to how Luon met them yesterday they appeared more formal wearing the Nexus University¡¯s mandatory military uniform. This stylish pitch black suit had a slight golden trims making them look very mature and professional akin to a group of office workers.

    Along the way, the group met with other students and eventually they got to the large venue that held the opening ceremony.

    The room was an amphitheater which was used for entertaining large groups of people. The number one feature of this place in Luon¡¯s case would be the incredibly comfy leather chairs. The dim lights that were present and nice chairs created a harmonic, quiet atmosphere. A perfect place for sleeping if one was tired midday and Luon who had less sleep than usual was very tired.

    When the opening ceremony commenced not a single word was able to enter his ears as he fell in a state of minor hibernation due to lack of sleep.

    After a while, the opening ceremony ended, and the energetic Bendan woke Luon up to go to class.

    Luon who woke up refreshed was slightly confused and suddenly realized that one of the most critical segments of the opening ceremony was to decide the placements for his classes. Luon quickly inquired from Bendan on the content of the presentation.

    However, Bendan wasn¡¯t that much help at all. About 70% of material covered was lost in translation from his mouth as Bendan was unable to comprehend most of the content and even if he did understand he didn¡¯t know how to explain it himself.

    Luon was slightly frustrated due to his incompetence, luckily Tyron was there and filled in some of the gaps that Bendan was missing, however, even with this they only covered about half of the content.

    On the bright side, they knew how to attend their next classes as their BMPU schedule updated after a few minutes.

    By this time Gizmo was also more awake now, and the crew headed down to their first classes which they were all assigned together.

    In an arena about the size of the football field, Luon is attending his first class, combat training.

    All the students were lined up in a single line as a man walked down the row evaluating his new students.

    The teacher¡¯s name was Captain Waver, and he previously worked in the military only to retire later due to an injury.

    There a few things that surprised Luon in this class, one of them being the strength of the instructor. After learning more about skills he recently was able to realize the limitations of his Eye of Insight skill. Skills and combat levels are mysterious entities that people cannot comprehend at all, whether racial or self-developed there were just too many things to understand about them.

    Who decided these values? Who wrote the description of these skills? Luon theorizes that if he were able to increase the experience value of his Eye of Insight skill then maybe he would understand more of the hidden mysteries of the universe.

    [Eye of Insight - Lv4]

    [Requirement - Analysis target must be within two realms within the user''s domain and below]

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.[Description - The ability to theorize and estimate the target based on natural properties and composition.]

    Luon contemplating on the potential of this skill used his ability on Captain Waver.

    [Captain Waver]

    [Race: Human?]

    [Job: ???]

    [Combat Level: 62??]

    [Racial Skills: ???]

    [Active Skills: ???]

    [???]

    Most of the values were hidden, and this was because the difference in strength was too vast, however, with the information provided it clearly shows that Captain Waver was out of Luon''s league.

    The other thing that surprised Luon was that he saw a few familiar faces in his group of classmates.

    In his class, he is reunited with Belle Mirande, Shizuka Ichihara, and Arisa Nightwalker and for some reason, they appear to know each other.

    Just as Luon was staring over at the group girls, the instructor clapped his hands and started his class.

    ¡°Alright folks as you may know from the opening ceremony I am the head teacher of the combat division, I don¡¯t have much to say, but for our first class, I will be evaluating your combat abilities. I hope that within the three years you attend here that you all become great powerful warriors wrecking havoc against the damn Inzektors.¡± The instructor calmly said as he sent gazes all about.

    ¡°For now I will be pairing your matches randomly using the randomizer, the contestants listed please stay down here and show me an entertaining fight. As for the rest follow me to the spectating seats¡± Then Captain Waver pressed a button on a remote which he had at hand.

    With a few mechanical noises, a televised display appeared above the arena with the list of names of the students in the class. A few seconds later a green box highlighted 2 of the names listed and started to appear and disappear on different names only stopping at the first two contestants who were going to fight.

    Coincidently the first two were Tyron and Gizmo. Captain Waver seeing the result brought the other students to the spectating stands leaving only the two in the arena.

    The two of them were spaced about 100 meters away from each other and with an electronic signal the fight began.

    Gizmo started off by pulling out a rifle out of nowhere and immediately shot an array of bullets to Tyron. Luon was carefully inspecting the scene and found that Gizmo had an intraspatial bag just like him.

    Tyron appeared very calm as the bullets swarmed towards him. Within arms reach before the bullets reached him Tyron stuck out his hand which then emitted a mana generated shield blocking all of the bullets.

    After halting Gizmos attack, Tyron then used mana again to construct a bow and arrow and rapidly shot towards Gizmo.

    The two of them used a long-range tactic and the battle displayed were just a series of bullets and magic arrows flying all about. The instructor at first was quite surprised at the display and was pleasantly happy until about 10 minutes later where they were still shooting at each other without any progress at all. Growing tired of the fireworks he stopped that match between the two calling it even and began to randomize more battles.

    However, the battles after the first were incredibly dull and nothing to keep note of. Captain Waver grew wearily seeing how pathetic his first batch of students was until a few particular names on the randomizer caught his attention.

    The randomizer after pairing each battle would remove the contestant names on the list, and it was already halfway in the list of students. At this moment the next matched group of students to do battle were: Arisa Nightwalker and Shizuka Ichihara.

    At this moment a commotion rose within the group of students, everyone knew what the top families were in the Nexus solar system, even the ignorant Luon figured it out later. This match was between the next generation of the Nightwalker family against the next generation Novera Corporation head.

    The two girls approached the stage, but they didn¡¯t have an easy going atmosphere, it was more like they had something to settle and the stage was the perfect opportunity for the two.

    ...

    As the two girls walked towards the stage, Shizuka looked at Arisa with her stern face and said: ¡°Like I said I was first, why don¡¯t you just settle for being second.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m pretty sure I was first.¡± Unfazed Arisa replied at her remark.

    Before going to school Shizuka and Arisa had once met each other in a party between the major families. Both of them were tired at the stifling atmosphere and left together to wander about at the venue.

    There they met Belle for the first time who became their best friend, however, when it was mentioned who Belle first and best friend was between the two they had always fought for it. Belle clueless on what to do stayed silent on the matter and eventually the two came in agreement to decide through competitions. As long as one of them had at least two victories more than the other match would be settled but they were evenly matched.

    So before this battle, they decided whoever won this battle would be the first and best friend of Belle vowing to let the heavens be there witness.

    The battle began with the two of them trading blows with swords. In terms of skill, they were evenly matched but since Shizuka was an engineer she was using her customized weapon with an acceleration feature. Eventually, the battle began to tip in her favor.

    Dodging the slash, Arisa quickly retreated, the power behind Shizuka weapon was too strong for Arisa to cope against and it was also too fast to respond to. She gritted her teeth thinking how underhanded Shizuka was using such cheat weapons.

    ¡°Come on why not pull out your customized NG-Arms? I heard that you''re quite good at it just like your sister.¡± Shizuka with the upper hand at this match taunted at Arisa.

    ¡°Fine, how about I show you the power of my Nightwalker family.¡± With those words, Arisa eyes grew into a deep hue of red, and her aura grew more bloodthirsty.

    She then summoned up her NG-Arms covering the limbs of her body and prepared her stance.

    Seeing Arisa taking her comment earnestly Shizuka only smiled and did the same, she summoned her customized NG-Arms and started to pose for combat.

    The two after preparing their NG-Arms dashed and clashed against each other, and a huge puff of dust flew from the aftershock blocking everyone''s vision.

    Luon who used his Eye of Insight to evaluate the combat level of the two after equipping the NG-Arms found the values change considerably.

    ¡®What the heck, that¡¯s broken.¡¯ Luon yelled in his mind.

    The outcome of the match? Nobody could tell who would win.

 Chapter 16 - With Overwhelming Power

    The match between Shizuka and Arisa so far was tense.

    Blades sharply clash against each other as the number blows and slashes in this single match easily surpassed the normal contestants.

    And now this battlefield was covered by dust, it was unknown to everyone who the victor was.

    Everyone except Luon of course as he used his Eye of Insight to penetrate through the dust storm.

    His ability not only allow him to analyze the opponent as accurately as the appraisal skill but it does it several times faster, and it also improved his vision.

    [Arisa Nightwalker]

    [Race: Vampire]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 52/58]

    [Racial Skills: Blood Manipulation]

    [Active Skills: Fury, Qi Manipulation¡­ ]

    ...

    [Shizuka Ichihara]

    [Race: Human]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 50/56]

    [Racial Skills: Versatile]

    [Active Skills: Quick Fingers...]

    ...

    What surprised Luon the most was how much their combat levels changed after equipping the NG-Arms. After the Shizuka and Arisa had equipped the NG-Arms their combat levels had been raised by about 20 levels clearly displaying the power of mechanized weaponry.

    Luon began to imagine what it would be like to own something like that but then he shook away those thoughts. To his knowledge NG-Arms are extremely expensive with the value of a basic one exceeding the costs of a typical family yearly income 3 years over, about 100 000 Galaxia Coins.

    Looking closely at the fight Luon saw that Arisa equipped with her NG-Arms had a greater combat value than Shizuka at the current moment.

    If nothing were to change than this match would be Arisa¡¯s victory. But one of the factors that Luon wasn''t able to dictate with his Eye of Insight skill was the details about the skills the examined target owns. As if protected by a mysterious barrier although he can see the name of the skill he wasn''t able to see the description of anyone else''s except his own.

    All the sudden the fight took an unexpected twist as Arisa aura began to rise once again dissipating the dust-covered fog outwards.

    Arisa charged at Shizuka who also followed suit.

    Strangely enough, Shizuka smiled as if she admired Arisa power, and that smile was dazzling in Luon¡¯s eyes. It seemed to Luon that Shizuka had already expected these results, but she still dared to face it, and that made her efforts admirable from his perspective.

    And with the next clash between the two, the fight had ended.

    ...

    ¡°Looks like I lost...¡± Shizuka sighed as she slowly got up exhausted.

    ¡°You would have had a better chance at winning if you spent your time training instead of studying blueprints or thinking of new weapon designs all the time,¡± Arisa commented on her remark with a sly smile.

    Shizuka shook her head, ¡°I can¡¯t do so, my family is destined to be engineers leading the way to the future of humanity. We weren¡¯t suited for combat in the first place.¡±

    ¡°Well then according to the agreement looks like I won.¡± Arisa pointed out the fact that they were still competing.

    ¡°How about we compete in what I specialize in next? ¡± Shizuka replied back sharply.

    ¡°Oh, then how after that, how about we compete in what my family specializes in next,¡± Arisa replied unfazed by Shizuka determination for victory.

    Afterall Arisa¡¯s family did not specialize in combat but in command, with the longevity of vampires and specialized skills and traits they were the perfect commanders with the only downside being their low birth rates. They were a small group of specialists with decades of experience.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Shizuka thought about it but decided to accept the loss and no longer continue their competition as there was no way to compete against Arisa in commanding and combat with only her engineering abilities.

    The two of them return to the stand unfazed and unperturbed by their classmates admiring cheers, looks of envy and appreciation of beauty.

    Captain Waver seeing how the two¡¯s demeanor nodded his head in admiration of the teachings of those from famous families. They weren¡¯t overbearing and didn¡¯t get haughty and overestimate themselves.

    He then decided to proceed with the next match and the machine began to shoot out the next match up.

    ...

    ¡°Hey, Luon, look you''re up next, and your opponent is a tough one,¡± Gizmo said as he nudged at Luon to pay attention to the matchmaking board.

    With Gizmo word¡¯s Luon turned to face the display with confidence, although his physical fitness could use some improvements his skills made him impeccable as long as they were equal in strength.

    On display, the opponent listed to fight Luon was named Zythos Werebringer.

    Werebringer, this family name Luon clearly remembers from his short month of study was also one of the 4 major factions leaders. The Mythos clan which is heralded as a slap-up party of mighty warriors and soldiers with bio-genetic enhancements.

    Thinking about how powerful Arisa and Shizuka were when they came from a commander and engineering families Luon expects one this match too be several times harder. After all, a warrior from such a famous family would be an extremely troublesome foe.

    Luon got up from the stands and entered the battlefield, he may not be able to win, but the match isn¡¯t over until only one man is standing.

    Luckily for him when Luon examined the stage earlier using his Eye of Insight, he found out that there was a death prevention mechanism installed, so he didn¡¯t have to worry about anything. He was determined to see his limits today.

    As Luon approached and arrived at the battleground, he saw his opponent just entering at the same time.

    Zythos Werebringer was a werewolf. Luon expected him to look more human, but he was more like a bipedal wolf with his scary wolf face with fangs. However, Luon did notice something very human about him, his arrogant demeanor.

    Zythos swaggered down to opposite side of Luon with a bunch of beastmen following behind him appreciating and complimenting him like a rich young master. In front of that huge mob of bootlickers was a little rabbitkin in the lead and from what Luon could recall from the earlier matches named was Chester Hoppins.

    When they saw Luon look over, they tried to intimidate him a bit, but Luon paid no heed which angered them slightly. They told their young master to wipe the floors with Luon and called him ignorant and began to demean him. Zythos nodded his head with those remarks and then told his henchmen to stop and watch as he easily beats Luon down.

    As Zythos approached the stage, Luon secretly used his Eye of Insight skill to determine Zythos strength, and to no surprise, his values would make him a difficult opponent for Luon to face.

    [Zythos Werebringer]

    [Race: Werewolf]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 38/38]

    [Racial Skills: Power of Darkness, Bestial Empowerment, Enhanced Senses]

    [Active Skills: Render, Energy Manipulation...]

    [Passive Skills: Bio-enhancements]

    Right away after seeing Zythos abilities although he didn¡¯t have the most accurate description of everything he expects this match with Zythos would be a very close physical battle as long as Zythos doesn¡¯t have an NG-Arms.

    Zythos list of skills and his combat level made Luon reason that his physical prowess would be several times higher than Luon but since it was still under level 40, his technical skills might not be up to par with Luon.

    ¡°Hmph, another weakling how about you go under my wing? If you want we can get your body to be enhanced like this.¡± Zythos began to show off his muscular body, and with every pose, his followers would make a fuss about it.

    Unfazed by Zythos¡¯s show Luon said sternly. ¡°No need, let¡¯s just start.¡±

    Hearing Luon¡¯s rude remark he intimidatingly stared at Luon as if facing a dead man and said. ¡°Do you not know who I am? And you still want to face me with your weak body? Hahaha, another that can¡¯t properly evaluate his foes such an ignorant youth let me enlighten you.¡±

    Luon sighed at Zythos words which further increased Zythos anger.

    ¡°Puny weak human I will waste you quickly before you can even realize what had happened,¡± Zythos bellowed.

    With that remark, the battle had started, and without another word from Zythos, he charged at Luon intending to end the match with a single move.

    As Luon expected Zythos was going to use fist and claws to fight as he analyzed that the opponent had no weapon related skills and only physical empowering ones.

    Luon brought out his sword to compete with Zythos, although using a weapon seemed unfair their physical strength were too different to compare.

    ¡°Hahaha, a puny stick like that would shatter easily from my fist.¡± Zythos laughed and with a swing his arm was coated with Qi energy clashed with Luon¡¯s uncharged blood-powered sword.

    The power behind Zythos was immense it was an attack with zero technique whatsoever and filled with the strength of many different enhancements, Luon had no choice but to use some sword skills to repel off the attack.

    Zythos seeing how Luon was able to repel his first attack smiled, he ruthlessly began to initiate a barrage against Luon and with his quick speed and heavy attacks Luon was pressured intensely.

    ¡°What''s wrong! Where did all your boasting go? Without muscles like this, there is no way for you to win.¡± Zythos hyped over his overpowering display although surprised at how Luon was still standing, he arrogantly attacked Luon as if there was no possible way for Luon to come back.

    Luon tried to repel the attacks calmly but Zythos was right, the pace was entirely under Zythos control, no matter what Luon did to equalize the difference using techniques Zythos was reaction speed and body control made up for that difference. At first, it was slightly equal, but Luon¡¯s body began to tire from the constant attacks with no breaks in between.

    Luon brained overclocked into finding a solution while repelling the attacks - the Parallel Thoughts skill was beneficial here and operated like the multiple cores located on the processor of a computer - Luon began to recall any information he could to turn the match into his favor.

    From the attack pattern of Zythos, the comparison in physical strength, the additional skills yet to be revealed, and the racial traits, history, and myths behind werewolves Luon factored as many things as he could to find an optimal solution for this mess.

    And like a beacon of light, a couple of ideas came to his mind as he fought, as for the effectiveness?

    He can only find out now or never.

 Chapter 17 - How to deliver a beatdown

    Werewolves from what Luon knew were beings of the dark, a monstrosity birthed from their evolution and desire for strength. They had appeared many times within the history Luon knew from the federations database, and there were many different kinds of werewolves.

    The most common type of werewolves are found in the fantasy based solar systems and are otherwise known as beasts clans - they were populous, stronger than an average human and the most righteous race known to date. It was believed that they originated from wolves who received the blessings from the moonlight, but with the power of science, it was later found that mana was a major factor in their evolution.

    However, that was only the case of werewolves in the fantasy solar systems, in the Nexus solar system where Luon was at there was another kind of werewolves. They were more bestial but brilliant and stealthy. Hidden from mankind for over centuries there were very few clues to their existence as well as other mythological creatures like vampires or sea serpents.

    All the myths and stories about fantasy creatures were actually true, back then the amount of technology to support these claims as evidence were extraordinarily lacking but after the war with the Inzektors started they all re-emerged from darkness to claim a spot in today¡¯s society.

    The historical facts, what these beings did in the last few centuries before they came out into the spotlight were never revealed publically. After all of the happy times where humans were the most superior race these people face eternal discrimination and only existed in the dark.

    Witch trials, curses, and wars as long as it was abnormal and inexcusably different than normal humans, they were one-sidedly slaughtered until humanity grew more intelligently reasonable and numb to such beings. For the average human nowadays not many would be surprised when tentacle monsters depicted from the imagination of fictitious content creators came to real life, in fact, some may even enjoy meeting them.

    So to keep things fair, the new society buried our dark history - only leaving the information about the mythical creatures created by the drunkards and storytellers from way back. Around then there was no way to prove validity these fables and tales, so the information felt more like fan-fictions instead of accurate descriptions.

    And from a few of these drunkards they suggested that the weakness of werewolves be some kind of chemical substance, some others believed they were immortal and the rest claim that they were impossible to defeat. Luon reasoned why it seemed like so was because they honestly never had the chance to dissect a live werewolf to test these theories out.

    But now Luon, unlike those people, has a chance to do so, to find out the full potential of what a werewolf from the Nexus solar system, a being hidden from the dark records of humanity can possibly do.

    The fight continues with Zythos heavily pressuring Luon to surrender until a quick series of pre-planned movements changed the flow of the battle.

    Midway during the barrage of fist combos done by Zythos, Luon used his wind magic to accelerate backward catching Zythos off guard for a second, but he immediately closed the gap.

    Luon expecting such fast reactions done by Zythos had also shot wind magic in a fixed pattern forcing Zythos who was sensitive to magic and the wind flow to slow down his pace by half to avoid these wind attacks.

    But this gave Luon the opportunity to make his next move, from Luon¡¯s intraspatial bag he pulled a particular object out and threw it with incredible speeds when supported by wind magic.

    Zythos who was dodging a series of attacks while approaching Luon was only a few meters away from reaching Luon. Using his senses, he noticed Luon throwing a ranged projectile at almost point blank and with his lightning reflexes and incredible body control barely avoided it.

    However, that attack was only a facade just as Zythos had dodged the attack he was forced to use his senses to their highest level of concentration. This included his sense of smell and the object Luon had tossed and missed him carried a particular weird scent making his body heat up and killed his sense of judgment slightly.

    And right after he had dodged the attacked Luon bellowed as he slashes his blade toward Zythos. ¡°Fetch!¡±

    Instinctively Zythos who was not paying attention to Luon¡¯s sword attack as he had just dodged the ranged one turned around to face the projectile Luon had thrown and analyzed it. He was deeply confused to find out that what he had eluded was a frisbee that Luon received from his parents for some recreational fun and was coated with an aphrodisiac his dad had secretly given him.

    With a slash, Luon dealt with the distracted Zythos a huge blow causing almost a lethal amount of damages, coating his sword with blood.

    Zythos unprotected back incredibly sprayed blood outwards but this attack woke him up from his confused state, and he quickly backs away to his best efforts.

    A few meters of space was created was created between the two as Luon did not pursue his already wounded enemy, the sword drips fresh blood slowly.

    Zythos was confused why did he subconsciously turn around when Luon yelled a few words at him? How could he have let this puny human deal so much damage to him?This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Luon quietly posed himself, and his face was stern, however, inside his mind he was quietly celebrating the fact that his makeshift plan had worked.

    From what Luon understands was that the basic werewolf was an evolutionary stage of a wolf to a bipedal version, however, how can a wolf reach such a stage by itself in the Nexus solar system?

    In fantasy based systems it was scientifically proven mana helped changed them, but the discovery of mana in the Nexus solar system was shallow and underdeveloped, not many creatures can evolve that easily. However, some of them do, and Luon realizes that the evolutionary step of wolves required mana which was a type of energy.

    He then thought what if werewolves were supplied with a different type of energy? Mythical creatures found on earth like vampires probably evolved from a formerly weaker version of itself, and then Luon realizes the most common factor.

    Blood energy, DNA, and many genetics manipulations caused a significant amount of mutations around the world and werewolves probably were a mistake caused by that.

    But for wolves to receive that much blood? It was impossible with the number of predators globally as wolves were practically non-existent during his first simulation. But there was one type of wolf that can receive that much blood. Domesticated wolves, trained by hunters and hobbyist they fought and entertained humans for meals. At one point it may even be possible to evolve, such a conclusion came to Luon¡¯s mind.

    And since they were trained as long as he was able to bring out the inner domesticated instincts of the werewolf he could create an opportunity for himself, that is why he numb Zythos senses with drugs.

    Zythos was enraged at himself for falling for the attack and at the same time at Luon who caused it. His body began to glow as a bloodthirsty aura began to emerge.

    Luon after seeing this scene used his Eye of Insight to find that Zythos combat level was rising, but he was confused if he wanted to overpower him why didn¡¯t he use it at the start? Or why doesn¡¯t pull out some tricks to deal with him? With these thoughts, Luon asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you part of the 4 major factions? Do you not have any NG-Arms?¡±

    With NG-Arms there was no way for Luon to beat Zythos. But after hearing Luon¡¯s remarks, Zythos grew even angrier which in return increase the pacing of his rising combat level as he yelled, ¡°As if I had one! Those bastards from Novera Corporations won¡¯t sell them to us nowadays!?! Keeping all the good stuff to themselves! I¡¯ll slaughter you and those bastards!¡±

    ¡®Apparently, the Mythos clan has some bad relations with the other factions.¡¯ Luon thought as he readied himself to face Zythos.

    Reaching his maximum potential Zythos had the combat level of 48, raising over 10 levels with just a skill it seemed very broken and unfair to Luon.

    Zythos charged at Luon without any traces of sanity left in him. If Luon was at the same physical fitness as Zythos, he could quickly take him down however he could only regret being so far behind. However, as Zythos came, Luon smiled as this was the perfect opportunity for his new trump card to come into play.

    Zythos and Luon clashed again once more, Zythos Qi energy fist attack hammered against Luon¡¯s sword, however, the outcome surpassed people''s expectations. Luon¡¯s sword powered by Zythos blood grew sharp as if seeking out for more blood it cleaved Zythos arm off from the shoulder. Without any resistance at all.

    Everyone was shocked at that point, how powerful must that sword strike be to surpass the Qi coated on Zythos arm? Among those was Arisa who sensed an overwhelming bloodlust emitting from Luon¡¯s sword and she grew extremely interested in it with desire after all she doesn¡¯t have a good one compared to Shizuka with her customized one. If she were to have this sword, she would be able to best those within a single realm - about 10 levels higher than her at ease.

    The one-armed Zythos at that point fell into the state of shock - he was missing an arm and losing that power struggle made him waver. He then fell unconscious due to loss of blood as an emotional struggle appeared like a demon in the heart to haunt him in the future. As he closed his eyes, he looked at Luon who stared back at him and cursed him internally.

    Zythos last thoughts before he blacked out was ¡°I... will kill you bastard... Luon Fate. Whether or not that¡¯s the last thing I do...¡±

    And with Luon the surprising victor to this match the crowd went silent, to use such a shameless trick to even out the battle was fair but very dishonorable. However, only a portion of the crowd thought so as the rest of them thought it was an authentic, reasonable and strategic move considering their differences in physical fitness. And then after that Luon had chopped a fellow classmates arm off, although medical treatment to cure it was available it still surprised quite a few.

    Confused as they were they all watched Luon leave the stage while clapping absentmindedly.

    Captain Waver who saw this although surprised about the turnabout nodded his head in approval. Afterall anything can happen during a real battle and a second of misdirection could lead to immediate death. With those thoughts, he began to re-queue the next match and arranged Zythos¡¯s minions to get him off the battlefield.

    Looking at the scene where they scurried about carrying their young master Captain Waver frowned at the unruly sight sighed and thought, ¡®The Mythos clan unlike in the previous generations have grown more lawless and large, nowadays they suppress and bully the weak to relieve themselves of the stressful battles against the Inzektors. I can only hope that they don¡¯t do anything worse than they have now, especially after this incident.¡¯

    With those remarks, several more normal battles followed suit and near the end of the class was finally Bendan Chen turn to fight.

    Luon who was tired from the previous match was curious how well his fellow dorm mate would do, the other two were very skilled long-range attackers, and Bendan was supposed to be from a famous cultivator family.

    Bendan''s opponent was one of Zythos groupies, seeing how Bendan was a friend of Luon and in revenge, for his boss, he was determined to kill. He planned to attack before the match even started and laughed it off as a misfire using his rifle. However, when he struck before the match began Bendan used some kind of movement technique to disappeared and reemerged several meters to the right where he was, he then fires off a range Qi attack immediately giving no time for the opponent to react, the battle was instantly over.

    Luon who watched all this thought, ¡®I really need an attack skill, that was simply too damn fast.¡¯

    After this match, Luon planned to consult Bendan on how to get stronger, after all, he had just offended one of the 4 major factions in the Nexus solar system.

    Without any strength how can he protect those he loved in the future? Whether or not it be other intelligent humanoid species or Inzektors as long as they target him, he will show them no mercy.

 Chapter 18 - Cultivation Technique

    Luon¡¯s first class ended uneventfully, classes were now over, and now it was time for leisure. Luon made his way to consult Bendan about methods to make him more physically stronger. His skill set did not match his physical fitness, and he didn¡¯t have any authentic offensive skills other than wind magic.

    Bendan was with the other two dorm mates when Luon found him, without any pretenses they greeted each other happily.

    Although their combat instructor was a little mean looking and classes were a bit tiresome - the feeling of freedom, liberation and leisure time afterward washes away all possible stress and build up as they somehow magically recharge their mood to do more later activities.

    Luon had little experience with friends in his simulations, he was a loner and quite an odd one as well. Instead of friends, all he had were comrades in arms, co-workers, and servants. The only time he had friends would be the first simulation, but they were more like regular classmates which after he started working in a company, never had contact again.

    He gazed about the group who were smiling and laughing and their dumb conversations and thought ¡®I guess this might be what it feels like to have friends.¡¯

    He couldn¡¯t help but smile at the dirty conversation they were having about the beauties they have in class. Especially since even the expressionless Tyron had a small curl in the corner of his lips.

    However, this mood didn¡¯t last long. Luon shook off his joyful mood, what he needed to do right now is get stronger. For job stability, personal safety in this dangerous world, and to protect the smiles of his friends and family, he has to work harder.

    With that in mind, he gulped nervously as he asked Bendan ¡°Hey Bendan do you know any martial skills or cultivation technique that can improve my physique?¡±

    Knowledge is power, and it has incredible value. People would literally kill for more advanced information that makes oneself better than others especially in the world of cultivators. These martial manuals passed down from generation to generation was sought for creating heaps of corpses and rivers of blood. To ask for a martial artists cultivation techniques was almost equal to asking for death itself.

    Luon didn¡¯t want their friendship to be ruined by such a thought, however, to his surprise, Bendan was very enthusiastic about teaching Luon some cultivation techniques.

    Bendan, of course, wasn¡¯t allowed to share his household cultivation techniques but he often spent a lot of time researching other cultivation techniques available to the Nexus solar system. He was a muscle head after all.

    After a few minutes of Bendan lecturing Luon about his valuable knowledge about cultivators, cultivation techniques, attack and defensive skills and much more Luon was in a dazed state. He has not dazed in enlightenment, it was more akin to confusion, he had no idea what techniques these were or how to use them.

    Bendan¡¯s explanation skills were poor, the way he articulates and describes the moves can confuse even the smartest of individuals. After all who can understand what the Heavenly Tribunal Fire - Flaming Flying Sword Technique was? With such a long name adding to the confusion who else can understand what the move actually does with a couple of vrooom, swish, poof and boom sounds? In other words, Bendan spent several minutes in his own little world leaving Luon at a loss.

    Gizmo seeing this scene laughed out loud. After he was done laughing he interrupted the lecture.

    ¡°If you wanted to read up on cultivation techniques then why don¡¯t you go to the Nexus University library? Unlike most cultivation techniques you can read online on the database the school imports physical copies from the cultivators solar system with mental inscriptions on them to help express these techniques. It would be much easier to learn.¡± Gizmo felt like laughing even more at the dumb conversation they had but held it in.

    Those words were like an oasis in a desert for Luon. He never knew that the school had imported real books and manuals from other solar systems when everything was practically digitized. He could have found out much earlier if Arisa hadn¡¯t intercepted him before he had reached the library.

    Luon was excited to go to the library, and since the other members of the group had nothing better to do, they followed along.

    Along the way, Luon found out more and more about the universe from Gizmo. Industrialization had exhausted almost all of the Nexus solar systems resources which were the main reason for the digitization and preservation of materials. However, with the international trade with the other solar systems, the Nexus solar system traded scientific knowledge for natural resources allowing some leeway to get by.

    However, trade had slowly stagnated as other solar systems quickly caught up to the technological levels of the Nexus solar systems. Not only did they succeeded in replicating their current level of technology, but they also fixed and learned from the faults of the Nexus solar systems steps in industrialization.

    For example when they were introduced cars that emit harmful, unhealthy fumes in exchange for faster transportation they did not invest any of their efforts in that field.

    Magical worlds already have tamed beast that can already go much faster, and with the invention of transposition magic, it was not needed whatsoever.

    The group quickly arrived at the library, and Luon was surprised to find that the library was exactly how he imagined it.

    A vast pathway hailed by the enormous bookshelves filled to the brim with tomes worth killing for. Luon had reached paradise.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    Immediately the group got to work to find a cultivation method that suited Luon the most.

    Before there searched Luon was recommended by Bendan to find some offensive skills that utilize wind magic and qi energy combined together as well as a body tempering method that could at least help him reach the combat level of about 50 which just muscles and no skills as it suited him the most right now.

    Time passes slowly and about a few hours in Luon had yet found a proper cultivation technique for him.

    There were just too many books to read about for cultivation techniques he was clueless as the glossary and search engine filters didn¡¯t help him that much in finding a technique just right for him.

    ¡°It looks like when your mind is occupied your awareness becomes even more lackluster.¡± As Luon made his way through the maze-like library shelves, an angelic voice startled him once more as he recalls this happening last night.

    He used his senses and faced a particular direction to find a beautiful pair of crimson gems in a dark corner before him, and within the darkness, a beauty once again appears before Luon.

    ¡°We meet again, and it looks like your actually using the library right this time.¡± With a chuckle, Arisa slowly approached Luon.

    Luon although surprised by her appearance relaxed and greeted her normally as they were currently classmates, she wouldn¡¯t go out of her way to attack him in the library he thought.

    ¡°Hello Arisa, nice match you had today. So how can I help you?¡± Luon unfazed by her intimidating aura replied.

    ¡°Well seeing how you just offended Zythos from the Mythos clan I just came by to grab some loot before you mysteriously disappear overnight.¡± Arisa smiled at Luon as she stretched on hand out in Luon¡¯s direction as if asking for something.

    Luon was confused. She already had her NG-Arms making her about 20 combat levels more higher than the average of a new student what can she possibly want from Luon?

    Seeing Luon act dumb Arisa declared to Luon, ¡°Give me your sword, X-Reaver was it? I used my BMPU earlier. Tsk tsk, that sword would be perfect in my personal collection.¡±

    Hearing those words Luon mind began to operate if he were to give her the sword couldn¡¯t she shelter him from the Mythos clan? He wouldn¡¯t have to worry about Zythos then.

    With that in mind, he gulped and firmly said to Arisa. ¡°This sword was made with my own efforts, isn¡¯t it normal to trade for it?¡±

    Arisa chuckled at those words as she slowly articulated ¡°Why do I need to trade with a dead man?¡±

    Her words froze Luon a bit but he started unwillingly at Arisa, he had already offended one faction who cares about another? If there was a single line of hope, he could only pray for it.

    Seeing Luon¡¯s firm stance, Arisa nodded at his demeanor she then said ¡°Fine I can trade for it, but I can¡¯t give you too much for it. That includes protection against the Mythos clan, tensions are already tight enough.¡±

    Luon was disappointed to hear that her family couldn¡¯t protect him from the Mythos clan and he began to think what would be helpful for him.

    He then asked if she can give him a set of NG-Arms or some legendary cultivation techniques or something akin to that.

    Arisa frowned and said ¡°If you want NG-Arms you should go ask Shizuka, as for the rest of what you want isn¡¯t there too much difference in value? Hmph, at most I can give you a unique grade cultivation manual I found lying around in my house for your unique grade sword.¡±

    Luon pondered for a second if he wanted another excellent sword all he had to do is craft one later when he has the money to buy the materials. A unique grade manual seems more useful to Luon right now.

    Luon agreed with her off and pulled the sword out of his intraspatial bag, and they exchanged items after she did the same.

    Luon used his Eye of Insight skill right away at the manual to find out whether or not her claim was valid.

    [Damaged - The path of the Asura]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Writings and notes of enlightenment about obtaining the immortal body of the Asura. Due to wear the writing has become illegible in a significant amount of sections.]

    Luon found the book was indeed a unique rank manual however it was damaged. It may have possibly been a higher ranked level before it was deteriorated, but now it was a garbage manual.

    Luon turned to face Arisa only to find her completely missing from the scene, after the exchange she fled silently without alerting him.

    Luon was angered, he wanted to vent his feelings on the damaged manual but decided against so. No matter what he did not, he couldn¡¯t possibly do anything as the deed has already been done.

    He sadly packed away the manual to check out the value later and went to regroup with the others.

    After spending so much time at the library, they could only find a few manuals that were useful for Luon.

    ¡°Thanks for your help guys, I really appreciate it,¡± Luon said as he thanked them honestly.

    What he obtained today was 5 manuals, but he lost his sword. Besides the manual, he received from Arisa the others were perfect for the current him.

    ¡°Great! Now that you have you found something let''s go have some fun at Varz!¡± Gizmo who was bored at reading through cultivation manuals to help Luon out bellowed excitedly.

    Luon frowned at his words, his experiences at Varz wasn¡¯t so satisfying so far. It only made him realizes his helplessness in his combat abilities against an army of virtual Inzektors and the disparity between himself to other heroic figures.

    Rather than waste his time honing his already well-defined skills it would be better to start cultivating with the newly obtained body tempering technique to create a physique to match it.

    Gizmo who saw Luon¡¯s expression questioned Luon¡¯s dissatisfying response in which Luon replayed his first time at Varz for Gizmo.

    After hearing Luon out, Gizmo nodded his head and said, ¡°Well I wouldn¡¯t be surprised at how your experience went with the tutorial, after all, it was made for you to lose. But besides the tutorial, there is a player versus player rank system, local practice matches, and a practice-cum-study mode which is extremely fun. Instead of fighting those Inzektors all the time what do you think of fighting Orcs? Dragons? Heck, kobolds and gnomes are also fun to beat up, and I am pretty sure you would definitely enjoy beating some beastman after today classes right?¡±

    Luon after hearing those words grew more interested in Varz, the system can replicate hundreds of other races combat potentials and possible thought processes through its AI system.

    Seeing Luon ponder about it Gizmo urged the group to Varz situated on the campus in which he booked a room for the four of them.

    After entering the Vortex container, Luon logged into the lobby room to find a very awkward and weird sight in front of him.

    Before Luon were two females and a tall barbarian and at first, he thought he was in the wrong room, but one of the women confirmed his suspicion.

    ¡°Hey man, why are you using the default avatar? Why not change into something you can never experience before in real life?¡± Gizmo who was one of those females replied with a bell-like voice which crept Luon as he knew what he was like in real life.

    Apparently, avatar changing was popular in virtual reality the sensations the system provided was very close to the real thing which made a lot of users become girls (Guys in real life) in the game. Of course, this was also the same for the vice-versa as it wasn¡¯t uncommon for a group of girls to appear as men online. Luon thought about how deceiving and awkward it is to be on the network filled with traps and tricks.

    He imagines a group of girls playing as guys online acting exceptionally intimate and he grew goosebumps at the thought.

    Was this really practice? Or were they here just to play around?

    Luon can only sigh at the fools.

 Chapter 19 - Playing with Friends 1

    It was quite a strange sight, the avatars Luon friends are using were more different than what Luon could have possibly imagined.

    To suit his tastes Gizmo¡¯s avatar was a female beauty wearing a long robe that cultivators and martial artists use. Her fingers were as delicate as jade which made Luon think, ¡®how could he possibly play with such a delicate character.¡¯

    What surprised Luon, even more, was Tyron and Bendan''s avatar choices. Luon thought the muscle-brain Bendan would be the colossal barbarian, but instead, he was playing the other female avatar. With a sporty feel to it, the character he played seemed like your everyday athletic female. According to Bendan he always wanted to enjoy the feeling of having a soft and delicate body compared to his muscular and robust everyday one.

    Tyron, on the other hand, played the huge barbarian character was because he always wanted to stand out, but with his families code of conduct, he was still a silent character.

    Looking at himself Luon noticed one even more significant fact other than an aesthetic change.

    ¡°Hey. How come you guys are already armed? The match hasn¡¯t started yet, and you¡¯re already equipped with some really nice things while I have nothing.¡± Luon asked.

    Gizmo took a look at Luon¡¯s equipment only to find that Luon just had the default set up. Gizmo than began to explain the preparations stages more to Luon.

    According to Gizmo before any player versus player match begins, not only can teams can have up to 1 Commander and 4 Soldiers, but they can all be armed with the equipment they have offline with a total of 10 different items.

    Soldiers and Commander are like the player version of heroic units so it made some sense that they should be armed the same.

    To equip any items before that match, one would first have to go to the scanning terminal found in a separate part of Varz and arrange it so the system can create a digitized version of the equipment which is sent into the inventory slot when they go online.

    Luon after hearing so wanted to equip some nice things as well, but then recalled that right now he doesn¡¯t have anything important to use for the matches. He had just lost his only sword a few moments earlier.

    After the explanation on the equip system Gizmo began to arrange the match set up.

    ¡°Okay, so we will be doing a 2v2 practice skirmish to test out Luon¡¯s skills as a commander before our commander class tomorrow. I¡¯ve already tested Bendan and Tyron and in no way can they be commanders.¡± Gizmo said staring at Luon.

    From Luon¡¯s perspective, someone like Tyron couldn¡¯t be a commander due to lack of conversing ability, but he thought why would Bendan not be a good a candidate to be a commander? He was strong, and he perfectly knows the flow of the battle so he might be an amazing one.

    Gizmo continued to explain the arrangements, ¡°So the match set up would be on a common forest for my half, you should also do the same for yours for practice since you don¡¯t understand the tactics behind setting up your own landscapes yet. The match would be me and Tyron versus Luon and Bendan. If you have any questions on how to use the commander perks while in game ask Bendan when you need to.¡±

    With those words, Gizmo walked to one side of the lobby to arrange the tactics for his team while Luon received a lecture on the basic settings for a match.

    Before a match begins, each team gets a total of 5 slots where they can decide to rearrange themselves in. Anyone can be the commander or a soldier there are no restrictions in between. After they are set and are ready for the match, the commander is then prompted to select the type for their half of the map. Some races prefer a certain terrain type to boost and debuff the fighting capabilities of their combatants.

    For example, people from the Sea Kingdom would arrange their half of the map to be filled with water while the beast clans from fantasy systems prefer to use forests. After that was organized, the map is generated with half being one type and the other half the other.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Of course, before having matches commanders can create their own preset maps to play on, according to Bendan there were quite a few teams which just made a single pathway on their maps and surrounding that was massive cliffs creating a ravine of death. Having terrain advantages was quite an important point for commanders after all.

    Luon hasn¡¯t created any map presets yet so he could only select the basic forest one with Bendan¡¯s advice.

    After the two were ready, Tyron and Gizmo were also ready, and the match began to countdown.

    While Luon was waiting for the match to start, he asked Bendan why Gizmo thought he wasn¡¯t suited to be a commander.

    ¡°It¡¯s a little embarrassing to say, but every time I play commander I lose myself a bit. I get mad when a single qi cultivator I summoned from the Crypt of Heroes can¡¯t fight an army of men by themselves, or I would be too absorbed with one portion of the map not realize that a group of enemies already be attacking the base.¡± Bendan who was playing with a female character shyly said.

    Luon was speechless, he didn¡¯t know if he should feel awkward for Bendan for being a muscle-headed commander or the fact that he¡¯s not used to Bendan playing as a girl.

    Before he could get used to it, the match began, and Luon¡¯s surroundings digitized into a forest.

    In front of Luon was the same table that he saw Belle operate when she first introduces the commanding system.

    Covered in the fog he can only see a slight but black and gray outline of his half of the map, the other side was completely pitch black.

    ¡°As you may already know vision in this type of game is really important, even though half the map is something you may have possibly arrange all you get to see is the outline of the area. To make it more interesting, fog still covers it, and unless a unit reaches that area sharing his field of vision, it will still be registered as fog.¡± Bendan with his calm and soothing voice instruct Luon.

    Bendan also began to teach Luon about the unit and items catalog which when Luon pulled it up it had a huge list of things he could possibly summon. From weapons to people there was an overwhelmingly large list with many different point values, one of the lowest among these values were normal humans.

    Apparently, regular humans without combat training aka citizens or ordinary workers are one of the weakest things around. They could think for themselves, but since the AI factors in personality and other features, they get scared when fighting orcs who overwhelm them in strength and they aren¡¯t as fast as elves making them useless. They could still do some simple construction though making them basic worker units.

    With Bendan¡¯s advice, Luon summoned a few drones to investigate and increase the fog of war on his side of the map, and then he summoned a falcon to scout the Gizmo¡¯s arrangement out.

    From what Bendan told him Gizmo likes big and robust units as well as beautiful and elegant units so he would most likely be playing with Orcs and Elves.

    After a few moments of scouting Luon fog of war on his side of the map was uncovered, clear without a single blemish.

    The Falcon at the same time found that Gizmo did not summon any scouts at all his forest arrangement was very similar to Luon and by the time the falcon found anything of Gizmo it was shot down.

    From the last recording, it seemed that Gizmo was already building an army of Elven archers and he sat there admiring their beauty. The scene where a female cultivator staring intently at the Elven archers was displayed before them.

    ¡°So he didn¡¯t send any units to scout? At least now we know he has elven archers.¡± Luon pointed out.

    Bendan who saw the scene said. ¡°He would more than likely push out with elven archers instead of using those cheap drones to scout like you did, elves have a better range of vision, and they can shoot down basic scouts. The only downside is that they are 5 times more costly than normal humans and having an army of fragile, quick archers that can be overwhelmed by an ogre and other large monstrosities.¡±

    Luon slowly began to think what would his next move be. At this point, it sounds quite reasonable to summon a big monster, but Gizmo would probably have predicted that and is preparing to summon a counter for it.

    He started to skim through the catalog and noticed that not only can he summon monsters, beast, many different humanoid races, and dragons, he was also able to recruit Inzektors.

    There were many different Inzektors found on the list, many of which he had never seen before. The only time Luon had contact with them was during the first simulation, and his other ones never experienced them.

    Luon realizes that with the number of different units that the tactics to use or counter them had millions of possibilities and with these thoughts, Luon smiled.

    A game like this was interesting, and he began to operate the catalog to summon units and equipment.

    Bendan who was right behind was surprised at his choice. A few minutes earlier he was explaining all kinds of tactics that other teams use, he said what was weak and what was strong, but none of these words mattered to Luon.

    Was he deaf? Or ignorant? Bendan couldn¡¯t figure it out as none of his words in regards to tactics entered Luon¡¯s ears.

    Bendan wondered what kind of thought process Luon had to come the conclusion to use this type of unit.

 Chapter 20 - Playing with Friends 2

    ¡°Were at the halfway point so stay vigilant.¡± Gizmo relayed over the team chat system.

    It''s been over 15 minutes since the match started and Tyron was sent with a group of elves to scout out Luon¡¯s region.

    Tyron nodded, and his group slowly threaded through Luon¡¯s terrain uncovering the fog as they go. Although they were slowly moving about their pace was still very fast compared to the humans centuries before. The average combat level of these archers was around level 35, and with their physical fitness, they can average about 10 km/hr.

    The group that Tyron led was composed of 15 Elven Archers and 7 Elven Mages. The cost to produce these units had exhausted about 2/3rds of Gizmo generated resources so far.

    Gizmo¡¯s strategy is to do a long-range push to scout the battle potential of Luon¡¯s forces. With the number of points generated so far, Luon could have already made 3 Gigantic monstrosities like ogres or trolls, but there was no sign any actions which made Gizmo suspicious since he knew that Luon had already scouted him out.

    Tyron and the Elven Archers have range superiority and can quickly take down any lightly clothed units. Backed by the Elven Mages they were well defended with barrier magic, and they had the ability to immobilized large units - this group is a difficult opponent to stop.

    However, it was still possible to beat this line up thus after Gizmo examines Luon¡¯s set up he was prepared to counter it and do as much damage as he can with this group.

    Gizmo sat on his chair examining the tabletop map for any signs of enemies as his troops began to venture into Luon¡¯s territory.

    Soon enough Gizmo began to encounter several scout drones which he was forced to shoot down giving Luon a general idea of where Gizmo was coming from.

    Even though Luon knew about his general direction Gizmo was confident that this group could come out unscathed, not only were the elves great long range attackers they were also equipped with boots to accelerate the retreat process after scouting Luon out.

    After about 3 more minutes the group had traversed about half of Luon¡¯s uncharted territory when the Elven Archers had sensed something above them, they quickly armed themselves in preparations for an encounter.

    Tyron who was in the front of the group had found the target before the Elven Archers had and he was already aiming his bow towards it.

    It was several kilometers above their current location and was hovering with confidence as regular arrows cannot reach it, a helicopter flew directly above them.

    However Tyron was not a regular archer, he was a fantastic archer from a famous tribe well known for its hunters, and one of their renowned abilities was an inherited skill to shoot a magical projectile at long distances after charging their mana.

    Without a moment to lose Tyron charged his arrow applying mana causing it to emit an eerie, crimson electric charge. He let go of the amplified arrow, and it quickly shot through the sky. It moved like a meteorite as it accurately shattered the flight mechanism on the helicopter.

    The helicopter recognizing the potential threat of Tyron''s arrow and the damage it had done to it didn¡¯t retreat. Instead, it began to steer in the direction of where Tyron¡¯s group was.

    Like a sunken flying ship, it was determined to take the group down with it.

    ¡°Retreat it''s a Kamikaze attack!¡± Gizmo yelled in the intercoms after recognizing what Luon¡¯s intentions were.

    Quickly the group scattered from the explosion caused by the helicopter however as they did a volley of Qi Energy slashes came from deep within the forest decimating a quarter of the group.

    Tyron and the group of elves who had managed to escape the explosion were shocked to find two Qi Cultivators, and Bendan had ambushed them when they were distracted. But they soon regain their senses as this attack was outside the range of their sight which should have cost them a lot of Qi energy thus disabling their ability to contest against Tyron¡¯s group.

    Gizmo who after realizing this gave the order for Tyron and the elves to chase after them.

    As Tyron¡¯s group quickly ascended the landscape after the direction of where Bendan''s attacks came from they encountered a series of deadly traps, significantly slowing the group¡¯s advance.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    By the time they reached the location of the attack, they were gone. Unfortunately, even with Tyron¡¯s tracking ability, he was not able to find the direction of his target went as there were a series of vehicle tracks on the ground going in several different directions.

    Tyron was exhausted, the traps were difficult to avoid and were devilishly placed to interconnect with one another, this had caused Tyron¡¯s group to go down to half of what he was deployed with.

    ¡°Forget it, retreat, the helicopter, and those Qi cultivators should have cost them a lot of points, and since they exhausted a lot of energy, it should be a while before they can re-engage. Come back, and we¡¯ll do a final offensive push decimating their Crypt of Heroes.¡± Gizmo said as he began to summon a group of orcs armed with heavy shields to deal with the energy waves created by Qi Cultivators.

    Tyron dissatisfyingly accepted the order, he had missed Brendan, and due to the traps, he had lost several minutes worth of resources.

    The groups of elves began to retreat the same way they came avoiding any potential traps along the way.

    Tyron quickly stopped his tracks halfway through the minefield of disaster as he promptly sensed something different about the bloody and smoky air around him.

    He focused his eyes on the surroundings and quickly realized that the group had been enclosed. From a distance, Tyron could see many different figures armed with some shabby cloak hiding their appearances.

    ¡®How can there be so many of them? Didn¡¯t the cultivators cost tons of points?¡¯ Tyron quickly thought as he began to figure a plan out of this situation.

    What troubled him the most was that over half of these cloaked individuals clearly had old-fashioned gunpowder-based automatic rifles. With this lineup, it would be difficult to come out of this unharmed.

    Tyron planned the retreat route and signaled Gizmo his plans. As he did, to add even more difficulty to the escape another helicopter hovered above the group lighting their surroundings and removing the shade from the trees - uncovering their location with light.

    The group of cloaked men raised their rifles in the general direction of where the group was and fired.

    Tyron had quickly placed his plan in motion, he had no time to rethink it. He had to act before the group was eliminated.

    The elven mages were useless in this situation, if Luon had used energy rifles instead the barrier magic would have protected them but he had used physical projectiles, Tyron and his group had to dodge bullets and cross rough terrain using the surrounding trees as cover.

    Tyron quickly reached the weakest part of the blockade eliminating the cloaked figures around him.

    He was surprised to find that the cloaked figures were actually robots! There was no blood or gushes of oil it was a simple topple revealing their metallic figure.

    All the sudden his sixth senses activated and he needed to get out of where he was right now.

    The robots he had quickly killed with his bow began to churn releasing a devastating explosion.

    Somehow Tyron had survived but was in the state of death, he laid on the ground staring blankly at the sky.

    Several figures silently closed in on him, and with a click, it was all over.

    Tyron was eliminated from the match.

    ...

    ¡°Wow I was dubious at first, but your plan worked as you expected it to.¡± Bendan who was tired after releasing a long distance qi attack said.

    ¡°Well if you think about it, although the reaction speed is much slower than actually having power soldiers - to face off Gizmo¡¯s lineup as long as the pieces were arranged, a match like this can be easily handled by cheap robots,¡± Luon replied smugly.

    At first, Luon was dissatisfied at how the catalog rated humans so lowly. Even if humans were weak, they were all unique in their own way. The properties and statistics of each human were different, but their knowledge was all consolidated. Every minute Luon was able to summon 20 regular humans all with their own individual thought processes.

    A few minutes in the match Luon had summoned more than 40 humans, several power tools and a bunch of scraps to construct several helicopters and robots as well as weapons for them.

    With the advancement of technology making helicopters and robots with specialized tools only took minutes to do. Of course, there was no time to test whether or not they function correctly but Luon using his BMPU appraisal skill to evaluate the construction process.

    Although untested, the BMPU gave positive output stating that it practically picture perfect and he decided to roll with that decision.

    When Tyron had invaded his territory by shooting the drone scouts, Luon had a rough idea of how fast they were traveling and how long their attack range was.

    Luon also confirmed this once again by using a helicopter to hover about the general area.

    Using this timing, he also got 2 Qi Cultivators which had cost about 7 minutes worth of points and Bendan to ambush and disorient the origin of the arrow attack. At the same time, he arranged the robots to stealthy place traps to allow Bendan to retreat safely.

    There was no way to construct an AI for these robots in a couple minutes, so they were remotely controlled by the humans he had summoned.

    The disadvantage to this was that the sensor built into the robot was fragile and the signal wasn¡¯t that strong in the forest. So using another helicopter Luon lit the area the robots had to shoot towards after enclosing Tyron¡¯s group in a circle, although inaccurate it still caused significant damage.

    Luon had defeated Tyron at almost no cost at all, with the loss of several materials used for the helicopter and robots he was brimming with confidence as the overall value of his set up is now almost double if not triple of what Gizmo had left.

    With the elimination of Tyron, Luon arranged his current army, Bendan and the other 2 Qi cultivators who recovered using Qi energy pills to walk into the unknown arrangement Gizmo had in store for him.

    He had many points to play around with but who knows what was in store for him.

    Using this momentum, it was time to counter-attack.

 Chapter 21 - Playing with Friends 3

    Bendan and his squad reached the border between the Luon¡¯s and Gizmo¡¯s terrain and quickly disperse in several directions scouring out Gizmo¡¯s region for hidden surprises.

    Luon had already gotten the general area of where Gizmo¡¯s headquarters was with his first initial falcon scout, but it had already been over 15 minutes since he had last had any information on Gizmo¡¯s side.

    To his surprise Gizmo did not have any tricks regarding terrain manipulation around his base, Luon¡¯s forces encircled Gizmo¡¯s base at a distance. The amount of vision supplied to Luon on the minimap covered every single blemish of darkness except for the location of Gizmo¡¯s base.

    The longer Luon took, the more Gizmo had a chance at recovering his losses at the same time. If Luon were to rush a siege, it might cause more casualties for his side instead.

    From what Luon can see without approaching too close to Gizmo¡¯s base was a small wall about a meter high and behind it was several muscular green creatures about 2 to 3 meters tall holding large pieces of metallic materials. A giant shield even more massive in size as it took about 2-3 of these Orcs to lift against the wall.

    Unluckily for Luon the base placement only made the available attacking positions fan about 180 degrees all around. Only a frontal attack on an open forestless clearing can be made on the ground.

    Luon decided to test the waters out a bit, he arranged Bendan and the other 2 Qi Cultivators to launch a volley of Qi Energy Slashes towards Gizmo¡¯s base at those orcs holding the large shields.

    As expected Gizmo was prepared this time, he had summoned more Elven Mages channeling barrier magic to block the Qi attacks. If it was a surprise attack, it might have worked but in an area where the attacks can be plainly be spotted before impact caused the effect to drop.

    Ignoring the recovering Qi cultivators, he sent a small squad of robotic soldiers who used their guns to spray bullets at the enemy, but the shots stopped at the wall showing no signs of wear.

    Taking the opportunity where the robots were shooting the base a volley of arrows came raining above onto the group. Luon could only silent retreat his units to reduce the number of damages dealt.

    Luon also tried to do an airdrop with the helicopter from above. He used explosives and robots in hopes to gain an advantage but mysteriously the projectile was pushed by a force of wind and landed on the outer perimeter.

    This base was a big turtle shell from the sky, and on the ground, it was almost impenetrable. Big shields and magical barriers, armed with archers and wind magic there was no way to win this match safely.

    ¡°Hey, Luon, it times like this you should consider just breaking through with force,¡± Bendan recommended.

    Luon thought about it for a second, if he summoned an ogre those elven mages would immobilize it and whittle it down with arrows. If he summoned a large group of heavy units to start a brawl with Gizmo¡¯s warriors, he knew that his robots had no real chance against legitimate warriors thus making his actual unit count much smaller than Gizmo¡¯s.

    To do a proper siege, it was well known to have more numbers than the defending side.

    He thought about it really hard and decided to start building a significant amount of artillery and turrets, Luon bunkered them down outside of Gizmo¡¯s base. After a few minutes, Gizmo¡¯s base was under non-stop heavy fire forcing the mages to work around the clock blocking most of the heavy projectiles and diverting a portion of them with wind magic.

    ...

    The orcs bore the brunt of the attack with the heavy shields, in exchange for Luon who was dropping resources like he was burning money the orcs and elves began to tire.

    Gizmo was forced to summon more and more orcs and elves to cover the positions he was lacking, he smiled as he rotated the tired ones out with fresh ones. As long as Luon keeps this up, he would have a massive army by the end of the assault.

    Unluckily for him, a giant beam came decimating the magically constructed barriers and a large chunk of his orcs and elves.

    ¡°What was that?!?¡± questioned Gizmo as he was too busy arranging his troops around to notice a change in Luon¡¯s forces.

    In the middle of the tabletop was a frighteningly large monstrosity, something he didn¡¯t expect Luon to use since he had been dropping money like a gambling addict who never won anything.

    Using the tabletop map, he analyzed the beast to find out what it was.

    [Flare Dragon]

    [Race: Dragon]

    [Combat Level: 55]

    [Racial Skills: Dragon¡¯s Might, Dragon¡¯s Regeneration]

    [Active Skills: Flare Blast, Charge, Rest, Subduing Wave]

    [The most fragile and weakest type of fully grown dragons around they rely on their roar ability to knock their prey out cold before eating their meals. They specialize in long-range attacks and spend most of the time sleeping and conserving their energy reserves. Ranked number one for being the laziest dragons around. This dragon is infamous among the community of dragon hunters as the easiest dragon to hunt.]

    Gizmo was shocked, a dragon even if it was the weakest was still a dragon.

    Gizmo checked the catalog prices for dragons to find it near the bottom beside baby dragons. It costs about 10 minutes of resources.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Gizmo was shocked to find out that Luon was able to save that much with all the firepower he was unleashing.

    With another roar, a group of orcs and elves were decimated once again. If this keeps up, Gizmo was bound to lose. He can only hope that with his current forces he can do an all-out charge against Luon¡¯s fortification and come out victorious.

    With that in mind before the dragon can shoot again, he used all the remaining points to buy a group of heavy cavalry, wolves, any mobile unit that was able to charge recklessly into Luon¡¯s formation. He had a few points left, and with it, he bought a group of fast rabbits and chickens to hopefully be used to distract Luon¡¯s soldiers even just for a second.

    With his remaining forces, Gizmo got up with a rifle in hand he led the charge towards Luon¡¯s forces.

    Each and every single unit he had were shot down quickly as rains of bullet came from the Gatling gun placements in front of the artillery.

    By the time Gizmo and his remaining men reached Luon¡¯s side, there were only a few remaining. His desperate attack had just eliminated a small segment of Luon¡¯s forces. Gizmo finally realizes why there was such a huge discrepancy on resources. Self-construction, Gizmo had realized it too late, if only he knew earlier, he could have turned this game around.

    It was a complete victory for Luon.

    ...

    After the match at Varz, Luon and the others headed back to the dorm room.

    ¡°Hahaha, Gizmo I bet you didn¡¯t expect that we would outdo you in resources by constructing everything we need at low costs did you?¡± Bendan laughs.

    ¡°I must admit hiring human workers to construct war resources is quite a unique perspective, but it¡¯s not like it hasn¡¯t been done before. It¡¯s just really unpopular. I didn¡¯t expect such an outcome mainly because I was overconfident and didn¡¯t send an early scout to catch it. And the dragon just decimated my plans at the end.¡± Gizmo said depressingly.

    Hearing Gizmo remarks, Luon was intrigued. Unpopular? Why wasn¡¯t construction used in battles? By using construction methods instead of summoning a helicopter, he could have spent about a tenth of the original cost manually crafting it. With these thoughts, Luon pressed Gizmo onwards to answer his questions.

    ¡°Because it¡¯s not realistic, in no way can you start a battle at the same time construct buildings, vehicles, and robotic soldiers. Not only that but where would you have the excess resources to do all of that? Unless you go to the other Solar systems to stack materials in a bunch of intraspatial bags, there''s no way to get it for cheap in real life.¡± Gizmo said.

    Gizmo was right on this point, it was impossible to do it in reality and engineers shouldn¡¯t be on the battlefield in the first place.

    ¡°Nevertheless you won fair and square, but your strategy has many flaws to it. If I had summoned only a few archers to disable your scouts and sent one of my own I could have waited about 5 minutes before sending a giant ogre to devastate and rush your Crypt of Heroes.¡± Gizmo continued.

    Hearing his words Luon frown because his strategy did indeed have many flaws, although it was something he had thought of on the spot it didn¡¯t change the fact that it only worked in particular situations.

    He thought that if Gizmo had summoned a monstrosity how would he counter it? If he had a full team of soldiers, then the 4 of them can stall or stop the ogre rush strategy. In the end, he was still green, this was his first time using the commander system in the war game simulation after all.

    Gizmo seeing the changing expression on Luon¡¯s face patted his shoulder waking him up from his pondering state.

    Gizmo yawned and walked pass Luon towards his room and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it too much, in tomorrow¡¯s Commander class I¡¯ll take the lead so just get some rest and think about your ideal strategy. In my eyes, your commanding ability is top-notch but with the different types of strategies, layouts, and unit compositions anything can change on the battlefield. There''s quite a lot of weirdos who focus on rush and cheese strategies.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right the simplest thing to do is eat, sleep, and fight. Hahaha, if you were like me such meaningless study in strategy is pointless.¡± Bendan bellowed as he ate a large chicken wing while walking towards his room from the kitchen.

    Tyron only nodded at Luon and went to his own room.

    Left alone in the living room Luon after pondering a bit about the war system decided to forgo further thoughts. A strategy isn¡¯t something that pops out overnight and more importantly to be a commander you need to have soldiers, he wasn¡¯t one right now, so it''s a pointless endeavor at the moment. It was more important to read up the cultivation manuals and begin body tempering to create the ultimate body to match his peerless skills.

    He entered his room and shut the door behind him. The room was small, and there wasn¡¯t much too it. Just a simple metallic bed with some simple engravings and a white table with a slick and elegantly flat design.

    To start cultivating a body tempering technique he had cleared the room a bit pushing the bed and table to one side of the room.

    He pulled out the loot he got today and only thought which should I start with first?

 Chapter 22 - Consolidating Foundations

    In front of Luon was 5 different manuals covering each aspect he was lacking. These books do not make skills magically appear in his skill list after reading it, but they were cultivation techniques that required time to master.

    Before he had started training he had consulted Bendan on that aspect, how could he be such a powerful cultivator at such a young age? After all, Bendan also woke up in the same year as Luon.

    His answer was simple, the Vortex Container. Not only did the Vortex Container allow one to experience realistic simulations at a slower pace than reality, but it also has a realism option. This specific mode was turned off by default as it would cause any impact, injury, body reconstruction or energy training that occurs in the false reality to appear in reality.

    Not only that but because the simulations happened at an accelerated pace, it was possible for one to receive a series of injuries in the differences of seconds which may result in death.

    This was one of the reasons why most combat classes weren''t held in virtual reality. As for a couple of other reasons - the body would get sluggish if people don''t exercise in reality, one would lose their sense of time, and often people would mix up with what was fake with what was real.

    The liquid used in the Vortex Container was a precious liquid mixed with herbal essences to increase the healing pace as well as provide proper nutrients to the lacking body. However, the fluid found in almost all Vortex Containers was the commonly used formula as only wealthy families have the privilege for higher grade one. For the rich, their bodies if incredibly injured can heal nearly 4 times faster than the ordinary person.

    Gazing over the 5 manuals again he decided it was better to determine in virtual reality where time was slower.

    After he had picked them up, in the corner of the bedroom was an operation panel which gave Luon not only the ability to change the temperature and humidity of the room, but he was also able to conjure up a miniature digital scanner and a Vortex Container from the floorboards.

    Luon while being guided on the simple operations of the panel by CITA, the most helpful AI ever, he was able to scan the manuals into his inventory in virtual reality. Afterward, Luon called the Vortex Container in the room and as it did a message notification appeared in Luon¡¯s BMPU wrist-watch.

    Luon opened it up to find a message from Isabella, the lady who handled his awakening process. This message was a quick greeting and was set to trigger when he first used his Vortex Container in his room, it only supplied a quick tidbit of information relaying to Luon that this Vortex Container was the one he was raised in.

    ¡®No wonder the name tags were already to assign on the bedroom doors,¡¯ thought Luon. Within the time frame where candidates were freely enjoying their miniature vacation before school, these Vortex Containers were shipped to the school dorm rooms.

    Feeling a little sentimental about the Vortex Container he sat in it for a bit and closed his eyes. He didn¡¯t go to virtual reality right away, he merely sat and recalled all the experiences he received from this magical device.

    From the joys of childhood to the dark reality of adulthood, and this had happened several times. These were times that Luon had thought were real, but even if they were fake - it was real to his heart.

    ¡°I¡¯m counting on you once again.¡± Luon began to operate the Vortex Container after giving his thanks to the Vortex Container. To Luon even though it was just a machine, a tool for multiple purposes, it was precious to him.

    Luon appeared in a blank white room, the lobby room which allows him to choose the settings on what kind of simulation he would like to experience.

    Luon thought for a second and asked CITA, ¡°Hey now that I think of it couldn¡¯t I read all the books digitally in the simulation rather than going to the library or using my BMPU?¡±

    CITA replied robotically, ¡°Because of differences in time in the simulations and reality and the simulations management of over millions of different users this feature was disabled to reduce the amount of load to the server.¡±

    ¡°Although most information is stored locally on the Vortex Container Unit, health management systems and updates are made in real time consistently to allow the most optimal user experiences.¡±

    ¡°With our network, we can allow users to have realistic simulations with AI behavior which is harshly regulated for your safety.¡±

    ¡°If you wish to read books in this subspace you must pre-input the topics and books you want and store it locally into your Vortex Container, you can have only up to 100 different books at a time.¡±

    Luon thought about it for a second, millions of users requiring run-time support with simulations going at a pace averaging about 10 times faster than usual. It made sense to cut back on some features to make the others work better, luckily the local storage could store books for him to read a lot more unworried about the time elapsed.

    Curious as he was Luon then asked CITA, ¡°What kind of simulations do most people who use Vortex Container run? To be exact what is listed in the top 10 things to do.¡±

    CITA then displayed to Luon a list of things other users would do in simulations.

    [Search - Top 10 Rankings of Simulation Usages]

    [1 - User is not authorized to access]

    [2 - User is not authorized to access]

    [3 - Life Simulations]

    [4 - Combat Training]

    [5 - User is not authorized to access]

    [6 - User is¡­.]

    Looking at the list, Luon questioned CITA. ¡°How come it says I am not authorized to know most of the things on the list?¡±

    CITA, his electronic helper on the holographic digital display happily drove around and around while answering his query. ¡°You do not have authorized access due to your age. The content listed is filed under obscene simulations which are classified under obscene materials, due to regulations you are not able to access them.¡±

    ¡°What!? Underage? I am mentally over 170 years old how could I still be considered underage.¡± Luon asked.

    ¡°These regulations are only evaluated in consideration of the physical body, not the mind. Whether or not you have an adult¡¯s mind in a child''s body or anything alike does not factor in. This evaluation is also used throughout the whole universe.¡± CITA replied as the digital display of CITA was now racing on a little race track.

    ¡°Forget it. Let¡¯s just do some training. Turn on the default settings for training with the realism mode on CITA,¡± replied Luon.

    Restricted from adult content and simulations? Such problems can only be fixed with time. Luon then attempted to recall if he had any real adult experiences.

    The more he remembers, the more saddened he was to find out that during the centuries Luon lived in the simulations he had never had been in a relationship. 4 of the simulations were too young for such intimate acts, but the other 2 were too occupied for it.

    The environment in the surroundings change to a forest with a waterfall, after seeing these changes Luon asked CITA, ¡°I did say default but why are we here?¡±

    ¡°The default settings for training is set to this region after recording that 80% of the users who trained here were able to attain enlightenment, would you like to change the environment?¡± CITA replied.

    ¡°Nevermind then, I don¡¯t care too much about it.¡± Luon pulled the 5 manuals in front of him once more.

    Using his Eye of Insight skill he scans over the manuals before deciding which one to train.

    [Steps of Starlight]

    [Rank - Rare]

    [A movement technique which utilizes both Mana and Qi. The consumption of energy is drastically lower than any other technique, and it was believed that at the mastery level the movement technique would allow you to traverse through space.]

    [Basic Manaqi]

    [Rank - Common]

    [A manual explaining the conversion, manipulation, and interconnection between Mana and Qi energy. All energy comes from the heavens and earth, the great Dao is a long road and Mana, and Qi is just a part of it.]

    [Revolving Wind Blade]

    [Rank - Rare]

    [A sword technique created by loose cultivator. Far and wide did he used it but no one really knew about this technique as it looked similar to many other techniques. The only unique feature about this technique would be energy consumption as the power was comparable to common Qi slash technique.]

    [Synchro Foundation Technique]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [A body tempering and meditation technique created by a researcher who studied cultivation techniques and body techniques of cultivators. This technique is comparable to a basic technique body tempering technique combined meditation technique and could only reach the 6th Realm in the physical body.]

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    [Damaged - The path of the Asura]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Writings and notes of enlightenment about obtaining the immortal body of the Asura. Due to wear the writing has become illegible in a significant amount of sections.]

    Looking over the manuals, from what he understands about cultivation from the online forums and his life during the cultivator''s world, he should start with [Basic Manaqi], then he should train in the [Synchro Foundation Technique].

    After he establishes a foundation, he should then study the basic movements for the [Steps of Starlight] technique and the [Revolving Wind Blade] technique.

    As for the manual he got from Arisa he had no idea how to start with it.

    Luon then had a sudden thought and asked CITA, ¡°Do you know if any of these techniques have been trained before?¡±

    CITA replied, ¡°Answering your query the [Basic Manaqi] manual has been studied over 150257 times ranging from a few hours to a few days to study.¡±

    ¡°The [Synchro Foundation Technique] has been studied 260486 times, the first level takes about a few days to a month to study while only 15039 people had reached the final level after 70 years.¡±

    ¡°The [Revolving Wind Blade] technique has been studied by students 9510 times and the [Steps of Starlight] technique 91027 times. They both take the same duration to study as the first level took merely a day for 90% of the users who actually trained in it. There are no details about the final levels of these techniques as most users opt to change later on.¡±

    ¡°As for the [Damaged - The path of the Asura] records are classified, but for research purposes, there is only 1 person who had successfully cultivated technique.¡±

    Luon who heard about the details of these techniques was surprised to find that the damaged manual actually had someone who used it, and the information regarding it was classified.

    As for the others, it seems like his goal to at least study the basic levels of them may possibly take 1 night in real life to do. Could he perhaps do it all in 3 days of simulation? Only if he was a genius he could, but realistically he decided to train with [Basic Manaqi] and [Synchro Foundation Technique] first. If he had the time, he decided to study the [Steps of Starlight] to the basic level and then the [Revolving Wind Blade] technique.

    As he started studying the [Basic Manaqi], he found that precisely like CITA claimed, this technique was way too straightforward as he was able to mix his mana and qi too easily.

    From what he read Mana and Qi came from the same source, it was akin to life essences only the level of density, quality as well as attribute were different in several ways. There were many kinds of Mana and Qi, many of which share similar properties.

    Death Qi and Black magic were close counterparts as well as Yang Qi and Fire Magic, and this was the same for all other attributes.

    Qi energy was like a river, sometimes violet and other times serene it continuously flowed into the surroundings while mana was like a lake consistent and still, once empty it was difficult to regain.

    Luon then began to study the Synchro Body Technique, but all he did was study. He didn¡¯t train in it as he was surprised to find out that the concept of cultivating was relatively simple.

    The manual had explained that meditation was merely to have a serene mind and understanding about the laws and elements of the world and that body tempering was just withstanding and upholding those elements into forging one''s body.

    Luon thought about this carefully and being the tech-savvy person he was he thought, ¡®Doesn¡¯t this mean that cultivating is equivalent to being a big race to who can build the best computer?¡¯

    If the body of a cultivator was the motherboard and tower than what Luon needed to do is change it, body reconstruction and tempering were the only ways to do so.

    The mind and soul would be the processor which can be upgraded by enlightenment and clarity of the mind to unlock the brain''s truest potential. Just like how the processor can easily be swapped out, some cultivators, mainly the old were able to leave their bodies and possess more refined bodies with some unholy techniques.

    As for the power supply, that would be life essences, mana and qi energy. RAM would be my primary active memories while the HDD would be my mental archives.

    Applications and software are skills cultivators use to fight each other, some need more processing to execute correctly, while others require more electricity, more energy to commit.

    To cultivate properly, Luon thought he needed to make his body powerful enough to sustain the energy and techniques he uses. As for the mind, it can only grow with time.

    But looking at the [Synchro Foundation Technique] Luon found it lacking. With his understanding techniques for tempering the body was equivalent to having a factory reconstruct his body. The more profound the method was, the better the factory used to create the body turns out to be, he didn¡¯t want a shabby factory filled with muck and dirt to forge himself, if possible he wanted something better.

    Luon than recalled the manual he received from Arisa and hoped to get some inspiration. However, to his disappointment, it was genuinely ineligible, and even if the words weren¡¯t blurred, it was in a different language in which CITA wasn¡¯t able to translate.

    Luon regrets handing Arisa the sword for this manual to the point he wanted to tear it apart even if it was a unique rank item. What use could it be if it wasn¡¯t usable? Luckily this was the virtual world version of it so he could destroy it as many times as he wanted to. He duplicated the manual several times and to appease his rage decimated the manual in several different ways.

    Luon burnt it, tore it, buried it, dissolved it in liquid, and did many more inappropriate things to do to books until he decided to drown it in blood to make it very goopy did something changed.

    The book for some reason absorbed all the blood as if they were a supplement, and curious as he was he examined it.

    [The path of the Asura Lv1]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Writings and notes of enlightenment about obtaining the immortal body of the Asura. Due to wear the writing has become illegible in a significant amount of sections. To unlock more segments true blood is required.]

    Seeing how the context changed Luon read the only available text to him to find an incomplete cultivation technique. Although he was disappointed to find that it wasn¡¯t complete as he learned more about it he grew excited. The words provided filled the gaps in the [Synchro Foundation Technique].

    With determination, he began to cultivate with his beliefs combining the incomplete and the completed one. He walked under the waterfall to train his body and focused his mind on the surroundings becoming one with nature.

    It took 2 days before he had reached to what he believed to be the first level of his newly founded technique, the [Circuit Establishment] technique. He named it after taking in consideration of his thoughts comparing computers to cultivation.

    Afterward, he tried to study the [Steps of Starlight] technique which he found that with the [Circuit Establishment] technique he was able to learn it quickly as if it was made for each other.

    Luon looked over the time realizing that he had only spent less than a day left in virtual reality since his real body is in a state of hibernation he didn¡¯t have to worry about lack of sleep.

    Although he may be a little edgy after obtaining the first level in the [Circuit Establishment] technique, he should be okay. Otherwise, he would have to take an energy pill to attend the Commander classes.

    With the remaining time, Luon practiced solidifying his foundations on his newly founded techniques to the best that he could.

    Once in a while he looked at his stats and smiled and by the time he was done training he was satisfied with his process.

    [Luon Fate]

    [Race: Half-Human/Half-Elf]

    [Federation ID: NEX-6854BP]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 39]

    [Racial Skills: Quickness, Night Vision, Mana Affinity]

    [Active Skills: Wind Magic Lv2, Reinforcement Magic Lv2, Mana Manipulation Lv3]

    [Passive Skills: Swordsmanship Lv3, Parallel Thoughts Lv3, Eye of Insight Lv4, Manaqi Lv2, Circuit Establishment Lv1, Steps of Starlight Lv1]

    [Species Knowledge Evaluation: 387/1000]

    [Technical Knowledge Evaluation: 600/1000]

    [Monthly Salary Evaluation: 1997 Galaxia Coins]

    [Recommended Job Paths: Engineer, Soldier, Commander]

 Chapter 23 - Confrontation

    Luon woke up the next day refreshed after a successful night of cultivation. He exited the Vortex Container to head towards the dormitory cafeteria to have breakfast, and along the way, he met up with Gizmo, Bendan, and Tyron.

    Today''s class was Commander Training, and this was held in Varz, after all, if large groups of students were to take forever to do their matches not everyone could have a turn.

    Bendan with keen senses looked at Luon with admiration. Bendan realized that Luon was extremely diligent last night significantly tempering his fragile body and he couldn''t help but smile thinking that the manuals they helped procure aided in his improvements.

    Bendan couldn''t help but ask, ¡°So how much stronger did you get? What''s your combat level now after last night?¡±

    Although the BMPU is an omnipotent scanning device, it has its functions disabled when scanning anyone else carrying a BMPU due to privacy. The only reason that Luon was able to evaluate people so far was thanks to his uninhibited Eye of Insight skill.

    Gizmo and Tyron who heard Bendan mention Luon got stronger than yesterday looked at him with surprise.

    Luon modestly replied to his friends, ¡°You know before I didn''t have a tough body, last night I just started cultivating, and I went up to level 39.¡±

    ¡°Really?!? Even I don''t get that huge of an improvement when I cultivate and train. And I do that every day, every hour, every second. ¡± Bendan replied shocked at Luon answer.

    Gizmo than gave Bendan a strange look and said, ¡°You train every minute of your life? Does that mean you''re training right as we speak?¡±

    Bendan gave Gizmo a nod, and he began to pose himself as he points out that within his clothing are tons of weights tempering his body all the time.

    Luon and Tyron looked at Bendan with admiration at his commitment to getting even stronger. Luon began to consider doing the same as well but too bad it was much better to train in Varz and adjust oneself in reality.

    ¡°Well unlike a muscle head like you, Luon here could only have massive improvements because he only just started cultivating, almost everyone who started cultivating raises their combat levels by about 15 in a few days. Luon would be considered normal if he had started at the same time¡± Gizmo explained.

    Gizmo began to display his extensive knowledge about how the combat levels were graded. Although the exact values were hard to determine with a vast amount of research put into this topic people found that the most important factor determining the levels is divided into 3 major categories: the physical body, the mind, and abilities.

    The grading used for the mind is determined by the value of a person¡¯s creativity, ability to spontaneously think of solutions, reaction speed, and technique execution. The smarter one was, the more flexible his options were during the battle, even a single millisecond of delay in hesitation could cost one''s life.

    In fact, it was much easier to refine particular combat techniques to handle their intended situations, if one had a million techniques for every problem and godlike reaction speed who could possibly stop him? All of these factors added together increases a segment of the combat level.

    Most of Luon¡¯s levels comes from the mind as he had fought many intensive life and death battles and with his profound analysis of different races attack patterns and trends he was able to handle most of them with ease.

    However, despite his mind being superior, his physical body was lacking compared to the one he had forged in the simulation through battles. The physical body is one of the most important factors in determining the combat level which is why Luon had gained many levels after a single night of training.

    Luon¡¯s body is currently equal to an ordinary Inzektor soldier around level 30 if one had to compare it with athletes several centuries before his performance is nearly double of what they can do.

    And the last major factor in determining combat levels is abilities. Particular skills like Body Reinforcement magic, offensive magic like Fireball, and other skills increases the combat level significantly.

    When Gizmo was done with his little lecture about combat levels Bendan nodded as he came with an understanding. He then said, ¡°So if I wanted to improve my combat level, instead of tempering my body which I do all the time I should raise my cultivation levels, learn some combat and movement techniques instead right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s correct but don¡¯t forget that combat levels aren¡¯t everything. If for instance there was a man level 50 and all he did was train his body. He had no abilities, and he¡¯s kind of dumb. This man fought another man who was also level 50 and was an all-rounder. As they would fight the all-rounder might find himself having trouble fighting the muscle-brained man as his physical capabilities may be too lacking to penetrate his defenses. With a superior physical body not only are you faster and stronger, even if you lack the techniques to get the most value out of your moves it would be difficult to lose.¡± Gizmo said.

    ¡°Uhh, can you dumb it down for me? Just a little,¡± Brendan said to Gizmo¡¯s long speech.

    Gizmo sighed and said, ¡°Imagine yourself playing a game character, and all you did was put your stats in strength, you get a flatly large amount of damage compared to mixing your stats and adding the chance to do critical attacks.¡±

    Enlightened by Gizmo, Bendan said, ¡°Chance to make critical attacks? Wouldn¡¯t that depend on too much luck?¡±

    Gizmo sighed even more, ¡°Luck? This is reality, not a game don¡¯t get it mixed. The better your techniques are, the more lethal your strikes would be. Look at Luon if he was a game character all his attacks would cause critical strikes but would lack the power behind it. He only beat Zythos because of his overpowered sword.¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Luon shook at Gizmo¡¯s quick answer. He was right the only reason Luon had won was due to his quick thinking and his sword, and now that he had lost it he was lacking a trump card to use in battle.

    The group eventually reached the cafeteria, they gathered their meals from the friendly kitchen staff and began eating at a table.

    It wasn¡¯t necessary to eat at the cafeteria as the liquid from the Vortex Container could sustain people indefinitely, but eating food in reality nowadays would provide proper and better nutrition values. Cooking had become more profound as Chefs would mix of mana and qi infused inside each meal.

    The most common skill in cooking in this era was Manaqi Cooking and this in itself has a vast amount of history which could make up an entirely different story.

    A few minutes after arriving at the cafeteria the surroundings got rowdier, and a few minutes later a group students domineeringly walked to Luon¡¯s table.

    At the head of the group was Zythos¡¯s little follower and bootlicker, the rabbitkin Chester Hopkins.

    ¡°Well, well, who do we have here? The 2 fools that were playing catch with projectiles and the bastard that dared harm the young master.¡± Chester said intimidatingly. Or at least he tried to intimidate the group, but they were unfazed by his expression, imagine a rabbit scrunching his eyes and mumbling gibberish, who could be afraid of that?

    Luon and Tyron continued eating as if they didn¡¯t hear anything. However, Gizmo decided to retort to Chester. As for Bendan he also continued to eat like normal, but internally he felt that he was just air, his impressions of Chester dropped since he wasn¡¯t mentioned before and ate silently.

    ¡°Feeling a little edgy today Chester? Haven¡¯t got your daily carrot intake yet? 2 fools playing catch? Why not look at your pathetic match that¡¯s some lackluster acting right there. You wouldn¡¯t even star in a drama with that kind of level.¡± Gizmo replied.

    For the matches held in the previous combat class, the ones involving Zythos¡¯s groupies were lacking despite being from a soldier faction. They were more like playing around, they didn¡¯t fight properly and were just plain lazy to do so.

    Although Chester was angry at Gizmo¡¯s reply he buried it down quickly, he was a soldier, not an actor. They were continually training at the faction barracks, and school was there only for them to do whatever they wanted. It couldn¡¯t be helped that they were playing around a little.

    Chester turned and faced Bendan who despite being big, was dejectedly fading his existence out and said, ¡°Well, well, Bendan Chen instead of hanging out with these fools how about you join our group? You would make a fine soldier for the Mythos clan.¡±

    ¡°Well, well, your face! Do you not know any other lines? Shamelessly promoting your shitty group, I bet you don¡¯t get much from the Mythos clan without begging for it. Your weak and your whole group is weak, fat, and lazy,¡± Gizmo replied.

    Chester couldn¡¯t help but burst into anger because of Gizmo, he could stand being belittled a bit but making fun of the Mythos clan was his last straw. Gizmo had pushed too many of his buttons, and with anger, he said, ¡°Gizmo, oh Gizmo buddy your asking for a beating aren¡¯t you?¡±

    With those words, Chester and group began to emit a deadly, bloodthirsty aura as they charged their mana and qi levels rose.

    Luon didn¡¯t expect that things would escalate this much from just a verbal debate. Luon, Tyron, and Bendan who had finished eating also began to prepare for combat. The surrounding students quickly evaded the collision caused by the two groups started stepping away swiftly but were eagerly watching.

    ¡°Stop.¡± Before the fight could even start a voice penetrated the souls of every single person in the room.

    Two men walk into the scene interrupting and suppressing the desire to fight. Immediately right away Luon recognized one of the men as Captain Waver, his combat instructor.

    ¡°If you want to fight you can do it in your classes, do not break any school regulations by doing improperly managed fights.¡± Captain Waver said as he stared at the group.

    Chester dejected at his words replied, ¡°Then can¡¯t you monitor this one then? It will be over really quick.¡±

    Captain Waver gave a deadly stare a Chester causing him to flinch. He then said, ¡°Where do you think you are right now? It¡¯s the cafeteria, not the arena and soon you will have your classes for the day. Get moving don¡¯t make me repeat myself.¡±

    With those words, Chester and his gang quickly scrambled off, before he left the room he yelled at Gizmo, ¡°I¡¯ll get you next time, make sure you save some money for your hospital bills.¡±

    Luon, Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan stood there dumbfounded, they quickly turned and faced Captain Waver with admiration. With strength and authority who would dare to cause trouble?

    Captain Waver noticed their glances, coughed and said. ¡°What are you staring at you guys get going to your next class as well.¡±

    Not wanting to cause any more trouble for Captain Waver Luon and the others headed back to their room to enter their Vortex container to attend the Commander classes.

    Captain Waver sighed as he looked at the departing figures of Luon, Tyron, Gizmo and Bendan, the Mythos clan in the recent years have been actively causing trouble with their aggressive suppression and recruiting which disappointed him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about it they will be fine, I¡¯ll arrange it so they can fight each other in Commander class, and afterward there will be no hard feelings, and everyone will be happy.¡± The man beside Captain Waver said as he stared at him lovingly.

    Captain Waver body shook as he turned to face the other with eyes that seemed like he was staring at a dead-fish that he menacingly cut and slit open, he said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you get going and teach your Commander class, there¡¯s no need for you to be here especially since you¡¯re a female.¡±

    Her name was Helen Ishtar, and she was the teacher for the Commander class and a maiden deep in love. Her body shakes with pleasure at his concentrated ¡°I want to kill you¡± stares, she wasn¡¯t a masochist wanting him to hurt her, but she enjoyed the fact that he recognizes her existence. She had been following him for several years, from when he sleeps to when he eats, the only time she couldn¡¯t do so was when she had work to do.

    Luckily nobody noticed her even when she crossdressed and invaded the male dormitory to follow Captain Waver even more, and if they did see her, they would probably avoid troubling her.

    Other than being known for being the instructor for Commander class she was known for being the strongest female in the academy, nobody wanted to face her wrath.

    ¡°Okay!~ After work how about dinner together tonight?¡± Helen said as she was disappointed to separate because she had to work.

    ¡°No.¡± Captain Waver said bluntly.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll see you at dinner!¡± Helen began to hop and skip away, even if he rejected her she would still follow him.

    Captain Waver sighed as he looked at Helen¡¯s retreating figure. The other day she thought about killing him and preserving his body, luckily he retorted and said that if he were to die, they wouldn¡¯t be able to have easy-going conversations anymore which caused her to hesitate.

    He thought about his current life right now, he was partially crippled because the cost to heal the damaged that Captain Waver received in his soul was tremendous, it caused his combat level to drop significantly and at most he could only be a meat shield. Despite being level 62 right now, he no longer had any abilities to aid him in his fight against the larger, more troublesome Inzektors.

    Now he became a teacher, and he has to deal with the internal political struggles caused by the Mythos Clan and a yandere who always there when he turns around.

    He closed his eyes and thought of one simple thing.

    ¡®What a troublesome life.¡¯ Captain Waver life started to waver, as he contemplated committing suicide.

 Chapter 24 - Commander Class 1

    After breakfast, Luon entered the Vortex Container and with CITA¡¯s instruction he successfully logged into the class lobby.

    Luon was a little bit early as there was still time before class starts, but he noticed that there were already other students in the lobby.

    Although his dorm mates had yet to arrive as well as Zythos¡¯s lackeys, Luon who sent his gaze around the room noticed a particular group of students and made his way towards them.

    Compared to the other students in this class this group was more elegant and refined, it was Arisa, Belle, and Shizuka.

    However, Luon didn¡¯t come for idle chatter. He was still mad that he lost his weapon even though Arisa¡¯s book did help him a little with his new cultivation technique. Luon came to see if he could receive more benefits for the one-sided trade.

    As Luon arrived at, Belle who was happily talking with Arisa and Shizuka noticed him and said, ¡°Hello Luon, what¡¯s up?¡±

    Arisa and Shizuka diverted their attention to Luon after Belle pulled him into the conversation, Luon said, ¡°Hello girls, I just came by to see if I can get my sword back from Arisa.¡±

    ¡°Eh, Arisa you took his sword?¡± Belle questioned.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, Belle. Luon, it was an equal trade was it not? A unique grade sword for a unique grade manual.¡± Arisa said nonchalantly.

    ¡°Although it was a unique grade manual it isn¡¯t usable or practical; I would probably be better off with my sword back.¡± Luon firmly said.

    Arisa sighed and said, ¡°Alright you win, here you go.¡±

    With that casual remark, she tossed the sword back at Luon but since this was virtual reality she was able to duplicate the sword as many times she wanted to.

    Luon looked at her strangely and said, ¡°I meant in real life.¡±

    ¡°Look here mister, I gave you the manual, and now I digitally gave you the sword what more do you want?¡± Arisa said.

    ¡°How about you just give him some materials to make a sword? Well since you have already given some kind of manual why not just cut the cost in half?¡± Shizuka uninterestingly interrupted.

    Arisa nodded at her suggestion and said: ¡°Alright write me a list of materials you want, I¡¯ll have Shizuka check on the materials you requested to make sure it''s properly valued if you dare deceive me you might be in for another night visit.¡±

    Belle blushed at her last remark, but Shizuka who interpreted it the same way showed no expression whatsoever.

    Luon agreed immediately he didn¡¯t expect to receive any benefits, but because of Shizuka, he got more than what he bargained for. Luon began to contemplate on what materials he needed right now considering he had received some from his parents already. He decided to send Arisa a list of some more rarer materials, of course, they cost about half of what [X-Reaver] had cost.

    Arisa received the list from Luon on her BMPU and forwarded to Shizuka, and she told Luon that she would send the materials to his room later.

    After some idle chatter more and more student began to arrive, and surprisingly Zythos came for the class as well.

    Luon was shocked at the healing ability of rich families have at disposal coupled with the regeneration rate werewolves have they might become invincible, never-tiring warriors. After Zythos had logged in, he interrupted Luon and girls conversation wedging himself in as he greets Shizuka and Arisa.

    ¡°Good day Shizuka and Arisa, it been a while since the last party. You shouldn¡¯t hang out with filth like him it will degrade your beauty.¡± Zythos pompously said.

    Luon brows scrunched at his words as he venomously retorted ¡°And this filth made you eat dirt yesterday.¡±

    Zythos unlike Chester has a lower amount of self-restraint but in front of these influential girls he couldn¡¯t just rage, he held his anger to the best abilities and quietly said to Luon, ¡°You watch yourself now with that kind of attitude you might end up dying a young and fruitless death.¡±

    Luon only smiled silently at his remark.

    Shizuka stayed quiet as Arisa said, ¡°Sir Zythos worries are uncalled for, who I talk to and who I meet is my own will.¡±

    ¡°Ho, then are you supporting someone like him?¡± Zythos questioningly stared at her.

    ¡°If I did would you considering backing off?¡± Arisa said.

    ¡°Hmph, to support a wastrel like him how extravagant can you get.¡± Chester came in with the other lackeys.

    ¡°Beggars shouldn¡¯t butt in when your leader is talking, and I didn¡¯t mention that I would.¡± Arisa was unfazed by his statement.

    ¡°Haha, she called you guys beggars,¡± said Gizmo, Bendan and Tyron came to the scene. Bendan, of course, was laughing really loudly where it annoyed everyone in the area.

    The two groups gave a stare down, this was like a continuation of what just happened moments ago.

    Before tensions can get any worse, the teacher for the commander class arrived.

    ¡°Hello everybody is everyone having a good day? Mine¡¯s been great thanks for asking. Eh? You didn¡¯t ask? No problem, no problem. Let¡¯s get started already later today I got a date with my darling to attend.¡± The teacher, Helen entered full of energy.

    Helen continued, ¡°Alright gather up and get in your little groups, minimum 2 people maximum 5, you know the drill, ones the leader and the rest are slav- I mean soldiers.¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Although full of discontent Zythos formed one group and he got Chester to lead another, after all, they have a lot of people to manage, and it would be more successful to have them separated. Arisa on the other hand, grouped up with Shizuka and Belle while Luon paired with Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan. For Luon¡¯s group, Gizmo took the commanding role as he said to Luon that fighting in groups requires a different kind of strategy than before.

    The matches started, and the first few stratagems used by his fellow classmates helped broaden Luon¡¯s view of this war game.

    Besides the Commander role, the other students occupying the soldier role would divide themselves into 4 different sub-roles. They have scouts to help provide a network of information. Interceptors to confront the opposing team''s scout and aid the allied scout. Attackers who with the army press the attack against the enemies Crypt of Heroes. Last but not least, Defenders who defend the base from the opposing team forces.

    First of all, any scouts summoned by the Crypt of Heroes were only useful in controlling allied terrain. As for sending something out to figure out what the enemy had in-store, cheap scouts die relatively fast, and the most common move was to have one of the soldiers take on the role.

    It was vital for every soldier to have the ability to use a ranged attack for the sole purpose of disabling weak scouts. The scouting battle was like a wild cat and mouse chase to find out the opposing team¡¯s strategy and at the same time doing as much damage as possible.

    After the initial scouting phase each team would then begin to build an army based on the information they have received it was like a game of rock, paper, scissors and knowing the opposing commander''s tendencies could be an essential factor on deciding the battle.

    Although the stratagem was about the same for every match, every commander so far had different thoughts and reactions on how to handle each situations keeping Luon staring at the battleground.

    Eventually, it was his group turn to fight, they only have 4 people, and Gizmo was the commander. Their opponent was coincidently Chester who had 4 powerful beastmen.

    Gizmo and Chester made a couple of smart remarks against each other as a greeting then came back to their respective groups to develop a strategy.

    The field change and Gizmo chose to battle on a wasteland with many cliffs for his side making it difficult for the beastmen, Chester, on the other hand, picked a forest map to empower them.

    The field had changed, but the match had yet to start because both teams weren''t ready yet. Gizmo gathered the underlings to explain the strategy he planned to use for this match.

    The plan was simple Luon, and Tyron are assigned scouting positions while causing as much trouble as they can on Chester¡¯s side of the map. During this period Gizmo plans to create a network of scout drones to map his side. After doing so, he intended to build a group of eleven rangers and with Luon and Tyron leading them to do even more damage while continually scouting. Midway in the match Gizmo was then going to create the main force centering around Bendan completely countering Chester''s arrangements.

    No one had problems with the plan, werewolves were as slightly faster than elves, but they were melee making it easier for them to kite around.

    However, just as the team was about to ready up for battle, Luon pointed out an important factor that may determine the results of the battle.

    ¡°I know I''m scouting, but I don''t have any good range attacks.¡± Luon embarrassingly said.

    Luon then explained that the only range attack he can do right now is wind magic, but this would exhaust his mana supply quickly. He also revealed that he was no good with the bow either.

    ¡°Then how about a gun? Here use mine and test it out.¡± Gizmo said as he gave Luon his rifle.

    Holding the rifle steadily Luon attempted to aim at a rock several meters away. Luon pressed the trigger as a hail of bullets flew towards in the intended direction completely missing the target.

    ¡°Well, I guess you¡¯re not good at that either. I don¡¯t have any more range projectiles left. How about you guys?¡± Gizmo asked Bendan and Tyron to see if they had any options.

    Tyron pulled out a single knife that he used when dismantling and gave it to Luon. Surprisingly Luon was able to accurately throw the knife at the target, but it lacked power behind the toss.

    ¡°All I have is a deck of cards with formations engraved on them,¡± Bendan pulled out from his pockets. Apparently, Bendan on his spare time trained his mental strength by inscribing formations on cards, and he has a variety of different types in a deck.

    Luon took one of the cards and tossed it at the target only to find it shine midway and change into an electrical charge zapping and decimating the predetermined area. The cards were way too effective.

    ¡°This would do, but is it fine for me to use them?¡± Luon said.

    ¡°Sure I can duplicate as many as you want,¡± Bendan replied. However, even though he was able to duplicate them, they were only allowed 10 items assigned to the battle slots before the battle started. The deck of cards was limited to 52 units, so Luon just had 9 decks worth as the last slot was occupied by the sword Arisa gave back to him, digitally at least.

    Seeing how the team was now prepared for battle Gizmo initiated the ready sequence.

    The match started a few seconds later after Chester also pressed ready and right away Gizmo sent Luon and Tyron to scout. Gizmo using his commanding authority summoned 5 Human workers, several essential tools, and a pile of metallic scrap.

    For the scouting drones, he was planning to lay it out in his wasteland region, Gizmo wanted to save the construction costs by manually constructing them, the workers can also construct weapons for his elven archers later on or traps in this complex terrain.

    With haste Tyron and Luon treaded the wasteland, it was a series of cliffs and dirt with many vital points making it difficult to attack if traps were laid out. A few minutes passed, and they reached the halfway point there was a clear divide between forest and wasteland, a single border which defied all logic but at the same time the path to enemy territory.

    They entered the forest while being carefully aware of their surroundings in search of the opposing Crypt of Heroes. Over the trees and under rocks they used as much cover as possible, although the beastmen on Chester side were more than likely going to attack in close quarters combat they still can¡¯t factor out the possibility of a ranged attack.

    Sure enough, Tyron stopped his tracks and halted Luon as well. Using experience as a hunter, he realizes that the enemies were close. Luon took this opportunity to cast out his wind-based detection magic finding all four of those beastmen taking ambushing positions.

    Luon silently signaled to Tyron that the enemy wasn¡¯t going to scout their base out as all the enemy soldiers were taking the role of being interceptors. However, even knowing that they are going to be intercepted, it was vital to get information on what Chester was using his points for. Information was key in winning the match, and a scout¡¯s job wasn¡¯t to engage in combat but to relay information to the commander.

    Tyron signaled Luon to strike first using as many blinding and disastrously damaging attacks before going into hiding. Tyron was planning to act as bait as Luon sneaks by their defenses to investigate what Chester was up to. With the plan set, they put it into action.

    Luon tossed a whole deck of cards all with the explosive array engraved on all of them before hiding himself under a tree trunk. A series of explosions roared as smoke and flames started to spread within the forest region. The four beastmen worked hard to disperse the fire using water magic and taking this chance Tyron used his bow to snipe one of them off instantly killing him before retreating after confirming the results.

    The flames were settled just as one of them died, with anger the rest of them chased after Tyron. Luckily the beastmen weren¡¯t able to detect mana waves as Luon concealed his scent using wind magic.

    Luon stealthily made his way through the forest scouring a path to their base by following the footprints the beastmen left behind.

    Luon eventually made it to a clearing to find Chester and his Crypt of Heroes and a shocking starting move he made.

 Chapter 25 - Commander Class 2

    Before Luon¡¯s eyes, inside of Chester''s base was a textbook example of the same type of strategy he pulled when he first battled against Gizmo. At the start of the match, he would start building workers who would then cheaply construct useful machinery to out value the opponent in the long term.

    The downside to this was like how Gizmo mentioned it before, nothing was stopping Luon from causing havoc at the base.

    ''No wonder why they had 4 interceptors without a scout, if we were to find out about this we could have just rushed right in and sneak attack the workers. This is probably the reason why Gizmo said the strategy is uncommon and unreliable.'' Luon thought as devious plans came to his mind after seeing this scene.

    Luon smiled and used the voice chat system to relay what was Chester doing at his base. Bendan who was bored with the task of defending the Crypt of Heroes started to laugh hard and said, ¡°If the base is open just blow it up. Haha, that dumb rabbit wouldn¡¯t know what hit him.¡±

    Gizmo also agreed with this action and Tyron was still too occupied to reply as he was escaping from the enemy soldiers.

    Right now several minutes had passed since the start of the match, and their base now has 20 human workers and a scouting network covering all over the wasteland. Gizmo was currently arranging a series of deadly traps and left a single route in case anyone needed to enter and leave the base.

    The resource points were stacking up, and the elven archer army was halfway completed, by the time Luon returns back to base the squad would be ready, and they would be able to push out again with a larger group this time.

    Luon pulled out the 5 deck of cards and one by one he threw each card all around Chester¡¯s base. Each card he duplicated, stacked, and threw out was the explosive card which was equal tossing a hand grenade in the shape of a card.

    A series of explosions rained on Chester¡¯s base as all the workers he summoned died without having the ability to retaliate. In a single minute, Luon had tossed out 260 explosive cards like he was playing the game 52 pick up 5 times but intelligently spreading it out. Luon after attacking the base began to retreat back to the forest.

    Although the attack killed the workers and the constructs, it wasn¡¯t able to destroy the opposing Crypt of Heroes as Chester summoned several human mages to cast a barrier around it consuming their mana and their lives.

    ¡°Which bastard was it?!? Hurry and come back to deal with this infidel.¡± Yelled Chester from quite a distance away.

    Luon snickered as he quickly escaped, however, his feet stopped a few moments away as he had found a life signal from his detection magic he cast every other minute or so.

    With a pace almost beyond Luon¡¯s recognition came one of the beastmen who halfway after chasing Tyron stop his pursuit and thought something was fishy about the situation as he went back to set an ambush for Luon.

    Luckily for Luon, despite the fact, this beastmen did an accelerated ambush tactic utilizing magic he was caught in Luon¡¯s detection allowing him just barely be able to avoid the blow.

    Before Luon was a tiger beastmen known for their wild agility, sharp claws, and ferocious attitude when in combat. A battle-junkie and a meathead was Luon¡¯s evaluation for him as he smiled at Luon and said, ¡°To think we let a rat slip by, you should compensate on our losses with your head!¡±

    The tiger beastmen charged at Luon anticipating an honorable battle, but Luon had no intentions to do so. He was playing the role of a scout, all he had to do was merely cause trouble, provide info, and escape unscathed. With a swing, the tiger beastmen let out a series of claw attacks in which Luon parried with [X-Reaver] which he pulled out from his inventory.

    After about a dozen exchanges Luon pulled out some cards from a deck and sent them in the direction of the tiger beastmen who dodged them reflexively. Luon began to retreat and as he did the tiger beastmen tried to pursue but was entangled by a series of roots that came out of nowhere.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Luon had tossed an [Entangling Roots Card] for the first time and found it to be quite capable as he left the scene. He had to rush back towards his base before any other pursuers came after him.

    The tiger beastmen raged onwards, but the roots kept him pinned down for about 10 seconds. If Luon had stayed and fought the roots wouldn¡¯t be able to inhibit the tiger beastmen combat abilities by a large margin as only his ability to move was tied.

    After the tiger beastmen was free, he tried to chase after Luon using his tracking abilities only to find a series of [Trap Cards] casting randomly deadly effects causing him to slow down his pace. The tiger beastmen slowed down his pace and sighs as he regrets letting Luon escape.

    After a few minutes, Luon had regrouped with Tyron and were back in the wasteland field following the map Gizmo sent them. The pursuers who were chasing after Tyron stopped pursuing after entering wastelands and encountering several traps.

    At this time the initial stages of the match were over, Gizmo now had a team to construct useful items, a scouting network on his field, and a group of rangers to push and harass Chester until his main army is summoned.

    Chester, on the other hand, had lost almost all his resources leaving only a few mages and 3 soldiers as one of them had died from Tyron¡¯s hands.

    Bendan who was bored that the enemy didn¡¯t come to attack their base greeted Luon and Tyron back happily but was saddened that they were going to have some fun without him in a few moments.

    There were 12 Elven Archers all equipped with boots that had a haste option and a bow with an empowering option.

    Luon had used almost 6 decks of cards already leaving only 3 more left, he asked Bendan if he had any more since he wasn¡¯t using them at the moment.

    ¡°Other than my sword, a couple of Qi replenishing pellets, and my body armor the rest of things I have are cards, you can have them, but I need to keep one to two decks for myself,¡± Bendan said as he handed over to Luon 5 sets of cards.

    After a short break, Luon and Tyron left the wastelands towards Chester¡¯s base once again, this time his group was really spread out as they planned to kite and deal with the 3 soldiers and whatever Chester had in-store for them.

    When they enter the forest, unlike the last time where the three soldiers were hiding for an ambush they openly displayed themselves allowing Luon, Tyron, and the elven archers to see them.

    Luon found this action suspicious as he used his wind-type detection magic to see that the target was actually fake! They were just a conjured earth magic representation of themselves. Not only that but there were several figures behind the counterfeit soldiers which Luon assumed to be the mages who plotted this devious trick.

    At this moment Luon thought where were the soldiers though? Suddenly, from the earth below near some elven archers came 3 beastmen instantly killing a few of them. Luon, Tyron, and the elven archers immediately back off sending a series of projectiles at them while paying attention to the position of the mages.

    Although the ambush worked and they had killed a few elven archers they didn¡¯t come out in perfect shape, one of them took some life-threatening injuries as the other two pulled him back towards the base.

    Luon, Tyron, and the elven archers continued their pursuit shooting arrows, and an explosive card every now and this caused Chester to lose 3 more mages, but in exchange, their team lost half of the number of archers they started with.

    There were no traps along the way as they pursued the soldiers. Eventually, the injured one was tossed aside as he knew he was slowing the group down. Luon had caught up to him killed him instantly with a sword in hand.

    ''The reason why they were hiding underground was that they were exploiting my wind-detection magic. They must have figured how I slip through their tight security by hiding my scent from those beastmen.'' Luon thought to himself as they continued to pursue the remaining two soldiers.

    The pursuit ended when they arrived at Chester¡¯s base only to find it to be walled off as several human workers can be seen laboring to the best of their abilities to build a wall. Right away without any sense of remorse and emotions Luon, Tyron and the archers attacked them.

    The archers and Tyron shot over the wall aimlessly shooting arrows and Luon who at first attacked using explosive cards only to find the barrier magic too troublesome sat and waited on the side.

    The attacks bore no fruit, with a couple of human sacrifices the wall continued to grow to over just several meters above the line of sight of an average person.

    A few moments later giant roar came from Chester¡¯s Crypt of Heroes as giant troll came out from the Crypt of Heroes. As for why Luon knew it was a troll its height was higher than the wall they built by nearly double the size. If one had to compare it to a human, it was about 5 timers taller.

    Knowing that the giant troll would have possibly cost all their points Luon relayed the information to Gizmo to build up a counter strategy to end the match.

    Gizmo started to summon the main army using all his points for the final part of this match. He intended to end everything in one go, and Bendan was smilingly eager for a chance to fight off his boredom.

    The final battle was only a few minutes away.

 Chapter 26 - Commander Class 3

    The roar of a wild beast shook the battlegrounds, cheers emulated from Chester¡¯s base as they regain some morale.

    Although Luon had already sent Gizmo the information about the Giant Troll, he still had to regroup with the main forces. All Luon had right now was himself, Tyron and six elven archers who were launching suppressive fire over the base.

    The gates to Chester¡¯s base opened as his forces rushed outside to eliminate the surrounding enemies to secure their base.

    Quickly Luon and his group spread themselves out in multiple different directions into the forest. Beastmen weren¡¯t the only ones that benefited from the forest. Luon¡¯s forces were like expert hunters silently dwindling away at Chester¡¯s forces who came after them with their morale held high.

    However, Chester had only sent out a few human hunters who began to escort the troll, using it as a shield.

    To Luon¡¯s surprise, the troll did not go out of its way to chase them. Instead, it began to clear out the forest region surrounding the base exposing Luon¡¯s group.

    Luon had tossed several explosive cards to inhibit the troll only to find that the regeneration rate was too high to deal with. He needed enough firepower to end the troll in one strike or wait for Gizmo¡¯s back up.

    Slowly but surely the forest was plucked away as Luon, and his men snipped off the troops surrounding the troll until they were all dead with no signs of reinforcements.

    With the troll positioned in front of them, there was nothing else to shoot at. Luon, Tyron, and the elven archers could only distract it while waiting for reinforcements.

    From distance cheers and voices can be heard followed by a series of stampeding footsteps.

    ¡°Rul¡¯Tarrrr!¡± An orcish battle cry could be heard as a group of orcs came slowly through the forest positioning themselves around the giant troll.

    ¡®How did they get here so fast? Only a few minutes passed when I sent the message and what could a group of orcs do against the giant troll?¡¯ Luon thought.

    His thoughts were answered a few seconds later as a convoy of vehicles came traversing through the forest slowly. The orcs were the vanguard which took a ride on these mechanical beasts which were probably created by the human workers as they can be seen driving.

    The armor jeep had the ability to travel over rough terrain as they were more advanced than cars centuries ago. Equipped with hovering functionality as well as an auto-rebalancing function as long as the road wasn''t blocked they could go over anything.

    What was different about these armored jeeps was instead of a machine gun on top it was several harpoons used for fishing.

    Bendan came out of one of the vehicles and regrouped with Luon relaying the plan.

    ¡°Gizmo said to first deal the giant troll out, and we should only take a minute or two to do so. If we can¡¯t end it right away, we were to tire it and pin it down and leave a few orcs to make sure it''s immobilized. Afterward, we¡¯re to rush the base with the orcs and elven archers to take out either Chester or the Crypt of Heroes¡± Bendan said.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Luon said as he began preparations to deal with the giant troll.

    As several orcs surrounded the giant troll, it swung its hands hoping to reduce the number of pest around it, however, to its dismay the orcs elegantly dodged kept its distance.

    Luon and Bendan began to rush towards the giant troll as they signaled Tyron to take action. Tyron with his keen senses used his attack skill to do a mana charged arrow shot, the destructive power of this attack was equal to a missile taking down one of the troll''s legs as it stumbled a bit.

    To finish it off Luon and Bendan each threw a whole deck of cards at the footing beneath causing the troll to fall completely.

    Taking this opportunity, the harpoons launched in hopes to rope the giant troll down as it struggles to escape but found it even more challenging to do so when Luon had also cast an [Entangling Roots Card]. Luon and Bendan approached its head and gave it a few attacks to evaluate its regeneration abilities but found that unless they could cleave through all the skin, it was a pointless effort.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    However, Luon had his sword [X-Reaver] which was now filled with blood-content causing it to be super sharp. He channeled his Manaqi into the sword while Bendan also charged to make a massive attack as well. As if they were in sync Tyron launched another missile like arrow attack into the eyes of the giant troll causing it to cry in anguish as Luon and Bendan rushed in the opening to launch their devastating attacks inside.

    Together they aimed at the area where the brain was located causing the end of the trolls life as they quickly escaped to avoid the regeneration from enclosing them inside.

    The troll was now dead, and another figure exited one of the armored jeeps.

    He had an evil aura and was cloaked entirely resembling a mage which causes Luon to stumble after seeing its appearance.

    The evil mage began to channel several rites as dark magic encases the giant troll. A few seconds later the troll came to life as an undead, it lost its regeneration abilities but was still a powerful cannon-fodder.

    With the troll in the lead followed by a group of orcs and a few elven archers. Luon and his friends penetrated Chester¡¯s weak defensive formations with ease.

    Chester was now cornered but before he had the opportunity to surrender the tiger beastmen walked up and said, ¡°You may have won the battle but do you have the gall to challenge me in a one versus one!¡±

    The tiger beastmen stared at Luon who showed no response instead Bendan was extremely eager to show off his skills. The two of them of were encircled by Luon¡¯s army and Chester¡¯s remnant forces. There was no way for them to win, so they hoped to regain some face by at least winning some single matches.

    Luon could see through their plans as they had no obligation to follow along. However, Bendan was stressed and depressed for being unable to show off his masculine side to the ladies in the class.

    They posed for battle showing two completely different type of expressions. Bendan was eager to fight while the tiger beastmen showed signs of fear, he had hope Luon to come up as he may have a chance at winning with his powerful physique but with Bendan here he had almost zero chance in winning.

    The fight began and ended in an instant, and to no surprise, Bendan came out on top, cheers echoed the base as the orcs yelled, ¡°Rul¡¯tarrrrr!¡± Chester could only depressingly surrender, and the match was over.

    ¡­

    The match against Chester ended as cheers came from the crowd who watch the fantastic cooperative play Luon¡¯s team did to deal with the giant troll.

    Gizmo and Bendan, the stars of the show arrogantly accepted their cheers and laughed heartily at the crestfallen Chester who was now depressingly apologizing to Zythos. Gizmo had revealed his amazing commanding skills while Bendan was a very skilled fighter.

    Although Luon and Tyron held an important role, they were outshined by the two as they modestly and silently sat in the corner of the lobby.

    Luon glanced over at the scene of Chester and Zythos were talking, although he couldn¡¯t make out what they were saying it seemed like a lecture as one of them was furious and the other depressed.

    The teacher, Helen, yawned at the game and only thought about finishing the class faster so she could stalk Captain Waver after class again. With that in mind while the class was cheering she had already queued the next match.

    This time it was surprisingly Arisa¡¯s team versus Zythos¡¯s team as they quickly got ready for combat. A distinctive feature of the terrain set up was that you could also set the night and day cycle as well as the terrain features.

    On Zythos¡¯s side was a customized forest map which had more massive scale trees and an abundant amount of toxic plants growing from it. On his team were four other werewolves and the tactic, if it wasn¡¯t so plainly obvious to see, was to make use of their keen sense of smell to avoid the naturally produced free traps.

    On the other hand, Arisa was commanding on a mountaintop during the night, it gave an elevated advantage to range units and the night made it difficult for most non-nocturnal creatures to see in. However, this did not inhibit Zythos¡¯s werewolf allies at all.

    The match started, and Zythos right away rushed at Arisa¡¯s base. Zythos is an overpowered soldier as well as his werewolves allies. He left one of them behind to summon more werewolves to aid the rush. This was a unique feature at the command table as long as the commander authorized it, another soldier may take place in command. However, to their dismay, they came quickly to only find trouble in scaling the rough cliff at Arisa¡¯s base.

    Led by Belle who surprisingly equipped an NG-Arms a series of accurate rifles repelled them. However, after being repulsed the base showed no sign of action for several minutes. Zythos stayed wearily around the base as he commanded his ally to stop summoning werewolves and wait for a counterplay. Less than ten minutes into the battle a colossal army emerged as Shizuka had spent the whole time mass-producing mechanized units.

    Arisa had spent all the resource points in supplying Shizuka as well as some necessary defenders. With Belle in charge of defense along with two other female admirers, there was no way to stop Shizuka, a masterful engineer from mustering an infinitely supplied and highly valued force.

    With no surprise, the match ended within 15 minutes, not only was the forces inexhaustible with Arisa¡¯s commanding abilities Zythos had no chance of winning.

    After the match, Luon thought to himself, ¡®Why does Belle have an NG-Arms? Was it a gift from Shizuka?¡¯

    He couldn¡¯t help but admire her abilities as she fought and easily beat Zythos who wasn¡¯t equipped with one.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s all the battles today, I¡¯ll see you guys next week and remember to play fairly,¡± Helen says as she suddenly logs off right away.

    Luon¡¯s first combat classes came to an end, and the next class he had was engineering. Because Bendan and Tyron weren¡¯t engineers, they had a different course to attend leaving only Luon and Gizmo. Fortunately, Luon had heard from the grapevine that none of Zythos¡¯s minions were engineers. Afterall most of them were muscle-brained soldiers, merely to dumb to understand the complexities of advanced technology.

    Luon finally has a class he can look forward to.

 Chapter 27 - Basic Engineering

    It was a brand new day as Luon happily feasted upon a healthy breakfast before entering the Vortex Container to attend his engineering class.

    The class was divided into 2 segments, digital lectures, and real-time practical assembly.

    Since time was slower in the Virtual world students could study for a whole day without rest in only 3 hours.

    To ensure students have a stable foundation they are then assigned a workshop where they are tasked to produce tools, weapons, and appliances which are to be sold in the school shop. If the students supply their own materials they were allowed to request their individual tasks as long as they provide a blueprint to the acting supervisor, of course, they have the choice whether or not to market it.

    Luon logged in to the system and appeared in nicely designed lecture room that could host almost about 2000 students at a time.

    Engineering classes were generalized and if one were to have questions, if it weren''t too difficult then CITA would more than likely answer it.

    More complex answers would be sent to the teacher by the BMPU messaging system and replied to after class. Because of this, some students find themselves asking questions before the lesson ended and dumbly receive the answer later in the class. Not only that but after classes were done the teacher would question them if they were actually paying attention.

    Luon positioned himself in the upper back corner of the room and sat beside a random young youth with messy hair and glasses.

    Luon lightly introduced himself to his new deskmate, and the fellow classmate introduced himself as Thomas Graves.

    After several more, minutes more and more students sat and positioned themselves for the lecture.

    Surprisingly Shizuka sat near Luon¡¯s desk. Luon thought she had done so because she at least wanted to be seated near a familiar face.

    Gizmo came a few minutes right before the class had started and also seated himself near Luon at the back. His motive, however, was different, he only wanted to snooze off and being near the back allowed him to do so.

    The school was filled with experts, it was already difficult to attend to so there were no minor characters, and his new friend was an eccentric engineer.

    When they were taking notes from the old professor, he was giggling, snickering, and just plain annoying. The only time Luon was glad he was there was when he was stumped and lost in thoughts.

    The old professor was a renowned engineer who had worked at Novera Corporation for several decades before retiring to become a teacher.

    The topic was a simple foundation building and review as well as an update for many students, the major topic was the theories behind energy and the usage of tools. Luon himself had looked into this topic with great vigor during his free month before school and during his spare time.

    Most scientists despite being researchers proclaim that mana was a gift from the Gods breathing life into beings providing evidence that if one''s body was depleted of mana it was akin to death. The class provided many examples of how it was a gift from God, and the lecture grazes over those topics, uninterestingly Luon listened in class while taking notes digitally using a holographic keyboard emitted from his BMPU.

    The lecturer seemed like one of those who supported the god theory, but because of the many unexplained myths around the universe, it wasn¡¯t a surprise. The existence of skills proves that genetics and other factors didn¡¯t matter. Luon had heard other scientists say the soul is a factor determining the skills a child had which cause them to do some inhuman experimentation.

    The class ended uneventfully. Apparently, the lecturer¡¯s goal was to introduce essential topics for 2-3 months that was mandatory when applying for the Engineer License Lv1 at the Novera Corporation Engineering Association as the test was randomized to cater to the many possible topics.

    Although Luon had already gotten his Engineering License Lv1 he looked over the curriculum and found some of the topics might be interesting, it''s not like he can neglect the class anyways.

    The first portion of classes was over, and Luon exited his Vortex Container to head to the designated workshop area for a lecture on tools, safety concerns and getting some practical experience.

    Along the way, Luon met Gizmo who was obviously his dorm mate, Thomas Graves who coincidentally lives on the same floor as them in the dorm, and Shizuka who coincidentally had the same workshop station.

    The lecturer taught the students on the simple usage of tools provided that CITA can just as easily guide them as well, it was merely for practicality. He then assigns the students the task of creating an electric generator from the olden days as he began to hand out materials used for it. Fortunately for Luon, the workshop was state of the art workstations with clean facilities, top of the line tools, and any information of development was exclusively available on CITA due to their enrollment to Nexus University.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    These workstations were assigned to the students each year at no given costs for maintenance and can be used at any time. With that in mind instead of doing the basic electric generator, Luon started designing a blueprint for a new sword using the materials he has on hand. With the design, he walked up to the lecturer-cum-supervisor to change his task as it was his right to do so.

    ¡°Mr.Fried here¡¯s my design for the customized task I want to do, I have the materials at hand so could you please check it for me,¡± Luon asked politely.

    Mr.Fried who was the supervisor and lecturer for this work area was very busy and quickly gave the document a glance before handing it back.

    ¡°Hmph, kids these days just go straight up crafting weapons and armor, nothing truly innovating and practical like floating televised displays, power, and electrical tools, or even designing Vortex Containers. Well, I guess it can¡¯t be helped if your new but try to design something more useful.¡± Mr. Fried lectures Luon for a moment before going back to assigning tasks once again.

    Luon who got the agreement from Mr.Fried went to his assigned workstation, coincidently, Shizuka and Thomas Graves workshops were right next to his.

    ¡®How many coincidences were there in the world?¡¯ Luon thought as stares enviously at the streamline of materials coming and going out of Shizuka¡¯s workshop with Thomas on the side.

    According to Thomas who met with Shizuka earlier, she was in the middle of creating an NG-Arms which cost way more than the materials he had at hand.

    In the middle of his thoughts, Shizuka came out with the same usual stoic face. Shizuka saw Luon outside of her workshop and suddenly recalled something as she walked over to his position.

    ¡°Here, these are the materials I checked for Arisa,¡± Shizuka said as she quickly handed over the rare complex materials that he had listed.

    Afterward, she left without Luon being able to thank her for doing such a thankless task. She could have just sent someone to deliver to him, but she took it upon herself to deliver it.

    As Luon pocketed away the materials, Thomas stared enviously at them, and the two of them chatted a little about themselves. Thomas was from a family of 4, and his family couldn¡¯t afford materials for studying engineering so he could only do the assigned task given to him by the proc. What inspired him to do more was the part-time job that he had at a manufacturing plant for customized parts and tools.

    Unfortunately, after their talk derailed from their daily lives into a pile of engineering gibberish, CITA reminded them to do their assigned tasks.

    Luon entered the workshop to find it similar to those car retailers he walked into during the times of his simulations. A nicely clean wax floor, a clean workshop table, and various tools were hanging on the walls as well as on top of the table. On the side of the table were random default materials the school had given him to start with as if it was charity.

    Luon began to lay out his materials out on the table, and then he equipped the safety protection gear as he began to start working.

    In the corner of the room was a large furnace used to craft, mend and manipulate metals at various temperatures. It was very high tech, not your usual black, dirty, and dull furnace as it was made with superior metals it gave a deep black glow which wasn¡¯t bright enough to inhibit Luon¡¯s work.

    Luon¡¯s goal today was to create a sword with the ability to kill giant monsters. From Luon¡¯s private studies he found something that would help him deal with giant trolls with superior regeneration or mountains giants made with stone.

    Any type of black energy was known for denying regeneration, black magic and demonic qi cultivators specialized in the art of denying and manipulating life. On the other hand, this new sword he wanted to create should be sharp enough to slice through any type of materials, the density of the black energy or the sharpness and designs were factors of the sword that should be considered with the sole purpose of slicing.

    Luon began to work and after almost a whole day of crafting the sword laid in front of him emitting its deadly presence inside the room. The design was a katana somewhat inspired by his second simulations experiences as Luon lost himself in thought when he forged his feelings into it.

    Using his Eye of Insight, he sighed as he glances over the stats, today he indeed accomplished what he wanted.

    [Unnamed Black Katana]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 1337]

    [Durability - 777/777]

    [A Katana forged by an expert craftsman, the usage of the materials was at its peak of standard blacksmithing. This Katana is semi-sentient from the feelings the craftsman had experienced in his lifetime and specialized in killing monsters and giants.]

    [Perk 1 - Degeneration]

    [Perk 2 - Giant Slaying]

    [Perk 3 - Circul...]

    Luon took some more time and created a sheath for the sword which he named [Black Slayer]. If Luon had to thank someone for helping him build this sword it would be his parents as the most essential material used was a stone that originated from the Plana solar system, Obsidian.

    The obsidian from the Plana solar system contained traces of dark energy. All materials that came from fantasy-based solar systems were filled with more mana than polluted solar systems that lack mana like the Nexus solar system. If Luon were lucky enough, he would have materials from Avalon, but with his expensive and connections, the Plana solar system would be the best thing for his studies.

    Luon examined his leftover materials in his intraspatial bag, there was still tons of materials left, and if he needed more, he could just use his student salary. Luon smiled and began to schedule what his next few days are going to be like.

    There were 7 days in a week, and the first 3 were school days, the other 4 was for students to individually do what they want whether it''s to practice combat, commander training, or engineering. Most students take the opportunity to enjoy themselves by reading or playing games, even sleeping was one of the best forms of pleasure. The school also allowed working although with their basic salary who wanted to work?

    Luon, on the other hand, spent his time crafting, he just got a new weapon, so he considered making some lightweight armor, or energy supply system. There were many things he could do as well as read he couldn¡¯t wait.

    The lights in his workshop worked itself non-stop.

 Chapter 28 - The poor and surpressed

    ¡°I¡¯m broke.¡± Luon lamely says as he sat down for breakfast with Bendan, Tyron, Gizmo and a newly added friend Thomas.

    It had been a week since his first classes, and he already spent his monthly salary on materials to create useful tools, weapons, armor and other exciting things.

    Luon naturally thought he could commision them in the school stores only to later hear his sales were a big fat zero showing no signs of changing at all.

    He heard a rumor that it was because Zythos was threatening people into not buying them otherwise if they were to buy some they would be added to his death list. The things he crafted used regular materials and were about mid-tier grade ranking from common to sometimes rare, although adequately priced nobody would consider them especially with when it comes with a beating on the side.

    Luckily the meals and the dorm housing were freely provided otherwise he would already be on the streets begging for money.

    ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t know how to help make money since I don¡¯t need it that much¡± Bendan said as all he does was work out. Tyron also nodded in agreement.

    Gizmo who was the most helpful of the group said, ¡°How about using the public marketplace?¡±

    With that in mind, the two headed outside the school with the intentions of making money. Unfortunately, they were out of luck as it turned out to have similar results. If not worse as the suppression from the Mythos group was openly displayed by many retailers rejecting their products for no solid reasoning.

    ¡°Damn it, this is quite depressing, not only were you reject but I wasn¡¯t allowed to buy anything as well,¡± Gizmo said in shock.

    Gizmo shook it off as he positively says, ¡°How about we go to Novera Corporations Engineering Association to sell them instead? I don¡¯t believe Zythos¡¯s group can manipulate a rivaling company.¡±

    Luon thought about it for a moment and shook his head in rejection as he replied ¡°No, Arisa knew that helping me out would cause trouble for her. Even if the Association were to take them, it would cause their relations to worsen with Shizuka instead.¡±

    ¡°Hmm. If the public markets don¡¯t work then how about we deal with everything underground?¡± Gizmo said as he smiled and thought of a solution.

    ¡°What¡¯s the difference between the black market and the public one?¡± Luon curiously asked.

    Gizmo began to lecture the pros and cons of using the black market. First of all the prices found on the black market had no fixed value, it was lucrative and dependent on demand and supply. Sometimes depending on the buyer even the most common products that appeared in the public market would go for a crazy amount. This area was filled with thugs and criminals that includes public officials who wanted to evade the spotlight.

    However, because of these randomized prices looting and robbing was a familiar sight, but luckily one of the underground organization made a fair policing and patrolling system using the protection rental fees it obtained from its customers.

    With a sketchy range of money flowing and several powerful underground corporations, it was safe to some extent as long as one didn¡¯t stick out too much or got involved with the local power struggles.

    After Gizmo was done talking he took Luon to the store that he most frequented at. The store was shabby but was made with the rare wood material from the Plana solar system. The two walked in to find a big, ugly, green thing at the register.

    ¡°Ikka¡¯tor brethren, look who do we have here. Why little brown skin what are you buying today.¡± The beast-like receptionist said.

    Gizmo introduced Luon to the person behind the register. His name was Torgan Guraat, and he was an Orc from the Plana solar system who migrated to tend a shop in the back streets of Nexus City, the capital of the Nexus solar system. Believe it or not but this orc was initially an easygoing, simple-minded merchant who used to tend his wares in public. His supply mostly came from imports from his home country; however, many greedy human merchants worked together forcing him to shut down. With his dreams were crushed by the reality of the world, he faded into the darkness and into the black market did he appear again.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    After the introduction Gizmo got to business and said ¡°My brethren, we have some wares we wish for you to tend the rates should be the same as always right? Don¡¯t worry about the quality this time it¡¯s better than the last time.¡±

    The orc eyes brightened for a second but quickly dimmed down as he began to frown as he said, ¡°My brethren, aish I cannot sell your wares anymore, there are rumors over your head that you offended a powerful person that has deep roots to back streets. If your products had no craftsman label, I could try to market it, but I am afraid it may come back to haunt me.¡±

    Torgan¡¯s eyes showed signs of sadness, he had been through a lot, and he didn¡¯t want to be in such a situation again.

    Torgan continued and said ¡°I can only sell you goods for at least they do not know where they could come from. As for your goods you can only try at the master of the back-streets shop, if you could, you can try to apply to his part-time position to get his protection as well.¡±

    Luon was depressed that the black market couldn¡¯t hold his wares even if he went with no label or a random label. An unknown blacksmith and the sudden wealth of Luon, who knew how many people Zythos had under him to figure out the connection. For all, he knew they could check his wealth at any given time. As for his parents, he didn¡¯t have to worry too much as the military protected them, and Luon didn¡¯t think Zythos would involve them.

    What interested Luon though was the latter half of Torgan¡¯s sentence, who was the master of the back-streets and why is his position dominant enough to deter Zythos from dealing with him?

    With that in mind before he could ask Torgan about it, Gizmo thanked Torgan and led Luon out of the shop.

    Before he left Gizmo said to Torgan ¡°Am Makador brethren, I wish you the best.¡±

    Torgan followed suit, and the two of them left the building as Gizmo began to guide Luon in a particular direction.

    ¡°Who is the master of the back street and why could he help us?¡± Luon asked after a few steps as he couldn¡¯t wait any longer.

    Gizmo continued guiding Luon and said, ¡°There were many rumors about the old master like he was previously a general who committed an offense. Or that he was a soldier who slaughtered everyone including his allies, but the most obvious truth was that he was an engineer with a powerful background as well as powerful enemies since his store sells some expensive and unique wares which he got from his patrons.¡±

    Walking down back streets of the marketplace as if he was born here, Gizmo led Luon to the old shop he heard of that was hiring part-timers as well as commissioning sales of customized products. No matter who you were status doesn''t matter, whether your a serial killer, a rich young master, or an innocent bystander as long as they have some good business with him, they were all treated equally.

    Luon and Gizmo entered the shady shop only to find no one attending the counter. Luon was clueless at the situation as he sent his gaze around the room to see some beautiful sets of marketed goods.

    Gizmo, on the other hand, was shamelessly yelling for somebody to show up and attend him with no fear of death. In the back streets without a backbone, nothing will progress.

    Not long after did a man came out from the back door, he was muscular well toned from the outline of his military uniform relative to his muscles.

    The man wore a mask covering the upper half of his face, and the design was slick as it resembled the upper part of a knights helmet combined with a falcons beak. His uniform was a clean and slightly worn and old version of what the Novera Corporations Engineering Association used to wear as it had their logo on it.

    The man gazes at the two brats who entered his store and domineering asks, ¡°What do you kids want and make it quick, I was in the middle of something.¡±

    Gizmo fearlessly grins at the legendary figure and proclaimed his needs, and he said: ¡°Hello Boss, we like to sell some products at your store, my friend and I offended someone powerful, so there was nowhere else to go.¡±

    The man was piqued at his words but showed no expressions to it. Instead, he questioned, ¡±Oh really now, there is a lot of people who get offended every day, in fact, you being here might have offended me. Now tell me who are you, who did you offend and who told you to come here.¡±

    The man released his aura pressuring the two. Luon took the opportunity to quickly say some words as Gizmo couldn¡¯t budge at the pressure. ¡°Sir, my name is Luon Fate, and he¡¯s Gizmo Woemoes, and we were told by Torgan Guraat to come here as we have offended Zythos Werebringer from the Mythos clan.¡±

    The man releases his aura and only said ¡°Oh, is that right now? You two are the current talk on the street since nothing else happens nowadays. Alright then, show me your wares, and we will talk business.¡±

    ¡°Um, I also heard from Torgan that you¡¯re hiring part-timers,¡± Luon timidly says.

    The man frowned at those words and said: ¡°I am looking for part-timers, but I doubt you''re qualified. Don¡¯t bother arguing show me your wares. I can at least judge it then.¡±

    Without a second to lose Luon started laying the items he wanted to sell on the countertop.

 Chapter 29 - Old Zekar Drake

    ¡°Young lad before we start did that loudmouth Orc tell you anything about me?¡± The man asked out of curiosity.

    Luon gave it some thought but other than being a mysterious master of the underworld, and several unconfirmed rumors he didn''t know anything at all.

    Luon shook his head in response, and the man smiled and said, ¡°Nevermind then, the name¡¯s Zekar Drake, and that may be all you need to know.¡±

    Zekar prompted Luon to take out his wares by tapping and indicating where to put them.

    Luon started to lay his newest creations on the countertop before him, there was a total of 6 items, although none were rank unique, the purposes of these tools made them quite useful.

    The man who just introduced himself as Zekar Drake set his gaze on them and secretly nodded in approval.

    ¡°These are well made, quite passable. Looking at the intricate details, I could see some of them you put a lot of effort into them. However, some are still lacking.¡± Zekar said.

    Zekar started to nitpick and carefully evaluate the objects, and he said, ¡°Out of the 6 you put on the table I will only be reluctantly marketing 4 of them. As for the commision rates its a norm for me to have 20%. I will pay you when the sale occurs - leave behind your deposit account information using the BMPU.¡±

    ¡°Unless you want to go sell it elsewhere.¡± Zekar smiled giving Luon a look of pity.

    Luon enquired the price that he was going to sell them for, and Zekar gave him a satisfactory answer. Luon didn¡¯t expect too much, but with the amount, Zekar was willing to offer he would make a very slight profit over material costs.

    ¡°Now that your business is over, get out now before I get some real customers,¡± Zekar said.

    ¡°What about the part-time job offer?¡± Luon questioned.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t I say it before? As long as the things you bring in something satisfying and I am indeed deeply interested, you might get it otherwise, scram!¡± At the last words, another wave of pressure enveloped Luon and Gizmo once again.

    Luon gritted his teeth under the pressure of the aura Zekar emitted. He was reluctant to give up with Zythos watching his every move who knows what would happen if he got a regular job in public. For all he knows, Zythos had connections at those places, and this was the only free zone that he doesn¡¯t control.

    ¡°Can you at least show us what you may find good enough for a part-time job?¡± Luon muttered while still under the intense pressure. If he was using this pressure for training, he might be enjoying it, but this was merely bullying at its finest.

    After hearing those words, the pressure stopped, and Zekar pulled out a sword from under the table as he jammed it on the countertop.

    ¡°This here would be the minimum requirement for employment. If you can offer something equal or better than I would consider hiring you.¡±

    Before Luon and Gizmo was a silverish blue sword, clear without blemishes not a single smudge or defect. What was crazier was that the sword was naturally generating mana as if it was alive.

    ¡°Holy smokes! Do you want to have something like this just for a part-time job? Are you crazy, who would want to give you a sword like this!? This thing would probably cost about as much as what an NG-Arms would, and that''s on the low end!¡± Gizmo yelled after he checked the status using his BMPU.

    With those words, Luon took the opportunity to evaluate the so-called ¡®minimum requirement¡¯ only to find it as troublesome as what Gizmo said it would be.

    [Transcendence Sword]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 2765]

    [Durability - 1000]

    [A sword a realm lower than the end of what mortals can reach created with the intentions of surpassing all others the creator''s weapons, however, failed to do so due to lack of divinity in materials. On the sword was a meticulously engrave frost enchantment which will naturally generate cool energies.]

    [Enchant - Frost]

    [Perk 1 - Divine]

    [Perk 2 - High Regeneration]

    The sword was what beyond Luon could do, and not only that it also had a very complex enchantment on it. Luon spent some time learning about enchantments and formations from Bendan after he experienced the might of the engraved deck of cards. However, to his dismay, the best he could muster currently was several throwing knives with a weak electric enchantment which he tried to sell today was rejected because of its uselessness. The most it could end up being was a play toy.

    Without a doubt a beautiful sword indeed, Luon had nothing to match up to it. At this point, the best Luon could offer was the best thing he had at hand.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    With that being said he struck and jammed a sword on the table waiting for Zekars appraisal.

    Initially, he wasn¡¯t planning on selling it, but these circumstances changed his ideas. If Zekar could teach him how to make such a sword, it would without a doubt help his crafting abilities.

    Zekar took a look at what Luon had pulled out he was surprised at the quality but slightly disappointed at the crafting process.

    ¡°This sword, if you were just a normal blacksmith of craftsman would be nearly at the pinnacle of its time, however, its lacking modern techniques to bring out its full potential. In the end its an incomplete product.¡± Zekar sighed.

    [X-Explorer¡¯s Rapier]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 1450]

    [Durability - 700/700]

    [A sword created using the best blacksmithing techniques known to humans! However, its creator was merely a frog in a well as their a whole universe out there waiting for him to discover. With an expert level of enchantments and better materials it would one day reach the realm of the gods.]

    [Enchant - Speed]

    [Perk 1 - Wind Manipulation]

    [Perk 2 - Wind Conversion]

    Compared to Zekar¡¯s item it was indeed like a toy. Without manacrafting enhancements, he was missing nearly a 50% if not 100% performance boost. Of course compared to the engineering students at Nexus University many wouldn¡¯t be able to accomplish this until late in their second year to the third year.

    It made sense for Luon not to be able to do it, he had only awoken for one and a half months ago, but there was just too many things to learn about engineering. Not only that but he still studied and cultivated combat techniques while studying commanding tactics for his commander class.

    He just had too many things to do, and at this rate, he would end up like every other average student, a jack of all trades and a master of none.

    His combat abilities lack the physical strength compared to his peers, his commanding skills lacked the experience for the current era, and his engineering required modern integration of mana, qi and various amount of energy utilized in unique ways.

    Luon, in a nutshell, was an unbalanced character because of his young age, the only thing he had going for him was his determination and will to get better.

    Zekar gave it some thought. The craftsmanship was indeed good compared to all the newcomers who had awakened. He also had some information about Luon already, his character, and what he¡¯s like as it readily available through multiple of different channels. Was Luon worth teaching? After taking a few minutes of pondering Zekar said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll take this sword, and you''re now officially hired. You will be doing some small task at the start, come by whenever you have time.¡±

    Hired, Luon wanted to start right away, since today was the start of his four days off from school. After hearing so, Zekar kicked out Gizmo and brought Luon to a room in the back. There were a sizeable worn-out furnace and several unmaintained tools. Luon grimaced at the look at the place, he knew that the underground society was dirty, but he was hoping at least the engineering room to be somewhat clean with how clean the reception area was.

    ¡°This is your private smithing room, for now, whether how dirty or clean it is, it¡¯s none of my concern. Your first task is this.¡± Zekar said as he pulled from his intraspatial bag a considerable stack of iron-related minerals.

    ¡°Temper for me as much iron bars as you can, if you want to learn how to craft things you need to start from the basics, learn how to inject energy into tempering metals with that knowledge your weapons would get at least 20% better without learning how to engrave enchantments,¡± Zekar said unfazed by Luon¡¯s shocked expression. A whole 20% better with any material! The harder the mineral was, the harder it was to achieve and not only that Zekar also gave Luon a lot to practice.

    As for what Zekar was going to do with all the excess metal he couldn¡¯t care less.

    Zekar handed Luon a book and continued, ¡°To practice tempering energy into the inside of metals you might need this, it¡¯s an exclusive technique I made so don¡¯t pass it around. Well now get to work. I¡¯ll pay you on the quality of what you have done. You can go anytime I have set your BMPU with the privileges to enter the shop without my help.¡±

    Zekar took several steps and right before he exited the room he said, ¡°Oh ya, don¡¯t think about doing some malicious things to my store, you know I have ears everywhere so it wouldn¡¯t be hard to deal with you.¡±

    Luon body shook as he received Zekar¡¯s warning, he nodded excessively, and Zekar who was satisfied with his reply smiled as he left the room.

    Luon practiced hard for several weeks, from attending classes to smithing in Zekar shop his schedule was busy. Every time he would check in with Zekar on the iron bars - his progress slowly improved under his mentoring, and soon enough Zekar started to teach him how to use the iron bars to make weapons while injecting energy into them.

    Eventually, Luon managed to reforge [Black Slayer] into something beyond what he thought he could do.

    [Black Slayer]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 2150]

    [Durability - 850/850]

    [A Katana forged by an expert craftsman, the usage of the materials was at its peak of standard blacksmithing. This Katana is sentient from the feelings the craftsman had experienced in his lifetime, and the mana injected into it. This sword specialized in killing monsters and giants.]

    [Enchant - Sentient]

    [Perk 1 - Degeneration]

    [Perk 2 - Giant Slaying]

    [Perk 3 - Circul...]

    When Zekar taught Luon how to make it sentient Luon applied it right away, he never had a fully sentient weapon, and fortunately, now he could talk to the sword. A friend and a companion were what he hoped for.

    Although he had his hopeful thoughts reality appeared differently then what it seemed.

    ¡®Hey Master, you didn¡¯t apply any oil on me today¡¯ the Black Reaper said to Luon using telepathic thoughts.

    ¡°If I used oil on you every day I would be broke again. I would rather craft more things them clean you up for half a day, especially if you don''t do anything. Why are you acting so arrogant when your just a sword.¡± Luon snappily replied.

    Their conversations eventually degraded to casual talks, seeing Luon bickering with his sword Zekar thought ¡®The young lad I saw that day managed to get this far. I thought he was already crazy enough to neglect sleep for crafting, and now he¡¯s definitely going crazy. Although the sword is sentient if one didn¡¯t know people might think he¡¯s a lunatic.¡¯

    ¡®To think Luon would come to me himself without that guy intervention. Was it fate?¡¯ Zekar thought.

    Zekar continued to tutor the madman who didn¡¯t know what proper sleep was, and soon enough time passes as the school hosted its big event for the first year students.

 Chapter 30 - Introduction to Survival Training

    Every year in Nexus University combat-related students go on a training camp to experience real-life survival training.

    If it were the typical type of survival training almost every student would be eligible to attend, however, the event¡¯s venue has been the same for several hundreds of years and is the main reason not all student can participate. Located in an isolated area was a series of islands used to breed, manage and test Inzektors.

    Not only did students have to scavenge for food for several days they also have to survive the onslaught of Inzektors protecting their territories.

    However, where there are demerits, there are also benefits. The essential underlying requirement was to survive on these islands, but as a bonus, each Inzektor was tagged by type using an application developed by Novera Corporation. This allowed students to record their kills and the students could convert their kill records to Galaxia coins. Although cultivated, these Inzektors are valued half of what it was if they were killed in the middle of the war.

    A student could become rich overnight, but at the same time, nothing can stop the Inzektors from killing on the island. Teachers do monitor the process, but rescue operations are nearly non-existent.

    Every year a few students do actually die which is why before they join the camp they have to sign a life and death liability wager.

    But the most crucial factor that would prompt students to join would be medals. At the end of the assessment students who participated get a medal which increases their future salary by 20% and if one were to rank first, they would receive a medal that would boost their wage by 100% for any company they work for. Of course, if the company hired these students, the cost would naturally go up making them hard to get hired which is why all their extra pay came from the government.

    Another feature of this medal was a tax reduction. In many cases, taxes were expensive wherever you go, whether receiving money from work or when buying products in stores. This medal can reduce the amount of tax one would have to supply by nearly half the amount.

    Although it may seem crazy for the Nexus solar system to do so, for the government system to maintain their strength they utilized every single option available to keep their citizens in the Nexus solar system, especially the ones with combat abilities.

    Of course, this wouldn¡¯t matter that much if you traded in the black market and avoided the government officials. Unless one is more powerful than the government system that is.

    For example, Novera Corporation, the Nightwalker Family, and the Mythos clan were difficult factions for the government to take action against. Another was Zekar Drake, although Luon didn¡¯t know how powerful he was, none of the government officials made any trouble for him. Luon was curious, but no matter how intrigued Luon didn¡¯t bother asking as it may potentially affect his relationship with Zekar. He still had many things to learn so he couldn¡¯t care less about the affairs in the solar system.

    Luon read the announcement recorded on his BMPU while in his dorm room late at night. It has already been a few months since the school started. During combat class, Zythos never had the opportunity to bother him ever since the first one. Captain Waver after assessing everyone''s strength in the first class created individual training plans, and the class was divided into different segments.

    For half the day students were lectured in the Vortex Containers about the biological traits of millions of different species in the universe. Captain Waver first covered the common ones before moving on to the unique ones. After studying the species, students were made to fight against them, and he would take the opportunity to lecture the student based on their combat.

    Once the lecture on different species was finished, students would exit their Vortex Container to exercise utilizing the training menu that Captain Waver wrote up for them.

    The sets of exercises that Luon received from Captain Waver were quite basic and caused no real harm to the body. Luon was supposed to jog several kilometers a day, do several hundred basic exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, cultivate for a few hours and then rest in the Vortex Container.

    Although Luon could do this all in the Vortex Container, there was one thing that he couldn¡¯t receive during his incubated training. The body could be tempered, and the mind can be developed, but his stamina never grew. Which is why Captain Waver assigned these tasks in the first place.

    Luon other classes were the same, busy as hell and Zythos had no opportunity to bother him. First of all, neither Zythos, his minions or his secret connections within the school could interfere with Luon¡¯s daily schedule. The halls were monitored, most classes were virtual, and there was no way to hack it, and Luon¡¯s relationship with Zekar made it challenging to approach.

    In fact, Luon learned more from Zekar Drake than what he did in his Engineering class. From Zekars examination Luon should already be ready for the second engineering examination but told Luon to solidify his foundations first before testing, even though Zekar had already covered the class topics he said to Luon to follow along in case the professor had some interesting extra details to add.

    Commander Training class, however, could be summed up in one word. Fun. The teacher, Helen Ishtar, had an easy-going personality as she only taught the students for a few hours on basic formations, counters, and traditional tactics used in the past. Once she was done teaching, she would have the students get in their small groups to matchmake themselves online to battle against others.

    The Nexus solar system wasn¡¯t the only place with Vortex Containers. Once in awhile the class would be paired against the people from the Sea Kingdom, Avalon, Ark Judgement Empire, and the other solar systems found in the Intergalactic Federation. To people in the Alliance, other than being a method for training, these Virtual Battles were like sports. They¡¯re pubs, bars, and cafes that stream many live matches and anyone could partake as long as they have a group.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Luon¡¯s group was ranked 530984 in the whole alliance which wasn¡¯t bad at all seeing how there were several million different groups recorded. Of course many were inactive as fans only just tried the game out for fun.

    Every time they rose up in points they cheered and celebrated, but because Luon and his friends all had their own lives to attend to they only played a few battles a week.

    What was surprising was that Thomas Graves became their fifth member, he had no combat abilities, but Luon and Gizmo both found him to be a very useful engineer who could manage the workers so they could build strategies utilizing creative structures, weapons and tools.

    Workers could follow the instructions labeled from the designs that CITA gave them which were recorded in the Alliance database, but having someone with real experience can shorten the construction time by nearly half. It was like comparing someone who was cooking off a cookbook versus someone who lived and worked in the kitchen. This was a big difference.

    Luon¡¯s commanding ability, combat skills and his knowledge about engineering rose significantly in the last few months as he worked nearly around the clock.

    Every once in a while he correctly rested, but he couldn¡¯t help but smirk about his status when he glances over them.

    With that in mind, Luon pulled up his status board once again.

    [Luon Fate]

    [Race: Half-Human/Half-Elf]

    [Federation ID: NEX-6854BP]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 49]

    [Racial Skills: Quickness, Night Vision, Mana Affinity]

    [Active Skills: Wind Magic Lv3, Reinforcement Magic Lv3, Mana Manipulation Lv4, Manaqi Lv3, Steps of Starlight Lv3, Array Formation Lv2]

    [Passive Skills: Swordsmanship Lv4, Parallel Thoughts Lv3, Eye of Insight Lv4, Circuit Establishment Lv3]

    [Species Knowledge Evaluation: 587/1000]

    [Technical Knowledge Evaluation: 720/1000]

    [Monthly Salary Evaluation: 2427 Galaxia Coins]

    [Recommended Job Paths: Engineer, Soldier, Commander]

    In the end, Luon gave up learning the last untouched manual [Revolving Wind Blade] in exchange for lessons on creating and engraving arrays which he studied the basics from Bendan and the more advanced materials from Zekar who noticed Luon¡¯s interests in the topic.

    There were only 2 weeks before Luon had to wait before the survival training started and students were allowed to bring whatever they want to preserve their lives.

    Luon thought of some neat things he would like to create for the event, he had a beautiful sword and several decks of cards with formations engraved on them. There were many things he could still make to increases his performance during the event. Luon dreamed about getting first for extra salary and tax benefits, but the primary goal without a doubt was to decimate as many Inzektors as he can to receive payments based on kills.

    Gizmo, Bendan, and Tyron also applied to go to survival training as well.

    They all had different intentions, Gizmo wanted money - quick, comfortable, and fun. The face Luon saw Gizmo had when he was thinking about the event expels greed out of every single pore on his face. Bendan wanted to temper himself with real Inzektors and treated the event like a field trip or a stroll in the park. Tyron, however, used the occasion to practice his hunting skills and took it seriously.

    What surprised Luon was that Arisa, Shizuka, and Belle were also going to participate. He didn¡¯t think that these high-class ladies would attend such an event. It wasn¡¯t known until recently that Gizmo told Luon that Belle was actually the daughter of one of the most famed commanders in the military division.

    However, the most troublesome news yet was the participation of Zythos and his goons and having signed the life and death wager, he couldn¡¯t help but be more cautious of them as well as the Inzektors.

    The night passes as Luon flicked through different stories about other people¡¯s experiences at the event. Luon mentally wrote what he needed to do and what he needed to accomplish it and when daybreak comes he plans on heading to Zekars shop to equip himself.

    ¡­

    ¡°Zy-Zythos, are you sure we should be doing this,¡± Chester said with traces of doubt.

    Zythos stares into the eyes of Chester causing him to yelp backward and timidly face the ground. Chester sweated profusely from the stare he had just received. In his eyes was filled with anger, hatred and many malicious thoughts that Chester had never seen before in his young master. He couldn¡¯t help but think it was all the fault of Luon, but what sealed the deal was the punishment they received from the head of the family.

    ¡°Hmph, that old man of mine dared punish me for losing to Luon. Calling me a disgrace and ruining his plans, he even told me not to do anything to the damn brat that may attract some attention. Well, good thing we heard some news about Luon joining the survival training we could get rid of him once and for all.¡± Zythos smirked.

    ¡°What about the monitoring? Wouldn¡¯t we get caught?¡± Chester replied timidly.

    Zythos laughed echoes around the room as he said, ¡°Well wouldn¡¯t we just need a plan where we don¡¯t get caught? Haha, with these things here our plan of ours is bound to be flawless.¡±

    Zythos stared at the top of the table which laid tightly sealed box. Zythos once again couldn¡¯t help but smirk. Zythos''s evil laughter was like howls of wolves in the moonlight, only more devastatingly human.

 Chapter 31 - Preparations

    Luon woke up feeling refreshed. Last night he read a couple of web novels about survival in a mutated apocalypse, death games, and living in the forest with barely anything. Luon felt inspired by them with their unique and common perception on things.

    Unlike those main characters, he had the time to be prepared for his survival training. Two weeks may seem quite long but time passes by fast when during the preparatory stages.

    Why should he unprepared like those main characters? He knows the event is going to happen unlike them and the event allowed them to bring whatever they wanted except for food. The monitors who oversee the event would immediately fail the student if they had secretly brought food.

    Of course, although the student has failed right away, the student won¡¯t be told until the end. It¡¯s like taking a driver¡¯s test and finishing satisfied only to find out that they¡¯ve failed at the start wasting several minutes of their life.

    The surprising part was that there was another event happening at the same time causing the school to be on break for two months.

    The Alliance Tournament. Second-year students at Nexus University, after passing the local qualifiers send three teams into the event.

    The qualification rounds lasted for nearly half of the year and entry was voluntary. During the times Luon and his classmates were studying in their classes numerous battles were fought to obtain the three selection positions.

    Why do students want to partake in the event? It was simple, Glory! Similar to how medals are given to students doing the survival training, the teams that could bring victory to their solar system are endlessly admired and filled with benefits. A whole year''s worth of half the production resources from over 16 solar systems is a lot to wager.

    Unfortunately, Luon and the others weren¡¯t able to watch the main tournament as the survival training started and ended at the same time. The school designed it that way because it matched with the scheduling.

    Luon got out of his room and did his morning routine, a healthy breakfast supplements a healthy body.

    Luon planned out his tasks for the upcoming two weeks before the event. Unlike Gizmo, Tyron and Bendan who were watching the end of the qualifiers, he wanted to prepare thoroughly.

    Along the way, he met Arisa, Belle, Shizuka who were just about to go out to do some shopping. Looking at these young rich ladies, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh at how powerful their families were.

    Luon¡¯s improvements were impressive mainly due to the fact he had started to cultivate his body to match his complex sword skills and techniques. However, after awhile it began to slow down right before entering combat level 50.

    Gizmo, Bendan, and Tyron were about a few levels away as their physical fitness matched Luon but only lacked the several decades of combat experience Luon had. What was surprising though was how fast these girls leveled.

    Their pace was equal to Luon¡¯s improvements as they improve their status all-around. Arisa and Belle have even reached level 50. Most combat students after graduating from Nexus University average around level 60.

    Money, it was the only significant difference between them. With the money, they could buy cultivating resources like rare herbs and pills or enter secluded training in secret realms. Not only that but they have NG-Arms which potentially raises their current levels to 70.

    Of course, using NG-Arms have its limitations. The energy exerted at level 70 was way more costly than at level 50. The max operational time was a few hours and if you press it hard enough the energy could be spent in a single hour.

    Luon was reminded of the might of NG-Arms once again as he thought, ¡®Maybe Zekar has some scrap ones I could rebuild from? Even though they''re scrap, he¡¯ll probably charge me a lot.¡¯

    Even after working part-time and selling products he still didn¡¯t have enough to buy a brand new set of NG-Arms, and with his current amount, he would have nearly zero Galaxia Coins if he bought it second-hand. Although NG-Arm were useful, Luon would rather spend it on cheap, valuable tools to help him kill Inzektors fast to make more money.

    The girls after seeing Luon pass by exchanged some light greetings as they walked away whispering to each other. A few giggles could be seen, although Luon didn¡¯t know what they were talking about he knew that they¡¯ve become much closer than what they started with.

    Surprisingly, Luon¡¯s simulations barely had any contact with females except for his second time. In the real world, he was able to talk to them without losing cool regularly. Out of the three, Luon thought he would end up much closer to Belle as she was the first female he had talked to for possibly centuries, but he ended up meeting Arisa quite often. Luon became a fan of midnight instant ramen trips and several times they met each other.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    After their trade agreement, they had nothing to do with each other, but Arisa used her connections and found out that Luon was being taught by Zekar on crafting, after which she began to annoy Luon consistently to forge her items, at a meager price.

    5%. Arisa only gave him that little amount more than the material costs for labor fees. Sometimes Luon would profit, but most of the time he would be making less than what he should have.

    However, this didn¡¯t deter him from meeting with her as not only did she pay him, she also gave him the latest information in regarding Zythos.

    For some time now her family has been very wary of the Mythos clan''s actions, although Luon didn¡¯t want to be involved with politics the information was still a godsend to him who had no connections.

    One time Luon asked if she liked him as she only asked him to be her private engineer, but she just looked at him in the eye and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you being a little full yourself, do you think your special? I¡¯m just doing business with you because of you''re convenient. It¡¯s not like I like you or hate you, it¡¯s just business. Yup, just business.¡±

    And then she looked away and left, she didn¡¯t talk to him for a few weeks later, and Luon felt terrible as he had overestimated himself.

    ¡°Zekar I¡¯m back again,¡± said Luon arrived at the store to find Zekar at the counter staring mindlessly at Luon who entered.

    But his expression quickly changed as his deadpan face once again appeared while he questioned Luon, ¡°So what are you going to do today? Around this time you should be preparing for the training camp.¡±

    Luon then replied ¡°Well I was going to go craft some tools in the back for the upcoming weeks. Oh, I was just wondering do you by perchance have any scrap NG-Arms I could use for the event? Make it cheap for me please.¡±

    Zekar sighed and led Luon to a room in the back, it was a dusty room mainly filled with boxes except for an unclean bed and an unused NG-Arms in the corner.

    Zekar picked it up and gave it to Luon and said, ¡°Even if you tried to make one you might end up having some problems later on. Just use this and train with it a bit. As for the payments you could do it in installments.¡±

    Luon gazed at the dusty NG-Arms and asked, ¡°Why do you have one just laying in the dust like this? Wouldn¡¯t it better sold?¡±

    Zekar looked at Luon and said, ¡°Do you want me to sell it to someone else? If you want I can.¡±

    ¡°Nope, no thanks. It¡¯s perfectly fine with me,¡± said Luon as he quickly held onto it with his life and left the room without another word.

    Seeing Luon leave Zekar left the room and gently close the door sealing it once again for another eternity, or so he thought.

    Luon spent the two weeks learning how to use the NG-Arms and crafting various useful gadgets to help him succeed in killing as many Inzektors as possible.

    Using his decades of engineering experience and the modern techniques that Zekar taught him before Luon laid one of his greatest masterpieces so far.

    [Formidable Blightsteel Suit]

    [Rank - Rare]

    [Defense - 2500]

    [Durability 800/800]

    [A full body suit made in resemblance of a knight or a concealed superhero. Made from a mixture of steel and blightstone it became a lightweight masterpiece with a formable defense.]

    [Perk 1 - Transform]

    It wasn¡¯t the first time he had tried to create armor, but it was his best with the materials he had. Leather was extremely expensive as poaching and hunting for animals was only available in other solar systems. The only type of armor Luon could use would be cloth or metal in which fabric, although naturally weaker was more expensive.

    If Luon had an excess amount of money to buy materials, he would have spent it on some [Demonic Spider Steel Thread], the best type to use for clothing. Full metallic armor was less flexible and could only be used on the battlefield as it would look awkward walking on the streets with it on.

    Without Zekar¡¯s help, the cost to make some personal armor would have been astronomical. The number of failures was quite high. Even the standard item to Luon¡¯s new requirements was a failure, and he was lucky enough to make a rare one with a title option.

    Zekar told Luon that well-made armor sometimes comes with a title option potentially boosting the standard properties by another half.

    ¡°But looking at it again¡­ Would you really want to use this? This armor is practically screaming out masked hero,¡± questioned Zekar who looked at the gaudy design of the armor.

    Zekar smiled barely containing his laughter inside as he continued, ¡°There¡¯s also the perk skill, [Transform]? It seems quite useful and as it transforms into a belt. A nice idea indeed but now you definitely look like one of those secret superheroes who hide their powers in the shadows.¡±

    Luon stared at Zekar who ended up laughing at the suit of armor. Luon placed the transforming belt and transformed into a superhero causing Zekar to laugh even more. Despite the looks, it was practical, and at least Zythos wouldn¡¯t be able to recognize him right away.

    During these two weeks, Zekar was very helpful and allowed Luon to stay in the dusty room after he swept the dust away. Luon found it strange for Zekar to be this enthusiastic about helping Luon but merely thought he was worried about losing his little part-timer during the event.

    Days passed, and the event came before he knew it, Luon arrived at the plateau with many spaceships that were going to ferry them to their destination.

    The location of the venue was at an isolated planet in the Nexus solar system called Alpha, it recreated Inzektor habitat and several times a year soldiers would thin them out while scientists study their evolution and habits.

    Many students were gathering about, and Luon quickly found his friends. Groups were allowed in the event, but records were still individually recorded. A common tactic Luon read up about was that rich people can have their minions gather dying Inzektors and give the last kill to them.

    Luon prepared as much as he could, he had many weapons, tools, and his own person NG-Arms. Whatever shameless strategies Zythos had or scary Inzektors there were Luon could find out when the time comes. There were 14 days until the end of the event.

 Chapter 32 - Departure

    Within minutes the plateau was filled with people aspiring to be soldiers. Although Luon didn¡¯t know what he wanted to do yet, in a world filled with danger and where the rich suppressed the weak, these factors spurred him on to get even stronger.

    Why couldn¡¯t Luon live in luxury? Instead of slaving away to his desire for strength, he could have laid low and live a normal, peaceful life. Most of the citizens of the Nexus solar system were like that. However, Luon knew that if everyone ended up that way the Alliance would have been torn to shreds by the Inzektors and all trace of life that he knew of wouldn¡¯t have existed.

    His predecessors fought hard for a bunch of lazy misfits? The war still rages on so how could there be true peace? To be one of those drunkards at the bar watching the War simulations while going to their day job wasn¡¯t something Luon wanted to do. Luon wanted to protect this peace, and these feelings stem from his desire to protect his loved ones during the second simulation.

    Luon who was lost in his thoughts woke up to gasps and cheers of the crowd. In the school, there aren¡¯t many students who were immune to beauty. Receiving the passionate gazes from the audience, three ladies domineeringly walked through the crowds as they move aside like Moses manipulating the ocean to his bidding.

    Behind the three were a group of female followers who intimidatingly glared at the crowd as if they protected them. Luon could tell from their movements they were no amateurs, he could only assume that the ladies families had several members from the younger generation as bodyguards as a safety precaution to the upcoming event.

    Arisa noticed Luon and signaled to the other two his location - their path turned towards his direction. Many were jealousy staring at Luon¡¯s group, and if stares could kill people, Luon would have already died several times over.

    ¡°Good morning Luon, did you have a good night''s rest because from to~day onwards it¡¯s going to be a little tough,¡± said Belle playfully.

    ¡°Yeah I did, by the way, are those people behind you your guards? I¡¯ve never seen them before until now,¡± asked Luon.

    ¡°Yes, my father and Shizuka¡¯s father rearranged them to be sent to the academy to be trained to be our followers,¡± said Arisa confirming Luon¡¯s doubts.

    Luon could only sigh at the power of rich people. To even employ other students as staff members for their corporations already, just how deeply ingrained were these families to the Nexus solar system? There were only 12000 seats a year that was available to the public. Who knew if these families have seeded guaranteed entries?

    At least the dim-witted Zythos had his followers openly follow him, these girls were mysterious, who knows if the people behind the three girls were all of their forces.

    While they were chatting about their preparations and expectations, it was almost like deja vu as Zythos, and his minions once again swaggered their way towards the group. Only this time Zythos¡¯s eyes were filled with confidence as he ignored Luon¡¯s existence and asked Arisa, ¡°The young miss still have some bad taste as always, our families are really close, yet you still chose to entertain the poor folk rather than myself. If you wanted to do so why didn¡¯t you just donate to charity at least it would be more worthy.¡±

    ¡°Oh, if you really think that charity was more valuable than why don¡¯t your family do so instead of wasting your wealth on supporting your cowardly soldiers? You could help the poor without food, really admirable.¡± Arisa mockingly said to Zythos who was like a weed lacking pesticide in her eyes.

    ¡°Hmph, if it wasn¡¯t for your family lacking the ability to command we may have already won the war against the Inzektors already. Such a waste of resources, do you think the federation would still support you with these decades of results?¡± Zythos said.

    ¡°If it weren¡¯t for you dim-witted soldiers disobeying ranks and retreating unnecessarily then we would have won long ago, I know your family is simply prolonging this battle to procure more resources, such wasteful scum like you shouldn¡¯t even be in the top families.¡± Arisa words like poison seeping out of Zythos¡¯s wound as they were entirely true.

    No matter how well-trained soldiers were fear was still a factor in war. Many people were cowards in the face of death, and the courageous had long died. The newer generations were occupied with aggressive wastrels wasting resources from the government while oppressing the weak and Zythos himself knew it was true.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Zythos¡¯s, and Arisa¡¯s followers began to bicker with eyes that were like throwing daggers ready to jump at each other. The words that came out of their mouths were filled with profanity, the girls elegantly made it roundabout while the men were straight-up cursing.

    Several officers came down to the scene calming and yelling to counterbalance the ruckus.

    ¡°Quiet down now, you there. Are you the one causing a disturbance? Let me inspect your belongings as we have reasons to believe that you''re carrying some inappropriate materials to the event venue,¡± replied an officer who at first was being reasonable but was clearly working for Zythos.

    Zythos smiled at the timing of the officer, all of this was pre-arranged, although, he didn¡¯t think Arisa words would annoy him this much it gave him an opportunity to attempt to check Luon¡¯s belongings while calming down the scene.

    Luon wanted to cry secretly, he hadn''t said a word at all, and these officers were pointing at him. However, being the studious bookworm he was, he knew they weren''t allowed to inspect him without a warrant.

    ¡°You have no right to check my belongings, if so then why wouldn¡¯t you check the others and not just mine? I didn¡¯t do anything wrong,¡± replied Luon while smiling as he sent his killing intent towards the official.

    The officer backed off a bit, he was only a small-fry technical support staff with the combat ability of a normal soldier, around level 40. To Luon who was almost 10 levels above him, he was no match at all, and the killing intent fazed him, almost scaring him to death.

    He glanced at Zythos, and after confirming the details visually, he mustered his courage and continued to insist on checking Luon¡¯s belongings. Luon saw this little detail and connected the dots. Apparently, Zythos wanted to see what Luon had on him to ensure that some kind of devious plan would have a higher chance of succeeding.

    At this moment an intimidating aura enveloped everyone on the scene, from a distance, a couple strolled by side by side to one of the ships. Captain Waver looked tired and distraught like how he always looked when he wasn¡¯t teaching, and Helen full of smiles as she spat out venomously, ¡°Quiet down now, my husband needs to rest, so I don¡¯t want to hear single word outside from our room.¡±

    Helen tried to arrange for her and Captain Waver to be in the same room wherein he refused to the best of his abilities. This happened every year, so it was a common occurrence. The event manager is very troubled by the pair, and the best he could do for the two was set their rooms to be beside each other. He didn¡¯t want to offend this fearsome lady, and at the same time, he felt pity for his fellow co-worker.

    With the crowd subdued they broke up and went back to their individual little groups.

    Zythos gave Luon, and girls another glance as he smiled and walked away with his minions trailing behind him, not a single word was said, but Luon could feel that he was definitely up to no good.

    The rest of the waiting period became uneventful as Luon, and his classmates entered the same spaceship as Captain Waver. Looking over his BMPU Luon found that Helen was leading monitor for the group, the officer that confronted Luon before was part of the technical staff which arranged all the technical aspects on the ship.

    Luon and his friends scan their identifications at the entrance terminal of the ship before finding a location to settle down in. The spacecraft was massive as many students hurried to obtain the VIP rooms located on the upper floor.

    There was apparently a secret agreement by the richer families to already reserve the upper rooms. Luon couldn''t care less as he got one of the quieter rooms located near the engine room.

    Although there was a small humming noise seeping through the walls, it wouldn''t matter at all when Luon got in the Vortex Container which was found in every bedroom on the ship.

    The only benefit to the VIP rooms was the view outside if he spent the whole time training it wouldn''t matter at all.

    Luon spent the whole trip asleep in the Vortex Container doing mock battles against different species of Inzektors in preparations for the event.

    One night before the event started Luon managed hit level 50.

    ¡­

    ¡°Young master Zythos are you sure you want to add the young ladies to the plan? If their families got word of this, the consequences would be unimaginable,¡± said the officer.

    Zythos nodded and said, ¡°My father¡¯s been looking for the opportunity to lower the morale of those factions and dealing with these princesses in an inconspicuous way this would be best for the group. Just do as what you¡¯re told, nobody would notice your involvement. Do not forget but this is an accident, you got that?¡±

    ¡°Yes sir, I¡¯ll make sure all the arrangements have been set,¡± the officer bowed and left the room leaving a smiling Zythos behind.

    ¡­

    ¡°Young miss we have some information that the scum Zythos may be up to no good,¡± said a girl clothed in an outfit resembling ninjas several centuries ago.

    Arisa nodded, she was very wary of how Zythos posed himself today. The overconfidence is practically oozing trouble. Hearing the plans from her subordinates mouth, she couldn¡¯t help but frown.

    ¡°We¡¯re still lacking information, what do you think about this?¡± Arisa questioned.

    ¡°Young miss, this one thinks that Zythos kept the majority of the plan to himself while the ones with the lower amount of trusts got some minor instructions. Do not worry miss we will deal with the people with bad intentions towards you.¡± The ninja confident said and bowed.

    ¡°Forget it, let¡¯s just see what tricks this dog has, alright your dismissed. Make sure you''re prepared for anything. Just in case get in contact with a squad in case something were to occur.¡± Arisa said as she closed eyes to rest.

    ¡°At once,¡± and the ninja girl left the room without a sound.

 Chapter 33 - Dance Under The Stars

    The trip so far had been uneventful, other than studying different types of Inzektors combat patterns and characteristics Luon sparred against Bendan, Gizmo, and Tyron.

    Thomas wasn¡¯t a combatant and couldn¡¯t participate in the trip, and because of the time difference, Thomas found himself occupied with his job when the rest of the group were free and vice-versa. The group only had four people to battle in war games with.

    In the past few months besides Luon¡¯s combat abilities his commanding stratagems had adapted to current meta. The position of commander in their war games rotated between Gizmo and Luon.

    Although Gizmo was an excellent commander, he likes to look at things logically according to data. If a single orc grunt could fight three human soldiers and barely win he would commit to that choice and for insurance he may even add another Orc. However, his estimates became off sometimes which causes some losses.

    Gizmo battle plans consist of scouting and harassment while mustering his forces. On the other hand, Luon was the type who would defensively build and send cannon fodder scouts out. Luon would set his soldiers to interception while amassing an army of workers to build a resourceful army.

    Normal commanders couldn''t possibly replicate this tactic as the reaction speed of the robotically created soldiers were too slow for combat. The sensors and connection speed to the machine couldn¡¯t react fast enough to enemies attack pattern, but with Luon¡¯s macro management abilities, his skill in position placement was spot on causing the enemy to falter back and consistently retreat.

    While Gizmo planned for the mid-game, Luon sought for an overwhelming late-game. Since the army Luon used was cheap the value he made of them was overwhelming and by the time the enemy does an all in strategy, Luon would counter it with forces more numerous than what they would have.

    Imagine being unable to rush and destroy the Crypt of Heroes right away only to fight against an army of droids who before dying kills forces several times more valuable.

    Tired of the undervalued plays one would muster an almost unstoppable force of ground units consisting of orcs, elves, and any other humanoid beings only to face against several dragons, giants, trolls, monster-sized beasts, and demonic overlords who with a single swipe instantly kills numerous of warriors later in the match.

    Not only that but following after these monstrosities were an army of robots armed with lethal weapons.

    Luon¡¯s commanding abilities were astounding, not only did his knowledge of war tactics and study of other commanders strategies help him think of the perfect positions for his robot soldiers to fire, but his parallel thoughts skill enabled him to manage multiple groups of them at ease.

    The robot army would shoot from a distance before retreating, and by the time the attackers close in on them, another group of robots barrages them down even more. It was an endless goose chase, kiting to its finest as if it was a work of art. These movements were unimaginable to a normal commander and to make it worse even if a group of robotic soldiers was killed they were only worth a couple of points.

    After another fruitful training session, Luon exited his Vortex Container. One of the greatest joys on this pleasure trip to hell was the food provided as it was fantastic. According to the waiter the storage room was filled with intraspatial bags solely for ingredients used in cooking.

    Rich, was the only word that could describe this phenomenon. How could they use so many intraspatial bags just for storage of ingredients? Luon shook his head as he recalled how much a single bag would cost, 30,000 Galaxia Coins, a whole year of the average salary.

    Luon headed towards the dining room located in the center section of the starship. There were a few days left before the ship arrives at their destination and today Luon, Tyron, Gizmo, and Bendan were going to discuss survival tactics, hunting tactics, and their personal goals in the event.

    When Luon arrived the others were already sitting down for a meal, and he quietly joined them while sending his meal request to the waiter. Luon had memorized the menu already and tasted almost all of the available meals. His preferred dinner was carbonara with a side of the soup of the day as a surprise factor, as well as the featured meal of the day.

    Today''s features were beef soup, and surprisingly Shumais dipped in hoisin sauce, it was more of a tasty snack rather than a complete meal, or so he thought until the waiter came in with a plate filled with numerous amount of Shumais stacked into the shape of a six-story pyramid.

    While the group was eating and discussing some strategies Arisa, Belle and Shizuka came to eat dinner. The two groups met face to face, and they jointly shared the same table.

    It wasn¡¯t because there was no other table to sit at. Instead, the girls joined the table to reduce the amount of admiring stares from the bystanders as half of them shot daggers of hate towards Luon¡¯s group.

    Luon¡¯s group didn¡¯t care about the stares and joyfully conversed with the girls about what they did the previous days on the ship.

    ¡°So all you guys did was sit on the Vortex Container all day for the last few days?¡± said Belle.

    Luon nodded as Arisa advised them, ¡°No matter how much you train in the Vortex Container if your real body doesn¡¯t get proper exercise in real life than it would be difficult to maneuver in reality. With that in mind how about, we go spar each other right now?¡±

    A spar with the girls? It seemed more like a one-sided beating if they had a team battle then the girl''s side were more than likely win because each one of them owned an NG-Arms. Fortunately, Shizuka and Belle didn¡¯t feel like fighting, and so they suggested to do one versus one matches with Arisa.

    After their dinner, the group headed to one of the training arena¡¯s located on the starship, with walls reinforced with special materials as long as the force didn¡¯t exceed the equivalent to a combat level 80¡¯s charged up attack the room would stay intact. Otherwise, it would cause huge problems.

    The bystander stands were protected by a glass mirror, and the ceiling of the room was naturally lit by the stars outside. Rather than fighting Luon thought, it was the perfect place for stargazing.

    Arisa sat in the arena and faced Bendan who energetically volunteered himself for battle. Bendan wanted to work out the food stored in his stomach right now, and it was the perfect time to do so if it wasn¡¯t for the fact he was brutally beaten in the first few minutes.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    The moment Arisa equipped her NG-Arms, it was merely a one-sided slaughter, staring at Bendan¡¯s defeated figure Tyron and Gizmo completely gave up fighting Arisa. Why should they fight a lost cause? They weren¡¯t masochists as they glared at their friend Bendan who was beaten senseless. He started to laugh hysterically at his defeat. Secretly they thought he was a masochist for sure.

    Luon, on the other hand, was excited to fight Arisa. They fought before without NG-Arms, and it only turned out to be a long draw. If Arisa had used her NG-Arms back then, he would have had no chance in winning, but now he has an NG-Arms and battling Arisa would be the perfect time to increase his compatibility with his new equipment.

    Luon replaced Bendan in the arena with his NG-Arms equipped and the two of them stared down for a few moments in anticipation on the others first move.

    They both were equipped with their NG-Arms and a silver standard training sword. With combat levels equivalent to a level 70 soldier, if they were to use their personalized sword, there was no guarantee that the outcome of the match wouldn''t damage it. To do last minute repairs was very troublesome which is why they both used the freely provided training swords.

    It was unknown who made a move first as they simultaneously stepped in and swung as the blades clash causing a resounding echo to hit every corner of the room.

    Overhand strikes, sideway strikes, the two continuous slashed and hacked at each other while dodging each slash by merely a few centimeters.

    Luon had used his [Steps of Starlight] technique consistently to speed up his movement while Arisa countered with her movement technique as bloody particles emitted from her feet.

    The arena was already brightly lit by the stars outside, and the rapid strikes cause their swords to wear down as glittering pieces of sword shavings began to fall slowly. With the reflection of the stars outside the shards shined brightly as numerous slashes appeared and disappeared in front of Luon¡¯s and Arisa¡¯s vision. However, they were too focused on each others movement to pay attention to the marvelous sight.

    Within a minute they had already traded over a hundred blows and much more if they didn¡¯t avoid a few attacks. The match slowly got more intense as neither of them backed off more than a meter apart, in and out they went as afterimages appeared around them.

    However, the faster they went, the harder it was for them to react to the others movement it was as if they could predict the future as the swords swiftly hacked away. Arisa began to emit a bloody aura as her berserk skill started to activate, soon enough Luon was barely managing because of his Eye of Insight skill managed to see a glimpse at Arisa¡¯s future movement by a millisecond ahead.

    As for the bystanders they were already shocked at the high-level combat before them. It was so advanced rather than a match it seemed like a work of art, a sword dance between two warriors lost in their world. Gizmo couldn¡¯t help but take a picture using the BMPU¡¯s highly advanced camera system.

    It was as if time froze on the picture as one could see the glittering sword shards frozen in the air, Arisa with a blossoming smile as bloody red particles encased her, Luon smiling greatly as his body released a silvery glimmer caused by the advanced version of the [Steps to Starlight] skill. They both posed in an offensive position as if the next move would end the match with a sword clash. One could see the torque on the body on the two of them. They both had the full intentions of hacking the other.

    The battle continued even more, however, the mind and eye can see, but Luon¡¯s body couldn¡¯t keep up with the high-pace actions. Luon laments his weak body foundations as Arisa took the opportunity to stab into Luon¡¯s stomach.

    Arisa was smiling even more at this godsend opportunity. However, Luon didn¡¯t throw in the towel yet. With a smirk, he bellowed, ¡°Transform!¡±

    Luon¡¯s body emitted a flash and Arisa continued to attack. A screeching reaction occurred as Arisa was shocked at how Luon was suddenly equipped with a fiendish black armor that made him look like a dark hero.

    Arisa whose attack faltered under Luon¡¯s armor stepped back before Luon could counter her failed attempt, but Luon had let her go intentionally.

    He glances at the energy levels left on his NG-Arms and found that over a third of the energy had already been consumed. Luon knew eventually he would lose as the crystallized material used to fuel the suit was the cheap budget version with a lesser capacity compared to Arisa¡¯s.

    Once his NG-Arms powers off Luon¡¯s combat level would be back to level 50, like a sheep he would be slaughtered one-sidedly to the big bad vampire.

    Luon only had one chance to make this work as he approached Arisa with the full intentions of ending the bout. Arisa who noticed that also engaged in combat and the two dashed forward at each other causing a second round of sword clashes.

    However, this series of sword clashes ended short as once again Arisa managed to break through Luon¡¯s guard and her slash was just about to collide with armor once again. However, right before it, the attack hit Luon he activated a specialty skill that Zekar had taught him. The ability that was engraved inside the armor and the cost of it were massive.

    ¡°Nix!¡± yelled Luon as the armor glowed silver. Millions of tiny particles shot out from the exhaust from the NG-Arms and Luon suddenly disappeared in front of Arisa. Shocked at what just happened Arisa battle senses tingled as she reactively blocked her back, but it was too late! Luon attacked at speed beyond recognition, and her body was knocked down. Fortunately, the arena systems mitigated most of the damages done to contestants by substituting the target with several life support statues around the arena.

    An exploding sound echoed as Arisa¡¯s life support system was shattered, if she were in actual combat, she would have died from the attack. The life support statue crumbled signaling the end of the match.

    Everyone was shocked, NG-Arms were already powerful enough, and Luon¡¯s had suddenly powered up, according to match data his combat level skyrocketed to 80 for a few seconds before plummeting downwards.

    Shizuka couldn¡¯t help but eye Luon¡¯s NG-Arms, it seems to have more hidden features than what she anticipated. What was the core engine used to cause its powered mode? How was it made? She wanted just to run up and knock Luon out to examine it, but couldn¡¯t bear doing so due to her pride.

    Luon was exhausted his power suit made a disturbing crackling sound as the energy source shattered. When he was testing this feature out, Zekar strictly warned and lectured him about the excessive destruction of the crystalized energy source.

    Completely satisfied with the outcome of the battle Luon couldn¡¯t help but grin, he unequipped his NG-Arms as he lends a hand to the fallen Arisa who was still shocked at her loss. Seeing the figure of Luon smiling in front of her she couldn''t help but smile back. She accepted her loss as she held onto Luon¡¯s hand to help pull her up. If they were to fight again, Luon would lose as his NG-Arms needed some maintenance while Arisa¡¯s was still functional, but they were both tired. The two of them had different expressions, Luon smiled in satisfaction while Arisa smiled with desire, she may have lost this round, but she was determined to win the next one.

    With a round of applause from the audience, the sparring session ended as many benefited from the spectacle of this elegant sword dance under the starlight.

    ¡­

    Days passed, and the ship finally arrived on the outer perimeter of the planet filled with Inzektors. Captain Waver stood in front of the group of students explaining the details of the survival training.

    ¡°As many of you already know the goal is to survive 14 days, whatever you do in between doesn¡¯t matter to us. Do not forget that we are watching you and remember, don¡¯t break any of the rules we set down,¡± said Captain Waver as he projected a holographic display listing several rules that the students have to follow.

    There were several rules, but the major ones were that they weren¡¯t able to kill each other, but they were allowed to steal food from each other. The rules also stated that students could create safe zones as scattered around the planet were ruins of resource points which starting supplies were dropped at.

    Real-time construction on outposts is a crucial skill in the battlefield so students were awarded extra points if they could secure one.

    ¡°Alright, you may begin,¡± Captain Waver said to initiate the start of the event.

    Group by group entered the portal and eventually it was their turn to go.

    Luon and his friends stepped into the platform and closed their eyes while Zythos sneakily signaled to his collaborators, they quickly changed the random location mode into a fixed destination, and back when the transfer was completed, nobody had noticed this change.

    Luon who felt the change in his surroundings opened his eyes only to find a scene he didn¡¯t expect.

 Chapter 34 - Falsehood

    The surroundings were bright like the stars in space, unlike the jungle atmosphere he had seen on the surface of the planet, the place where he was at was unknown.

    Luon gazed around the area, Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan weren¡¯t here despite the fact they left together. At the place Luon was at there was only a single pathway and space all around with twinkling stars as a backdrop, he reckons if he were to step off the platform he could end up endlessly falling for who knows how long.

    With nowhere to go, Luon could step forward into the unknown world. Luon walked on and on for who knows how long, he was never tired nor could he recognize how long he had walked. His senses were numb as if he walked through a blanket of darkness.

    After endlessly walking on this path he noticed something parallel to the pathway. When he got closer, he found that the thing he saw in the distance were a series of picture frames. Inside of these small windows was an animated scene which Luon found familiar.

    Luon looked carefully at these images and found that these were the memories he made during his time in the Vortex Container.

    Confused by the spectacle Luon could only walk on as the scenes of the past flash before him.

    Where was he? Why was he here? Where did everyone go? Luon questions himself with every step he took. However, there was no answer. His questions were left open into the space around him, not a single echo for reassurance could be heard. Luon soon found himself divulged into more serious thoughts.

    What''s happening to me? How long have I been here for? Who am I? As more memories came to Luon¡¯s mind, he began to waver on his thoughts about his existence. Fortunately, for Luon the path soon ended before he became even more crazed. All of the sudden a surge of information enveloped his mind reassuring him of his existence as he calmed down.

    Before Luon was a throne placed in this desolate place and on top of it was someone who Luon was familiar with.

    The man gazed at Luon with a deadpan face as not a single word flowed out of his mouth. Luon who was reorganizing the information he had just received found his gaze to be irritating.

    Luon bellowed with anger, ¡°Why are you here? What¡¯s going on? Where are my friends? Did you bring me here?¡±

    The man on the throne simply shook his head in denial, he mouthed a few words, but not a single word entered Luon¡¯s ears. Instead, another series of information flashed into Luon¡¯s mind as he now recognizes the situation he was in.

    Luon was currently in an illusory realm within his mind, as for why he was brought here it was because he was hit with an illusion spell before he had even noticed it. The man before him helped alleviate the effects and protected him from harm.

    Luon looked at the man on the throne again, he felt terrible yelling at the person in front of him and said, ¡°Thanks, I didn¡¯t expect to see you again, Black Luon.¡±

    It was an awkward scene if one had just stumbled upon the situation between the two. Imagine watching someone having a proactive conversation between himself in the mirror, it was weird.

    However, the Black Luon was completely understanding and didn¡¯t express any displeasure. What Luon realized from the information he had just received was that he was emotionally unstable from the previous memories after the memories had fused. The scenes of his previous memories before were buried behind many other dominant memories and then were replayed once more by these mirrors.

    Everyone had a dark secret they would love to bury within themselves, in the back of their minds they seal their failure and deny its existence.

    The amalgamation caused by the BMPU had only fused a partition of his memories as many segments laid buried in his mind. His synchronization rate right now, if it had a numeric value would be around 50%. If Luon had seen his stats now, he would have found out that now he has a new skill [Mental Resistance] and his combat level rose up a single level.

    As Luon pondered over the buried memories, he had just recalled the Black Luon once again mouthed a few words only this time they echoed into his mind.

    ¡®Wake up. You¡¯re in danger.¡¯

    With those words, the surroundings shattered as if it were a piece of fragile glass as the dimension within in his mind shook. The shimmering stars fell as the stone pathway crumbled. Luon found himself clueless to the situation but trusted himself as the Black Luon more than likely had no ill-intentions.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    The surroundings became eternally dark, and it devoured luon.

    ...

    Luon woke up startled as he tried to wiggle his body only to find himself restricted.

    Recalling the sensation of darkness enveloping him a few moments before his realistic dream had caused him to shiver.

    Before Luon¡¯s eyes was a scene that genuinely oozed danger. Besides Luon who had just woken up was, Bendan, Gizmo, and Tyron were all tied up in a spider-like cocoon with only their heads sticking out. They were currently trapped within a spider-type Inzektor nest as Luon suddenly recalled what he was facing.

    [Demon-face Illusion Spider]

    [Race - Inzektor]

    [Combat Level - 45]

    [Racial Skills - Inzektor Signal, Nimble, Silk Generation]

    [Active Skills - Mind Break, Reproduce, Devour]

    [A rare Inzektor with the rare ability to dispose of the fiercest foes with mental attacks. When their prey is sent in an illusion of desires, they feast upon them after reproducing their kind. Although weak individually with their mental attacks and army of spiderlings they continue to be feared.]

    Luon could only scream in his mind at how bad the situation was, in the corner of his eye he noticed that the giant spider had just finished laying its eggs as they suddenly began to hatch.

    The little white spiderlings who were just born began to cry in hunger as they began to cannibalize each other to satiate their desires. The mother spider cried scaring many of them and redirected their attention to the weak tied up foes found before them.

    Luon had a minute before they start attacking him and his friends. He quickly attempted to channel his Manaqi energy only to find that the webs disabled the usage of it. Although disheartened by that fact this wasn¡¯t a situation where he could lament about it, he quickly yelled, ¡°Transform!¡±

    Within seconds his body flashed brightly, and the webs that were holding him down tore effortlessly by the tempered and sharp metal segments that protruded from the designs of the armor.

    After he was free, he started to free his companions as the mother spider and spiderlings came charging towards them. Out of the three only Bendan and Tyron woke up right away and they began to resist the spiders. Luon who intended to wake up Gizmo found him to be deep asleep, he had no more leeway and left him behind, protected with some barrier type magic from a tool he pulled from his intraspatial bag.

    Luckily the spiders weren¡¯t smart enough to confiscate their belongings as Luon pulled out a series of weapons and tools to deal with them. The spider army dwindled, although numerous they were pathetically weak and had no thoughts other than to fill their stomachs. In fact, some of them took the opportunity to cannibalize on each other.

    The mother spider was enraged at its pathetic children as it vented its anger on Luon and his friends. The three of them fought hard, several spiders passed by them and tried to attack Gizmo only to find themselves wasting their time on the barrier that was set up.

    Soon enough the mother¡¯s death throes echoed out as the spiderlings rapidly flee from their mother''s murderers.

    Luon and his friends took this time to rest instead of chasing after these spiderlings. Eventually, they would grow up and make another nest, but when that time comes at least, they wouldn¡¯t be there to experience it.

    Luon tidied their surroundings as the blood-stench air settled in their surroundings, and he took the opportunity to wake up Gizmo.

    ¡°Ahhhh, I was just at the good part! The bikini girl just led me inside of her hotel room,¡± Gizmo yelled in anguish.

    Bendan walked over to Luon who just woke up Gizmo and lectured him, ¡°Gizmo right now we¡¯re on a desolate island, so get rid of your fantasies. I know you spend most of your nights in the Vortex Container running simulations where you hit on girls on the beach, mountain, and mall, but this isn¡¯t the place for it.¡±

    Even though the Vortex Container disables adult related content, it couldn¡¯t stop curious teenagers from admiring the clothed bodies of beauties, as long as the content was appropriate enough the simulation wouldn¡¯t stop.

    Luon could only sigh at his friend who was busy dreaming of beauties while they were out vigorously fighting against a horde of spiders.

    The group continued to clear up the surroundings and decided set up camp nearby. The spiders have already made a run for their lives and the other creatures of the night probably feared the spiders making this the ideal location to start.

    What they needed to do to survive in the wilderness was secure food, shelter, and water. Fortunately, this spider nest was like a gold mine, the shelter it provided was secure, and the food although disgusting was still edible. Tyron expressed his intentions of eating the spiders and Bendan didn¡¯t care. Only Gizmo and Luon found the meal to be aggravating, and the dishearteningly ate it.

    During dinner at the camp they confirmed their goals and listed first on things to do was to find one of those resource outposts to score some easy points. The crew ate and rotated night watch duties. To no surprise, Gizmo had a more extended and more troublesome watch period since he didn¡¯t do any work before.

    Thus the first night ended.

    ¡­

    ¡°There¡¯s an awfully a lot of Inzektors on the island, who was in charge of weeding them out this year?¡± Captain Waver said as he switched between the monitors inspecting the students progress.

    ¡°Reporting, the ones in charge of weeding out the island was the fourth division, sir,¡± replied the officer who had caused trouble for Luon before.

    He had already finished with what Zythos had assign before, all he had to do is lay low before he gets promoted.

    Captain Waver frowned upon his words, the fourth division was backed by the Mythos clan, and he couldn¡¯t help but feel that they neglected their duties this year.

    He couldn¡¯t help but feel nervous about this expedition since the young misses from the Novera Corporation, Nightwalker family and one of the supreme commander''s daughter was on this trip.

    Captain Waver carefully watched over his students, but little did he know this trip was more than what he could handle.

 Chapter 35 - First Outpost Reconstruction

    The first night passed by uneventfully. Luon who had spent the majority of the night in unease due to the what he had experienced in the illusionary realm woke up slightly haggard.

    From what the Black Luon told him his personality is currently unbalanced, sometimes he was flamboyant like the playful blue Luon, other times he was as dense as the yellow Luon, and when Luon fought, he was expressionless like the black one.

    Which one was the real Luon? He could shake his head at the thought as he knew that they were all a part of him. From his understanding the more he got into the previous memories, the more complicated his mind gets, at the same time it allows him to unlock some potential skills that he has hidden away.

    [Luon Fate]

    [Race: Half-Human/Half-Elf]

    [Federation ID: NEX-6854BP]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 51]

    [Racial Skills: Quickness, Night Vision, Mana Affinity]

    [Active Skills: Wind Magic Lv3, Reinforcement Magic Lv4, Mana Manipulation Lv4, Manaqi Lv3, Steps of Starlight Lv3, Array Formation Lv2]

    [Passive Skills: Swordsmanship Lv4, Parallel Thoughts Lv3, Eye of Insight Lv4, Circuit Establishment Lv3, Mental Resistance Lv3]

    [Species Knowledge Evaluation: 617/1000]

    [Technical Knowledge Evaluation: 735/1000]

    [Monthly Salary Evaluation: 2527 Galaxia Coins]

    [Recommended Job Paths: Engineer, Soldier, Commander]

    Looking over his status, he noticed that the newly gained skill [Mental Resistance] was already level 3. Without the help of the black Luon he and his friends might have died without realizing it, he shuddered at the thought of being torn apart by spiders.

    Throwing away his thoughts Luon went to the local stream they found near their campsite to wake himself up. Tyron was energetically making breakfast as he made another spider dish, and fried spider eggs with a salad composed of several plants they found in the forest.

    Gizmo swore to himself that he would find a better meal while searching for the outposts. Luon had the same ideas as Gizmo, but he knew for a fact that other than plants found in the forest there will be nothing better to eat. Whenever an Inzektor claims a planet all traces of life would be exterminated, there were no wild animals. The only time he could rejoice about meeting Inzektors would be when he met with some humanoid ones, although inedible due to the fact it was similar to cannibalizing humans, people could feast on the products they personally grew.

    For Luon to obtain edible food, he prioritized finding outposts while picking up several wild plants.

    After the disgusting breakfast, they set off into the forest ruled by the Inzektors.

    Luon couldn¡¯t help but be in awe at the amount of vegetation on this planet. The Nexus solar system was already void of natural resources, and if they claimed this planet for the usage of resources, several problems would be solved. He didn¡¯t like the fact that the Nexus solar system relied on themselves in imports from other solar systems. In fact, the higher-ups did consider converting the planet into a natural resource planet, but the military division argued that without the natural environment how could they train new recruits to fight against Inzektors fearlessly?

    By self-cultivating Inzektors, they could prevent the losses of soldiers that enter the battlefield for the first time against Inzektors. Compared to the loss of a potential resource generating planet, human resources was a very important factor in both battle potential and overall morale.

    Although there were cases of people dying during this trip, it was proclaimed that their sacrifices were all for the greater good.

    Luon nodded and agreed to that thought, why become soldiers if you feared death? It was not necessary to participate in this trip, so he only felt that those who died were unfortunate. They must have encountered a similar situation that they were just in just a day ago. Although such thoughts were cold-hearted, he could only pray that the afterlife exists and their next lives would turn out better for those poor souls. He also hoped the officials of the underworld didn¡¯t have any records of how their life was spent.

    Luon, Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan walked along the stream near their campsite. Logically speaking when someone creates an outpost, they would have built it near a source of water as for which direction to go from they examined the surroundings for any signs of humanity.

    Tyron used his hunting skills to deduce a direction from atop the surrounding trees, gazing over the landscape he concluded that there might have been traces of humanity in a particular direction and they all followed suit. The most obvious proof of the previous existence of people were footprints but who knows how long since humans were last on this planet? Another way to deduce the location of the outpost would be the size of trees if humans were to create an outpost several parts of the forest would have to be cleared to prevent landslides.

    As the group searched for signs of an outpost they picked up several wild and edible plants. Luon could only smile at his intraspatial bag that was slowly stacked with them. At least they wouldn¡¯t be eating spiders for quite some time.

    Half a day went by, and they only stopped once for a break. Along the way they encountered several Inzektor¡¯s who retaliated on the invasion of their territory, but Luon¡¯s group couldn¡¯t care less about such borders and dove pass hive by the hive.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Luon gazed at the leaderboard rankings on Inzektor kills and found himself highly ranked at the same time saw a very irritating name on the list.

    [Rankings List]

    [Zythos - 325 Points]

    [Arisa - 277 Points]

    [Luon - 201 Points]

    [Bendan¡­]

    Luon deduced that Zythos may have found a nest of weak and numerous Inzektors by chance, if Luon had hoarded all the points at the Demon-faced Spider¡¯s nest he would have been top of the scoreboard.

    Despite the score difference, Luon could still catch up as long as he found the outpost and crafted a base. Captain Waver had sent a message to all participants in regards to the task. Luon and his friends were all fired up to find it as well after all it paid exceptionally well.

    [Quest - Craft a Base]

    [Scattered around the planet were several outposts that were recently supplied with materials, reconstruct the outpost to the point where it¡¯s fully operational.]

    [Reward - 5000 Points Distributed based on Contribution values]

    A grand total of 5000 points would be distributed to those who helped on the construction. Rather than fight 5000 different Inzektors, it would be somewhat easier just to build an outpost by himself, but at the same time the longer it takes to construct the higher the chance that points would be distributed to strangers.

    Without a doubt they needed to find an outpost first, with Tyron leading the group soon enough they found an abandoned outpost.

    Luon, Bendan, Tyron, and Gizmo stood before the shambled entrance awed at how unmaintained the location was. Wild vegetation seeped into the walls of building, leaks, and cracks on stone segments and several scarred areas in memory of a tough fight against the Inzektors.

    The group scouted the building and estimated that it would take 5 days to reconstruct the power lines as well as the walls before the outpost could be considered as secured.

    Without a moment to lose, they set up camp within the command room after securing the perimeter. While Luon and Gizmo started to design the repair diagrams, Tyron secured the materials found on the outpost and Bendan patrolled the base. The very few Inzektors found on the base were wiped out by Bendan¡¯s blade as he nonchalantly scouted the base.

    The first thing Luon had fixed was the radar and alarm system this way they could ease up on the night watch. Once that was completed it was almost night time, and Luon quickly made a meal out of the wild vegetables he had picked as well as several pieces of meat from the supply found at the base.

    This meal satisfied everyone, it was way better than eating spiders and spider eggs.

    The following days were simple for the crew after they found the outpost. Luon and Gizmo would construct the base while Bendan and Tyron hunted nearby Inzektors while gathering wild plants.

    Once the detection system was set up, and the walls were melded with the excess materials found at the base. Usually, this task would take a humongous amount of effort. However, Luon had packed several solar-powered machines which aided the construction progress.

    They rebuilt the walls, cleaned the vegetation surrounding the base, repair several defense modules and before they knew it the base was completed within 5 days.

    [Ding - Quest Complete]

    [Distributing Contribution Points]

    [Luon Fate - 60.6% Contribution - 3030 Points]

    [Gizmo - 24% Contribution - 1200 Points]

    [Tyron - 10% Contribution - 500 Points]

    [Bendan - 5.4% Contribution - 270 Points]

    Luon smiled by the number of points he gained, although Tyron and Bendan contribution values were lower due to the fact they didn¡¯t help too much on the reconstruction they were able to earn points from hunting Inzektors in the surroundings.

    Luon who was gloating over their fabulous reconstruction job checked the ladder board.

    [Rankings List]

    [Luon - 3531 Points]

    [Arisa - 1762 Points]

    [Zythos - 1675 Points]

    Although he was surprised at how hard the other people worked, he smiled as he securely ranked first on the ladder board. If this keeps up he will end up first in the competition, the only person that could possibly catch up to Luon would be Shizuka if she spent most of her time securing and reconstructing outposts. With that in mind Luon thought to ensure his victory he should reconstruct another outpost.

    Fortunately, while they were repairing the base they found the archives were accessible and found data in regards to another outpost several kilometers nearby, only it was well guarded by several herds of Inzektors. According to Luon''s estimates, it would take nearly 3 days to clear the number of Inzektors by ordinary methods.

    Normal methods were things that regular people would use, but Luon was not an average person. If he had a choice to fire a missile to wipe out a massive army of Inzektors he would gladly do so despite the repercussions. Was he a maniac? No! He was merely greedy to get first in the assessment and had a deep hatred for Inzektors. If it weren¡¯t for them, he wouldn¡¯t have experienced hell during his first simulation.

    Although he didn¡¯t have a missile, the base had data pertaining useful weapons used to wipe out Inzektors as well as materials used to construct them. Right away after building the base Luon began working on his anvil.

    The light on the workshop was lit as he spent the whole day crafting as he creepily laughed deep within the night. Those Inzektors would meet their doom the next day.

    ¡­

    With a slash with her sword another enemy fell, and with several twists of the wrist, blood fell on the ground in tribute to another fresh kill cleansing the blade of any disgusting liquid it had on it.

    She sheathed her sword as one of her followers walked up to her and said, ¡°Milady, the scoreboard has changed.¡±

    Piqued by her subordinates words she asked, ¡°Oh, was that Zythos able to overcome my score? He sure is hard working.¡±

    ¡°No milady, it¡¯s sir Luon who managed to get. First, it seems that he constructed an outpost,¡± said her subordinate quickly.

    The lady, Arisa smiled at that remark, ¡°Is that so? Maybe we should reconstruct an outpost as well, other than wiping out Inzektors Shizuka is practically bored, did you find one yet?¡±

    ¡°Yes, milady, past these groups of Inzektors is an outpost. However, if we were to begin construction now they would hinder our work, it would take at least a few more days to wipe them out,¡± said the subordinate.

    Arisa sighed as she said, ¡°Keep the rotation going, change the gathering squad to one and set the rest to attack the Inzektors, I want this base cleared a day or two faster than what your estimates are.¡±

    ¡°Yes milady,¡± the follower said as she left to inform the others.

    Arisa went back to the camp and rested, for the next few days all she could only do was focus on the hunt.

 Chapter 36 - Simple Hunting

    ¡°Rejected, if you want to go then let¡¯s split up,¡± Gizmo said firmly.

    When Luon mentioned the idea of securing another outpost for more points Gizmo did not approve of it.

    According to the rules for the point system if the base were to be destroyed, then all their hard work would be subtracted and lost. However, despite this Luon still wanted to secure another outpost and the only way to do so is to eliminate the surrounding Inzektors.

    Luon had spent the night creating a robotics factory to build more robots with a simple AI system. They were designed to do simple tasks and improve the defenses of the fortress. However, there was a limit to their numbers as the resources in the base slowly dwindled.

    For efficiency, they were armed with electric powered rifles that shot a wooden projectile crafted from the surrounding trees. For weak Inzektors, it worked well, but the ones with a hard carapace made things difficult for them, which is why Luon also took the time to construct a few energy rifles and some other useful weapons. If the robots still couldn¡¯t face against some Inzektors Luon¡¯s friends would intervene.

    For Luon to assault the second outpost, he crafted a couple of weapons to eliminate the surrounding Inzektors and a small team of robots to aid in the construction.

    The team was split into two, Luon led one while Gizmo led the other. It was important for Bendan to stay to defend the first base, so Tyron went with Luon to help attack the second outpost.

    ¡°Alright, it might take you guys a few days to secure the outpost. Fortunately, the BMPU messaging system still works so if you have any problems send a message back and we will prepare ourselves to help,¡± Gizmo said.

    ¡°Yeah, if something were to happen I¡¯ll send you guys a message. Also if you need some help, you can send me a message as well, and I¡¯ll rush back. Make sure you clear out the Inzektors around the base, it would be quite boring just sitting back at the base, and it would make it easier for yourselves,¡± said Luon while he double checked his tools.

    ¡°You got that right I will be hunting all day, it''s like a daily exercise for me. Gizmo do you want to join me?¡± replied Bendan.

    ¡°No thanks, I rather just sit back at the base, all I wanted was some money, so I¡¯ll just laze around for now,¡± Gizmo said as he yawned to exaggerate his laziness.

    ¡°Since you¡¯re going to be resting at the base you might as well manage the supply robots to build some munitions. I left a blueprint of a few very helpful and deadly weapons, there''s already a few samples, and the robots should already be making them right now,¡± Luon said.

    ¡°Okay, Okay, I got it. Just take care of yourself alright. I''m going to head back in now to sleep,¡± Gizmo replied as he began to walk back in the base.

    Seeing Gizmo leave Bendan turned his head towards Luon and said ¡°Don¡¯t worry about us. We will keep this place secured so get out there and beat down them Inzektors. Remember though stay alive and keep safe; anything can happen.¡±

    Tyron at this point motioned himself at the entrance waiting for Luon to leave. Seeing how it was time to go Luon said, ¡°Alright take care of yourself now if you need some weaponry just ask the robots.¡±

    Bendan nodded and began to pose, he stood up straight and struck his fist over his heart and proclaimed, ¡°For a new era.¡±

    What Bendan just did was the etiquette between soldiers a gesture between those who fought the Inzektors, a universal saying uniting all nations.

    Luon imitated the act and before he left said, ¡°For a new era.¡±

    ¡­

    ¡°Holy smokes what was he crafting! One wrong move and there would be a huge hole in the base,¡± said Gizmo as he checked on the supply robots progress.

    Originally Gizmo was going to sleep right away, but he was curious about the task that was assigned to the robots. Gizmo went to the workshop after seeing Luon off only to be shocked at the sight. The tasks that Luon made the robots craft were explosives, namely grenades and rockets. Several robots can be seen handling with gunpowder meticulously.

    At first, when Luon introduced the robots to the team, they were armed with basic rifles to handle simple Inzektors. Little did Gizmo know Luon was prepared to take down even giants and mass armies of Inzektors, he was set to start a war.

    Luon despite having engraved deck of cards as the primary source of range attacks dabbled in the art of explosives. He had done so mainly because it was possible that magic and Qi arrays could inflict nearly zero damage under the power and restriction of anti-magic and energy barriers.

    Attacks can be divided into two categories - magical and physical and they could only be guarded against using defenses that specialize in it.

    Explosive shrapnels are effective against mages while magic was useful against armored beings, and Luon¡¯s cards fell in the magic category. Even if the Inzektor were armored, the explosives would still do a surprising amount of damage but not as much as his spells would do.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The biggest problem about fighting Inzektors and most armies were called the ¡®Ball of Death,¡¯ utilizing superior range attacks, protective barriers and armor, it was nearly impossible to stop these kinds of armies, and the Inzektors were experts in amassing troops.

    The only weakness for these massive groups was an overwhelming amount of firepower. The Alliance armies used giant beam cannons, nuclear missiles, and explosives to wipe Inzektors out. It was a common tactic. However, the downside to this was lack of resources and time. In a war of attrition, if the Alliance were to nuke the Inzektors continuously, they would be able to claim several more solar systems, but eventually, in the long term, they would end up losing due to lack of nuclear weaponry.

    It was decided to only use such munitions effectively on crucial parts of the battle.

    Gizmo sighed as he thought ¡®Well might as well keep crafting, its not my resources anyways. I hope that nothing blows up now.¡¯

    ¡°Oh, Gizmo you ain¡¯t sleeping yet?¡± said Bendan as he walked into the workshop.

    ¡°Why are you here?¡± questioned Gizmo.

    ¡°Luon said I could pick up some stuff. So I came to do so, is that the things he was talking about?¡± said Bendan as he walked over to the finished products table lightly playing with a grenade.

    ¡°Hey, be careful with that we don¡¯t want accidents to happen.¡± Yelled Gizmo.

    ¡°Alright, chill a bit and hit the sacks. I¡¯m going to go out hunting now,¡± smiled Bendan as he began to pack several grenades into his intraspatial bag and left the room happily.

    Seeing the giddy figure of Bendan leaving the room Gizmo grew drowsy, now that he confirmed what Luon had told him to do, he decided it was time to sleep.

    ¡­

    Tyron and Luon quickly step in the forest situated several kilometers outside of the base. For the past few days, Bendan and Tyron worked hard to eliminate every trace of Inzektors several kilometers from the camp. On the radar system at the headquarters, not a single red dot was detected reassuring the group of the possibility of night attacks.

    The two steadily headed towards the direction of the second outpost, using the map feature found on the BMPU there was no way for them to get lost. For the event, most of the terrain on the map was recorded with a black fog only uncovering several kilometers around there previous and current path traveled.

    Soon enough, when they were nearly 50 kilometers away from the outpost, Tyron found signs of Inzektors.

    The two began to slow down and slowly hid in a bush nearby. They heard the earth shake and twigs breaking as a group of Inzektors crawled by.

    It was a miniature swarm of Inzektors called Catiling, Luon gazing at their appearance, and related them to car-sized pill bugs. A massive black swarm came by in a formation that seemed scripted, in rows and columns the group moved at the same pace ferrying several ingredients found in the forest.

    Tyron readied his bow and waited for Luon to prepare an attack, but Luon tapped his hand lowering the bow. Tyron relaxed as he stared at Luon silently asking his intentions when Luon said, ¡°Wait a moment, they are carrying food so they might have a nest nearby. Let¡¯s track them for now; later we can wipe out the whole group for good.¡±

    Tyron nodded, and the two stealthily stalked the Catilings from a distance.

    Luon admired at how quiet Tyron movements were as he tried to imitate it himself. Tyron who noticed Luon¡¯s interest in his hunting technique provided some tips via messages on the BMPU. Not a single word was verbally said as the chat box was filled with professional tips and tricks about professional stalking techniques.

    Luon asked if it was normal to share his family techniques and Tyron nodded as he tapped his BMPU to respond to Luon.

    When Luon checked the message, he got from Tyron it said, ¡°It¡¯s alright for us to share our hunting technique, it¡¯s basic and simple, and I think you¡¯re an honest, and good person.¡±

    Luon was happy to be called a nice guy and Tyron continued, ¡°It was only a sin to teach this stalking technique to a people who are classified as pedophiles, deviants, and stalkers because it brings shame to our family name. This has happened many times in the past, and I trust you wouldn¡¯t do anything to shame us. To be honest, I was reluctant to share it, even the simplest easy-going nice guy could loli-loving stalker, and I think you¡¯re not one of them.¡±

    Luon smiled wryly at the comment. During the first simulation, he has read and witnessed these bands of deviant and shameless humans. As humans become more culturally knowledgeable and flexible thinkers, our imagination and preferences became weirder and awkward, and many different fetishes were made.

    From a natural love between genders to interspecies breeding many new desires came to light. In fact, some of these fetishes were classified as criminal activity or humanly awkward. One of the most mundane groups of weirdos were the Yes Loli No Touch group or the Boys Love Club, and the more hardcore ones would be the NTR Sect.

    As for what they¡¯re like it''s better not to know, Luon thought, ¡®Luckily, Tyron¡¯s family didn¡¯t irrationally spread their stalking techniques otherwise the world would be full of freaks.¡¯

    After stalking the group of Catilings they reached their nest, it was a giant hill of dirt, Luon thought it would be troublesome to single them out.

    Luon recalled what the Catilings were like. They had no real valuables. Other than food there was nothing that they took, this species of Inzektors were highly aggressive and this nest needed to be destroyed. Once Luon and Tyron cleared the second outpost of the surrounding Inzektors if the Catilings get a hand on those corpses they would massively produce an army within a few days. They fed on the waste of leaves and animals, and they were able to hunt for their food like wolves of a forest only with ranged attacks, only creepier.

    Luon told Tyron his plan, and they got into motion, they blocked off all possible exits to the nest using their intraspatial bags to pick up giant blocks of dirt and drop it on the holes. Luon pulled out from his intraspatial bag several improvised incendiary bombs he crafted at the outpost. Worse case scenario he was prepared to burn the forest down if a troublesome occasion were to occur and this was a perfect time to use a couple.

    Luon quickly tossed it inside of the nest, and then he promptly sealed the last exit. Within seconds the ground shook, and Luon carefully inspected his rankings recorded on his BMPU. His score soared reassuring him of the death of the Inzektors, and soon enough it stopped after a few minutes.

    Luon opened the dwelling only to find many black ashes of dead Catilings who suffered from burns and suffocation due to lack of air. What helped Luon kill them faster was that these Catilings filled their home with dry grass to make their nest more homely, sadly this trait backfired on them as they wouldn¡¯t have expected a wild arsonist to burn their nest.

    Luon smiled at the sight. It was a treasure trove of points. However, his smile didn¡¯t last long as when he cast his detection spell he found someone watching them from a distance.

    ¡°Who¡¯s there?!¡± Luon shouted and slowly in response to his voice the spectator came out.

 Chapter 37 - Reunion

    With a blade in hand, Luon readied himself for battle.

    ¡°This is quite unexpected. I didn¡¯t think you would be able to find me. Well since you found out now can I ask you to lower your guard down a bit, I have no ill intentions,¡± said the girl who just appeared out of nowhere.

    ¡®Invisibility spell, and a high level one at that,¡¯ thought Luon as he recognizes the person before him.

    Her name was Kiri Zen, and she was a subordinate of Belle. During the commander battles she served as one of the soldiers playing the role of the scout, and at the start of this expedition, she manages the other followers under Arisa, Shizuka, and Belle.

    When she performed the role of a scout, she had displayed a frighteningly powerful stealth ability that was inherited from her family genetics. Luon was curious about what kind of gene could grant people the ability to become invisible naturally, but he couldn¡¯t find anything about it.

    With the advent of interspecies mingling, genetics was heavily researched for various purposes. It was already challenging enough to trace back the source and ancestry of every being in the universe, but the fruit of their efforts had already been plucked. Studies revealed that genetics is a major factor in dictating the racial skills of a child.

    Kiri wore a slim tight, black military uniform that covered her voluptuous body, her seductive figure unlike Shizuka, Arisa, and Belle had more depth and was well developed. If one of those girls were able to hear Luon¡¯s thoughts they would smack the nonsense out of him stating that they weren¡¯t small it was just that she was too big.

    Kiri tapped and lifted her black cap letting down her long black hair and elegantly reenacted the universally renowned gesture decreasing Luon¡¯s wariness of her. With her hat in her hand, she smacked her chest once and firmly said, ¡°For a new era.¡±

    Although it was easy to mimic action the meaning behind each step spelled honor, pride, and dignity. If someone had dishonest thoughts while making this gesture, they would be considered as a shameful stain on the Alliance, and this dirt was hard to remove. In fact, when the Alliance was made everyone fought and respected each other, people treated others as brothers and sisters like a newly constructed flag it was clean and void of dirt. However, after centuries passed of continuous war times had change, corruption, negligence, and suppression occurred behind the scenes.

    At this moment Luon lowered his blade as he felt that she genuinely had no intentions of harming them. He believed that within the distance they have between them he would still be able to react safely.

    Tyron on the other hand, although still expressionless, began to drool a bit. The moment Kiri appeared in front of them Luon had sensed Tyron gaze focused in on her. Luon thought he was carefully watching her every action only seconds later did Luon find himself wrong. Tyron began salivating when she struck her chest with her fist causing her weapons of mass destruction to dance a ballad of death, stunning the innocent young man.

    Sensing the change in atmosphere Kiri placed her hat back on and said to Luon, ¡°Classmate Luon, my young miss would like to speak to you, I hope that you and your companion can follow me to meet her.¡±

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll go with you but let me ask you this. For how long have you been watching us?¡± Luon questioned as he was unperturbed by her appealing body and seductive moves that she had unknowingly caused. Tyron, however, was slightly slouching.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been here since the start before you guys have arrived as I was monitoring the nest,¡± said Kiri as she tapped her finger on her chin, and tilted her head in a naturally attractive manner.

    Luon then thought that her stealth ability seemed more than what it had revealed, she must have intentionally exposed herself after contacting Arisa for instructions. Luon¡¯s detection ability may not have picked her up earlier causing Luon to feel slightly ashamed. He didn¡¯t know if his skill had revealed her presence or that she gave herself away, and Luon found it troublesome to shamelessly ask to do it again to test that theory out.

    Kiri started to walk towards a direction dragging along a depressed Luon and a slightly flustered Tyron. The two of them carefully inspected their surroundings, but most of the time they were staring at her back, mainly her rear, well at least Tyron was.

    As they were walking along Luon focused his hearing and managed to hear some clicking sounds coming from Tyron¡¯s BMPU. He messaged Tyron using his BPMU asking what he was up to and Tyron replied, ¡°I was taking some pictures and sharing this experience with Bendan and Gizmo. The other day me, Bendan, Gizmo, and some other guys were talking about which classmate had the most erotic body, and she was in the top of each of our rankings, minus the guy who voted for the small girls.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Luon sighed as he realized that despite his classmates experiencing multiple life simulations they still endeavor in the art of voyeur. Seeing how Luon no longer pursued in the topic, Tyron continued to share his joy with his comrades.

    The odd group traveled for a while, and sure enough, they spotted more fellow students that were Kiri¡¯s comrades at the same time the three rich ladies servants.

    Kiri led Luon and Tyron to a tent situated in the middle of a camp, inside Luon found Arisa waiting for them on a chair as she was notified beforehand of their arrival.

    ¡°Welcome, although Belle and Shizuka aren¡¯t here I think we have some things we can talk about. How about you two sit over there,¡± said Arisa as she pointed out a few seats. While Luon and Tyron sat down on the designated chairs, Kiri situated herself diagonally behind Arisa and stood up staring blankly at the space before her.

    ¡°Now how about we share some information first. I¡¯ll ask one thing, and you would answer, and then it¡¯s your turn. Let me go first, why are you guys here?¡± asked Arisa.

    Luon thought about it for a second. He was sure that Arisa knew that his massive point lead was from constructing an outpost as she could have just checked the ranking board, so he decided to point out that he¡¯s after the second outpost beyond the herds of Inzektors surrounding it. With the number of subordinates clearing out Inzektors in this region it was easy to assume Arisa and her friends have already found it.

    ¡°I¡¯m here to construct an outpost. Are you girls going to stop us?¡± questioned Luon.

    Arisa became dumbfounded at how easy Luon spilled his intentions, she chuckled and said ¡°I don¡¯t have the authority to completely decide whether or not we should deal with you, although we can¡¯t kill you with the teachers watching us we can knock you out and tie you up. Wouldn¡¯t it be exciting to be bounded by a group of girls all around you?¡±

    Luon didn¡¯t reply and merely stared at her foolish remark while Tyron who was spectating on the side pondered for a bit and slightly nodded.

    Arisa then continued, ¡°Alright I was just joking, you can slay as many as you want and if you want to contribute in building the outpost than go right ahead. Without asking Belle and Shizuka for their opinions, I don¡¯t know how to handle you guys so you can do whatever you want as long as you agree to a couple of conditions.¡±

    ¡°And what¡¯s that?¡± asked Luon.

    Arisa stood up from her desk and pointed at Kiri as she said, ¡°First off, Kiri will be assigned to monitor to you as we can¡¯t have a man running amok unmanaged. At the same under my authority, she will repel any troublemakers within my troops. Secondly, first come, first serve, if one of us was attacking an Inzektor you cannot steal it and the same would apply to us. Finally, you cannot do anything to harm my people, and in exchange, we won¡¯t plot against you, a non-intervention pact. So do you agree?¡±

    Luon thought for a second and asked, ¡°Can you elaborate on how I would harm any members of your group? In what way can I do so if we¡¯re going to be temporarily allied.¡±

    Arisa smiled and said, ¡°Why there are many ways. For example, it may be impossible for you to do but you can ally with Zythos, and he might have a few tricks up his sleeves. Human-made lethal traps, knocking out Kiri and outright murdering people while blaming Inzektors, and even worse - M.P.K.¡±

    ¡°MPK? Do you mean when a monster kills a person?¡± questioned Luon.

    Arisa nodded and said, ¡°Yes that¡¯s exactly what I meant. Especially since we¡¯re dealing with Inzektors, you may encounter huge swarms of them. I want you to not lead them to us if you¡¯re chased. It¡¯s better for you just to run away from us.¡±

    Luon sat back on his chair and thought for a moment. Arisa¡¯s terms and conditions were very fair, and there were no loopholes from what he heard. Although having Kiri around was distracting, the fact that she would help them deal with troublemakers was a plus since both groups are hunting the Inzektors near the outpost.

    While Luon thought whether or not to agree to the proposition, Arisa got Kiri to make some tea for herself. With expert movements, Kiri went to the side of the tent and using some kitchen utensils they had set up began to brew tea. After a few minutes, she brought to the table a tea set along with a plate of sliced fruits found in the forest.

    Kiri bent over and began to pour the liquid from the teapot into Arisa¡¯s cup and as she did Tyron got a glimpse of a dark, vast and soft ravine, his eyes brimmed with desire as his inner hunter senses attempted to subdue the raging wild beast inside of him.

    Tyron closed his eyes and silently messaged Luon while his mind was in turmoil, ¡°Agree with the conditions. Logically there is no reason for us to cause trouble and the same goes for them.¡±

    Luon who received Tyron¡¯s message thought for a moment and found his words to be very truthful. There was no harm in allying with them, so he nodded and said to Arisa, ¡°Alright I agree to your terms for a non-intervention pact. As long as we get a share of the points, I am satisfied, but let me ask you another question before the deal is sealed.¡±

    ¡°Alright, ask away then,¡± replied Arisa.

    ¡°Do you intend to vie for the first ranked position?¡± Luon asked. Right now Luon was currently in first place. In the first place, Arisa did not need to rank first. At the end of the competition other than status, the winner would only receive money and an excellent piece of information written in their portfolio. Arisa was already a wealthy lady, so instead of working hard on the survival training, she could have just slacked off.

    Arisa giggled at his reply and said, ¡°So what if I am? Money, fame, and dignity? I have no needs for that. I just joined the training camp to test my strength against the Inzektors. It isn''t my fault the Inzektors are weak and fragile as a piece of glass, and everyone else is as slow. as a turtle.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯re only ranked second because you just like fighting?¡± Luon was shocked to out that the number of points she had casually accumulated surpassed those try hard students.

    ¡°Yup, just trying out my moves. Are you satisfied with my answer?¡± questioned Arisa.

    Luon nodded and said, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s all I wanted to know.¡±

    ¡°Great so our alliance is effective immediately, it would be helpful if you began hunting on th-¡±

    ¡°Hold it right there! I have something to say about this!¡± While Arisa was finalizing the deal, an intruder barged in.

 Chapter 38 - Dispute

    ¡°Shizuka what do you want to say? I thought you weren''t interested in the competition. You said it was because your parents made you come and you just wanted to slack off since they had no requirements other than your participation,¡± said Arisa.

    ¡°Originally I wasn''t interested, however, if you incorporate Luon to aid us in the capture of this outpost that''s a different story,¡± said Shizuka as she entered the encampment with Belle and a maid.

    ¡°Milady, how can you allow this man to waltz in like this, the other subordinates wouldn¡¯t approve of his presence in the camp,¡± said the maid.

    From a glance, Luon recognized this person to be the last member of Arisa¡¯s war group, her name was Keyral Agaster. She was Arisa¡¯s maid and second in command. Unlike many other humans, Luon had seen her long blue hair was tied up in a bun giving her a heroic look.

    People with colored hair tend to inherit different types of racial abilities. Keyral¡¯s ability from what Luon could recall was dragonification, her bloodline was tainted by a water dragon. When triggered her body would grow a pair of blue wings and a tail, her physical abilities and regeneration would massively improve, and she had a large, uncontrollable mana pool. Their family line was served Arisa¡¯s due to their ability to manage and seal their magic until they could control it.

    Sensing Luon¡¯s and Tyron¡¯s gaze her face openly expressed her disgust towards them. From what Luon knew she hates men to the core. He didn''t understand why she doesn''t like men, and he would rather not ask why, as he found it was too bothersome to do so.

    Arisa sighed at her nagging maid, she got up from her chair and began to walk towards Keyral. Keyral realized she went out of line by pushing her ideas towards her master and waited for her punishment only to find Arisa helping her tidy her up.

    ¡°How many times have I told you to watch out for your appearance unless there''s an emergency,¡± lectured Arisa.

    ¡°Sorry milady, I rushed over here as soon as I heard you had some guest, we have already got the details of the conversation from Kiri,¡± Keyral shyly replied.

    Piqued by Keyral words she turned and faced Kiri and said, ¡°Oh really now? Kiri, I thought you were just standing there but for you to leak the content of our conversation, how could I possibly trust if you won¡¯t do the same when the time matters the most?¡±

    At the moment Kiri bowed and pleaded, ¡°Miss Arisa, although I am not your direct subordinate I apologize for offending you. My master Belle had requested that every particularly interesting event should be reported to her immediately.¡±

    ¡°Now, now Arisa no need to take it out on Kiri. She was just following my orders. As for Luon¡¯s and Tyron¡¯s participation, I don¡¯t mind at all. If Shizuka wants to decline his aid. She came rushing here after hearing that the news,¡± Belle smilingly said.

    Amused Arisa turned and faced Shizuka and asked, ¡°So? What do you want to say about this truce with Luon¡¯s group?¡±

    ¡°I agree with your suggestion of allowing them to aid us. However, those two must attack from the other side. The other girls and I wouldn¡¯t feel safe with them fighting near us at the same time, and we might have some problems regarding kill stealing since they use long-range attacks. Unlike us, many of our subordinates need money, so I rather have them get as much as possible without them intervening,¡± said Shizuka.

    At those words, Arisa nodded, and Luon thought, ¡®Well she does have a point, if we wanted to secure all the Inzektors then all we needed to do is let Tyron tag them once with his arrows and claim them as ours.¡¯

    Shizuka continued, ¡°Another thing, although I am not that interested in the competition if Luon were to participate in the reconstruction I would do the same, the maximum contribution value his team is allowed is 30%, and that''s final.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that too low? Shouldn¡¯t the contribution value be fairer or are limiting the value because you''re afraid I would build much faster than you anticipated?¡± Luon taunted.

    Shizuka ticked by his words said, ¡°I was afraid you wouldn¡¯t have any points left over since not only am I aiding in the reconstruction but our subordinates as well, the amount I listed was just some pity value, but since you disregarded my kind gesture than you can have whatever you can obtain for yourself.¡±

    Mentally Luon calculated at how much points he could obtain. If Shizuka and Luon, and the group of subordinates all equally have the same pace, at most he would have about 1/3rd of the value which was still higher than what she listed. Luon smiled, he wasn¡¯t by himself as he had constructed several robots to help him out in the construction. Luon believed that he could at least obtain 40% of the contribution value and no other student could possibly catch up to him in points. Especially since Arisa, Shizuka and Belle were just too wealthy to care about the event.

    ¡°Alright I agree to those conditions, Arisa do you mind telling me where I can attack from, the sooner, the better because right now your subordinates are still clearing Inzektors as we speak, isn¡¯t that right?¡± asked Luon.

    ¡°Hehe, Arisa looked like he wouldn¡¯t fall for us stalling him here, just assign him north from the outpost, he has to go all the way around, after all, there¡¯s also more Inzektor¡¯s there, so it''s better for him, right?¡± Belle said.

    Arisa elegantly chuckled and said, ¡°Alright let¡¯s go with that, Luon you¡¯re allowed to attack from the north side that¡¯s filled with Inzektors if you don¡¯t clear it fast enough then Shizuka may have already rebuilt the outpost.¡±

    Luon nodded and towed Bendan, and Kiri away, right now time was of the essence. Although he has confirmed that the girls weren¡¯t interested in their scores the same couldn¡¯t be said about Zythos and his minions, and if he slacked off a bit than Arisa who was nonchalantly participating would overtake him.

    Tyron, Kiri, and Luon went around the outpost, and with Kiri¡¯s guidance, they avoided causing trouble with the other group of girls.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Soon enough they reached the designated point of which Luon began to scout the Inzektor nests. From what Kiri had told him it would take one or two nights to clear the Inzektor nests on the south side before Shizuka can begin reconstruction. With Luon¡¯s calculations, the number of the nests on the north side would typically take him three days to clear. That is if he normally did it - after he sent Tyron to scout the nests he developed a plan, a road to get to the outpost while eliminating all the Inzektor nest¡¯s on the north side in the fastest way possible.

    ¡­

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you guys to be this fast. I told Kiri to keep it a secret since it was interesting, but to think you would actually clear all those nests at the same time as we cleared ours normally,¡± replied Belle.

    Luon smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s because we had everything we needed, and the execution was perfect. A single misstep could have been disastrous.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it already a disaster? Not only did you consume tons of explosives, your tactic practically ruined the northern terrain,¡± said Shizuka as she viciously retorted.

    Luon¡¯s tactic was a hybrid version of a hit and run maneuver, he had set the path to loop around every nest, and at the fastest pace possible it took merely 6 hours every lap. At each hive, he would cause an alarmingly large amount of damage on the outside using his magic cards and lure tons of Inzektors out of hiding.

    With a crowd of riled up Inzektors every once in a while he tosses explosives and magic cards slowing them down and causing massive amounts of damage. The Inzektors were angry, every few minutes a portion of them would die causing their anger to rise even further.

    At first, Kiri was following along Luon when the team split up, Luon was in charge of the mob while Tyron was set elsewhere, she didn¡¯t know which one to follow so chose to monitor Luon. After the first lap, she was too tired to follow along, even if it¡¯s just observing running for 6 hours straight was a troublesome task.

    The only reason Luon was able to last that long was because in between he activated his NG-Arms and rested for a bit before switching it off, he also had many potions and rejuvenating medicine to keep him going.

    When Kiri stopped, she tried to look for Tyron to see what he was up to, but couldn¡¯t find any traces of him, so instead, she sat at the starting point and waited for Luon to clear up the mob.

    Only after the fourth lap did any changes occur, while the mob was still going strong Luon had received word from Tyron that the task he had assigned him was completed.

    Within moments an earth-shattering quake occurred as the Inzektor nests were all blown up, from a distance all one could see was a chain of explosions. Kiri was glad that none of her companions were in the northern region, as well as the fact that she wasn¡¯t in the danger zone.

    With the nests destroyed the Inzektors following Luon were in disarray, and at this point, Tyron had appeared attacking the remaining Inzektors. Together Luon and Tyron wiped out the group within minutes.

    Kiri asked how did Tyron sneak in each of the nests which pulled out a robe which he had received from Luon before the expedition had started.

    [Magical Stealth Cape]

    [Rank - Rare]

    [Defense - 500]

    [Durability 400/400]

    [A cape with the ability to manipulate wind to hide sound and smell, and light to cast an illusion. Made with the silk of the rare Chamel spider the wielder is nearly invisible.]

    [Perk 1 - Wind Manipulation]

    [Perk 2 - Light Manipulation]

    [Perk 3 - Illusion Magic]

    Looking at the cape features she found that the invisibility option was more lacking compared to her racial ability, however, the fact it could hide the sound and smell using wind manipulation interested her. Her ability at most can conceal her entire presence from magic and vision. However, it could not hide her from influencing the surroundings.

    The only downside to this magical cape was the amount of mana it costs to cast and maintain it.

    Luon coughed at Shizuka reply and said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it about time we start building the outpost?¡±

    Shizuka nodded, she turned around to face her subordinates who were watching them from a distance and said, ¡°Alright girls, it¡¯s time to start reconstructing the outpost, and I want no trouble from anyone as long as I am in command, alright?¡±

    The group replied positively, and Shizuka turned towards Luon and said, ¡°Alright, since you wanted a lot of contribution points, although I don¡¯t know how much you could do you may start with the outer wall.¡±

    Luon nodded as it seemed quite fair, the outer wall itself was about 50% of the contribution value. Seeing Luon agree with her judgment everyone got to work except for Arisa and Belle who led a team to clear the remaining Inzektors beyond their initial cleaning range.

    While Luon was mending the wall, he faced a few challenges from the rich girl¡¯s unruly subordinates. For example, when he needed materials to repair the wall, a few of them would claim that they are using it, or when he was servicing specific sectors, they would say that they were there first. Although they were right, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh at how many people they have, he didn''t know if they were bullying him or just straight up desperate for points.

    Fortunately, in the middle of the night he snuck off with some materials he stole from each group, and they seem not to notice the changes. As for claiming parts of the wall to repair he and his robots scattered over to every possible open spot claiming them for himself, and with Tyron¡¯s guiding him on open places they managed to maintain a pace faster than then the group of girls assigned to the outer wall. After all, they weren¡¯t professional engineers who had the teachings of a master teacher.

    The group hammered away at the repairs keeping a peaceful equilibrium.

    ¡­

    ¡°It should be around here right Chester?¡± Zythos said.

    While Luon and Arisa¡¯s group were competing Zythos and his group marched into the forest a few days away from their outpost.

    ¡°Yes Zythos, the guards say they didn¡¯t bother clearing the Inzektors in this area as it was troublesome to deal with them. They said they grew too much and would be penalized if news of this got out,¡± Chester obediently nodded as he confirmed the information they had received.

    ¡°Alright, take out the bait, and ready the device. Luon and Arisa¡¯s group have arrived at the outpost right?¡± Zythos asked Chester.

    ¡°Yes, I have visually confirmed it with our subordinate. After fixing the teleportation portal, the two groups walked towards the premeditated path that we had someone traveled once before leading towards the outpost. Those foolish hunters in the group led the group on the pathway without having any second thoughts,¡± Chester snickered.

    ¡°Good, also make sure to split the bait in half. I want to keep the other as its quite expensive and useful,¡± Zythos nodded and said.

    The moment Chester took out the chest and open it the surroundings was shrouded in an aromatic perfume. Within seconds the earth shook, and giant Inzektor surged from the nest they were at. Zythos shocked at the fast reaction of the Inzektor and said, ¡°Quick activate the device and drop the half! Hurry up we got to run!¡±

    Chester quickly activated the device and dropped half of the bait as the group began to run away, the huge Inzektor didn¡¯t bother chasing, consumed the bait and then rested. A few seconds later a swarm of Inzektors came out of the nest and chased after the scent to offer to their leader.

    Groups of Inzektors closed in on the group from all of the nest in the region, and Zythos yelled, ¡°Shit! I didn¡¯t think it would be this effective, quick drop the second half inside the river, if possible we can pick it up later. Luckily this channel leads to the outpost and as long as we pass it before the Inzektors come we would be able to get it again.¡±

    Chester toss the chest into the river, and it quickly went downstream, all of the Inzektors following them turned towards the direction of the chest leaving the relieved Zythos and his minions.

    Zythos began to laugh at the fate of those who offended him.

 Chapter 39 - Inzektor Outbreak

    ¡°It¡¯s finally done!¡± bellowed Luon as he completed the repairs of his last assigned section. Looking over the progress the other girls Luon estimates that there were only a few hours left before the outer wall of the outpost was completed.

    Currently, Tyron was out hunting, so Luon left him a message relaying that the outer wall¡¯s repairs were almost complete and that he is going to check the progress on the inner side.

    Tyron replied back almost instantly with a thumbs up emoticon, and Luon smiled at how simple the message was.

    After glancing over his work one more time to make sure everything was in order Luon began to walk towards the command room where Shizuka was. On his arrival he found the majority of the work was completed as the majority of the other members were cleaning the facility. Luon found Shizuka under an electronic panel tinkering at several wires, as he got up close and he asks ¡°How much longer until the inside is complete?¡±

    Hearing those words, Shizuka continued to work and quickly replied while still focused on the task, ¡°About 6 more hours, all that¡¯s left is the automatic defense mechanisms and a few other things. I left these things for last because Arisa and Belle are clearing out the Inzektors around us, so we didn¡¯t need it yet. Is that all you came here for?¡±

    ¡°Well I already finished my portion of the work, so I came to see if there was any left. Also, I came to ask for some leftover materials,¡± replied Luon.

    His bomb and run tactic earlier had cost him nearly all of his explosives he had on him and Luon was hoping to stack up some more before going back to the first outpost.

    Luon felt that Gizmo and Bendan can easily handle themselves, however, he rather not stay with the girls any longer since there was nothing to do here.

    Hearing Luon¡¯s request, Shizuka agreed immediately and called Keyral over to guide him to the storage room. Shizuka knew that during the construction period Luon had some trouble with some of the other female subordinates but was too busy to tell them off.

    As for Keyral, she stayed at the base as she was in charge of the defenses, and she had also noticed the other subordinates actions but did not attempt to assist Luon at all when he was being bullied. It''s not that she didn''t want to help, she was just under the impression that men should be more tolerant towards the simple acts and was silently noting down the names of those troublesome girls. After the expedition, they would experience some disciplinary action.

    Luon oblivious of Keyral¡¯s thoughts and followed her until they reached the storage room. There were a lot of leftover materials which could be used for explosives. Other than mending the walls and fixing the modules on the base nobody had considered creating explosives due to the lack of free time to do so.

    Luon thanked Keyral and left with the materials towards one of the free workshops, although they were open for everyone to use not many people were inside. Luon quietly began to work and after a few hours in he received a short message from Tyron.

    [Outbreak OOOX OOOY, numbers tens of thousands. Threat A]

    Upon reading the message, Luon questioned why Tyron hadn¡¯t messaged the ship for reinforcements as it was part of the safety procedure to report large outbreaks to secure the students safely. With that thought in mind, he decided to give Captain Waver a call only to find that other than the local messaging system his BMPU has been disconnected from the network.

    Luon sensed something was odd and hurried his way to the command room. Fortunately, he had robotic assistants still crafting explosives for him so even if it was a false alarm he was making progress without being there.

    Upon arriving at the command room he found that none of the students were in the state of emergency, Luon didn¡¯t know if he should feel relieved or even more worried, so he quickly made his way to Shizuka and asked, ¡°How is the progress on the automatic defense system?¡±

    Shizuka who noticed Luon coming back while she was still working replied, ¡°I need another hour or two, it¡¯s almost done. Are you worried about how low your contribution points are? Since you¡¯ve been working here, Arisa has almost caught up.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that it''s just...¡± Luon hesitated a bit, he couldn¡¯t confirm the news of the outbreak, but at the same time, he trusted his friend Tyron. Although Luon didn¡¯t want to appear like an idiot in front of these girls the fact that he stopped to consider whether Tyron¡¯s words were right or not made him think he was even more stupid. Regardless whether or not it was true or false, he should put his trust in him now like how Tyron entrusted this vital message to him.

    Shizuka who sensed Luon seriousness stopped working and turned to face him awaiting his next words.

    Luon who calmed down a bit and firmly said to Shizuka, ¡°Recall all your subordinates there¡¯s an outbreak happening, and I can¡¯t contact the starship.¡±

    Shizuka who heard the first half of the sentence wanted to question the authenticity of his words, but after hearing the second half, she felt that there was more to this than merely just an outbreak and bad connection.

    She got up and face Keyral as she yelled, ¡°Keyral contact Belle, Arisa, and all squad leaders and told them to hurry back to the outpost, class A emergency.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Keyral who heard Shizuka¡¯s command began to message everyone using her BMPU, seeing her at work Shizuka quickly ran towards the PA system and bellowed, ¡°All staff to arms! Squad Leader to the command room! Engineers from Squad 1 to 5 to the workshop and begin crafting munitions, the rest to the walls!¡±

    She then turned and faced Luon and asked him about the details of the message, as Luon was explaining the content of the message he received another message from Tyron only more detailed.

    [Inzektor Outbreak NW side of the outpost. ETA 6 hours. Confirmed over 30,000 category D humanoid Inzektors, 100 category C, and possibly 10 unconfirmed category B. I will be returning to base in an hour with more details.]

    After Shizuka and Luon read the message, their worries became worse by the second. It was almost impossible to get such accurate numbers without knowing the existence of the enemy. The fact that Tyron managed to escape with the details has strengthened their resolve to defend from the outpost.

    Shizuka once again attempted to contact the starship only to find the signal to be blocked, there was no recording of any Inzektor with the ability to block signals, so she felt something was really off about the situation. She turned commanded Luon, ¡°For now you¡¯re in charge of finishing the repairs on the defenses. I don¡¯t care how you do it. I just want it done as quick as possible.¡±

    ¡°Affirmative,¡± Luon nodded, it was imperative to repair remaining defense modules and wall partitions, a single crack and lack of preparations may cost the life of one of their comrades in arms.

    Luon quickly left the room to finish the repairs and Shizuka who was left in the command room began to bellow out orders. She then recalled that the outpost lifeform scanner can extend its detection radius if focus towards a particular direction. Although she didn¡¯t doubt Tyron¡¯s words, she did so to confirm her sanity, and as Shizuka did, she found that the information wasn¡¯t accurate. It wasn¡¯t that there was no horde of Inzektors, she discovered that their numbers were nearly doubled what was mentioned.

    ¡­

    Within a few hours inside of the command room of the outpost was a gloomy atmosphere, there was still no words from the high command, and the Inzektors were only half an hour away. Besides securing their defenses and the development of munitions they have just crafted a few vehicles to use for their escape. Luon had told Bendan and Tyron of the news right after he left the command room and it shocked them greatly.

    Luon had suggested to Arisa who took command to retreat to the other outpost where they would be more prepared to face the Inzektors. Arisa thought for a moment and agreed, but at the same time, she said, ¡°Even though we are retreating from this outpost we need to reduce the numbers of Inzektors. First of all, we need to stall long enough to prepare more vehicles. Secondly, after retreating to the other outpost, there¡¯s no guarantee that everything will go well after we arrive. It¡¯s best if we can reduce their numbers as much as we can.¡±

    ¡°For how long do we defend for then?¡± asked Luon.

    Arisa looked at Shizuka who replied, ¡°The minimum amount of time we need to prepare the remaining vehicles is about an hour, if we try to hurry it fast enough we might be able to save another half an hour meaning we can leave almost right away.¡±

    Arisa nodded at those words and faced the group. The squad leaders gulped as Arisa valiantly said, ¡°Within the next half an hour all squads are to prepare themselves for combat, all engineers must get those vehicles going, the sooner, the better! After it is confirmed that all personnel has escaped, we will blow up the outpost taking out most of those damn Inzektors. No matter what you all got to stay alive! You all got that?¡±

    In unison, all of the subordinates said, ¡°Yes ma¡¯am!¡±

    Arisa nodded at her subordinate and pressed her fist against her chest and said, ¡°For a new era!¡±

    At this moment everyone in the room including Luon and Tyron did the same gesture and yelled, ¡°For a new era!¡±

    After confirming their resolves, all of the staff went to there assigned positions Luon took his robotic army and his explosives to the upper walls with Tyron. Once they arrived, they found Arisa and Belle facing towards the direction of the horde.

    Luon walked up and asked the girls, ¡°Are you afraid?¡±

    Arisa turned to face Luon and said, ¡°Who isn¡¯t afraid? Today we may even die, and I¡¯m more surprised to find that they had so many Inzektors that wasn¡¯t wiped by the military, it seems some things are happening under the scenes.¡±

    ¡°Are you implying that Zythos may have a hand in this?¡± asked Luon.

    Arisa nodded as she gazed outwards and said, ¡°If he didn¡¯t have a hand in this then how would we not be able to contact with the starship by now? That damn Zythos must have brought a signal jammer to this place. As for the signal strength, he should be within a few days of distance from here.¡±

    Luon nodded at Arisa deduction, he sighed and thought maybe if it weren¡¯t for him beating Zythos during their class match maybe things wouldn¡¯t turn out like this. It was quite the optimistic thought, and he was doubtful of it as well since Zythos had huge ambitions.

    Belle who saw Luon lost in his thoughts said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. It¡¯s only been half a day since the signal was jammed, right at this moment Captain Waver would be requesting reinforcements to rescue us from this predicament.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, you¡¯re right I don¡¯t believe Captain Waver would leave us hanging here unless something troublesome has happened,¡± said Luon.

    It was at this moment did the people in the outpost began to hear a series of eerie crackling sounds of trees falling. The stampede caused by the horde of Inzektors shook the earth causing the people stationed at the outpost to become nervous and afraid.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a Ravager!¡± one girl proclaimed.

    And it wasn''t just one Ravager, but about twenty of them. They were the classified category B threat averaging around the combat level of 60, they were half the size of a cyclops which compared to the defensive wall is about 1/3rd of it. They had a dark skeletal shaped body with claws as hands and feet, and a pointy tail that seemed to be able to impale and slice people in a single swift motion.

    Arisa at this point was nervous, her every command may cost the lives of her people and facing this horde of beasts, she couldn¡¯t help but feel afraid of commanding her friends.

    She despaired at her fate, her sister gallantly led the allied troops to face the Inzektors while she could only embarrassingly shake in fear against them.

    At this moment Luon tapped her shoulder causing her to jolt. He knew of her troubles and the weight on her shoulders as he had experienced it numerous times during his second simulations, so in her place, he yelled, ¡°Prepare yourselves! Remember the fate of those around you rests upon yourself to take arms! Do not falter and kill the Inzektors! For a new era!¡±

    Everyone who heard Luon¡¯s plead regained their senses from the fear caused by the intimidating army of Inzektors, they arm themselves to protect their friends, they ready themselves to defend their own lives, and they become determined to fight the Inzektors all for the new era.

 Chapter 40 - Retreat

    At first, they had awoken to their leader¡¯s call, and soon after they were chasing a delicious scent. They felt tempted to take a bite of this delightful thing before them.

    The aroma attracted them, and so they followed. However, they shouldn¡¯t eat it, they instinctively knew that it was for the superior one.

    They chased and chased, and soon enough the puny beings carrying it abandoned it midway. Despicable beings, tossing the precious thing over the slurpy surface, water? That doesn¡¯t matter they should quickly chase after it, they mentally told each other.

    After traveling a bit longer, they felt something wrong, and something sad at the same time, something that caused them to be angry. More of those despicable puny beings and the corpses of their brethren. The mini superior ones cried in anguish, and they also cried. It was still important, but this was just as important. Revenge they must have, and so they came.

    ...

    ¡°Damn it what''s going on, we just lost signal of a bunch of students, and many of them were extremely important,¡± Captain Waver angrily said.

    Right when Zythos had activated the device after luring out the Inzektors the starship had lost the life signature of numerous students.

    ¡°Now, now, calm down what we need to do right now is confirm their status, isn''t that right,¡± said Helen.

    Her words chilled Captain Wavers anger, he wasn''t sure if it was her reassuring words or her presence, but he mentally thanked her in his mind as he said, ¡°Alright let''s bring the starship down and rescue them, according to the recordings the majority of them should be at the abandoned outpost in sector N.¡±

    At this moment one of the technical staff bent down and pleaded, ¡°Please sir have mercy, we can¡¯t go down there! There are too many Inzektors down there! I don''t want to die! It was all the lieutenant''s idea!¡±

    ¡°You backstabbing fool!¡± Yelled the lieutenant as he began to unsheathe the sword on his hip. However, this was a foolish move as Helen vanished from her spot only to appear in front of him with his throat tightly gripped in her hand. She glanced at Captain Waver awaiting for his orders. If he wanted him dead, she didn¡¯t fear military regulations to do so.

    Captain Waver was satisfied at her quick maneuver after which he began to question the cowardly man. After a few minutes, he was shocked by the content, the lieutenant had slacked off the maintenance duty in sector N causing an army of Inzektors to breed. Worried about the excess funds it would cost them to remove the menace they decided to embezzle it instead and wait for students to handle it for free.

    When they heard that the young master Zythos would come to aid them, they gave him all the information the officers had about that sector and little did they know that beast blew it out of portions by using a wide scale scrambler. Initially, they thought Zythos was going to use a smaller one to hide their defects, but because he had used a large one now, they were exposed and bound to face military punishment to the highest degree due to neglect of duty, threatening the lives of potential cadets, and embezzlement.

    Based on the information Captain Waver had received there was no way for them to safely land as Zythos may have potentially roused the slumbering Inzektors with the potential to take down the starship. Also, the ship wasn¡¯t retrofitted to fight numerous of Inzektors as it was merely a transportation vessel. After pondering for a moment, Captain Waver sent a distress signal to the closest military outpost in space and received an estimate of 24 hours before they can scramble over to aid them.

    Although risky, he decided to deploy Helen by herself down on the planet surface after she secured the convicts. Because of the scrambler, he had to set her down several hundred kilometers away using the teleporter.

    With her top speed, it should take her two days to arrive at the scene. Captain Waver can only pray that the students can last that long as he began to write a report based on the current situation.

    ...

    As the horde of Inzektors came swarming in Luon yelled in the intercom system which was situated on the outer wall, ¡°Turn on the automatic defense system and set it to the Inzektors below category B, all squads try to safely eliminate the Ravagers that climb up before the other Inzektors come.¡±

    The students in the command room who received Luon''s message hesitated a bit but ultimately turned on the defense system to deal with the lower tier Inzektors.

    Arisa frowned and said, ¡°There¡¯s no way we can handle that many Ravagers with only 5 squads. At most each can handle two, and there is ten more after that.¡±

    Luon looked at Arisa with a smile and said, ¡°Well then me, you and Belle need to deal with 3 Inzektors each, wouldn¡¯t we? As for the last one...¡±

    Luon faced Tyron and said, ¡°I¡¯ll entrust you with that one.¡±

    Tyron nodded. However, Luon¡¯s words didn¡¯t reassure Arisa as it only made her worry even more. Battling Ravagers wasn¡¯t a simple mathematical problem, they were level 60. Only Luon, Arisa, and Belle could just match them once they equip their NG-Arms.

    Shizuka, on the other hand, was rushing the construction of vehicles that they were going to use to escape, half an hour has passed since the meeting, and at most, it may take an hour without her aid. With her helping the other engineers it would take at max half the amount of time they estimated.

    With his calculations, the swarm would arrive in 5 minutes and with the automatic defense systems they only had another 5 minutes to wipe out the Ravagers before the underlings come to the wall.

    Luon gazed at the army of Inzektors, this was the first time he actually had to face them. In the second simulation, he had fought wars between races like orcs, humans, and other fantasy elements. During his first one, he was merely the backline engineer who designed and developed weapons that decimated them. Now wide awake in the real world, with a sword in hand, he had to face them.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    He called out his sword [Black Slayer] from his intraspatial bag and stepped on the edge of the outer wall.

    He sent his gaze over the Inzektors were already swarming in, and he focused in on several spots. Luon pulled out an explosive that he had crafted, after replenishing his exhausted reserves he had only 20 of them. It took around five to deal with a single Ravager, but a single one can destroy many regular Inzektors.

    There was no need to wait for the Inzektors to come into close combat range, whoever had the initiative had the starting advantage. Luon gave Tyron the explosives in which the latter lobbed in front of Luon. Utilizing his expert sword skill, Luon used his sword like a bat and quickly shot a series of explosives in the crowd of Inzektors.

    As Luon continued to lob the explosives with the sword it said, ¡®Ease up on the tapping, would you? I was just resting peacefully, not that I need it anyways after all you never let me out, and the only time you let me out, and you use me like a baseball bat? Where''s the protective rights committee for swords!¡¯

    Ignoring the swords complaints when Luon had exhausted about half of the explosive did he stop swinging. Luon wanted to reserve as many as he can for more valuable attacks. Fortunately, these accurate explosive attacks slowed down and killed the Inzektors in regions affecting several Ravagers.

    The base defense system began to make its move, a series of unmanned automated turrets mounted the walls and rained an array of bullets upon the weak and feeble Inzektors. As more and more Inzektors furiously charged over their dead companions, the turret continued to shoot at a steady pace, to prevent overheating.

    From the crowd of Inzektors came the Ravagers, the explosive had delayed about five of them causing the other fifteen to close in onto the walls and begin to climb. The people mounted on the walls weren¡¯t just going to sit there and let them do so. They started to use range attacks slowing them down and reducing their vitality. Luon told the squad leaders beforehand to focus on pinning down one or two at a time letting a few Ravagers slip by on the walls.

    Once the untouched Ravagers reached the top of the walls Luon, Belle and Arisa equipped their NG-Arms began to fight a few Ravagers.

    By the time the other Ravagers had reached the top six of them had died under their hands. However, the fight was tougher than they imagined as their NG-Arms energy levels were nearly depleted. Fortunately, when the Ravagers were closing in Tyron managed to take two down before they all reached the top.

    It was a miscalculation from Luon, and an excellent one indeed. He didn¡¯t expect his friend would have a few tricks under his sleeves as he had used several specially crafted arrows made by his family that had the impact of several explosives combined, the downside to this was that it was difficult to make, costly, and consumed tons of energy. Tyron had retreated from the combat zone where the Ravagers were and continued to attack the normal Inzektors instead.

    There were twelve Ravagers left, five of them were delayed and had started to climb the walls while the other seven entered close quarters combat with the allied forces on the wall. Each squad struggled to deal with one Ravager, they tried to rush the attack before the other five came up from below the wall.

    While Belle and Arisa handled one Ravager, Luon was battling with the last one. Unfortunately, his NG-Arms had run out of energy as he began to spar it with his sword. The Ravager was fast without his NG-Arms he could only expertly parry it while analyzing its attack patterns.

    After a few bouts, Luon managed to squeeze in an opportunity. The Ravager had no profound techniques behind it, like a beast it was the Ravager robotically attacked Luon allowing him the opportunity to predict a few of its moves. Although Luon¡¯s body was much weaker than the Inzektor, their speed was the same once Luon had used wind magic to cause the Ravager to miss.

    Luon slid pass the Ravager as if vanishing from its view and struck its belly area with his sword. The sword gutted the Ravager causing its blood to ooze out, with the high vitality of Inzektors this strike wouldn¡¯t be able to end it, however, Luon used the sword [Black Slayer] which did extra damage to larger foes. It also had a second option which reversed its regeneration causing the Ravager to lose its strength.

    Taking the opportunity where the Ravager was still adapting to the changes done to its body Luon pulled the sword out and viciously hacked at its body causing him to be drenched in its blood. After a few moments the Inzektor fell, but at this time the five Ravager who were climbing below appeared and saw the last moments of their fallen brethren who was hacked to death before them.

    Enraged the five charged towards Luon who barely managed to dodge their unrefined strikes. If these Ravagers were expert fighters than Luon may have already died, fortunately for him, unlike these Ravagers who hadn¡¯t battled anything since they were born Luon has several decades of combat experience.

    While Luon was dealing with the five of them, Belle and Arisa managed to kill their Inzektor as well as three of the other squads. Carefully using range attacks not to hit Luon in the unsightly brawl they managed to pull three of them away. It was now two versus one and Luon had managed to slip into the guard of one them finishing it off the same way he did for the other. However, he experienced a miscalculation. Instead of dying feebly under the sword [Black Slayer] the Ravager willed its arms and grabbed onto Luon causing him to be unable to move. His body began to seep in blood from the claws of the Ravager who was on its last breaths.

    At this moment the other Ravager sensed an opportunity and leaped into the air. Just when it was right about to strike Luon, an energy blast knocked it aside. It rolled a few times before regaining its posture as it hissed at the interloper.

    Shizuka walked in front of Luon and freed him from the entanglement as she proclaimed, ¡°The vehicles are ready, let''s begin the evacuation after we deal some more damage to the Inzektors.¡±

    She took out a sword and charged towards the Ravager who leaped towards her in retaliation. However, since Shizuka hadn''t participated in combat yet, her equipped NG-Arms was fully charged. Within moments the Ravager fell to her blade and so did the remaining ones.

    With the Ravagers dead the evacuation began to proceed without any problems. All the combat engineers, support personnel, and command room staff were first to seat themselves in the vehicles alongside the injured combatants.

    Shizuka and her team developed the conventional car of this era, there was eleven black sedan shaped vehicles with no wheels. Utilizing wind magic the car was able to hover pass terrain efficiently. The engine was almost impossible to produce in this short time frame due to lack of tools, so they were powered with mana containers to manipulate wind magic.

    By the time the non-combatants were secured something terrible had happened. The automatic defense system overheated, and Luon who had noticed this began to toss several explosives and magic cards as he yelled, ¡°Quickly get to the cars! There''s no more time.¡±

    In response, the rest of the combatants on top of the wall retreated into the cars. The Inzektors who were relieved of the suppressive fire angrily started to scale the walls.

    ¡°Start the vehicles, let''s go people!¡± said Arisa as Shizuka started to lead the pack outside of the outpost.

    When the cars began to move Luon turned to face behind as noticed the swarm closing in on them. When they had exited the outpost on the opposite side where the Inzektors invaded from Luon saw that within the pack there were more Ravagers.

    A minute after Luon left the outpost, earth-shattering roars shook the earth as a wave of dust slammed into all the cars while they were in motion. Fortunately, the cars were durable enough to resist it, so no accidents occurred. Luon glance at the outpost which had self-destructed taking out numerous of Inzektors with it and felt relieved.

    However, the escape wasn¡¯t over yet.

 Chapter 41 - Stranded

    The group of vehicles zoomed through the forest, the crowd of Inzektors that were behind them was blown into smithereens by the explosion that the outpost had caused. At this moment everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was a short battle lasting around a quarter of an hour before the base fell.

    The engineers were tired from overworking, the combatants were sweating profusely from the short exchange with the Ravagers. Fortunately, other than some injuries they all managed to stay alive. After leaving the vicinity did they begin to calm their nerves, many started to sleep, some cried, and the remaining stayed awake and aware as they weren''t in the clear yet.

    At the rate they were going it was going to take them about 6 hours before they arrive at the other outpost where Bendan and Gizmo were. Luon was situated in the rear car with Arisa and Belle while Tyron was at the front with Shizuka as he handled the navigation for the group.

    The atmosphere was dull as everyone was too tired to talk and were relaxing their bodies for the future battles that were bound to occur.

    Arisa was focused on steering while Luon sat beside her starring blanky outside. Belle, on the other hand, was sleeping in the back.

    Arisa who was driving peeked at the rear-view mirror and saw the sleeping Belle, then she skimmed over Luon and saw that he was still awake. She then asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you tired? Why don¡¯t you sleep a bit, you¡¯re going to need it.¡±

    Luon who heard her words continued to stare blankly outside as he replied, ¡°You¡¯re tired as well right? I¡¯m just staying awake in case you fall asleep while steering the car. We aren¡¯t using wheels for this vehicle, so it must be difficult to drive when you¡¯re constantly exhausting your mind to control your magic.¡±

    The vehicles Shizuka developed hovered a few meters off the ground. In the material storage rubber was non-existent and normal automobiles would have trouble traversing the forest.

    The solution she thought up was to use wind magic to travel. However, while there were some benefits, there were also flaws. In exchange for the ability to travel over oddly shaped surfaces, the speed was significantly reduced.

    The speed they were going it was a little faster than how fast the Inzektor armies traveled when they moved towards the outpost. Another flaw was the complexity of the driving operation needed someone with excellent magic control. The driver needed to adjust the output according to the terrain making them very preoccupied with the handling of the vehicle.

    The last and vital flaw was fuel, originally the tanks of mana were stored in the spot where the engine was supposed to be. Therefore it could operate independently for a limited amount of time before it required the people to channel mana inside of it. Of course, the passengers can channel the energy while they drove.

    What was interesting though was that anyone can drive from any position as long as they dove their minds inside the vehicle. Although it was much easier to operate in the front because one could at least see where they were going.

    ¡°Oh, is that so? Suit yourself then,¡± said Arisa as she continued to focus on driving.

    The awkward silence returned once more. Luon didn''t know what to say at this point, should he talk about the future plans for when they arrive at the outpost? Or maybe he should make up something to say like asking how was the weather. He thought for a second and imagined himself asking the question in which she would have replied, ¡°Are you an idiot? What kind of weather is it when it''s raining Inzektors over here.¡±

    Luon had no idea what to talk about. Fortunately, while he was stumped Arisa reignited the conversation again by saying, ¡°Thanks by the way.¡±

    ¡°What for?¡± Luon replied. He was stumped as he couldn''t recall himself doing anything significant to be thanked for.

    ¡°When we started the battle... when you took command of the situation while I froze up. I was afraid whether my actions may kill someone close to me.¡± Arisa solemnly replied.

    ¡°The moment you hesitated was the action that may have killed someone. The situation could have been much worse if you don¡¯t take the initiative to take action,¡± lectured Luon with a severe tone.

    Arisa nodded from the commander battles she had experienced so far almost 90% of them were victories due to having the edge over the opponent in three critical categories: tactics, power, and will. No matter how smart and powerful one was in the face of reality a human will is ever-changing, humans weren¡¯t emotionless machines, and it wasn¡¯t a simple war game anymore. The fates of her companions were in her hand caused her some minor distress as she thought, ¡®So this is how my sister felt when she fought on the forefront. Here I was being a foolish and ignorant child.¡¯

    After being lectured, there were another few minutes of silence until a transmission came from Shizuka.

    ¡°Hello Luon, Arisa, are you still awake? We got a problem, several kilometers ahead we detected several large and active groups of life forms using the scanner I reintegrated in the car. They¡¯re more than likely Inzektors so can you two think of a battle plan? Tyron will send you the map data right now. We may need to change our route,¡± said Shizuka as she cut the transmission.

    ¡°Inzektors in front of us? Just great and I wonder what got them riled up. They don''t tend to follow each other orders unless something is controlling them, and if so then why is it now? It¡¯s almost like they¡¯re looking for something,¡± muttered Luon as he sat up and pulled a holographic map from his BMPU.

    Arisa who was focused on driving took a short glimpse of the map before continuing to drive as she said, ¡°Who knows what¡¯s happening in Inzektors mind, it''s not like they speak the universal language. More importantly look at the map data, unless we take a huge detour we¡¯re going to encounter Inzektors on the route, and if we do take the detour, then the outpost would be attacked before we arrive.¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Luon grimaced at the tactical map data as Arisa was on point. Looking at the outline of the map unless they breakthrough the Inzektor encirclement they wouldn¡¯t be able to reach the outpost on time before the attack. What strategy could they pull? There was no other option as Luon sighed.

    Luon started a call session with Shizuka who led the pack and said, ¡°There¡¯s not that much choice other than to breakthrough the route. What¡¯s the likelihood of success? Are these vehicles armed or have anything that might help us?¡±

    ¡°Our chances to breakthrough would be around 74%, as for casualties let''s just hope we don''t have any¡­ as for weapons and other features that the cars have there''s none. There was no time to equip anything, and at best all we have is our original range weapons. As for something that might increase our chance of success without damage... there was the mind sync technique.¡±

    ¡°Mind sync technique?¡± questioned Luon.

    ¡°It¡¯s a technique that allows you to have multiple drivers to enhance the performance. It isn¡¯t easy to learn as both drivers have to be in sync with their thoughts and not contradict the other. If driver A says to go left, but driver B wants to go right... then there will be some disorder. In exchange, the car will go slightly faster and can dodge ranged attacks easier. After all two heads are better than one, imagine adding another processor to a computer, it¡¯s like that.¡± Shizuka said as she began providing Luon the details of the technique.

    After learning about the technique, Luon found it very profound and asked, ¡°So how many of us can learn the technique in this short period of time?¡±

    Shizuka who heard his words snappily said, ¡°Who do you think we are? Our servants are the cream of the crop, all of them can learn it in an hour. The troublesome part was that minds can have some disagreement causing the performance to drop and since more minds are used to focus on driving there would be one less attacker.¡±

    ¡°Even if there¡¯s one less attacker the benefit of having the car performance is much needed to increase our chances of breaking through to the base. As for the problem with the mind sync why not have one of the pairs be servitude to the other?¡± suggested Luon.

    ¡°Are you implying that one person should follow the other person''s choice unconditionally and merely use the other mind to help process the thoughts... Brilliant! According to that theory as long as there was a more dominant role the mind sync technique could allow even more connections, this would greatly increase the performance. It¡¯s like people blindly following the beliefs of a dictator or when a man takes the aggressive role in their relationship with another mal- I mean his partner.¡± Shizuka excitedly proclaimed, for a second Luon body felt cold from her last few words for some reason but felt like it was just his imagination.

    According to the calculations, there was an hour difference before they make contact with the Inzektors at the breakthrough zone and if everything goes well, there would be only a short two minutes clash with them.

    Shizuka contacted all the teams and taught them the technique. What was fortunate was that all the girls were smart mastering the procedure in less than half an hour, and even better when Shizuka taught them how to become the dominant and submissive roles they easily comprehended the concept with some examples that she provided. According to Tyron, it was better not knowing what kind of examples they were, the only things he heard over the intercom for the last while we''re screams of women going ''kyaa.'' Generally, as a man, he would joyfully listen, if it wasn¡¯t a topic that made him cringe that is.

    After everyone learned the technique, they tested it for a short five minutes. As a result, the speed the group traveled was 50% faster and agiler than before. With multiple people driving the magic control improved which in hand increased the speed they can handle.

    As they drove onward, they soon encountered the Inzektors, and the plan was set into motion. With the improved speed, the regular crawlers weren¡¯t able to touch them, and the simple range attacks some of them had were easily dodged with some neat tricks the girls had. One of the groups terrifically did a barrel roll when they dodged.

    However, not everything went according to plan as a giant beam blasted through the party. Fortunately, their dodging skills had significantly improved otherwise many of them would have died.

    Arisa who had just dodged the beam than said, ¡°That¡¯s¡­ A Kalastor right? They are difficult to raise but are troublesome in siege defenses. There¡¯s probably only one of them and if it attacks the outpost after we arrive our defense system might be destroyed in one go.¡±

    ¡°What are you suggesting?¡± said Belle who¡¯s now awake and shooting the Inzektors.

    ¡°She¡¯s implying we need to kill it despite it being situated in the middle of a group of them. There is no way to take it out unless we drive up close to it and hack at it. I believe the Inzektors right beside it can cast magical and physical defenses to keep it guarded,¡± Luon analyzed as he brought Shizuka into the conversation.

    ¡°We do need to kill it otherwise the second outpost would fall quicker than the first one despite it being our last line of defense. However, we don¡¯t have the firepower to handle it right now unless one of us sacrifices themselves to get in close to kill it, it¡¯s a suicide mission,¡± said Shizuka.

    ¡®No one would be willing to take the task, but if they don¡¯t, we all may possibly die after arriving at the outpost. Sacrificing one to save many people? How that statement is so hypocritically true,¡¯ thought Luon.

    Shizuka continued as her next words interrupted his thoughts, ¡°And the only person who has the greatest chance in succeeding in this tasks is¡­ Arisa. You still have some energy on your NG-Arms, Luon could have done it too but unfortunately, his is out of juice and Belle is not strong enough to destroy it.¡±

    Arisa who heard her words sentencing her death sighed and said, ¡°Alright. Can you send my father the message that I¡¯m about to pass on to you? Also... Luon, Belle, I need you two to jump in another car...¡±

    Belle who heard Arisa words screamed, ¡°You can¡¯t go! You¡¯re going to die! How can you still smile like this!¡±

    Arisa face grew stern as she yelled, ¡°I have to go or else we all would die! Stop being foolish and get into another car! They still need you to defend the fort, and I can only trust you with the task. So please, just go.¡±

    Belle grew tearily as she can only nod. Seeing her reluctant acceptance, they moved beside another black sedan allowing Belle to get off. Once Belle was off Arisa turned to Luon and said, ¡°Come on you too, get out while you still can.¡±

    ¡°While I still can eh? Well that¡¯s unfortunate because I still plan to stay with you,¡± said Luon as he manipulated the car to move away from the other.

    Arisa was distracted, and their minds were still in sync, so Luon¡¯s manipulations smoothly moved the car away as it turned towards the direction of the Kalastor.

    Arisa sighed and said, ¡°You might die you know.¡±

    ¡°A nobody like me can die with a beauty like you, who wouldn¡¯t be satisfied,¡± Luon replied.

    ¡°They might need you in the defense at the base,¡± said Arisa.

    ¡°I¡¯m out of range weapons, and my NG-Arms is useless. All I can do is hack and slash, and I can barely put up with a Ravager,¡± replied Luon.

    ¡°And besides...¡± said Luon.

    At this point, Arisa turned to look at Luon who was looking at her while they drove as he said, ¡°It¡¯s not like we¡¯re guaranteed to die, you get in there quickly kill the thing while I your prince on a black sedan drive you away? Sounds simple right?¡±

    ¡°Your plan has a nearly zero percent chance of succeeding, you know that right?¡± smiled Arisa as she couldn¡¯t believe the frivolous talk was coming from Luon¡¯s mouth.

    ¡°Well, at least it isn¡¯t zero right?¡± Luon said boldly.

    The lone car drove into the horde of Inzektors, two people smilingly stranded in a sea of madness.

 Chapter 42 - A Surprising Turnabout

    ¡°So how do you plan on doing this,¡± said Arisa as the car twisted and turn to dodge the attacks of several Inzektors.

    ¡°How long would it take for you to exterminate the Kalastor?¡± Luon asked.

    Arisa pondered for a moment before saying, ¡°If the other Inzektors don¡¯t disturb me¡­ about 10 seconds. I have fought it in the simulations before, and its defenses are fragile, but its vitality is plentiful. The only downside is that to do so, we have to get in close. Otherwise, all our efforts will go to nil, and it takes a lot of energy to burst it down.¡±

    ¡°That sounds great, but I got a better idea which could kill it much faster while taking out a bunch of Inzektors,¡± replied Luon nonchalantly.

    ¡°Oh, let''s hear your idea then,¡± said Arisa.

    ¡°At the other outpost when I was researching explosive materials, I found some data regarding nuclear level technology from this era. Before the event, Zekar told me that this information was classified by regulations and only available to level 3 engineers. I also studied the regeneration process of most Inzektors as well as their blood content before entering the camp, and with this information, I made a bomb. Using obsidian as the foundation the bomb can absorb the blood of an Inzektor and grow inside of its body causing it to become a living bomb that can blow up a region from a kilometer away. As long as you gut an opening I can toss it in, and we could get out of here,¡± boasted Luon.

    ¡°Alright, let''s go with that. I trust your bomb would be as effective as how you proclaim it, in that case, we should focus on safely arriving at the Kalastor,¡± said Arisa who started to focus on driving while channeling some mana into a defense matrix she pulled out from her intraspatial bag.

    ¡°Although increasing our speed and increasing our defense is great, some offense wouldn¡¯t hurt a bit,¡± replied Luon who summoned from his intraspatial bag several robots causing the car to be filled to the brim.

    ¡°Hey! You just added more weight, it¡¯s going to slow us down,¡± Arisa proclaimed.

    ¡°Just watch.¡± After Luon said that the robots started to attack the Inzektors surrounding them. The weak and pitiful range Inzektors died and the ones that survived faltered under their suppressive fire.

    At this moment the car no longer needed to dodge and began to accelerate as its movements regained stability.

    Within moments they were within range of the Kalastor, the Inzektors that were blocking their path desperately tried to break through the storm of bullets.

    Arisa cut her mental connection with the car as she rushed towards the Kalastor to gut it open. The Kalastor after attacking entered a minor dormant state to charge up for another attack, and at this moment it was completely defenseless. Arisa hacked and sliced open a sector of its body as streams of blood gushes out of it.

    Luon who had parked the car nearby tossed an oddly shaped ball in the opening, and after Arisa confirmed that it was greedily absorbing blood she rushed back into the car and yelled, ¡°Let¡¯s go now!¡±

    With that remark, they began to escape. However, the Inzektors took the opportunity when they had invaded and encircled them leaving no room to escape from.

    ¡°Did I take too long? Is it not possible to escape,¡± cried Arisa as the car ran in circles avoided the attacks of the Inzektors.

    ¡°It would have been impossible if you left alone,¡± replied Luon as he began to watch the time.

    ¡°What are you waiting for? Your bomb is about to blow, and we¡¯re completely trapped next to it. I don¡¯t believe this car can survive the blast,¡± said Arisa. She didn¡¯t know where Luon got his confidence from and it was difficult to break through the Inzektors with the strength of just the two of them and several robots.

    Luon smirked and said, ¡°We¡¯re exactly waiting for that bomb to blow. Brace yourself! It¡¯s coming now!¡±

    At this moment the lively Kalastor who was drained dry cycled between a compressed and uncompressed state, it was as if someone was doing squats while lifting a giant bubble enclosed around him. After one more large expansion, it compressed into a ball the size of a meter before it once again rapidly grew, only this time the skin of the Inzektor was replaced with fiery embers that enveloped the region.

    The explosion caused the remaining Inzektors to flee, but they were no match for the speed generated by the wave of death. Meanwhile, Luon had begun to retreat to the direction of the outpost as the car was chased by the explosion.

    Just before the car was enveloped in flames, Luon tossed an explosive underneath the vehicle utilizing the forces from the miniature explosion to lift it up and breaking the defensive matrix. He then exhausted his wind magic to protect the car from the flames he used it as a propulsive force causing the vehicle to fly into the air.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Arisa who was witnessing all of this screamed in fear, from the explosion that chased after them to the extremely high and rough flight she couldn¡¯t help but do so throughout the whole ordeal.

    Right, when they reached the highest peak, and everything slowed down Arisa laughed and asked, ¡°Wow that was exciting, so how are we going to land?¡±

    Luon smiled and said, ¡°And that¡¯s why I said to brace yourself.¡±

    At his words, Arisa grimaces and slowly said, ¡°Do you¡­ not have a plan for landing?¡±

    Luon gave her a thumbs up and said, ¡°Nope, but we can always pray to god and maybe we¡¯ll live, right?¡±

    Arisa grew angry and gripped Luon tightly as she began to shake him madly while saying, ¡°You crazy madman! What are you thinking! QUICKLY DO SOMETHING!¡±

    But her yells soon turned into screams as the car rapidly descended due to gravity, in fact, Luon had attempted to apply his wind magic to slow down the descent but the gravitational force of the planet, as well as the mass of the vehicle, deterred the magical energies and he didn''t have that much mana left anyway.

    Luon sadly thought, ¡®Come on magic how could you lose to science this easily? Physics, please go easier on us.¡¯

    But the laws of the world was constant and as they fell. At this moment Luon opened the windows and attempted to make a parachute using some cloth he had stored in his intraspatial bag but found it useless, it flew away as if it had intelligence and ran from the deadly situation.

    Luon despaired as the pair came close to the earth. He quickly embraced Arisa in his arms and pushed her down to the safest position in the car. The two of them were entangled, and he placed a miniature defensive barrier wrapping around them. It was the best he could do as the car rapidly descended.

    Luon and Arisa closed their eyes, they both sealed their nerves as they steeled themselves for the worse, and the impact of the car hitting the earth knocked them both unconscious.

    ¡­

    Shizuka who was leading the cars away saw the giant explosion from her rearview mirror. It was the second huge one she saw today, although she didn¡¯t know what caused it she roughly assumed it was Luon¡¯s doing.

    ¡°Crazy madman,¡± she muttered as she began to operate the lifeform detection device integrated the car. To her surprise the radar wasn¡¯t able to detect anything, it was jammed from the radiation of the explosion. She couldn¡¯t verify the current status of the pair who sacrificed themselves for them.

    Shizuka steeled herself as she reported the results to Belle and the others. Everyone on their team was saddened by the lack of news, only Shizuka continued to remain expressionless. She felt hurt inside, but she knew it wasn¡¯t the time for this, she encouraged the group to press on to the outpost. Only after arrive could they be considered safe.

    ...

    Time passed, and Luon awoke to the searing pain his body signaled him.

    ¡®I¡¯m alive?¡¯ Luon questioned himself as he slowly opened his eyes.

    What he saw was the devastated remnant of a vehicle, an injured Arisa, and a cave with a river running in it. He found himself alongside the river and assumed that they had landed themselves in it.

    ¡®No wait, if we landed squarely in the water we wouldn''t be this badly injured. We must have hit a cliff before entering the stream,¡¯ thought Luon.

    Luon looked at the car damages and concluded so. He couldn''t help but smile as he had escaped the jaws of death with Arisa.

    When he started to assess Arisa and his own damages he found out that they were in a dangerous state, Luon drank a potion only to find it to be ineffective. The injury they received was too much for a simple potion to handle.

    Luon at this moment dearly clung to his life, his mind quickly processed through a series thoughts and suggestions, but to no avail, his options were limited. While he was searching for ideas, his eyes fell upon a crate near him.

    Curious as he was he knew there was no such thing as random magical elixirs lying about, why would there be one here of all places? Still, he desperately hoped for it to exist.

    Luon grit his teeth as he reached to his intraspatial bag and summoned a robot in this situation. He commanded it to retrieve the chest and open it in front of him.

    As the chest opened up, Luon was enveloped by the herbal essences of the object in front of him. He couldn''t notice it before due to the heavy smell of blood and his injuries dulled his senses, but the chest had consistently leaked an aromatic aura. When the chest was pried open, he couldn''t help but gasp at what was in front of him.

    ¡®A starlight twin moonflower!¡¯ Luon was shocked to find this here. He had noticed that one of the flowers was missing as its stem leaked spiritual energy from the removal of its other half. Luon mind became more active due to the flower as he suddenly had an enlightening thought.

    The Inzektors were extremely active, the appearance of this flower, and the logo design of the chest indicated it was from the Plana solar system. Luon concluded that Zythos had baited the Inzektors using this flower.

    Although this flower caused their demise, it was no time to ponder on such thoughts as Arisa began to cough blood due to her injuries causing her state to worsen. Luon quickly stuffs it in his mouth as carefully chewed on until he was able to regain his motor functions. When about a quarter of the essences was absorbed Luon gently lifted his body up and position himself over Arisa.

    Her eyes were closed, and her silver-white hair laid listlessly on the wet surface.

    Arisa mouth was tightly sealed, and she was still out cold. Luon apologized to her in his mind as he lowered his face to mouth feed Arisa the remainder of the flower.

    Luon and Arisa¡¯s lips were interlocked as Luon poured from his tongue the residual energy from the flower into her body.

    At some point, her body began to proactively thirst for more as her tongue ventured into Luon¡¯s mouth and at some point while Luon was lost in his thoughts her crimson red eyes slowly opened.

    Luon¡¯s heart stopped, at first, she was still dazed, and when her eyes regain focus, she stared at Luon who was still immersed in the act and gently nudged him awake from his stupor.

    Luon gently lifted himself from the position he was in earlier and Arisa sat up.

    Luon began to sweat bullets, he yelled in his mind, ¡®I¡¯m sure she wouldn¡¯t mind, it¡¯s like doing CPR right!? I mean I was saving her life, she can¡¯t blame me for this.¡¯

    Luon timidly starred at Arisa and waited for her response.

 Chapter 43 - Return

    It was a silent stare off between two people. One the person was the perpetrator of the mess, and the other was the victim. Luon who performed a CPR like task usually wouldn''t mind such a thing, but if taking in consideration for Arisa¡¯s feelings, he felt a tad bit bad despite having done so to save her life.

    He waited for Arisa¡¯s verdict as he lowered his head. At this moment Arisa who had regained her senses didn''t say anything yet. Instead, she began to evaluate the surroundings and found the chest that Luon had opened. She turned to Luon once she thought she had seen enough and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the situation right now.¡±

    Luon felt relieved that he wasn''t punished and began to tell Arisa about their current conditions and his speculations. The moment he mentioned the starlight twinflower, her eyes widen as she replied, ¡°So you¡¯re implying I ate a half of a single flower!?¡±

    Luon nodded and almost immediately Arisa began to cultivate. To be perfectly honest Luon had no idea what the effects of the flower was, his study in the herbalism was shallow. All he knew was that it had some medicinal properties which he concluded would be able to heal their wounds, however, after seeing Arisa who began to cultivate diligently, he started to do the same and was amazed by the effects.

    Luon could feel his body wrapped in the surrounding energies of nature around him. It was like the flower was able to absorb the air to continue to grow stronger, and Luon had felt the same. Luon entered a dormant state of meditation, he felt his body slowly becoming more robust.

    After about half an hour of cultivating did he stop when Arisa smacked him awake as she stated, ¡°Now¡¯s not the time for this, right now our bodies have completely recovered, and we don¡¯t know the situation outside is. We should hurry to regroup at the outpost.¡±

    Luon stood up as the sounds of bones cracking followed him. He used his BMPU and found that he had risen two levels after eating the flower and his body was covered in a disgusting black liquid from the impurities of his body.

    Luon quickly washed his body in the stream and clothed himself with a brand new set of clothes from his intraspatial bag. By the time Luon was done, he had found Arisa was already ready waiting for him to depart and the pair began to explore the caverns they were in.

    Since there was air in this region, they quickly concluded there was an exit and determined the direction based on the flow of the wind. They stopped after a few minutes of walking, Arisa pinned Luon against the wall and said, ¡°Quiet down, there¡¯s someone here.¡±

    Hearing those words, Luon utilized an invisibility artifact he made to hide their presence from the intruders and soon enough they came into sight.

    In the lead was Zythos and following behind him was Chester and the other goons. Luon speculations were on point, Zythos did rouse the Inzektors to take action against them, and now they wanted to retrieve the evidence. Fortunately, Luon had stored the chest in his intraspatial bag, so they have something to help convict them of their crimes.

    ¡°Are you sure it''s here Chester?¡± asked Zythos.

    Chester nodded and replied, ¡°From the last reading from the tracking mechanism we lost the signal the moment the chest entered the caverns. It should be around here somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Alright then folks, spread out and look for it. You two over there go back towards the entrance and inform the ones keeping watch to be careful of Inzektors. I don¡¯t want to be ambushed while inside, and no matter what keep the scrambling mechanism active. We don¡¯t want any trouble with the starship now.¡± With Zythos¡¯s command, two of the members ran back towards the entrance while the rest of them departed to different parts of the cavern.

    When they had all left Luon had undone the invisibility artifact, and Arisa said, ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up if what he said is true, then if we destroy the scrambler at the entrance Captain Waver would have a higher chance of understanding the current situation.¡±

    Luon nodded, and the two ran after the two members who were deployed to the entrance, and soon enough after following their trail they exited the caverns. Before the surprised members of Zythos¡¯s group could notice the two, they were immediately knocked unconscious from Arisa and Luon¡¯s quick, coordinated movements. Luon searched their bodies and found the device and immediately destroyed it.

    Once he had done so, Arisa contacted Captain Waver to inform him about the situation. Captain Waver who heard of the atrocities that Zythos had done began to evacuate wandering students but relayed some unfortunate news to Luon and Arisa.

    ¡°Right now we cannot rescue the students at the outpost. Currently, they are being attacked by a swarm of Inzektors and within the pack are several potential threats that may destroy the starship if we attempt to rescue them. The students need to hold off for another hour before Helen gets there and another two hours before reinforcements arrive,¡± said Captain Waver.

    Luon looked at the time and found that after leaving the first outpost half a day had passed. According to Captain Waver who managed to contact the students they started the battle about an hour ago and without the help of all the robots and munitions at the facility they would have already fallen. Although Ravagers were strong, they were nothing before the massive explosive materials stored in the base that Luon had made.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Unfortunately, those resources began to dwindle as the siege continued. Captain Waver offered to retrieve the pair in which Arisa shook her head and reject the proposal. Arisa said, ¡°If I were to leave my friends and companions behind then how could I become a great commander?¡±

    She turned and faced Luon and said, ¡°Are you coming with me? You don¡¯t have to do so if you want and you can return to the ship with Captain Waver.¡±

    Luon shook his head in response as he said, ¡°My friends are there as well, and I can¡¯t leave you behind. Besides, you don¡¯t have any methods to arrive at the outpost safely, isn''t that right?¡±

    Arisa who heard his words nodded, she didn¡¯t have any way to get to the outpost beside a straight up frontal breakthrough. With Luon by her side, she knew that he had some tricks and weird devices that may increase their chance of success and she had hoped that he came along as well.

    Arisa then replied to Captain Waver and said, ¡°We¡¯re going to the outpost, can I get you to retrieve these fools?¡±

    Captain Waver gave a sigh and agreed, he couldn¡¯t decide the fates of these children especially when they were very determined. He could only regret being injured and unable to help them defend the base. The most he could do is get the perpetrators of the mess judged by the law and retrieve the remaining students.

    Arisa and Luon left towards the base, the blast from the escape had pushed them several kilometers away from the outpost and behind the enemy lines. Arisa turned to face Luon in which he perceived from her eyes her asking, ¡®So what¡¯s your big plan.¡¯

    Luon pulled out from his intraspatial bag a square box with several engravings on it. Arisa who didn¡¯t know anything about engravings looked at the object and exclaimed, ¡°Isn¡¯t this the school¡¯s platform jumping mechanism that we use for box jumping? Why would you need that here.¡±

    Luon looked at Arisa and said, ¡°Your correct and at the same time incorrect. This is indeed the same model that we use for box jumps, but at the same time, this is a customized version I made and found at Zekar''s shop. We used it to test the ability to dodge attacks in the air when running tests.¡±

    Luon began to wire a mana container to the box and motioned Arisa to stand on top with him. As the two stood on the platform, Luon said to Arisa, ¡°You might want to hold tight, it might be a bumpy ride.¡±

    ¡°Wha-¡± Before Arisa could ask anything the device shot them in the sky, they were immediately thrown several hundred meters away from the ground as Arisa held Luon tightly and asked, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you have no plan here as well!¡±

    Luon shook his head as he instantly equipped a paraglider from his intraspatial bag and he tied himself and Arisa onto it while maintaining their height using wind magic.

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t do this before when we were escaping because I didn¡¯t have enough mana to do it safely, but after eating that flower I now have enough to do so,¡± said Luon. He had exhausted nearly all of his mana protecting them from the explosion so he couldn¡¯t have used the paraglider before, but now that Luon was brimming with mana he could use this tactic.

    ¡°Are you ready?¡± said Luon as he finished tying themselves to the hang glider.

    Arisa nodded as the pair flew towards the base, along the way Luon had tossed several explosives on the swarm of Inzektors, seeing this Arisa asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you had no more explosives? And couldn¡¯t you break out of the situation before?¡±

    Luon smiled as turned and faced Arisa while saying, ¡°I lied. However, If I used it before while we were trapped it would¡¯ve been a waste since the giant bomb was going to blow up all of them in the first place. Don¡¯t worry about it I knew what I was doing.¡±

    Arisa stayed silent during the trip she thought to herself, ¡®This guy is a dirty liar, know what you¡¯re doing? You almost got us killed. Zero explosives? Then he starts tossing them everywhere. At least he¡¯s reliable when it matters the most. However, he doesn¡¯t share his thoughts with anyone else. It would be nice to hear the plan before he started to take action¡­ nevermind first thing we got to do is help the others. I¡¯ll deal with this guy later.¡¯

    ¡­

    ¡°Hey, Shizuka I just got a call from Captain Waver saying that both Luon and Arisa are safe. Also, we need to hold out for another hour before Teacher Helen comes over to help us out, and another two hours before a military unit arrives. How is our supply lasting?¡± said Gizmo after he had contacted Captain Waver.

    ¡°Umu, that¡¯s some good news if I hadn¡¯t heard any. There¡¯s only a quarter of munitions left in the base, at most we could only survive for another hour. If only Luon were here, then we could last maybe another hour more. He stored most of other outposts munitions in his bag,¡± Shizuka said as she continued to develop munitions.

    ¡°Captain Waver said the two are coming soon since they just disabled the scrambler. It shouldn¡¯t take them that long before they arrive,¡± replied Gizmo.

    At this moment Gizmo received an urgent message on his BMPU which stated that a large group of Ravagers appeared. Gizmo turned and faced Shizuka as he said, ¡°We need your help again, more Ravagers.¡±

    Shizuka stopped developing munitions, and the two climbed the defense line. It was a gruesome sight of Inzektors continuously dying, and the smell of gunpowder and death filled the air. Belle who was already on the walls while shooting Inzektors turned to face them as she said, ¡°Shizuka didn¡¯t your NG-Arms run out of energy? Why are you here?¡±

    Shizuka smiled as Gizmo replied for her instead, ¡°Didn¡¯t you already know? Shizuka doesn¡¯t have just one NG-Arms, she has two!¡±

    With those words, she equipped another set of NG-Arms and begun to deal with the Ravagers who had passed the defensive line. Earlier they were repelled with explosives, but due to the lack of supply every once in a while Shizuka had to step in to deal with them.

    After dealing with the last Ravager who had scaled the wall a series of explosives erupted from a distance. Gizmo, Belle, Shizuka and everyone else on the wall turned to face that direction to find a chain of explosives making its way on the ground.

    They all looked around for the perpetrator and were unable to find him until one of them pointed out, ¡°Look what¡¯s that up there.¡±

    As they all looked a few of them mumbled to each other, ¡°What is that?¡±, ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± ¡°Is it a bird? No, a plane?¡±.

    Shizuka who starred at the sky smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s not a bird or a plane, it¡¯s just another bomb maniac terrorist.¡±

    Everyone nodded at her words while watching their entrance.

 Chapter 44 - Inzektor Queen Clamaris

    ¡°It¡¯s great to see you alive and kicking,¡± said Gizmo as Luon and Arisa landed on the wall where they were at.

    Luon smiled at his remark and replied, ¡°It¡¯s great to see that the fort hasn¡¯t fallen yet. Looks like I left it in great hands. Anyways¡­ how are we doing on munitions? We only need to hold on for a few more hours before Captain Waver, and Teacher Helen arrives to help us out.¡±

    ¡°We can at most last for an hour before we run out of munitions. If only they would stop attacking us after realizing it''s pointless to do so. How much do you have left in your intraspatial bag,¡± Shizuka said.

    Luon sighed as he stated, ¡°There isn''t much at all, after using the majority on the defense at the outpost and our escape, at most we may have another hour of relief.¡±

    Luon continued, ¡°Catching up can happen later, let¡¯s first unload and process these materials first.¡±

    From Luon¡¯s intraspatial bag various of materials were carried away and were immediately used to support the base¡¯s defense mechanism. All of the sudden a massive wave of pressure followed by a screeching sound shot over the outpost.

    Luon felt his body ache in pain as he toppled over from a tremendous gravitational force. It wasn¡¯t just him, everyone at the outpost felt this pressure. Fortunately, it only lasted for a second. Luon got up and peered beyond the crowd of Inzektors and was frightened by the sight before him. It was half a size taller than a Ravager, it¡¯s black exoskeleton gave itself a clean and slick look and reminded Luon of Xenomorphs from alien type media he had seen during his modern day first simulation. Its legs were sharp and pointy like the claws of a mantis while its body was shaped like a spider with a human-like shape in front. It was the spider equivalent of a centaur.

    Words streamed in Luon¡¯s mind as he was reminded of what kind of Inzektor it was. Many answers to his questions were solved at this moment. What sort of being was controlling the Inzektors? What kind of creature was to use Ravagers as cannon fodder. And more importantly, why were there so many Ravagers in the first place. It was an Inzektor Queen called Clamaris.

    There were many different types of Inzektor Queen¡¯s from low tier to high tier, and the diversity in the Inzektor was as vast as there were species of insects in the universe. In fact, the Demon Faced Illusion Spider was a type of Inzektor Queen itself, it was a low tier one, and if it had to be compared to the military structure created by humans, it was merely the captain of a squad of 5.

    The Clamaris, however, was different from low tier trash like the Demon Faced Illusion Spider. It was equivalent to a ten thousand man general for the Inzektors, and its children were Ravagers, merely producing category B Inzektors already made this being a major threat.

    Luon used his Eye of Insight to read the Clamaris stats and was shocked to find that it was one level away from evolving.

    [Clamaris]

    [Race - Inzektor]

    [Combat Level - 79]

    [Racial Skills - Inzektor Signal, Nimble, Inzektor Command Lv1]

    [Active Skills - Echo Screech, Ravage Charge]

    [An Inzektor who originated from a spider that evolved into a monstrosity. Its children are born into superior beings, and the Clamaris is nearly as intelligent as humans are.]

    Luon began to sweat in fear a bit. Not only was the Clamaris was an extremely frightening being it was surrounded by Ravagers. A small squad of Ravagers was already hard enough to handle, and now a battalion of 300 of them encircled the Clamaris.

    They stared at their mother with admiration and love. However, the Clamaris was indifferent to their feelings. It began to slaughter a few Ravagers and other types of Inzektors to consume them, like a mother spider there was no love between her and her children. Luon questioned why it would do so but his question was shortly answered as the crowd of Inzektors had halted their assault.

    ¡°We¡¯ve got to stop it! That Echo Screech earlier disabled over 25% of the base''s defenses!¡± yelled Gizmo.

    Luon turned to him and asked about how much he knew about the Clamaris and Gizmo words made his fears come true. As long as the Clamaris is continually supplied food, it was able to use Echo Screech continuously. After a few more times the base would be completely disabled allowing the relentless assaults of Inzektors to overwhelmed them.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    The Clamaris was extremely intelligent, it recognized that the base defenses were troublesome and came up with a cost-effective solution to disable them. Rather than sending the whole army of Ravagers to overwhelm the base with a massive amount of losses she would instead siege the outpost and come out with minor losses. Once the defenses were disabled, the outpost would be helpless before them.

    Luon sighed he had no solution to this problem, and the only thing he could think of was a frontal assault outside of the base. There was no escape method as the base was encircled by Inzektors. If the Clamaris falls before them now, there might be a chance for survival, and after recognizing this fact, he turned towards his friends who gave him a determined stare.

    Luon silently nodded at their resolve and turned to face Arisa, Shizuka, and Belle as he said, ¡°Me, Tyron, Gizmo, and Bendan will go out and deal with the Clamaris. Arisa, give a quick call to Captain Waver to see if they can pull everyone else out while we keep them preoccupied. Their range type of Inzektors may be able to disable the ship functions, but if you¡¯re lucky enough you might be able to escape their range of influence unharmed.¡±

    Arisa body shook a bit. It was a suicide mission with nearly zero chance of survival and Luon the other guys volunteered themselves for the task. She shrouded her feelings deep inside of herself as she turned and gazed at her subordinates and friends, they felt fear, despair, and sadness. She wanted to follow along with them on their assault. However, Luon¡¯s words reminded Arisa of her position. She was a leader, a commander, and her goal right now is to win the war against the Inzektors whether the operation is to retreat or to attack she had to recognize the most valuable move for the Alliance.

    Although Luon and the other guys were valuable assets, they were still green nobodies inside Nexus University while she, Belle, and Shizuka were the noble and treasured daughters of the most important factions of the Nexus solar system.

    After calming herself down, she quietly said to Luon, ¡°For the new era.¡±

    She tapped her chest gently and turned towards her everyone else as she bellowed, ¡°All staff members retreat to the launch pad and move our line of defense over there. Take some of the defense turrets there as well without the Inzektors noticing. Let the Clamaris waste her Echo Screech on the outer wall while we reinforce our last stand. Move it!¡±

    Everyone sprang into action, and Luon faced Bendan, Gizmo, and Tyron as he asked, ¡°Do you guys want to escape as well?¡±

    They all shook their heads, and Gizmo asked, ¡°So what¡¯s the plan Luon? How are we going to deal with the Clamaris.¡±

    ¡°First we¡¯re going to hide on the outer walls and remove several defense turrets after the Clamaris thinks the base defenses are disabled she would send the army forward. Once she does turn on a few turrets to make it seem like the base mechanism is still working. In response, it¡¯s going to halt her forces again before casting a few more Echo Screeches. Although it¡¯s intelligent, we may be able to deceive it a few times before it realizes it was tricked and stampede our walls. Once the wall falls we will ambush it, and if possible, kill it.¡± said Luon.

    ¡°If you''re going to assault the Clamaris you might need this,¡± said Shizuka.

    From her intraspatial bag, she conjured 4 fully charged NG-Arms. Luon knew that she produced them in her workshop at school but didn¡¯t think she would have so many on her. Seeing the expensive equipment Gizmo said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you only had two? Or at least what I heard.¡±

    ¡°I have a lot of them, but not enough staff that could use it properly. Which reminds other than Luon can you guys use them?¡± asked Shizuka.

    Hearing her words, Gizmo nodded and said, ¡°Of course we could use them. Me, Tyron and Gizmo played around with them in the Vortex Container all the time. I just didn¡¯t expect to use them in real life since it''s very expensive.¡±

    Tyron and Bendan nodded at his remark and seeing their response Shizuka nodded and said, ¡°Alright then, make sure you keep it safe. I¡¯ll charge the rental fees once this is over.¡±

    Luon asked Shizuka, ¡°Rental fees? You aren¡¯t lending this to us?¡±

    Shizuka smiled and said, ¡°You guys are going to get tons of points from this assault, are you guys going to be wasting my energy crystals without for free? Maintenance fees, energy costs, and other fees I¡¯ve already excluded a lot of fees, you could at least pay for the crystals right?¡±

    Luon sighed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry guys. I¡¯ll help you pay for it later. Let¡¯s just get ready for battle already.¡±

    Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan nodded as they equipped themselves with the NG-Arms. After Luon equipped an NG-Arms he found it¡¯s efficiency to be a little lower than his own, but they were a bit above the mass-produced models, and he recognized that these models were what Shizuka had crafted on her free time.

    The Clamaris continued to attack the base several more times before it stopped and commanded the other Inzektors to charge. However, Luon and his friends deceptive tactic delayed the advance by nearly half an hour. Enraged that it was tricked the walls were overwhelmed quickly and Arisa¡¯s last defensive line started to be assaulted.

    Luon and his friends snuck past the Inzektors using some invisibility artifact he had crafted, and the Clamaris was within attack range.

    It still had several Ravagers around it, but they had no other option than to attack.

    Luon dissolved the invisibility effect, and the assault on the Clamaris began, it was an all-out attack with no turning back. With their backs against the walls, it was time for a last ditch effort.

 Chapter 45 - Evolved

    ¡°Kwaa-¡± an eerie sound came from a Ravager who noticed Luon¡¯s ambush. It tried to signal its allies about the ambush, but it was cut off along with its head. Luon¡¯s sword swiftly beheaded the Ravager, however, in response the others had noticed their presences almost immediately.

    When Luon was dealing with the first Ravager, Bendan, Gizmo, and Tyron weren¡¯t sitting by idly. They had also eliminated a Ravager by themselves with the help of Shizuka¡¯s NG-Arms and the fact they were taken by surprise.

    Fortunately for Luon most of the other Ravagers under the Clamaris wing was assaulting Arisa¡¯s line of defense. Within that instant, only twelve were left. The Clamaris was indifferent to seeing her children''s deaths, to her they were merely soldiers and food. No matter what their lives would be offered to the great cause, to beings more powerful than themselves. The weak clung to the strong that¡¯s was what all it was.

    As the Clamaris amusingly watches over the battle, Luon began to engage with six Ravagers. They instinctively knew that he was the strongest in the group. Bendan, Tyron, and Gizmo were still under level 50 and with their NG-Arms equipped they were able to reach the same level as the Ravagers. Luon, however, was already over level 50 when the event started and after absorbing a portion of the starlight twin moonflower, he had grown even stronger than before.

    It was a messy brawl within the encirclement of the Ravagers Luon dodge their attacks within a hair''s breadth. If their attacks were properly coordinated this action would not have been possible, however, each Ravager thoughtlessly swung their arms hoping to impale Luon.

    Taking advantage of their mistakes, Luon closed in on the gaps and slowly began to eliminate the Ravagers one by one. Luon swiftly appeared merely centimeters away from a Ravager and stabbed it with his blade. The attack impeded its movements for a moment, and then Luon pulled out his sword before swiftly escaping. At the spot, he was just at another Ravager charged in and impaled the already weakened Ravager.

    After the first one fell the others had followed suit, Luon felt that it was harder to face two Ravagers rather than a swarm of them, by the time he had eliminated the group. However, this move didn¡¯t come without a cost, his energy reserved plummeted, and he only had a few minutes more of operation time.

    When Luon checked on how his friends were doing they each had eliminated a Ravager and were fighting their final bouts with the remaining three. Bendan was first to finish off his opponents as he began to aid Gizmo and Tyron with their opponents.

    At this moment Luon no longer paid attention to them. Instead, he stared at the Clamaris in front of him. It was as if it was bored and watching their battle entertained the Clamaris, it merely stood there waiting for them to be done clearing the Ravagers. Luon face distorted at the sight, the Clamaris observation clearly displays its intelligence, using her children as sacrifices it grasped the attack pattern Luon¡¯s group had used while exhausting their battle power.

    Although there was still Ravagers still alive and the Clamaris intended to wait a bit more, it then noticed something. The Clamaris felt something from Luon, it was a familiar feeling to her, and suddenly her mood instantly changed. Luon felt the changes as well in fact his heart began rapidly, he felt a resonating effect between him and the Clamaris. Luon then thought ¡®The starlight twin moonflower!¡¯

    Luon recognized that the other half of the flower was eaten by the Clamaris. Before Luon was allowed to ponder any further, the Clamaris used an Echo Screech at Luon who in return used wind magic to fend off the sound waves. Seeing her attack fail the Clamaris charged at Luon who in response engage into close quarter combat with the Clamaris. The Clamaris was level 79 while Luon with his NG-Arms equipped and after eating the flower was at 73. There was quite the disparity between the two, but it was mainly in physical strength. With his refined techniques, he was able to draw a stalemate between the two. However, the situation slowly became more complicated.

    If Luon lasts long enough then his friends could come and help him attack the Clamaris, the downside was the energy consumption of his NG-Arms. Once it was out of energy even if they grouped together, there was no way to beat the Clamaris. After doing a quick calculation, Luon decided to unequip his NG-Arms as he released it and stored it in his storage. To unequip and equip the NG-Arms this action took only a second as it magically disappeared. This single second, although short, was long when compared to their rapid actions. Utilizing Luon¡¯s downtime the Clamaris was able to land a blow against Luon.

    Luon¡¯s body flew several meters away from the attack. Fortunately for him, he used his transforming belt to equip his armor to mitigate a part of the attack. However, cracks began to appear, and Luon thought that at most he could handle two more attacks similar to the one he just took.

    The Clamaris once again charged in front of Luon and the two began another bout, although Luon was much slower than before he barely managed to last a few minutes more. Luon tried to make some space between them, but it charged at him once again, however, this time during its rush a bullet exploded against the side of the Clamaris knocking it aside.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan began to engage with the Clamaris, and Luon equipped his NG-Arms before engaging once again. Soon enough with their combined efforts they pressured and managed to injure the Clamaris. The Clamaris began to glow crimson and quickly recognizing its actions Luon yelled, ¡°Retreat!¡±

    They backed away from the Clamaris as it began to dash away from the group, at the same time numerous spikes shot out of its exoskeleton. Luon had recognized that it was going to use the Ravage Charge skill but didn¡¯t expect that it would run away from the group. Luon had experienced this move before when he studied the simulated version of the Clamaris, it was an attack which short spikes from its body as it ran towards its foes. However, the reality of things was different from the simulation, instead of charging at them, it ran away. Luon was confused and asked himself, ¡®Why did it run away?¡¯

    His question was quickly answered as the Clamaris began to screech once more, only it wasn¡¯t the attack Echo Screech. Instead, Luon felt like it was screeching in joy and pleasure. At this moment the Clamaris began to evolve the pressure from fighting Luon, and the others stimulated the effects of the starlight twin moonflower causing the Clamaris to hit level 80!

    Luon and the others dismayed, unlike them who had to rely on NG-Arms the Clamaris was naturally beyond their levels. The evolution process was quick, the skin became more robust, and it''s size nearly increased by half. The aura the Clamaris emitted grew even deadlier. Satisfied by its changes the Clamaris turned and faced the group as if thanking them for their pathetic efforts.

    It happened in an instant, a black figure nearly vanished from one spot and appeared right beside Bendan. With a single swing, it sent Bendan flying several meters away until he arrived beside Luon.

    ¡°Bendan!¡± Luon yelled in response as he quickly checks his injuries. After its evolution, the Clamaris¡¯s attack was almost beyond Luon¡¯s level of perception.

    Fortunately, the attack didn''t kill him as he was still breathing. However, Bendan was completely knocked unconscious, and he was bleeding.

    After quickly giving Bendan a potion to maintain his vitality he turned to face the Clamaris. The battle wasn''t over yet, and he needed to get Bendan away from the battle to do proper first aid treatment. However, the Clamaris wasn''t going to let him go easily.

    The Clamaris once again vanished and appeared in front of Luon. It was even faster than when it attacked Bendan. Luon had underestimated its speed as its leg rapidly approaches Luon with the intention of ending his life. He was helpless against the attack as he instinctively closed his eyes in fear.

    ¡°Hmm, looks like you¡¯ve managed to survive long enough. Back down now, from here on out it''s my fight,¡± said a voice.

    Luon who had felt death rapidly approach him a few seconds ago heard a voice and as a few more seconds pass he found himself still alive. He opened his eyes when Helen arrived to help them out. Immediately he lifted Bendan up and backed out with Tyron and Gizmo.

    Seeing her students distancing themselves away enough for her to be satisfied she turned to face the evolved Clamaris and said, ¡°I didn''t expect that a domesticated Inzektor of this size would appear within our watch. Don''t worry I''ll personally help exterminate your kind from this planet after this.¡±

    The Clamaris who couldn¡¯t completely understand what she said felt angry at the way Helen posed herself. The Clamaris intimidatingly roared before one again assaulting her.

    Helen who experienced a point-blank Echo Screech appeared indifferent as she drew her sword to parry against the Clamaris¡¯s attack.

    Beneath the power of the two behemoths, Luon and the others felt the waves of pressure caused by their collision overwhelm him despite their distance.

    ¡®Is this what it''s like for two level 80s to fight? The difference between 70 to 80 is like gazing upwards at a mountain without seeing the peak,¡¯ thought Luon as he struggled to stand.

    There was no need for talk between these two monsters, even if they do talk they weren¡¯t able to understand each other''s language. However, they were still able to communicate through combat.

    Helen and the Clamaris traded numerous of blows, they rapidly disappeared from the battlefield before Luon¡¯s eyes as he barely manages to perceive them. At this moment Gizmo had finished giving Bendan the first aid treatment he needed. Originally Luon was going to do so, but Gizmo turned him down as Luon was the only one who could possibly stop the Clamaris from attacking them.

    Luon who was barely able to keep up with their actions told Gizmo without turning away from the battle, ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here. If we stay any longer, it would be harder for Teacher Helen to help us.¡±

    Gizmo nodded, and the group began to retreat. The Clamaris who was in the middle of combat noticed this and attacked Luon who barely managed to block a single attack. Luon yelled at Gizmo to continue retreating as he started dodging the Clamaris.

    As Gizmo and the group ran away, the Clamaris didn¡¯t pay any attention towards them. Instead, it was focused on Luon. Unlike the weak beings that ran away, Luon who ate the other half of the flower mustn¡¯t escape, or so it thought. If the Clamaris consumed Luon¡¯s flesh, it would be able to grow once more and deal with Helen.

    Luon didn¡¯t know its intentions and desperately fought with Helen to stay alive. Although it was a two versus one Luon was nearly out of energy. In fact, his presence their distracted Helen more than it helped her.

    It was at this moment Luon¡¯s NG-Arms ran out of energy, and the Clamaris once again knocked Luon several meters away. His armor was utterly shattered, and blood oozed out from his body.

    Clinging to his life he desperately stared at the Clamaris as his mind thought about how to survive in this situation. The Clamaris threw off Helen and dashed towards Luon making a joyful screeching sound.

    To Luon it was the frightening sound of impending death. The Clamaris was right before his eyes and it swung down on him.

    And it was at this moment Luon was enveloped in darkness.

 Chapter 46 - Queens Death

    Helen who was repelled by the Clamaris flew several meters away. She tried her best to get up and rush over to help Luon, but she was too late.

    The Clamaris swung its claws intending to reap Luon¡¯s life. She couldn''t bear to watch the scene where one of her students is killed in front of her. However, she didn''t look away in the middle of combat.

    The hand vanished from her line of sight and from where she was positioned, she couldn''t see Luon¡¯s last moments. It was as if time froze, she stared blankly waiting for the blood to gush out like a fountain.

    Seconds pass but not a single drop of blood appeared, curious at the same time worried she rushed over to find an unprecedented scene.

    In front of Helen was the same student she had taught numerous of times, he was alive and well, almost too good to be true. The surprising thing was that he was using only one arm to hold onto his sword to counterbalance the force behind the Clamaris¡¯s arm.

    If someone didn''t know Luon¡¯s physical capabilities, they would think that within his tiny frame of a body was a muscle density beyond belief. However, Helen knew it wasn''t like that. She quickly analyzed the strange predicament and found that Luon was manipulating the energy density that was coating his sword as well as his body to disperse the force. It was an art, with precise control there was not a single bit of excess mana, every single particle had a purpose.

    Helen didn''t know what to make of the situation, such intricate technique could come from a combat genius. The only data the government provided the teachers about Luon was that he was a smart engineer, and a good commander. His combat abilities were slightly above average, but nothing too notable. Or at least she didn''t believe that he would be able to stop an Inzektor nearly 30 whole levels beyond his capabilities with a single arm.

    Helen shook off her thoughts, the first thing she should be doing is to subdue the Clamaris. She plunges her sword into the Clamaris¡¯s body but found an odd reaction. Frozen in fear the Clamaris did not let out a single sound of pain after being impaled by Helen. Helen couldn¡¯t tell if her attack was effective or not, just as she pulled the sword out of the Clamaris, it screeched once more.

    The force from the sound waves knocked Helen back a few meters. Fortunately, Helen managed to pull out her sword in time as blood gushed out from the body of the Clamaris. However, instead of looking at Helen who had wounded it, the Clamaris continued to stare at Luon and seeing that reaction Helen unconsciously did the same.

    At this moment Luon faced looked up, and within his eyes, Helen could only see empty darkness, the bright bluish light was replaced with a gray dye. Luon¡¯s expression was even more expressionless than Tyron on an average day. This single fact caused Helen to fear Luon a bit despite being allies.

    Luon appeared indifferent to their stares, he slowly turned and slowly evaluated his body. He raised his arms and swung his swords horizontally a few times and said in a monotone voice, ¡°Pathetic.¡±

    As if urged by his words the Clamaris impulsively charged at Luon who was still adapting to the changes. The Clamaris was a few steps away from Luon before he turned to face it. With a speed that he didn¡¯t possess moments ago, he began to exchange blows with the Clamaris. Within seconds numerous of blows were exchanged, if it were the old Luon, he would have already lost after two attacks. Helen couldn¡¯t help but stare, Luon didn¡¯t become physically stronger. Instead, his control over his Mana energy became more profound, and his reaction speed nearly doubled if not tripled.

    Before Luon was using Manaqi energy when he fought Ravagers, but the new Luon only used mana. He had recognized the supplementary flow of energy but didn''t use it as it was unfamiliar to him. Luon frowned as he continued to exchange blows with the Clamaris, although his mana control became more cost-efficient at the pace he was going at his mana pool will soon run out faster than the Clamaris stamina. Luon let out a sigh as he looked downwards again and said, ¡°Simply pathetic.¡±

    At this moment Luon¡¯s aura rose as the energy he had inside of him burst out like a busted faucet without a stopper. The Clamaris was intimidated from the mana that came out of Luon. It wasn¡¯t like the regular type that Luon had used earlier. In fact, Luon had converted it to dark elemental type which was easy to do if one was profound in the field. If it wasn¡¯t for the conversion rate disparity, anyone could use any kind of elemental type magic. Some races are more favored with certain elements compared to others which made it easier for them to convert normal mana to elemental energy.

    The darkness eroded the surroundings and soon converged into Luon¡¯s sword, the pitch black sword was covered in an even darker fog rotating evenly like a Baumkuchen being layered with more batter. When Helen saw this, she thought, ¡®My gosh, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if tentacles come out from that sword.¡¯

    Both Helen and the Clamaris¡¯s eyes followed the flow of energy of the sword which had formed several spirals before vanishing from their sights. When they both regained their senses, Luon had also disappeared. The Clamaris quickly evaluated her surroundings but found no traces of Luon.

    ¡°Fool,¡± it was at this moment a voice came from above the Clamaris as it looked up in response. Luon who appeared above the Clamaris was shrouded in light particles like it was a piece of armor shattering into pieces. In fact, the initial display of dark magic was just a fancy show. By exaggerating the dark energy, besides Luon, everyone else was confused. It was like a man who wore a black shirt every day walked in town with a white one for the first time when people expect to see something familiar or something that sticks out they overlook some factors. And Luon using light magic for an invisibility spell was one of those factors.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Luon stabbed the sword into the Clamaris¡¯s mouth, although the sword is sharp it was still difficult to pierce the bone structure of the head. Impaled by the sword the Clamaris tried to peel Luon off, it raised its arms and just as it was about to touch Luon it stopped. Helen looked at the scene with an odd expression, she didn¡¯t know what Luon did to stop it. However, her questions were quickly answered as Luon poured all the dark energy that was coating the sword into the body of the Clamaris. Unlike the typical properties of darkness, it was like a flame that eroded the Clamaris¡¯s body. Luon poured all his mana into this attack as he silently said, ¡°Netherworld Flames.¡±

    It was dark magic with properties of fire, such a technique was rarely pulled off. It wasn¡¯t something new as Helen had heard of stories of famous figures having water type flame or a rock that generated electricity. However, the important point was that they were prominent figures. The boy before her was someone she had met daily, Helen couldn¡¯t help, but smile when she saw this other side of Luon.

    Her smile didn¡¯t last that long though, parts of the Clamaris combusted starting with the brain and Luon who was on top blanked out. He began to descend like a rag-doll falling off of its one-time fantastic performance on stage. Helen hurried over and caught Luon in her arms and quickly escaped away from the Clamaris. As if recognizing their absence the energy inside of the Clamaris exploded ending its life.

    Helen who had escaped the explosion began to check Luon¡¯s state and was relieved to find that he had over exhausted his mana.

    The Inzektors who were nearby felt the Clamaris fall and began streaming into the area. Seeing the waves of Inzektors Helen swung Luon onto her back and dashed out of the area.

    The weak Inzektors couldn¡¯t help but stare at their escape.

    ¡­

    ¡°Milady there¡¯s simply too many!¡± cried Keyral as she swung her bardiche reaping the life of many Inzektors.

    ¡°Just focus on defending and killing. If your tired just rotate out and get someone else in,¡± replied Arisa as she swung her sword.

    The final line of defense was enclosed by several walls and had one intentionally opened door. Normally the Inzektors would be tempted to climb above the walls which were armed with automatic defense turrets that they had retrieved from the outer walls, but Arisa had created a single entrance causing most of the Inzektors to charge towards them.

    As the battle raged on a change occurred, Arisa looked up and saw Gizmo, Bendan and Tyron come flying above the Inzektors on the ground and into the base. Seeing their safe arrival, she swapped places with Kiri to ask about the situation. Fortunately, the Inzektors that were bred on this planet were related to spiders, if they had flying Inzektors, the base would have been long gone.

    When Arisa met up with the guys, she found Belle and Shizuka were there as well. Shizuka was in charge of developing more munitions while Belle was on break, so she wasn¡¯t surprised to see them there, only they had some sad expression as if they had lost something. Arisa evaluated the state of the newcomers and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Luon?¡±

    Hearing those words, Gizmo who had tears in his eyes began to recount everything that had happened to the group. When she heard Luon stayed behind to delay the Clamaris her heartstrings tightened as she thought, ¡®Why would the Clamaris target only Luon? Could it be the flower? This...¡¯

    Although she felt sad, she knew it wasn¡¯t the time for it. Arisa reassured herself as she thought, ¡®Everything''s going to be fine, Helen was there so there should be no problems. Right now we¡¯ve got to reinforce our defensive lines and heal Bendan.¡¯

    Arisa coughed over the depressing atmosphere as she said with determination, ¡°Gizmo, Tyron, although I know you would want to rest, however, I can¡¯t let you absent if your range attackers. Go sit up at the top of the wall and shoot those bugs down. You can rest while attacking. Don¡¯t worry about Bendan, Shizuka will take care of him.¡±

    Shizuka nodded in response. Reassured Tyron tapped Gizmo shoulder and led him to the top of the defensive wall while Shizuka took Bendan to the medical bay leaving Arisa and Belle behind.

    ¡°Arisa, are you-¡± before Belle could say any more words Arisa interrupted her.

    ¡°Belle, break times over. Let¡¯s get back to the front and kill some Inzektors. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re all going to make it out of this alive,¡± said Arisa as she left the room.

    Belle stared at Arisa¡¯s back as she held back her tears as she thought, ¡®Arisa, although commanders need to make logical decisions they are still human. Don¡¯t you feel sad? Or are you overwhelmed with anger? If only I could carry some of that weight on your shoulders for you. The least I can do is mourn for you, and fight for you.¡¯

    Belle paused for a second to confide her feelings, she then began marching towards the frontline with a determined expression.

    With the aid of Tyron and Gizmo, the front lines felt less pressured. However, this equilibrium didn¡¯t last long as a the Inzektors began to attack more furiously. It was a sudden change and to make things even worse the Ravagers who were overseeing the battle all rushed towards the choke point as if maddened by something.

    Arisa was helpless at the situation, the moment they arrive at the door everyone would be slaughtered, the moment they closed the doors, they would quickly scale the walls, and then kill everyone. There was no solution that she could up with to remedy this situation.

    Arisa readied herself for the worse, and just when the Ravagers were a few meters away from her, a figure appeared instantly killing all the Ravagers in the vicinity. Arisa happily cried out, ¡°Teacher Helen!¡±

    ¡°Umu, leave the rest to me. Here take this,¡± said Helen as tossed something large at Arisa. She hurried to catch it and her heart bounced, in her arms was Luon. She quickly checked his condition and sighed in relief to find that he was not in a dangerous state.

    After sending Luon to the medical bay, the front line rotated between Helen by herself and Arisa¡¯s group relieving a significant amount of pressure on the students. In fact, after Helen had arrived a few of them started to sleep soundly, it was challenging to fight battle after battle without rest continuously. The stressful situation wasn¡¯t as bad as it was before.

    After about half a day, more waves of Inzektors came and finally a group of starships arrived firing energy blasts upon the Inzektors, scattering them about. Within the group of Inzektors were Bavolings which were fragile, quick, and explosive, that leaped towards the ships but fell upon the rapid fire of the starships defensive turrets.

    The students after seeing reinforcements came to save them cheered and waved vigorously, and when a particular ship appeared within the squadron of starships, they became even more active. The starship that they were more familiar with landed and the students orderly vacated the outpost with their belongings.

    Helen entered the ship with the girls in tow. When she got inside, she rushed over to Captain Waver and gave him a hug, initially he wanted to dodge her charge but held himself back from doing so as she was the star of the show. He decided to let it slide for now.

    ¡­

    And after some time, Luon woke up.

 Chapter 47 - The End Of Survival Training

    ¡°So you¡¯re saying that Luon killed the Clamaris, and you stood there watching?¡± questioned Captain Waver.

    ¡°Yes, I wasn¡¯t able to subdue that easily yet the boy took care of it without breaking a sweat,¡± said Helen.

    At this moment Helen was kneeling in front of Captain Waver who laid back on a chair while questioning Helen. Hearing the mystical events that had happened Captain Waver was surprised to hear about Luon¡¯s combat abilities from Helen. He had heard about something similar to this before, classified under regulations was information about synchronization rates after fusing memories together.

    Most, if not everyone who experienced simulations had a balanced synchronization rate, with all the simulations shared together they create a new personality. However, for a select few individuals who experienced a simulation longer than others, their personalities tend to relate towards what they were in the longer simulation.

    Of course the older they were, the more experienced they were, but most of these people who experienced an exceptionally long simulation tend to be serial murderers, criminals, and other types of evil existences. People who had long simulations and commit many acts of evil were disposed of immediately, this was one of the dark sides of the system.

    Captain Waver frowned as he started recall this information since Luon was out and about, then his personality should be okay. However, what confused him was that there was apparently another side of Luon. Two personalities? Captain Waver couldn¡¯t fathom why it was like that, he wasn¡¯t able to check Luon¡¯s simulation history, so he decided just to keep everything under the table.

    Captain Waver got up, and he said to Helen, ¡°Alright, although you weren¡¯t that helpful against the Clamaris, I¡¯ll let you off the hook since you helped save everyone. When Luon wakes up tell him that you killed the Clamaris, everything you¡¯ve seen until now never happened.¡±

    Helen sat up and looked at Captain Waver eyes while confused by his remark. She slowly nodded with a moderate amount of understanding. Seeing her conform to his order Captain Waver began to leave the room.

    Before he left Captain Waver stopped at the door and said, ¡°One more thing, as punishment for not perfectly handling the situation. For the rest of the trip don¡¯t talk to me unless its an emergency. Also, tonight''s dinner is canceled.¡±

    Captain Waver dashed out of the room before she could even respond and after a few seconds, a scream echoed into the halls scaring everyone in the surrounding area.

    ...

    When Luon woke up, he found Gizmo playing games on a chair nearby. Confused that the only thing he could vaguely recall from the battle was when Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan left. Luon asked Gizmo what had happened and how long he was out for and it appeared that several days had passed.

    When he began to ask about the battle Helen came in to brief him about what happened. He was out cold because of mana exhaustion, and she said she took care of the Clamaris. After retelling the story, she quickly left the room. Luon who was stuck in the medical bay for several days to recuperate was visited by his friends, Shizuka, Arisa, and Belle, and a couple of their female subordinates who came to give their thanks.

    As he was bound to his bed, Luon had heard some good news about the conclusion of the survival training. He was happy to find out was that he was actually ranked first in the assessment with over 7536 points which were exchanged into 75 360 Galaxia coins. The explosions he had used killed many Inzektors allowing him to claim the first spot. With a medal signifying his importance Luon his time spent recuperating was filled with joy.

    Mana exhaustion could only be cured with time, and after several days passed Luon was finally discharged from the medical bay. When he started to return to his room after walking for a while, he met a familiar figure, Zythos.

    From what Arisa had told him Zythos was currently undergoing investigation as he was monitored by an officer from a different Battalion.

    Zythos stood in front of Luon causing him to frown as he said, ¡°Lucky Bastard.¡±

    ¡°Troublesome dog,¡± Luon retorted as he quickly evaluated the officer behind Zythos. Seeing his indifferent expression, Luon silently categorize him as one of Zythos¡¯ lackeys or just an uncaring man. Zythos¡¯ connections inside the government system run extremely deep, Luon couldn''t think of how much influence they have in the shadows, so he wasn''t surprised if his speculation was actually correct.

    Still staring at Luon while ignorant of his thoughts Zythos smirked and said, ¡°I wonder if you had a great time during this expedition, I heard you were chased by the Clamaris, isn''t that right?¡±

    Luon felt that Zythos was trying to probe him for something and quickly came to the conclusion that he was wondering about the state of the other starlight twin moonflower. Since the deed had already been done Luon daringly said to Zythos, ¡°It was quite an exciting adventure, from killing Inzektors to searching for food, camping, and cooking. Speaking of food, during the expedition we found a couple of rare herbs once in a while. They just magically appear out of nowhere just like a random treasure chest found in dungeons.¡±This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Zythos frowned, his expression turned serious as he demanded, ¡°Alright quit the tomfoolery you know why I''m here, give me the other half of the flower, and I won¡¯t get myself involved in your matters anymore.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that you would be found guilty with the crimes you¡¯ve done so far? That chest could be the physical evidence to prove your hand in this matter,¡± Luon pointed out.

    Zythos gave Luon a meaningful look as he said, ¡°Try me, go ahead and submit it as evidence. If I didn''t have a backup plan I wouldn''t daringly do so, also quit trying to record the conversation, I have an ocular signal noise jammer which excludes my voice and visuals on your recording. It would look like your talking to yourself.¡±

    Luon frowned and turned his recording software on his BMPU off and looked at Zythos who had his hand reaching out towards Luon like as if he had owed him money.

    Luon looked at him like an idiot and said, ¡°I don''t have it.¡±

    Zythos appeared dumbfounded and said, ¡°Huh? What do you mean you don''t have it. You were hinting the whole time, and you say your hands are clean? Quit it, just hand me the flower, and we will both no longer get involved with each other.¡±

    Luon thought about how to respond without triggering too much of Zythos¡¯ anger. After thinking for a bit, he said to Zythos, ¡°Arisa has it, the scent must have rubbed off on me which was why the Clamaris chased me.¡±

    Push the blame on another person plan! Arisa¡¯s position made it difficult for him to retrieve it, and Luon wasn¡¯t lying so a lie detector wouldn''t be able to detect it. It was a play on words that would mislead Zythos. If Luon told him that he ate it, his anger would escalate causing more problems in the future.

    Zythos frowned, there was no way for him to get it back from Arisa. He looked at the officer who in turn shook his head. Zythos sighed as he said to Luon before he left, ¡°Is that so? Sorry for troubling you then.¡±

    As Zythos was walking away, Luon asked him, ¡°Why did you attack us? Couldn''t you use that brain of yours for the greater good against Inzektors? Do you not have any pride after I shamed you in class?¡±

    Zythos stopped walking, and with his back towards Luon, he turned his head to the side and said with a voice void of life, ¡°You don''t understand anything.¡±

    And with those words, he left Luon in the empty hallway.

    The rest of the trip was uneventful, and after the expedition, Luon¡¯s regular life continued as usual from classes to crafting, everything was great. A few days after Luon had return Zekar walked into the workshop where Luon was working in and said, ¡°I think it''s time for you to take the next engineering exam.¡±

    Luon who had just finished his daily crafting tasks turned and faced Zekar and asked, ¡°What¡¯s with the sudden change of heart? I thought you wanted me to do it a month from now.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. I did want you to do it a month from now. However, I changed my mind,¡± said Zekar. Zekar began to talk about a conversation he had with Dio about how Shizuka had just gotten her Engineering License Lv2, the competitive Zekar was spurred by the arrogantly gloating expression Dio had made when he talked about his daughter. Only after explaining the reason why Luon was going to do the examinations early did Luon agree.

    Luon himself found Shizuka to be an excellent rival, and the fact she had advanced a level ahead made Luon feel like he should do the same. He was a little surprised to find out that Zekar and Dio had actually known each other, Zekar never talked about himself before, so Luon started to ask about his identity. Seeing how Luon was curious him, Zekar answered a few of his questions before mystifying the rest by saying, ¡°Who knows?¡± or ¡°What do you think?¡±

    After his queries were leading to nowhere did Luon stop asking. Zekar after making sure Luon wasn¡¯t going to ask any more questions then asked, ¡°So? How far are you on the assignments I have assigned you? Are you prepared for the examination?¡±

    Luon nodded and said, ¡°I have already started with the level 3 materials, give me one night to review the level two materials, and I would be ready once my application has been accepted, it might take a few days until my exams start.¡±

    ¡°No need to wait, I¡¯ll have an appointment done for tomorrow so do your best to cover the material tonight,¡± Zekar said as he left the room with that remark.

    ¡®Looks like tonight is an all-night cram session, thanks to the Vortex Container I can study for days!¡¯ thought Luon as he started to clean up the workshop before incubating into the nightlife of an extremely studious student.

    ¡­

    ¡°Trash! Even though they said you¡¯re the strongest of the bunch you¡¯re still just a greenhorn brat!¡± said the furious man.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, father! I¡¯m sorry for failing you,¡± cried the child.

    ¡°Shut up! Don¡¯t call me that you scum, if it weren¡¯t for you being the strongest in the bunch, I would''ve disposed of you already!¡± said the man as he began to abuse the child physically.

    ¡°Director Daimon, I think it¡¯s almost time for our next scheduled appointment. There¡¯s no more extra time to beat younger master, Zythos,¡± said a man who appeared to be the secretary.

    The child who cried was Zythos without the domineering presence he had before he bawled in pain given by his father, Daimon Werebringer.

    ¡°Don¡¯t call him young master Zythos! He¡¯s only a darn number! Call him useless trash number 32, out of 100 children how is it that this brat, who has ruined all of our plans because he¡¯s so arrogantly stupid, be the best of the bunch!¡± yelled Daimon.

    ¡®It¡¯s because the genes mostly came from you,¡¯ the secretary had thought. The secretary coughed and said, ¡°We tried our best to engineer the best child we could, and we did so. This, failure of ours, is the result of improper personality training from the accelerated simulation process which we will remedy during the next time we repeat the experiment.¡±

    ¡°Good, start the test a couple years from now. Next time I want the perfect heir to the Mythos Clan, not some trash like him. Now let¡¯s go clean up the mess he made,¡± said Daimon.

    He turned towards Zythos as he looked down upon him and said, ¡°As for you... try your best to attend school, if the results aren¡¯t as good as I want it to be. Look forward to being disposed of. If only you had gotten rid of the Nightwalker family child or the Norvera Corporation heir, I would have been happy. However, you failed like the trash you are. And the garbage bin is where trash like you goes.¡±

    Daimon left with the secretary in tow, leaving the whimpering Zythos the room alone.

 Chapter 48 - Engineering Examination Lv2

    The Vortex Container is a magically broken device, in a good way that is. To accelerate a person¡¯s mental progression by nearly ten times the original amount of time required is already a world-shattering discovery.

    According to what Luon had found out so far about the Vortex container it was first developed half a century ago by an engineer from Novera Corporation.

    Within the company were many different divisions with their own research papers and based on their department''s merits, the funding was scaled accordingly. No one knew the engineer who developed the Vortex Container. However, they did know it wasn¡¯t the person who publicly announced it.

    Kathal Raizen, on paper, was the developer of the Vortex Container. Although later he was praised by many for bringing the idea to the world, his colleagues didn¡¯t think so.

    He was notoriously known to the engineering society as a bandit and a thief. He had collaborated with many engineers in their projects, but due to a series of events, he magically became the founder of many important devices.

    The reason he wasn¡¯t caught in the act was that his father was the second most important person in Novera Corporation. Using his backings, he pressured other scientist and engineers who were reluctant to have him. He became the sponsor and the lead of those projects and with this known to many people the origin of the Vortex Container vanished from everyone''s sights.

    Kathal became extremely arrogant because of the Vortex Container. When everyone first tried it during the demo period, they were shocked at its performance causing him to smile as he saw the looks of frustration and admiration from his fellow peers. Using his newly acquired wealth received from the government to fund the project, he squandered a majority of it and caused many problems.

    Later Kathal mysteriously died, and the news reported his cause of death was from drunkenly stumbling down the stairs.

    Because of his actions, rather than making friends he made numerous of enemies, and with no one listed to lead the project the government took over.

    Because of this the widespread use and mass production of the product took 10 years, and later on the government had started to consider the using them on babies. This was the start of the Novera Corporation¡¯s rise to power.

    At first, the decision to incubate children was an optional choice that very few opted to do so. However, when the first child who was solely raised by the system reintegrate into society, it changed everyone¡¯s view.

    This child was smarter, stronger, and more importantly more beautiful than everyone else. When the adults lamented that they were born during the wrong time period, a human rights movement rebelled against this system. With many discussions and debates, it was proven that children who were born from the system made more contribution to society than those who weren''t, so in the end, those unsatisfied peers joined the new system.

    With precise calculations, they advertised this voluntary incubation to be perfectly safe creating a new kind of superior beings. This caused a sudden boom of interest in the field of genetic manipulation, by injecting the genes of other races some of these children became even more powerful to match their superior wisdom. Of course, this choice was also optional as it had cost several times more to maintain, these children who received this new genetic code were called biometric beings.

    Although Luon was partially against the research of genetic manipulation, he wasn¡¯t able to do anything about it. After all, the only way to research it was to use other humans in experiments. They say they used animals as test subjects, but everyone knew it wasn¡¯t like that on the surface. However, they only turned a blind eye towards because of the threat of the Inzektor menace.

    And now Luon enters this dark and political society that supports engineers from the shadows. The deeper he got into the field, the deeper he was in the darkest parts of society. Fortunately, his teacher is one of the most influential being that was a part of this field.

    After a night of studying in the Vortex Container Luon received the details from Zekar about his engineering examination, and after doing his morning routine did he made his way to the faculty.

    When Luon arrived at the front desk he met the female receptionist he had during his first examination, and after a light greeting he said, ¡°I have an appointment for my level 2 examination, the application number is B324.¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    The female receptionist appeared confused as she didn¡¯t know about Luon¡¯s appointment today, but after registering the number, she did indeed find the application. It was a last minute application, so of course, she didn¡¯t know about it. However, she professionally said, ¡°I have your application, please go to the second floor, room number 14 for your examination.¡±

    After checking in Luon made his way to the exam room. The set up was similar to the first examination he had before except for the countless materials and tools missing on the table top. Instead, it was replaced with a box that had a digital display with several basic buttons resembling an ATM, only instead of cash you could only withdraw items and a book on the countertop beside it.

    ¡°Welcome, Luon Fate, to the second level examination room. I am the first of the three judges, Alpha. You may call us Alpha, Beta, and Delta respectively, but doing so isn¡¯t necessary,¡± the speakers in the corner of the room robotically said in a neutral tone.

    Luon couldn''t tell the gender his judge was from the robotic tune the speakers had, but this didn''t matter to him as he pointed out, ¡°Instead of Delta shouldn''t it be Gamma?¡±

    At this time a more feminine robotic tone, similar to Siri which he experienced during his first simulation, had said, ¡°The names are merely codenames, I am Delta. There is no need to talk to us as all we will do is say whether you passed or not and our judgment of your final product.¡±

    ¡°Beta,¡± the speakers said in a more deeper voice with extra reverbing. It reminded Luon of a particular alien race he had played in a real-time strategy game that was popular in the first simulation. Seeing that all he said was his name, Luon assumed since the other two had introduced themselves the last person must have felt more inclined to do so.

    Coughing a little, Alpha said, ¡°The task you have to do for your second examination requires innovation. As you may already know the first examination is the foundation stage of an engineer. The second examination is to evaluate your ability to solve problems that people have. To pass this examination, you are required to create a device that can replicate a skill of your choice and allow the average powerless person to wield it.¡±

    Alpha continued, ¡°Your examination will start the moment you take out any materials from the intraspatial storage in front of you, and you have thirty minutes from now to decide a skill to replicate. Listed in the book in front of you is a compendium of recorded skills which you are allowed to replicate, please do not create something that may harm our facility or we will fail you. Also, there is some data and recordings from other engineers who tried to replicate some of those skills, you may find it inspiring. However, you only have 30 minutes so be careful.¡±

    Luon nodded to his remark as he thought, ¡®Well I guess is explosives are a no go.¡¯

    Seeing Luon nod, Alpha said, ¡°Good, without further ado, your thinking time...¡±

    ¡°Starts...¡± said Delta.

    And finishing off the sentence Beta said, ¡°Now.¡±

    Right away Luon started flipping through the book of skills to find something, interesting and useful. Listed in the book were a numerous amount of skills as well as the name of projects that tried to replicate the skill. Reading over some of these names Luon found that only a minority of them were successful as they were well-known to consumers nowadays. The rest were listed as uncompleted and discontinued projects.

    As Luon rapidly went through each page, he stopped on a particular skill and thought, ¡®If I make this a reality, can I take this with me when I leave?¡¯

    Luon smiled as he started going through the research data on a particularly unfinished project with an interesting skill.

    ¡­

    ¡°You''re not the judge this time dad?¡± said Shizuka in a room monitoring Luon¡¯s examination.

    Dio smiled and said, ¡°The old folks from last time were dissatisfied with the results, so they wanted to make it a little harder this time. Originally you could replicate offensive and damaging skills, but this time they restricted that choice.¡±

    Dio sighed a bit before continuing, ¡°Those old folks think that by creating useful tools they could beat the Inzektors, but they¡¯re just being delusional. Well, it¡¯s going to be a little more interesting this time since all I know about Luon is that he makes a bunch of weapons. So maybe this kind of thing wouldn¡¯t be so bad.¡±

    ¡°What if he fails because of this?¡± Shizuka said as she began to frown upon the situation.

    ¡°Well, I guess it just means he¡¯s not as good as you, isn¡¯t that something you would like to see?¡± questioned Dio.

    Shizuka paused a moment to think, she then shook her head and said, ¡°Although, it would be an interesting sight to see him below me. Nobody else would be able to rival me in this generation, I would be bored and uninspired to work without any competition.¡±

    Dio who had a neutral expression on his face during the whole conversation frowned a bit as he said, ¡°Shizuka, aren¡¯t you underestimating the other members of the Alliance a bit? The universe is wide, so wide that there will always be a better person than you.¡±

    Shizuka nodded in understanding. However, she firmly said, ¡°And until that day comes, I rather have Luon be my whetstone to become the best craftsman in the universe. There will be a day where I would be able to create legendary artifacts and sell them on the marketplace for people to pick out like vegetables in a vegetable stall.¡±

    ¡°... good luck with that. How about we just watch how your rival is doing for now,¡± said Dio as he sighs.

    Shizuka nodded as she focused in on the monitor, seeing her expression Dio couldn¡¯t help but think, ¡®Selling legendary artifacts like vegetables in a vegetable stall if someone could mass produced them like that then why would we need other engineers? Luon, you brat, teach this child some common sense in crafting. Well then again he¡¯s also a freak, and I guess I was the reason why she was like this in the first place...¡¯

    Dio let out a sigh once more before watching Luon¡¯s performance, he felt the hair on his head became just a little whiter¡­ just for a moment.

 Chapter 49 - The End Of Exams

    ¡°It¡¯s a scouting skill,¡± said the man named Alpha.

    In another room used to monitor Luon¡¯s progression Alpha, Delta and Beta were watching his every move. Alpha and Delta were very interested in Luon¡¯s choice of skill. However, Beta had an odd expression on his face.

    ¡°To think he could actually accomplish it. Right now we should take it to the testing room to judge it, right?¡± asked the female judge named Delta. Luon had only taken 2 hours to build this device to replicate the skill, [Sentinel]. Not only that, but he had personally tested it himself to confirm whether or not it works. However, only the judges had the final say on whether or not he passed.

    The criteria for this examination is to allow even a commoner to use the skill. Simple and easy to use while at the same time creative and unique. The device in Luon¡¯s hands was in the shape of a monocle, but it wasn¡¯t a scouter to judge status like the BMPU, it served another purpose.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. Let¡¯s get someone to guide Luon to the testing room. While we¡¯re at it let''s also find someone to do the test,¡± said the man named Alpha.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do the test,¡± said Beta in a deep and determined voice.

    Alpha frowned upon his answer as said, ¡°You know¡­ we¡¯re not allowed to judge the product directly, right?¡±

    Beta got up and started walking towards the door as he said, ¡°Then get a different judge, I¡¯ll be the tester.¡±

    And with those words, Beta left the room. Alpha quickly got up from his chair as he was about to yell ¡°You are-¡±

    Before Alpha could even yell at Beta¡¯s rebellious appearance Delta tapped his shoulder. Alpha gave Delta a hard look in the eye as if asking her what she was doing only to see her head shaking in denial. Alpha calmed down a little and appeared confused he thought, ¡®Why did you stop me?¡¯

    He continued to look at her for answers as Delta slowly and calmly started to tell him a story.

    There once was an engineer who chased after his father¡¯s footsteps to become one just like him. He was a very average person, he had no redeeming features and wasn¡¯t smart. If anything he was extremely diligent as he eventually made his way into the field of study he loved to be in. When he started to design and work for Novera Corporation, he fell in love with a woman, and she also did the same. However, she had a fiancee who she didn¡¯t like as her family had arranged the marriage. Her family said that they would dissolve it only if he could prove himself useful or make a name out of himself. He decided to replicate the [Sentinel] skill which originated from an elven background, it was a handy skill. Just before he was able to make a breakthrough, he was murdered by his beloved one¡¯s fiancee. And the father of that man was Beta.

    ¡­

    Luon entered a vast and empty white room with his newly created device. Within the last few months, he had gotten used to the tools that the current generation was used to create objects. Luon had been commissioned to create many items while working in Zekar¡¯s workshop and because of this, building the basic components of tools was an easy task for him.

    The only hard part was the design and actual implementation of the code, magic arrays, and glyphs that were used in the design.

    As Luon waited inside the empty white room the surroundings change into a forest type set up. Luon evaluated the surroundings after the change and found that this room is some kind of simulator much different than the Vortex Container. Luon felt the surroundings become almost real. However, his real body wasn¡¯t asleep. Luon was awake as he continued to search for any signs of danger.

    At this point, a man walked out of the forest and appeared in front of Luon. He was very aged, he had signs of white emerging in his black hair, and his skin was tanned as if he had bathed in the sun for a long time.

    The man walked in front of Luon and said, ¡°I am the tester assigned for your exam. The name¡¯s Samuel Keeth. A pleasure to meet you.¡±

    He motioned his hand as if asking for a handshake and Luon, in turn, shook his hand.

    ¡°Now that we are acquainted let¡¯s test your device,¡± said Samuel.

    Luon gave Samuel the device in which he placed it above the right side of his face. It covered his eye with a black shade causing him to look like he had a small magnifying glass on one side. Luon thought it looked a little silly as he secretly noted himself to change the design later.

    ¡°How do I operate this thing?¡± asked Samuel after he equipped the device.

    ¡°Simply tap the button on the side of the monocle to start the device,¡± Luon said.

    As Samuel did so a ghastly image of an owl appeared in front of him. Looking at the glass, Samuel was able to see what the spectral owl could see.

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s pretty cool. How can I control it,¡± Samuel asked with vigor.

    ¡°It requires a decent amount of control, however, as long as you get used to it, anyone can do it. Simply use your brain and look at the glass where the owl can see and imagine the owl moving. The owl will travel based on the signal your brain tells the owl to go to. It might be easier to close your eyes for a bit. You can still see the owl¡¯s vision even if you''re not looking at the piece of glass,¡± replied Luon.

    As he followed Luon¡¯s instructions, the owl flew all around, and soon it flew away from them. Samuel¡¯s heart rate sped up as he asked, ¡°This is¡­ amazing! Can it do anything else?¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Luon smiled due to his compliments and said, ¡°Why, of course, it can. The skill I chose for the assessment is called [Sentinel] which is used by elves to scout a great distance away. However, the problems it had was that the owl had to return to its owner to provide the details it had scouted. What elves saw wasn¡¯t real time, and the spell cost a decent amount of mana to retain. What I did was replicate the functionality of spawning a ghastly figure, only there¡¯s no spirit inside of it. It is instead controlled remotely by the person with the monocle like a remote control car providing real-time surveillance like a drone, except for the fact that it''s a magical being and the only way to get rid of it is by using magic. This single factor makes it better than drones.¡±

    ¡°You indeed replicated it perfectly and changed some features of it. How did you manage to send the signal across though? And wouldn¡¯t this change affect the distance? How is the mana consumption handled I can¡¯t sense anything,¡± Samuel curiously asked.

    Luon nodded at his questions and proudly said, ¡°The signal is sent by the brain and goes through a converter which changes it to mana. This technique was based on the [Possession] skill that Puppeteers, Banshees, Spectres, and Evil Soul Cultivators used to manipulate other people. Because of this factor, the distance that owl could scout had decreased by 25%. However, the mana used to maintain the shape of the owl is nearly infinite as the spectral being absorbs mana from its surroundings to maintain its form.¡±

    ¡°Oh, is that so? Then how does it go away and can anyone use the owl?¡± asked Samuel.

    ¡°The owl¡¯s mana signature is encrypted by the user, so unless you could see the mana encryptions from a distance that are as small as a computer chip on a motherboard it would difficult to do so and to remove the owl just simply press the other button on the device,¡± said Luon.

    Samuel nodded as tapped the other button which in turn caused the owl to vanish and the vision displayed the glass to turn black, he then asked, ¡°What would happen if I pressed the spawn button more than once?¡±

    Luon smiled as if he had lured him into that question as he said, ¡°Why it would create more than one owl, this device is several times better than the original skill as you could create as many as you want to.¡±

    Intrigued by his answer Samuel quickly spawned in numerous amount of owls, and asked, ¡°How could you control all of these owls?¡±

    ¡°When more than one owl spawn the command used to send owls becomes singular. Similar to playing real-time strategy games you simply tell it to move once, and it would do so, there¡¯s no complex mechanism, but at the same time, this disables the ability to control the owl if something were to occur, unless you have a fast reaction speed. As you can see on the glass now is multiple of tiny screens based on all of the owl''s vision,¡± Luon said.

    Samuel continued to play and judge the device as the flock of owls flew in many different directions. Tears slowly accumulated on his face, Luon couldn¡¯t tell if he was crying in joy, or sorrow, the expression on Samuel¡¯s face was too complicated for Luon to tell.

    ¡°So how did I do?¡± questioned Luon after some time had passed.

    As if waking up from a trance Samuel turned and faced Luon as if he was caught in the act of doing something wrong.

    ¡°Give me one second,¡± said Samuel and after saying this, he turned away from Luon to message someone. A few moments later he turned back around to face Luon with a happy expression on his face.

    Samuel then said, ¡°You passed, congratulations you are now a level 2 engineer.¡±

    ...

    ¡°Hmm, congratulations,¡± Shizuka said just as Luon left the examination room.

    Seeing her appearance Luon wasn''t surprised to see her, in fact, he had suspected that she and Belle had watched his first examination after Luon had learned about her identity.

    Luon nodded at her remark as replied, ¡°Congratulations to you too, Shizuka.¡±

    She only nodded, and the silence came afterward. Seconds had passed as Luon continue to stare at Shizuka, he felt awkward at the situation. Before the survival training event, they had spoken very few words with each other despite sitting in neighboring seats during lessons and seeing each other in classes.

    At this moment Shizuka said, "Well, I guess I''ll see you in level 3 soon. Try your best to catch up."

    As if fired up from her words Luon smiled as he said, "Not if I get there first."

    ¡­

    Days had passed since the day Luon had received his engineering license level 2. Luon was glad that he had quickly passed the exam, however, before he was able to go through the new material he had access to, an inevitable event happened, school exams.

    Luon who majored in combat, commanding, and engineering was as busy as a bee, from cramming his studies inside the vortex container to writing the test, days had passed before he knew it and the first year ended like so.

    Generally, if you think about these courses, one would think that there would be no examination at all, on paper at least.

    The reality wasn''t like that though. For first-year students the school emphasized theory and during their third year would they be evaluated by practical exams. What kind theory was there for combat and commanding classes you may ask?

    For the commander class examinations, it was a mixture of history and problem-solving questions. For example, one of the problems asked, ¡°According to the situation where you are a lower ranked officer who received an order from a higher ranked official, how should you respond if he ask gave you a task beyond your ability?¡±

    For the combat class examinations, it was like taking a biology class that asked questions regarding the weakness and strength of various different beings in the universe. The exam had a variety of different species ranging from Inzektors to Orcs, monsters and even robots.

    Which was surprising because robots were only created by members of the Alliance, so there is almost no opportunity to fight one unless there was internal strife within the community.

    The last exam for Luon was over as a bell signified his freedom echoed inside the room. Luon gave his body a stretch, he felt immensely relieved at this moment. Currently, Bendan and Tyron had a ghastly white expression while they laid on their desk with soulless eyes. Gizmo, on the other hand, looked relaxed as he got up to approached Luon as he asked, ¡°So what''s your plan for this summer? Going home to your parents? Or are you going to be preparing for the upcoming event?¡±

    ¡°Event? Besides killing Inzektors, and improving our strength to do so, what else is there to do?¡± Luon asked as he appeared slightly confused by Gizmo¡¯s vigor.

    Gizmo let off a sigh, his expression turned serious as he slowly articulated, ¡°The Al-li-ance Tournament, don''t tell me you forgot that during our second year it''s a big war between you and us, versus your fellow schoolmates and the other 15 powerhouses of the universe. I know you''re a scatterbrain who only has crafting and battles in your head but to think you forgot about one of the most important battles in your school life...¡±

    Luon was then enlightened, he had indeed forgotten about the tournament as his life was busy from so many different commitments, from day classes to his part-time engineering job, and all that night shift training sessions in the Vortex Container.

    Ordinary people wouldn''t be able to handle such a workload, rather than continue working they prefer to have some resting periods.

    ¡®The alliance tournament,¡¯ Luon thought. A major annual event which determined the prosperity of a solar system just as it was globally entertaining, it was akin to the world famous sports event, soccer, he was a fan of during his first simulation.

    And now he has a chance to become one of those famous figures, Luon couldn''t help but smile in anticipation.

    And this day marked the end of his first year of school.

 Chapter 50 - New Year

    ¡°Get back Gizmo! You don¡¯t need to aggravate them even further, they¡¯re right behind you! Bendan, get it there and help him now! Okay, now you two hold him off for a minute¡­ okay now Tyron go from behind now!¡± commanded Luon over the team chat as he gazed upon the map on the tabletop in front of him.

    When you have fun, time passes by fast and before Luon knew it, the next school year was only a day away. What did he do over the summer? He spent the majority of the time practicing with his friends for the Alliance tournament.

    After his first year was over, the young half-elven boy, Luon, got permission to take the Vortex Container home, it was easy to carry after storing it in the bottomless and spacious intraspatial bag.

    What Gizmo suggested that they do over the summer was to practice by battling against other people online. At first, Luon did a lot of strategies around the concept of building a force from scraps and playing around the valuable attacks which eventually overwhelm their enemies. However, Gizmo talked him out of it as his methods were as he said unpopular and if he were to use it every time, then it would be popularized and studied.

    With those words, Luon sealed off the building strategy and began to follow the metagame, with early scouts as he tries to outmaneuver his opponents, build counters, and lay traps, Luon became very familiar with the most common command style.

    However, if there was a significant factor that made every group more unique than the other, was obviously only one thing, gear.

    Some groups weren¡¯t armed well enough which caused Luon to able to defeat their opponents in the first few minutes of the game with a rush tactic. Others were too armed with professional grade gear and without the ability to play for value, Luon and the others lost several matches. Since they were testing different tactics Luon was okay with losing some matches, he studied the replay the system provided each match and crafted several different pieces of gear based on those experiences. From studying each battle, commanding his friends, testing different types of soldiers out, and crafting tools for their campaigns, Luon¡¯s time was completely preoccupied.

    Fortunately, their friend Thomas Graves, who wasn¡¯t able to join them since Luon had no strategies that dealt with engineering, had tons of free time. Thomas and Luon collaborated together to create the gear and devices he had thought up. Not only that, but Thomas had always spectated their matches and gave reviews based on his point of view of the match.

    Some of his suggestions made sense, however, when they had contradicting opinions they would debate for hours and hours, sometimes they even fought with each other. It was no surprise Luon had physically won these arguments causing Thomas to think how childish, shameless, and stupidly violet Luon was. This caused Luon to feel embarrassed after he had regained his senses, and this had happened many different times.

    Why would Thomas still be friends with Luon if he always bullied him like this? It¡¯s because of the expression Luon made when he was the first to apologizes, he was his first friend, and it made sense that friends fight with each other sometimes. From his fights with Luon, Thomas thought that if he ever got himself a wife, he would make sure his partner wouldn¡¯t physically win their arguments.

    However, even though they geared up for their matches, Luon held back on some of these tools. For example, the device that he made during the second engineering examination was never used despite its fantastic ability to scout.

    The reason for this was that after he had completed the tool, Luon didn¡¯t submit and publish it publically. He didn¡¯t have to do so, besides the judges and the others who watched him build it no one else knew that it even existed. Luon wasn¡¯t an employee of Novera Corporation, he was just a freelance, part-time engineer and the information the association provided was free. If Luon had submitted the tool, all he would get would be funding to mass produce it and contribution points for creating the device which he could trade in for resources.

    Since Luon was able to craft the device all the judges could do is ask for it, and since Luon rejected the offer, they only posted it on the board that it was possible to make it. The older engineers scoffed at the post, they had their own projects to manage, and they weren¡¯t interested. However, the newer engineers in the association thought it could be their time to prove themselves, so a few of them tried to create a device to replicate the skill. So far the results weren¡¯t that good.

    Luon¡¯s tool was kept away from public eyes, this would be his trump card for the tournament, once the matches start there was no way they can replicate during the tournament.

    Just as Luon was about to win the match, he heard a voice ringing in his head.

    [Luon Fate, you have a request for ejection of the Vortex Container from outside, would you like to exit now?]

    Luon frowned at the message as he asked the system, ¡°Who is it?¡±

    [Your mother.]

    At this moment, Luon looked at the time indicated on his BMPU, he bellowed at his friends to hurry up with the match before exiting the Vortex Container.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Commanderless no more troops could be produced, and the units who weren¡¯t occupied with the enemy stopped moving. Fortunately, the match was already over or else Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan were going to give Luon a big scolding at their next session.

    Luon after exiting the match got up from his Vortex Container and met his mother¡¯s kind eyes as she looked at Luon with perplexity. She gave a little sigh as she slightly muttered in a voice almost inaudible in Luon¡¯s ears, ¡°To think my son would play online all the time, and not only that he would play as a girl online¡­ if only Luon were a girl, it would make more sense¡­ I¡¯m pretty sure I can get the application for gender change really easily.¡±

    When Luon and the other guys battled against other groups online, they all played female characters to shroud their original identity. Even though they could play male characters with a different kind of model compared to their true selves, Gizmo suggested that they should set their online avatars as females and act like so to hide their identity. His point of argument was that some people may be able to realize their habits if they play male characters and if they fully immerse themselves as female characters no one would know who they were in real life.

    If their opponents and spectators knew their real identity, they could study their strategy and use it against them when they actually begin the tournament. Among the viewers, Luon¡¯s mother who was on Luon friend''s list had watched a couple of their games causing him to feel ashamed when he stood before her.

    Luon sighed at his mother¡¯s quiet mutter and said, ¡°Uhh, no need for the gender change, thanks for telling me it¡¯s time for work.¡±

    Rina smiled as she replied, ¡°No problem, I know how occupied and immersed you are when you battle in those virtual wars. Just remember that Zekar wants you to arrive on time, you don¡¯t have school or anything else to do this break, so he was a little disappointed that you didn¡¯t spend more time over there, and if you make even less time maybe your teacher would get even sadder.¡±

    Luon nodded and said, ¡°Okay, okay. I¡¯m heading over now. Don¡¯t want to be late.¡±

    Luon ran off after saying so, Rina who looked at the door he exited from sighed a little as she said, ¡°I wonder who he inherited this tardy lifestyle from.¡±

    A few doors away from the room she heard Kane bellowing, ¡°Ahhh crud, I¡¯m going to be late for the meeting with my old buddies at the bar. Where¡¯s my jacket? Pants? Oh no, my phones ringing, they must be calling me right now! Hello? Yes, yes, I¡¯m halfway over right now, just stopped myself at a toilet stall nearby. What? No, I¡¯m not at home. I¡¯l-¡±

    Rina who heard Kane¡¯s voice once again sighed.

    ¡­

    Luon rushed passed the crowds of people who were outside minding their own business. Seeing the hurried young man running in public they all walked around him opening a path like Moses splitting the ocean open. Because of their actions, this Luon was able to speed up even more.

    Going through each terminal in a matter seconds Luon traveled several kilometers in only a few minutes.

    Just before he entered the dark alleyway towards the underground world, Luon accidentally bumped into someone who didn¡¯t notice the rushed Luon. The person flew several meters before they could manage to react to the charge attack Luon dealt. In mid-air, the person continued to fly for a second before doing several backflips to reduce the impact a little. Just as they attempted to land perfectly on the ground, the moment their feet met the floor their body wavered a bit to regain their sense of balance. Unfortunately, the person stumbled backward, and their butt hit the floor.

    After only seeing that he had hit someone with his rash behavior did he stop for a moment to ask if they were okay. Just as he went up to help the person he was scolded.

    ¡°Ah, Watch where you¡¯re going. You¡¯re going to kill someone one day! You¡¯re lucky that the great me was hit otherwise your in for trouble. If you apologize to me now and thank me for being lenient, I¡¯ll let you off. Now say my name and apologize to me now,¡± said the female before Luon.

    Luon looked at the girl before him and appeared confused. She had long blue hair and wore a suspicious set of clothing which covered nearly all visible parts of her body. Her hat that shrouded her face fell off, as Luon looked into her face he didn¡¯t recognize her, so he didn¡¯t know her name. She appeared to be very young and was around the same age as Luon, her skin was white as a blank sheet of paper without a blemish but very aesthetically appealing. He thought she was like an idol, however, after thinking about it again almost every single beautiful person he met nowadays looked like an idol. Luon then said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for hitting you, miss. Are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?¡±

    The girl responded, ¡°Miss? Didn''t you hear me? My name, not miss! Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t recognize me? Hey, don¡¯t tell me that¡¯s it isn''t true?¡±

    Luon looked at her face again and still couldn¡¯t recognize her face. Was she his childhood friend? Maybe if she were incubated in the same area as he was, she would be considered so, but he never really looked into those Vortex Containers so who knows what could be regarded as a childhood friend. Maybe she was an employee of the convenience store he goes to or part of the library staff?

    As Luon continued to think of her identity the crowd started pointing and whispering towards their direction. Luon heard them whisper and figured they might report this accident if he stayed any longer, so he decided to escape as soon as possible. Her name? That doesn¡¯t matter, he had already apologized, now it''s time to high tail it out of here before someone takes him into the station for investigation.

    Once he formulated his plan, he turned towards her and said a few words before escaping, ¡°Well, I¡¯m sorry for hitting you, whoever you are. You look okay, so bye now!¡±

    Seeing Luon escaping she yelled at him a bit before quickly getting up in an attempt to chase after him. However, before she was able to start chasing after him she heard a flashing sound, she turned to face towards the direction of the sound and saw that one of the members of the crowd took her photo.

    ¡°Wow, a picture of the Frost Queen Diva, Janet Myrail herself, in the flesh! This is definitely going to sell,¡± said the photographer.

    ¡°Can you send me a copy as well? I stupidly forgot my phone at home,¡± said a man beside him.

    As the crowd got rowdier and hyped by her presence, Janet hurried and picked up her hat that had fallen and covered her face. She started to run away from the crowd as they continued to chase her. She thought in her mind as she ran, ¡®Great, just great, my perfect day off ruined by an ignorant fool! Doesn¡¯t know who I am? Who doesn¡¯t? If I see him next time, I am going to get payback for sure! Whoever you are you are going to pay for ruining my, Janet Myrail¡¯s, day off!¡¯

 Chapter 51 - Engineering Madhouse

    Luon rushed into the shop at the fastest speed possible and looked at the time on his BMPU, he then said out loud, ¡°Saffeeeee!¡±

    Zekar who was at the desk frowned and said, ¡°No, you¡¯re out. Even though the time shown on the clock says that you¡¯re exactly on time you¡¯re actually late. If you checked the numbers in seconds then the moment you entered the building you were already 10 seconds late.¡±

    Luon gave a dry laughed and apologized for being late, seeing his student''s earnest expression he let it slide. Technically this was his first time being late before he was only a few seconds off from the starting time. Zekar thought that this habit of Luon¡¯s was terrible and considered telling his mother on him. Zekar smiled at the thought of Luon being lectured by his mother.

    Sometime after Luon had started working at the shop, Zekar met Rina and Kane and when they asked what kind of part-time job Luon had, and trio hit off very well. Zekar was older than Rina and Kane by a decade, so he looked at Rina and Kane as if they were his juniors. Because of this they often chatted about Luon¡¯s progress in regards to combat, engineering, and commanding abilities.

    Zekar laughed like crazy when he heard that Luon roleplayed as a female online, on that day he and Kane got incredibly drunk.

    Seeing Luon who was ignorant of his thoughts in front of him he smiled and said, ¡°Here¡¯s your commission payment receipt this month, today is the same as usual. If you need help doing something just come to the desk and ask.¡±

    The moment Luon received the document he heard a message on his BMPU indicating that he received Galaxia coins from Zekar.

    It was almost a year since Luon had come to the workshop and his wealth had practically never changed since he worked here. It wasn¡¯t that he was underpaid, it was since sometimes he would make a good item and it would sell really well, and then he would create another one and keep it. Because the material costs were much more than the labor and value cost his gains were counterbalanced by the gear and devices he kept for himself. Luon was lucky that his failed creations didn¡¯t put him in the negative.

    Luon after confirming the payment thanked Zekar before entering his workshop.

    The room had changed numerous times since he first started. Originally the place was near empty, with only a furnace, a table, and several tools hanging on the wall. Now it was completely filled with junk. Chains were hanging off the ceilings and had several devices attached to them. Junk and scrap are all piled up in the corner of the room, and the table was overfilled with blueprints, design documents, and tools.

    Luon was used to drawing his ideas on paper, although expensive he managed to get them using Zekar¡¯s connections.

    Today Luon was here to clean up, in all honesty, Zekar didn¡¯t care if Luon didn¡¯t make anything today. Luon wasn¡¯t paid hourly, he was only paid by his product sales. So if none of the products were sold, then he wouldn¡¯t be paid that month.

    Fortunately, his products were somewhat popular, at first not many people bought it, and very few did so out of interest or to curry favor with Zekar. Later on, the products got better, but only eccentric people bought them as most if weren¡¯t for the fact that the device had some strange features that had uncommon purposes or it was rather dull compared to its peers Luon would have had more sales.

    As Luon started to clean up the workshop, he packed a few objects to use for the future virtual battles.

    Luon packed away the gear he made for Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan based on the virtual battles. These were already tested and proven its worth, so Luon knew that they were battle ready.

    After stowing away their gear, Luon began to pack away his belongings.

    [Farsight Mask]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Defense - 300]

    [Durability 100/100]

    [A device created with excellent craftsmanship engraved a series of magical patterns. This mask shaped device allows the user to see the world beyond.]

    [Perk 1 - Spawn Ghastly Vessel]

    [Perk 2 - Mana Signal]

    [Perk 2 - Possession]

    After the examination, Luon changed the design of the device. When Samuel was making goofy faces as he was testing the device, Luon felt that it didn¡¯t look as good as he thought. So instead he made it cover his entire face and was satisfied with his changes.

    [Blightsteel Suit of Invisibility]

    [Rank - Rare]

    [Defense - 2500]

    [Durability 800/800]

    [A full body suit made in resemblance of a knight or a masked superhero. Made from a mixture of steel and blightstone it became a lightweight masterpiece with a formable defense. With additions of magical engraves as the user to inject mana to become invisible.]

    [Perk 1 - Transform]

    [Perk 2 - Invisibility]

    After the survival camp, his old Blightsteel Suit was demolished, Luon had to build another one from scratch. However, when tried making another one he had a bright idea. Since he was going to reshape the suit anyway, he might as well make some changes to it.

    Before Luon had to use his cape to go invisible which caused it to dangle behind him. Now Luon engraved the runes he had for his cloak in the excess space on his suit. Before Luon didn¡¯t have the ability to this, however, during the summer Luon had gotten really good at magical inscriptions, so he managed to compress the spell to make it fit.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Luon smiled at the suit and injected the mana sequence to change it into a belt before equipping it on himself.

    The last thing Luon had to pack was his newly reforged sword, Black Slayer, his friend was heavily damaged because of the Clamaris. Luon had thought he had died but managed to save a part of its soul as the majority of its engravings were located in the unharmed handle.

    Luon pulled the sword out of a bin of swords and asked, ¡°How are you doing partner?¡±

    ¡®It would be great if you didn¡¯t dump me in a bin of swords. Although I did say I want to get out I didn¡¯t think you just leave me in a bin of swords,¡¯ replied the sword.

    Luon smiled after seeing the sword was doing well. Luon thought it was better for it to be tossed in a bin of swords, after all, humans like humans so swords should like other swords. Luon asked, ¡°Any swords to your like? If you want, I can learn how to use two, and you can be a pair.¡±

    ¡®You can ask that again after you create another sentient sword as strong as me,¡¯ replied the sword.

    Luon laughed dryly as he looked over its status.

    [Zerkaiser]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 2645]

    [Durability - 1050/1050]

    [A Katana reforged by an expert craftsman, the hilt had gone through many experiences, and the blade was reborn anew.]

    [Enchant - Sentient]

    [Perk 1 - Swiftness Aura]

    [Perk 2 - Intimidation]

    [Perk 3 - Sword Au...]

    The sword was powerful, it wasn¡¯t as good as those legendary heroes of the past, but it didn¡¯t fall too far behind. Luon was still young, and he had tons of time to catch up. The Vortex Container was made him different than those men. He will reach a realm beyond what they can do because unlike them he had more time.

    After packing and cleaning the workshop, Luon bid Zekar farewell, just as he was about to step out the door he remembered something. Luon turned to Zekar and said, ¡°A few days ago you said you wanted to know my status right now right?¡±

    Zekar as if he only remembered just now was a little surprised and nodded in response. Luon took a sheet of paper and took a minute to write something down before tossing it like a frisbee at Zekar. The moment it left his hands Luon didn¡¯t look back to see whether or not Zekar caught it, he went immediately.

    With his quick reaction speed, Zekar managed to catch it between his fingers and glance upon the sheet. A smile grew on his face as he remembered how strong Luon was when he first started working at his place.

    [Luon Fate]

    [Race: Half-Human/Half-Elf]

    [Federation ID: NEX-6854BP]

    [Job: Student]

    [Combat Level: 60]

    [Racial Skills: Quickness, Night Vision, Mana Affinity]

    [Active Skills: Wind Magic Lv4, Reinforcement Magic Lv4, Mana Manipulation Lv4, Manaqi Lv4, Steps of Starlight Lv4, Array Formation Lv3]

    [Passive Skills: Swordsmanship Lv4, Parallel Thoughts Lv4, Eye of Insight Lv4, Circuit Establishment Lv4, Mental Resistance Lv3]

    [Species Knowledge Evaluation: 687/1000]

    [Technical Knowledge Evaluation: 800/1000]

    [Monthly Salary Evaluation: 3260 Galaxia Coins]

    [Recommended Job Paths: Engineer, Soldier, Commander]

    ...

    After exiting Zekar¡¯s workshop, Luon headed back home to pack the rest of his belongings including the Vortex Container. His parents once again held a pleasant dinner together only this time Luon didn¡¯t stay for the night. He needed to go to the dorm today so he could attend class right away.

    After bidding his parents farewell, Luon returned to the school dorms where he met his roommates. It was already night, but these grown men were lounging around the living room.

    ¡°Long time no see guys, well in real life that is,¡± Luon laughed as he began to chat with Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan.

    They chatted a bit about their classes, what they had done other than their daily practice sessions before deciding to go to sleep.

    Today was similar to his first time settling in the dorm last year, the only difference was Luon could actually sleep, he didn¡¯t practice in the Vortex Container this night.

    The next morning came fast, and the first class that they had was Commander class. Unlike most schools their teachers do not change, only the material taught did. To accommodate over 30,000 students with 3 different school years each teacher was assigned to only 3 classes a week, and there were about 400 different teachers and 3000 different support staff.

    The school was huge, so it was almost impossible to remember every single person, it was after all the best school in this solar system.

    Luon and the gang entered the Vortex Containers and logged into their classroom, the layout was like an amphitheater with many students encircling the front. Inside everyone was chatting happily. Luon gazed about the room and saw that everyone had already arrived. In the corner of the room, he saw Shizuka, Belle, and Arisa and waved his hand. Keyral who saw him do so tap Arisa¡¯s shoulder and whispered a few words into her ear, she then turned and saw Luon wave at him. She waved back as a courtesy gesture.

    At this moment Helen appeared at the teacher¡¯s podium in the room and said as gazed around the room, ¡°Welcome back students. As you may know out of the three years that you will be here for, the second year is the most important. From here on out your classmates are your competitors. Besides your own group everyone else is the enemy, if you managed to represent the Nexus Solar System and win us the tournament, you would be heavily awarded, but regardless you must not shame us!¡±

    Seeing her determined expression the class went silent, Helen then continued, ¡°This class will be the start of the qualifiers, those groups who want to join the competition, please submit your application within the next 10 minutes. All groups who do not submit one will be omitted from the competition and will be acting as spectators from here on out. The class time will be now used to set the qualifiers. This process will take about a half a year to determine who gets to advance. I will say the rules of the competition once you have decided your entry. You may begin.¡±

    At this moment Helen sent an application to every student. The first line of the document asked if the person reading the document was the leader of the group. Luon messaged everyone and confirmed that he will be taking the leading position, so he applied, yes. If someone answered no they would be asked if they plan to partake in the event.

    Once Luon confirmed that he was the leader it prompted him to enter his member''s names. As Luon wrote the names of his team, he questioned himself, ¡®Did Thomas have class at the same time as us?¡¯

    He didn¡¯t know whether or not Thomas was able to partake despite not having combat-related classes, but his worries didn¡¯t last that long as the names he wrote down radiated a green hue confirming their participation.

    The document then vanished in front of Luon, and after 10 minutes Helen nodded as she said, ¡°Good, it seems all the groups in this class has confirmed their entry. Wise choice.¡±

    ¡°Since you''re representing Nexus University now you all have the rights to begin the battle in the qualifiers. Win or lose, you must remember this. You are fighting not for yourself, not for Nexus University, but for the Alliance. The real enemy is the Inzektors, so no hard feelings, alright?¡± Helen said.

    ¡°Remember your pride, your honor, to protect the weak from devastation and to slaughter our foes. There is only one line you need to remember.¡± Helen solemnly said.

    ¡°For a new era!¡± Helen said as she made a gesture.

    The students in her class stood up and followed suit as they said, ¡°For a new era!¡±

    Helen smiled at their response as she smacked the desk with her palm and leaned forward. She then said, ¡°Now. The class is in session.¡±

 Chapter 52 - Selection Qualifications

    ¡°The selection process has several different stages,¡± said Helen as he projected a blank holographic screen. The screen showed a significant amount of white empty space with the class number written down in the center, NU242.

    ¡°To qualify for the Alliance Tournament, you must first reach the basic requirement of having passed the qualifiers. During the Alliance Tournament, the matches are divided into a best of three. Which means there will only be three teams that will be able to pass the qualifiers,¡± Helen said.

    At this moment the display listed several class numbers encircling their number. Helen then pointed out, ¡°The first stage of the selection process is class versus class battles. We, the staff here at Nexus University, I understand that you have friendly relationships with your other classmates which might cause you to lose matches against each other intentionally. The competition is designed to bring out our best teams and to lose without a good cause goes against our ideals, which is why the initial stages are designed to wage war between classes.¡±

    Helen continued, ¡°The class versus class battles continue until there are only 16 groups left. After the 16 have been chosen, those 16 groups will have a month of time to study and prepare for the final battle, your group names will then would then enter a bracket-style tournament system, and there is no by''s or seeded groups. So don¡¯t think that your family influence could change these results. Once you lose in this competition, your possibility of participating in the Alliance Tournament is over.¡±

    Helen then stopped for a second and asked, ¡°Is there any questions with what I said so far?¡±

    No one in the class said anything in response, the lesson wasn''t over yet, and the students were still digesting what she had said so far.

    Seeing none of the students respond to her remark she smiled and said, ¡°Good, now let¡¯s talk about how matches are handled.¡±

    ¡°Similar to how your combat class is handled, the display will select a random class for you to fight against and then each class is to assign a group to battle against another random group randomly. Between class battles you only need to fight once,¡± Shizuka said as the display started randomly highlighting class numbers.

    The highlighting speed of the selection process began to slow down after a few seconds and stopped on the number NU274. Helen looked at the number that was chosen and said, ¡°This class here is your first opponent, battles will soon begin in two hours. The same rules apply to the match conditions. To win, destroy the enemy Crypt of Heroes or slay the Commander. Losing is just the same. If you want to submit your equipment, each room has a designated scanner for you to do so if you haven''t noticed yet and you can only duplicate objects and set these settings in the lobby. There are only 12 gear slots so choose them wisely.¡±

    Helen then turns off the holographic projection and said, ¡°That is all the basics that you need to know. There is no restriction to dirty or righteous methods. The winner takes all in this kind of battles. Now then, is there any questions, if not then you may begin preparing for battle.¡±

    One of the students raised their hand and asked, ¡°What if one of my team members are in a different class, how will that work out?¡±

    Helen replied, ¡°Your class assignments only matter if you¡¯re the party leader, so say every single member in this class is a leader with members in different classes, because of the way it''s set up this class will more than likely have many of its team qualified in the best of 16 battles after battling each class.¡±

    Another student raised their hand and asked, ¡°Say you lost a match and is no longer in the competition, can you still do participate in the Alliance Tournament in some way?¡±

    Helen looked at the young man who said and asked, ¡°If you lost why would you still want to participate in the great battle?¡±

    The student smiled as boasted, ¡°Why its to be popular of course, everyone will know who I am since the match is televised everywhere.¡±

    Helen seriously looked at the ignorant student and bellowed, ¡°Shameless!¡±

    Her words startled the students and scared the boasting student. Helen''s eyes were fixed on the cowering student as she said, ¡°Rather than being one of the most popular men in the universe people will know that you''re the biggest loser in the entire Alliance if you lost too easily against your opponent. To answer your question before, since it is a valid question, it is technically possible for someone to rejoin the final battle.¡±

    Helen continued, ¡°After the qualifiers are settled the team leader of the teams who qualified are allowed to substitute team members with anyone in the second year for increasing our chances of winning.¡±

    After answering that question, nobody raised their hands up to ask anything else. Helen nodded and said, ¡°Alright get in your little groups and prepare for battle. If a team member is in another class right now then send him an invite, the teacher will exempt him from attending class, and their grades wouldn''t be affected. Of course, if you lose then back to normal classes you go. If anyone has any questions feel free to come up to me and ask.¡±

    After her remark, she started to sit down and to occupy herself with her BMPU. Everyone in class dispersed to form their little groups and chatter began to echo about the room. Luon who after meeting Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan then said, ¡°Let¡¯s invite Thomas to the class to discuss our strategy.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    The others nodded, and Luon sent Thomas an invite, soon enough he arrived, and their first match planning session is now live.

    Luon looked at Gizmo and asked, ¡°Are we going to use the building strategy now?¡±

    Gizmo shook his head in response, he then said, ¡°If we use it then other classes can study it since all the matches are properly recorded and filed under our team. The counter play would be difficult to work with later on.¡±

    After saying so Thomas looked at Gizmo and said, ¡°But if we use it once right away and battle normally afterward we can use psychological pressure to pressure them to spend more points earlier and set the early part of the battles tempo.¡±

    Gizmo was surprised by his answer, his perspective quite fresh. Gizmo thought about it for a moment and nodded as he said, ¡°Your idea is quite reasonable, then let''s go with that.¡±

    At the point, Luon interjected as he said, ¡°It is a good idea. However, we need to spend the first minute of resources for scraps and tools.¡±

    Gizmo and Thomas looked at Luon as if he was someone who was addicted to crafting. Seeing their response, Luon shrugged as he said, ¡°If we didn''t know then what''s the point of having Thomas here?¡±

    At this point, the group realized the fact that besides engineering Thomas was useless! Gizmo thought real hard about what Thomas could do. At this moment Bendan tapped Thomas'' shoulders and said, ¡°Its about time you get some muscles, come let us train together. I''ll make a man out of you.¡±

    Thomas shivered at his words, was he scared of working out? Or was it the way Bendan said it? Thomas rapidly waved his hands in front of him as he said, ¡°The match is about to start in an hour! There''s no way I''ll be able to build enough muscles to be useful in time. If anything I''ll be too tired to fight.¡±

    ¡°Tsk,¡± Bendan clicked his tongue at his denial. At this point, Luon suggested, ¡°After the first match how about we set Thomas in the commander seat in the back?¡±

    Thomas replied to Luon''s suggestion with negativity as he said, ¡°there''s no way I could do that! I''m not a good commander at all, I''m afraid that I will mess it up for everyone.¡±

    Luon laughed at his quick denials and misunderstanding as he said, ¡°Although you''re on the commander position you won''t be commanding the battle, I''ll do it from the front lines. Instead, all you need to do is tell me if you see any enemies on the map and spawn units when I ask for it. That''s all.¡±

    Thomas and Gizmo both appeared perplexed as they asked, ¡°Can you really command while on the front line fighting?¡±

    Luon simply smiled and said ¡°Just trust me on this one. I won''t let you guys down.¡±

    ¡°Instead of being a commander, I''ll be a communications officer? Has anyone ever done this before in these 5v5 battles?¡± Thomas asked.

    Everyone shook their heads after thinking about it, Luon at this point said, ¡°Usually the commander stay in the back where the whole map is displayed, so there was no need for one. However, since I''ll be fighting in the front line, I need you to relay to me every single important information that would affect the match. Don¡¯t worry about it too much, let¡¯s just try it out for a bit. Try to save the points so in case I mess up we have something to fall back on.¡±

    Since the plan was secured, Luon decided to bring up the next topic. Luon said, ¡°Now for to confirm what gear we¡¯ll be using for the event. First of all, besides our weapons, all of our utility devices and armor will be restricted. I don¡¯t think we need to expose them for now.¡±

    Everyone nodded at Luon¡¯s suggestion as it was very reasonable, seeing their response Luon brought out several of objects from the inventory system and said, ¡°Lock these in your gear slots, since we can only have 12 things let¡¯s fully use all of the slots. Besides your weapons take some of these things.¡±

    At this point, they looked at what Luon brought out, besides the weapons, there was something else that surprised them. Gizmo who saw these very familiar things asked, ¡°You¡¯re planning to use these here as well? I know there aren¡¯t any rules regarding them but isn¡¯t this kind of¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­ cheating?¡±

    Luon smiled and said, ¡°Since Thomas is being the communication officer something else has to take his position.¡±

    What Luon brought out was the robots he crafted from the survival camp, the government offered to take them off his hands in which Luon denied their offer. Robots were heavily restricted and at the same time very expensive and hard to maintain. It was more of a luxury tool that made people¡¯s lives easier. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that they were costly, then everyone would have gotten them.

    Luon first gave Tyron his weapon and several sets of arrows before filling the rest of the slots with robots. Tyron smiled at the bow and arrows Luon had provided him. Initially, he had made the arrows all by himself, but after he told Luon about the development method of his clan''s arrows as long as he promised not to disclose it, Luon had managed to create a better set of arrows and at the same time made a mighty bow to go along with it.

    [Revolving Wind Bow]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 2150]

    [Durability - 720/720]

    [A bow bends the will of the heavens. It shoots thunder upon its foes. The more power that coils up, the more powerful the bow. Created by an expert craftsman the power behind the bow is unimaginable.]

    [Enchant - Durability Boost]

    [Perk 1 - Auto Repair]

    [Perk 2 - Lightweight]

    [Heliken Arrows]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 200]

    [Durability - 50/50]

    [Powerful arrows crafted from the bones of the winged beast Heliken and the quiver from its feathers. Heliken was revered as a godly existence several millennia ago until humanity raised its strength to domesticate them. This arrow is extremely expensive.]

    [Perk 1 - Wind Resistance]

    [Perk 2 - Gravity Resistance]

    [Perk 3 - Magic Piercing]

    Fortunately, although the arrows were very expensive to the point he could only procure one, the system allowed Luon to duplicate it as he managed to bundle several sets of Heliken arrows. Seeing the satisfied Tyron, Luon turned to Gizmo to hand him his weapon. Gizmo took the rifle and started to inspect it, after confirming the number of bullets and making sure it was functioning he nodded at its condition.

    [Lazodora Rifle Replica]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Attack - 2000]

    [Durability - 600/600]

    [A replica of the famed Lazodora laser rifles invented from the Plana solar system. Retrofitted and customized to shoot both laser and physical bullets.]

    [Enchant - Speed]

    [Perk 1 - Mana Boost]

    [Perk 2 - Lightweight]

    [Perk 3 - Energy Charge]

    Only Bendan and Thomas didn¡¯t have any weapons. Bendan used the sword his ancestors had passed down, and Thomas wasn¡¯t a combatant, so he didn¡¯t need one.

    After everyone¡¯s gear slots were full, and the plan was made a lot of time had passed, and at this moment Helen stood before the class again and said, ¡°Time is up folks, I hope you''re prepared for battle. Let¡¯s queue our first team to challenge class NU274.¡±

    A list of team names appeared on a holographic projection, and the randomizer highlighted each team quickly before it began to slow down. Luon noticed that each side had fancy names and the name he registered for his squad was Team Ascension.

    The selection slowly ticked and stopped upon a name signaling the start of the qualifiers.

 Chapter 53 - Qualifiers 1

    The selector stopped upon on a team name he wasn''t familiar with, but when he saw the team get up and teleported to the preparation room, Luon wryly smiled. The team was Team Tiger Force, and the person leading it was that tiger beastmen Luon¡¯s team battle against during their first commander class.

    Luon had to admit that at the time he would only be almost equal to the tiger beastmen''s abilities. It would have taken him a little less than half an hour to win. But after time had passed Luon¡¯s combat ability grew at a rapid pace which surprised many of his peers. Luon didn''t know why it was so easy to do so, especially in the field of Mana control. He felt as if there were chains around himself and he was slowly becoming free. After the incident with the Clamaris, Luon felt that his ability to manipulate mana grew more profound for some reason.

    If they had to battle again, Luon believed that he would able to wipe the tiger beastmen out without breaking a sweat in a matter of seconds.

    It wasn''t that he was weak and hadn''t grown since last year, Luon was just that much better than him.

    The match started, and unlike the interception strategy before, they started off by using the rush tactic that Zythos preferred to use.

    Although their opponents managed to scout it beforehand, the tiger beastmen were fast and strong. Their physical abilities easily allowed them to reach the opposing base. The tiger beastmen smiled arrogantly as the group dived into the last line of defense, however, before they were able to decimate their foes the simpleton and overly arrogant tiger beastmen weren''t able to detect a lethal landmine trap and they fell down without being able to resist leaving only 1 commander on their team with nearly zero resources. Sure enough, they lost the match which resulted in the other classes victory.

    When everyone saw their pathetic defeat, several of their classmates laughed while Zythos¡¯s group could only grit their teeth from the pathetically lousy display their members had done.

    After that match, every single group in Luon¡¯s class became more careful of those cheap tactics. Luon saw many teams rush their opponents, amass a group of one type of unit that was hard to deal with or they had used annoying units to harass and dwindle their opponent''s resources. As Luon continued to watch the matches, he dryly laughed at the cheesy strategies they used.

    There was no sure win plan, anything can happen on the battlefield. However, the previous matches maneuvers piqued Luon''s interest so he began to think up of some counters that could be used to win them matches like that.

    Only after nearly half the class had their turn did Luon¡¯s team, Team Ascension was picked. Their opponents were called Team C Delta Plus.

    Luon and the others vanished into the preparations rooms as they saw the timer over their heads start to countdown from the one minute mark. Luon turned and faced his team and asked, ¡°Are you guys ready?¡±

    They nodded as the countdown timer ticked, the match, according to their plan had Luon as the command and initial first few minutes was used to construct objects and play for the late game.

    While they were waiting for time to pass by Luon noticed a small display in the room, he motioned his friends and pointed in that direction as he asked, ¡°What is that?¡±

    When they got closer they found out on the panel was the names of their opponent, some details about them and a picture of them. Luon didn''t know about this panel when he was watching the games from the spectators stands as the preparation room had no cameras.

    Luon thought that the purpose of this panel is so the students can strategize based on their opponent details. The opponents he was facing were extremely muscular, 4 out of the 5 people on the team were relatives, they were tall, Asian, and they looked the same from his perspective.

    The commander was unfamiliar to Luon, but with their line up, Luon felt that they were going to use a rush tactic.

    The first thing Luon decided to do once the match starts is send Tyron to scout out their plans while he builds a defensive perimeter.

    As Luon started to formulate a series of plays in his mind he lost track of time, a minute was really short, and Bendan had to nudge him back to reality before the match started.

    The surroundings changed, and Luon and his team were spawned on a canyon. After an abundant amount of matches Luon had played, he decided that he had enough experience to decide on creating a custom map.

    The design of the map was a valley with steep cliffs that made scaling it difficult. It was a simple layout that forced the enemies ground units to enter a choke point where Luon¡¯s forces to rain terror from above.

    However, they¡¯re a few flaws to this layout. First of all, because it''s difficult to enter it was also difficult to leave. With only one pathway all the enemy had to do is guard the path from a distance. Secondly, because of the widely spread cliffs, it was difficult to defend against people who were able to scale the walls as they could come from almost anywhere. And last, of all, scouting became even more challenging to do without the ability of ground scouts. Since there was only one pathway Luon could only scout with air units, if he had used the ground ones, they would be easily intercepted.

    Fortunately, Luon had some partial solutions to these problems, so the flaws weren''t that bad. Luon wasn''t planning to leave the base in the first place because he was building a significant force.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    As for the cliffs, Luon decided the first thing to do was build some scouts that were able to cling against the wall and report to him if there were any enemies, also with Gizmo on the cliff region, Luon felt that the enemy wouldn¡¯t be able to get in close.

    For scouting he had Tyron equip an invisibility artifact which he made from the scraps in the first few minutes of the match and sent him out, even without it Tyron always had the mask, but that was his trump card.

    There was a reason why he didn''t have Tyron pre-equipped with an invisibility artifact before the had match started, it was because Luon became really experienced with making them, it didn''t take long compared to constructing a robot.

    Once the match had started right away Luon summoned a lot of workers and scraps, he also summoned several pre-completed parts for an invisibility device, so it took him only a minute to set that up.

    Luon gave Tyron the invisibility device and sent him off to scout. Gizmo patrolled the cliffs, and Bendan stood in the middle of the pathway anticipating the arrival of the enemy.

    Nearly 5 Minutes had passed and the two of them, Luon and Thomas, and an army of robots they brought in for help, had already constructed a robotics facility that would continuously produce robotic warriors, this was where Thomas will spend most of his time during the match.

    With Thomas¡¯s help, they could make humanoid droids, animal type robots, dragons, and other types of robots. Sadly all of these were either remotely controlled or mounted by a human Luon had summoned using points. The government has a lot of restriction in regards to AI robots.

    Just as the factory was finished, Luon received some unfortunate news from Tyron.

    ¡°They¡¯ve set up an interception line,¡± said Tyron. After Tyron left the valley of the base, he entered a forest which their opponents had selected as their terrain.

    Luon thought as much, if they were planning on making a rush, then Tyron would have seen them setting out 4 minutes into the battle, and the very fact that they chose a forest landscape made it difficult to scout out their actions they were clearly hiding something.

    At first, Luon considered using the forest landscape but thought that the high cliffs were better for range attacks, all he had to is build a wall to hide what they were doing. Luon asked Tyron, ¡°Can you sneak by? Describe the situation for me.¡±

    Tyron replied, ¡°Can¡¯t. It seems they''ve set up an electrical field. In the front are the four soldiers suited in heavy armor and behind that is the electrical field.

    Luon frowned and thought, ¡®Electrical field? That must mean that those people wearing the suit of armor must be slower than they look because that''s only used to catch people that were too fast for them.¡¯

    As Luon starts to think about what to do. One of the men glance in the direction where Tyron was causing him to freeze up, Tyron thought, ¡®Calm down, right now I''m invisible, there''s no way he can see me right now. Calm my heart, close my eyes and blend with the environment.¡¯

    Tyron stayed still ignorant of his surroundings as he closed his eyes. Seconds later he heard a sound of something hitting the tree beside him, it was about a few centimeters away from his face.

    One of the brothers asked the one tossed the object, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°Nothing. Just thought I felt something over there, I guess it was just my imagination,¡± said the brother.

    Tyron tried to calm himself down as he slowly opened his eyes and glanced at the spot he heard a sound from. Before Tyron was a sharp steel knife sticking out of the tree stump.

    Tyron heart rate went up a bit before he managed to calm himself down, he then started to ask Luon for some instructions.

    As Tyron was communicating with Luon, the brother who had tossed the knife began to approach his direction. Tyron stopped all of his actions, even though he was invisible he was afraid of letting even a single ripple of air expose his location.

    The man stood next to Tyron and pulled the knife out before putting it in his pockets. Tyron felt relieved and hoped for the man to go away, however, his hopes weren''t answered. Instead, the man startled to strip off a portion of his gear as he then began to urinate before Tyron¡¯s eyes.

    The man looked up as he relieved himself, however, if he had looked down instead he would have noticed that several parts of the liquid splashed on Tyron¡¯s face.

    Tyron was mad, he wanted to attack the man when he was at the most vulnerable moment, The first strike would have cut it right off, but he managed to hold himself in and waited silently.

    In reality, there was no need to relieve themselves in the simulation while in the Vortex Container, all of this was already systematically done as the body condition is monitored by the system. Although you could feel the urge to do so when the moment came you didn''t need to do anything.

    However, some people weren''t able to break the habit of relieving themselves in the simulation since everyone had done so when they were first incubated. It was like taking a shower and doing your business at the same time, once you start the habit it might be difficult to prevent.

    After the young man was done with what he needed to do, he turned away and began to equip his gear. Quicky Tyron checked his BMPU for instructions on what to do and found that Luon had messaged him to attack the group from a distance to evaluate their defenses and to see if he could weaken them.

    Tyron almost wanted to scream, ¡®Couldn¡¯t you tell me that a minute earlier?!¡¯ He might¡¯ve not only done a large amount of damage but ruin someone''s manhood while not being shamed like this. Tyron pulled out an arrow as he didn''t have a knife and started to creep towards the defenseless man while hiding his killing intent.

    At this moment one of the brothers who saw their brother''s actions said, ¡°Man, that''s gross, don''t you know that women are watching this match? How could you do that.¡±

    The man stopped midway of equipping his armor before he responded with laughter, ¡°Hahaha, that''s okay the system will only show action packed scenes like fights, base construction, and close counter espionage like a spy about to be caught if he was a few meters away from someone. None of that happened to me because all I did was do my business, so there''s no way I¡¯m on camer-¡±

    At this moment Tyron who heard his words raged as he bellowed, ¡°Die!¡± Everything was recorded to his class and the other class, it will forever be in the replays and Tyron couldn''t help but lament at his thought. With all of his might, he stabbed the arrow into the man''s neck ending his life as his body vanished signifying his elimination.

    The other brothers were alarmed as they screamed, ¡°Enemy attack!¡± They started to throw projectiles at Tyron which he retaliated with his bow. He dodged several of attacks as he let loose three arrows which were all accurately lined up with each other. All of them his the same spot on one of the brothers but to his dismay did no damage to the fancy looking armor.

    ¡°Tsk,¡± Tyron clicked his tongue and retreated, there was no way to penetrate their armor with his arrows, and he had eliminated one of them already, so there was no point in staying.

    As Tyron left there no way for them to stop him with their slow movement speed, so they gave up and reported it to their commander.

    With the first blood drawn the battle had truly started.

 Chapter 54 - Qualifiers 2

    At Team C Delta Plus¡¯s base, a young man frowned due to the intel he had received from the interception line.

    One of his soldiers had fallen due to his idiocy thus weakening his forces by a considerable amount. It wasn''t because the man was ridiculously strong or anything like that. It was because the gear he had on was expensive, extremely expensive and powerful.

    The commander, Qi Ren was from a wealthy, influential family that supports the Mythos Clan and some other collaborators. Using his family connections, he managed to receive a considerable discount for this gear that was crafted by a level 3 engineer.

    Although he could only afford one set, it was enough for him to use for the virtual battles as the system could duplicate items. The armor was refined to withstand the force emitted from a rocket, coupled with a magic-resistant field, it was like a moving tank. There were two weapons, a spear and a sword, although not at the realm comparable to legendary artifacts they were still powerful as their attack power was around 2500. 0 to 1000 was a newcomer¡¯s engineering ability, from 1000 to 2000 were experienced engineers, beyond 2000 was an intermediate level engineer and beyond 3000 was the realm of true masters.

    The armor and sword were indeed mighty, not many registered engineers could reach that far unless they spent 50 years in the field, which includes the time they were in the simulation. The weapons had no special effects or redeeming features, other than some buffs that help the user utilize it, they were just powerful weapons, the armor, on the other hand, was excellent on the defensive side but had some minor cons.

    The downside to this suit was that it was heavy and slow. Regular mounts weren''t able to withstand it, and it was difficult to walk in unless you were as physically strong as the four brothers were. Running is just a dream in itself.

    And now Qi Ren lost one of those warriors, he could only lament at his boorish teammates.

    The strategy that he had always used was to save enough points for a more superior mount and to charge towards the enemies¡¯ base with 4 mighty horsemen and decimate it like the famous figures of the past during the Dynasty era found in the Nexus solar system¡¯s history books. It wasn¡¯t that he admired that era or found it to be mighty. Qi Ren simply felt that with this kind of strategy it was almost impossible to stop them.

    Who could stop a powerful charge from 4 superior warriors mounted on an extraordinary beast? No one could, or at least in the first few minutes of the match, they just can¡¯t. And now his strategy was ruined by an idiot. He gnashed his teeth and checked the time, and the points they had, it was time to attack. Because of one of his men dying the attack was pushed forward as they didn¡¯t need another mount.

    Qi Ren thought hard about this move, he wasn¡¯t sure what the enemies had, from terrain and forces, everything was unknown to him. The basic information he had about his opponent was that there were 2 ranged attackers, one close combat attacker, an engineer, and a commander who was also an engineer with unknown combat ability. The details provided in the preparation room only provided information in regards to their name and the classes they attended, other than that from weapons to armor, everything was blank. The reason why Qi Ren knew of their combat specialization was from the body structure seen in their picture.

    ¡®It doesn¡¯t matter, one less person will just make it a little harder for us,¡¯ thought Qi Ren. For a second he began to consider whether or not he should go as well but decided not to. Warriors should fight with warriors and commanders should sit back and command them, it was his philosophy and his ideal way of fighting.

    With determination he summoned the last mount and sent the three of them to his teammates, the mount was fast and powerful as they stormed through the forest leaving him alone in a matter of seconds. With his leftover points which were next to nothing, he summoned a chair as he gazed over the tabletop map while pondering about his future matches.

    ¡®This strategy requires certain conditions to be effective. First, the opponent must not have researched us before this match. Which is almost impossible to do since this is the first match in the tournament. Second, the enemy must not have that many powerful and quick melee soldiers. Otherwise, it would be difficult to beat them with the heavy armor on. Even though the mount helps them overcome the speed factor, if they were dismounted they¡¯re like sitting ducks waiting to be hunted. And last but not least, the enemy commander must be ignorant of our plans, unless he could predict my actions and adapt to the situation, everything should go as planned,¡¯ Qi Ren thought.

    Qi Ren decided that he will be using this strategy for the first few matches in the qualifier and win them all. His face bloomed with a smile at how simple this virtual war game is going to be. He focused on the tabletop map waiting for the notification of his victory.

    ¡­

    Tyron who returned from the scouting mission stationed himself near the entrance to the forest ready to report to Luon if the enemy were coming. Luon, on the other hand, had started to wall up his defenses as he built several robots that attacked from a distance and mounted them on the upper wall.

    With zero information about the enemies team formation, the least he could do is minimize the cost of points used and to create a force to counter the opponent.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Luon was waiting for the moment when the enemy attacks them. Once they do, he would immediately summon a force and position in essential locations to overwhelm the attackers. Usually, this wouldn''t be possible, however, with the robot force and his friends delaying their progression Luon felt confident about this move.

    At this moment Tyron who was stationed at front-line heard something. From a distance away he saw trees shattering as if something was storming through them. Tyron began to run towards the base as they were soon notified about the changes. If he had continued to stay where he was then his body be smashed into paste.

    Luon frowned just as the base defenses had just gone up, unlike the outpost where he had perfected things, this defensive wall couldn''t compare to it. If the outpost was able to repel continuous waves of Inzektors, then this wall could only block one.

    Luon asked Gizmo what was coming since he armed him with a telescope sometime after the match had started and he said, ¡°There are 3 enemies, they look like heavily armed soldiers, and they¡¯re mounted on something... unbelievable!¡±

    ¡°Unbelievable? Nonsense, it''s clearly right in front of you so hurry up and tell me what it is!¡± replied Luon.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a dragon!¡± bellows Gizmo over the team chat.

    ¡®Now that''s truly unbelievable,¡¯ Luon thought as he looked at the points generated so far.

    It was 9 minutes in where the opponent had just made a rush attack which consists of a heavy warrior mounted on a dragon. Luon had yet to see this maneuver done before, in fact, as Luon gazed over the point system he realized that the lowest dragon was baby dragons and the Flare Dragon he bought when he fought Gizmo before.

    ¡®It must be a subspecies,¡¯ thought Luon as he asked Tyron to use his BMPU scanner to find out what it is. At the pace, they were going as they will hit the defensive line in a minute, Tyron who was still running away while invisible stopped moving to scan the dragon mount with his BMPU.

    The information was then sent to Luon and the other members of the team.

    [Chidabi]

    [Race: Dragonkin]

    [Combat Level: 50]

    [Racial Skills: Magic Resistance, High Regeneration]

    [Active Skills: Piercing Sight, Shatter Charge]

    [The Chidabi is a wingless Dragonoid beast created from a dragon and a python. With four powerful limbs, they are best suited to be mounts because of their simple intelligence. Although they share many traits with dragons, after each generation the dragon blood had diminished causing them to lose their draconic bloodline abilities. However, they gained more skills based on their python bloodline.]

    The Chidabi was only partially a dragon which causes the number of points is required to drop significantly. Not only that but the size of these beasts were a tad smaller than what they could grow into. By cutting out some features, the opposing commander had saved enough points to get 3 of the dragonkins out while at the same time maintaining efficiency.

    At this point, Luon¡¯s defensive structure wouldn¡¯t last that well against this charge, an armored knight, and a powerful dragon mount. Don¡¯t underestimate the fact that its level 50, with the person on top their power levels scaled considerably. If a peasant level 60 intercepted a knight¡¯s charge who was level 50, numerically the peasant should win, however, levels are in the end the accumulation of skills, physical physique, and battle experience. A knight will quickly decimate the unarmed peasant.

    Fortunately, for Luon there were only three if they had more than it would have been more troublesome for him to handle.

    The dragonkin weren¡¯t the real problem here, it was the soldiers on top.

    From what Tyron had told him, his arrows weren¡¯t able to pierce through their armor. Which meant their defensive strength was higher than what he had anticipated. Not only that, but they were also magic resistant as Tyron had infused mana into his attack but found that the energy dissipated upon reaching their opponents.

    ¡®If range attacks are useless against the soldiers we could only suppress the mounts, and fight the soldiers in close combat. This situation makes it difficult for us with only Bendan in the frontline¡­ what to do¡­¡¯ thought Luon as he gazed over at the remaining points he had.

    Because of the defensive walls, robotics facility and materials for robots, Luon had a little over 5 minutes worth of points. It wasn''t much at all, and there was no point of summoning a Chidabi himself since they were weak by themselves.

    He needed a warrior, a mighty warrior that could squarely fight a knight. Regular elves, humans, and orcs were useless. Although he can gear up an abundant amount of them, it would be like sending lambs to the slaughterhouse.

    Looking at his options, he found a very interesting choice. Luon thoughts went wild as coupled several ideas together. However, there was one restriction, he was 2 minutes off from purchasing it, with those raiders on their front line it was a complicated strategy to pull off. However, the only solution he could think of at this moment.

    Luon stood up as commanded, ¡°Gizmo, Tyron, I want you two to suppress one of the knights along with the ranged attacking robots. Aim for the mount, I don''t believe it would last that well under suppressive fire. Although you can''t eliminate the knight you can at least reduce the damage he will cause. Bendan, I''ll entrust you with handling one of the others.¡±

    ¡°What about the last one? Are you going to let him through?¡± asked Bendan.

    Luon pulled his sword out of the inventory system and pointed towards the battlefield and said, ¡°Thomas follow the plan that I am about to tell you. As for the last one¡­ leave it to me. Although a commander is someone who oversees the battle, when the time comes, and he is needed, he goes back to being a soldier.¡±

    Once Luon said that he equipped his NG-Arms and prepared himself for combat. He gave Thomas a quick message with several instructions written down and gave him control of the summoning table. If Luon died on the frontline the match was automatically over, it was a risky move, however, a necessary one.

    Many commanders would frown upon his choice of actions as his position was of utmost importance. Without the commander defeat is imminent. However, a real commander is able to see several moves ahead of their opponent, be able to analyze their foes weaknesses and to take advantage of every situation. They pulled their swords out when needed and use their minds when they are required.

    After Luon gave Thomas the instructions, he flew over to the wall as he saw the three warriors coming towards them.

    Luon smiled and said, ¡°A commander is someone who leads his troops, think of their actions, know of their past, and orders them to their deaths to reign chaos upon his foes. From their name to their birth he knows everything about his men and nothing can escape a commander''s eye. However, a commander is also a soldier, and from here on out¡­ this is my fight.¡±

    And with those words, Luon jumped off the wall and sabotaged their formation.

 Chapter 55 - Qualifiers 3

    ¡°Where did I go wrong? How could this have happened,¡± Qi Ren asked himself as he began to panic. After all, right at this moment, he was all alone. His soldiers had fallen, and his tricks and traps were easily countered. The enemy was only a few moments away from him.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way this is happening! A few minutes ago the soldiers were right at their doorstep ready to decimate their forces, and the next minute they all died. Did they cheat!?¡± questioned Qi Ren.

    ¡°No you¡¯re just ignorant from the moment you launched that surprise attack was the moment you lost,¡± said a voice.

    Qi Ren looked up and was surprised to see someone who shouldn¡¯t be at his headquarters at this moment as he yelled, ¡°You!!! How can you be here right now! Aren¡¯t you the commander?!?¡±

    Luon smiled at his foes foolishness as swung his blade and said, ¡°Yes I am a commander, and only a commander can end another commander¡¯s life on the battlefield.¡±

    And with that strike, the match was over.

    ¡­

    Luon jumped into the enemies formation before him. Equipped with his NG-Arms, he flew above the soldiers as he started for attack them from the sky. All NG-Arms users can fly. Many NG-Arms were created to enhance the physical performance of a combatant, enabling them to fight in a way that made it difficult for their enemies to handle. In fact, some NG-Arms were customized so that the user could even battle in space. However, there are some limitations to NG-Arms.

    First off, because the intensive maneuvers used to maintain its performance and features exhausted a tremendous amount of mana crystals, the price shot up and the operation time was limited. If Luon continued fighting the armored soldier from above, his energy reserves would be exhausted in less than half an hour. Another, limitation to the NG-Arms was the maximum potential it can provide, when people get stronger, the power that came from the NG-Arms becomes negligible.

    And Luon is now facing that power drop before his NG-Arms had powered him up nearly 20 combat levels, however, after reaching combat level 60 he only gains 15 combat levels causing him to rise up to level 75.

    Although it wasn¡¯t as great as before, it just goes to show how much he''s grown this past year. While everyone is still using NG-Arms to power themselves up, he will transcend those limitations soon enough.

    As Luon swung his sword against one of the brothers he retaliated with his spear, the weapons clash as an immense amount of pressure resonated from their strikes. Luon was repelled towards the sky due to the impact, and the mount beneath the man was forced to kneel as they rebounded off the earth.

    As soon as Luon initiated the battle the other two brothers were glad to see Luon¡¯s presence in the battlefield. The best way to win is to take the head of the enemies general! It¡¯s been like that in the past, and it¡¯s like that right now. The two charged towards Luon, but before they could do anything, a stream of bullets intercepted them. Under the suppressive fire, the brother''s armor caused them to take no damage. However, it wasn¡¯t the same for their mounts.

    They were simple-minded creatures that only knew to eat and sleep, with the loud explosive noises and pain that came from the bullets they were afraid of moving forward. However, this didn¡¯t stop the brothers charge, they beckoned their mounts forward to the best of their abilities. Eventually, one of the brothers broke loose and the suppressive fire knowing that he couldn¡¯t be stopped switched targets to the other brother.

    Seeing the change, the brother who had broken free started to charge towards the ranged attackers, he thought as long as he gets rid of them they were open to reign havoc against their foes.

    Urging his mount forward they scaled the walls without anyone stopping him. The sharp claws penetrate the metallic structure allowing the Chidabi to climb quickly. The man gripped the harness tightly to face the change in his sense of balance. Halfway through his climb, as he continued to stare forward, he noticed someone blocking his path.

    Bendan smile at the sight of the man desperately grasping his mount while scaling the walls. Seeing Bendan''s smile, the brother had a bad omen, as he was preparing to face what Bendan was going throw at him, he noticed that instead of tossing something destructive at him, he jumped off the wall.

    With a sword in hand he dove towards his direction, in response to the quick attack, the brother attempted to signal the Chidabi to dodge the attack. Although the Chidabi was slow to react, they managed to avoid Bendan¡¯s path, however, before they could breathe a sigh of relief Bendan suddenly equipped his NG-Arms and attacked from behind him. It was as if a hawk was picking at a snake coiled in a tree. Bendan laughs as he whittles away at the pair.

    The brother who had received all of this damage couldn¡¯t retaliate, he swung his sword while tightly gripping his mount but wasn¡¯t able to muster strength due to the angle. It was at this moment he realized that instead of struggling against a foe who had a total advantage over him, he should continue to press forward and decimate the units on the upper walls.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    However, his thoughts were too late, just when he was going motion the Chidabi forward to the upper parts of the wall, Bendan had sliced off one of its upper arms causing the rider to feel exceptionally unbalanced. It was only then he had realized that Bendan was aiming for the limbs and that his attacks towards him were just a decoy. Although the Chidabi has a fantastic regeneration ability, it would take a long time to regenerate a limb.

    As the ride got even more unbalanced Bendan dealt the final blow, he had sliced off the other arm causing its body to be unable to latch on to the wall as they began to fall. The brother wasn¡¯t prepared for this, other than some heavy armor, a sword, and a spear, he did not have a solution to him falling due to gravity. To make things worse the armor caused him to fall even faster, and soon enough his body hit the ground as clouds of dust exploded outwards.

    Although the armor was strong enough to repel most damage, the shockwaves of the fall impacted his internal organs a bit. Bendan smiled as he flew above them to evaluate the damage he caused. Bendan didn¡¯t expect the fall to kill them, so he monitored the situation closely to see their reactions.

    Bendan couldn¡¯t afford his own set of NG-Arms, in fact, Luon had duplicated his own for Bendan to use. Gizmo and Tyron didn¡¯t really need them as much because the suit didn¡¯t empower their ranged weapons, however, when Bendan had it equipped he was able to maneuver similar to those immortals cultivators he heard of from his father.

    It wasn¡¯t that there weren¡¯t any immortal cultivators, it was just that there were too few. Before the war with the Inzektors they were already too busy killing each other off, and once the war happened, most of them had perished before the Inzektor attacks. How were Inzektors able to eliminate cultivators that were able to destroy mountains and reshape landscapes? Although they were powerful beings, there were many forces in the universe, and the ability to transcend their mortal bindings only existed in very few humans.

    If consistent waves of Inzektors fought these superhumans, they would eventually tire, especially if the Inzektor race was on par with their strength or just a little bit under. To eliminate the very existent of Inzektors would take a paramount of effort, these influential figures were unable to expand due to the Inzektors vitality. To change an ocean of water with a single drop of oil, that was what it felt for an immortal cultivator to face off against the Inzektor menace by himself. So instead they decided to create their own force, which eventually became the Kien Sect, in the Kien solar system.

    As the dust dissipated, there lay a mangled corpse of the Chidabi and the brother who amazingly stood right up as if the impact didn¡¯t harm him enough. He looked like he had eaten something disgusting as his face warped as if he was about to vomit.

    Bendan landed on the ground and stood before the man as he smirked and said, ¡°Now, shall our battle begin?¡±

    The brother looked at Bendan and couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Bendan saw how powerful the armor was and still wanted to challenge him. After his laughter ended, he turned serious as faced Bendan and said, ¡°Come, let me witness your strength.¡±

    On that remark, the two began to engage in combat disregarding their surroundings.

    Luon and the brother he was suppressing fought for over a minute, every time he was able to get a blow in the armor didn¡¯t show a sign of degrading, in fact, it seemed like it was able to repair itself. Seeing the lack of progression Luon had changed strategies as aimed for the mount. In response, the brother tried to repel Luon but lacked the speed to do so.

    The Chidabi was helpless as Luon continued to suppress them. Eventually, it fell beneath his blade. However, this didn¡¯t come without a cost. Luon was exhausted as he had spent more time moving compared to the man who merely stood there.

    He laughed as he said, ¡°There¡¯s no hope for you, just fall beneath my blade and let the match be over.¡±

    However, beneath his intimidation, Luon smiled as he had accomplished what he needed to do. The man stared at Luon¡¯s reaction confused and then turned to evaluate the situation. Gizmo, Tyron, and the robots firepower had eliminated the last mount they had. At this point in time, the three brothers were dismounted and wore heavy armor causing them to move slowly. Before the three of them was a massive wall which they were unable to scale and steep cliffs blocking their way.

    Luon seeing how his opponent was lost in thoughts retreated to the top of the wall using the NG-Arms with Bendan who stopped his match midway through.

    On the top of the wall, Luon gazed at the three indestructible brothers as if they were peasants and smiled as if they had fallen for a trap. At this moment the earth shook beneath the three brothers and the ground before the split as if they were caught in quicksand. They desperately struggled to get out, however, to top things off a massive stream of water drowned their attempts.

    A man stood beside Luon who oversaw this outcome, he had an abundant amount of mana despite rapidly casting these spells. Luon had called forth an archmage to deal with the heavily armed warriors. Even though they were immune to magic, they still needed to breathe, so Luon thought if he could seal their movements and drown them they could quickly overcome the situation.

    However, to get a magician that can change that battle within a matter of seconds cost an abundant amount of points, which in the end, was worth it.

    With the soldiers dead, Luon, Gizmo, Tyron, Bendan and the Arch-Mage mounted a mechanical horse that Thomas had made while they fought and marched towards their opponents base.

    The robotic army moved uniformly behind them. However, they needed to strike as soon as possible to make use of this advantage.

    Along the way, they met traps and weak attempts to repel their forces created by the enemy commander which, in turn, slowed down their progress by a little bit.

    Seeing this Luon decided to end it once and for all as he flew at a speed which exhausted his NG-Arms power reserves.

    And that was when the match was over.

    ¡­

    After exiting the battle, Luon found an awkward situation.

    Usually, his classmates would cheer with their victory. However, the class was silent, it was as if they were trying to hide something. Everyone was filled with smiles, but it was followed by an awkward silence.

    However, this situation didn¡¯t last long as one of his classmates broke into laughter. It was like a dam that was impossible to stop, the other classmates followed suit and the class was filled with laughter.

    Even Helen, Arisa, Shizuka and Belle were trying their best not to laugh, the only person that didn¡¯t do so was Keyral and Kiri, but Luon had a feeling that they were laughing deep inside.

    Luon gaze around the classroom filled with laughter, they had just finished a match only to be laughed at. Luon thought to himself, ¡®Could somebody tell me what¡¯s going on?¡¯

 Chapter 56 - Qualifiers 4

    ¡°Hahahaha,¡± laughter came from Bendan and Gizmo after they had heard from their classmates what they were all laughing about. Once Luon and the others were settled back into their seats they asked what was so funny and their classmates told them just to watch the replay of their match.

    At first, the first several minutes of the match was relatively dull. Luon was merely doing some construction work while Qi Ren just stood there waiting for their team''s points to pile up. Only after Luon sent Tyron to scout did things change.

    Everything was normal until the point where Tyron was almost spotted. The crowd was heavily watching this encounter only to meet an unanticipated outcome. The crowd was thinking whether or not Tyron would get exposed, however, after the encounter, they thought, ¡®Holy moly, how long would it take for Tyron to snap.¡¯

    And what surprised people the most was that Tyron, despite everyone¡¯s expectations, did not make a noise at all despite being shamed like that. He indeed was a real soldier and understood his priorities. Despite his admirable efforts, it was still a funny scene to see so everyone couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Especially Gizmo and Brendan when they watched the replay.

    Luon looked at this part of the battle with a slightly different perspective. When Tyron reported to him that he had eliminated one of the soldiers, he had never said the method on how he did it. Luon had assumed that if he tried hard enough, he could defeat one of them by himself. It was after the fight started did Luon realize the difficulty of eliminating a soldier. Of course, Tyron wouldn¡¯t have told Luon how he did it, after all, it was disgraceful. However, this part of the match was the critical point of their victory. Although, Luon could block one, and Bendan can hold off another, Gizmo, Tyron and the robots wouldn¡¯t be able to handle two heavy soldiers on mounts with just suppressive fire. If they could eliminate the soldiers shortly after engaging in combat, then things would have been much more straightforward.

    Luon realized that if he was able to attack the joints while flying in with his NG-Arms accurately, he might have been able to eliminate one of the soldiers in a couple of minutes. At this moment Luon could see his faults, he was over-reliant on gear, magic, and emphasized too much in physical fitness.

    What Luon needed the most right now was experience, although he obtained a majority of his combat experience from the second simulation, he had only one simulation worth of fighting experience, and he could only vaguely recall it. As for the rest of the simulations they were scholars, students, engineers and in all of those simulations had one thing in common, they were all loners.

    Because Luon had realized that he lacked experience, he did not laugh alongside Bendan and Gizmo, he looked at Tyron with an earnest expression and said, ¡°Don¡¯t mind it too much, without you we wouldn¡¯t have been able to win the match that easily.¡±

    Seeing Luon¡¯s reaction, Tyron¡¯s expressionless face smiled just a little bit. He was depressed that all his classmates and friends were laughing at him, however, after seeing how Luon appreciated his efforts he cheered up a bit.

    Luon who noticed his change smiled and looked away, although he felt grateful for Tyron¡¯s help he felt like it was partially his fault for not telling him to do as he pleased fast enough. Luon thought that it was partly his fault he had to suffer this humiliation, so he reigned in his desire to laugh at him. Instead, he began to watch the remaining matches earnestly.

    The class battle was really close, their class win rate was about 60% by the time everyone had their turn. The battles didn¡¯t end yet though, once someone lost they were eliminated from the tournament and if there were still teams remaining in one class the matches will continue until one class was eliminated. Because of this, nearly 3/8ths of the teams they started with were removed from the tournament.

    When Luon¡¯s team fought their second and third match of the day, they had changed their strategy based on what they had discussed earlier. Although Thomas was in the commander position, Luon called the shots on the front line as they storm through each battle ending the match within the first five minutes. Unlike the first team they fought all the other teams were under geared and with Luon¡¯s improved weaponry and armor, their team completely decimated their foes.

    Days like this continue to pass, the class battles continued onwards until only a few classes were remaining, at this point in time there were over a hundred teams left. Class battles were then removed as it no longer mattered, and teams were randomly faced against one another.

    Soon enough the top sixteen teams were chosen for a final showdown, with plenty of replay videos each team was allotted a months worth of time to study their opponent''s weaknesses as well as improve one''s strength.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Out of all the teams from Luon¡¯s class only three teams were placed in the top sixteen. Other than Luon¡¯s team, to no surprise was Arisa¡¯s team - Girl¡¯s Union and Zythos¡¯s team - Warbeast made it to the top sixteen. Arisa, Belle, Shizuka, Keyral, and Kiri were all equipped with different NG-Arms and applied a various amount of different tactics causing their opponents to question what kind of move will they make.

    Zythos¡¯s team, on the other hand, tactics were similar to what Luon had done with the exception that they left Chester in the commander seat. They stormed their opponents with ease, especially when they revealed that they managed to procure an NG-Arms and distributed the same model to the team.

    Without a doubt, NG-Arms will be a key component to the future matches. Luon needed to equip Gizmo and Tyron with a duplicated set of his NG-Arms, and everyone needed more practice with them.

    On the first day of their one month break, they trained their flight maneuvers in the simulated world and found one devastating fact.

    Besides standard flight patterns, they sucked at complicated maneuvers.

    Luon who had his NG-Arms the longest crashed into the ground as he questioned himself, ¡®Why is this so hard? All we¡¯re doing is the basics of the advanced exercises listed in the manual!¡¯

    At this moment, without a teacher to teach them how to use their NG-Arms professionally, Luon and his team except for Thomas was practicing how to fly off of a digital instruction manual that they found online.

    As Luon was getting up, he heard a familiar sound of someone crashing beside him. From the debris of the crash landing site, Bendan got up while dusting off the dirt from his clothes and said, ¡°Are you sure we¡¯re doing this right? I know you¡¯re like an expert on reading books, but taking to actual practice is a different story. Don¡¯t we need like a professional instructor?¡±

    Luon looked at Bendan in the eye as he said, ¡°If we had one we wouldn¡¯t be here failing this now would we?¡±

    Bendan appeared confused and asked, ¡°Why don¡¯t we have one? Many teachers know how to use it in school, or we can ask someone from the NG-Arms Training Center.¡±

    Luon sighed as he replied, ¡°It isn¡¯t that easy, if people knew that we¡¯re focusing on NG-Arms then they could figure a way to counter us. Also, can you guarantee that the instructor will teach us without any ill intentions? This is not just a competition about who is stronger than the other, but also a display of how powerful a force is behind each team. From these battles, you can see the hidden political side of society.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, so we can¡¯t just ask anyone to teach us how to use NG-Arms without a chance of being betrayed, then how about we ask your teacher Zekar to teach us? Since he knows a lot about NG-Arms, I¡¯m sure he can teach us how to use it,¡± said Bendan.

    ¡°Do you think that I haven¡¯t tried yet? I asked them, and he told me that it wasn¡¯t in his field of study and that he¡¯s swamped with work. Look, there¡¯s simply no other option than to get better at flying by reading this manual. Words can¡¯t betray you and reading is one of the many different paths to learning, although this is the self-comprehending route, which is the hardest one, it¡¯s still a valid one. If we train hard enough, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll make it in time for the competition.¡±

    At this moment, Gizmo who wasn¡¯t trying to hard float above the two and said, ¡°I think there¡¯s a way for us to get a teacher that wouldn¡¯t simply betray us out of money.¡±

    Luon looked up to Gizmo and appeared confused. Who wouldn¡¯t want to betray them and leak the information out to those affluent families? People desired fame, money, and security and their instructor could have all of that if he leaked the information out.

    Gizmo continued, ¡°Well you know that the underworld isn¡¯t influenced by those great families, and within the pack are a myriad of groups that have suffered by some of their actions and wanted to take revenge on them. Especially against the Mythos clan who shamelessly caused the downfall of many citizens.¡±

    Luon raised his brow and asked, ¡°And you''re saying that one of those factions has professional experienced in using NG-Arms? That¡¯s kind of doubtful especially when it costs so much to get one in real life.¡±

    Gizmo laughed and said, ¡°Why would they need to get one in real life? All they need is one NG-Arms, you¡¯re only familiar with the part of the underworld that does all the trading. However, that is only a part of the underworld. What we¡¯re looking for is an expert from the entertainment part of the underworld.¡±

    ¡°Entertainment?!?¡± yelled Bendan, he was tired of these faulty exercises, and if he could do something fun while learning how to maneuver the NG-Arms, he was willing to do so.

    Luon frowned, he wasn¡¯t too familiar with the underworld, besides trading, so he had no idea what else was there.

    Seeing their responses, Gizmo said, ¡°The entertainment part of the underworld is more ruthless than the trading portion, from drugs, gambling, deathmatches, and prostitution, every part of it is scandalous.¡±

    Luon who heard his remark replied, ¡°And you want us to go in such a shady world? Are you sure this will help us get better with using our NG-Arms or are you just looking to play around a for a bit.¡±

    Gizmo gave Luon a mysterious smile as he said, ¡°Of course we¡¯re going to get our NG-Arm handling skills improved, while at the same time we¡¯re going to have a little fun. I assure you that within two weeks we will be experts when it comes down to using the NG-Arms.¡±

    ¡°Fine, I guess we can try it out since you said it will only take us two weeks to get good at using the NG-Arms, but can¡¯t you at least tell us where we¡¯re going? I¡¯m going to double check with Zekar if what your saying is true or not,¡± replied Luon.

    Gizmo laughed as he said, ¡°Sure, sure, of course, you can know where you¡¯re going, and you can definitely tell him as he will also agree that this is the best place to learn how to use the NG-Arms, of course, I heard its free, but at the same time it comes with a high price.¡±

    Gizmo looked at each of his teammates and said, ¡°As a team, we¡¯ll all spend two weeks there, except for Thomas of course, and for what the venue is...¡±

    Gizmo made the biggest smile today as he said, ¡°We¡¯re going to the Zero Delta Center.¡±

 Chapter 57 - Zero Delta Center

    The Zero Delta Center, if Zekar¡¯s trading district was considered the lighter, the well renown part of the underworld, then the Zero Delta Center is the darker side of it.

    Although Zekar was the figurehead of the underworld, all he could do is manage it, there were some parts that even he couldn''t change, and that was the human heart.

    Greed, lust, and desire were natural traits that made people human and if Zekar had suppressed these desires then what was the meaning in life for his fellow inhabitants? It was easier to end their sufferings early or rebel against the system that he would have created. If Zekar had suppressed the desires of his people what difference would that make compared to the hypocritical influential rich families on the surface world?

    In the end, he accepted that part of humanity if people were free to do what they want to do they wouldn''t feel restrained, he understood that the collective will of the community will still be able to make reasonable decisions based on logic, despite the unsettling crime rates.

    And those thoughts were what help create the Zero Delta Center.

    Luon stepped into the new zone first time and felt a magical force pass through his body. Although barely noticeable Luon managed to sense the changes.

    ¡®So this is the anti-system barrier,¡¯ Luon thought after he entered the district. After Luon had heard about their destination, he had asked Zekar for more details about it.

    From what Luon had learned was that if there were a great place to learn how to use the NG-Arms, then the Zero Delta Center would be precisely that. However, it wasn''t free. When Zekar heard about his request before he did not advertise the Zero Delta Center mainly because of one thing, excessive gambling.

    When they arrive at the district, a barrier type of magic will cause the usage and monitoring done by the BMPU to be useless. Because of this, there was a lot of scum around those parts and the easiest way for humans to surpass one another was to steal and gamble. Although Luon and his gang had little to no interest in that, the residents weren¡¯t the same. What Luon wanted access to was the R Zero program.

    It was an underground NG-Arms dedicated combat sport that took place within a particular type of Vortex Containers that were connected to the underground network. If Luon did not inform Zekar about his destination beforehand, he would have had to use the public underground Vortex Container, which was a dangerous thing to do.

    When newcomers come to the Zero Delta Center for the first time, a few small-time thugs couldn''t help but wait for them to exit before robbing them. Imagine waking up after a good night''s rest to a bunch of weirdos waiting for you to wake up before beating you senseless.

    Fortunately, Zekar had a private building inside the Zero Delta Center that was equipped with several Vortex Containers that were connected to the system.

    Another frightening thing was the R Zero system itself, it was a training program which provided a week''s worth of training for free in exchange for another week of brutal fights. Since it was all virtual, the damaging aspect of things was fine, however, what made people truly afraid was the reaction of the residents who gambled their savings on newcomers.

    If they performed well, then the residents who gambled against them would be out for them, if they performed poorly then the residents who betted their savings on them would be out for their lives. It was a paradox with no solution, even with Zekar supporting him and providing Luon protection, these poor and addicted people couldn''t help but take vengeance with their own hands.

    This was the reason why not many had taken this course, to train a chicken for a chicken fight they needed time and resources and someone wanted them dead, the ugly side of humanity would appear before them.

    Luon and his friends walked towards the private building Zekar had provided them while receiving the awkward, penetrating stares from their surroundings.

    The reaction between their team members were all differed after arriving, Luon sent his gaze about and only thought, ¡®These people¡­ don''t they have anything better to do? Simply waiting at the entrance, why couldn''t they get a job? Was it because their hard earned money would only get stolen, so there was no point in working? What luxury, to sit and do nothing is the most unproductive thing to do, however, I won''t judge their way of living neither will I attempt to change it, unless they go after us that is.¡¯

    As Luon simply thought about how inefficient these humans were, Gizmos, on the other hand, was full of smiles as he lightly greeted the inhabitants with a wave of his hand. Bendan was excitedly gazing about as if he was on tour and Tyron was quietly positioned in the back with his guard up.

    As they have arrived at the venue, they had met a familiar face. The orc Torgan stood in front of the building as he beckoned Luon and the crew to enter.

    ¡°Hello Torgan, aren¡¯t you supposed to be at your shop right now? Why are you here?¡± Luon asked.

    Torgan gave him a wry smile as he said, ¡°Ikka¡¯tor brethren, Zekar told me to look out for you guys in case you get into any trouble. My store wasn''t that popular anyway, so he got one of his trainee managers to replace me in the meantime. He''s also paying me for this service. How could I refuse such a great offer?¡±

    Gizmo nodded as he asked, ¡°Are you familiar with the R Zero System? I¡¯ve only heard about it before but we¡¯ve never seen any of the matches, it would be great if you knew a thing or two about it.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Torgan laughed and nodded as he said, ¡°Of course I know a bit about it. Zekar got me gathering all the possible information I can get about it yesterday, from the instruction manual to the previous replays, you can see everything you need to know about it inside. Here come inside, it''s better to talk in a more comfortable and private matter.¡±

    Torgan began to guide the group inside the building, it was a three-story building which had bedrooms on the second and third floor and necessary utilities on the first floor.

    Torgan got everyone to pick a room to settle their belongings and called everyone to the living room on the first floor.

    He then began to explain what the entire process of the R Zero system and how to apply for it.

    After logging into the Vortex container that was located in each room, they first appear in the underworld market server. There are no private or local room channels compared to the world above. Instead, there was only one public server where people would vent their desires digitally. In fact, if Luon and the others wanted to, they could access the mature and restricted content found inside of the vortex containers despite not being old enough.

    However, Luon and the others were utterly ignorant of this fact as they walked around the plaza aimlessly until they found a map indicating the direction where they needed to go. When the group arrived at their destination, while ignoring the seductive appeal that some women displayed between alleyways, they met a man with an eye mask sleeping at the entrance.

    Luon double checked his current position as he asked a random passerby only to receive the confirmation that this was indeed the training facility. Seeing how they were going nowhere as long as the man was sleeping Luon woke him by saying, ¡°Excuse me, is this where we apply for the NG-Arms trading program?¡±

    After saying those words a few seconds pass, and there was no response. The crew looked at each other asking themselves what they should do next? It was at this moment where Bendan responded with a smacking sound as he slammed his hand against the table. The loud noise caused the man¡¯s body to jerk a bit before he removed his eye mask and said, ¡±What was that for?! Can¡¯t you see that I was busy with something?¡±

    Bendan scoffed as he said, ¡°Busy with something? More like just plain sleeping, why would you want to sleep while in the Vortex Container anyways? There¡¯s no need to sleep in your in virtual reality.¡±

    The man sighs as he despondingly says, ¡°Youngsters these days, don¡¯t understand the charm of sleeping while sleeping. So? What are you guys here for?¡±

    Youngsters? Looking at the man before them Luon could hardly tell their age differences. The man was handsome, it wasn¡¯t the mature, fit male type of attractiveness. He was more of the beautiful androgynous kind if it weren¡¯t the fact that his clothes were outfitted for men they would have thought he was a female.

    Looking at him carefully, Luon couldn¡¯t help but ogle for a second, befitting of the golden ratio structure his long black hair was tied back in a knot, revealing more of his face that showed no signs of acne. The man¡¯s heterochromia sapphire blue and crimson red eyes gazed at the group as if waiting for them to say something worthy of his time.

    Luon cleared his throat as he said, ¡°We¡¯re here to apply for the NG-Arms R Zero program. This is the right place it not?¡±

    The man looked at Luon as if evaluating him causing Luon to be slightly embarrassed as he had done so himself. The man then replied, ¡°Are you sure about this? Don¡¯t get me wrong, anyone can apply to the program. However, we do not provide protection to people who finish the program. If one of our guests comes to attack you after you have completed the training period, we are not liable for anything that happens.¡±

    Luon nodded in response causing the man to sigh as he said, ¡°Alright then, all you need to do is fill out this entry form if you really want to enter the program, of course, it¡¯s free.¡±

    After saying those words, he gave Luon, Bendan, Tyron, and Gizmo the application through their BMPUs as they signed the holographic application and sent it back to him. After confirming their agreement, the man stood up as he said, ¡°Although it would be only a short while, welcome to the R Zero Program, I am the instructor, Lin Valentine. You can call me Instructor Lin as long as you¡¯re my students. This two-week program is divided between foundation development and practical combat. After a week of learning how to use your NG-Arm you will all enter the arena to fight, to graduate you will need to win 5 times in a row without losing, if you fail to do so, well then you''ll have to stay a bit longer than usual.¡±

    ¡°What? We have to stay even longer? I thought we can just leave after two weeks,¡± Gizmo exclaimed.

    ¡°The program at most is two weeks, however, if you fail to graduate and leave early, then you will be fined half of what a real NG-Arms would have cost. Did you not read the terms of service on the application?¡± asked Lin.

    ¡°Who reads that stuff? I bet you half of what an NG-Arms would cost that nobody actually reads that stuff,¡± said Gizmo.

    ¡°Who would want a bet with something so obviously true? You are now in the program now, and the contract is law binding so if you leave now then your BMPU will wire me the payment. And if you¡¯re too poor then there''s a method to pay in installments,¡± Lin nonchalantly replied.

    ¡°You-¡± before Gizmo can say any more words Luon stopped him. Luon then said, ¡°It won''t matter as long as we win in the arena, isn''t that right?¡± Luon asked.

    ¡°Yes, that''s right,¡± Lin confirmed. Seeing how they somewhat accepted the situation, Lin then said, ¡°Follow me, I''ll show you guys your temporary residences if you leave the Vortex Container at any time remember you have half a day to return before you charged for abandonment. Our first class will start after room arrangements are done.¡±

    Lin began to guide the group around the facility as well as settle their rooms, however, as they continued to explore the facility, Luon noticed a particular fact.

    ¡®There¡¯s no one here,¡¯ thought Luon. There was no need for cleaning services since everything was virtual, there was also no need for food unless one wanted to satiate their mentality.

    The building was completely void of people, not a single trainee could be seen. After all, who could accept such a crazy condition that one was unable to leave unless they win 5 times in a row without losing in the arena?

    Luon looked at the back of his instructor as they walked and he thought, ¡°Is he really a guy? Should I use my Eye of Insight to find out?¡±

    Ultimately Luon decided not to, he thought if he actually did use the skill and found Lin¡¯s true gender it would signify that he was interested in the being named Lin. Luon didn''t care about it, either way, all he wanted to do was learn how to use the NG-Arms more effectively so they can win the tournament more easily.

    Soon enough, their first lesson began after the tour. Gathered in an empty courtyard, Lin got everyone to equip their NG-Arms. Lin said, ¡°Alright, the class will begin with understanding how much you know about using NG-Arms and how good you are with it.¡±

    Lin took an imposing pose and beckoned, ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve had an opponent. All of you come at me, let me see your strength.¡±

 Chapter 58 - Mastering The Gear

    ¡®How is this possible? Her use of the NG-Arms was too profound,¡¯ thought Luon as he laid on the ground exhausted.

    Only after battling with Lin did the group realized their ineptitude. She expertly dodged their disorganized attacks and retaliated by hitting their weak points. The moment they thought they had her, she somehow accelerated past the group as if she were a butterfly flying between still flowers. When Luon saw her do so, he thought it was similar to the system Zekar had installed in the NG-Arms, she denied it.

    And as for why Luon knows that Lin was female was because he had used his Eye of Insight on her during and after the fight, despite the fact he was making ironic remarks about identity protection. Shouldn''t one be very curious about how powerful their opponents were if they were easily beaten by them? Luon thought that if he accidentally saw her gender while checking on her combat abilities, it couldn''t be helped.

    The most surprising factor was that she was level 60 just like Luon, however, after equipping her NG-Arms she rose to level 81, surpassing his limitations by a mile.

    ¡®How frustrating,¡¯ Luon thought as he turned to check the condition of his friends. They were beaten as bad as he was. Although they were severely beaten they were smiling, it wasn''t because that besides Luon, the others had found out that Lin was a girl, neither was it because they developed a new type of fetish while being hit. It was because they had just discovered a new realm of strength.

    Unknowingly Luon was also smiling as he thought about how authentic this training program was going to be. With this new profound strength, they believed that they were going to cause a storm during the tournament matches.

    Lin who saw the smiling battle junkies frowned as she said, ¡°Well you will only have a week of me teaching you guys so although you might not be able to accomplish what I have done, I think it would be good enough for actual combat.¡±

    Luon slowly got up and asked, ¡°Why did you start this program? There''s no point in teaching people how to use NG-Arms unless you were rich or enlisted in the military.¡±

    Lin looked at Luon after he had questioned her and said, ¡°When you enlist in the military when do you think you''ll be able to train handling techniques with NG-Arms? Only a few weeks of basic maneuver training and off you go to the battlefield where a single mistake can cost you your life. This program helps people prepare for it also... ¡±

    Lin had a bright smiled as she said, ¡°During the arena portion of the program I get a participation fee from the organizer, and since I know the combat abilities of my student and his opponent I can roughly estimate whos going to win... and with that information I tend to gamble a little bit.¡±

    ¡®She¡¯s way too greedy. participation fee, gambling money, premature graduation fee, the amount she makes must be higher than the average salary, and she doesn''t have to worry about thugs with her strength,¡¯ thought Luon.

    ¡°Alright guys, go back to your rooms and rest a bit. I''ll be making individual training programs for each of you so you will have a one on one session with me several hours later,¡± Lin said.

    With that remark, she left the groaning injured men on the ground and entered the building. When Luon and the others were able to move again without groaning in pain, the artificial night had begun to set.

    Luon stared at the fake sky above him and thought, ¡°The simulated world I lived in was fake, and this world as well. However, everything I experienced was real, my feelings aside, what is the reality? Is it what I can perceive? And what actually happens after death? I''m afraid of stepping into the unknown and at the same time¡­ I might be looking forward to it.¡±

    Luon pondered for a while before ultimately making a firm decision. A pure thought appeared in Luon¡¯s mind, ¡®Life or death, real or fake, all of that doesn''t matter as long as life is interesting. And the most interesting thing in this world is web novels, light novels, manga, and in general, books!¡¯

    With that remark, he started to read a couple of web novel series freely listed on his BMPU. There were a few novels that had interested him recently like there was one called The seekers of truth which was a sci-fi adventure story in space, or My otherworld fantasy which was a warlike series about young nobles rise to power.

    As Luon was loitering away his time he had soon received a message on his BMPU, and it was from Instructor Lin with regards to the teaching schedule. There were a total of 6 foundation classes, which in total, make up 18 hours a week in real life, which was actually a weeks worth of training in the virtual world.

    Since his first lesson was in the morning, Luon decided to get an early night''s rest, although he didn''t need it he decided it was better for his mental sanity to do so.

    Luon used to spend his nights cultivating the circuit establishment meditation technique but found that his body no longer grew powerful as he did it, the benefits were negligible at most. Besides clearing his mind of unnecessary thoughts, it was practically just for show now.

    If Luon wanted to improve his physical abilities at this point of time, he needed to absorb the blood from powerful bloodlines into the Asura book he got from Arisa and into his own body. The concept was as simple as eating turtle soup to provide the nutrition to harden a person''s body, and vigorously exercising to refine it.

    After a night of rest in virtual reality, Luon got up early because someone had woken him up. It wasn¡¯t a beautiful childhood friend, sister or lover that would inspire his libido and desires first thing in the morning. Instead, it was the smashing of a door, overturning the heavenly blankets before soaring to space, or at least out the window.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Luon who had experienced these rapid changes reacted immediately by slamming his hand on the ground before he had made a fool of himself. The force behind his palm managed to repel him a meter off the ground before backflipping in a more balanced posture.

    Luon looked up at the window of where he came from only to see the dazzling smile from Lin¡¯s face as she said, ¡°If you checked the schedule I sent you last night you would have noticed that your first class started a few minutes ago, since you weren¡¯t up I took the liberty of waking you up. Aren¡¯t I so kind?¡±

    Luon checked his BMPU only to find that she had sent the schedule only four virtual hours ago. Luon thought, ¡®How am I supposed to know that, I was clearly sleeping. Was it because she was sleeping all day that she had this much energy now?¡¯

    Seeing how he couldn¡¯t retort to her remark, he looked away from his BMPU and back to the window of his bedroom where Lin was at. However, she wasn¡¯t there anymore, before Luon knew it she had disappeared. Just before Luon started to look around for her, a sword appeared from behind his back only a few centimeters away from his neck. Instructor Lin who appeared behind Luon said, ¡°If I were an enemy, you would be dead by now.¡±

    Luon was surprised by her presence, although it was a little arrogant to say this. Luon felt confident about his level of perception. The fact she escaped his noticed signified that despite their similar level, her abilities had exceeded his by a margin.

    Luon thought about how Lin was able to do this but could only come up with one solution. That he was overreliant to comparing combat levels. Combat levels are the accumulation of personal battle capabilities. There was still a class differentiation that had caused Luon to realize something.

    During their first match of the tournament he recalled the battle with the heavily armed knight like brothers, he was unable to stop them if he were to face them on foot. On the other hand, the arch-mage despite being the same combat level was able to eliminate them at ease.

    ¡®Lin, on the other hand, must have specialized in assassination techniques which classified her as an assassin. Similar to Kiri she has a stealth ability,¡¯ Luon came to a conclusion. So what did that make Luon? He had a few sword abilities, but other than that he was an engineer. Luon lacked inherit abilities to make him an assassin, and he lacked powerful magical spells to make him a magician. He was sort of a jack of all trades, the only closest thing he could think of was a magic swordsman.

    Sheathing her sword while Luon was occupied in his own thoughts, Lin then said, ¡°Alright let¡¯s begin our lesson with some small warm-up exercises to see what you can do.¡±

    Luon questioned her, ¡°Didn¡¯t you see our capability yesterday? What¡¯s the point of doing the basics.¡±

    Lin looked away from Luon as she laughed lightly and said, ¡°Originally it was supposed to be like that, but I got a little over excited and didn¡¯t pay attention to how well you all did.¡±

    ¡®So our beating was for nothing?!¡¯ Luon made a cracked smile as he grudgingly said, ¡°Alright let¡¯s begin with some warm-up exercises.¡±

    Lin was an excellent instructor and went through Luon with the basics, from how to fly, fuel, and maintenance she covered everything there was to know about NG-Arms except for manufacturing methods. After less than an hour she nodded and said, ¡°You have indeed mastered most of what you need to know about NG-Arms. If you went to the military right now, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you were made the captain of a squad.¡±

    ¡°This can¡¯t be everything right?¡± asked Luon. He thought how pointless this trip was if all he did was some essential exercise. Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan might learn something from this program. Luon would be left out doing nothing at all.

    Lin nodded as she said, ¡°It isn¡¯t everything. However, the next step is a paramount journey that you may never reach the goal of. Follow me, I can at least teach you how to start within this one week period.¡±

    Lin leads Luon to a pond which Luon was unable to see the bottom of. As Luon continued to stare deep into the darkness, Lin said, ¡°During combat as long as your perception and strength is high you are able to predict your opponent moves. Have you ever felt this before?¡±

    Luon nodded at her remark, with his strength he was able to foresee and predict their actions a quarter of a second ahead. Seeing Luon confirm this Lin nodded as she said, ¡°There are several ways for a person to reach immortality or to obtain powers beyond their capabilities. Enlightenment, luck, or external sources, people since ancient times have searched for these methods. However, only the most diligent didn¡¯t need any of those factors. Although it was quite common back then, people were able to train their bodies beyond their mortal bindings. The first step of this was the ability to predict the movement of other beings besides them, this is called the perception of god. The stage beyond that is to move beyond that perception, to exceed what you can predict yourself doing, like how you can command your body to pick up a rock. Instead, you thoughtlessly picked up the rock as if it were natural, but at the same time maintain reasoning.¡±

    ¡®To pick up a rock without thinking while thinking? What is she going on about? That¡¯s a paradox,¡¯ thought Luon.

    Seeing his confused expression, Lin smiled as she said, ¡°Your thoughts are bound by mortal reasoning. Don¡¯t worry about it, just try it out yourself and see. If you cannot manage to grasp this then just treat it as random gibberish that I told you. Regardless this exercise will help you train using your NG-Arms even if you can¡¯t manage to feel it. It¡¯s simple, for the remaining classes you are to dive into the pond and move deep inside it with your NG-Arms on. I¡¯ll come by every once in a while to check your progress.¡±

    With that remark Lin left Luon alone, he only thought, ¡®Well if there¡¯s nothing to teach me I guess I¡¯ll just do as she said to do while waiting for Tyron, Gizmo, and Bendan.¡¯

    During his first diving session, Luon found that he wasn¡¯t able to use any source of light, it was as if the darkness in the pond consumed it. The further he got into the darkness he lost his sense of perception, if Luon strayed too far away from the surface, without any sense of direction he would stay in there forever. Days passed since he dived down daily as he Luon found himself traveling aimlessly in the darkness. His body moved without his mind telling the direction to go because even he didn¡¯t know where to go.

    As he told Lin this all, she only gave Luon a nod before telling him to begin training as if he was fighting an illusionary enemy. So Luon who dove deep into the darkness imagined himself fighting different types of Inzektor, however, as he did all he could see was defeat and death.

    His body moved sluggishly from the water pressure, while the fake Inzektors moved without restriction. Why did he not apply water physics to his illusion? Because he cannot imagine what would happen if they did face this water pressure.

    Days passed as he began to win against his illusions, barely dodging their moves, Luon moved his body naturally somehow entering the stages of moving with and without thought.

    And before he knew it, classes were over in a blink in an eye, after a week of training in dark depths instructed by Instructor Lin. Luon had somehow managed to feel the starting stages of a new realm of strength. How did he know this? It was proven by the numerical increase of two level after equipping his NG-Arms.

    How much difference could this one level make? The only way to find out was in the arena.

 Chapter 59 - King Of The Ring

    Groans of several men echo throughout the surroundings of a courtyard, if someone didn¡¯t know what the facility was beforehand they could easily mistake it as several ghosts haunting a graveyard. The perpetrator to this mess stood firmly before these poor folks as she said, ¡°All right, get up now this was our last lesson. There still some room for improvement. However, this is it according to the contract.¡±

    Slowly Luon, Tyron, Bendan, and Gizmo lined up before Instructor Lin who had just beaten them to a pulp as their final class. Combat level wise she was higher than them by a mile, with their abilities even scratching her would be a humongous amount of effort.

    Lin, after making sure everyone was in order said, ¡°The NG-Arms foundation development week is over, now it¡¯s time to test your strength against other combatants in the arena. If you wish to step out now, come forth and pay me the fee to break the contract.¡±

    To her remark, nobody made a move, for one the amount listed was ridiculously high, and another they felt confident that they could obtain 5 consecutive wins.

    Seeing how none of her students paid her to escape the second half of the program, she was happy and at the same time disappointed. If they left early then she would have gotten her money easier and faster too, on the other hand, there was a chance that she could earn more money if they battled in the arena.

    After confirming their resolves, she said, ¡°It¡¯s good to see that you guys are mentally prepared for this. Let me repeat the condition again, for you to graduate from the program without any repercussions, each of you must obtain 5 consecutive wins. Don''t worry about facing each other, I have some connections with the organizer so it wouldn''t happen. Unless you guys want to stay here forever, do your best in the ring, your life will depend on your results.¡±

    ¡°So does your wallet,¡± Gizmo silently added on as he muttered enough so that Luon was able to hear his words.

    Luon chuckled inwardly before asking, ¡°Are we allowed to hide our identities by changing our avatars?¡±

    Lin nodded to his remark and said, ¡°You can change your avatars, but will you change your gear too? Even though you can change your image, you won''t be able to change your weapons that easily, especially if they are customized. Using something that you aren''t used to would make it harder for you to win. Remember this fact before considering arsenal changes.¡±

    Her words made a lot of sense to Luon. He didn''t know how strong his opponents were, it was a much safer choice to use his original weapons. However, if he did that, then there was a small chance that he may be traced back by perceptive viewers.

    In the end, Luon and the others decided to use female avatars with downgraded, generic looking weapons based on their main type of weapon. Although they were several hundred points weaker, they were still better than average.

    As for their NG-Arms, these ¡®men¡¯ painted it over with bright colors. Luon was pink, Gizmo was light blue, Tyron had orange, and Bendan colored his green.

    After they were ready for action, Lin lead Luon, Gizmo, Tyron and Bendan outside of the facility and they went towards the battle colosseum that could be seen from anywhere in town.

    Upon entering the building, with Luon and the others in tow, Lin walked towards the reception desk and requested to meet with someone. The receptionist who bowed towards Lin kindly asked her to wait a minute before long a plump looking man came out. It was the first time Luon had seen a person so fat and ugly, in this utterly beautiful world.

    ¡®How is this physically possible?¡¯ Luon thought as the man started to discuss with Lin about a few things.

    After a minute or so the fat plump man made his way towards the party, he motioned for a handshake and said, ¡°Hello ladies, my name is Frank Nebrian, and I am the organizer of the arena.¡±

    Luon and the other exchange glances, breaking out of the mental exchange, Luon represented the group and said, ¡°We ¡®girls¡¯ are glad to be here. As for names, are we allowed to use fake names when we enter the arena?¡±

    Understanding the emphasis that Luon used when he said that they were girls, Frank said, ¡°Oh, girls (Guys in real life) is it? Yes, you can use fake battle tags for your introduction. As long as you continue to battle in the arena, my staff members and I will do our utmost best to ensure your identity are protected, and your safety is secured on the premises.¡±

    ¡°As long as you continue to battle in the arena¡­ is that so?¡± questioned Luon.

    Frank nodded as he emphasized, ¡°Yes, as long as you battle in the arena. You see, we can''t protect our contestants outside of our zone of influence.¡±

    Luon nodded as he continued to walk up to Frank and accept his handshake, he said, ¡°Alright then, I look forward to the matches you will set up for us.¡±

    Frank smiled and said, ¡°Great! According to Lin over there you guys will have at least one match a day for this entire week. I¡¯ll have you ¡®girls¡¯ matched up with an opponent today. Millie, show our guest their lodgings.¡±

    The receptionist nodded at his remark and said, ¡°This way, please.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me, you guys go on ahead,¡± said Lin who waved towards Luon and others. Following the receptionist, the group was led into a fancy suite room that had plenty of services, from showers to food delivery, if it wasn¡¯t for the arena battles this kind of lifestyle was luxurious.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    After settling in, several hours later the receptionist knocked on the door and entered politely. Luon asked her, ¡°Is it time for our first match?¡±

    She nodded and said, ¡°Please select the first person to go up and register a name within the next 20 minutes. Once chosen, I will guide the contestant to the waiting room.¡±

    ¡°Alright, the first one to go up is me, and the name that will be used is Saiko,¡± said Luon.

    During their waiting time, the group discussed what kind of names they will be using for the ring. Using several examples that they had seen before Luon decided to derive the name Saiko from the pronunciation of Psycho.

    After confirming Saiko¡¯s registration, Millie led Luon to the waiting room where he sat in anticipation. It was an empty room with a bench and a monitor displaying the current battle. As Luon was evaluating the capability of the ones shown on the screen, Millie gave Luon a tablet with the details of his first opponent.

    It was a veteran fighter at the combat level of 58 that had a win rate of 55% over 175 matches. There was nothing particularly special about the opponent, so Luon decided just to continue watching the current match.

    Soon enough it was Luon¡¯s turn to fight as the arena announcer said, ¡°In the Blue corner, we have a first-time female contestant Saiko! In the other corner, it¡¯s the battle veteran, new player killer, Zorock!¡±

    Luon elegantly entered the ring earning several hoots, whistles, and cheers for his aesthetic design of a female character. On the other hand, Zorock received several boos and hateful messages once he had entered the ring.

    Zorock grinned devilishly in front of Luon and said, ¡°Little missy, I love to beat new people like you. I hope your dreadful moans and screams can excite me.¡±

    Luon body shook as he felt a tingling sensation after hearing Zorock¡¯s voice. Luon said, ¡°Scum, you should clean your mouth, hearing you talk is disgusting.¡±

    Everyone who heard his remark laughed, in fact, halfway during Zorock¡¯s battles one of his opponents had cursed him similarly and caused him to overreact. Both the guest and other combatants realized that he may have had some kind of trauma regarding bad breath in reality. So most of his future opponents had used the same cursing method to tick him off.

    Zorock was enraged from Luon¡¯s display, in fact, he was more enraged than ever because the main reason he had this trauma was that a beautiful woman walked by when he was talking and said the same words. His opponent now was a female, although he couldn¡¯t verify the authenticity of their avatar, it still reminded him of his trauma. Zorock said, ¡°You bit-¡±

    ¡°Alright contestants, you may begin now!¡± said the announcer interrupting Zorock¡¯s words.

    After the match officially started both Luon and Zorock equipped their NG-Arms causing Luon¡¯s combat level to reach 77 while Zorock hit 75. Luon flew elegantly, he felt the changes in the after-effects of his training. It was like he became a veteran driver who could drift and manipulate his car to do tricks, unlike his new driver experience he had a week ago.

    Luon¡¯s speed, ability to predict movements, and skills were just overwhelming. Within a few seconds from the start of the match, he ended Zorocks life with a single slash ejecting him from the ring. Because the world was virtual, it was designed to evict contestants after they take a lethal amount of damage creating an ideal competitive environment.

    Due to Luon¡¯s elegant, swift and beautiful display, the crowd cheered loudly with his victory. The announcer shouted out, ¡°This is an unexpected result! A new contestant had eliminated one of our old-timers with a single move in only the first 10 seconds of the match! Those of you who bet for Zorock, too bad, because the multiplier for Saiko was 10 to 1!¡±

    The cheers of the audience became a mixture of despair, groans, angry yells, boos, and happy cheers. As a myriad of emotion poured over the crowd, Luon hurried off the stage. However, this wasn¡¯t the only sad people of the day, after Luon¡¯s match, Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan had caused a significant portion of the crowd to lose their bets. It was known later that day that these female newcomers were strong, terrifyingly strong.

    Days passed, and some disbelieving people continued to bet against them causing them to lose tons of money. Their supporters, however, were either fanboys, smart gamblers, or people who had lost their money to them.

    It was soon the fifth day they had arrived, and an unexpected matchup appeared in the arena. Saiko versus Ozmos, it was Gizmo versus Luon. The two culprits who had arranged this match stood before the group.

    Lin smilingly said, ¡°We had numerous amount of guests wanting to see who would win between the girls. Although I promised not to have you guys fight each other, I don¡¯t guarantee it, after all, promises are made to be broken.¡±

    Luon sat with an emotionless face and asked her, ¡°Just tell me the truth, how much money were you paid.¡±

    Hearing his deadpan, monotone voice with a blank expression, Lin turned her face away with guilt. At this moment Frank coughed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t mind it, here, how about I give you some Galaxia coins as well?¡±

    ¡°20%,¡± said Luon.

    ¡°What?¡± questioned Frank.

    ¡°I said, give me 20% of the match earnings, and we¡¯ll do it,¡± said Luon as calculated it to be a reasonable amount.

    ¡°You¡­ That¡¯s too much!¡± cried Frank.

    Luon laughed and said, ¡°If Ozmos and I decide not to battle, you¡¯ll be losing face, money, and popularity. Think about it, just offering 20% for a large amount of income or face the discrimination of your guests because of your false promises.¡±

    ¡°Alright, you win. 20% it is, but I expect a good show!¡± yelled Frank as he angrily left the room.

    After Frank left, Lin asked, ¡°So who¡¯s going to win this match?¡±

    Luon smiled at her and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you guess? After all, you made a giant killing from our previous matches.¡±

    Lin began to sweat bullets as she excused herself out of the room by saying, ¡°Ahh, I think Frank needs to discuss a few things with me about the future matches. I¡¯ll see you guys later.¡±

    The room became silent without the two troublemakers, at this moment, Gizmo asked, ¡°So how are we deciding who wins the match? If one of us wins the other has to stay longer to get 5 consecutive wins again.¡±

    Luon sighed as he said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, as long as we don¡¯t face each other in the future, we can easily leave the arena with 5 wins. All of our opponents are pathetically weak. It¡¯s our 5th match, so one of us will just graduate earlier than the other.¡±

    ¡°Oh, then why not just let me win? I think you¡¯ll have an easier time getting 5 in a row again,¡± Gizmo said.

    ¡°Fat chance, I¡¯m not staying here any longer. It¡¯s a waste of time here, although she said it was combat practice the opponents can¡¯t even hold a candle to our strength,¡± Luon sighed and said.

    ¡°Besides¡­ I am interested to see how strong you really are,¡± Luon faced Gizmo with a bright smile.

    ¡°I¡¯ll wipe you out, no doubt,¡± said Gizmo as he motioned his hands as if he was holding an invisible rifle and pointed it to Luon.

    ¡°Real weapons?¡± said Luon.

    ¡°Real weapons,¡± Gizmo confirmed.

    The fifth match for both Luon and Gizmo¡¯s started with the both of them using everything in their arsenal.

    The winner was decided in a matter of minutes.

 Chapter 60 - Top 16

    ¡°Tsk, tsk, simply not there yet,¡± Luon said as he was sharpening his blade. While he was doing so a familiar groaning sound resonated in the surroundings, the source of this noise was Tyron, Gizmo, and Bendan laying defeated on the ground.

    The R Zero Program with Lin was over as Luon, and the rest of the members had successfully graduated from her class by obtaining 5 consecutive victories. However, the time they took to finish the program varied because of a surprising turn of events.

    Due to Lin and Frank¡¯s intervention during the second portion of the program the group were forcefully pitted against each other, out of the four members, Luon and Tyron had finished within the first week, while Gizmo and Bendan took another week to complete.

    When Luon who roleplayed as the female fighter Saiko fought Gizmo who disguised himself as a female named Ozmos, the crowd they gathered surpassed the average daily amount of viewers that month, reaping in a numerous amount of revenue.

    As both contestants were introduced into the arena, the crowd cheered at majestic and beautiful figures that they had created, which later caused them to cringe more than ever when they heard that the number of viewers was more than they could imagine, as it was publically replayed in the underworld network.

    The viewers who dedicated their free time to watch this battle expected an epic catfight from these two figures, only to disappointingly receive some unexpected results.

    Rather than a brawl, it was more of a one-sided slaughter, Luon had easily defeated Gizmo before the numerous of viewers. Although Gizmos had significantly improved his NG-Arms handling skills, he was no match against Luon who has reached a new realm of strength which allowed him to surpass his previous limitations.

    The match started with the two separated from each other by a several hundred meters which initially gave Gizmos the advantage over Luon. The average time it took a person to traverse this distance was 10 seconds of uninhibited movement. This was enough time for Gizmo to handle Luon as he was able to run and gun him down from a distance.

    Although Luon was able to see the bullets and was able to dodge them because of his NG-Arm capabilities, his mind wouldn''t let him react fast enough to avoid a streamline of bullets while chasing Gizmo continuously. This was the simple results that would have happened before he entered the training program. However, the results of the training program were openly displayed in this battle.

    As Gizmo attacked Luon from a distance while creating more space between them, Luon dove pass the bullets with a minimal amount of movement. Since Gizmo was flying backward, his speed was naturally slower than Luon who had barely changed his direction and was continually accelerating. Soon enough, as more of Gizmo¡¯s bullets missed their target, Luon had caught up and effortlessly ended his life.

    The crowd was shocked, and a good portion of fans cheered, while another group cried, not out of joy, but in sadness in losing their bets. Lin¡¯s underwater lesson had taught Luon a method to improve his response time, he was now a person who could act before he could think while maintaining a rational train of thought.

    Luon felt like he was one of those ancient martial art masters that would reactively catch a fly with a pair of chopsticks if it had bothered him during a meal.

    The next match to no surprise was between Tyron and Bendan. Bendan only learned the necessary foundation of the NG-Arms, because of this Tyron, who had a similar amount of experience, won by kiting Bendan to death.

    To easily dodge bullets without thinking about it too much, an average person would succumb to their fear, while a veteran would still fall before it, avoiding or catching bullets was a realm that only true masters could do and to keep consistent motion was even more unreasonable.

    After Luon and Tyron finished the program, the two of them continued to train using Lin¡¯s previously taught methods. Initially, they were going to wait at Lin¡¯s residence in the virtual world until both Brendan and Gizmos finish the program. However, they voluntary left after Lin attempted to obtain room rental fees from them. They had already given her tons of money through arena duels, how could she demand even more from them? Not wanting to provide her with a single coin the two had practice in a structure that Zekar had provided for them.

    When Gizmos and Bendan finished the program, Gizmo had challenged Luon to a duel right away to redeem the pride he lost in the arena, which was devastatingly shamed him in front of numerous viewers. The two clashed once again, the result was the same, Luon had easily beaten Gizmo up as if he was a martial arts teacher lecturing a student.

    After the battle, both Tyron and Bendan were interested in comparing their improvements with Luon. They also asked for a duel which in turn caused them both to lose miserably. Seeing his defeated comrades, Gizmo¡¯s requested a group battle versus Luon who in turned shrugged his shoulders at that option.

    There was nothing to lose, so they tried it out, and surprisingly Luon came out on top. Handling the three of them was exhausting and stressful, detecting the range projectiles that Tyron and Gizmo had launched while sparring Bendan was impossible for the previous him, however, the current Luon was like a fish in water.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Using the laws of nature, he would repel Bendan away using him as a footstool to catch up to the two ranged attackers. Every session they had turned up as his victory due to several key factors. One, his combat level was already higher than them. Two, he was more experienced in handling the NG-Arms. Lastly, he was over geared, Luon had access to numerous amount of resources, every match he would contemplate on how to perform better which caused him to craft more devious, yet situational devices.

    Like this days had passed and the one month break which was used to improve the contestant''s strength, shroud their weakness while studying their opponent''s tactics was over.

    During their final practice session, Bendan got up from the ground and said, ¡°No more! Why is everyone using NG-Arms!? Can''t we all just settle things with our fist or swords like real men? Just let me fight someone without NG-Arms!¡±

    ¡°Bendan, don''t worry about it too much. Your NG-Arms ability is already many times better than professional soldiers. We¡¯re in a one of a kind, a premium type of school with the cream of the crop, however...¡± Gizmo said as he slowly got up and looked at Luon.

    ¡°You¡¯re facing a monster,¡± said Gizmo which caused Luon to laugh dryly.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything too special. I even taught you the method that Lin had taught me to improve my reaction speed. It¡¯s just that I learn a bit faster than normal,¡± said Luon.

    ¡°If it was easy to learn I would already be a master, we already spent a week doing the same thing you did, and not much has changed for us,¡± Gizmo retorted which caused Brendan and Tyron to nod.

    ¡°Well, I guess anymore practice now is meaningless. How about we stud-¡±

    At this moment Thomas messaged Luon about the contestant details he had piled over the last month, the amount of information he gathered shocked Luon. There were only a few hours left before the opening ceremony, so Luon decided to brush it off and told him to retell the crucial details before their matches.

    Luon and the other decided to rest as an alarm later woke them up signifying that the start of the ceremony was in a few minutes. The team gathered in a private lobby and briefed each other over some small details of their progress this month with Thomas. Soon enough they were invited into a server where they entered to find a well done virtual venue.

    It was a colosseum ring with many displays which was used to monitor the combatants battle.

    In the stands were numerous of students cheering for their favored team''s victory like soccer fans prior to the start of a soccer match. The 16 remaining groups lined up to their designated areas and stood before podium where a man rose up to give a ceremonial speech. He lectured about history, pride and various other topics causing a wave of drowsiness to hit the spectators.

    One of the fellow teachers noticed this in the stands as they had found the other teacher sleeping as well. He thought to himself, ¡®What fearsome ability! To send both students and teachers to sleep!¡¯ Seeing the wave of influence was about to hit him as well, he quickly pulled the speaker down and behind the podium, hidden from everyone''s view.

    From a distance one could hear the groans of a man saying, ¡°Hey, wait for a momen- there''s still half of what I wrote down to go thro- stop beating me!! Ahh somebody hel-¡±

    Several minutes later the hero who saved the world stood before his peers as he said, ¡°That''s it for the opening ceremony, without further ado, let the matches begin!¡±

    The digital display started to generate a tournament bracket before the viewer''s eyes. As it had done so, the unnamed hero slowly got off the stage and returned to the stands while dragging some kind of baggage behind him, he muttered to himself, ¡°Volunteers are no good, especially if they¡¯re new. next time we should randomly pick the speaker...¡±

    Slowly the brackets were made, and the first team they were up against was called Team Diva, the team all turned towards Thomas for some details as they were the third match of the day.

    Thomas who understood their glances gave a cough before relaying some details about Team Diva, which they found to be utter nonsense.

    It wasn¡¯t that there were no details about them online. It was more like there were too many details, most of it unnecessary. They were an upcoming pop idol group formed in Nexus University about a year ago when Luon had first started school, it was a group of 5 girls who sung and fought graciously winning over numerous of fans. Just as Thomas was going over the team leaders name, a group approached Luon on the stadium causing some cheers in their surroundings.

    They turned to face the intruders which caused Luon to see a very familiar face but he was unable to recall it, the female stranger angrily said, ¡°There you are! To think your our opponents today, it looks like your out of luck.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me, do I know you? You act as if you know me, but who are you?¡± questioned Luon.

    At this moment she began to curse out loud, but before she could her fellow team members covered her mouth causing her to mumble.

    Luon stared at the scene confused until Thomas tapped his shoulders and indifferently said, ¡°That¡¯s our opponent today, Janet Myrail, team leader of Team Diva.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± said Luon as he realized that they were their opponents for the first round. He stuck out his hand and said, ¡°Well let¡¯s have a nice fight Team Diva.¡±

    Janet who was freed from her teammates smacked his kind gesture away before turning around and leaving. One of the team members who looked like the intellectual type as she wore glasses said, ¡°I hope we have a nice fight as well, especially against you, Luon Fate.¡±

    Luon appeared confused as he asked, ¡°Is there anything in particular about me? Why are you looking forward to battling me?¡±

    She said, ¡°It¡¯s because some time ago, when the new year started you rammed into Janet like a bull, throwing her several meters off the ground. Who wouldn¡¯t hold a grudge against you? We didn¡¯t know who you were until a month ago and Janet has been looking forward to this match. Well if you can excuse me, we will be strategizing your demise. We¡¯ll see you in a few hours.¡±

    With that remark team, Diva came and left like a storm. The other team members crowded around Luon, gave a sigh and said, ¡°Although, you''re somewhat popular. It¡¯s with the wrong girls.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m popular?¡± Luon appeared even more confused as he thought, ¡®Every girl I¡¯ve met so far are bullies, thieves, battle maniacs, or simply act cold towards me.¡¯

    Seeing the dumbfounded expression on Luon''s face, the group hit his back extremely hard as they left mumbling curses towards him.

    Left alone Luon thought, ¡®Can somebody tell me what¡¯s going on?¡¯

 Chapter 61 - Battle Vs A Diva 1

    In the waiting room, Luon and his group began going over the information they had about Team Diva. Currently, the matches before their own had started, it was Team Warbeast versus Team Cork. According to Luon¡¯s calculations, if Zythos and Luon continued to win their matches, they would face each other in the semifinals.

    The format for the top 16 was similar to how the other segment of the qualifiers went. A single defeat led to elimination. Which is why they were supposed to be really focused on their preparation phase. Or at least Luon hoped they were¡­ after several minutes of explanations by Thomas, besides Luon who was vigorously going over the information like a sponge. Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan were sleeping without a single worry in the world.

    Tyron and Bendan were understandable as they couldn¡¯t understand the content as well as the others. On the other hand, Gizmo was sleeping because the information they had about their opponent''s combat abilities was boring, shallow, and vague. Gizmo felt that it was a pointless effort as their opponents were shrouded in mystery.

    This was mainly due to the tactic that they had used to win each match. Besides Janet who had the role of Commander, the other members specialized in mental attacks causing their opponents to receive hits from them without any repercussions. There were no special techniques between each attack, a press of a trigger on their rifles and they won the match. Besides their hypnotic ability, all information in regards to their combat abilities was shrouded in a layer of mystery.

    What if they were a master swordsman? Or expert gunners? The team couldn¡¯t tell as they didn¡¯t show any signs of this. Which is why the three of them decided to sleep it off and not ponder about it.

    Luon and Thomas, however, didn¡¯t give up as they did. He could tell that they were more than what they looked like since Janet was able to receive a full powered charge attack from Luon with ease.

    However, it did annoy him that his fellow pig-like teammates were sleeping while they were working hard gathering information.

    Which is why he woke them up and said, ¡°How about you guys watch some of their music videos and tell us how you feel about them?¡± Luon thought that at least that way they could adequately analyze one aspect of their opponents.

    2 men grudgingly went through a series of information while 3 others were laughing and cheering to a popular music video. Was this scene better than when they were sleeping and snoring? No! The room just became rowdier than ever.

    Fortunately, Luon was able to use wind magic to repel the sound waves coming towards him, which allowed him to focus on the task at hand. Thomas, however, started bickering with the crew, who then, in turn, converted him into a follower. Now it was only Luon who was studying the documents nearly doubling his workload.

    His efforts weren¡¯t fruitless though, Luon found that besides being idols, the members had one thing in common. They shared the same dance studio despite having come from different idol agencies.

    Luon looked into dance studio even more and found that the owner, who was also the instructor, was a retired female blademaster that joined the army after graduating from Nexus University. Her combat level wasn¡¯t at the pinnacle, but her sword style was unique and had an ancestral heritage that still continued today.

    Luon suspected that they must have learned her sword skills and had hidden it deeply by using rifles as a primary weapon for the qualifiers. Just as Luon was about to tell the group of his findings, he found them watching a music video of their opponents singing and dancing while using blades to battle each other with.

    Their attacks swiftly combed by each other as the beautiful blades dance had many thought-provoking moments. Luon thought of one thing as gazes over the series of documents he had on the table, ¡®What a waste of time...¡¯

    After the video was over Luon told them his findings which they all agreed to, their opponents may be expert blademasters, or at least know how to use the sword better than the average person. Their hypnotic ability came from the vocal master and idol, Raven, who passed down her singing skills to the public. Everyone knew of this profound technique. However, not many could replicate it.

    It required vigorous vocal training and dancing which people would have to spend a large chunk of time to master. Like the idol world, Luon had seen before in his first simulation, many weren¡¯t able to stay in this competitive line of work, garnering fans increase the mastery of this technique, and not just everyone could do so.

    They required beauty beyond their peers, a voice as delicate as angels, and talent, something that not everyone has. Armed with a profound sword art, athletic body, and a voice that causes their opponents to stand on their knees, they were difficult to deal with.

    Unlike most people that they had faced, Luon was prepared for this. Thomas who studied their opponents like a madman made Luon create a hefty amount of devices during the break period. They provided some mental resistance once they knew that some of their future opponents may use some mental attacks.

    This was a considerable advantage compared to the qualifying rounds before, it was also a disadvantage as their opponents knew what they were capable of one month ago.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    However, that one month the crew had a monumental change. If possible, Luon wanted to hide the fact that they were experts in handling NG-Arms.

    Which is why he replaced their starting equipment with their default weapons for both range and melee, robots for construction work, and mental resistant items. They were not going to use NG-Arms this round.

    After they confirmed their opponent''s combat ability, besides Luon, everyone began to slack off instead of mentally preparing themselves for battle. There was still something that Luon had to study, that was the possible attack strategy their opponents may pull off.

    Going through their combat records, their opponents had always picked a custom created ocean map. Not much scouting was required as Team Diva¡¯s base was situated on a beach in the middle of the ocean. There were no details in regards to summoned units besides a few female units for visual display or aquatic mounts that allowed these beauties across the ocean surface to raid their opponents base.

    If there were anything notable, the terrain would be the most challenging part of the match as most of Luon¡¯s units were robots. Fortunately, the group decided to not go with the robotic strategy as they put Gizmo in charge of this match when he insisted that he could easily win this matchup.

    Looking at the lazy Gizmo who was self-confident about his results, Luon couldn¡¯t possibly think of what kind of strategy he would pull out.

    Since there was not much information about their opponents, he decided not to worry about it too much as well. Luon began to prepare himself for the battle mentally for what was about to come.

    Sure enough, the first two matches of the tournament were over, and it was now Luon¡¯s team, Team Ascension¡¯s turn to face Team Diva. The party was transported to a waiting room to finalize their details. After checking if everyone was ready, the crew pressed the confirmation button and waited for the transportation matrix to send them into the ring.

    Seconds passed, but not a single change occurred. ¡®Was the other team not ready?¡¯ They all thought. At this moment Luon received a message from Arisa on his BMPU, in the message was a link of some kind of live stream.

    Curious, Luon opened it up only to find an astonishing fact, instead of confirming whether or not they were ready, Team Diva decided to do a live broadcast while inside the preparation room with them singing and dancing to a song. No one could stop them from doing so, and the time they had, until they were forced to battle, was a whole five minutes. Just enough to squeeze in one tune before the action begins.

    As the song continued to drive the crowd crazy, wearing similar uniforms with short skirts they danced and appeased the audience with their performance. Luon and the group could only patiently wait until the match started. Once the song was over Janet said to the viewers, ¡°Thanks for your support! We¡¯re about to start the battle where we would triumph over our opponent so come and watch us do so! Hehe, girls lets start!¡±

    The group of girls gathered their hands together like one of those rallies that said a cheer before an event. With hands overlapping each other the group said all-together, ¡°Go- Team- Diva!¡± With that remark, they pressed the start button.

    The two teams were transported into their respective fields, Team Diva was placed on a beach while Team Ascension was situated in a forest. Gizmo who took the role of commander said to Luon, ¡°Scouts are useless in this match, the ocean is vast and can hide many things, instead let¡¯s reinforce the border and keep watch of any invaders. Everyone to the front line!¡±

    Adhering to his command everyone left towards the border between each field, even Thomas was forced to go despite being a non-combatant, only the robots they brought in stayed behind. Once they arrived, Gizmo told the group to start cutting down trees and handcraft some boats. With Bendan and Luon¡¯s strength it was an easy task to do, and with Thomas¡¯s expertise and Tyron¡¯s swift hands, several ships were made.

    After creating several boats, the group heard a battle cry, a series of gurgling sounds, and rumble of footsteps coming from their side of the map. From the forest came an army of orcs and weird fishmen which were half the size of them. Seeing their type of reinforcements Luon frowned as he thought, ¡®This is our army? Are we forcefully rushing the enemy into the ocean?¡¯

    Gizmo commanded the crew to wait a bit and prepare to move out while asking Thomas to retreat back to the camp. Forced to take a bunch of orcs and fishmen they got on the handcrafted ships with the fishmen as their escort.

    Just as they were about to leave the half-assed docks, several shadows can be seen in a distance. Surfing on a series of surfboards was a series of bikini-wearing female warriors who uniformly sung a tune while surrounded by mermaids.

    These females were all beautiful, and their voice shook the hearts of many viewers. Tyron and Bendan couldn¡¯t help but be affected despite the mental resistant tools. After all, men even with reasoning were still men. Looking at his thirsty, ugly, pig-like teammates and comparing them with the team of beauties on the other side, Luon couldn¡¯t help but think, ¡®Am I with the right team?¡¯

    Luon gaze at the beauties with an indifferent look, there was no problem with his preference in love, he admired these beauties for their looks. However, this was a match, a battle which may determine whether or not he could represent his solar system in the Alliance Tournament and may affect his potential career path. Winning is all that matters which is why Luon was confident that this psychological attack wouldn¡¯t be able to change his will.

    Fortunately, for Luon he wasn¡¯t the only one with this thought, the fishmen and orcs had a different taste in beauty and were unaffected by their enemies songs, Gizmo had already thought about this problem. Kicking both Tyron and Bendan off the boat to wake them up, Luon prepared himself for battle.

    The female team who hadn¡¯t noticed that their opponents were not affected by their charm grew closer and began to pull out their rifles. Just as they were about to enter shooting range, a loud noise resonated and shook the forest, a bullet soared through the sky instantly blowing off one of the idol members life viciously in front of numerous of viewers.

    Bendan and Gizmo who had gotten out of the water and saw this series of actions. They faced Luon with an awkward look, Bendan took the opportunity to ask, ¡°Do you not have any conscience?¡±

    Besides Luon was a robot armed with a one time only power rifle, Luon who heard those words after eliminating one of their opponents said, ¡°It¡¯s just a match. Don¡¯t take it too seriously. If you want to blow one of their heads off, just do it. We need to win, and nobody can blame you for it.¡±

    With his words displayed for numerous of viewers to see, a bunch of unreasonable fanboys began to bellow out curses, unknowingly, Luon became the most notoriously well-known competitor for treating males and females the same regardless if they were famous or not.

 Chapter 62 - Battle Vs A Diva 2

    Negative comments came spewing out from the spectator''s mouths as it echoed all around in the Colosseum. Once the first blood was made, to be more accurate, once Luon made his statement without any sense of shame to express gender equality, a wave of negativity rose up from the dark depths of many fans hearts.

    Arisa looked at the numerous people spewing venom at Luon¡¯s display and sighed, she only thought that these people honestly have nothing better to do with their lives. Clinging to idols instead of improving oneself in this convoluted, dark world where war was only several planets away. It¡¯s ironic how many unsung heroes fell to the enemy while popular idols rise to scare away the darkness in people¡¯s heart. Without the warriors on the front line, everyone would have perished several centuries ago.

    Fortunately, not all were like that, besides the crazed fanboys there were a few understanding male students who only nodded and smiled at Luon¡¯s remark, on the other hand, many females were cheering once Luon had eliminated one of those idols. Jealousy is quite a fearful thing.

    Arisa thought, ¡®At least I don¡¯t go about advertising how beautiful and pretty I am. It¡¯s less troublesome, and already so obvious.¡¯ She was already confident about her looks, so she didn¡¯t intend to increase her amount of followers.

    What was more surprising was that the teaching staff was divided into three different opinions based on Luon¡¯s statement. One faction, the militaristic combatant one, advocated Luon¡¯s statement was correct. On the battlefield, gender is the least one had to worry about. The more cultured, honor-driven faction within the teaching staff argued that Luon should have made a less gruesome death and that his ranged attack was not only scary but cowardly. They emphasized that Luon should¡¯ve fought more cleanly and elegantly with a sword instead of a robot with a rifle. This statement caused the other faction to debate whether or not honor, surprise attacks, and cheap but highly effective tactics have a place in the battlefield.

    The final opinion was supported by only one man on the faculty who stated that Luon should be eliminated for his heartless, cruel attack on his angelic, holy idol. He cursed and spouted nonsense hoping for Luon¡¯s demise which caused many onlookers to shake their head. Before his opinions could escalate even further, one of the other members of the teaching staffed silently walked up behind him and knocked him out cold. A teachers honor is shared as a whole, to have this guy ruin it was a shameless piece of dirt in their teaching community.

    Arisa who saw everyone¡¯s reactions to Luon¡¯s heartless actions simply thought, ¡®Those girls sure built up the hype at the start of the match, it looks like regardless if they won or lost, they would always have fans supporting them.¡¯

    Looking away from the crazed manner of her fellow human beings, she watched the monitor anticipating for the outcome.

    ¡­

    ¡°This! It isn¡¯t how it was supposed to be!¡± cried one of the idol members.

    ¡°That ruthless bunch! How could they aim for the face! Don¡¯t they know that being an idol it¡¯s all about the face! Come on sisters, let¡¯s go get revenge!¡± another one angrily said. She dropped her rifle and began to pull out her sword from her waist while motioning her surfboard forwards, but just as she placed her hand on the hilt, she was stopped by a shadow in front of her.

    ¡°Hold your line girls, you heard what master and Janet said about using swords unless the opponent is worthy enough to use it on, we should keep it hidden as much as possible,¡± said the girl who stopped her.

    If Luon were at the scene, he would have noticed this female idol member was the intelligent looking one who told him his charges during the opening ceremony.

    ¡°Vice-captain! That will make these swords look like decorative pieces if we don¡¯t use them!¡± Not giving up despite the restriction, the idol member protested. There were only 3 of them left alongside the summoned units that they had brought with them. The Vice-captain looked at the other girl response, and she politely gave the nod in agreement.

    The Vice-captain sighed as she said, ¡°They don¡¯t just look like decorative pieces, they are decorative pieces. However, the situation is different than what we anticipated. If only we took the time to study our opponent''s tactics instead of doing idol activities we may have known this beforehand. Alright, let¡¯s retreat from firing range and let me go ask Janet for instructions.¡±

    At this moment, Team Diva halted their advances and retreated further away from the border until their figures couldn¡¯t be seen by the naked eye that easily. Luon who saw this action pondered about their next set of actions, Bendan who had no idea what the current situation was asked Luon, ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why did they retreat?¡±

    Luon turned to the ignorant Bendan and said, ¡°They¡¯re being careful. You know how they¡¯re good with the sword? In this open ocean front, how could they even approach us to use them? With ranged weaponry and no cover to use they are placed at a disadvantage since their hypnotic songs don¡¯t work on us mainly because of two reasons.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Luon raised his fingers slowly as he continued, ¡°One, the distance, they are too far for it to be more effective is, if they managed to get closer then it might have been more troublesome. Two, besides you and Tyron, who was drooling over their bodies which were only covered by a slim bikini and a sheathed sword on the side for aesthetic appeal, the rest of us aren¡¯t affected by it.¡±

    Bendan didn¡¯t reject the opinion where he and Tyron were drooling over beauty, unfazed by the remark he said, ¡°Oh, okay. So what do we do now?¡±

    Luon turned to face their camp that was hidden in the trees, from the forest a series of mysterious sounding footsteps echoed throughout the forest as several weird creatures appeared before their eyes, it was tall and red like a lobster while having a series of sharp looking legs. It resembles a water strider only several times more menacing, they were a type of aquatic-based Inzektor.

    Although, using Inzektors could be a shameful thing to do, there many people who had done so in reality for experiments, mounts, and slaves. It was similar to how black mages were thought to be cruel, and merciless. However, their capabilities could create a hefty amount of contribution. Necromancers, on the other hand, had it worse. They were already considered the scum of society for their dark magic, and to revive Inzektors made them even more hated.

    Attached to the backs of these creatures were a series of rifles, and spears that had looked freshly created. Luon took this opportunity to hand out to the orcs the rifles and armed the fishmen with spears. He knew what Gizmo was thinking of and what kind of machinations he was up to since they debated and had deeply analyzed each other''s strategies. Luon had also noticed a little box on one of these creatures, he opened it up to find a bundle of bluish stones.

    He picked one up and used his Eye of Insight to analyze it.

    [Water Stone]

    [Rank - Rare]

    [When in contact, allows the user to breathe underwater.]

    Luon counted the amount as he handed them out to the orcs, after he gave himself, Bendan, and Tyron one. The box had exactly the right amount for all of them. These stones were extremely helpful if the orcs who were unable to breathe underwater naturally like the fishmen

    And were to fall into the water, then it would have been a waste of resources and decreased their manpower. Even though they could swim, if the boats were to fall and there was nothing to support them until they could reach land, they would end up like sitting ducks waiting for their deaths.

    Almost everything they needed to win was here at this moment, orcs armed with rifles on boats, fishmen armed with spears on the new mount along with Bendan and Gizmo. Everything was ready except for one thing.

    At this moment, Luon looked over at the forest one more time as he noticed the stampeding of trees that had just happened, their trump card had arrived.

    ¡­

    The group departed into the ocean, the match had gone for over 15 minutes, if one of the commanders had saved their points until now, they could have already conjured a Kraken which was renowned for its ability to overturn the seas.

    They quickly advanced on the ocean. The plan was to storm the enemy based with overwhelming force, although Team Diva was superior with blades, with the clear line of sight it was highly unlikely that they would engage in close quarters combat. Even though they moved at quickly because there was nothing on view above the water, they were careful about the beings underneath.

    Besides a couple of fishmen that were dismounted to scout the sea, their vision was shallow as the darker depths were shrouded in darkness. Soon the shape of an island could be seen from a distance which caused the group to be a little warrier. Their pace slowed down by a notch.

    But it wasn¡¯t without reason, from dark depths of the sea, a series of attackers appeared and ambushed the wary fishmen. Realizing some strange activity in the ocean water, they started doing some counter-maneuvers that Luon had discussed to the group along the way. The fishmen dismounted from the water striders like Inzektors and dove into the ocean to support their comrades, replacing their position the Orcs who were on the boat jumped on top of the Inzektors.

    Bendan and Tyron jumped into the water to battle against the enemy, the battle was intense as there were already corpses of a variety of fallen warriors. It was a mess, blood spewed from fallen bodies causing the ocean water to be coated in a shroud of death. Everyone fought as they pleased, from close quarters to ranged attacks, a numerous number of actions took place.

    Bendan could even see an orc fall into the water dead with an arrow stuck in the middle of his body. He looked at the enemy that they were up against. Team Diva was indeed to the name of Diva, they have never summoned a single male being so far. From beneath the sea, Bendan and Tyron could see the three idol members in bikinis on a dolphin swimming by their allies and stabbing them with spears.

    Apparently, instead of using swords the group were equipped with spears making them look like underwater valkyries. Besides them, there were many topless female mermaids with arrows supporting several female human knights who were on salamanders. If Team Ascension were to lose right now, then the match would be over. There was nothing to stop these female knights from raiding their base if they were defeated.

    Bendan and Tyron who noticed the value of this battle began to reap the lives of their opponents near them, Tyron shot them from afar while Bendan managed to steal a salamander before causing havoc for their foes. Noticing the newcomers the three idols turned and charged towards Bendan and Tyron who barely managed to fend off their blows.

    With the intervention of the idols the two of them were suppressed, they struggled against the idols but found themselves much slower than them underwater. Just as one of the idols was about to end Tyron¡¯s life, a shadow quickly enveloped her before anyone could notice it, it was like a flash, with a single blink of an eye, the person who was just at the spot disappeared as people barely manage to see the darkness retreating from where it came from.

    The other two stopped their assault before retreating from a distance, whatever it was that attacked them was too fearsome to battle against. They stared at the dark section of the sea as a large figure slowly came to light.

    The battlefield had turned silent from intimidating pressure it had emitted. This caused everyone to sweat bullets despite being underwater.

    A man stood undaunted, unfazed at the battlefield with the being beneath his feet. Luon smiled at the fearful expression that the Vice-captain made and said, ¡°Did you forget about me?¡±

    The ambush was countered by another ambush.

 Chapter 63 - Battle Vs A Diva 3

    The Vice-captain stood up straight on her mount with a frown on her face, the thing Luon was mounted on disturbed their onslaught. With the number of resources that Team Ascension had at this point, there was no way to anticipate this being. It wasn¡¯t enough to summon this thing if one were to include the orcs, boats, weapons, fishmen, and Inzektors into consideration.

    However, after engaging in close quarters combat, she realized something off about the battlefield. The battle that they had moments ago was a stalemate causing her to think that their opponents were strong. But when she impaled them with charge attacks, she found an astonishing fact, she thought, ¡®They¡¯re too weak.¡¯

    With a swift stab from her spear or an arrow from a mermaid, their enemies fell in one blow, if anything their opponents numbered way more than them which made the battle last long. So how did it end up in a stalemate? The fishmen¡¯s spear was laced with some kind of material that will glow when in contact with blood. The orcs on the surface which were able to see the light shot at the wounded members of Team Diva. It didn¡¯t take a genius to know how to fire at moving lights.

    And that was when she realized it, the orcs were the lowest tier type known as peons, the only way to differentiate between ranks among orcs was by their combat prowess, vitality, and the tattoos on their body which labeled them based on their strength. However, these orcs were tattooless which symbolized that they were the lowest tier warriors and fell from one simple strike, she hadn¡¯t noticed this before because they were above water. Although peons were weak and had a pathetic amount of combat abilities, they could still demolish a Crypt Of Heroes quickly if there was a right amount of them.

    The fishmen, on the other hand, was a basic light warrior type which costs a little bit more than the peon. They were fragile and weak. However, they were numerous. With the amount that Luon had with him, they were at least able to squeeze in one strike to wound their opponents.

    The peons were armed with rifles to support the fact that they were physically weak, and the fishmen whose undying will manage to deal a blow to their foes caused these pathetic beings value to rise to the point where they were equivalent to these female warriors.

    Realizing that Team Ascension went cheap on units, boats since they were handcrafted, and weapons since they were half-assedly made except for the rifle, the Vice-captain regrets the lack of scouting ability that their team had. It was no surprise that their opponents can summon this monstrosity.

    Although it wasn¡¯t as powerful as a Kraken, just one is already troublesome to deal with. Luon was mounted on a being that was a mix of a dragon and a giant toad, its name was Crogan. With powerful thick dragon scaled limbs, this amphibian beast looked like a salamander with gills and fins protruding out of some points. The primary weapons it used to hunt is prey besides the claws was the gigantic tongue that it had inherited from its frog genetics.

    [Crogan]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Combat Level 60]

    [From experimentation of done when researching genetics, this race was created in an attempt in tapping the potential of using draconic blood. Crogans are often used in the Aqua Kingdom as mounts.]

    Despite their disadvantage the Vice-captain didn¡¯t show any negative signs on her face, she gallantly stood up straight on the dolphin as she asked, ¡°Did you already eliminate Claire?¡±

    Luon who had arrived beside Bendan looked down and thought, ¡®Who¡¯s Claire? I¡¯m going to assume it¡¯s the girl I just eliminated.¡¯

    With a deadpan face, Luon directed his sights to the Vice-captain along with Bendan as he showed interest in the conversation, Luon monotonically said, ¡°Yes, I did.¡±

    Luon tapped his mount with his hand as if petting it. Although, earlier it did reveal that it was able to eliminate them in one blow he didn¡¯t care too much about it since it was so plainly obvious.

    Luon turned to face Bendan to see his condition, however, found him still staring at the Vice-captain. His eyes followed Brendan¡¯s line of sight, the view before him caused him to sigh. Luon didn''t pay attention to it carefully before, but due to the fierce fight earlier, her clothes, namely her skin tight bikini, was in a devastated state where it can barely maintain public decency.

    Realizing the change on the battlefield she looked at her remaining team member, and they quickly retreated from the battlefield not letting Luon intercept them due to their distance.

    Missing the chance to remove two soldiers the battle underwater resumed, Team Diva''s units were leaderless and quickly fell from Team Ascensions attacks.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    After clearing up the remnants of Team Diva units the group pressed on to the island uninhibited. Once the group had arrived without any harm done, they noticed a particularly weird setting was created on the beach.

    It was a stage, with metallic beams holding its structural design it looked very slick and slim, giving an air of professionalism in its plain design. As Luon and his team carefully advanced in front of the makeshift venue, several streams of gas came from several parts of the stage.

    Luon yelled, ¡°Careful! Gas attack!¡± Before he knew it his hand covered his mouth and he was trying to hold his breath. Their group had quickly done as instructed, several seconds had passed yet not a single reaction was made. Calmly removing his hand away from his mouth, Luon thought, ¡® It''s not poisonous?¡¯

    Before Luon could ponder about the possible effects of the gas attack, several sparkling fires erupted on the stage and soon after the remaining three members of Team Diva, including Janet, got on the stage and began to sing a song. Despite not having the ability to appreciate their beauty, their songs enraptured their whole group. The fishmen were happily dancing to the tune, and the orcs cheered while bellowing out nonsense. Bendan and Tyron were then caught up in the flow of things and started to cheer like those fanboys with glow sticks wearing some merchandise of their favorite idol group. Although, orcs, fishmen, and humans were all different races, through gestures, and songs, the communicative feeling can still be brought across.

    The only one unaffected by this was Luon, he pondered about their opponent''s purpose of this act and concluded that they were just buying time. Since their Crypt of Heroes was just in front of them, their units would be spawned in an instant while Gizmo will have to take several minutes to arrive. Especially, since there were no boats, limiting the type of units they can purchase and delaying their time arrival due to lack of transportation which factors in what weight category the summoned units were. If each song took around 5 minutes to do, then depending on the number of songs sung, the flow of the battlefield would change.

    This, in a sense, was the literal meaning of how words can change lives.

    Realizing this Luon, being the party-pooping show wrecker he is, struck out an energy condensed slash at one of the crucial pillars holding up the venue causing it to crash upon the idol members. However, although their main jobs were idols, they were combatants who were greatly valued by the system, their quick reaction saved their lives as they landed several meters away from the venue and buried themselves in the sandy beach.

    Janet got up and yelled at Luon, ¡°What are you doing! Why did you destroy the stage?!¡±

    Luon shrugged and said, ¡°Right now we¡¯re battling, it''s not surprising to receive an attack from an enemy right?¡±

    ¡°But isn¡¯t there supposed to be an unannounced agreement to respectively lay down our arms for a monumental moment even during a war? There are many scenes like that written in history,¡± Janet retorted.

    ¡°Monumental moment? Do you mean when girls are singing and dancing something is monumental?¡± Luon questioned.

    ¡°Of course it is!¡± Janet shamelessly said.

    Luon facepalmed from her reaction taking several seconds to regain his ability to remain calm. With a deadpan face, while pulling out his sword, he said, ¡°Enough of your nonsense, just come at me.¡±

    ¡°Nonsense! Did you just call my songs NONSENSE?¡± Janet angrily said.

    Luon didn¡¯t bother replying as he didn¡¯t want to add any more fuel to the fire that he had started. Instead, he began to focus on the battle ahead of him. Janet, however, took his silence as an agreement. She pulled out her sword despite her teacher telling her not to do so and said, ¡°You and me, one on one right now! Unless your afraid that you can¡¯t beat me by yourself.¡±

    Luon nodded and told his allies to back off, creating a miniature ring between the two. The two got into their battle stances and slowly swirled around in a circle while slowly approaching each other. At this moment Janet asked, ¡°Are you going to use NG-Arms?¡±

    Luon while paying attention to her movement said, ¡°I will if you do.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t after all only with them off one can see the true difference in skill,¡± replied Janet.

    It was at this moment they were only a few meters off from each other. Quickly Janet dashed giving a stab towards one of Luon¡¯s weak points, and he parried it away without a bat of an eye. Janet display no signs of surprise, as a swordmaster one could see how well experienced another one had with an exchange of blows. The both of them could tell that they almost equally match. The reason they weren¡¯t evenly match was that they both knew, that only one of them could come out on top.

    A series of the continuous melody of swords sung out their battle, the orcs cheered at the violent clash of blades. War is one of their redeeming features.

    Janet realized the situation was turning more difficult by the second. Although they were equally matched in manipulating the sword, girls were naturally weaker than boys due to their genetic differences.

    ¡®Something has to change,¡¯ she thought as she slowly began to implement sword skills in her attacks, catching Luon off-guard.

    However, his keen senses managed to catch these minimal differences allowing him to survive so far. Seeing the attacks were ineffective Janet decided to settle it in one more attack. Taking a weird stance Luon backed off a bit, anticipating for her attack. It happened in an instant, it surpassed his ability to predict the trajectory. He could manage only react based on instincts to the attack.

    ¡°Illusionary Sword!¡± she politely echoed, her blade diverged, and Luon¡¯s ability to predict its movements was shrouded by several different trajectories.

    ¡®Which one is real?¡¯ Luon thought, however, his body reacted faster. His hands responded before he knew it and blood flew all around from this clash. The result incited the numerous bystanders, this single clash caused a chain of reactions.

 Chapter 64 - Infamous

    Blood from the blade slowly drips after it made its mark on its intended target. The elated, adrenaline-like feeling when blood is made is absent from the crowd as a series of different types of expressions were made.

    Anyone can wield a blade, be they good or bad, the tool never discriminates and slices upon the request of the wielder. Maniacs would smile upon killing, doctors will desperately and cautiously slice with a frown or a solemn expression, chefs would smile while chopping, especially if the chopped product is delicious and magically lands into their mouth afterward.

    The wielder of the blade can determine its usage, and bring forth a reaction, and right now Luon and Janet had two different types of expression. With a sword impaled in her body, Janet, smiled as if she had just won the lottery and said, ¡°I am surprised at your capability to handle a sword. I didn¡¯t think you could manage to see through that and stab me at the same time. It¡¯s too bad you fell just a little short...¡±

    At this moment, she painfully pulled out the sword that was stabbed into her body by stepping backward slowly. Blood slowly gushes from the open wound, and two miniature fountains of blood were made lasting only several seconds. As she had removed the sword that impaled her, she recovered her blade that was stuck within Luon¡¯s body.

    Seeing the damages done to their body it was evident that they were both done for. Usually, they would disappear right away when the program designates the combatants as dead. However, they were merely bleeding and not incapacitated. It was possible to recover from the wound if they were to have a healer, but nobody in Team Ascension or Team Diva could do so. The only way for them to live is to buy a healer from the commander shop. However, Gizmo was too far away, and Janet was the only one with authority to do so.

    If Janet had designated a subordinate to take command temporarily, she might¡¯ve been able to save her life. However, she didn''t as she couldn''t have imagined this outcome. Because she and the other idol members were already on the scene to delay the advances she thought that it would be a pointless action. The original plan was to use the stage to temporary halt the battle before countering against Team Ascension forces. And all of that was ruined by a nitwit who couldn¡¯t take the time to appreciate good music.

    Right now Janet felt like she was on top of the world, comparing the damage done from the exchange, Luon would end up eliminated. First, she tried her best to laugh a bit without increasing the depletion rate of her blood and said, ¡°How does defeat feel like Luon? Didn¡¯t expect this outcome did you? Within a few moments, you will get removed, and we will win this match.¡±

    Luon who was painfully resisting death while on his knees holding a sword as support, turned towards her with a questionable look as he said, ¡°Defeat? What are you talking about, how can your team possibly win this match with you in that kind of state...¡±

    Luon¡¯s words gave her an ominous feeling, she quickly asked to confirm whether her worries were real or not by asking, ¡°What do you mean by I can¡¯t win¡­ aren¡¯t you the commander? Don¡¯t you command the battle from the frontline? Or at least that¡¯s what the data said.¡±

    Hearing her words, Luon responded with a snicker. He was defeated thoroughly in the exchange, she was only a little bit faster than he was, this caused his downfall.

    ¡°Unfortunately for you¡­ I am not the commander of this match. Couldn''t you have seen this during the waiting room? It was indicated right beside our names,¡± Luon asked.

    ¡°This...¡± Janet didn''t know what to say. Before she could muster any reasonable thoughts, she began to cough blood due to the shock that Luon wasn''t actually the commander. Her standing posture swayed as if she had hit the limit and she fell into a minor state of shock due to lack of blood.

    The Vice-captain hurried beside her side to support her. Cradling Janet, she turned towards Luon thinking that even if they couldn''t win, they can at least eliminate him before they lose.

    However, she found her worries unnecessary as Luon let go of his sword and collapsed on the ground. He was still conscious as he sent his gaze over to Janet hoping that she would get eliminated first.

    Mentally he thought that whoever won this exchange of blows was the last one standing.

    Seeing her opponent''s tenacious will and how bad the situation was, the Vice-captain said, ¡°I guess this was it for us...¡±

    Bendan who heard her words thought there was no need to add more fuel to the fire, so he merely started to train around the beach with the orcs. Tyron quietly sat watching the opposing commander slowly die out, to act against a wounded enemy was very dishonorable, but at the same time, they needed to win the match. He ensured nothing can stop her from dying unjustly.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Watching her opponent''s reaction dashed all her hope, there was no such thing as pity for the losers, and they were watching their every move. The Vice-captain knew why they had lost, it was mainly due to lack of information. In between concerts, lives, and training sessions, they had no time to study their opponents in more details. They only knew of Luon¡¯s battle capability as a commander by watching the first video of where Luon fought against Team C Delta Plus, and even this was during the free period where the other matches were held.

    Which is why they were under the impression that he was the commander, after losing the battlefield they were aiming for the moment that Luon would let his guard down and eliminate him. Little did they know he wasn¡¯t the commander, but Gizmo was. If only they noticed the slight changes in positioning in the waiting room before the match started.

    However, Team Diva spent that time singing to increase their fan base as the match was executed on many news channels in the Nexus solar system. Their fame soared once the match started after each song. The music chart rankings increased as it was posted real time on everyone''s BMPU. Even though they lost the battle they managed to get more fans, in the end, all they wanted to do was get more popular.

    ¡®We really aren¡¯t cut out for fighting¡­ Janet, we let you down,¡¯ thought the Vice-captain as she lovingly gazed at her partner. Although they didn¡¯t win this battle, they won the hearts of many fans. Soon enough, Luon vanished from his spot signifying his elimination, and Janet followed only moments later.

    After the two the rest followed suit and the match was over, it was Team Ascensions victory.

    ¡­

    The group returned to the waiting room that they were in earlier to watch the remaining matches. There were no noteworthy matches so far, most of them were one-sidedly beaten and had no new tricks. Bored Luon could only go through the data provided to him about their opponent''s weakness, strengths, and redeeming features. It was no surprise that Arisa¡¯s team, who fought the last match of the day, won with ease without revealing any new strategy.

    At this point in time, every team was hiding their trump cards to some extent, so most of these matches had nothing fancy. After the top 8 were decided, Luon¡¯s group was teleported on the stage alongside Team Diva, and various other teams to display good sportsmanship and to thank their opponents for the match. The next set of matches will be held the next day.

    When Team Diva¡¯s name was announced, many members of the crowd cheered, whistled, happily creating a joyful atmosphere lasting nearly a minute. The crowd felt pity for these singing goddess who took up arms, they were aiming for the aesthetical value within the crowd hearts, however, what may look good may not function as well as other methods. Because of this, they were limited on their selection choices for units, and the combat abilities were sealed by external factors, except for the final bout.

    After Team Diva was Team Ascension name, they were told to come up once to offer their thanks to Team Diva for the match. As they departed to the center of the stage, lasting nearly double the time Team Diva had, a portion of the fans continuously curse at the group while the rest remained silent with a small majority supporting Team Ascension.

    The extreme fans of Team Diva managed to obtain a massive library of scandalous pictures. There were mermaids, female knights where bikinis, the idol members in several different poses. These good for nothing supporters couldn¡¯t help but spit at Team Ascension¡¯s victory. If Team Diva were to keep winning wouldn¡¯t they be able to receive more content?

    Despite the awkwardly unbalanced crowd the crew politely did the ceremonial act of thanking their opponents before saying a tidbit before leaving. When it was Janet¡¯s turn to say something she brought the inner actress inside of her as she tearingly said, ¡°Although many of you had hoped for us to continue on, this is the end of the line. Between a true warrior and a greenhorn fighter, it was plainly obvious to see our limitations. Despite our efforts to satisfy you all with an interesting, action-packed, beautiful match - beneath true power, beauty and pride don¡¯t matter as only the victor can continue. Thank you all for the support, and I hope that you¡¯ll come to see our next concert!¡±

    Janet gave a bow garnering many cheers, and increasing her fan base by numerous times over, even though she lost, she knew her priorities.

    The day was half over as the Vortex Container had conserved a lot of time. It didn¡¯t take long before everyone in the Nexus solar system knew of the results, and from one aspect of it, Luon had become famous overnight.

    He wasn¡¯t famous for his prowess as he had lost to Janet in a one versus one scenario, nor was it for his strategic value as Gizmo was the commander. Instead, he became famous for his shamelessness. The number of shameless acts he had done was numerous, and game-changing at the same time. It all started with a rifle that had eliminated the first girl right away, he had used a one-time consumable product while saying some cheeky words causing many viewers to cringe. Another minor one was during the sea battle he had merely sat on a monster whose presence changed the fight and acted as if it was all his doing. But what really hammered the nail in the coffin was the fact that while Janet and the other two girls were singing, he had wrecked the stage in the first few seconds of the song.

    Many audience members thought, ¡®You¡¯re already winning so why not let them sing at least one tune?¡¯ Social media who were bored out of their minds due to lack of exciting news blew it up like spilling oil over an existing fire.

    However, the target of all this negativity was utterly negligent of this. Instead, Luon was looking at the members of their next match. It wasn¡¯t the first time he had seen it in Nexus University. However, he didn¡¯t anticipate these people as their opponents. Their school had a diverse culture, from vampires to humans, elves and¡­ even orcs. Their next opponent was a 5 man male orc team named Pride. With muscles as thick as a horse limb, these five straightforwardly brought havoc to their opponent''s team. Luon looked at their match history with a frown, their strategy literally pulverized all their opponents.

    How could he win this? How should they battle this? Luon suddenly had a bright idea, he turned on his Vortex container and started to fix several settings.

    Their next match, without a doubt, would be an interesting one to see.

 Chapter 65 - Pride 1

    Pulling an all-nighter is something that many people do, but how many can enjoy doing so? Not many, because in the end they end up lacking sleep, and this is something that couldn''t be helped. It''s easy to lose track of time doing something one loved, on the other hand, it''s also easy to keep track of time if your rushing to finish something last minute.

    Luon at this moment was in the same state as those sleepless zombies. Why was their next match the next day? Couldn''t they do it a day later? There was just no time to make any proper last minute adjustments without killing sleep unless those changes were minuscule enough not to matter as much.

    But the changes that Luon spent the night doing weren''t so minuscule at all.

    With bloodshot eyes, Luon sat down while tapping his leg relentlessly on the waiting room floor to relieve his frustration. Although he took an energy pill earlier to soothe his nerves, the last minute project he had worked on was mentally taxing, and it would take some time to settle down.

    His team who noticed his state and began to prompt one another to ask Luon what was up. In the end, Gizmo walked up to Luon and asked, ¡°Hey there buddy, you okay?¡±

    His voice rang into Luon''s head like when someone who was hung over with a massive headache was listening to a running train nearly a few meters from him.

    Not blaming or flaming Gizmo for his kind gesture, Luon replied, ¡°I¡¯m okay just let me rest a bit...¡±

    After those words, Luon closed his eyes as he laid on one of the benches in the room.

    Gizmo turned towards his companions who all began to shake their heads in response. Seeing how they were uninterested in waking Luon up, he decided just to let him lay there until their match started.

    Consistently training, learning and working without proper sleep, although the energy pill and Vortex Container are practically omnipotent tools that help do more work there''s a limit to everything before it starts to do some harm.

    Gizmo, Bendan, and Tyron began to do whatever they wanted to which left Thomas, whose existence is almost negligible, to watch the current match.

    It was between Team Warbeast versus Team Constu who specialized in construction. It wasn''t typical for a real engineering team to enter the competition let alone a position in the top 16.

    Usually, they would have been eliminated with a simple rush attack. However, these engineers were confident of their ability to build their defenses fast which was one of the reasons why most teams weren''t able to win against them.

    Another reason why most teams failed to assault them was their mech defender that are the size of ogres. There was a limit to what one could bring with them to the competition beforehand, they could only bring objects that could fit within a particular dimensional size. This large robot was in numerous pieces which occupied 40 gear slots and took them a minute to assemble.

    Thomas hoped that the match would last long enough so that Luon could settle down a bit before their match began. And from seeing the progression of the battle, his prayers were granted when Team Warbeast rushed towards their opponents base and fought the titan to a standstill. After beating the robot, the four soldiers of Team Warbeast, including Zythos, encountered a series of traps and defensive mechanisms which inhibited their progress.

    Team Warbeast who had failed their quick assault were slowly storming through their opponents base. What was the most surprising factor of this match was that the unarmoured, werewolves or beastmen were wearing the same armor that Team Delta C Plus had worn.

    It was no surprise that they had no injuries and were able to beat the mech. Because of the armor, all the weapons that Team Constu could do was merely delay the moving tank. They would usually walk extremely slow with the heavy armor on while under suppressive fire, but with their natural racial strength of being a beastmen, and genetic modifications they were powerful enough to operate normally without breaking a sweat.

    The main reason why the match continued to be delayed was due to the walls team Contsu had. Seeing how their weapons were ineffective, they quickly built walls as a last minute attempt to stay in the tournament.

    Team C Delta Plus had used mounts to overcome this quickly. However, Team Warbeast used their own strength to overcome the walls. Attached to the suit of armor hands was a claw-like weapon which easily penetrated a portion of the walls allowing to climb at a decent pace.

    However, after they finished climbing one wall, there was another, and after they rise above that one, there was another. Team Warbeast was unable to go around the walls as it completely encircled the base, so the battle stood at a temporary standstill.

    Lasting nearly 30 minutes of wall building and climbing did something change because Team Contsu was occupied by building walls that encircled their entire base, they had forgotten about Chester who was operating the Crypt Of Heroes command table.

    Earlier as they were building walls, they attempted to assault the Crypt of Heroes by deploying units around these moving tanks, only to find that the enemy base heavily defended by metallic constructs.

    After several attempts had failed they stopped attacking the base leaving only a few scouts within the region, however, this gave Team Warbeast enough time to change the progression of the match.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    A shadow soared quickly over the battlefield arriving next to the four bulky attackers of Team Warbeast and picking them off of the mountain climbing region. The crowd gasps at its presence as it was the first time people have seen it in the competition in ages. It was a dragon, and not just your mixed hybrid races one, nor is it the pathetic excuse of a real dragon like the Flare Dragon was, it was an authentic fire dragon.

    Aided by its arrival Team Warbeast was able to claim victory over Team Constu in 42 minutes, ending the first match of the day.

    Minutes after Team Warbeast won their match, everyone on Team Ascension was teleported to the waiting room that gave them four minutes to lock in their choices of role and map, and another minute to mentally settle themselves, which they can press ready to speed up the progress.

    The change of surroundings caused Luon to feel the cold floor texture change from a nice bench to a standard smooth white floor. Luon got up slowly, taking a nap for a little more than half an hour was actually helpful as he found himself refreshed upon awakening.

    His party members who saw him get up waited for Luon to talk about the reason why he was so tired before their important match which Luon told them, ¡°For the match today, I made a brand new map.¡±

    ¡°A new map? You don¡¯t want to run the usual canyon or forest?¡± asked Gizmo.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to use those fields, it''s just for this kind of opponent I thought it would be useful to do,¡± answered Luon.

    ¡°Alright, if you''re that confident then just do as you please, however, if it''s just a normal map how you could be so tired? Even with the pathetically not so well done map editing tools, it shouldn¡¯t be that taxing to create a map,¡± said Gizmo.

    Luon frowned as he said, ¡°It¡¯s exactly because of the map editing tools weren¡¯t so great that I took so long to do it. Just wait for the match to start, and see the results do its work. I¡¯m setting myself as a commander, and the rest of you as soldiers. The map is the new map I made at the last minute.¡±

    Everyone nodded their heads in agreement of positions, Bendan, Tyron, and Thomas never cared about distributing roles, while Gizmo only did so for the majority of their matches to shroud their potential main tactics. Bendan couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What kind of map is it?¡±

    Even though he was a muscle freak, he still had his preference in places to fight. The ocean was a different experience for him, but it made his attacks feel a little empty inside. He preferred to fight on the ground.

    Luon smiled mysteriously as he replied, ¡°It¡¯s a dungeon.¡±

    ¡­

    Dungeons are a type of underground map which specialized in defense. However, dungeons are most often defeated by merely smoking and sealing the dungeon or drowning it in water. Which is why when someone created a dungeon map they would spawn multiple entrances to filter out the potential hazards.

    One of the critical points of a dungeon was that the dungeon walls were extremely reinforced making it challenging to break through, there was an option between making standard walls to create more paths or the reinforced walls to inhibit movement.

    Standing in front of the dungeon entrance which was in the shape of a cave that looked like a troll would pop out of it was an army of green muscular orcs. Team Pride had four orc warriors and a shaman who acted as the commander. If it were a regular match the four orc warriors with an army of summoned orcs would storm through their opponents base with overwhelming strength, however, right now they are idiotically standing in front of a signpost.

    ¡°Brother, what does it say on da board? I can¡¯t read,¡± said one of the orcs.

    Although Nexus University is a school for the best engineers and fighters around the solar system, it didn¡¯t mean that everyone was equally smart, these orcs were powerful and had an amazing growth rate beyond their peers. Their bloodline was closer to Chaos orcs which by far exceeds many regular orcs. Unfortunately, the heavens were fair and made these men equally dumb. Which is why there was a shaman in the first place to teach them what to do.

    Over the team chat system, the Shaman asked, ¡°What does it say? I¡¯m at the base right now, so I can¡¯t see it.¡±

    ¡°Brother. How would I know what it says when I can¡¯t read it?¡± asked an Orc.

    ¡°That¡¯s why you¡¯re supposed to spell it out for me!¡± said the Shaman.

    ¡°How do I do that?¡± asked another Orc.

    ¡°Go on your BMPU and pressed the letters that look like the one on the signpost!¡± the shaman barked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to use this toy yet,¡± replied one of the orcs with a sad expression, which caused the other 3 to nod in agreement.

    ¡°Ughh, just ask the human to read it out to you and tell me what it says!¡± said the shaman.

    ¡°OH!¡± replied all four orcs as they turned towards a single scrawny figure in the large group of orcs.

    Grabbing the ordinary human citizen that was summoned for a minuscule amount of points they tossed him in front of the board and asked, ¡°Puny human, what do the words say on the board?¡±

    Scared of the face he made the human slowly stuttered, ¡°I-It sa-says ¡®He who is powerful come to test the trials of pride if thou does shameless deeds thee shall be forever shamed.¡¯¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± said the orcs who were thinking about how to say this set of words to the shaman.

    They thought hard, but were too stupid to come up with a reply, they asked the human, ¡°The words are complicated, make it simple stupid.¡±

    The human repetitively nodded and said, ¡°Ba-basically it means ¡®Come in here and fight! Do you have the guts?!¡¯¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± the four orcs replied and began to relay the words to shaman which the latter replied, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s smoke the dungeon out, go look for all the available entrances and seal them up, we¡¯re setting our troops right outside and wait for them.¡±

    However, that remark upset the orcs who said, ¡°WHAT? Do you not want to take the challenge?! They said to come inside to fight so why we doing a dirty thing. If a warrior was said to fight, then fighting we shall, am I, right brothers?¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡± screamed the other orcs as they yelled out a battle cry, there were 30 orcs and one human, most of them were warriors, and very few were shamans.

    The shaman commander facepalmed and said, ¡°You dumb orcs, go do what I said I am the commander, did you forget that?¡±

    ¡°Bah! Commander just causes you''re a bit smart you think you can deny our honor?! No one can shame an orc! And if an orc has to prove themselves, then they should do it! Let¡¯s go my brothers!¡± said the most massive orc of the four soldiers.

    ¡°Rul¡¯tarrr!¡± they replied as they all entered the dungeon.

    A few minutes upon entering the orcs made their way through the normal looking passage with torches alongside the wall. They walked for a minute before coming to an opening where the room was a complete circle. There were screams of orcs, humans and other race civilians all around chanting, ¡°Fight! Fight! Fight!¡±

    The cheer incited the orc warriors blood, they recognized this kind of setting before as it was one of their favorite past times when they were taking a day off, video and live stream arena feeds were extremely popular like wrestling and fighting matches in the virtual world. The realistic, brutal sensation brought out the inner warrior inside of them.

    And the man who made this happened sat on a podium in front of the group as he said, ¡°Welcome orc warriors, do you dare take my challenge?¡±

    Luon sat with an arrogant smile as the orcs replied precisely how he thought they would.

 Chapter 66 - Pride 2

    The concept of infinity mirrors is a widely known phenomenon, the idea behind it is that within two parallel mirrors are a series of smaller reflections of themselves that seem to go to infinity. This idea is used artistically for attractions, and various other appliances, such as conceptualizing intellectual thought.

    After experiencing life inside a simulation when people were incubated in Vortex Containers, a good percentage of people ended up questioning reality, ¡®Is this truly real life? What if this reality that they live in is yet another simulation in a different reality? What if other people are watching my every move?.¡¯

    The people who pondered on this line of thought were divided into two categories, intellectuals who were just curious with the meaning of life, and people who are in self-denial due to the dissatisfaction to their current circumstances.

    Fortunately, there are numerous amount of counseling services to ensure that these people don¡¯t cause any trouble in society, in fact, most people would instead just make most of the reality they are currently experiencing regardless if it was real or fake.

    So why do people doubt themselves in the first place? That''s because sentient life forms are curious creatures that are incited to think in particular ways when they experience circumstances.

    Which is why the viewers who are watching a televised broadcast of the battle inside the Colosseum are confused. The crowd sat on their seats watching a group of spectators inside of a Colosseum in the battle cheering gleefully.

    It was a strange sight to see spectators spectate other spectators who were watching the action unfold before them. The crowd knew that they were fakes created by the system, however, many of them thought, ¡®What if we are also being watched?¡¯ they shook their heads at the frightening thought, and this fact was indeed true as other viewers were watching the battle through different live streams channel, and those viewers also thought the same. In a way, this was kind of an infinity mirror loop.

    However, when there was activity on the virtual battle arena that Luon had made, all of the complex thoughts were blown away by a vigorously cheering crowd who started to chant ¡°Fight, Fight, Fight.¡±

    It all started with the fake bystanders. However, once the fire was lit it was able to coat the whole forest if it was flamed, everyone chanted the words and unknown to Luon, he had unintentionally hyped the crowd.

    Standing in front of the group of orcs, wearing a mask for style points, Luon said to them, ¡°Welcome Challengers! Step right up and enter the ring to win amazing prizes!¡±

    The largest orc whose name was Kadashu stopped his fellow orcs with a wave of his hand, he said to Luon, ¡°Pah, foolish human, what prizes can you even bring out that may possibly interest us. Just shut up and fall from my axe.¡±

    Luon smiled as he said, ¡°Calm down there fella, there¡¯s something I have that may interest you, and that¡¯s the Crypt of Heroes if your team wins the tournament fair and square we will promptly surrender to your team with everyone watching this battle act as our witness. And on top of that everyone in this solar system may be watching this battle, so you guys have a good chance to reveal your might to the world. Or are you¡­ afraid of losing?¡±

    ¡°Afraid?! Who¡¯s afraid of who? I feel like your hiding something which is why I didn¡¯t agree in the first place, you humans are so tricky,¡± said the huge orc.

    ¡°Hmmm. Well, I guess I¡¯ll let your remark slide for now, how about I explain the content for this challenge first?¡± Luon shrugged.

    The large orc did not agree nor did he deny the challenge, instead he turned to face his fellow brethren to ask for their opinions on the matter only to find their eyes shining brightly when they heard the word challenge. He gave off a little sigh as he turned back towards Luon and said, ¡°Alright, human, we¡¯ll follow your trickery, for now, however, if I find anything odd then I¡¯ll have your head right away!¡±

    Unfazed by the aggressive reply from the Kadashu, Luon said, ¡°The rules are simple, I¡¯ll pick a total of 10 monsters for your team to battle against, and your job is battle each one in a one versus one match until all 10 is defeated or your team is wiped.¡±

    ¡°Stupid human, do you honestly think that you could summon something that could be stronger than an orc with only a few minutes of resources?! How dare you underestimate our might,¡± said Kadashu.

    Orcs are strong, stronger than humans without the addition of external forces. Before space travel was introduced to fantasy based solar systems, the orcs were commonly known as the most powerful, honorable, mighty green warriors within the barren lands.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Long ago as humans and other sentient beings slowly gained intelligence, they began to conquer one another for better resources such as land, food and for their own satisfaction. Armed with sticks and stones humans enslaved numerous races such as dwarves, elves, and fishmen.

    Although they were well accomplished since ancient times, when the humans first encountered the orc race did things change, they had truly met their maker.

    Humans who had yet to mature while living a nomadic lifestyle had their numbers dropped drastically due to the orcs. They foolishly continued to expand outwards and stepped to the barren lands of the orcs.

    With strength beyond their own, humans were subdued, and the orcs set the other races free. Grateful for their assistance the other races pledged their loyalty to the orc race, however, their gesture was rejected by the overlord of the orc race, Hashmu.

    Instead, his actions had garnered some hatred from the other races as he had also let the human race off for their sins. As the other races had conflicting views due to this action, they petitioned against Hashmu¡¯s choice and requested to exterminate the human race which causes him to reply, ¡°Hahaha, you people are foolish beings. Weak and helpless you struggle against one another on these plentiful lands. We orcs do not care about such foolish thoughts. With strength, we can get what we want. With strength, we can do what we want. With strength, we can make others listen to our words if you want me to listen, prove it to me with your strength.¡±

    With those words Hashmu left the green lands uninhibited to return to barren fields once again, it was said that the harsh conditions of the barren lands tempered the orcs ruthlessness, taught them how to respect life, and Hashmu and his predecessors had taught the honorable way of the orc.

    Without the intervention of the orc race, the human race was once again bathed in war which later settled down many years ahead. With rivalry their ability to develop technology grew, and the next time they had made contact with the orcs again they presented a well-refined axe in honor of Hashmu¡¯s leniency.

    Without a doubt, the average, orc warrior compared to the average human soldier, was superior by several folds. A regular human citizen¡¯s combat level ranged from 1 to the mid 30¡¯s, while the soldiers and veterans were around 50s to 60s. Orcs, on the other hand, were about 5 more levels than the average human.

    Luon didn''t underestimate Kadashu or the other orcs strength, he had fully accounted for this.

    Not replying to Kadashu¡¯s query, Luon merely clapped his hands as a caged entrance opened up revealed a monster behind its doors. A slime measuring over 3 meters in height appeared in front of the group of orcs causing them to prepare their battle stances.

    Luon who saw this replied, ¡°This is your first opponent, the Gorging Slime, choose amongst yourselves who is going to face it first. Or are you going against your word when you agreed to the setting that I made? To think that you''re unable to beat a slime¡­ how pathetic.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it. Pathetic? Weak? I¡¯ll show you who''s boss around here,¡± replied one of the orcs who angrily began to battle against the slime. Seeing that one of their members had volunteered themselves, the other orcs were saddened and went to the bystander''s space waiting for the outcome. However, minutes passed, and there were no signs of the battle ending, the orc hacked away at the slime with his axe only to frown at the sight of his opponent out-regenerating the damage he had dealt.

    Luon who was watching all of this sat on a podium above the stage not worried at all about the result of the battle. He knew that the orc race who had a meager amount of talent in regards to magic would find it difficult to battle against the slime. Luon looked at the amount of time that had passed and thought to himself, ¡®It should be about...¡¯

    Before he could finish his thought, he received a message on his BMPU, reading it over he stood up from the podium and faced towards the crowd of orcs who were cheering their comrade on, except for one of them.

    Kadashu who was eagerly watching the battle had a maddened expression on his face, just now he had received word from the shaman the base is under attack. The sneaky Luon had sent his forces through a different path to eliminate the shaman and their Crypt of Heroes. Fortunately, they had yet to lose as the shaman was smart of enough to build some defenses after his soldiers foolishly dove into their opponent''s dungeon.

    Crushing his seat with his hands, he bellowed, ¡°ORCS! My brothers! This is a trap! The shaman is under attack, let¡¯s go save him at once. ¡±

    Adhering to his command the orcs grouped up and began to retreat from where they came from. Luon realizing the change in the situation smiled as he pressed a switch which caused the path the orcs were on to collapse downwards.

    Falling from a height of over half a kilometer the orcs appeared unharmed in an unknown region within the dungeon. They were too occupied with retreating to realize that the normal route they were walking on before was a giant pitfall trap.

    Kadashu yelled upwards at Luon who gazed at him above and said, ¡°YOU! Once I get out of here, I¡¯ll get you for this!¡±

    Luon ignored his threats and curses as he sealed the opening with the press of the switch.

    ¡°It¡¯s time to regroup with the others and deal with the shaman, it would probably take about half an hour before those dumb orcs figure out how to get out of there,¡± muttered Luon as he left the dungeon.

    30 minutes was a rough estimate of how long it would take for an average person to exit the trap. However, Luon had overestimated the orcs capabilities. At this moment, the orcs that he had trapped were stupidly stumbling around the labyrinth that Luon had spent the whole night making, it was complicated, and required several steps to get out.

    Luon had made a miniature labyrinth had indefinitely sealed the fates of the stupid yet strong orcs.

    However, when he arrived at the opponents base, it was his turn to be surprised.

 Chapter 67 - Pride 3

    Before Luon¡¯s eyes was an incredible sight. The base that Luon thought was to be undermanned due to their offensive forces being removed from the equation was armed to the teeth with weaponry and thick walls.

    Before he had left the base, Luon made sure Thomas was able to operate the summoning mechanism and brought with him an army of human footman and a wagon of scrap materials which was led by a battalion of robotic horses.

    Luon soon found Gizmo, Tyron and Bendan camped outside and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on? How come we haven''t raided them yet? Did you guys even try?¡±

    Gizmo shook his head at Luon''s response as he said, ¡°It¡¯s not as if we didn¡¯t try. At first, when we were attacking the base, it was half the size then it is now. Our attempt, as you can see, failed despite the army of humans you sent with us. They suddenly turned the tables against us when a wall of defensive turrets appeared. Fortunately, you summoned a necromancer, so we managed to maintain our numbers to build a siege outside. Look over there, we somehow took down one of their walls.¡±

    Gazing past the several undead skeletal workers who were operating a retro looking catapult, was a shattered wall exposing the heads of several green creatures.

    Gizmo who sensed Luon gazing over at the walled area pointed out, ¡°I think that the shaman intentionally sent the offensive force out to hide what he was doing behind the scene. Based on the recordings in their previous matches, we had little data in regards to what they did at their base because their frontline garnered all the attention. That shaman is a tricky person, to think he would summon peons and goblins to do construction work. Not only that, he had probably set their gear slots with parts for defensive turrets to set them up fast. How do you want to break through?¡±

    Pondering for a moment, Luon asked, ¡°What kind of projectile do they shoot out?¡±

    Gizmo responded, ¡°Those turrets are Gatling guns that shoot about 200 rounds a minute, though it was unable to annihilate bones completely. Otherwise, we wouldn¡¯t have any undead right now.¡±

    Looking at the horses, he had coincidently brought Luon thought, ¡®With 30 horses are we able to overthrow the base? I think it''s about time to use our NG-Arms, although it might expose our growth, this moment is more than likely the turning point. The faster we move, the better.¡¯

    Thinking about how they were going to attack the base Luon called over his team for a meeting. Luon said, ¡°Alright guys, we know they got no fighters inside of the base, just a bunch of skilled engineers who are over-relying on turrets. Bendan will lead a team of humans on the horses and storm in the base, Tyron and Gizmo are to use their NG-Arms to disable the turrets, as for me...¡±

    Luon¡¯s body went invisible as his words slowly faded away with his presence, ¡°I¡¯ll assassinate the shaman.¡±

    Equipped with a black piece of armor Luon was no longer visible to the crowd, his allies, and his enemies. Soaring in the air silently, Luon searched the enemy base for the shaman. Besides the shabby outer walls that the goblins and peons were hurrying about to reinforce, there was a single stylish looking orc who stood still beside the Crypt of Heroes. Equipped with a pelt of a white wolf and a skull of some kind of canine animal he stood over the table top without revealing a single sign of weakness.

    From a distance their operation started, Gizmo and Tyron began to deal with the turrets while the knights led by Bendan were able to easily penetrate into the base slaughtering the weak peons and goblins. However, their progress was delayed even further as traps sprang out from many different locations.

    As the base continued to be raided the shaman merely began to summon several orc warriors to deal with the intruder focusing their defenses at the Crypt of Heroes. Luon thought that if he didn¡¯t attack as soon as possible, more warriors would increase the chance of failure for this operation.

    Invisibility was only useful for beings that are not so sensitive to their surroundings, orcs were beings like that. However, this shaman wasn¡¯t. Just as Luon¡¯s blade was about to reap the shaman''s life, a sword clashed against his as the shaman who was preoccupied with operating the table, appeared with a sword in hand said, ¡°Looks like we got a little rat, how long did you plan on making me wait?¡±

    Luon frowned as he backed away, the shaman wasn¡¯t like those dumb orcs he met before, instead of using the barbaric axe, he was using one hand to hold a greatsword that was 2/3rd of Luon¡¯s height.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    ¡®He¡¯s stronger than I thought, and he''s smarter than what he looks.¡¯ Luon prepared his sword once again letting out a flurry of quick attacks. Using the Steps of Starlight technique his speed exceeded the shaman who was carrying the long sword, however, the shaman stood unfazed.

    It was as if the shaman was waiting for something to happen as Luon slowly grew suspicious as their battle continued. ¡®There was no way he could win, why would he delay the inevitable? Once the knights, undead, and soldiers occupy the base, the match would be over.¡¯

    However, before they could completely take over the base Luon received an urgent message from Thomas, ¡°Luon, do something quick! The orcs you trapped managed to get out the labyrinth and are traveling inside our dungeon!¡±

    Shocked Luon quickly backed away from the shaman who was smugly looking at Luon and said, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Did you think we¡¯re playing along with your tricks? Our race has spent centuries encountering your human tricks, in fact, we would brag about the biggest tricks that we have thwarted to each other. One of us learned how to use the internet and even made a blog which contains a huge collection of them. Come on, you have no more choice now than to fight me to the death like a real warrior!¡±

    Luon realized the situation turned for the worse, he asked Thomas how much longer until the orcs arrive at the base in which the latter replied that they only have two minutes at most. According to Luon¡¯s research, there were no possible units that they could summon to delay their advance, the Gorging Slime which he left behind may be able to delay one of the orcs. However, a group of them would cause it to fall within a minute.

    With his quick calculation, they only had 3 minutes to either kill the shaman or destroy their Crypt of Heroes which was heavily armed with defenders.

    How did the stupid orcs escape? How could they do it so fast? It was then he realized that the weak-willed human they brought with them was actually the brain of the group. The average human is smarter than an orc, with their powerful might and a human that had a better than the average mind, it was no surprise that the orcs were able to progress so far ahead.

    Looking at his allies struggle against the forces protecting the Crypt of Heroes, he estimates that it would take about ten minutes before they make some progress. The only way to win right now is to eliminate the shaman.

    Readying his resolve Luon equipped his NG-Arms, his speed was already beyond the shaman. However, the power behind his attacks was lacking. Luon planned on using his NG-Arms to increase his velocity of attacks, his slashes became more devastating as he began to add a spin behind his strikes.

    Seeing his foes antics, the orc shaman smiled as he swung his sword. They clashed numerous more times, however, because of the spin attacks the pacing became more scattered giving the shaman more breathing room. Luon had sacrificed speed for power, the shaman simply thought he was getting desperate due to lack of time.

    It was only one minute after they resumed battle did he genuinely realize the aftereffects of the change. The greatsword that the orc was using shattered against Luon¡¯s blade. Orcs usually don¡¯t care too much about worldly belongings. As long as it allowed them to kill, they were all the same. Which is why when Luon¡¯s well-refined sword clashed against the shaman''s sword it broke into pieces.

    It was no surprise to Luon who had thought carefully about this, it was like taking a metal knife and slicing a plastic one, the materials used was too different. Even though the world was simulated, everything was realistic to the extent where people could live without realizing that the reality they experienced was fake. Which is why there was no omnipotent object with no durability at all.

    The shaman tried to back away from Luon who didn¡¯t let this opportunity go to waste, his sword swung once more slicing the skull helmet in half, nearly ending the shaman''s life. Desperately picking up the shattered bone pieces the shaman pointed his knife-size bone piece and bellowed at Luon, ¡°That sword is unfair! Fight me on equal grounds! You don¡¯t point your sword at unarmed opponents now do you?¡±

    Luon looked at the shaman stupidly as he replied, ¡°Unarmed? Clearly, you have a weapon right there.¡±

    Looking at what Luon pointed at the shaman realized that the so-called ¡®weapon¡¯ was the shattered bone piece that looked less lethal than a spoon.

    Throwing it away the shaman said, ¡°There, now I am unarmed. Fight me fair and square now!¡±

    Luon smiled as he began to lower his blade, the shaman seeing Luon do so felt relieved at his gesture. However, this moment didn¡¯t last that long as Luon quickly vanished from his sight and appeared behind the shaman, impaling his sword inside of his body.

    The shaman coughed out blood as he mumbled, ¡°You¡­ why?¡±

    Luon said, ¡°This is a battle, a war, honor, pride, and all things alike, are meaningless under the blade of the victor.¡±

    Luon pulled out the sword causing the blood to gush out from the wound. The shaman dropped down with a thud, unsatisfied about this ending.

    Luon raised his sword up preparing to end the shaman¡¯s life and thought, ¡®Today, although it was a short amount of time, I¡¯ve exposed many different tricks. I don¡¯t believe Zythos would be able to take advantage of this weakness¡­ but Arisa might be able to take advantage of this information. The future battle¡­ seems troubling.¡¯

    Luon let out a sigh as he swung downwards dealing the final blow to the shaman.

    With this attack, the match was over, if the shaman had killed Luon or destroyed the Crypt of Heroes, they could have lost. Luon had proved to the crowd one crucial fact about their team.

    Team Ascension is over geared!

 Chapter 68 - The Night Before The Semi-Finals

    After defeating Team Pride in a one versus one battle between commanders, Luon and the other members of Team Ascension returned to the waiting room once more to watch the remaining matches.

    Soon the top four positions were determined and tomorrow Luon¡¯s Team Ascension was up against Zythos¡¯ Team Warbeast. If they were to win they would quickly face either Arisa¡¯s team Girl¡¯s Union or their opponents Team IGX which was created from a club, IGX Pit, numbering over 100 different members.

    A crucial aspect, besides tactics and combat skills, is gear. Ordinary people wouldn¡¯t be able to afford such luxury unless they could either, create it themselves, or accumulate enough wealth to buy gear. Team IGX¡¯s equipment set up was happily donated by their fellow team members which allowed them to buy one set of NG-Arms, although, second-hand.

    For Luon and his team to make it to the finals, they have to solve one big problem, the incredible armor Zythos had used in their previous match.

    His sword could only lightly scratch the armor despite his best of efforts when he was against Team C Delta Plus, and now Team Warbeasts soldiers were all equipped with this rigged pieces of armor. Not only that, but they also had NG-Arms on top of it, mostly solving their mobility problems.

    Without a doubt, the starting position of the battle is the most crucial, Team Warbeast would more than likely aim to end it right away. Although Tyron and Gizmo can continuously attempt to kite them, there was no way for them to win.

    ¡°What do you guys think? How do we handle Zythos team¡¯s armor?¡± asked Luon.

    As the words came out of Luon¡¯s mouth, not a single person on their team offered a solution instead they merely sat down pondering to the best of their abilities. Bendan was the first to give in, his head felt like it burst as he fell down from his upright seating position like a bird who had lost its wings. Fortunately, they were inside a private lobby in the virtual simulation system so they could do whatever they wanted to without feeling ashamed of a third-party.

    At this moment, Thomas suggested, ¡°How about we poison them? Even though the armor covers most of their body, they still need to breathe.¡±

    After hearing his words, Luon conjured up a simulation of the armor that they were having trouble against and made a werewolf wear it. He also received a potion from the simulation and tossed it against the armor.

    Minutes passed, and not a single change occurred, tossing more potions that contained chemicals of not only poison, but acid used to break down materials, and flammable oil. No matter what they did, the werewolf under the armor did not feel too much of a difference.

    The poison hardly affected it, the acid may have burned his skin a bit, but it was a meager amount compared to the werewolf regeneration rate, and the flame didn¡¯t even make the werewolf fear any change of temperature.

    The only way Luon had won last time was because he sealed their movements and cut off their air supply. It was not possible to do it again with Team Warbeasts fast movement.

    Luon shook his head as he said, ¡°Although we can try to do so, they more than likely have a solution to that already, also how long will it take for the poison to act? Even if we got the deadliest one, they aren¡¯t like humans, their race has some resistance against poison.¡±

    ¡°How about some armor piercing attacks? The armor might be strong, but we might be able to deal with the person inside of it,¡± suggested Bendan who managed to revive himself from his brain overload.

    Luon pondered for a moment and recalled that when Bendan had fought against one of the armored soldiers in their first match that the impact had slightly injured his opponent. He couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Are the armor piercing attacks you speak of, able to create a force equivalent to a fall of several hundred meters?¡±

    Bendan nodded as he said, ¡°My family has some techniques in regards to this type of field. I am sure I¡¯ll be able to do some damage to him.¡±

    After he had said, so he started to unleash a storm of attacks against their simulated enemy, it took about 30 solid blows before the armored werewolf was incapacitated.

    Gizmo sarcastically yelled, ¡°Great! Now you only have to deal with four more in active combat, and we¡¯ll win the match!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s only four armored enemies in the first place. Chester would more than likely be the commander for this battle, and he would probably be focused on defense,¡± said Tyron.

    ¡°Hahaha! Four of them? Bring it on, I¡¯ll show them what I got,¡± said Bendan who arrogantly started to show off his muscles.

    Luon facepalmed for a moment before turning to ask Thomas, ¡°Any bright ideas?¡±

    Thomas nodded as he said, ¡°We can seal their movements using the Entangle skill engraved into bullets and let Gizmo disable them. If it were only one vine than they could easily break free, however, a whole net of them would force them to sit still long enough to do a strong blow against them.¡±

    ¡°A strong blow? How strong would the force need to be to penetrate that armor,¡± Luon said.

    At this moment Tyron suggested, ¡°If you can hold them still long enough I can make a heavy charge attack with my bow, it¡¯s a hard move to do, and at most I could only do it twice due to lack of mana.¡±

    ¡°Oh, really now? Let¡¯s see!¡± cried Bendan. He didn¡¯t believe that someone else could harm their opponents while they were armored.

    Conjuring up another target, Luon and the others backed away to see Tyron¡¯s high powered attack. Tyron pointed his bow at the enemy and began to channel his mana into his arrow giving, a darker crimson hue than before after nearly half a minute did he let his attack go.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    It soared into the target as the force dragged it along for several meters before piercing through its stomach.

    ¡°Wow! That attack was crazy! I almost thought it wouldn¡¯t work since the target was pushed back along with it, but to pierce through the whole thing. I can¡¯t imagine how powerful that attack was,¡± said Bendan.

    Luon nodded and asked Thomas, ¡°How realistically possible is it that we can use that attack on an entangled target?¡±

    Thomas said, ¡°With this kind of set up we can only eliminate up to two people before we either run out of entangling bullets or Tyron loses all his mana.¡±

    Luon nodded, with their solutions they can handle at least 3 of the 4 opponents, he couldn¡¯t think of a way to defeat the last one, and they aren¡¯t just going to stand there and take the attacks for free. He could only suggest before breaking up the meeting, ¡°Alright as for the last one I¡¯ll try to distract him until you guys can help me after we deal with him we¡¯ll attack Chester¡¯s base. Go get some rest now.¡±

    Everyone logged off the lobby room leaving only Luon by himself, he truly had no solution against the armor. Explosives, poison, and other attacks weren¡¯t that effective unless the force was beyond normal standards.

    Luon quietly logged off and decided to stroll into the night pondering on how to beat the last opponent. He imagined the last one to be Zythos as they squarely face off each other one on one.

    The darkness of the night eased Luon¡¯s thoughts, the silence calmed him down unlike the Vortex Container, it was like someone who had continuously watched the television all day got up and stretched his sore muscles, it was relaxing.

    Luon realized his faults, although his speed was fast and his attacks were okay, he didn''t have any armor piercing attacks or a mighty, lethal blow that could take down his opponents in an instance.

    The darkness of the night reminded Luon of his second simulation, although their memories amalgamated, a portion of it was sealed as he can only vaguely recall certain scenes. Luon felt that he had killed more titanic foes before, however, as he gained something during those fights Luon felt as if he had lost something as well.

    As he continued to ponder in the darkness, he soon found himself not alone. Luon sense a presence nearby and did not panic as he stood still as he said, ¡°Come on out.¡±

    Within the darkness a shapely figure emerged, Arisa who was often fond of the darkness pouted and said to Luon, ¡°You aren¡¯t that surprised of my presence anymore. Before when we have met during the night, you would always be extremely wary of your surroundings. You shouldn¡¯t let your guard down because most of the time it ends up being me. Unless¡­ you¡¯re seeing other girls in the middle of the night?¡±

    ¡°Just tell me what you have in mind,¡± said Luon.

    ¡°What? Can¡¯t I see you for fun? Well since you say so I thought I could give you some pointers on how to deal with Zythos,¡± said Arisa.

    ¡°Oh? And how should I do that?¡± replied Luon. Her statement had caught his interest.

    Arisa stood up and began to talk as if an actor saying his or her monologue upon a stage, she waved her hands about as she said, ¡°Since ancient times knights in heavy armor were felled by great magicians. Magicians who were able to change the tides of war with a simple spell. To encase foes in ice, to bury their foes in the ground or to light them on fire. Magicians are the bane of knights...¡±

    ¡°Enough, tomfoolery, I already knew that. If I had a magician on my team I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about all of these problems,¡± said Luon as he began to walk away.

    ¡°Hmph, since you don¡¯t want to hear me out, I¡¯ll just leave. Here take this,¡± said Arisa as she tossed an object at Luon.

    Catching it upon his hands he found the object to be some kind of elemental converter, he rose his head up to say something to Arisa, only to see the lone darkness once again, he sighed as he thought to himself, ¡®Does she honestly think I¡¯ll be able to use other types of magic besides wind magic that easily? Even with an elemental converter it still takes time to learn how to manipulate the elements. However, this at least gave me a window of opportunity.¡¯

    Luon smiled after looking at the object he had received and retreated back towards his dorm room, from a distance, Arisa who saw him act this way also smiled as she muttered, ¡°This is just a little payback for your help during the survival camp, from now on I no longer owe you a debt of gratitude.¡±

    Looking away from where they just met, Arisa vanished into the darkness with a carefree expression, she thought compared to Luon¡¯s opponents, hers was just that easy to deal with.

    ¡­

    Struggling inside the Vortex Container for awhile Luon managed to pick up dark magic as well as ice magic when he was testing out spells. Compared to the others these two were the easiest to learn in the short amount of time. He had heard of stories about elemental affinities which allowed people to gain certain elements easier but didn¡¯t believe it until now.

    However, training and learning new elemental spells besides wind magic was mentally taxing. Luon didn¡¯t want to wreck his mind like he did during the previous match and decided to rest until the remaining time until the battle.

    He recalled the fights from the previous days, Janet was a better swordsman than Luon was. In fact, Luon was only able to react by instinct to squeeze out a draw between the two. Her moves were fast, illusionary, and unpredictable, like the turbulent flow of water which is difficult to predict.

    The shaman he had fought yesterday sword skills was normal but was supported by a power beyond the sword itself. Instead of relying on the weapon, the shaman¡¯s own body became a weapon.

    Power and speed, to a swordsman these were crucial points to master, and improve upon. Without power, a quick attack was useless, without speed a heavy attack was pointless. Luon slowly incorporated the experiences within his mind, he had no real sword style, although he did inherit memories from the second simulation he could only recall the basic sword styles his mother had taught him during that time.

    Luon continued to dream about swords, from his actual live combat experience to his second simulation experiences that he could remember about, he roughly tried to idealize his sword style.

    In a trance, Luon could vaguely see a man coated with a black coat wielding two swords. As he walked, he lightly twirled his blades causing a bell-like sound to emit every two to three steps. Luon felt his heartbeat began to slow and followed the same pace as the swordsman, his opponent was a giant several times taller than himself, and surrounding the two were numerous of corpses all laid about.

    The man face was covered by a mask that occupied the upper portion of his face. Luon felt that the intimidating man felt depressed as he could see the traces of tears rolling down the sides of his face. The human-like corpses were most likely his allies, while the monstrous looking ones his foes.

    Several steps away from the giant who had a dazed expression, the man slowly moved his mouth and uttered, ¡°St¡­ Sword... Flash.¡±

    Barely managing to hear his words the scenes upon Luon changed within an instant, the man appeared behind the giant whose body was cleaved in two down the middle. Looking closely at the giant Luon found that its skin was stronger than the armor Luon was up against.

    The man who had killed the giant as if it was a chore twirled his blades once more causing the blood to fly off the sword, before sheathing it elegantly. He cocked his head to the side, and Luon felt that he was looking towards him, his eyes were like the endless darkness that he was familiar with and somehow felt relaxed upon seeing them.

    The man sent over his killing intent to Luon, and the world turned completely black.

 Chapter 69 - Semi-Finals 1

    Luon woke up refreshed the next day, vaguely recalling the mysterious man''s swordsmanship. It was a style that he had never seen before, however, at the same time, it felt familiar to him for some reason.

    He attempted to recall the movements that the man-made. Luon could barely manage to make out the trajectory of the blades, if there was something memorable about the move set displayed in the dream, it was that constant bell-like ringing sound that the swords had made.

    As he was unable to decipher the attack any further, Luon then thought to himself, ¡®Who was that man? Why does it seem so familiar? Could it be?¡¯

    Luon then turned to his BMPU and launched an application. It was the first time he used it even though it was already preinstalled in the device. The memory recovery application, otherwise known as Avucer, reinitiates the memory amalgamation process.

    Although the memory was stored digitally, the application on the device merely attempts to unlock the sealed memories within the brain by syncing the information.

    It was like the brain was the file server while the BMPU acted as the source device that sends information to the brain.

    The beam of light appeared once again in Luon¡¯s mind, however, unlike the first time his memories were only refreshed with no changes at all.

    The act of refreshing his memories was based on the same theory of reviewing the letters and words of another language. The more often one would review over them, the more it would stick.

    However, Luon knew something wasn''t right. With his logical reasoning, he found that a portion of his memories had holes or contradicting points as the rest were sealed as if coated by a barrier, which didn''t allow him inside despite it being his own brain.

    Was that swordsman someone he had met in his simulated world? Who was it? Luon didn''t know despite trying his best to recall him.

    The only hint that Luon could manage to perceive was that all the excessive dark feelings he had accumulated during his simulation were less than what he had anticipated. Besides some basic combat skills that he had learned during the second simulation, the latter years of that life were missing and vague.

    Similar to how the writer of a novel summed up a war or battle scene by saying ¡°He done and did it, in one punch,¡± the core parts of his missing memories were probably more gruesome than what he initially perceived. If a writer had to put more details to the story, it would like, ¡°The blow caused a devastating amount of damage, shattering homes, causing guts and inner organs of the deformed piece of meat to...¡±

    Luon let out a sigh as he remembered a particular face at this moment. The look that the Black Luon gave him during the memory fusion process was full of understanding, it made Luon believe that he had survived the process and absorbed all the evil, negative thoughts and sealed himself away in the back of his mind.

    Seeing how it was pointless to ponder on the mysterious inner workings of the memory management system. Luon raised his body from the ground surface he was laying upon. He figured that he had spent the entire night was spent dreaming inside the Vortex Container after his magic practice.

    It may not be as comfortable as a real bed, but after Luon realized it was all a simulation he no longer cared whether or not he had dust on him, neither did he care too much about taking baths in the simulation world. It was all fake to him so why should he mind the spiritual practice of doing so? Luon could log off and relog himself in to instantly reset his state.

    Looking at the time remaining Luon found that he had another 2 hours in real life, which was equivalent to 20 in the virtual world, before the match with Zythos and his goons. Not wasting a single second he began reviewing over the new magic spells he had learned the night before and managed to reduce the casting time by half. It was easier to practice one spell than to learn a hundred others.

    Why pretend to be a master of a hundred different spells when you can use one that will work in nearly a hundred different problems? There once was a mage who trained the explosion spell to the point where it became an instant cast ability that was a hundred times more destructive than their peers, it also consumed all of their mana causing them to be a one trick pony¡­ but it was still an amazing feat.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Still, despite training for the majority of the time, there was still a limit on how focused one could be. During the first simulation, most of Luon''s fellow students were called ¡®millennials¡¯ and had a shorter attention span the longer they used a search engine found on the internet. Original works were also hard to come by as copyrights would be tossed everywhere they can be used, and the cyber division of many countries tried cracked down on hackers and malicious frauds online.

    The internet was a shock breaking, ruthless era. Fortunately, centuries had passed since then, and those kinds of problems settled down with the passing of time.

    Bored Luon began to practice his sword skills since he had several more hours to kill.

    He made the simulation conjure up an image of Janet and the orc Shaman and sparred with both of them.

    As Luon continued to spar with them he began to adapt to their habits, he got confident enough where Luon would try to battle the both of them. However, that idea wasn''t so good as he had lost badly against the two.

    He had one sword had to deal with one of his enemies, and while he was preoccupied the other would attack him, Luon wondered if he had another sword, would he be able to deal with both of them? He pulled out another sword from his stack of forged blades, although it wasn''t as powerful as his primary hand, it was merely a test.

    Luon fought the two again and found that he was able to last against the two, however, as the battle continued he was only able to stay fight defensively.

    If only he could counter their attacks as he repelled them. Luon hadn''t studied any dual wielding techniques before which caused him to be unable to retaliate.

    He suddenly recalled the way the mysterious man used his two swords and backed away from the battle. The two simulated enemies halted as they were programmed as so. With a swift motion, his hands repeated the same movement he had seen before.

    A ringing sound resonated from his blades, like a pendulum the sound stayed constant. Luon barely managed to repeat the motion, he was unsure whether or not his body will instinctively react based on muscle memory despite having the core part sealed.

    His steady feat advanced forward, reinstating the fight once more. The result was something not yet usable. Before he could perfect it and further, the alarm rang signifying the match was about to start.

    ¡­

    In the waiting room, Luon had designated Thomas as the commander. There was no need to strategize as they knew their opponents were going to rush them. It was better to conserve their points and summoned defenders in the last minute when it was necessary.

    Luon looked at his comrades who had a severe expression on their face. This wasn''t just a semifinal match for them. This was an opportunity for them to get payback for all the injustice they¡¯ve experienced during the survival camp. Although the officials on the scene were punished, Zythos and his gang got off scot-free as there wasn''t enough evidence to condemn them.

    Instead of having robots in their gear slots, they were armed with the final equipment that they had created over the summer.

    The field they chose was a normal plain field with a full view to see their opponents.

    The battle started without any problems. Since it wasn¡¯t the first day, it was no surprise that the progress was easy to do.

    Thomas sat at the table with a small stand of scraps to keep himself preoccupied while the rest of the team set out.

    At the border of both fields, the two teams met face to face, Gizmo, Tyron, Bendan, and Luon stood gallantly on the open field while their opponents had just emerged from the forest, heavily armored.

    Waiting for their opponent''s next move, both teams stood still. The longer they took, the more critical the commander role was in this battle. Which is why Team Warbeast made their first move, two of their soldiers started charging towards the range attackers of Luon¡¯s team.

    Gizmo and Tyron backed off allowing Luon and Bendan to intercept the two. However, they were blocked by Zythos and the tiger beastmen.

    ¡°Zythos,¡± Luon muttered as he pulled out his sword.

    ¡°Today I will have your head,¡± said Zythos as he also pulled out a sword. Because of the armor, Zythos was unable to use his claws and was forced to use a sword which he wasn¡¯t used to.

    The two began to exchange blows, with Luon superior skill he managed to overwhelm Zythos, however, did almost nil damage to the armor.

    On the other hand, Bendan and the tiger beastmen squared off against one another and were in a temporary stalemate.

    Gizmo and Tyron were doing simple range attacks, dragging away the other two from the battle.

    To execute the plan perfectly Tyron and Gizmo needed to pull away from the two successfully. Otherwise, the tactic may be intercepted by Zythos who might have figured it out. To ensure the success of the plan, Luon and Bendan had practiced the art of cursing their enemies to distract them.

    This action caused Zythos and the tiger beastmen to follow suit, as they continued to battle while cursing each other, their vocabulary slowly became more profound to the point where they would have to stop and think of something to say.

    The curses continued, and the battle stopped.

    The simple crowd thought, ¡®What kind of battle is this?¡¯

 Chapter 70 - Semi-Finals 2

    ¡°We''re in position,¡± Gizmo said over the team chat system while continuously moving. Everything was going according to plan so far, Gizmo and Tyron led away two enemy soldiers to deal with them without inference.

    Once the operation began, Luon and Bendan needed to stop the advance of their opponents that may come to their aid them. The worst possible thing that can happen was that instead of occupying themselves with battling against Luon and the others, Team Warbeast could have forced Luon and the others to fight them head-on if they had targeted their Crypt of Heroes instead.

    The combined effort of Gizmo and Tyron, depending on the situation, could only eliminate two of their foes. Bendan could use his armor piercing attacks to deal with another.

    The only one who had the most trouble was Luon. The best weapon he had on him was a sword that specialized in stabbing and slashing his opponent. If he had made a blunt weapon like a mace, he might have been able to inflict some internal damage. However, he only found out about their opponent''s equipment a day ago.

    If a person practiced using and crafting swords everyday how could he even consider using something like a mace?

    Because of this, there was just no time to create a better weapon nor practice with it. Luon didn''t even have that much to buy one as he was practically relying on his student budget as well as his part-time job.

    Although he could have made a simple metal bat which is relatively more similar to a sword, compared to Zythos¡¯ armor, it was akin to smacking a wooden stick against a brick wall. Straight out ineffective, which was why Luon was practicing new magic spells in the first place.

    As he continued to lead the two armored soldiers away, Gizmo attempted to notify Luon and Bendan to start the operation. However, all he was able to hear from the two were rude remarks. At first, Gizmo was mad because they cursed at him, however, before he could give a reply he pondered from the naming convention used in the curses.

    ¡®Why does it sound like they''re cursing at a dog? Ah, Luon and Bendan must be playing mind games with their opponents right now which is why they can''t reply to me,¡¯ thought Gizmo as he began to relay to Luon and Bendan the news.

    Even though Luon and Bendan heard the message, they couldn''t give a reply right away as it would look too obvious. Instead, they continued to curse at their opponents while dropping hints that they were stalling for time.

    Seeing how they didn''t reply to his message Gizmo signaled Tyron to start the operation.

    Loading his rifle with a new set of bullets Gizmo continued to run while unleashing a storm of projectiles at his foes.

    Gizmo shooting at his opponents was a common occurrence for the last minute, or so, it was to the point where his enemies had gotten used to the action. Merely dodging the repetitive attack, the two soldiers continued to pursue Gizmo and Tyron. However, the situation changed.

    The bullets that missed their mark grew vines that silently crept under the tall grass, and after finding their target dashed towards their target with incredible speed. Sensing something amiss, one of the beastmen turned around to see a wave of thorns coming towards him.

    In response, the beastmen jumped away from the vines but was instantly caught by another set of vines. Because the armor he wore restricted his vision it caused him to miss several vines that had approached him from the side.

    Tangled and held upwards he turned to face his ally screaming that there was an ambush. Too bad the scene before him shattered his hopes, the only person that could help him right away was foolishly trapped in a different set of green vegetation.

    ¡®How did they do it?¡¯ thought one of the Beastmen.

    He didn¡¯t notice anything unusual happen, other than running away, their targets did nothing remarkable to his eyes. Like a hunter chasing after his prey, he found himself in a situation where he was being hunted.

    The magic spell that was engraved on the bullets was the result of one of Luon¡¯s failed products. Originally Luon wanted to solve the problem that standard rifles had with lacking damage. The simplest method that people had done in the past was to increase the size of the bullet which in turn increased the amount of damage it dealt. Instead of doing what everyone else had done, he merely changed the materials used for the bullets with a more magically capable one and carefully set a magical circle on them.

    According to his research so far, it was not possible to increase firepower using this method, in fact, all magical offensive spells engraved on the bullets had their effectiveness drop by half using this method.

    A spell was the composition of mana and formula, to use spells in the first place a mage would have to channel his energy into the formula and depending on the amount, the effectiveness is scaled upwards.

    Since the bullets have no mana stored inside of them, the power it held was near zero. Besides offensive spells, several defensive spells were proven useful as they didn¡¯t rely on a caster¡¯s mana, but their surroundings.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Thankfully for the Beastmen soldier, he was heavily armored. However, just as he got around to notify Zythos over their team chat that they needed help, the ally that was trapped just like him flashed into a white light and vanished from the spot. An announcement popped into the Beastmen soldiers¡¯ head as it said, ¡°¡±First blood!¡±

    Scared by the light, he looked towards the source and found Tyron to be charging another shot that was aimed towards him. He quickly relayed the information to Zythos only to receive a notice to hold on, that he would be there as soon as possible.

    Grasping on that hope the soldier continued to struggle beneath the restriction.

    ¡°How is it, can you keep going?¡± asked Gizmo as he continued to shoot the entangle skill at their target, the more he shot, the easier it was for Tyron.

    Sweating profusely from injecting nearly half of his mana in each arrow, Tyron gave a simple nod to Gizmo telling him that he¡¯s alright and that he could make the next shot.

    Gizmo understood his look and continued to focus on restricting their opponent while being careful on the number of bullets left in his magazine.

    While he was waiting he senses space distort behind him, he turned his head towards the intruder only to find a sword coming towards him. Unable to evade the sudden attack Gizmo took the blow head on.

    Blood spewed out of his body, Gizmo who was just dealt a lethal blow to him fell down like a ragdoll without strings as white particles appeared around his body before vanishing into nothing, causing him to leave the battleground.

    Gizmo was eliminated, Tyron who had seen all of this happen in front of his eyes found the new foe to be incredibly familiar.

    ¡°This was truly a good purchase, to think you guys would be able to eliminate one of my men, too bad you underestimated us,¡± said Zythos who had suddenly just appeared.

    From a distance, Tyron saw Luon head towards their direction but was just too far to do anything.

    When they continued to have their cursing battle, after Gizmo and Tyron had eliminated one of their opponents, Zythos frowned upon the news and had pulled out a strange looking device from his gear slot. Upon activation, a swirl of white particles surrounded his body and dashed towards a direction uninhibited by the laws of nature.

    Following the light, Luon saw the scene of Gizmo falling before Zythos¡¯ blade. Zythos turned to face Tyron who was still left over and pointed his sword at him. Before the edge reaped his life, Tyron who realized his end was near, shot the charge arrow at the still entangled man.

    Despite knowing the fact that his arrow was fully charged, he knew if he shot at Zythos from point-blank Zythos wouldn¡¯t fall that easily. If he was going to die, he might as well take one with him!

    Just as the attack arrived before the beastmen, the vines that were holding him back disappeared causing the beastmen to fall a meter down. The arrow barely grazed against his body and injured him slightly.

    He wasn''t dead from the attack and began to naturally regenerate his wounds by downing a health potion from his gear slot. Tyron who had missed his target was then slain by Zythos. Among the soldiers left in the battle. Team Ascension had lost two while Team Warbeast had only lost one soldier with one injured.

    Although Luon wanted to run towards the wounded enemy before him, Zythos didn''t let him go that easily.

    The two once again engaged in close quarters combat without cursing each other. Instead, Zythos gleefully said, ¡°Did you not think the possibility of me seeing through your strategy? The moment we began our curse battle I suspected you were up to no good. How is it now? To be played by me as the fool you were. I purposely let you drag my teammates away thinking that my intervention will stop you guys from killing them, but because your teammates distanced themselves away from us, I was able to stop you from interfering with me when I go and slay your team. Hahaha!¡±

    As the two continued to battle, the device that Zythos had used fell upon the ground which let Luon take a glance at it. It was a one-time consumable teleportation glyph which caused Zythos to travel a considerable amount of distance within a second. If Luon had known about this item, he would have changed the initial plan. He could only lament to his lack of consideration.

    ¡°You¡¯re not the only one with a trick or two,¡± said Luon as he shot some dark magic towards Zythos¡¯ face.

    Unable to see due to a dark fog Luon had attached to him, Zythos began to sword randomly. Taking this chance, Luon coated his blade with ice magic and attacked Zythos chest region. The next set of actions once again surprised Luon. Zythos suddenly stopped swinging his blade around and countered Luon¡¯s attack with sword pointing towards one of Luon¡¯s vital areas. Luon found that Zythos had pretended he was unable to see while waiting to bait him in. Luon was forced to stop his attack because if he had continued he would receive more damage from the blow Zythos would have made.

    ¡°Dark magic and Ice magic, eh? Looks like you thought carefully about how to deal with our team. It¡¯s too bad I¡¯ve equipped myself with an anti-magic barrier isn¡¯t it?¡± taunted Zythos.

    ¡®Is there anything I can do?¡¯ Thought Luon as he continued to attack Zythos in close quarters combat. Despite some minor losses concerning tactics, Luon continued to subdue Zythos who was crappily waving his sword around.

    Repelling Luon away once more, Zythos tossed his sword on the ground and yelled, ¡°Enough of this farce! I don¡¯t need a sword to end your misery.¡±

    After throwing away the expensive looking sword, the arm guards in Zythos¡¯ hands reshaped themselves to form a pair of claws attached to a gauntlet.

    .

    After confirming his weapon Zythos unleashed a series of quick attack from his arms, ruining Luon¡¯s battle pace.

    Luon needed to adapt to these quick changes, the longer he took to beat Zythos, the worse the situation gets. The other soldier would then intervene in the battle, and ultimately they would win.

    Luon was out of tricks, magic didn¡¯t work, and two members of their team of five were dead. It was the worst possible outcome yet. He knew something has to change, he needed that little edge to excel. A move to turn the tides, it was then Luon managed to recall a particular set of motions. Picking of Zythos¡¯ sword that he had tossed away, his blades mysteriously twirled as a ringing sound resonated with the surroundings.

    Zythos¡¯ scoffed at Luon¡¯s futile resistance and said, ¡°Just give it up, there¡¯s no hope for you remaining.¡±

    However, his remark flew by Luon¡¯s ears as he had paid no heed to them. Instead, Luon was focused on replicating the swordsmanship that he had seen in his dream and practiced a bit a few hours before this.

    Before the match this move was not battle ready, however, without any other choice, Luon decided to use it. It was now or never.

 Chapter 71 - Semi-Finals 3

    The noise sharply resonated with the surroundings.

    Luon who was now dual wielding swords stood gallantly before Zythos. He was at a disadvantage in regards to time, power, and defensive strength. If nothing were to change than he was bound to lose this bout.

    Unlike Luon who was struggling due to his circumstances, nothing was stopping Zythos from attacking Luon, yet he merely stood aside, carefully watching Luon''s moves.

    ¡®What is he up to?¡¯ thought Zythos who became wary. His opponent had surprised many people in each of his matches. To build a puzzling dungeon against Team Pride, easily decimating Team Diva, and outmaneuvering Team Delta C Plus.

    Since Zythos was his classmate, he had seen all of their teams matches. And this move was yet another one of those moments causing the hairs of Zythos¡¯ skin to stand.

    From the crowds perspective the twirling of the blades looked like a shield, if the motion were several times faster, they would have thought of it as so.

    Only with each revolution, there was a ringing sound caused by the very meager clash of the two blades. If it weren''t for the fact that they were swords Luon''s actions would remind the crowd of two metal bats is hitting each other creating an irritating noise. How was it possible for Luon to make such a noise with the small impact of two blades touching and grazing each other?

    As time progressed on the noise got louder, and an aura wrapped itself around Luon¡¯s sword. If one were to look carefully, the swords had begun to show vibrations.

    As the centrifugal force begun to build up an intimidating wave of pressure covered Zythos¡¯ body. He instinctively felt fear of Luon as of this moment.

    As Zythos¡¯ body shook, his fear had enlightened him momentarily. He thought, ¡®Afraid? Me? My armor is invincible! How could I possibly be afraid? And why should I watch and let him do as he pleases? His moves are all just gibberish! I''ve never seen anything like that before; this must be something he''s doing to delay the progression of the match by toying with me mentally. So that must mean he must be relying on his buddy Bendan to finish off my teammate. If that''s the case, then I have to end him now!¡¯

    Zythos manages to muster up a war cry as bellowed arrogantly, ¡°Luon, let¡¯s see if your pathetic resistance can even amuse me! Here I come!¡±.

    Zythos dashed towards Luon while using his NG-Arms to fuel his momentum. Within moments he was within arms reach of Luon who had turned sideways with one of the blades cleaving towards him from below.

    Zythos scoffed at the move and merely used his hand which is coated in armor to repel it. How much strength could there be from a hand twirl from someone who looked like he was doing jump rope exercise?

    The attack had a minor amount of force behind it and was quickly repelled by his palm, however, for some odd reason a new mysterious force was transferred over causing Zythos to stagger. Zythos felt a searing pain from the palm of his hand as a dark red liquid flew alongside the blade he had just repelled.

    Zythos was bleeding, the weak blade had caused him to suffer a blow somehow. That wasn¡¯t all since the sword was rebounding Luon had used the force to twirl his body in the same direction he was pushed in, like a merry go round Luon and his blades cartwheeled towards Zythos.

    Although one of the blades had lost most of the vibrating force, the other came to his face faster than he could expect it.

    Two slashes subsequently hit Zythos shoulder. When the blade made contact with Zythos¡¯ armor, he was relieved to find that nothing happened. However, not even a second had passed when that relief turned into despair.

    After the armor and blade made contact, a ringing sound was made, and the proud armor was cut as if it was a soft piece of steak that didn''t need any effort to open it up.

    The blades vibrated reducing the defensive levels of Zythos¡¯ armor. It was a combination of vibration and heat, generally, in a realistic setting this wouldn''t be possible, yet this unimaginable act is happening before Luon¡¯s eyes.

    ¡®How is this possible? This isn''t a novel series where there was some kind of unexplainable magical force helps the main character step over his peers. It would be hard for science to explain this phenomenon.¡¯ Luon thought while looking at the aftermath of the attack.

    Zythos backed away as fast as he could, traces of fear still showed on his face. He was feeling unjustified resentment as he questioned himself why was this happening? Why did the armor fail him? Full of discontent he glared at Luon with a frustrated look only to receiving a bell-like ringing noise once again.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    The noise then enlightened Zythos, it was as if the devil was tempting him forward. He thought, ¡®If I don''t give him a chance to use that weird stance of his would I have a better chance of winning? I have to strike now!¡¯

    Zythos dashed forward once more while being careful not to get hit. Because of this action the two exchange over 50 blows until Luon thought of something, ¡®Zythos had gotten used to my attack, he must have noticed my flaw.¡¯

    Since Zythos had kept attacking Luon, it was hardly noticeable, but Luon hadn''t taken a single step out after making his little attack. The footsteps that the man in his dream made were far too complicated for Luon to imitate, which is why he couldn''t perfect the move in the first place.

    If Luon could move adequately, then it would have been possible to end Zythos in one blow.

    ¡®Could I use my Steps of Starlight skill to help me out?¡¯ Luon thought. Since the coolant replicate the move, why should he follow the guideline? Since it wasn''t his in the first place, Luon decided to try it out.

    Repelling Zythos once more Luon¡¯s twisted his body from the momentum of their clash, a flashy silverish light coated him, and he suddenly vanished on the spot.

    Zythos looked shocked as he looked around for his enemy only to find his ally looking shocked at him. Zythos asked, ¡°What''s wrong? Did you see where did he vanish to?¡±

    The man pointed above Zythos which turned to see a pair of blades effectively hitting his previously wounded spot as it tore away at his flesh. From this move, Zythos had lost an arm and began to bleed to death.

    Luon who had just attacked him from above swaggered towards Zythos and said, ¡°Sorry, bud. Looks like I win this time as well. Don''t worry, I''ll make sure it''s painless for you.¡±

    With a quick wave of his hand, Zythos was eliminated. The last thing he saw before his death, was the devilish grin Luon gave him. If possible, he never wanted to experience a moment like this again.

    Fortunately for Zythos, he wasn''t the only one with this thought. His injured teammate had it worse as he was still unable to move. Slowly Luon appeared before him with that same grin and ended his life. That expression never left his dreams ever since this day.

    And at this moment, there was only one soldier left.

    ¡­

    Bendan continued to rain punches against his opponent, the two of them had traded over half a thousand blows.

    If Bendan could end the life of the simulated dummy in 30 blows why would it take this long to eliminate his opponent? That''s mainly because of this blindingly bright light that covered his opponent once more.

    ¡°Darn it that¡¯s cowardly!¡± cried Bendan who had said a similar line several times already.

    As if not tired of hearing such a thing the tiger beastmen said, ¡°Hahaha! Just give it up your completely surrounded! After All, this is a team match, it isn¡¯t cowardly at all!¡±

    From a distance, one could see a small group of people armed with rifles at their fight, their allegiance to no surprise was Team Warbeast summoned reinforcements.

    Within this small pack of troops was a female human dressed in the traditional white clerical clothes with a hood used to shroud their face. It screamed to anyone who had seen it, ¡°This is a white mage.¡±

    Unable to escape the situation Bendan continued to fight the tiger beastmen over and over again. The battle could easily be over if only the tiger beastmen didn¡¯t back away. However, his pride and arrogance got the better of him as he continued to lose causing him to try even harder.

    ¡®With a healer behind your back who could possibly lose?¡¯ Thought Bendan. He was hoping someone would save him from this predicament, but he didn¡¯t expect Luon to be able to. He was relying on the completely silent Thomas in the commander seat to summon his own set of healers and range units.

    ¡®What¡¯s taking so long? I know the healer needed to be surrounded by reinforcements otherwise you end wasting time summoning a healer, but we¡¯ve already fought for several minutes already!¡¯ thought Bendan.

    It was then a change occurred, Luon dashed into the group protecting the healer with his NG-Arms. The defenders tried to repel Luon off, but as he was holding a makeshift shield compose of the shards from his defeated foe''s armor, the bullets were instantly repelled.

    Joy came to Bendan¡¯s face, he was surprised to see Luon come to aid him as bellowed, ¡°Hahaha! It looks like the tables have turned! Come, I¡¯ll show you the meaning of defeat once more!¡±

    Before Bendan could even launch an attack against him the tiger beastmen sunk several meters underground, and an ocean full of water washed over him, drowning him to death.

    ¡°Sorry for the wait, I thought having an archmage was better than having a small army of units. Hope I wasn¡¯t too late,¡± said Thomas.

    Bendan who was all hyped for the battle lowered his battle stance as he said, ¡°No¡­ you had the perfect timing for your attack...¡±

    ¡°Hahaha, thank god you survived,¡± said Thomas.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ okay there mate,¡± said Bendan disappointingly in a prone position.

    ¡°Enough foolish talk, let¡¯s go win this,¡± said Luon who had walked over to where Bendan is, the latter had only replied with a nod.

    Sure enough, since Chester set units to aid his teammates, he was partially defenseless under the archmage¡¯s wrath.

    The game ended uneventfully as Luon¡¯s team advanced on.

    ¡­

    The finals arrived before they knew it, the crew had spent the night reflecting on the previous battle while researching for their next which had some devastating results. They couldn¡¯t find anything about their opponents.

    Every single match they had was dominated by Arisa¡¯s commander skill and their teammate''s overpowered weaponry. Belle, Kiri, and Keyral barely made an appearance in each of their matches. It made Luon wonder what they were doing on the team if Arisa and Shizuka did all the work.

    This only meant that Arisa was a more troublesome opponent then they thought.

    Standing upon a stage, an announcer called the two team leaders up for a formal greeting.

    Standing on the podium, Luon greeted Arisa with some welcoming words and Arisa did the same.

    Visually they looked like normal teenagers giving a slight handshake before the match. However, their eyes had a determined look on them. They both want to win this match, the glory of being the number one team at Nexus University and representing the Nexus solar system was an honor that wasn¡¯t freely given away.

    Although the top three teams secured a spot in their representation, being known as number one was something that urged the two on.

    ¡°I wish you the best,¡± said Luon.

    ¡°You as well, Luon,¡± Arisa said with a sly smile.

    And on that note, their next match had started.

 Chapter 72 - A True Commander Battle

    The match almost immediately started. There were no singing divas to delay it, or time required to strategize based on their opponent. Luon thought there was no need to delay the inevitable by doing some small talk at the start.

    They have no information on how powerful Arisa and her team was, on the other hand, Arisa would instead not ponder on what tricks Luon had in store for her.

    Her policy was to straight up beat her opponents down by skillfully out-maneuvering their opponents who were also something that Luon had also done.

    Soldiers played an important role in this battle, but not as important as the commander.

    The match got underway as the Crypt of Heroes began to generate resources, Luon was using his single ramp with high cliffs desert field while Arisa was using a complicated field with many hills, cliffs, and ramps in a stone region.

    Her field did not appear natural as the rocks were perfectly formed as if God had personally carved the land for humans to reside in.

    For the first few minutes, both Arisa and Luon created scraps and robots for Shizuka and Thomas to toy around with.

    Luon thought that if something were to determine the outcome of the match, it would be the value of the engineer¡¯s constructed units.

    Sending Tyron to scout their opponents, Luon and Thomas began to build various types of buildings. A factory to create units and workers, a wall for defense, defensive turrets, and a generator to convert natural mana into electricity to maintain the robotic units energy levels.

    The factory continued to produce workers as more and more factories were produced, Luon had also created several scouting drones to cover his side of the map, vision is a crucial factor after all.

    At this point, Tyron had reported that he had found their opponents base and to no surprise, they were doing something similar to what Luon¡¯s team was doing.

    Just as he continued to receive information from Tyron, an explosion came from one of their core facilities, wondering what had happened Luon suddenly recalled something.

    ¡®Invisibility!¡¯ he was so busy creating workers and other units that he had forgotten about Kiri Zen¡¯s natural ability. Luon had yet created a system to detect invisible units yet, and now Kiri was punishing him for his lack of attentiveness.

    To her offensive assault, Luon began to construct several detectors which allowed them to see invisible units based on many factors such as mana, wind, heat, and scent. He assigned Bendan with the task of searching for Kiri who continued to harass their base in many ways such as destroying workers.

    Hearing the news over the team chat Tyron had also begun to harass Arisa¡¯s base by attacking her worker units.

    Although he did not have the invisibility spell that Kiri had, he was able to effectively deal a significant amount of damage with Luon¡¯s invisibility tool and his range attacks.

    If he could effectively eliminate Shizuka the tides of the battle would easily be turned, but when he found her, she was sealed inside a machine and was operating all the robots they had from inside.

    Unlike Luon who had other humans operate robots remotely, Shizuka had connected them all with her computer system and operated it manually by herself. Her computer screen displayed an eagle eye view of their base as she designates robots to construct robots from her base.

    Hearing this Luon told Tyron to somehow disconnect the connection by destroying parts of the building.

    How was he supposed to blow things up with an arrow and a bow? Luon¡¯s command was unreasonable, yet he knew the importance of such a task.

    Wandering around a bit, Tyron managed to secretly disable a worker and set it next to an antenna shaped object.

    As Tyron got to work dismantling the robot to set it to explode without him dying alongside it, he heard a siren and various machinery headed towards his position.

    An army of robots soon surrounded him despite being invisible, he then began to wonder, ¡®How did they find me?¡¯

    His question was answered as Belle and Keyral arrived before him. Belle said, ¡°Why we got a little guest here, don¡¯t we? It¡¯s no use to use your invisibility to hide, Shizuka gave us a detector to find you. Although the range is a little small, Shizuka managed to find you after you eliminated one of her robots and doing some little tricks over here. So stay still, and we¡¯ll give you a swift death.¡±

    With her NG-Arms equipped, she pointed her rifle towards Tyron, and he quickly equipped his NG-Arms to escape. However, just before he was able to launch himself out of the situation, his NG-Arms suddenly stopped working.

    Belle looked at him like an idiot as she said, ¡°Did you think we¡¯d let you fly out? We¡¯ve set a restrictive field that would disable all electronics without a special mana encrypted tag. It can¡¯t do much about small devices like bombs and rifles, but its effective enough to disable your NG-Arms.¡±

    Tyron wasn¡¯t able to escape, invisibility and flight were disabled if he had Zythos¡¯ teleportation tool he might be able to survive this. However, such luxury is something he was unable to obtain.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    Lowering his guard a little Belle smiled thinking that Tyron had given up, but his expression didn¡¯t have that same intent. Grabbing the robot and charging his mana inside of the reactor the energy readings in his area began to rise.

    ¡°Wha- robots shoot him!¡± cried Belle.

    If Tyron managed to disable their communications tower, then they would significantly fall behind. However, before they were able to shoot Keyral yelled, ¡±Stop! Don¡¯t shoot.¡±

    The robots who rose their rifles lowered them upon her command, all of the robots were commanded by Shizuka. However, on-site decisions were assigned to each of their soldiers. There was no hierarchy of the commands as they followed the last order said.

    Belle turned to Keyral and said, ¡°What? Are you just going to let him blow it up? We¡¯re going to fall behind if he does it.¡±

    Keyral shook her head at her response as she said, ¡°It can¡¯t be helped, although he would do us a favor by killing himself there¡¯s nothing we can do to stop it. If anything we shouldn¡¯t add any fuel to the fire by aimlessly shooting at him like this. It would do more harm than good. Also...¡±

    Keyral gave a sly smile as she continued, ¡°I already told Shizuka about the situation, she said all we have to do is receive the parts she¡¯s making the robots do and assemble them. According to her estimates, it may take around 3-5 minutes to set the system back up.¡±

    An explosion resonated throughout the surroundings, with Tyron¡¯s effort he was able to delay the robotics facility by several minutes giving Luon some more time to develop his base, that is without Kiri harassing them.

    Bendan who was chasing after Kiri was mad, her swift and tricky movements confused him to the point where he had lost track of her several times already. Without the help of the robots, he would have lost her already. She traveled around the base as if she had owned it. It was to the point where she was better than Bendan in regards to directions despite the fact he had a map.

    The first time he found her in the base was when she was assassinating the human workers that were used to control the robots remotely, hearing the cry of unjust harm happening to them he hurried over and managed to repel her.

    As she continued to run dodging her pursuers, she tossed several explosives dealing as much damage as possible.

    Just as she was about to exit the base, a sword flew out of nowhere accurately impaling her into a building. Coughing blood due to the attack she looked towards the direction she was attacked from, and there she saw Luon who wasn¡¯t at the commander table.

    Luon taking out another sword said to her, ¡°Rather than letting you continue to reign havoc in our base over and over again, it¡¯s probably better to take you down now while we still have the chance.¡±

    Kiri laughed as she said, ¡°I¡¯m honored that you think that way. However...¡±

    She then pulled out an explosive and said, ¡°I won¡¯t let you easily kill me like this.¡±

    Pressing the button on device nothing happened, she had a dumbfounded face as Luon simply said, ¡°The sword I had impaled you with launches a miniature EMP field, disabling all electronics within less than a hundred meters.¡±

    ¡°You¡­ why would you use this if there was a factory right beside me? You would waste all the materials used for this building!¡± said Kiri.

    Luon gave a sly smile as he said, ¡°Well¡­ I made one factory too many, so it didn¡¯t matter that much.¡±

    Dumbfounded by her response, she was soon eliminated by Bendan who had caught up.

    Both teams had lost one member, and the damage that they had caused was more or less equal.

    Shizuka was forced to exit the building to manually direct the robots while Luon had to summon more human workers to control more robots, and needed to fix several spots that Kiri had bombed.

    As the harassment had ended, Luon sat on the commander table and sent 12 robotic panthers armed with rifles attached to harass Arisa¡¯s base. Traveling over the desert field, the panthers arrived in Arisa¡¯s region unharmed as they continued to scout the region in groups of 3.

    Just as they passed a particular corner a series of bullets ambushed one of the groups from behind the wall, the other panthers moved around to corner their enemy but found themselves surrounded with more enemies. Before Luon lost his last panther, one of the human pilots told him that he saw an aerial drone.

    Realizing that he lacked vision compared to their opponents he decided it was time to reveal the Farsight Mask. Putting in on his face Luon looked very intimidating, he felt like he was a superhero, but the crowd didn¡¯t think so. With only his face covered he looked rather stupid, they thought it was similar to how there once was a hero who only wore a pair of underwear on their head, at least this mask was better.

    Spawning several magical owls, he sent them over to scout various regions, one over his main force, one in his region and another in his opponent''s region. He was afraid that they had something to kill them, so he tested the waters by sending one more to scout what Arisa was doing.

    Fortunately, Arisa didn¡¯t seem to have prepared for it as he managed to find her sitting beside two tables. One which was used to summon things from the Crypt of Heroes, the other was a computer with a mouse and keyboard set up. The screen displayed the battlefield, and he saw that Arisa was sending units over to his base with a simple mouse click.

    ¡®Wow, now that¡¯s just not fair!¡¯ Thought Luon. Unlike Arisa, he had to manually command the human pilots to go where he wanted them to. He had to designate a chain of commands to manipulate his troops efficiently, and now all Arisa had to do was a simple mouse click? How unfair the situation was! However, with Luon¡¯s set up, the pilots would operate better than the robots Arisa had, only her numbers were more numerous than his own.

    Just as the owl was about to leave Arisa¡¯s suddenly said, ¡°Peeking on a lady from a long distance, are you perchance into voyeurism? How about I fix that little habit up for you.¡±

    A wave of dark red mana wrapped around the owl as it desperately cried out, the magical owl died from her attack.

    Luon was not disappointed that he had lost vision of her base. Instead, he was fortunate he managed to receive information about her attack, commanding his squad the human captains Luon had assigned as he sent out the army.

    Armed in several vehicles was an army of humanoid robots they departed and intercepted their opponents.

    With the expert commanding ability of both Arisa and Luon, the battle had reached a stalemate.

    As the battle continued, Arisa¡¯s screen suddenly turned black as she yelled, ¡°Shizuka quick! What happened the camera went out.¡±

    Shizuka replied, ¡°Luon must have shot it down with an air unit, I guess the battle just went up one level higher, ours is coming out just now, however, with these circumstances, there is a high chance we¡¯ll lose all those ground units.¡±

    Indeed Luon had begun to create flying units, from the ground to air the difference between Arisa and Luon¡¯s units began to reveal itself. Instead of consistently focusing on commanding he also worked on the production side by determining what kind of units they needed at the moment. Human controlled warriors can think on their own while Arisa¡¯s was the only one who could control the battlefield. Without vision, Arisa had lost their forefront, and her new reinforcements retreated to their territory to make up for their losses.

    Unlike Luon who didn''t necessarily need vision to command his troops as they can personally decide what to do for themselves, Arisa was at a loss. She had more units and firepower, yet Luon''s robots had a more refined set of movement.

    Without any further ado, it was time for Luon to make a counter-attack.

 Chapter 73 - Unexpected Moves

    ¡°Captain we''ve reached the target area. Please begin the designated mission,¡± said the navigator.

    ¡°Alright team split up and harass the structures as much as you can, the most important targets are the production facilities, command center, supply depot, and the supply line from their Crypt of Heroes. Do you read me?¡± The captain of the squad said.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Replied his team.

    The air force that eliminated the drone was divided into two divisions, one went to support the ground forces with cleaning up the enemies and the other to their enemies base to halt their production facilities.

    Luon wanted to take advantage of his airforces to eliminate and delay their opponent''s production ability while they are still unable to contest.

    The captain who had led the small squad of 5 aircraft known as XT fighters, came from one of the 5 sides they were attacking from and began to nosedive alongside his men into Arisa''s base.

    It was at this time that they were soon notified that a barrier was set up to restrict electronic devices, hindering many of their flight mechanisms.

    Since the aircraft they operated was remotely controlled, the signal became slightly delayed which required the pilots to adapt to.

    The captain who had just entered the zone yelled, ¡°Can anyone read me?! I repeat can anyone read me?¡±

    No words came from the comms found on the aircraft as it was disabled. Switching out of the remote control application for a second the captain turned on their group voice chat system and said, ¡°I guess we really can''t go for realism mode, the sound coming from the application died in here, ¡± said the captain.

    ¡°Sir, there''s no more audible noise coming from the aircraft, our sense of immersion has been disturbed, ¡± replied one of his subordinates.

    ¡°I know, I know, just don''t get yourself killed otherwise we have to reform our flight team. Alright folks, let''s show these bots how real pilots do things, ¡± said the captain.

    If Arisa¡¯s method was to control her units like she was playing an RTS game than Luon¡¯s method was more like a 3D MMORPG with tons of players. The sensors of the program were used to emulate the area, and sound displays to increase their immersion levels. However, Arisa''s barrier field had disabled that option.

    Fortunately, the core components like flight, weaponry and visual display were reinforced with EMP resistant materials otherwise it would have been a pointless effort to attack the base.

    Who can drive a plane, and shoot their enemies without any vision? It wouldn''t be a surprise if they had even shot each other in that state.

    Arisa''s base began to initiate its anti-air defensive maneuvers, sentry turrets aimed towards the sky with the intent of shooting down these XT fighters.

    The 25 XT fighters began to attack every vital facility that they had discussed beforehand haphazardly.

    Bullets flew towards the sky and bombs laid havoc to the land below, the damage done to the base was merely 3% after the first run. As the battle continued the number of XT fighters dropped, and a troublesome new foe disrupted their formation.

    ¡°Did you think your the only ones that can fly?¡± said Belle as she equipped her NG-Arms to intercept the XT fighters. Before their mission, they were briefed to watch out for her, yet after they started their assault, she didn¡¯t appear at all until a decent amount of their facilities had been damaged.

    The pilots were confused as they question themselves, why did she appear just now? What was she doing before this? Their queries were soon answered as a series of enemy air units came streaming out of one of the robotics facilities.

    ¡°All attack squads retreat to sector B, I repeat all attack squads retreat to sector B,¡± replied the navigator. In the chain of commands for Luon control system, he had set it so that the navigator who had received his direct commands would one-sidedly relay the news of his commandments.

    Following the order the XT fighters hastily retreated with their enemies on their tail, the casualties gradually increased and they had lost ? of the units that they had started with.

    These deaths weren¡¯t for nothing though, when they were deemed that they were unable to continue these brave men dove into the flock of enemies and structures letting off an explosive collision dealing more damage to their enemy.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Although it was a measly third that had fallen, no one was hurt as they were all automated remotely. While the assault had occurred the original 50 XT fighters that were divided into two separate teams with different objectives, tripled in number.

    Of course, Luon did not neglect to create more ground units as they were also just as important. After clearing out Arisa¡¯s army of ground units with his forces, the number of units he had was equal to Arisa¡¯s, while having human pilots.

    His army of ground units was divided into three different divisions with their own type of specialization, they were: Infantry, Artillery, and Mobility.

    His infantry division was composed of humanoid robots that exited out of a transportation vehicle and had the greatest number of troops.

    The way the human operators used these units were like a game he had played during his first life simulation where it made the squad leader the group as the center unit and the others would automatically take a formation surrounding that unit based on weaponry. If they were armed with rifles they would line up and shoot if they were armed with spears the AI system will allow them to attack the closest enemy after they charge in. It was a simple mechanic, yet highly effective.

    The Artillery division was the smallest of the bunch, it took several human operators to use single artillery, and the transportation vehicles were mainly used to carry the ammunition.

    The mobility division, on the other hand, was Luon¡¯s and Thomas¡¯s pride and joy, similar to the televised shows that he had seen during his first simulation the robots were designed after animals with weapons attached them.

    They were flexible, lightweight, quick and highly destructive. The mobility division was also the easiest to produce.

    Luon¡¯s army slowly traversed Arisa¡¯s territory, spreading across his scouting drones the map around her base was uncovered entirely. Setting up his siege units away from the base they slowly inch forward to make their offensive, Gizmo stayed behind at their base to operate one of Lion shaped robots, and Bendan had left towards the battlegrounds since he wanted to be there when the base was eliminated.

    The match so far was the longest recorded out of all the other ones before this, lasting over 45 minutes, after building and scouting for the first ten minutes there was another 25 that had taken place in the core section of the map. After harassing Arisa¡¯s base, Luon had used the remaining time to regroup all of his forces outside of her base.

    Luon gazed at the map in front of him if there were no surprises the match should evidently be his win.

    Commanding his units to lay siege upon the base the artillery began to do its jobs. Rounds of ammunition stormed over the base which Arisa had replied with barrier magic, however, the rounds that Luon were using were highly destructive, unlike the times he had laid siege before. After studying the art of explosives, the bombs he had used performed many times better.

    Just as the barrier went down from damage caused by the explosive rounds, the ground shook around the artillery and infantry division.

    Dirt and dust surged out of the ground like a geyser as a giant worm-like monster with many fangs emerged decimating a large group of units.

    Bendan who nearby saw the creature come out and smiled, and with a sword in hand dashed towards it. However, it wasn¡¯t easy to get to as an army of robots began to emerge from the ground.

    ¡°Infantry division engage with the new enemy! Mobility division raid the enemies base! They should be out of units now! Artillery retreat from the battlefield!¡± Luon yelled as he shot a series of commands out.

    Following his commands, the infantry division entered a stalemate with the new robots that had emerged from the ground. The mobility division, on the other hand, made a significant amount of progress as they quickly approach the base, there were no defensive mechanisms that had significantly prevented them from attacking the base.

    Just as they were halfway there the sky had turned black, a flock of robotic air units appeared from the base and intercepted the mobility division. And at this moment Luon¡¯s air division had arrived, and a huge aerial dogfight took place. It was a complete mess, from ground and air, havoc was everywhere.

    Luon yelled at the mobility division, ¡°Ignore those air units and destroy the facility, use their structures as shields and prevent them from creating more units!¡±

    As Luon continued to command his troops, the battle became wild on three different fronts, compared to his base it was like comparing a storm in the ocean and to a serene vacation on the beach. More and more units were made from Luon¡¯s base, and Arisa¡¯s production facilities struggled while dealing with the mobility division.

    The battlefront between the infantry division and the worm suddenly had a change of events. Just as Bendan was about to hit the enemies front lines with his sword a burst of laughter came from the crowd of enemies.

    ¡°Bendan! You won¡¯t get wormy that easily!¡± said Belle as she flew towards him. Flying back because of her rifle rounds he twirled in mid-air to intercept her sword strikes. Their battle had made him fall between the crossfires of the two armies. Indiscriminately attacking, the robots shot at the both them, helpless to their assault the two quickly fell before the ocean of bullets.

    The worm continued to shoot acid at the infantry division uninhibited by any other forces, Bendan who was planning to deal with it was easily defeated before he could.

    At this time the artillery division managed to reach a safe area and began to attack the worm with their explosive rounds. The impact shook the worm as it crazily cried in pain and it attempted to retaliate. However, they were too far, it helplessly fell to the artillery rounds that Luon¡¯s army had launched.

    The worm and Belle died settling Luon¡¯s worries so far, the only ones left on their opponent''s team was Arisa, Shizuka, and Keyral. Who knows what tricks did they have in store for him.

    It was at this time he felt his body went cold for a second, Luon felt that someone¡¯s eyes were on him. He warily looked around the surroundings but found nothing. Luon felt relieved as he thought it was merely his imagination. However, his fears soon became true.

    ¡°Why hello once again,¡± said an intruder.

    And a blade appeared in front of Luon.

 Chapter 74 - In Order To Win

    Luon who noticed the timely attacked jumped away from the command table. The blade drove itself in the table. However, it had caused no harm to the functionality of the device. Unlike everything else in this simulated world the commander¡¯s table was treated as something called an immortal object, which disallowed any signs of destruction to occur on it.

    Looking at the attacker Luon began to frown, he wondered why was she here when she should have been on the opposite side of the map commanding the battle as his opponent.

    It was at this moment he realized that their opponent''s movements became lackluster compared to the initial half of the game, around the time before he had eliminated the drone which allowed him to turn the tides of the battlefield.

    Luon came to the conclusion that Arisa who was still the commander had abandoned her duties after that moment, and silently made her way towards his base. Luon wanted to ask why would she recklessly do so, but instead of asking he merely stared at her in silence.

    Arisa pulled her blade out from the command table and said, ¡°Looks like your senses aren¡¯t dulled by the fact your preoccupied with commanding, as expected from the person who noticed the weak point of my teams unit composition.¡±

    ¡°I took in consideration that there might be an assassination attempt on me. However, I didn¡¯t expect that you will do so personally. So you surprised me, just a little bit,¡± replied Luon as got himself ready for battle.

    ¡°If I had Keyral do it instead, there was a lower chance in succeeding, so to ensure that you will die I personally came to an end you, aren¡¯t you glad?¡± said Arisa as she smiled while preparing her stance.

    ¡°I am honored,¡± said Luon as he charged towards her.

    The two exchange blows, both of them wielded swords as a series of clashes echoed throughout the surroundings notifying the nearby allies of an attack.

    After about a minute the small enclosed area which was next to the Crypt of Heroes was surrounded by allied units.

    Just as they were about to aim at the intruder, Luon backed away from his engagement and yelled, ¡°Stop! Let me handle her.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t that he wanted to battle her head on, he was worried that their attacks would destroy the Crypt of Heroes in the first place. Arisa was consistently sticking next to the building like glue making it difficult for Luon to use large-scale attacks like explosives.

    Arisa could have already won if she had carried a repository of explosives, but this act would only garner hatred from her peers as it was a dishonorable way to win. Cheap strategies were already looked down upon and to blow up the base for the sake of victory was the worse it can get.

    Which is why Arisa who was prideful of her abilities sparred with Luon while using the Crypt of Heroes as a safety shield from ranged attackers.

    Arisa who allowed Luon to calm his men down said, ¡°I see you recognize the situation you''re in.¡±

    ¡°Of course I have a clear idea of what¡¯s happening on the battlefield, otherwise why would I be the commander?¡± Luon replied as if saying it was just plain obvious.

    To his positive remark, Arisa only stood aside and gave him a smirk. The look she gave him made Luon think that she was looking at a fool. It was one of her bewitchingly tricky looks that told him that she was up to no good, and his thoughts were dead on.

    It was at this moment one of Luon¡¯s communications officer rushed into the scene and said, ¡°Reporting! The frontlines have collapsed!¡±

    ¡°What! Explain it to me in more details,¡± Luon appeared shocked. They should have been able to easily win without Arisa in the big picture of things as well as the big worm and Belle both dead. The last thing he remembered was that their forces were clearing up the remnants of their opponent''s strengths. Luon had left Gizmo command of the scene who was piloting one of the robots that were used during the raid of the town.

    The communication officer hurriedly replied, ¡°Just moments ago we received word that an army of robots suddenly appeared underground and destroyed the Mobility division, the air forces were repelled by the sudden appearance of anti-air defenses. We are no longer in control of the base!¡±

    ¡°This...¡± Luon looked over at Arisa who smiling the entire time. He only understood the big picture now.

    Arisa shrugged her shoulders as she said, ¡°You underestimated Shizuka¡¯s ability to build robots. Unlike you who was restricted to having factories build robots, she had both factories and robots building robots. I can safely assume that most of yours were remotely operated by humans, they say that the production line is dependant on the worker, obviously for fixed operations robots would build several times faster without tiring.¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    She stepped beside the command table as her hand slowly caress it, she then said to Luon, ¡°Without you being unable to summon anything without me stabbing your back, the match will end in my victory without doing anything. My team''s robot army will soon overwhelm yours, and your production facilities are useless without you being able to summon more supplies. I see you have a lot of points left over since you budgeted a lot of points around. If you had summoned something instead of saving, you might have won the match.¡±

    Luon became silent. Indeed he had budgeted a large sum of points, it was to the point where he could almost summon a hero unit. He was confident, overconfident of his success only to be brought down to earth by the simple act of disabling the command table. The power he had once had was lost, and the tides of the war changed. Luon was placed at a significant disadvantage for the first time of his life. It was at the point where he was clueless about what to do next. He stood absentmindedly in front of his opponent.

    Arisa frowned from his lack of response she posed herself once more.

    ¡°Come let¡¯s battle once again¡­ but before we do I must get rid of a pest,¡± Arisa said as she threw a dagger towards a spot several meters above Luon. At a building nearby Luon¡¯s location a scream echoed as the figure fell down while oozing blood from his body.

    Luon looked over and found Gizmo injured from both the fall and the knife, looking over him Luon realized that he had only a few seconds left of life inside of him. As Gizmo was vanishing, he merely uttered one word to Luon, ¡°Win.¡±

    There was nothing else to say after that, Gizmo vanished signifying his elimination leaving only Thomas and Luon on the team.

    The frontlines were screwed, the command table was disabled, and his units were lacking commands, yet in this situation Gizmo still told Luon to win. Somehow Luon managed to pull himself together, there was still a way to win this match, and that answer laid itself before him. All he had to do was eliminate Arisa. All he had to do was win.

    Regaining his determination, he pulled out a second sword from his intraspatial bag and posed himself in front of Arisa. His courage and will of his team urged him onwards as he slowly uttered, ¡°Here I come.¡±

    The two began their exchanges once more, the useless soldiers could only watch their commander struggle with his opponent. Despite using two swords Luon still wasn¡¯t able to make a breakthrough in their exchanges, it appears that Arisa had previously studied the technique and came to the conclusion that Luon was only able to counter-attack with it at this moment. The two were in a stalemate like before and the first to break it was Luon.

    Luon equipped his NG-Arms while taking advantage of Arisa who had over exaggerated one of her moves.

    Arisa responded the same and instantly equipped her NG-Arms to the dodge the blow, however, Luon was just pretending to aim for Arisa, instead of attacking her his real goal was the command table that was directly behind her, he quickly arriving by its side while using his sword as a stopper.

    His nimble fingers made quick work of the user interface as Luon quickly pushing several buttons as if his life depended on it. Just as Luon was only a few millimeters away from summoning a hero to change the tide of the battle, a sword came flying from Arisa stabbing into Luon and impaling him on the Crypt of Heroes.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t the only one with spare swords, did you not anticipate me throwing away my main weapon?¡± replied Arisa who brought out another weapon. Taking a closer look, Luon realized that the sword she was now grasping was the first sword that he had been tricked into giving to her. To be ended by his own weapon, Luon felt it was ironic.

    Pinned to the wall Luon couldn¡¯t avoid Arisa¡¯s blow, if it were to land the match would be over with them being second. Luon wasn¡¯t satisfied with such a position, but there was nothing he could do at this moment!

    Just as Arisa arrived a few steps away from winning the battle, a shadowy figure suddenly appeared before Luon, blocking her attack. Arisa¡¯s blade easily stabbed this intruder causing blood to come out as a result. Looking closely at the figure she didn¡¯t expect to see this person act like this and Luon appeared to be even more shocked.

    Thomas who was considered a non-combatant because he disliked the barbarous act of fighting took the blow head on in Luon¡¯s stead while inside of an exo-suit.

    Arisa who acknowledged the reckless act of Thomas became curious to what prompted him to act like so, she asked him, ¡°You¡¯re only delaying the inevitable, was this act worth it? Or did you just want to go down in honor as your friends have? The pain that you currently feel in exchange for monumental relief or rather a few seconds of more time, in all honesty, was it worth it?¡±

    Thomas scoffed at her remark as he laughed and said, ¡°Of course it was worth it after all this isn¡¯t the only move that I¡¯ve prepared for you!¡±

    Using the exo-suit hands, he tightly grasped Arisa¡¯s arm which was holding the blade impaled into him. Arisa who noticed this violent actions tried to pry herself free as she said, ¡°Hey! Let go of me!¡±

    Thomas¡¯ exo-suit began to radiate a dangerous white and red lights flashing colors alternatively, it reminded Luon and Arisa of a gruesome scene where a soldier would take their opponents down with them by exploding the two together.

    Luon suddenly thought, ¡®Hey! I¡¯m also in the explosion radius! Don¡¯t tell me that you plan on having me die here too right?!¡¯

    Luon gave Thomas a look as to verify if his concerns were genuine or not, the latter who noticed this said to Luon, ¡°Sorry Luon, but the winner here would be decided by whoever dies first.¡±

    Seeing how Thomas had no solution to prevent Luon¡¯s death the explosion happened without anyone¡¯s interference. The screen displayed to the audience became white leaving everyone dumbfounded, and every member on both teams appeared on the stage. They merely looked at each other and the screen and wondered, ¡®Who won?¡¯

 Chapter 75 - To The Internationals

    ¡°To think we would be tied for first, well it could be worse. Hahaha!¡± said Bendan after gorging down on some delicious food on a luxury spaceship.

    ¡°Quiet down you¡¯ll make us look like idiots you fool,¡± said Gizmo. Tyron nodded in response to Gizmo¡¯s remark which made Bendan feel slightly ashamed, only a tiny bit.

    The match ended uneventfully, the explosion was replayed in slow-motion to the point where the audience could see every single particle dissipate from the effect of the explosion. Since Arisa was at the core part of it, her arm was immediately disintegrated, but at the same time freed her from Thomas¡¯ grasp. Since she was already leaning back, she managed to squeeze in a few extra centimeters reaching the same amount of distance away from Thomas as Luon was.

    Many students debated whether or not Team Ascension or Team Girl¡¯s Union should be ranked first. When the debates became more heated the headmaster intervened and stated that they were both tied for first, the placement rankings at the top 3 didn¡¯t matter to him as the Alliance tournament was more important.

    After their match was the battle for the third-ranked placement and to no surprise, Zythos managed to obtain it. The gloating face he had after he won irked Luon, but he couldn¡¯t do anything about it.

    After a week and a half of rest and recuperation, the three teams departed the Nexus solar system on a luxury cruise under the supervision of the headmaster whose name was Thorian, Captain Waver who was placed as their coach, and Helen who was his assistant.

    It was quite understandable why these two were in charge of their supervision, after all, they were their teachers before the qualifiers. What truly surprised everyone was Team Warbeast team composition. Instead of his previous teammates which included Chester, the Tiger beastmen and the other two beastmen, they were replaced with Janet from Team Diva, Qi Ren from Team Delta C Plus, the orc shaman named Ashgro from Team Pride, and the team captain of Team G2 whose name was Naiz, and ranked 4th in the qualifiers.

    Although Luon and Arisa¡¯s team could have gotten substitutes from the other teams as they were allowed to, they didn¡¯t want to replace their current members that they were emotionally tied with. Zythos, on the other hand, didn¡¯t care at all and recruited these members on his team for the Alliance Tournament.

    When they all arrived and greeted each other during the departure of the luxury spaceship they all glared at Luon causing him to feel the chill behind their look. What was more troublesome was that after Luon and Arisa¡¯s team got on the ship, Zythos argued with the headmaster to bring Chester and a few more ¡®attendants¡¯ to come and aid him. Helpless since it wasn¡¯t initially planned he agreed as long as Zythos paid more money for the hospitality fees per person.

    The most despicable part about him was that instead of paying for it himself he nudged Chester to make the payment from his own pockets. When they got on the ship, they separated almost immediately, but Luon managed to pull Janet aside to ask her why she bothered participating under Zythos¡¯ team.

    She merely replied, ¡°It¡¯s a big chance to get my name out in the universe! How could I miss it? The other girls even supported me, and we¡¯re going to have a big concert once all of this is over. Ticket sales would be booming, booming you hear me? Anyways don¡¯t bother me, someone who would willingly shoot girls in the face and with swing a sword with a poor sense of swordsmanship should go spend more time training.¡±

    After her rude remark, Luon had spent the entire trip training inside of his Vortex Container. It wasn¡¯t because her words hurt him to the point of seclusion, it was because she was right about it. Initially, he was just a layman engineer with inherited memories of the sword skills he learned during the second simulation. Only recently did he managed to obtain some enlightenment to create his own style of fighting. Which is why Luon spent the entire time training, he fought simulated versions of previous opponents quite a bit but fought against himself most of the time. Seeing his own movements, and weak points alike he was able to perfect his sword skills and combinations slowly.

    Although Luon¡¯s actions were completely understandable, he left the crew to their own devices, this was a team match after all, and one person doesn¡¯t decide the outcome by himself.

    Just as Gizmo was about to say something else, he couldn¡¯t help but notice a dark and gloomy corner at their table, Thomas was depressingly muttering a series of words which reminded Gizmo of those crazed stalkers who were jealous of their love rivals.

    He was emotionally hung over the last segment where he blew himself up together, Luon and Arisa. Regretful of how he wasn¡¯t able to subdue her despite having her in his grasp, thus losing the game for his team.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Gizmo couldn¡¯t help but sigh, he looked over this rough bunch of teammates once more and thought to himself, ¡°Man do we honestly have a good team?¡±

    ¡°Of course we do, HAHAHA. We¡¯re tied for first after all!¡± said Bendan.

    Gizmo facepalmed and thought to himself, ¡®Great... I¡¯m actually muttering my thoughts. I¡¯m losing my sanity by the minute! Luon come and save our team!¡¯

    With a laughing madman, a helplessly quiet and not so helpful teammate, and one who looks like he¡¯s seen the ends of the earth Gizmo prayed for his savior to come back to get this group of misfits together.

    ¡­

    ¡°Haa! Take this!¡± Luon yelled as he slashed at the familiar figure before him. Numerous days had passed since the start of his training, without a proper grasp of time he continued to fight for every moment he could to properly create a foundation for his sword skills.

    He would spend 90% of the entire day fighting carbon copies of himself and previous opponents and managed to obtain some progress. What drove him on to fight even harder was that the other day when he exited his Vortex Container, he found Chester down the hall like a servant preparing meals for his master. Luon couldn¡¯t help to ask him why did he serve that jerk Zythos with so much dedication despite being treated like trash, in which the lather wryly smiled and said, ¡°Unlike all you powerful people, you don¡¯t understand what weak people like me think about things. Looking at the big picture there¡¯s no place in this universe for us, we could only cower and obey the strong so we can step over those who are weaker. Only with strength can people listen to others.¡±

    ¡°Then why don¡¯t you follow me?¡± replied Luon subconsciously, his response made Chester laugh. Chester couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°You? Do you honestly think you''re strong? Your only a little dot in the middle of this universe, strength isn¡¯t just equal to your prowess, true strength comes from many different shapes and sizes, and I feel that your too ignorant to know of it.¡±

    With that remark, he left Luon dumbfounded in the middle of the halls. As he returned to his room and sat within the Vortex Container, he thought about his words once again. Where does true strength lie? What¡¯s the point of being strong? He only had to be strong enough to protect his loved ones, but is that what true strength is?

    Luon still didn¡¯t know this answer, he only continued to train his sword skills despite all of this. Training calmed his nerves, and the results made him feel positive about himself. Humans all think the same way, having results brings them joy.

    He reflected over his previous battles at school, engineering-wise he was on par with Shizuka, although his robots had been triumphant over Shizuka during the battle against each other, she made it up with more numbers. Luon¡¯s strategy of using humans to remotely pilot robots was limited to how many humans he made, so it was pointless to mass produce them. Because of his ignorance, Arisa managed to disable his ability to summon things from the Crypt Of Heroes freely, and at that point, he was practically checkmated.

    Thinking about his sword skills and comparing to Janet and Arisa he was sub-par, he never had a proper teacher, if anything it was only himself. Janet learned from a famous swordmaster while Arisa studied under families tutelage. A normal guy like him would almost never have the opportunity. If there were no path to walk on, he would just have to cut his own way.

    Luon swung his sword once more as his mind flashed back to the shadowy figure of a man wielding two swords training under a waterfall. Luon stared at his moves but shook his head, for one he could barely understand the meaning behind each movement, the other it pointless effort to do so. Instead, he looked at the set of moves and was inspired to create his own.

    As an engineer, he loved to create things, to do it yourself was one of his favorite mottos to live by. The man swung and performed a move, and Luon did something similar yet uniquely different. Slowly his movements became faster, and his performance greatly improved. Instead of being tools used to reap blood and death upon his foes, they were like partners or his own arm himself.

    Luon had reached an entirely new state, no longer following after the black swordsman, he created his own set of performance. A bird will eventually grow wings and fly beyond its boundaries, but learning how to fly is a hardship within itself.

    Conjuring another version himself they fought, and he stumbled, he reflected over his flaws and started again once more.

    He fought, tumbled, got up and fought once more, this cycle of training continued on and the number of times he fell lessened. With every single flaw, he developed a solution with every single solution a new flaw was made. Although this process was endless, it still perfected his craft even more.

    Eventually, Luon managed to defeat himself once, he panted in exhaustion and pondered over the battle. Luon pondered and reflected when he lost, and he did so when he won. Luon was continually improving and the number of times he won significantly increased. He changed his opponents from himself to Zythos than Ashgro, Janet and finally Arisa. Luon had lost many battles and won many times more after he was satisfied with battling against Arisa he wanted something new, something fierce.

    Before Luon¡¯s eyes was a dragon, not a fierce ancient dragon but a young dragonkin. His limbs resembled a human if it weren¡¯t for the scarlet scales it had on him. The young dragonkin arrogantly gazed over Luon and pulled out a set of swords out.

    Before they got on the ship the headmaster had briefly described their future opponents to them, from the weakest teams to the strongest there was a myriad of creatures to watch out for. And before Luon eyes were one of the strongest members that participated last year, from Dragon¡¯s Lair, the undefeated battle academy since the beginning of the Alliance Tournament, the 507th generation imperial prince, Athos Dragsteel.

 Chapter 76 - Opening Ceremony 1

    ¡°So this is the famed Dragon Capital, as expected from a race that had repelled the Inzektor race for many years, it''s more prosperous than the other cities I''ve heard of, ¡± said Gizmo as he examined his surroundings.

    The trip on the spaceship was uneventful, it took about a month before they were able to arrive at the venue that was hosting the Alliance Tournament.

    Luon who had spent the majority of the time training exited his seclusion several days before they arrived, only to see the disastrous scene of his teammates fooling around as if they were on a field trip, despite having the role of representing the entire Nexus solar system.

    Unlike Arisa'' team and Zythos¡¯ team, Luon¡¯s team had the most comfortable atmosphere as they frequently lobbied the entertainment facilities that the spaceship had for them.

    When they arrived at the city, the citizens of the Dragon Capital welcomed their guests with expert level hospitality.

    The people from the Draco solar system were famed for their tourism, many people around the universe traveled from wide and far to visit or reside in this prosperous city. To repeatedly beat back the Inzektor race who wouldn''t want to stay in such a safe and secure environment? Especially since Dragons were experts about having fun.

    Dragons, unlike most beast races, could transform themselves to a humanoid form to not intimidate their guests and play fairly with their opponents, their natural beauty was peerless. Reasonably speaking it was difficult for an average person even to scratch a dragon.

    Because of this, there was some handicap placed due to these racial differences. Otherwise, people would have died more often during the tournaments. This all changed with the advent of the Vortex Container though.

    Before when a dragon felt too stressed out about things they would wreak havoc, cause trouble or lust over other races. Although they lived for ages, their rampaging desires never ceased. It was said that the founder of Dragon Den''s had bedded over thousands of wives.

    The Vortex Container solved the majority of their problems, the crime level went down, and dragons felt less stressed about things. Which is why they welcomed the people from the Nexus solar system with more hospitality.

    Guided by two beautiful pairs of dragon sisters which looked like the generic Asian beauty wearing a cheongsam, except for the horns that were there. The group was guided and introduced to many different venues before arriving at their inn.

    When the group appeared at the inn with a series of different expressions, the female Inn owner feels slightly awkward about welcoming these guest, but she professionally hid it beneath her smile as she began to guide the guests to their rooms.

    During their sightseeing tour, Luon¡¯s team was engrossed at the majestic sight, it made the other curious dragon citizens look at them like country-bumpkins and welcomed them with open arms. This made Luon, Arisa¡¯s team and Zythos¡¯s team feel awkward, especially Janet who spaced herself a considerable distance away from the group muttering, ¡°Act like I don¡¯t know them, pretend I don¡¯t see them. I am here on vacation...¡±

    They weren¡¯t the only ones that were excited to be there, Helen clung to Captain Waver insisting that the city was crowded and that they shouldn¡¯t be that far apart from each other.

    In reality, she was staring daggers at the female dragonkins who were eyeing Captain Waver with seductive looks.

    When the inn owner led Luon and his team to their lodging, Gizmo, Tyron, and Brendan ran right into the room and began to make a fuss out bed placements. Although the room was well ventilated, there was only one bed that was next to the air conditioner. One thing that never changes since the passing of time was the usage of air conditioners.

    Realistically speaking it was difficult and wasteful to maintain a magical array to keep heat away from places. The retro and frugal design of air conditions were favored by many and had survived through many ages.

    After settling the sleeping placements, the group made their way to the dining room where the headmaster made an announcement as they ate.

    ¡°According to our schedule our group has arrived a week earlier than what we expected, this calculation wasn¡¯t intentional as we took in consideration of unsettling events that may impede our arrival,¡± said the headmaster.

    As the kind of events that he was talking about Luon knew about the dangers of traveling into space. If anyone had experienced a life simulation that involved traveling in space, they would know that the majority of the problems were created by pirates, asteroid fields, random debris from previous wars, and Inzektors.

    The headmaster continued to lecture about some random situations that their previous predecessors who battled in the tournament found, what to look for during their battles and some life stories that he had experienced ages ago. Luon and the others ate their dinner while listening to all of this quietly. It wasn¡¯t until the headmaster heard someone snoring during his lecture did he stopped. He turned to face the rude individual, gave a light cough and said, ¡°Well, you guys got a week to do what you want, be careful not to ruin our solar systems, and school''s reputation by doing some unsightly actions. You are free to do as you please, but I expect all of you to be here when the opening ceremony starts.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Dismissed temporary the group separated and left the room to their own devices, Luon woke up Bendan who had finished eating long ago and was asleep due to the headmaster''s lecture before returning to their place.

    Along the way, Gizmo turned to look at Luon and asked him, ¡°So what''re your plans for the week? Want to visit the hot springs? Play at the arcade? Don¡¯t tell me you want to train despite arriving the Dragon Capital.¡±

    Luon gave him an awkward look as he was indeed thinking of training while at the Dragon Capital. Before he could reply to Gizmo remark, a rough voice interrupted them.

    ¡°Train? Hahaha, no matter how much you people from the Nexus solar system train, it will be useless before our might,¡± said a dark-skinned figure with a deep voice. The man was followed by similarly shaped, gruesome and hideous people. They had claws as hands their face were disfigured to the point where it was difficult to look at. Fortunately, only the leader didn¡¯t have a helmet as the others wore a set of knightly body armor to hide the majority of their appearance.

    ¡°Tsk, its someone from the Ark Judgement Empire, rude as always,¡± said Gizmo.

    To Luon and his crew, it wasn¡¯t the first time they met someone from the Ark Judgement Empire, or more specifically Lemegeton or Daemons Gate, the two schools from the Demonic solar systems which the Demon King oversaw. During their online matches, they had fought a hefty number of these arrogant demons. With physical abilities surpassing humans arrogantly boasted to being superior.

    According to the rules placed on the solar system, the teams from the Ark Judgement Empire were restricted to not attacking their opponents base without waiting 5 minutes. They could only border the boundaries until the restriction was removed.

    Despite having this handicap, it was still difficult for other teams to handle them, except for the Dragon Lair¡¯s team.

    Luon and his teammates faced these demons head on unfazed by their remark and silently walked by. Seeing their lack of reaction the demon was going to say something once more before another voice interrupted him.

    ¡°Hmm, looks like you demons are as unsightly as ever, to think we would benevolently lend you two solar systems to raise such arrogance. How wasteful, oh how wasteful indeed,¡± said an intelligent looking man garbed in white. Luon looked at the new group of people who had arrived and concluded from their appearance that they were from the Angelic side of the Ark Judgement Empire.

    Beside the intelligent looking man, was man who wore a stylish black suit, he said, ¡°It¡¯s not a waste of two solar systems, its just that our secondary school Daemon¡¯s gate is unsightly, you demon there, according to our hierarchy I order you to cease your unsightly activities and head back to your room to train.¡±

    ¡°Tch, your lucky puny humans from the Nexus solar system, if it weren¡¯t for Deminier¡¯s lenience I would have wiped the floor with you guys. Come on guys lets head back,¡± said the rude and arrogant demon as he led the train of heavily armed demons away.

    At this moment, the demon name Deminier came and introduced himself to Luon as he said, ¡°Hello folks from the Nexus, my name is Deminier Shadowfang, and I am pleased to hear that you are present today. May I ask a quick question?¡±

    ¡°Go ahead...¡± said Luon as he looked at Deminier who came to talk to them. His actions made Luon very suspicious of him and made him felt awkward as he felt as if something about his presence irked him.

    ¡°Ahem, I¡¯ll try not to take too much of your time, but may I ask if Arisa Nightwalker is among the entrants of your teams?¡± Deminier asked.

    Luon didn¡¯t know Deminier¡¯s relationship between him and Arisa, neither does he know the reason why he even knew of her existence despite being several solar systems away. Although Luon didn¡¯t support the thought of exposing his friends before a stranger, the man seemed honest in his query. Luon felt quite perplexed about this situation before he could say anything a sweet familiar voice resonated with the surroundings.

    ¡°Deminier, don¡¯t bother my fellow students from Nexus University. I already told you my intent before, and I am not going to marry into the Shadowfang royal family,¡± said Arisa who was followed by her teammates.

    ¡°Arisa, you don¡¯t have the right to decide so, this arrangement was made from my parents and yours. Eventually, your bloodline will be integrated with my families, and together we¡¯ll make a child whose genetics will be closest to the demon king,¡± said Deminier with an ecstatic voice, the very look as he licked his lips made even the angelic being beside him cringe.

    ¡°Well if you would excuse me I have some matters to attend to,¡± said the intelligent man. He had no reason to waste any more of his intelligence with these youths.

    Luon wanted to do the same, but found Belle beside him as she slowly whispered in his ears, ¡°According to Arisa, her family was forced to arrange a marriage with the Shadowfang family because of the request of the demon king. The higher-ups were divided between agreeing with the marriage or allowing her to pick her own future husband as we advocated free will. Arisa said she wants to do whatever she wants to do and doesn¡¯t plan on marrying that fool. However, they kept insisting to the point where they took some drastic measures, they would secretly harm the members of the side who supported the idea of having free will and supported the Mythos clan who wanted to push her to marry. Helpless we asked the system the ideal situation to handle things, and it suggested we settle things with this Alliance tournament, if our team was ranked higher they would completely pull out from their actions, and if we lose...¡±

    Luon knew what her next words were without her saying anything. In the end, no matter how powerful your family is, without strength one isn¡¯t able to decide their own fates. Luon felt anger inside of him, he originally was a pacifist, a cultured man who read books and he had read many stories similar to this situation, he didn¡¯t expect to see this scene in reality. This scene was something new for him.

    Luon stepped before Deminier and said, ¡°Deminier, if you may excuse us we still have some things to do to prepare for the Alliance Tournament, if you would please excuse us we still have things to settle down. We¡¯ll see you once again¡­ in the tournament.¡±

    Without hearing his reply, he grabbed Arisa¡¯s hand and led her away. His eyes were filled with desire. If only he were stronger, he would be able to stop this injustice. If only he were stronger, he could judge his enemies by his beliefs. If only he were stronger, he could slay his enemies. With strength, he can protect what he wants to protect, no matter how many things there was for him to protect.

 Chapter 77 - Opening Ceremony 2

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± said Luon as he pondered over what he had just done.

    Luon and Arisa walked away from the scene in a moderately normal fashion and stopped just a few steps before his room. Letting go of her hand Luon couldn¡¯t help to cringe at what he had just done as it felt like it was an extremely cheesy thing to do. Challenge and beat Lemegeton? Luon didn¡¯t care at all about such a school, he was looking forward to battling against Dragon¡¯s Lair¡¯s team instead.

    However, Deminier¡¯s aggressive actions simply ticked Luon¡¯s bottom line, it was rude and arrogant as expected from a demonic being.

    But the actions Luon had just done may have possibly added more fuel to the fire. Although the conflict could be solved in many different ways, Luon simply took the more competitive aspect of it. More importantly ever since he left the scene with Arisa, he felt the atmosphere around them became a little, quiet¡­

    ¡®Where did all her vigor go?! It¡¯s awkward to see her like this,¡¯ thought Luon as he had turned to face her.

    Maybe due to the way he strongly decided to end the conversation without considering her feelings she felt a little unsettled and is now pondering over the results, Luon thought that maybe he may have possibly been too much of a busybody.

    Currently, Arisa was looking down towards the ground which made it difficult to see what kind of expression she had on her face, he couldn¡¯t tell if she was mad or not as the only indication of feelings he could pick up is her slightly red ears.

    Luon coughed lightly to garner her attention as he said, ¡°Well we might see him later again anyway so don¡¯t mind it as much. I¡¯m going to go train now, so if you need me for anything just send me a message.¡±

    Arisa who heard his words looked away from Luon and nodded her head, seeing that she no longer needed him for anything he simply turned towards his room and placed his hands upon the door handle.

    Just as he opened the door, he heard Arisa weakly say thanks causing him to turn around for a moment. However, she was no longer where she was before, just as always she vanished without a sight.

    Giving off a slight sigh he entered his room and began to train in the Vortex Container, as expected from the hotel hosting the participants of the event, the beds could be swapped out Vortex Containers using a panel attached to the wall.

    Without anyone telling Luon what to do, he began to train earnestly, if there was something on Luon¡¯s mind or if anything troublesome happened to him, training allowed him to ease his thoughts, and clueless to the amount of time that had passed, the opening ceremony was only moments away.

    ¡­

    Time waits for no one, just as Luon spent his time in seclusion most of the members on his team had done the same. Only Thomas had the free time to do other things otherwise. He studied and researched their opponent''s abilities, attitude, and habits and compiled a hefty amount of information about them, most of it though, was unnecessary. Why would they expose their strengths and weaknesses before the match even started? Unless they were completely retarded or that confident no one would ever do so.

    And yet some teams had actually exposed that strength. Namely, it was Dragon¡¯s Lair¡¯s team, Daemon Gates team, and Alpha Hideout, one of the schools under the Intergalactic Federation that Luon¡¯s school is associated with.

    Alpha Hideout was notoriously renown for their lawless actions as it was a battle academy owned by a famous pirate Captain Argbok. No one knew if Captain Argbok was either dead or alive since the founding of the superpower. However, no one dared to challenge them on their territory as they still have numerous hidden powers left in the shadows.

    Fortunately, their attitude towards the Alliance Tournament was more akin to a random field trip with an exercise portion to it. They couldn¡¯t care less about who won or lost. After all, rather than properly winning resources they would much rather steal it! To take what they need, and to fight for what they desired was one of their mottos.

    On the day of their arrival, they had some scuffle with Daemon¡¯s gate, the arrogant demon from before took his gang out to enjoy Dragon¡¯s lair¡¯s entertainment facilities only to have a clash of interest with Alpha Hideout at a bar. Apparently in the store existed an exotic and rare dish that could be eaten a fixed amount of times a year, and when both teams got there to eat it, they had an argument based on rights.

    Although, Alpha Hideout was a bunch of thugs, pirates, and a band of thieves they still respected the idea of first come first serve, after all, if their target had yet to receive the goods then why should they try to steal it? So when they were first to arrive, they didn¡¯t think much about the Daemon Gate members.

    However, when the meal was about to arrive at their table, the members of Daemon Gate made a fuss and took the meal away from Alpha Hideout. For a group of lawless people who specialized in stealing, how could they let these demons steal their goods away from them?A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Within the store, a brawl occurred shattering many chairs and tables as it continued to escalate even further as members from Dragon¡¯s lair team came to intervene. This year''s Dragon¡¯s lair team was a little more special than the last one as three of their members came from their subsidiary schools, Harmonic Forest, Titan¡¯s Valley, and Magician¡¯s Tower. Together with these schools, they make the superpower known as Avalon.

    An intelligent looking male with blue hair walked to the scene and cast protection magic to the remaining pieces of furniture left, and a muscular man who followed him had his muscles bloat unsightly and smashed his fist into these troublemakers.

    The powerful armor Daemon Gate had was powerless before the fist and the recoil from the wind passing by tossed the members of Alpha Hideout backward.

    The fighting completely stopped with that attack and a female strutted before the two teams like a model walking on a runway. She was the leader of this year''s Dragon¡¯s Lair¡¯s team, the 436th imperial princess, Valerie Dragsteel.

    Due to the regulations since Athos had participated last year, he was unable to challenge this year''s competition which made Luon a little saddened not to be able to face this powerful figure.

    Luon still looked forward to facing against Dragon¡¯s Lair¡¯s team though, how are they able to maintain the number one spot in the universe for several hundred consecutive years otherwise?

    With half of the generated resources that the Nexus solar system had put on the line, he can¡¯t possibly lose. Their solar system was already lacking resources so to make up for their numbers a portion of their technology was given away every year.

    To make things worse, Dragon¡¯s Lair publically publishes the information they receive making the value of the Nexus solar system seem less every year.

    One of the thing¡¯s Dragon¡¯s Lair wanted was the technological science behind the Vortex Container, but they were unable to obtain it as the original creator vanished in thin air.

    Dragon¡¯s Lair continued to win regardless of how any other superpower felt and they shared portions of that reward to their closest allies.

    Alpha Hideout and Daemon Gate who became subdued from Dragon¡¯s Lair team was lectured by Valerie for an hour before being let off by paying for the damages. As for the exotic food that could only be found in the bar, it was destroyed in the midst of the battle.

    Thomas who recorded all of this information came to one conclusion, this year''s Dragon¡¯s Lair team was just as troublesome as last years when he reported the news to his teammates, none of them made any remark to his words after all the thing that they had to do didn¡¯t change. Their goal from the start was simple, win. Only by winning could the next step be taken, there was no need to think of anything else.

    The opening ceremony came without any more trouble after that as more teams arrived at the hotel. Luon never left the room ever since the first day and finally exited seclusion when he was told that the opening ceremony came.

    All the teams departed from the hotel at their own pace and slowly arrived at the coliseum where they sat within Vortex Containers in rooms where their team was situated at.

    Logging into to the server 16 different teams slowly entered the venue as a crowd from all over the network cheered on for these combatants.

    The first set of teams to enter were from the Intergalactic Federation, following after Nexus University was Kien Sect, Plana Academia, and Alpha Hideout.

    Kien Sect as its name could say for itself was a battle academy based off of human cultivators who believed that martial strength is what will change the universe, with powers to be able to topple mountains the majority of their fighters came from families with rich young masters. Every once in a while they would have a ferocious figure who would magically appear in this dog eat dog world.

    And this year was one of those years, amongst the participants they have was a person with a surname that was uncommon to most of the masses.

    On the other hand, besides Alpha Hideout were just a bunch of rogues was Plana Academia, a school based off of traditional fantasy-based systems that specialized in the development of magic and skills with one of the largest diversity of races that live there. This year''s main team was composed of 2 Orcs, 1 Elf, and 2 Dwarves.

    After the Intergalactic Federation made their entrance they amount of hype in the atmosphere jumped several times higher as the members of the Aqua Kingdom entered the scene.

    Filled with many good-looking men and women the crowd went crazy as they entered. In two organized battalions were the teams from Atlantica Royal School and Oceans Guardian Foundations and Coral Reef. After reaching a certain point, they parted away creating a singular path in the middle. From the entrance of the arena was the majestic appearance of the 2 sea dragons and 2 sea beasts that represented the Sea Emperor Palace, and on top of two of those Sea Dragons was a throne with a girl on top of it.

    Waving her hand the princess from the Sea Emperor Palace received the admiration from the crowd as cheers, whistles and shouts of love came raining down upon the stage.

    However, all of these voices vanished when the next set of teams came.

    There were two sides of a coin, and similar to that analogy was the Ark Judgement Empire. The crowd had two types of expressions when they entered the fray if there was light, there was darkness. If there was admiration, it sat next to disgust. From beautiful angels, there were hideous demons, and although some demons looked visually better than others, their personality could be said otherwise.

    From the Ark Judgement Empire was the Heavenly Sanctuary, Holy Authority Academy, Daemon¡¯s Gate and Lemegeton.

    When Deminier entered the stage his eyes locked on towards a direction and Luon who had received his gaze sent it back towards him. Like Luon had expected, they met again, only this time¡­ this is war.

    However, the imposing aura shattered within the next moment. The silent crowd who were quiet from either admiration, fear, and disgust, shouted with joy with the arrival of the final participants.

    The unnamed number one superpower in the universe, Avalon. After the teams from Harmonic Forest, Titan¡¯s Valley and Magician¡¯s Tower were introduced, people couldn¡¯t but gasp when the strongest battle academy entered the battlegrounds. Dragon¡¯s Lair, will they win the championship once again? This thought was on everyone''s mind.

 Chapter 78 - Opening Ceremony 3

    Valerie, upon entering the venue became the center of attention, her looks, demeanor, and aura caused many to want to bow down before her. It wasn¡¯t the first time that this had happened and it won¡¯t be the last, ignoring the crowd she looked at each of the other teams at the venue and gave a light sigh.

    ¡®Another pathetic year...¡¯ thought Valerie as she was able to recognize the power levels of her opponents instantly. Similar to Luon¡¯s ability the Eye of Insight, dragons like Valerie naturally have a racial ability called Dragon¡¯s Eye which allowed them to estimate their opponent''s combat levels.

    Valerie couldn¡¯t help but sigh when she read that the average level of each team was around combat level 75, except for teams that had humans that is as she could only safely assume that they have NG-Arms to back them up. In an ordinary sense, this number is beyond the average person, even in the military divisions. If the highest combat level of a non-combatant went up to 30, and the ordinary soldiers were averaged to be around 50, then every team she was facing at this moment was equivalent to facing veteran soldiers.

    However, to her eyes these numbers were too weak for her, unlike the other teams the average combat level of the members selected at Dragon¡¯s lair was 79, many were only a few steps away from shedding the mortal laws of the universe and gaining power beyond recognition.

    Beyond level 80 were people who were able to obtain power equal to or even greater than an army, the higher they went on the scale, the thinner their connection with humanity became. Longevity and strength were proportionally related if the average person only lived for less than a hundred years, how could they associate with someone who lived for thousands of years?

    This realm was an authentic behemoth class, the ogres that were around this level were no longer the same as they were known as titans. The Clamaris that Luon had encountered last year had just touched this realm and was overwhelmingly dominant if the average member of Dragon¡¯s lair had a similar level of strength, then how could any team possibly compare?

    Valerie thought that although the average level of her opponents was only a few levels higher than last year, it made no difference for her. She wanted to get the battles done with as soon as possible, so she quickly positioned herself and her team where they were prompted to go to.

    Luon who had noticed her gaze also secretly evaluated her abilities, unlike the unbalanced version of the skill she uses which all dragons apparently have, he was able to see more details such as skills, equipment, and her status without using the BMPU. Within the large context of information was one notable aspect which truly surprised Luon, her combat level¡­ was at 83.

    She was indeed a genius, unlike how the Nexus solar system had chosen their candidates, Valerie was this strong at the tender age of 21, only a year away from being unable to participate due to regulations. Dragons, Demons, Orcs and many other races have a total advantage over natural combative strength compared to humans who were why the team members from Nexus University, without their NG-Arms, were drastically weaker.

    In fact, all the average strength of their candidates was 62, and once they equipped their NG-Arms, they barely reached 76 due to their core members being slightly stronger.

    ¡°And these are all the teams participating this year! With three teams from each of the 16 battle academies from their respective solar systems, we have a total of 48 different teams! Ah, wait there is a slight miscalculation. It looks like this year there is only one team from Alpha Hideout this year, which means that there is in total 46 teams! Why do you think that is?¡± said a male announcer as he looked at the female announcer.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got news that apparently Alpha Hideout had found some relics from the shattered remains of a battlefield in Sector DX32 and had deployed most of their members to raid the place. It seems that they aren¡¯t too interested in this year¡¯s tournament,¡± said the female announcer.

    ¡°Hahaha, well it was better than last year as they didn¡¯t even bother coming at all. It seems like Alpha Hideout likes to rob other people and indirectly give it back when the Alliance tournament happens, no wonder no one makes too much of a fuss when they come and rob them every year,¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. In fact, many of the other systems don¡¯t mind the robbing that they would do as they implemented a policy to reimburse most companies 50% of their losses after an inspection. Ah, shouldn¡¯t we talk about this year''s rulings?¡± said the female announcer.

    ¡°Ah, we probably should. Ahem. For all of you uneducated folks out there and for all of you ready for the action. I¡¯ll quickly go through the handicap and rules placed this year!¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°The matches are managed with a tournament bracket where teams are placed at random using a ballot box. To advance on, each battle academy must win a best out of three against their opponent. With each solar system betting half of their generated resources this year, for being first they will receive half out of the 800 shares from the prize pool, 2nd place will obtain 150 shares out of the pool and ...¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    As the announcer continued to announce the prizes, Luon frowned, to maintain the production value they needed to rank fourth as the other teams below that were all given only 10% of what they had betted in return. With only 60% of their earnings, how could each solar system make a proper living? Fortunately, the Draco solar system traded and gave away a large portion of their earnings to losing teams to make up for some of their losses.

    Going through more regulations, Luon felt that although the point system was quite unbalanced, the advantages that Nexus University, the other teams in the Intergalactic Federation, and the teams from the Aqua Kingdom had over the other battle academies was quite huge. Because of how humans made up the majority of the population and their racial differences between the other superpowers, they were given absolutely no handicap compared to the other teams which were bound by regulations.

    The Aqua Kingdom was in the same position since they mainly had an advantage in water it was difficult for them to battle on land. Members of the Ark Judgement Empire were unable to cross the border until 5 minutes were over. For Avalon it was the same except those team members that are Dragons were unable to cross until 40 minutes were over.

    How effective was this handicap? Although it does balance the scale quite a bit, it was still nearly impossible to take a dragon head on, even if they were in their human forms. Last year, one of the teams from Heavenly Sanctuary was able to confront Athos Dragsteel head on and was severely beaten several minutes into their fight.

    It was difficult for many solar systems even to obtain a place in the top four positions with the existence of the Ark Judgement empire and Avalon occupying the spots. However, it was still possible for the fourth position.

    ¡°And I think that¡¯s all there is to know about the rules of the tournament, folks at home I hope I didn¡¯t tire you out. Now without any further ado let¡¯s begin the placement selection, as I call the names of the battle academy can the representatives come to the stage. I will begin with the calling by the rank placements last year, up first, it¡¯s Dragon¡¯s Lair!¡± said the announcer as the crowd cheered crazily.

    Waving her hands Valerie climbed up and onto the stage, and as she does so Luon was still thinking about what the announcer said as he thought to himself, ¡®Representative? Did we even decide one?¡¯

    He looked at Arisa and Zythos who appeared to have the same thought as him as they looked at each other. Just as they were lost the headmaster who had forgotten entirely about selecting a representative messaged them from a distance, ¡°By the way the representative for us is Arisa, it¡¯s not that you guys wouldn¡¯t do a good job for us. It¡¯s just compared to a dog, and a man wouldn¡¯t a beautiful looking teenage student be better? Especially with our advertisement companies, hopefully, this year the revenue goes up. Anyways¡­ Arisa, make sure to appeal to the crowd.¡±

    Zythos didn¡¯t seem to care about the position, and Luon thought about how troublesome it was for him to climb up and do so, he preferred Arisa to do it instead as it seemed like each team wanted to send their most beautiful representatives to garner favor from the crowd.

    Just as they decided who to go up a gasp came from the crowd, realizing something was going on the three looked upon the stage only to see the astonished face of the female representative from Heavenly Sanctuary. They were second to pick their placement and unfortunately, were matched with Dragon¡¯s Lair in the first match¡­ and it was the first match in the entire tournament. The members from the Heavenly Sanctuary grew grim as the other teams rejoiced at their placement. With them out of the picture there were 2 open places in the top 4!

    ¡°This! To have the best teams matched in the first battle! Without a doubt the matches from this point on would be intense, isn¡¯t that right,¡± said the male announcer. The female announcer nodded as she said, ¡°Although Heavenly Sanctuary was always placed second most of the time, whenever they get paired with Dragon¡¯s Lair the matches always become intense. And with the Vortex Containers, there will be tons of carnage this year.¡±

    The male announcer nodded and said to the crowd, ¡°Folks at home, these future matches will be filled with action-packed bloodshed, for the weak hearted I would recommend turning off the program now while you still have the chance! As for the rest of you, let¡¯s get this action going!¡±

    The crowd cheered at the imminent elimination of one of their biggest competitors as the representative from Heavenly Sanctuary woefully went down from the stage. Following after was Lemegeton, and then Sea Emperor Palace, other teams went up and soon enough it was Nexus University turn as they placed 8th last year.

    Arisa appealed to the crowd as she got up to receive her placement from the ballot box. They were spotted in the 9th slot, and their opponents had already been decided, it was the 7th placed team, Plana Academia.

    Looking over their team members, Luon found that their levels were higher compared to theirs, averaging around level 70. If everyone were to equip their NG-Arms, it should have been an easy victory if it wasn¡¯t for the new trend he encountered online last summer. Bloodlust Mask, a brand new device that has been recently revealed in the past few years originating from the Plana solar system.

    Without the flight abilities that the NG-Arms provides the people from the Plana solar system prefer not to be physically restricted with the redundant armor. Yet they still wanted to improve themselves using external devices, this mask was made based on the bloodlust skill that shamans used to enhance their senses and incite the hidden strength hidden within their bodies for a brief amount of time.

    If it weren¡¯t for the after effects it would have been popularized by many different solar systems, but the fact that they were using strength beyond what their body can handle caused it only to be used online. Although they would feel bad after using it, the feeling was only falsified if used inside of the Vortex Container.

    More teams settled their placements, and the matches soon began, the first match was the most anticipated match between Heavenly Sanctuary and Dragon¡¯s Lair.

    And this match ended before even 10 minutes were up. This very fact shocked the audience, the second most powerful school in the universe lost before all the restrictions on Team Dragon¡¯s Lair was removed. It wasn¡¯t because they were weak, their average combat level rating was about 78. Both members on each team were equal in strength, that is, if it weren¡¯t for the fact that not only was Valerie a stronger competitor, but she was an even stronger commander...

 Chapter 79 - Nexus vs Plana 1

    Quickly retreating from the battleground the battered states of the Heavenly Sanctuary representatives appeared displeasing to the crowd. For the first five minutes nothing had happened between the two teams, but once the border went down the enemies came storming in. Magic was spammed across the battleground, shattering and causing havoc on the land it was directed to, it was soon followed by massive growth and change of terrain as the trees and plants that were decimated sprouted out of nowhere and came to life.

    The team leader of Heavenly Sanctuary tried his best to predict the match pairings, he assumed that the third team from Dragon¡¯s lair was Valerie¡¯s team. Which was why his strongest team was placed in the second match while their second best team placed first. As long as they scored two wins, they would still be in this tournament. But he was wrong, completely wrong, the worst team from Dragon¡¯s Lair fought the first match, and it ended after 22 minutes with them coming out on top. Things were going as planned, but the second match ruined his dreams of winning. They were up against Valerie¡¯s team, the best teams from both battle academies confronted each other in the second match.

    If he were to lose this than their worst team would have to face against their second best and considering the circumstances, they were more than likely to lose it. The Heavenly Sanctuary team leader needed to win this second match! It wasn¡¯t impossible as he felt confident with his strength since he was personally taught by the one who fought against Athos Dragsteel last year.

    Placing the best commander on the team in the back he stepped upon the frontlines.

    According to the intel he received, Valerie''s team composition was made up of an Elven magician, an Ogre warrior, a Human magician, and two Dragons. Due to the restriction besides the Dragons, only the ogre warrior, human magician, and elven magician would attack them once the 5 minutes were up.

    Due to this fact the four warriors from Heavenly Sanctuary carefully watched the borderline for possible invaders, and sure enough, they found them confidently standing and waiting for the time to pass.

    Keeping a reasonable distance away from them the members of Team Heavenly Sanctuary carefully observed their actions. They felt perplexed, why would they bother attacking them in a situation where it was 3 versus 4? No matter how good or bad Valerie was it was common sense to match their numbers.

    Just as the first restriction was removed, the three attackers quickly jumped into their formation. Seeing this the warriors from team Heavenly Sanctuary intercepted them but were shocked to find that they themselves were absolutely no match compared to their combined might.

    The Human mage casted several fireballs which caused the team members from Heavenly Sanctuary to channel an anti-magic barrier. This type of magic was categorized as paladin magic, an ability which most holy warriors from the Ark Judgement Empire learn. Just as it was about to go up the ground beneath them shook disturbing their concentration, vines gripped and tugged at their feet as trees grew from the ground beyond normal standards.

    Fortunately, they were able to survive the onslaught with minor injuries, backing away the crew began to reevaluate the situation. Just as they were doing so, a shadow appeared from the cover of trees the Ogre warrior seemed more like an assassin quickly taking one of their teammates out before disappearing in the shroud of trees.

    When there was an open clearing a fireball would appear to hinder them, and a tree would rise to scare them, this process repeated several times more as their surrounding region became a forest of trees.

    Valerie had tactically placed these trees and command the situation from afar as if she were the play script writer writing and directing the demise of the opposing team. The situation became more and difficult, and soon enough, they were all eliminated, this all took only a few minutes to do.

    The crowd was stupefied, 10 minutes! If it weren¡¯t for the restriction couldn¡¯t they possibly end the match in 5? The crowd was struck with amazement from the elegant display of the team from Dragon¡¯s Lair.

    Valerie smiled, there was almost no way for her to lose. Her teammates were the top student this year from their allied schools, with a team of all-stars who would be able to lose?

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    The ogre warrior was the best student from Titan¡¯s Valley, a school where mighty warriors come to fight and learn how to survive in this cruel era. The Elven Magician came from Harmonic Forest, a school that specializes in agriculture and food production. And the Human Magician came from the Magician¡¯s Tower, the technological hub of Avalon.

    In the end, Dragon¡¯s Lair had beaten Heavenly Sanctuary with a score of 2 to 1, it was no surprise that their worse lost to Heavenly Sanctuary¡¯s second best team.

    The following teams that advanced onwards had no exciting matches to display.

    The second battle academy that paired was between Alpha Hideout and Daemon¡¯s gate, which the former simply surrendered as they didn¡¯t care at all about the match. Daemon¡¯s gate hopes to get to the top 4 were dashed as they were going against Dragon¡¯s Lair next.

    The third battle was between Heavenly Authority Academy versus Sea Emperor Palace where the Sea Princess and the Sea Dragon¡¯s completely dominated the weak second school for Angelic beings.

    If there was an exciting match before Luon¡¯s group match, it was the fourth battle between Coral Reef and Magician¡¯s Tower. As they were both technologically specialized, the battle felt more like a bunch of nerds showing off their cool devices to one another. In the end, Magician¡¯s Tower came out on top as they actually had combatants, the magicians were merely the better nerd.

    It was now the fifth battle of the tournament between Nexus University and Plana Academia, both of them were from Intergalactic Federation and had a similar amount of strength. Although they were close and friendly with each other, the competition still incited their desire to win. Especially since there was a chance to secure a good spot in the top 4!

    The team leaders of Team Warbeast, Team Ascension and Team Girl¡¯s Union met before the match to discuss one critical aspect of the battle, their match positions.

    ¡°So how do you want to do this?¡± asked Luon who sent his gaze after the other two. To him it didn¡¯t matter where he went as long as they win, the third position was quite a stressful spot to be as it was literally the battle-winning match. At the same time, they may not even get to fight if either the first or second team both win or lose.

    Luon felt that the second spot was the most ideal spot where he wanted to be in.

    ¡°Ha, you want to know how we¡¯re going to do this? It¡¯s obvious, I¡¯ll go first, and you guys can come after me. If you dare lose than your simply a disgrace to our solar system,¡± scoffed Zythos.

    Luon looked at Arisa who responded, ¡°I don¡¯t mind if you want to go first, as long as you win that is. Luon, I¡¯ll let you decide where you want to go. I¡¯ll just fill in the blanks.¡±

    Luon nodded as he said, ¡°Then my team we¡¯ll go second if you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    She merely nodded as she went to input their decision in the matchmaking system. After doing so, the match was soon announced, and Team Warbeast was paired with Plana Academia¡¯s second-best team.

    The match became underway, Zythos¡¯ line up was composed of the Naiz from team G2 playing as an assassin, Qi Ren who¡¯s playing as the commander, the orc shaman, Ashgro, the tiger beastmen and Zythos who were playing the front line attacker. Janet didn¡¯t participate as she didn¡¯t find any value in playing this match, she was too busy strategizing her stellar debut.

    Luon had secretly heard her say that once Team Warbeast would lose one match, she would take over and outperform her whole team becoming the one and only shining beauty.

    Although it was quite a selfish idea, who knows whether or not it would become true.

    Qi Ren began to summon warriors to support Zythos¡¯ and the others quick rush attack meeting the team from Plana Academia head on. What was truly surprising was what the team from Plana Academia had done, instead of having a commander sit back and summon units, all five members of their team rushed towards Zythos¡¯ base after placing a peon at summoning table, they only gave it a single instruction. Do whatever you want.

    Four of the members from Plana Academia were orcs, they appeared more savage and ruthless compared to the orcs from the Nexus solar system. In fact, the orcs from the Plana solar system were many times more powerful as they inherited the warriors will from the predecessors. Before they could travel in space the orcs from this solar system fought many wars with many different races, and after an international peace treaty was made, they were itching to fight which was ingrained into their bones causing them to accumulate stress, and Plana Academia became their number one source to vent that feeling.

    The last member on their team was an elven archer, although they debated whether or not to get another orc, they reluctantly took an elf as their teammate as the argument shattered when the higher-ups from Plana Academia said that the enemy might have air units. The orcs despised the dirty, dishonorable air attacks which made them warmingly accepted the archer.

    Utilizing their NG-Arms the three members from Team Warbeast took to the sky as they quickly evaded their opponent''s sudden attack. Just as they reached out of their attack range the orcs began to curse at Team Warbeast for playing despicably, the single elven archer shot arrows to harm his opponents to the best of his ability.

    Too bad Naiz appeared behind him and beheaded him as if it were nothing, but as he had done so, the elven archer was prepared for the situation. Just as he was escaping he stepped on a trap which disabled his ability to move, the orcs took this opportunity to hack their axes at him.

    Seeing their teammate die a cruel death the members of Team Warbeast began to attack the orcs from above which they replied with a threatening swing of the axe.

    It was a stalemate situation where the initiative was too hard to dictate, it was at this time one of the orcs had said, ¡°OH! I completely forgot what the manual said to do at times like this! Brothers, it said we have to attack the base if the cowards are stupidly flying above us. Come let¡¯s go win this match!¡±

    Because of how the orcs were able to smarten up Zythos¡¯ and his team was forced to fight the orcs head-on, at first they were overpowering them, but when they placed on the bloodlust mask the situation completely changed.

    The first match ended with Plana Academia coming out on top.

    Luon had watched this from the start to the end facepalmed as he thought about what Zythos had said earlier. He silently thought, ¡®A disgrace to the solar system¡­¡¯

 Chapter 80 - Nexus Vs Plana 2

    Coming back from their loss, Zythos and his teammate''s entered the room with their heads down.

    Although Luon didn''t like Zythos, he still appreciated it if Zythos were to win the match at least, this was a team competition after all, but despite knowing this, no one in the room considered saying any comforting words to him. A loss was a loss, and there wasn''t any value in moping and whining about it.

    Rather it was more important for Luon and his team to prepare for the next battle; if they were to lose, their universal debut would be over in an instant. More importantly, Arisa would never let him off.

    Turning to look at her face he saw her staring at him as if she was telling him to go and win this match.

    Luon gave a light sigh as he got up to his team and briefly glazed over a few strategies. This minor break period wasn''t long and 5 minutes after Zythos¡¯ match had ended, did their team appear on stage.

    During the map selection, Luon had set his terrain to his default set up of having a canyon and a singular path.

    Everyone besides Thomas equipped the equipment that Luon had spent his time engineering over the summer. Right away, Luon activated his Farsight Mask to scout the enemy. He sent the phantasmal scouts in multiple different directions.

    It was an elven technique, so no one in the crowd questioned its usage, they were more interested in the multitude of actions that were going on the match to pay attention to such details.

    Only a very few spectators seemed to notice this particular detail.

    ¡°Hmm, it seems that Nexus University has a few more tricks this year, Basai, make sure you record that after we win the tournament to pay attention to what they have to offer,¡± Valerie said as she carefully observed Luon¡¯s actions.

    Basai let out a sigh as he said, ¡°Milady, your bad habit is happening again, the master said we couldn¡¯t continually buy into these gimmicks just for your leisure.¡±

    ¡°Basai¡­ remember when father suggested to put you on my team? It wasn¡¯t so you can bicker against my decisions rather your here to observe, protect, and commit to my orders right? If I said, I wanted something all you have to do is get it. How you do so isn¡¯t my concerns,¡± said Valerie.

    ¡°As you wish milady...¡± said Basai as he stepped back.

    Valerie looked at the other competitors and sighed, she had seen many fighters before, and every time the fought they had displayed nothing exciting or new, to her it was more fun watching people use and create weapons, which was why she found the third match to be interesting.

    Valerie silently continued watching Luon interested in how his presence would be able to affect the match.

    ¡­

    After sending out his scouts Luon began to operate the command table, he sent Gizmo and Bendan to watch the border while Tyron was sent over to scout out their opponents.

    Unlike the previous round where the enemy was composed of 4 orcs and an elven archer, their enemies this time were a composition of dwarves and goblins.

    With the weak abilities that a goblin and dwarves may have Luon figured that they were non-combatants who specialized in crafting, this meant the ideal strategy was to attack them their opponents base right now. If that was the right idea, then why is Luon setting up a factory just like how his opponents were doing? That was because although Luon was confident that a rush attack would more than likely work, it would be better proceed safely so no signs of weakness would appear.

    Just as Luon and Thomas had finished their first factory, Tyron had just notified Luon that opposing team had just completed theirs as well and begun to build parts for another factory.

    With more production lines the faster the production would go. Taking this chance, Luon told Tyron to start attacking the base safely. After Luon had sent the news, they began to spring into action. Setting a drone on the commander table on autopilot Luon left the back line and met up with Bendan and Gizmo, and the three of them began to launch their assault. It was currently 6 minutes in so they didn¡¯t expect their opponents to have anything too significant compared to their armor.

    Tyron continued to shoot arrows at his opponents and found them to be somewhat useful, taking out several the summoned dwarf and goblin workers. The enemies retaliated with weapons of their own, and a desperate shoot off occurred. Arrows and bullets created a field rattled with projectiles. After his first initial attack, he found the situation became more and more difficult to get any more value.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    Tyron figured it was time to use his trump card, pulling out a Heliken Arrow he got from Luon and began to charge his mana into the Revolving Wind Bow. Tyron had never tried this combination so far after receiving it. According to Luon, the qualifiers weren¡¯t the right place or the right time to test it out, so Tyron was saddened that he still had to use his simple equipment during qualifiers. But now he was no longer restricted to that rule, gathering his energy he aimed the arrow at the battalion of dwarves hiding behind an incredibly armored wall and let the arrow loose.

    Like a rampaging dragon, the arrow flashed past its surroundings and gnawed its tip against the wall as an eerie screeching sound resonated for only a short instant. The arrow which was momentarily stopped regain its vigor as it decimated and shattered the barriers and continued as it vaporized anything within a meters range of it.

    The dwarven soldiers were shocked by this move but were unable to express it as they vanished from the devastating attack.

    Instead of an arrow, it was a beam in the shape of an arrow. The damage it had caused was equivalent to a laser rifle vaporizing everything in its path as trails of its destruction was displayed before Tyron¡¯s eyes.

    Luon, Bendan, and Gizmo who had just arrived were shocked to see this. The effects of the attack were way too effective! If only they had used it during the previous qualifiers how simple would it turn out to be? The attack power rating had reached the strength equivalent to a level 82 warrior utilizing a slash skill!

    The male announcer who saw this happen exclaimed, ¡°Wow look at that attack! According to the system calculations, he shouldn¡¯t be able to use it if he was a normal archer!¡±

    The female announcer responded. ¡°It says here that the technique used was called Ikar shot which came from a mysterious tribe within the Nexus solar system, these tribe members were known to the community as the nameless archers, Hao.¡±

    ¡°Hao hunters? If I can recall, I think they are in the top 1000 rankings for influential families in the universe. I heard that they contributed a great amount to our war against the Inzektor race. But that attack shouldn¡¯t be that glaringly bright?¡± questioned the male announcer.

    ¡°It seems to be the effect of the arrow and bow, according to the information we have about the technique the quality of the equipment can greatly affect the way the skill is used,¡± said the female announcer.

    As they were talking about the play by play, Bendan who had seen the attack exclaimed, ¡°Holy moly, that attack was crazy! Is that the effects of having better equipment.¡±

    With a slightly excited look on his face, Tyron nodded in response. When they were practicing over the summer the level of the weapon they used wasn¡¯t as powerful as this, in fact, he expected it to pierce one of the dwarven guards.

    To demolish a wall! How amazing was that? If the wall weren¡¯t made out of highly dense materials, it wouldn¡¯t be that great, but it was so it had shocked many people.

    At this moment, the dwarves situated behind the wall began to attack them with rifles, causing them to disperse behind some cover.

    ¡°Could this rifle have the same effects?¡± Gizmo asked as he lifted his rifle and pointed towards the dwarves who began to attack them.

    The bullets came streaming accurately hitting the intended targets. The slightly exposed dwarves tightly clung to the defenses as they tried to shoot at Gizmo.

    ¡°It seems like nothing special is happening...¡± said Gizmo as he lowered his rifle and began to play around with it.

    ¡°Of course nothing is happening, it¡¯s because it¡¯s a normal rifle,¡± said Luon as he shrugged his shoulders.

    It wasn¡¯t a completely standard rifle, the main feature it had was that the projectiles were automatically generated with the injection of mana and dissipated upon impact. It was more like a laser rifle rather than one with physical projectiles, and the cost-efficiency was the selling point.

    ¡°Well, how about we just go win this before anything surprising happens?¡± said Bendan as he grabbed his sword and dashed towards their opponents.

    The dwarves were powerless as Tyron arrows turned their terrain advantage against them, Luon and Bendan slaughtered the dwarves and with their NG-Arms equipped they quickly took care of most of them.

    It was at this moment Luon noticed that they have yet to face any members of the opponents'' team yet. All of a sudden a wall shattered beside Bendan causing him to jump back from the force of the impact, getting a clearer view of the intruder Luon found that the goblins and dwarves on their opponents'' team were piloting a mech that was six times bigger than they were.

    The group spread out, all they had to do was eliminate this titan before they can claim their victory, it usually would be challenging to do. However, Luon had a weapon just for this situation.

    Dashing towards one of the mech¡¯s legs he stabbed his sword into one of it, creating a gap within its frame. Luon quickly tossed something small within the hole and promptly ran away. As he was doing so, he yelled at his team, ¡°Run!¡±

    Hearing him say so, Bendan, Gizmo, and Tyron felt this scene to be relatively familiar and quickly ran away as fast as possible.

    The members in Team Plana became confused and had a sudden thought, ¡®Could they be stalling to summon more things out of their Crypt of Heroes?¡¯

    Their sudden realization made the five feel the urgency of the situation, with their base, devastated they needed to destroy their opponents, and at the same time defend their base from their opponents. Fortunately, because this was the national stage, the Crypt of Heroes was several times more robust compared to online matches.

    Without proper equipment, it was difficult to deal with.

    They decided to run and take down each soldier while they still have the chance as they chased after Gizmo who ran the slowest.

    ¡°Why me!!¡± yelled Gizmo as he frantically ran.

    All the sudden he heard a click, and within the leg of the titan, an explosion occurred enveloping the titan and Gizmo with it.

    Luon¡¯s tendency to bomb things was as strong as ever¡­ If only his bombs were strong enough to destroy the Crypt of Heroes.

 Chapter 81 - Nexus Vs Plana 3

    The second battle ended as Luon victoriously returned to the waiting room. To the crowd, he was merely an interesting character, but that was it. He wasn¡¯t the first person to use explosives during key moments of the Alliance Tournament, and he won¡¯t be the last. The idea of using whatever you could get your hands on is highly respected, and bombs were one of those things.

    Of course, this included the regulated usage of nuclear weaponry, but that in itself is strange if it appeared within the average citizen''s hands, Luon might be brought in for questioning if he had used one.

    Luon went to sit down at his spot, but before he did, he shot a glance towards Arisa as if relaying to her that he did his side of the bargain, and it was her turn to make up for it.

    After the two met eyes, Arisa got up to rally her teammates before the final match determining the success of the Nexus solar system.

    ¡°It was quite the interesting match we had last round, how did you feel about it?¡± asked the male announcer during the break time of the matches.

    ¡°Although it was quite the respectable effort for the team from the Plana Academia to construct a titan, the fact that it has a lot of vulnerable weaknesses was still present in the design. Well with failure, success will always follow afterward. Hopefully, next year Plana Academia would rethink about using such a strategy,¡± analyzed the female announcer.

    ¡°Haha, although you are right about that, to be honest, I felt the strategy was quite good, maybe if they were able to swap two of their engineers with warriors they might have fared a little better. It¡¯s as you said success will always come after failure, no matter how many times failure repeats itself. What was the more interesting part of the match would be the gear used from Nexus University, as expected from a technological oriented solar system we found that their use of gadgets is profound¡­ Who am I kidding, a bomb? That¡¯s probably the most generic sounding thing to do,¡± the male announcer said.

    ¡°But it¡¯s also the most effective,¡± the female announcer giggled and pointed out.

    ¡°It was the most effective thing used, the spirit of explosives is strong as ever. It truly surprises us on what kind of form it comes in when we watch the Alliance Tournament, I think the frequency rate is about 1 every 3 years, back during the...¡± said the male announcer as he started to go off the tangent.

    But before he could ruin the broadcast by covering old personal stories, the female announcer suddenly said, ¡°And our next match would without a doubt be the most exciting, an all girl¡¯s team representing Nexus University versus two orcs, two dwarves and 1 elf from Plana Academia. This may be the end of Nexus considering that this line up from Plana Academia is their main attack force.¡±

    ¡°Oh, and how did you figure that out,¡± questioned the male announcer who stopped lecturing about strange stories.

    ¡°Why because a few members of their team are actually famous. The two orcs representing them were actually known to have helped repel Inzektors that had attacked the Plana solar system last year as their kill out had surpassed most of their peers, and beside them, the elven warrior on their team had also participated and nabbed the number one spot for killing Inzektors. It¡¯s too bad that just as fast you could kill them their method of reproducing is too darn high, as well as how spaced out everything is about their race. Their frequent attacks on the Plana solar system forces the students to fight them off annually,¡± said the female announcer.

    ¡°It is quite sad to see them actively fighting on the front-lines. No matter how much technology advances we¡¯re still unable to match up against the reproduction rate of the Inzektor race, if it weren¡¯t for those powerful warriors of the past, we may have already been defeated, but now the amount of new technology developed every year is slowly dropping while the Inzektors are slowly adapting. If nothing were to change then we might be facing another hundred years of constant wars,¡± the male announcer depressingly said.

    The two of them became silent, a universe filled continuously with war, there was a lot of hope placed into the Vortex Container which was publicized forty years ago, and yet no astounding, war-shattering existence had appeared.

    Minutes of silence past as the female announcer had suddenly said, ¡°Enough of the depressing talk, let¡¯s just get the action underway. It seems that while we were sorrowing in our despair, the match had already started.¡±

    It was already several minutes into the match, unlike the other two teams from Plana Academia, the way the main team played it out appeared to be very standard. There was no cheesy rush attack tactic nor was there a technological rush to focus on a sending a specialized, difficult to deal with, types of Unit out. Their base steadily grew as the two dwarven engineers were placed to work, with the elf warrior in command the two orcs patrolled their region as they slowly expanded their influence.

    It appears that both teams were building some kind of robot, while the ones on Arisa side were operated by an AI system integrated with a command signal in the form of an RTS game, the other hand appeared to be using pilots for their robots which were more massive in scale. In fact, these robots required at least 4-5 different pilots and the difference in numbers became 1 to 40.

    But it wasn¡¯t without a purpose, this giant robot was easily able to decimate the robots who rained a series of bullets on them until their tactic change where the robots from Nexus began to use terrain advantages and heavy weaponry to take it out.

    Stuck in a stalemate, Arisa left Shizuka to operate the units, the automated manufacturing process, and the command table while she stepped up on the front lines with Keyral, Kiri, and Belle to deal with their opponent''s robots.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Unlike the one Luon¡¯s group had faced these colossal titans were easier dealt with as they weren¡¯t as large, and they were made to be mass-produced.

    But as they had done so, it also prompted the orc warriors to face off against their group. The average level of Arisa¡¯s party was 77 while the orcs were naturally 75. Once they figured out they were at a disadvantage, the two orcs equipped the bloodlust mask making their level rise up until they were both 79.

    It seemed that the border between 79 and 80 was quite a difference.

    The two were struggling before fought Arisa¡¯s party to a standstill, Arisa sword clashed against the orcs axe while Belle shot at the orc from the side which was blocked by his shield on the other hand. Alternating the pressure, Belle had also shot at the orc Keyral was dealing with which caused him to stay defensive as he only used a two-handed greatsword.

    ¡°Enough of this, come brother let¡¯s deal with the puny ranger first. These pesky bullets are annoying!¡± said the orc as he rose his sword and charged towards Belle.

    The other orc wanted to follow suit, but was stopped by Arisa as she said, ¡°You¡¯re not leaving that easily.¡±

    The orc laughed as he said, ¡°It won¡¯t matter, my brother will take care of her soon enough.¡±

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Arisa smiled mysteriously to his remark, it was at this time he heard a scream coming from the direction of where his brother was.

    He turned and looked as he saw a pair of swords impaling his brother from behind, Kiri whose presence had vanished since the start of the fight suddenly appeared behind the orc causing life-threating injuries to him. The orc tipped backward as he slowly let go of his great sword. Pulling out the two swords leaving two trails of blood, Kiri took the opportunity to end the orc¡¯s misery as she hacked off his head as it flew off.

    His brother''s head flew towards his direction the orc felt rage as the bloodlust mask, as if it were alive, provided him power that grew with that blinded rage.

    All of the sudden this anger vanished as a sweet and delicate voice echoed within his ears causing him to feel a sudden chill strangling his neck, ¡°My, oh my. I hope you didn¡¯t forget about me now.¡±

    His sight began to turn as his field of vision rotated in multiple different directions, it was at that moment he realized, ¡°Ah, it seems I died the same way.¡±

    Vanishing after being beheaded the group tirelessly regrouped as Belle suddenly said, ¡°Was it just me, or did you guys feel like that head said something before it vanished.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say that! That sounds very creepy!¡± bellowed Keyral.

    ¡°It¡¯s probably just you,¡± Kiri said as she swung her sword around as if she was trying to remove the orc blood from it.

    ¡°Nevermind that we still have a task to do,¡± said Arisa as she had also done the same thing.

    The four girls pressed on, as they continued to defeat their enemies, alongside Shizuka¡¯s army of robots they appeared before the enemies base where their commander had stepped forward.

    The elven warrior said, ¡°Hello ladies, may I have the honor of a one on one match between commanders?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t kid with me, you¡¯re just saying that because you¡¯re placed at a disadvantage, come on let¡¯s just end all of this with one giant group fight,¡± said Belle.

    The elven warrior shrugged as he pulled out a sword before preparing his stance, he intimidatingly said, ¡°Well at least I tried, come I¡¯ll show you what defeat truly means.¡±

    Slowly he placed a bloodlust mask over his face, unlike the orc warriors before he was already as powerful as his combat level was already 79. The bloodlust mask had merely increased that value by one level. His strength was equivalent to the Clamaris that Luon¡¯s team had faced before.

    Arisa and her group slowly spread themselves out and encircled the warrior, the elf did not respond to this action as he vigilantly stared at his foes.

    It was at this moment, Keyral responded by dashing in towards him, armed with a heavy shield and sword she attempted to slash him with her sword, and he parried the attack before the two began to exchange blows. The impact was enormous as the waves of pressure shot out in multiple directions everytime their attacks met. Keyral was placed in a desperate position as she found that he was stronger than what she had expected. However, she was not alone. Belle shot her rifle at him causing him to avoid and parry those attacks while Arisa initiated an attack on the other side.

    The elven warrior was forced back as he continually repositioned himself while dealing with all three attacks.

    All of the sudden he stabbed his sword in the empty space behind him, completely halting their attacks as they saw a figure appear out of nowhere. Kiri who attempted to assassinate him failed as he said, ¡°You almost got me there. However, I took into consideration your presence. If you timed your attack differently, I might have fallen to your hands, but you fell for my trap once you exposed yourself to the weakness I intentionally made.¡±

    Pulling out his sword from her stomach he silently uttered, ¡°Better luck, next time.¡±

    Kiri fell backward and vanished from the battleground. This action angered the other three as their attacks harshly fell upon him.

    But before they could even end his life or he could end theirs the match was over. Since the elven warrior was too preoccupied with them, Shizuka and her robot army decimated the opposing robot army and destroyed the unguarded Crypt of Heroes.

    This victory left a bad aftertaste in Arisa¡¯s mouth as she silently gazes at the vanishing figure of the elf who fought the three of them without a single scratch on him.

    ¡­

    ¡°What an intense display of swordsmanship, as expected from the elven warrior who ranked first from Plana Academia, isn¡¯t that right?¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°It was quite an elegant exchange, but those females didn¡¯t let us down. That fast-paced event sent shivers down my spine, is it me or is it getting cold in here,¡± the female announcer replied lightly.

    ¡°Haha, you''re probably talking about the stony stare that their team leader made. That truly was an ice-cold face,¡± the male announcer said.

    ¡°I think most of the members of the crowd felt the same,¡± nodded the female announcer.

    From a distance two different people had extremely polar feelings about Arisa, Valerie indifferently gazed at the video and said, ¡°Although I can admit she is skilled, it¡¯s too bad she¡¯s still too weak for me. Without her NG-Arms, her level would merely be 64¡­ why won''t someone interesting be in this tournament? Maybe the princess from the Aqua Kingdom may entertain me a little bit.¡±

    Compared to how Valerie felt nothing special at her display, Deminier was gazing at the series with desire. With a demonic succubus in his arms, he groped her body as he said, ¡°Hehe, and this cold-face beauty will soon be mine...¡±

    ¡°Will your highness throw me away too after obtaining her,¡± the succubus coyly said.

    ¡°Of course not! All of the women in the universe belongs to me! Hahaha! We¡¯ll dominate the matches together, and she will end up in my hands! I¡¯ll leave you to train her during our battle,¡± said Deminier.

    ¡°It is your highness will,¡± said the succubus as she continued to service him.

    ¡®I¡¯ll be sure to train her alright...¡¯ the succubus thought inwardly.

    If Nexus continued on in the tournament, they were bound to face their team on their third match during the semi-finals.

 Chapter 82 - Prelude To The Next Battle

    The matches for Nexus University were finished for today, but Luon, Arisa, and the others stayed to watch the remaining matches. Especially the one after theirs, as the winner of this segment would turn out to be their opponents for their next match.

    But to their disappointment, the next match wasn¡¯t that informative, it was between Atlantica Royal School and Harmonic Forest. The result turned evident as Atlantica Royal School came out on top.

    Harmonic Forest specialized in food production techniques and regulating vegetation for mass production, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise that they had lost. Populated with beings like Dryads, Treants, Elves, and other beings that support nature they support the majority of the solar systems food supply in trade, especially from where Titan¡¯s Valley and Dragon¡¯s Lair was located.

    Harmonic Forest participation in the combat segment was merely just for show. There was no need for them to try too hard as they were able to quickly able to recuperate for their losses in trade.

    Since Harmonic Forest wasn¡¯t able to get Atlantica Royal School to display their strength, their abilities were currently unknown to them. Although Luon could see the combat levels, it was pointless as actual combat would turn out much differently than just merely guessing by how their combat levels.

    Atlantica Royal School is a school developed for Commanders in their solar system, unlike the other solar systems this school openly exchanges students with their sister school, Ocean Guardian Foundations who specialized in developing soldiers in a militaristic fashion.

    With the top commander students from two solar systems and the top soldiers as well, Luon suspects that their opponents may turn out to be challenging to deal with.

    The next match made his suspicions turn true, it was between Kien Sect and Ocean Guardian Foundation. Since the battle strength of Ocean Guardian Foundation was similar to Atlantica Royal School Luon found them to be quite powerful.

    Kien Sect which was full of human cultivators, and although they won against Ocean Guardian Foundation due to their pure strength stumbled upon their strategies as the score was very close at 2 to 1. Without a doubt, their next match is going to be much tougher than the previous one, Luon thought as he looked at the Merman equipped with heavy armor.

    Although he could only estimate his next opponent''s strength, Luon could also recognize one other factor in their opponent''s strategy. The type of map that they are going to be using is going to be filled with water.

    Just as Luon was pondering about their opponents, Arisa stood up inside the booth and walked over to Zythos and said, ¡°So. What do you have to say about losing your match?¡±

    Zythos turned to her and said, ¡°We were just matched badly if we had faced Luon¡¯s opponents instead we could have easily won the match.¡±

    Luon thought about what he had just said and nodded inwardly, without a doubt Luon would find Plana Academia¡¯s first set of students to be troublesome to deal with. Although, he had faced against heavy soldiers before they turned out to be quite annoying as they had to use particular methods like armor-piercing skills, attacks that damaged the internal organs and spells that restricted their opponent''s movements.

    But even then Luon felt like his team would have been able to adapt and handle it properly which is why he didn¡¯t say anything after Zythos had made his stance. Arisa who had received his answer merely scoffed and said, ¡°Well hopefully your next opponent would be much easier to deal with right?¡±

    Before Zythos could answer her someone else turned out much faster as they said, ¡°Of course it would be much easier to deal with! Since I¡¯ll be starting my debut during the next match! Just leave it to me.¡±

    Janet who had been silent the whole time deciding how to handle her universal debut shot up and said those reassuring words. Both Arisa and Luon recognizes Janet¡¯s strength, and although they weren¡¯t sure how strong she was in the water, they both felt that she might be able to handle it right.

    But there was someone else who didn¡¯t think so, Zythos the team leader said, ¡°You want to join in now? No way, if you join then who do we have to sub out?¡±

    Qi Ren stepped in and said, ¡°We should sub out him right? The next map is filled with water, so the circumstances aren¡¯t that favorable to him.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    Qi Ren pointed towards the tiger beastmen as he said that, the very fact that he was able to guess what kind of map their opponents were going to pick earned Luon¡¯s respect for him since it was still merely a possibility.

    The tiger beastmen nodded as he continues to sit down, seeing his reaction Janet stepped up and said, ¡°And there you have it! Any other problems you want to add?¡±

    Zythos shook his head in denial as he said, ¡°No if the commander of my team said to sub you in, then so be it.¡±

    Zythos stood up as he sent his gaze across the room as he said, ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll see you all tomorrow.¡±

    With that remark, Zythos and his team members minus Janet left the room. It seemed that they were no longer interested in watching the remaining matches between Titan¡¯s Valley and Lemegeton.

    Janet looked at their vanishing figure and inappropriately gestured a curse as they were gone, she said, ¡°What a prick, so over-demanding. It looks like I have my work cut out for me.¡±

    Arisa pulled her aside as she said, ¡°It¡¯s too bad we can only have teams of 5, I would have wholeheartedly welcome you to my team otherwise.¡±

    Janet gave her a bright smile as she said, ¡°You''re just interested in my sword techniques right? Your techniques ain''t that bad as well. Rather than recruiting me I feel like you want to spar with me, ain¡¯t that right?¡±

    Arisa gave neither confirmation or denial as the two of them began to talk about other topics such as fashion, perfume and other things which made Luon focus on the current battle. The score was even between Titan¡¯s Valley and Lemegeton, at first Titan¡¯s Valley dominated their first match with overwhelming strength, since they were the largest school filled with monsters, mixed races and other beings such as ogres, Oni which was a different species than the demonic race and highly resembled ogres, and other similar beings.

    The strength of an ogre was something that shouldn¡¯t be underestimated, as well as, the power of an Oni which was a miniaturized version of it. In fact, during their match, one of those ogres shattered their opponents with a single punch causing a gruesome scene to appear on stage. Everyone believe that Titan¡¯s Valley, the sister school of Avalon may have won this battle after the first match, but found themselves dumbstruck with the next match.

    As expected from the third-ranked battle academy from the previous year, they had won using hypnotic seduction magic emitted from a succubus to confuse Titan¡¯s Valley frontlines. They were apparently not prepared for this as they were unable to respond before they had lost the match.

    With a score of 1 to 1, it was anyone¡¯s game, equipped with hypnotic resistance devices Titan¡¯s Valley rose towards to the battleground once more only to suffer a stifling defeat. They had lost in the very category that they had specialized in, strength. With Deminier in the lead Lemegeton had overpowered Titan¡¯s Valley, it seems that this year Lemegeton became much stronger compared to the previous ones.

    Arisa who was talking to Janet carefully analyzed this match. If their team had fought against Lemegeton, she didn¡¯t know how the result would turn out. Feeling a little depressed she silently stood up and left the room, and following after Arisa departure, her team has left as well. Janet who doesn¡¯t know about the situation between her and Deminier was slightly confused but was able to read the mood. Giving the monitor a quick glance she had also left the room.

    The matches for the day were over as the live broadcast was now switching over to rebroadcasts of the previous matches.

    Luon decided to stay a little longer to study some of their opponent''s combat abilities bidding farewell to his teammates. Rather than focusing on teams he slowly analyzed the strongest competitors on each team, and there were 4 significant people in his eyes. Deminier from Lemegeton was without a doubt strong, he had overpowered an ogre with a saber in his hand. His saber techniques were around the same level that Luon and had shown signs of with consistent training. On the other hand, another person to worry about was a person from Kien Sect, they weren¡¯t like a rich young master but was as powerful as the average 100-year-old cultivator, reaching the combat level of 81, the same as Deminier.

    ¡®As expected from a Demon,¡¯ Luon thought. But Deminier wasn¡¯t the only one with this physical advantage. In fact, Luon was more wary of the ogre warrior who had transferred over from Titan¡¯s Valley to Dragon¡¯s Lair. At level 82, he alone could stand as the vanguard against the entire Heavenly Sanctuary team. Winning the other two matches would be very important when going up against them.

    The last person Luon was careful about was from Sea Emperor Palace, the princess from the Aqua Kingdom. Although she was a princess in name, there were many other princes and princesses as there are fish in the ocean. She appeared wise for her age as she perfectly commanded the battle against Heavenly Authority Academy, and was ridiculously strong as she dealt with an assassin who appeared before her in the last minute.

    Luon felt that if he had to face her, it might turn out a little difficult. Fortunately, he may not have to as their third opponent would more than likely be Dragon¡¯s Lair.

    Rather than focusing on opponents he may or may not be facing. It was better to think of the current situation. First, he needed to win against Atlantica Royal School before battling against either Kien Sect or Lemegeton.

    Seeing how there was no useful information about Atlantica Royal School Luon logged out of the lobby and began training in a private server. After a few minutes of exercise did he stopped. Training is an essential aspect of getting stronger, but so is rest. Rather than continue to worry about things, it was much easier to sleep things out.

    The world turned black as Luon closed his eyes to enter deep sleep, sleeping is without a doubt the best way to remove stress from our daily lives.

    And after a good night¡¯s rest, the next series of battles began.

 Chapter 83 - Nexus vs Atlantica Royal School 1

    Another day, another set of battles were quickly completed in the tournament. To no surprise Dragon¡¯s Lair advanced on after defeating Daemon¡¯s Gate with a score of 2 to 0. After that pairing was also a battle that didn¡¯t create any controversy as Sea Emperor Palace demolished the technologically developed Magician¡¯s Tower.

    Since the most practical technology were openly shared, an engineer would only play a minor role during these battles. Without a doubt having strong combatants that are able to use these devices or forego them as they were found unnecessary are the much-preferred option.

    Half of the day had progressed at it was now time for the match between Nexus University and Atlantica Royal School to begin. The predicted outcome of this match was difficult to determine, and although Nexus University had a decent result during the first match, the strength behind Atlantica Royal School was unknown, making the bets for this matchup 1 to 1.

    Having discussed earlier, the team leaders of Nexus University decided that the battle order stayed the same. Although Zythos may have lost the first match, it was nothing to fret about as long as they won, and with Janet being extremely confident of her debut no one could complain about the selection order.

    With Janet leading their team the match started with both sides choosing an ocean associated map. Luon questioned her mental sanity on why she would choose a map with the enemy having such a huge terrain advantage. It wasn¡¯t only him who thought as much, the crowd looked perplexed at the lineup, from their perspective the team from Nexus replaced their team leader to a girl from a dog. It may appear visually better than before but it made no sense to them how they were going to win.

    The next several minutes changed that mindset though, it was a crazy first battle that no one had honestly expected. Since there was no restriction from both of these battle academies, they both rushed at each other right away.

    It¡¯s been ages since someone had chosen an ocean field against a battle academy from the Aqua Kingdom, the people who had done so were either ignorant or plain arrogant. The overconfident members of the Aqua Kingdom, although the weakest team were level 74. NG-Arms were challenging to use in the ocean unless they were outfitted to perform so, and the only one without waterproof NG-Arms was the team members from Team Warbeast except for Janet who had hers specially retrofitted for water maps.

    Despite the team leader, Janet left Zythos and the others in command at the beach after summoning a regular surfboard to surf towards the direction of the enemy base by herself. Zythos and the others shook their head, rather than help she created an insane amount of handicaps. Leaving her alone they began to build structures and vehicles that would help them out in the water.

    What they didn¡¯t know was that after Janet had left she encountered their enemy halfway through the map. There were 4 fishmen soldiers against Janet, and they were especially energetic knowing that almost the whole map was their territory. They had a savage appearance which made Janet frown a little, they had razor sharp teeth that had looked like a decaying yellow fang from a shark, and rough scales as if they were lizards. She couldn¡¯t help but mutter, ¡°There is no cure to ugliness, they smell like fish despite always taking a bath, don¡¯t know anything about hygiene, naturally they are ugly...¡±

    Her words hurt them just a tiny bit as she continues to mutter insults, but they didn¡¯t care that much as their taste and culture were more different than hers. The little lass also gave them a free victory, so why should they care about it!

    With their morale high, they uniformly attacked Janet only be struck dumb by her moves. Like a fish in water, she dodges their movements as their attacks glazes by her skin, and with a sword in her hand, she gutted these fishmen soldiers with clean solid strikes.

    These fishmen were dumbfounded, if it weren¡¯t for the armor they were wearing, they would have already lost to her. Seeing the situation was difficult for them to handle despite the terrain advantage they used the bloodlust mask. It seems that they have secretly collaborated with Plana Academia and managed to obtain these items. Too bad that despite wearing these mask they could only reach a minor standstill against her.

    Their furious swipes increased in tempo as her dance like evasive maneuvers effectively dealt with their performance boost. Luon who was spectating this admired her abilities, to handle four them like if they were children is difficult even for him to do.

    It wasn¡¯t until she was able to eliminate one did the situation began to tilt in her favor, and before the crowd¡¯s eyes were the dead soldiers from Sea Emperor Palace.

    To no surprise after this intense fight did Nexus claim the victory over the first match. Zythos and the other teammates managed to arrive at the enemy base by the time Janet appeared before them waiting as if they had taken centuries to travel over there. Despite playing a minor part, if none at all, the others were happy to have won the match.

    Janet felt her debut was perfect, she was indeed the shining star of this match as she began to garner more and more fans. With Janet''s beautiful swordplay and her good looks, there was no way Janet wouldn¡¯t have any fans. Luon looked at this scene strangely as he thought, ¡®It seems like a successful debut, but only for a sword maiden. I think she forgot that idols are supposed to sing and dance¡­¡¯

    Luon kept his thoughts to himself as Janet happily came into the general waiting room giving people high fives.

    Just before the next match was about to begin Janet stopped in front of Luon and rose her hand. Luon simply thought she wanted a high five and followed suit. However, just before they had made impact Janet twisted her body, a resonating clap sound and stinging pain appeared on Luon¡¯s hand.

    Janet looked triumphantly at Luon who grunted from the pain as she said, ¡°Go get them!¡±

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Luon wryly smiled from her over-enthusiastic remark and departed from the room with his team behind him.

    The next match started without notice and Luon had chosen the cliffside map once more. As expected their opponents had also selected an ocean type map and the game began. Luon started to construct his robot army and structures while their opponents showed no signs of movements.

    It wasn¡¯t possible to send Tyron to scout out their opponents as their opponent''s field was filled with water. The slightest wave while swimming could alarm their opponents. Which is why Luon sent some basic waterproof robotic scouts into the water.

    ¡°Hahaha! Looks like I am ahead now!¡± said Bendan as he raised his rod up.

    ¡°Just you wait! I¡¯ll get another one! I¡¯ll get the most out of all of us!¡± said Gizmo with determination.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way you can, I mean look how many Tyron has. You have to pull a miracle to catch up,¡± said Bendan.

    Tyron slightly nodded as he continues to score more points.

    The map was quiet, as Luon was still constructing and their opponents haven''t appeared yet. Bendan, Gizmo, and Tyron who were completely bored asked Luon to toss a bunch of fish into a little pond they made and started to fish.

    To fish in front of the Aquatic Races, what guts these guys have. Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with fishing for food or recreational activities as they don¡¯t mind at all. It was like how cows and other animals were raised by humans for food, the intelligent Aquatic races fed off of either vegetation or fish.

    ¡°Why is nothing happening? How come the scouts haven¡¯t found anything yet?¡± said Luon as he evaluates the information displayed on the commander table. It was then he realized that the scouts he had sent had been looping around under the water!

    Their opponent''s terrain wasn¡¯t just a natural open spaced ocean, their base was located within a series of underwater channel with a castle of rock shaped structures underneath.

    Luon started to record the path that they had explored so far and managed to solve the water flow puzzle. He felt like he was playing puzzle game where the floor panels would force the user to a particular direction.

    It was then he realized their opponent''s strategy, their opponents this match were 4 water turtles and 1 sea serpent. The turtles were spewing out water, and the seaserpent manipulated the current sending outwards. Luon sent his robot around and found their Crypt of Heroes producing more turtles that also began to spew out water. Although the maps were quite expansive, they were fixed to particular dimensions, beyond that were solid walls which disallowed any particle to leave the area.

    Luon hurried down the cliff and measured the water levels. Apparently, their opponent''s strategy was to drown the map with water. With his estimates, it would take an hour to drown the map.

    During that time Luon could save for a hero unit to attack their foes, but with the water advantage their choices were restricted, and even if he did save for one, their opponents might summon their own to counter them.

    It was a slow death, yet a death nonetheless. He needed to do something to turn the tides of the battle, and he needed to do it fast. Luon sent the scout around to evaluate the surroundings, and besides the roof above the Crypt of Heroes, all the other pathways led to multiple smaller tunnels. It wasn¡¯t possible to travel in the opening above as an intense amount of water pressure was leaving that region.

    Without a force beyond the amount, it was emitting it was impossible to travel through.

    ¡®What should I do here?¡¯ Thought Luon as he began to consult with Gizmo. Sadly, both of them never experienced this kind of situation before.

    ¡°What a battle! This is a never before seen strategy by Atlantica Royal School!¡± If it works out right then they may be able to use this against every other team in the tournament!¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°What will Team Nexus do? Even I don¡¯t know what to do in this situation,¡± said the female announcer with a perplexed face.

    ¡°This could be a new era! As expected from unique perspectives of the commander from Atlantica Royal School,¡± said the male announcer.

    The play by play was very dull as there was nothing much to talk about.

    Luon pondered over and over again, there were only two options for him to reach their opponent''s side of the field, either take the complex tunnels or the surface above.

    It was just then he heard a report from the operator using the scout, it seems that he was spotted and destroyed and the path to their base changed.

    There was no solution to this problem, he needed to breakthrough from the top opening with force beyond the amount of pressure release, but all he had was an army of robots and his cliffside map with a single ramp.

    It then came to him, a solution to bring him victory. Grabbing a pen and a paper he rapidly wrote a design with a series of complex calculations, taking him a few minutes to do. After reading the data, he nodded and started to bring the design to life.

    The way to victory, he could finally see the path.

 Chapter 84 - Nexus Vs Atlantica Royal School 2

    It was havoc, there were yelling and screaming everywhere as the robotic operators were working on the designs that Luon had just given them and demanded that they needed to finish it within 10 minutes.

    Looking over the document, they found that some segments were quite feasible to do while the other part will may just barely be completed.

    Despite being a simple AI, they were astonished at how accurate Luon was able to predict the estimated time it would take to construct this layout. Gizmo, Bendan, and Tyron who were fishing earlier arrived to witness the construction that was being done and their facial expressions dropped.

    Why would Luon consider making this? Could this even work? Heck, why is it even here! Various thoughts echoed throughout their minds before Luon lightly tapped their shoulders waking them up from their stupor. Before they could ask Luon about the plan, he pointed towards the ocean and said, ¡°Go over there and keep watch, if anything just go fishing and don¡¯t bother us. If you need something just go summon it at the command table, I don¡¯t really need points at this moment.¡±

    Luon walked by them as he knew how big of a difference each second could possibly make if his plan gets exposed it may jeopardize everything, he needed to be quick and secretive of it and by having the others guard the docks was an effective way to do so. Thomas who followed after him gave a sympathetic gaze at the three before turning his head away.

    Gizmo turned towards his fishing buddies and asked, ¡°Do you guys want to change the bait? Normal fishes ain¡¯t that interesting anymore.¡±

    Bendan thought about it for a moment and said, ¡°Sure, but it can¡¯t be expensive, Luon would get mad if we bought rainbowfishes or something along the lines like that.¡±

    ¡°He said he doesn¡¯t care, so why should we care? Come on let¡¯s get something huge!¡± said Gizmo enthusiastically.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget we¡¯re being broadcasted live, we¡¯ll be seen as wastrels if we did that in an official match,¡± Bendan pointed out.

    The two of them debated on what kind of bait that they should use while Tyron silent drew something on the ground using his arrows.

    Just as the two were split between two decisions, they turned towards Tyron to ask for his opinion when they found him doing his own thing by himself. Just as Gizmo was about to ask Tyron for his opinion, Bendan tapped his shoulder stopping him. Gizmo turned around only to find Bendan pointing towards what Tyron was drawing.

    The two of them stared at the drawing before looking at each other and nodding, it appears that they had decided on what kind of bait they would use.

    As Luon and Thomas took command over the site while Bendan, Gizmo, and Tyron were fishing, on the other side of the map their enemies grew slightly curious of what approach their enemies would make. Since they were spotted earlier, the Sea Serpent continuously sent waves of pressure out towards the channels while consistently changing them. From time to time he would be able to find Luon¡¯s scouts but no signs of any real enemies.

    Little did he know those scouts were just spares that had been designed to distract them.

    Seeing no signs of the enemy, the Sea Serpent decided to send out a little scout to see what was happening with their enemies only to find a devastating scene.

    There were 3 men beside the water surface with towering poles waving left and right as the wire shot like a beam throughout a cityscape. The hook flew and attached itself onto their prey as they were lifted and flew upwards to their doom, sad cries were made as if a person was just abducted by aliens in front of everyone. The fiendish three no longer looked like human men to the eyes of the scout, they were more like devils as they foolishly grinned and laughed while hunting down innocent and tiny targets they practice on, turtles.

    This devastating scene was displayed to the eyes of all of their people down at their base, and they stopped producing water. Even the Sea Serpent appeared dumbfounded he didn¡¯t think that instead of building an army half of their enemies team were just screwing around and fishing turtles.

    It was then he suddenly remembered something, turtles. The Sea Serpent looked at his subordinates and found their eyes to be filled with anger. Although they weren¡¯t small turtles anymore they still treated all turtles as their kin, they might not have been able to halt the turtle soup business, but to fool around with their brethren was openly taunting them.

    Everyone on the scene turned towards the Sea Serpent and waited for his command. Despite their anger, they still had enough reasoning to follow more authority figures. The Sea Serpent couldn¡¯t help but sigh, he knew that if he didn¡¯t agree with them, then they would take it easy while producing more water, or the polar opposite reaction shoots so much water that they aren¡¯t able to properly pace it.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    It was like running a marathon, it was easier to take your time and steadily breathe rather than sprint all the way from the start to the end.

    Ultimately, he decided that the attack force he would send out would consist of half of the turtles there at the moment, some more summoned warriors, and all of these were led by two turtle soldiers.

    The remainder had to stay to fulfill the initial plan of filling the whole region with water, it may take half an hour to an hour, but it should be no big deal for him.

    The dispatched force departed after the Sea Serpent had dispersed the waves of pressure that shot outwards. Once they had left entirely, he set up the barrier once more but found that because of the lack of turtles the pressure dropped by nearly 40 percent.

    It was still a problematic amount of pressure to deal with, but it may allow some intruders to bypass their defenses. He considered getting more turtles but decided against it. Who knows if their enemies will actually come or not, for all he knows they could be making heroic units.

    The army of turtles and sea creatures arrived at the beach where the three devils were playing at. It felt like it was operation D-Day, otherwise known as the Battle at Normandy if one had to refer to history except for the fact it was more akin to turtles returning to the beach where they were born from.

    The little baby turtles that were flung high and silently released on the beach began to stutter away into the ocean, only to take a few steps in the water before being flung again. This horrendously scary game of theirs incited even more anger from the turtles, they let off a howl and a battle cry as they charged at the three.

    Tyron who was the most sensitive one out of three found their enemies from afar and pointed them out towards Bendan and Gizmo who were surprised to see their enemies.

    ¡°Woah, Luon was right. It seemed like the enemy actually did come for us!¡± said Gizmo as he pulled out his rifle and started raining havoc on his foes.

    ¡°Do you think they found out what Luon was doing already?¡± said Bendan as repelled an intruder off with his sword.

    ¡°Highly unlikely, because if they did, they would have long passed by us. We don¡¯t have enough people to cover the entire beach after all,¡± said Gizmo.

    ¡°Hey¡­ is it just me or do you feel like their aiming just for us,¡± questioned Bendan as he stabbed his sword into the gut of a turtle warrior.

    ¡°That¡¯s a silly thought, why would they aim for us? We didn¡¯t do anything that would annoy them now, did we? All we did was fish some...¡± Gizmo¡¯s words trailed off as he suddenly realized the connection. The ferocious, tenacity the turtles and sea creatures have, the baby turtle fishing they did earlier, and the fact that they aren¡¯t by passing them, these connections quickly made Gizmo realized that they were the cause of all this trouble. He looked at Tyron whose eyes met his for a brief moment before Tyron promptly looked away.

    Gizmo looked at their foes and openly cursed.

    Fortunately, the sea creatures and turtles were too blinded with hate to the point that they were unable to recognize words. Otherwise, Bendan and Gizmo would have given the plan away already.

    Away from the beach that was currently engaging their enemies, Luon and his team of hard working troops finished creating the design that was recorded on the document. Before their eyes, a giant railway was built on the slope which had a ramp leading towards the sky at the very end of it. At the very top was something that anyone could recognize right away, it was a giant rocket built with extremely heavy, and explosive materials that filled it to the brim. A single mistake the whole base could have been blown up.

    Earlier Luon was about to set up some vegetation he found in the Crypt of Heroes which would hungrily absorb water and surround the perimeter around the top of the opening to relieve some pressure for the rocket to go in, but he found that the amount of force that their enemies had dropped within a tolerable level.

    Luon knew that this was the perfect time to attack, sending the signal the the team the rocket engine burst to a frightening speed as the wheels keeping it attached to the rails rattled while maintaining its sense of direction, eventually, the engine stopped, but it retained its speed as it shot down the slope before flying off the ramp.

    Like a snowboarder who just jumped off a cliff, it shot in the air and landed right where they wanted it to fall at, in the ocean as it dropped even faster down and it arrived right above the water pressured opening. The density and speed from the rocket fought against the pressure that was released by the Sea Serpent, but it was like a steel bolt penetrating steel armor and quickly bypass the opening and accurately hitting the enemies Crypt of Heroes.

    Everyone anticipated an enormous explosion, but after it made contact with the structure, nothing happened. Just as the crowd was wondering whether or not if it failed, Luon pressed a button causing the rocket to decimate the entire region.

    He wasn¡¯t sure whether or not the impact against the barrier would cause it to explode, so he made it operate by remote.

    The lights flashed, and everyone was teleported out. Nexus had beaten Atlantica Royal School with a score of 2 to 0.

    But the day wasn¡¯t over yet, Luon and the others stayed to watch the next match as the winner would end up being their next opponent. He wanted the people from Kien Sect to win despite most of them being rich and arrogant young masters. The other day, while they had a few days off before the tournament began, he had gotten close to their best student who had to climb up from being a poor citizen in the extremely competitive environment, and the two promised to see each other in battle later on.

    More importantly, he wanted to see Lemegeton lose since Luon felt these pricks don¡¯t deserve to be ranked highly. Luon turned to see how Arisa was doing who had unknowingly sat right beside him. Maybe it was due to the scene of where Luon stood up for her in front of Deminier did she feel more secured next to him. The two watch the battle, and at some point, she had overlapped her hand with his own and tightened her grip.

    Luon could feel how nervous she felt as he sighed at the results. Sadly, their opponents for the semi-finals was Lemegeton.

 Chapter 85 - Top 4

    The second day ended uneventfully, and at this moment, the tournament was halfway completed. Besides the expected Dragon¡¯s Lair, the others in the top four positions were Lemegeton, Sea Emperor Palace, and the dark horse that many of the audience believed to not deserve their spot in the rankings, Nexus University. It wasn¡¯t due to their lack of strength, reputation or anything along those lines. It was more because the opponents they had fought were rather lackluster.

    Plana Academia and Atlantica Royal School were usually ranked in the middle compared to the combat oriented schools and with Dragon¡¯s Lair eliminating most of the combat oriented teams, many believed that Nexus University had merely lucked their way to the top. However, their series of wins end here, nobody thought that they could beat Lemegeton.

    Previously ranked third under Heavenly Sanctuary these demonic beings composed of Doom Knights, Demons, Succubuses, and Undead Sorcerers was something very troublesome for Nexus University to deal with it.

    Before their matches began, the male announcer said, ¡°Congratulations and let¡¯s welcome, the top 4 best solar systems this year!¡±

    A round of applause circulated from the crowd, although there were some boring and unpleasant moments during these battles, most of the crowd found this year''s contest to be quite interesting.

    Excited from the attention, Janet waved her hand to the crowd more energetically than the others who were lightly doing so in response to his remark.

    After the crowd¡¯s reaction dimmed a little the groups retreated away from the stage, and the male announcer said, ¡°The matches so far have been very entertaining.¡±

    The female announcer nodded as she said, ¡°This may be one of the most entertaining ones so far in the last few years. There have been some insane matches before, and we have seen some crazy maneuvers used so far.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of crazy maneuvers that plan that Atlantica had in their second match was quite encouraging and unique, we can expect that next year''s results may not be the same. Although they lost this year, with failure there will always be some success,¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°But this year isn¡¯t over yet! I¡¯m very excited to see the future matches and see what the Sea Princess and Valerie from Dragon¡¯s Lair have to show. Valerie could be considered one of the best dragonkins for the past few years besides Athos, while the Sea Princess, Mei Ming is the best within her hundreds of brothers and sisters,¡± said the female announcer.

    ¡°It would be difficult to determine who turn out to be the winner between the two indeed, but this is a team battle, compared the Sea Princess team, Valerie¡¯s is rather solid,¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°That¡¯s mainly because of their team is full of all-stars from four solar systems. According to my research, the majority of their members were the top students from Titan¡¯s Valley, Magician¡¯s Tower and Harmonic Forest. Besides Valerie, her sub captain and two other members the rest are from different schools,¡± the female announcer pointed out.

    ¡°Compared to the Sea Emperor Palace they are in indeed underwhelming, but many still believe that they might create an upset,¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°Upset or not, the battle for third place after the top two are selected is something to look forward to. It looks like the first battle is about to start, as the map choices have been finalized,¡± said the female announcer.

    ¡°This...¡± the male announcer was speechless from the map selection and team lineups.

    ¡°...It¡¯s quite unexpected, to think Valerie¡¯s team would be placed in the first battle against Mei Ming¡¯s team who did the same thing! The top two teams are already battling each other in the first match! Not only that but the map they chose was the same, the default map that nobody uses!¡± the female announcer.

    Although many teams have chosen a map type more favorable to them the developers had left an empty map type for merely testing features that were open for anyone, they never would have thought this map would be picked at all.

    An enormous blank white room was created, and the two teams could see each other almost immediately. Although they were separated by several kilometers worth of distance, with Valerie¡¯s Dragon Eyes and Mei Ming¡¯s who received a telescope from her teammate, they were able to see each other.

    Despite being an empty blank room the border rule was still applied, and all the members from Dragon¡¯s Lair were unable to cross the border which was displayed a red line that had the width of a meter.

    Unlike the members of from Dragon¡¯s Lair, the members of Sea Emperor Palace weren¡¯t bound by these rules. Right away they summoned a bunch of human operators and departed to the border.

    Valerie frowned, unlike her teammates Mei Ming had chosen sea monsters as teammates. On top of four Lizard-like creatures were a team of humans and Mei Ming. She was curious and piqued about what tricks she had up her sleeves.

    Mei Ming voice resonated in the minds of the four sea monsters as they roared in response. The four of them charged towards the borderline just barely out of range of the magician.

    Cautiously the members of Dragon¡¯s Lair observed as the human operators jumped off the sea monsters and got to work. The sea monsters brought out a series of parts which was placed into the gear slots, and Mei Ming handed a blueprint to one of the humans who took command of the site.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Within three minutes 4 Gatling Gun shaped objects were attached to the sea monsters. The magician conjured up a barrier in anticipation of a ranged attack. He was confident of the strength of barrier and arrogantly gazed at their opponents. The Dryad beside him also had set up some trees as a precaution.

    Sure enough, the gun started to twirl except what confused people the most was that there were no bullets attached to the gun. In everyone''s mind, they wonder what it was going to shoot out. Blue streams of bullets came flying towards the members of Dragon¡¯s Lair. The bullets clashed against the barrier, however, to the magician''s dismay, it penetrated the barrier as if it were a knife slicing into warm butter.

    The bullets continued to fly piercing the series of trees without dropping an inch of speed. The scene was devastating as it had shocked both the Magician and the Dryad. Never before did these top students experience such a wondrous view, they didn¡¯t know what to do.

    It was at this moment the member from Titan¡¯s Valley jumped in front of the two and pulled out a shield that was enough to cover all three of them. The bullets weren¡¯t able to penetrate the shield, but the force was still able to carry over causing the three to fly backward. The muscular male contestant was a half-titan, and even with his strength, he was sent flying! He looked forward as he had seen an even scarier fact.

    Despite blocking the bullets, they were still completely intact as they pushed him back. The three of them felt as if they were hit by a car and were still being dragged around by it.

    Valerie widens her eyes in surprise, the weapon that Mei Ming used was potent. To Valerie¡¯s eyes, it was equivalent to a level 84 attack. The key point of this attack was the bullet that was used had the combination of several different energy types stored inside of it. There was a blue hue displaying it was a water element attack, and yet at the same time, there were a series of white dots.

    Valerie knew what those white dots represented, typically no one would have done such a thing in a real battle, but since it was a false reality, it made sense to use this technique. The four sea monsters injected both mana and life force into their attack creating a force to be reckoned with.

    The half-titan¡¯s body wobbled as his grip on the shield began to loosen, the moment he let go, he would immediately be eliminated by these terrifying bullets.

    The Magician and the Dryad desperately clung to his body as they tightened their grip. Soon a hand arrived at his back, or rather he came in front of Valerie as he had traveled over several kilometers from the point he had started at. Looking indifferently, Valerie sent her gaze at Mei Ming who¡¯s eyes happened to meet her own.

    She smiled at this brief exchange as she pushed the three team members aside, and openly taunted Mei Ming. Rather than responding kindly at her, Mei Ming told the sea monsters to lock on to a different target. She felt some killing intent as a new series of bullets were sent to Valerie who responded quickly as her sword and repelled the bullets.

    Unlike the half-titan, Valerie was able to calculate and change the trajectory of the bullet, so none of them had even grazed at her.

    Seeing how she had lost her firepower, Mei Ming equipped a spear and dashed in - to attack Valerie. While Valerie was level 85 naturally, Mei Ming was at level 83 without any power-ups. However, before she had begun the assault, she had equipped a bloodlust mask and her NG-Arms temporarily raising her level to be the same.

    The spear and sword clashed against one another, for the first few bouts there was no clear winner. As for their teammates, they were also found in a stalemate position. The members of Dragon¡¯s Lair were pinned by the suppressive fire as the sea monsters to continued to rain bullets on them.

    It was a frightening sight, the sea monsters depleted their life reserves without hesitation. If they continued to shoot they would soon run out of life points and die. But that moment never came, somehow Valerie managed to outplay Mei Ming¡¯s attack and dashed closed into range using movement type skill.

    Mei Ming who was caught by surprise tried to step back as a sword penetrated one of her legs. She screamed in pain as Valerie made quick work of her, relieving her from the battle. The match soon ended since Mei Ming was still registered as the commander of the match and the first battle went to Dragon¡¯s Lair.

    But Sea Emperor Palace didn¡¯t give up yet. On the second round, they sent the same line up once more as 4 other sea monsters were attached with a weapon loadout and wrecked their foes.

    However, Valerie had used the second match to evaluate the weapon that they had used and managed to create a strategy for their participants in the third match, bringing home the victory with a score of 2 to 1.

    This match made the crowd shiver, Sea Emperor Palace was very close to causing an upset of this era. If it weren¡¯t for Valerie who strategized a counter, then the one entering the finals wouldn¡¯t be the continuously reigning champion.

    The announcers quickly discuss over several segments of the match while interviewing the contestants and crowd about the match.

    At this moment, Luon, Arisa, and Zythos sat in front of each other for a meaningful discussion. Moments earlier the headmaster said it was okay to settle for fourth place and if it was possible, get a higher position. If they had lost, he wouldn¡¯t blame them for doing so. However, Luon and Arisa knew that this was a match they couldn¡¯t lose. In fact, Zythos had also identified the reason since he received a report from one of his spies who was roleplaying as a servant in the Nightwalker¡¯s family subsidiary divisions. His father said that it was his choice whether or not to win or lose, it didn¡¯t matter to him at all, thus confusing Zythos on what to do. If he won, Nexus University would get more resources which would make his father happy. If he were to lose, then all that would happen is that the Nightwalker family would lose an heir. They could always make another one, so this plan wasn¡¯t helpful to them.

    Although Daimon Werebringer wanted Zythos to win, no matter the result it there was still a positive thing that happens to them. As a result, his actions or the stance he took didn¡¯t matter to him.

    Arisa stood up, and the two looked at her, she then said, ¡°For this match, the line up will be my team, Zythos¡¯s team and then Luon¡¯s team.¡±

    ¡°Hey, hey, hey, and why is it that? Why should you go first?¡± asked Zythos.

    ¡°According to the previous matches, Deminier would predict our line up. He would go up first and beat Zythos before sending the succubus team in the last position. With Luon¡¯s mental resistance tools he¡¯ll find that an easy victory. As for their third team, there was nothing that amazing about them so I am sure even you can beat them in the second match,¡± analyzed Arisa.

    Luon nodded as he found her words to be entirely true. Although Zythos¡¯s wasn¡¯t satisfied, he didn¡¯t have too much an opinion on which battle he wanted to be in any way, so he decided to play along with it.

    With the first match of the semi-finals over. It was now time who would be the victor between Nexus and Lemegeton.

 Chapter 86 - Arisas Will 1

    Arisa selected her map choice with a hint of hesitation. She was dissatisfied at how dumb her logic was when she was deciding the battle placements. Only in an ideal world would her predictions be spot on.

    Why did things have to go wrong for her at this point in time? Arisa internally struggles with herself as she despondently selected her usual map and gave a sigh.

    Lightly tapping her shoulder Shizuka simply shook her head as she said, ¡°It¡¯s too late to regret now. We can only try our best. Don¡¯t worry nothing is bad is going to happen.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! We¡¯re going to wipe those losers out. They are no match for us!¡± said Belle enthusiastically.

    Arisa lightly smiled at how much energy she had on her, she had even a single ounce of it, but she knew that things aren¡¯t going to go her way. She wasn¡¯t worried about her match, she was concerned about Zythos and Luon¡¯s match. The original plan was for her to handle Deminier and Luon to beat the succubus team. However, their opponents were swapped.

    On the bright side, if Zythos wins his match and she wins her own, then everything would go well. But Arisa felt like she couldn¡¯t rely on Zythos to help her out in this occasion. His performance so far was sub-par, and it was only because of Janet that they were even usable in the first place.

    Comparing Luon and Deminier was even harder to do, she knew how powerful Luon was, but it was difficult to believe that he would come out on top.

    Just then the signal signifying her match was about to start, woke her up from her thoughts. She smacked her face with her hands, right now she shouldn¡¯t be worrying about the future but the match in front of her. If they don¡¯t win this match then how could she even consider winning the next ones?

    Right away she began to construct her basic base structures and sent Kiri to investigate their opponents. Halfway through the construction process, Shizuka completely took over as all she had to do, was hand her resources.

    A few minutes passed, and her robotic army system was set up, and just in time, Kiri reported to Arisa her findings.

    ¡°They are building an army using Inzektors?¡± questioned Arisa.

    ¡°Yes, it seems like they aren¡¯t holding back today. Although the enemy summoned one queen, it¡¯s already starting to produce eggs,¡± Kiri said.

    ¡°Can you deal with it somehow?¡± Arisa said as she knitted her brows. If possible, she didn¡¯t want to deal with fighting against this kind of opponent. Unlike a robotic army which only several commanders would do, other commanders found using creatures that could mass produce to be more effective in the long term. Merely feeding it food, and everything was fine and dandy. It was too bad that this tactic couldn¡¯t be used in real life since the Inzektor race was already doing so.

    ¡°I can¡¯t. It''s too heavily guarded to assassinate,¡± reported Kiri as she continued to evaluate her surroundings.

    ¡°Alright, continue to investigate and when necessary retreat,¡± said Arisa as she ended the call.

    ¡®5 Succubuses and an army of Inzektors...¡¯ Arisa pondered on why their opponents did this kind of line up. It was more reasonable to use Goblins instead as they had a racial buff in the system to speed up their birthing process. In fact, due to regulations on public television, they censored out all the profane actions by creating a separate building free of cost.

    With the Succubus enchantment techniques, they could have doubled their production if they wanted to, and yet their opponents merely went with Inzektors.

    Arisa couldn¡¯t figure out why but didn¡¯t ponder too hard about it. Instead, she focused on expanding her influence throughout the map.

    Her drones scoured every corner on her side before beginning to trample over their opponent''s territory.

    Although the AI system wasn¡¯t profound enough to do some intense maneuvers their numbers made them a force that one couldn¡¯t underestimate.

    It was then Arisa encountered the swarm of Inzektors, they rampaged within the forest that they were born in as they ate any kind of nutrient available to them and served it to their queen with their flesh.

    The type of Inzektor that was summoned was the one used to supply the Inzektor race food. With every single bite of nutrient, they were able to photosynthesize an equivalent amount, nearly doubling its value. Not that many beings have two methods to develop nutrients, but somehow these Inzektors do, in fact, they were only made that way.

    The evolution of Inzektors was a profound topic, like how there was a poison that was used to kill insects and plants and to counteract that they would evolve beyond the poison. If it weren¡¯t for their ability to evolve, they wouldn¡¯t be able to travel in space by merely growing large carrier like Inzektors.

    They would be stuck on whatever puny planet they were born from.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.The robots attacked the Inzektors who ran away in response. However, their nutrients weighed them down. It was at this moment another type of Inzektor came swarming onto the robots. Placed in a defensive position the robots and Inzektors both retreated. These types of Inzektors were fast and hard to deal with, once surrounded the robots fate was ultimately to self-destruct.

    Fortunately, after Arisa reported to Shizuka that the enemies were using Inzektors, she started to change the design of the robots they used.

    From bipedal droids was a new kind of unit added to the arsenal. It had two wheels on the back and one in the front, this vehicle had a flamethrower attached on top of it.

    Originally Shizuka had designed it to have 4 wheels but decided to go with 3 to make more of them instead.

    Arisa operated the computer managing the robots at a high pace. The new robots reigned havoc on their foes as they were just as fast as the new Inzektors. They picked off every opportunity where the enemy found themselves too slow to operate. With these series of attack, Arisa couldn¡¯t find herself happy. In fact, the critical part of this battle was disabling the food supply, this determines the number of Inzektors that the enemy can have.

    Although she is accomplishing precisely that, there was no way to stop them from producing different kinds of Inzektors and food from the Crypt of Heroes. The only thing to do is maintain her current army and gather more forces slowly.

    The enemy continued to spread their influence around their territory while Arisa¡¯s forces slowly advanced.

    ¡°Kiri, how are you doing? Are you back yet or are you still at their base?¡± asked Arisa as she was curious at how her opponents were doing and at the same time worried about their scout.

    ¡°Arisa, the enemy is very knowledgeable about Inzektors. After producing the first queen who was used to produce food, they made 4 more queens. From my observation, there are two more of those queens produce food naturally by using photosynthesis. One of the five is producing those speed type Inzektors while the last two continued to gorge down food without producing anything.¡± said Kiri as she observes their opponents.

    ¡°What do they look like?¡± asked Arisa.

    ¡°One has a crimson armored exoskeleton with a pair of black wings on its back while the other has a bulging stomach like a fat person who simply ate way too much in one sitting, ah the colors for that one is green, a hideous green color,¡± Kiri said.

    ¡®Red with wings and an ugly green fatty?¡¯ thought Arisa. The only thing she could think of was a swarm type flying Inzektor for the red one, but for the green one, she couldn¡¯t imagine what would come out of it.

    It was at this time Kiri said, ¡°Something¡¯s happening to both of them! The red one puked out a bunch of Inzektors from its mouth, their small little things with wings! The green one has a giant claw protruding out of its stomach¡­ this really is an ugly scene.¡± said Kiri as she nearly pukes at the sight.

    The Inzektor that emerged from the stomach of its green mother was tall and muscular. It was a fusion between a human and an Inzektor and had claws as hands. Unlike the mass-produced Inzektors, this was known as an Axle Lurcher when a man found it for the first time yelled out unconsciously. It was fast and robust, equivalent to a person at the combat level 70, the only downside was that it couldn¡¯t be mass-produced.

    The Axle Lurcher and the juvenile flying Inzektors ate the body of the green Inzektor mother before growing stable enough to move their limbs. According to Arisa¡¯s estimates, they should be able to depart to the battlefield within the next few minutes. Arisa knew if they were to lose their ground here it would be difficult to come back as more of their forest terrain would be exposed to the Inzektor army.

    She quickly notified Shizuka of the changes as she responded, ¡°For now we should be fine with the flying Inzektors, the drones are just going to have to work over time. As for the Axle Lurcher send Keyral to interrupt it. I¡¯ll work on making some air forces, but be careful about getting your camera knocked out. Worse case scenario you can switch over to First Person mode using the Deployed Tank as your range of sight. It¡¯s better than nothing.¡±

    Fortunately, the worse things that could have happened never did, and they managed to maintain their advance. Keyral sparred with the Axle Lurcher to a stalemate until Kiri came in to assassinate it.

    The air units were neutralized by her own as they began to support the ground units. What was troublesome was that the enemies switch from spamming weak Inzektors with Ravagers mid-way, making their advance more difficult.

    Within a few hundred meters away from their base, the enemy forces grew wilder halting their progress. Shizuka got to work on some siege type robots while Arisa maintained the line. However, she began to question herself, ¡®Why did they go with this kind of design? There are flaws everywhere in their strategy. Who in the right mind, especially for one of the best teams, would do this?¡¯

    She stared at the battleground and asked Kiri, ¡°So, how are our enemies responding?¡±

    Kiri looked at their opponents based and suddenly thought of something, she quickly told Arisa, ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t see any of our opponents besides the commander and a bunch of Inzektors.¡±

    ¡°What? It¡¯s not like they fought on the frontline. Otherwise, I would have seen them, and Keyral would have fought them. Look carefully,¡± said Arisa as she began to have a sudden thought.

    ¡°I did, there¡¯s honestly not much to look at,¡± said Kiri as she began to look around once more.

    All of the sudden the command room shook as Belle was sent flying into Arisa. Coughing out blood she said to Arisa, ¡°It¡¯s the enemy! They snuck inside and ambushed me. Careful there¡¯s 4 of them.¡±

    ¡°Where are they?¡± as she got herself up while cautiously staring at the entrance.

    Belle stood up as she said, ¡°They¡¯re¡­ right behind you.¡±

    All of the sudden her figure transform as a blade lunge towards Arisa. Arisa was a step too slow as she tried to dodge the move, only to have it glaze pass her leg as a stinging pain emerged as several drops of blood appeared on her assassins blade.

    ¡°To think I would be assassinated,¡± Arisa found it ironic as she had been the one always doing it. When she encountered Luon.

    ¡°And it¡¯s not just one,¡± as she stared at an open space. 3 more figures emerged out of nowhere as Arisa raises her blade. At this moment, Arisa asked, ¡°So where is Belle?¡±

    One of the succubus assassins responded, ¡°She¡¯s entrapped in our enchantment spell, her will is quite strong, too bad there were four of us, our magic simply put her to sleep. We could have eliminated her, but that would only notify you that we were here, and thus we staged this act.¡±

    ¡°How kind of you to tell me this,¡± responded Arisa.

    ¡°Only for our future queen, we¡¯re trying to earn some positive points,¡± replied another succubus.

    ¡°Well if you want to earn some more, than come at me!¡± Arisa said as she charged into the group of assassins.

    Arisa was determined, she wanted to sever this ill fate as it continues to haunt her, and killing these people was one of the most important steps to do so.

 Chapter 87 - Arisas Will 2

    Despite proclaiming that she was going to handle the four of them, Arisa found it quite challenging to accomplish. These weren¡¯t the run of the mill Succubus assassins, they were expertly trained for this kind of situation.

    Their positioning and tricky maneuvers made it difficult for her to deal with them head-on, and the worse part was that there was no way to expect for some solid backup. Belle was down for the count, Kiri and Keyral were at the frontlines, and Shizuka took command of the robot army while she was preoccupied with the assassins.

    If the pressure the robots made stopped then the Inzektor army would have an opportunity to make a comeback. Inzektors are creatures that are full of vitality, their bug-like resistance makes even an ant colony difficult to destroy.

    The assassins were relentless in their assault, their blades clashed with Arisa¡¯s as they rotated positions after each attack making it difficult to read the pattern. Fortunately, all four of them slightly held back, they didn¡¯t want to be the one that ended up killing her as she may be their future boss. Arisa who noticed their hesitation smiled as she intentionally exposed an opening causing one of the assassins to stab at her leg. The assassin hesitated and thought, ¡®Will I be the one that ends it?¡¯

    That attack failed as Arisa who exposed the opening vanished and appeared behind the dumbfounded assassin and stabbed her straight into the back. She used a national movement skill that vampires had, the ability to disperse her body into a mist. The only downside to this ability is that after leaving the mist, it could only be used again 10 minutes later.

    With one of their sisters defeated, it was no problem for Arisa to clean up the rest. It seemed that their three-man formation was exponentially weaker than their four-man formation.

    Having defeated the assassins, Arisa received a status report from the frontlines to find that they were still in a stalemate. She took command of the army and continued to press onward, as she was doing that she sent a robot to recover Belle. When she found her she was lying outside unconscious, almost immediately Arisa sent over a robot to take her to the command room to check her condition.

    Although it was only a virtual battle, hypnotic suggestions and mental trauma still persist, she wanted to know if her friend was truly okay.

    Just as Arisa was warningly picking her up a nearly silent sound resonated in the room which was followed by a deafening silence. Arisa turned around to see the last remaining member of their opponents team right behind her.

    ¡°You¡­¡± Arisa muttered as traces of blood dripped on the side of her lips.

    The Succubus smiled as she pulled out the sword from Arisa¡¯s stomach. A gush of blood emerged from the wound and Arisa quickly use her control over blood to maintain her condition, however, she found the blood to continue to spill as she was unable to manipulate it. It seems that the blade was laced in poison.

    A train of thought came to Arisa¡¯s mind as she said, ¡°How! How can you be here? Weren¡¯t you commanding the Inzektors at your base?¡±

    The Succubus looked at Arisa with a dumbfounded expression before laughing madly, she then said, ¡°Of course I was just at my base. I knew about your little spy and intentionally overexposed myself, leaving you unguarded until the very last moment. You people at Nexus are still bound by your normal sense of logic, thinking you have the best technology despite having to contribute most of it every year. You must have seen or heard about it, its this thing right here.¡±

    Arisa used her BMPU to analyze the device, the properties it had surpassed what a level 2 engineer could do.

    [Le Relic]

    [Rank - Unique]

    [Defense - 200]

    [Durability 100/100]

    [A device which allows the user free reign around the world. With the ability to teleport and go invisible anyone can become a phantom thief! The range is limited, and an excessive amount of mana is required.]

    [Perk 1 - Teleportation]

    [Perk 2 - Invisibility]

    To think they would use such a relic, it was a miscalculation on her part not even consider it. Engineers had their own quirks and way to do things, products like this were rare as they weren¡¯t mass produced, so who knows what kind of tools people carry on them.

    The Succubus toyed with the relic before tossing it into her intraspatial bag, she looked at Arisa with a playful look as she skipped around her.

    The Succubus said, ¡°How does it feel Arisa? To be only a step away from victory, to be defeated so easily. Your overconfidence and lack of insight brought you to this situation. Why were you so distracted? Why was your performance so poor? No matter, because from today onwards...¡±

    With a devilish smile, the Succubus continued, ¡°You will be my sister.¡±

    Arisa¡¯s lips trembled, she was unwilling, she wanted to overturn her fate, and yet Arisa had fallen into a trap ever since she heard about the arrangement. If only she properly paid attention to the match, she might have predicted this outcome.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    Filled with rage, she knew that the only way to make a comeback here was to either kill the person in front of her or summon a being to heal her from the Commander Table. She took a step forward and with vigor dashed towards the Succubus who replied with her own blade.

    The two exchanged blows and were entirely even, no, instead Arisa felt that her power was much weaker than usual and the Succubus was merely toying with her.

    Arisa despaired, as she swung madly at the Succubus who frowned as Arisa¡¯s response. The Succubus thought, ¡®To think she would lose her cool, looks like she needs some training.¡¯

    The Succubus smiled thinking of what kind of activities she would be teaching Arisa after today, excited she ended the fun quickly as finished Arisa off. Her words echoed into Arisa¡¯s head as her eyes closed letting the darkness seep in.

    ¡°Welcome to the family,¡± the voice faded as a single teardrop slid down from Arisa¡¯s eyes.

    ¡­

    Arisa had lost her match from the perspective of the crowd she looked like she was winning, but in the end, she had lost by a 5 man assassination attempt.

    Arisa who entered the Nexus lobby room was silent, the chatter which was there several moments before was completely non-existent. Zythos stood up knowing it was his turn to go soon and just as he walked by Arisa, she took him down with a kick and slammed him into the wall as she yelled, ¡°It¡¯s funny, isn¡¯t it! Outside you may appear uncaring but inside you must be laughing at me.¡±

    ¡°Why would I be laughing at you? We win some we lose some, right? I lost my first match, we just got to better next time.¡± Zythos said with a smile. Indeed he was laughing inside. Only the room had a very stiff atmosphere so he couldn¡¯t openly display it.

    ¡°You¡­ you don¡¯t know how important this match was for me! I put everything on the line, for each battle I tried my best to do everything I could to win and yet you¡­ how can you be like this! Do you know what it¡¯s like to have everything in your life decided for you from the moment you were born? How aren¡¯t you able to change any of it? How those who had great expectations of you feel disappointed when you let them down? Do you know how I feel!¡± Arisa screamed as kicked him hard once more.

    Zythos groaned as her words echoed into his head. He tried his best for his father and yet he was never good enough. When he was born he was forced to kill his brothers and sisters to live, in fact, he was made to do so by that very father. The Mythos clan had him locked like a dog with a leash, he had no free will, and his father had no expectations for him. In fact, disposal was a word that came into the discussion.

    Zythos became lost in thought, no longer responding to Arisa¡¯s pounding.

    Seeing Zythos lackluster response, she let him go and sat in the corner waiting for her fate to come. Zythos stood back up after he recollected his thoughts before looking at Arisa once as he was leaving the lobby room.

    He thought about the words she said before, how her life was determined after she was born. How her fate was difficult to change with her own hands, and how shit reality was, and somehow he felt like he could relate.

    What did he need to do right now? His father said to do as he pleases, but for the first time in Zythos¡¯s life, he wanted to do something for himself, as his own choice.

    Zythos entered the map selection screen with his teammates that appeared in the second match. Janet energetically got to the board, and just as she was about to select a water type map, Zythos¡¯s butted in and chosen a forest typed one. She pouted as she said, ¡°Hey! I thought you weren¡¯t interested in command. Do you want to lose that badly? You¡¯re really mean.¡±

    Zythos¡¯s smiled as he said, ¡°I¡¯ll be commanding this match, and I say we do a rush strategy, and we¡¯re going to win.¡±

    Janet looked at Zythos who made such a bold and assertive statement, she smiled as she said, ¡°Wow, did we have a full moon last night? Aren¡¯t you hyped up for today.¡±

    ¡°No, there was no full moon last night. However, there is one right now,¡± Zythos said as they reappeared in a dark forest type map.

    Immediately everyone disappeared leaving Qi Ren behind. Zythos¡¯s words echoed into Qi Ren¡¯s mind as he began to summon an army of ordinary wolves. Compared to buying humans, an army of wolves was much easier to accomplish since the ratio was nearly 1:20. Within the first minute, Zythos had an army of 400 ordinary wolves at the level 30.

    These units could be considered mobile cannon fodder, but it was still a force that could take down a regular human army that had no hot weapons like rifles.

    Zythos dashed throughout the forest uninhibited, the heavy armor he wore was no longer there as only a small pair of pants covered his public decency.

    Janet and the others rode wolves half-way through to catch up, and their storm rush nearly took 3 minutes to arrive at their destination.

    The demonic beings were dumbfounded by such a quick attack. They assumed that Zythos wanted to end the battle right away. One of the demonic creatures appeared to be a mage as he conjured a makeshift wall while another operated the command table and summoned an army of goblins to make up their numbers. Unlike elves and orcs, goblins were several times cheaper for more number and were multi-talented.

    In packs, goblins were scary creatures, and under the command of a talented general, they could overturn many battles.

    Zythos and the army of wolves dashed forward causing a bloodbath on both sides. As the battle continued Zythos pulled out an amulet that had a shiny white gem in the middle of it. Fueled by the power of the moon, it caused the surroundings to go dark. The goblin¡¯s vision had weakened causing their archers and soldiers as to act recklessly. They swung madly as the wolves who were buffed by the darkness hunted them down. Ashgro roared causing even more panic within the group of goblins while inciting more power from the wolves. The demonic soldiers quickly responded as they mowed large sections of wolves. It was at this moment Janet, and Naiz appeared killing off a few of them with Ashro as the vanguard.

    This busy bloodbath caused the enemy commander to panic, he quickly summoned as many forces as he could before he was lifted a few meters off the ground. Surprised he turned around to see Zythos appear out of nowhere and a stinging pain shook his senses.

    Zythos then pulled back his claws before making a dumbfounded, ¡®Was commanding this easy?¡¯

    It wasn¡¯t that it was easy, it just that he was strong, but always fell short before a few individuals. Their enemy this time, however, was somewhat weaker than the rest, so it wasn¡¯t too much of a surprise.

    Zythos had won the match with both tactic and strength, Janet who had lost the center of attention for merely a moment gave him a high five in attempt to regain it all back.

    It was a turnout that nobody had expected, Zythos personally won the battle for his team.

 Chapter 88 - Luon Vs Deminier 1

    Zythos winning was without a doubt quite the shocker. It was a simple rush attack and at the same time most needed. Their opponents weren¡¯t like the skilled Succubus assassins but were students who were still top of their division, and their combat levels did display that difference as they were equal in strength once Zythos and the others equipped their NG-Arms. Only their tactics and experience were heavily restricted to the encounters they had at school; they hadn¡¯t expected that Zythos would pull that kind of maneuver, in fact, no one did.

    The very fact that he had the moonstone was the real shocker. In fact, this item was quite rare and had no practical purpose other than to cover a small region in darkness.

    What Luon didn¡¯t know was that the reason Zythos had it in the first place was that one of the servants in his clan had given it to him and said it was from his mother who died when he was born. Zythos treasured this artifact dearly, and only today did he considered using it.

    To others, it was just a useless luxury item, but for him, it was something special.

    Zythos returned to the room met his eyes with a large group of shocked people. Most of them thought that he was just going to toss away the victory because of the map choice, and yet here Zythos was coming up with a complete victory.

    Arisa who had said mean things to Zythos earlier was speechless, she didn¡¯t know how to congratulate him nor did she apologize, she merely sat dumbstruck in her corner and acted as she usually did. Seeing her lackluster response, Zythos gave a slight nod and sat down to watch the next match.

    He knew that the enemy line up he fought was nothing special, but it was still very important to accomplish. Luon, on the other hand, had to fight someone who was many times stronger, faster, and better than he was. His opponent''s combat level was 82 after all, it was like fighting a slightly stronger Clamaris.

    Luon felt this match to be troublesome, the real reason why nobody believed that Luon could win was that the gap between someone who is level 70 compared to someone who¡¯s at level 80 was too high to deal with. Although there were people who can fight against foes stronger than themselves, realistically without a technique that transcends the very concept of levels or an item to precisely do the same, he was bound to lose if they had fought fair and square.

    Luon needed to apply a different tactic this time around, his opponent wouldn¡¯t just stand around and receive a beating after all, and he might have more tricks up his sleeves like how the Succubus was able to teleport into Arisa¡¯s base.

    Luon grouped up his gang and said, ¡°For this match¡­ I¡¯m changing our tactics.¡±

    Everyone nodded, it was something that Luon often said during their matches online. Whenever Luon did something different, all they could do was adapt to the situation. Sometimes the changes were good, sometimes it made things worse. But for this match, they trusted Luon since this battle was literally determining the outcome.

    The five of them were teleported into the preparations lounge where Luon locked in a different map choice than usual. He chose a forest type map that had many cliffs, tunnels, and oddly shaped terrain that made it difficult to travel in. The rest of his team members started to wonder what was on his mind as he chose the map, they soon found out as soon as the match began.

    Before their eyes was a larva, and it wasn¡¯t just a normal larva that you see small bugs have, it was rather large and about the size of several human beings toppled on top of one another. This was an Inzektor Queen that specialized in developing workers that specialized in food production.

    After feeding it food that he summoned from the Crypt of Heroes did it grow into a state where it was operable. The larva began to spew out workers, half the size of human beings and they started to cut down the forest and deliver the materials as nutrients. Dumbstruck by how the Inzektors priorities Luon reminded them of their own duties. He sent Tyron to scout out their opponents, Gizmo and Bendan to intercept and defend against attackers, and as for Thomas, he had something special in store for him. After all, they weren¡¯t using humanoids nor were they using robots.

    Unlike the robot army, it was easier to set up the Inzektor army, only there were many disadvantages to using them. In fact, their chain of commands was a mess, they could only communicate using the word of mouth or signals they receive from local Inzektors, and without an authoritative figure, the less intelligent ones often are left to their own devices. Also, because of their messy commands, Luon was restricted to controlling them within a fixed region before they become wanderers and can only slowly expand their influence. Luon once saw a match where someone left his Inzektors to become wanderers while engaging his opponent, the wanderers soon became a third-party force and decimated both teams.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Luon was already having trouble with one opponent, and at this point in time, he didn¡¯t want another.

    After summoning a few different Inzektor Queens, based off of the knowledge he studied personally and from what his father handbook had explained, and now he had the basic Inzektor ecosystem become self-supportive.

    During this time their opponents didn¡¯t make a move as the 5-minute restriction hadn¡¯t been lifted yet. The demonic beings from Lemegeton were strong, but he didn¡¯t expect an early attack like Zythos had done with an army of wolves since it was pointless without having a soldier as the vanguard.

    It was at this moment Tyron had reported his findings.

    ¡°They are truly demonic beings to the bones...¡± Luon muttered as he pondered on the intel.

    There were three prominent ways to summon units, the original approach was to use the Crypt of Heroes to summon any kind of unit they wanted using the point system. Another way was to literally spawn them out of reproductive and creative methods like using Inzektors, goblins or robots. The third and final way was for it to spawn using mana.

    Just like the school named Daemon¡¯s Gate, this was a portal that led to the underworld known as a demonic portal that would transport random demons to the battleground. The only downside to using the demonic portal was that the entire command table was disabled upon summoning it. Instead, the Crypt of Heroes was transformed into a giant gateway with a swirling green mysterious force in the center of it.

    The longer the portal lasts, the more demons continuously spawn at a random pace. This kind of setup was considered the ultimate type of random. If one was lucky, they might only get super strong demons and if they were having a lousy day¡­ well, they might end up with a little army of weak imps.

    The world was indeed fifty percent fair, and fifty percent unfair. Among the demons summoned so far there was an army of weak, stupid imps and an intelligent dark knight overseeing them. His overbearing black armor scared the wits of these imps, and they were forced to listen to his commands, according to Tyron¡¯s estimates he was another level 80.

    Deminier laughs out loud as he exclaimed, ¡°Hahaha, with you on our side there''s no way we can lose! Come let¡¯s go and destroy them now!¡±

    ¡°Are you sure we should advance recklessly like this? Surely we need to defend our base as well, what if they decided to attack us?¡± said one of his subordinates.

    ¡°Hmph, if you¡¯re that worried then why not the rest of you lot defend the base? Secure the perimeter, my buddy, and I will take the offense,¡± said Deminier.

    ¡°Yes my lord,¡± echoed the four of them.

    The army of imps, Deminier and the dark knight advanced towards the border to wait for when the restriction goes down. The Dark Knight and the imps could have made it over by themselves, but Deminier had them wait as he personally wanted to witness Luon¡¯s team demise.

    Tyron who had overseen all of this reported to Luon who thought up a strategy in response to their enemies maneuver.

    He gathered up the army of Inzektors and divided the groups into two, one was set to defense while the other, led by Gizmo, Tyron and Bendan were sent to take out their opponents base using a different route.

    Taking advantage of the five-minute gap both teams had reached the border without encountering each other, and when the time was up, the match had started. It was a base race.

    ¡­

    ¡°Darn Inzektors, to think they would consider using them,¡± cursed Deminier as he swung his blade.

    ¡°...¡± The dark knight didn¡¯t respond as if he was only there for decoration causing Deminier to be even more disappointed. He thought this trip to their opponents base was easy, but not only did he get lost in the complex terrain, every other corner he would be ambushed by Inzektors, losing his sense of direction.

    For these kinds of matches, the BMPU did not display a map, it was crucial that the one operating the command table dictate the direction where his teammates would go. However, right now Deminier felt like he was blindfolded and spun around unable to find his target.

    And to make things worse, their enemies started to attack their base as they advanced on, completely distracting the one at the commander table to help him determine which direction to take.

    ¡°Dark Knight do you have any idea where we¡¯re going?¡± said Deminier who became frustrated. The latter shook his head from side to side. Deminier gave a sigh, he knew it was pointless to ask and yet he did so anyway.

    Deminier felt extremely stressed at the fact that their base was being attacked by their enemies, and although their newly spawned forces and subordinates were keeping them at bay, it can¡¯t last for long.

    It was at this time the Dark Knight rose his blade and readied his stance, Deminier sighed, he may have seen this action nearly a hundred times. A swarm of quick Inzektors raided their group as they charged from multiple directions and left the same way. The hit and run tactics were too weak for the two, but it couldn¡¯t be said for the imps who bore the brunt of the attack.

    These attacks dropped their initial forces down to half and caused Deminier to be confused in which way to go. Footprints were being spammed everywhere as his own had vanished from sight.

    ¡°My lord!¡± screamed one of his subordinates over the team voice chat group.

    ¡°What is it? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve lost already...¡± said Deminier as he struggles with which direction to take.

    ¡°We got an overseer! We¡¯ll send it over to you right away!¡± the subordinate energetically replied.

    ¡°What?! That¡¯s truly some luck! Hahaha, the gods are on my side! Hurry it over, I can¡¯t wait until I receive my rewards¡± said Deminier.

    Deminier sent his gaze towards a direction which he thinks is his base and smiled, once it arrives the tides would turn, although they were on defensive, there was still a chance for him to catch up. Deminier toys around with a little device as he anticipates the arrival of the match changing moment.

 Chapter 89 - Luon Vs Deminier 2

    Deminier wasn¡¯t the only one to know that they had an overseer. In fact, as it was traveling to rendezvous with their team, Luon had also noticed it, only he did nothing to stop it. The top two priorities in a base race were to destroy your opponents base and delay the enemies progress towards their own.

    Although two warriors above level 80 were difficult to handle it wasn¡¯t like he had no solution. Which is why Luon emphasized to his team to end the match as fast as they could as he slowly supplied them with more Inzektor reinforcements.

    Within the group of reinforcements was a few Inzektor Queens to produce their combatants on the frontline using the bodies of their defeated Inzektors, Demons, and any kind of natural resource in the region such as trees, vegetation, and water.

    After completely separating the two divisions and setting Gizmo as the leader of the second group, Luon¡¯s priority was to halt or delay their enemies advance.

    So far he had used the complex terrain to confuse their foes as he employed hit and run tactics using the quick Inzektors. He was able to find it highly effective as the weak and stupid imps would create a huge commotion upon being raided. However, the longer they survive, the more troublesome they become.

    Anyone or anything can adapt, and the remaining imps that were alive learned how to counteract and deal with Luon¡¯s ploys.

    Luon then asked Thomas who was nearby, ¡°How¡¯s the progress?¡±

    Thomas replied, ¡°Everything is ready, all we need to do now is put the meat in front of the tiger. Are you sure this is going to work?¡±

    ¡°Trust me, everything I said is going to happen, and this move will without a doubt be the one that will change the tide,¡± said Luon confidently.

    He pressed a few buttons on the command panel before sending his gaze over the map, soon the end will come.

    ¡­

    The overseer soon arrived, it wore a ragged black robe with a black gassy aura that managed to shape itself to make up its face. The most distinctive part about the overseer was within the darkness of its body was the red eyes it had, and the scent of death it emitted.

    Even Deminier was slightly intimidated by its appearance, compared to the Dark Knight he was much scarier. Giving a light cough, he said, ¡°Alright, overseer, start mapping out the region and tell us which way to go.¡±

    The overseer nodded as crows that were composed of his pure black aura emerged from one of his sleeves and departed to multiple directions.

    As they left, the overseer conjured up black gas before him. The gas began to shape itself and replicated the terrain like in a 3-dimensional figure. Seeing this Deminier laughs out loud, before he wouldn¡¯t be able to experience such luxurious treatment as the overseers in his solar system could only be commanded by the demon king, but it was okay to have it during simulated battles.

    The only reason why he was unable to command them was that their numbers were already so low, and there are new devices which could take their place. Unfortunately, Deminier and the Dark Knight were too stupid to learn how to map things out, and there was no point of talking about how dumb the imps were.

    With the appearance of the overseer, they were soon able to find Luon¡¯s base. The area where they sent the phantasmal crow in managed to pick up the information before it was taken out. With a proper map before them, the group marched towards that direction. Only since they knew which way to go the path got even harsher.

    Within the time where he was distracted by the swarm of Inzektors and waited for the overseer, Luon had placed a series of traps and ambushes which killed off numerous of imps. Although, the overseer can map out the terrain it was still tricky to dictate lifeforms and traps as they weren¡¯t appropriately recorded and even if they were, they didn¡¯t know what kind of Inzektor it was.

    Despite having their numbers drop, Deminier insists on pushing onwards. He had received word that the enemy is closing into their base, they were surrounded entirely and can only pray on what kind of demon comes out from the portal to save them. So far amongst the summoned beings were 4 level 70s which managed to keep their defensive line fortified to some extent. If they show any sign of weakness, they could all be devoured by the Inzektors.

    Falling for another trap, losing about 5 more imps, Deminier yelled in a fury, ¡°Traps! Traps, and more traps! That brat, to use so many against us, he¡¯s asking for death! Overseer! I want you to concentrate your scout ahead and find their commander! I¡¯ll go end him once and for all! As for the rest of you, try to follow after me. Just do it carefully, we can¡¯t expect any reinforcements after all with those darn Inzektors outside of our base!¡±

    The overseer nodded at the command as all the remaining crows in the region appeared before him. Sending more black gas out of his sleeves he swallowed them up as a large black mass continually to form a miniature dragon.

    The dragon landed on the ground and bowed before it¡¯s creator, with a simple finger pointing towards a direction the dragon roared and flew towards that direction.

    The map displayed before rapidly change, in one direction more detailed information was revealed to their eyes, and soon the enemy base which was filled with countless Inzektors appeared before him. The dragon soon received a barrage of attacks as it desperately searched for Luon, and sure enough, he found within this large base, the only single building in this entire region of Inzektors.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Luon had apparently built a structure that encased both the command table and Crypt of Heroes if Deminier wanted to destroy the Crypt of Heroes he needed to either demolish the building or enter it himself. And looking at the material used he soon discovered that although it was possible to destroy, it would take him quite a long time to do so.

    His best bet was to enter through the doors in the center and straight-up raid the base. The dragon had no combat-related abilities before it fell the overseer managed to grasp a portion of the interior and recorded it on his map.

    Deminier laughs as he pulled out a relic and muttered some words. A whirlwind of magic encased his body, and with a blinding light, he vanished from the spot leaving behind the overseer, the dark knight, and the badly beaten imps behind.

    ¡­

    Deminier reappeared inside of the building and began to asses his surroundings, it was a wide ring with several kinds of closed doors all around. From a pedestal, several meters nearby he saw Luon looking down on him as if he found an idiot.

    Deminier appeared confused, this was indeed Luon¡¯s base, but the design and layout almost looked like¡­ an arena. Quickly he turned around only realized that the doors closed itself before he could even consider escaping. How would he know that this building would turn out to be a trap? All he could see was a tiny glimpse of the inside on their map.

    Even though Deminier was in a tough position he didn¡¯t give up, after all, he was a level 80 warrior, and to his understanding, Luon shouldn¡¯t be able to beat him despite trapping him here, unless he summoned a hero unit that is. Deminier channeled his magic to fly up and kill Luon only to realize an odd sensation, he couldn¡¯t feel the flow of mana inside of this room.

    Luon who realized his set of actions started to laugh as if he was an evil villain who had just gotten away with an evil deed, he said, ¡°In this room, you won¡¯t be able to feel any mana. In fact, your mana is being drained to support the defensive capabilities of the building! So unless the force outside is more powerful than the combined effort of every single being with mana inside of this room, there is no way to escape!¡±

    Deminier sneered as he said, ¡°If I can¡¯t fly up and kill you. I¡¯ll just climb up and kill you!¡± Deminier rushed towards the wall that Luon was on but stopped all of a sudden, he soon realized that the wall was completely flat, there was nothing for him to grip, and unless he could jump several stories high, there was no way to reach Luon from where he stood.

    Luon smiled as he signaled Thomas was operating a panel nearby to open some of the doors to the room. From the darkness emerged several Inzektors that launched an acidic attack that would harm Deminier. The worse thing was that they were widely spread out and were all ranged attackers. Deminier thought that if he could kill them all, he could pile a hill of corpses to climb with only to realize that the reason they used acid attacks wasn¡¯t so it would hurt him, but so they could burn the bodies of their allies.

    Luon frowned after Deminier had killed the 50th Inzektor, he had sealed the room where Deminier was in with a small barrier to keep the acidic contamination in, and yet he was still alive.

    ¡®As expected of a demonic being,¡¯ Luon thought as Deminier continued to create more acid in the room. If a normal human were to enter the place, they would have died from overexposure to dangerous chemicals.

    ¡®Just how many more do we need to kill him?¡¯ Luon couldn¡¯t see Deminier dying from the acid that easily. Fortunately, below the facility was several Inzektor Queens who were quickly breeding these acid Inzektors with the help of outside food resources that was tunneled inside. As long as Thomas keeps up with the expert door, opening and closing techniques, they could keep this siege on.

    Only they weren¡¯t fortunate with that much time. If Luon had more time to do things, he could have summoned a hero unit from the Crypt of Heroes to end the battle. But there were more pressing matters to be worried about. The Dark Knight and Overseer managed to break through their second defensive line, with only two remaining, they will soon reach the base. Luon had hoped that after killing all the imps that they would retreat, however, the intelligence they displayed caused Luon to be surprised at how well done the virtual battle system was. Apparently, the Dark Knight and Overseer knew that the battle will end with Deminier¡¯s death.

    The only hopes that he had was with Gizmo and the others on the front line, it would be great if they could make a breakthrough. The only other option was to defeat Deminier to end everything once and for all.

    But could Luon handle someone whose level was above 80? He didn¡¯t know whether or not he could, as he had never tried before. Luon tried to recall what the protagonist of a story would do at moments like this and only seem to remember that they would either call upon an unknown strength to aid them when the moment was right. Too bad for him he didn¡¯t have anything like that.

    Luon began to think of ways to overcome this situation, it was too late to send extra reinforcements to the offensive force, and the defensive force has its hand tied down. Although Luon didn¡¯t like Deminier personally, he didn¡¯t underestimate his strength. There was nothing he could do except try battling against Deminier. He may not even lose out against him.

    As Luon was pondering on how to deal with Deminier, the latter screamed, ¡°Hahaha, Luon is this the best you can do? It would take you centuries to beat me at this rate. Just give up! There¡¯s no hope for you, and if you do, I might be lenient on how I treat you next time.¡±

    Luon gave a sigh, he was not tempted by the taunt. However, if he was going to fight Deminier anyways, he might as well wordlessly handle it himself. Before entering the ring, he cleared the fumes inside the room by sending it outside. It wouldn¡¯t be great if he killed himself with his own strategy.

    Just as the last ounce of gas went out, and the worms retreated, he jumped into the ring and readied his sword.

    Deminier¡¯s eyes brighten as he began to rain a series of curses at him. Luon tried his best to ignore and prepare for the battle, one of the ways he did so was to read to himself a quote that he read off of a book long ago that would match the situation. However, for some reason this time he was drawing a blank.

    All of a sudden, a quote entered his mind as he managed to recall it from someone, possibly from his simulated life.

    ¡°There are some places, people, things that you''ll really dislike along the way. One of the points of life is to ignore them, beat them, and then ignore them once more,¡± Luon recalled and silently muttered.

    Although he couldn¡¯t remember who had told him so, it had perfectly matched this situation. Luon tried to ignore the annoying and disgusting chatterbox Deminier but failed to do so. What he should have done was beat him silent and then ignore him.

    Luon might have preferred to cut the weeds while their still growing, but weeds, in the end, are just weeds. Something he would rather not bother himself with.

    With a sword in hand, Luon said to Deminier, ¡°Come on.¡± Unknowingly, a hint of black silently appeared in his eyes.

 Chapter 90 - Luon Vs Deminier 3

    ¡°We still can¡¯t break through?¡± muttered Gizmo as he evaluates the battlefield with a frown.

    Unlike Luon who was able to see their team units by using the command table, Gizmo had to use the manual method of having messengers and a map. Fortunately, one of the types of Inzektors that Luon had given him could signal each other from great distances and record the details for him. Otherwise, it would have been more challenging to advance onwards.

    Despite having progressed before their enemies base with the Inzektors, they were having trouble with attacking the opponent¡¯s team with the cruddy terrain. The demons who were summoned would intelligently focus their defenses around tight corridors, and create complicated pathing problems for them.

    Gizmo felt that the Inzektors were like a congested walkway one would see in highly populated cities, only several times more troublesome as the Inzektors appeared disorganized. Gizmo tried to command them to maintain formation but found it difficult as there was no sense of coordination between the different Inzektors while in combat. Their innate sense of survival took over when it mattered the most.

    At this moment the ground shook nearby, and the map on the table updated itself once more. The scattered miniature figurines of creatures shifted around as new ones were instantly formed with the help of an Inzektor. Before Gizmo¡¯s eyes was a miniature of a demon that was currently surrounded by Inzektors. This action had happened numerous times since their attack had started. Coming from where the disturbance was located were a group of Demons who launched a surprise attack out of nowhere, this was caused by demons known as Rift Walkers.

    The Inzektors dispatched their foes relatively quick but had lost a numerous of Inzektor as these demons were carrying explosives on them. The only thing he could do about the attack was to eliminate the source before it could spread, but in exchange, their rate of production was balanced by how many were continuously eliminated.

    In due time, this equilibrium will break, but who would have the upper hand of the battle? Whether or not Gizmo can tire them out with time, or the demons conjure an even stronger demonic being, only time could tell. But time was something that Gizmo did not have, right at any moment their base may fall due to the opponent¡¯s offensive forces. However, Gizmo didn¡¯t give up, if he could make a breakthrough, all would be well. If he had failed, he only hoped that Luon would be able to make a recovery by eliminating the enemy¡¯s commander. A being who is above level 80.

    Gazing at the tabletop once more he ponders about which action to take with his current set up.

    ...

    A series of blade clashes resonated around the room. Luon and Deminier backed away after another engagement. Looking at the two from a distance, Luon appeared tired as he began to sweat profusely as if he had just run several kilometers without stopping. On the other hand, Deminier seemed relaxed as if he had just woken up and just did some light stretches despite having fought Inzektors for several minutes.

    ¡®His vitality is amazing,¡¯ Luon thought as he recalled their last exchanges. Luon needed to apply more pressure but found it difficult to do so. The force behind his blows wasn¡¯t as strong as Deminier despite having the same speed. The only reason why he was still in this battle was due to his profound and complicated sword skills.

    Deminier who appeared relaxed on the outside felt a slight of fear from the opponent in front of him. Compared to his strength his opponent was indeed no match for him, but every time he managed to get in the perfect position to attack his opponent, he would slightly pause giving his opponent just enough space to avoid his attack.

    Why was he hesitating? Why couldn¡¯t he finish off his opponent? Deminier asks himself, but he was unable to find an answer. All he needed was that one blow, a decisive attack to end all of this once and for all.

    He thought about the scene of him killing Luon over and over again, he was not playing with his opponent, this match has a lot of weight behind it, and yet he kept hesitating everytime he sees Luon¡¯s eyes. He had seen it many times before, but Luon¡¯s seemed to have an unfamiliar flare to them. However, after he stopped exchanging blows with Luon, he managed to cool down and calm his thoughts. What was there to be afraid of? He had witnessed the pitiful cries of people when he severely beat them down, some of them had the same look that Luon had only to break down once they were injured, he believed that Luon would do the same.

    ¡®Luon should be the same, there should be nothing different with him than the rest of the people I have faced,¡¯ thought Deminier as he stares Luon down. Luon readied his stance as he warily watches Deminier¡¯s every move. However, his next set of steps surprised him.

    Deminier took a different stance, his sword stretched horizontally as he stood up straight, the aura around his body began to rise as dark clouds started emitting from his feet. Slowly from the bottom to the top Deminier was coated in dark armor as he said to Luon, ¡°No more games, it¡¯s time to end this once and for all.¡±

    Deminier wore a full suit of black armor and stood before Luon¡¯s eyes, in response, Luon did the same as he transformed using his belt to add a little more resistance. Luon could see with his eyes that although Deminier¡¯s strength did not increase, his speed had increased due to the arcane runes that appeared on the armor.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Two fully armored warriors stood face to face, Luon readied his stance as he prepares himself for Deminier¡¯s quick attack. As they continued to stare down, Deminier blurred before Luon¡¯s vision and vanished. Luon knew he didn¡¯t go invisible, it was just that he went faster than what an average person can see. However, Luon was just an average person, with his eyes he couldn¡¯t see his opponent quickly moving towards him.

    But eyes weren¡¯t everything, Luon slowly motioned his body and predicted Deminier¡¯s future attack, however, as he did so he saw the smile on Deminier¡¯s face widen. Luon felt an eerie sensation as Deminier¡¯s speed change once more. He changed his blade trajectory and landed a heavy blow on Luon¡¯s shoulder.

    The armor Luon equipped was able to protect Luon from this attack, but then it didn¡¯t end there. Like a rag doll, Deminier chained a series of attacks on Luon before knocking him several meters away. To the crowd the match was over, Luon flew several meters before rolling on the ground for several more and coming to a stop.

    Luon felt heavy, he coughed up some blood in response as the consecutive shockwaves had damaged his inner organs. Deminier watches Luon arrogantly as he watches Luon struggle to get up.

    Stabbing his sword in the ground, he managed to stand up as he downed a recovery potion from his intraspatial bag. Deminier allowed him to do so as he thought it wouldn¡¯t be enough to change his fate, and Luon wanted to wipe the smirk off his face.

    As Luon looked up and faced Deminier a portion of mask broke down revealing one of his eyes. At this point, nobody thought Luon would be able to win. He wasn¡¯t heavily injured after drinking the potion, but he felt weakness in his body from the release of blood. He knew it himself that this match is more than likely over. Luon didn¡¯t give up though, his eyes flamed with passion as he was still determined to win.

    Blood seeped out from his mask as he resumed a battle stance once more causing Deminier to laugh, he said, ¡°Fool, although I do admire your determination to continue this battle, you need to know when to give up. If your actions aren¡¯t foolish, I wonder what is? Hahaha! You can¡¯t even hold your sword straight.¡±

    The sword in Luon¡¯s hands wavered, he felt fear, shame, anger, and more negative emotions as he desperately clings to his pride.

    ¡®Could I still do this? It¡¯s easier to just give up. Why am I fighting? Everyone already said it was enough,¡¯ Luon thought as more and more negative thoughts appeared. Only his teammates still believed in him at this moment. The crowd, his opponents, even the headmaster of his school thought he wasn¡¯t going to win, inwardly they thought that either third or fourth place was good enough for Nexus University, and they should be satisfied with that result.

    Luon hesitated, at this moment he was indeed at a lost. He wasn¡¯t able to win the match, triumph over evil, and save Arisa from her fate. Luon had always admired heroes, they were still able to change the battle around no matter how disadvantaged they were, but he couldn¡¯t become one himself.

    A wave of hopelessness washed over him as he began to lower his blade, seeing this Deminier laughed even harder as he began to stutter over.

    ¡°Are you satisfied?¡± Luon heard a voice ring inside of his head. The voice overwhelmed the negative emotions he had a few minutes ago. It was darkness he felt akin with, the accumulation of his hatred, depression, and negative feelings vanished with the presence of the voice.

    ¡®Can I win this? It¡¯s hopeless, there¡¯s nothing I can do,¡¯ Luon thought in response, he knew who the owner of the voice was, but he honestly believed that nothing could change the result. He had seen him in his dreams, his memories, and some way or another, Luon felt that he still existed within him and helped him when he needed the most.

    The voice didn¡¯t say a word causing Luon to feel depressed, he thought there indeed no solution to this problem. Deminier came closer, and Luon was almost in range of his blade. Just about a few meters away from him, the voice responded once more, ¡°You didn¡¯t answer my question. I said are you satisfied?¡±

    ¡®Satisfied? Of course not, I¡¯m not satisfied at all. How could I be?!¡¯ Luon roared his discontent in his mind.

    ¡°Then, will you be willing to do anything for victory?¡± the voice responded back.

    ¡®Anything? I would give everything, I would do anything to win this match,¡¯ Luon responded as he thought of the possibility in his head.

    ¡°How willing are you? Would you be willing to sell your soul... your very existence to win this match?¡± the voice said.

    Luon hesitated for a second before he responded firmly, ¡®To be honest, I¡¯m not sure. Although it isn¡¯t the most logical thing to do, I feel like if I were to lose this match, I wouldn¡¯t be able to live with myself. This battle will forever haunt me, and if I can offer my very existence to win¡­ I may be willing to do so. Also¡­ I don¡¯t think you would do any harm to my family and friends.¡¯

    ¡°...¡± the voice became silent, soon Luon felt the darkness crept closer to him as he felt his skin shiver.

    ¡°Very well, embrace the darkness, your darkness,¡± said the voice as Luon mind was coated in black.

    Meanwhile, Deminier raised his blade and said to Luon, ¡°Too bad for you, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll treat everyone from Nexus a little more nicely, hahaha! I can kill you so easily I can do it with my eyes closed.¡±

    Swinging down his blade with his eyes close, the crowd also closed their eyes to avoid the brutal execution. However, the boorish sound of blood spurting out didn¡¯t occur. Instead, the sound of blades clashing appeared once more. The crowd turned back to see the scene of Luon blocking Deminer¡¯s attack.

    Deminier frowned and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you just quit struggling already, it''s pointless to continue, and you know that.¡±

    Luon didn¡¯t respond, Deminier who arrogantly proclaimed to kill Luon without needing his eyes, opened them to see something frightening. Luon¡¯s blue eyes turned black, and his expression became solemn as if he had aged physically despite looking very young. For some reason, he could feel the source of his fears coming from the darkness.

    Deminier quickly distanced himself from Luon, however, as he did Luon had vanished from his spot and appeared behind Deminier.

    ¡®How!¡¯ Deminier thought until he realized that he was played like a fool. The defenseless Luon was actually a physical illusion as it was evident from the two Luon¡¯s before him.

    ¡°This feeling¡­ it¡¯s nice to have a body once again,¡± said Luon as he clutched his hand open and closed, as he does so dark mana surrounded his body.

    ¡°You¡­ who are you?!¡± asked Deminier as he realized something entirely off about Luon.

    Luon stood in front of Deminier after giving his body a little shake and said, ¡°Me? I¡¯ll let you know in a few seconds¡­ now...¡±

    ¡°Come,¡± Luon said as imposingly. Luon had spoken those words once more, only this time... it was several times more frightening.

 Chapter 91 - Luon Vs Deminier 4

    Luon opened his eyes to find himself in a peculiar situation. Moments ago he was fighting Deminier in a grand tournament held by several systems and then the next minute he was sitting on a chair with a set of newspaper in his hands.

    ¡®Was it all a dream,¡¯ Luon thought as he began to realize that the room he was in was the same place he was told to fight a mysterious race called Inzektors during his first simulated life. Luon sent his gaze to the television and found there was no news report, instead an action sequence was being displayed he could see the figure of someone that looks like him fighting Deminier.

    ¡®So this is what he meant by selling my soul¡­ will I have to spend my remaining existence watching over myself?¡¯ thought Luon as he was relieved from his obligations.

    Just as Luon was pondering how his new lifestyle was going to work out the room turned pitch black leaving only the television and his chair behind.

    A figure appeared beside him, it was Luon from the second simulation. He was much older than the current Luon but younger than when he died during the first simulation. The middle-aged Luon said, ¡°You haven¡¯t sold your soul at all. Instead, you''re taking back the inner darkness, a part of me back into you. However, I believe that you aren¡¯t ready for it yet and as you can see the darkness eroding your existence stopped.¡±

    Luon sent his gaze around and found a white barrier encasing the room he was in. Luon turned and asked him ¡°So, how are you fighting right now if you''re here talking to me? And what do you mean by embracing the darkness? Why do I need to do it?¡±

    If he was here talking to him like this than what was the point of this act? Did he lie to him? Was he planning to possess the body after so long?

    The black Luon, with a solemn expression, responded, ¡°In order to use my powers to change the tide of the battle I have temporarily taken over your body. I am the embodiment of your negative feelings such as fear, anger, and sadness, an entirely different personality from you.¡±

    ¡°Like how someone has multiple personality disorder?¡± Luon asked.

    ¡°Something like that, anyway if you want to receive my powers, your mind has to accept my existence. You will soon experience the memories that created me as a side effect, from now on every time you sleep they will appear in your dreams... fragments of my past,¡± the dark Luon said.

    Although Luon was curious about the memories, he was still worried about the results of the match. He looked at the television and found himself and Deminier exchanging blows, they were nearly equal despite Deminier powering himself up.

    ¡°Can you win?¡± questioned Luon.

    ¡°Watch,¡± the black Luon replied as he pulled out another chair out of nowhere. The two of them silently spectated the match in the pitch black room.

    ¡­

    ¡°Is this all?¡± questioned as Luon prepared his blade once more.

    Deminier frowned as he said, ¡°Although I don¡¯t know what happened to you, and what got you up and kicking again, I don¡¯t believe that this state of yours will last that long. Especially since you were just heavily injured.¡±

    From Deminier¡¯s eyes, the only thing that changed about Luon was his eyes and his combat level. Luon was now a pseudo-level 80 combatant as he still had to rely on his NG-Arms to make up for the difference.

    Luon smiled as he said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Instead, you should worry about yourself.¡±

    Luon used his movement skill and appeared before Deminier slashing at him with two blades.

    The two continued to exchange blows, and Deminier noticed that the strength behind Luon¡¯s blade was slowly getting even stronger.

    ¡®How could this be possible?! He should have less mana than me, less blood than me and he should be getting several times weaker¡­ but why is he getting even stronger?!¡¯ thought Deminier as he tried to back away once more.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you not able to keep up?¡± Luon¡¯s words echoed behind Deminier causing him to twist around only to receive a heavy blow to his body. However, Luon didn¡¯t stop there, he reenacted the exact attack sequence that Deminier had used moments ago. Luon sent Deminier several meters away from him and waited patiently for a reaction.

    Coughing out blood Deminier said to Luon, ¡°Did you think you¡¯ve already won? This match isn¡¯t over yet!¡±

    At this moment the doors to the entrance of the room burst open, and beyond the debris stood the dark knight who was also a being in the level 80 region. Deminier laughed at his reinforcement and stood up while downing a potion. He shattered the glass and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think you can handle both of us now. I¡¯ll show you who the boss around here is.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    The dark knight and Deminier encircled Luon as they readied their stance. Luon indifferently looked at the two and said, ¡°Interesting, but it¡¯s not enough.¡±

    The two began to launch their attacks, and he quickly dealt with their blows. Luon while fighting said, ¡°It¡¯s no use trying to tire me out. Even though your both level 80 my stamina is more than what you can imagine. I¡¯ve been called... an undying warrior once before.¡±

    The dark mana that surrounded Luon began to consume the mana from the surroundings like a vacuum, his face showed no signs of becoming tired.

    Deminier realized what the technique was and exclaimed, ¡°Blood Magic Circulation! You¡¯re a blood user!¡±

    The term blood user was a term that came from the old nation of elves who found an alternative way to absorb mana instead of naturally generating mana over time. Those elves who were jealous of how other races can absorb mana to empower their own body experimented with the blood of their own people and developed a method that was able to forcefully devour mana and other types of energy to empower themselves. As a result, they never tire and continue to fight, they thirsted for more power becoming addicted to their growth.

    This method was shared between other races as they had something similar. Like how demons have their dark magic and chaotic trolls or orcs with their chaos energy. The concept of devouring mana was widely used by other races, but it wasn¡¯t commonly seen in a human, this surprised Deminier.

    With Luon¡¯s current state he would continue to fight on despite having the two of them pressure him. Sure enough, they fought into a stalemate until someone screwed up. Deminier who was injured before tripped after making an attack and exposed an opening allowing Luon to wound him once more.

    Deminier quickly backed away to heal himself, but Luon didn¡¯t allow him to do so easily. Luon lunged at him but was intercepted by the dark knight. However, in a one versus one battle, the dark knight was no match for Luon who was able to handle both of them. Before Deminier could heal himself, Luon had finished him off.

    ¡®This body is good, it seems like that cultivation technique which incorporated that asura book was based on creating a body that would easily allow the user to devour mana,¡¯ thought Luon.

    Deminier who had witnessed this became helpless his sword wavered as he said, ¡°You¡­ you will regret opposing me! One of these days I¡¯ll get my revenge.¡±

    ¡°Oh, is that a threat I hear?¡± said Luon who appeared to be intrigued.

    Seeing how his opponent was still responding with reason Deminier said, ¡°Yes it is, however, I¡¯ll let today slide if you...¡±

    Luon interrupted him quickly as he said, ¡°Although it¡¯s refreshing to hear someone actually threaten me. I have a duty to accomplish. However, it is indeed important to tie up loose ends, which is why...¡±

    Luon sent Deminier a penetrating gaze which had a red hue as he slowly uttered, ¡°I¡¯ll pull out the weeds before they can even grow.¡±

    Deminier body stood stupefied as he was hit by Luon¡¯s illusion spell. Deminier began to convulse and groan, but before it became noticeable to the viewers, Luon quickly sliced off his head, thus ending the match.

    ¡­

    From the perspective of the crowd, all they saw was Luon somehow managing a come back after being heavily injured, and due to some powerful illusion magic that the black Luon had cast on the system, he had deceived most of the crowd.

    There were a few people who were able to see through this illusion, and Valerie who was one of them grinned as she said, ¡°What an interesting fella. I knew that the Nexus solar system had incorporated Vortex Container¡¯s to facilitate a child growth was quite an era-changing move, but to bring out a person¡¯s potential this much is quite an impressive thing to do.¡±

    ¡°Milady, according to the reports it seems that Luon could be classified as one of those unstable beings that they were monitoring. According to my observations, he¡¯s somehow developed a multiple personality disorder due to the program,¡± the Vice-captain said.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ which means that if I wanted to face off against this kind of opponent, I would need some kind of trigger right? It appears to me that by having a tough opponent, the other personality would be brought out. Also, did you hack into the system again? One of these days you''re going to get caught,¡± said Valerie.

    ¡°Milady, I am not going to get caught, because I have already been traced. It seems like the system is allowing me to do as I please, however, it stops me before I could get the core information,¡± said the Vice Captain.

    Valerie laughed and said, ¡°Whatever, just don¡¯t bring back anything troublesome. For our opponents it''s probably safe to assume that they would probably pull the same strategy they used today, making his team the last to fight. Arrange one of our teams lose to them on purpose and bring it to a draw...¡±

    ¡°You¡­ are interested in fighting that man?¡± said Vice-captain. He couldn¡¯t fathom why she would want to do so. His combat level was merely in the 60s without the NG-Arms, and with the personality changes, he had barely reached level 80. If there were anything to point out their final opponents had no one interesting to fight which was why he assumed she would be bored with the final match.

    ¡°Don¡¯t question me, I¡¯m merely setting the stage if he couldn¡¯t beat my teammates than why should I bother dealing with him?¡± Valerie said as the Vice-captain accepted her order and left the room.

    The next day was the last, Valerie relished the fact that this farce was going to be over and the final scene had something that incited her curiosity. The technology from the Nexus solar system was something that shouldn¡¯t be underestimated, she looked forward to the final battle.

    ¡­

    After a celebratory feast, Luon returned to the room and started to fall asleep. Almost no one thought he could have managed to win that situation.

    The only one who did believe in him was Captain Waver and Helen who knew the truth behind his strength and had expectations that Luon would be able to win. He was able to deal with a Clamaris when he was much weaker so why couldn''t he deal with a brat who was at a similar level?

    Luon began to recall the events that had happened so far, the time he spent for engineering before the event, the battles against many strong commanders and soldiers, and his friends who were happy that they were in the finals, especially Arisa who thanked Luon while tearing up.

    Luon felt fulfilled, but at the same time concerned. From this point on he will experience what the black Luon had always felt deep inside. Will his sanity shatter from this experience? Luon at worse would turn out to be indifferent to humanity.

    He closed his eyes and entered the black room once again, and there he met the black Luon who motioned him to sit on a chair. Luon nodded, and the two of them sat next to each other, and the television turned on started to replay some memories. Their first session ended quickly as the final day dawned.

 Chapter 92 - Finals 1

    Trumpets played a resonating fanfare that echoed out to the energetic crowd. The final day came and the final battle to decide who would reign supreme is about to begin. To the people, it was another victory for Dragons Lair, but many people still came to watch this match anyways. The last day of the tournament was considered an optional holiday for those who wanted a day off from work, and most workers would often excuse themselves to attend this event, or at least proclaim so while they lay around at home like a dead fish.

    The final two teams lined up and faced each other as they were notified beforehand about the arrangement. Looking at the two sides, many shook their heads thinking about how great of a difference was there.

    One team combat levels averaged to level 79 while the other was at 63 without the help of external equipment. It was plainly obvious to see that gear was a huge factor for Nexus University.

    ¡°Hello, folks at home who are joining us tonight at the Dragon¡¯s Lair Capital City Annual Alliance Tournament. We have a splendid show tonight with the final matchup between Dragon¡¯s Lair and the dark horse Nexus University,¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°A dark horse indeed, to be honest, I was expecting Lemegeton to be in the finals since they actually have a level 80 combatant. It was quite an expected outcome with how Luon was able to take out Deminier to claim victory for his team,¡± said a female announcer.

    ¡°But even with that miracle nothing could bring down the champions of the tournament, isn¡¯t that right?¡± said the male announcer.

    ¡°Well, at least we can expect amazing performance. Now let¡¯s have our two representatives come up and say a word or two before the match begins,¡± said the female announcer,

    The members of both schools departed to their designated waiting rooms while Arisa and Valerie arrived on top of the stage. The male announcer approached the two and said, ¡°Everyone! Give a round of applause for these two contestants, now I guess I¡¯ll start with you first. Valerie, what are your expectations for today''s match?¡±

    ¡°I hope that we could show the audience a memorable battle that could last for ages,¡± she said.

    ¡°Ohoho, but for that to happen, you would need to do something amazing to attract the audience like that. How would you exactly do that?¡± asked the male announcer.

    ¡°That¡¯s a secret, you¡¯ll have to wait to find out more,¡± said Valerie.

    ¡°Well then, Arisa do you have something to say about the match?¡± asked the male announcer.

    ¡°Nothing in particular, if anything I also hope that this match would be quite memorable to the audience. As for what it could be, maybe overthrowing the reigning champions? Wouldn¡¯t that be quite memorable? How about it Valerie? You could just give us the win,¡± said Arisa.

    ¡°If you want to become the champions, then you¡¯ll be going to have to win it yourself because I don¡¯t have any intentions of losing,¡± Valerie said as she smiled at her response.

    ¡°Hahaha, as expected from these two representatives, quite the competitive spirit. Is there anything the two of you would like to say to the fans before the match begins?¡± asked the male announcer.

    ¡°Let¡¯s fight fair and square, I hope that everyone would be able to enjoy this match,¡± said Valerie as she turned to Arisa.

    Arisa met her gaze and said to the audience, ¡°We¡¯ll do our best, not to let you down. You can expect a good match.¡±

    ¡®More like a completely one-sided one,¡¯ thought Arisa and Valerie. With the level difference between both teams, it was quite difficult to make up for it even if Arisa¡¯s team had two times more members than Valerie¡¯s.

    The two retreated back to their respective teams, and the matches soon began.

    First up was Arisa¡¯s team versus the second strongest team from Dragon¡¯s Lair. The match gave Arisa hope since their opponents didn¡¯t have any dragons. Instead, they had a team composition made up of soldiers and commanders from their allied schools.

    Before the final match, they decided to keep the previous order since it didn¡¯t matter who they were against since all of their opponents were difficult to face against. In fact, even without the dragons, their levels were much higher than Arisa¡¯s team.

    Arisa knew how challenging this match was going to be, the only handicap, the only advantage they had over the other team, was that 5 minutes restriction. What could they do within that 5 minutes? They needed to gather up an army force the battle into one between armies.

    No matter how powerful they were, as long as they were supported by an army, they could still manage. Tactics are without a doubt a crucial point in this battle.

    The only type of people that could face against an army were beings with the combat level of 90 and higher. A combatant at that ranking would be considered as leader or higher level individuals in their forces. The Nexus solar system currently have 4 of them while the other solar systems have an average of 6.

    The match started, and Arisa worked together with Shizuka to develop their forces at the fastest speed possible. Within the first few minutes, their factory had already produced an army of 300 droids.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Their production rate was incomparable to what they had before. However, Arisa and Shizuka didn¡¯t stop there, they continued to build as if there was no tomorrow. As soon as the restriction was removed, Arisa mounted her forces on the mountaintop terrain that she often selected.

    Her base was like a fortress and since she was no longer attacking she was able to focus on monitoring her surroundings. Although their opponent didn¡¯t need to launch a surprise attack and the members of Dragon¡¯s Lair were known to have a straight-forward personality she couldn¡¯t help but still pay attention to for any surprise attacks.

    To no surprise, after they were allowed to cross all of their opponents had crossed the border with confident expressions.

    All the members on Arisa¡¯s team, except for Shizuka looked at them with an odd expression. ¡®What are they planning?¡¯ Arisa thought as her opponents began to lay out several parts from their gear slots. One of their opponents who was a human began to construct something on the spot.

    ¡®Should I attack them? Or are they waiting for me to attack? Either way, they shouldn¡¯t be able to summon any units with all 5 of them here. It¡¯s more beneficial to wait it out,¡¯ thought Arisa.

    From the pile of scraps that they dropped down a wall was soon erected and their activities were soon hidden. Inside of a tent-like structure, their opponents had walled themselves in. Arisa tried to send a few scouts to find out what they were doing but was ultimately shot down by an elven archer who was on top of the structure.

    Fortunately, three of their members could easily be seen, so she didn¡¯t expect that they had any tricks. Arisa didn¡¯t know what they were up to so she continued to reinforce her defenses.

    All of the sudden the earth shook and near their Crypt of Heroes a giant worm appeared creating a giant hole. From within the hole, an army of goblins emerged with their opponents leading them.

    ¡®How!?¡¯ thought Arisa as she saw that besides the archer and the engineer the other three members had arrived at their base.

    All of the sudden she realized that when the enemies began their construction outside of their base, she didn¡¯t know whether or not the other members beside the archer and the engineer were real. The reality of things shocked her, she should have thought their engineer who wasn¡¯t wearing the traditional magician''s robe was actually a mage that uses illusion magic!

    Tricked by their opponent Arisa quickly arranged her forces to protect their Crypt of Heroes. However, their enemies were well prepared.

    A barrier was soon erected protecting their Crypt of Heroes from the one who was trying to defend it. Their opponents with their poor pickaxes, swords, and heavy siege weaponry hacked and chipped the base.

    Helpless their team could only watch it fall before the match was declared over.

    The score became 1 to 0 with Dragon¡¯s lair in the lead, and it was without a doubt a memorable one. To lose to a pile of goblins with sticks was one of the lousiest ways to lose from.

    The waiting room was silent, nobody knew how to respond to such a loss. Zythtos gave a light snort before getting himself and his team ready for the next battle.

    Their match started without zero anticipation, they haven¡¯t experience how strong their opponents were, and they had already lost one match. Zythos took the initiative this time and attacked their opponents from the start.

    He didn¡¯t care about the 5-minute restriction. Even if their opponents were higher levels compared to them, class definitions were still difficult to overcome. A knight can quickly deal with archers and archers can easily handle mages. Also¡­ if they were going to lose they might as well get it over with.

    Zythos planned to use this logic when they began their engagement. The two teams clashed against each other head-on, and some way or another the battle was even. In fact, a little to even, Zythos noticed that their opponents weren¡¯t trying at all.

    Zythos attack smoothly landed on their opponents. However, the damage he had done was very minimal. But despite doing such little damage, their opponents overexaggerated it by pretending that the force behind each blow was astounding.

    Zythos¡¯s teammates also noticed this and began to play along. They didn¡¯t know what their opponents had in store, but if they were offering they would gladly take it. The only person who was having a serious battle with their opponent was Janet, it appeared that she wasn¡¯t able to see the signs and read the mood. Her opponent who noticed this tried numerous times to signal Janet this without alarming the crowd, but failed to do so. Helpless, he could only follow suit, and the two started an intense battle.

    Sure enough, the opponent¡¯s commander fell to Zythos who somehow managed to kill him. His death was kind of pathetic after Zythos sent him flying and his sword flew out of his hand. Upon landing on the ground, the sword impaled the man, thus ending the match. Zythos¡¯s couldn¡¯t help but face-palm from the results. The crowd who had witnessed this couldn¡¯t fathom how this was all possible.

    Valerie, the mastermind behind this, laughed like crazy as she had requested the second team to lose if their first team won. At first, they were confused at her request but didn¡¯t dare question her thoughts. Instead, they began to brainstorm on ways to lose in the most fashionable way ever. If they had dared disobeyed her, despite winning the match, they would lose more than what they had bargained for.

    The waiting room was once again quiet, rather than celebrate they appeared dumb-struck. Their opponents allowed them to win, after claiming the first victory. They could have easily won this match, and yet they gave them this win.

    Luon pondered why would they do so, but he didn¡¯t need to think that hard about it.

    ¡°It appears that our next opponent noticed the illusion magic,¡± said a voice in Luon¡¯s mind.

    ¡®What do you mean? Didn¡¯t you say it was difficult to see through?¡¯ thought Luon.

    The black Luon who he named ¡°Thanatos,¡± said, ¡°It is, however, dragons with a higher level of ability should be able to see through it easily.¡±

    One of the significant changes after their match with Lemegeton was that he was now able to talk to Thanatos more often, the two of them spent their nights watching his past. To Luon it was like watching a movie with the main character sitting beside him. There were epic scenes and saddening scenes which caused him to cry multiple times as if he was the main character. Which technically he is.

    ¡®Why did they let us win,¡¯ thought Luon as he asks Thanatos.

    ¡°They¡¯re probably expecting to battle against you. If I were their team leader and only one of my opponent was interesting enough to fight, I would like to battle against him instead of taking the easy win,¡± Thanatos said.

    ¡®Well, then we shouldn¡¯t keep them waiting,¡¯ thought Luon as he got from his seat. Stepping by his teammates, although they were speechless from the previous matches they still gave him a high-five filled with hope. This was always an opportunity for their school, their solar system if he could win then wouldn¡¯t that be amazing?

    Luon stood by with his teammates and with solemn expression evaluated their attitude. Tyron was expressionless as always, Bendan was clutching his fist, Gizmo gave a light yawn while Thomas was the only one who appeared the most nervous of the bunch.

    Luon gave a slight nod and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± The team vanished with a bright light, onto the final battle.

 Chapter 93 - Finals 2

    The match started without any suspense, despite being nervous Luon and the others got to work immediately. As they were constructing the underlying structures to set up another army of robots, Valerie had sent a bird as a messenger, attached to it was a letter.

    Luon felt suspicious of this activity, why would she bother sending him this after the match had started? Thanatos suggested that she wanted to bait him out which seemed reasonable. However, he couldn¡¯t help but consider that inside of the message or the bird itself was a bomb.

    Luon¡¯s imagination didn¡¯t come true as after the bird drop the letter several meters away from him, it left immediately after it had done its duties. Cautiously, Luon arranged one of the robots to read the document and send the contents to him digitally. Even though there was no explosion, the parchment may have been laced with deadly poison.

    Within seconds the content on the document was sent to his BMPU, as he read the document he began to frown. The message asked for Luon to attack her, and it said that she would make it as fair as possible.

    ¡®Fair as possible? The easiest thing to do is actually be a human if you wanted to be fair,¡¯ thought Luon as pondered on whether or not this was a trap. However, his worries were unnecessary, sure enough, Tyron who was sent scouting reported that Valerie¡¯s base, which was positioned on a mountainside, had transformed into a giant fortress which can aesthetically relate to a demon king''s castle from the perspective of the viewers.

    ¡®Rather than a war, she wants us to do a raid?¡¯ Thought Luon. It was quite the unique perspective she had, and Luon recalled that she wanted to make the match more memorable. It reminded Luon of those stage plays where the hero would attack the bad guy''s castle to save the princess, only their target was both the bad person and the princess.

    ¡®Do you think we should do it?¡¯ Luon asked Thanatos.

    ¡°No matter what you¡¯ll eventually have to attack it, the only way to win is to take out their commander or Crypt of Heroes. Surely she would be on guard of surprise attacks including ones that shatter walls, so you can¡¯t cheat your way in. You should ask for your teammate''s opinions though,¡± said Thanatos.

    Luon then asked his team on the voice chat and ultimately decided to raid the base with Tyron and Gizmo as the rear guard, and Tyron with Luon as the Vanguard. Thomas was left behind to create a robotic army to ensure that their opponents don¡¯t cheekily backstab them in the back after they leave the base.

    ¡°It sure is a big castle,¡± said Bendan as he looked up. The others nodded in response, Luon questions how many rooms could there possibly be? How long would it take to clear each room? The one thing he was less suspicious about was that Valerie was spending her resources to create the giant structure.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Luon. Everyone nodded in response and the team advance through the large double doors and at this moment on, the war became a raid.

    The castle was brightly lit in some areas while dark in others, it was akin to those horror shows or novels that took place in a creepy castle. Luon felt like a vampire could pop out of nowhere and scare the living daylights out of them.

    Fortunately, it wasn¡¯t difficult to get lost since there was only a singular path. Luon mentally plotted out the route they traveled through so far and found that there may be no crossroads at all. The terrain had them spiraling inwards.

    Luon predicted that after they get to the center, there would be a staircase leading to an upper level, and the path would more than likely spiral outwards. It was rather straightforward, but he came to this conclusion since he found Valerie to a very straight-forward person with all the suggestions and statements she had made so far.

    But he was wrong, although there were some minor skeletons keeping watch of the first floor the second one was no longer a castle. Instead, it made Luon think he was outside of it as a forest like a field appeared before his eyes.

    One could still see the outer walls of the castle, but this map was filled with trees. At this point, Luon didn¡¯t know where to go, he didn¡¯t want to waste time exploring and wished that Valerie would have given him a hint. It was like getting started with a survival game with nothing but hands, only to find out that the game character can punch trees for materials.

    Luon then felt presences nearby, a group of trees emerged from one direction and assaulted the group. Luon and the others quickly dealt with the trees before advancing towards where their opponents had come from. The towering treants continued to attack the group with their branches that were as thick as several cars mashed up with one another. As they evaded those troublesome ones, there were little ones that would try to mess around with their movement.

    After a series of challenging fights, they managed to find the stairs to the next level, but before it was their opponent''s dryad member from Harmonic forest. The green-skinned beauty shyly said, ¡°W-w-welcomeee, I-I-I¡¯m one of the four he-heavenly ge-generals-¡±

    ¡°Stop, let¡¯s just fight,¡± said Luon as he could imagine what kind of setting that Valerie had arranged. The dryad breathe a moment of relief before she mustered her courage and said, ¡°Well then, let¡¯s fight!¡±

    The ground shook, and the dryad rose several feet off the ground due to the help of a tree, she merges her body within its trunk, and its aura rose several times higher. Luon felt that the shy dryad was no longer there. Instead, an intimidating boss-like treant was.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Disperse!¡± said Luon as his teammates avoided the branches that acted like wild whips which devastated the surrounding forest.

    Gizmo and Tyron attacked from a distance but found that normal bullets or arrows were unable to harm the tree with its immense regeneration rate. Instead, they began to convert their mana into fire elemental ones before launching it once again at the tree, this time it was effective as the tree was forced to swat down the fire.

    Luon dodged the branches and with his swords, cut the branches that would have possibly harmed him. It was then he noticed that the degeneration sword which specialized in killing giants had a bonus effect against the giant tree.

    Bendan, on the other hand, used his array cards to ignite explosions against the tree.

    With their combined efforts they managed to deal significant damage against the tree when they were what they deem to be half-way done, the tree went berserk, its branches whipped even faster to the point where it breaks off from the tree and continues flying towards their direction.

    ¡°Play it safe!¡± said Luon as he continued to dodge the tree branches. The intense game of jump rope had turned into chaos. With no respect to its own life, it continued to act harshly as it suddenly detached over 15 different branches, sending them all flying at Bendan¡¯s direction. Coming from multiple directions Bendan was unable to dodge them, he grits his teeth as he uses his sword to repel himself out of the situation using the first branch¡¯s momentum.

    But he didn¡¯t come out unharmed, after being sent flying he was heavily damaged as he landed on the ground. He got up and positioned himself a little further away to heal his injuries. Bendan began to meditate after downing a potion and the giant tree who noticed that sent more branches flying towards his direction. Quickly Luon dove in front of Bendan and repelled each branch with his sword. This maneuver consumed a lot of stamina as Luon was quite tired by the end of it.

    With it acting so wildly, Gizmo and Tyron continuous attacks, the tree soon fell before their team. The dryad who was one with the tree was also sent out of the match.

    Although they would like to press on, they needed to temporary rest their injuries. Luon soon senses something approaching from where they came from and found a robot carrying several goods in a small moving stand behind him. Looking at the brand name, Luon felt relieved to see that Thomas had sent it to replenish their supplies. The four of them crowded around the robot and took the necessary supplies to continue onwards. To the audience, it reminded them of a scene of where people would sit down to eat at a portable ramen stand.

    After replenishing their supplies the team advance onwards. Although, the forest zone was quite severe, and they felt like they wanted to rest some more, time was of the essence, the longer they stayed there, the harder it gets as their opponents Crypt of Heroes was continuously active.

    The next floor was also a field type map. However, this time they knew where they were going. From a distance, the team saw a tower and from beneath the tower was an army of skeletons which were continuously rising.

    Before their eyes was an army of skeletons and in the lead of the pack was the Oni, the main vanguard of their opponent''s team.

    Luon and the others became on guard, it wasn¡¯t easy to deal with this kind of opponent especially since the opponent''s Magician is behind them as well.

    ¡°We are the- uh, heavenly generals, yeah. Whatever! Let¡¯s fight, hahaha!¡± said the Oni.

    Luon felt the Oni reminded him of something as Bendan replied, ¡°I¡¯ll take you on! Show me your moves!¡±

    The Oni smiled back, and the two began to engage in combat. The magician who heard his ally failing the opening line muttered to himself before casting fireballs at Luon¡¯s group. To avoid these attacks, Gizmo, Tyron and Luon dived into the crowd of skeletons dealing as much damage as possible like if they legendary generals in a pile pathetically weak soldiers.

    However, the fireballs didn¡¯t stop, the man continued to shoot files in the same manner regardless of the skeletons, Luon used his Eye of Insight to find that his staff was able to consume the released mana that the skeletons had to produce more of them.

    Luon needed to take out the opponent¡¯s magician, and he needed to do it quickly before their numbers expanded to an unmanageable amount.

    Luon managed to reach the base of the tower only to find that there was no entrance to it, and its surroundings were encased in a static field making it difficult to climb. Luon sudden realized that the magician must have used a flight spell to reach that high up.

    Looking through his arsenal of goods he realized that he had no device that could help him fly that high besides the NG-Arms, and if Luon were to exhaust his fuel on his way up, he''d have no choice but to fight Valerie without it. That 14 levels could make a huge difference later on.

    Luon gave it some more thought before he found a solution, Luon started to take off his shirt and seal its holes. Using his wind magic, he managed to pull himself up. The act garnered the attention of some young female audience members since any child that came from the Vortex Containers turn out aesthetically appealing, especially if they maintain their level of fitness.

    After arriving at the top of the tower, the magician who was busy casting fireballs at Luon¡¯s teammates noticed his arrival and shot a fireball over to him. Luon replied by equipping the armor from his transformation belt and easily beat the magician to death, freeing his team from the storm of fireballs.

    With no more skeletons and fireballs, the rest of the members focused on eliminating the Oni which found the act to be cowardly. Luon knew how important time was, having cleared both the first floor and the second one he realized that the only member on their opponent''s team left was Valerie and the Vice-Captain, who were both dragons.

    After resting up once more, the team arrived on the final floor. On top of a throne Valerie imposingly sat, she said, ¡°Welcome heroes from afar, I wonder if you have what it takes to claim this throne?¡±

    Luon didn¡¯t respond right away causing Valerie to feel like he wasn¡¯t here for fun, he may even have some suspicions of her, but it was too late now. Valerie laughs as she said, ¡°Come out, my last heavenly general.¡±

    A man appeared out of nowhere, coated in black clothing he said, ¡°I am the last heavenly general, come and taste my blade.¡±

    It appeared to Luon that the dragonkin, Vice-captain, was well versed with swordsmanship from the stance he took.

    Valerie then said, ¡°It would be boring if it weren¡¯t fair, my minions will deal with your friends.¡±

    She waved her hand, and besides Luon, everyone else vanished and appeared in several areas nearby. Confused by the situation they were forced to fight waves of monsters.

    Valerie nodded, and the Vice-Captain raised his sword, the raid like bosses he had faced before was nothing compared to the man in front of him.

 Chapter 94 - Finals 3

    ¡®Ah, crud, to think that the level of technology Dragon¡¯s Lair had was this advanced. I didn¡¯t think I would fall into a transportation matrix like that,¡¯ Gizmo thought as he sat despondent inside of their team¡¯s private waiting room. Immediately after he was sent away, he died fighting the first few waves of opponents he had to face.

    ¡®To think that Dragon¡¯s Lair would soon be another technological powerhouse equivalent to the Nexus solar system¡­ how troublesome. Should I be glad that they aren¡¯t using the Vortex Container simulations to raise their youths?¡¯ Gizmo thought about the situation between solar systems.

    With more power, technology, and productive citizens, the difference in culture between solar systems tend to change to the trends. With the advancement of effective communicative means, the people from various solar systems tend to slack on letters and words as long as their point still gets across, creating an entirely new language.

    Looking over the live streams chat Gizmo shook his head as he saw how fast the message board was responding upon his death. It was filled with laughter, cheers, and memes.

    ¡®I might be quite famous now¡­ in the infamous kind of way¡­¡¯ Gizmos thought. He shook away his thoughts and prayed that one of their teammates would die in a more pathetic death than him. After all¡­ he died to a swarm of monkeys, tomorrow he would have an animated video of himself being savagely wrecked by them, and it all started with a banana peel.

    ¡­

    Luon and the man stared at each other for a bit, while they were carefully watching each other''s actions, he occasionally sent his gaze over to Valerie. If they wanted to win they could have done so already if the two of them teamed up together, but he found no signs of her intervening.

    She who was observing their battle careful noticed this gazed, she gave him a smile and said, ¡°Rest assured, unless you kill my Vice-Captain I have no intention of joining in the fray. So¡­ show me an interesting display.¡±

    Luon wasn¡¯t sure how authentic her promise was, but he had no time to check the validity of her statement as the Vice-Captain made his move. He used a high-movement skill and quickly arrived by Luon side as he launched a horizontal attack. Luon managed to block the attack. However, the force was too strong sending him flying for several meters despite how casual swing looked.

    ¡®This is the power of a dragon...¡¯ thought Luon whose hands were shaking from the blow. From what he knew the basic baby dragon, depending on its bloodline is born at the combat level of 50-70. The reason being was that they could transfer memories between generations, it was called the Draco inheritance, and some scientist believed that the person who made the Vortex Containers based their research on this system. With a superior memory from previous experiences they are quickly able to reforge their bodies with many abundant and precious resources, creating a superior army of elite soldiers in an instant.

    Despite having this much power, the Inzektor race still thrived. Their level of intelligence was much higher than other races, and unless they could travel through galaxies at a breakneck pace while eliminating Inzektors, they could only grow stronger.

    Imagine having a group of superior swimmers diving into the ocean to find the treasured island only to see an endless amount of ocean before them, with their goal nowhere near sight. It was a fruitless endeavor to eliminate the Inzektors, and although they can slowly eliminate their race as they expand outwards, their enemies always bring new things to the table.

    There were close combat Inzektors, transportation Inzektors, farming Inzektors, so many kinds exist, and because of their hierarchical relationship, there was no need for discipline.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Can¡¯t handle one blow?¡± said the Vice-Captain. To his remark, Luon only responded by shifting his swords. He coated them with mana to make up for the difference, but it just caused the man to laugh as he did the same. The two of them began to trade blows, and surprising despite having dragonic strength, and a sword encased in mana, the Vice-captain found that he wasn¡¯t able to overpower Luon.

    ¡®Strength and mana control, is it?¡¯ thought the Vice-captain as he realized that Luon was doing an incredible job of redirecting his attacks with an expert level of skill to make up for his lack of strength.

    Despite the remarkable display of swordsmanship, the Vice-captain¡¯s will didn¡¯t waver as the two continued to exchange attacks garnering the attention of the audience. Luon soon realized that his foe wasn¡¯t just blindly attacking him. Instead, he was trying to exhaust his mind and stamina, after all, it wasn¡¯t easy to maintain this state of concentration. Eventually, he would tire before the enemy would show signs of any weakness.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    Luon needed to do something game-changing, and he needed to do it quick. The black mana enveloped him once more only he didn¡¯t give control to Thanatos, instead since he had accepted a portion of his inner darkness, his control over black mana had given him the necessary ability to make himself an undying warrior. The amount of stamina he had multiplied, the Vice-captain who noticed the sudden changed frowned.

    ¡®He didn¡¯t transform into the other personality, and this seems to be more troublesome than I thought it would be.¡¯ The Vice-captain parried one of Luon¡¯s blow but was unable to get him to expose an opening.

    Sword fights are more complicated than a simple game of chess. It wasn¡¯t a simple game of rock paper scissors, whether you attack, defend, or counter, there were too many factors to take in consideration.

    Their exchanges caused ripples in the air. Luon firmly received the Vice-captain¡¯s attacks, and their fight looked amazing in the eyes of the audience, and yet Valerie appeared bored out of her mind. Maybe it was due to her upbringing, but to her, these attacks were rather slow.

    After some point, she yawned out of boredom as she said, ¡°Enough fooling around, activate the pill, or I¡¯ll beat one into you later. I expected you to obtain some results not to fool around.¡±

    ¡°Tsk,¡± the Vice-captain clicked his tongue which Valerie noticed but decided to ignore. With a sigh, he backed away from and rummaged out a pill from his gear slot and consumed it. The Plana and Nexus solar systems weren¡¯t the only ones searching for new methods to increase their power levels. The pill that the Vice-captain had ate originated from Daemon¡¯s Gate and later brought into the Magician¡¯s tower for improvements. It was able to boost the user''s capability for half an hour before a continuous strain of muscle pain for a good portion of the day. And since this was a simulation, as long as they bore the mental torture that it supplied it was possible to continue to operate during the day.

    A tremendous force came from the Vice-captain¡¯s body as an intimidating pressure roared out as if a dragon had come to life. Luon bore the force to the best of his abilities, using his Eye of Insight he managed to read that his opponent had just reached the level 80 region. At first, they were even, but Luon knew that once he had crossed that borderline, he could be considered a real expert.

    With a whirl of the wind, the wings behind the Vice-captain body emerged and spread widely. The Vice-captain flapped his wings slowly as he began to hover in the air as he said, ¡°It¡¯s time to end this, try your best to survive.¡±

    The Vice-captain¡¯s wings flapped once, and then he vanished before the audience eyes while mid-air. In reality, he went at an extremely fast speed at Luon as if he was cutting air itself. Like a razor-sharp sword, he dove at Luon as if there were no tomorrow.

    An average person wouldn¡¯t be able to track his movements, but Luon could and at the same time he could recognize that his opponent would be able to change positions, mid-way through his attack.

    Luon straightened his hand out which caused the Vice-captain to think that Luon was willing to lose one arm to block this attack. However, that was only a misconception. Before his attack can arrive Luon conjured up a shield in the last moment from his gear slot, completely blocking the blow.

    The impact sent the pebbles and light rocks in the area flying as the area surrounding the two created a crevice.

    Realizing his attack had fallen through, he tried to retreat but found himself in a peculiar situation, his sword was stuck on the shield!

    Behind the shield was an array of magnets arranged stylishly, in fact, the way Luon managed to block the accelerated attack was due to this array. Using his ability to redirect he tipped the sword to a particular direction using the magnets. This reduced the amount of damage a sword could do and at the same time allowed Luon to counter him.

    His attack accurately damaged the Vice-Captain¡¯s vitals. From far away, excitement appeared in Valerie¡¯s eyes as she thought it would be her time to shine once he fell. But a great warrior doesn¡¯t fall that easily. Despite being stabbed he stood up gallantly and faced Luon once more. It was the internal struggle of one man, his will and determination that kept him going, and yet his body was unable to compete, and although Luon felt pity, he didn¡¯t allow him to recover his wounds.

    Luon took a series of steps forward and closed in on his opponent, the faster he could beat him, the better, despite the fact there was another battle junkie right behind this challenge.

    The Vice-captain fell unwillingly, in the end, all he managed to do was exhaust Luon¡¯s NG-Arms power supply by some extent. Valerie begins to clap her hands as she enthusiastically said, ¡°Great! What an interesting shield! To divert his blade, tsk, tsk. It was quite the surprise, if you had timed it wrong, he would have noticed this and avoided the shield in general. If I¡¯m not wrong¡­ you must have some really good eyes.¡±

    Luon was surprised by her analysis, it seems that dealing with Valerie is more difficult than what he could have imagine it to be.

    Valerie after celebrating Luon¡¯s success became solemn as she stood up. She began to pull out an elegantly long katana. With one hand gripping the handle with her hand and the other one lightly tracing the blade as she said, ¡°Ah, to fight another opponent in this tournament. This is indeed a blessing in disguise.¡±

    Luon readied his stance, in response she smiled even brighter.

    ¡®I wonder if he could even contend with me? Or will the other personality entertain me? Does he have any more fun tricks under his sleeve?¡¯ Thought Valerie. She became lost in her thoughts as she conjectured all the possible things Luon could have in store for her.

    ¡®Is it me or did it get chilly?¡¯ thought Luon.

    Thanatos responded, ¡°It¡¯s about half and half, one because she¡¯s looking at you weirdly¡­ the other-¡±

    Before Thanatos could finish his words, the long katana appeared next to Luon¡¯s neck as Valerie managed to arrive behind his back in a matter of milliseconds. Luon began to sweat bullets realizing how fast she was, he hadn¡¯t even blink his eyes, and she had already disappeared.

    Despite the perilous situation, Thanatos continued, ¡°Her killing intent is already locked on to you.¡±

 Chapter 95 - Finals 4

    The cold sensation of her blade tickled his neck as blood started to trail down it. Luon felt as if the grim reaper had appeared behind his back ready to reap his soul and yet after it made its appearance it didn¡¯t make a move.

    ¡°That¡¯s once,¡± a cold voice rang. Luon intuitively jumped away only to meet with Valerie¡¯s cold, expressionless face, there was no trace of smile she had showed him just seconds ago.

    ¡®How can she move like that? I wasn¡¯t even able to see her,¡¯ thought Luon as he carefully studied his opponent. Lightly tracing his neck he could feel the scar she had done to him. The blood incited his senses as the nerves in his brain screamed of danger coming from his opponent. Fear for the unknown yet excited to battle Luon once again readied his stance and faced his opponent, he carefully studied her anticipating her next move.

    The same maneuver was repeated once more as her silhouette vanished, only this time he swung his blade behind his back in an attempt to predict her future movement, it was in vain though. Rather than appearing behind him, her body materialized in front of him. Luon who had his neck turned around felt another cold sensation against his neck. He slowly faced Valerie who was in front of him as she said, ¡°That¡¯s twice. I¡¯ll give you one more chance, the next one would be your last.¡±

    She removed her blade and began to walk away, leaving Luon completely dumbfounded. What kind of movement was it? Teleportation? Fast movement? Luon couldn¡¯t fathom what it was. She was able to decide where she could appear and could react based on his actions.

    ¡°You still couldn¡¯t see through it,¡± Thanatos muttered after sighing.

    ¡®No, I couldn¡¯t see how she did it at all. Why are you only asking now? Did you figure out how she did it?¡¯ asked Luon as he was still thinking about how she did it.

    ¡°What she was doing was a combination of high-speed movement and illusion magic,¡± Thanatos explained. It appears that despite being slightly oversized, the blade tends to attract the view of her opponent¡¯s and because their attention is focused on the range of her sword it allowed her to easily use her illusion magic to get up close to her opponent. Coupled with high-speed movement it gave the impression that she was moving at an extremely fast pace.

    Luon didn¡¯t think that she would be using illusion magic. She had never used it before and felt that the only reason she was doing it now was that she was having fun toying with him. Watching him desperately resist against illusions would be quite entertaining for her. Luon was quite angry, but he managed to calm himself down. After all, this wasn¡¯t the first time he was made fun of, rather than rage it was better to just retaliate with strength.

    ¡®Okay, so I know what it is now¡­ how could I stop it?¡¯ Luon said as he readied his stance once more. It appeared that Valerie wanted to end it sooner than later as she turned around and prepared her position once more.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t want to say it earlier because I realized that she didn¡¯t want to eliminate you, at least right away. It would have been more beneficial if you learned how to analyze the move yourself, and think of a counter. However, it appears that you won¡¯t be able to understand the concept in this match. I¡¯ll tell you a little trick for now. Take your mana and encase your eyes with it, your eye of insight may be able to provide you with some details about objects and people. However, it isn¡¯t able to see everything, the ultimate truth of the world. The mana will help you dispel the illusion, just think of it as wearing a pair of glasses,¡± Thanatos pointed out. Luon found him quite talkative when he starts his lengthy lectures.

    Committing his words to memory, Luon coated his eyes with mana. Valerie who was in front of him vanished as if she wasn¡¯t there in the first place. Sensing something was amiss he immediately jumped towards that direction and turned around only to find her just a few meters behind him.

    She dashed towards him with her blade aiming towards his heart, quickly Luon parried the move thus dispelling the illusion. Valerie who was repelled laughed as she said, ¡°Looks like your brain isn¡¯t full of just muscle after all! Come! Show me your strength!¡±

    An erratic melody of swords resonated with the surroundings. Luon struggled to repel the large blade with his two swords, it didn¡¯t look like it before, but her strength was unprecedented. Unlike the Vice-captain he had dealt with earlier she was more aggressive, especially with the characteristics of having a long katana.

    Every time he tries to repels the attack she would pull back slightly and attack again in a different angle. Her wrist acted like a motion controller that decided where the attack would come and go as her blade danced in front of him. With speed and strength Luon felt outmatched, the pace was entirely in her hands.

    Many found the challenge quite difficult, to begin with, a level 79 combatant sparring with a level 85? The gap was too huge, just like how the bets for the match was completely one-sided.

    Despite being in a disadvantageous situation, a few prayed for his victory. His teammates, his teachers, others from the Nexus solar system, and a few more who had no money at all after spending their savings to bet on Nexus for a slim chance of victory to make a giant killing.

    The fact he was able to resist was already praise-worthy.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    All Valerie had in her mind was to merely satisfy her desires to fight, however, as time passes she found no signs of Luon powering up any further. Disappointed she began to increase her pace. The strength and speed of the long katana nearly doubled as he starts to struggle to keep up with the pace.

    ¡®I need to do something quick!¡¯ Luon thought. He began to channel his mana to cast a spell to make himself a gap to work with. He intended to case an ice bolt at her to get her to back away. Just as he was about to cast a spell, Thanatos said, ¡°It¡¯s pointless to use magic against her, dragons are rather resistant to magic.¡±

    ¡®Then what am I supposed to do?!¡¯ asked Luon as he frantically dealt with her attacks.

    ¡°Don¡¯t know,¡± Thanatos bluntly said.

    ¡®...¡¯ Luon was speechless.

    ¡°...¡± Even Thanatos didn¡¯t know what to say about the current situation.

    The mana that Luon conjured up began to show signs of instability, initially, he was going to use it to cast a spell against Valerie, but after learning it was useless, he held on to it.

    ¡®What should I do with this mana then?¡¯ asked Luon.

    ¡°Toss it on the ground? It¡¯s useless after all?¡± said Thanatos.

    Following his directive, since it seemed to make sense, Luon tossed the mana on the ground. The spell that he was going to cast was ice bolt, and the elemental type of the mana particles was ice, his actions quickly froze the ground surface he was aiming towards.

    Valerie who was aware of the fluctuation of mana coming out of Luon¡¯s body kept a safe distance while maintaining the momentum. Immediately after he shot it out, she jumped away, barely dodging the attack that had gone just passed her. As her feet stepped onto the ground, she noticed something peculiar. The coefficient of friction between her and the ground changed as she slipped right on top of the ice.

    Luon and Thanatos who was once speechless, once again fell speechless, and it wasn¡¯t just them, the crowd also fell silent. Luon made the dragon princess fall down? Fortunately for her, she wasn¡¯t wearing any loose clothing to make the scene any worse than it already was.

    ¡°What are you doing? You could have attacked her,¡± Thanatos pointed out.

    Luon who suddenly realized this began to charge at her with anticipation, but before he could move, Valerie who on the ground rose up and raised her sword. Only this time her expressionless face and deceptive smile were replaced with rage and anger. Luon somehow got this feeling that the next few minutes may be the worse few moments of his life.

    There were no tricks, Valerie charged towards Luon launching a series of deadly blows as if she was a game character launching constant special attacks with an infinite amount of energy.

    Rather than defending and staying his ground, Luon parried the attacks before continuing to run away, and at some point the running speed used, doubled if not tripled when Luon gave up repelling the attacks and focused on running and dodging.

    Bendan who was was released from the trap when it stopped producing monsters managed to arrive at where Luon is. As he raised his hand to greet him, all he could see was the figure of Luon running right by him. Confused he turned to see what he was running from, and all he saw was a flashing white light. In one shot he was instantly eliminated!

    Scared from the vivid and gruesome display Luon continued to run as Valerie chased him down. Soon enough he arrived outside of the building. Although Valerie was mad, her attacks weren¡¯t without reason. Her teammates were dead making it more difficult to win this match, and if she didn¡¯t kill Luon now, she might bring shame to her people.

    Luon who realized this fact quickly ran away, one needed to know when to attack and when to retreat, a war isn¡¯t won by one person.

    Outside of the structure, the two met an intense light, and upon recognizing what it was the facial expression of the two differed significantly. Luon was glad to see the arrival of Thomas¡¯s Robotic army accompanied by several mages, and in front of them, all was a hero. The same hero that he was introduced to by Belle, Ivar. On the other hand, Valerie found the situation quite troublesome, using all these units as a meat wall will be a challenge, but despite the disadvantage, she smiled thinking about the difficulty.

    Ivar without his weapon was equivalent to a level 80 warrior, many heroes had a similar amount of power, the only difference was that they all had some kind of quirk to help them overturn armies. Valerie could be considered a hero as well, strength wise. To qualify as a hero one had to create a legend, and then later have someone record their life when they have perished. She could overturn this situation in her dragon form¡­ and the restriction binding her was just removed. The match had passed 40 minutes.

    Immediately an alarm rang, several beams of light appeared out of nowhere and hit Valerie, seeing this Luon yelled, ¡°Attack her! Don''t let her transform!¡±

    But it was too late as a series of attacks approached her, while coated in the light she smiled as the glare shrouded everyone''s vision. By the time they regained their senses a gravitational force had overwhelmed everyone on the scene.

    Their bodies didn''t become heavier it was their spirit. With scales that glimmer with a golden hue, an imposing golden dragon stood before them. The dragonified Valerie roared, ¡°The battle ends now!¡±

    Her body shines brightly as mana particles gathered around her mouth, her neck stood gallantly as she breathes out a devastating blaze. Wherever she faced, the golden flames coated the army leaving no trace of any survivors behind. With a single breath, she had shattered half of the robotic army and several mages who desperately deployed barrier magic.

    Ivar roared greatly and hammered her with his fist, but the racial differences between a dragon and a barbarian were too vast. His attack which would have devastated many normal Inzektors was proven useless before her might.

    Luon desperately retreated from the battlefield, the moment he was eliminated the match was all over. Rather than a fair match, it was a slaughter, within seconds she had reduced the entire army which Luon held confidence in into dust. With a hard stomp, she had defeated the Ivar, the dragon stared down on him causing his soul to shiver. With a sword in his hand, he readied for the last battle, though it may only last a few seconds it was still time that he desperately needed.

    And that time was well used, unlike Valerie who treated who comrades as trash, Luon treated them as companions, he believed in them when he needed them, and they did the same. Tyron who managed to break himself free of the trap reached the enemies unguarded Crypt of Heroes and destroyed it. A single person can¡¯t change the tides of a war, a war is fought on multiple fronts. Which is why the Inzektors were still prominent today.

    All of the competitors vanished, and the final match was over. Luon may have won the war, but he lost that battle.

 Chapter 96 - Pitching A Theory 1

    The audience appeared shocked about the results, it was an unexpected outcome to the crowd as Dragon¡¯s Lair had been the most superior school considering the combat section of the Alliance Tournament.

    However, rather than being dissatisfied about the results everyone was filled with joy. This was a sign of a new era. For hundreds of years, Dragon¡¯s Lair had been extremely arrogant. To them, winning was as natural as breathing all they had to do was wait for 40 minutes until the restriction was off before they can wreck their opponents by turning into dragons. In their human forms their strength was comparable to demons, but once transformed, their classification changes despite having the same level.

    The level of arrogance for the last few years had been incredibly extreme. Dragon¡¯s Lair was known to have powerful students, yet they started to use candidates from their allied schools in their team composition as a handicap. This act gave other schools a better chance for victory. It also made their opponents more fired up.

    The previous year, in particular, was quite a fantastic year. When Heavenly Sanctuary raided Dragon¡¯s Lair base within the first 15 minutes, the audience all thought the match was going to be over. They were all proven wrong when Athos managed to survive against the onslaught from his opponent''s attack until he was able to use his ability to transform. With a single roar, he decimated the opponents who managed to reach the throne room.

    Valerie, on the other hand, used the typical stalling strategy that her predecessors had used and found successful, only for her arrogance to cause her downfall.

    When they used to have a team of just dragons they had respected each other and believed in one another. Once the implementation of using other candidates from different schools came, the dragonkin naturally took the lead over the less dominant species. Valerie had sacrificed every single one of her comrades treating them like raid bosses who helped power up the hero as entertainment. If she hadn¡¯t done so and implemented more traps into the system, she could have won this match.

    Valerie sat down in a corner depressed after the match, in an empty waiting room she began to tear up while the listening to cheers of the crowd screamed ¡°Nexus,¡± over and over again.

    She had ruined a record that had lasted for centuries. Although they didn¡¯t say it out loud, the other members of her race looked down upon her, and at the same time sympathizing with her. Every citizen was so used to winning to the point where they had forgotten about the possibility of defeat. As a matter of fact, many regarded this as a good lesson to never underestimate their opponent and to work together as a team.

    Valerie was born with a silvers spoon in her mouth, many servants to attend to her needs, and many siblings to play with. She grew up without learning how to respect others and lived a life of pure self-satisfaction with the exception for her brother, Athos, who she deeply admires. Athos walked into the dark room turned on the lights and noticed that despite being on there was still a dark corner in the room. He walked up to Valerie who sulked in the corner and sighed. He said, ¡°Not everyone can win at everything in life.¡±

    Sensing his presence her ears perked up to the remark, yet she merely responded by turning around and faced the corner. Athos thought, ¡®This lass becomes more troublesome every year¡­¡¯

    Due to their parent''s lack of presence and supported by many maids and butlers, the two of them became extremely arrogant and narcissistic. Athos had recognized this wrong-doings only last year when his team was almost eliminated due to his misinterpretation of how strong the other races were.

    War isn¡¯t won by oneself. He had heard the ancient saying many times, before his match, he never thought about it before and even after his match. Although Athos considered it, he didn¡¯t take it seriously. Only after Valerie''s match did he realized the truth. A battle could be won by one person, but a multitude of battles requires the combined effort of many people. Luon recognized this value ages ago, especially during his second simulation.

    Athos slowly articulated his thoughts about how battles should be fought to Valerie and after the end of his sermon, he said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it too much, the pride of dragon can only be shattered by the tears of their companion. Become wiser, stronger, learn from your mistakes so you can never cry again.¡±

    Valerie looked back slightly, her brother¡¯s words had touched her, but she still felt unwilling. That is until Athos finished it off as he said, ¡°And besides, the match isn¡¯t entirely over yet.¡±

    Her eyes brighten as she realized what he was talking about, the Alliance Tournament was judged in two sections, although the first segment was more interesting than the other, they were worth the same. There was still a way to make a comeback. The creative engineering aspect of the tournament had just started.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ¡­

    As the crowd sang fanfares of the victory, the announcer managed to get the second segment of the tournament arranged. Although there were many dissatisfied voices, the raving atmosphere kept those in line.

    The task that Luon and others had to do was over. The engineering aspect of the tournament was done by a group of post-graduate senior students that work at Novera Corporation. The conditions were still the same, as long as they were under 22 and were students under their indicated school, they were allowed to participate. The selection for their team was made by Novera Corporation¡¯s internal staff, they were judged on their competency, ability to work, presentation skills, and ability to debate.

    This portion of the tournament was relatively quick, once the announcer reveals the topic, the 16 teams would create a proposal for a solution to the problem. There were some times where there was no real winner as the problem was never solved or the answers were rather lackluster. At that point, there was a vote on who had the best proposal, and the rankings would be arranged by a series of professional experts from different solar systems.

    There might have been some biased opinions, but most of the time it was entirely fair, which is where the debating portion came into play. No matter how great the idea is if nobody were buying it wouldn¡¯t matter in the first place.

    Besides Luon, Shizuka, and Thomas, everyone from their team decided to leave early and celebrate their victory. Nexus University was known to get within the top 4 positions, many times have they had obtained first place which is why most of them decided not to watch the second segment.

    The majority of the time in the second segment was used to debate values after all. Not many people were interested in these concepts.

    ¡°I wonder what kind of topic will we be covering this year?¡± said Shizuka.

    ¡°You make it sound like you watched last years competition?¡± Luon asked as he recalled that this event was held at the same time as their survival camp trip.

    ¡°There are video recordings online, I¡¯ve seen it. Anyone could have as long as they put a little bit of effort into searching for it. Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t even bother checking?¡± questioned Shizuka.

    Luon nodded, he indeed hasn¡¯t watched any of the videos since he was so preoccupied with other tasks. Curious, he asked Shizuka, ¡°How do you think we¡¯re going to do this year? You must have some inside information about the candidates right?¡±

    ¡°Well, supposedly it¡¯s better than our recent years as the leader of the participants is a level 3 engineer¡­ but to be honest I¡¯m not sure,¡± said Shizuka.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you sure? A level 3 engineer is already a well-accomplished position. I don¡¯t think any other solar system has one in their roster,¡± said Luon as he evaluated all the contestants as they entered the venue.

    ¡°That¡¯s not true, besides most combat oriented schools, all of the engineering-based ones have at least one level 3 engineer,¡± said Shizuka.

    ¡°What about Dragon¡¯s Lair? Do they have a level 3 engineer?¡± Luon asked. He was worried that their first place position in the combat segment would be jeopardized if they claimed the first slot position.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Usually, Dragon''s Lair sends in a random representative and secure a nice position in the top 4, however, since they lost the combat portion of the tournament we may be seeing a higher level contestant,¡± Shizuka said.

    ¡°Why do you think we¡¯re going to have some trouble despite having a level 3 engineer?¡± Thomas asked curiously.

    Shizuka turned to Thomas as she pointed at their teams level 3 engineer. She said, ¡°I don¡¯t know about you, but I heard that he has some shady dealings within our company and through several connections became a level 3 engineer. It¡¯s difficult for even my family members to deal with him since he has a lot of connections in the upper echelon.¡±

    ¡°Are you implying that he may be completely useless?¡± Luon appeared shocked as he looked at their representative.

    ¡°Not entirely, after all, how could he even become a level 2 engineer despite being claimed useless? Rumors could just be fake news for all we know. More importantly, look at Dragon¡¯s Lair¡¯s representatives,¡± said Shizuka.

    Luon gazed over at Dragon¡¯s Lair team composition and found that three of their representatives to be very familiar. In fact, they were the combatants chosen for the combat section of the tournament. The magician, the dryad and Valerie entered the venue and stopped by their division''s designated location.

    ¡°It¡¯s quite understandable for the magician and the dryad to be there since the study of magic and technology can pretty much go hand in hand. But Valerie is there as well¡­ could she be an engineer?¡± Luon questioned as he admired her ability to take in multiple fields.

    ¡°Of course that¡¯s not true, she¡¯s probably there just for show and to redeem herself. It¡¯s not like everyone on their team had to participate.¡± Shizuka said.

    At this moment, all of the participants for the technological portion settled in, except for Alpha Hideout who didn¡¯t even bother with showing up. The announcer then said, ¡°The topic for this year''s creative engineering portion is: A method to improve space battles against the Inzektor race.¡±

    ¡°Uwah, what a troublesome topic. Is there anything one could suggest that would even best the Inzektor race?¡± exclaimed Thomas.

    ¡°There isn¡¯t much one could do,¡± said Shizuka.

    After receiving the theme, candidates are given an hour to support their idea by physical or theoretical data. This topic was indeed a difficult one, the main factors to this are the lack of materials for spacecraft, lack of combative abilities in space, and numbers, especially numbers.

    Each team began to work as many came up with some interesting ideas, however, to the judging panel they were complete trash.

    Luon pondered if he ever got this question how would he go about solving it? Soon enough the brainstorming period ended, and it was time to hear each school¡¯s pitches.

    First up was Nexus, and this day marked one of the most ridiculously stupid pitches by Nexus in its entire history.

 Chapter 97 - A New Way

    ¡°Shall we discuss on how we¡¯re going to approach this topic?¡± said a level 2 engineer.

    ¡°You wimp! You wish to discuss with the great Moret? You¡¯re going over your head!¡± Another level 2 engineer came in knocked him onto the ground.

    ¡°Share pointers among peers? What is this kid thinking? There would be no competition if everyone had the same answers,¡± said another level 2 engineer.

    ¡°How impudent, a topic like space battles is an easy question to answer. I don¡¯t even need to write down the answer since it¡¯s all in here. Hahahaha,¡± said their team¡¯s only level 3 engineer named Moret as he pointed to his forehead.

    Alongside him were several other bootlickers who began to laugh. The first level 2 engineer felt dissatisfied, as he gazed at the ¡°so-called¡± level 3 engineer on their team. The two had been rivals for ages if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that his opponent had deeply ingrained connections with Novera Corporations higher-ups, he would have been long promoted already. The man stole what was rightfully his because of his family background.

    Despite being trained by the system, there were many flaws to the hierarchical way jobs were implemented. Without connections, one could barely get to do anything with just relying on credentials, but there was one thing that overruled both connections and credentials, and that''s war merits. Fighting against the Inzektor race was the number one way to obtain power within every solar system in the Alliance as these soldiers were highly respected regardless of status.

    A prominent figure would obtain many resources, power, and fame as they were heavily supported by the government to fight Inzektors. The only downside to that was that those beings are rather free-willed and tend to abandon their duties and indulge into the endless pleasures that humanity has to offer.

    The level 2 engineer got up and stepped out of the ring as he didn¡¯t want to get involved in this. Seeing him leave, Moret smirked as he began to pull some paper out.

    The other engineers gathered around as they knew his intention. One of them asked, ¡°Moret, is it the same as usual.¡±

    Moret gave him an eye and smiled as he said, ¡°Almost the same. Okay guys same thing as always, you make a design, concept or theory and hand it to me. The only difference is that the best one will receive a warm reception by my house. Don¡¯t forget to make a script for me to say.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± they all excitedly proclaimed. Getting promoted to the Long household which was in the upper echelon of Novera Corporation had been the recent goal of most engineers. The Ichihara family despite being the head had slowly lost its influence through the many years as they focused on fostering expert-level engineers while neglecting the other ones. On the other hand, the Long family had managed to pull in all the commoners and concentrate on expanding its influence to the point where even the Ichihara family has problems dealing with them.

    ¡®Gifted child my arse, I¡¯ll show you old fogeys who the gifted one is,¡¯ thought Moret. Sure enough after a few minutes later a giant amount of proposals appeared before him. Using the knowledge he knew about he found one he thought would be perfect to the problem and told the rest of his teammates to create some items that would support the theory.

    ¡­

    Luon looked at Valerie and was surprised that she was doing well despite losing the match of the century. Once the day was over unless Dragon¡¯s Lair can take first in the creative engineering, then Nexus University would be able to climb to the top for the first time. That moment was what everyone was heavily anticipating.

    Everyone except for Luon that was as he felt a weird premonition that it wasn¡¯t going to be easy. He couldn¡¯t help but stare at Valerie thinking about what she was up, and as he continued to do so, Shizuka noticed his particular state and her eyes saw what he was looking at.

    ¡®Does he like that kind of girl?¡¯ Shizuka thought as she concluded her figure had seduced Luon. A mature older women type of beauty with a well-shaped body, she couldn¡¯t help but compare it with herself who was naturally slim, pretty darn thin.

    For some reason, it irritated her, the way Luon looked at their opponent was pure, without lust, desire, or anything alike. She didn¡¯t know how to answer these feelings as she always had focused on engineering. She thought the saying that a man would look his best when focused on a task was a hoax of a quote, but she couldn¡¯t help but think otherwise.

    As Luon pondered while staring at their team, he couldn¡¯t help but noticed the dryad and magician collaborating with a document in front of them. As Luon inched closer to see what it was Shizuka thought that he wanted to have a closer look at Valerie and became jealous, she took the opportunity to smack Luon¡¯s back which was already moving forward. The momentum knocked him off his feet as he face-planted into the ground.

    Shizuka was surprised at how much damage was done but hid it well under her expressionless face. The deed was done, after all, there was no point of making a fuss over it.

    ¡°What was that for?¡± Luon asked slightly mad from the damage he had received.

    Shizuka coolly played it off as she said, ¡°Just a light tap on the back. What? The worse you could get is just some mental damage, everything''s artificial anyways.¡±

    Dissatisfied Luon sat back down on his chair as mumbling to himself at how unfairly he had just been treated. However, these negative feelings vanished when the announcer declared that the brainstorming period was now over.

    Luon and Shizuka both focused on the screen where they saw Moret Long stand and was about to present.Stolen novel; please report.

    His pitch, at first was quite interesting for many but half-way through the speech one could see his lack of knowledge and ability to generate a solid argument off his topic.

    To eliminate the Inzektor race, humans, elves and the other members of the Alliance had to travel into space and destroy their enemies. The worse thing was that traveling in space wasn¡¯t as easy as it seemed and the wars as well. Inzektors, for some odd reason, could go into space naturally with the evolution of a carrier like being and other weird genetic mutations.

    If the Alliance had better space equipment, they might be able to make more progress in the war, but the Inzektors had long destroyed the facility in where they developed and researched it. With the destruction of the facility progress that the Alliance had made was sent back nearly a hundred more years.

    What Moret pitched was something along the lines of improving our spaceship equipment which was a great idea except for the fact he didn¡¯t know what to improve on the current designs. The primary factor in spacecraft engineering was to have metal parts. Due to its limitations can only so many can be produced every year due to lack of resources.

    Moret¡¯s pitch added nothing to the table as it merely addresses the need for intergalactic space travel.

    With the poor results, he sat back down where his group was and prayed that Nexus would do better than Dragon¡¯s Lair.

    Soon, each team came to the stage and presented their findings and ideas. There were a few interesting ones like to create a virtual battle setting have pilots to train harder. Another idea was to have them scavenge materials from fallen planets.

    When Dragon¡¯s lair arrived at the stage, the crowd waited for them to shoot out their proposal. If they could obtain the top position then they would be back at the top once again, the only person that could beat them was Nexus, but with them removed, all they had to do is obtain a position above theirs which wasn¡¯t hard to do since Nexus University messed it up.

    Valerie stood before the crowd and presented her team¡¯s idea. As she began to talk, Luon finally figured out why Valerie was there. She wanted to make amends for her mistake, and she must have arranged it so that it could display her scholarly side, this may have been intentional propaganda; by losing in the combat segment and rejoining the engineering portion.

    Luon didn¡¯t know the answer as he continued to stare at Valerie thinking what was on her mind. Moments before she finished her speech Luon found himself shocked by what their opponents were pitching. It hits hard as if he had just been smacked by Shizuka in the back, which she had just done it again when she saw Luon staring at Valerie once more.

    Their thesis was to use organic materials as a catalyst for space resistant materials. Using regular pieces of wood for construction spaceships? The way they said it makes it seem like black magic, in a non-literal way. At this point, many other groups began to point out the flaws of this argument, and a huge debate occurred.

    Leading the group of disbelievers, Moret proclaimed that it isn¡¯t possible to use wood for space travel. From Valerie¡¯s side, she pointed out that these pieces of wood aren¡¯t just usual pieces of wood, in fact, these are wood specially manufactured after studying a living Inzektor carrier. They continued to dissect and it and forced it to regenerate its injuries to the point where they managed to make some progress.

    For the next couple of year or so they plan to implement them into military service. At first, these wooden spaceships would be piloted by plants by having the dryads manipulate their maneuvers using signals coming from the communication device. In the end, they might have an army similar to what the Inzektors may have.

    This series of information shocked the crowd. Dragon''s Lair''s topic wasn¡¯t a proposal. It was rather a statement and a showcase of Dragon¡¯s Lair strength. Everything was perfectly aligned, their defeat which led to the attraction of many members of the audience, and this new type of technology was just like the icing on the cake, simply unreal.

    Moret tried to counteract her statements, but with the supporting evidence behind her, Valerie stood undaunted as she answers all of his ¡°concerns.¡± Luon thought that this idea was without a doubt one that may change the tide to the war. Inzektors live and grow to fight and devour everything, and if they were to survive against a war, they would continue to rise to the point where they become unbeatable.

    Before they knew it, one person started to clap their hands, then other members of the audience followed suit. Cheers emerged as it was obvious to see who the winner of the tournament was.

    Luon sighed, the tournament was over, and Dragon¡¯s Lair returned to the top like a king returning from the battlefield.

    Their final placement was third.

    ¡­

    Everything that had happened in the last week felt unreal. Luon felt entirely out of tune, as his sense of time became distorted. From the intense battles and training inside the Vortex Containers to the casual everyday life outside of it. Luon couldn¡¯t help but feel weird as he began to eat his dinner on the spaceship that was heading home.

    Just what was he out here to accomplish? He earned a decent ranking and a small portion of Galaxia coins from the government, enough money to not work at a minimum wage job for about ten years.

    Time was a fickle thing, After his awakening, he had somehow risen his combat level to 67 and fought against a being at level 85 where he truly learned what being powerless truly meant. The figure of Valerie¡¯s golden dragon form loomed over his mind. She was able to eliminate a battalion by herself.

    ¡®Would I be able to do that?¡¯ Although he may be able to last enough to take them all out, he wouldn¡¯t come out of it unscathed, and it may take several times longer than what she would have done.

    Slowly Luon was growing out of his NG-Arms as he was already accustomed to the speed. His physical body was soon catching up to what it could provide him.

    At this moment Arisa came and asked to sit in front of Luon who was eating alone.

    Luon wondered what was up, but the two merely ate in silence. Just when Luon was about to finish his meal, Arisa said, ¡°Thanks, you helped me out.¡±

    Luon only nodded as he knew what she meant. Not only did he beat Lemegeton, but Thanatos had turned him into a cripple, thus causing their team to drop to fourth. The sea princess took the third place, but after the creative engineering portion, rose to the second place. It was ironic that all their efforts caused them to settle for third in the end, although the headmaster was quite happy for it.

    The two became quiet once more, Luon wasn¡¯t a talkative person, so it was quite reasonable, and Arisa didn¡¯t know what to say, it was all a new experience for her since she had never experienced this once in her simulated lifetime. Before they could exchange a few more words, they heard someone say, ¡°Why aren¡¯t you two close, eating dinner like this?¡±

    The two turned only to find Helen clinging next to Captain Waver who desperately looked at Luon for help. However, Luon who had noticed this simply packed away his food and escaped the room as fast as possible. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t want to help him, it was just that even though Helen had said some casual words, her eyes didn¡¯t say the same. To him, it was a short, recognizable message of telling him to get out. Luon inwardly decided to avoid girls after this incident.

    Arisa who saw Luon escape felt that it was meaningless to stay any further, she got up and began to pack her food. Just as she about to leave, Helen who had managed to chain Captain Waver to the table walked up to her and whispered a few words in her ears. Arisa blushed upon her remark and quickly left the room. Captain Waver simply thought, ¡®Ah, shit.¡¯

 Chapter 98 - End Of The Second Year

    Although the Alliance tournament ended with a joyful and pleasant atmosphere, there were those who were displeased with the result or had different opinions on it. When the poor display of the debate started, the chat channels recorded on live stream had to ban users from the Nexus solar system who were flaming the chat with negative comments.

    In fact, not only users from the Nexus were banned, but other solar systems were banned as well when they started making fun of the Nexus solar system. Instantly there were several memes about how Nexus won the combat segment but lost the technological one, which they specialized in.

    The venue had a joyful mood because the tickets to get a virtual coliseum seating was extremely expensive to the point where the majority of them came the solar system associated with the schools Dragon¡¯s Lair, Lemegeton, Heavenly Sanctuary, and Sea Emperor Palace.

    Those who were displeased only did a light clap for the victor in the end, and they were rather forced to because of the atmosphere.

    As the chat channels were being consistently filtered, the folks back the Nexus solar system who couldn¡¯t voice out their resentment. Instead, they took a direct approach as they stood in a petition in front of Novera Corporation. Words spewed like wildfire demeaning the Long household and the Novera Corporation for being rigged, biased, and other negative comments. Soon enough a petition for reform in Novera Corporation was raised, and it wasn¡¯t just targeting the Long household, but the Ichihara household as well.

    Humans are vile creatures when things go wrong for one person or company, they would fan the flames even more and put the blame on one another. When in desperate times they steal from the poor and murder the rich, there was no sense of morality, and at that point, they lose the right to being human.

    The citizens in the Nexus solar system were divided into two groups, ones who were satisfied that they managed to take third place this year, and those who found that the creative engineering aspect was absolute trash. They wanted a reform, more fair rights for job opportunities that weren¡¯t judged by the system in the first place.

    A good portion of the people who were the ones against the usage of Vortex Containers to manage and create children to improve one''s self. They were satisfied with their everyday life of just eating and drinking, utterly ignorant of the war that was just around the corner.

    ¡°Everything is going according to plan,¡± Daimon Werebringer said as he started sipping some tea in his private office space. Before his eyes was a projector screen with a black obelisk.

    ¡°Yes, the effects of sacrificing the fool has really turned out to be in our favor. Especially when we scored first in the combat section of the tournament,¡± the other person robotically said.

    ¡°Hmph, resources, as long as we scored in the top 4, it would be fine regardless of the result. More importantly, how sure are you to secure your position?¡± Daimon said.

    ¡°According to my calculations, at most another year and a half before we can gain control of it. As for the other divisions, we have already bribed the 2 of them, and they would indirectly help us for now,¡± said the other person.

    ¡°Are there any factors that may interfere with our plans?¡± said Daimon.

    ¡°None that I could think of since we¡¯ve claimed a majority of the control over the military division it would be difficult to produce a prominent soldier with merit. We should be good for public influence. Cut the unproductive chatter, and make sure you do your job. Sway the crowd and fan the flames before taking it underground, I want the attack to start within two years from now. Do you understand what you need to do?¡± said the person.

    ¡°Yes, yes. I understand my duties. I¡¯ll begin expanding my influence with the changing tide,¡± Daimon shrugged and said.

    The man went quiet and said, ¡°Alright¡­ but keep it on the low end, we don¡¯t want to have any spies within the organization now.¡±

    ¡°What if there is one?¡± Daimon asked.

    ¡°Kill them,¡± the person said bluntly.

    Daimon nodded as he rose up from his seat. After doing so, he did a military salute and said, ¡°May the flames of war make us prosper.¡±

    The man said the same words and ended the call. After doing so, Daimon begins to laugh wildly as he imagines the future outcome.

    ¡­

    Luon wished the ride home would turn out uneventful. Besides Gizmo, no one else reads the news about how riots and petitions were happening in their solar system. To ease their worries, whenever they got together he would never mention it, it was merely a missed chance, and they accomplished what they needed to do. He wasn¡¯t worried about anyone finding out about it since nobody he knew had the time to read the random news.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    That was until the headmaster came bolting in and said, ¡°Ahhh, kids there are riots and many wild things happening in the Nexus solar system right now. So instead of taking us to the spaceport, the ship will directly drop us off at the school.¡±

    Luon and the others who were having their breakfast thought they misheard him while Gizmo was facepalming at how insensitive their headmaster was.

    The team started to read the news on their BMPU web portal and were shocked to see what was happening.

    Bendan exclaimed, ¡°This wouldn¡¯t have happened if that guy didn¡¯t mess this all up. I regret not having to punch him when I could have, where is he now? Let¡¯s go give him a one-two!¡±

    When the debate occurred, the rest of their teammates went to eat and drink to the point where they were all sent to the spaceship dead asleep due to satisfaction. When they woke up, they were notified that Dragon¡¯s Lair reclaimed it¡¯s lost crown and revealed a higher level of technology to deal with swarms of Inzektors in space.

    When Bendan rose from his chair and started to walk away, Gizmo sighed and said, ¡°You stupid loaf, he¡¯s not even on this ship. Don¡¯t you remember that the engineering division gets their own private cruise on their way here?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Bendan was surprised as he thought about it. He had finally realized why he hadn¡¯t seen any of them before. He sat back down and started to eat with more vigor, disgusting everyone on the table due to lack of manners.

    ¡°Hey, the food isn¡¯t going anywhere, calm down a bit,¡± Luon said while looking at Bendan who started eating like a ravenous wolf.

    ¡°But after we leave this ship we aren¡¯t going to have this kind of treatment again. I might as well stuff myself completely full until the end of the trip,¡± said Bendan before he went back to eating.

    At this point in time, the girl¡¯s team arrived, and Shizuka¡¯s face was even more expressionless then before. Just moments ago she was on a voice chat with her father asking about how the company was doing which he said it was perfectly fine. Besides some protestors no one prosecuted Novera Corporation, they only wanted to change the management and not shut down the company. Without Novera Corporation, how could the solar system even represent itself to others?

    Instead, it was an opportunity for some small fries to get in the big leagues. Their chat only lasted a minute before Dio cut it off, he was too busy to deal with his daughter. Shizuka was disappointed at not only the Long family but the citizens who tried to drag down her family when they didn¡¯t do anything at all about the competition. The Ichihara family never cared about things like management and focused on development.

    The ice-cold atmosphere emitting from her body made it difficult for others to approach, and yet her personality remained the same as the other girls continue to talk to her normally.

    ¡®It will probably last for only a few days. Eventually, everything would go back to normal. After all, people still have their obligations to do. The system was designed that way, and humans are the same,¡¯ thought Luon.

    And a few days later it did indeed die down, besides some reporters who wanted to obtain a scandal, many of the original protestors went back to their normal jobs, after all, standing around and complaining about something that may or may not be relevant to their lives, wasn¡¯t going to feed their families.

    When Luon and the others arrived back at the Nexus solar system, a group of reporters came to do a quick interview, but the headmaster intercepted them. This allowed the students to quickly escape, they were already tired and bored from the extended space trip, and they didn¡¯t want to bother with the reporters.

    Unfortunately, the engineering division spaceship had a different situation than them. They were immediately raided by activists and news reporters upon landing. The level 2 engineer that was neglected sold the group out before they had arrived at the port. However, as they searched the ship, they weren¡¯t able to find the culprit to all of this, so they put the blame on the other participants.

    Overnight, all of the members of the Long household had vanished even on the ship, it was as if they knew about the result beforehand or that they hadn¡¯t existed at all. Since there was no one for them to blame, they went to Novera Corporation once again, but it all died once other reporters positively wrote about how good the results were. Some experts argued that there was no way to win against Dragon¡¯s lair during the second segment since they had long prepared for the event while others tried to explain otherwise. The third opinion was that the final segment was rigged. However, it was initially designed to unveil or produce amazing ideas to help the Alliance against the Inzektors. It was all fair game as long as it works even if the topic wasn¡¯t the one they were researching at the time.

    Since the topic was improving space battles against Inzektors, many had focused on mass production or improvement on spaceships, having an army of mass-produced cannon fodder spacecraft would greatly help in the war, especially since they were autonomous.

    Every single solar system had researched the topic, it was only that the contestants haven¡¯t been involved with them, except for Valerie, the magician and the dryad that is. Originally this project was a collaboration between Dragon¡¯s Lair who secured the Inzektors corpse, Magician¡¯s Tower who did the research and Harmonic Forest who cultivated the trees. It was a secret project that recently been completed, and they were only waiting to unveil it, and the three of them were involved in it.

    Luon returned to his normal academy life of studying, training, and working. There were no more surprising events besides the Alliance tournament which was still the topic of discussion as it played over and over again on the different forms of media. Luon and the other team members became somewhat famous in school, but outside of it, they were regular people.

    Why was it like this? He wasn¡¯t a superstar, just an average student and it was a one time gig. Although sometimes people point him out and shake his hands it wasn¡¯t anything notable.

    Luon asked himself, ¡°What am I going to do in the future? Continue engineering? Find a job? Join the army?¡±

    Thanatos didn¡¯t say anything, a path chosen by others isn¡¯t always the safest or the best.

    Luon didn¡¯t know what to do, what was his meaning in life. The government recommended him to be an engineer, a commander, and a soldier. He was quite interested in being a commander, but he didn¡¯t know the requirements for it. Which is what the third year was for. Luon¡¯s second year had officially ended.

 Chapter 99 - Introduction To Space Combat

    ¡°The final year. Time seems to go so fast, right?¡± Luon muttered as he ate breakfast with the others.

    ¡°You can only do so much within two years,¡± said Gizmo.

    After the end of their second school year, they rarely played with each other online. Everyone was off to their own devices as if they were completely burned out from the aftermath of the tournament, and that wasn¡¯t the only thing that changed for them. Everyone who participated in the combat segment of the competition had locally became famous. Luon who enjoyed going to the library to use the computer stopped doing so when groups of people would come to annoy him.

    Of course, he still snuck out when he equipped his invisibility cloak, only sometimes he would forget to re-equip it. Luon spent his days loitering around at home pondering about his future when he wasn¡¯t off entertaining himself with books and movies.

    Today was the day before the start of their new school year. The group which consisted of everyone except Thomas who was accepted to work under Zekar decided to hang out. It was challenging to get Zekar to agree, but after some insistence from Luon, Zekar hired Thomas to help him out in exchange for crafting techniques and a small sum of money. Thomas became the second disciple under his wing, and according to Zekar, Luon¡¯s engineering techniques could be considered equivalent to a level 3 engineer.

    The group met outside of a shopping district that had numerous restaurants. They were here for only one goal, an eating challenge to celebrate for obtaining, third place. With the media causing havoc for a few months, they were unable to celebrate, but now they can peacefully do so. With the absence of the Long family, the headmaster of their school was sent numerous interview requests, but that had all died down in the summer; now they could enjoy all the flavors that humanity had to offer.

    ¡°Ohhh!¡± while Gizmo and Luon were making some small talk Bendan devoured plate after plate. When it came to crabs, he couldn''t help himself, as they tasted too good.

    Gizmo frowned as he carefully protected his food from the wild beast. Gizmo turned to Luon and asked him, ¡°Speaking of which, what do you plan to do after you graduate? Engineering? The army? Or maybe you want to settle down and start a family? Hehe, got any special girl in mind.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t the first time he had thought of this question, as if he had anticipated the question Luon said, ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe I¡¯ll join the army, or maybe I¡¯ll go work at Novera Corporation. We¡¯ll see when we get there.¡±

    Gizmo wasn¡¯t satisfied with the answer as he pressed on by asking, ¡°What about girls? Got anyone you like? There are a couple of roses to pick from the garden, do you have your favorite one yet? Don¡¯t tell me you want to find one on the street.¡±

    ¡®Are you seriously asking me this? You know we got some crazy girls in our class,¡¯ thought Luon as he only replied with a sly smile to evade the question. Seeing how he wasn¡¯t able to probe any more information Gizmo stopped asking and focused on eating.

    At this moment Thanatos asked, ¡°Are you sure you aren¡¯t interested in anyone? A flower withers and vanishes if left unattended.¡±

    ¡®What¡¯s with you guys and flowers! Girl¡¯s aren¡¯t flowers and I ain¡¯t interested,¡¯ thought Luon as he replied to Thanatos¡¯s remark.

    ¡°I was only saying that based on experience, people come and go and relationships are the same. This world isn¡¯t completely safe. War and strife are around the corner, and even without them people still die, as if they were fated to do so. You know this, but will you deny it?¡± Thanatos asked.

    Luon didn¡¯t immediately reply to his remark as he thought long and hard about it and gave a small sigh as he stuffs his mouth with food. Every night he had seen more scenes of Thanatos life, and the further he got into it, the worse the story becomes. After the war between races had started pillaging became a norm. The first person he had lost was his parents, and soon it was his friends. People are fragile existence, and one could only grow stronger until they die. With every encounter, Luon felt Thanatos exceed his limits to the points where his bones would creak in despair. However, after downing a healing potion, he would walk on, fight on, and continue. What drove him on throughout all of this? He desired to live, for his family, for his friends, and more importantly his desire for self-fulfillment where he found it within the stories he had lived to learn. Being alive is a blessing, and it took Thanatos his lifetime to understand all of this.

    Luon recognized his point of view. He thought about the girls he was somewhat familiar with. Belle was a misfit, with her gothic clothes, black eye-patch, and her antics, Luon found her to be a very unique existence, not that he wasn¡¯t a weirdo himself. After the tournament, Shizuka who always wore the school¡¯s military uniform became too busy to talk to Luon. She spent the majority of her time studying even harder and dealing with many problems that existed within the corporation alongside her father. Her diligence caused Luon¡¯s impression of her to improve.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    On the other hand, Luon saw Arisa quite often, to the point where it became excessively strange. He would encounter her almost every day, and it would all start with a coincidence. Sometimes the two would hang out, and the other times they only made some small talk before Luon left to do some business.

    The strangest part was that this continued even after the summer had started, and one day he had found her inside his house preparing dinner with his mother. It was almost as if she was a stalker, which he inwardly denied since Luon couldn¡¯t possibly think of any time he would have triggered her flag or at least he truly believed so.

    Besides those three, he had a good relationship with the girls in his class, his female admirers, and Janet, the other female idol members who were quite tricky to meet. Since the journalist and press were looking for some suitable material to write about, they had become famous as Janet was one of the critical components to winning the combat portion of the tournament. Riding on a different train to fame, Zythos had also used this opportunity to raise the status of the Mythos Clan as they began to spread their influence, and they weren¡¯t the only ones, besides Novera Corporation, the Nightwalker family also began to expand its power.

    Thinking about his relationship Luon could only conclude one thing.

    ¡®Nope, I have no girls in mind whatsoever,¡¯ Luon thought.

    Thanatos was speechless, despite experiencing his lifetimes worth of experience to some extent Luon proved to be quite indifferent as his personality never change. Thanatos merely thought that Luon was just an easy-going, busy-body, and righteous youth. He would get the job done when required, and when he can¡¯t, he knows who to rely on.

    By the time he finished his thoughts, the others had already cleared all the dishes to Luon¡¯s dismay. He could only sigh as he thought about their first class tomorrow. It was an introduction to space combat.

    ¡­

    The first year focused on developing strengths and updating a child¡¯s knowledge, the second year took it and made it practical as students were made to battle one another. As for the final year, it was designed to allow students to freely choose their respective fields, except for the class, Introduction to space combat.

    The universe isn¡¯t restricted to one planet, let alone one solar system. There was a multitude of worlds to visit, people to meet, species to discover, and an enemy to be fought. All of this or the majority of this was done in space.

    When Luon logged into the classroom using the Vortex Container, he found the setting be similar to their combat class, only it was a simulation, and the classroom was in a virtual spaceship.

    Luon could feel the lack of gravity as he began to float lightly, and he wasn¡¯t the only one. His classmates who had also logged in and started to fool around. However, this didn¡¯t surprise most students, if they had taken the survival camp, entered the Alliance tournament, or visited any planets by spaceships then they had already experienced this feeling.

    At this moment, Luon¡¯s friends had logged in at this time, and they all crowded together occupying a corner of the room for themselves. Luon could see some of his classmates gossiping while pointing towards them, but he ignored those looks. Especially by the ones from a group of females who had gotten excessively enchanted by the appearance of Luon and the others hanging out with each other.

    Soon enough he saw more familiar faces, Zythos, and his goons, Arisa, Shizuka, and Belle. He was also surprised to see Janet in the room since they rarely had any classes together. The classroom that was filled with chatter ceased once the teacher entered the room. Luon was surprised to see that their teacher for the class was both Captain Waver and Helen. Luon could only conclude that the school must have arranged them to be their teachers for the final year in consideration for their victory at the tournament.

    ¡°Space combat isn¡¯t easy, unlike battling in the air, water or the ground it¡¯s something difficult to accomplish. When you¡¯re in space, there is nothing for you to push on to aid you to move. Only by generating a propulsive force could you do anything,¡± said Captain Waver.

    Captain Waver began to go over the fundamentals and restrictions of space combat. With the usage of NG-Arms, users could freely attack Inzektors in space, but due to its limited rate of production and power sources. The Alliance found themselves overwhelmed by the massive Inzektor force. Other than NG-Arms, they had developed spaceships that come in numerous sizes for different purposes.

    The lesson that Captain Waver was assigned to cover was the basics of fighting in space with and without NG-Arms, and how to fly a military standard space fighter, Dael. The most important segment of his lessons was focused on the Dael as many of the battles are fought on it. Luon looked at the Dael with a complicated look as he compared it with a normal Inzektor. The Dael was roughly two times bigger than the average Inzektor, but Luon couldn¡¯t help but imagine if a storm of them caught him. Those buggers would ravage every part of the ship, and he would die from air lose, which is why it was quite evident that every single combatant in space wore a spacesuit.

    Captain Waver assigned the students to different rooms to make them fight the Inzektor that was the size of an ordinary automobile. With metallic black exoskeleton, the Inzektor that resembled a dragonfly that mutated its body in the shape of a wolf with wings scared the mass with its intimidating appearance.

    The Inzektor in front of their eyes was the standard space type Inzektor, and they usually fought in swarms. Luon began to spar against the Inzektor only to find it difficult to accomplish so.

    His first lesson failed, it took him the same amount of time as the average student in his class to accomplish it. Luon was disappointed at his result. He looked at the top students who managed to kill it faster than him and found that they all used rifles.

    Luon concluded range attacks would be the ideal way to deal with the Inzektors.

    As class soon became over, Luon was met with Gizmo and the others and asked what their plans for their elective were. It appeared that they weren¡¯t interested in any particular courses and just chose the ones that interested them.

    Luon then noticed on the list of possible electives, a class that interested him a little bit, space command. It was a class that only has three open spots that were available to students that the school recommends as it was taught by outside military personnel.

    Luon submitted his application, and moments later he heard the result.

 Chapter 100 - Suppression

    ¡°Another rejection is it?¡± Luon muttered as he lazily laid on his bed. After applying for the space command elective, he found that he was unable to obtain the position. Since there were only three slots available for the class Luon found it to be understandable when he discovered that they have been occupied.

    Instead of being first come, first serve, Luon found out that the class seats were already preoccupied with Zythos, Arisa and Shizuka since they were from the major families. He had only found this out when he coincidently met Arisa and voiced out the rejection message.

    It made sense for Arisa to take it, and a little bit of knowledge for Zythos to do so as well, but even Shizuka had taken it which was quite the surprise for him as he thought she would go for a more engineering-oriented field. According to Arisa, due to the unstable position she was in at Novera Corporation, she decided to learn space command to distinguish herself on the battlefield. The more merits one had, the fewer people cared about the wrongdoing of a person or their company. Strength was the law, and if one of these major powers in the Nexus was stronger than the others, their government system might have become a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

    After being rejected from the space command class he noticed something in peculiar, he was unable to apply to any combat-related courses as well as the engineering ones.

    ¡®This is quite odd. Is the system broken?¡¯ Luon tried to apply to a multitude of electives but has failed to yield a result. Immediately he contacted the technical support division only to find that he needed to talk to the headmaster in regards to the matter.

    Being one of the participants that had helped the Nexus solar system win the Alliance Tournament he had the headmaster¡¯s contact information. After a few moments, he was connected to the headmaster only to hear a series of disappointing news.

    ¡°Sorry Luon, but due to some restrictions from the governing powers I am unable to allow you to take electives that have to do with engineering and combat,¡± said the headmaster in a disappointed tone.

    ¡°What do you mean restrictions? Don¡¯t you believe I have the right to know that at least? What do you mean by governing powers?¡± Luon questioned him as he found the concept to be ridiculous. Wasn¡¯t the Nexus solar system a democracy?

    The headmaster gave a sigh as he said, ¡° As you know in our government system we rely on the people to inform us of their opinions, and we get a general consensus on how to operate, but that¡¯s what it appears to be on the surface. In reality, the government system is only there to police and manage the citizens while the real rulers are the family heads of the Novera Corporation, Nightwalker Family, and Mythos clan.¡±

    ¡°The government tries to have a mutual relationship with them, so when they commit crimes and acts of evil, we tend to look away at these incidents, and when they request things we try our best to answer them,¡± said the headmaster.

    ¡°It''s the Mythos clan right? But why now?¡± Luon¡¯s expression distorted as he said so. They could have made a move much earlier, and yet they only did it now. Luon was curious what else they had in store for him.

    ¡°It isn¡¯t just The Mythos Clan, they only said not to allow you to take any courses related to the military courses and threatened us to do so. Otherwise, they would create a troublesome situation for us. As for the engineering classes, we have a notice stating that an apprentice of the criminal Zekar shouldn¡¯t be allowed to learn higher levels of technology, and this is from Novera Corporation,¡± said the Headmaster.

    ¡°What?¡± Luon couldn¡¯t believe what he was hearing, not only did the Mythos Clan have something against him, but Novera Corporation as well? Could the excuse of being related to Zekar be actually real or is it because they have something against him and their only using his name for show? Luon couldn¡¯t comprehend the logic behind all of this.

    ¡°What crime did Zekar commit?¡± Luon asked as he was quite curious about why his teacher would be depicted that way.

    The headmaster shook his head, he then said, ¡°I can¡¯t tell you myself, this is rather a personal thing to say. If you want to know more, you should just ask him yourself.¡±

    Luon recollected his thoughts, the Mythos Clan started to make a move on him to stop him from developing more strength, it was more than likely because of the Nexus Tournament in ended up this way. As for the Novera Corporation, Luon didn¡¯t believe that Shizuka had a hand in this, he had heard from Arisa that the Ichihara family was currently going under investigations and the leadership was temporarily assigned to a different household.

    There was still a point he felt off about this though, even if they remove him from combat-related courses he would still be able to join the military after training by himself. He found this action pointless and out of curiosity asked, ¡°What¡¯s the difference does banning me from combat-related electives make if I were to join the army?¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The headmaster gave another sight as he said, ¡°If you don¡¯t take an additional elective for combat when you join the military you could only apply for the role of a standard soldier regardless of how powerful you are. This position is opened up to even normal citizens, but if you took the extra classes, you would have been immediately promoted to higher tier positions which will help establish yourself easier. From what I hear it¡¯s hard to be a soldier, and there are nearly no promotions whatsoever. An example of this is that if you took the space command class, you would immediately be hired as a junior commander on the battlefield. Compared to a soldier, you practically end up as cannon fodder to make up the numbers.¡±

    ¡°What do common soldiers do?¡± Luon asked as he was sad to hear his options in the military had been limited.

    ¡°Clean, cook, train, and when they battle they use the standard starship model we use to teach the generic space combat class,¡± said the headmaster.

    ¡®Ah, crud, that¡¯s totally the work of the average henchmen,¡¯ thought Luon as his face went blank from the simple, generic description of a common soldier.

    Ousted from becoming an engineer, and a commander due to lack of proper courses, the only path left for him was being a common foot soldier. Luon considered getting a regular job like everyone else, doing office documents, retail and sales, and even delivery services. But no matter how much he thought about it, he wasn¡¯t well suited for those kinds of jobs, and if hired, Luon didn¡¯t know whether or not he would be happy with it. The scenes he saw from Thanatos¡¯s life experiences made him feel that those kinds of occupations, although necessary, wouldn¡¯t allow him to make a difference or impact in the war with the Inzektors.

    Luon didn¡¯t like the Inzektor race, for the entire first simulation he had spent half of his life fighting them rather than read books which he would enjoy doing. Although in reality he still liked to read books, it wasn¡¯t the same anymore. After the combination of several lifetimes of experiences, he started becoming numb to reading. It was like eating cake every day only to find out that you gained some weight, he needed to cool it off for a bit, and when he was cooling off he realized that life isn''t just about books.

    ¡°So, what are my choices left for my electives? Any recommendations?¡± Luon asked since he didn¡¯t know what options he had at a combat and technical school.

    The headmaster smiled as if he was waiting for this moment and proudly said, ¡°Well although you aren¡¯t able to pick most of the available electives, you can still pick the more in general electives like culture, languages, science, and social studies. I would highly recommend cooking, the one in charge of that class is me. If you take cooking, I can ensure yo-¡±

    ¡°Rejected,¡± Luon quickly said as he ended the call. In the end, he chose Inzektor Biology.

    ¡­

    ¡®Thanatos what do you think about this situation,¡¯ asked Luon.

    ¡°To be honest, it¡¯s better not doing the combat-related classes. From what I have seen so far the school teaches you based on the normal method of manipulation of mana. With your cultivation technique and skills, it would be better to train by yourself. As for the engineering classes, I can¡¯t say since I am not knowledgeable about those topics,¡± Thanatos said.

    ¡®Hmm, that¡¯s quite the perspective, but if I don¡¯t take those classes then I would end up being a foot soldier, is it not better to take them to start off as a higher rank?¡¯ asked Luon.

    ¡°I disagree, the position doesn¡¯t matter, merits do. As long as you can distinguish yourself in combat nobody can complain about your methods,¡± Thanatos said.

    Luon gave a sigh as thought, ¡®Seriously, wouldn¡¯t everything be easier just to be a commander?¡¯

    ¡°It would be, but I believe you aren¡¯t ready for it. You¡¯re underestimating the responsibility of being a commander. A few words can send your soldiers who entrust their lives to you to their death. Real life isn¡¯t a game, nobody can come back to life after the day. I believe the best thing for you is to become a foot soldier,¡± said Thanatos.

    Luon gave his words some thought but shook it off as he thought, ¡®Nevermind, let¡¯s talk about the future later for now let¡¯s deal with this.¡¯

    Luon who was walking the entire time arrived at Zekar¡¯s door and opened it up. There stood Zekar who sat around the reception desk like usual and was reading some kind of document with his feet on the table. Zekar looked up from behind the desk before he went back to reading as he said, ¡°Welcome Luon, the same as usual today? Your friend Thomas is already in the back.¡±

    Luon closed the door behind and stood in front of Zekar while evaluating him inwardly. His appearance although slightly aged, appeared to be like a father who could have a child that was that was around his age, his untidy appearance dashed away the hopes that he could possibly have with women.

    Zekar noticed something different about Luon as he noticed him gazing at his body.

    ¡®Did the brat turned weird?¡¯ Zekar¡¯s body shuddered from the possibility as he inched away from Luon.

    At this moment Luon called his name which Zekar responded with a yelp. Although Luon found his reaction odd, he continued to explain about the circumstances he heard earlier from the headmaster.

    Zekar who realized that Luon just had a question felt relieved that he wasn¡¯t into men, but when he heard Luon¡¯s experience today his hand smashed the desk as yelled, ¡°Bullshit!¡±

    The impact causes shockwaves to shoot out knocking Luong a few steps back. The table despite its ability to resist most forces due to safety concerns has a massive dent in the middle of it.

    Although Luon was surprised by his reaction, he still managed to have an expressionless face and waited for Zekar to calm himself down. At this moment, Thomas who heard the noise came in and said, ¡°Whoa! Where¡¯s the fire! Are we under attack!? Defensive weapons, security devices we burn the documents!¡±

    ¡°Hold it there kid, there¡¯s no attack, so put down the fire and don¡¯t think about burning any documents,¡± Zekar quickly said.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Thomas said as he turned off the lighter he had quickly pulled out.

    Relieved to see that his store isn¡¯t on fire Zekar gave a quick sigh of relief, he then said to Thomas, ¡°You stay here as well. I got a little story to tell.¡±

    ¡°Ehhh? A story? I would rather keep working on thi-,¡± Thomas said as he displays his disinterest, but his words were silenced by his stare. Seeing how they were both willing to listen to him Zekar began to talk, ¡°It all started and ended because of one person, his name is Daimon Werebringer.¡±

 Chapter 101 - Flashback

    ¡°Here you are Zekar,¡± said a man as he interrupted Zekar who was resting on a bench.

    Drowsily Zekar got up and yelled, ¡°Darn it Daimon, why¡¯d you got to wake me up? School¡¯s the only place I can get a good nap.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, sorry, man. I just need your help with something,¡± Daimon laughs slyly.

    ¡°What do you, the young master of the Mythos Clan need from me? Don¡¯t tell me it has to do with me? Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m too tired for worldly affairs?¡± Zekar said as he began to nod off again.

    ¡°Again with your indifference to anything¡­ isn¡¯t your father and grandfather famous generals? How can you, the next upcoming general be like this?¡± said Daimon.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to be a general, I would rather spend my lifetime engineering than doing so. Anyways what do you want?¡± Daimon said as he gave a short yawn.

    ¡°It¡¯s the usual,¡± Daimon gave a short cough, his words caused Zekar to frown.

    ¡°I told you she¡¯s definitely not interested in you. You should give up your pursuits. Nevermind, even if I said if you''re a hopeless cause,¡± said Zekar.

    Zekar Drake and Daimon Werebringer were good friends, they had many classes together, and because of their family relationship, they close enough to talk about relationships. Love consultation, it was something Daimon had continuously bothered his friend with as he endlessly pursued the cold-hearted miss from the Ichihara clan.

    During this time the major families and the military had close ties with one another, and the development of the Vortex Container had just started to spread, and the incubation of children had yet to begin due to extensive testing. The citizens from the Nexus solar system would have been suppressed by the other solar systems if it weren¡¯t for the members from the major families.

    When Daimon first met Yuki Ichihara at a gathering, he couldn¡¯t help but blurt out his feelings, only to be rejected for being creepy. From then on he would endlessly pursue her, he was quite a straightforward man.

    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go meet her together, maybe this time things will turn out better?¡± said Zekar who was tired of giving his friend advice that never worked.

    Hearing that they were going to meet her, Daimon yelled, ¡°Okay! This time for sure.¡±

    The two departed and found Yuki talking to Neva Nightwalker, the young miss from the Nightwalker family. Seeing the two of them approach, Neva gave Yuki a nudge and pointed in their direction while giggling a few words. Yuki turned around and gave a short sigh as she lightly greeted the two with a simple, and cold, ¡°Hello.¡±

    ¡®I could already feel the chills, how can someone change expressions that fast!¡¯ Zekar thought. He turned to look at his friend only to find he was unable to feel the same pressure he did. Instead, it seemed like he was emitting fire from the desire developed in his body.

    ¡®Ignorance is bliss,¡¯ Zekar thought. Just as he was about to explain why they were there, he heard a voice from a distance.

    ¡°Hey, guys! Can¡¯t have a party without me,¡± said the person. Two more people approached the group and the man who yelled that out embraced Neva as he said, ¡°Miss me?¡±

    ¡°Of course not, I have always been thinking about you Gram,¡± she smiled as he hugged him tightly.

    ¡°You siblings are always quite close, take that love elsewhere, here is for us single people to live. By the way who is this?¡± Zekar said to the two lovers. During this time the Nightwalker family emphasized the notion of inbreeding. The vampire bloodline could only be developed by other demonic powers, the more powerful the lineage, the stronger their children would be. Due to the lack of other demonic beings, the Nightwalker family had adopted incest practices unless they were able to find someone to enhance their lineage.

    ¡°Oh right, I would like to introduce my friend from my combat and commander classes, this is Dio. Dio, these are my friends. And that¡¯s it,¡± said Gram who went back to emphasizing his love for his sister.

    Zekar looked at the handsome man with blonde hair, he suddenly recalled something as he said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you the expert commoner that was good at both engineering, combat, and commanding class? I heard your performance was amazing despite being a fellow first year. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡±

    Dio gave a wry smile as he modestly said, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing special at all, it¡¯s nice to meet you too.¡±

    The two gave a handshake for their meeting, and at this time Zythos had also introduced himself to him. When Dio introduced himself to Yuki, the chilly atmosphere disappeared and turned into spring. Zekar, Daimon, Neva, and Gram were surprised to see Yuki shyly talking to Dio as they all thought about one thing, ¡®Love at first sight?!¡¯

    Zekar got shivers, it wasn¡¯t because of the cold atmosphere that had disappeared, it was because he knew what she was always like and this expression of hers was a first for him and the others to witness. At this moment he suddenly remembered something and he turned to see the loving aura that came out of Daimon to be non-existent. It was replaced with rage and endless fury, realizing this Zekar made an excuse and left with Daimon away from the area.

    No longer in his beloved presence, Zekar witness Daimon shattering several pieces of furniture at Daimon¡¯s house bellowing cries, ¡°Why! I did everything I could, but she had fallen just like that! I pursued her all these years, and this is what I get! Just why!¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    Zekar hoped that his friend would regain his senses and give up the fruitless pursuit, so he gave him a light consolation and left. Daimon who was left alone met with his father that night and explained why he shattered the furniture. His father then replied to him, ¡°Fool, your brain has gone down the gutter. The reason she didn¡¯t like you was because you weren¡¯t strong enough. Only by obtaining strength, could you ever win over the admiration of the many beauties in the world. Become strong, take what you want to take and eat what you want to eat. Have you forgotten our clan''s dogma?¡±

    ¡°Strength is everything. I need to get stronger,¡± Daimon muttered causing his father to nod. A muscle brain dogma for a clan full of soldiers. It was the worse love advice one could ever give.

    From that point on Daimon trained like a madman, Zekar who had seen all of this nodded positively thinking that he had given up on Yuki. During this time Zekar had befriended Dio due to their similar interests in engineering. At some point, Zekar had a meeting with Gram discussing a significant topic.

    ¡°We should egg him on,¡± said Gram.

    ¡°Are you sure about this? I don¡¯t think it¡¯s time yet for this,¡± said Zekar.

    ¡°Of course! It should be fine. You know Yuki really likes Dio, and he likes her the same. It¡¯s our third year, and their relationship has long improved. Don¡¯t you want them both to be happy? What? You still worried about Daimon? He¡¯s long over it,¡± said Gram.

    ¡°Hmm...¡± Zekar pondered about the situation. He wasn¡¯t completely sure that if Daimon still had feelings for her, and he did want Dio and Yuki to be happy. Zekar gave a light sigh as he said, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s think of a plan to get them together.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s my bud! Hahaha, let¡¯s see what kind of ideas we can get going,¡± Gram laughed. The two of them could be considered as love experts because they have the experience. Gram because he already has a wife and Zekar due to his several years of love consultation advice with Daimon. With the two of them, they managed to get Dio and Yuki together, but this action ignited Daimon¡¯s fury as he took it out on his friend Zekar.

    ¡°WHY! JUST WHY! Weren¡¯t you on my side and not for that commoner Dio?¡± bellowed Daimon as he gave Zekar a hard slug in the face. With the continuous training, Zekar felt this blow almost send him entirely unconscious as he barely muttered his feelings, ¡°You know she never loved you. Not once did she return your feelings. Why can¡¯t you wish for her the best!¡±

    His words only ignited Daimon¡¯s rage, that day the news of Daimon beating Zekar spread with their group of friends, and their friendship shattered.

    After graduating Gram and Neva spent their days with love, Gram worked as a soldier while Neva took on the management role of her family. Dio, on the other hand, was introduced into Novera Corporation with Yuki and using their connections, Zekar was hired to make NG-Arms.

    Despite being from a commander family and an engineering family, Yuki and Gram were eccentrics. They didn¡¯t want to follow their family traditions, and both became soldiers. Zekar was the same as he managed to convince his father that engineering was his calling, and using his abilities he gifted them an NG-Arm he had personally developed. It was a blissful period, but at the same time, they felt a little empty without Daimon.

    A few years after they graduated Arisa and Shizuka were born, and a year after that the wheels of fate turned once more. Inzektors had attacked the Plana solar system for the second time within the last 4 years. Gram and Yuki weren¡¯t able to participate due to their probation period and how their children were just born. This was their first expedition.

    At the spaceport, before the two of them departed Zekar and others who were staying behind gave them their best wishes. As they were doing so, they saw a familiar figure. From a distance, a group of warriors traveled by them as cheers erupted from the crowd. Daimon had appeared fully suited for battle in pitch black armor. For the last several years he had fought on numerous of battlegrounds and was rumored to have bedded many women.

    He was designated with the role of leading the offensive group into the heart of the Inzektor carrier and destroying its core. While the others fight and eliminate all Inzektors from the Plana solar system.

    Neva walked up to him and said, ¡°Please take care of Gram and Yuki.¡±

    Yuki still appeared a little indifferent to him, and Gram was the same as he was still angry about him slugging Zekar.

    Daimon only gave them a nod before getting on board the ship, followed by a large group of soldiers.

    Yuki and Gram bade their family and friends goodbye and left as well. The assault had started, and their battleship had raided the several Inzektor carrier ships. However, when they attacked the flagship, Yuki and Gram never came back.

    According to their subordinates, they died to a malfunction due to their NG-Arms while confronting an S-Class Inzektor which Daimon had killed.

    Shocked by the news Neva blamed it on Zekar as she cried in anguish. Zekar was shocked by the news. Did he kill his friends because of faulty equipment? He didn¡¯t know, he was sure he did everything right, for it to fail, it was an eye-opener for him. Dio, however, was suspicious if Daimon had a hand in anything. Although Zekar had built the NG-Arms, Dio supervised and reviewed it many times together, and he wasn¡¯t able to find any faults about it. However, Neva pressured Dio into banishing Zekar from Novera Corporation. Unable to secure a job in the normal society he went underground, becoming the ruler of the dark world.

    Zekar remembers the scene of his friends departing as if it were yesterday. One day he knew the truth of things, he used the connections from the dark world to kidnap and interrogate the subordinate that had witnessed their deaths only to find that he was manipulated with a Geass that would kill him if tried to spill the beans. But after his death Zekar couldn¡¯t let his soul rest, he had a dark magician prepared and tortured his soul for the information he sought, and alas he found that Yuki and Gram were killed by Daimon.

    However, it was too late, everything was too late. The power Dio had over Novera Corporation was weak as he wasn¡¯t the rightful heir of Novera Corporation and Shizuka was still young. Neva hated Zekar to the bone since the information the souls contained couldn¡¯t be recorded he had no evidence to back up his claim, and everyday Daimon had gotten more powerful as he continued to pursue strength.

    Removing Luon from combat classes was to ensure his position in the Nexus solar system as he had recognized his strength and his growth. Media? Government officials? Teachers? Novera Corporation Staff? Zekar suspected that his influence had spread wide and far. Human rights were powerless under the might of superior strength. It was rumored that Daimon would soon hit the level of a superior being, a person at level 90.

    ¡°And that¡¯s why you aren¡¯t able to get the classes you wanted, sorry it¡¯s all because of me,¡± said Zekar with a sigh.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not your fault. The Mythos Clan would have suppressed me anyways if I had gotten powerful by myself and besides¡­ you have already taught me beyond what school had taught me,¡± said Luon.

    Thomas, on the other hand, bawled tears as he said, ¡°He¡¯s the definition of evil, to frame teacher like this and to kill his friends.¡±

    Zekar couldn¡¯t help but awkwardly smile at his silly new student. He attempted to eliminate the mood by saying, ¡°Well since you couldn¡¯t get any good classes, how about I teach you how to make a better starship than the Dael?¡±

    ¡°Teacher, Thomas is here ready for duty!¡± Thomas said as he jumped up, the tears on his face was no longer existent.

    His reaction caused Zekar eyebrow to twitch, and Luon merely laughed.

    He¡¯s grateful that Zekar is his teacher.

 Chapter 102 - The Life Of A Lone Wolf

    Uncrowned kings are known as such for a reason, they have an ability that others envy to the point of destruction. Luon spent his third year as such.

    The ultimate goal of being a third-year student was to get a job as an engineer, commander, or soldier on the frontlines. The Nexus solar system had always welcomed extra soldiers, but not all of them were needed. The act of joining the military or any of the big families was optional.

    Luon was unable to attain any engineer or combat-related courses due to the suppression that the Mythos Clan and Novera Corporation had on him, and to his ignorant peers, a rumor had spread that he decided not to choose anything because he couldn¡¯t care less about those kinds of courses.

    Some people knew what was going on behind the scenes but decided to step back and not come to his aid. After all, one of the big families decided to take action, for the typical student what could they do to help? And If they did, they might face their wrath. Another reason was that Luon was a competitor, the job market is a limited one. There could only be so many soldiers, engineers and commanders hired every year. No one wanted to help someone that may end up taking their job opening seat.

    Gizmo, Tyron, Bendan, and Thomas wanted to help Luon out, but he denied them outright. Luon was afraid that if they were to continue to hang out with him something terrible might happen to them or their families. He had cut the ties and drew a border around himself to protect not only himself, but the others around him, and the others had understood his intentions.

    Luon spent the majority of his time training his body and sword skills under the instruction of Thanatos and engineering taught by Zekar at the shop. The two of them had taught Luon material beyond the school¡¯s curriculum since it was tailored to the general masses. A lesson exclusively for him by the best teachers possible, if one had a teacher like that for a lifetime, how fortunate would that be? It was a blessing in disguise.

    As Luon continued to practice his Circuit Establishment technique that he derived from the Asura book, Thanatos gave him some extra instructions to improve it. The effects? His body grew even colder, and the aura he had emitted could chill the air around him. He developed an ability called Mana Drain which allowed him to absorb the mana in the air as if he was drinking water.

    Zekar was quite enthusiastic about teaching Thomas and Luon how to create a personal spaceship, after entering the military the combatants were given a standardized Dael ship to fight the Inzektor race. Zekar told Luon not to rely on it too much because the prominent families are watching out for him if he were to join the military. For all he knows, they could rig it to explode midway.

    Luon didn¡¯t mind creating a personalized ship, rather he enjoyed doing it. From the complicated reactor core to the frame and designs of the ship, it was all unique to him. Thomas couldn¡¯t help but pour all his soul into his own ship. Although he didn¡¯t need it as an engineer, he liked the concept of building one.

    It was a long project, but with his course load to turn out less than what he had expected, Luon estimates that it would be done sometime before he graduates. To make more time for himself, Luon dropped some of his higher course load classes that had no real significance like history and replaced it with some more straightforward and quick courses.

    ¡°So why are you here?¡± Luon asked as he sighed, and with a flip of his hand, an appealing scent scattered about.

    ¡°I came to see you aren¡¯t you glad to see me? Unless you want to end up being a lone wolf like what everyone else proclaims yourself to be,¡± said Arisa.

    ¡°Iag carthm do see doo too (I came to see you too),¡± Belle said.

    Her words irritated Luon as she was stuffing her face down on the tofu hamburgers that he was making for the cooking class that the headmaster taught. To maximize his time efficiency with his training and to pass school at the same time, he had asked the headmaster for an easy course wherein he recommended his cooking classes.

    Luon agreed to join them under the condition that it would be easy and quick, so it was arranged that all Luon had to do was watch a video demonstration by the headmaster on a different meal every week and demonstrate it in class once for a grading. With Luon¡¯s expert level of understanding and keen senses for cooking. His dexterous hands created a series of tasty dishes to pass the course, however, in exchange he had attracted a few interested misfits. Arisa who had heard that Luon was cooking came to eat alongside with Belle.

    Luon wasn¡¯t worried that Novera Corporation or the Mythos Clan would make a move on the two with their family background, the presence of the two was entirely welcomed.

    However, Luon was curious. Arisa at this point should have known how her father had died and yet she was here eating as if it was nothing. From the story he heard from Zekar, Arisa¡¯s mother should have hated him to the bone. He couldn¡¯t help but ask Arisa about it which she replied, ¡°My mother spent the first years thinking that way, a few years later, she thought she might have gone a little too far. I¡¯m not too knowledgeable on the topic, but it came up when I mentioned you to my mother.¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    ¡°You mentioned me to your mother? Why would you want to do that? How did you even arrive at that topic?¡± Luon asked out of curiosity.

    ¡°Ah, haha, it was¡­ it was because of your performance at the Alliance Tournament that she got interested in you. I think she was curious about what kind of person could live that long against a dragon. Well, you didn¡¯t beat her, and you only got lucky with Tyron being there to win the match but your resistance was quite interesting enough for her. I think?¡± Arisa said as it seemed to Luon that she wanted to avoid the topic.

    Although Luon didn¡¯t know what she was hiding, he decided not to probe any further as heard from Belle, ¡°Make some more!¡±

    Luon got irritated, the lass had already eaten 3 of them. How many tofu burgers can she eat? Is the size too small? Or was it because it was made out of tofu rather than meat? In the end, he had made 2 more before he called it quits.

    As Luon was cleaning his dishes, Arisa helped on his side, Luon couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°You didn¡¯t need to help me clean the dishes. I can do it myself.¡±

    To his remark, Arisa only said, ¡°But I had a few myself, and I feel bad since we came mid-way to leave all of the mess to you.¡±

    ¡°...suit yourself,¡± Luon replied as he continued to wash the dishes. Unlike Arisa and Luon, Belle went home after filling her stomach up. Arisa began to hum a tune while cleaning the dishes. And after a few tunes, she stopped and said, ¡°Hey, what are you going to do after you graduate?¡±

    Luon replied nonchalantly as he had finally realized his goal quite recently, ¡°I plan to join the military as a soldier.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Arisa became curious about what made him want to become an ordinary soldier on the frontline.

    ¡°You know what it¡¯s like these days for people like me. Poor and helpless. Compared to the three big groups I have no particular support, no merit, and nothing that the Nexus government would want. I am just a simple being born to a fixed system that is catered to the strong, and I ain¡¯t the only one. You know this don¡¯t you?¡± Luon said.

    Arisa nodded before she hesitated and said, ¡°Then¡­ how about you join the Nightwalker family?¡±

    Luon stopped his hands for second before continuing to clean the dishes, he didn¡¯t know why she would provide that offer with the way Zekar was treated by her mother. He couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°It¡¯s alright, I want to make my own group. One that isn¡¯t restricted by wealth, or openly seeks to suppress the ability of others, rather one that would allow the Nexus solar system to prosper by exchanging values and creating an equal opportunity for everyone that joins.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s quite an admirable thought,¡± Arisa said with a smile on her face.

    Luon couldn¡¯t help but wryly smile at her mark as he said, ¡°Thanks.¡±

    The two of them continued to chat lightly until the dishes were done, there were no more serious topics rather only light and easy-going ones from that point on.

    Leading a group isn''t easy, what Luon wanted the most out of the Nexus solar system was the ability to learn, live, and play without restraints. With the war, power-hungry leaders, and starving citizens, how could anyone consider it? The wings of freedom, he wanted to fly to the best of his abilities.

    ¡­

    Time flew by, and the expectations for third-year students was to be tested and examined based on their abilities. This data would be recognized by the government and dictate their priorities to determine what kind of job they would get.

    It was a month off before their final examinations, and Zekar couldn¡¯t help but say to Luon, ¡°Although we just finished the starship now, you aren¡¯t authorized to use it until you get your Engineering license level 3. I have arranged for you to take the next examination which is in a few days, but what I want you to know that it isn¡¯t going to be easy.¡±

    ¡°How so?¡± Luon asked as he felt confident about it. He had learned so much under Zekar''s tutorage so he didn¡¯t believe he would have any troubles during the examination.

    ¡°That¡¯s because the third examination is a competitive format to restrict the numbers of entrants trying to submit an application every year due to their lack of experience in the field. They want experts, not some layman who cheated their way to the top,¡± said Zekar seriously,

    Zekar gave a small sigh which attracted Luon¡¯s attention, he had only done so when something troublesome came up.

    Zekar continued, ¡°Because of the current leader of Novera Corporation is stopping you from attending engineering classes, we can expect that it¡¯s going to be much harder for you to pass.¡±

    Luon nodded, although he wasn¡¯t too familiar with the new family household who was temporarily managing Novera Corporation he thought that they would more than likely do something to place him at a disadvantage. There was no way to find out what they would beforehand so Luon could assure Zekar, ¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡±

    Zekar nodded as he began to cover what kind of previous of events were used for the examination promotion that was used at Novera Corporation, and after giving Luon the basic application information, Luon realized that he only had a few days before the examination.

    For the next few days, he practiced for the examination, and on the day he met a face he hadn¡¯t seen in a long time.

    ¡°Hi,¡± said Luon but latter only replied with a nod. Shizuka who had been too busy with studying had appeared at the examination and to make even things worse, it wasn¡¯t just her. There were a hundred of level 2 engineers crowding the plaza talking amongst themselves until the judge appeared and said, ¡°For your examination you will all enter the Vortex Container and spawn on a map without any gear, your goal is to eliminate all other participants, and you will pass if you are one of the remaining 10 people left. There are a bunch of materials scattered around so make do with what you have to deal with. If you fail this examination, you can try again 6 months from now.¡±

    The passing rate for this exam, was only 10% this year.

 Chapter 103 - Lv3 License Examination 1

    The examination went underway after the instructor had laid out the rules. The participants were led towards their individual rooms where they were prompted to use a Vortex Container.

    After logging himself in, Luon found himself inside a temple, it was shattered and filled with vegetation as he could only assume it was a temple from the engravings on the walls and ceremonial altar.

    Luon looked around and found no viable resources to make a weapon out of, besides the stones on the ground there was only moss. He merely picked up a sizeable rock that was shaped like a brick and decided to set out with it. As he couldn¡¯t find anything right away, Luon found it was better to have something than nothing.

    Luon assumed that the way that spawn points that the other contestants teleported were randomized at fixed distances once they logged themselves. The real question was, how far was he from another contestant? That question didn¡¯t last that long as another contestant appeared before his eyes within the next minute.

    They bumped into each around a corner and were both taken by surprise. The way they met with each other was similar to being in a romantic love comedy series where one would meet their fated one around the corner. Only this time rather than being an encounter that may lead to a possible relationship between the two it was more like an encounter between enemies. Immediately after the two pulled out their weapons and attacked each other.

    Luon took his stone and threw it towards his opponent who pointed his rifle at Luon. However, being physically unfit the man took too long to react and Luon¡¯s attack which had effectively stunned his head to the point where he could see stars. Slightly conscious the man pressed the trigger spraying bullets in a multitude of directions. In response, Luon ducked behind some debris to take cover.

    ¡®Fortune favors idiots,¡¯ Luon thought as much when he looked at his opponent when the attack stopped. Luon found out that the opponent he just encountered had killed himself from shooting aimlessly.

    Although he was tempted to run up and loot his body, Luon was afraid that the noise the man made would have attracted the attention of others. After circulating around for a bit to ensure that the coast was clear, he slowly approached the body and assured that his opponent was dead before he started to go through the man¡¯s belongings.

    ¡®What a lucky guy,¡¯ Luon thought. Luon found more ammunition for the rifle and a small dagger. It was much better than what he started out with.

    Luon¡¯s combat level was slightly higher than the average participant at the Novera Corporation Examination since he had a combat specialization. Not only that but by being one of the most recent generations that were born from being incubated in Vortex Containers, he was naturally more fit for combat.

    Luon scoured the surroundings to the point where he explored the entire building. He managed to find several piles of scraps of electronics and ferried them into the center of the temple. With the trash he started to construct a few basic tools for him to work with and by using his BMPU, he then checked on their quality.

    Once he finished crafting some necessary tools he created several little devices with sensor modules, miniature speakers, and a basic processing board to alarm him of intruders when they come nearby. This wouldn¡¯t have been accomplishable without the BMPU which all contestants were allowed to bring in as it allowed them to access the wide range of general appliances and blueprints as well as pre-developed programs for basic applications.

    After creating those sensors, Luon crafted more useful tools that may prove themselves to be helpful.

    Luon pocketed the newly crafted devices into a sizeable makeshift bag he crafted from the clothes of the man he had eliminated and left the building. During the time he took to construct several tools he found that although the corpse would disappear after a certain amount of time, he was still able to keep the clothes as they weren¡¯t registered for deletion.

    Luon left the temple and found himself to be in a dark jungle, compared to the insides of the temple it was less welcoming. Luon felt like something would pop out of nowhere at any given time.

    Giving a light sigh, Luon braved through the darkness and managed to find traces of battle, after using his deductive ability he managed to find some tracks. Actually, anyone could have seen these footprints as they were so bright and concise as if the person wanted someone to follow them.

    Luon silently evaluated the footprint and concluded that the person who imprinted it was taller than him and may not possibly be human, in fact, it looked like the person who made this footprint may have been a robot.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    Luon carefully followed the prints and eventually found at a campsite, in the middle of it, was a robed figure who merely sat there.

    Luon was quite suspicious at the scene, he was just following the trail of the robot only to find a robed figure next to a fire. Luon hesitated whether or not to attack, he suspected that this may be a trap laid out for him as the layout was practically screaming out so.

    Fortunately, he was prepared for such an occasion, after laying out the miniature sensors to keep watch for other opponents, he pointed his rifle at the person and fired. The first shot made the robed figure explode as it was rigged a series of magic engravings to do so.

    As he predicted the person that he had eliminated was actually a robot, this revelations caused Luon to hide with a nearby tree. At this moment a series of alarms were triggered as they came multiple different directions.

    ¡®Are they are working with each other?¡¯ Luon thought as he realized that it was too much of a coincidence to face all these people at the same time.

    Regardless, with a rifle in his hand, he felt like he needed to take the initiative, especially while in the dark. Luon placed the bag of goods he had in an obscure corner before taking out a circular tube and attached it on the rifle. It was one of the mechanisms he made to avoid making too much noise and attracting other opponents.

    ¡®10 Explosive rounds and several normal magazines,¡¯ Luon thought as he evaluated his weaponry. Engraving an array on a bullet takes time, Luon had only made 10 because he felt he didn¡¯t need that many.

    After completing his preparations, Luon went to the alarm that he situated closest to him and found his target. Before he attacked, Luon carefully looked around quickly and found nothing amiss, he took a shot at him, and the man fell down like a ragdoll that had just lost its strings. Luon repeated this steps a few more times until one of them found Luon killing one of their teammates and yelled, ¡°He¡¯s over here! Over here!¡±

    Luon quickly retreated and managed to lose the man by traversing pass the complicated terrain. He wasn¡¯t moving aimlessly Luon had memorized the surroundings when he laid out the trap and mentally simulated their movements. However, that trick could only work for the first few minutes. Once the alarms were destroyed, it was difficult to tell how many more opponents were there. The man that spotted him was one of those additions.

    While Luon traverses the darkness like a shark seekings its prey, a group of men was gathered, one of these individuals was the person who had spotted Luon.

    ¡°So you''re telling me you found him, but you couldn¡¯t tell who it was and which direction he went to?¡± said one of them.

    The lad, who was out of breath from chasing after Luon, enthusiastically exclaimed, ¡°Yes! I couldn¡¯t tell who it was, but they are armed with a rifle attached with a silencer, and they are really athletic.¡±

    ¡°Useless idiot, we need to know who it is or else we¡¯re wasting our time here!¡± exclaimed another man.

    ¡°Now, now, don¡¯t blame him for this. It was difficult to see after all.¡± said another newcomer, only his words held more weight behind them since they came from an influential figure.

    ¡°Okay so it was hard to see, but do you at least know if it was the target or not?¡± said one of the men who was still a little dissatisfied.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so...¡± the person who met Luon quieted down as thought long and hard about it.

    ¡°Regardless or not it was the target, I want you guys to bring their head to me. If it¡¯s the target, Shizuka Ichihara, tell the others over the voice chat. We have to eliminate her at all cost.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± their entire group exclaimed, they ran into different directions only this time they were paired.

    ¡°Do you think it will work?¡± One of the men stayed behind and asked their leader.

    ¡°It has to work, we need to stop Shizuka¡¯s ascension within Novera Corporation otherwise we aren¡¯t able to achieve our goals. Go quickly get this job done, the sooner, the better,¡± said the leader.

    ¡°Yes our great leader,¡± said the man as he ran off.

    ¡°... it¡¯s temporary leader,¡± said the man as he looked off at a distance, this man was the son of the temporary leader of Novera Corporation, Nizer Farad from the Farad family.

    ¡°It should be around here,¡± muttered Luon. Luon determined the weakest point to break out of the encirclement was this spot. If his opponent were a like-minded person who understood the geography, then he would be in big trouble.

    After making a few steps he had suddenly realized something, ¡®Ah crud, I left all the materials under the tree...¡¯

    Luon had utterly forgotten about the good he had hidden, Luon really wanted to get it back as he didn¡¯t want to search and dismantle products for the materials he needed severely as well as take time to recraft everything.

    Luon backtracked the way to the tree only to find it was being looted by three men. Enraged with no time to lose, he sprayed his rifle into the three of them, and to finish it off he shot 2 explosion bullets. But the attack had attracted the attention of the other pursuers.

    Luon gathered his belonging without forgetting to loot the bodies and quickly made his way out of the encirclement. Now and then had to engage in quick exchanges with his opponent but the result was either a quick victory or a forced retreat...

    When Luon reached the exit point, an arrow flew right beside his eye.

    He turned and saw a few archers loading their arrow and attacking him. To avoid the sticky situation he used his dark mana to make him blend into the darkness. After losing sight of Luon, they began to attack at random, but he was already long gone.

    After breaking out of the restricted area, Luon turned and twisted many bushes and trees leaving nearly no change to the environment. As if he was ghost he only needed to tap the ground with his feet before traveling several meters.

    Luon who traveled quite far from where he was attacked from stopped to catch his breath. To maintain that much speed for so long was an arduous task to do despite his body enhancements.

    As he let his guard down Luon felt a cold chill behind his back, ¡°Don¡¯t move.¡±

    The voice appeared familiar to him as he slowly turned his head to meet Shizuka¡¯s eyes which were wavering whether or not to kill him.

 Chapter 104 - Lv3 License Examination 2

    Although they hadn¡¯t met for a while, for some reason Luon felt there something odd about Shizuka.

    ¡®Why isn¡¯t she putting down her weapon.¡¯ The very fact that she still has her gun pointing towards him shook his morale a bit. He merely thought it was due to the basic human instinct to keep guard, but for some reason, his heart told him otherwise. Did she have something against him? Although they haven¡¯t met recently, they did attend classes and events together, and Luon couldn¡¯t remember doing anything that might have offended her.

    Luon felt that there was more to this competition than what it seems just from seeing how serious Shizuka was being. To even consider eliminating her friend to reduce the number of competitors. For now, Luon¡¯s life was in her hands, if she wanted him dead, she could have pulled the trigger and the very fact that he isn¡¯t dead yet was because she was still weighing the values of killing Luon here.

    Luon took the initiative and slowly raised his two hands stating his intention, Shizuka who noticed his actions slowly backed away and lowered her weapon to point where it was deemed less threatening.

    As Luon who faced Shizuka didn¡¯t know what to say at this moment, for starters, he said, ¡°Umm. Hello?¡±

    Greetings are important, they convey intent, rationality, and personality which could be read in the tone and expression it is used in. Shizuka only responded with a nod once more, Luon thought, ¡®The cold treatment again, before she used to talk to me like normal friends, rather she would say hello when I did so. What could possibly be the cause of this?¡¯

    More importantly, could they be considered friends? The number of times they talked one on one with each other may be counted on two hands, and the border between friends and classmates are rather broad.

    Friends may not have the same interest as classmates, and the only thing that the Shizuka and Luon had in common was that they both like engineering.

    Luon began to evaluate the relationships between himself and others mentally and categorized them and classmates, friends, and roommates and as he did he realized that the people he knew can be in multiple categories at the same time. He considered Shizuka to be his friend, rival and classmate but he felt that she didn¡¯t feel the same with the way she treated him right now unless some kind of circumstances made her like this that is.

    Seeing how her wariness has yet to disappear Luon decided to probe her intentions by saying, ¡°I just came here after being attacked by a group of people. So if you could be kind enough to respect my wishes, can you please ignore me? I¡¯m not going to attack you from out of nowhere. Although this is a competition, I¡¯d like us both to pass without having to deal with each other.¡±

    His words interested her, the moment Luon said he wasn¡¯t interested in attacking her, and how he said he was just chased by a group of people her wariness went down by a notch. Luon who noticed this slight change recalled the mob of people he had met earlier. He suspected that they weren¡¯t only looking for him who devastated their formations due to the very nature of the competition. Instead, they attacked him under the impression that they were chasing after Shizuka.

    They both wore the same type of clothing which people could easily misunderstand when they appeared in the darkness. It was a black military uniform with golden trims and besides the random smudges of dirt on the side due to handling.

    Unlike Belle who wore her own design and Arisa who edited some minor features, Luon and Shizuka¡¯s clothes looked exactly as they intended for it to be as, prim and proper.

    All of a sudden, the surroundings became noisy as various alarms went off around them. Luon suspects that Shizuka had developed a similar product to his sensory devices that he made on the spot. Shizuka who noticed the arrival of new enemies became wary of Luon and asked, ¡°Did you intentionally bring them here?¡±

    Her suspicion had hurt Luon¡¯s feelings once more, but this time it was better than being suspected without reason. It made sense for her to doubt Luon when a series of enemies came right after him, in fact, if Luon was indeed the enemy she would have fallen for the trap if she wasn¡¯t on guard.

    ¡°Nevermind that, if you don¡¯t trust me it doesn¡¯t matter. The first thing we got to do is get out of here. If you want, you can go your own way, and I¡¯ll go with mine,¡± Luon shrugged.

    Shizuka looked at his expression carefully before bluntly saying, ¡°Let¡¯s go, follow me.¡±

    Shizuka quickly ran towards a direction, and Luon followed after her. It was better to leave the navigation to someone who knew the layout of the terrain. He trusted her judgment since for one, she had set up the alarm system, so she had time to learn what the terrain was like. Two, her judgment skills must have been improved since she had started the space command class. And three, because he trusted her, and wanted her to know that.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    The two left the region uneventfully, but that couldn¡¯t be said for their pursuers. As they searched for the enemy, they encountered a series of landmines which followed after the pesky alarms. Luon couldn¡¯t help but sweat bullets about how one of those poor folks could have been him if he had taken the wrong route towards the center of the formation and if he had run away without knowing this if she didn¡¯t agree to let him follow. He was fortunate to meet her in these circumstances.

    By the time that they had left the region over 1/3rd of the overall contestants had been eliminated. There were roughly 60 more contestants that needed to be eliminated excluding the 10 winners out of the calculations.

    The two of them were soon led to a cavern that was shrouded by thick vegetation. It looked well-hidden to the point where Luon wouldn¡¯t have noticed it unless he stopped and evaluated the surroundings more carefully.

    Once he was inside Shizuka covered the entrance with rocks and plants to the point where there was only a small hole remaining used for ventilation. Luon slowly evaluated the layout of the cavern, despite its size it seemed really small as it was filled to the brim with scraps. Luon found himself a nice spot and started to lay out his belongings alongside Shizuka who had done the same. While Luon was searching for materials to use, Shizuka had only gone out to search for food. Although their real bodies didn¡¯t need anything to eat, their minds are consistently working which caused them to feel hunger artificially.

    Dying to hunger would be the worse way to get eliminated in the examination. Luon couldn¡¯t help but feel bad for himself if he was eliminated that way as he only noticed this fact now. He was so blinded with the task of developing better tools and weaponry; it was to the point where he neglected hunger.

    His stomach voiced its displeasure a few seconds after she had finished placing all the food she had painstakingly gathered. Hearing his stomach rumble, Shizuka couldn¡¯t help laugh, she tried to hold it, but as soon as it roared out once more, her feelings burst out like a dam with a hole. She continued to laugh until she could no longer do so.

    Despite being in a cooking class, Luon did not cook their meal as Shizuka insisted that she does it herself. It took her a while to actually create something editable due to several factors, one they didn¡¯t want to create smoke inside of the cavern, so she had to take it outside and carefully make it under the watch of moonlight. The second reason was that they didn¡¯t have a stove top or anything like that, so she had to use the old method of a campfire. Luckily she managed to find a nice spot for the operation, she hid the smoke by building a small pit for the fire and hovered a tree branch coated with wet tree leaves.

    While she was off cooking for their meal, Luon worked on developing more tools and evaluating his stock of weaponry. Due to the sudden attack of his enemies, he exhausted all of his sensors, and the majority of his ammunition leaving only one cartridge left behind and to his misfortune, the pile of junk that Shizuka had did not have any more for the rifle.

    Going through the pile of junk Luon managed to find a revolver with a few bullets, a sword, and a shield. Crafting a sword and shield would be most difficult in these circumstances, but it was entirely doable if the competition lasted more than one day in the virtual world.

    When Luon had finished sorting through the scrap, Shizuka came back with what Luon found to be a vegetable soup made out of materials found in the forest. As he ate it, he found the taste to be worse than usual. It was quite understandable regarding their circumstances, the simulation didn¡¯t even bother hosting animals for them to hunt. It was as if the hosts wanted all of the engineers to be vegan, or to die even faster. Fortunately, this wasn¡¯t the first time he experienced this. Luon couldn¡¯t help but recall their survival training camp where they had to forage for food while hunting down Inzektors.

    Once the dreadful meal was over, they got to business right away. The way Shizuka looked at Luon was better than what had happened only moments ago. Luon recounted his experiences, from the temple to the gang of engineers to meeting Shizuka. Once Shizuka heard the later part she couldn¡¯t help but shiver.

    Luon who noticed this reaction didn¡¯t bother asking her about it. The more he knows about, the more he would likely get involved. Shizuka let a small sigh and just when she was about to explain her circumstances Luon said, ¡± Oh, by the way, how come your tools look way better than mine? And where did all this scrap come from?¡±

    Shizuka explained, ¡°When I first started out on the map I was spawned next to a supply depot after I had finished looting the place I found 2 more guys and one-sidedly eliminated them. It took a lot of my bullets using the revolver though.¡±

    Luon examined the revolver and indeed saw signs of it being used quite recently.

    Shizuka continued, ¡°Now about those guys tha-¡±

    Just as Shizuka was going to explain what her circumstances were, Luon quickly replied, ¡°Ah, I think it¡¯s time to get some rest. After we get up, it¡¯s going to be a long day after all. I need to make myself a nice place to sleep.¡±

    Luon got up quickly, but before he could leave the cavern, she asked, ¡°Do you not want to hear my story?¡±

    ¡°No, I would rather not, and your circumstances don¡¯t matter that much to me as I am merely a bystander to all of this. It doesn¡¯t feel right for me if you don¡¯t feel right about sharing it,¡± Luon shrugged.

    Shizuka felt touched by Luon''s remark she couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Then do you want to team up for this competition?¡±

    Luon gave her a smile and said, ¡°Why are you asking this? Aren¡¯t we already a team? I am willing to help even without being told to do so. More importantly, we need to get some materials for our bedding.¡±

    Shizuka agreed, and the two of them departed to find something nice to sleep on. They only managed to find enough leaves for one bed and sticks for a light fire to keep warm with.

    The first day of the examination had passed, and by the end of it, about 40 people were left.

 Chapter 105 - Lv3 License Examination 3

    ¡®The old dogs are acting up, it''s plainly obvious to see that this match is rigged, ¡¯ thought Dio as he watches the competition. Unlike the previous years where they divided each division by specialization and strictly evaluated them, this year they had tossed every engineer in a battle royal.

    The quota had remained the same as the initial problem had yet to be solved. Resources, what''s the point of making more higher level engineers without having the materials to do stuff? The worst-case scenario is that these new engineers would take away all of their technology and immigrate to a solar system to make a name for themselves.

    As for why and how did the others rigged the match, out of the remaining people within the match - 40 of them grouped up with the sole purpose of defeating Shizuka.

    In the meeting room Dio was in he could see the gloating smile of pigs as they mumbled gibberish to their fellow brethren. Unlike the other organizations, Novera Corporation was reliant on having multiple parties to help democratically decide actions where the head will give the final decision.

    Currently, the Ichihara house was under investigation which led the transference of the head position. Under normal conditions this wouldn''t have happened, it wasn''t that easy to transfer the head position. The only reason that it did succeed was that Dio wasn''t initially born in the Ichihara house.

    The position of the head of the family must always be a person of pure blood unless that person has yet to mature. It was a rule that had passed down for generations, and Shizuka was the only one left that still had a trace of the founder''s bloodline, as for who would replace them, it didn¡¯t matter as long as the bloodline continues.

    Some experts argued that the rule was made because there was something special about the bloodline, but nobody knew, it was only based on the visible facts. Every single generation of the Ichihara line had produced a powerful heir, this caused the envy and desire of a multitude of families.

    Everything was going to the rebels plans until a new factor had shown up. Luon, he was known to be the top competitor to the combat segment of the Alliance Tournament, the only important aspect to his engineering abilities was that he was being trained by Zekar. Although this fact did scare them a bit, they felt that it was impossible to win against 40 people by himself without having an NG-Arm. He was only level 67 without it after all.

    Everyone was sure for the victory of those 40 competitors, except for Dio that is. He looked at Luon with a wicked smile as he muttered to himself, ¡°Let''s see what you can do this time around.¡±

    ¡­

    The next day came as the sunlight bathed Shizuka in its gentle rays. As it coated her with its radiance, she couldn''t help but wiggle around only to find her bedding to be really rough. Just by pressing herself on something warm and robust did she feel more comfortable. She found this feeling rather strange, it had caused her to wake up unwillingly only to find herself entangled with Luon.

    She blushes in shame at what she had just done and slowly got up. Sharing the bed was a regular occurrence for siblings and friends, but excessive hugging and clinging was something that many people wouldn''t try to do, at least to their friends.

    She looked at Luon who appeared genuinely asleep with a sigh, she couldn''t help but recall her father''s words when she was notified that this was going to be a rigged match. About half of the competitors were against her. The sole reason is that she would be considered eligible to inherit the family position when she becomes a level 3 engineer. In a normal contest she may have already advanced onwards, but if every examination were rigged like this, she would be unable to complete it unless she takes down nearly all of the other competitors by herself.

    Luckily for her Luon was in the same situation, and he willfully said that he would help her out in a case like this. Recalling the scenes that happened yesterday, her expressionless face had a small smile, but it went away as fast as it came, she remembered that Luon had said that he encountered the group yesterday, if they were that close together a more trouble circumstance would soon appear.

    She woke up Luon quickly and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go scout out our opponents.¡±

    ¡°In the middle of the day?¡± Luon asked as he found that doing so may expose their location to the others. However, after a few seconds of thought, he decided to go out.

    The two quickly prepared themselves for the trip and left within minutes. It wasn¡¯t that hard to find their opponents as the sound of their progress wasn¡¯t secretive at all. In fact, they had developed a fortress in the middle of the forest. From a distance, one could see trees shattering under the force of robots being led by humans.Stolen novel; please report.

    Luon thought, ¡®Those monsters, to think they would work overnight? Where is the slave labor laws when you need them.¡¯

    The astounding performance of the enemies team had shocked him, but at the same time gave him an opportunity. If all of the enemies were concentrated on one spot, then he wouldn¡¯t have to search for all of his enemies. The only problem was that there was just too many to deal with, he needed to take them out one by one. Fortunately, this kind of situation was still within his margin of error.

    However, to accomplish this daunting task he needed weapons and ammunition, and with his limited supply he could only inflict minor damage to their opponents economy. Luon looked around, and his eyes brightened. He relayed his plans to Shizuka, and the two got into action. Luon wasn¡¯t able to fight them head-on, but if they continued to divide their forces, nothing was stopping him from causing havoc.

    The two set a series of cameras surrounding the enemy camp, without the alarm mechanism, and they linked the visual displays to their BMPU so they could find out when their enemies will depart for resources.

    The two assaulted their enemies resource gathering groups causing the death of nearly half of their human resources and the majority of their robotic army. Without resources how are they able to maintain food supply? Make robots and weapons? Luon and Shizuka looted every convoy that came out no matter the size. Sometimes they weren¡¯t able to make just one attack, sometimes it would take two or three to destroy a battalion.

    The priority of their assault was aimed towards humans, if they weren¡¯t able to eliminate the force, they would set the food on fire, and kill as many humans as possible before departing, their days were filled with an extensive amount of strenuous and stressful exercise.

    Fortunately, because their opponents were doing all the gathering for them, Luon and Shizuka didn¡¯t have to worry about food or weapons. All they had to do was wait for their opponents to do work for them.

    Sure enough the movements the group did change, a large force consisting of all of their forces came out. Shizuka and Luon separated into two groups, Shizuka went to make sure their opponents base was inhabitable while Luon tried to do the most damage he could to the force outside.

    As for what he did, it was merely what he specialized in. From a distance, one could see a series of explosives causing a large amount of damage to the large convoy. From Luon tossing bombs at them to them running into land mines, this day had created the most damage to their opponent''s forces.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go back,¡± said their leader disappointingly although they did manage to obtain some food and materials they weren¡¯t able to chase after Luon and Shizuka who kept using the terrain to their own advantage. They felt cornered and boxed in a forest that gave them the very representation of death.

    By the time they arrived back at their headquarters many of them couldn¡¯t help but feel glad to be home. Just as they opened the door, an enormous explosion rang, it decimated half of the group and completely shattered the fortress. Shizuka had rigged their base with explosives when they were out and occupied by Luon¡¯s attacks. As for how she got in, with nobody guarding it nothing was stopping her from accomplishing so.

    The days after this became worse for the group, they were forced to starve and feel cold from the rain due to their lack of shelter.

    Why couldn¡¯t they just have a regular competition? What¡¯s with this survival island business? At this point, many of them began to argue against one another on the entire design of the competition. They needed to vent out their frustration somewhere, they were hungry, stressed, and saddened by how the whole competition went so far.

    At some point, the verbal argument got physical as they started to push each other around, and when people horse around in a workshop like an environment, accidents happen quite often. One of the men who was vigorously pushed was impaled into a loose piece of mental causing him to scream in agony. With that as the starting signal, fights broke out as many others used their robots and whatever weapon they had to deal with each other. The leader who was away at the moment came to the brutal sight of infighting between his men, he screamed, ¡°Stop! Stop fighting against each other!¡±

    He realized something was wrong, despite his remarks he was unable to calm his men down. The bloodlust had overwhelmed them as all their negative feelings came to light. At this moment, one of his men walked towards him and said, ¡°Boss, why did things turn out like this.¡±

    Seeing how one of his men was still sane, he smiled wryly as he said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but I think we can still scavenge this situation despite how bad it is. Now let¡¯s work together to get things fixed.¡±

    He nodded as he said, ¡°Let¡¯s go inside and grab the speaker first, it would be easier to calm them down if we had it.¡±

    The leader suddenly recalled that they had one and said, ¡°Alright, you stay here for a bit I¡¯ll go get it.¡±

    However, just as he turned around he felt the pain coming from his stomach, he looked below and found a blade stabbing right through him. As he slowly turned around his eyes met with the subordinate he was just talking to. He raised one of his arms and covered his face with his hand, he tore off the skin, which transformed into a mask. Beneath all of it was Luon, who smiled as he had snuck into the group and eliminated them. The task was daunting, but it was possible because they were too stressed at the situation.

    The blade came out just as smooth as it went in, blood gushes out as Nizer found himself lying dead on the ground. He was just a small fry whose name didn¡¯t matter to anyone at all until the end.

    The match soon ended with Luon and Shizuka passing the examination.

 Chapter 106 - Preparations

    When the event was over Luon had met the other competitors who gave him a deadly stare, they have been starved, scared, and had many traumatic experiences that they would typically never experience. Luon gave them a sly smirk and left causing their anger to reach their upper limits, to him those engineers were just greenhorns with some ability.

    In his first simulation, Luon knew it himself that he wasn¡¯t the best engineer, many of his comrades were better than him and taught him new ways and perspectives to look at things. He found that the simulated humans were more idealistic than the ones actually living in the current era. Luon couldn¡¯t help but be amazed at how system simulated things if humans were calculatingly perfect as he had experienced than Inzektors wouldn¡¯t exist. In the end, greed, self-indulgence, lust, and other factors came to play making the utopia that the system had created into a flawed existence.

    As he was walking down to the lobby, he met Shizuka who gave him a bright smile upon his arrival. Luon couldn¡¯t help but think he was seeing things as he began rubbing his eyes to make sure he was still sane. After doing so he found that Shizuka didn¡¯t have a smile, she was expressionless as always. The two chatted about the relationship between resources, engineers, and innovative technology. Without resources, engineers wouldn¡¯t be able to create weapons, tools, and other essential items. To get more resources they would need to secure it themselves in which they would need to obtain the tools for it. To acquire tools they needed resources, in the end, because Luon and Shizuka prevented the enemy from expanding their influence they were able to change the tide.

    Things would have been much different if they had decided to spread out from the start and slowly centralize their sphere of influence, in other words, the area they operated within.

    Luon and Shizuka received the qualifications of passing the examination at the lobby along with 8 others, half of which were the survivors in the enemies camp, the others remaining were people who managed to barely survive by hiding from the constant daily searches that the large group had made.

    Although Shizuka wanted to talk to Luon some more, she knew she had some duties to attend, she saw her father wave his hand from the corner of her eye before he left the area. At this point she may be considered a proper heiress to the organization now, there was still much to do. There was an option to overthrow or halt the decision of the head of the organization to prevent dictators. If 80% of their members disagree to the head decisions than a debate will occur, causing the delay of precious time, and if it escalates in a more problematic manner, the query would be ultimately be judged by the system.

    The reason why they don¡¯t use the system for all of their decisions was that they wanted to break away from the way the system handles things. It only made logical decisions rather than rational ones, and it sided more with the goal of eliminating Inzektors at any means necessary. Although the system was set up centuries ago, not many had known how it works, the designer was from the Ichihara family had never passed the method down as he merely said, ¡°Just don¡¯t touch it. It will work for centuries as long as you don¡¯t touch it.¡±

    His words held some truth behind it as it did indeed last for centuries without a single error, very few researchers considered studying it since it was already so perfect. The last prevalent researcher would be the one that had incorporated the system into Vortex Containers, although he had only touched the outer core of it, he was able to access a repository of information. Some debated that the system is an enormous computer that one couldn¡¯t possibly comprehend, not only that but it was operated by a complicated AI system. The decision to incorporate the Vortex Container was decided by the system but the choice to incubate children was made by the government. Although the system had recommended this choice, it still took human rights into consideration as it weighed in the emotional factor.

    Shizuka needed to solidify her standings, she couldn¡¯t help but feel that the system¡¯s way of doing things is heartless, especially during the instance when they asked it in regards to Arisa¡¯s marriage with Deminier, which it agreed with the notion to proceed to do so. It wanted a powerful heir to eliminate the Inzektor race, and any sign of sympathy was non-existent.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll see you later at the exams, right?¡± asked Shizuka as she found herself unable to say much once she realized that she needed to leave.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll see you then. Thanks to your support during this test, without you, I wouldn¡¯t be able to handle 40 of them like that,¡± Luon said.

    ¡°You¡¯re too modest, I bet if you actually tried you could have easily dealt with them all. All I did was help arrange your equipment during the raids and help every once in a while,¡± Shizuka said as she smiled inwardly at his honest remark.

    ¡°Without you there, it would have taken me much longer to eliminate their forces, and during that time they would continue to expand their influence, and although I can probably fight for several days straight, I¡¯m only human. I¡¯ll eventually tire, and a single mistake would have caused me to perish. Honestly, you did more than what I could ask for,¡± said Luon.

    Shizuka couldn¡¯t help but look away from Luon who complimented her as such as she said, ¡°Ah, I don¡¯t want to take any more of your time if you''re doing something after this. But if you¡¯re free...¡±

    At this moment Luon got a notification from Zekar who he messaged after he had passed the examination. Zekar gave him a brief congratulations before saying that he made some modifications to the ship to celebrate and that he should come to check it out. Luon couldn¡¯t help but say to Shizuka, ¡°Ah, sorry I have something to do now. I¡¯ll see you later then.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Luon quickly ran off, seeing him fade away Shizuka couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Luon was always like this, he would appear out of nowhere and disappear just as fast. Shizuka¡¯s face went cold, and the atmosphere around her did the same, now was a time to clean up the organization. She needed to build connections and create a social network. How many people would be willing to listen to someone much younger and possibly smarter than them? She doesn¡¯t know, but if she didn¡¯t do anything, then the worst possible situation could happen. The organization will become a headless chicken.

    ...

    After bidding Shizuka farewell, Luon continued to train and prepare for the final examination which will determine whether or not he would graduate. Marks are merely a minor factor to him, to employers it mattered more about quantity rather the quality for soldiers, and for engineers, that would depend on their rankings at Novera Corporation. Of course, being known as the best student interested him, but it wasn¡¯t necessary for his future job as a lowly grunt. Although, a grunt at level 67 is something quite admirable.

    With his level 3 engineering license, Luon¡¯s options had become much broader, not only was he able to access more research materials that he had yet to cover, but he was also allowed clearances in certain activities with a high level of priority. For example, when he was shopping at the marketplace they would prioritize tending higher ranked officials rather than the commoners, there was also a discounted price on top of that.

    Military officials and scholars have more benefits than what one could imagine, but that¡¯s only because they have a lot of responsibilities as well. They were a part of the frontline who would die standing for the citizens.

    ¡°Your movements are getting much better. To be able to kill Inzektors at ease, you¡¯re doing quite well without the NG-Arms,¡± said Thanatos as he oversaw Luon¡¯s training as a coach.

    Luon nodded in response as he said, ¡°I learned that without my gear I would be physically useless in combat if I had to fight an army straight on it would be difficult to come out of alive, no, rather it would be impossible unless I had my NG-Arms.¡±

    ¡°But if you used the NG-Arms you¡¯ll never improve, isn¡¯t that right? You can already feel that the levels beyond level 80 are too great to use external equipment,¡± Thanatos said.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, and the amount of energy the system requires is too much, especially at the current market prices,¡± Luon said.

    Similar to gas prices from several centuries ago when the planet was lacking the ability to transport oil, energy crystals cost tons of Galaxia coins. Anyone could make them, only the quality and time it takes to make one was just too long for many to do. Some shady businesses kidnaped kids and forced them to craft these crystals, but with the regulations that the system had implemented, those organizations had vanished as if they never existed in the first place.

    To reach the full capacity of his NG-Arms Luon needed to spend several days in real life condensing his energy to use it once. Fortunately, the number of situations where he needed it in real life was slim. Besides the survival camp, he had never used it at all since he was able to use it in the Vortex Container freely.

    ¡°How are you going to prepare for the examinations?¡± asked Thanatos as he couldn¡¯t help but recall his times at the military academy.

    Luon stopped his training and gave it some thought before he responded, ¡°For combat, well I got you to help me out for that one. As for engineering¡­ I should be good for that with Zekar¡¯s help. But commanding is kind of...¡±

    ¡°Lacking?¡± Thanatos said.

    ¡°Yes, yes, it is rather lacking. For the examination, I heard that the format is different than the regular virtual wars I have fought online. According to the previous seniors and some records that the school has, the simulation would randomize an era and arrange armies against each other with an equal amount of units. You are simulated as a general under a king with the ultimate goal of slaughtering the opposing king using any method possible. Assassination, bombs, or in one on one combat while in the war, there are many ways to do so. The condition to fail is to die before accomplishing the goal of slaying the opponent''s king,¡± said Luon as he recalls the information he had heard about for the exams.

    ¡°What happens when your own king dies?¡± asked Thanatos as he didn¡¯t think about the possibility until now.

    Luon who had never heard of the concept before searched it up on his BMPU and found an article stating that if their king were to die first, the army morale would drop by nearly half while the match will continue on until the general or the opposing king dies.

    ¡°That¡¯s quite an intense setting. Not only that but the average soldier is at level 40, while some elites may be around 60. If it¡¯s your current state right now, you can probably deal with nearly 1000 regular ones or several elites before falling due to lack of stamina,¡± Thanatos analyzed.

    ¡°And that¡¯s without gear right?¡± asked Luon who didn¡¯t even bother doing the calculation.

    ¡°Yes, but you shouldn¡¯t be that reliant on it right?¡± said Thanatos.

    ¡°I probably won¡¯t, this examination is looking carefully at my ability to command the troops, if they are placed well I would be able to pass without pitting myself against my opponents,¡± Luon said.

    ¡°For now you need some practice, too bad I can¡¯t really help you because, for one, I¡¯m only a fragment of yourself in your memories, and two, I would one-slidingly beat you, you know how much experience I have with war compared to you. In fact, the only reason you¡¯re doing well so far was that you used my basic knowledge as a foundation. It wouldn¡¯t be much practice for you at all,¡± said Thanatos.

    Luon wasn¡¯t happy with his remark about being one-slidingly beaten, he would provide some resistance, or he hopes so. Luon began to think how would he practice for the exam as he slowly muttered to himself, ¡°Who is about the same level as me in commanding and will be willing to help?¡±

    ¡°Why not ask that one girl to help?¡± Thanatos pointed out.

    ¡°Who?¡± Luon asked.

    ¡°Why it¡¯s Arisa. She seems to be an excellent commander from my perspective, and her family background could vouch for it otherwise,¡± said Thanatos.

    ¡°It would indeed be helpful to battle against her but will she be willing to help me? She has examinations to study for as well,¡± Luon said.

    ¡°And that¡¯s exactly why you should contact her, you too can train together before the finals. It¡¯s only a week. If you try to contact her now maybe she¡¯ll come flying right in here,¡± said Thanatos.

    ¡°Only a week¡­ in reality, that¡¯s so but in the simulation that¡¯s more than two months,¡± Luon pointed out.

    ¡°Well I guess I can always try to contact her and see if she is available,¡± Luon muttered as he used his BMPU to contact Arisa.

    From the time it took to call her to the time where she agreed, it only took a matter of seconds.

 Chapter 107 - Paired Training

    ¡°I¡¯m here! What do you want to do first? Combat training? Or Commander Battles?¡± Arisa energetically asked after she had logged into the server that Luon had set up.

    Luon gave it some thought before he asks, ¡°More importantly I''m wondering how long are you willing to train with me. Don''t you have some important duties to attend to?¡±

    ¡°No problem, I can stay and train with you for the entire week before the exams start, ¡± Arisa said with vigor.

    ¡°Alright¡­ oh, maybe the others might be free to join us for some training as well, ¡± Luon said.

    Just before Luon could even contact them on his BMPU Arisa yelled, ¡°Stooppp. Why would you want to bother doing this? Just let them do their things, I mean who is willing to train for an entire week non-stop?¡±

    Luon looked at Arisa strangely as her words contradicted her actions. If she was willing to train with him for an entire week in reality then why wouldn''t the others not want to do so? Luon thought that at least Bendan would be happy to do combat training for an entire month or two in the simulated world.

    Seeing how Luon wasn''t convinced by her argument, Arisa said, ¡°Look, Shizuka is probably busy with something involving Novera Corporation, your friends are probably taking the week off to relax and Belle¡­ is doing her thing. And even if one of them did come, how can you guarantee that there will be an even number of participants? One of us would have to sit out in that case, and these old-fashioned commander battles that we¡¯re doing for the exams are much longer than the usual ones. It''s just a waste of time to invite them.¡±

    Luon felt that she did have a point, he didn''t want to interrupt them if they had their own plans. It wasn''t like they were waiting for him to call or message them. Luon decided to take what he could get, he looked at Arisa gave her a shrug and said, ¡°Well I guess we should make some arrangements so we can get an equal number of commander and combat training done. How long is a single match for the commander exam anyway?¡±

    To Luon¡¯s remark, Arisa pondered a bit before saying, ¡°It depends on the matchup, although you are randomizing the setting both teams are still within the same era and solar system. Which is typically before the time when we advanced into space travel, so if it was based on say the Nexus solar system then we¡¯ll be using guns, tanks, and planes. On the other hand, if we were using the Plana solar system, it would be a single race like orcs, elves, humans, and demons.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯re saying that if it was based on the Sea Kingdom¡¯s solar system, one of us might lead an army of sea monsters and the other fishmen? Isn¡¯t that a little too one-sided,¡± questioned Luon, he found the notion ridiculous. If it was like that then couldn¡¯t the examiner cheat the match to make it better for themselves? Luon couldn¡¯t help but dismay at the horrible passing rate that could emerge from rigged matches.

    ¡°Technically yes, the match could end up one-sided. However, we¡¯re being graded based on the tactics we used and not whether we win or lose. Also, we aren¡¯t battling against instructors, rather strangers that they have arranged for us. So it¡¯s hard to rig a match to their own favor considering the skill level of the person they¡¯ve arranged,¡± Arisa said.

    ¡°How about the combat portion of the exams? Is there anything peculiar about that?¡± Luon asked seeing how they were still on the topic.

    ¡°For the combat exams, we aren¡¯t fighting against instructors, monsters, or anything along the lines of that. We are fighting against each other while being graded on our performance. Of course, winning is typically the largest determining factor on how good you end up doing,¡± Arisa said.

    To dumb it down, Luon realized that to get a good grade he needed to win, and if he were to lose, then he might get an okay grade. Winning is all that should matter, and to do that he needed to arrange their training schedule properly. Luon asked, ¡°Okay taking in the multitude of scenarios we can account for, how long does it take to complete a match?¡±

    Arisa raised her hand and had one finger sticking out as she said, ¡°1 day, on average it would take only 1 day to finish our match depending on the placement locations.¡±

    Doing some quick matches, Luon thought they may be able to get around 50 virtual matches done before the exams with some training in between. That only depends if the average took a single day though.

    Right away Luon and Arisa sparred each other for a while until one of them had bested the other. Arisa looked triumphantly over Luon as she reached out her hand and said to him, ¡°That¡¯s one for me. Hopefully, you¡¯ll manage to get one win or else...¡±

    ¡°Or else what?¡± Luon asked out of curiosity.

    ¡°Or else you''re guaranteed to lose to me if we get paired with each other,¡± Arisa said with a teasing smile.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°You can¡¯t win them all, I don¡¯t believe it,¡± said Luon wryly replied back as he got pulled up by Arisa.

    After their first combat session, the two of them fought against each other in the commander battle.

    For their first commander match, Luon was assigned several human footmen and knights while Arisa had a similar build but was less mobile as they were composed of the dwarven race.

    The match went underway on an open plain with a forest that was several kilometers away, this kind of map enhances the ability of the calvary that Luon has, and at the same time devalues the dwarven units who specialized in fighting in close quarters on foot.

    Taking advantage of the terrain, Luon spread his forces over a kilometer e, and by using his workers, he created a makeshift outpost to oversee the battlefield. However, the amount of time it took to do all of this was more than what he expected. He was dissatisfied by the fact that he was unable to use his tools to help him do this monotonous task, and the fact that his troops had to be directed by messengers made things was the worst factor.

    That was until the battle started and he had learned about something worse than inaccurate messages, and that was ignorant and arrogant rationality of humans.

    ¡°Why? Why did Count Suclair advance without my permission?! Messenger, what do you have to say to this?¡± asked Luon who was filled with rage.

    ¡°Sire, he was dissatisfied at how we¡¯re progressing in the battle and took the initiative to make a name for himself. He told me to report to you once he started his attack as it was his duty to do so,¡± the Messenger cowers before Luon¡¯s rage.

    ¡°Name? Name for himself? He¡¯ll have a name alright, and it''s going to be on his tombstone when we¡¯re done with this,¡± Luon couldn¡¯t help but mutter.

    Feeling stress at the inconsiderate actions of his teammates had done he couldn¡¯t help but facepalm at the fact that some of his men decided not to listen to him, and act on their own.

    Unlike the previous matches where units are spawned naturally with mana, they were able to use terrain to gather resources. Luon had surrounded Arisa, and the plan was to merely wait before they could lay siege upon their enemies using the trees he was able to gather from a distance.

    Arisa had decided to dig herself in the middle of the plains, and she built a bunker. Although dwarves were expert at digging there is only so much they could do as they created a miniature fortress with several gaps to cut down the production time. She could have tried escaping, but the stubby legs that the dwarves have made it difficult to accomplish. However, with Arisa¡¯s ingenious design they managed to make use of the excess gaps to entrap Luon¡¯s units. Luon did not assault the base directly as he found that half of the dwarves were armed with rifles.

    But this action earned the dissatisfaction of the other noblemen who led their own individual forces. Unlike the previous simulations his men had personality, they can feel fear, pride, greed, and anger.

    Luon found their personalities annoying to deal with, but Thanatos found it rather refreshing as he said, ¡°To command an army properly, you need to study more than just tactics. You need to know what the mindset of a soldier is like. You can¡¯t sacrifice people for the greater good, and you can¡¯t treat humans as pawns on a chessboard. Every person has value and a quirk. It''s up to you to learn to utilize it properly.¡±

    ¡°Utilize it properly? I would be surprised if those idiots could even move properly. Let alone that, how am I suppose to know what these noblemen are like if they are randomly generated every time? Memorizing their names was already hard enough. Nevermind that, let¡¯s just wait until the match is over. I am guaranteed to win as long as we get some catapults set up,¡± Luon said in dissatisfaction.

    Although Luon had trouble managing his troops he eventually won because of the advantages his army had over Arisa¡¯s. In a situation where there was an obvious winner not much can change the ending. If Arisa could use mind-control magic, then she might have been able to cause some in-fighting between Luon¡¯s forces. Luon realized this factor when Arisa took the corpses of his soldiers and hung them to dry, she incited the anger of his men as she stripped and tortured them before their eyes.

    This was a gruesome tactic however it did work in her favor as some of his men abandoned their post and attacked her. After committing this act, Luon considered studying methods to manipulate the morale of his own forces as well as his opponents to his favor.

    From the commander battles, Luon learned that not every human is willing to listen to his suggestions. Creative real-time actions could only be executed by excellent generals and subordinates, and although Luon did have some bad seeds, there were several individuals where he focused his forces around.

    He needed to find the right place for all of his troops, and he found that by placing the over-enthusiastic and incompetent ones in the back gave him less to worry about and would less likely be a failed assaults. As for the ones who have too much pride he had also tossed them to back as they were easily influenced by their enemies tactics.

    After their first match, they continued to battle against one another and for several segments of their battles they found that their troop''s actions would overturn that basic logic of how things should be run and done. Because of this both Arisa and Luon liked using ranged units as they were less troublesome to deal with.

    The two of them made full use of the simulated world¡¯s capabilities, and since they could pause their commander match, their daily routine was stable. A quick spar in the morning and commander training for the majority of the day.

    Of course, they didn¡¯t spend the entirety of the whole time just training. They knew when to rest and when to relax as the two of them spent the majority of their time together. The only thing they didn¡¯t do was go offline at all during this entire period.

    The time for the final exams came before they knew it. Although Luon felt prepared, he felt like he had just missed something by the end of their training period. Arisa bade farewell and wished Luon the best, despite the fact he was still ignorant of her feelings. She didn¡¯t voice it out as she didn¡¯t want to add more pressure to the table. In the end, although she felt like they had gotten much closer, they were still distances apart.

 Chapter 108 - Final Exams

    The day for the exams came, and just like everyone else Luon couldn¡¯t help but feel worried about it. He thought that he didn¡¯t study enough despite putting in so much effort towards it, and he was worried that he overstudied unnecessary segments for his examinations.

    Perfect results were something Luon was not aiming to achieve since the job that he had just applied for the other day had already accepted him when he sent in his resume by using his BMPU. Luon¡¯s abilities just happened to be the ones they need. To be educated to fly a spaceship and battle on land with a combat level of 67 was more than enough as the military needed combatants since people are always dying on the battlefield.  All Luon wanted to do now was graduate from the school properly and earn his degree.

    Generally, with his status, they would have promoted him, but the ranking system isn¡¯t evaluated by capability. Instead, it was determined by war merits. If Luon had participated in a combat oriented 3rd-year program then it would have been a different story, they would have been allowed to promote him to a small platoon leader.

    His actions at the survival training camp and Alliance tournament made the military view him in a more positive light, but there was nothing they could do for him. Luon needed to battle against real Inzektors that weren¡¯t managed by the government system to be promoted, and the war against Inzektors is going to be more different than fighting incubated ones.

    His examinations were divided into 3 segments that all happened consecutively, one after another. The first one he had was engineering, which is followed by commanding, and finally actual combat.

    The venue for the examination was loud because there were many third-year students Luon was delegated to the 13th venue, at that location Luon could see around 100 students that didn¡¯t seem familiar to him in any way as they were from different classes. The only reason he could tell was from the badge they had on their chest.

    Luon looked at the time and found that he was still quite early, he had an hour left before his examination starts. To calm his nerves, he decided to eat at a cafe next to the venue until it was time to start. As Luon pushed open the doors, he found the devastating scene of every table occupied with students who were studying with their papers spread all over the desk. The waitress went up to Luon and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, as you can see we¡¯re quite full here.¡±

    Luon gave a quick sigh and turned around as he intended to leave, but just before he could the waitress suddenly recalled something and asked, ¡°Wait¡­ aren¡¯t you the person that fought during the third match against Dragon¡¯s Lair?¡±

    Hearing her notice who he was he couldn¡¯t help but feel surprised since it has been nearly a year since the event. Luon had didn¡¯t have many redeeming features as everyone in the latest generation was aesthetically appealing, and since he never aired on any forms of media, it was surprising that people could still recall who he was. In fact, unless one had observed the final match, it was difficult to remember people like Luon, Tyron, Bendan and the others as advertisers had been raving about Janet, Arisa, Shizuka, and Zythos due to their companies marketing strategy.

    He turned to take a good look at the girl, and he found that she was unfamiliar to him. She had long black hair that was tied up in ponytail fashion and wore a maid uniform that matches the proportions of her body as if it was custom made. The design of the uniform resembled the maid cafes that he experienced in his first simulated life, only instead of having short skirts and sleeves they were replaced with a long sleeve and a medium size skirt with golden trims to represent the school.

    Most food stations are self-serve nowadays. However, catering still exists as the job of a maid helps relieve the mental stress of their customers. It also provides the students who work there an extra method of earning Galaxia coins.

    Luon quickly took a glance at the other girls and found that there clothing was exclusively made to fit their characteristics.

    The waitress gave a light cough and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect that you would be so lewd, as expected, men will always be men. Anyways, since your here then you must be here to meet up with one of your teammates, is that correct?¡±

    ¡®Someone else is here?¡¯ Luon was surprised at her remark as grew curious if someone he knew was still taking their remaining time to study in the cafe. To the waitress, Luon said, ¡°Yes, please lead the way then.¡±

    The waitress looked at Luon and realized that he was lying about having a prearranged meeting, but noticed that he was curious about the person she just explained. Being able to read the atmosphere, and with a mischevious smile, she led him all the way to the table as there was no harm in them meeting.

    Luon was surprised to see an unfamiliar face, but after pondering for a second, he recognizes that the girl in front of him was Belle. She wasn¡¯t studying like how all the other people were doing. Instead, she was dining normally like what a reasonable person would do at a cafe. She ordered a salad, a cup of coffee with toast, bacon, and eggs on the side.

    Just as she finished the salad, she looked up and saw Luon staring right at her with a stupefied expression, and that was when she noticed something.

    Her eyepatch was currently off as her two bell-like blue eyes stared at Luon with curiosity, and on top of that, she was wearing the regular school uniform and not some gothic lolita fashion version she wore all of the time. Belle was currently in incognito mode, realizing this she quickly cast a quick spell and shrouded her body with dark mana and after it dissipated she was back in her regular state that Luon was all familiar with.

    The maid during this time completely vanished as she could read the mood, and by the time Luon noticed the atmosphere turn sour he tried to escape. But before he could Belle lightly tapped his shoulder and said, ¡°Oh my, Luon where are you hurrying off too? I have some breakfast with your name on it. Come, sit down and enjoy yourself.¡±

    Under normal circumstances, Luon would be overjoyed by the offer, free breakfast with a friend at the cafe who would want to reject it? However, after seeing what Belle looked like in incognito mode, he wanted to leave as quickly as possible as he didn¡¯t know how she would react.

    He sat down in front of her and started to stuff himself away at the food to forget of the sight he had just seen as well as ignoring Belle, but despite his efforts, her words still rang within his mind. ¡°So did you see it?¡±

    His ears twitched instinctively as it picked up the message that he desperately tried to reject, in his mind, he bellowed, ¡®Darn ears!¡¯

    Thanatos couldn¡¯t help but shake his head and said, ¡°Lad, just listen to what she has to say if she wanted to kill you than she would have already done so.¡±

    Luon tried to listen to Belle according to Thanatos¡¯s instruction since he had more experienced with women if one had to compare between the two lifetimes

    Luon gave her a nod, and after confirming that Luon had heard her, she said, ¡°Then what you saw just now, was just an illusion, a dream, and nothing more.¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Luon nodded once more and which she replied, ¡°Good, now down to business, why are you here before your examination started?¡±

    ¡°Why can¡¯t I be here before the exams? Can¡¯t I just come in and eat just like you?¡± Luon questioned her.

    ¡°Then why¡¯d you come to my table when I¡¯m eating,¡± said Belle as she was dissatisfied with his answer.

    ¡°Well the maid brought me here, and there was no other table open for business...¡± Luon words wandered off for a bit.

    Belle who noticed the situation and gave a sigh as she said, ¡°Then go ahead and eat, I¡¯ll wait a bit beside you before my examination starts.¡±

    ¡°Are we in the same venue? Does that mean we¡¯ll have to go against each other?¡± Luon asks out of curiosity as he finishes up his meal.

    Belle shook her head as she said, ¡°I don¡¯t know if we are in the same venue or not, but that shouldn¡¯t matter. The engineering exams are completed in reality while the rest of them use a simulation that is done in the Vortex Container that the school provided to prevent cheaters. Even if we were in the same venue, it¡¯s not guaranteed that we have to compete with each other. That and I¡¯m not in engineering, so the chances are rather slim.¡±

    ¡°Really? I didn¡¯t know that¡± Luon said as he had only studied the previous examinations subjects, and had forgotten to look into the basic instructions on how the exams are outlined.

    Looking at the current time, Belle said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it time for your examination to start? You should get going soon.¡±

    Luon used his BMPU and found that there were only a few minutes before his first examination would start, and if he were to leave now, then there was still a minute or two as a buffer remaining. Luon got up and said, ¡°Thanks for the meal and good luck with your examinations.¡±

    Belle gave a wry smile and said, ¡°Of course, I got to watch out for my future subordinates after all.¡±

    Her words surprised him as he asked, ¡°Future subordinate? Does that mean you joined the military as well?¡±

    ¡°Of course I did, my father¡¯s a general, after all, it only makes sense to do so. Plus I didn¡¯t have any lofty goals anyways, so the military seems to fit for me,¡± Belle said.

    ¡°Then how¡¯d you know I¡¯ll be your subordinate?¡± Luon frowned at the thought that she would take the lead of the squadron he had yet to be arranged in. He didn¡¯t know how good her ability to lead was since he had only seen Arisa take care of everything for her team.

    ¡°Why, with my connections of course. If I can tell if you applied to the military, then wouldn¡¯t I be able to move you to my squadron? Don¡¯t worry its better for the both of us¡± Belle said.

    ¡°What¡¯s the merit of having me in your squad? Couldn¡¯t you just pull elites from elsewhere?¡± Luon said.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just say trust isn¡¯t something that can be forged by military ranks, I trust you, and I believe that you would trust me. I would do anything to increase our survivability rate,¡± Belle said.

    Luon felt a strange feeling when she mentioned the survivability rate of soldiers, from what he read online there was an average of 10% chance of dying on the first battlefield for new soldiers.

    He only gave her a nod before saying, ¡°Well then take care of me when the time comes then.¡±

    Luon left towards his examinations leaving Belle alone at the cafe. Seeing him go she said, ¡°Kiri.¡±

    The maid that had led Luon to the table appeared out of nowhere and said, ¡°Yes, master.¡±

    ¡°What was your intention by bringing him in here?¡± Belle¡¯s expression went cold as her real personality was exposed by her own subordinate.

    Kiri gave a quick bow as she said, ¡°Trust is important if you have kept your real personality hidden from him... how could you expect him to trust you when the time comes for it? You do know what the real Inzektors are like.¡±

    Belle gave a quick nod as she said, ¡°Although trust is important my appearance should be irrelevant. You shouldn¡¯t have exposed me like that as it was an unnecessary move.¡±

    ¡°On the contrary miss, it is important, after all the only reason why you wear this kind of clothing and an eye patch with an awkward personality is to hide your insecurity,¡± Kiri said.

    ¡°Insecurity? You may be right about that¡­ but-¡± Belle pondered for a second before responding to Kiri.

    ¡°Miss, it¡¯s been five years since your awakening, and after you did, instead of going to school right away your father brought you the battlefield to see the horrors of what the Inzektors can bring. You know how important trust is more than everyone else,¡± Kiri said as she interrupted Belle¡¯s speech.

    ¡°Yes, I know, but I wasn¡¯t alone. You were always with me, and that¡¯s all I need,¡± Belle said.

    ¡°I will always be willing, but a war isn¡¯t fought by oneself. You need more allies milady, and Luon is a good candidate. You know this already though. Kiri cleared off the dishes from the table in an instant as she said these words.

    ¡°Alright, alright, I understand. Also, I don¡¯t wear these to hide my insecurity. I wear it because I like it. Let me ask you this, why are you wearing a wig and a maid uniform like this?¡± Belle asked curiously.

    ¡°It¡¯s my hobby,¡± Kiri replied bluntly.

    ¡°Well this is mine as well, and I hope that after we begin our military expedition, I would be able to continue it,¡± Belle said as she stood up and gave a light twirl, she couldn¡¯t help but admire the clothing.

    ¡°Miss it¡¯s normal to take actions that may increase our survivability rate, come let¡¯s go finish our examinations now. I have another official doing the investigation into the top candidates of these upcoming exams. Let¡¯s not worry about it for now,¡± Kiri said.

    ¡°Good work, then let¡¯s go,¡± Belle said. The two left the cafe, Kiri hoped that Luon and Belle¡¯s meeting would help increase their survivability rate even by a single percent in some shape or form because the unofficial survivability rate of soldiers first expedition, was only 50%.

 Chapter 109 - Robotics

    Luon arrived on time after his little meeting with Belle to see the students checking into the engineering exam. Seeing how everyone else was doing so, Luon lined himself up.

    Once he was inside, Luon saw many students gathering around the plaza. Around the plaza was an array of workstations that were neatly organized in a way that looked like an organized open market, only several times larger.

    Students came piling in as it slowly reached the aforementioned time, and just when the time for the exam to start, a holographic projection appeared above the students with a man posed in an intimidating fashion as his hand was propped against his mouth, it reminded Luon of some old style animated series he had seen long ago.

    ¡°Hello, students. I¡¯ll make this brief as possible, time is precious after all. The examination will last for 2 hours once I declare when it is time to start. The theme for this examination is Artificial Intelligence Programming,¡± said the examiner.

    The moment he said this the ground shook, and a stage appeared next to the plaza they stood at and on top of it were a series of robots modeled after different races and creatures. Luon became surprised as the examination had eliminated the manufacturing and designing aspects of engineering and focused on the software side of things. Luon looked around and found that everyone in the room was actually part of the combat-oriented engineering specialization, so they should know the basics of programming.

    ¡°First you must pick a workstation to do your programming in. At each station, there is a panel where you are to provide us with a list of 5 robotic models that you are comfortable with. Once selected you are to select at least one of those 5 models and develop it into a working condition in which you will demonstrate its ability by its actions and commands. Your grade is depicted on how well established your performance is, and if we find your performance to be spectacular, then we¡¯ll allow you to keep the developed robot for your personal usage. I hope that all of you will be able to pass this exam in flying colors,¡± said the examiner.

    Luon looked at the robots and recalled what Isabella, the first person he met when he woke up said about Nexus University and robotic AI. Although robots are thought to be spectacular in many ways their strength was somewhat limited. Most of them, if developed well, average to be around level 60. They were slightly stronger than the average soldier when managed by a regular robotics engineer.

    The more advanced ones, on the other hand, were in the level 70 region, and the best ones had even hit level 80. However, there was a downside to robots, the amount of energy used to power them was nearly double if not triple the cost of using an NG-Arms. Them being extremely costly to manage is one of the reasons why they were not often used in wars.

    Another reason was the AI behind them, humans were afraid that they would go out control thus limiting the capability of what the robots could accomplish. They were strictly managed by the government, unregistered production was illegal if it were to be redistributed. The government didn¡¯t mind people creating them just for amusement, but if that robot were to commit a crime, the charges would escalate significantly. The only open source AI that the government provided were rather basic, the more complicated ones were sealed away.

    Luon looked at the robots on display and pondered about the five he was going to select. According to Isabella, he would do great if he had chosen either a normal human or an elf, which he didn¡¯t mind having since the capability of the robot is about 70% efficient to a high-level combatant. Mentally securing the two he looked at the other models before deciding to go with a dog, a horse and a little dragon mascot which was around the size of the dog. The reason why he chose to go with these choices was that one, they were unpopular because of their impracticality - thus when the exam is over they would probably give one of these to him regardless of the results, and two they had some usage in society.

    Since traffic was regulated, private vehicles were found unnecessary unless they were traveling on different planets which is why he didn¡¯t pick a robotic car. He also didn¡¯t choose the dragon since many people were aiming towards it. The dog and dragon mascot were excellent companions, and the horse was a good mount. That¡¯s if he couldn¡¯t get the human or elf which he preferred to receive.

    Just as he finished his selection, the examiner said, ¡°Feel free to use the resources provided on your BMPU. For this examination, we have unlocked a slightly more complicated AI source code in which you can use as a reference, but be careful with your time. If you need anything else, please feel free to ask."

    The examiner sent his gaze about as he finished it off by saying, "I look forward to your performances in after the two hours, now then let¡¯s begin the examination!¡±

    Right away the crowd of people rushed towards the closest workstation to them. Luon merely walked as he mentally wrote down the steps he would take to accomplish this task. Because of his pace, it took him nearly a minute before he was able to select a workstation.

    After inputting his selection, the panel prompted him to select which robots he wanted to develop for this exam. Luon thought long and hard, he wanted to make something complex and at the same time achievable. Without a doubt, the BMPU would be helpful for the examination, it was able to download code online and install it into the processor installed in the robot. There was a downside to open source code, and that was using the multiple unconventional, and sort of generic code to make his robots do specific actions. The larger the library, the more things he can accomplish, but at the same time there were more unknown factors hidden underneath. There was no time program a fresh robotic AI from scratch, the best thing he could do is work off of a template.

    After thinking about it carefully, Luon decided on a performance that would show his understanding of a complicated AI system. It had to be flexible, take commands, and execute them without any margin of error. Those are the necessary steps that all of the engineers are going to do. However, to secure the robots that they were giving away, he needed a spectacular performance. He pressed a few times on the panel, and it closed on him asking him to prepare his station.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    As Luon prepared his tools, he noticed multiple trucks arrive at the workstations nearby and slowly robots appeared from inside of them. The engineers got to work right away and hooked those robots up to their station to install the programming.

    Sure enough, a truck stopped in front of Luon¡¯s station, and the doors opened. The time to do all of this took 5 minutes out of the 2 hours he was given. Stressed on time he got to work right away, whether or not it will work, he can only try and best to see it done.

    ¡­

    ¡°1 minute left!¡± The examiner bellowed as many engineers worked their butts off to finish their product.

    To Luon who managed to finish on time, the scene before him was like chaos. Tears were streaming from the eyes of multiple students faces, anger as they savagely smashed the keyboard that they were provided as they replaced variable names with curse words, and grief as after all of their hard work in coding it failed to bear fruit at the testing stages as an unknown error would occur.

    The scene reminded Luon about how cooking competitions were operated as the fast hands of these engineers worked away like magic.

    ¡°And stop! Raise your hands!¡± The examiner said as all of the students raised their hands to indicate that they were done. No one was willing to continue working since it was an instant disqualification if they do. They would at least receive part marks for trying, and that is many times better than receiving a zero.

    The examiner began to judge students by their last names, as the first student came up disbelief was displayed in all of the student''s faces. The first person to go wasn¡¯t even able to get his robot to move. It seems that when he was fixing the source code during the testing stages, he was frantically reintegrating some of the libraries causing it to have an error on startup, just before the examiner called the exam was over.

    Luon couldn¡¯t help but sweat bullets. To accomplish what he did for his program he skipped the entire testing stages as he assumed that his code would work perfectly fine.

    The first student¡¯s performance evaluation was a big fat zero, and as for passing the grade, the examiner declared that it would be taken into consideration once they evaluate the code that the robot has been installed with.

    After the first student was 2 entirely different spectrums of results, there were those who passed by merely adhering to the basics while choosing simple robots like dogs, cats, and other animals. The other side was those who went for the more complicated systems like humans, orcs, and dragons where they failed spectacularly.

    Having the last name of Fate, Luon¡¯s turn arrived in no time. Seeing the failure of multiple students, he couldn¡¯t help but feel slightly frightened. No matter how much knowledge one piles up when being evaluated things tend to differ from person to person. Usually, Luon would exude confidence but his last-minute programming without having tested the result frightened him.

    The examiner appeared surprised as he said, ¡°Hm? Luon Fate you chose two robots? An elf and a human? I believe each workstation only has enough ports to program one robot at a time, I don¡¯t see how you can achieve these results.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. My workstation was no different than the other workstations,¡± Luon nodded with confidence. The aura he exuded was brimming in vigor in an attempt to hide his anxiety. He took the challenge of developing two robots at the same time, and not only that, but they were different from one another. Beside Luon was a female human robot and a female elven robot. The human-robot was about a head taller than the other, and a seductive figure and the elven robot had a relatively slim figure. The two were dressed in a maid uniform which Luon had requested from the supervisors to obtain from the nearby cafe he had visited.

    When they heard the request they instantly sent the uniforms over, sometimes the management had to use robots with a similar figure to replace absent staff, so it was easy to accommodate.

    The other students and the examiner looked at Luon as if he were a pervert. The examiner frowned at how shallow he was. He recalled that Luon was one of the combatants for the Alliance Tournament but couldn¡¯t help but give a cough before saying, ¡°Then, Luon, please show us your performance.¡±

    Luon nodded and began to command the robots to do several actions. They expertly served tea, cleaned, and danced which surprised the examiner at how well done it was for the time he was assigned.

    ¡°How did you manage to program two at the same like this? For their efficiency its quite hard to believe that you would be able to accomplish this,¡± said the examiner in disbelief.

    Luon nodded as he said, ¡°At first I developed the basic structure for one of them off of a template, this process took nearly half an hour to accomplish, and all it could do was walk, stand, jump, and other basic actions.¡±

    The examiner nodded in understanding, but Luon¡¯s next words shocked him greatly.

    ¡°After, doing this I had connected that robot to share its code with the other one while I worked on the workstation to do more advanced programming, once it was done I would reconnect the line with the first robot and have it synchronize with the new data,¡± Luon said.

    Rather than waiting for the installation for two separate machines, Luon had the robot program the other one while he continued to work, thus having the effect of two robots.

    The examiner seemed to understand this theory but still appeared confused as he asks, ¡°I understand how you were able to get two robots, but how did you manage to get such realistic movements?¡±

    Luon nodded as he said, ¡°One of the libraries connected their internal system with our Network that we used for the Vortex Container, like a simple search engine they looked at previous records and triangulate the positioning for their actions using their sensors as a base. This installment happens when the first robot is getting a code upgrade, after that the two robots share the code and information with one another.¡±

    ¡°Then are you saying that it can obtain a new action right now?¡± the examiner asked curiously Luon nodded as the examiner asked the robots to do something different.

    Luon told the robots to do a pop idol dance, and the two started dancing and singing to the tune that Janet¡¯s idol group does. Luon felt embarrassed as he earned the praises from the audience based on the performance as the holler and whistle at the stage.

    Once the performance was over the examiner nodded and said, ¡°Luon you passed the examination. As for the results, please wait until all the tests are over.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Luon became excited, he had passed the first examination. Although the aftermath was as he expected it to be as for his peers, they now look at him with either pity, disgust, or pride. To make two ¡°girls¡± dance and sing, some found Luon¡¯s taste in music and costume brilliant.

    With his first examination over, his next one is at the commander training venue where he was prompted to log into a Vortex Container, he was excited to see what the next examiner had in store next.

 Chapter 110 - Commander Exam 1

    ¡°Please wait while we pair you with an examiner,¡± said the female operator that appeared on the holographic window.

    She left the video call leaving Luon in a blank white room by himself. Once he had logged into the Vortex Container, the school had supplied he appeared in this room and was told to sit and wait. From what he knew the duration for this examination was long, some may last only a few hours while others may go on for days. Regardless the student is graded on their performance, so it didn¡¯t matter whether or not they won or lost.

    The commanding skill was a helpful one to develop and at the same time useless to many as there were a limited amount of commander positions in the first place. The most one would accomplish with such a skill set would be the position of a small squadron leader, but the skill was taught regardless of that fact in case an accident were to occur in the middle of the battle.

    Luon couldn¡¯t help but recall Thanatos¡¯s memory which got him started to lead an army in the first place. If weren¡¯t for his actions he would have been eliminated in the early stages of the simulation.

    Luon closed his eyes as he meditated over the matches he and Arisa had fought the last few days and understood several key points. One every soldier is precious, unlike the virtual wars, a real war wouldn¡¯t have reinforcements pop out of anywhere. Two, although every soldier is precious, there are those who are more powerful than others, and their might is worth possibly hundreds of soldiers. Lastly, morale is important, every single soldier has feelings, even though Luon has no idea how the simulation did it, Luon could feel the tides of the battle continually shift due to the morale of his and his opponent''s soldiers.

    Luon didn¡¯t have to wait that long, replacing the female operator was a black obelisk which said, ¡°Student Number: NEX-6854BP, I will be your examiner for your commander examination. You may refer to me as Examiner 10 in Area D, or D10 for short. Do you understand the rules to the examination, or would you like to hear it once more for clarification?¡±

    The black obelisk didn¡¯t surprise Luon as it was one of many default avatars that people had used to hide their identities when talking to other people. For all, he knew he could be battling against an expert or someone who had no idea what he was doing.

    Luon understood the underlying rules but he still requested the examiner to reiterate them, it wasn¡¯t just to confirm what he knew but to probe the professional ability of his examiner.

    ¡°Understood, then I¡¯ll lightly cover the basic information you need to know for this examination. The setting of the match is held in a randomly generated settings, and your goal is to outperform your opponent. There are no reinforcements, and the battle is restricted to a fixed region in where food supplies routes are designated on your map before the battle. Win or lose, your grade is solely dependant on the actions committed as well as your relationship with your subordinates. Of course, if you were to win, you are guaranteed to pass the course,¡± said D10.

    Luon nodded in understanding as he thought, ¡®Well obviously if I won the battle there is no way for them to fail me for that.¡¯

    D10 continued as he said, ¡°If you wish to surrender early or have any questions in the middle of the battle your BMPU is equipped with an option to open the general chat system of the match. On certain occasions, we will grade and pass students on their understanding of the outcome of the battle. Knowing when to give up and retreat to save the lives of their soldier proves the excellence of a great commander. Also, if the morale of your soldiers reaches a certain point where I deem it unnecessary to continue, I would ask you kindly to surrender. Accepting that decision may affect your grade depending on the circumstances. Is there anything else you would like to hear about before we start?¡±

    After hearing it once, Luon learned that the examiner may be playing some mind games with him by using the general chat system. There was no guarantee that his surrender may allow him to pass the course as it was only taken in for consideration. Having understood the rules, Luon said, ¡°No, that is all I need to know.¡±

    ¡°Well then, student NEX-6854BP, are you ready for your examination?¡± D10 said.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Luon nodded resolutely.

    ¡°Best of luck, let¡¯s have a good match,¡± D10 said before the communications cut out.

    The surroundings change and the white room became a blue sky as a vast plain appeared before Luon.

    Warriors stood left and right, far and wide in an orderly fashion as five generals kneeled before Luon.

    He gave off a sigh as he thought to himself, ¡®Out of all the settings to get, I would get this one...¡¯

    The battle took place in a setting rode horses and fought with swords and spears. Archers are well-known, but the might of a few powerful warriors shook the hearts of many.

    It was an era that highly resembled the Chinese Dynasty, the era of the Warring States.

    ¡­

    ¡°My lord, the preparations for the battle have been completed. We¡¯re waiting for your orders,¡± said one of his generals.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Luon looked at the man and said, ¡°Good work General Wang, your efforts are most appreciated. Stand back in line while I give out my speech.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± General Wang enthusiastically said.

    As General Wang head back in line Luon let out a small sigh. Unlike the other settings, this one was one of the worse to deal with. His men were either too proud to be commanded, sly as a fox, over-ambitious or weak and pathetic. Luon was playing the role of a commander defending the land of the emperor from vile rebels who had teamed up with another province to seek wealth and glory.

    Morale was key in this type of setting and out of all of his generals and their captains, only half of them were usable. The main problem was maintaining human relationships and manipulating people to obtain their full effectiveness. To do so, Luon had to analyze each of his subordinates weaknesses and strengths. He looked at General Wang who he had sent away and found that although General Wang may have appeared amicable at the moment - when the war starts he was bound to a thorn.

    [General Wang]

    [A 1000 man leader, one of the generals from the Wang family. Has secret dealings with the enemy forces and is more than likely to turn while in battle. Specializes in the deceit.]

    The system provided Luon the ability to read his subordinates backstory and setting to assist him in the battle. The entire setting was randomly generated as they took certain aspects of the actual history and added a new spin to it. If he wasn¡¯t keen enough and missed this factor, he may have failed the examination because of this unknown factor.

    Luon looked at the generals and found that only General Wang had intended to betray him. Luon looked at this other generals and contemplated how he would place his men without causing strife amongst his ranks.

    [General Situ]

    [A 1000 man leader, one of the generals from the Situ family. The Situ family is famed for their spear technique and their household rivals the Wang family. General Situ is exceptionally loyal to the emperor. His strength is only second to General Zhao. Easily gets over his head.]

    [General Zhao]

    [A 1000 man leader, one of the generals from the Zhao family. He is the strongest general under your command. Famed for his ability to fight on horseback and red spear. Will easily intimidate most enemy forces. Very calm and collected.]

    [General Huang]

    [A 1000 man leader, one of the generals from the Huang family. From a family of renown archer''s that are able to smite their foes from a mile away. Utterly useless in close quarters, and is a coward.]

    [General Li]

    [A 1000 man leader, one of the generals from the Li family. Famed for his defensive abilities. A large man who wields a heavy ax and able to travel for many miles without tiring. His nickname is the Immortal Li to his enemies. Extremely prideful, will not commit to orders without a good reason to follow.]

    Luon had 10 000 soldiers in total, half of which was under the command of his generals and the remainder followed his orders.

    Luon bellowed to his troops, ¡°For the emperor, we fight, and for our land we protect! Slaughter those who want to slaughter our loved ones! Slaughter those who want to rob us! For every head, you will be awarded wealth, and the ability to live another day!¡±

    After saying the cringy lines to the troops, Luon couldn''t help but feel slightly embarrassed deep down inside. However, this maneuver was absolutely necessary to boost the morale of the soldiers. No one would want to fight for a commander who wasn''t entirely into the battle.

    The soldiers roared, unlike the generals who had their own misgivings, a good portion of the troops were rallied to fight against the invaders. With half of the soldiers being peasants and mercenaries, Luon felt this battle isn¡¯t going to be that easy.

    General Zhao is without a doubt the vital key to turning the tides of the battle. Thinking about this carefully Luon said, ¡°General Li, you take the right flank with General Huang. I want you to whittle away at the enemy''s forces as much as you can with arrows. General Situ, you guard the left flank, if the enemies started to rain arrows on you then fall back. General Wang will stand at the vanguard and as for General Zhao, loosely position yourself in the left flank. I¡¯ll leave the on-site decisions to you.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± out of the five generals 3 of them agreed to his orders. General Wang and General Li were dissatisfied. General Li asked, ¡°Why did you position me in the right flank with General Huang? I beseech you, place me on the forefront and I¡¯ll bring you the heads of the enemy general.¡±

    Following after his words, General Wang said, ¡°Let General Li take my place, and I¡¯ll take his position in the right flank. There isn¡¯t any difference between the two. I honestly feel General Li would perform much better.¡±

    ¡®Of course, he would perform much better, but if I let a back-stabber like you beside General Huang who is useless in close quarters, then the entire battlefield is lost. Should I confront him about this?¡¯ Luon thought to himself.

    ¡°Your strategy is spot on. But if you were to confront him before the battle, it will only cause disorder within the ranks. Stand firm, your position is greater than his. Use your authority to control him, as for General Li, you should convince him to stay on the right flank. If you were to use your authority it would sour your relationship,¡± Thanatos said as if he had experienced this scene many of times.

    Luin nodded at Thanatos remark as he said to the two, ¡°Watch your words! Who do you think the emperor allowed to be in charge? I have authority over the battle and what I say goes. Return to your soldiers the battle will soon begin.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ sir,¡± the two agreed despite being dissatisfied. They turned around at began to walk back to their troops. However, before General Li got too far away, Luon said, ¡°General Li, protect General Huang, he''s young and reckless, but he looks up to you. If you were to part from him than how could he possibly perform well? We aren''t fighting to gain merits, but to convey the emperor''s will.¡±

    General Li turned to look at General Huang who felt worried for him. He gave hearty laughter as he said to Luon, ¡°As your will. I will protect the right flanks and not let a single one of them pass.¡±

    Luon nodded as he said, ¡°Alright time to di-¡±

    Just before Luon dismissed everyone, a messenger ran into their meeting and said, ¡°Reporting! The enemies are on the move!¡±

    Shocked at how fast D10 moved his troops Luon asked the messenger, ¡°What¡¯s the situation? How many forces are moving and what is their formation like?¡±

    ¡°This¡­ they aren¡¯t moving their entire army, only a small portion of them along with a bunch of villagers in tow,¡± the messenger quickly reported.

    ¡®Can it be?¡¯ Luon suddenly had a frightening thought, he burst out of the room and headed to a spot where he could see the enemies, following him was his five generals. They arrived only to see a gruesome scene, it was the execution of several villagers that the invaders had caught along the way.

 Chapter 111 - Commander Exam 2

    ¡°Those mongrels!¡± yelled General Situ.

    The moral of the army plummeted as they watch the enemy army slaughter the innocent villagers. Luon could feel his troops anger, sadness, and fear as a wave emotions came washing over him in the form of dreadful cries.

    However, among those who had a fierce reaction to the tactic, there was one who was calm amongst his ranks. General Zhao stood firmly like a tree in front of a vicious hurricane that has yet to fall. His face had only a frown as he let out a small sigh.

    ¡°Commander! Let¡¯s attack the enemy now! Those mongrels deserve death,¡± General Situ said out of rage. Amongst the retainers, he felt more strongly about the tactic used. General Huang closed his eyes out of fear, and General Li merely made some angry remarks. Luon looked at General Wang and found that his backstory setting had changed. Because of D10¡¯s actions, the description said that he was no longer going to switch sides in the middle of the battle.

    Although he did get a minor benefit the losses were equivalently huge. Some of his men rushed out of the formation to save the villagers only to be restricted by his other troops or shot down by the enemy.

    Luon felt nervous about the situation, he had never met someone as insane as this before. To sacrifice a portion of his starting units to decimate the opposing team¡¯s morale was a tactic he never considered. He asked the other generals, ¡°Does anyone have any idea how many villagers they captured?¡±

    ¡°Commander, I believe that the entirety of 2 rows of their formation is composed solely of villagers,¡± General Wang said.

    The execution was used to instill chaos within Luon¡¯s army and at the same time solidify the other armies strength. The ragtag bunch of villagers on D10¡¯s side is more inclined to follow orders knowing that they will die if they don¡¯t.

    Luon needed to settle down his troops and his own emotions, currently, everyone was too riled up to fight on the battlefield. He looked at General Situ, and to the best of his ability he said, ¡°Maintain the formation, the strategy has not changed at all.¡±

    It was the most logical decision to make since there was nothing they could do for those villagers. Although it was cruel to his men, to Luon it was merely a setting used for his examination.

    However, General Situ wasn¡¯t satisfied by his answer he angrily said, ¡°Are you abandoning our people! How could you say something so cruel! How can you call yourself a commander like this! Some of our men have families members amongst them!¡±

    The other commanders were silent, inwardly they wanted to help their citizens, but there was no possible way to do so without incurring loses. General Situ knew this himself, but he still requested Luon to take action. Luon tried to convince General Situ knowing he wasn¡¯t wholly sane but his words never got through. General Situ yelled, ¡°Enough! If you aren¡¯t willing to help, then I¡¯ll go myself.¡±

    ¡®To lose a general all because of this dirty tactic, what should I do?¡¯ Luon thought as the situation was turning out to be the worse.

    At this time the execution stopped as the men have been slain, leaving only women and children behind. Luon and the rest of the army soon heard the cries of women who were being tortured. Their opponent¡¯s actions shook up the army more than what they had just done moments ago.

    Even Luon found it difficult to hold himself back. However, in spite of all of this, some people maintained their cool. General Zhao continued to stare at the devastating scene with only a mere teardrop streaming down his cheeks.

    Another person who was immune to this was Thanatos. He said to Luon, ¡°Don¡¯t get worked up. The more you do get worked up, the more difficult decisions are later down the road.¡±

    ¡®Then what should I do in a situation like this!¡¯ Luon asked him as he was clueless on what to do.

    ¡°It¡¯s simple. Get General Huang to shoot them all down,¡± Thanatos said.

    His words shocked Luon as he asked, ¡®Even our own people? Wouldn¡¯t that lower our morale even further?¡¯ Luon found this tactic ludicrous, sure he can do it in the simulation as these people don¡¯t have any real value to Luon, but if the same scenario had happened in the real world, then could he still commit to the same order?

    ¡°In times like this we don¡¯t need a kind and virtuous commander, to kill evil one needs a greater evil. The enemies are merely lining themselves up to easily be shot. Take advantage of their weakness and destroy their ranks. Those captives are a lost cause, nothing can be done for them,¡± Thanatos said.

    Luon understood his reasoning but he still found it difficult to believe that this was the ideal solution to the problem, but he couldn¡¯t think up of another solution. He didn¡¯t want to say it, because if he did, he would be agreeing to the notion of sending his troops friends and families to the afterlife.

    But time waited for no one, the cries soon got louder, and Luon couldn¡¯t help but quietly mutter, ¡°General Huang, shoot them all down...¡±

    ¡°What did you just say?¡± General Situ who was preparing to depart heard his words, but couldn¡¯t believe in what Luon had said.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    General Huang who had his eyes covered slowly removed his hands and looked at Luon shocked. General Li, Wang and Zhao merely looked away at the scene.

    Luon closed his eyes for a second and reopened them as he firmly said, ¡°General Huang, shoot them all down.¡±

    ¡°You!¡± General Situ ran towards Luon and swung his fist. Luon stood dumbfounded as he received the blow head on.

    General Situ who knew he committed an offense by striking a superior officer bellowed, ¡°I dare you to say that again! Can you imagine if it was your family members being killed instead! How dare you say those words!¡±

    Luon pondered on those words. Although it was the most logical thing to do at this moment, Luon couldn¡¯t bear to repeat it in front of General Situ. Luon then heard a small sigh, Thanatos said, ¡°I should have done this in the first place.¡±

    Luon suddenly felt the world twirl as he soon found himself back in the black room with the television in the center of it. Thanatos had taken over his body as his eyes were quickly dyed black. Thanatos got up after being taken down by General Situ and said, ¡°General Huang, don¡¯t make me repeat myself one more time. Kill them all.¡±

    ¡°You-¡± General Situ was once again riled up, but his words halted as he stared into the emptiness within Luon¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Stand down. Your lucky enough that I haven¡¯t beheaded you for going against the emperor¡¯s will. You know that they can¡¯t help so end your foolish charade. All of you get in formation! General Huang, within the next minute those arrows should be firing, or you will be arrested for defying against my orders,¡± Thanatos said.

    ¡°Yes sir...¡± said General Huang as he was forced to agree.

    ¡°You better do it quickly, it seems that the situation over there is worsening, if you don¡¯t want those ladies to be defiled before death, then you should end their misery. Make it a swift and painless death,¡± Thanatos said.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± General Huang agreed in a hurry, he felt that Thanatos¡¯s words made complete sense. The best they could do is to kill them as quickly as possible and take their assailants to the afterlife with them.

    A few seconds passed, and all the generals got into formation. General Huang¡¯s archery team rained arrows at their opponents eliminating nearly 300 soldiers in an instant with the first set along with all of the hostages. The troops were ridden with sadness, but it was immediately replaced with anger and rage for their opponents asThanatos wouldn¡¯t have made such a cruel decision in the first place if it weren¡¯t for them.

    The enemies troops began to panic due to the surprising ranged attack, their formation quickly changed and by the time they were out of range of General Huang¡¯s attack nearly 800 soldiers had died.

    The arrows were the first attacks exchanged between both teams. Unlike Thanatos¡¯s formation where the arrows were focused on the right of his army, D10¡¯s soldiers were widely spread out. D10 slowly sent the flank being attacked by arrows back and sent the other side forward to the point where General Situ and his troops have reached within their attack range.

    General Situ was in a difficult predicament, despite being told earlier to retreat when he was being attacked by arrows he disobeyed the orders given to him. He was unwilling to listen to Thanatos¡¯s command as he yelled to his troops ¡°Charge!¡±

    The sudden command got the troops off guard as only the ones equipped with horses rush towards the enemy. Thanatos who heard the news from a messenger said, ¡°To think he would pull this off¡­ alright, arrange General Situ¡¯s troops to the main army and tell General Zhao to take over his spot and rescue General Situ if possible.¡±

    The messenger received the command and left immediately to relay the orders.

    General Situ''s forces closed in on the enemy, the devastating charge had sent many of their opponent¡¯s archers flying and a brawl occurred shortly after. The initial charge attack would have been disastrous if all his forces were there, but it lost its momentum due to the number of troops he had lost along the way.

    Initially, General Situ¡¯s forces were winning, but over time he found it becoming increasingly difficult as more combatants from the other division came. It was to the point where he couldn¡¯t even escape the encirclement.

    At this timethe main army had engaged in the combat with their opponent''s main army.

    General Wang who was in charge of the center formation said, ¡°To think there are two of you here just for me!¡±

    He twirled his spear and intercepted several attacks, among the attackers, were two powerful generals from their opponent''s team.

    One of the two laughed and said, ¡°Do you honestly think you can handle both of us? I¡¯ll help send you off since you seek death so much!¡±

    ¡°Hmph, one or two, it doesn¡¯t matter! I¡¯ll have all of your heads by the end of this!¡± General Wang parried the two once more as he swung wildly in front of him. His attacks had caused both of them to panic a bit. Their strengths were below General Wang, but they were only in a stalemate due to the other interfering troops.

    However, that stalemate soon collapses as the troops from Thanatos¡¯s right flank attacked their enemies main force, the damage caused the opponent¡¯s forces to begin retreating.

    Their team outnumberedD10''s unit count with the initial attack at the execution site, and the charge attacked done by General Situ. With the exchanges after that, Luon and Thanatos both felt that both sides were equal in losses if he excluded the gap difference.

    Thanatos soon noticed the opponent¡¯s intention, he yelled to his messenger, ¡°Enough with the right flank, get someone to save General Situ from the encirclement! Get the main army to turn inwards!¡±

    More and more and enemies came piling in as General Situ struggled to face the newcomers. Sure enough one of them managed to land a solid blow against General Situ causing him to spew out blood. With a single arm, he raised his spear and split the attacker in half.

    Thing¡¯s weren¡¯t looking good for him as his killing pace dropped to nearly half. Three more attackers took the opportunity while General Situ was defending himself, they stabbed their spears towards General Situ¡¯s vital position. If any of them were to land, his life would be over in an instant.

    Just as they were about to land a new spear intercepted the three, the attackers shocked by the newcomer were instantly decimated.

    The enemies who had lost their chance at slaying a general quickly retreated but were mostly killed by the new reinforcements.

    General Situ coughed out some blood as he raised his arms and bowed, he said, ¡°Many thanks. I wouldn¡¯t be here today if it weren¡¯t you, General Zhao.¡±

    General Zhao who was told to do as he pleases had intercepted the opponent¡¯s forces from killing General Situ. His actions astounded both Thanatos and Luon as they were too focused on other key points of the battlefield.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go back, quickly,¡± General Zhao said as his forces dragged back the remnant of General Situ¡¯s forces.

    The result of the first day of this battle soon came to an end as the victor had yet to be decided. D10 may have lost a lot of soldiers, butthey had one of his generals be heavily injured.

 Chapter 112 - Commander Exam 3

    ¡°Do you understand now?¡± Thanatos said as he sat beside Luon who had watched him use his body to overwhelm the opponent¡¯s forces.

    ¡°Understand what? That I am unable to make the right decision because I believed that there is a better option?¡± Luon questioned him as he didn¡¯t like the notion of killing the innocent.

    Thanatos gave a short sigh as he said, ¡°You hoped that there was another option. Hopes and dreams are something you take time to develop, you hope there is an answer, and there might be one, but you have yet to find it. You need extra time to think, but on the battlefield, nobody is going to give you the time you need. If you want time to develop a better strategy, a better idea, then think faster, and think further ahead. While your opponents are taking each step one by one, you need to skip several steps ahead of them. Combat skills can be forged, but the mind needs to be developed with experience.¡±

    ¡°Does that make your decision right?¡± Luon asked out of curiosity.

    ¡°Right or wrong, it doesn¡¯t matter as long as it works. Even if you have the perfect strategy, not everything will follow through. Many factors may cause you to fail, and emotions on the battlefield is a crucial one. To remove that weakness, you need to kill the source of it,¡± Thanatos said.

    Suddenly Luon had a thought, he asked Thanatos, ¡°Wait¡­ are you telling me when General Situ argued with you back there you intentionally incited him to charge in like that?¡±

    Thanatos with a solemn expression nodded and said, ¡°Although he is a great general his emotions is holding him back and I can¡¯t afford to have any wild factors. If he obeyed my orders than nothing would have happened, but if disobeyed them then we can expect some good results. It was an ideal location to deal with their archers, but it was also the most dangerous if he were to take that approach.¡±

    Luon was surprised to see Thanatos considered General Situ¡¯s feelings in account when determining the strategy.

    Seeing the dumbstruck Luon, Thanatos continued, ¡°I wanted him to slay as many as possible, while also stalling for time before the main army arrives. Because of his efforts, the other generals will reconsider their actions to secure their own safety, and we were able to secure more arrows for tomorrow¡¯s battle. From this point on it should be straight-forward, all you need to do is use General Huang to slowly kill their troops off while General Zhao intercepts their munitions supply with his cavalry. If possible, you should loot it and if it isn¡¯t possible then  burn it.¡±

    The strategy developed more positively than it would have been if Luon were at the helm. With the sacrifice of a few people, many others would live and fight another day. A general, although powerful, is helpless under the swarm of many men. Thanatos was willing to sacrifice General Situ for the greater good.

    ¡°However, to think that my insight would be matched. That General Zhao is without a doubt fearsome. Although he could have saved General Situ much earlier, his perfectly timed attack was spot on, he made General Situ eliminate a lot of their forces before they retreated. From this point on the exam is going to be much easier for you,¡± said Thanatos.

    Luon nodded, the enemies forces have been significantly reduced so unless Luon greatly screwed up there was no way of failing the course. He couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°Thanks for everything, it was probably a difficult decision to make.¡±

    Thanatos¡¯s figure began to fade into the darkness and before he left he said, ¡°No problem, the more I control your body, the closer you are with the darkness. But for this kind of occasion, it should be fine since I had to make a dark decision for you. My solution may have worked in this simulation but if this kind of situation were to happen again, one where you had to choose between your family and friends versus the lives of many others, I believe that you¡¯ll be able to find an ideal solution rather then having me make the cruel one.¡±

    Luon was left in the dark room by himself pondering on his words, he silently mutters, ¡°A solution where everyone can be happy. Like such a thing exists...¡±

    ¡­

    It was as Thanatos said, the remainder of the exam was easy. After the first day of the battle, their opponent''s had retreated further into their territory and stopped near the boundary line of the battlefield. If they were to take several steps further than Luon would automatically be declared the victor of the battle.

    The condition was that at least 75% of the currently available units must be within the battlegrounds. Because of this ruling Luon was able to send out a cavalry unit to intercept their opponent¡¯s supply lines and slowly the enemy morale collapsed.

    Due to the lack of food, the constant ranged attacks, and the threat of an imposing army Luon offered the enemy the opportunity to surrender, and they replied back with a messenger.

    ¡°They want to have a duel between generals to decide the battle?¡± Luon who heard the content was stupefied.

    He was already winning so why should he even agree with this kind of decision? However, as he was about to reject the offer General Zhao intercepted him by saying, ¡°My lord, I would recommend accepting this condition.¡±

    ¡°And why should I agree to it, General Zhao?¡± Luon said as he didn¡¯t want to take any chances.

    ¡°As you know maintaining an army is difficult. Our supply line is thin, and our men could work on the fields earlier if the battle were to end much faster. General Wang has been dealing with the logistics, so he understands how much resources we are using every day.  I implore you to agree and end the battle much sooner. Not for me, but for the people,¡± said General Zhao.

    ¡°If you''re that confident, then I¡¯ll agree. However, you will have to lead the combatants to victory. Failure is not an option,¡± said Luon.

    General Zhao nodded and left the room to prepare for the battle. The next day came, and all the soldiers from both teams stood farm from each other in the distance. Luon waved his hands, and General Zhao nodded as he walked towards the center. Seeing how Luon¡¯s team had chosen a combatant D10 also picked one from within their ranks.

    General Zhao gave a quick bow and said, ¡°Let¡¯s have a good fight.¡±

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°Likewise, I wish for the same,¡± the enemy representative said. It was one of their generals named General Qin.

    They both got into their battle stance and stared at each other. Mentally they calculated and predicted their opponent¡¯s moves, and nothing happened for the next few minutes. That is until General Qin got agitated and made his move.

    Hunger, stress, and other factors had pressured General Qin to move first. He knew that they had no time to waste as he has eaten anything thing substantial for the last few days.

    The two began to exchange blows only for them to realize that there was a huge skill difference between the two. Factors such as hunger have plagued General Qin, and General Zhao was already stronger than most generals.

    Luon and the others watched as General Zhao defeated their opponent¡¯s warrior. The most surprising thing was that the first person to go up was the weakest member of their opponent''s team which Luon use his analyzation ability to figure out.

    ¡®Were they just probing General Zhao¡¯s strength,¡¯ Luon couldn¡¯t help but wonder.

    Luon found that the situation was quite odd, they knew how General Zhao was strong to some extent, and yet they only sent over a weakling to fight him. Even if they were probing him, they can¡¯t expect him to reveal all of his cards from battling against a weakling.  The answer to his question quickly came as his opponents began to pull out numerous of ranged arms and attacked General Zhao. In response, he stabbed his spear into the defeated opponent and used his body as a shield as he quickly retreated back into their team''s formation.

    Looking at the porcupine body, Luon couldn¡¯t but say, ¡°Shameless, to think D10 would consider doing something like that.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not surprising seeing how they acted so far. Their morale should be near its lowest at this point. What should we do now?¡± General Zhao asked.

    ¡°Seeing how everyone is already out here let¡¯s get in formation and prepare to attack the enemy,¡± Luon said as he was dissatisfied by D10¡¯s actions. For the last few days, D10 had committed numerous shameless acts to incite the morale of Luon¡¯s army such as spiking bodies and night attacks despite having low numbers.

    Luon didn¡¯t know why they did it but he felt it was more than just that, it was as if the enemy was probing out Luon¡¯s commander¡¯s ability but at the same time he was searching for something. Luon asked Thanatos for advice only to hear dead silence as a response.

    ¡®Well, it¡¯s difficult to figure out what D10 is thinking of, anyway, the situation is practically in my favor,¡¯ Luon thought.

    A few more days passed and eventually, D10 was forced to surrender, but during this period Luon managed to pick up a hint of something. During one of the days, the enemies formation reminded him of Thanato¡¯s past memories. Could D10 have copied one of the compositions used in his second simulation? Or was it just a coincidence since the examiner doesn¡¯t have any records of it.

    Luon didn¡¯t know nor did he care, his examination was over, and there was only one left to go before he graduated from Nexus University.

    The combat examination was also held in a virtual world, it was a similar format to how the finals examination was arranged for the commander exam. Luon waited inside the lobby for a moment before his opponent appeared on the screen. Luon was surprised to see who it was, once an enemy and another day a comrade. A fool and power-hungry man, Zythos.

    ¡­

    ¡°It was interesting to see how he turned out after the simulations. It looks like my actions did do something seeing his reaction to things,¡± D10 said as he submitted Luon¡¯s examination marks to the system.

    ¡°You should be more careful next time. Although I did ask you to help accelerate his death during the second simulation so he could experience more of the other ones. I didn¡¯t ask you to torture the poor boy killing his family and friends inside of the simulation just to incite his abilities,¡± another voice coldly replied, only this one was more feminine.

    ¡°Isabella, your job is to help maintain the records and help make everything fairer. If you took more drastic measures during the first simulation, then he may have not been like this during the second simulation. All I did was develop a warrior, a commander, someone who might change the current society out of the numerous incubated children we have,¡± D10 said.

    ¡°What you¡¯re doing is experimenting with the livelihood of an ignorant children,¡± Isabella said.

    ¡°And so what? You know that the Vortex Container has a huge flaw from within it. If it wasn¡¯t flawed, we could be making huge advancements in the war. The thing is it is only useful to those who have adapted to it. People like me aren¡¯t able to use it for a prolonged amounts of time compared to these kids. I¡¯m doing what the system needed me to do in order to eliminate the Inzektors,¡± D10 said.

    ¡°You mean to create the ultimate soldier doing the same simulations over and over again with different children? You know there will never be one template to recreate a way a person thinks, acts or feels. Operation Next is just a fictional document created by the joke of your wife! You need to give up on it,¡± Isabella said.

    ¡°It¡¯s only fictional because it hasn¡¯t been done yet! Although I¡¯m not a researcher I truly believe that this can happen,¡± said D10.

    ¡°... fine. We¡¯ll continue working on this, but be careful, getting you in as an examiner was already difficult without your connections and my authorization. And if the boy noticed it we could get in trouble, after all, there is no 10th examiner for any of the sectors,¡± Isabella said.

    ¡°Alright, whatever you say, just tell me if you find another kid like him to play with. I¡¯ll talk to you later,¡± D10 said as he exited the call.

    Isabella sighed as she muttered ¡°Honestly, why would he want D10 when he could have a normal identification like AD7? He only wanted that name because its similar to his real name. But how is D10 that much similar to Dio? It shouldn¡¯t even matter that much...¡±

 Chapter 113 - Putting Things In Order

    ¡°I¡¯m assuming that this isn¡¯t a mere coincidence. Why did you arrange it so that we¡¯ll be facing each other for our exam?¡± Luon asked Zythos as he found out that his opponent in the virtual world was Zythos.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. It isn¡¯t a coincidence. I¡¯m not here to stop you from passing the exam. In fact, It shouldn¡¯t matter who wins or loses, we¡¯ll both pass in the end. I¡¯m only here to sever our ties,¡± said Zythos.

    ¡°What ties? Even after this match, you won¡¯t leave me alone, right?¡± said Luon.

    ¡°I might, I might not. But right now it doesn¡¯t matter to me. Now come, let¡¯s end this once and for all,¡± said Zythos as he got into his battle stance.

    His words were a tad confusing, why would it not matter to him? They have been at each other''s bad side since the first year, and although it got better during the second year, Zythos limited his options during their last year.

    ¡®Could it be that he wasn¡¯t completely related to why I wasn¡¯t able to get a half decent course for my final year?¡¯ Luon thought. However, he didn¡¯t ponder too long about it. It wasn¡¯t time to consider on such concepts, Luon recognized that Zythos looked at him with determination, it wasn¡¯t a lie or mere words one would sprout out for fun.

    Luon pulled out two weapons and got into his stance, he asked, ¡°So why are you fixated on fighting me?¡±

    ¡°Why should it matter to you? It¡¯s only something I wish to do, and that¡¯s to fight you one more time. There¡¯s nothing special about it whatsoever,¡± Zythos said.

    Luon smiled, ¡°Although you said that it doesn¡¯t matter. Your face doesn¡¯t say the same.¡±

    Zythos had a grin on his face, the adrenaline from facing Luon had already incited his battle senses. Their killing intents intertwined, and the two couldn¡¯t help but recognize each other''s strength.

    They were both at a similar level in the late level 60¡¯s. Luon relied on Thanatos¡¯s experiences while Zythos¡¯s relied on his families connections to get this strong. The only difference was that Luon¡¯s combat level was able to reach 80 when equipped with his NG-Arms as Zythos wasn¡¯t as technically precise as him.

    Luon didn¡¯t activate his NG-Arms, for some reason he had a feeling that Zythos wouldn¡¯t bother using his and he felt for this fight it wasn¡¯t necessary.

    Luon looked at Zythos¡¯s appearance, unlike what he was three years ago as Zythos grew a few more in height, and his muscles had become more developed. He wasn¡¯t using his fist or a sword, but a pair of metallic claws which overlapped his fingers. He didn¡¯t wear that heavy body armor but some light, high-quality leather, Luon couldn¡¯t help but recognize that Zythos had figured out the perfect combat style for himself.

    But he wasn¡¯t the only one that changed, Luon also grew a few more centimeters compared to his appearance during his first year. The experiences he had at the Inzektor island, the Alliance tournament, and his training sessions with Thanatos helped forge his body and mind. Zekar had taught him how to create his own set of weapons and armor for himself.

    Luon felt fortunate if it weren¡¯t for Zythos he would have never met Zekar, Luon may have not even tried as hard as he was doing now, his relationships with everyone he had met wouldn¡¯t be as strong as they were now. Zythos may have been a thorn in his path, but it did help him develop as a person.

    ¡°Are you ready?¡± asked Luon.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± said Zythos.

    ¡°Then let¡¯s end this once and for all,¡± said Luon as he gave one of his blades a twirl before dashing in.

    Zythos followed suit and the two charged at each other. Luon swung his blade and Zythos replied with his claws. The two exchange a rhythmic set of attacks and slowly they diversified the trajectory and strength of each attack after probing each other.

    They say that after exchanging blows that people would be able to understand one another, but for the two of them they lost themselves in the exchange as they were solely focused on one thing, to win against the person they see in front of them.

    ¡°Hahaha, to think we are able to face each other like this in the end! Come show me your strength! I know you can do more than that,¡± Zythos said.

    ¡°Darn dog, settle down. Less talking and more fighting,¡± Luon said as he filled his sword with mana and launched a ranged attack from up close.

    Zythos could feel the power behind the attack as he jumped backward to evade it. However, Luon used that timing to close the gap causing Zythos to retreat as he parried Luon¡¯s blows. Unlike regular combatants the two weren¡¯t easy to tire, the excessive offense that Luon attacked with and consistent defensive maneuvers that Zythos used only used a small amount of energy the two had. Especially since Luon body became used to devouring mana from the surroundings, and Zythos relied on his genetic racial traits as a werewolf to last longer.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Luon aggressively slashed once more, but Zythos who had been observing his moves decided to parry his attack aside causing him to lean towards one direction. Using that opening, he attacked Luon¡¯s exposed stomach causing him to fly backward. The damage wasn¡¯t severe since the armor mitigated most of it, but Luon could feel his blood boiling. Zythos didn¡¯t leave him alone to recover from his injury, while Luon flew back he started his own offensive and dashed in, the two swapped positions and Luon took the defensive role.

    Luon wasn¡¯t able to parry Zythos¡¯s attack to expose an opening. Instead, he moved faster and trickier, the trajectory of his blades soon overwhelmed Zythos¡¯s claws. To Luon all he had to do was move the handle to block the claw attacks, and with a twirl of his blades immediately countered Zythos, forcing him to decide whether or not to block or take damage.

    At first, Zythos ignored the light twirl attacks since they didn¡¯t look they have any force behind them, but when he ignored the first one, he realized that Luon was as sly as a fox. Even though it was weak Luon would immediately inject mana into it to deal more damage.

    This forced him in a predicament, he had to block and evade the attack every time he attacked Luon. The exchange only agitated him, as he launched another attack he placed more force into it and when the two clash Luon was the one repelled. To use the twirl trick the blade had to be loosely gripped and expertly manipulated, Zythos¡¯s huge blow almost made the blade fly from his hand.

    Zythos who noticed this weakness grinned as he said, ¡°Hahaha, looks like your twirl trick is just for show!¡±

    Zythos started to put more strength in his attacks after finding out Luon''s weakness. Luon began to struggle with twirling his blades.

    All of a sudden Luon who blocked Zythos¡¯s attack had his sword fly away, seeing this Zythos made a huge grin as if he had accomplished something. However, he was shocked to find that Luon intentionally let the blade go. The hand that was now empty reached behind and pulled another weapon from the intraspatial bag he had equipped on his back.

    Zythos who was surprised by the turnabout couldn¡¯t react as Luon stabbed the new blade into an exposed location in his arm.

    The scorching pain in Zythos¡¯s arm caused him to retreat instinctively, but Luon didn¡¯t allow him to do so. He charged in at a faster pace than he was doing before. Zythos¡¯s found the situation strange, with his uninjured arm he would parry Luon¡¯s attack only to find that if he put too much strength in his blow, Luon would swap the weapon out, and if he placed too little Luon will twirl and make another attack.

    The floor was soon littered with weapons and blood as Zythos was unable to block the new pattern of attacks.

    But that didn¡¯t lower Zythos¡¯s morale, the loss of blood only incited his bloodlust as he gave a huge daunting roar, ¡°Luon!¡±

    Zythos who was defending roared causing Luon to flinch at how sudden it was. At this moment, Zythos¡¯s aura jumped, Luon could feel that Zythos¡¯s was planning to end everything in one attack.

    After realizing this he backed out a bit as he figured he was unable to intercept it safely and began to charge his own attack, the two stood distance apart and upon reaching a point unleashed their best attacks. Zythos swung his uninjured arm as a claw-shaped energy blast launched from his swing. Luon, on the hand, launched two energy blasts in the shape of an X and the impact between the blows quaked the surroundings.

    A flash of light occurred, and the aftermath was equal, only Zythos was unable to find Luon who was initially opposite of him. He suddenly felt his skin crawl as he turned behind him. Luon appeared out of nowhere and launched a flurry of attacks which Zythos¡¯s barely blocked. But Luon wasn¡¯t a simpleton, he used an unexpected attack while starlight movement skill blinded Zythos in its radiance. Luon launched two attacks with swords at the same time causing Zythos to block both of them. Using the rebound Luon backflipped and kicked Zythos in the head sending him flying.

    Zythos body flew several meters as it bounced off the ground several times before stopping at a distance.

    The kick hurt just as much as Luon¡¯s sword. He wasn¡¯t wearing anything light, the metallic armor Luon wore on his feet caused his mind to shake as he barely managed to hold his consciousness.

    By the time Zythos managed to lay himself up, Luon had appeared before him with a sword towards his neck. He said, ¡°Looks like I win again, is there anything you like to say?¡±

    Zythos gave a short laugh as he said, ¡°It looks like I¡¯m no match for you. From the beginning to the end you never saw me as anything significant in your eyes.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, for scum like you who relies on their family connections to suppress others, why should I treat you well? Are you actually leaving me alone from now on? I find it hard to believe that,¡± said Luon.

    ¡°I¡¯m... satisfied, but even though I say this, my family won¡¯t let you off. This battle is off the record, so I¡¯m not worried about it affecting me publically. However, my family wouldn¡¯t let you run wild in the military,¡± Zythos said.

    ¡°What? You already knew I have applied to be a soldier?¡± Luon said as he was shocked by the sudden revelation.

    ¡°My family has a lot of connections, soldiers are like brothers to one another. The reason I said I will end my ties with you is that we will both be comrades against the Inzektor race together. Although we may not be beside each other we will still be fighting on the same battlefield for the same cause,¡± said Zythos.

    ¡°Is that so...¡± Luon quietly said.

    Zythos closed his eyes as he uttered, ¡°Come now, end it once and for all. From this point on, we will be strangers.¡±

    Luon gave a short nod, he didn¡¯t know how trust-worthy Zythos¡¯s seemingly sincere words were, but the fact that he learned that Mythos Clan has something against him joining the military was something he concluded with the information he has gathered so far.

    Luon gave a short sigh as said to Zythos, ¡°For a new era.¡±

    Zythos gave a sly smile and said, ¡°For a new era.¡±

    Luon blade quickly moved, and the match ended without any other surprise.

    Luon has finally graduated from Nexus University.

 Chapter 114 - The Next Step

    ¡°I guess this is it,¡± Luon muttered as he looked at the empty room where he had lived in for the past three years.

    Today was the graduation ceremony. Most people would consider going to the event, but Luon decided to opt out. It¡¯s not that he didn¡¯t like the school, rather he enjoyed his time while it lasted. The event was optional, there were only a few honorable mentions and an atypically long speech. The awards and certification had already been given to the students by mail, so there was no reason to go unless one wanted to feel sentimental.

    There was no way they were going to individually give gifts to thousands of students in a single day and congratulate each student. After all, It costs too much manpower and time to do so.

    Thinking about rewards Luon couldn¡¯t help but recall the arrival of the two robots he had received from the Engineering Examination. He took them to Zekar¡¯s shop to have them checked out only to find that they were definitely the top of the line products. Although their level of AI was on the low side, their abilities were much better than what Luon had expected it to turn out.

    Zekar recommended that he should retrofit and bring them along the battlefield. Their combat abilities may be subpar compared to most powerful beings, but their piloting skills would be a great asset in the upcoming battles against the Inzektors.

    ¡°Thanks for everything,¡± Luon muttered to his empty room that he felt at home in.

    Closing the door behind him, Luon exited the room only to meet up with Bendan, Tyron and Gizmo.

    ¡°What¡¯s up? Why aren¡¯t you guys at the ceremony?¡± said Luon out of curiosity.

    ¡°We aren''t going to hang around at a pointless ceremony. If I wanted to feel youthful, I would rather watch a drama instead. Anyways, since it¡¯s our last time together, the guys and I decided to hang out, and we can''t have a complete party without you. What do you say? Are you coming?¡± said Gizmo.

    Bendan and Tyron both nodded in agreement. Luon let out a short sigh. He then said, ¡°Although I would like to spend our last moment together, I have to report into the military training facility tomorrow so I can''t stay for too long.¡±

    ¡°Then how about we get a meal together? We won¡¯t have that many opportunities to do so in the future,¡± said Gizmo.

    ¡°Well if it''s just dinner then I can probably come to hang out with you guys,¡± said Luon. Seeing him agree Gizmo said, ¡°Great. I know the best place for us to dine. Let¡¯s go!¡±

    As they were about to leave Luon stopped and asked Gizmo, ¡°Hey, what about Thomas? Aren''t we going to invite him as well?¡±

    ¡°He''s already waiting for us at the venue. Or more like he''s being held there. Anyways, let''s just go, ¡± said Gizmo as he motioned Luon onwards.

    ¡®Being held there?¡¯ The way Gizmo worded it made it seem like he was left behind against his will. He didn''t ponder on that too much as he realized something else, ¡°Wait if he''s already waiting at the venue then you guys have long planned for this event. How come no one ever told me of this? Don''t tell me you already anticipated my answer.¡±

    ¡°Well, we sort of did¡­ anyways all of your concerns will be answered when we get there, ¡± said Gizmo.

    The group departed, their short trip together was filled with laughter as they started to reminisce over the past memories they made together at school, but it all ended when they arrived at their destination. Luon couldn''t help but be at awe at what kind of venue that Gizmo''s had arranged.

    It wasn¡¯t your run in the mill nightclub which he assumed it would be when considering Gizmo¡¯s disposition, nor was it a regular family restaurant or apartment complex which was his next best choice. The building they were standing in front of was a huge hotel. Luon couldn¡¯t fathom how he was able to afford to rent such a place.

    ¡°Hey, where are you going? The door is that way,¡± Luon said as the group suddenly turned towards a different direction when they had reached the entrance. They soon stopped in front of a food stall that was situated in front of the company.

    ¡°No way, when you said a nice place to eat did you mean this place? This¡­ this is just a normal food stall!¡± Luon said in disappointment. His expectations were immediately destroyed by the reality of things. There was no way for Gizmo to rent out such a place after all.

    Luon could see Thomas sitting down on one of the seats, Luon couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°Hey, I thought you said he was being held captive, how come he¡¯s completely fine? ¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°He was being hostage against his will, it was to ensure you actually came out with us,¡± Gizmo said.

    Luon¡¯s eyes rolled as he said with disbelief, ¡°Oh really and by who? The food found in this stall?¡±

    ¡°Hey man, there''s nothing wrong with food stalls. In fact, most food stalls are rather good, ¡± Bendan argued.

    ¡°Most of them are good, but how many places in the universe actually follow the sanitary regulation that the Alliance outlined? It may not be this store, but many other ones don''t even bother to ensure that the quality of their products. Only thinking about profits over customer satisfaction and health, ¡± Luon replied.

    ¡°Food is food, whatever fills your stomach, tastes good and comes out on the other end is all that matters, ¡±said Bendan.

    ¡®Aren¡¯t you taking the idealization of food to the utmost simplicity? I can''t help but agree to the sentiment, but I honestly believe that food culture couldn''t be explained by just those words, ¡¯ Luon thought.

    ¡°What an interesting conversation that you guys are having. Speaking of food, do you guys want to hurry up already and get inside? You''re making us feel awfully embarrassed about the commotion your making outside, ¡± Arisa said as she came out of the hotel along with Belle and Janet.

    ¡°That''s why I said we should just ignore them. Hanging out with them will just lower my public image, ¡± Janet said.

    ¡°Come on guys let''s hurry up and get inside already. I can already see some people looking over here, ¡± Belle couldn''t help but comment.

    The crowd of students attracted the attention of some people nearby who started to slowly crowd up when they noticed a few prominent figures such as Janet and Arisa who recently became popular through media.

    The group hurried on inside of the hotel causing the crowd to disperse due to the security that the hotel provided.

    Arisa and others began to guide Luon and others to the venue. According to information he was able to perceive, the group initially planned to eat at a regular restaurant, but the girls offered to book a fancy hotel under the condition that everyone in the group is there.

    Thomas was one of the people who didn''t want to celebrate, and Luon wasn''t notified because Belle and Gizmo both argued that whether or not he was going to attend the event if they ever asked him.

    ¡®Was I always this easy-going, ¡¯ Luon couldn''t help but think so.

    While they were conversing Luon couldn''t help but ask Belle, ¡°By the way, it''s quite uncommon to see you wear your uniform. Why aren''t you wearing your usual clothing?¡±

    Everyone attending the event wore their school uniforms despite being at a fancy hotel event. Luon couldn''t help but point it out since he knew how sensitive Belle was to her clothing style.

    Belle revealed an unsatisfying expression as she said, ¡°After today I¡¯m going to be forced to wear a military uniform similar to our school ones. Since this is the last day of school, I thought I might as well wear it for a change. I definitely don¡¯t look and feel good wearing this.¡±

    ¡°I think it looks good,¡± Luon said.

    ¡°And I think you need to get your eyes checked,¡± said Belle.

    ¡°Here are your rooms for the night as for the venue we are using it''s just down this hall,¡± Arisa said as she started to distribute the hotel keys.

    Luon received the key to the room that was next to large ballroom that they were going to dine at. After checking to make sure that everything in the room is in tip top shape he went to the venue to find Keyral, Kiri, and Janet¡¯s idol team members at the venue.

    Luon gave them a light greeting and as he did the others had arrived at the venue.

    ¡°Wow this place is quite fancy,¡± Gizmo said as he evaluated the surroundings.

    The space the venue covered was equivalent to a basketball court only slightly smaller as it was filled with neatly arranged tables and chairs and a stage in the middle. On top of the stage was a series of robots playing a sweet melody using instruments one would see in a classical band.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go and eat! Come on, guys!¡± Bendan ushered the group to the food stand, and everyone started to create their meal. There were no servers, and the entire event was run by robots that would evenly distribute fixed portions. If Luon wanted to have more than one servings for a particular dish all he had to do was tell the robot to give him another.

    The intelligent robot then calculates the remaining space on the plate that he held and accurately places the product in the designated area.

    After setting down his plate on the table where Thomas who was done first was at, he went up to the area where the drinks were held. He was surprised to see that besides juice, water, and coffee, they served a multitude of different types of alcohol.

    Luon hasn¡¯t drunk before despite being of age, and he couldn¡¯t help but remember that he hadn¡¯t drunk alcohol in any of his previous lives. Luon mentally jotted down in his mind to try drinking when he has free time. He didn¡¯t want to pass out dead drunk if he couldn¡¯t hold his liquor.

    Luon, Bendan, Tyron, and Thomas began to eat their meals with vigor. It wasn¡¯t often that they were able to eat food like this. The last time Luon could recall eating such as fancy meal was last year on the trip to the Alliance Tournament.

    While Luon was halfway done his first dish, Gizmo¡¯s came and said, ¡°Why aren¡¯t- you guys¡­ drinking?¡±

    Gizmo who was already drunk brought over several cups of alcoholic drinks.

    Bendan who was curious started to drink one of them and said, ¡°Woah.¡±

    It was his first time drinking alcohol, and like most people he found it to have a rather strong taste.

    ¡°Hahaha! Let¡¯s drink until we drop,¡± Bendan yelled as gulped another mouthful of alcohol.

    ¡°Woohoo, nobody''s going home tonight!¡± Gizmo hollered as he also downs a drink.

    Unlike the other two, Tyron took one cup and merely sipped on it.

    Everyone started to drink, and Luon couldn¡¯t help but feel unsteady after a single bottle that Arisa came by and prompted him to drink. Luon couldn¡¯t help but recall that he had something important to do the next day, but he slowly started to lose his conscious. Before he did, he managed to reach his hotel room¡¯s bed and began to doze off.

    By the time he woke up, he had realized it was too late. He was late on his first day in the military camp.

 Chapter 115 - Enlistment

    Luon bolted out of the room in a rush as he woke up from his early morning stupor to the realization that he was late to check in for his job. However, as soon as he left his room, he was greeted by Arisa, Belle, and Janet who noticed his odd reaction. Janet couldn''t help but ask, ¡°Aren''t you a little too edgy this morning? What''s up?¡±

    Luon who was already late resigned to his fate as he explains the situation only to receive the chuckles and laughter from the girls in response.

    ¡°Don''t worry about being late Luon. You¡¯re going to be fine if you''re with me. Come on, let''s go have some breakfast. Everyone else is already there by now, ¡± Belle said with confidence.

    Luon couldn''t help but sigh as he didn''t know where her confidence came from. No matter how close her ties are in the military, there was no way that he wouldn''t be punished for being late.

    The only consolation was at least he wasn''t going to be alone in the punishment.

    The four of them made their way to the hotel''s restaurant area where they met up with Bendan, Gizmo, Kiri, Keyral and Janet''s idol companions. He didn''t see Tyron or Thomas there.

    After ordering their meals and helping themselves with the table next to everyone the first topic of discussion was everyone''s plans for the future. Originally they were supposed to talk about it yesterday, that is until the alcohol drowned the conversation.

    It was quite evident that Janet and her friends were going to the idol industry once school was over, so there wasn¡¯t a need to address it. The surprising fact was that everyone else had also applied for the military.

    ¡°What about Tyron?¡± Luon asked seeing how he wasn¡¯t there. As for Thomas he already knew that he¡¯ll be working with Zekar after school was over.

    ¡°Tyron said that he¡¯s going to be a bounty hunter. The pay isn¡¯t entirely stable, but he said he enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. The other day he got Zekar to commision him a ship as well as an independent hunting license from the government,¡± said Gizmo.

    Government Dogs, it was a named that criminals coined in for bounty hunters. At first, Bounty Hunters were a part of independent associations that took commissions from just about anyone, but after the assassination of several famous and civil figures under the guise of bounty hunting the government took action and abolished the trade many centuries ago. However, all this did was increase the amount of criminal activity due to the lack of jobs, so the government formed their own organization where all of the commissions was processed by several background checks to ensure fairness and righteousness at the same time.

    Most of the jobs that bounty hunters do nowadays are hunting space pirates and Inzektors that cause harm to the Federation and Civilian ships in space. Thus bounty hunters were allowed to have their own vessels for deployment.

    However, to obtain a hunting license, the bounty hunter has to undergo a series of mentality test procedures, background checks, and periodic reports. Even if a bounty hunter has yet to achieve anything for the past decade, the results still needed to be reported otherwise they would be classified as missing in action, and in space, this happens quite often.

    Luon who understood the concept behind bounty hunters nodded to Tyron¡¯s decision on becoming one. He was sad to know that he wasn¡¯t able to assist in the development of Tyron¡¯s personal spaceship, but that was because he was too occupied in designing his own as well as two more for his robots.

    Gizmo gave Luon a shrug as he casually said, ¡°Well, at least it would be us three again, but this time Luon ain¡¯t the leader of us. Isn¡¯t that right Belle?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, I managed to get the three of you under my squadron as well as Kiri,¡± Belle said.

    ¡°According to the information we have received our squad has a total of 7 people,¡± Kiri pointed out.

    Luon mentally counted who was in their squad and found that they were missing two people, he looked at Arisa and Keyral as he asks, ¡°Is Arisa and Keyral not in our squad?¡±

    Arisa denies it as she said, ¡°No, although it does sound fun my position is quite different than you guys.¡±

    ¡°The young miss isn¡¯t in your squad. Instead, she was placed as a Fleet Commander Trainee for your squadron as well as a few others,¡± Keyral pointed out.

    ¡®Fleet Commander?¡¯ Luon found the position to be rather luxurious. Who would place a new recruit in such a high position? Did no one consider the consequences or object to the decision? Luon could see the influence of Arisa¡¯s family coming into play. The only other thing that confused him the most was that since Arisa was a Fleet Commander or at least a trainee, then why was Belle just a regular squadron leader?

    Luon looked at Belle who received his glance, she couldn¡¯t help but raise her hands as she said, ¡°Hey don¡¯t look at me like that. My father arranged it, so I have to start from the bottom up.¡±

    Kiri gave a light cough as she silently muttered, ¡°If only Belle did better in the space command course...¡±

    Although her voice was quiet, everyone on the table heard her words. Belle couldn¡¯t help but blush in shame as she said, ¡°Alright, enough! Let¡¯s just finish up and go. We don¡¯t have that much time to spare. I¡¯m sure Janet and the others have a jam-packed schedule ahead of them.¡±

    Janet looked at the time and said, ¡°Ah! You¡¯re right, we got to head off right now, or we¡¯ll miss our first lesson.¡±

    Janet and the other idols members stood up and bid everyone else farewell. With her going out first the rest of the members quickly finished their meal and ended their conversation with some random chatter.

    As Luon exited the hotel with the others he began to search for the military base he was stationed at on his BMPU. As Luon was pressing away, his arm was pulled by Belle as she said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about finding it, I know the way to get to the base. Let¡¯s go!¡±

    She gripped Luon¡¯s hand and started dragging him away only to be stopped by Arisa who said, ¡°Why are you holding him like that? You should let him go. There¡¯s no need for you to drag him along, he has two feet for a reason.¡±

    Belle stuck out her tongue as she said, ¡°What I do with my vice-leader is what I want to do. If I want to lead him, then I¡¯ll lead him, if I tell him to do something he¡¯ll do it.¡±

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡°By that logic, since I¡¯m the fleet commander I can also order you to do things. Which is why I¡¯m ordering you to let him walk on his own,¡± Arisa said.

    ¡°Why, you don¡¯t have to be jealous. We¡¯re not even at the base yet so why do we want to listen to your orders,¡± Belle said as she continued to drag Luon along only to be stopped again by Arisa.

    ¡°Je-Jealous? I¡¯m not jealous, I¡¯m just stating a fact. Since we¡¯re not at the base yet then, Luon doesn¡¯t have to listen to your orders. Luon, tell her that you can walk on your own,¡± Arisa said as she looked at Luon for an answer. However, to her dismay, Luon¡¯s response was different then from what she anticipated.

    ¡°Well I don¡¯t care either way, but can we get moving? I¡¯d rather not waste any more time lingering around here,¡± Luon said as he was still depressed about being late.

    Taking the opportunity, Belle forcefully led Luon as she said, ¡°Alright. You heard him, let¡¯s go, go, go!¡±

    Arisa started at the back of Belle, Luon, and Kiri who followed the two as they began to leave. Her shoulder was tapped by Keyral as she said, ¡°Miss, mind your position. From this point on you aren¡¯t like the rest of them. The responsibilities you shoulder isn¡¯t something that they can understand.¡±

    ¡°I know Keyral, let¡¯s just go,¡± Arisa gave a short sigh as she started to walk ahead. Keyral looked at Arisa¡¯s back and silently followed along.

    As everyone left the vicinity Gizmo looked at Bendan and asked, ¡°What was all that about?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t know, but shouldn¡¯t we hurry up as well?¡± said Bendan.

    ¡°Ah, let¡¯s go! I don¡¯t want to be the only one late! Wait up guys I want to get out trouble as well!¡± Gizmo said as he started to run after everyone along with Bendan.

    The military base where they were stationed at wasn¡¯t far away, after a few transit stations the group arrived within an hour.

    Arisa who checked in with the reception desk was easily allowed in along with Keyral. However, it wasn¡¯t the same for Luon and the others. They were stopped at the door even with Belle being there for them. Luon gave a short sigh as he began to ponder about what¡¯s going to happen next.

    After a few minutes, Arisa and Keyral came back out, but they weren¡¯t alone. A man stood in front of everyone and said, ¡°How disappointing¡­ for all of you to be late like this.¡±

    Belle looked at the man and slowly uttered, ¡°Dad¡­¡±

    He looked at Belle and said, ¡°Don''t call me by that name here. When you''re in the military base call me Supreme Commander. The only reason I''m here is to tell you, my daughter, that this place isn''t all fun and games. Every second you guys waste may cost the life of a fellow comrade in arms and the very fact that you were all late for an hour¡­ we would have pointlessly wasted lives.¡±

    As he was reprimanding them couldn''t help but retort, ¡°But¡­ Arisa was there too. How come she isn''t in trouble?¡±

    ¡°Unlike you fools, Arisa and Keyral already notified us ahead of time that they were going to be late. You all needed to report your status otherwise when something were to happen to you all, and we didn''t know about it, then we might take drastic measures for no apparent reason. By the way, Kiri also reported that she was going to be late yesterday night,¡± Belle''s father said.

    Belle looked at Kiri who in response quickly turned her head away. She couldn''t help but say, ¡°Traitor!¡±

    Her dad coughed as he said, ¡°Enough. I hope you understand the importance of being on time and reporting in. The military isn''t your playground. I hope that you adhere to the ground rules from this point on.¡±

    He looked at Luon and the rest and said, ¡°That goes for all of you. If you understand this, then give me a response.¡±

    Luon, Bendan and Gizmo saluted and said: ¡°Yes sir!¡±

    Belle¡¯s father nodded and looked over at Belle again and said, ¡°Next time you¡¯ll also respond the same way when I address you like this. I''ll let it slide for now. Understand?¡±

    Belle gave him a short nodded. Seeing her response, he said, ¡°Good, you there arrange them to their rooms to meet up with their instructor. Tell her they were late because of me and that they are all ready for training. She¡¯ll understand what I mean by that.¡±

    A woman walked out from behind the reception desk and responded positively to his remark. After saying what he needed to say he left along with Arisa and Keyral in tow.

    ¡°Please follow me. I¡¯ll  guide you to your rooms in order to quickly settle down before meeting up with your instructor,¡± the woman said as she started guiding Luon and the others the outline of the base.

    She quickly gazed over the core areas of the facility along the way and brought them to a building slightly further away from the main area.

    ¡°From this point on you will all be staying at this building. The room on this side is for the female members and the room on the other side is for the male members of your squadron. Your instructor will shortly come in a second, so I recommend setting down your supplies now. If you need anything else, please notify the front desk using the number on the wall over there,¡± the woman said as she pointed at the rules on how to use the facility before leaving everyone behind.

    Luon, Gizmo, and Bendan settled down and placed their belongings and decided on their beds. They didn¡¯t have individual rooms as the layout of the room was designed the same way that capsule hotels were done.

    They couldn¡¯t rest a single second when they heard someone yell, ¡°Come out here you maggots! You already wasted a great portion of the day, so I expect some serious training from here on!¡±

    Luon, Bendan and Gizmo¡¯s looked at each other with the same expression. They all seemed to recall hearing this voice once before. Quickly they left their room and met up with Belle, Kiri and a very familiar face.

    Their instructor for their military training was someone they knew.

 Chapter 116 - Training 1

    ¡°It looks like you guys are here, took you long enough. Hurry up and stand in line,¡± said the instructor.

    Luon and the others quickly got in line, but as they were doing so Gizmo asked Luon, ¡°Is that really Instructor Lin? How come she looks way too different in reality?¡±

    The person who was selected to be their instructor was Lin whom Luon and the others had met during their time in the underground net. But she didn¡¯t have the same appearance as before, she wore a black military uniform with a patch on her chest indicating her rank as a Lieutenant. Her black hair was short and was slightly tied up as if she had twin tails. Her body was more voluptuous than her slim self in the simulation, and although the difference didn¡¯t amount to much as it was like she went from being a barely A size to a B size.

    ¡°Was Instructor Lin was a girl? Are you guys sure about this? They may look the same, but they could be related to each other,¡± Bendan said as he and Gizmo had yet to figure out that Instructor Lin was a female even after they had graduated from the course.

    Gizmo shook his head in response as he didn¡¯t know about this either while Luon kept quiet as Lin''s eyes were like daggers staring at the two. She said, ¡°It seems your energetic enough to have a little private conversation? Are you two done?¡±

    Although her query seemed reasonable on the surface her creepy smile and the aura she emitted didn¡¯t match the way she iterated it at all. Gizmo and Bendan shivered from her stare.

    Seeing how she managed to grab everyone''s attention, she said, ¡°Alright folks, as many of you may not know but you can address me as Lin, and while you¡¯re still in the military you are to call me Lieutenant Lin or Instructor Lin. The only reason why you address me that way is because Belle and Kiri already know who I am while the rest of you are new faces that I haven¡¯t seen before. For the remainder of the day, I will go over some basics you need to know at the camp and evaluate your physical capabilities by having you run laps around the track. Is there any questions, if not then start running for now.¡±

    Kiri raised her hand and said, ¡°Instructor Lin, how long do you want us to run for?¡±

    Instructor with a deadpan expression said, ¡°Until I say stop, and if I find you lightly jogging, then there will be no dinner for you. If there¡¯s anything else, then start running Kiri.¡±

    Kiri rapidly nodded as she started to sprint off to the tracks with a frightened expression. Luon, Gizmo, and Bendan grew curious about why she was so afraid, and Belle filled them in by saying, ¡°Instructor Lin is actually Kiri¡¯s cousin. I¡¯ve known her for a long time, and so does Kiri. In fact, you might even say that she treats Kiri harshly, but in reality, she wants Kiri to be strong enough to take care of herself.¡±

    Lin looked over at the remaining members and said, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Didn¡¯t you hear what I said? Hurry up and start running or else something¡¯s bad is going to happen.¡±

    On her remark, Belle started to sprint off along with Gizmo and Bendan leaving Luon behind. Belle had experienced the terror that Lin talks about whereas Gizmo and Bendan couldn¡¯t help but recall their experience at the camp in the virtual world. Someone who would keep their students in the program by charging an exorbitant fee for quitting would definitely have a punishment that they definitely don¡¯t want to experience at all.

    The three of them ran off quickly and before Luon knew it was quite far away from him. Lin found it strange for only Luon to remain there standing and she asked him. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Is there something you would like to say?¡±

    ¡°Umm, I noticed you mention it earlier that you knew Kiri and Belle, but don¡¯t you remember us?¡± Luon asks as he probed her reaction.

    Instructor Lin squinted her eyes and analyzed Luon¡¯s face before checking the list of students using her BMPU. She said, ¡°Besides Kiri and Belle I have no recollection of meeting the three of you before. Luon have we met somewhere else before?¡±

    Luon was still perplexed at the situation and hesitated to tell her that they met in the underground world since it wasn¡¯t legal after all. However, after seeing her confused complexion, he decided to explain it. Luon slowly said, ¡°Well I don¡¯t think you can remember it, but about almost two years ago Bendan, Gizmo and I along with some other friends attended your course at the Zero Delta Center. Ther-¡±

    Once Luon mentioned Zero Delta Center Lin¡¯s expression changed. Luon who was carefully watching her expression noticed the change and stopped his explanation. He looked at her face and had a sudden thought, ¡®Did I just step on a landmine?¡¯

    He tried to laugh it off as he slowly turned his body while saying, ¡°Ahh, nevermind it might have been someone else¡­ sorry for the misunderstanding. I¡¯ll go do my runs now!¡±

    However, before he could even take more than a step, Lin appeared behind him and grasped his shoulder while saying, ¡°Running can be done later¡­ let¡¯s have a little chat first.¡±

    She dragged Luon along and went behind the building which was designated as their lodge. She roughly tossed Luon against the wall and slammed her hand beside his head and said, ¡°Now tell me once again, who did you meet in the Zero Delta Center?¡±

    Luon eyes dodged her gaze as he said, ¡°Ah, it was some man who taught us how to do some neat parlor tricks. It seems like my memory was failing me a bit as I mistook you for him.¡±

    Lin made a little snicker as she said, ¡°Oh, you aren¡¯t mistaken. Indeed it was me, but at the same time it wasn¡¯t me, and if you''re saying that you and your friends came and learned from me then you should already know my personality. Keep the underground stuff buried ten feet down, right now you¡¯re my student, a greenhorn soldier who has yet experience a real battlefield. Do you understand?¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Luon who was receiving her threat gave her a slow nod. However, as he did, he felt confused at the words she had just said. The instructor is and at the same time wasn¡¯t her? He suddenly recalled a conversation he had with Zekar about the topic.

    Lin who was staring down at her prey noticed the change, she stood up and let Luon loose as she said, ¡°That¡¯s right. The Lin you met in the underground world was a carbon, artificial copy that I have the system made of me. You aren¡¯t going to expose me, right?¡±

    NPCs, her existence was like those beings that the system created to be a part of the world and at the same time mimic the original behavior of the designed person. Luon understood that there were very few of them in most virtual worlds, but the underground world was different. They had something called Fakers, they were developed and used to automate the shopping process within storefronts when the owners weren¡¯t around, and they weren¡¯t managed by the world system. However, the usage of them became illegal in public fronts as it violated the privacy of many users who would create a carbon copy of their idols and create bad public images of them by doing inhumane acts.

    Lin was different from those perverts, rather than feed off of a fetish she used her carbon copy to generate revenue based on her knowledge on using NG-Arms. It was if someone who went to study at a University and began teaching students in private the contents that they have learned while reaping a considerable amount of profit. The act itself wasn¡¯t entirely illegal, in fact, many places had done so. But what Lin did was partially illegal, since she leaked the training methods that they had used in the military to civilians without any consent.

    Nobody in the underground world mentioned or notified the authorities of this information for several reasons. One, because the information she provided helped save lives. A foolish malfunction while using NG-Arms in a real battle could cost people their lives. Two, she blatantly said that learning NG-Arms isn¡¯t for everybody and did many things to prevent people from taking the program. And finally, she provided some entertainment and chances to earn revenue in the underground battle arena through the means of betting.

    Luon who understood this didn¡¯t say anything or try to expose Lin. If he did, it was the same as telling the authorities that he and his friends had gone to the underground market and done business there. Although people do it all of the time, it was quite look down upon when openly exposed.

    Luon was thankful to Lin who had helped teach him about using the NG-Arms and the stage beyond it, but Lin¡¯s expression frightened him as he said, ¡°No...¡±

    Hearing him say so Lin nodded and gave him a bright smile as she said, ¡°Good, although I can¡¯t entirely trust that you¡¯ll keep it a secret. I¡¯ll have you know that I have a lot of connections. No one will want to see an unidentified dead body suddenly appearing out of nowhere the next morning after all.¡±

    Luon nodded his head with vigor as Lin told him to run. As Luon started to leave, he stopped for a moment and asked, ¡°If you''re so afraid of it being exposed then why do you do it?¡±

    ¡°If what I taught you helps you live on the battlefield then why should I feel bad about it? Enough talk, hurry up and run with the rest. Oh, and tell your friends to shut their mouths as well,¡± said Lin.

    Luon nodded and quickly ran off. Lin who stared at his back still had the bright smiling expression she said, ¡°Of course, that may be one small reason. But the main reason is that it¡¯s so lucrative to do so. There¡¯s no such thing as a stable job market after all.¡±

    Everyone ran on the tracks for a few hours with very short breaks in between where they were allowed to be hydrated. Lin wasn¡¯t entirely inhumane as she understood the physical capabilities of each student from how they ran.

    Lin called everyone in for dinner as they all ate the same nutritious but not so delicious meals that they were given. As they dug away at the mess before them, Lin had them watch a basic overview video on behavioral patterns, the use of military facilities and their location, and their squad''s future scheduling plans.

    When they got to the final part, everyone noticed that the names for their official military roles have already been filled in.

    Besides the members that Luon knew there were two more people in their squad whose names he didn¡¯t recognize.

    At this moment the door opened, and everyone¡¯s eyes turned towards the noise. A lady dashing blonde hair tied up in a ponytail while wearing a military uniform walked into the room, but before she could even say a word Lin said, ¡°Angela Hoen¡­ I told you hours ago that the newcomers were here. Why have you only arrived now?¡±

    ¡°Hmph, I came right on the designated time but these kids were late, so I went off and continued to pack my stuff. Then you called me when my friends were giving me a farewell party before I was forced to join this squadron? Demoting me from squad leader to vice-leader? You¡¯ve got to be kidding me. If they¡¯re allowed to be late, then how come I can¡¯t?¡±

    Lin gave a short sigh as she said, ¡°You know why you were placed in this position so don¡¯t make it too hard for me.¡±

    ¡°Of course I know. Those higher-ups want Belle to stick out like her Father and stuck me to babysit the brat and her friends. This is clearly an abuse of authority,¡± she said with dissatisfaction.

    ¡°You¡­ nevermind, Belle, this is your vice-leader. Listen to her advice as she has experience on the battlefield,¡± Lin said as she gave up on the explanation process.

    Belle stood up and politely said, ¡°Nice to meet you Angela Ho-¡±

    Before she could even finish her sentence Angela snappily replied, ¡°Enough talk, save it for tomorrow. I¡¯m too tired and irritated to listen to you say anything. If you guys need anything, then I¡¯ll be in our room.¡±

    She let out a small yawn before she made her way out, but she happened to bump into someone who was making their way in. She looked at the man with an angry stare only to see the smiling expression on his face, she let out a sound symbolizing her indignation before leaving the room.

    The newcomer was a tall and robust minotaur who had a smiling expression he looked like a simpleton, and Lin addressed him by saying, ¡°This is the last member of the team, he arrived a bit late today since he came from a different planet and was recommended here by some higher-ups.¡±

    ¡°The names Opo, nice to meet you all,¡± said the newcomer.

    Luon had yet met a minotaur from the beastmen race, he was quite surprised by his appearance.

    Bendan stood up and clapped his shoulders as he compared his muscles to Opo. He bellowed, ¡°Hahaha, your good. I can see that you trained quite well.¡±

    ¡°Same to you, hahaha,¡± the two men laughed it off as if they had met their match. Lin gave a light cough as she said, ¡°Enough, that¡¯s it for the day. Starting tomorrow, I¡¯ll start training you the basics so everyone should go get some rest. I don¡¯t want to hear any excuses tomorrow.¡±

    Lin left the room after her remark, the room was quiet to some extent, and all one could hear was the laughter coming from two animals. Luon looked at his teammates and Belle who was designated the squad leader.

    She was playing around with her meal and looked like she hadn¡¯t been paying attention to a single word that Lin had said, Gizmo was doing the same thing, only he was muttering to himself. Luon could hear him say things like, "Maybe I need more salt? Or pepper? Do we even have sauce?"

    Apparently, he and Belle were dissatisfied with the meal, Luon turned to face Kiri who may seem to be the only reasonable conversation partner left, only to find her occupied.

    Kiri was writing something down as she stealthily stole a glance at Bendan and Opo, as for the contents, Luon didn¡¯t bother trying to find out. Luon thought to himself, ¡®Is this team going to be alright?¡¯

 Chapter 117 - Training 2

    ¡°It still tastes the same, I can¡¯t get used to it no matter how many times I¡¯ve tried it,¡± Gizmo said as he plays around with his food.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that bad. I¡¯ve had a lot worse compared to this,¡± said Opo.

    ¡°Hahaha. Worse than this? I¡¯ve also had some bad experiences too. Once you get used to eating stuff like this it''s not so bad,¡± said Bendan who started to eat.

    ¡®Who would want to get used to this or something even worse...¡¯ thought Luon as he also found the meal to be barely passable.

    Unlike Gizmo, Luon and the others had long gotten used to the meals and had given up on their attempts to improve it. It¡¯s been a few weeks, and besides the basic fitness training, they were educated on basic military equipment, maintaining a proper appearance, multiple military protocols and signs, and combat training.

    Some aspects of what they learn were somewhat redundant to Luon and the others as they have covered the material at Nexus University, but for someone like Opo, it was new to him.

    Opo fitted in with the team well, he was friendly and always smiling. It got to the point where Luon became dubious of how he thought most beastmen were like. The ones he had usually met were arrogant, cunning, and always tried to make themselves better no matter the consequences.

    Because of how talented Opo was Luon began to doubt the criteria for admitting students in Nexus University, but after learning more about Opo¡¯s background did he understand it. Opo, unlike everyone else Luon knew, did not go through the incubation phases in the Vortex Container.

    Due to some factors such as finance and supply, he wasn¡¯t privileged enough to be raised in one. Vortex Containers are used mainly by the middle-class families for entertainment. Numerous resources were used to maintain one''s physical capabilities and growth. The number of people who had used the incubated children service was limited due to the maintenance fees. The reason why Luon had the opportunity to be incubated was due to his father¡¯s contribution to the military. Despite being a small figure, he served and fought against numerous Inzektors and had the fees waived for Luon.

    Most students that attended Nexus University were from prominent families, or some that managed to have their child raised in the Vortex Container by their connections, and service in the military.

    What the Vortex Container provides isn¡¯t strength, but several lifetimes worth of knowledge and experience that many aren¡¯t privileged enough to have. It was similar to how one would immerse themselves in a story as the main character, the realism is just that much better.

    ¡°But all of this ends today right? I can¡¯t wait for the evaluation test to come up,¡± Gizmo enthusiastically said as he stood up from the table. He walked over and tapped Bendan¡¯s back and said, ¡°Are you ready for this?¡±

    Bendan dropped his utensil on his dish and raised his hand giving Gizmo a thumbs up, and after a gulp, he said, ¡°Of course I am ready for this, I was born ready.¡±

    ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything to worry about for the evaluation test. According to Belle all it does is simply evaluate if you¡¯ve properly learned the basics to operate as a squadron. After that, we are then officially placed as full-time recruits that are on standby for orders,¡± said Luon after he was finished with his meal.

    ¡°Real Inzektors and managed ones, what could possibly be the difference? I doubt we¡¯ll have a hard time when we actually get to work,¡± Gizmo said with confidence.

    ¡°If no one had a hard time against Inzektors then wouldn¡¯t we have eliminated them long ago? We¡¯ll see how it is when we actually face off against them,¡± said Luon. The scale of the war was massive as it involved the military forces of 16 different solar systems. For the Inzektor race to be prominent despite this, displayed that they are a force to be reckoned with.

    Most of the time the battlefronts would involve defending a solar system that was being attacked or an offensive strike on one of the Inzektors claimed planets. The Alliance created a group of immigrants to settle on the planets after colonizing it, but because of the constant battles that follow afterward, they weren¡¯t able to fully develop and claim a solar system after its creation.

    ¡°Are you guys ready to go? The evaluation is in an hour so let¡¯s get ready,¡± said Belle who entered along with Kiri. Everyone had gotten used to Belle who wore her military uniform, her sudden change in personality, and the ponytail hairstyle that symbolized the transition. Her demeanor compared to before was more different. She was serious and punctual while doing her best to lead the team. Sometimes she struggled with some of the materials that they went over, but everyone helped her get used to the squad leader position.

    It was easier to follow orders rather than to say them, the responsibility and value of her words was something that may have cost the life of her comrades after all.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    Luon stood up and asked, ¡°Did you figure out what is yet?¡±

    Belle nodded as she said, ¡°This time it¡¯s a real-life scrimmage against other teams. We¡¯ll be using paintball guns on a battlefield, and the objective is to either capture the enemies flag or to eliminate their entire team. Communications is done over the BMPU system. Besides the weapons, we are supplied with and the BMPU we are not allowed to use any other equipment.¡±

    ¡°A paintball match for the exam? How could they even evaluate us with just that?¡± Gizmo said as questions the material they have learned so far.

    ¡°The exam is examined in real time by judges who would score us based on our movement and organization. Not by our weaponry or strength since it isn¡¯t necessary to do so. In fact, all of our training and combat exercises were used to evaluate whether or not we qualify to even be in the military,¡± Kiri pointed out.

    ¡°If you slacked off once then you would have been booted out long ago,¡± Belle added on.

    ¡°Anyways, it''s time to go and prepare, right? Gizmo are you going to eat that?¡± Bendan pointed towards his meal.

    ¡°I¡¯ll pass. After today we¡¯ll probably have better meals than this so I¡¯d rather not ruin my taste buds while I still have the choice,¡± Gizmo said in disgust.

    ¡°You should eat it now because even after you rank up and officially become a part of the military, the meals are going to be the same. In fact, it may get worse once we get into space. The meals we have is in preparation for the event that you get stranded in space where you get to eat vacuumed packages in your spaceship,¡± Belle said.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you join the military if you already know the meals are like this?¡± Luon asked out of curiosity.

    ¡°It¡¯s to pay back my dad who tossed me in a Vortex Container and used all of his savings to do so. He worked several different jobs to raise me so it¡¯s the only thing I can do to repay him,¡± Gizmo sighed.

    ¡°If you feel so obliged to do so then you should just eat it. It¡¯s not that bad. Just shove it all down in one go,¡± Luon said.

    Just before Gizmo started to deal with the atrocity before him, he said, ¡°If the military taught me anything it would be the value of food.¡±

    After everyone had finished fueling up, they followed Belle who led them to spacecraft where several people lined up outside.

    Lin waved her hand and Belle led their team towards her.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you guys a little slow, isn¡¯t it common sense to arrive a little bit earlier?¡± said Angela who was beside Lin.

    After introducing herself the next day after she officially joined the squad she hardly talked to any of the other members besides Kiri and Belle, and even if she did speak to them, it was merely advice on how to be the squad leader.

    ¡°Line up guys. While we¡¯re waiting for the scheduled time I¡¯ll give you guys a short briefing on what¡¯s going to happen,¡± Lin said she started to lecture them.

    Seeing how she got everyone¡¯s attention, she continued, ¡°For this evaluation, the Fleet Commander, and several higher-ups will be acting as the judge on your ability to follow orders. Everything is recorded in real-time, and there is going to be 10 teams in total. The weapons and other necessary materials will be delivered in a box and the time limit is 48 hours. Within the next 48 hours, your team needs to score 100 points, each kill your team gets is 5 points while capturing the flag is 70 points. Do not worry about scoring 100 for now, what you need to prioritize doing is proper communication and scouting as you will still pass as long as you perform well. The objective is just an added bonus to your pay.¡±

    GIzmo raised his hand, seeing his action Lin prompted him to speak his concerns as he asks ¡°How much will our pay go up by?¡±

    Lin smiled as she said, ¡°Besides the default payment each member of your team will get 10 Galaxia coins for each point you get, and this will be applied monthly to your contract.¡±

    ¡®10 Coins each point? So We¡¯ll get 1000 Coins per 100 points? That¡¯s the same as half of the wage in a normal job, and that¡¯s just the added bonus,¡¯ Luon quickly thought.

    With his medal that he earned the amount was even higher. It might not be enough to have a child to stay in the Vortex Container, but it was still a significant amount considering the average wages.

    The talk of many caused a series of discussion within the group, seeing this happen Lin coughed and said, ¡°Anyways, do your best on the evaluation and take it seriously.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± they all said in unison, they were determined to win by a large margin.

    ¡®I hope they can take this seriously, the other teams are no joke,¡¯ Lin shook her head.

    More and more people arrived at the venue and just before the arranged time the judges walked onto the platform to give a quick speech.

    Among the judges, Luon was able to recognize some of them. Arisa and Keyral arrived and stood near the stage, they only gave Luon and others a quick wave before lining up.

    ¡°Hello new recruits, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re all aware of how this examination is broken down. As some of you may not know, but I¡¯ll be the advisor to your Fleet Commander, the name¡¯s Felia Nightwalker, and I am the Fleet Commander of the Arnox Fleet,¡± said the women that appeared on stage.

    Her looks stole the audience''s heart, Luon had seen her once before long ago when he first arrived in this world. According to the rumors Felia had become a Fleet Commander 3 years ago after her operation on the planet Idimi, she was a famous public figure and inspiration for many soldiers and media.

    ¡°I would like to now introduce you recruits to your Fleet Commander, come up now, Arisa Nightwalker,¡± Felia said as she began to clap her hands.

    Arisa gallantly appeared on the stage, donned with the military uniform and with her cap tapped tipped downwards she said, ¡°Thanks for the introduction. As you all know this is an entirely new fleet that the government has been expanding for in the last few years. After this examination we will be tossed into countless battlefields, some of you may die, but as long as I am in command, I will not make your efforts in vain. I have one order for you all need to adhere by. Live, live to fight another day and never give up living.¡±

    With Arisa¡¯s presence on the stage, Luon¡¯s heart began to gloom, the difference between the two became apparent. What was the difference between them? They were both intelligent and strong, yet the gap only widens, only their social status made things different. Luon let out a sigh as he tightens fist and whispers to himself, ¡°A name for yourself, huh.¡±

    It was the first time that Luon actually cared about something besides engineering, and books. He wanted to stand on a stage just as grand.

    The speech continued on as it ended with Arisa saying, "Welcome people, to the NX Fleet."

 Chapter 118 - A Small Encounter

    ¡°Looks clear, no problem with our deployment this time,¡± Luon said as he evaluated the surroundings.

    After the speech, the group got on board the ship, and within an hour they were transported to the battlefield using the teleportation device.

    Suddenly, a pink paint bullet flew only a few centimeters away from his head, if he had taken a step forward, he would have been eliminated. He turned to look at the source and found Gizmo who was tossing all of the weapons and tools out of the box. With a crooked grin, only after realizing what had just happened did Gizmo say, ¡°Ah, sorry it looks like the safety was off on that one.¡±

    A hand smacked his head, Belle lectured Gizmo, ¡°You idiot. Don¡¯t just toss them out like that. Take them out carefully, I don¡¯t want any accidents in the first minute of the match.¡±

    Gizmo can only laugh it off lightly before he resumed his work at a slower pace.

    Belle nodded before turning on her BMPU as a holographic projection appeared revealing their current location on the map. She couldn¡¯t help but frown as their team was situated between the center and the corners of the island.

    The objective of the test was to eliminate other teams while defending one¡¯s flag on while obtaining a total of 100 points if they could accomplish this they are guaranteed to pass. Belle contemplated on her options, and the best ones that she could come up with is to either play defensive and slowly expand their influence or to secure the perimeter and send out a small assault squad to take care of their enemies.

    The main problem with the first option was lack of staffing to do so. Usually, this type of maneuver requires the assistance of multiple people. However, her unit only has 7 people. She was also reluctant to do the second option as there was a possibility that the enemy would stack all of their forces on defense or offense leaving one of their teams outnumbered.

    By the time she decided to go with the second choice because she believed her team would be able to overcome the flaw, the weapons were already distributed to each of their members. Besides Gizmo who was armed with a sniper rifle because he had the best accuracy, everyone else was armed with a standard rifle.

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll going to split our team into two, one for defending our flag and the other team is for an offensive maneuver against the other teams. For the defensive team, Bendan and Opo will hold th-¡±

    As Belle was stating her orders, Bendan and Opo couldn¡¯t help but groan and complain. Bendan asks, ¡°Why are we on defense? We should be going out and attack the enemies. They say that the best defense is a good offense after all.¡±

    Bendan was dissatisfied since he always placed in the defensive role. Knowing this Gizmo began to laugh at his remark causing Bendan to snap at him and said, ¡°What? Did I say something wrong?¡±

    Gizmo who regained his posture a minute later said, ¡°The reason why she had you and Opo sit back is that the two of you stick out like a sore thumb and you both aren¡¯t that good with rifles. In other words, in this activity your dead weight. If you want to be productive, it¡¯s better for you two to be on the defense.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Bendan and Opo said. Bendan felt a little dissatisfied, but Gizmo¡¯s words were logical. There was no way for him to refute it.

    Belle gave a light cough as she said, ¡°It¡¯s exactly what he said. As for the other members for our defensive team, we will have Kiri and me. I¡¯ll be commanding and monitoring the map layout for the offensive team while Kiri will patrol the perimeter. Kiri you can go off now, just don¡¯t go beyond 2 kilometers away from the flag.¡±

    ¡°Yes ma¡¯am,¡± Kiri obediently received the orders and vanished. Since they weren¡¯t able to use items all they can use is their magic and skills, and Kiri¡¯s invisibility is a tremendous asset on the defensive team. However, at the same time this limited Luon¡¯s pool of tricks, besides some magic skills all of his other abilities only give him a physical and sensory boost.

    ¡°As for the rest of you, you¡¯ll go on the offensive tell me your position based on the distance and direction from this spot,¡± Belle said.

    ¡°Can¡¯t we just give you a simple longitude and latitude of our area?¡± Gizmo asked.

    Belle shook her head as she said, ¡°Although that would work on this occasion, in space would you be able to do the same? We may map the 3 Dimensional regions based on some fixed values of 3 different components, but that would mean your map will be the exact same as mine. Which isn¡¯t entirely guaranteed. Especially if your ship warp jumps for several regions away. It¡¯s easier to state a vector and direction from the base point and relay it back. The system takes these inputs rather easily, and it changes the values to be the same. This is also the same as using North as a direction, in space which way will be Nor-¡±

    ¡°Alright, alright, I get it. Anyways the BMPU will do all the calculation for us, and all I have to do is send you the information right?¡± Gizmo said.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, but you should still learn how it works. Sometimes you won¡¯t have access to the Alliance¡¯s database connection. Especially in the deeper parts of space that we have yet to explore. Alright, enough said. Angela, I¡¯ll leave you in charge of our offensive team,¡± Belle said.

    ¡°Okay, come on guys. Let¡¯s go,¡± Angela said as she started walking towards a direction.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Luon and Gizmo looked at each other. It was their first time being led by Angela, let alone even talk to her in the first place. Luon was looking forward to how Angela would command the group seeing how confident she was with everything.

    The three of departed for a few minutes before Angela stopped in front of them and turned around. Facing the two she said, ¡°From this point on we will be moving in a formation Gizmo will be at the back, approximately 500 meters away, while the two of us will be equally spaced out in front of him. Try to maintain a 100-meter distance away from me.¡±

    ¡°How do we determine the direction if we¡¯re equally spaced like this?¡± Luon asks as he imagines the formation to be like an isosceles triangle.

    ¡°Every time we change directions I¡¯ll iterate it on team chat where Belle can record our pathing at the same time. Just for your information the only time that you guys need to say something on the team chat is when you spot an enemy. Make your report swift and accurate. You need to state the direction and number of enemies. Anything else you guys need to know?¡± Angela said.

    The two of them shook their heads, the instructions were rather straightforward. Seeing their response, Angela nodded and said, ¡°Good, then let¡¯s depart as for the area we¡¯re going to start with, we¡¯ll circle around the island while staying a fixed direction from the center and slowly work inwards. No matter what unless I say stop moving, keep moving.¡±

    Gizmo frowned as he said, ¡°What if I need to make a shot?¡±

    ¡°Shoot while you move, unless you¡¯re not confident that you could do it?¡± Angela taunted Gizmo.

    ¡°Of course I could do it¡­ so unreasonable, shooting while moving with a sniper rifle? How do you expect it to be any good?¡± Gizmo responded before he silently muttered to Luon at how illogical it was.

    ¡°You can use the stabilizer to help you out while you move,¡± Luon quietly replied back.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. I won¡¯t have that many problems with shooting like this. I¡¯m just worried that this sniper rifle is too loud and it¡¯ll expose my location,¡± Gizmo said.

    ¡°Are you guys done talking yet?¡± Angela asked as she waited for the two who were whispering.

    The two nodded, and the three of them got into formation before leaving the vicinity. For the first few minutes, they traveled at a steady walking pace while being careful to make as little noise as possible.

    Everyone once in awhile Luon would send a difficult to detect a magical pulse that would identify people that were 600 meters away from him. Doing this helped him maintain the formation while searching for the enemy.

    His efforts weren¡¯t wasted. He soon detected an enemy and tagged them on using his BMPU. The strike was focused in his position, there were 5 enemies in an equally spaced out formation of several meters.

    At this moment, Angela said, ¡°Okay stop there Luon. Keep their position updated in real-time and when they reach about 40 meters start to retreat to the center of the triangle while attacking them. Gizmo moves 200 meters closer to Luon and attacks them when I say so.¡±

    ¡°What about you?¡± Luon asked.

    ¡°Just focus on the task at hand, Belle do you have a reading on our position and our enemies?¡± Angela asked.

    ¡°Yes, I have the positions recorded,¡± Belle said over the chat system.

    ¡°Okay, keep track of their movement speed, and backtrack their headquarters based on the speed and time they take. After we take them out we can go for their flag after this,¡± said Angela.

    ¡°To use the information that the enemy provided to determine the enemies base, this person is quite experience Luon,¡± Thanatos words echoed in Luon¡¯s head.

    Luon wasn¡¯t experienced in tracking like this. For the simulated wars, all he had to do was send drones to scout after all. But the real world wasn¡¯t like that, predictions are one of many factors one needed to know to create intuitive approaches when attacking the enemy. Angela¡¯s strategy taught him this first hand.

    Sure enough, Belle managed to get a gist of the general area where the enemy base may be before the enemy forces had neared their position.

    At this point in time, Luon had no idea where Angela was since she broke the formation and his magical detection method didn¡¯t manage to find her.

    When the enemy was about 100 meters away from him, Angela said, ¡°Gizmo shoot one of them out and rotate your position using Luon as an axis. Luon ambushes them when at your will and move to the designated position.¡±

    Hearing her orders, Gizmo smiled and said to himself, ¡°One? I¡¯m confident I could score two from this range.¡±

    He let loose two shots, however, to his dismay only one of them had hit their target. Paintballs weren¡¯t like rifle rounds they were slightly slower in speed and one of the targets he was aiming for managed to dodge it in time.

    With his position jeopardized Gizmo retreated just as he was told too and Luon began to engage with the enemy. He managed to ambush one when Gizmo had distracted them, with their attention turned, while they were being careful of the sniper the three of them suppressed Luon down.

    This assault didn¡¯t last long as all of the sudden Angela appeared from behind the enemy lines and wiped two of them out in one swift motion. Being pinned by three people, the last one fell with ease.

    Luon, Gizmo, and Angela all regrouped after eliminating the five players. Once they were shot, they were forced out of the map due to a teleportation matrix that was equipped on each player before the start of the test.

    As they were securing the perimeter and going back into formation Luon couldn¡¯t help but ask Angela, ¡°By the way, do you also have an invisibility skill? I wasn¡¯t able to detect you earlier.¡±

    Angela looked at Luon who gazed at her with curiosity, she gave a short sigh as she said, ¡°Hmm, I guess it¡¯s important to know what each of us is capable of doing to strategize properly. I know what extent the two of you could do from observing from the side so I¡¯ll briefly touch on what I can do. You can think of me as a scout, I can use light magic which can heal and also reflect light, this can make me go invisible. Also, I have enhanced senses, besides the normal means of sensing that humans have, I am sensitive to mana so everytime you send a pulse out I can feel your location. Be careful while using it because if you were against me, I would be able to spot you easily.¡±

    ¡°Then how do you find people without using it?¡± Luon asks.

    ¡°Simple, just increase your natural senses more than relying on something superficial as mana for a mean of detection. Smell, taste, sound, touch, and vision, don¡¯t just boost one of them but enhance all of them by training and practicing mana manipulation and you¡¯ll reach the next stage,¡± Angela said.

    ¡®Is it that easy to improve a person¡¯s natural capabilities?¡¯ Luon thought.

    ¡°Of course it is. The stronger you¡¯ve gotten, the more your senses increase. I think it¡¯s about time you stop over-relying on mana and focus on training your sensory abilities. The excursion is the perfect place to try it out,¡± Thanatos lectured Luon.

    Seeing how Luon became deep in thought, Angela got the squad to move again. They headed towards the area Belle indicated and as they did Luon took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Following Thanatos¡¯s instruction by the time he reopened them, he realized that his view of the world became several times larger.

 Chapter 119 - A Clean Up

    ¡°So far in the past 15 hours a total of 3 teams that have been eliminated and for the teams that had terminated them, they have exceeded the designated score,¡± Keyral reported. She and two others were sitting down in an empty meeting room that was projecting the scenes down from the surface. Officially they were judges, but the majority of the grading was done from the instructor''s point of view as they monitored their own squadron on whether or not they should be eligible to pass.

    ¡°Hm, not bad we may finish this quite earlier than what I expected it would take. What team has the highest amount of points right now?¡± Felia asked her when she realized at how the pacing of the match was going.

    ¡°That would be squadron three who were taught by Instructor Kora. The subjects were all recruited from the planet Fora in our solar system. There are 9 of them in total, 8 of which are still remaining,¡± Keyral replied to her query.

    ¡°They came from outside of the main planet? What¡¯s their background?¡± Arisa grew curious. Very rarely did they accept people from outside of the main planet into the Nexus solar system and for 9 of them to form their squad.

    ¡°They are refugees from the Plana solar system. Several years back they were rescued from a raid of Inzektors that devastated their village. They only survived the ordeal by escaping to the forest and eliminating their pursuers,¡± Keyral said as she read the report.

    ¡°Refugees, huh. Are they clean?¡± Felia asked as her expression turned grim.

    ¡°Very clean,¡± Keyral replied to her cryptic words. One of the major problems that they had was that the influence of other solar systems has been prominent in their solar system for the last few decades. With the appearance of Vortex Containers, the other solar system attempted numerous times to send spies under the guise of tourists and immigrants that will expose information of the latest technical innovation back to their original solar system.

    ¡°How were they able to eliminate the Inzektors that pursued them into the forest?¡±

    ¡°Their abilities helped them accomplish it. Believe it or not but all 9 of them trained in the same school in their village...¡± Arisa asked another question and to answer her Keyral started to read the report in more detail.

    She continued to read the file they have on them, and when she finished the last line Felia asked Arisa, ¡°So who do you think will win this competition?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s difficult to tell, from the top three teams we can see only 2 prominent ones, as for the other, although they have reached the accomplished goal they suffered too many casualties. It¡¯s hard to say which team would win,¡± Arisa replied.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you just say Belle¡¯s team is going to win? At least that way you¡¯re promoting and supporting your friend,¡± Felia said.

    Arisa frowned as she replied, ¡°Of course I hope that they can win, but with these odds, it¡¯s quite doubtful.¡±

    Felia gave her a smile as she chuckled and said, ¡°Hmm, favoritism will lead you nowhere in this kind of field, remember this. Alright, let¡¯s just wait and see. I think we¡¯ll be seeing the ending in the next 15 hours.¡±

    Looking at the two exchange words Keyral couldn¡¯t but help smile wryly at these two sisterly bonds despite being cousins. She turned to look at the monitor as she thought, ¡®It¡¯s quite a challenge if I say so myself.¡¯

    The average combat level of Luon and his team was 68 with Luon being the highest at 71, it was quite high for his age considering that they didn''t have any equipment. However, their opponent¡¯s were no pushover. With an average of 76, his team has to face 8 assassins from the Plana solar system, who were infamous for slaying around 500 high-level Inzektors in 3 nights during their escape in the forest.

    The chances of Luon and his team succeeding was very slim.

    ¡­

    ¡°That was an easy cleanup, hahaha,¡± Gizmo proudly said as he gripped the flag and flailed in randomly.

    ¡°What should we do with the flag?¡± Luon asked Angela who was still securing the perimeter.

    ¡°We should take it back to our camp while we have the chance after we do we¡¯ll alter our pathing and search for more enemies,¡± Angela replied.

    Luon nodded and after making sure there was no one following they departed back to their headquarters. Belle marked some areas to investigate next on the map where there were more than likely to be enemies at since they had already accomplished the goal by obtaining 110 points Belle thought it would better if their team fought against more opponents to get more points. But the direction Belle wanted them to depart towards was the most dangerous choice they have available, it was towards the center of the island.

    Belle argued that time was something that they didn¡¯t have. If they wanted to obtain more points, then they needed to attack the enemy quickly. Especially since enemies are being eliminated as they speak.

    However, to that decision, Angela argued that they should still take it slow and proceed with the original plan, but her suggestion was overruled by the number of members who wanted more wealth and by the logic that they have already passed. Angela, Luon, and Gizmo departed once more following Belle¡¯s orders.Stolen story; please report.

    The only difference with their second departure was that Angela wasn''t willing to command Luon and Gizmo this time, she said to the two, ¡°Do not underestimate your opponents. From this point on it will be difficult to support each other in these circumstances so maintaining the formation and direction of movement is only a secondary objective. You guys need to prioritize on surviving by yourself, use your keen judgment to decide which action to take.¡±

    Leaving them with those few words they departed just like that.

    Sure enough in the next few minutes, they had already begun to encounter their opponent¡¯s. A man wildly ran in the forest as if he was a greenhorn in a first-person shooter game who thought by using speed he could overcome adversity.

    However, all of his actions were merely a guise as when Gizmo started to fire at him, he dodged every bullet with them flying just a few centimeters past his body. After inducing the attack, two more attackers appeared and pushed towards Gizmo¡¯s direction.

    Fortunately, before Gizmo would struggle from escaping their assault, Luon managed to distract them with an ambush while Angela appeared out of nowhere and finished them off. It was a repeat of the same maneuver they did earlier, but before they could regain their formation, Angela yelled, ¡°Careful!¡±

    After saying those words, Angela vanished from her spot and replacing her presence was a series of paint bullets coming from a multitude of directions.

    ¡°Where are they coming from?!¡± Luon proclaimed as he managed to bunker down near a spot several tens of meters away from Gizmo.

    ¡°I don''t know, I can only see the bullet. I can''t find the target, ¡± Gizmo said as he ducked his head down, afraid of being hit.

    ¡°Listen up you two, the enemy we¡¯re facing against right now have a high level of invisibility. It would be difficult to survive this ordeal unscratched. They aren¡¯t like what we¡¯ve fought against so far. They¡¯re experts, they are fast, stealthy, and there are more of them then there are more of us. We¡¯re at a complete disadvantage,¡± Angela blatantly stated over their communication system.

    ¡°Is there anything we can do?¡± Gizmo gritted his teeth as he dropped his sniper rifle, compared to Luon and Angela he was at a complete disadvantage.

    ¡°There is no way for us to escape, rather there¡¯s no way for you two to escape, and the likelihood of us winning is near impossible. If this was a real battle, we might have been able to use equipment to offset the difference, but this is a paintball match. One shot and you¡¯re out. When I think about it reasonably, they outdid us the moment we were ambushed. Perhaps that weak squad we faced earlier was just a big piece of bait to lure someone out, and we fell for it. The best you guys can do now is to at least take a few of them down with you. I¡¯ll help out a bit, but if the situation turns to the worse, I¡¯ll escape that way we¡¯ll somehow manage on our defense. Here, you¡¯re going to need this more.¡±

    Angela appeared before Gizmo and dropped her rifle in front of him before picking up the sniper rifle and vanishing once more. In the short span when she briefly undid her invisibility a series of paint projectiles shot through her position missing the target as she managed to avoid all of them.

    ¡®Is there anything we can do?¡¯ Luon thought as he cast his mana detection skill, but to no avail, he wasn¡¯t able to detect anything. It may have exposed his location, but Luon didn¡¯t care as they had a rough idea where he was anyway.

    ¡°Her order is reasonable, kill before you get killed. This is the perfect time to try out the sensory techniques that you¡¯ve been working on. Focus your senses, try to find them. It shouldn¡¯t be that hard for you,¡± Thanatos said. Luon nodded before closing his eyes as the surroundings projected in his mind. He wasn¡¯t able to detect the presence of the enemy with the technique as he rebuilt the scene. What he did manage to accomplish was that he was able to identify seven blank spots in the picture, they disabled his senses and reflected in towards the surroundings.

    The seven dark spots moved quickly all while encircling their position.

    At this moment Gizmo yelled, ¡°Cowards, eat this!¡±

    He stood up and aimlessly shot at his surroundings causing the enemies formation to disperse and adjust to the randomness. Two of the figures stopped their continuous movement and quickly attacked Gizmo, their response was too fast for Gizmo to do anything as he was tagged by the paintball bullets.

    His efforts weren¡¯t put to waste, the moment they stopped to shoot Luon stood up from his position and quickly sniped the two before changing his position to the gap he had just opened up.

    The bullets were shot around the same time, the response to Luon¡¯s attack was a tad slow as he managed to escape the encirclement using Gizmo¡¯s death.

    But before he can escape a bullet from a distance in front of him pinned him down. He couldn¡¯t see the enemy but seeing how accurate the shot was he knew that he shouldn¡¯t make a move that easily.

    He was trapped once more as he positioned himself away from the sniper''s line of attack.

    With Gizmo out and Angela nowhere to be seen, to the best of his abilities Luon resisted against his mysterious attackers, but to his dismay, he was unable to take another one down before being hit himself. It wasn¡¯t a lethal attack, it hit him in a non-vital area so he would have lived if this was a real battle, but that was enough to judge that he was eliminated in a paintball match. Without a moment to lose his background blurred and Luon was sent directly out of the zone.

    The last thing he could see was Angela appearing out of nowhere and eliminating two more of the enemies before vanishing for good.

    ¡­

    ¡°Boss, they got 4 of us, our firepower has gone down by half from this assault,¡± said one of the masked figures.

    ¡°That assault wasn¡¯t profitable. Using a fish to get two fishes, it doesn¡¯t help if that fish turns out to be a shark. I guess it¡¯s not easy being a fisherman when the business isn¡¯t that marketable nowadays.¡±

    A feminine voice echoed in their comms. The group of assassins was led by their intelligence officer, and their attack against Luon and others caused their numbers to dwindle. Their leader was the one who pinned Luon with the sniper rifle, it wasn¡¯t that she knew where he was exiting towards, she only positioned herself at where they had arranged the first attackers were at as a precaution. The rest of the members helped by ensuring the enemy weren¡¯t able to escape.

    Their strategy backfired when Luon was able to read all of their positions, but his plan was thwarted by their leader''s keen judgment.

    ¡°Enough, let¡¯s head back now. Although we¡¯ve cleared all of the targets near our flag, we can¡¯t leave it open for too long, especially with these numbers. The rest of you are on the defensive, I¡¯ll take care of the rest of them.¡±

    ¡°Yes, boss!¡± The other members quickly departed from the scene, their boss looked towards the direction of where Luon¡¯s base was, even if she didn¡¯t know where exactly it is she decided to leave that area unexplored. It was better not to disturb an injured tiger.

 Chapter 120 - First Deployment

    As the winners were teleported back into the ship, the majority of the crowd stared at the group that was donned in the classic military uniform minus the addition of a lower mask. Every single military official has this mask as it allowed the user to breathe oxygen by either using the tanks it has in its storage or by converting the atmospheric gases using magic. However, not many were willing to wear it unless it was necessary. The group only wore it because they felt obliged to hide their faces due to their background as assassins.

    Not many knew this though, so when crowd sent their gaze at the group they merely thought that they were imprudent, rebellious and strange. Luon was amongst the crowd who stared at them.

    He recognized that these people were the ones that had eliminated him and besides the ones he had seen before or reunited with after being eliminated moments after, he managed to pinpoint the one who sniped him.

    A clapping resonated from the surroundings, diverting all of the attention to the source. Felia said to the crowd, ¡°Get in line with your squads, we¡¯ll be announcing the results of the test and details in regards to your future placements.¡±

    Luon and Gizmo reunited with the rest of the team. After they were eliminated their squad stayed on the defensive for the remainder of the match. After the 48-hour mark, only 3 of the 10 squads had survived the ordeal. This didn¡¯t mean that the other 7 teams failed the test. In fact, out of the seven who were defeated, 5 of them passed the test while the remaining two has to go through basic training once more.

    The two squads who heard about their results couldn¡¯t help but feel grim. Arisa and Felia both pointed out the flaws in their teamwork, assault, and defensive logic while Keyral projected the scenes for everyone to see and learn from. They were simple mistakes, but these mistakes can cause the death of a fellow comrade.

    While punishing the foolishness caused by a few squads, Arisa and Felia also projected several scenes which were quite well done as an example of what one should do. It was mainly short clips from the squads that Instructor Lin and Instructor Kora had taught. Hearing Felia¡¯s praise, Instructor Lin couldn¡¯t help but feel ecstatic as she began to slightly smile until she realized it and hid her feelings with a deadpan, ¡°of course it¡¯s like that¡± face. Luon managed to take a glimpse of this looked back and forth between Felia and Instructor Lin and thought, ¡®Could it be? No way.¡¯

    As Luon was pondering at the mysteriousness of their relationship, there was someone else who also noticed this, but they also saw Luon¡¯s reaction before giving out a short and silent sigh. Arisa simply thought, ¡®To recognize this and still be dense. I can¡¯t tell if this guy is for real.¡¯

    She and Belle both knew that Instructor Lin and Felia had a good relationship starting from way back to the time they were in school. Only they stayed at friends and never changed since then, Felia knew how Lin felt about her but felt more obliged to accomplish her duties rather than drown herself in love.

    After the speech was over, the remaining 8 teams were sent to a spaceship that was designed for their fleet after dropping off the teams that were going to redo their training. The fleet carrier was named after their fleet name, and once on board, everyone was officially recruited in the military. Their schedules varied from patrol duty, cleaning duty, physical training, supplemental learning, and free time. This schedule was for recruits like Luon and the others.

    ¡°Hmm, looking good today if I do say so myself.¡±

    During his free time, Luon worked on the robots, starship and weapon maintenance. Before Luon was four robots, when Belle heard that Luon was able to do maintenance on them she got their squad two more robot operators and two standardized starships in addition to what he already had.

    The four robots were all ready to go at any time, besides taking orders the majority of the time that they spent was on self-maintenance. Luon had taught them the concept of self-care.

    ¡°Hey, how¡¯s it going? Are they all ready to go?¡± Belle came into the workshop dragging along Kiri and the sniper girl, Roda. Luon barely made any contact with her and only heard her name during the promotional speech that Arisa did. She was the 1st squad leader while Belle was the 2nd, the placements were determined by how many points they had obtained during the event.

    Roda and Belle had a similar schedule to a new recruit except for the fact that they don''t have patrol duty. They were obliged to attend a weekly meeting with the other squad leaders and learn about the current circumstances from their Fleet Commander Arisa.

    Felia had already left to do a task at nearby space station after teaching Arisa the basics of how to arrange information meetings and keep up to date with the situation against the Inzektors. She said that when she returns the NX Fleet will be off on their first mission.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Yes all four of them are ready to go. I¡¯ve tested the performance of the four with the help of the other members,¡± Luon replied.

    Belle nodded as she said, ¡°Great, with the addition of these four robots we have a total of 11 members. We may be a small squad now, but after this mission, depending on the results, we may be getting more staff.¡±

    ¡°Are they robots?¡± Luon asked as he shivered in fear. Working on four robots and their individual spaceships were already difficult enough, not to mention that he also works on his own spaceship with Gizmo and the others. While there are some engineers in their Fleet, the amount of staff compared to the number of fighters were too little, it was to the point where they sometimes skip quality control checks and assume that things just work without any sign of doubt.

    ¡°No, they will be people. Don¡¯t worry about the lack of engineer problem. Depending on our performance the government may sponsor us more for more staff in both departments. According to Arisa we¡¯re only officially allowed to have 25 spaceship units in our squadron. I¡¯m thinking if we ever get that far we¡¯ll divide our groups into smaller squadrons, with mine flagged as the main squad. If we do get approved for 25 units, I was thinking that besides me, I¡¯ll have you, Angela, Kiri, and Gizmo lead them. What do you think?¡±

    ¡°Gizmo? Are you sure about this? He¡¯s never taken any commander related course before,¡± Luon asked.

    Belle nodded as she said, ¡°Between someone I can¡¯t trust that can do their job, and someone I can trust that can learn how to do it. I would rather choose the latter, and besides, I¡¯ll just have him lead a convoy unit so we can have a ground unit. I heard that he only drops by and helps you every once in a while and the majority of the time he''s wasting it inside of the Vortex Container. What does he do inside of it anyway?¡±

    ¡°Ahh¡­ just relieving some stress, you know how he doesn¡¯t like the meals lately so maybe he¡¯s pretending to eat delicious food in the simulation,¡± Luon said as he attempted to avoid the question. He didn¡¯t feel like he should tell Belle that Gizmo often satisfied his libido by going in the Vortex Container, and the frequency increased when he became 21.

    ¡°Oh, is that right?¡± Belle found the way Luon worded it to be strange but didn¡¯t pry any further.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it about time now?¡±

    At this moment, Roda who was quiet the entire time mentioned Belle that they weren¡¯t just here for no good reason. Belle suddenly realized that she was slowly diverting from the topic as she said, ¡°Oh right. I was just here to check if you got the robots working in time. Felia just came back, and we just got notified on our first deployment. In the next hour, I¡¯ll be having squad briefing on our first mission, and we¡¯ll be doing the briefing together with squad 1 since the meeting rooms are practically booked and we are pressed on time.¡±

    ¡°When are we departing?¡± Luon couldn¡¯t but ask as he realized at how fast things were going.

    With a grim smile, Belle said, ¡°18 hours from now.¡±

    ¡­

    18 hours may seem like a long time, but in reality, it was brief. The meeting itself took nearly two hours as it covered all the details that they needed to know. From how to communicate with other squadrons, the frequencies that the other ships were using to communicate, the formation and placement of the squad, and the number of enemies they will be up against.

    The first mission they¡¯ve received was an assault, they were to remove the Inzektors in the space around a planet they were going to colonize and cleanse it of Inzektors. In this solar system, there were a total of 7 planets, half of which has been claimed by the Alliance. The fifth planet was said to be the most plentiful as there were more enemies than what they expected it to inhabit.

    But the NX Fleet wasn¡¯t alone, along with them the Arnox Fleet, and three others. The scale of the battle zone was predicted to be medium-sized and among the five fleets, two of which were brand new. The higher ups wanted to a victory and left the choice to retreat up to the leading Fleet Commander who was an old veteran in the field and has served in the military for about 30 years.

    After the meeting, Luon and the others jumped into their spaceships and checked to make sure everything was all right. Each spaceship was armed with at least two military-grade laser turret.

    The customization Luon did was reducing the energy cost used per attack on one of the turrets while boosting the other. They didn¡¯t need to use the standard amount of energy for an attack if they were up against a weak Inzektor, but they need enough power for a stronger Inzektor. He made improvements on the energy matrix increasing the efficiency.

    Most engineers can do the same, but the amount of technical maintenance that was required meant more work than what one would want to do. It was easier to send it to the technical department where they work off of the same template after all, and it took less time as well since they can hand the work over to greenhorns. As for why they haven¡¯t updated the energy matrix is because not all of their engineers were smart enough to work off of it. Standardized testing creates standardized engineers, only if one seeks self-development can things change, but not everyone is like that.

    ¡°Are you guys all ready to go?¡± Luon asked while sitting on his cockpit. On the side, several holographic projections appeared with a live feed of every single one of his teammates. It was unknown who started it, but they began to talk about some casual topics that were indirectly related to the battle. Their nerves allowed their mind to wander as they couldn¡¯t help but feel anxious about the upcoming battle.

    This was real life, it wasn¡¯t the fake thing that they had experienced several times before. If they died now, they are dead for good. If this were the old Luon, he would be wishing for his friend to destroy any trace of his secret erotic fetishism stored in the database. However, after his experiences in the Vortex Container, and in this lifetime Luon thought that if there was an afterlife he wished that he¡¯ll be able to meet with friends once again, to befriend them, and have fun with them. But the most important wish of them all was that everyone would come back unharmed.

    ...

    Arisa sat on an imposing chair on the bridge, she stared at the video feed before her as she said to the other bridge members, ¡°Let¡¯s go, onward to the battlefield.¡±

    The newly made NX Fleet made its move, to a battle wherein no one knows the outcome.

 Chapter 121 - Operation Zedale

    On the battlefield situated at the Inzektor infested planet, multiple fleets from the other solar system were waiting for the arrival of their reinforcements.

    From a distance, 5 bright lights illuminated the surroundings, and 5 ships came beaming in a while slowly making little to no movements after their arrival. Warp technology wasn¡¯t widespread, in fact, its one of the classified information that was regulated and produced by the Alliance. If a solar system wanted to have a warp engine they needed to contribute significantly to the Alliance in exchange for one, and the Nexus solar system managed to outfit 2 more on top of the 15 they already have. The solar system they were currently situated at would have taken them 3 months to travel by in space. However, if they were to travel using standard means, then they would be far too late.

    ¡°How¡¯s the condition of the ship? Everything all intact?¡±

    Arisa sent her gaze to the other personnel on the bridge as they tapped away at their monitoring devices. Slowly each one of them reported positively.

    Arisa let out a sigh of relief. Warp technology was based on spatial transportation magic, and it had some well-known problems during the development phases. Although it has been a century, these mundane tests still persist up to this day as there were still some minor problems.

    Arisa lifted a teacup that was still full of warm tea and couldn¡¯t help but admire the warp technology as she takes a quick sip of it. Arisa then said, ¡°Alright then, connect me to the Arnox Fleet.¡±

    A few moments later a holographic projection appeared before Arisa as she reported the result of the warp. Felia nodded in approval as she said, ¡°Good, looks like you¡¯re getting used to the position now. Give the other ships about 10 to 20 more minutes. Out of the 5 of us, only one ship has had a minor problem with the warp. When we are ready, we¡¯ll depart to the designated mission zone.¡±

    ¡°Um, why are you in charge of receiving commands like this? Isn¡¯t Fleet Commander Jim supposed to be in charge?¡± Arisa asked.

    Felia nodded as she said, ¡°That¡¯s right, he is in charge of the overall situation, but just like how I am training you, he is also training me on how to lead the fleet until we get into combat. Who knows in a few years I might be leading the fleet on operations like this.¡±

    ¡°Congratulations should be accounted for then. Though it might be a bit too early,¡± Arisa laughed and said.

    However, her words prompted a different response. Felia had a small smile as she said, ¡°You think that being promoted is good, but the only way one could get promoted in the first place is when one achieves enough merits. That or when the previous leader dies on the battlefield. Statistically speaking, it¡¯s usually the latter that happens quite often. Enough of the negative talk, if you want you can introduce yourself to the other Fleet Commanders or wait until the mission begins. I¡¯ll see you later.¡±

    Felia cut off communications after lightly wishing Arisa good luck. Arisa pondered for a moment before saying, ¡°Alright, connect me to each ship one by one. I feel obliged to greet my fellow compatriots from the Nexus solar system.¡±

    Besides the old veteran and Felia, Arisa didn¡¯t know what the other two Fleet Commanders were like. One of them was rather indifferent and responded coldly to her greeting and remarks. From the profile that Keyral had conjured up from the Alliance database, she found that this man was also a veteran with 5 years of experience in the battlefield. He wasn¡¯t like those who served the military and had never fought Inzektors before, it said that his fleet had fought a grand total of 23 battlefields.

    The last ship, however, made her feel worried about the operation.

    Projected on the screen, Zythos appeared beside a beastmen Fleet Commander. After giving them a light greeting with a superficial smile, Arisa cut off the connection and frowned as she recalled his figure.

    ¡°Miss, it appears that the Yietela Fleet is also veteran placed in a newly designed ship like us. It seems that most of the works on the ship comes from the Mythos Clan,¡± Keyral said as she started sifting away at the database.

    ¡®To think that they would be able to solely develop and own another fleet with the ability to warp. How did they get the approval and resources to fund it? There have been some strange rumors going around¡­ their influence is growing everyday¡­. It¡¯s quite unsettling,¡¯ Arisa thought as she found the situation peculiar.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    Before she can ponder any further all of their fleet ships connected with the Flag Ship, the veteran Commander began to lecture Fleet Commanders.

    ¡°Operation Zedale, it¡¯s been planned for the last few years, and we were approved because of the recent expansion of two more fleets as we were short on manpower all around. Because this is our first time operating together with two new fleets, I want you all to take it easy now. Try not to die and carefully analyze the battlefield. Each of you is responsible for success in your designated zones. If you cannot handle the situation than please tell me as I will adjust plans to account for any unexpected factors,¡± The experienced Fleet Commander said.

    Everyone nodded in response, looking at the overview plan Arisa couldn¡¯t help but feel strange about their part in the attack. From the angle she was supposed to come in towards, it was arranged so that the Arnox Fleet will fight the enemy''s main forces while the NX Fleet and the Yietela Fleet were to flank them. Their target was one of the 8 Inzektors main ships. The ships weren¡¯t armed with any equipment to take down the thing, so how were they supposed to do it? In the end, she¡¯ll have to ask later when it came time to attack it.

    They were soon notified by the Flagship to move to the designated location, Arisa¡¯s heart pounded as she stared at the visual image before her. The first battle, and the first time participating in the war.

    The swarms of Inzektors lined up protecting their colonized planet, grotesque creatures varying in sizes stood before the predominantly organized Fleets from the Alliance, and slowly both forces closed in on one anoother.

    And then half a heartbeat later, the first shot was fired, signifying the start of the battle.

    ¡­

    The shaking got worse, after being transposed to the battleground, Luon, and the others couldn¡¯t help but feel the adrenaline from the battlefield outside. Projected on their screens were the scenes of the Allied forces using their Fleet Cannons to attack the enemies Swarm Host, the classified carrier creature that was the size of 2 fleet ships combined.

    It was quite mysterious that Inzektors were able to travel in space. For some reason, they were able to adjust their bodies to the environment. Luon knew that bugs are an existence that will continue to evolve if one killed it with a pesticide, the others will learn, grow and eventually adapt to it. These Inzektors were at the pinnacle of evolution, unlike humans who had no further form, bugs varied in many different ways.

    The enemy fleet carrier was precisely that. A giant alien-like insect creature that had a hard carapace around it along with several tentacle-like sticks protruding from its skin.

    Their ships aimed at the tentacles which were flying around the creature as it freely wiggles in space. Luon noticed that when the Swarm Host received damaged on its outer skin, it quickly regenerated with the help of some Inzektors inside of its body. The tentacles, on the other hand, took to long to restore. Once destroyed, it seemed like it would take a few hours to regrow another one.

    Luon suspects that the enemy does not have an infinite regeneration ability, especially in space where its void of all elements. It was like battling a vampire in the sun. Eventually, it would die if it were injured unless it managed to suck some blood, or obtained a source of energy to keep it going. The source should be inside the Inzektor carrier itself.

    ¡°Most of the tentacles are down, we¡¯re about to enter engage range. Everyone give your machine one last check and make sure that you¡¯re all ready to go. If you aren¡¯t then I¡¯m ordering you to stay behind,¡± Belle said as she played with a few switches.

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am!¡± Everyone replied back with enthusiasm.

    ¡°Make sure you use your designated fleet codes...¡± Belle sighed and said.

    ¡°NX2.3 to NX2.0, roger that.¡± Luon couldn¡¯t help but frown as he said the words.

    The idea was supposed to make it easier to identify who was friendly and other details as the pilot information was stored in the database to register who was MIA or KIA in the battle.

    The hanger doors opened, and each ship was soon arranged and placed onto the catapult chute which could deploy 5 ships at a time. The first members of their squad to deploy was Belle, Kiri, and Angela. Following them was Gizmo, Bendan, and Opo. Luon got into his elevator chute along with the remaining members of their squad, the four robotic AI¡¯s that he developed and taught. As they entered the chute, Luon gave them several basic commands and arranged it so they would treat his ship as their leader and orient themselves in respective to Luon¡¯s location.

    Inside of the catapult chute, Luon checked over the status of the 4 robots and 5 ships against and found that everything was accounted for. He said to the communications officer that they were all ready to go and they were given the okay to launch. It was essential to do these checks as the Alliance had some problems with launching ships before without using them. Like how when the communications officer had them launch out only to be immediately crash into an enemy Inzektor and explode.

    ¡°NX2.3 and NXR2 1 to 4 launching now!¡± Luon bellowed.

    The 5 ships were then catapulted out of the ship. Luon maintained the speed that he exited with and begin to turn towards the hazardous battlefield along with the four robots who were flying in formation behind him. He caught up with the others as they flew in formation towards the enemy¡¯s Swarm Host that was void to tentacles.

    If that was the only defensive mechanism than the Alliance wouldn¡¯t be struggling with Inzektors. From the massive body, a portion of it opened up releasing an army of Inzektors.

    First, they were able to crawl in the dirt, later they were able to swim in the seas, sometime after that the bugs learned to fly in the sky, and now they were in space. This series of evolution was suspected by many scientists, but it was the only thing that they could come up with. There was no logic behind it, only magic alongside strange mutations.

    With wings that looked razor sharp and carapace similar to a Xenomorph seen in the movies. A swarm of ant-like Inzektors came flying towards them and everyone else. According to research, they could only last for several hours in space before they needed to retreat back to the Swarm Host, but that short duration was enough to cause havoc to the Alliances ships.

    With Luon in the lead, their squad began to fire at these creatures, and while doing so, they retaliated back. The Inzektor grew a green shade as it highlighted its dark carapace. The scanner on his ship pinged him alarms as he quickly evaded the Inzektors range of attack causing the green acidic goo to miss its target.

    Before Inzektor could do anything else, one of the robots on Luon¡¯s team shot a laser beam at the target splitting its insides apart.

    That Inzektor was the first to die to their squad.

 Chapter 122 - Chaotic Battleground

    It was a mess.

    Formations were scattered, and ships turn and explode scattering the aftermath out. The acidic properties of the goo attack from the Inzektor didn¡¯t have any explosive elements, but because some of their attacks ruin the engine and other sensitive parts on the spaceships they tend to explode rather than melt.

    That is an easy way to die on the battlefield, and also the best. Some ships faced the horror of the Inzektor race, their ships would be completely encased by Inzektors who wrapped themselves around like a snake hunting its prey. Slowly they unravel the encasing and seeing the person inside, they consumed the living pilot, and the scenes turn rather grotesque.

    Every ship had a limited number of shots they could make against an Inzektor, the efficiency isn¡¯t incredible. Which is why they were careful of wasting their bullets, the energy used to power the ship was the same as the one used for the ammunition to they carefully minded the power unit.

    The most critical factors were numbers, despite being the aggressor, the Alliance was slightly outmatched as the number of Inzektors launched was nearly four times that of what they have deployed.

    If every ship were able to eliminate four Inzektors, there wouldn¡¯t have been a problem, but due to some factors, not many can accomplish that.

    ¡°Watch out for your energy reserves, if you''re reaching the point where you¡¯re unable to fight then head back to the Flagship to refuel,¡± Belle said as her squad maintained a normal formation while engaging the Inzektors.

    ¡°Miss, at this rate we¡¯ll be making little progress if we continue to hold the line at this position,¡± Kiri pointed out. Currently, Luon and the others were situated at the outer perimeter of where they needed to attack from. They only maintained a proper distance and ensured that the other squads nearby don¡¯t get flanked by their own enemies.

    ¡°She¡¯s right, the longer we stay out here, the more reasons the others will condemn our squad for not taking the assault seriously,¡± said Luon.

    ¡°Look over there, someone is coming over,¡± Gizmo said as he noticed a ship heading towards their direction.

    ¡°What could they possibly want? The personnel on the YT ship, this is NX2.0 speaking, why have you left your designated combat area and entered our combat zone.¡± Belle changed her communications frequencies and begun to make contact with the ship. However, their response wasn¡¯t very welcoming.

    ¡°Why, look who it is. I was wondering who was still hanging around back here but to think it is you guys. Aren¡¯t you all just holding us back? The order is to assault not to create an immobilized attack front,¡± the man who said these words was Chester Hopkins. For the last year or so, when Zythos no longer bothered with anyone Chester rose up to the occasion.

    Since piloting didn¡¯t require any physical techniques such as swordplay and only required technical skills on manipulating the ship, he became famous within his circle of friends when they started to have the space combat course for his professional maneuvers. He grew up to be overwhelmingly arrogant.

    Belle couldn¡¯t help but frown because of his words as she retorted, ¡°We¡¯re just taking our time to adjust to the battlefield, we¡¯ll begin our attack right now.¡±

    ¡°Heh, aren¡¯t you guys a little bit slow on the uptake then? Whatever, if you plan on attacking now, then my squad will press on faster then. Let¡¯s see who can get to the enemies Swarm Host¡¯s core first,¡± Chester positively responded.

    Belle didn¡¯t like the fact that Chester treated the battle as a game, she was calm and collected, her pacing may be slow, but it was enough to say that her performance was slightly above average. The concept of racing to the finish was annihilated by her logic, she could only say to Chester¡¯s vigor, ¡°Hm, alright. I wish you luck then.¡±

    Some enthusiasm may help him survive on the battlefield, so Belle thought. However, to Chester, he felt like she was treating him like she always did. Indifferent, he felt like she didn¡¯t have a single fragment of care or admiration, unlike his friends and comrades.

    Chester could only say before he departed, ¡°Well then, I wish you the best of luck on the battlefield.¡±

    After he left, Gizmo couldn¡¯t but speak out, ¡°What an arrogant arse. Just because he thinks he¡¯s a little good he can act this way.¡±

    ¡°Nevermind him, just focus on surviving this ordeal. Is everyone¡¯s energy supply looking good? If so, then let¡¯s push forward,¡± Belle said as she checked her own ships status.

    Everyone responded positively, and the group began to take the assault more seriously. The crew slowly moved deeper into the battlefield. As they were doing so, Luon periodically checked the energy supplies of the four robots and rotated them back to the ship one by one after a certain point of time. Because of this, the ones with most energy and kills were the 4 robots.

    However, he was only able to do this because they were still able to maintain the war front, if everyone had to be rotated then they would have easily been destroyed. Only when the fourth robot came back from refueling did something change. Further ahead, in the swarm of enemies, a new type of Inzektor appeared, it was slow and slightly round. Its appearance was an awfully mutated and scattered as it reminded Luon of a firefly mixed with a dung beetles armored carapace, with a curled up posture.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    It began to grow a blue hue, and unlike the other Inzektor, it was a several time more vibrant as many other also noticed the phenomenon.

    Sensing something ominous, Luon yelled, ¡°Evasive maneuvers!¡±

    Luon changed his formation for his robotic AI and hearing his words the group subconsciously escaped the Inzektor¡¯s line of sight.

    The Inzektor then launched a large beam at their previous location, Luon felt glad that it wasn¡¯t able to divert the attack after charging up. He mentally noted the enemy as he started looking up the information on the database. He was surprised to find that this Inzektor had made its appearance on the battlefield 2 years ago, which is why they weren¡¯t taught about it in the school¡¯s and military¡¯s curriculum.

    ¡°What a troublesome foe,¡± Belle thought as he looked at the new Inzektor.

    ¡°We should probably focus on taking it out. We can¡¯t continue to make evasive maneuvers, it''s too energy consuming and frightening,¡± said Luon.

    Not many had good results against such an Inzektor. Luon and his had only survived the ordeal because of Luon¡¯s good eyesight, he noticed a shiny blue Inzektor in the midst of a giant swarm.

    Not all of the battlefronts were having a good time with it. In fact, with the sudden appearance of the Inzektor, the Alliance¡¯s fleet battle potential dropped a few percentages. The success rate decreased, knowing this Belle could only agree as she said, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s change the focus on our operation in eliminating that Inzektor. Fortunately, there¡¯s only one on our battlefront. Let¡¯s storm in and take it out while maintaining the line. As for the members who will be taking it ou-¡±

    Before she could finish her words, everyone in the squad noticed another change. Nearby their battlefront they couldn¡¯t help but saw 3 ships break out of their formation and charge towards the newly appeared Inzektor. Luon couldn¡¯t but noticed the emblem on the side of their ship. It was the same YT sign he had seen before, and he could only assume that it was Chester inside.

    ¡°The reckless fool!¡± Belle couldn¡¯t help but exclaim as she begun to make contact with him. As she finally made contact all she heard was the arrogant bellowing of a pathetic excuse of a man.

    She cut it off immediately as she relayed the words of the fool to her teammates. Gizmo couldn¡¯t help but comment, ¡°Did he really think it would be that easy to rush into a field of Inzektors and make it out alive?¡±

    Belle slightly groaned at his remark as she couldn¡¯t help but recall that was going to commit to the same error as she was blindsided by that fact. She silently thanked Chester for revealing such a flaw.

    ¡°So what¡¯s the plan now? Do you still want to go in after him?¡± Luon asked Belle, interrupting her thoughts.

    Belle let out a sigh as she said, ¡°No, we¡¯ll maintain our formation and work towards the Inzektor. Luon, keep watch of its position and notify us of any changes we need to make to evade.¡±

    Luon agreed, it was better not to make such a chaotic situation even harder to deal with. Between maintaining the line and attacking a difficult to deal with Inzektor who was in the core of everything, the former was more important, but the latter was a subject that caused confusion. His squad may have been able to evade it, but he couldn''t say for the other ones.

    ¡°Alright, while the Inzektors are distracted by him, let¡¯s take out all as many we can,¡± Belle ordered the squad who began to eliminate the Inzektors earnestly.

    Chester dashed in expertly evading all of the Inzektors, the two followers he brought along could barely catch up to his moves. Sure enough, one of them slipped up as they crashed into one of the Inzektors, its wing was shattered causing it to spiral in a circle before they halted the engine due to fright, but this was a foolish mistake, especially in the midst of all those Inzektors.

    Their ship was torn apart as for their body the details were rather graphic. Chester who had witnessed the scene along with his other teammate couldn¡¯t help but feel uneasy of their fates. He couldn¡¯t help but have second thoughts about the assault as he felt that his confidence got the better of him.

    ¡®Did I make the wrong choice? No! I didn¡¯t, we need to take it out! With it, dead my accomplishments would be unmeasurable! Everyone will look up to me! I won¡¯t be a side character anymore! All I have to do is dive in and jump out as quick as a rabbit, and nobody can do it better than us Rabbit beastmen!¡¯ thought Chester as he continued to accelerate.

    He soon reached the target as he fired a few shots. However, he soon realizes that he needed more than just a few. The Inzektor screamed in pain as the damage was quite significant, but not enough as it begun to regenerate.

    Realizing he needed to do more damage he screamed, ¡°Come on YT3.1 help do some damage!¡±

    He didn¡¯t hear a response, he soon realized that the other follower had met the same fate as the one before. Chester could only grit his teeth as he looked at his energy reserves. He didn¡¯t know how to calculate how much he needed to escape with and he had no leisure to think so. He fired more shots at the enemy causing it to explode as he begun to make his escape.

    He drove his ship to the closest allied forces nearby realizing it was Belle¡¯s squadron, he couldn¡¯t help but say to himself, ¡°Hahaha, to do it right in their faces.¡±

    He had always felt undervalued because of these people, but today he accomplished something that they couldn¡¯t have done.

    Suddenly, the engines of his ship turned off. The energy had already been depleted due to the last strike as he was only relying on his current acceleration to escape. The Inzektors, angered by Chester¡¯s attack swarmed in on him.

    Gizmo said, ¡°Hey, isn¡¯t it looking pretty bad for him? Shouldn¡¯t we save him?¡±

    ¡°Of course it is a bad situation to be in you fool. Although I don¡¯t like Chester''s attitude, I dislike the fact that someone I know dies in front of me. Alright, let¡¯s g-¡± Belle said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother, we have some more things to worry about,¡± Luon coldly said.

    ¡°What do you plan on abandoning him?¡± Gizmo who was shocked said.

    ¡°There¡¯s no choice, even if you get there, how do you plan on getting him to safety? Hoist his ship around like a piece of luggage? And look what¡¯s behind him, there are more troublesome things to think about,¡± Luon said as he pointed at the massive number of Inzektors all aiming towards Chester. Initially, they were all spread out on several battlefronts, but Chester¡¯s assault had attracted the attention of many Inzektors.

    They all grew a green hue and shot their acids at Chester¡¯s ship, it melted leaving no traces. But that wasn¡¯t the troublesome part, the Inzektor train that Chester started no longer had a target, and the closest enemies to them was Belle¡¯s squad.

    Was Chester a hero? Or a fool? Luon thought he was a reckless rabbit who rushed to his death and brought the grim reaper along with him. They wanted to take it slow as a turtle and live a longer life, but life doesn¡¯t always go there way, the only thing on their minds now, was to avoid being dinner.

 Chapter 123 - Paving A Road

    There¡¯s a reason why their forces were spread out to handle the enemy Inzektors. Namely, it was easier to deal with them by having a concave. There was a fatal weakness to this, it was that any point of their frontline was breachable if the enemies attack became concentrated.

    Luon face couldn¡¯t help but distort at the scene in front of him. The swarm of Inzektors moved like a living snake as it flew towards their team''s direction.

    ¡°We got to escape!¡±

    It was the first thing that had appeared on everyone¡¯s mind. Luon thought about the battle from a different type of perspective. If the enemy breaks their formation now then what would happen next? It was more than likely that they would break up and spread out, but the situation changes if they have been breached.

    The Inzektors would have direct access to attack the Fleet ships behind them. Knowing this Luon decided to take action before their line of defense becomes destroyed. He left their formation along with the 4 robotically controlled ships and dove towards the enemy swarm.

    ¡°Luon what are you doing!¡± Belle shouted as she shook away the fear she had just felt moments ago.

    ¡°There¡¯s no time for this, we got to go help him!¡± Gizmo began to motion his ship towards Luon, but he was stopped by Luon.

    ¡°Don¡¯t follow me! All we need to do is make them go back and spread then back out again. I¡¯ll bait them away while you guys rearrange the formation, so it works even without me!¡± Luon said.

    ¡°Why can¡¯t you just use the robots to bait them away?¡± Belle continued to follow Luon despite his remarks. She wasn¡¯t able to catch up. Luon pressed a button on his ship indirectly stopped her own.

    ¡°It isn¡¯t good enough to just use the robots, sending that way would be pointless,.Just trust me on this,¡± Luon replied.

    ¡°What abou-¡± Before anyone can ask Luon about his plans he cut off the communications channel on his ship. Luon didn¡¯t plan on dying or at least in vain, and he didn¡¯t have the leisure to explain his strategy.

    The first thing he needs to do is drag the enemies away from the area where his squadmates were at, and to do so, he has to obtain their attention. But what could he do? He needed to do something crazy and reckless to attract their attention, but at the same time, he didn¡¯t want to end up like a fly being struck by an electric fly swatter on the first try.

    The formation changed, the robotic ships that surrounded Luon no longer had the regular V-shape. The four of them aligned themselves with each other and begun to spiral around behind Luon¡¯s ship. This setting was designed to shut off most of the functionality of the robotic AI to conserve energy that can be reused on the ship. There was no complex thinking, all they had to do now was follow along Luon¡¯s ship while spiraling and taking down the closest enemy.

    Luon¡¯s squad of 5 maneuvered like a drill scratching at a pile of dirt as it dove into the Inzektors formation. Before his eyes was a massive wall of Inzektors but this despite this he didn¡¯t appear fazed at all. Luon opened a compartment on his ship and placed a circular object inside before resealing it and pressing a button.

    Hearing a sound of something being ejected from his ship he could see the object that he placed in the compartment fly out towards the swarm of Inzektors. The small thing that Luon had launched towards the Inzektors was ignored. Their intelligence wasn''t able to recognize what use it could be. Instead, they dove towards the ship like a tsunami wrapping around a surfer.

    But Luon wasn¡¯t worried, he looked at the Inzektors with a smile on his face as he said to himself, ¡°Fools, feel the power of explosions!¡±

    The small, circular object suddenly radiated in a bright white light causing the Inzektor to screech as a response. But before they could do anything else, the Inzektors that were caught in the blast radius were vaporized without a trace as Luon¡¯s team dove right in the opening.

    The confident Inzektors were enraged, the few ships before them had vaporized so many of their allies. All of the Inzektors turned green and shot acid at Luon and the four robots, but things didn¡¯t turn out as they anticipated it to.

    Luon¡¯s spiral formation expanded and the ships adjusted their positions while increasing their speed, these set of actions caused the Inzektors to miss their target, but their goo did hit something. Since Luon and the robots had dived in the middle of the Inzektor swarm, it was no surprise that many of their shots had killed each other.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Luon managed to breakthrough without any more interruptions, but after he did, he twirled back towards the swarm and repeated the same action. Escaping was not his goal, he was aiming to attract the entire Inzektor swarm. After breaking through once more, the Inzektors turned smarter. They no longer shot their goo at Luon and focused on physically grabbing his ship and reinforcing the thickness of their of the places where Luon could break in.

    ¡°If one explosive doesn¡¯t work, then why not two? If two don¡¯t work, then I¡¯ll just keep using more.¡± Luon fearlessly smiled at the enemies attempt to reinforce their encirclement.

    Their wall shattered as their attack pattern adjusted to Luon¡¯s antics. Forming a huge ball, they shot their goo simultaneously at Luon who easily evaded by increasing the distance between them. His assault wasn¡¯t over yet, his goal was to get the enemy to spread out instead of clumping up. He wasn¡¯t able to dive inside of their formation anymore as the risk was too high and he wasn''t armed with any huge explosive weaponry to destroy it.

    However, anticipating their action, Luon motioned his small group to towards a different direction. Explosives weren¡¯t the only thing in his arsenal. The laser turrets did its best to repel the Inzektors that were closing in on them as he circled around the clump of Inzektors. Fortunately, the ships with the robots were in had been refueled moments ago, if he focuses on dodging he would be able to last a while longer.

    The Inzektors once again responded to his change, they started to trail Luon instead of staying clumped up.

    At this point, Luon had all of the Inzektors on his tail. The moment he ran out of energy is the moment he would die on the battlefield. Just like Chester, he was a living Inzektor train, no, it was more like a dragon.

    The massive swarm of Inzektors would enter the attack range of the other squad causing them to let out a few stray shots, killing a good number of Inzektors. However, because of their actions, some of them would stray off.

    It was an okay if it was a few, but once Luon realized that it was too much for the squadron to handle he would turn back and like a dragon devouring its own flesh, he went through the main body of Inzektors once more.

    Belle appeared amazed as she muttered, ¡°Wow, since when were these ships armed with explosives? How come I don¡¯t see any attached to my ship?¡±

    ¡°More importantly, you should be questioning why he has so many explosives in the first place, as well as the cost for them. Just letting you know now, but I got a message from saying that either you or Arisa is footing his bill,¡± Gizmo said as checked his BMPU out.

    ¡°What?! How much is it?¡± Belle asked, unlike Arisa, she had to earn her own money unless her father had authorized it so. He might be lenient in regards to military munitions, but Belle couldn¡¯t imagine her father to be happy if she spent a considerable amount for explosives.

    Belle received a message from Gizmo and looking at the content she became shocked. She silently redirected the material to someone else while having a solemn expression.

    Kiri asks, ¡°So did you send it to her?¡±

    Belle replied with a smile, ¡°Yeah, after all. Fleet expenses should be sent to the fleet right?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, okay. Let¡¯s help Luon clear this up now,¡± Kiri said as she looked at the scene before her.

    Luon continued to slowly dwindle and drill through the Inzektor forces while using the multiple frontlines as leverage. He dug through the swarm with bombs while decreasing their forces with laser beams. This didn¡¯t last that long though, soon their energy reserves plummeted, and the only actions Luon could make was barely enough to just move around the Inzektors and firing bombs at concentrated locations.

    Seeing his actions, the Inzektors spread themselves out to prevent them from getting bombarded. This action was the turning point of the battle. The nearby squadrons started to exterminate the Inzektors as they pushed onwards, no longer afraid of being attacked by a group Inzektors when they regain their attention.

    The battlefield had been reset, the only difference Luon was trapped in the midst of all of the Inzektors. Looking at his energy reserves Luon realized that he wouldn¡¯t be able to make it back to the base in this state, and going out now will just make the situation the same as before, Luon would wound up dead like Chester.

    But unlike Chester who brought doom to his team, Luon decided to go down fighting. The five ships changed direction and charged towards the Swarm Host. His actions caused several Inzektors to chase after him.

    At this moment, a tentacle had partially finished regenerating and attacked Luon¡¯s squadron, destroying one of the 4 robots before Luon managed to make it inside of the Swarm Host.

    Passing through a membrane his ship skidded and crashed inside of the Swarm Host.

    Luon quickly donned a mask and exited the ship after shrouding himself in mana. He looked at his ship with regret, it was fully customized and out of energy. He stored it away into his intraspatial bag before running towards a direction. Luon and the 3 robots made their way to one of the tunnels that were connected to the area he crashed in. He slashed through the membrane-like door and jumped in. Surprisingly the regeneration rate was quick. The opening he had sliced open barely allowed him to get inside.

    The four of them began to run as an explosion rang out, the four ships were switched to self-destruct evaporated the hanger they were in once before. Unfortunately, one of the robots was caught in the explosion as it shielded Luon and the other two with its body. Slicing open another membrane Luon was now inside of the Inzektor. His BMPU read that the atmospheric elements contained the proper gases to allow him to operate without the mask.

    According to the mission data, he needed to find the heart of the Swarm Host and destroy it before leaving the place. His ship was inoperable, but he believed that his team would be able to clean up the Inzektors outside and get him out of there.

    It wasn¡¯t going to be easy, he soon heard a series of sounds coming from down the tunnel. A swarm of white Inzektors which resembled ants covered the tunnel.

    Luon took out his sword as he slowly muttered to himself, ¡°Well, let¡¯s see how long we can go for.¡±

    His robotic allies took out some rifles, and the two forces clashed.

 Chapter 124 - Clearing Things Out

    The scrambling sound of feet shuffled throughout the corridor. One of the of the sources of the noise stopped and glanced at a remotely empty corner and silently approached it out of curiosity. It had heard a sound but wasn''t able to find anything at the location, confused or stood still before another Inzektor came by.

    The two emitted a series of strange sound, it was cryptic to the point where no being in the Alliance had yet to fully understand despite their advancement in technology. After a brief moment that seemed like days, they departed from the region and resumed their patrol.

    A figure emerged from the blank space that was examined before, Luon who was invisible couldn¡¯t help but feel relieved that he as they had left. What had happened in the last few moments? He couldn¡¯t help but recall the scenes of where he endlessly had fought against Inzektors.

    At first, it was simple, or he thought it was simple. All he needed to do was cut his way to the Swarm Host¡¯s core, the more enemies there were, the closer he was getting to it. However, such lofty thoughts were stopped by the fact that there were too many enemies.

    Besides the normal Inzektors that looked like an evolved species of ants, there were some that could fly, worm through the walls and while Luon was fighting, humanoid Inzektors that were removing the corpses of their dead brethren and taking it elsewhere.

    Luon kept slicing away at the enemy until he came to the realization that it couldn¡¯t go on. The robots that he brought along with them had run out of ammunition and piled up some injuries when they started to fight in close quarters.

    Which is why he ran, he stored the robots into his intraspatial bag before donning his ability to go invisible. He didn¡¯t run to where he came from though, one reason being that the path was soon filled with Inzektors searching for him, another was because of the atmospheric levels was suitable for his health.

    He shrouded his footsteps and carefully slithered through the swarm of Inzektors, that is until another Inzektor appeared. From the ceiling Luon eye¡¯s met with another pair of eyes, pairs of eyes to be exact. There was an Inzektor that looked like a spider only it had 9 eyes. 8 in the front like usual and a huge one that covered its entire backside.

    It hung from the ceiling with its legs slowly backing away from the scene before screeching and alarming at all the Inzektors around it. They all turned and face the direction of where Luon stood at, they hesitated for a moment before storming towards him.

    ¡®I need to take it out! It looks like the other Inzektors listen to its orders. It must be an upper-class type,¡¯ Luon thought to himself.

    He focused his energy on his movement technique and undid his invisibility. The unaware Inzektors became more energetic as their doubts were gone, but this gave Luon the opportunity to strike.

    Like a ghost, Luon dashed through the swarm and started to propel himself forward using the bodies of Inzektors as a stepping stone. He beelined towards the spider-like Inzektor causing it to panic and attempt to run away.

    However, unlike Luon was small and agile it was interrupted by the Inzektors around itself. Luon quickly got to its location and dispatched it, blood spewed everywhere, and Luon indifferently returned to being invisible.

    He shook away the bloody mess that the kill made before hiding once more. However, it was as if he was cursed by the spider Inzektor as they continued to chase him down despite being optically unseen.

    Luon used water magic to wash away the blood before using wind magic to encase the scent towards himself before departing to the closest tunnel opening. He stood still and watched at the swarm of Inzektors went right by his location and felt relieved that he managed to lose them all.

    ¡°You got to get moving, you can¡¯t stay in one spot for too long. Especially since they should have more of that spider like Inzektor,¡± Thanatos advised Luon. ¡°Look, there¡¯s one over there.¡±

    It was several times smaller than the one Luon faced. In the midst, of the crowd, Luon saw a baby version of the spider Inzektor, and its eyes darted around looking for the intruder that had interrupted its tranquility.

    Carefully moving, Luon managed to escape as he entered more and more tunnels, after finding a safe spot, he began to lay down and rest.

    He consumed a lot of energy, he was able to fight for hours end as long as there was mana, but in this area of space, there wasn¡¯t much mana or energy for him to absorb. The only thing that drove him on was the blood of his enemies and the adrenaline of the fight, but now that it was over he felt the exhaustion taking over him.

    Opening up his BMPU he noticed that he was unable to make a connection, the flesh walls of the Swarm Host had blocked his signal. He sighed as he set up his alarm before blacking out.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡­

    ¡°The timing was perfect,¡± Luon whispered to himself, not out of arrogance, but out of astonishment as he began to sweat bullets.

    ¡°Indeed it was spot on,¡± Thanatos replied. ¡°Any moment longer and you would have been killed without even knowing who killed you.¡±

    He woke up to the scene of an Inzektor carefully examining his location. Although he was invisible due to his equipment, he couldn''t help but feel unease with the existence like that spider Inzektor hanging around.

    If he had let out a single scream, then he would be forced to fight the Inzektor before him, and if he were to do that, then the others would have noticed his presence.

    ¡®It¡¯s been an hour since I¡¯ve entered this swarm host. The battle outside must have been finished by now. Since the atmospheric pressure remained the same, it must mean that core is still alive,¡¯ Luon thought as he looked at the time on his BMPU.

    Luon got up and started to recall his actions before stepping out once more, as started to make his move he noticed the patrols had dropped considerably as he assumed it was because of possibility that other teams have already entered the Swarm Host.

    Sure enough, he heard a disturbance up ahead.

    Dashing forward, and after exiting the tunnel, he found Belle and his other squadmates in combat with a massive amount of Inzektors.

    ¡°There¡¯s just so many of them! If only those guys didn¡¯t bring along the extra dead weight! At this rate, we will be finished! Belle let¡¯s retreat!¡± Gizmo exclaimed.

    ¡°But the swarm host is just up ahead, and we don¡¯t know where Luon is,¡± she replied. ¡°If we don¡¯t get any more achievements then all of this will be worthless!¡±

    ¡°They will already commend us for the space combat, there¡¯s no need to press on even more,¡± Gizmo insisted as he soon realized that he was out of ammunition. ¡°Watch your feet!¡±

    Below Belle, and only a few meters away a worm-like Inzektor appeared from the ground and went straight towards her.

    She was caught off-guard but right when it was a few centimeters away from her face a hand gripped the worm from the neck and crushed it. Luon appeared before his team and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the situation right now?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha, I knew you would still be alive and kicking,¡± Bendan rejoiced as he decimated another Inzektor.

    ¡°We¡¯ll talk after we take care of all of these Inzektors. Let¡¯s finish this in a minute,¡± Belle ordered.

    Luon called out the two robots he had stored and entered the fray.

    The Inzektors were quickly taken care of with their help, but before Luon could ask about anything, Gizmo bellowed, ¡°We have no time to lose. If it weren¡¯t for that Zythos and his gang, we would have already been at the core already.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right, let¡¯s get going now. We may still be able to catch up if we leave now,¡± Belle nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll explain what happened so far as we move.¡±

    From what she told Luon, after nearly an hour once he managed to breach the swarm host, the combatants were able to deal with the swarm of Inzektors outside. In fact, many Fleets were able to enter a few Swarm Host and eliminate them already. It wasn¡¯t too much of a surprise since the number of fleets on-site outnumbered their enemies nearly 3 times as much.

    The only troublesome existence was the army of Inzektor flyers since the number slightly surpasses their own, but even that could quickly be dealt with.

    ¡°So 3 out of 8 Swarm Hosts have been dealt with already?¡± Luon questioned Belle who had told him all of this.

    Belle nodded, her face distorted slightly as she started to rant, ¡°We may have already been at the Swarm Host¡¯s core if it wasn¡¯t for Zythos. After we broke in, we met them halfway through by coincidence, and they brought along with them an army of Inzektors and forced us to deal with them. Why if I...¡±

    As she continued to rant on about how mischievous and sly Zythos was, Luon couldn¡¯t help but think, ¡®To think that Zythos would run away from Inzektors like that¡­ he is quite prideful, but then again I also did the same¡­ but to think he would force them on the others like that. How unfortunate it was for them.¡¯

    As Belle continued to rant, Gizmo had joined in the discussion. However, the two were strictly lectured by Angela as she pointed out how foolish they were being. Bendan, on the other hand, was evaluating the surroundings alongside Opo.

    "Miss, the core''s up ahead. Zythos has already engaged in combat with the Inzektor''s Core, and it''s not looking good," Kiri appeared before them.

    "That dog, leaving us like this while he needs us to show him how things are supposed to be done. Come on guys, let''s quickly get there," Belle shouted.

    Luon and the others nodded, they dashed forward and started to increase the pace as they started to hear the sounds of combat and feel the ground shake in the aftermath. They arrived at the scene of Zythos slaying a huge humanoid Inzektor that was embedded into the flesh walls.

    His claws stabbed into the giant crystal that appeared utterly shattered and the tentacles that were rampaging about in the room cease functionality.

    But that wasn''t the shocking factor before their eyes was a dreadful exhibition. Belle couldn¡¯t help but feel queasy at the bizarre scene of blood and flesh scattered about in the room, and it wasn¡¯t the Inzektors. Out of all the members of Zythos¡¯ squad, half of them were dead, and the rest was battered to the point where one couldn¡¯t help but think what kind of fight did they just experience.

    Zythos returned to his team with a blank state as silently uttered, ¡°Let¡¯s go back.¡±

    They started to leave right by Luon¡¯s team, Zythos gave Luon a quick glance before stepping right by him.

    Luon managed to hear him silently mutter, ¡°Was the glory at the cost of your friends all worth it?¡±

    Luon turned around only to see the back of exhausted man, as he let out a short sigh. He couldn¡¯t reply to his remark as a few moments ago he heard Belle talk about how Zythos was going to destroy the core with his team alone and went on ahead, leaving Belle entrapped.

    But because of his actions, Luon realized that they had just avoided a catastrophe, he couldn¡¯t imagine what kind of feelings he would have if he came to the realization if his friends were all dead.

    The depressing mood shattered as the BMPU started to emit some noise, with the Swarm Host dead, the gases that allowed them to breath began to dissipate. Carrying along the shocked Belle, their squad left towards their Fleet ship.

    All of their dreams of hopes and honor was collapsed as they were left with a distasteful feeling.

    None of them ate any meat for an entire week.

 Chapter 125 - Operation End

    ¡°To think you can claim that what you just did was an achievement, how ridiculous can you get! You lost 8 people, 8 high level 70 users to one monster! How am I supposed to explain this to the higher ups now?¡± In an office inside of the Yietal ship, throwing a tantrum, the commander of the Yietal fleet heavily reprimanded Zythos.

    ¡°It couldn¡¯t be helped, the Inzektor that was hosting the core was too powerful to deal with,¡± Zythos mumbled.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s powerful, it¡¯s a level 80! Did you not fight it in your simulations? Well of course you did, but the reality is much different than the simulations. You were overconfident on your assault, and when there was no turning back, you press onwards. Which is why you should have let the other squads wear it down first before you charge in for the kill,¡± the Fleet Commander proclaimed as he smacked Zythos in the head. ¡°Instead of rushing to your deaths you could have weakened other forces. Nevermind that, I have some orders that just came in from Headquarters.¡±

    ¡°Orders?¡± Zythos grew curious about what they had to say about the results.

    ¡°From the battle, we could see that you and several others had been able to eliminate the Swarm Host¡¯s and after this mission, you will all be commended and promoted. However, a troublesome factor appeared. Because of your idiot friend Chester who riled up the swarm of Inzektors, he created an opportunity for one of the members in the NX fleet to show off which caught the eye of the members in the Alliance. Although it isn¡¯t a huge promotion to like Fleet Commander due to lack of personnel and ships. He will more than likely be the leader of his on platoon after we return, and judging from his display in skill the higher-ups judged that he may interfere with our plans,¡± the commander stated as he read off a document.

    ¡°So what do you think we should do?¡±

    The commander began to brief Zythos about the current situation. ¡°Our mission is to assassinate him within the next few months while we''re out here. Unfortunately, there are no enemies around here, if he were to land on the planet that¡¯s a different story. During this two months, the Alliance will be sending two convoys, the first one is a few weeks away where they will refuel our ammunition and supply us more combatants in case of an attack by the Inzektor race. The second one is a month later where several more fleets would arrive, and we subjugate the Inzektors on the planet and colonize it as our own. This is the last opportunity we have to take him down, but before that, I will have one of our members watch over him.¡±

    ¡°So what should I do now?¡± Zythos asked.

    ¡°For now review why you were so failed badly on your assault on the core. I think your father will want to hear from you personally about these results later on. Alright, you''re dismissed, get your face out of my sight¡± the commander replied as he looked away, ignoring Zythos as he resumed his paperwork.

    Zythos slowly left the room and closed the door behind before letting out a sigh, his friend got himself killed because he wanted more achievements and Zythos got his teammates killed because he rushed too much without thinking.

    He returned to his room dejected, thinking where he had gone wrong.

    ¡°What a brat, I can¡¯t believe I have to watch over him. If it weren¡¯t for the clan leader, I wouldn¡¯t even bother doing so.¡± When Zythos left the room, the commander let out a few curses before he turned on his BMPU.

    ¡°How can I help?¡± A deep voice responded to him. Seeing the person the commander grinned and said, ¡°The mission changed, we are no longer observing the NX fleet, we¡¯re now targeting one of their members.¡±

    ¡°... is it who I think it is?¡± The voice responded with certainty. The commander gave the nod before stating, ¡°Find a chance to eliminate him and try to make it inconspicuous. If you get caught remember your duties.¡±

    ¡°Acknowledged,¡± the voice responded before ending the call.

    ¡°Hmph, so many pawns, but all of them are useless. Hopefully, this turns out better or else my head will be served on a platter when we get back. But if I can get this done all that awaits me is money and glory. Hahaha and I don¡¯t have to lift a single finger to achieve it!¡± The commander couldn¡¯t help but smirk. However, his facial expression changed as he gazed upon the pile of documents he has to handle.

    Thinking for a moment, he made another call, ¡°Ah, can you get one of the members on the bridge who is experienced in handling the paperwork to come to my room? Yes? Okay, thanks.¡±

    ¡®Being a boss was way too easy¡¯ the commander thought.

    ...

    ¡°A promotion, eh?¡± Luon stood alone on a deck, viewing the large planet before him. For an Inzektor infested planet, it was filled with green lush. According to the documents recorded on the mission briefing, this planet used to inhabit a numerous amount of citizens in the early days of the alliance, it was prosperous until the Inzektors attacked multiple battlefronts causing it to ruin. Luon was looking forward to exploring the place which had been deserted by humanity for a few centuries.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    After the battle was over Luon rested for a few days before meeting up with the other members of the team, the campaign had killed about 5% of their forces in total. Most of who died were new recruits from various solar systems. Hearing the results, Luon was pleased to hear about his promotion for redirecting the swarm of Inzektors. If he hadn¡¯t the number of casualties would have been increased by a few more percentages.

    ¡°But still her face was quite funny,¡± Luon joked as he recalls the sight of Belle asking about how he obtained the explosives and the excessive cost of them.

    After their first training camp, Luon had collected a large number of explosives and tested their lethality over time. He reckoned that the easiest way to deal with small-fry Inzektors is by using them. The reason that it isn¡¯t used often was that higher level Inzektors can survive against them explosives and it was costly.

    Higher level beings usually have a defensive mechanism to such simple attacks, and unless one had fired off a nuke, there was no way to defeat them unless one was equally as powerful. Which is why most people neglect to pick up explosives. Another reason being is that it wasn¡¯t a material that the government supplied, so the cost had come out of his pockets. Despite this, he still had the gall to ask Arisa and Belle for some money back.

    With the money, he could buy more explosives and materials, and he could use that to kill more Inzektors. Luon couldn¡¯t help but recall the expressionless face Zythos had when he came to the realization that his teammates were all dead. How would he feel when the same thing was to happen to him? He didn¡¯t know, the only thing he could do now was to prevent such a thing from happening.

    ¡°Whose face was funny?¡± While Luon was still thinking about the best way to make use of explosives, a voice interrupted his thought process.

    He turned, and his eyes met Arisa who appeared before him.

    Luon looked back at the planet as he replied, ¡°It¡¯s nothing for Commander Arisa to worry about.¡±

    ¡°Cease the formalities, there¡¯s no need for such thing between us,¡± Arisa frowned at his remark.

    ¡°No can do, I mean look over there,¡± Luon replied as he pointed at a security camera on the deck.

    Arisa giggled, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, I had Keyral deal with it earlier.¡±

    ¡°So what do you want that would warrant such actions?¡± Luon turned around and questioned her. ¡°If it¡¯s about my promotion then I am quite grateful for it.¡±

    ¡°Is that how you truly feel?¡± Arisa asked as he looked at him in the eye with a severe look.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Luon snapped back.

    ¡°Tell me, in all honesty. Do you deplore our current social system we use in the Nexus solar system? Where peasants will always stay as peasants. Where the rich and noble will remain in their seats despite how they are?¡± Arisa explained.

    ¡°Are you implying that the three biggest forces in the Nexus solar system shouldn¡¯t exist and everyone had a free right depending on their abilities? I would be lying if I said I am satisfied, but at the same time, I couldn¡¯t care less,¡± Luon replied.

    ¡°Oh, and why is that?¡± Arisa asked out of curiosity.

    ¡°Because without structure we will end up being a mob off with the mentality to follow trends. A wild waste of a planet that would be consumed by the desire of multiple citizens who advocate free will and right while true men die on the battlefield unnamed. Rather than rely on the people, it¡¯s easier to think that such a large organization will handle most of the work for us.¡± Luon pointed out, he then added, ¡°Which is why in the past we had seen many people succeed when they took the helm of things.¡±

    ¡°Even if the current society is corrupt?¡± Arisa inquired.

    ¡°Even then, people still live,¡± Luon nonchalantly replied before turning back to view the planet.

    Seeing how he ended the conversation on that remark, Arisa sighed as she stood beside Luon and gazed at the planet before them.

    ¡°Is it fun to look at the planet like this? I can¡¯t see the charm in so,¡± Arisa asked.

    ¡°When things get stressful, and when people are too occupied to see their surroundings they miss the chance to gaze at the beauty of the world. Have you ever considered to stop and think about this? We can see such amazing sights, but not a single soul is here to witness it,¡± Luon answered.

    ¡°But can¡¯t you see it in the Vortex Container?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s because I¡¯m not in the Vortex Container that I can appreciate it even more.¡± Luon looked at Arisa and said, ¡°This is something that is actually in front of me and not a figment of what the system conjured up for people to see.¡±

    ¡°How do you know that this life isn¡¯t fake? Have you ever thought that the reality you''re experiencing now is just another dream or simulation? Another story told in a realm that you¡¯re unable to reach?¡±

    ¡°Even if it was, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that I lived, or I thought I have lived at this moment. Enough of the philosophy, what exactly do you want.¡± Luon got to the point, he wondered why Arisa was beating around the bush like this when he wanted to be alone.

    ¡°This¡­ I want to ask what are your plans in life,¡± Arisa built up the courage and asked.

    Hearing her query, Luon replied, ¡°What are you, my counselor? Why should I tell you this?¡±

    ¡°Well, to be honest, after this battle I got some replies from some individuals who submitted their resignation letter because they were afraid of dying, which is quite reasonable. I was wondering if you felt the same way¡­ I mean why are you even battling in the first place?¡±

    Luon looked up and gave it some thought before he said, ¡°As I said, the Inzektors is threatening every single being in the universe. Eventually, we will all die if no one stood and fought them.¡±

    ¡°And you will continue to fight them?¡±

    ¡°Until the end.¡±

    Arisa looked at Luon, she didn¡¯t know what drove him onwards like this and timidly asked, ¡°Have you ever considered settling down?¡±

    Her words reminded him of when he died during the first simulation, the regret of being an unfilial son along with the despair of losing his wife in the second simulation came to his mind. He stopped for a moment and said, ¡°I¡­ might consider it, just a bit.¡±

    ¡°Then...¡± Mustering up her feelings she asked, ¡°Will you consider me?¡±

 Chapter 126 - Realization

    ¡°Will you consider me?¡±

    On an empty deck overseeing a luxurious green planet, Arisa faced Luon and said these words with passion.

    Luon appeared dumbfounded. Seeing his stunned expression, Arisa realized that Luon has probably never considered her as a marriage candidate. Arisa blushed momentarily before continuing, ¡°I mean when you go and settle down. You would want your own house, kids¡­ a-and a wife.¡±

    Luon woke up from his stupor and looked at her with disbelief. Although he did say he would consider settling down, he didn¡¯t think that far as Arisa had. Other than combat training, crafting, and commanding, he found himself too busy to think about the regular aspects of life that an average person would have.

    Whatever happened to his ideal lifestyle of living in a lovely home and reading books all day? Although engineering and crafting was something he had liked doing, it was mainly for work. All of this changed after Luon had awakened into this world.

    Luon didn¡¯t have any aspirations during his first simulation, all he wanted to do was lounge around and read. With the sudden turn of events he has been submitted to Nexus University with the lure of knowledge, he partook in the virtual battles because they were interesting.

    Now, after he finished graduating his life was filled with danger. In fact, just a moment ago he had seen several people lay dead in front of him, some of which he knew.

    Death wasn¡¯t anything special before. Luon had become numb to it after seeing it so many times in the Vortex Container, but he never stopped to actually consider it. He had said to himself multiple times that this life was the reality and it wasn¡¯t a dream, but did he actually mean those words? Did he genuinely value the life he has right now? Luon couldn¡¯t help but feel conflicted about his ideas.

    And now this event had led him to realize this fact along with another important aspect to consider. His feelings towards the girl in front of him. Arisa¡¯s beauty had smitten many men, her personality was a little rough, but it had quite an appeal to Luon. That very person was offering herself to Luon like a fish on a platter, even if it was something to take for consideration.

    Perceiving his passionate gaze, Arisa couldn¡¯t help but reddened. Realizing that he had gone a little too far, Luon quickly looked away and closed his eyes as he thought about what kind of future would he have if he did agree.

    ¡®A house¡­ would be no problem at all with our financial situation. The only problem would be getting a job that won''t put us at risk.¡¯

    ¡°Umm.¡±

    ¡®I could probably make do with working at Zekar''s place with Thomas and later on we can take over his business when he retires, but that would also mean we would have to deal with the other members in the underworld¡­¡¯

    ¡°Hello?¡±

    ¡®Instructor Lin can probably help us with this if I asked. Arisa wouldn''t need to work if I did manage to lead the underworld. After that would be kids¡­ there shouldn''t be any problems with our nightlife¡­¡¯

    ¡°Are you awake?.¡±

    ¡®The biggest problem would be dealing with her family members¡­ they wouldn''t let this go at all especially since this is dealing with their main heir. Especially since her mother dislikes Zekar¡­ what would I need to do to appease her? Mayb-¡¯

    ¡°Hey!! Answer me!!¡±

    ¡°Ahh, can''t you be quiet for a second I am in the middle of considering something!¡± Luon opened his eyes and shouted at Arisa.

    ¡°Ah,¡± Arisa eyes brightened as she thought Luon was thinking about her when he was actually thinking about what kind of troubles she¡¯ll bring along with her. Arisa couldn''t help but ask, ¡°So what''s your response? Do you like me?¡±

    Luon looked away and said, ¡°If you¡¯re asking just that then, of course, I like you. It''s not like I hate you or anything.¡±

    ¡°Then-¡±

    Luon sighed as he continued, ¡°But don''t get me wrong, you know I can''t actually consider you because of our circumstances.¡±

    Arisa wanted to retort to his remark but couldn¡¯t find the right words to say. She knew that her family wouldn¡¯t accept Luon and they especially wouldn¡¯t accept the fact that she would leave the household just for him. Bloodlines are a crucial aspect to the Nightwalker family, to introduce an outsider whose bloodline was mixed between a human and an elf was just madness.

    Arisa grew gloomy at the thought of this. Luon who was awaiting a response noticed the change. With a determined expression, he gave a light cough to garner her attention.

    ¡°Well that is if I actually would want to go out with you, but if we look at the big picture, then I¡¯ll be the one losing out on things,¡± Luon proclaimed.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Losing out? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Well since I¡¯m just considering things then wouldn¡¯t marrying someone else be way better than you? I mean if I had to settle with you then you¡¯ll be bringing trouble to me. Whether it be relatives, fans, hell even the press would be annoying. It¡¯s having a random person marry an idol out of the blue. Rather than go through all that someone like Shizuka or Belle is way better than you,¡± Luon rambled on as Arisa¡¯s dark, depressing aura turned more vicious a second.

    ¡°Who needs to be rich when they can keep their life? There are many fishes in the sea waiting for this captain to hunt them. The people from the Sea Kingdom are famed for their well-nourished and smooth skin, the alluring curves that dragon women have, the heartwarming aura that angelic beings emit. So many beauties yet so little time,¡± Luon continued.

    ¡°Is that so?! So there are many people way better than me to consider?¡± Arisa furiously asked him.

    ¡°Yes! In fact, many of them are here right now! Commander I recommend we regroup with the other ships and share our thoughts in this battle with the other ships! I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be willing to hear my heroic tales of dashing towards death and fighting hordes of Inzektors,¡± Luon dazed blankly as he drooled at the thought of beauties fawning over him.

    ¡°Woah, hey now calm down a bit no need to get a little feisty now.¡± Arisa sends a series punches right by Luon who dodged it by an inch away.

    ¡°I only said to consider me, you didn¡¯t have to take it seriously you idiot!¡± Arisa stopped her attacks and ran away, frustrated at the situation.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s that,¡± Luon ogled at her fleeting back. The girl he knew was no more, she was replaced with a righteous, merciless commander.

    Luon scratched his head as he smirked at the camera. ¡°Well? Are you done looking? You should go and comfort her.¡±

    The red light flashed off indicating that Keyral¡¯s control was gone. But still didn¡¯t drop down his guard. He turned one corner of the deck waited for a response. At the spot Luon was gazing at, a person mysteriously appeared and asked, ¡°How did you know?¡±

    Luon laughed at their question as he replied, ¡°I just do, but I wonder why you are here watching us the entire time, Roda.¡±

    ¡°Hmph, acting all mysterious on me once you have the upper hand. Anyways the reason why I was hiding here is so that you don¡¯t harm the young miss.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve been hired by Arisa as a guard?¡±

    ¡°Not just me, but everyone else was as well. You can just say we¡¯re her excellency''s shadows.¡± Roda stood proudly in front of Luon as if she felt accomplished.

    ¡°Shadows, eh? Well, good luck improving on your stealth technique then.¡± Luon started to leave the vicinity only to be stopped by her hand which halted his passage. He looked at her, displeased. ¡°What do you want?¡±

    ¡°You haven¡¯t told me how you found me.¡±

    ¡°Who cares about such a thing.¡± Luon walked around her before stopping for a second.

    ¡°Having second thoughts about telling me how you did it?¡± Roda asked.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m just wondering. Since you saw everything just now, from your perspective, did I do the right thing?¡± Luon sent her a sharp gaze as he asked the question.

    She smirked as slowly uttered, ¡°Who cares about such a thing.¡±

    Luon clicked his tongue before turning around and leaving the area, if he had to mark a female down for someone he wouldn¡¯t want to deal with, Roda would be on that list.

    ¡­

    It hadn¡¯t even been 24 hours since the event did things get rowdier on the ship for Luon. Numerous staff members hurried about as a ship docked in their hanger bay and connected it with their own. Arisa didn¡¯t take Luon¡¯s words of finding another beauty on another fleet ship seriously. Instead, the newly arrived ship was the advance group of reinforcements that had just come to supply their ships inventory.

    Among the newly arrived material was also freshly arrived staff. Belle cheered as she managed to get an expansion on her squadron. ¡°Yeah! We¡¯re already double our size now! 30 people, well 26 if you¡¯re excluding the robots, but it¡¯s still quite the improvement! And on top of that, we have 5 more engineers, one of which is someone we¡¯re all familiar with!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been awhile, Belle.¡±

    ¡°It has. You¡¯ve been so busy with Nexus Corporation that I¡¯ve never seen you at all Shizuka. Did they make you come here to improve your standings?¡± Belle asked.

    Shizuka nodded, slowly she had been taking several duties over in replace of her father. However, many of the higher-ups expressed that she needed some life experience to ensure that their future products would be helpful to actual soldiers.

    Shizuka examined Belle¡¯s squad and when her eyes met with Luon¡¯s she smiled and waved her hand. Luon was surprised at the way Shizuka portrayed herself. Usually, she was cold and aloof, but she was easy-going and full of smiles. It was almost as if she was an entirely different person.

    Luon became afraid of what politics had done to a girl like her to make her this way. He wryly smiled back as he gave a short wave.

    ¡°Well since you¡¯re here now, then you must know about the Alliance¡¯s future plans to take over the planet right? Can you give us a little hint? Other than Arisa we¡¯re all out here left out in the cold.¡± Belle tried to exaggerate the meaning by crossing her arms over and pretending to shiver.

    ¡°Well-¡±

    But before Shizuka could even reply the lights on the ship turned off. The darkness caught everyone off-guard, but it only lasted for a second. The lights were back on, but instead of being the bright normal one, it gave a dark red hue.

    ¡°Emergency, emergency. Team leaders report to the meeting room immediately. All personnel, please go on standby for combat. I repeat, team leaders report the meeting room, and all personnel, please be ready for combat.¡± The ships public announcer said with haste.

    ¡°You guys head to your ships after the other fleet disengages with our hanger. I¡¯ll go check out the situation with Shizuka.¡± Belle ordered.

    ¡°Yes, captain!¡± Every member of her squadron shouted.

    Luon started to order the newly acquired maintenance staff to load up and arm all of the ships, and after about an hour their squad was ready to go. After guiding the new recruits to their quarters and telling them to lock themselves inside, Luon returned to his spaceship.

    Just as he arrived, a projection appeared in front of everyone from their BMPU. Arisa who appeared had a solemn expression. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re all aware that emergency situations don¡¯t often happen right? So I¡¯ll just cut to the chase. We¡¯re abandoning the mission, and we need some time to evacuate before the enemies arrive. There is a high possibility that we will have to engage with the enemy, and there is no guarantee that everything will go well. As for the number of enemies, like how we outnumbered them before they outnumber us now.¡±

    The situation was grave, outnumbering their opponent was the best way to reduce their casualties, because of their strategy they had lost about 5 percent of their force.

    Arisa continued, ¡°As for how much they outnumber us by, let¡¯s just say that there is ten times more of them than us. Even with the newly arrived reinforcements included.¡±

    Escaping was their only choice.

 Chapter 127 - Arrangements

    ¡°Can I stay? Honestly, how did they manage to get that many Inzektors in such a short time frame?¡± Gizmo groaned as he nervously played with his ships control systems.

    ¡°Who wouldn¡¯t want to go out in a situation like this? Only maniacs would.¡± Angela commented.

    ¡°Miss, can you do me a favor and grant me a kiss?¡±

    ¡°I wouldn''t even do it when you¡¯re dead let alone alive,¡± Angela replied.

    The communications channel was filled with dread. The majority of their squad was composed of new personnel who has yet to experience a battle on this kind of scale.

    Besides Gizmo who tries to make the best out of the situation, nobody else talked.

    ¡°It''s alright guys. All ships should be able to retreat using the warp engine once they''re all ready. We might not have a chance to fight at all.¡± Belle attempted to reassure them but to no avail.

    Although her reasoning made sense, the possibility still stands, there was a high chance that they would have to deploy.

    According to the mission data, there were only a few hours until they were ready to warp. In their calculations, if the enemy Inzektors launched an advance party, then all allied ships will have to deploy their fighters to repel them, for an hour.

    One hour is by no means short, and taking account of how many Inzektor Fleets were out there, they estimate that the advance party to be roughly 40000 Inzektors versus 7000 allied fighters.

    It was number where it was still within reason but a problematic challenge nonetheless. Luon estimates that with their firepower, they could eliminate twice the amount before they run out of munitions if they came one at a time that is.

    But humans are filled with imperfections, and there are many uncountable factors on the battlefield. Taking account of accuracy and other factors they would barely be able to repel the first wave.

    Afterward, they needed to retreat to the ship to warp out of the zone. Not a single second could be wasted on the battlefield.

    Retreating would be the tricky part as most fleets weren''t armed with a system to safely procure all of the deployed ships. It was like lining up quickly to the movie theater and only being able to go through one door.

    This meant that they would either have to eliminate the Inzektors faster or start their retreat earlier to reduce the chances of someone getting left behind. It was most likely the latter is what was going to happen.

    ¡°Still, what kind of joke is this? Why should our group be the rear-guard for our retreat? That made this way more difficult than it has to be,¡± Gizmo complained.

    ¡°Did you not hear the explanation earlier? It¡¯s because our fleet and the Yietal fleet has a larger entry point to recover all of the deployed units quickly. Also, they are giving us a chance to earn some more honor before retreating,¡± Kiri replied.

    ¡°Those are just some hypocritical remarks made by the other fleet commanders! In reality, they¡¯re just afraid of the swarm and left it to us, new guys, to deal with it,¡± Gizmo retorted.

    ¡°I won¡¯t deny that...¡± Kiri commented as she gave a short sigh. ¡°Belle, what do you want to do? We can¡¯t opt out of it, but we can still work around it to make the situation better.¡±

    Tapping her finger with the controller Belle spoke, ¡°Luon, about that formation thing you did earlier with the four robots, how efficient is it?¡±

    ¡°You mean the wave formation?¡± Luon asked as he cringed with regret. ¡®I should have made the name better, something along the lines of the coiling dragon or supreme drill formation. Should I be glad that they didn¡¯t laugh?¡¯

    In the corner of his eye, he noticed that some of his squadmates we¡¯re trying their best to hold in their laughter upon hearing the name. Luon stated, ¡°The formation is quite efficient and has a medium level of difficulty to accomplish. The notable points are that in exchange of eliminating the enemy forces faster, our energy reserves will diminish at the same rate.¡±

    ¡°How many can we take out in the short amount of time?¡± Belle asked.

    ¡°With the number of units we have and our explosive supply. About 15 times our number within the first half hour of the engagement. Only there are some slight problems with using the formation.¡±

    ¡°Problems? What are they?¡±

    To Belle¡¯s curiosity, Luon explained that because the formation requires a lot of maneuvering space, they would need permission from the adjacent forces to do it. If they were too close to their allied formations, then there was a risk for friendly fire, especially since their squad was situated close to the planet.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Which fleets are beside our formation anyways?¡±

    ¡°Miss, it¡¯s the Yietal fleet and that old geezer¡¯s fleet.¡±

    ¡°It looks like permission isn¡¯t that bad, except I¡¯m quite worried about having some friendly fire going on. Luon do you have any solutions to the problem if we managed to obtain permission?¡± After asking Kiri about the battlefield, she muttered to herself before prompting Luon another question.

    ¡°We might be able to make do if we attack from behind, only half of the forces have to stay behind to managed the frontline, and we enter the enemies ranks if we clung onto the planet while maneuvering.¡±

    Belle nodded as she found the strategy to be full-proof, she then added, ¡°Then we¡¯ll split the team¡¯s in half for the offensive team, I will go along with-¡±

    ¡°Belle, you can¡¯t go. You know very well what would happen to all of us if you took on the harder role and died. Instead, I will go along with the 4 robots, Gizmo, Bendan, Opo and 12 new recruits. We¡¯ll have a higher chance of succeeding this way,¡± Luon quickly responded.

    Belle looked dissatisfied, but couldn¡¯t disagree with her judgment. She had an important role to accomplish, and the responsible choice was to step down.

    ¡°I¡¯ll come along as well,¡± Angela insisted as she didn¡¯t hear her name on the roster.

    Looking at her determined expression, Luon thought, ¡®Why would she accept this dangerous task? Having more experienced pilots would increase our chances, but this will only put them at risk.¡¯

    Unlike Luon and the others who names weren¡¯t notable in the community with only minor achievements from their time at school, Angela was a well-accomplished squad leader that had fought on the battlefield several times before. One usually would rejoice when such a person volunteered to accept this kind of task, but Luon felt slightly suspicious as he wasn¡¯t close to her at all, he didn¡¯t know what she was thinking.

    Despite this, he couldn¡¯t reject her gesture as he said, ¡°Alright, then Angela will come along in replacement of one of the 12 recruits. Does anyone else want to come as well?¡±

    Nobody else replied, some of them had seen the battle record of Luon¡¯s strategy and thought about the difficulty and danger that they will face, they could only look away to save their own lives.

    After dividing between the offensive and defensive forces, Luon sent to his team the formation program that will align their ship according to the shape of the formation automatically. This meant that all the pilots had to do focus on shooting while riding the train of death and destruction.

    He situated his friends close to his own ship, he then placed the robots in the more challenging and vulnerable positions while relocating the new recruits in-between. If someone had to die it would be the robots that he painstakingly had gotten from his school. He could at least be refunded by the government if they had perished on the battlefield.

    ¡®Let¡¯s just hope that nothing goes wrong...¡¯ Luon thought as he studied the battle strategy once more.

    ¡­

    Clearance was easily allowed, the two fleets had witnessed the effectiveness of Luon¡¯s formation as it had devastated many Inzektors before. However, it was under the condition that they were allowed to provide supportive fire since it would be pointless to defend otherwise.

    They were only moments away from engaging in combat. Having heard that the advance party has been deployed, the allied fleets had launched their fighters to repel them.

    ¡°What if one of them hits us? We¡¯re absolutely vulnerable to stray shots out there,¡± Gizmo who agreed to the plan felt slightly concerned.

    ¡°There¡¯s an unlikely chance for that to occur. First off, we¡¯ll be attacking from their blind-side, and unless their attack is strong enough to penetrate all of the Inzektor forces, it would be near impossible to commit friendly fire. Just calm down a bit, everything will be fine. But if I were to fall, then you¡¯ll take my place,¡± Luon answered.

    ¡°If you were to go down, then I should take over. Comrade, you must have forgotten about military ranks. You¡¯re only allowed to lead because of how much the higher-ups liked you,¡± Angela replied.

    Luon soon realized why she came along, unlike Belle and Arisa who had their families help arrange their military position, Luon¡¯s rankings had soared due to his previous accomplishments. Angela who had experienced the same treatment felt that the military was being unfair when they arranged her new position.

    Luon felt suspicious of her inflexible behavior but shook it off as mere jealousy upon hearing her words. He responded, ¡°Alright, you¡¯ll be in charge if something were to happen, but I find it doubtful anything will happen. Since I¡¯ve already done it once before I can do it again.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s pray that nothing does happen then,¡± Angela answered but cutting off her communications.

    ¡°She¡¯s a strange one,¡± Opo pointed out.

    ¡°A brave one as well,¡± Bendan commented.

    ¡°And really hot,¡± Gizmo whistled.

    ¡°Everyone, get ready for combat. We¡¯ll soon depart and engage with the enemy Inzektors. I don¡¯t want any of you complaining to me in your graves if you died because of negligence,¡± Luon stated as he facepalmed at their remarks.

    ¡°Affirmative!¡± replied their entire squad, or at least the new recruits did.

    Time ticked, and the figures of the opposing swarm of Inzektors had gotten closer. After reaching a certain point the first shot was fired, and the battleground was overflowing with projectiles heading in a multitude of directions.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Luon commanded as he motioned his ship close to the planet. The offensive team departed and encircled Luon ship. The sudden departure caught the Inzektors attention as a large portion of their forces went to follow, the rest were soon attacked by the remaining squad members led by Belle.

    Getting behind the enemies frontline was the challenging part. Luon needed to breakthrough their forces to do so. Like a drill, the offensive squad encircled the planet while eliminating countless of trailing Inzektors. The pilots desperately fired with no sense of union.

    This trait was a flaw in Luon¡¯s plan. Some of the attacks had hit the same target, and sometimes the Inzektor was neglected. Unlike how the robots were completely sync with each other the human pilots couldn¡¯t accomplish the same. All they had to do was shoot the closest Inzektor to them, and yet they still failed miserably.

    This ruined their strategy as a few Inzektors managed to attach themselves onto a few of their ships while they were passing by. The new recruits screamed as they begun to shake and fire randomly. One of which was relieved to find that the Inzektor managed to die, but to their dismay, their ship was soon overrun with Inzektors crawling around it.

    ¡°Pay attention to your targets! Prioritize the ones closest to you! We¡¯re breaking through now!¡± Luon shouted over their communications channel.

    Their team broke free of the swarm, but it wasn¡¯t unscathed. The had lost about 5 of the initial 20 units, the start of their offense wasn¡¯t looking good.

 Chapter 128 - Quick Responses

    ¡°Stay focused guys! One misstep and you¡¯ll die! If you want to make it out of here alive, then follow me!¡± Luon roared.

    After breaching the Inzektor''s frontline, many other Inzektors started to swarm in on them.

    Carefully analyzing the situation, Luon motioned his team to the direction where he found to be weakest. An earth-shattering roar startled the nearby Inzektors. It happened once, twice, and over and over again. As more and more explosive resonated, the number of Inzektors surrounding them increased. Like a drill digging through dirt, the squad slaughtered through the Inzektors.

    Their actions devastated the Inzektors backline, the effectiveness of this strategy could plainly be seen as it forced many of their front line attackers to turn around.

    Suddenly one of their teammates screamed. They were swallowed up by a massive pack of Inzektors, creating an ugly ball of darkness, the Inzektors scattered leaving very few remains behind.

    The new recruits who knew very little about this strategy became afraid, who knows when they will be next. This mission wasn¡¯t going to be easy.

    A new problem soon arrived, the walls of Inzektors in front of where their team was heading was too dense to penetrate with their strategy.

    ¡°What do we do? We¡¯re surrounded!¡± one of the new recruits cried.

    Luon piled his explosives onto the ejection chute and hesitated. With a quick calculation, he knew that shooting one at a time is the most effective way to penetrate through the swarm¡¯s defense. That was only when their numbers weren¡¯t too dense to do so.

    Thinking about this carefully he slowed down his the spaceship and shot the explosives in multiple directions, this caused the Inzektors who were nearby to flee and those who found themselves to be too slow to react perished. A sizeable spherical region had opened up. Although they now have more breathing space they weren¡¯t home free.

    The Inzektors, afraid of being killed slowly encased the squad. Luon¡¯s ship stopped moving.

    ¡®There has to be an opening somewhere!¡¯ Luon searched, he scanned in all directions, but all he could see was an equally dense amount of Inzektors. There was not a single opening he could exploit.

    ¡°Co-could this be the end?¡± asked one of the new recruits.

    ¡°Stop speaking nonsense and help us look for a good spot to attack,¡± Gizmo bellowed, however, despite his remark he still felt gloomy about the situation.

    Bendan folded his arms and gave it some thought as he said, ¡°Isn¡¯t the solution pretty simple? Just charge one way and blast through everything.¡±

    ¡°You idiot, if we could do that we wouldn¡¯t be picking a direction right now.¡±

    ¡°Why can¡¯t we do it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s because we don¡¯t have enough firepower to do so!¡±

    ¡°Then get some more firepower!¡±

    As Bendan and Gizmo started to debate, the Inzektors crept in closer. Hearing the two argue, Luon felt a slight headache.

    ¡®More firepower? I should have equipped the other ships with the ability to shoot explosives, despite the amount I have remaining. There¡¯s no way to produce the same effect unless we self destruct the ship and even then we won¡¯t have enough,¡¯ Luon thought.

    ¡°All ships, we are now in phase 2 of the operation. Please make your way back to the fleet. There are 15 minutes left on the operation,¡± announced the communications officer.

    ¡®We¡¯ll barely make it. It looks like we¡¯ll have to take a little risk,¡¯ Luon thought as he mapped out the direction to begin his retreat, he decided to return the same way he came from.

    Luon sighed, ¡°Sorry guys. We might have to go in like this, and some of us might die on the escape. I am just letting you know now¡­ I''ll do my best to ensure that we''ll all make it out of this alive.¡±

    ¡°At least we''ll go down with honor right? Hahaha, let''s just go at it.¡±

    ¡°Honour? That''s useless. It''s better to live another day and take out more Inzektors when you can then to die here.¡± Gizmo retorted to Bendan''s remark.

    Everyone else didn''t feel that optimistic about the situation. ¡°Just lead the way. We''ll all follow through,¡± Angela commented.

    Opo solemnly nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Alright, guys ready up then. I have nothing much to say other than we¡¯re going to break through and make it home. Switch the formation plans to B and follow me.¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    With that remark, Luon made his move. The Inzektors who were cautious of Luon¡¯s group were startled by the sudden movements they made.

    Luon turned his ship around to the direction where he came from, he was planning to use the planet¡¯s stratosphere to reduce the number of Inzektors they would have to deal with.

    To do this, he needed to first break through the Inzektors blockade. At this moment, four ships appeared in front of Luon as their formation changed into a long single file.

    The first ship rammed into the first Inzektor it made contact with and exploded. Their team dove through the flames as the second, third, and fourth ship did the same actions. It was a kamikaze attack done by the four robots that they had left on their team.

    Luon had launched their self destruct sequence of both the ship and the operator. The explosion was more than what he estimated, it was still within reason as the spaceship was able to resist the blast. With the death of the last robot teammate, Luon started to launch several explosives once more.

    ¡®Only a little bit more!¡¯ There were only a few more Inzektors in the opening that they created, by his estimates at least half of their team would get caught unless someone sacrifices themselves for the team.

    Before Luon could resolve himself, a beam vaporized the remaining Inzektors. Luon turned to look at the origin and found their Fleet ship had aided them by firing the attack.

    Escaping through the opening Luon and the members of his squad left the Inzektor death ball and was now clinging to the side of the planet.

    Unfortunately for them, the pathway back was still occupied with Inzektors, their numbers may have lessened, but it was still quite the challenge.

    ¡°How many more times can you support us?¡± Luon asked the NX Fleet communications officer.

    To his dismay the answer he received was nil. Most of the ship''s energy was concentrated on their defenses, basic operations, and the warp engine. They don¡¯t have the spare power to lend them a hand.

    Luon looked at the number of explosives he had left and let out a dry laugh. Their squad continued on, he fired explosives after explosives and after traversing half the distance, did he stop. ¡°Stop firing and conserve your energy. We¡¯re going for a rough ride!¡±

    Luon forced his ship into the stratosphere of the planet, and the others followed suit. The Inzektors who had gotten closer to the world was pulled in by the gravitational force. Their team was able to resist the power due to their ships mana usage. This couldn¡¯t be the same for the Inzektors as they burned and fell to the planet¡¯s surface. Luon and others managed maintained their direction towards their fleet ship, as a side effect of taking this approach their energy reserves dropped rapidly.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, go, go!¡± Luon screamed as his ship went left and right dodging the crowd of falling Inzektors. Besides Bendan and Opo who were extremely enthusiastic about the situation, the rest of their members frantically escaped as hard as they could...

    At this moment, Luon detected an Inzektor heading straight for him. He tried to motion his ship away. However, he failed to do as he found that the stratosphere had burned away a large portion of one of his engines.

    Before the Inzektor could crash into Luon¡¯s ship, a barrage of lasers gutted its body, and it fell from grace. The projected shots were frighteningly only meters away from Luon¡¯s ship. The origin came from someone he had least expected to arrive and help them. Leading the squadron was Zythos who came along with his teammates and had appeared in the nick of time to save Luon and the others.

    Luon¡¯s squadron members couldn¡¯t help but start to cheer and tear up from the frightening life and death experience they just had was now over. Luon felt relieved that no one else in his squad was going to die today.

    Zythos gave a quick look and snorted as he said, ¡°Looks like you guys lucked out a bit.¡±

    ¡°Umm, thanks. I really appreciated the help,¡± Luon answered, he wasn¡¯t used to being polite with Zythos.

    ¡°Don¡¯t thank me yet, we¡¯re almost out of time, and we haven¡¯t made our way out yet.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by tha-¡±

    Another explosion happened, only this one was several times closer. Luon¡¯s ship lost its engines and fell towards the planet. He tried to move the joystick. Nothing happened, his systems were completely shut down. Luon looked at who had shot him from the only visual display available and was surprised to find out that it was Opo!

    ¡°Luon! You! Why did you do it!¡± Bendan demanded Opo to answer but had his communications cut in response.

    Opo¡¯s ship flew out of formation and position himself next to Zythos¡¯s ship, who in turn, gave him a quick glance before staring at Luon¡¯s demise.

    ¡°More importantly, we need to help him out!¡± Gizmo proclaimed.

    Most of the original members nodded, however, a cold a desolate voice argued, ¡°Why? Don¡¯t you know we have no more extra time to go help him out? The ship is about to warp away without us on board, do you honestly think that with our number of ships we be able to return safely?¡±

    Angela rejected the notion of saving Luon, but this only made Bendan, and Gizmo angrier. They didn¡¯t even have a chance to argue, all of the squadron members BMPU¡¯s went off. Luon appeared on their screens as he responded, ¡°She¡¯s right, it¡¯s too late for me. You guys retreat back to the ship. Even if you saved me now, there isn¡¯t enough time to escape the swarm.¡±

    ¡°But...¡±

    ¡°No buts. You guys need to follow the one in charge, and with me inoperable, the next in command is Angela. Follow her orders and leave back to the ship,¡± Luon commanded.

    ¡°Why! Just why! We could still do this!¡± Gizmo cried.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be ludicrous, you still have a job to do. Don¡¯t let your father down and become a great general one day. Don¡¯t worry about me, I¡¯ll somehow make do while on this planet.¡± Luon assured him.

    ¡°It¡¯s filled with Inzektors! How can you possibly make the best out of this situation like this!¡±

    ¡°Stop being a cry baby now. If you want to die then go right ahead. Everyone else, follow me back to the ship. We¡¯re checking in now,¡± Angela proclaimed as she left the vicinity, along with her newly recruited teammates.

    ¡°Gizmo¡­ its time to go now. Even I know it isn¡¯t possible. Luon would want us to continue on his path.¡± Bendan sighed, everything happened to fast. One moment they were penetrating the Inzektors lines, the next moment they were escaping back to the ship. Now they were forced to leave a comrade behind. Bendan questioned how fickle fate can be.

    ¡°I¡¯ll see you again, one day,¡± Gizmo saluted Luon once more before leaving with the others. Zythos gave a small laugh as he realized how easily he had gotten rid of his biggest rival, he now felt a little empty inside.

    Luon¡¯s ship continued to fall, without any thrusters there was no way to reduce the impact. Luon opened up the cockpit and tried his best to cushion the fall, but to no avail, the ship continued to drop.

    Locking himself back in the cabin, he prepared for the worse as the ship landed, Luon blacked out.

 Chapter 129 - The Way Home Is Very Far Away

    ¡°Commander, all ships have been accounted for as reported from the squad leaders,¡± the communications officer stated.

    Arisa nodded as she commanded, ¡°Alright, start the warp engines back home! We can¡¯t waste a single second that our brave warriors have spared us. Send the battle report to my office after we have fully retreated from the battlefield.¡±

    ¡°Acknowledged,¡± the communications officer replied with a bow.

    ¡®I wonder how Belle¡¯s squadron did during this battle? She said that Luon had an interesting tactic to use and from what I could see from before it was quite effective. Too bad I couldn¡¯t witness the rest of it since I had to oversee the battle¡­ it looks like I¡¯ll have another reason to talk to him about this and his future promotion,¡¯ Arisa thought.

    It was too bad this chance will never happen as the fleet warped out of the sector.

    ¡­

    ¡°So you were the spy that the commander set up?¡± Zythos asked as he peered into the eyes of the newly arrived personnel.

    Opo nodded as he said, ¡°Reporting to young master, I am indeed the spy that he had arranged to sneak into the military division.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware of how we got our intel before, but it¡¯s quite surprising to see that you would be willing to put yourself at risk like this,¡± Zythos commented as he recalled the number of bystanders at the scene of where Opo had attacked Luon.

    According to the Alliance¡¯s military law, people who committed acts of friendly fire, especially ones that had to do with death, were to be executed regardless of their excuse, that is before being tortured on the reason why he did so.

    There was no way for the Mythos clan to protect such a person. Zythos knew the amount of power the Alliance laws have. If they were to step up, they would be condemned by the other superpowers.

    In the future, they will come seeking for Opo from the Mythos Clan who can only give him up.

    ¡°That is not a problem young master, I have been trained for this for my entire life.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right Zythos, you don¡¯t have to worry about anything. We¡¯ve already made arrangements with the assassins guild to take care of Opo while he is in prison. Before we let him go, we¡¯ll also do a memory wipe on him.¡±

    Laughter echoed in the room as the Fleet Commander of the ship came in. Zythos turned to him and asked, ¡°Who¡¯s Opo and why is he so willing to do this?¡±

    ¡°It looks like Sir Daimon hasn¡¯t told you anything. He¡¯s very similar to you, one of the first few specimens of the Descendant project which you originated from, except he doesn¡¯t share the same genes as you. You could say he¡¯s your predecessor. We were going to dispose of him eventually but decided that he could be put to some use, so we trained him to become a spy and faked his identity inside of the system.¡±

    The Fleet Commander revealed everything without a missing point of detail, he thought that by saying so he would be able to make a better impression of himself for the future head of the clan.

    However, Zythos was shocked at how easily he and his other brethren in the Descendant¡¯s project were discarded. He had fought hard to survive the project and become useful for the Mythos clan, and after his purpose is spent, will he end up exactly like Opo?

    Zythos shuddered at the thought but secretly kept it to himself, maybe one day he¡¯ll go to bed and never awaken again because his family had assassinated him in his sleep. Unlike Opo who knew a lot about his family but was trained never to reveal anything, Zythos was kept in the dark of everything.

    ¡®At least I won¡¯t be dealt with for now...¡¯ Zythos thought as he recalled the fact that he was an inspirational public figure. His attack on the Inzektor core will boost him to greater heights in reputation.

    Zythos resolved himself to become stronger to the point where he will be untouchable, or at least to the point where his family wouldn¡¯t kill him.

    ¡­

    ¡°That Opo! Who knew he would turn out to be a spy for the Mythos Clan!¡± Bendan madly smashed his pilot helmet on the ground as he got off of the ship.

    The helmet flew several meters before crashing into a bundle of materials stored into a corner.

    ¡°Hey watch the equipment, the stuff is expensive,¡± cried one of the engineers who was assisting the docking process.

    ¡°You watch yourself! It¡¯s not like we need it anytime soon!¡± Bendan shouted as he postured himself forward only to be held back by Gizmo who replied, ¡°Ah, sorry about my teammate. Some crazy stuff happened on the battlefield¡­ you idiot why do you have to mess around with the support staff like this? Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m sure Belle and Arisa would do something about it.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°I¡¯ll try, but it¡¯s not guaranteed. Seeing how they were able to execute this publically I am sure that the Mythos Clan has already planned out how they will escape punishment, and since Luon wasn¡¯t already promoted, I am sure that the governing forces won¡¯t do any further investigation. It will be written off an accidental friendly fire between two soldiers. With both of them dying as a result,¡± Belle explained as she intruded into the two¡¯s conversation.

    Her words dimmed the atmosphere.

    Belle let out a short sight before continued, ¡°All we can do is wait for now. Arisa hasn¡¯t read the report yet, but I am sure she won¡¯t let this case rest. Let¡¯s just rest up for now. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll all stressed from the battle we just had.¡±

    ¡°Will we be able to rescue Luon from the Inzektor planet?¡± Gizmo asked.

    Angela who was silent the entire process responded, ¡°No, I am sure that this expedition is over. We¡¯ve already tried taking the planet a few times and failed to do so. Luon, if he¡¯s alive, is on his own.¡±

    ¡­

    It was dark, very, very dark. Luon felt his conscious mellow out as if he was resting in the comfort of a warm blanket starring at the cold winter night. His mind was completely relaxed, it was to the point where he didn¡¯t want to do anything.

    The comfort soon came to an end, it was as if someone had jerked away from the warmth and tossed him into the frigid cold bare naked, his mind woke up from the shock, and before his eyes, he could see the dangling electrical cable only a few centimeters away from his head.

    The shocking sight scared up for a moment until he realized that there was no sign of energy being emitted. He let out a sigh of relief as his memories soon caught up to him.

    ¡°It seems like your awake, well it¡¯s not surprising to see you dead especially from that height, but death isn¡¯t anything new to either you or me.¡± As he was taking all of this information in Thanatos began to talk to Luon.

    ¡°I was betrayed,¡± Luon said out loud as confirm his beliefs.

    ¡°Yes, you were. So what do you need to do right now?¡± Thanatos assured him and prompted him to take action.

    Looking at the ship component¡¯s Luon realized that none of it was salvageable. Luon checked his BMPU only to find out that he was unconscious for a few minutes.

    ¡°I need to find out what¡¯s going on,¡± Luon spoke as he started to fiddle with the opening mechanism on the ship. Unfortunately, it was disabled. Luon grunted as he attempted to pry open the door, but stopped as he found it fruitless to do so.

    As he stopped to think about what to do his BMPU made an alarming sound, Luon read the report and found that the oxygen levels of the ship were dropping.

    ¡°Did the ship bury itself in the ground? I need to get out of here! Looks like there¡¯s no choice.¡±

    Luon pulled out his rifle and starting blasting holes from inside of this ship, the parts that may be recycled were decimated as Luon desperately tried to escape. However, filling in the gap, a large quantity of water came spewing in.

    ¡°Water? How is it that my ship can be so damaged if I landed in water?!¡± Luon cried as he figured his ship had landed on some kind of solid surface becoming damaged before falling in the water.

    ¡°My suit only has an hour of oxygen left. I should be okay for now, but I need to get out as soon as possible.¡±

    With the water coming in Luon wasn¡¯t able to use his rifle anymore. He pulled out his sword and infused it with mana as he hacked at the opening he made with the rifle. Aided by the pressure of water coming into the ship and his sword hacking at the opening, Luon managed to make a large enough gap for himself to exit.

    Fortunately, as he exited the ship, he didn¡¯t meet with any sea creatures that may have harmed him.

    Luon rushed to the surface only to meet a starry night sky, void of the unnatural light of civilization. The dream-like atmosphere made Luon dismay as he was able to spot his hope vanish into the darkness of space.

    Luon managed to awaken to the sight of the Alliance ships warping out of the region.

    Luon wanted to scream for it to wait for him, but he knew they wouldn¡¯t do so. As the last ship vanished, Luon felt desolated and all alone. This feeling was all too familiar with him.

    ¡°They say that the stories you¡¯ve read and the experience of others isn¡¯t relatable, but that isn¡¯t the case now, is it?¡± Thanatos words whispered into his ears.

    ¡°You''re saying that my simulated experience is similar to my current state?¡±

    ¡°Is it not?¡±

    ¡°No, this time I¡¯m not alone. I have you, and you have me, and just maybe we¡¯ll manage to get out of this situation.¡± Luon stated as he got out of the water and arrived at the shore of a nearby island.

    Examining the marks on the ground Luon found that several random parts were scattered as it was trailing his ship that skidded off to the ocean.

    ¡°How are you going to get home?¡± Thanatos questioned.

    ¡°There should be some ancient relics of our past civilization on this planet somewhere. Although this planet is filled with Inzektors, I am sure that they won¡¯t destroy everything since they won¡¯t be able to understand it. We¡¯ll have to find a hanger with a ship and fly out to a nearby allied solar system for help.¡±

    ¡°Quite optimistic aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Somehow I am finding myself more similar to you by the second could the betrayal be accelerating our synchronization process?¡± Luon asked as he found Thanatos to be quite talkative.

    ¡°... it¡¯s better than being alone isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°...¡± Luon couldn¡¯t find a way to retort to that remark.

    Looking at his intraspatial bag, Luon had enough food for a few weeks and several parts for a spaceship that he kept to the side. It wasn¡¯t enough for the whole thing, especially if it needed to travel for a significant amount of distance, he needed to find a hanger as soon as possible or find a way to survive on the planet.

    Luon didn¡¯t have any hopes of the Alliance ships would come to save him, if they could, they would have won the battle already. He knew from the previous battle records that this attempt was just one to build experience for the newly arrived personnel as well as damaging the Inzektor hoard.

    ¡°It might be better to be alone though,¡± Thanatos added on to the conversation.

    Luon was confused at how Thanatos contradict himself like that, but he soon found out the reason why.

    ¡°At least it¡¯s better than hanging out with these things.¡±

    A crowd of Inzektors who were scared at the crash landing appeared out of curiosity. Luon armed himself for combat expecting the worse possible scenario.

    On an Inzektor filled planet, it¡¯s not surprising to find Inzektors.

    The way home is very far away.

 Chapter 130 - Things Going Wrong

    ¡°Thanks for the hard work!¡±

    ¡°No problem, just doing my duties.¡±

    ¡°Alright, come along now traitorous scum. We don¡¯t have all day.¡±

    A rally of men led a man away. He who had his face covered in a black bag, as he was dragged away in chains, was Opo after he had been memory wiped.

    Opo hobbled, but the officials found nothing of it as they assumed it was because of his guilt and depression weighing down on him, that and the black bag made it hard for him to walk.

    The battalion of officials and their prisoner left fleet on their ship used to transport prisoners. The fleet commander and Zythos looked at the scene with an expressionless face.

    When the ship was the size of a speck of dust in their eyes, they started to walk away.

    Zythos couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Will they figure out that he had lost his memories?¡±

    ¡°No need to worry about that. It will be reported as the man being delusional and in the state of shock. Before they can pry any further than that the assassin will deal with him.¡±

    ¡°What about the assassin? Will they find out who he is?¡±

    ¡°What do you think assassins are? They wouldn¡¯t be known as that if they can¡¯t manage to escape by themselves. Worst-case scenario we¡¯ll have to deal with him too.¡±

    ¡°An assassin to deal with another assassin? There¡¯s no way such a story could be true.¡±

    ¡°Who knows? The greedy bunch wouldn¡¯t care who the target is, they only think for themselves. Then again, the one we¡¯re sending is quite infamous so we shouldn¡¯t need to worry about the matter.¡±

    The two arrived at the Fleet Commander¡¯s office as they ended the conversation. After sitting down, a projection appeared before the two, Daimon Werebringer appeared on the screen.

    ¡°Is the deed done?¡±

    ¡°Yes, your Excellency. All external factors and the cover-up has been dealt with. Awaiting your orders.¡±

    ¡°What was the reaction of the other party?¡±

    ¡°The Fleet Commander of the NX Fleet requested the occupancy of the subject with vigor, but we denied the request stating that the transportation should be handled by us since we were the ones to secure him. Even if they had the opportunity to speak to him, it wouldn¡¯t matter now. As for the Alliance officials they are treating it as another simple case of accidental death.¡±

    ¡°Good, now that the expedition is a failure we can use the downtime to improve our standings in the Nexus solar system. It¡¯s time to consolidate our foundations and eliminate all opposing factors. You will be awarded for your deed once the fleet has returned.¡±

    ¡°It is an honor to serve.¡± The fleet commander stood up and bowed graciously towards Daimon.

    ¡°Um, what should I do then?¡± Zythos who stood at the sidelines asked.

    ¡°Using the promotional fact that you had eliminated a swarm host core we¡¯ll turn you into a hero. I am sure the association will twist the truth in a way which will favor us. With you, in the lead, we¡¯ll be able to get more new recruits in our faction. Work hard, I¡¯m counting on you.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Father!¡± Zythos replied energetically. Inwardly he thought if he continued to serve his father like this he wouldn¡¯t be disposed of.

    With that remark the communication channel disconnected.

    Zythos, let out a small grin as he left the room.

    ¡®It¡¯s funny, to think that everything will go as he planned. But for some reason, I am thinking otherwise.¡¯

    ¡®Luon, are you truly dead?¡¯

    ¡­

    ¡°They¡¯re obviously lying. Clearly, the Mythos clan had done something to him.¡± Arisa clenched her teeth in fury as she had read the report the officials had given her.

    The testimonial stated that Opo had accidentally attacked Luon when they were ambushed by Inzektors, and due to the shock the subject had forgotten his memories, his execution was delayed as the officials decided to wait until his memories had recovered before questioning him again.

    Arisa didn''t think that this was the real truth behind the matter. She figured that Opo was forced to lose his memories during his time in the Yietal ship before he was let go like this. However, she lacked the evidence to prove her theory.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°If I were them, I would execute him when I still have the chance. But to do that under the eyes of the Alliance would be difficult. There¡¯s nothing I can do in this situation. I¡¯ll have to take a look at this situation from another approach.¡±

    Thinking about the situation carefully she used her BMPU and contacted her family to help investigate the movement of the Mythos Clan.

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°But Uncle I feel like-¡±

    ¡°I said we aren¡¯t going to go investigate the Mythos Clan using our family resources. I do not want any tension between our family and the other powers in the Nexus solar system. What we need to do now is cultivate some new recruits. Seeing how this expedition was quite productive in reducing their numbers, it was still a failure since we weren¡¯t able to claim the planet despite having their main forces away. Investigating an ally for a minor matter would only bring disorder.¡±

    Felia¡¯s father, otherwise known as Arisa¡¯s uncle, was the current head of the Nightwalker family since Arisa¡¯s mother was incapable of managing the affairs. With the support of the other elders, while making remarkable achievements, his prestige and reputation grew significantly.

    He was a man whose ideals are supported by logical reasoning, and he wouldn¡¯t do something that would undermine his position.

    Marrying Arisa off to the Deminier was one of his ideas.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t need anything else then ask someone else. I am quite busy and have no time to entertain you,¡± he stated.

    Holding in her fury, she gave him a crooked smile as she answered, ¡°Sorry for bothering you then, I will be returning home quite shortly, and I hope to see you then.¡±

    With just a hum he nodded and cut off the communications. Then, a smashing sound followed by silence resonated in the room. Arisa sighed as she melted in her chair. Nothing was going her way, she couldn¡¯t think properly because of how mad she was, the victim was her desk that had a massive dent in it.

    ¡°Master.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t speak out to your master like that. You have to learn to wait and follow orders.¡±

    ¡°Roda, nevermind Keyral if you have something to say then say it.¡± Arisa turned to see Roda in the corner being reprimanded by Keyral, but still was void of any expression.

    Roda looked deeply in her eyes as she said, ¡°According to my understanding the Mythos Clan will undoubtingly send out an assassination request for Opo. If you¡¯re looking to observe the Mythos Clan, then my family members and I are at your bidding, and if you can¡¯t get more support from your family then shouldn¡¯t we try asking your friend from the Novera Corporation?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, that is quite a valid opinion. However, I don¡¯t want to involve Shizuka into these matters. It¡¯s like my uncle said, it was quite a small ordeal, I don¡¯t think they would authorize the use of their resources like this.¡±

    ¡°But your own forces and Shizuka¡¯s should be sufficient enough for the investigation right?¡±

    Tapping her finger against the desk, she gave it some thought before nodding as she said, ¡°Alright, contact her on the bridge with the proposal. You¡¯ll act as our private messenger as we aren¡¯t entirely sure if our actions are going to monitored if we use our BMPU once we return to the Nexus solar system. I want to know what the Mythos clan is up to.¡±

    ¡°What about Luon?¡± Keyral asked.

    Arisa glanced at her before looking at a picture on her desk as she said, ¡°We¡¯ll prepare a private funeral for his family. As for his revenge...¡±

    With determination in her eyes, she resolutely bellowed, ¡°I won¡¯t let a single one of them off.¡±

    ...

    ¡°I¡¯ve never been so, tired, in my, life.¡± Luon panted as he sat down after running what seemed to be a marathon.

    ¡°Physically you should be fine. With your body structure, you should be able to endure several days more of this. If you want to survive this ordeal you need to kill your mind a bit,¡± Thanatos replied.

    ¡°Kill my mind? My brains already fried. I just want to sleep, stupid bugs. They just won¡¯t leave me alone.¡± Luon cried.

    ¡°Of course they won¡¯t. To them, you¡¯re the invader and the enemy. They will do whatever it takes to find you.¡±

    It¡¯s been a few weeks since the crash and Luon spent the majority of the day dealing with Inzektors. At first, he would kill every single one he saw, but once the spree started many more Inzektors would arrive. The battle became drawn out to the point where he couldn¡¯t deal with them anymore.

    Running away was the best method to deal with Inzektors, and he had to learn this the hard way.

    ¡°Still this place is crazy. What do you think this place was like before the Inzektors came?¡±

    ¡°From my understanding, and the records you have read before it explains that the level of civilization is equivalent to you our own, minus several redeeming points.¡±

    ¡°Out of those points, the most important one would be that tower,¡± Luon replied to Thanatos.

    Looking outside of the window of the abandoned building Luon was in he could see a large tower covered in moss and other vegetation as it lays in decay.

    ¡°If I were a citizen of this planet and I had to live in fear of Inzektors daily. It¡¯s normal to think that the hanger and weaponry depot to be located in the core part of the city. With the amount of damage it has and the fact that we can see Inzektor¡¯s coming out of it. It wouldn¡¯t be surprising to find out the entire building has become their nest.¡±

    ¡°What do you plan to do?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll need to find a way inside of the hanger and secure a working ship that way-¡±

    As Luon was explaining the details to Thanatos, he sensed something coming down fast at his location. He jumped away to find that the floor where he was previously on became crumbling pieces as two large Inzektors appeared in their place.

    The two had six spiky legs, with joints covered in black armor. Their body and faces were merged, it was like a fully grown Alligator cut in half only uglier, but that wasn¡¯t the frightening factor. These two Inzektors were both level 80.

    ¡°To think that there would be this many strong Inzektors. Man, our training camp must look like a joke compared to the real thing.¡±

    There was no one there to agree to his argument, besides himself that is. Thanatos asked, ¡°I guess we¡¯ll going to have to escape again. How are you going to do it?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say that as if it isn¡¯t your problem.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m saying it because it really isn¡¯t my problem. To you, and me, I¡¯m already dead like a ghost haunting you. I won¡¯t feel pain if you die, maybe I would feel my fading existence, and I don¡¯t know what that¡¯s like so there¡¯s no point of worrying about it.¡±

    ¡°Any tips for me then?¡±

    ¡°Good luck!¡± Thanatos cheered.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one doing so, the two Inzektors screeched as if letting Luon know of their presence as they charged at him. Luon turned around hacked open the wall before jumping out of the building without a single second to think about his actions.

    The walls behind him shattered as the two rammed the walls with their body, and the three of them began to free fall. Into another horde of normal Inzektors waiting for Luon on the ground.

    Luon couldn¡¯t help but curse his fate as he plunged into the middle of the horde.

    The only thing on his mind now was to survive.

 Chapter 131 - Harvest

    Immediately after landing, the Inzektors that were waiting for Luon¡¯s arrival made their move. They sprung forward at him with their claws threatening to tear his limbs apart.

    ¡°Transform!¡± The belt Luon wore let out a mystical glow as a black set of armor covered Luon¡¯s limbs.

    The attacks were repelled by his armor, the low-level Inzektors could only tickle him out of frustration. With such a useful thing in his arsenal, why did he only use it now? It was because it restrained his ability to move quickly as low-level Inzektors were the least of his problems.

    The two Inzektors that had followed Luon on his descent had landed a second later. They then turned to jump towards Luon after shaking off the excess debris and reorienting their senses to the new environment. Luon slid into the army of Inzektor that can barely harm him, causing the two to fail in capturing Luon, their efforts were fruitless as they were slaughtering their own kind as a mistake.

    The two level 80 Inzektors screeched causing the weaker ones to scatter. They were infuriated by the crowd as it hampered them from reaching their target, as for the lives of other Inzektors, they couldn¡¯t care less.

    Sure enough with the Inzektors creating space for the two, it became clearer to see, that their target had vanished from the scene.

    Luon had turned himself invisible after mingling with the crowd of Inzektors.

    They screeched once again and started to rampage on the streets without a care of their surroundings. The other Inzektors panicked as they departed to search for the missing intruder.

    Luon looked at the scene slightly amused as he had entered one of the buildings nearby. He turned his sight away as he assumed that they wouldn¡¯t be able to find him. He then observed the sky silently. It wasn¡¯t without a cause, his eyes narrowed once he noticed a new type of Inzektor appear.

    It was a strange being, something that Luon became familiar with after he had arrived on this planet, it looked like a firefly with its tail curled making a fetal-like position. At the end of its tail was astonishingly large eyeball that scoured every corner as if it was searching for something.

    This troublesome Inzektor was able to see through Luon¡¯s invisibility.

    ¡®It¡¯s not thermal, mana, or wind, and yet how is it finding me so easily?¡¯ Luon thought as imagined that there was a higher power at work.

    The foundation of an Inzektors was an evolved form of Insect, or that¡¯s what experts assumed it to be. They shared multiple traits with their former counterparts, but the biggest question was, how they could evolve until the point where they were the same size as a human being? Nobody knew.

    There had been talks of where an intelligent species had sent the first generation of Inzektors on an isolated planet to accelerate its development only to fail miserably, or that they evolved naturally because of the ambiguity of evolution process.

    Luon let out a sigh, the only clear thing is, he needed to avoid this type of Inzektor¡¯s vision, he couldn¡¯t care less about those theories. Entering buildings and close quarter areas made it difficult for them to find him, but he couldn¡¯t stay invisible forever.

    Ensuring that the new type had not found him, Luon started to search the building he entered only to find scraps and Inzektors around every corner. For the last two weeks, he had been unable to find any proper sources of nutrition, unless he was willing to eat Inzektors that is.

    But what did he expect from a place that had been abandoned for centuries? The only hope he had of finding proper food was to search for low-level humanoid Inzektors that were used to grow their byproducts.

    However, during his last two weeks, he had never seen a single one walking around. The only notable thing was constant traffic that happened at the large tower in the center.

    ¡®It¡¯s either a nest or a huge dining hall, either way, it¡¯s a place that needs to be investigating since there is a high chance that there¡¯s a hanger inside.¡¯

    Luon went from one building to the next, praying that one of the houses had an owner whose hobbies would align with developing anything related to spaceships, only to find storage compartments and garages carrying rusted vehicle components; ill-suited for space travel.

    He didn¡¯t want to try to attack the tower unless he had to, but after an entire week of searching, he had only covered a small segment of the city as he was too busy dealing with Inzektors.

    ¡°The longer you take, the worse things gets.¡± Thanatos, Luon¡¯s only spiritual and mental assistance, advised at the dire circumstances.

    ¡°I know if I can¡¯t find anything today. Then I¡¯ll start developing a plan to attack the tower.¡±The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Do you think it¡¯s achievable? To attack the tower with your capabilities when you¡¯re running away from two strong Inzektors?¡±

    ¡°I have to, there¡¯s no other way out.¡± Luon firmly stated.

    ¡°... want me to help?¡± Pausing momentarily, Thanatos asked Luon.

    ¡°What can you do? A phantom of me, who only knows how to fight and command. In a situation where you have no men, pitting yourself against many countless individuals - all to secure a measly crumb of bread to satiate your hunger? Even I know how unreasonable it is for you to try to attack the base. You¡¯re only saying that because you just don¡¯t want me to experience any more hardships.¡±

    Thanatos couldn¡¯t retort to Luon¡¯s statement, it was indeed true that he wanted to bear his hardships, but how could he achieve this when all he is a remnant of a simulated experience that they had in the Vortex Container? He wanted to be physically by his side and aid him when he needed it the most. They both knew what it was like to be alone.

    Luon let out a short sigh, he continued, ¡°I¡¯ll take charge. It¡¯s not like we¡¯re taking down the tower. We¡¯re only looking for food and a way home, and the best method is to infiltrate their base.¡±

    That is if they had to go to the tower, and in the end, they did.

    ¡­

    A loud and unexpected, short burst of explosions reverberated in the desolate cityscape. The action attracted many of the Inzektors in the region as they came dashing towards the source.

    It was quite far away from the tower, to the point where you could get only a single glimpse of it, the Inzektor guards posted in the front brushed it off as they knew that an intruder had recently appeared.

    They assumed that it was another day with this crafty person, they thought that at the increasing rate of encounters, they would eventually capture the prey.

    The place was as normal as it could be, several Inzektors can be seen using the entrance as traffic proceeded normally.

    But not all Inzektors believe Luon was going to go down that easily, coming from the tower, several of those Inzektors who were able to see through Luon¡¯s ability screeched causing the pathway to open up, the Inzektors moved as they were told as if there was an ambulance going down the street with it¡¯s warning signals on.

    Along the way, one of the Inzektors exiting bumped into a large -bellied Inzektor who was tipped to side while waiting to enter the building.

    The Inzektor scrunch the eyeball to show how to angry it was. The big fellow who could only quiver due to their difference in the hierarchy and strength. Seeing the response, it was if the Inzektor scoffed at him a bit before leaving.

    The traffic resumed as usual and Luon, who was attached to the bottom of the enormous Inzektor, let out a sigh of relief as he almost been spotted.

    With his invisibility he could easily break into the tower as long as he wasn¡¯t spotted by that Inzektor, he didn¡¯t know how many they are, but he wasn¡¯t willing to take any chances when infiltrating the base.

    That is until he found this colossal Inzektor, using it as a cover, he managed to sneak inside, and not only that, but they both had the same destination as well.

    Luon managed to reach the food storage where many humanoid Inzektors can be seen growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables. The huge Inzektor laid down as the others started to attach food along with his stomach.

    Luon snuck away at started to sneakily pick at their harvest. He took a small amount at a time to ensure that they didn¡¯t catch on to him.

    His harvest was plentiful, he had enough food for himself for a few months if he consumed it conservatively.

    ¡®Should I take down this facility? You don¡¯t get a chance like this every day. Wait, before that, I should take the parts away to make myself a spaceship.¡¯

    Luon put off his thoughts of burning the primary supply of food for the Inzektors down, with the food problem solved, he needed to find out where the hanger was in the tower.

    However, he wasn¡¯t able to travel far as an Inzektor screeched at his presence.

    A few meters away from Luon was spotted by one of those Inzektors with the eyeball. It had been neglecting its duties and snuck off on its own to satiate its hunger when it detected it¡¯s sworn nemesis in the middle of the field.

    Luon¡¯s invisibility was hampered by the Inzektors eye, every Inzektor the vicinity panicked as most of them weren¡¯t combatants. They screeched continuously as Luon thought, ¡®The guards will be here any time soon. I don¡¯t have enough time to find out where the hanger is. Should I burst open a wall to escape?¡¯

    Leaving the strangling Inzektors, he slashed his blade against the wall only to find it to be reinforced. Luon looked around the room only to have frown appear on his face to the realization that there was only one room.

    The guards came streaming in a short amount of time, but before they can advance into the field. Luon yelled, ¡°That¡¯s a mistake!¡±

    He lit the place on fire, the field full of food became baked as the heat deterred the guards.

    ¡®Should I take out the scout and try escaping with my invisibility? No, he shouldn¡¯t be the only one in the base, and with them alarming each other, the others would soon arrive. I need to escape this place.¡¯ Luon thought as he hurriedly scanned the room.

    ¡°Hey you, this way!¡±

    Suddenly from the side of the wall, an opening was made, a hand peeked out and waved at Luon to escape.

    Luon was surprised to see another person in this Inzektor filled planet, not only that but he knew of such a secretive passage.

    Although Luon didn¡¯t know the intent of the person, he couldn¡¯t feel any ill will, and he needed to escape. He dashed towards the door, once he was inside it began to close, but before it did, Luon managed to take a glimpse at 4 level 80 Inzektors who had noticed his retreat.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been spotted hurry and follow me!¡±

    The path was dark, Luon was entirely focused at following the person¡¯s footsteps as he could hear the clawing and bashing sounds coming from the door that they had just left from.

    They ran and ran, and the sounds of Inzektors started to get closer and closer. The pathway was just large enough for them to fit one at a time.

    ¡®Should I turn around and face them off?¡¯ Luon thought as he turned around while running.

    His savior gave Luon a glimpse every one in a while to ensure he was on the right track, but at this time he noticed Luon turn to look behind him as he yelled, ¡°Follow my steps, you idiot. You¡¯re going to fall for-¡±

    Luon took another step forward as he suddenly realized that he slightly off track, a trap sprung out and hit Luon hard in the head as he started to lose his conscious.

    ¡°A trap¡­¡± the person dismayed at how foolish the person was, he picked up Luon¡¯s body and ran away.

    The sounds of Inzektors following them faded away along with Luon''s conscious, and like that Luon managed to escape.

 Chapter 132 - The Shadows Of The Shattered World

    ¡°If only you had listened to me none of us would have died.¡±

    ¡°Traitor!¡±

    ¡°Hahaha. How could you fall for the easiest trick in the book?¡±

    ¡°The blood of your family is tasty, but how much better it would be if I used your skull as a chalice?¡±

    ¡°Die...¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    A myriad of thoughts echoed and lingered within Luon¡¯s mind. He could see the despair of many and the shattering trust of who he thought was friendly. His negligence and actions had caused the downfall of many of his friends and family.

    ¡°Stop! Just stop!¡± Luon screamed as he jolted himself awake. Breathing heavily he rubbed his hands against his face. It was warm, he was still alive.

    Ever since he was betrayed by Opo, Luon began to have visions from the times Thanatos had been betrayed in the simulated world. He was afraid to sleep and would barely manage to squeeze in an hour at most during his time on the planet. It was like he was watching a cruel film that starred people who were significant to him in a horrific setting. Staying awake was the only way to avoid it.

    Wiping his sweat away on his forehead, he found himself in a cavern. The mossy and damped walls felt cold and bleak, the atmosphere would have made him feel unsettled if it weren¡¯t for the three things. The warm fire in the middle, the other being who was with him, and the fish impaled and roasted by the embers.

    Luon stared at his saviour and evaluated him silently. Despite the orangish hue made by the fire, his skin was without a doubt blue. His body was slim but is forged and tempered with muscles, and the only thing he wore was a tattered cloth that protected his sense of dignity.

    ¡°You¡¯re awake. It¡¯s surprising to see a half-elf in this Inzektor filled planet. You must have been a part of the war that happened in the space above? Isn¡¯t that right?¡±

    The man plucked a fish stick and offered it to Luon, but Luon didn¡¯t immediately accept it. It was strange enough that a person was still alive in this devastated planet. Luon feared that if he were to receive it, that he would end up as the next meal for the person in front of him. For all, he knew cannibalism could be a fad for desperate survivors.

    ¡°Hmm, well it¡¯s not poisoned or unedible. More for me then,¡± said the man as started to eat the offering. Giving the meal a slight glance he stared at the man and asked, ¡°Who are you?¡±

    There were many questions that Luon had for the man, but the one that irked him the most was his identity. He had blue skin despite showing no signs of being a part of the Aqua Kingdom, and Luon couldn¡¯t recall a race that looked like him. Everyone he had seen so far screamed fantasy, but the man before him made him think of one thing. An extraterrestrial being, a real Alien.

    The man smiled at Luon¡¯s remark as he replied, ¡°Of course you won¡¯t know who I am. In fact, I may be one of the last of my kind after all. The name¡¯s Ner, and I¡¯m a Tacar.¡±

    Tacar. It was a race that Luon had never heard of before. The crazy thing was that the man claimed to be a mysterious race in a once civilized planet centuries ago. How come had no one had heard of it before? Ner sensed his doubts as he said, ¡°Well I can¡¯t prove my identity as I have nothing to show, so it¡¯s better to take my word for it.¡±

    ¡°How come you¡¯re still here? Have you ever thought about escaping?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the point of escaping? The universe around us has filled with destruction and chaos all around. It¡¯s meaningless to leave.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    Luon grew curious at the man''s words, he must have known that Luon was part of the resistance group against Inzektors yet he proclaimed that even the Alliance wasn¡¯t a safe place to be.

    With a slight chuckle, Ner answered, ¡°Between a place where Inzektors would roam or political world where the strong eats the weak, what difference does it make compared to living in the wild like this?¡±

    Luon nodded, if he could he would love to live in a peaceful countryside if he didn¡¯t have to worry about either Inzektors or political powers he would do so. Luon couldn¡¯t help but recall his conversation with Arisa. However, he shook away the pointless thoughts as he realized that such an ending would only be an act of abandonment of his civic duties.

    Fighting Inzektors was a great cause, his father and mother had done so. Luon wanted to pay them back by doing the same. They could have developed him without the use of the Vortex Container, yet they chose otherwise. Without strength, everything was meaningless.

    Understanding where Ner was coming from Luon firmly proclaimed, ¡°I see. Then can you help me escape back to the Alliance then? I¡¯m sure that you already know the method to do so since you¡¯ve been living here for I don¡¯t know how many years.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Of course I¡¯ve been here for a long time, and I do know how to escape from the planet. However, with your capabilities, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be able to accomplish it.¡±

    ¡°Just tell me the requirements.¡±

    To Luon¡¯s demand, Ner gave it some thought before sharing with what he knew with Luon. The hanger bay is located at the top of the large tower nearby. Currently, it is infested by a high-level queen equivalent to a level 85 being. However, even if he managed to slay it, Luon needed to quickly construct a workable starship while under the attack of wild Inzektors, some of which were level 80.

    ¡°An engineer and a combatant, no matter how good you are you cannot accomplish this by yourself.¡±

    To Ner¡¯s statement, Luon could only grit his teeth at the reality of things. He had a few robots to help him speed up the construction, and he has a few damaged designs from savaging buildings for the last couple of days as well as the ones he already had on hand. However, to build the ship while fighting Inzektors is a different story. He needed the support of another person.

    Luon looked at Ner deeply, he knew what Luon was thinking and replied, ¡°As I said before, it¡¯s pointless to leave.¡±

    ¡°Even if I guarantee your safety?¡±

    ¡°Even so.¡±

    Luon couldn¡¯t convince with words, and he didn¡¯t want to get physical. From what he could see Ner is strong. To survive in an uninhabitable planet like this one would need to be much stronger than the rest of the beings around him.

    Giving up, Luon asks, ¡°What do I need to do to convince you to leave with me?¡±

    ¡°Let me ask you this, why would you want to leave?¡±

    ¡°Of course, to return back to my friends and family.¡±

    ¡°Friends and family, eh¡­ what a nostalgic phrase.¡±

    Ner¡¯s voice faded out at the mention of friends and family, Luon felt that he had touched a sensitive topic, but before he could apologize, Ner said, ¡°But my presence will only put you more at risk than before.¡±

    Luon felt that the history behind Ner was quite profound. He didn¡¯t want to pry into it, but since Ner brought it up himself Luon couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Why did you think humanity lost to Inzektors so quickly?¡±

    ¡°We were too slow to notice the development?¡±

    ¡°Close, but not close enough.¡±

    At his remark, Luon¡¯s curiosity got the better of him as he blurted out, ¡°What do you know?¡±

    Ignoring Luon¡¯s query, Ner asks, ¡°Do you like to read?¡±

    ¡°Of course I do, who wouldn¡¯t?¡± Luon, the self-proclaimed omega bookworm, replied.

    Ner nodded, as added, ¡°I do too. In fact, my entire race did. We were known as the seekers of the truth.¡±

    Seeing how he had caught Luon¡¯s attention, he continued, ¡°The lifespan of my kind lasts for centuries, and the knowledge we have learned is passed down using a special syncing technique using digital mind waves. It was our prided ability to share our thoughts with each other. We called it the ¡®Golden Road.¡¯ At first, we were like any other race, developing a civilization and progressing into space. At one point we discovered our planet was round, and many centuries later we found that space itself was circular.¡±

    Luon looked at Ner as if he was a madman. How could space be round? It¡¯s a 3-dimensional region that no concept of being round and there were countless stars yet to be discovered.

    Ner chuckled at the look that Luon had given him, as he continued, ¡°It makes no sense at all right? However, space itself is divided into regions which we the Tacars named as dimensions. To prove our theory we had continuously travelled the galaxy and mind sync with other Tacars. It took many generations to prove as our abilities continued to advance over time.¡±

    With a proud look, Ner smiled at his ancestors. However, expression distorted to sadness as he continued with the subject.

    ¡°Eventually, when we had mapped the majority of the space using our memories as a catalyst. The majority of the Tacars divided themselves into their own field of research. Those who were adventurous retired to be known as the great elders, others became professors of their own field. We studied things such as medicine, weaponry, inherited skills and abilities, dimensional theories, and species biology.¡±

    Luon felt that when Ner mentioned species biology, the atmosphere dropped a few degrees.

    ¡°They were all respectable on their own kind, every single one of us wanted to understand more and more. In particular, one of us ventured into genetic mutations but was scorned at the thought of alternating original DNA of unintelligent species. Like a castaway, the Tacar spent his life on a small planet far away from our homeworld. Although our mind syncing techniques help our ideals realign with each other, each of us has our own opinions of things.¡±

    Luon whispered his conjecture, ¡°That Tacar developed the Inzektor race.¡±

    Ner nodded as said, ¡°That Tacar did indeed develop the Inzektor race. While other species were unaffected by our technological advancement due to our non-intervention policy, the man turned a planet into the first Inzektor world, and by the time we took action, it was too late.¡±

    ¡°At first the man sent invitations about his discovery. Many of which declined to travel all the way to such a desolate planet to learn of what he had accomplished. Those who did were the first victims to the problem we have today.¡±

    ¡°It was a trap, the man had already been consumed by the very insect he had created, whether or not this was intentional, we don¡¯t know. What we do know was that this created what we believed to be the leader of the Inzektor race. We later named it the Hivelord. Another notable thing was that when no notice came from the first group of invitees, other Tacars sought to find out more, and never returned. One day, one of our kind discovered the atrocity and notified the high council. With the consumption of our kind, its strength grew and so did it¡¯s intelligence.¡±

    ¡°When it first took down one of our ships it had declared war on us using one our own communication system. It said, ¡®Evolution is only the beginning, the realm we seek is an entirely new dimension.¡¯ However, we were arrogant, with our technology and weaponry we believed it wasn''t a threat. But after consuming planet after planet, Tacar after Tacar did we finally notice that the extinction of our race was imminent. It was hunting us to increase his own strength.¡±

    Luon who was digesting the information slowly then ask, ¡°What was its goal?¡±

    ¡°After the Tacars had gone on to researching their own things, our overall goal hadn¡¯t changed, to seek the world beyond our dimension. We believe that it has the same beliefs. By using the word evolution as the core of our thesis, we came to the conclusion that it¡¯s seeking one thing.¡±

    ¡°Ascension, the goal of reaching level 100, a world that no one has ever reached.¡±

 Chapter 133 - Inzektor Tower 1

    Laughter echoed throughout the cavern, the source of it, Luon couldn¡¯t but exclaim, ¡°Ascension? Does that imply that when you reach level 100 that you¡¯ll be equivalent to a god? If it was that easy, then everyone should be aiming towards it. That¡¯s rather a childish dream and pathetic excuse to execute many beings just for the sake of it.¡±

    Ner nodded as he explained, ¡°Indeed it does seem like a sad excuse to say, but no matter how ridiculous it seems that is the truth.¡±

    With Ner¡¯s serious expression Luon frowned as asks, ¡°Are you kidding me?¡±

    Ner shook his head as answered, ¡°That is the truth.¡±

    ¡°So you''re saying that hundreds of people are dying to Inzektors daily because of one guy wanted to reach ascension?¡±

    ¡°Our race has always sought the truth.¡±

    ¡°The more you talk about the truth, the more ridiculous it sounds.¡±

    ¡°No matter how ugly or beautiful the truth is, it doesn¡¯t matter if it was told or untold. I told you, but will you tell others? How will they feel about it? Would they feel like they were lied to? Or will they laugh just like you? Regardless of what you decide to make of it, if you wanted people to know about it, the explanation process is the same. The result? Nothing will change.¡±

    The truth, sometimes fragile, sometimes thin, an ambiguous word that could be differently perceived depending on how much much information one knows. Luon thought about it, how would people react if they knew that the entire war started because of a power-hungry warlord?

    They would scream out of anger, cry out of depression, or continue their day as if nothing happened. And nothing would happen. They were already at war so they can¡¯t solve it with force. They were unable to compromise since it was more of a matter of greed rather than rationality. The battle will still continue no matter how many people know about the truth. The truth didn¡¯t matter at all, there is no need for a reason for everything.

    Breaking out of his thoughts with his conclusion Luon said, ¡°You''re right, it doesn¡¯t matter if people knew it or not, the battle still continues. Your species is extinct, yet you don¡¯t actively resist against the Inzektors. Did you feel that there is no hope? Or that vengeance wasn¡¯t the way? I don¡¯t know. Your story was a lot to take in, but let me ask you this question.¡±

    Their eyes matched and Luon, who had a deadpan expression asks, ¡°How much of what you told me was the truth?¡±

    Ner smiled as he thought Luon would ask this. Almost immediately he replied, ¡°Everything.¡±

    ¡°Can you prove it?¡± Luon looked at the man, his words seem to have a reason. A mysterious race with a mysterious origin, living in an Inzektor filled planet. He had all the quantities of someone of key importance if this were a story. If he were right then the higher-ups in the Alliance wouldn¡¯t let this information slide like this. In fact, Luon might even be awarded for bringing him in.

    However, this is only implied if his the information was true. The man looked like a beggar, he had no ambition or desire, and he lived a simple life of scavenging for food. The tunnel that Luon used was probably the one he made to sneak off with some produce from the Inzektor farm. Sadly it was destroyed and exposed because of Luon¡­ despite all of this, Luon couldn¡¯t help but ask the man to prove his identity, to prove his story. It wasn¡¯t a matter of trust. What Luon wanted was confirmation.

    Ner nodded to Luon as he asks, ¡°Do you remember what I said about our clans'' inherent technique?¡±

    ¡°The Golden Road, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but it isn¡¯t actually a road. Rather...¡±

    It was easier to show rather than explain the phenomenon, Ner¡¯s eyes turned gold causing Luon to back away in fright. Ner continued to talk as his eyes emitted a golden hue.

    ¡°It¡¯s a transference of information technique, rather unique to our race.¡±

    ¡®Unique? I think I¡¯ve seen that glow somewhere before. Wait!¡¯ Luon thought as he suddenly realized that Ner¡¯s eyes closely resembled the colour of the beam that the BMPU had shot at him when he was doing the synchronization of memories process.

    ¡®Could it be that a Tacar made this? Or maybe someone who managed to stumble upon some ancient relics made by the Tacar and managed to reverse engineer the ability? Regardless, the Tacar had a hand in developing this device.¡¯

    Ner noticed the oddity in Luon¡¯s expression, Luon fell deep in thought after looking at his eyes. Ner felt that he should have been more surprised, a feeling deep within him made him curious, he wanted to know why he had that expression, as one theory popped into his mind.

    ¡®Could it be? That there are others still alive?¡¯ Ner thought as he studied Luon''s expression. He asks, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Did you find it a little surprising?¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    At his words, Luon replied, ¡°It indeed looks pretty unique. Do you want to try the transference technique then?¡±

    It was a tempting offer if Ner accepted the choice, then he would immediately be able to find out the traces of his people through the memories that Luon had, but he declined.

    The journey towards the truth was the fun part, he wanted to find out more himself, no matter how good or bad it is.

    Disappointed after losing the opportunity to learn more about the BMPU, Luon stood up and asked Ner once again.

    ¡°Can you help me escape the planet? Even if you have given up all hope. I still haven¡¯t.¡±

    Ner continued to sit, but instead of receiving his denial he asked a question, ¡°Do you know why you didn''t lose the war against the Inzektors yet? When even my race wasn¡¯t able to accomplish so? When we were much more technically advanced than you were?¡±

    Luon shook his head, Ner explained, ¡°Although we were arrogant, we had the right to be. Our weapons were way beyond your current capabilities, but we lost regardless. The average level of our kind was 75, and our numbers were massive. Our weaponry could shoot beams from afar, we couldn¡¯t possibly lose the war against regular Inzektors. However, the Hivelord is an entirely different story. He personally slaughtered each and every single one of us, he consumed us even as we fought, and the moment he did, his regeneration rate instantly healed all of his injuries. The only ones that were able to match his might were the 4 great elders, and they still fell before his might. Now the reason why the war hasn¡¯t ended for you guys is because of two things.¡±

    ¡°One, our great elders had inflicted a heavy curse on the Hivelord before perishing. The other is because of the desire for evolution.¡±

    ¡°Desire for evolution?¡± Luon asked, confused.

    Ner nodded, ¡°Wars accelerate technological advances. It stimulates both sides to better themselves. With the death of our kind, the overall combat levels of every other species fell way behind for the Hivelord¡¯s consumption. Instead of slaughtering everything for the sake of levelling up, he made his Inzektors level up by constantly fighting against your people. Afterwards, they would offer themselves and the corpses of their prey for experience and nutrition. By doing this, he¡¯ll slowly level up to a realm of ascension.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯re saying that we¡¯re all just high-level experience consumables for him? If this were a game, then all he had to do was tap the eat button to level up? That kind of body is way beyond convenient, it''s unfair.¡±

    ¡°A downfall is that it takes much longer to level up though. Which is why if the Hivelord were to know my presence they would actively try to seek me out.¡± Ner stated.

    His reason was a good one indeed, but regardless, Luon stood firm to his decision as he answered, ¡°But I still need your help.¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re willing to take that risk yourself. It is nearly impossible for you to guarantee my safety.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate the power of the Alliance, you only said that the Hivelord is powerful, not his minions. I¡¯m sure we can take care of refuge or two.¡±

    ¡°That was before the Highlord went to reclusion, but now the overall strength of Inzektors increased.¡±

    ¡°No matter how strong they are, we¡¯ll all get stronger.¡±

    Ner wondered where Luon¡¯s confidence was stemming from, they locked eyes, the only thing Ner could see was confidence. There was not a single strain of doubt, Luon truly believed that they could beat the Inzektors.

    Luon leaned forward while looking down at Ner who was still seated, eyes their eye level matched he slowly articulated, ¡°Don¡¯t. Look. Down. On. Humanity.¡±

    Standing straight up once again he asks once more, ¡°The alliance is fighting for a new era. Are you in?¡±

    With a sly smile, Ner couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°If you say so. I guess I¡¯ve been living under a rock for the longest time ever.¡±

    ¡°Good let¡¯s to get work right away. The sooner, the better.¡±

    Luon turned around as he started walking towards the only exit, but before he could, Ner tapped his shoulders and said, ¡°Wait a second, we should do some more planning first. The day we escape is when the ones in space have resumed their patrols in another solar system. It would be easier to escape that way.¡±

    Luon nodded as he replied, ¡°I guess we wait then. I¡¯m sure the day we¡¯ll strike is quite near.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s only a matter of days, but for now let¡¯s familiarize ourselves with each other, I can¡¯t trust my back with someone I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°You can go first. Mine will take years to do,¡± said Luon as he recalls that he has over several lifetimes worth of memories.

    ¡°How about you go first instead? Mine will actually take centuries,¡± Ner replied. On that remark, the two laughed. A proactive conversation between two individuals continued, both of them actively exchanged their point of view.

    ¡­

    ¡°Are you ready?¡± Ner asked.

    Before the two was a tower that soared high towards the sky, Inzektors were walking about, some of which pass by them, unable to sense their presence.

    They were invisible using the tools Luon had on hand, Ner was quite surprised at how much technology had advanced. During his time they were more focused on improving weapons rather than integrating skills and abilities to devices.

    A warp engine for them didn¡¯t use spatial magic, rather quantum physics. The past technology screamed science while the modern day representation felt more like fantasy. It was unfortunate to find that despite Ner having the knowledge to reproduce some of their designs, only to find most of them impractical in modern day applications. Why use electricity when you have mana? Why use water when you have mana-infused water or magma?

    Ner was excited to see what changes the world had in store for him. But their first step was to conquer the tower before them.

    ¡°To think that we¡¯ll be attacking the tower straight on from the front door,¡± Luon replied.

    ¡°If it weren¡¯t for some idiot invading the food production region we wouldn¡¯t be attacking straight on.¡±

    ¡°But because I did the Inzektors scattered to satisfy their stomachs until their farm is back up and running again.¡±

    ¡°Whatever. It doesn¡¯t matter if there were fewer Inzektors in the building. Or that we''re coming from a different way. What we need to do hasn¡¯t changed.¡±

    ¡°Frontal Assault, let¡¯s go,¡± Luon yelled the two had been quite familiar in the last week until the Inzektors had finally left the planet. Luon was surprised to find that Ner was stronger than he expected.

    The two disabled their invisibility alarming the nearby Inzektors as they flew several meters away from them. The two ran inside of the building, and Luon tossed an object towards the pillars next to the door.

    A loud roar happened a few seconds later sealing the world inside from the outside. Their climb is now starting.

 Chapter 134 - Inzektor Tower 2

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. The debris will only hold them off for a few minutes,¡± Ner said as he led the charge. The two ran towards the stairs, along the way Luon tossed the last of his explosives into the elevator shaft, closing the opening.

    According to Ner, there were two ways to ascend the tower. The elevator sounded tempting to use since they would arrive at their destination faster, but it was better to take the stairway.

    To ascend from the elevator, they would have to continually propel themselves forward by jumping from the sides, if they were attacked while climbing the elevator shaft, it would be too challenging to retaliate. Who knew how many Inzektors were still in the building? It was safer to take the stairs. Another reason was that he was able to seal the elevator shaft using the last explosive he had on him.

    By the time they reached the stairs, a few Inzektors had descended before them. Ner and Luon started to jump to the next level by using their backs as spring.

    The after-effects of the explosion shook the building as they ascended the stairs. The stairway was severely damaged, because the material was weak, having an explosive on top of that and the weight of many Inzektors rushing down caused fragments to fall, crushing everything in its path.

    Dodging the falling debris and Inzektors, Luon was amazed at how Ner was able to determine the path to take. The two sprinted up the stairwell with ease, whenever something was in their way, Ner would cut open a path using the sword that Luon had lent to him.

    Ner was able to use a variety of different weapons, his skill was top-notch making Luon realize that his story of passing down knowledge using the Golden Road transference technique was real.

    The reason he had equipped a sword was that it was easier to use inside corridors than any other weapon.

    By the time the shaking stopped, Luon and Ner had gone up several floors. The two of them halted their movements as they soon found themselves in a troublesome situation. Although the explosive did leverage their advantage when ascending the staircase. It also blocked their way forward.

    There was a gaping hole in the stairwell. The debris that had fallen from the upper floors along with several Inzektors.

    Fortunately, the fall had disabled their maneuverability, there were numerous Inzektors twitching in pain, but still alive. They had no time to finish them off, they needed to advance onwards before the ones they left behind catches up.

    Luon began to ruminate how to ascend from this point on. Ner tapped his shoulder as he had found a quick solution to their situation. He pointed towards several platforms suggesting that they should parkour upwards. The steps were small and fragile, there was no extra space to accelerate their movement. If they were to try it, they only had one chance, and their propelling force needed to be massive.

    ¡°Are you serious? There¡¯s got to be a better way.¡±

    ¡°It will only take a second to find out. Come on, stay close to me.¡±

    The uneven floor made it difficult for them to have a running start. Despite this, the two of them quickly travelled across the uneven floor, and like a ghost, they leapt from one platform to the next at an incredible speed.

    Fortunately, what Luon expected to happen didn¡¯t come true. They arrived at the next level at ease.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it a little to quiet now?¡± Luon asked as he couldn¡¯t hear any noise coming from the surroundings.

    ¡°There¡¯s probably an intellectual one who noticed our arrival. It doesn¡¯t seem like this is going to be easy. Usually, those types are either higher level or extremely cautious. All of the Inzektors in the upper half of the tower is probably guarding him instead of coming to us.¡±

    ¡°So we¡¯re going to be experiencing a tough battle ahead of us. Can¡¯t we just avoid it? Our goal is to escape after all. Maybe it will let us go.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see for now. If we encounter them, then we¡¯ll have to fight anyways. Don¡¯t stay optimistic though. There¡¯s a high chance that we¡¯ll have to fight them.¡±

    Luon nodded as they continued to ascend. Along the way they would take a peek at the rooms that they pass, there were offices, cafeteria¡¯s, and lobbies damaged beyond repair. There were no useful materials as they have decayed over time. All that was left were the signs of Inzektors demonstrating their dominance.

    Luon didn¡¯t know what this city was like, all he knew was that it was once part of the alliance and the last stronghold to have fallen.

    ¡®If Ner was an ally then how did no one know about his race? Did they not work together years ago? How else was he on this planet like this?¡¯ Luon thought as evaluated the decaying structure.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    It was nice to be optimistic until the goal arrived. Reaching the top floor of the building without spotting a single Inzektor or hanger, Luon felt all of his answers were behind the door.

    He knew that one of the things he wanted to know was behind it, the markings on the ground clearly revealed that the Inzektors were inside. If this wasn¡¯t the hanger than their assault was hopeless.

    Slowly, the two opened the door and before their eyes were everything that they had expected to happen. Only it was a little too much.

    Hundreds of Inzektors were flying about circling around a huge hanger bay as if anticipating their arrival. Amongst the Inzektors, there were numerous of humanoid ones followed by slightly bigger ants and beetle-like Inzektors. However, the one that stood out the most stood in the center of the army.

    It was several meters tall and partially humanoid as it¡¯s upper body revealed a faceless metallic shape of one. It was only somewhat human as the bottom half was supported by a large number of tentacles.

    ¡°What the hell is that,¡± Luon said as he looked at the Inzektor he had never seen before.

    A dreadfully monotone and deep voice echoed, ¡°The Intruders. Are here. It seems. We have. A pest. A Tacar. How rare. Hivelord will. Be pleased.¡±

    Ner reaction was the polar opposite of what Luon had. His face turned grim as he answered his query, ¡°The Inzektors have a hierarchy. Besides the Hivelord being on top, there are some Inzektors used to manage their race. There are four generals and their underlings. This is one of those underlings, you can call it an Inzekor Captain if you will, it should be of similar rank. Also, If we fail to eliminate it and escape there is a chance it might contact the Hivelord of my presence.¡±

    ¡°Which means more Inzektors would come to investigate this planet? So, This thing is smart enough to report you to the Hivelord? Are you sure it¡¯s intelligent? It doesn¡¯t seem to be able to talk well,¡± Luon pointed out.

    ¡°The fact that it can talk in the first place should already be surprising enough. Come on let¡¯s cut it down,¡± Ner replied by readying his stance.

    The one to make the first move was the Inzektor, the swarm of Inzektors came rampaging towards them. Facing the onslaught, Luon motioned Ner to retreat back to the stairwell and use the door to reduce the number of Inzektors they had to face.

    As they fell back something troublesome occurred. The wall burst open and the Inzektors that flying outside intruded into the battle. With Inzektors in front and behind they found themselves trapped.

    ¡°Give me a spear and watch my back.¡± Luon pulled the weapon out of his bag and handed it to him. Ner ran back to the entrance of the room and wildly swung the spear. It was easier to use in an open space, and with Ner¡¯s strength, he was able to hold off the wave of Inzektors.

    Luon didn¡¯t remain idle, after giving Ner a quick glance he pulled out a shield along with his sword. Flying Inzektors were troublesome. With their extra range of motion, Luon had to be wary of the timing of their attacks.

    For normal Inzektors, he wouldn¡¯t need a shield, but these ones were slightly better than the average ones. If Ner was handling an army, then Luon was fighting against the elite forces. Despite this, he managed to draw a stalemate with his defensive posture. The Inzektors whose levels were between 60 to 79 weren¡¯t able to best him who was also in the 70¡¯s himself.

    Several minutes pass, neither Luon or Ner was tired. On the other hand, the pace of the battle on Luon side slowed down. The number of enemies he was up against dwindled, and instead of applying pressure to Luon, they watched him warily, waiting for an opening.

    Luon finding the situation to be better than he had thought, he turned around to help Ner out, but before he could a shadowy black figure flew towards him. Instinctively, Luon pulled up his shield and caught the attack, however, it was stronger than he anticipated.

    With his stance broken due to the unexpected attack, Luon flew several meters before smashing into the walls of the stairwell. He didn¡¯t stop there, the impact threw him right outside of the building where all of the remaining flying Inzektors were at.

    There a little over 100 remaining, but seeing their target fly before them, they all charged towards him. Just when there were moments away from Luon, he activated his NG-Arms. His descending body halted as he flew beside the Inzektors. It was his trump card that he kept for this time.

    It was like giving wings to a tiger, Luon who was now able to freely attack the Inzekors, disposed his shield and sword into his storage and pulled out a broadsword. It¡¯s status and slicing ability is far below his regular blade, but to smash these Inzektors apart, it worked wonders.

    It took a few seconds, but all of the Inzektors who came at him were scattered apart, their remains fell to the earth below.

    When Luon returned, he couldn¡¯t find Ner at the entrance. All he could see was the remains of different types of Inzektors that they had fought. Looking inside of the hanger Luon could see Ner and the Inzektor Captain engaged in combat. From Luon¡¯s standpoint, by using his Eye of Insight, Luon could see that the Inzektor Captain was around level 85, and Ner was about the same. They were evenly matched. It was a battle that neither Luon nor the remaining Inzektors could intrude.

    The strength that they extruded was similar to the time when Luon had fought against the golden dragon Valerie.

    Luon was currently able to fight against normal Inzektors level 80, but against this captain, he could only stand aside. He realized now that he was far too weak.

    ¡°Throw all your weapons on the battlefield!¡± Ner who noticed Luon¡¯s arrival a minute later yelled.

    Luon was confused, by the pace of the battle Ner was bound to win as his capability bested the Inzektor Captain. He didn¡¯t question his demand and started to toss a variety of different weapons around him.

    With the array of different weapons scattered about, Ner¡¯s combat style changed. From a spear to a sword to guns. The Inzektor Captain wasn¡¯t able to keep up with the changes and quickly died just like that.

    Despite his victory Ner didn¡¯t let up or cheered, his face was grim. Instead of celebrating he yelled, ¡°Hurry and get us a working ship the parts are over there. I¡¯ll go clean up the rest of the Inzektors. Quick, we don¡¯t have much time.¡±

    Ner took a quick glance at the huge opening in the room which revealed the outside of the tower. With a sigh, he turned around to kill the remaining Inzektors in the room. Before Luon started to work, he also took a glance out of curiosity.

    The rubble from the door was halfway gone, and with Luon¡¯s eyesight, he was able to see a massive army of Inzektors. Among those were nearly 10 level 80¡¯s.

 Chapter 135 - Inzektor Tower 3

    ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Ner asked as he finished clearing the floor of Inzektors.

    ¡°It¡¯ll take quite a while to get one of these moving properly. Fortunately, all I have to do is replace the deteriorated parts. Skipping the tests, I¡¯m going to need another 30 minutes.¡± Luon replied as he worked away.

    ¡°As if we have 30 minutes to spare. It seems that they¡¯re already starting to come in.¡±

    Luon let out a sigh from Ner¡¯s remark. They both knew that a tough fight was going to come. Even if the stairwell shattered apart, making it difficult for a person to come up, it wasn¡¯t a problem for the Inzektors who can climb up from the sides.

    If it weren¡¯t for the wind and building instability deterring the Inzektors from climbing outside of the tower they would have already been attacked.

    ¡°They¡¯re starting to come in,¡± Ner said in once more with a sullen expression.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to say it twice. It¡¯s obvious what we need to do. We¡¯ll have to delay them for a bit longer. Fortunately, I had some spare robots on me. They have already queued up the remaining procedures, so I don¡¯t have to be here to supervise.¡±

    ¡°Then let¡¯s go.¡± Ner nodded as he turned around.

    ¡°Wait a second.¡± Luon pulled out a belt from his intraspatial bag and motioned it towards Ner.

    Ner looked at it in disdained as he said, ¡°What¡¯s up with that?¡±

    ¡°You said something about how they were able to identify and report to the Hivelord right? This is a transforming belt which allows you to equip a full suit of armor by chanting [Transform]. Would it be okay if you wore a full suit of body armor?¡±

    ¡°I guess it might work¡­ wait if you had that then why couldn¡¯t you have given me that earlier?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s more difficult to fight using things that you aren¡¯t used to. Is it not?¡± Luon questioned Ner. The latter shook his head as he replied, ¡°I can already use so many weapons, how would a little piece of armor even hinder me? Just give it here.¡±

    Ner activated the belt right away, the disheveled and ragged clothes he wore earlier was no more as he dons a luxurious black armor. Its protective properties were much lower than Luon¡¯s own, as it was one of the first prototypes, but it did its job as one couldn¡¯t see the blue skin that evidently pointed out that he was a Tacar.

    The two were fully equipped, they separated themselves to guard the entry points to the room while Ner guarded the elevator shaft Luon oversaw the stairway.

    ¡°Here they come,¡± Luon muttered to himself as he checked the time. There was about 25 more minutes before the completion of the ship, but he could already see the Inzektors crazily ascending the stairway.

    Luon infused his mana into his sword and swung against the wall nearby. The blow chunked a large portion of the wall off, crushing the Inzektors below. If damaging the wall was enough to stop the Inzektors advance then Luon wouldn¡¯t have to worry about anything at all. However, from what he could see all it did was agitate them even further as new ones climbed over the fallen one¡¯s carcasses.

    ¡®It¡¯s quite effective, but I¡¯ll need to reserve the tactic and use it wisely,¡¯ Luon thought as found that attacking the wall was like using a bomb to clear the map on a 2D shooter game. He could only do it for a limited amount of times, considering the stability of the building into the equation.

    Soon enough when the first Inzektor was close enough to reach him, it sprung towards him. Luon quickly adorned his sword and gave it a quick stab. It¡¯s body sunk into the blade, only a few centimeters away from even touching Luon.

    Its blood splattered a green liquid at Luon¡¯s face, unfazed by the sight Luon dragged the corpse in one direction before swinging down towards the swarm of Inzektors. The corpse knocked several others along with it, and the fall dealt the final blow. One kill had the potential to grow exponentially. Luon let out a small smile as he found the scene to be interesting.

    His expression dimmed a moment later due to the sheer number of Inzektors that continued to come up, he continuously fought them off until it came, a level 80 Inzektor soon appeared before Luon.

    Among the Inzektors ascending the stairway were a few that stood out amongst the rest. Luon knew that there were about 10 of them that had entered the building, and since he was guarding the stairway, which was much larger than the elevator shaft, he predicted that more than half of them would come for him.

    Inzektors had many similar traits to their insect predecessors. Although they have grown massively due to evolution, and their abilities differ slightly, their original appearance had rarely changed. The first high-level Inzektor to appear before Luon was akin to an ant with a dark carapace, similar to the Clamaris Luon encountered years ago.

    The situation was much different from before. Luon nimbly dodged the charge and hacked his blade into its leg, amputating it as if he was slicing through butter. This was thanks to his high-level sword as well as his mana technique. If he had to face the Clamaris once more, Luon felt confident that they would nearly be equal in strength.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Despite having one of its limbs torn the Inzektor didn¡¯t stop its rampage. It rushed at Luon once more. It was a repeat of the same actions, simplistic in nature, but the result turned out different.

    While Luon was too busy dealing with the Inzektor, two more of the same type of Inzektor appeared causing Luon to dodge with no time to retaliate. Despite his attempts, he was still hit, after he had broken out of the encirclement, another high-level Inzektor appeared but attacked him from afar. It had used magic.

    A flame wrapped itself around Luon as if it were a snake constricting its target. Fortunately for Luon his armor helped mitigate the damage. He could feel the temperature rising as the durability of his armor dropped due to the scorching heat slowly reaching the armor¡¯s melting point.

    Luon didn¡¯t douse the flame immediately using either of the polar elements, ice, or water. Instead, he slowly converted the mana fueling the flame as his own. The shura body technique that Thanatos helped foster worked wonders and Luon felt more energetic than before.

    Luon rushed towards the Inzektor who shot magic at him while the other ones were wary of the flame. Inzektors who used magic were rare amongst their kind, especially when it was at such a high level.

    The Inzektor panicked at the sudden turn of events as it tried to run away. As it was hanging off of the wall in stairwell it¡¯s the only path of retreat was down. But before it could descend, Luon leaped off of the platform and onto a normal Inzektor that was climbing up, appearing before the Inzektor eyes.

    Using the Inzektor underneath him as a propellant he jumped and twirled giving the Inzektor a roundhouse kick outside of the tower. Luon didn¡¯t know whether or not it would die from the attack, but it was most likely so since Inzektors that could use magic were often weak to physical impact.

    Luon returned back up onto the platform and appeared before the other 3 high-level Inzektors. The pesky mage may be gone, but the situation hardly changed at all. In fact, it had gotten even worse.

    While Luon was at the stairway, he had noticed a few more high-level Inzektors approaching their battle.

    Luon let out a sigh, he knew that there was no time to spare, they needed to leave as soon as possible. Luon charged his mana into his sword, the Inzektors before him backed away from the sudden pressure that Luon emitted. What they didn¡¯t expect was that Luon used the attack and smashed the floor, collapsing the remaining parts in the upper stairwell and crushing all of the Inzektors that were there.

    The attack may not have helped kill the high-level ones, but it was enough to hold them back for a minute.

    Luon pressed a few buttons on his BMPU as he ran towards the elevator shaft. He yelled, ¡°Quickly Ner, let¡¯s go!¡±

    Ner didn¡¯t respond using any words. Instead, he did the same action that Luon did and shattered the elevator shaft and the areas around it.

    The two ran towards the ship that silently hummed an old tune to indicate that it was functional. Luon quickly sat on the pilot''s seat and pressed a series of buttons. The digital display panel had several red segments, but Luon tapped at it causing the graphic to turn yellow.

    Soon the ship lifted itself off, and the trailing Inzektors could only regretfully watch as they escaped. Ner was looking forward to entering space for the first time in a while, but he soon found that Luon had no intentions of leaving the planet yet.

    Once they reached a certain elevation did they stop ascending. The spaceship drifted and flew as it were an airplane. Ner couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°The repairs aren¡¯t completely done, we aren¡¯t outfitted to go to space yet.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s left to do the ships already flying?¡± Ner asked as he looked around at the cabin.

    Luon pointed at the panel that had a yellow alert as he said, ¡°The only portion remaining is to ensure that our oxygen levels don¡¯t escape the ship. For now, the robots are still working on the repairs as we speak. I don¡¯t know about Tacar¡¯s, but I still need to breathe.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re repairing the ship as we¡¯re moving in the air? Aren¡¯t you just wasting our energy? What if we run out of fuel when we¡¯re halfway in space?¡±

    ¡°In the first place, we don¡¯t know if we have enough fuel to get us anywhere. It¡¯s not like there is a fuel depot or energy resource was laying around so that we can just plug it in and use. I had to retrofit the engine, so it took in energy from any kind of source after it goes through a converter. Worst-case scenario we¡¯ll have to fuel it with mana ourselves once I run out of power sources that I have left in my bag.¡±

    ¡°Land us somewhere then, while you''re doing your repairs. At least that way we¡¯ll save some energy for the trip.¡±

    ¡°And deal with Inzektors or whatever else is on this planet? There¡¯s no point we¡¯re almost done now. As for how far we¡¯ll get into space we¡¯ll have to see.¡±

    ¡°Fine then, I¡¯ll just go conserve my mana now in case we need some fuel later on. I¡¯ll be using one of the spare rooms in the back then. Call me when you need me¡± Ner left dissatisfied at how underprepared they were.

    ¡°Make sure you clean it up first! I didn¡¯t make cleaning a priority, so it¡¯s probably a dirty pig pen back there!¡± Luon yelled, whether or not Ner heard it, he couldn¡¯t care less.

    Several minutes after their chat did the repairs finish, Luon looked at the display with displeasure as he operated the ship into space. Breaking into space was easy as the ship was designed to do so, after exiting the exosphere did some problems occur.

    There were three big problems. First off was the direction of where to go. Luon didn¡¯t have access to the Alliance¡¯s map as of this time, and calculating the route by utilizing the stars was not in his specialty. He only knew which way not to go, and that¡¯s the way the Inzektors came from and went to.

    Luon asked Ner if he knew the direction, the latter pointed in one direction, and the reasoning behind it was that it was the complete opposite direction of where Inzektors would go to. Another problem they faced was fuel, as predicted they soon ran out of it. Luon had taken the energy core from the robots and injected it into the ship, but that had only lasted for a few days before they ran out.

    After Ner poured his mana into the ship, he asked, ¡°We should be fine for a few days. Giving energy like this is difficult, so what¡¯s there to eat?¡±

    His remarked shocked Luon as he suddenly remembered that they hadn¡¯t stored a lot of food with them. Ner noticed the reaction as a thought entered his mind, he couldn¡¯t help but mutter, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me...¡±

    ¡°We might have to starve a bit¡­ hopefully, we¡¯ll find someone soon?¡±

    Ner looked at Luon astonished, and for the first time in a long time, he angrily cursed.

 Chapter 136 - Alpha Hideout

    ¡°... so where are we now?¡± Ner asked. It¡¯s been several days since they had departed from the planet and they had spent most of their times channeling mana into the energy reserves of the ship. With their lack of sustenance, it was tedious besides doing this they had spent their time sleeping to conserve their energy.

    The standard rations that have been long used up. All Luon had are energy pills in case of an emergency such as Inzektors or raiders that were ever present. The world outside the ship was like an endless journey in the darkness, but today things had changed.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but maybe this is better than nothing. We might be able to get out of the situation like this,¡± Luon replied. They discovered the scattered remnants of what seems to be broken ship remains. It wasn¡¯t just one ship. It was a graveyard full of them. One could see the traces of harsh battle that had taken place ages ago, by estimate, Luon suspected that at least 20 or so ships had fallen here.

    Luon didn¡¯t like the idea of disrespecting the dead, but they needed resources more than ever. He eyed a floating corpse as they passed by, floating in the endless space was probably the worse way to lay down the dead. Unlike being buried to the ground floating in space was less private.

    Ner looked at what Luon had seen, and after pondering for a second, he asked, ¡°Are we¡­ resorting to cannibalism?¡±

    Luon gave Ner a stern look as he said, ¡°Help me look for something useful. Intraspatial bags or containers, energy sources, maybe even a map.¡±

    ¡°Okay, I was asking based on what I know, most beings would resort to such an act in desperation. Goblins do it all the time as do other races.¡± Ner pointed out.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not lose my humanity now, and I don¡¯t want to consider the option. Let¡¯s begin the search. I got only one suit for one of us to explore with. The other will have to stay on the ship and command the robots to help out after I find some energy cores to charge them with.¡±

    ¡°Great, so I¡¯ll be stuck here to observe you do work until you find something useful. Don¡¯t mind me. I¡¯ll wait here for you.¡± Ner nodded as he shooed Luon away.

    With that being said Luon got to work away. He pulled out a suit attached with an oxygen source and left to scavenge some goods.

    One ship, two ships, three ships, four, it wasn''t until he found a body did he find everything he needed.

    On the body of a random person who didn''t appear to be outfitted for space, Luon found an intraspatial ring containing a few weeks worth of food and some energy cores.

    Looking at the profile of the body Luon suspected this person was the engineer for the ship, and he unfortunately died as he worked to repair the ship, that is until the ship fell to the hands of their attacker.

    Luon headed back to the ship, and what awaited him there was Ner who was sleeping while he was out. Luon felt the urge to kick him awake but held his composure as he started to make a meal of what he had just scavenged.

    When the aroma filled the ship, Ner woke up and just before the two could scarf down some soup that Luon had made, Ner asked, ¡°So did you resort to cannibalism? What kind of meat is this?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s beef, hurry up and eat. We¡¯ll be staying around here for a day or two to see if there is anything more useful.¡±

    ¡°Minotaurs and pig men count as humanoids as well from I last recalled.¡±

    ¡°Even Minotaurs treat cows the same way as other humans do, only they do it with more respect and treat them religiously.¡±

    Ner nodded with understanding, and the conversation died there. For the next few days, they found a few more sources of food and energy, enough to arrive at an allied planet if they headed in the right direction that is. They also had found the affiliation of the ships. It appears to Luon that these were old relics back when intraspatial travel had only appeared for a few centuries. Even then it would only be a few hundred years back.

    One of the thing¡¯s Luon was looking forward to finding was a map or a travel log. It was probably the most valuable thing if he could find it.

    Despite their short moment of happiness, their situation didn¡¯t change one bit. That is if they were the only ones in the area.

    ¡°We got movement. Looks like some scavengers looking into the remains of the ship,¡± Ner told Luon as he observed through the display that one of their deployed robots.

    ¡°What¡¯s the likelihood that they are from the Alliance?¡± Luon asked.

    ¡°What¡¯s the likelihood that they aren¡¯t? Of course, they are from the Alliance, but laws and regulations have no meaning in a zone like this. They could kill us off or sell us to become slaves. Unlike you who looks like a regular person, I¡¯m blue, very unique, and probably sell a lot more than what you would. So what¡¯s the plan?¡±

    ¡°... recall the robots without them knowing and cut off the ships energy supply. We¡¯ll pretend to be dead for now and let them easily invade the ship to subdue and question them.¡±

    ¡°That is if they find us and not decide to go back...¡± Ner added on to Luon¡¯s remark.

    ¡°In that case, we¡¯ll just follow them until I get a good connection on my BMPU.¡±

    The ship went dead just as planned, as expected a few of the raiders had found the intact ship and carelessly let themselves inside.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    ¡°Wow to think we¡¯ll find a ship like this in a dead field like this, heck there¡¯s even oxygen inside.¡± A raspy voice echoed inside of the ship. From his way of speech Luon suspected this person to be a beastmen of some kind, the unfortunate part would be when he starts sniffing them out.

    "I don''t think this is normal, rather I feel like this a trap," one of the men pointed out.

    "No one''s here, don''t worry about it. Hahaha, what a scared brat this newcomer is."

    As the intruders begun to removed their helmets, Ner and Luon made their move. Within seconds most of the raiders had fallen unconscious while one was taken in for questioning.

    Their opponents were weak, unlike the deadly fight with Inzektors these men were as strong as a regular soldier. To Luon and Ner who can handle level 80 combatants, level 40 ones were no match at all.

    The last remaining person pleaded for his safety and spilled as much information as possible. His timid personality made Luon second think about killing his intruders as well as their background.

    ¡°A scavenging superpower. Back then they weren¡¯t known as such.¡± Ner commented.

    ¡°Really? But I heard that they had joined the Alliance ages ago.¡±

    Ner shook his head, ¡°It was probably after the planet we were on fell to the hands of the Inzektors. Back then they were just a bunch of misfits. I¡¯m pretty sure their leader made a popular phrase amongst their kind.¡±

    ¡°Ah! I know what it is! Our Alpha Hideout common phrase is: another man¡¯s trash is another man¡¯s treasure!¡± said the prisoner.

    ¡°No that¡¯s probably what you kids nowadays were coining in the slang and changing the original context. I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s: everything is useful.¡±

    ¡°Sounds pretty normal to me. If I had to say something about Alpha Hideout, then I think the phrase: Dumb scums scavenge for crumbs in the slums,¡± Luon added on.

    ¡°You¡¯re just trying to rhyme.¡±Ner looked down on Luon as did the prisoner.

    With a light cough, Luon swiftly changed the topic. ¡°Anyways, your our prisoners now. Tell the other ships to stop targeting us and escort us back to Alpha Hideout.¡±

    When their systems were back online after subduing their opponents their ship had been locked down by several others. The prisoner who didn¡¯t want to die yet opened up the communications channel and the two ships made arrangements to travel back to Alpha Hideout.

    Some of the other scavengers displayed their displeasure to the decision as they had yet to explore every ship, but their leader had suspected that their new foes had already cleaned the entire graveyard.

    With the guidance of the scavengers, Luon and Ner arrived at Alpha Hideout after a week''s worth of travel.

    ¡°Finally back home, I was so tired of meat soup.¡±

    ¡°Meat soup everyday? How can one survive like this?¡±

    ¡°Hurry up and untie us. I can¡¯t believe that I had to ask to be spoon fed and aided by robots.¡±

    ¡°This treatment is discriminatory. How come Bragur¡¯s not tied up?¡±

    The other prisoners had long awoken and spent their days continually complaining. Bragur was the name of the human that they had questioned. For the past week, he opened up to the powerful Ner and Luon and complimented them the entire trip. Both of them felt that the kid was easy to deal with and subdue and found that restricting him was meaningless. That and they didn¡¯t want to a waste a good rope on him.

    ¡°Do you think that they would let us in like this?¡± Ner asked.

    ¡°They have to. They are part of the Alliance after all.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, yes. Even if we are the bane of the Alliance, we won''t do things like killing aimlessly for goods. Inzektors are more of a problem than other humanoids. We were all taught this in school.¡±

    ¡°How many students are in Alpha Hideout?¡± Luon grew curious. From Bragur, Luon learned that the entire population of Alpha Hideout are students to their battle academy. In the first place, they didn¡¯t have that much a population. Their numbers were less than a hundred thousands despite claiming a small solar system.

    Not only that but their main headquarters was a space colony that was in the center of their solar system.

    The scale of the space colony was massive but very disjointed. There was no reasoning to the design of the place. If this were built on the surface of a planet, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising to find it emitting large quantities of carbon emissions.

    Luon questioned whether or not the place was built right, according to Bragur, even though there was oxygen inside, it was safer to wear a suit in case of emergencies.

    The array of ships safely docked into the station. Waiting outside was a party of civilians with various banners with the words: ¡°Welcome back!¡± ¡°The first expedition of a newly appointed scavenger captain.¡± ¡°Awaiting for riches, good pirates always come back with loot.¡±

    However, to the crowd''s disappointment, Luon and Ner came out with the bunch of people from Alpha Hideout in tow. Tied together by a rope they looked like slaves with the warden being Bragur who led them.

    ¡°I think we should wait here for a bit and let these guys go now. Don¡¯t worry about whether or not Alpha Hideout will do anything against you guys. There is no point of having prisoners for now.¡±

    Although Luon was suspicious, seeing the disappointed crowd of people with banners Luon couldn¡¯t help but feel a tad guilty. He let the prisoners leave as is, worst-case scenario they could always grab a civilian as a hostage.

    An envoy eventually arrived, in the lead was the captain of the expedition and the local embassies from the Alliance.

    Luon requested for an escort back to the Nexus solar system, but the ambassador denied the request.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that don¡¯t want to help you back. It¡¯s just that we don¡¯t have the resources and manpower here to do so. Alpha Hideout doesn¡¯t have any fleet ships with a warp engine. If you wanted to arrive at the fastest speed possible, you should take one of Alpha Hideout cruisers and head to Dragon City to ask to be warped there.¡±

    ¡°How long does it take to get to Nexus from here?¡±

    ¡°With a cruiser, it should take two months to Dragon City, but to the Nexus solar system you¡¯re looking at a good half a year.¡±

    ¡°Did anything happen to the Nexus solar system recently? I still have no connection on my BMPU.¡±

    ¡°In Alpha Hideout we have net cafes where you can connect to the internet the old fashion way. The BMPU are more reliant on the connection to the Alliance sources. If you travel to Dragon City, you should have it back in a month on a cruiser. As for any news just some normal stuff, idols, war propaganda, if there were anything notable, it would be that a prisoner who killed his comrade in the war died mysteriously in prison. Well, a lot of things could happen.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for the info, how can I get one of those cruisers? Do I use Galaxia coins?¡±

    The ambassador shook his head as he said, ¡°Coins are just digital currency to buy the most common goods here. For ships like that you need something more.¡±

    ¡°Get to the point. What do we need?¡± Ner who had been quiet the whole time asked.

    The ambassadorlooked at the fully armoured black knight and found nothing special about him. He replied, ¡°You need to obtain respect, odd jobs, quests, missions, and trading resources. Only then would someone be willing to lend a cruiser over, let alone some parts. There isn¡¯t that many of them after all. Production of commodities is rather low amongst thieves you know.¡±

    Luon nodded in understanding. Alpha Hideout wasn''t known for producing products. People would be more reluctant to depart with goods especially to foreigners like him. The man led them outside of embassy building, the inside was a clean interior but when Luon at the cityscape of Alpha Hideout all he saw was madness.

    ¡°It¡¯s an awe-inspiring sight. It¡¯s a little late now, but welcome to Alpha Hideout.¡±

 Chapter 137 - Transaction

    ¡°It¡¯s a no go, huh,¡± Ner muttered as Luon exited the sixth store they had visited, the latter only lightly nodded in response as he had expected this.

    ¡°As I said, sir, most of us from Alpha Hideout isn¡¯t too fond of foreigners, the only one we do imports and exports with is Harmonic Forest and that¡¯s for food. Other merchants wouldn¡¯t want to deal with us because of our notorious status,¡± replied the Embassy¡¯s Delegate.

    Luon and Ner stayed at the embassy for a night. The next day after their talk, Luon asked to see the stores that dealt with cruisers or ship components so they could improve their ship. To his request, the ambassadordesignated a local guide to show them around the ropes. The man knew his way around town, the rules, the trends, even the gossip that the locals didn¡¯t escape from his ears.

    Despite this advantage, once Luon entered the shop and explained his needs, the shop owners negatively treated him. Word got out that a foreigner had come to Alpha Hideout while he was at the embassy. For someone from such a prosperous land to visit Alpha Hideout, there were no doubt signs of discrimination from these store owners.

    Most of them rejected their business, some of which even threw objects at them, the ones that didn¡¯t deny them right away were even worse to deal with. Scammers, they were all the subpar scum classification of an honest merchant. They wanted Luon to trade in excessive amounts of resources for a damaged cruiser, parts or a seat in the passenger compartment of a cruiser with a considerable fee. At this rate, Luon was better off just camping down at the embassy, waiting for the traders from Harmonic Forest to come by.

    Unfortunately, they had already left a week ago and would have to wait for another three before the ship arrived. As for embarking on their own, the ambassadorwas reluctant to part with their food supplies as the governing powers of Alpha Hideout rigidly managed food supplies. Also, the duration it would take to get back was longer, and in space, anything can happen as the path wasn¡¯t entirely secure.

    The ambassador proclaimed that they were allowed to stay until he could get a ride from other convoys. However, there was nothing such as a free lunch. Besides the first night, as long as they stayed, it would cost them extra Galaxia Coins. They were also offered the opportunity to do odd jobs for the embassy. However, Luon had a feeling that the man seemed more sly than he appeared to be. Who knew if the embassy was in cahoots with the local forces at Alpha Hideout, especially with how fast word of his appearance came about, as for the odd jobs he might have in store, Luon didn¡¯t consider them.

    Another reason Luon didn¡¯t trust the man from the embassy was that he suspected the leak might have come from him. Unlike the thugs, he had dealt with before coming to Alpha Hideout, who wouldn¡¯t spread too much gossip about it as it may affect their reputation, the ambassador who was said to have a neutral stance to things deemed to be more suspicious.

    Because of the lack of information Luon had over Alpha Hideout, there wasn¡¯t anyone that Luon could genuinely believe in. Rats scoured the cityscape.

    The guide asked Luon was in deep within his thoughts, ¡°So what¡¯s your next plan? Should we call it a day?¡±

    It was midday now, there was no sun to show so, but the massive digital clock tower in the middle of the city revealed the time. Time was a concept of the world, there was the localized time dependent on region and world, and the Alliance Universal Clock, the tower had displayed both.

    Luon shook his head as he replied, ¡°Not yet, let¡¯s change up our plans. You mentioned earlier that the Alliance¡¯s network is accessible at the library, right? Ner go look up some information there. Maybe we can find another way out. I¡¯ll continue to search for someone to make a deal with.¡±

    ¡°All right, I¡¯ll see you later then,¡± Ner nodded. He was curious about how advanced civilization had become after his seclusion. He welcomed the opportunity with ease as he started to depart.

    The guide twitched upon hearing Luon¡¯s plans, and after glancing at Ner, he hurriedly said, ¡°Uh, sir, might I say separation isn¡¯t a good thing. Public security is under-developed here. I wouldn¡¯t recommend this. If you want to, I can get the embassy to send out another person to-¡°

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. We can go about on our own. We¡¯re not weak as you think we are I am sure you¡¯ve heard the news by now seeing how informed you are,¡± Luon glared at the guide as he spoke.

    ¡°N-n-no sir, please excuse me,¡± the man hastily replied as he started to chase after Ner. Compared to the fully armoured man whose facial expression and tone of voice couldn¡¯t be depicted at a glance, the guide felt that Luon was more difficult to deal with.

    ¡®It¡¯s not like anything will change. But just in case I¡¯ll notify them about the changes,¡¯ he thought.

    Luon¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at the departing figure of the pair. Although he didn¡¯t understand the ambassador¡¯ stance on things, he knew they weren¡¯t simple from the probing he had done so far. He turned and walked towards an alleyway. The darkness coated his body, and he vanished from the comfort of light.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    The darkness welcomed him, but the musky air didn¡¯t change. The strange musty smell of metals, hypnotically addictive oil, and the sting from the random piss and garbage was clearer than before.

    Hygiene was the least that the citizens of this place worried about.

    ¡°Come out. I know you¡¯re there.¡± Luon politely asked. Although his tone was sincere, his actions betrayed the thought, Luon pulled out a gun and aimed it into the darkness. Despite his lack of proficiency in firearms, he still used it as it seemed to be more intimidating and fitting for the mood. Not that his guest knew of this.

    From the sidelines of an alley, emerging from the trash left aside as cover, four cloaked figures appeared before him guarded.

    Luon looked at the four, and with his Eye of Insight, he recognized that his opponents aren¡¯t ordinary people. Their average levels were comparable to elite guards at around 60.

    Seeing how they hadn¡¯t made a move yet, Luon asked, ¡°How may I help you?¡±

    After spitting out some words, the four of them still hadn¡¯t replied to his query. The only change was that a new figure appeared between them as if they had appeared out of thin air. It surprised Luon as he could not find out how they did it. The newly arrived person replied to Luon, ¡°My name¡­ well, it doesn¡¯t matter that much, but you can call me, Drex, and I am here to make a deal.¡±

    ¡°What kind of deal?¡± Although his face was expressionless, inwardly, he was filled with joy. People wouldn¡¯t just come up to him and blurt out words like this. To meet in a shady region, voided from sight, either the person is an idiot trader or a powerful individual with quite the backing. The latter option was more evident in this case.

    ¡°Since you know who I am, and you¡¯re proposing something, you must know what I want, right?¡± Luon probed.

    ¡°You and your friend need to find a way the Nexus solar system or Dragon¡¯s Valley in a short amount of time, am I right? Well, I want something from you, and trust me, unlike the other people you may meet up with my conditions, would be more favourable for you. Are you interested?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hear it first. I may disappoint you. What do you want?¡±

    ¡°A trade route.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me? I am but a simple person, not a trader of any kind,¡± Luon quickly retorted. He wasn¡¯t a merchant, so how was he supposed to provide this? However, the man understood his thoughts as answered, ¡°You¡¯re from the Nexus solar system, and you¡¯re famous too. I¡¯m sure you have a few connections to people that deal with goods. What I want is a stable trade route to convert our excess Galaxia coins into goods.¡±

    When robbing, it was easy to use most goods, Galaxia coins can be transferred quickly, but if there was no market for them, then they were useless. Even if the members at Alpha Hideout were to head to the Global Market at the Alliance headquarters, their treatment would be no less than the same as someone sells goods to a foreigner at Alpha Hideout, expensive and unfair.

    Luon gave it some thought. Most traders wouldn¡¯t want to deal with Alpha Hideout; The trader must have enough strength to safeguard their goods. As for how many merchants and traders Luon knew, there were none. If anything Zekar, who was lord of the underworld in the Nexus capital planet was the closest existence that may help.

    Knowing these facts, Luon asked, ¡°I may know someone, but right now I am unable to connect to them. I wonder if you have a method to do so?¡±

    The man nodded and waved his hand. One guard walked towards Luon while holding an object, prompting Luon to use it.

    It was an old-fashioned tablet. There weren¡¯t many features available on it; The only one Luon could see right away was the messaging and call system. All he needed to do was fill in the addressee to make contact. However, the moment he did, so he would make a bond between the two groups.

    Luon hesitated for a moment. The man added on, ¡°The tablet can connect to a private signal tower we constructed, unlike the BMPU, it¡¯s easier to get a signal with it.¡±

    Luon nodded, the man seemed honest enough, and worst-case scenario Zekar would have a bunch of random callers. Luon operated the device, the line connected and Zekar appeared, he looked confused as few people would have his contact information, but his confusion turned to a surprised look as he said, ¡°My gods, could ghost call people on digital devices these days?¡±

    ¡°Enough, with the jokes. You know I wouldn¡¯t contact you for no reason, right?¡±

    ¡°Well, you could have called me to say that you¡¯re still well, right?¡± Zekar slyly replied.

    ¡°Yes, yes. I¡¯m still alive and well,¡± Luon answered before he explained his current circumstances to Zekar before handing it to the other party.

    Zekar and the man continued to exchange words for a few minutes before he turned the tablet off and said, ¡°It¡¯s been a pleasure doing business with you. In a few days, our convoy will depart to make a trade at Dragon City. We will contact you and your partner on the day. That being said, where are you staying at?¡±

    Luon didn¡¯t want to stay at the embassy as it would cost him an excessive amount of Galaxia coins, but he didn¡¯t know how well other places would treat him, he asked Drex if he could arrange for him a place to stay.

    Drex nodded as he said, ¡°I have some friends at a hotel, the location is within our territory so you shouldn¡¯t face too much trouble, but I would recommend keeping it down low. The ambassador knows about your arrival and has already notified the Black Hand.¡±

    ¡°The Black Hand?¡±

    ¡°They are a recently emerging group that has been causing trouble recently. Word has it they have a foreign backer, and they¡¯re trying to control the pirating and trading business at Alpha Hideout. Theambassador seemedto have partnered with them. I¡¯m not surprised if they had already marked you.¡±

    ¡°Take this. Zekar said he needed to contact you later. I¡¯ll notify the hotel about your arrival. If you need to contact me, ask the receptionist there. Until then.¡± After warning Luon, the man handed the tablet before vanishing with his guards.

    Tucking the device away Luon left the alleyway. Immediately he met up with another man proclaiming that he was from the embassy sent for his protection.

    ¡®Monitoring, it looks like the ambassador truly ain¡¯t that simple,¡¯ Luon thought as the two began to left the area, but the only thought Luon had was what to do next.

 Chapter 138 - Crappy Arrangements

    ¡°So they¡¯re holed up in such a troublesome place? Should we abandon our plans?¡± After dismissing his subordinate, and musing over the report he had just received, the ambassador turned towards the man before him and asked these questions.

    ¡°No, we¡¯re continuing as what we agreed on earlier. Unlike other cases, the target is of utmost importance. There is a notice of disposal from the higher-ups,¡± Decorated in a dark, dirty robe covering his brawny figure, the figure replied. Little did anyone know this person was the leader of the Black Hand organization.

    The ambassador stared at the figure as he was considering the aftermath of the assault. To him, there were many benefits, that was if everything went according to plan. Although he was concerned about the strength of Luon, the armoured figure beside him, and the power of the local forces; that shred of doubt vanished as he spotted a black tail sticking out from the man before him. Demon, Lemegeton supported the organization from behind the scenes.

    The Black Hand organization was shady, from drugs to human trafficking. With the ambassador and the Black Hand organization working hand in hand, both of them thrived and expanded their influences within Alpha Hideout. Disappearances and shady deals were routine, and because of a shortage of governmental officials, its management over civilians was obsolete, for them it was free reign. If anything, there was only a local policing force and other organizations that could resist their advances.

    Another notable point about Alpha Hideout is that despite being a front-line solar system bordering the Inzektors reign, there were little to no Inzektors that appeared in the region. Some argue that it was because the place had no value for them, others say that there was a deterring force there, a very few supported the notion that the previous battles made it difficult to maneuver due to the massive interstellar graveyard, but nobody knew why they abstain their approach.

    ¡°Everything is in motion,¡± the demon stated. After the ambassador reported to the organization about Luon¡¯s appearance at Alpha Hideout to him, he took the news to the upper echelons at Lemegeton. They have to use all the force he had available to deal with Luon, and full force means he had to push his plans further ahead of schedule.

    With how confident his huge backer was the ambassador still didn¡¯t feel secure. The worst-case scenario for failure would have his neck on a chopping board if his dealings came to light.

    In the dark, probing him, the ambassador asked, ¡°How confident are you with this mission? Our enemies aren¡¯t to be underestimated. The targets, aside from the one we are attacking, is another organization that has several centuries of history. It¡¯s rumoured that they had existed since the establishment of Alpha Hideout. I¡¯m afraid that this wouldn¡¯t be easy.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve prepared for the worst. I understand your concerns but our forces here are plentiful. This attack would most likely expose our hand. It¡¯s a little premature but tonight would be the night where we will start our complete our takeover of Alpha Hideout.¡±

    ¡°Is th-that true? What do you want me to do?¡± The ambassador appeared shocked at how fast things were moving since he was the one that had to deal with the post mortem. The takeover of Alpha Hideout had been a slow process, with how long it was taking to seize their opposing businesses and organizations under the noses of the governing powers it wouldn¡¯t be surprising to take another few years. It could have been much faster if they could confirm one thing.

    ¡°So we still haven¡¯t heard anything about Captain Argbok?¡± The demon looked at the ambassador; the latter flinched under his gaze as he replied, ¡°We haven¡¯t heard of him for centuries, this could mean that he hasn¡¯t appeared for a long time or that he is in a position where he couldn¡¯t make a move. From my suspicion, it¡¯s sa-safe to assume that he¡¯s long dead.¡±

    Captain Argbok was the only deterring factor of their complete takeover, the strongest human for centuries after the war had started, but he hadn¡¯t appeared for ages since the founding of Alpha Hideout. Scoffing at the remark, the demon said, ¡°Humans, to live that long there is no surprise if he is dead, even if he were to be alive I believe the forces we have at hand is enough to deal with him.¡±

    After he had spoken those words, eight figures suddenly appeared behind him. Their aura was equivalent to the demon¡¯s own. The ambassador¡¯s body trembled as he collapsed onto the ground. If they weren¡¯t allies, he would have already fainted.

    ¡°Sir, our preparations are ready,¡± the eight bowed as one reported. The demon nodded as he proclaims, ¡°This mission has been most tiresome, I¡¯m glad our struggles would end today. Tonight my brethren will be a memorable day...¡±

    A burst of laughter echoed throughout the room, unknownst to them, a little robotic spider had recorded the scene in its entirety.

    ¡­

    ¡°So this is the Black Hand,¡± Luon closed the holographic window as he analyzed the details he had just learned.

    ¡°Looks like we¡¯ve left one danger only to enter another one. Let me tell you now, but those demons mean business,¡± Ner replied.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Having moved in today, Luon had latched one of his spider drones onto the ambassador¡¯s subordinate who had followed them into the hotel. Luon had him tell the ambassador that they would stay at the hotel until they figure a way to leave. Who knew he could spy on the meeting immediately after?

    It was no problem for the Black Hand organization to target them if they were just a bunch of ordinary folks, but from what Luon and Ner could tell, those demons were more than likely level 80s.

    It would have been difficult for them to muster such a force in only one or two days after their arrival. From the information he had got, Lemegeton had been plotting a complete take over of Alpha Hideout for a long time.

    ¡°What should we do now? Unlike them, who have already made their preparations, we have yet to replenish our supplies and recover our strength. We¡¯re also outnumbered, and you know how difficult it is to face against a level 80,¡± Ner asked.

    Luon nodded, their fight at the Inzektor Tower had been a memorable one, he may have been able to contest against one or two powerhouses at level 80 to a stalemate but to face anymore and he would be in trouble.

    ¡°First, we should report this to Drex and see if he could speed up our exit. We¡¯re not obliged to fight for Alpha Hideout. We should retreat when we still can; the best we could do is warn them.¡±

    ¡°I doubt that they¡¯re able to resist such a force despite hearing your warning¡­ I also doubt we can get an exit ticket that easily. What did your friend say about the current circumstances of the Nexus solar system? You change our destination to Dragons Valley all of a sudden so the information should have some significance.¡± As the two stood up, Ner couldn¡¯t help but recall that the first conversation they had after they arrived at the hotel.

    ¡°Just some disturbing news, but nothing too serious. It seems that if I were to appear after being declared MIA, it would cause some discord. What did you find out after we separated?¡± Luon replied.

    Thinking of how he had spent the day, Ner replied, ¡°A bunch of political events but nothing too noticeable, everything seems normal.¡±

    Luon nodded. He expected as much. Letting out a slight sigh, he said, ¡°Well¡­ according to Zekar, we should head for Dragon¡¯s Valley for now. He said a lot of hidden forces are making their move, and we should upgrade our strength before we return.¡±

    ¡°So we¡¯re going to Dragon¡¯s Valley to train? It seems like your road home is troublesome...¡±

    ¡°Indeed... Avalon is the number one place to do some training. Back when I was there we weren¡¯t able to get much sightseeing done, it¡¯s a very rare opportunity.¡± Luon nodded as he recalled how much higher the combat levels their foes were.

    ¡°Okay¡­ and so for how long do we need to train?¡± Ner asked out of curiosity. Physical training could only get so far, and the refinement of techniques could take ages. Combat levels aren¡¯t that easy to raise.

    ¡°Ah, well he said that we should get to level¡­ 80 at least.¡±

    ¡°Well... level 80 isn¡¯t as easy as doing daily fitness exercises every day for a few years you know. How long would this take you? Decades?¡± Ner retorted, unlike Luon who had yet to reach level 80 Ner himself was 85, the same as the dragon princess that Luon had met back then. Despite his high level, he could fight a few level 80, but he would be unable to kill any of them in a short amount of time. For him to face nine high-level demons while paired with Luon, it was not a favourable battle.

    Luon didn¡¯t reply to his comment. He knew it would take a while to train to that extent. His physical training is almost at its genetic limits, or so he calculated. All that he could do is refine his combat techniques and increase his energy circulation and supply, but this training could take ages even if he were to train at Avalon which had the highest density of magical energy within its atmosphere.

    The two of them walked down from their hotel room and into a busy tavern. The barkeep played the role of the owner of the hotel, the chef, and the organization¡¯s agent. At this moment he was cleaning a glass cup with a rag, if it weren¡¯t for the urgency of the report, Luon would have taken a moment to admire such a typical action he had seen in many books he had read.

    Tapping on the bar table to garner his attention, Luon said, ¡°We need to contact Drex. It¡¯s urgent.¡±

    Furrowing his brow, he looked up at Luon and the armoured man, Ner, before refocusing back to the cup he was holding. While doing so, he said, ¡°How important? Is it something about your accommodations? He won¡¯t be available for a while.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s REALLY important,¡± seeing how his message wasn¡¯t getting through Luon attempted to intimidate the man.

    However, it was to no avail, the stern expression the barkeep hadn¡¯t changed, he disregarded Luon¡¯s intimidation as he continued to work on the side while muttering, ¡°I can take a message.¡±

    ¡°Tell him that tonight the Black Hand organization will make a move, and ask him if it¡¯s possible to speed up our departure.¡±

    ¡°No need to worry my friend, that¡¯s why we¡¯re here.¡± A man sitting at the counter replied as he downed a glass of beer. Dressed in a suave tuxedo, the man sat with a blank expression, showing signs that he had been drinking way too much. Fortunately, there had been others beside him who were wearing the same outfit.

    ¡°Another glass, my man.¡± The barkeeper began to make his drink, seeing how Luon wasn¡¯t getting anywhere, he turned to the man and asked, ¡°And you are?¡±

    ¡°The name¡¯s Shade, that¡¯s a codename by the way. For the next few days, we¡¯re here to chill at the bar while ensuring your safety, if they¡¯re attacking tonight then that make business, quicker for us.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Well, can you ask Drex to speed up our exit?¡±

    ¡°No rush man, the big boss¡¯ been working around the clock for you, arranging some defences, conducting some business, securing the personal. If I ain¡¯t know any better that¡¯s some VIP treatment right there.¡±

    ¡°And if our opponents are nine combatants who are level 80 and possibly higher?¡±

    At Luon¡¯s words, the bar went silent. The shattering of a newly poured glass of liquor had brought the noise back. The impact somehow miraculously sobered the man as he replied, ¡°I¡¯ll contact him right away; we might still have some time.¡±

    As the bar got rowdy, the noise level grew even higher as the entrance to the building exploded, shards of wood and metal flew around the room. Luon, Ner and all of the men at the counter peered above the bar, from their experience in combat they had an innate sixth sense to danger and had dodged the explosion just in time.

    The dust settled, and nine dark-robed figures appeared.

    ¡°Looks like there¡¯s no time left,¡± Luon replied. He assumed that they had some time and that they wouldn¡¯t be making a move this quickly. Who would have thought that these shameless demons would move on the same day since it was still evening in this sunless space station.

 Chapter 139 - Flying Ahead

    "What a shabby establishment." Padding away the dust off of his robe, one of the demons commented.

    "You know when everything was still solidly built together. There''s some charm in the architecture Four." Another commented in a more feminine tone.

    "Charm? In the human sense sure, but who cares about that. Three, you''re eyes must have gone blind, this cruddy cityscape must have changed your outlook." With a scornful tone, the demon known as Four retorted.

    "I have better taste than you, damn brat."

    "Old wrench!"

    The bickering of the two was a rather light-hearted scene when observed from afar. It was like watching one of those runs in the mill argument between two siblings. To the demons who had entered the cafe, it was like that, as for the other occupants it couldn''t be said to be the same.

    "Aghhh, to think that these demons would send one of their elite shadow squads here. We''re doomed. Doomed!" Despairingly one of the men tasked with patronizing at the bar muttered in madness.

    ''Elite shadow squad? There''s more than one of these?'' Luon wondered how powerful could Lemegeton be to have multiple forces of level 80 and higher combatants scattered across their domain. Curious, he asked, "Isn''t it rare to have a force like this? I can''t imagine how they could have so many high-level combatants divide them into groups."

    "I don''t know how much intel you have about other forces, but I can tell you this..." Shade, the man who assured Luon of his safety, that is, until trouble came knocking down their doorstep, replied in a nervous tone. He continued, "Among the most powerful solar systems they could have about a hundred level 80 combatants and a small handful in the 90s. Those old folks are holed up somewhere trying to break into the next level, so it''s rare to meet a level 90."

    Luon nodded after hearing his remark. A hundred level 80s seemed like a reasonable number for a place like Dragon''s Valley as he could remember that Valerie, the dragon princess at such a young age was that strong due to her powerful bloodline and training. It wasn''t that surprising to find that either demons or angels had a similar amount of high-level combatants due to their racial properties. As for humans and other races, they were more numerous rather than individually strong. Luon knew that there was probably half of the amount divided within their military ranks.

    "Then do you have any level 80s coming to aid us?" Luon was sceptical. If his allies already knew that their enemies had a powerful backer, why would they send a small squad of level 70s to aid them? Just this Elite shadow squad was enough to wipe them out.

    ''Did they value us to little? Or did they not anticipate this situation? More importantly, what do we have to do to survive?'' A turbulent wave of thoughts flooded Luon''s mind, his worries, and anxiety became more apparent due to the dire circumstances. He hoped for a beacon of light to shine within the chaos.

    However, the face that Shade made wasn''t the best, his expression grimace as he coldly responded, "Alpha Hideout is special, you see¡­ we don''t have that many high-level combatants. It would already be surprising to find a single level 80 in this city that is currently active. We suffer from a lack of resources, the best we could muster is a bunch of level 70s, but that ain''t going to help much, by the time they rally up we would be long dead, and that''s if they notice our predicament."

    The revelation enlightened Luon on the situation at Alpha Hideout. Why would a high-level combatant bother staying at Alpha Hideout when other forces would welcome them with open arms? The only contradictory part was that despite their lack of forces nobody still bothered to takeover Alpha Hideout for centuries despite knowing this. Was it out of respect for the founder? Was there a secret pact among solar systems? Why are they demons attacking now? The more mysteries piled up but their predicament hadn''t changed. The only way out Luon reasoned was to fight. Hopefully, more of Alpha Hideout''s forces would come to their rescue if they delayed it long enough.

    Suddenly, a surge of energy washed over every single being within the vicinity. The awful feeling was familiar to Luon. It was the signs of barrier going up.

    "Cease your chatter Three, Four, let''s finish this mission quickly. Eight how is the barrier?" The leading demon said he stared at Luon.

    "Stable, the sound and the visuals have been distorted, we got maybe about 15 minutes until somebody finds something off about the region."

    "I see¡­ One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six. You guys go and finish this up quickly. Seven, support Eight. Don''t forget that the ambassador is also in on this, so we only got 30 minutes to do this."

    ""Yes Lord Zero!"" They all chimed.

    Six figures steadily walked a few steps inwards, the area was small, and with them walking side by side, a good portion of the room was occupied by these intruders. As for the ones Luon thought to be Seven, Eight, and their Leader Zero, they casually walked outside of the faculty.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ''It''s going to be hard to battle in such a small area'' Luon thought. The demons also knew that. Reducing the number of fighters to give themselves more room. One of them, small in stature, eager for achievements, happily said, "Let''s make this a quickie. Here I go!"

    "Fast!" Vanishing from the spot from the eyes of almost everyone at the scene, Luon found himself staring at the dagger of a super-fast attack that was nearly centimetres away from him. Luon could see the grin on his foes face, and if it weren''t for his specialty in observation skills and techniques, he would think that he had teleported. Unfortunately for the demon, his attack was thwarted, not by Luon who could only match the speed with his eyes, but by someone else.

    Ner appeared in front of Luon instantly repelling the attack with his hands before sliding pass the outreached arm, placing his hands on the latter''s stomach.

    Energy coarse through his body and gathered at his palm. Instantly it all shot out in a burst of light, causing his foe to fly away from the impact crashing into several chairs and tables before shattering the wall. Despite the result Ner appeared dissatisfied, he had intended to end his life right there but from what he could tell the demon was still alive. Ner turned and yelled at Luon, "Sword!"

    Luon quickly responded by accessing his interspatial bag and tossing a massive greatsword, which wasn''t suitable for such close quarters, to Ner as he could use any weapons with ease. The reason why Luon gave him such a weapon was so he could deal with multiple foes at the same time. That and the destruction caused by his large swings could cause some havoc and hopefully attract the attention of others, that is if the barrier was down.

    Luon knew that they wouldn''t be able to handle the demons by themselves; they needed to get reinforcements. While Ner was holding them back, he turned towards the others and said, "We need to disable the barrier!"

    "It''s not going to be easy; the only way to do so is to remove the caster. That person had already left the building and is being guarded by the other two demons," Shade replied, his fearful expression turned better after seeing how Ner quickly wiped one of the demons out.

    "Ner how many of them can you handle?" Luon asked. He knew he was strong, but the demons aren''t that easy to handle. The latter shrugged as he jokingly said, "These wimps? Probably four of them wouldn''t be my match."

    "Don''t get so cocky, do you honestly think you can handle even one of us?" One of the demons spat.

    Ner pointed towards the demon that he sent away and replied, "Easily?"

    His lack of confidence, the tone of his remark, his actions, and the simple gesture he made as if he had swat a fly offended the demons.

    "Let''s beat this arrogant guy up. If he thinks he could handle four of us, then let''s see if he could do just that." The demon known as Three said.

    "The old wrench is right. Let''s beat this arrogant prick down and tear off his limbs." Four eagerly replied.

    Four of the demons stepped forward, leaving one behind to observe the battle. From what Luon could tell from the way the demon readied themselves, they were superior to the one taken out. Once the fight started, it would be challenging to avoid being hit by Ner with his strength, taking the opportunity while he still could Luon grabbed his swords from the storage and slashed several times at the wall beside him.

    The path opened, and he bellowed at the bartender, Shade, and the others, "Go! Figure out a way to get some help!"

    Dumbstruck by his actions, they woke up from their surprises and burst out through the opening. By the time Luon turned around to observe the battle it had already started.

    Ner gave several horizontal swings of the greatsword; the force and speed behind it was powerful enough to disturb the air around it. He was not kidding when he said he could handle four of them, seeing the displeasure on their faces.

    "What''s wrong?! Weren''t you guys going to beat me down?! Are you afraid?" Ner laughed as he swung.

    "Keep swinging fool and tire yourself out! Did you honestly think you can swing like this all day! I''d eat garbage for a week if you can!" Four replied as he desperately avoided the blows.

    ''I can''t tell if things are going well...'' thought Luon as he watched the battle. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, he saw something flash, its body was tightly against the ground avoiding the blows the Ner made and entered his blindside.

    ''It''s that speed one from earlier!'' Luon couldn''t warn Ner fast enough, by the time he yells out his warning it would have been too late.

    The dagger locked onto Ner''s leg, the small demon laughed as he thought, ''You dare knock me out? The suffering that I had just witnessed, the price for it is your leg!''

    "What the-" As the knife made contact with Ner''s armour, a dense amount of mana covered the region, and the attack slid off causing the small demon to lose his posture, crashing on the ground before Ner.

    Before he could get up, he was slammed onto the ground by Ner''s foot which stomped on him several times before pressing down on him.

    "You!" The other four demons stopped their approach as they noticed the changes in the battle. They saw the quick demon aim at his leg, but what happened next was beyond their expectations. It was as if he had eyes on his feet, not only blocking the attack he had also pinned their ally against the floor, his response was as if he expected this.

    Watching the dumbfounded faces of his foes, Ner said, "You said I couldn''t even handle one huh. Well, why don''t I give you guys the head of one?"

    Swirling the blade around he cleanly handled the pinned demon as if he had worked at a butcher shop that dealt with meat.

    The demon''s head flew up, and Ner sadistically batted it with the flat end of his sword towards the others as it landed right in the middle of them. Shocked expressions appeared on their faces before a variety of emotions quickly replaced them. Anger, sadness, and fear became apparent from Ner''s cruel actions.

    The demon that oversaw the battle was also affected. His kin had just been slaughtered like pigs in the slaughterhouse. Stepping forward, he bellowed at his clansman, "Back off, this guys mine."

    An intimidating aura shot out of him, suppressing those at the scene. If it weren''t for the fact that Ner was in front of Luon, he too would be affected.

    "O-One," Four couldn''t help but say as the pressure bore that on him to the point where he couldn''t bear.

    Fueled by fury, none of the words reached him.

 Chapter 140 - Twisting Turns

    The demon, One, stared at Ner, maddened by how such a simple operation could be ruined by an armoured nobody who he couldn¡¯t get a reading on.

    ¡®It just goes to show that one couldn¡¯t let their guard down,¡¯ One sighed at his mistake. He stared at the foot that pressed down at the now decapitated comrade with a bit of regret before it turned into rage as he glared back at Ner.

    Ner and his new opponent met eyes, instantly becoming wary of each other. From his experiences, Ner could determine that this new demon wasn¡¯t that simple.

    The situation was turning for the worse by the second. They were trapped inside of a barrier alongside with any other innocent victims in the region with no signs of hope. Three invaders outside of the bar with an unknown agenda. And of the six sent to deal with them, only one had fallen, four were out of breath, and the last one poised to strike.

    The outlook was grim. Their fates were sealed if any of the other demons were to come back.

    ¡®Things haven¡¯t been going well ever since I met up with Luon,¡¯ but they were much better than having to survive on an Inzektor infested planet for the rest of his life, Ner thought as he recalls those lonesome days.

    Although things are different now, the danger factor hasn¡¯t changed, at least not yet.

    ¡°Luon, go get some help.¡±

    ¡°But-¡±

    ¡°Look. You¡¯re no use here. For the both of us to get out of this situation, we need to get some help. Someone has to go. Go.¡±

    Ner¡¯s words were like daggers stabbing to his heart. His hands trembled as he felt the powerful auras around him. Luon had stayed behind to support Ner if he had needed it, but the man himself declared that his presence was useless.

    Luon grit his teeth and gave a brief nod before leaving through the exit he opened up. He can only pray that Ner would be okay.

    ¡°You guys get out of my sight. Remember. No survivors.¡±

    Intimidated by One¡¯s aura, the surviving demons bowed to him before they jumped outside.

    Their operation today was to eliminate the members of the other organization resisting their expansion, Luon was only a bonus and a potential threat. If they were to succeed, then taking care of odd elements would make taking over Alpha Hideout become several times easier.

    ¡°Now there goes all of those pests, shall we get started? Scum.¡± One said as he tossed aside his robe revealing his muscular devilish features, his race being a greater demon.

    ¡°Scum? How mean of you when I was waiting for a smart remark and some action. I guess intelligence isn¡¯t part of your domain.¡±

    ¡°Whatever, bring it on,¡± One replied, unsheathing his sword as if it were a fine lady ready to be plucked as he tossed aside the scabbard.

    Ner smiled at his remark, not intimidated at all by One¡¯s muscular form, aura and harsh tone. Kicking aside the corpse of the demon he slew as if it were a pebble on the road, he replied, ¡°Sure, let¡¯s see if you can make things more interesting.¡±

    The battle started with no pretense said as their blades spoke for themselves.

    ¡­

    ¡°Looks like they started. I need to act fast,¡± Luon muttered as he dashed out of the building.

    Powerful fluctuations pulsated behind him, almost knocking him down as he ran. He didn¡¯t know what kind of battle was unfolding, all he knew right now is that he had to get out of this mess.

    Afraid of being found by his foes, Luon ran into the dark parts of these streets, the smelly deserted alleyways.

    ¡°Think. How do I disable this barrier? An inscribed magical array or device? Doesn¡¯t seem like it. If I didn¡¯t know any better than Lord Zero guy was being honest at how Eight was the spell caster of this barrier. Most likely powering a device. If so, then the only way to break it is to kill the caster and the device or cause enough havoc to distort the magical energy supporting it.¡± Luon muttered as he dashed around piles of garbage while hiding the signs he passed by.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    ¡°And if you distort the magical energy by spamming random magical spells, then you¡¯ll be dead,¡± Thanatos added on.

    The way Thanatos, his other self, said it irked him. A tone as if his death was of no importance, rather he found the situation to be rather entertaining. Luon¡¯s personality rubbed off on him as he seemed more playful and filled with more emotions than just pure negativity.

    The playful remark didn¡¯t help with the situation though, Luon knew he was right. If he wanted to escape this predicament, he needed to kill the caster before the eyes of this Lord Zero and Eight, and any other enemies he could meet. A playful array of magic would just make him lose his initial ambush element.

    ¡°Hide. There¡¯s someone following us.¡± Lost in his thoughts, Thanatos reminded Luon that it wasn¡¯t time to think. Without a moment to lose, Luon dove into the closest thing that could hide his entire body.

    A few moments later, a demon ran past his location and stopped a few meters away at a four-way intersection. There was no need for Luon to do anything special to hear what the demon was saying as he yelled while puking, ¡°Ag-st-stupid streets! How are people supposed to get anywhere! There¡¯s so much garba- agh, it smells so bad. Aghhh, wh-where is Lord Zero?¡±

    The demon was Four, the demon that had made a few comments about adapting to the shabby and dirty life of Alpha Hideout. After exiting the building, the four remaining demons split themselves up to find Luon and any other humans that were let go earlier on. Although confident about their chances of success, they were still time-restricted.

    Their job was to eliminate the targets and all the members of the opposing faction. Their forces should have been more than enough to deal with the people inside of the building even when accounting for Luon¡¯s weird widgets. The person they didn¡¯t account for, Ner, caused their chances of success to drop a bit.

    Their superior One had to clean up their mess for them. If they couldn¡¯t catch Luon, then how could they redeem themselves? If they couldn¡¯t deal with the other escapees, what could they say about their performance? With one dead, their record was already looking dim.

    As soon as they exited the building, they were disappointed to find themselves in the middle of an empty street, zero traces of where Luon or any other targets could have gone.

    ¡°I know you¡¯re here! Come on out now!¡±

    ¡®Did he notice me? No¡­ he wouldn¡¯t have wasted any time by saying that. He would¡¯ve just attacked me on the spot instead.¡¯ Luon thought as he observed Four from his position.

    ¡°Tch, if you won¡¯t come out I¡¯ll make you come out!¡± Four bellowed as he channelled mana.

    ¡°Idiot. Don¡¯t add any more trouble. It¡¯s just me. Remember what Zero said? We need to conserve our energy for the second act,¡± said Three, who had appeared out of nowhere.

    ¡°As expected from someone who has no taste, to take for the dirty alleyways as the first place to go. What do you want?¡±

    ¡°Can you say that when you also came here? Nevermind, the path I took just met your path. The city is complex, so it shouldn¡¯t be surprising to see anyone else. Look, I¡¯ll go this way, and you can do¡­ whatever you want to do¡­¡± said Three. She then left, leaving the annoyed Four behind.

    ¡°Whatever. Ordering me around like this, does she think I¡¯m a fool? As if I¡¯d listen to you.¡± Four took at a glance at the path she directed to him.

    ¡°Well¡­ no point in going down the path she came from or where I came from¡­ it¡¯s not like I am listening to her or anything. It¡¯s the only logical direction to go to. This city is making me insane, this stink is making me insane. Gotta get out of here now before it gets any worse. Only idiots would die in a city like this.¡±

    ¡°Not going to follow him?¡± Thanatos asked as Luon felt relief wash over him as Four left through the path she directed him to go, not noticing that one of his targets had been just within his reach.

    ¡°Uhh, why?¡± Luon said as he left his hiding place. A nasty smell became more prevalent in the alleyway. Armed with trash over his body Luon had adapted to the area. Should he be glad that Four wasn¡¯t swinging a sword because of his desire to stay clean?

    The trade-off between staying safe and dirty versus straight-up fighting and somewhat clean, it was a difficult decision to make but if he were to attack Four, then he wouldn¡¯t be able to win without alerting the others...

    The trash bin wasn¡¯t the best place to hide in as Luon couldn¡¯t help to hurl to the side.

    ¡°There is no way you can eliminate the demon managing the barrier without removing the other demons that would come to his aid. While they are all separated wouldn¡¯t it be better for you to take them down one by one?¡±

    ¡°You make it sound easy. How could you assassinate a level 80¡¯s just like that? They may have some kind of protective or life-saving items on them.¡± Luon commented on Thanatos¡¯s remark. Assassination? It was not his strong suit. Attacking someone above level 80? The chance of him succeeding is low.

    ¡°I guess that¡¯s true for you, you¡¯re not ready yet.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for stating the obvious. Uhh, let¡¯s just go. I need to find some time to think about what to do.¡± Luon said as he finished cleaning up the mess he had made due to his action of taking refuge in the garbage tin.

    ¡°But what about me? Lend me your body, I¡¯ll give you a lesson on how to kill your targets with no one else noticing.¡± As Thanatos uttered these words, the inner darkness took over Luon, his eyes became black and his aura darkened.

    ¡°Wai-¡± Luon¡¯s words cut off as the darkness came. He thought, ¡®Weren¡¯t you just a commander and swordsman? That isn¡¯t anything close to being an Assassin!¡¯

    ¡°This physique is closer to what I had before. That¡¯s some improvement.¡± Thanatos said as he stretched his body a bit.

    Pulling a dagger out and giving it a whirl, he said, ¡°It¡¯s time to hunt.¡±

    His body vanished from the deserted alleyway as if no one had been there.

    ¡­

    ¡°Good job Shade. The target has bitten the bait. Focus on your squadron¡¯s safety. Give us 20 minutes and we''ll clean up the resistance. The Black Hand is giving us a bit of trouble, but it shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡±

    ¡°What about Luon and his friend?¡± Shade asked. Shade and his squad had hidden underground in a building nearby. The payphone like device has a special communication mechanism to bypass the barrier.

    ¡°They can stall more time for us. Just think of it as a way to make sure you¡¯re still alive by the end of this. Sorry, going to cut the line now. We¡¯ll be done soon.¡±

    ¡°But... He cut the line.¡± Shade sighed as all he could hear was the beeping sounds from the phone.

    ¡°What do we do now?¡± Asked one of his teammates.

    ¡°Just wait for help and pray.¡± Shade replied, hoping that things would go as planned.

    ¡­

    ¡°This is strange. Not a single soul in sight, ¡± Zero said as he observed the environment.

    For the last few minutes, he had been going through building to building, only to find that they were all empty. The complex structural design only delayed his process.

    ¡°Something is wrong is happening. It¡¯s as if we¡¯re dancing upon the palm of someone''s hand.¡±

    ¡°Should I disable the barrier?¡± Asked Eight, with him the other demon, Seven were aiding in the search for prey. Their job was to eliminate everyone inside the barrier, yet no oddity of having no one to kill made Zero fear that something was going wrong with their plans.

    ¡°No, keep it up. I¡¯ll leave for whoever is inside the barrier to you guys. I¡¯ll look outside. Don¡¯t let any rats escape,¡± Zero replied.

    The two nodded as Zero departed. Only one fact didn¡¯t change. In the next few hours, the blood of many inside and outside of the barrier drowned the city.